9/9/26 Markets, Milkshakes, Marijuana & Oil

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, September 9th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com https://www.moneywiseguys.com/ facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.facebook.com/moneywiseguys/ LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneywise-wealth-management-bakersfield/ Guest: John Cox, Business Editor for the Bakersfield Californian website: www. Bakersfield.com https://www. Bakersfield.com The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. John Cox & The Bakersfield Californian are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management

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  Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

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  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:40Speaker 02

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We're live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on news talk 96.1 and 1230 AM K E R N, streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, we are your hosts. I'm Sammy Abia. We're joined with?

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  Seth Perry.

• 1:04Speaker 02

  Seth Perry. It's been a while.

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  It's been a while.

• 1:07Speaker 02

  It has been, man.

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  Your voice is butter. Like, it's butter. It's just smooth. I'm telling you, man. Tell me I'm lying, Steve.

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  Is he trying to work on a raise or something?

• 1:18Speaker 02

  That's what I'm thinking.

• 1:19Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no.

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  Media review is upon us.

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  That's a good-looking shirt, man.

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  You smell good.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  I smell good for the radio. Always do.

• 1:32Speaker 02

  Well, welcome to the show. Seth, why don't we get going with just an update on the market?

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  Yep.

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  Then we have some listener questions, and of course, we're joined today by the great John Cox. We'll introduce him.

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  Come on. We got some good stories. John has some good stories we're gonna chat up, so. Well, the market took a little kick in the shorts today. Nothing, nothing crazy. But there's a lot, a lot of volatility again in oil, and so the S and P 500 is down about 0.5%. Well, I mean, we can look right now. It's changing real time on us. The Dow and the Nasdaq are down about six tenths, uh, six tenths of a percent. And I wanted to find out and say, well, is it time to panic? No, it's not time to panic. This is not a, a major sell-off. It's a minor sell-off, so relax. The S and P is still up year-to-date 11.5%. So it's, it's fine.

• 2:26Speaker 03

  And have we seen other corrections like this? The real correction of the year was back in late January, early March, when the S and P fell about 7.6%. So crunching some basic numbers, that's about 11 times greater, maybe 12 times greater than the fall we're seeing today. So definitely not a time to panic. I think this is all pretty normal market activity. Yeah.

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  I would, I would, I would agree with you. Um, we do have some listener questions. I would like to dive into that.

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  Let's do it.

• 2:55Speaker 02

  Great interview with the doctor. I think that they're referring to Dr. Beatty, correct, Stephen?

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  Yes.

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  Yeah.

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  Not Dr. Love.

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  I was gonna say, did you have Dr. Love on again?

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  Not yet. Is he coming back?

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  Hopefully.

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  Anytime. I just gotta switch my shirt and I'll be there.

• 3:13Speaker 02

  A great interview with the doctor. I'm going to check, uh, his book and, uh, check his book out. Thanks for sharing. I haven't heard of him, but thought he was a doctor in LA. Very interesting topic regarding gut health. Have a great show, and, uh, is your ice cream machine working today? I'm craving the chocolate shakes at the diner. Gut health and a chocolate shake. You know my priorities.

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  I love it. That's awesome.

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  Shakes are always here, except for Sundays when we have brunch. Uh, the machine unfortunately is not working. It's, we don't use, uh, soft serve anyways for our, for our shakes. It's, uh, it's real ice cream.

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  It's real ice cream?

• 3:52Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 3:52Speaker 03

  Really? I didn't know that.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Yeah. We would love for the machine to work. It's been kind of like a, an, a nightmare dealing with the vendor because it's, it's, Sherrod has been going back and forth with them, but we love the, the ice cream we're using anyways. We-

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  Be honest, Sammy, is it Thrifty's? Like, is it thrifty ice cream back there?

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  Yes.

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  Is it really?

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  Mm-hmm.

• 4:13Speaker 03

  That's awesome.

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  Yeah.

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  Who doesn't like Thrifty's?

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  We're actually working on a relationship. We're gonna start a, a, a deeper relationship with them to carry a couple, a couple more flavors.

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  As they should.

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  Stay tuned.

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  Your higher-end restaurants, everything, man. It's, it's literally, you, you peek behind the curtain and it's Thrifty's.

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  Yeah.

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  Well, that's good. I mean, with, with a lot of the CVS's closing and the Walgreens closing, it's been hard to find. And I will, I finally checked out the, the peanut butter. Gosh.

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  Dude, the peanut butter shake?

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  Peanut butter is my favorite, for sure.

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  Two weeks ago, I had one. I had one when we had like our opening, you know, kind of a, a, a soft opening. I had one and it was great, but I'm telling you, I don't know how they made it better. It was good.

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  Well, there's-

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  It's rich, but it is good.

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  There's some secrets to our shakes because we, of course, there, there's milk in them, but there is some flavored milk.

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  Interesting.

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  That's a little bit higher priced, but, but for our clients, we're doing that.

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  If you like peanut butter, um, come down and get a peanut butter shake. It was, it was amazing.

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  Scott keeps telling me about the pineapple one. I, I just, uh-

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  Scott Cox? I mean, Scott?

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  Yeah, Scott Cox. He loves his pineapple, and, uh, I tried the pineapple a couple of weeks ago, and I am sold.

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  We, we have that here?

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  Yeah.

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  Okay.

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  The peanut butter shake, man. It is no joke.

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  Well, hey, come, come for the chocolate shake. It's available.

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  And stay for the peanut butter.

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  While reading the five pillars of health.

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  Yeah, and thinking about your gut while you're doing that.

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  This reminds me of a conversation I had with my wife this morning. Um, it's amazing how so many people, um, and we won't get into politics, but the, getting the, the shot during COVID was a big deal. It was very, it was a hot button issue. Personally, I had decided I'm willing to lose my job more for principle than the science, but either way, you have all these people that were just completely anti-vaccine, right? 100%. And for all these different reasons, which is great for them. And yet, me personally, I've bought two types of Terzepatide, the peptide, online and sent, and I, I lost weight while I was taking it, right?

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  But since, both sites have gone down. And so what they're doing, they're getting it-

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  So that's what's wrong with you.

• 6:28Speaker 03

  Yeah. Let me make a list. No, but, um, and literally, it comes, uh, dehydrated in a vial, and I have to mix it with the hospital-grade solution, you know, and then, and then you inject it, but it's like, dude, that could have been anything.

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  Yep.

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  You know, so it is just funny to see how some people are, and my wife said-

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  Where was it coming from?

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  Just, I think it's labs overseas, and then what happens is they put up a storefront or a website. They get in trouble.

• 6:54Speaker 02

  Don't look at me, Stephen. I don't think Morocco produces that.

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  I was gonna say. I mean, Sammy knows a guy. They know a guy.

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  Well, yeah, we'll leave that one alone. There's all kinds of different-

• 7:05Speaker 02

  Is that how you lost your hair?

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  Imported powders, uh, that make their way over here.

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  He's taking shots.

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  Hey, I'm on fire.

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  I got, I got roasted, man. But, uh, anyway, that, that's what made me think about talking about, I don't know how gut health brought me to that.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  The doctor yesterday said that he was able to prescribe the, is it peptides?

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  Yeah.

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  Back in 2018, 2019, but then the state of California banned them.

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  Yep.

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  Pre-COVID, and then now they are, he's going to attend, to attend some seminar in Nashville for three days to learn more about them. But there's a lot of talk about California, you know, make, make, having them come backward, allowing the doctors to prescribe peptides again. He's, he says yesterday, if my memory is correct, he says he believes in them and can help people both lose weight and-

• 7:52Speaker 00

  Doesn't know enough information to be able to pass it on to clients, patients. So that is something that he was digging into and said, I wish you were on the show yesterday, because, um, the, the gut health, the just eating right, you know, the sleep patterns. I mean, this doctor, the wellness doc, he knows his stuff, man.

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  He knows his stuff, man. Totally.

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  He does, and, and, and you could tell by the number of patients he has, because he's got, he's got a unique practice. First, he does not take insurance, okay? So he's got membership.

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  Cash only.

• 8:26Speaker 02

  Membership type, type of, so people pay a membership fee, and, and some people see benefit to that versus carrying or paying for insurance because they have access to a really good doctor. But of course, he said that you, you know, you have to put in the work. You have to work out, you have to eat well, and you have to exercise.

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  Yep.

• 8:43Speaker 02

  No.

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  The basics.

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  I think that's where the pushback was coming from. Sherrod was like, man, you're not coming up with anything new. We knew this all along since 2,000 years ago.

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  But modern medicine, I mean, it, it's, it's got us all taking pills and doing this and doing that, and they don't even touch, because at the end of the day, there's no, there's not a difference. Not a bunch of money to be made selling a few peptides and keeping people healthy.

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  I want to bring him back when he gets back from Nashville, because we had a couple of messages during the show that were asking about Ozempic and how they can pick it up anywhere, everywhere nowadays.

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  Yes.

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  And nobody is talking about the, the reality check of what are we actually putting in our body? You know, what's the long-term, the short-term effects of it? And so I, I think we'll bring him back here in a couple of months when he comes back.

• 9:28Speaker 02

  I think Seth will be good for that show.

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  Yes.

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  And my take-

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  I mean, knowing, knowing Seth, he'll be looking at a free consultation from the doctor on air.

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  Hey, can you, can you bring a few shots in with you? Bring a few peptides?

• 9:42Speaker 04

  No, I've always been a frugal guy to a fault at times, but if there's a deal to be had, you know.

• 9:49Speaker 02

  Same with me Seth, that's what we preach on this show is be frugal. I mean, there's no need for us to have five different subscriptions for the same show. Don't need Prime and Netflix and Hulu and no, you probably need one. I mean, if you need five, that means that you're a couch potato and Dr. Bay would not work for you.

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  Which reminds me tonight, you have to have, is it Netflix to watch the first game?

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  Peacock.

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  Peacock.

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  Tonight is Peacock, tomorrow's Netflix.

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  I thought, I thought Thursday's was Amazon.

• 10:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, but it's.

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  They trade?

• 10:23Speaker 04

  No, the, the Thursday night game, the first game in Australia, which is not the first game because tonight's the first game, which is Peacock or NBC, if you have, still have cable. And then tomorrow's game, since it's in Australia, it's one of those international games that Netflix paid into. So tomorrow night's game will be Netflix. So we're looking at Peacock Netflix, back to YouTube.

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  Crazy.

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  It is.

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  Yeah, I've stopped watching football since the Steelers hired McCarthy. I'll just leave it at that.

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  You should have quit when they signed Aaron Rodgers, but.

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  I should have. I should have. I.

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  No Romo, no Tony Romo.

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  We have, yeah.

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  Poor guy, man, like.

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  Poor guy.

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  Well, I mean, I love Tony, I love, everyone hates on his commentating, but what I love about hearing him is he'll, before the ball snapped, he tells you exactly what's going to happen, everything, real time. And he's, you know.

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  Yeah.

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  I think.

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  That quarterback IQ.

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  Yeah, he's got quarterback IQ.

• 11:21Speaker 02

  Before we go on a break, you know, yesterday I brought in, I had a problem with people not signaling when they change lanes. I have another problem, Steven. Uber drivers, when picking up their orders at the restaurant, stepping in front of you with waving their phone, like they have priority, you know what? They went, they went through, like federal checking and they have a something up, you know, different than you. I just hate that. It drives me nuts.

• 11:49Speaker 03

  Yep. It's like being at the water park and, and kids come through, two or three kids, you know, there's no one up there and oh, I'm, and they're trying to squeeze their way through. And me and my kids, we'll just, we'll make a barrier, barricade of, of inflatables.

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  We've got to come up with different rules, different rules, man. I can't have an Uber driver come behind. The other day he stepped in front of the two, two older ladies and I look at them like, don't you see the ladies? And he was like, but I'm an Uber driver. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry.

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  What does that mean?

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  I know. When did Uber drivers get the pass?

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  There's a thought of faking it. I would never do this.

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  He was like just waving his phone and stuff. These two older ladies, they were like, it's okay, it's okay. I'm like, no, it's not okay. I was just the principled guy. I'm like, I'm not going to let you go in front of the ladies.

• 12:33Speaker 03

  Yep.

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  On that, we'll take our first break, Steven. When we come back, we have a great guest for us today, like always. Stay tuned.

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  John Cox.

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  John Cox.

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  Looks like Jimmy Yelson from Superman, but a little bit taller and a bit of a tan. John Cox.

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  John Cox.

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  It's a good thing that he's only on the radio air, or else you'd be distracted by his dark flowing hair. John Cox.

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  Bang.

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  John Cox. Welcome to the show.

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  Thank you very much. It's always great to be here.

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  We're back at the Money Wise Show. I'm Sammy Abia with Seth Barry, joined by John Cox. I, I would introduce you, but I can't up what just happened. I mean, Steven just does an amazing job with that intro. I think that's the best one we have amongst all the guests and that we have is John Cox.

• 13:36Speaker 03

  Is released. I've, I've requested one that's basically just roasting me and he said, no, we can't.

• 13:42Speaker 02

  We can do that tomorrow.

• 13:43Speaker 03

  No, I'm serious. I won't, I won't want to just lay in and, you know, anytime I'm on, play it.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Well, we're going to take advantage of having John with us on the show. There's a bunch of stuff we want to talk to you about, John. But the first one is this article you wrote about this citrus pest in Kern County. Tell us, tell us more. What is, what's the name of it? What is it doing to us?

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  So we have got a pest that had, that entered Kern County, I think it was something like 18 years ago. And it's, it's got a name. We call it the ACP, but it stands for the Asian citrus psyllid. It's a little tiny little bug. And it's not a concern in and of itself. It does not destroy citrus orchards, but there's a disease. And if that, if you've got that pest and it has this disease, then we've got a real problem because this happened in Florida, this happened in Brazil, and it devastated their citrus industries. So, you know, to a degree where we're doing just fine. The, the disease itself, Wong Long Bing,

• 14:44Speaker 04

  or HLB, or greening disease, it has not been found in Kern County. It has not been found in a commercial grove. That's it. If that were to happen, if this pest were found here and it had that disease, then we're probably looking at having to destroy some acreage. The, the news here is that very recently, in the past two weeks, or is it three weeks? No, I believe, five of the bugs have been found in Kern County. One in the Maricopa Taft area, one near, near Arvin, Metler, I think. And then I believe there were three found around the Bakersfield area. Four of the five were in residential areas. You know,

• 15:28Speaker 04

  you've got a backyard orange tree, grapefruit, what have you.

• 15:31Speaker 03

  I wanted to ask, so who's going out finding these bugs? Like?

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  The state sets traps. In fact, you know, my, my dad in Ventura County, he has these traps right in his, you know, front yard where he's got his.

• 15:43Speaker 02

  Same, same for me. And, and I don't know how it got there, but the city or the county or the state passed, I have a citrus, but it's facing the outside wall of my property. And they put a trap.

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  Yeah.

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  And I just, and I think you have to, if you have citrus, you have to report it.

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  Well, you, so in quarantines, and I don't know that, that it's still in effect, but there, there have, there's rules with quarantines because of this little bug that, you know, if you are going to transport it, make sure that none of the material other than the actual fruit is going, like no leaves, no stems, you know, we've got to make sure that, that you're not accidentally giving this bug a ride somewhere. Cause that's how it got here. Apparently they've traced this little thing to a, a gift someone got from overseas. And it was just a portion of a tree that was then transplanted that then introduced, I believe this one was in Hacienda Heights, that introduced this, this pest. Now, the, the disease has

• 16:44Speaker 04

  been found in California, but not in the Central Valley. It, it has been a bigger problem in the, in Southern California that it is here. But here we are, we've got now five of these things. So what it, really the message here is be careful, you know, if you've got one, that, you know, report it. That the, the California Department of Food and Agriculture is, is trying to get, well, it, I asked the guy, says, you know, eradication. Now, how big is he? So, oh, we've eradicated the pest. And I said, but you just found five of them in the past three weeks.

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  We eradicated polio, but there's people with polio in Pakistan and parts of Africa. So it's not eradicated if we can find five of them.

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  He says, no, it is eradicated because every time we find it, we destroy it and all the, the plants around it.

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  As if there's no other ones.

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  So, so the, the question I have is how big is the citrus industry here in Kern County?

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  1.3 as of a 2024, 2025 study, 1.3 billion with a B. It's our biggest crop. It's huge. Could turn into a potentially huge story.

• 17:49Speaker 04

  Yeah. So, so we've written about this. I'm, I'm very well aware. I know how to spell Wong Wong Bing. You know, I've written about this so many times. But it's, this is simply, I mean, the way I view this is a reminder that we are not at crisis levels. We have not, the disease has not hit Kern County. It has not been found in a commercial grove. But if that were to happen, then we've got a real issue. So, you know, folks, be careful. Keep an eye out on your, on your, you know, citrus trees. It's a little muddled brown bugs, like the size of a gnat. It's tiny. If the state comes and puts a little traps on there, don't mess with them. They're there to, they're going to come and check them. This thing turns up, okay, then they're gonna, they're gonna do two treatments. They're

• 18:33Speaker 04

  gonna spray the, the leaves and such. And they're also going to drench the soil with a treatment that's systemic and they're going to address the situation. But that's, you know, the, the more bugs that there are, more, more ACPs there are, the more likelihood that that disease could eventually make it here. And then we've got a problem.

• 18:52Speaker 03

  Big problem.

• 18:53Speaker 02

  Is, so, so for my tree, I have that little trap. Somebody put it there. I, I don't know. I tried to look at the cameras and, and I couldn't figure out who, who did that. So is that available for the public?

• 19:06Speaker 04

  Well, I, could, can they buy them, install them themselves? I'm not aware of that. I believe that there is a, a pest control district that has some jurisdiction.

• 19:14Speaker 02

  There's some property or some, some, like an office on Allen, way out there in the Northwest that, that, that does that. You can go there and give them your property. They can come out. I believe they can come out and do, and put the.

• 19:30Speaker 04

  Not a bad idea.

• 19:31Speaker 02

  You know, I, I think if you're going to have citrus. A tree, you want to do your part as a community member.

• 19:38Speaker 04

  And, and don't just take some citrus or even bring some citrus from Southern California, for example.

• 19:44Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:44Speaker 04

  You bring, you know, a box of them, they got some leaves on them, you know, it looks kind of nice.

• 19:47Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 19:47Speaker 04

  Do not, do not take that.

• 19:49Speaker 03

  I've never, I've always wondered about the plants and now, man, that seems kind of overly restrictive. It's like, duh. This is, this could be a big deal.

• 19:57Speaker 04

  This is a real threat.

• 19:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 19:59Speaker 02

  When are you, I grew up in a different country, right? So different fruits and different things and you, you, you get sometimes you get the itch, well, I want to go back to home now, which is America, and I want to bring some of that stuff so people can try it. And, and I, and I stopped doing things like that. You just because it's real. It's a real risk. And that's why there's that bunch of paperwork, you have to declare that you're bringing something.

• 20:21Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 20:22Speaker 02

  Do your part, declare whatever you're bringing, and if it's dry at times, like sometimes we bring dried fruits or whatever, sometimes they can carry some of these things too.

• 20:32Speaker 03

  And we had a listener said, any citrus plants or is there a certain kind? And from a little bit of, little bit of homework, it looks like any citrus.

• 20:39Speaker 04

  Any citrus.

• 20:39Speaker 03

  So this is oranges, mandarins, tangerines, lemons, limes, great for kumquats.

• 20:44Speaker 04

  So they're working on a cure for this. Right now, they don't have it, but they have found that there was an Australian finger lime that had, that was able to resist it. So we may have a treatment, but yet still we don't. So careful about transporting this stuff and, and keep your out. The tropes are there for a reason.

• 20:59Speaker 03

  I have a crazy story. Do I have time, Steve? You got 30 for me? So there's an ant and they couldn't figure out why this ant wasn't getting this crazy disease in the rainforest, but they noticed all this white powder on the ant's legs. It was penic, it was basically the equivalent of penicillin. So these, these ants were creating their own defense against, unbelievable. So I hope I change some of the day thinking about an ant with some powder on his legs. So.

• 21:25Speaker 02

  We'll, we'll take our first break. When we come back, John is still here. Keep the questions coming. We've had a bunch of stories from John, so we'll, we'll be right back. Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm Sammy Abia with Seth Perry. We're joined here with John Cox, John Cox from the Bakersfield Californian. We have a listener question, Seth.

• 21:58Speaker 03

  Absolutely. Send some more in too. We're, we're here with the source. So this question says, a little off topic, but with a real reporter, I wanted to ask, is there any truth that Bakersfield's shutting down all these cannabis shops? I heard it on the news this morning saying there's a major push to shut down all these shops as the report said they are illegal in the county. Signed, Jumbo.

• 22:21Speaker 04

  Well, Jumbo, I have not heard that there's any particular recent emphasis on this, but I have talked with the Kern County District Attorney about this issue. And the bottom line is unless you're in California city, which has a separate rules, Arvin, and I think it's McFarland, pot shops are not allowed in Kern County, not in Bakersfield, not in unincorporated Kern County, not in any of those cities other than the three that I listed. And so, you know, it's understood, you know, are, are they illegal? Are they, they're, they're constantly going after this. And, and it's a cat and mouse thing. When I spoke with the District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer, she told me that they'll

• 23:02Speaker 04

  close one at one location and within hours, it will either reopen at the same location or a few blocks away. And.

• 23:12Speaker 02

  Is it because it's, it's state allowed and federally not allowed?

• 23:16Speaker 04

  No, it's, it's the, this, the state has given juris, you know, this decision, this jurisdiction over the local governments. And so Bakersfield has said, no, neither for medical purposes nor for any general purposes, there will be no legal marijuana sales.

• 23:34Speaker 02

  But you and I know that there are deliveries, like deliveries are taking place.

• 23:38Speaker 04

  California city. So it is perfectly legal, as I understand it, to order from California city, from a, you know, licensed retailer to deliver here. That is perfectly legal, as I understand it. But to go into a shop and dispensary, what have you, and to, to buy these things, it's illegal in, in Bakersfield. It's, or, or in, you know, in Oildale, you know, unincorporated Kern County, illegal, period. So it's been happening. They, it's cat and mouse, they, they fight it. And, um, you know, it keeps coming back, but, and there are no circumstances like, well, they're, they're suddenly doing this. No, they, they, they've been trying to address this for some time.

• 24:18Speaker 02

  Is, is Cynthia, did you ask Cynthia this? Is there ramifications? Like let's say I open a store and it's not illegal by the local government. What's, what happens to me then? Do they go after me? Do I go to jail?

• 24:33Speaker 04

  Well, so one of the things that Ms. Zimmer told me is that very rarely do they get any deeper into the network of the ownership to the actual owners or providers. They, they bust the, the people who are working at the shop, you know, make, I don't know what they make, but they actually arrest those folks and they, you know, will, will, will charge them.

• 24:54Speaker 02

  They're not high on the chart.

• 24:55Speaker 04

  Right. They are, they, they're under no illusion that they've actually stopped the situation.

• 25:00Speaker 02

  Would you like that, Steve?

• 25:02Speaker 03

  Yeah. Seth liked it. It's like they, they set up a smokescreen, you know, they can't get the actual.

• 25:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. And so they, they'd love to, but it's easier to just go after them. I suppose you're choking off the revenues by doing that, but you're not actually hitting the folks.

• 25:17Speaker 00

  You guys are all leaving me in the fog. I am so lost with these jokes.

• 25:20Speaker 02

  One after the other, Steve.

• 25:23Speaker 03

  You said hitting the, you know, so.

• 25:24Speaker 00

  Just pass it.

• 25:25Speaker 03

  Man, unreal. Now, now I can go online, I'm not going to share, obviously, but I'm looking at a dispensary that's, says open, 4.5 stars, cannabis store, like.

• 25:37Speaker 04

  It's illegal.

• 25:38Speaker 03

  It's illegal.

• 25:38Speaker 04

  Yeah. If it's in Bakersfield.

• 25:39Speaker 03

  Do we just not have the resources probably to just keep chasing these, these guys around?

• 25:43Speaker 04

  It is because it's a legal case. You've got to build a legal case. You don't, apparently you don't just go in there and say, oh, this is pot, you're, you know, you're busted. They've got to do their homework ahead of time, as, as the DA told me, and this was probably three years ago now, when, when I asked, how does this work? And, you know, there's, there's just so many and it's cat and mouse. I mean, what, what really is the point of even doing that? If you know they're gonna, you know, move over. Interestingly, um, yes, it's not just the pot. Some of these places are also selling psilocybin, the, the, uh, the psychoactive mushrooms. They're also doing that. That's, that's legal nowhere in California, as far as I'm aware. Oregon, yes, but not in California. So, you know, these folks are, they're operating completely outside of the law.

• 26:26Speaker 02

  Is that the same mushroom, Stephen, that Aaron Rodgers took?

• 26:31Speaker 00

  100%. Yeah. Psychedelic mushrooms.

• 26:34Speaker 02

  So he can get to that, whatever.

• 26:36Speaker 03

  His was the ayahuasca or whatever.

• 26:39Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 26:40Speaker 03

  And you have to be, it has to be administered by like a, a sage or guru or whoever, because you can, you can really have some bad.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  He has not won a Super Bowl since then.

• 26:49Speaker 03

  Imagine that. I watched some of his documentary and it just was, I mean, not a fan of Mr. Rogers for several reasons.

• 26:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, a lot of us.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  Except for his quote, Steve, relax. Do you like that? That was a cool, a cool quote, but anyway, we don't want to get too far in the weeds off of the main topic here.

• 27:10Speaker 02

  Good question. Keep the questions coming. We have one more and, and this one is dear to me because it affects us all in my opinion, but I know John has written a lot about this subject. Is this the highest barrel of oil has ever costed?

• 27:24Speaker 03

  Highest? See what you did, Sammy.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  High, yeah, yeah.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  You know what I mean?

• 27:28Speaker 04

  2014, I believe is the record, right?

• 27:31Speaker 03

  Uh, 2008.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  July 20, 2008, 147, I believe.

• 27:36Speaker 04

  147? Oh, wow.

• 27:37Speaker 03

  And it was, and now that's a lot. We're, we went over 100 today. That's why a lot of people are talking about this. But when you look back and you inflation adjust that high in 2008, $220 a barrel. We would have to hit 220 a barrel to reach that high back then.

• 27:54Speaker 04

  We don't have to.

• 27:55Speaker 03

  And then it fell 75 or 76%. This is again, because demand just fell off and that was a tough time for our economy, for sure.

• 28:03Speaker 02

  So John, you wrote extensively about oil, Kern County, and, and, and I think one of the articles I've looked at today is how, how can we do as a county without oil? Or I'm paraphrasing here.

• 28:16Speaker 04

  Yeah. So the, um, a, a division of University of California Merced issued a report very recently that asserts that really, uh, these counties that derive some revenue, like Kern County above all, from oil production can really do without it. That, um, the production in California, oil production is on steady decline. And I've looked at it, it's true, except for, you know, between about 2010, 2011, 2014, when prices were really high. That notwithstanding, there's been a steady, uh, decline and the prediction is that around 2042 to 2055, it will fall to zero. There will be no oil production.

• 29:01Speaker 04

  Um, people don't necessarily, in the industry, don't necessarily see it that way. Whenever I talk to them, they say, you know, if the price is there, we can make more investment to bring more up. There's a lot of oil in Kern County. And, you know, I think it's like three of the top 10 reservoirs in the country are here.

• 29:16Speaker 03

  We have a significant supply of oil here. We just can't get it out.

• 29:20Speaker 02

  We had Cyrus Mujeeb on the show, Chad Hathaway, two days in a row. And one of the things that I asked Chad at the end, just from a job seeking opportunities and what have you, is, is this industry safe? Is it, are kids, if kids want to go into this industry, is it safe? To assume that it's going to be here for the next, I don't know.

• 29:42Speaker 04

  Oh, oh, oh, for job security. I thought, I thought you meant as a safe industry.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  And he said, yes, I mean, we're good. I mean, I think the number he gave is 100 years. But his refinery does, specializes into certain products that are not, and I think he's like one of few in the world that produces certain products.

• 30:02Speaker 03

  Yep. They pivoted and, and made some really good decisions. Yep.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  So, so I'm, I'm, I want to go back to the point of is can Kern County sustain itself without oil? I mean, we've always been known for oil, ag and, and oil.

• 30:17Speaker 04

  Right. So, so the, the bigger picture that's going on here that this reporter, this, this report is looking at is how can California achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, which is the deadline? And, and Kern County and the oil industry is, is seen as an impediment to that goal. So what, what they're, they're saying is they, they looked at this and they said, you know, well, we just need to retrain the workers and really the county budgets are doing fine. And, and the county shot back at that, really not too pleased with the report. One thing is that the UC Mer said, uh, that the county said did not ever contact them about the budget. And then in the report, there is an assertion that, that the county

• 30:59Speaker 04

  budgets are just fine. They're resilient. Um, you know, the, the, the general fund balance, you know, how much cash on hand do you have? That that's relatively steady. And then the county says, wait a minute, we're, we're saving up, we're disciplined in saving up money. That's why. It's not just because that we didn't take a hit. My understanding is the county actually took a 25% hit from the slowdown in oil permits, maybe more than that. Um, and right now, I believe it's, uh, isn't it five of the top 10, uh, property taxpayers in Kern County are oil industry. Well, usually nine of 10, uh, but it's still, and you know, there's been a lot of consolidation in the industry. That's still a very significant

• 31:41Speaker 04

  portion of local revenues that funds things. So one of the things in the report, you know, kind of saying, well, we can still do this. And they propose some really kind of drastic measures for doing this besides training people, but also coming up with a fund to, to help support certain services that the state would say, well, we want there to be a certain minimal amount of money available to these counties like Kern. And so we're going to create a fund or the, the researchers suggest that this fund could be set aside for counties that, that are suffering from not having oil revenues. Well, we'll just let them have some of this money and it'll be for moments of economic disruption.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  That makes, that makes a ton of sense to me because the government, especially California, is so efficient with their own budget. And that's probably going to lower taxes, right?

• 32:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, surely.

• 32:32Speaker 03

  It's, it's ludicrous. It's ludicrous.

• 32:34Speaker 04

  And so there, there, this continues, this is part of the discussion called the just transition. How do you transition California away from its dependence on petroleum and the jobs it creates and the public services that are funded by this without leaving those places like Kern County behind? And, um, that, that continues to be the discussion. And I'm kind of surprised to, to see it coming up again. I think it's been pretty well understood, but I think the, the newest data here says, no, no, the county budgets are fine. Well, you know, how closely did you really look at that?

• 33:07Speaker 03

  How much is it? So I know the charging stations for cars, like a Tesla charging station, those are very expensive, very expensive. I wonder how much one costs to, to, to, for like a diesel truck, like, like a big truck to have its batteries charged. Cause I know there's a few E trucks out there. How much, do you have any idea?

• 33:25Speaker 04

  No, I don't.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  Cause I'm thinking, I mean, that might be a decent investment, but you know, start building out these huge, what do you call them? It's not a gas station. It's a charging station. It's huge charging stations.

• 33:35Speaker 04

  So, you know, the, the, the understanding within even the oil industry is that yes, this is coming, there's a transition. Um, but how do you manage it wisely? Knowing that you can't just sort of right now anyway, just say, no more internal combustion. We're, we're too dependent. If you did that right now, the economy would probably collapse. Uh, you wouldn't be able to get certain goods because there's not as much available. So how do you do it wisely? And one of the arguments that Kern Taxpayer Association makes in this is that, you know, you need to build up a new industry while at the same time as you're turning down the old one. And he is arguing data centers, uh, carbon capture and sequestration. And, you know, these other things that Kern County sees as supplanting or replacing the

• 34:17Speaker 04

  property tax role. Cause if you take away oil, there has to be something else. And this, this report seems to say, no, it'll be all right. It's going to be a hit and we're going to put some money here. But others would argue, as Kern tax did, that you've got to, uh, uh, put something else in its place. Don't just take away something.

• 34:34Speaker 03

  We need a 50 to 100 year plan, not a five or 10 year plan. You know, it's, it's ignorant to think otherwise. And.

• 34:40Speaker 02

  I agree.

• 34:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. Let's just, let's drill. I say, let's drill. Let's get some more oil out and help get through the transition and make, generate massive revenue for the state. But no, we'll continue importing it on these massive tankers that emit more pollution in one trip than all of the cars in, in California driving in a day. It, it's just follow the dollars. You can, you can usually look at the politicians and see their investment portfolios and see what drives a lot of their decision-making.

• 35:06Speaker 02

  Um, we'll take, uh, our next break. And when we come back, there's a lot more to talk about with John. We'll be right back.

• 35:20Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 35:27Speaker 02

  I do feel good.

• 35:33Speaker 02

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm Sammy Abia with Seth Perry. I want to get this conversation going before Seth gets into the singing, you know? John, we have a listener question, comment, uh, that I hope can lead us into the water subject. I hope these pests don't hit local farmers. They are dealing with enough in this state to get blindsided with things like this. And I hundred percent agree. Well, the thing that came to mind is the water in, in light of your recent article about, uh, water, Fong and Valdeo, uh, you know, I guess some tough language from both of them.

• 36:15Speaker 04

  Indeed.

• 36:16Speaker 02

  Using words like bait and switch.

• 36:19Speaker 04

  Right.

• 36:19Speaker 02

  With, you know, talking to the state or talking about the state.

• 36:23Speaker 04

  Right. Uh, so, so what they're referring to, um, the local congressman are, um, a, I think it was the, the Department of Water Resources is looking to change the way that the, the flows are diverted out of the Sacramento, is it the Sacramento, San Joaquin Delta? I forget the actual name. But this is, this is where a lot of the water that comes for California agriculture comes, or has historically come from, uh, from, you know, uh, the northern end of the Central Valley. And so the, the state wants to sort of shake that up and, and, and change it. And, and it does to a degree, go back to the, the, um, you know, the sort of the simple version of this, which is, are we going to use the water to, to,

• 37:07Speaker 04

  to water our crops and, and to give the local communities for drinking water? Or are we going to use it to, uh, support fish in the delta that ultimately washes out to the ocean? Uh, so they, this is part of that. This is, you know, the, the continuing sort of rebalancing of that whole thing. So the state's looking at it. And my understanding is that what the congressman, congressman referring to is as far as the bait and switch accusation is that there was a, uh, there was a deal, that there was a conversation that happened. Uh, I don't know if it was a memorandum of understanding, but there was some agreement that, that the parties, uh, the, the water districts down here in the, uh, southern part of the valley, that they were, uh, they were going to receive a certain amount of water.

• 37:50Speaker 04

  And, and now the most recent version of that deal that is now, uh, under public comment and review, changes that a little bit. And there's kind of two ways you can, uh, two opportunities here. One is a voluntary agreement where, um, if I understand correctly, you're paying, you're, you're covering things like con conservation and you're, you know, supporting the environmental uses of the water. And then the other one is that, uh, the other option is much less generous, I think might be a, a word to describe it, that there's, there's less water for you. Uh, you're going to get a, a certain smaller proportion of the natural unimpeded flows. And so, uh, this was inserted by the state after, uh,

• 38:34Speaker 04

  what water agencies thought was the agreement. And so that's what they're referring to. It's not a surprise. It's coming up now because they're asking for public comment. And so certainly the congressman, uh, who, you know, would like, would like to see agriculture thrive here. Um, one note that I would add to all this is that's hardly the only problem that farmers face right now. Certainly it's the, it's the obvious one that, that, you know, the, the state groundwater management.

• 39:01Speaker 02

  Sigma.

• 39:02Speaker 04

  Yeah. It's been very difficult on farmers. We're going to lose a lot of acres. We're going to lose a lot. Uh, certainly down here, but there's other problems that these guys are facing. I mean, the, the war, uh, with Iran has choked off, uh, supply of fertilizers. Um, there's, there's also the, uh, the trade policies that have, um, restricted the overseas markets for, uh, for our locally grown agricultural products. So.

• 39:30Speaker 02

  Correct. Especially the, the nuts.

• 39:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:33Speaker 02

  The, the, the sales of that special product or specialty product has declined, I believe, since 2018, uh, and has been in decline. I mean, if you look at the prices per pound today versus back in 2014 to 2018, it's almost half, which affects the values of the properties. Some people are upside down on their loans with banks because of that.

• 39:57Speaker 03

  Now, now hear me out. But when I first read this article, you know, the, the COVID virus came from a Wuhan lab. I instantly saw the name and I thought Huang Longbing, right?

• 40:10Speaker 04

  Right.

• 40:11Speaker 03

  Would there ever be a conspiracy that, um, one of these countries that might be our enemy over there could be trying to infect our crops to lose the billions in revenue?

• 40:22Speaker 04

  We, I mean, I suppose it's possible. Sure. Uh, we, we get a lot of invasive, um, plants and animals that come to California and the United States and they take over. You know, that's a problem when you introduce these things. And so, um, yes, I, I suppose it's possible. And interestingly, I did write about a woman researcher from China, from Wuhan, it turns out. And she's been working on Huang Longbing to solve it. So, you know, she is, she's on the other end of it, trying to help California farmers dodge this threat.

• 40:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. Interesting. Uh, coming up tomorrow on our show, Chris Pelster, Dustin Weaver, sitting down with Jeff Salters, president of the Project of a Warrior Gallery, live tomorrow at noon. Now that's going in across the street, right?

• 41:07Speaker 02

  I believe so. I believe so. Which is great for downtown, all the traffic and stuff and all the beautification that's going on downtown. I'm.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  We've been here almost a year.

• 41:15Speaker 02

  I'm not very happy with the amount of time it takes, right? You know, from a business standpoint, especially when you, when you have a restaurant, traffic just slows down substantially. I remember when they were working on the alley.

• 41:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:28Speaker 02

  I mean, we, we, we were, we went down almost 1,500 bucks a day in sales just because of that. People can't park, streets are closed. So it's affects small business owners. And, and frankly, I'm not a big fan of what they did to the streets downtown, adding that little, just makes it hard to turn, especially with a truck.

• 41:48Speaker 03

  It makes it more difficult. Yeah.

• 41:49Speaker 02

  Or yours, or Chris's. So.

• 41:52Speaker 03

  Not Dustin's though. Dustin only drives a half ton. But anyway, keep going.

• 41:56Speaker 02

  So I'm, I'm, I'm all for the beautification of downtown. I think it needs to make sense, not just for the next five years, but for years to come. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I don't know. I'm on.

• 42:07Speaker 03

  They need to think parking garages, man. I mean, if we're going to keep growing like the big boy cities do, we're going to need to get some, some multi-level parking garages.

• 42:13Speaker 02

  That's one of, that's one of the issues. A little more trees, in my opinion, you know? And I think that's something that they are working on. So I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, you know, against what the city is doing. They've helped us with this project. They've been amazing to work with. I'm talking just from a personal view, how I would like to see downtown and some of these tough turns that I'm, I'm having to do with my big truck.

• 42:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 42:38Speaker 02

  It's just not, not, um, well, John, thank you very much for being with us today. Great show again. Uh, great subjects, great answers. Thank you very much. And, uh, Steve.

• 42:48Speaker 04

  Yeah. Like you just said, we'll, uh, we'll have Jeff Salters in here tomorrow. But until then, subscribe to the Bakersfield Californian and then be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 43:05Speaker 01

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