The 1990s Really Were Better (EP.382)

21:47This one, Torsen Slok chart of the week. He shows, he had this whole piece. He's been pounding the table for the strength of the U.S. economy. He's not being bitten by the negativity bug. He's showing household debt to disposable income for U.S., Canada, and Australia. Look at this. Their household debt to disposable income has just, the ratios continue to rise since 2008. Ours has fallen. almost every year since then. We are in so much better shape than any other country when it comes to household balance sheets. Hmm. All right, one more thing on politics. Wait, wait, what about this credit card debt thing?

22:20Oh, okay, that's another one. It's credit card debt as a share of disposable income. It's rising a little bit, but still way, way lower than it was at any time in the 2000s. We're doing just fine, balance sheet-wise. All right, one more thing on politics. So the Wall Street Journal had this piece on looking at the economy under different presidents. First, they compare Trump versus Biden, and they look at inflation and growth and jobs and unemployment, and then they look at gross domestic product growth by Reagan and Bush and Clinton and the other Bush and Obama and Trump and Biden. And here's my problem with this kind of analysis.

22:56Again, giving too much credit or too much blame. Was Reagan a great president for the economy, or did he take over an economy that did crappy for 10 or 15 years and was due for an uprising, right? Was Clinton a great president for the economy or did he get lucky from the dot-com boom? Was Bush a terrible president for the economy or did he happen to inherit an economy after a huge, one of the biggest bubble we've ever seen, and 9-11 in 2008? Like, was Obama great for the economy or did he happen to take over at the bottom, right? Well, you put it this way. Yeah, it's infantile to think that the president could control the economy.

23:35Come on. It's situational. That's my whole point is that, sure, there's some policies they can make that help around the edges, but it's more timing or luck than anything. All right, one more thing. So the election is a toss-up. Any model you look at, it's basically 50-50. It's funny. People will get excited or hurt when it's like 51-49. Like, oh, no, it's still a toss-up. and the S &P 500 through the close on Monday has 46 new all-time highs, right? We always hear about heightened volatility and heightened uncertainty around elections. The stock market does not care. Not right now, but there are charts that do show, like if you look at the fakes into election years, it does tend to go up towards the election.

24:15But I'm saying this year, the stock market does not care. Yeah, maybe we have some volatility, but if uncertainty was at all-time highs, would the stock market have 46 new all-time highs as well? I just say people care more about politics than the market. How's that? Oh, shit. Raiders trading Devontae Adams to Jets. I thought you were going to say they were going to trade Max Crosby to the Lions. I would have cared about that. That would be, you know what? By the way, that was horrendous. The Hutchinson injury was just really gross and awful and sad. By the way, I am never going to MetLife Stadium until we get a new quarterback.

24:52I can't take it anymore. I can't take it. Maybe this is another old man thing, but it's really cool to be at a game and be around people and stuff, but the experience of watching a game at home on a big screen TV is 10 times better than it is to go to a stadium. I just don't see the appeal. I wanted to give Danny a shot. I did give Danny a shot. I was a defender, but it's enough already. Done. Done, done, done. All right, back to the show. Sorry about that. Want some more good news? Please. This is from MarketWatch. Groceries are getting more affordable. When you factor in rising wages, groceries cost about as much today as they did in the pre-pandemic years.

25:25So this is grocery, hours of work to afford a week's worth of groceries. And it had a spike, of course, in 2021, 2022. Now it's coming back down basically to where we were pre-pandemic. But again, look at this, look at how much higher grocery prices were relative to earnings in the 1980s, in the 1990s, and the 2000s. Yes, we had a spike when groceries got more expensive. Groceries are cheaper now than they were back in the 80s and 90s relative to wages. how many people would believe you if you told them this on the street? One out of every 10 people, maybe. Where'd you get this data? Have you been to the grocery store lately?

26:02Every week. Look at this. This is surprising data. Agreed. Yeah. We'll take it. All right. Did you listen to the Trillions podcast like I asked you yesterday? You know, your tone. Your tone. You're acting as if you know that I didn't listen, when in fact, I did listen. No, I just asked. No, you didn't just ask. You didn't just ask. Play it back, John, play it back. You heard what you said. You're like my wife. If I text my wife something, I could say the flattest thing ever and she'll assume there's a tone one way or another because I didn't include an exclamation point. Your voice went up. I listened to the show.

26:43Okay. So there was a story in Bloomberg about 100 % yields are fueling a retail boom in new quick buck ETFs. And it's essentially, they're talking about, there's this massive boom in derivative and options-based ETFs. Specifically the income, the income. People love income. Yes, people love option income. And there's these like yield farm or yield max ETFs now, they're bringing billions of dollars. And essentially what they're doing is they're selling options on individual stocks. And the way that options are priced is based on volatility. And individual stocks have way more volatility than indexes.

27:17So if you sell options on a stock like NVIDIA or Tesla or something that is very high vol, you can get a lot of income on that. And they're saying you get 100 % yield on some of these. They're selling like basically at the money options. So they're effectively capping all their upside to distribute the income back to the investors. Why are they doing that? Because that's what people want, right? Like there's so much demand. There's hundreds of millions of dollars going into these products. And whether or not they're like good, bad, or whatever, it doesn't matter. What matters is that people want them.

27:48I know that these are relatively new for ETFs, the ability to have options in them in the first place. But doesn't it feel like in the last two to three years, a whole cohort of investors has just realized like the late bulb went off, like, oh, you can earn income from options? It seems like this brand new thing people are discovering and they do think it's a free lunch. And to your point, I don't know. I just think the volatility of these things, rising and falling, this is the kind of thing that works if you have, if things are going well in the stock. But they're saying that there's one based on Coinbase that they've returned 100 % of its current share value back to holders over the past year.

28:24Yet on a total return basis, the ETF is actually down. It functions like a dividend payment, right? It just, when these, doesn't it just reduce the NAV? Yes. So, yes. And so I thought the guy that they interviewed on the Trillions podcast with Eric Belchunas was, he was actually relatively reasonable. And he said he puts it in his portfolio in proportion to its weight in the index. So if Apple's 5 % of the index, he buys a 5 % position in the Apple one or something. I thought he was relatively reasonable. But I think these things could come back to haunt a lot of people as volatility changes. Oh, yeah, sure.

29:01Sure, sure. I think, but to the point that we've been making a lot about like how people are using different instruments, it's not 100 % of his portfolio. We're not even close to it. Right. It's a very small percentage. But what he said that never, ever occurred to me as a reason why this particular crowd likes these type of strategies is because it sounds like this guy's in the fire camp. So he wanted a mortgage. He's trying to like live off of it or something, basically. But he needed this qualifying income to show the bank that he has income to support the mortgage, which never in a million years would have occurred to me as a reason to own these things.

29:38Oh, I must have missed that part. That's interesting because he's like an entrepreneur. Did you listen to the podcast, sir? There's no way you could have missed that. You probably stopped listening to it. You know, I do a lot of podcasts listening while I'm out, while I'm working out or jogging or something. And occasionally my mind wander. I get that. Yeah, no, it's like when you're listening to an audiobook, you have like five minutes where you're just, your brain just turned off. It's just. It's like, it's like when I'm talking on animal spirits and your brain just shuts off for a few minutes.

30:04My brain never shuts off. I am easily distracted by incoming slacks and texts. My brain never shuts off. that's a problem with my brain it never shuts off okay I have a a question for you about our doc here so we have the artificial intelligence headline I think it's time to make a change can we change it to just innovation because last week we talked about Ozempic there's AI we had SpaceX landed a rocket this week like it took off and it landed you know people always say the moon landing was fake couldn't you say that the SpaceX landing was fake where they just they just played the video in reverse.

30:40Right? It didn't really land. They just played it in reverse. But here's, so self-driving cars is another one. So we have all this amazing stuff going on. AI, Ozempic is going to fix obesity in this country. We have rockets that can land on their own and we have self-driving cars. This story made its rounds a little bit. It's a couple months old, but it's a story about Waymo. It says Waymo is now providing more than 100 ,000 paid robo-taxi rides per week in the U.S. according to a LinkedIn announcement by the co-CEO. That's double the 50 ,000 weekly paid trips the company reported in May. So it sounds like it's mostly San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, and Los Angeles.

31:14And the point is for years, I kept, I was wondering like, when is this going to happen? I think a lot of people were. And it seems like it's slowly, but surely it's already kind of here in a lot of ways. And I don't feel like it's getting enough publicity for how crazy this is, that people are just getting in cars and it's driving on its own and no one's driving it for them. because it's so, there's only, man, my brain is breaking. I'm trying to say it's only in a few cities. There was a phrase I was looking for. It's only in a few cities. But I think when people experience it, they're probably like, yeah, this is magic.

31:51My biggest question is still, I don't know how it works in a place like Michigan or the Northeast where there is inclement weather. I feel like these things just shut down if the weather's bad enough. Yeah. Like, do you think that they just, because I can't see some of the, icy slushy roads that I've driven on in Michigan or during a blizzard. I don't see how these things can navigate that. Counterpoint, what if they just go, what if they know that the roads are lousy and they just go 15 miles an hour? Well, I'm thinking, what if they just shut their fleets down for those days? Yeah. If it's bad weather, these things do not go, but that'd be my only worry.

32:20But I think it's, it's kind of amazing that these things are on the road existing and there hasn't been any, no one's fought it or anything yet. It's just, it's happening. Cars today must drive better than in lousy weather than cars back then. No? Than older cars? As an example, and this is not weather related, but I was driving my loaner car and I was on the highway going 85. I had no idea I was going 85 until I was like, holy shit. I could have been going 45. Oh, because it's so smooth? Do you have your car back yet or not? No. Okay. So thinking back to the 90s and bad weather. So my very first car I drove was a 1989 Accord.

33:00It was a stick shift. It had like 110 ,000 miles on it. And the tires were completely bald. Thanks a lot, mom and dad, for giving me bald tires in northern Michigan. So the first time I ever drove in the snow, it was a blizzard. I'm literally driving. We lived on a very steep hill growing up. And I'm literally driving down the road. And the little tiny Honda Accord. Remember how small they used to be? Did you have a two-door or a four-door? It was a four-door, but it was a manual. So, I mean, with the stick shift. But I was literally driving straight down our hill and went to hit the brakes. And my car did a full 360 on the road and just stayed on the road and kept going.

33:34The very first time I ever drove in the snow. That's how bald the tires were. It was like a fast and the freerest move. My first car was a 1998 gold Buick Regal. Okay. We both had gold cars. I mean, it was. You don't see a lot of gold cars anymore. No, they're ridiculous. Why would you buy a gold car? It's true. And the average age, I was like, you know when Bill Gates walks into a room and now the average net worth is a lot higher? Yeah, yeah. I'm usually trying to figure out an analogy for it. I was the only person under 50 driving that beautiful Regal. Yes. You see that in Florida somewhere in the retirement community, right?

34:10Speaking of cars, we got an email. Hey, guys, caught up on the podcast. Michael was writing the money that cars used to have bench seats everyone could squeeze across, including the front seats. That's wild. Bench seats in front. Remember that? Oh, wow. That's true. People sit in the middle in front. Because the thing, the gear shifter was right next to the steering wheel, like on a bus. That was the worst seat. If you had to sit in the middle in the front, that was awful. How dangerous is that? Yeah, not great. Please don't crash. I don't want to die. However, it also used to be more common and legal to have infants and small children on laps.

34:43Wow. It reminded me of this article. So there's an article that this person linked to. Do car seat mandates. Let's see. What's the title? do car seat mandates reduce the number of children families have? And I saw the article and I was like, what? But then he said, TLDR, a study hypothesizes that car seat mandates are a disincentive to larger family sizes. As a father of three myself, I agree with this. And even if you can buy narrow car seats and fit three across, it's a sweaty, awkward nightmare dealing with the straps and tightening. I also think our propensity to travel more these days is a factor as it is very difficult to book hotel rooms for families larger than four, restaurants too.

35:20Amen. world. The modern world is built for units of four. Ben, I thought you would like this. By the way, there's nothing more frustrating, and I'm exaggerating, than putting in a car seat when you can't get the clip and you do start sweating. I had three car seats at once. I was very good at it. I look at NASCAR pit crew for this. The trick is you sit on the car seat to weigh it down. Yeah, I get irrationally mad trying to put in car seats when it's not worth it. It was hard, but I was very, because we had three. So yeah, this person is true. Family's large. So So we have three kids. And going to hotels is a pain.

35:51They always say, like, we can't promise you that we'll have a pull-out bed for you. And sometimes they try to make you get two rooms. And so obviously we just say we have two kids instead of three to sneak someone in. But it's a huge pain in the butt with five. Yeah, I mean, that's why you're an Airbnb guy. Yes. Speaking of Airbnb, I tweeted this last week. Airbnb, since going public, they went public in late 2020. It's down 7 % in total. USMP is up almost 70 % in that time. and I made the point that like good companies and products don't always make good stock. And I couldn't believe the amount of people who wrote back to me that I hate Airbnb.

36:23People hate this product. Hate it. Really? I mean, maybe it's just Twitter, but. I thought you were going to get more of like, oh, well, yeah, that's what happens when you buy a company at 90 times sales. Yes. And a lot of people said that too. Well, guess what? It was expensive. And I bought Airbnb along the way, like as it fell. So I bought it a few times. I bought it at the IPO. And I finally last week sold it. So if you want to use me as a contraindicator that Airbnb is going to take off now, do it. But I've held it for a few years. And I think this is, it's not even like a good products versus good stock thing.

36:54Like the Airbnb was just an amazing idea. And I thought like it had the chance to be like kind of like the next Uber in a way like that. And it seems like it's just not going to happen. And the funny thing is, is whenever we do, because I do love Airbnbs more because it's more room. It's easier to relax than it is in a hotel room. And you have laundry for kids, especially in like a week-long vacation. I would much rather do an Airbnb, but we always book through VRBO. Why? I don't know. I find a better selection. Maybe it's where we're looking when we go to Florida or something, but I always find better houses on, do people call it Verbo?

37:27Sorry, VRBO to me. We always book there more than we do Airbnb. But anyway, if you want to use me as a contraindicator, I sold all my Airbnb bought. I will not be buying Airbnb. All right. Survey of the week. A bunch of people sent me this. In a new survey, 300 executives said climate change is hurting their businesses and nearly half believed being based in the Midwest would be less risky financially. Three-quarters of survey respondents said their companies have been considering relocating due to climate risks, with nearly a quarter saying they've already relocated in part because of climate change.

37:57Six percent said they plan to move their business in the next five years. They're saying the Great Lakes, fresh water, good climate hedge. Good beers? Very good beer. Beer City, Michigan, or Beer City, USA, and Gramps, Michigan. All right. Did you see this Reddit post going around yesterday, making the waves? I did not. A lot of people tagged us on this. You don't look at your Twitter mentions anymore or notifications, so— Here and there. A few people tagged us and said, hey, I want to hear your thoughts on this. And the headline of this is, WTF is wrong with our parents. And this person said, they're in their late 30s, two small children, high cost of living.

38:32They have a small house. They're in credit card debt. kids go to daycare that bled their savings. He said typical millennial stuff. Last week, he said he found out that his father-in-law, he found his father-in-law's account summary, which I don't know how you find that without snooping. But he said he found out his in-laws are worth 10 million bucks, and he mentioned it to his own dad and has said, he's doing just a bit better than me. So let's say that his parents are worth multiple millions as well. And the whole point is he's asking, why are they not helping us? That part's an assumption by you.

39:03You don't know how much money his parents have. Okay. Did you read this or not? He said, well, he's doing just a bit better than me then. Well, to me, I saw that as like sarcasm. Like he has so much more money than I do. Okay. Regardless, the point of the post is - No, no, no, no, no, no. I just want to say, that's interesting. I feel like sarcasm is a native language to New Yorkers. And people like you, no offense, it's not a judgment. You just take things at face value, which is very nice. No, I'm a very sarcastic person. Well, okay, well. But yes, you're right. So you're saying you could have read this as sarcasm.

39:39That's fair. No, no, no. I'm like 90 % sure that this person does not have$7 million. The dad who's saying, well, he's doing just a bit better than me then. Okay. Either way, keep going. So he's saying, here are our own effing parents sitting on their piles of gold watching us navigate a new level of f*** up economics and shopping for discounts and raising our children in subpar school districts and for what? And he's saying like, give me the money. So he's saying his parents are loaded. So maybe you've misread the sarcasm. Hang on. Hang on. I'll give my last dollar to my son. Here are our own parents.

40:14Yes. I think he's talking about her parents, but be that as it may. So what's your view on the situation? So people were really angry about this one, saying, how could these parents not help their kids? What's going on? And so I think this is generational. I do think that there's a generational thing with baby boomers and people in the older generations that they just, it wasn't like this for them. They didn't have their parents helping them, and they don't understand. Their whole mindset is, I will give my kids an inheritance someday. They will be getting this money. They'll get it when I die and it'll be great.

40:44And I think young people now are of the mindset of, no, help me now when I need it. And that makes more sense to me too. But here's the thing. I need more details. I need more details before I cast judgment. No, but I'm not casting judgment either way. Here's the thing. If I'm thinking about this from a young person perspective, you have to ask your parents, talk to them. They're not going to just get it on their own. That generation, for the most part, I'm not saying all of them. Some of them need a little nudge. And you just need to say, listen, I'll take my inheritance now knowing it's going to be smaller than it could be someday, but it'll help me more now.

41:16I think you have to just have that conversation. I agree. That's the problem. I do agree with that. But so I'm just, I'm curious. Are people's reaction to this more like, wow, their parents are assholes? Yes. That's what I, yes. But could be, but I want more information. What if this person is, is what if this person is just like lazy and not really knew what they're supposed to be doing, which I'm not saying that they are or they aren't. I just, I need more information. Because what if that's the case and I wouldn't blame the parents? What if it's two brothers and they've been robbing houses and their parents decide to cut them out of the will?

41:50What if that's the case? Exactly, exactly. What if this person's a robber? Just a deadbeat dad that's not doing the right thing. Sorry, you didn't get my Menendez reference there. Sorry about that. Speaking of sarcasm. My bad. You're not watching. the Benitez brothers got cut out of the will for anyway. All right. I paid a water bill yesterday for$46. They charged me a convenience fee of$2 on a credit card. What are we doing here? So that's a 4 % charge just for using my credit card? And this is through, why do governments have to pay that convenience fee? And what's so convenient about it? That sounds like an inconvenience fee to me.

42:27Okay, Jerry. What is the deal with that? I'm just saying. No, it's a good point. So at MetLife Stadium, the parking was$35. Or so I thought. It was actually$46. Why? Because there was a surcharge fee and a service fee and probably a convenience fee. It is quite annoying. It is quite annoying. That's all I'm saying. It's annoying to get that stuff. I paid a couple bills yesterday. Every time, I was like, oh, we're going to do a 3 % surcharge on your credit card. Isn't crypto supposed to fix this? Huh? What am I paying with stable coins? Don't look at me. I don't know. When's it coming? I'm a Rails guy.

43:04All right. We got an email from somebody who is a civil engineer, just a sort of a PSA talking about flood zones. He said, to see the flood map for your neighborhood, search FEMA NFHL viewer. That's National Flood Hazard Layer. As you and others have alluded to, just because you're not in the mapped floodplain doesn't mean your home can't flood. Water doesn't obey FEMA maps. Some areas have very outdated floor studies, and there's always a bigger storm. That's true. So anyway, there's a link here, but I would check that out if you're considering moving to a potential. So the point is, just because you haven't had one before doesn't mean it's not going to happen.

43:39Like, right? Yeah. I don't think Asheville was ever prepared for something like this. I'm looking up my address right now. They don't really give you a lot of information here. All right. Not bad. Okay. Last week, Ben, we were speaking about the most awkward place to have small talk. So somebody followed up and said, had the most awkward, embarrassing moment at a urinal last week. Did you see this? Yes, very good. I walked into the bathroom and the only urinal open was the middle one in between two guys talking. To avoid the small talk, I walked up and was scrolling my phone while doing my business.

44:09I found something funny I wanted to say to my wife, so I took a screenshot. As I pushed the buttons, the shutter sound echoed as loud as a horn. I can only imagine my face as I had to look at both dudes telling them I did not take any picture and only take a screenshot. That's pretty good. I was in the bathroom at MetLife Stadium. Sorry for all the MetLife Stadium, but this just occurred to me. By the way, what a piece of shit that stadium is. Oh my God. You've never been, right? No, I've heard nothing but bad things. It's just garbage, especially after going to a beautiful Minneapolis stadium.

44:41I forget what it's called, Bank of Something. SoFi and where the Raiders play. And then we've got this hunk of junk metal, just garbage. But anyway, so there's two guys arguing in the bathroom about to get into a fight. And with all the fights at football stadiums, Do you think that people go to the stadium thinking that they're going to get into a fight? I often wonder that. Or people just decide, like, just lose their minds at the game because they've been drinking too much. It's so crazy how prevalent fights are at football stadiums. A bunch of maniacs. It is. It seems every week that it's just, the social media is just littered with videos of fights.

45:15What do you do on your drive home? Like, man, can you believe that fight I got in today? Like, I don't know what the thought process is, right? Like, man, I thought, I had the low ground. I thought I was going to win for once. and it just didn't happen. Yeah, imagine coming home with a black eye and your wife is like, what? Yeah, jersey's torn up. Sorry, got into a fight. Happens. You know what the thing is? Don't wear a jersey. It's always guys in jerseys that get in fights, right? No, I do have a bone to pick actually about stadium goers. When people just wear a random jersey, that might even be a different sport to a sporting event.

45:47That's a thing? Oh, yeah. Like I saw a guy in a Tampa Bay Lightning jersey. All right, I made that up. But, you know, that's just for effect. But you see it all the time. It makes no sense. Okay. This is why I stay home and watch it on my 70-inch flat screen. Ben, did you— I don't have to get in fights. I just get in fights with my kids. Did you watch It's What's Inside? You did watch It's What's Inside. I liked it. Very good. Very good recommendation by you. They can make a sequel of that movie. But it was very good. Good twist ending. Didn't see coming. I liked it. I enjoyed it. Credit to me.

46:17Yes. Good call for you. Oh, Terrifier 3. Oh, wait, wait. I told my wife. I said, I watched this really good movie on Netflix last night. you should watch it. And she said, why did you watch it without me? I said, well, Michael is the one who recommended it. And I thought it was gonna be terrible. So. That hurts. But that happens with my wife all the time. Why did he watch it with me? Because you say no to everything that I suggest. Yes, true. That's, yes. That's why. Blair Witch, we spoke about it last week. And I was wondering, like, I'm sure there is a reason. Why don't they re-release old movies?

46:47So Pulp Fiction, it's the 30th anniversary. Would Pulp Fiction not make$10 million if they re-released it? they actually do show at our movie theater they show random old movies on one of the theaters on one of the screens oh really I would love to see Blair Witch again imagine Blair Witch in IMAX are you kidding me that is I don't know do you really want to see if that girl's nose in IMAX yeah at the end okay um are you watching the Penguin sorry I haven't got into it yet okay that's okay I'll stop asking I will I've been watching I've been going through the Menendez Brothers show and I gotta say so you obviously haven't been watching it because you didn't get my reference earlier about being left out of the inheritance.

47:26Not true. Not true. Not true. I saw episode five where the entire thing was just, was it Lyle or Eric? One of them just in jail, just talking for 35 minutes. That was impressive acting. How did he do that? They are pretty good. The brothers are good. Yes. It was a 35 minute monologue. That was the entire show. Yeah. It's very well done. It's the kind of show you don't feel very good after watching. Like, none of the people are redeeming in any way. The name of the show Monster, I know it's after the Jeffrey Dahmer one too, it was called Monster. It's just, you don't feel very good about yourself after watching the show.

48:00They're just so screwed up. But this, it got me thinking about the money and happiness thing, because they're loaded, they're wealthy. We talked about the money and happiness thing. These are the kind of people that no amount of money in the world, they could have been as rich as they were or poorer than poor, and they would have been unhappy either way, these people. Yeah, just garbage people. I mean, obviously. Yes, but just not great feelings from this. Book recommendation. This is strategy. Make Better Plans by Seth Godin. I had the opportunity to interview Seth Godin last week. He's going to be on our Animal Spirits feed next week.

48:34Here's the thing I love about Seth Godin. I've been reading him for years and years and years. He's got a daily blog. He's written like 20-some books. I've probably read five of his books. A lot of stuff on marketing and sales. he'll have like a three sentence blog post and those three sentences the way he can simplify complex topics is something that i really really respect in someone like the ability to take hard stuff and make it sound easy even when it's not like that he's a master at that kind of stuff he was very good i was kind of blown away and i asked him for a bunch of advice too on the podcast.

49:08You weren't there for it. But, so, next week with him. But I'm a huge, huge Seth Godin fan. So that was really cool to do. I was actually kind of nervous. I never get nervous for that kind of stuff. I was kind of nervous to interview him. Yeah? Yeah, I was very prepared. He also said, he liked the name Animal Spirits because he obviously had no idea who we were. He said another backup name for the show should have been Spontaneous Optimism, which I guess is another Kane's saying, which I've never heard before. But I kind of like that. Yeah. All right. Terrifier 3. Oh, jeez. Terrifier 3 killed it at the box office.

49:50I've never heard of 1 and 2. Oh, really? No. I guess that shouldn't surprise me. It's just, it's been, you know, all over the internet. Yeah, it did. It had the biggest weekend box office. $14 million. Okay, just another horror movie? No, it's not just another horror movie. It's over the top, over the top, over the top grotesqueness. Yeah, but I feel like you say this with every horror movie now, though. No, no, no. I do not. I do not. I'm not a horror porn sort of guy. Because you literally talk about a horror movie every week. How do they not just keep trying to one-up each other? That's the only way they can stand out, right?

50:32Well, this really is the one. And I'm surprised that there's such a big audience for this. So I thought about going to the movies for this, but I said to my friend, I was like, you know what, fuck, I don't want to go. It's just, this sort of stuff doesn't do it for me. I did watch Terrifier 2, though, over the weekend, and I'm not recommending it. It is over-the-top grotesque just for the sake of it. And I don't know, it's just not for me. Like, I get why people like it, not my cup of tea. If our production team had more time, I'd have them go through all of your horror recommendations. You'd be saying the same thing for every one of them.

51:01No, no, no, I don't like Hostel. I don't like that stuff Okay I just don't see how they continue to make a new horror movie every week I mean obviously people like them They wouldn't keep making them They make money I mean they keep pumping them out Why? Because that's what the audience wants It's not just me Ben Horror movies are the new like Avengers They're the new superhero movies Yeah We're just going to beat it into the ground Yeah I'm here for it Oh Smile 2 next week I will be in the theater for that for sure Did you see Smile 1? I heard it was grotesque. No, I did not. It was not grotesque.

51:37You did not hear that from me. Nice try. Very scary. Very scary. Okay. Thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you, John, for hopping on. Duncan, Daniel, Nicole, the whole team. Thanks, Ben, for his patience as Michael changed venues. We did it. That was a first for us, actually. Changing venues mid-show. My favorite part about it is that your general contactor's name His name is Tito. I don't know why. That just… I feel like if you have a name like Tito, you have to be in construction. Is that fair? He's the only Tito I know. Alright. I guess… He's a good man. Alright. AnimalSpirits at thecompoundnews.com.

52:18We'll see you next time.