2/12/25 Student Voices & Tech Fallout: High School Walkouts and New Arrests in Bitwise Case

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, February 12th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guest: John Cox, Business Editor for The Bakersfield Californian website: www. Bakersfield.com

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?

• 0:30Speaker 02

  Securities offered through S E F Securities, Inc., member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through S E F Investment Advisors, Inc. S E F Securities, Inc. and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:43Speaker 03

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, we're your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite.

• 1:05Speaker 04

  And I'm Latroy Dinkins.

• 1:06Speaker 03

  Latroy, welcome to Wednesday's show. Latroy.

• 1:10Speaker 04

  Yes, sir, man. I think Stephen ain't gonna like this one.

• 1:12Speaker 03

  Well, let's say it.

• 1:14Speaker 04

  You need to pay that ESPN soundbite.

• 1:16Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:17Speaker 04

  They signed, sound, Dolphins signed Aaron Rodgers to a one-year deal.

• 1:21Speaker 03

  Dolphins have signed.

• 1:23Speaker 04

  Aaron Rodgers to a one-year deal.

• 1:25Speaker 03

  Stephen just, Stephen just looked like he collapsed or was going to collapse. He's.

• 1:34Speaker 03

  Uh, he's on it.

• 1:36Speaker 04

  He's on top of it.

• 1:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:37Speaker 04

  I told Sharad I was gonna prank you before, you know.

• 1:40Speaker 03

  He's, he's, he's, he's smart. He's a little two-veteran.

• 1:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, leave my quarterback on.

• 1:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, they trying to restructure his deal, so hopefully they work it out.

• 1:52Speaker 03

  Good luck. We're always pulling for the Dolphins for you, Stephen. Except for this guy.

• 1:58Speaker 04

  Hey, y'all beat me. We had the whole Money Wise crew over at KP House and you embarrassed me in front of everybody, so.

• 2:04Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:05Speaker 04

  Everybody was cheering for the Dolphins.

• 2:06Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:07Speaker 04

  Nobody showed love to the Rams. Nobody. Yeah.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  Well, Latroy, we've got some good messages from listeners and want anybody who's listening, please keep them coming our way. We love it. 661-396-1000. I'll read this first message. I want to get your help answering this. Latroy says, "Is there a different investment strategy that Money Wise uses for someone who is in their late 30s and has no debt? I've recently paid off all my debt and I'm looking to save for the future and buy a home this year. Also, is it smart to own a credit card even if I don't plan on using it?" So I'm asking you because you're in your 30s.

• 2:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  Still barely in your 30s.

• 2:46Speaker 04

  You see the gray coming in. But to answer that question, it's all, you know, age is a big factor in determining a person's risk tolerance. It plays a big, big part. So, yeah, age has some relevance, but being 30, it's all relative to if you're still working, obviously you have a 401k. Depending on how that 401k is invested, it gives us an opportunity to look at that and say, hey, you're invested aggressively over here at the 401k. Maybe we can go a little moderate over here with this money that you got over here. One of the beautiful things about, you know, being 30 and young, you're able to dollar cost average into some of these corrections that are inevitable.

• 3:30Speaker 04

  That happened, you know, you know, we had the COVID, we had 2022 with the interest rate crisis, inflation crisis. We had 2008. We had some bear markets. The luxury of that is at the age of 30, you could invest aggressively or moderately and you're able to, because you're contributing money, you're able to get into these corrections and dollar cost average into them. So it brings your dollar cost average down, your cost basis down, and you're able to trail the market up. So, you know, for a 30-year-old, it's all relative to, you know, how you're investing your 401k.

• 4:10Speaker 04

  Other factors, you know, we do have risk tolerance questionnaires that we still have to abide by no matter what a person's age is. And so that's basically how we do it. We, we have to follow those standards.

• 4:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. So another way to say that is you, age is a big factor, like you said, Latroy, but the biggest factor is what your goal is with that money. So somebody, for example, in their 30s, their goal could be, maybe this is even the case, to buy a house in a year or two. Well, in that case, yeah, it's pretty simple and straightforward, the investments that we would recommend, because you can't be in the markets if you're going to be needing the money very quickly. It's another word is, words are time horizon. So what your time horizon is. When you're younger, generally you have a longer time horizon, or your dollar cost averaging, like you said. Now, specifically though, to this listener, congratulations, you're in your, you're in your late 30s, and you have no debt. That's fantastic. That's huge.

• 5:06Speaker 04

  At that age, that's incredible, because that's the peak time. You know, 30s, you know, from 30, I think, what, 30 to 40, that's, that's like your peak time where you have the most debt.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:15Speaker 04

  And then there's different stages in life.

• 5:16Speaker 03

  You've got, you know, you've got, you still have your student loans, generally, or you, or you have auto loans, you're, you're raising a family sometimes. So, you know, debt is very common. So congratulations on being ahead of the game in that, in that case. And we would recommend that if you're looking to buy a house, that's a great start, because that is one of the single most beneficial financial decisions that people make, is just buying a house.

• 5:44Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 5:45Speaker 03

  Rather than paying somebody else's mortgage through rent, start paying your own mortgage, and start building up equity. That brings a lot of financial stability. So congratulations on buying that home. We would recommend, if you don't have the savings yet to buy the house, that's a, that's a perfect place to start, even if it means delaying or deferring a little bit, the longer term investments. I'd highly recommend you go for that. Get that house, and...

• 6:10Speaker 04

  As far as a credit card.

• 6:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:12Speaker 04

  As far as a credit card, if you get a credit card, yes, you, you want to use it, you know, utilize under 10%, I say, you know, have that credit card utilization, meaning that if your balance is, you know, $10,000, don't...

• 6:27Speaker 04

  Use no more than 10% and pay it off. Just pay, don't ever carry balances over, pay it off, just build your credit. That's the, that will help you boost your credit score.

• 6:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, I, I agree with that. You don't need to use your credit card, or if you do use your credit card, pay it off, don't pay any interest, and don't pay any annual fees, so you can do it for free. The only downside generally, if you have a credit card, or if you, if you're getting a credit card or two, is that it can have an initial impact on your credit score, because anytime you open up a new credit, yeah, you get an inquiry, and then you have a new credit, but you'll gain that back very quickly because of the utilization, which you mentioned, that's a big part of your credit score, is how much credit do you have available to you? And how much are you actually using?

• 7:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 03

  So, credit card, or banks like to see that you have a lot of available credit, but you're not using it.

• 7:18Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  And that's, that's a great place. So, as long as you can do that safely, then yes, I would recommend you open up a credit card. And even if you don't plan on using it, it'll be great for your credit if you can be responsible with it. So, thank you for that, listener.

• 7:34Speaker 04

  It's a great question, by the way.

• 7:35Speaker 03

  Let's go to the next question. Says, "Great show with Andre and love hearing the new hosts. My comment is, owning assets like stocks and real estate has helped millennials build wealth. But with rising costs, how can younger generations start investing without feeling left behind?" One thing I like about this, Latroy, is that if you think about millennials, you, you just mentioned this in our last question. They've gone through the Great Recession, 2008, maybe even remember the dot com bubble bursting in 2000. Maybe they are certainly going to remember some of the events that have happened during COVID. So, they've experienced a lot of pretty dramatic events, global economic events.

• 8:19Speaker 03

  But I've already, I've already given you the answer to this, so I want to ask you, but the S and P 500 since 2008 has given an annualized return of just over 11%.

• 8:32Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 8:32Speaker 03

  And another way to put that is if you had invested a hundred dollars in 2008,

• 8:39Speaker 04

  In the crash.

• 8:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, right, right during like, I remember, we were on the air, we were here, I was in the business and you know, we had a lot of people freaking out about this. And a lot of people lost their homes.

• 8:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:51Speaker 03

  It was, it was a very, you know, scary time. We had, you know, banks going under and major financial institutions that looked like they were going to just disappear. Many of them did.

• 9:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:01Speaker 03

  But if you'd invested that year to now averaging 11%, a hundred bucks then would have turned into 600 bucks today.

• 9:09Speaker 04

  Shoot.

• 9:10Speaker 03

  That's over a 500%. It's over a 500% total return since 2008.

• 9:20Speaker 04

  And then we did have some little divots, you know, from 2008 all the way to current, you know, there were some, some small corrections.

• 9:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:27Speaker 04

  And it's still average, you know, still went up fivefold.

• 9:29Speaker 03

  Right, still went up fivefold and even with all of those cra- look at all the presidential elections we've had since then.

• 9:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  How many, you know, how many, we've gone through, I'm not going to do the math, but a dozen, over a dozen between presidential and midterm elections with all of the hoopla and all the fear. And here we are, 500% ahead, at least just the S and P 500 since then.

• 9:53Speaker 04

  And that's, that's a crazy thing, man, is, um, you know, you can almost compare the market's edge to a casino because if you, even if you look at the past 10 years. In 2000, I believe 2018, uh, we were, or 2022, we were negative, uh, I think 2015, we were negative. Out of 10 years, two negative years, I think in 2015, we had a flat year. But more times than not, we're solving in the market. We're green. We're in green territory.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:22Speaker 04

  So.

• 10:23Speaker 03

  Oh, it's it. It's. I mean, if you really want to compare it to to casino, the odds.

• 10:29Speaker 04

  That's eight out of 10 years positive.

• 10:31Speaker 03

  Yes. Yeah. S and P 500, the one year odds of an S and P 500 winning or being positive in a single year, if you go back to 1928 is 73% of the time, roughly 73% of the time.

• 10:44Speaker 04

  The house don't even have that edge.

• 10:45Speaker 03

  No way. They have 51.

• 10:47Speaker 04

  52 or yeah, 51.

• 10:49Speaker 03

  Right. That's like, come on.

• 10:52Speaker 04

  It's like flip a coin and it's going to land on heads more times than tails.

• 10:55Speaker 03

  If you if you give it a year, you give it a 10 year, the 10 year odds on the S and P 500, it's about 94%.

• 11:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:03Speaker 03

  I mean, I'd take that over any, anything. Blackjack, your odds are 49.5. Roulette, 47.3.

• 11:12Speaker 04

  And you're absolutely playing Blackjack and Roulette if you're, you know, one of those individual stock pickers because most, most individual stocks, they have a mind of their own, you know, they have to abide by their own fundamentals, their own sectors and things of that nature, and they might go the different way while the market is positive.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:29Speaker 04

  That's why ETFs, mutual funds, you know, those, those are like the bread and butter.

• 11:33Speaker 03

  Yep. And time is your friend.

• 11:35Speaker 04

  Time is your friend.

• 11:35Speaker 03

  Time in the market is your friend. The worst in Las Vegas are slot machines. It's roughly a 10 to 20% odds of winning. People, people just sit there.

• 11:44Speaker 04

  That's so wild. That's crazy. You got more of a quantifiable edge, like at least giving a shot at sports betting or something.

• 11:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, or perhaps.

• 11:52Speaker 04

  Something, you know.

• 11:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, something that gives you, yeah, for sure. Much, much better, better, better edge.

• 11:57Speaker 04

  People just sitting there smoking a cigarette and.

• 12:00Speaker 03

  Yep. Yeah, exactly. It's pretty crazy. All right, we're going to take a break. We come back, we're going to get with our guest, John Cox. He's the business editor at the Bakersfield, California. You got a lot to talk about with John. We're Money Wise. We'll be right back.

• 12:11Speaker 00

  Don't forget, Money Wise is more than a radio show. We're an independently owned local wealth management firm with 60 plus years of collective experience. Our financial advisors are here to help you, Kern County. Together, let's be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 12:29Speaker 05

  John Cox. He's a man of a million words. John Cox. He's the king of the business nerds. Looks like Jimmy Elson from Superman, but a little bit taller and a bit of a tan. John Cox. He's from Bakersfield, California. John Cox. Wives are reason credit unions. 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.

• 12:58Speaker 03

  That song means we're joined by John Cox today. I'm Sharad Waite here with Latroy Dinkins. John, thanks for coming back on the show.

• 13:04Speaker 06

  Hey, man. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure to be with y'all.

• 13:07Speaker 03

  Oh, it's, it's, uh, it's great for you to make time out of your super busy schedule. Again, you wrote about 30 articles since you've been here last. But I hear there's maybe some, uh, some breaking news.

• 13:17Speaker 06

  Yep. Yep. There are a couple of things, a couple of things we're sort of about today. I mean, apart from the, the, the formal start to the Southeast project that's going to be Southeast Bakersfield project that's going to be called, um, gosh, what are they calling it? The Communities of Deloro. That's right. That just started today. And they just started construction of a new sewer line that's going to serve like more than a thousand homes, uh, something like more than 2,000 residents going to move in at, um, west of what used to be Cottonwood is now, uh, South MLK Junior. Yeah. Yeah. At, uh, at White Lane, at East White Lane. So it's going to be there on the, uh, east side of that road.

• 13:54Speaker 03

  It's a housing development, new housing development.

• 13:56Speaker 06

  Housing, there's going to be, uh, retail. There's going to be parks, there's going to be meandering trails. That just kicked off today. That is, and really was nothing more, nothing more than a photo op. They didn't, nothing was said. I interviewed people and there's going to be a story on the cover tomorrow.

• 14:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:13Speaker 06

  But that's exciting.

• 14:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's great.

• 14:15Speaker 06

  Yes, we had that. And then, of course, you're probably aware that, um, there was a student walkout today.

• 14:20Speaker 03

  I was not aware.

• 14:21Speaker 06

  Heard about that. Okay.

• 14:22Speaker 03

  What are they walking out for?

• 14:23Speaker 06

  Um, protesting Trump's immigration policies.

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Ooh.

• 14:27Speaker 06

  A number of schools around Bakersfield left their classes between 9:15, 9:30 or so, marching to, to downtown to protest against the, uh, planned deportations.

• 14:38Speaker 03

  Are these high school kids?

• 14:39Speaker 06

  High school kids.

• 14:39Speaker 04

  My son told me about this.

• 14:41Speaker 03

  Oh, oh. You were like, "You better stay in school, son."

• 14:45Speaker 04

  So absolutely.

• 14:46Speaker 06

  The current high school district, you know, not, they can't endorse this and did not, but they did say, "We're gonna make sure these kids are safe when they're doing this." So there's that.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  So have you had any, have you seen, did they show up?

• 14:59Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah, yeah, something like three, 400 kids downtown. Yeah, that'll be on the cover tomorrow, too.

• 15:04Speaker 03

  Were they like, City Hall downtown? Like, where did they end up?

• 15:07Speaker 06

  I guess they were going City Hall, and I have some pictures, but it looked to me like they were at, I don't know, it was a courthouse, maybe the Liberty Bell?

• 15:14Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 15:15Speaker 06

  Downtown, like, around Truckston and Chester area. I have a video, I can show you maybe on the break or something.

• 15:21Speaker 03

  Now that you say that, at lunch, I saw a big group of teenagers at the get bus stop right out here on Stockton Highway in front of our office. Some had, you know, flags and signs, and, but they were waiting for the bus, and I was like, "What is, what is this?", but now it makes sense.

• 15:38Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 15:38Speaker 03

  They were, they were going to or from the protest.

• 15:40Speaker 06

  Organized effort, student organizers, too.

• 15:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:44Speaker 06

  Who knows who all was involved, but, you know, concerned. And what I find interesting about that is you've got this community here, especially among the Latino folks who are organized, who have many different organizations, who work together, communicate, and do coordinated actions. This happened before and during the immigration sweeps of January. This happens, you know, with the UFW stuff, this happens with environmental justice, there's just like this organizational structure that they're able to mobilize and deploy, like, more efficiently than any other, like, group that I've seen in Bakersfield. They just, they, they show up and they, they do their thing, you know? Say what you will about whatever their causes are, they're pretty effective at bringing

• 16:28Speaker 06

  people together and standing up for what they believe in.

• 16:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, those young people, those young people can organize. For me, there's nothing more terrifying than a group of teenagers.

• 16:37Speaker 06

  Yeah. I live downtown, I know what you mean.

• 16:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, it can be terrifying, it's like, you just, you, you can't defend yourself against them, you know? It's just, it can be, it can be scary. You've written a lot over the years about ag, and, and I think you've even wrote recently about the impact of some of this immigration has had on the World Ag Expo, is that where you went? Or was just in general?

• 17:01Speaker 06

  I didn't go, people thought I went, and I did not go, I did it from Oildale.

• 17:06Speaker 06

  And, yes. Certainly, there's been a lot of automation, a big push to automate ag. And part of it is, you know, in, well, a lot of it is anticipation of workforce shortages, which we've already seen, and it's this long-term trend, the aging out of the workforce. People who are the children of farm workers don't necessarily want to continue in that. They have opportunities in construction, restaurant, you know, go to college and much more. Yeah. So it's a continuation of a trend, but certainly the expectation is going to be more emphasis this year on those sort of things, simply because the expectations of deportations are going to hit agriculture. Yeah.

• 17:49Speaker 06

  I mean, it already has during January, but, you know, it was very temporary. How many, you know, people actually left as part of that, it's hard to say. But yes, there's new technology being put into this sort of thing. There's still, there are certainly a lot of jobs that are not so easily replaced. There's especially harvesting and grapes above all. It's so hard to automate that. But, you know, for example, one of the, one of the things we highlighted in the story was about picking berries. They will unstack the lugs that you put the berries in, and they'll fill them. And so, you know, you're, one of the products that I wrote about touted itself as cutting your labor cost by 75%, you know, and part of this- What was it? What was the technology?

• 18:33Speaker 06

  I'm not sure if it was that lug thing, or whether it was the weeding. There's a lot of technology on weeding that can be automated in different ways. And then, of course, you've got drones that make things more efficient, because it's not just about the labor force, it's also about, as costs of water go up and, you know, there's more emphasis on irrigation efficiency, you've got to, you've got to work ahead of that.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm reading now, it's called Auto Fill. That's touted to reduce labor costs for berry growers by as much as 75%. It's a manufactured by a Dutch-based company named Oxbo. Which is, yeah, it's the unstacks and fills lugs.

• 19:16Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 19:16Speaker 03

  It's fascinating.

• 19:17Speaker 06

  That's a lot of work. That's sort of grunt work. If you see those guys, and I have seen them, they've got people who just go and wheelbarrow in and out the lugs. And it's hard work because these things are heavy and, you know, you're having to navigate. So there was actually was at least one local company who's trying to do some of that.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 19:36Speaker 06

  Venergy, I think.

• 19:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, Venergy. That's right. Yeah. It's a really cool technology. It's like, it's almost like a robot dolly.

• 19:42Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 19:43Speaker 03

  Kind of thing.

• 19:43Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 19:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:44Speaker 06

  And it plays music.

• 19:45Speaker 03

  Oh, right.

• 19:46Speaker 06

  It does. Yeah, no, it does.

• 19:48Speaker 03

  Like you connect your phone to Bluetooth or whatever?

• 19:51Speaker 06

  I think they've all, they've got, you know, they create their own cell phones for the signal there. I think the satellite. And so, yeah, it's one of the options.

• 19:57Speaker 03

  That's cool.

• 19:58Speaker 06

  Talking with Mr. Ming about that.

• 20:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:01Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah, we can play your music, play a little banda while you're working. All right.

• 20:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think they were part, at least partly funded by the Kern Venture Group, right? The, the local venture capital group, right? Yeah. Yeah, very cool. Well, it's, you know, it's obviously that agriculture is being under attack quite a bit in the county. As is oil and gas, which you've written a lot here just recently, in fact, about some of the newer anti-oil groups that are suing. Looks like over 20 or about 29 local drilling permits.

• 20:37Speaker 06

  Yeah, BLM.

• 20:38Speaker 03

  BLM, yeah.

• 20:39Speaker 06

  Right. Issued by the federal government. A big distinction from what we normally see. Obviously, the attacks have gone against the state. And, and these groups that are very close to Newsom, who have been able to persuade him to make changes like firing the, the state oil and gas supervisor if he gives out permits, getting him to do fracking. So they're very influential there. But also at the local level, we've seen, you know, the, the local permitting becomes stalled because of attacks by the environmental groups and environmental justice. And now they're returning to the federal level. So it's all all levels and you can sort of work in one or another. You know, the there's of course, the federal land, then there's the the other land. I don't think the state leases out anything. But yes, this

• 21:23Speaker 06

  is the continuing assault really on oil and gas. And and this time, very specifically, as as most of them, about what are the impacts on the surrounding community? They say that that, you know, they had an agreement that that the feds, the Bureau of Land Management, were going to to look at the cumulative impacts. And they said that they haven't done it. They continue to not do it. And these two local companies, Chevron and Holmes Western, got a total of 29, you know, off to the races. They're going to produce. Finally, somebody gets a permit around here. And automatically, it's under attack, which is not a surprise, I would say.

• 22:01Speaker 03

  Yeah. And one of the groups that's suing is called Friends of the Earth, right?

• 22:07Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah. One of many. There's, yeah, it's always sort of a different mix of people. But there are certain groups who are involved in all of these. Earth Justice, you know, Center for Biological Diversity. They're constantly involved in these things. They often win. They invest their, you know, attorney's fees and back into more lawsuits. And so they sort of grow and grow, and the momentum continues.

• 22:29Speaker 03

  I guess I was a little surprised to hear that there were 25 permits that were actually approved back in December.

• 22:36Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 22:37Speaker 03

  Because you mentioned they just barely started to get these permits back on, right?

• 22:41Speaker 06

  Well, that's the state. So at the state level, yes, it's it's pretty rare. And then during the Biden administration, I think they they they stopped approving fracking, if I'm there was a big battle over fracking on on BLM land. And so at the state level. So it seems like the state level is where things happen. And then it carries over to the feds. And in California. You know, you can make the same arguments. There are different laws, but that it's affecting these communities in one of the most polluted air basins, well, certainly the most in the United States.

• 23:14Speaker 03

  Right. Yeah, we can say that. It is the most polluted.

• 23:17Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 23:17Speaker 03

  We have the worst air in the country. The, you know, just today, I don't know if you heard this, but Chevron has announced a layoff, a mass layoff of 15 to 20% of its global.

• 23:28Speaker 06

  I just got that. How did you get that? I just got that.

• 23:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I just saw it this, this afternoon.

• 23:33Speaker 04

  You got insider information.

• 23:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, I wish.

• 23:35Speaker 06

  Yeah, no, I talked to somebody who, who was telling me about that. So I reached out to Chevron. They confirmed it. I thought I was breaking news on this thing.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  Well, this is a pretty big deal. Chevron employs about 40,000 people across the world. So about 8,000 people are going to lose their job. I imagine there'll be quite a few here.

• 23:52Speaker 06

  There will be jobs here.

• 23:53Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah, you, you confirmed that, but.

• 23:56Speaker 06

  Yeah, well, I talked to someone who, who was at a meeting where, where they learned about this and then I asked Chevron about this. So, yeah, this, this will take jobs away from Kern County.

• 24:07Speaker 03

  And they've got this lawsuit here that we were just talking about, but Chevron has been involved in a, in a big lawsuit with rival ExxonMobil over its acquisition of Hess. I think it's like a antitrust sort of play that ExxonMobil is putting against Chevron. So at least Chevron has mentioned this in, in terms of why they are trying to cut costs. They want to save, their target is $3 billion in cost cuts through 2026. That's, that's just crazy number right there. You know, and we want to save $3 billion. That's like, it's like Doge level cutting.

• 24:49Speaker 03

  It's like Elon Musk level cost cutting right there.

• 24:53Speaker 06

  Must be moonlighting.

• 24:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. Right. Well, John, we're going to take a quick break. We can come back, a lot more to talk about, a few more articles we want to discuss. We're Money Wise. We'll be right back.

• 25:03Speaker 00

  Need to get your financial fix on the go? If so, subscribe to the Money Wise podcast and catch up on all past shows whenever.

• 25:14Speaker 03

  We're Money Wise. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Sharad Waite here with Latroy Dinkins. We've joined by John Cox from the Bakersfield Californian. John, we got a message here for you. I haven't quite read the whole thing, so here we go. Says the man, John Cox with exclamation mark. Says, "I won't complain about the new newspaper schedule these days. Just glad we still have a paper. Is there any timetable of the changes coming to the marketplace? I haven't heard much of it, but will they be demolishing the theater and the food places in the back behind the theater? Thank you."

• 25:45Speaker 06

  You know, that is a great question. I don't have an answer to that, let me say first, but, and I'll also add that the owners, which changed ownership a couple of years ago, they have not said anything about this. They did not. So the action was taken at the council.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  Oh, oh, I see. But they did say, the new owners there said that they would be getting rid of the movie theater, right?

• 26:11Speaker 06

  Did they?

• 26:11Speaker 03

  I thought so. I thought, I thought it was, I thought you reported on that.

• 26:15Speaker 06

  If they did that, that is not something I've heard. And there's a question about that because I've seen the map and where they have, you know, it's, they have permission to put relatively dense housing there. So which would imply apartments. But I have not heard anyone say for sure, yes, we're going to take action on this permission we now have. And how many and all this. Clearly, you know, we need housing. Housing is profitable. I mean, it's expensive to build, but we need it. The prices tend to go up. Yes, the multifamily market has been just a little softer this past year than it had been. But we need it and long term, this is probably a very good idea to do it.

• 27:00Speaker 06

  But I have not heard that for sure they're doing it. But I can put in a call. So I'm glad to hear the question.

• 27:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's really interesting. It, you know, I thought for sure that the movie theater somehow, maybe it was reported somewhere else that they're getting rid of that movie theater. But it does, movie theaters have been struggling across the country since COVID. So many people have just gotten used to watching it at home. Flat screen's getting so cheap and it's just, it does seem like.

• 27:27Speaker 00

  That's true. I mean, me and my son go to a lot of movies and the theaters are.

• 27:32Speaker 03

  Empty. Yeah, you've mentioned that. The, but there is, I guess they were getting rid of the fountain, right?

• 27:40Speaker 06

  Yes, and they were going to put in something else. Not sure what that's going to be. And if you look around the place, one of the things that strike you is although much of it looks great, I think it's a very attractive shopping center overall, and it has a lifestyle feeling that that I think we'd like to see more of.

• 27:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:54Speaker 06

  You can easily spot improvements that need to be made, especially to the Edwards there.

• 27:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:00Speaker 06

  And, you know, obviously the fountain, which I thought was very nice, but apparently it broke into the point that they don't want to have to fix it. What are they going to put in there instead? I don't know.

• 28:09Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, let's now change subjects a little bit. You've written a lot about carbon capture and Kern County's role in these carbon capture projects just recently. Let's see, this article was written on. Yeah, was it last, yeah, last week. Basically saying that, I guess this is, this is a cry for help from the 160 plus stakeholders within the carbon management sector. A little concerned about the changing of guards with President Trump.

• 28:41Speaker 06

  Frankly, this, this whole activity does not make sense without the 45Q tax credit.

• 28:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:47Speaker 06

  If you took that away, you're not going to see any of these projects happen.

• 28:50Speaker 03

  Right.

• 28:51Speaker 06

  Including the places in Louisiana, Texas where they're already making these big investments. And there are investments being made here locally. You take that away, well, if you take away President Biden's, former President Biden's infrastructure bipartisan, I forget what that thing is called.

• 29:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:06Speaker 06

  If you take that away, the, the thing would go down, right? There would be less value. It's something like, you know, 60 to $80 depending on the project per ton. But if you take that away, it goes down like $20. So you might still be able to do it, but you know, the way that we're seeing Washington. I mean, I don't know. I think we're all sort of wondering what are the bigger implications? But if, if, if the Trump administration is able to just say, "I'm cutting off all of these," under the assumption he's going to, regardless of whether it Congress has done,

• 29:39Speaker 03

  Right.

• 29:40Speaker 06

  could you just take them away entirely? If that's the case, then yes, these projects go away. But I wonder if you just take away the, the lift that, that bipartisan infrastructure bill took away, does it still make sense? Do those projects still go?

• 29:54Speaker 03

  Likely it doesn't, is my guess, because carbon catch, like you said, if it's 60 bucks a ton, that's, that's not, that's not good economics. But what would happen? There's already projects that are working, functioning right now in Kern County?

• 30:08Speaker 06

  Well, no, no, there are big, big projects that are, that are in the works right now.

• 30:12Speaker 03

  CRC being the big player?

• 30:14Speaker 06

  Yes, and Carbon Terra Vault, its subsidiary, being the, the big local player on this. And they signed on to that, by the way, and so did a couple of their partners sign on to that letter, uh, which was to Congress, not to the administration. Um, I believe that there have been talks with the White House about this, but it, you know, you're sort of, I've been reading the news these days, is, is, do you really go to Congress anymore? Because do they have any power? Are they going to roll over entirely to what the new administration wants? It seems like you need to make a deal with the man.

• 30:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:45Speaker 06

  I mean, who cares about what Congress was? Because even Michael Johnson has said, you know, just, just yesterday, saying, "Well, you know, we're not gonna, we're not gonna stand up to him, you know, as far as whether he has authority to challenge congressional spending historically and going forward. We're not gonna stand up to him." And so it's like, it seems like it's, it's up to him and it's up to the courts.

• 31:08Speaker 03

  And that's even in question, right?

• 31:11Speaker 06

  Right, the constitutional crisis people are talking about.

• 31:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:13Speaker 06

  Anyway, we'll see what he does. One of the, the big cases that you see made about this is many, if not the majority of these many investments in, in carbon capture are in Republican-controlled districts. Valadeo has signed, signed a letter, only like 16 congressmen, uh, members of Congress sent it to, again, Mike Johnson, um, saying, "Listen, these are big projects. You don't want to take away the money on these." And...

• 31:41Speaker 06

  They're Republican. They're largely Republican.

• 31:44Speaker 03

  Right. Yeah, that's where a lot of the oil and gas is. And that's California, I mean specifically San Joaquin Valley is prime for this because of our geological makeup.

• 31:59Speaker 06

  Yep. We have just a lot of places to put this stuff permanently. We have the technological know-how. We have the workforce. We have the ready capital, ready to invest in these things. You know, you can't just say, okay, well, somebody needs this. No, we have the companies right here ready. Chevron era, you know, now part of CRC and CRC itself. We have the money ready to go. Let's do this thing or not.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  I know. It looks like they received 12 million pledge from the US Department of Energy in 2023.

• 32:27Speaker 06

  That's probably dead, by the way.

• 32:28Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah. This is crazy. It's just a, you know, we've had Chad Hathaway. We have him on the show regularly. This is one of my most fascinating topics with him is that there is a societal cost to having carbon in the air, to producing, you know, using fossil fuels and putting that carbon in the air. And you can calculate what that cost is, you know, the impact that it has on health, the impact that it has on our infrastructure and, you know, major natural disasters, weather, climate disasters. And it just seems though

• 33:12Speaker 03

  that if we have to do something, there's no one thing fixes all. We have to do something to pay for those costs. So is it us that's paying for it? Like, or is it right now we're seeing insurance companies in California go out of business to try to pay for it? Like, who's going to pay for this?

• 33:34Speaker 06

  So tax and, what is it?

• 33:38Speaker 06

  What is the name of that thing that we have that is the big?

• 33:42Speaker 03

  Oh, cap and trade.

• 33:43Speaker 06

  Cap and trade, thank you very much. A huge cost for oil producers these days.

• 33:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:49Speaker 06

  Chevron, someone at Chevron was telling me how this is just a big expense that the company faces. It's not just about the inability to get a permit, it's that these costs in California, cap and trade is so expensive. And you've got the little carbon fuel standard, which you think, oh, that could really be good. It only works if you're making fuel with that. So there is some way that we're paying for the carbon. The cap and trade is a big part of that. So I would say, you know, do we really need an additional carbon tax? I mean, you could argue that it's already in place.

• 34:25Speaker 03

  Lastly, before we let you go, John, you wrote about two more people that have been arrested for the Bitwise, and it's not the two founders that are already in jail, but there's two other people. This is totally new to me.

• 34:38Speaker 06

  Right. It was new to me, Charlie, what the heck, are they all done with this?

• 34:41Speaker 03

  Right. But they're not. It's two more people.

• 34:44Speaker 06

  The guys in Fresno, one of the guys in Fresno, they work for the same firm, by the way. And then there's the guy who is in Connecticut, and looking at big charges right now, that not only did they, you know, mislead investors, but that the way that they carried out these deals, allegedly, according to the US Attorney's Office, you know, taking away money, not disclosing the whole deal, taking some of that money, moved around, it's like, it goes well beyond, you know, well beyond the Bitwise alleged, you know.

• 35:17Speaker 03

  It's, I'm guessing, these are, these people are investors?

• 35:24Speaker 06

  They raised money from investors, and then get that money and loaned it to Bitwise without full information, not really disclosing things, and took some of the money aside, allegedly.

• 35:36Speaker 03

  Bought a car, bought their yacht, or whatever.

• 35:39Speaker 06

  Right.

• 35:40Speaker 03

  Probably.

• 35:41Speaker 06

  And moved it to other things.

• 35:42Speaker 03

  Wow. That's crazy, because, let's see, $20 million in hard money loans to Bitwise?

• 35:49Speaker 04

  Hard money, you know?

• 35:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:50Speaker 04

  Hit the high interest?

• 35:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, which is like...

• 35:53Speaker 06

  Oh, they were desperate for a while.

• 35:55Speaker 04

  That's crazy.

• 35:55Speaker 06

  Or at the end.

• 35:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:56Speaker 06

  They needed that money so bad. Uh, there was a lot riding on it, even though more money's coming in. They were, they were lying. Bitwise founders were lying about how much money they had, how much money they were bringing in.

• 36:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:06Speaker 06

  They're falsifying records. Wow.

• 36:08Speaker 03

  Well, these people apparently were desperate too, because they were willing to give a hard money loan to Bitwise without really maybe fully understanding what was going on.

• 36:18Speaker 06

  Or maybe they did.

• 36:21Speaker 04

  That's crazy.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, they, the, the, the feds have enough information to arrest them.

• 36:26Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 36:26Speaker 03

  They're, they were arrested. Uh, six counts indictment accusing them of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Um, this is wild. Uh, you know, just when you think the, uh, the Bitwise stuff is over, uh, each one of these people faced up to 20 years in prison. So that's fascinating.

• 36:44Speaker 06

  Yeah. This whole thing, the more you look at it, uh, it, you just think they really, they were trying to fool a lot of people and they would do it allegedly. So the people who are now in, in prison for this, they would, um, or, or headed to prison. They, because they would rely on family to work for. They were able to sort of silo information. Not everybody knew what everyone else knew. And so they were playing everybody off of each other and raising as much money as they could. It, it became a Ponzi scam and I truly believe it did not start that way. That it was the desperation that set in. Again, my, my theory is it was during the pandemic. What happened in Fresno could not physically happen in Bakersfield because it was the pandemic.

• 37:27Speaker 06

  And yet investors were so excited about their special sauce that they threw more and more money. And so they had to move forward and they never really got to step two.

• 37:36Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah, they sure didn't. Um, well, John, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come on the show. Really appreciate it. Uh, good luck with the upcoming stories.

• 37:47Speaker 06

  Thanks.

• 37:47Speaker 03

  And, uh, keep up the good work. Anybody out there, please go support your local paper. Bakersfield Californian, uh, it, it now delivers in the mail. So, uh, so you don't have to, you don't have To worry about that paper getting wet on your front.

• 38:01Speaker 06

  That's right. See, the good news. That's what I'm talking about.

• 38:05Speaker 03

  We're gonna take a final break of the day and we'll be right back.

• 38:07Speaker 00

  If you're a business owner who provides a retirement plan for your employees, contact Money Wise Wealth Management to see if you're maximizing your options and minimizing your liabilities. Money Wise 401k plans are customized to you and your company's needs. 661-847-1000.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 38:29Speaker 03

  Mike Peters. We're Money Wise. That's Mike Peters, great local musician. Latroy. Got a couple messages here. Let's knock them out.

• 38:38Speaker 04

  What's up?

• 38:39Speaker 03

  I'll read it and you answer it. How's that?

• 38:41Speaker 04

  Sounds good.

• 38:41Speaker 03

  I wish I had no debt. Well done. With the cost of eggs, can we expect the cost of all dairy products to continue to get higher this year?

• 38:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, it's, it's, it's, it's important to note that, you know, some of these projections are subject to, you know, change based on various factors, including things like global demand.

• 39:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:00Speaker 04

  Feed costs, weather conditions affecting production. Therefore, you know, while we, we, we've experienced an increase in dairy product prices, you know, the actual price movements may vary, you know, who knows? You know, it could, it could, it could be anywhere from a 3.4% decrease all the way upwards of a 6.2% increase.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  That's, that's what the USDA says?

• 39:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's basically supply and demand, you know, right now. What it says here, it says, uh.

• 39:29Speaker 03

  Part of, part of it is the, is feed costs. I know that's a big thing. It's up 10%. The, the, you know, the cost to feed cows. There's also been an issue with the cows getting some of the bird flu.

• 39:43Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 39:43Speaker 03

  Which has been, you know, millions of chickens have been culled and now it's spreading into the dairy. So that could be, that could be really bad. The biggest thing is, I think what you said is that globe, you know, it's, it's supply and demand.

• 39:55Speaker 04

  Supply and demand, yeah.

• 39:56Speaker 03

  And that, that it's very hard to predict. At least what the experts are saying is not anticipating it being super crazy.

• 40:02Speaker 04

  Super crazy. I think it'll go up a little bit before it starts coming down.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah, all right, here's another another message. It says, if you have time, but maybe, maybe you can cover this topic sometime, but what are some alternative coverage options or programs for homeowners who can't secure insurance through major providers? This is a super hot topic, Latroy, and we've talked about the really the only alternative besides the major providers that we have in California is the fare plan. And it's really an insurance of last resort. The fare plan is a it's it's essentially a kind of it's kind of a government sponsored insurance program.

• 40:47Speaker 03

  Many states have these fare plans, but again, it's a last resort coverage. So you get a bare bones policy. You don't get the bells and whistles that you would get from a private insurance company.

• 40:59Speaker 04

  Gotcha.

• 40:59Speaker 03

  These plans generally have higher premiums and the coverage is limited. Options are limited and what the benefits can be. And and so the biggest problem here is that the state of California has been overly conservative in keeping the premiums down, which is great for us because us as homeowners haven't had to have too high of premiums. But by doing that and not letting the free market, yeah, it's now it's pushed these companies out of business. They go, okay, fine, we're just going to move out of California because we can't afford to pay for it.

• 41:43Speaker 03

  And then you have this thing called reinsurance. Reinsurance is the insurance that insurance companies have.

• 41:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 41:50Speaker 03

  So they have to pay a premium to to another insurance company that covers them in the event that, you know, that there's a big catastrophe, like an earthquake.

• 42:01Speaker 04

  Like Hurricane Katrina, for instance.

• 42:02Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 42:03Speaker 04

  Do that reinsurance thing.

• 42:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:05Speaker 04

  You know?

• 42:06Speaker 03

  And so now you have reinsurers that are under pressure. And now we have the fare plan, which is under pressure and it's going to have.

• 42:17Speaker 03

  A bunch of claims that are going to be made on it and the fare plan is going to need to has. So the fare plan is funded by insurance companies for the most part. And so now it's going to send a bill to all these homeowners insurance companies and say, hey, you got to pay into the fare plan of whatever percentages. And like they don't have the money to do that. These insurance companies are really struggling. It's, this is one of the things that make me very nervous in, in California is the homeowners. Has your homeowners gone up?

• 42:49Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 42:50Speaker 03

  Approximately, how much has it gone up?

• 42:53Speaker 04

  Probably five, five percent.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Okay, okay. So it's still, I mean, that's a lot when you're looking at, you know, it's going to be hundreds of dollars a year. For, for me, I have my cabin up in Alta Sierra and it, a year and a half ago, almost doubled. In, in price. I mean, it's, it's several thousand dollars more a year and it's a fare plan. It's the only insurance I could get was the fare plan up there because of the fire risks.

• 43:24Speaker 04

  Fire risks, yeah.

• 43:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's in the forest and I'm thinking, what? I, I, I don't want to be put in the position that some others have been put in, let down in LA that they said, well, you just can't afford it. You can't either can't find insurance, you can't afford it. And you, you know, you lose your house and it's gone. Yeah. You know, what do you do?

• 43:41Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 43:42Speaker 03

  It's really, really scary. You know, I wish we had better news for our listeners there. You know, we just have to hope that something changes with our policymakers and, and we get some relief for homeowners here in California. We're not alone, you know, Florida, Texas, the, the three of the biggest states are all dealing with major insurance issues. Well, Latroy, good job. We did it. We made it. Now we get to go back to our day job.

• 44:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:11Speaker 03

  And finish things up. We'll be back tomorrow. So you don't want to waste, will not want to miss tomorrow's show. Also remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 44:24Speaker 02

  Securities offered through SCF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SCF Investment Advisors, Inc. SCF Securities, Inc. and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.