Biden Touches Down in Chaos: Hurricane Helene's Havoc & How Port Strikes Could Cripple Business

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0:47You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's our weekly business news episode of the week here on October 4th, 2024. Joined, as always, here in studio. We got Sawyer High Rice behind all the studio, making everything look good, smell good, feel good. He is the producer of the show. And, of course, the lovely Brianna. Hey. What's up? And Chris Hansen down in Miami. What's up, y 'all? Hey. Surviving, which we're blessed for that. We made light a little bit, and it's the unfortunate thing of the weather and how bad weathermen are sometimes that you sort of like make light of what the weather might do.

1:34I will apologize for any lighthearted jokes we had because it was not light weather here in G Vegas and impacted a lot of people, including us here in the studio on some level. Sager had a tree through his house, no power for four or five days, and a lot of devastation, especially in North Carolina. So it was crazy. Chris, did you get hit with anything at all? Or were you south of all of it? No, we were fine in Miami. It was a little wind. I mean, we were getting like the very, very outer stuff, I think, just coming in from south. Yep. But it was nothing. It was all on the Gulf Coast. Yeah. Your parents fared well?

2:14Parents are fine. Sister's house in St. Pete flooded out like four feet of water. I mean, St. Pete really got ripped. Anyone coastal in Sarasota, I know some people that bottom, you know, their bottom floors soaked. But still nothing like what we're seeing in, you know, the Carolinas. The strength of the winds, when the storm came in, I mean, our power went out immediately. Like it was like as soon as that wind picked up, it was like 10 minutes later, power was gone. It was like 5 a.m., 6 a.m. I can't remember. And trees have just been around. I, you know, I've lived in Greenville. I did have stints in other cities, but I'm a Greenville native.

2:53So watching the amount of wind when we're this far off the coast, you know, we're three hours inland was the most I had ever seen. It was hard to tell when it was going on how devastating it was, even though you're like. The problem was we had 24 hours of rain the day before. So it loosened up kind of the ground, the gravel and all these trees, I think. And so the devastation was just crazy, particularly in North Carolina, it was hardest hit. Brianna, man, you just moved from California. It's like, welcome to South Carolina. Hurricane Helene, what I'm hearing is that it's the worst hurricane that the Carolinas have ever had in the last hundred years.

3:36So in the last century, right, we just got here. We've never experienced a hurricane before. Thankfully, the house that we bought doesn't have any big trees in the yard. But it's funny because my list for our realtor included, I want a lot of mature trees. And then we ended up not getting it, thankfully, because we didn't have any trees go down. But Hurricane Helene hit the Carolinas really hard. There's an article here from NBC News. Southeast is reeling from a deadly storm and heavy flooding. And I know you guys know everybody in the Carolinas has been affected by this. It was really surprising for us.

4:11Yeah, crazy. And Joe Biden is here. Actually, we record this a day or two earlier, depending on the week. Joe Biden is actually here on the ground in Greenville today doing his rounds and doing stuff and, you know, doing what presidents do when there's natural disasters. So we'll keep that part of the show nonpolitical. So we appreciate the president coming and touring and providing the relief that's going to be much needed. I think I don't think I didn't feel like it caught necessarily the area by surprise. I just think the reality, though, it was just so strong. This area is just never going to be prepared for that amount of storm strength.

4:49Right. Because you don't have a precedence for that coming through and you don't have a precedence for a million trees falling, whatever the total end up being. Yeah, it was crazy. I do have a couple of girlfriends back home whose husbands are linemen and they are getting sent here. So, you know, we're getting linemen in from every state and even Canada. Yeah. So a lot of people coming to help, which is great. And we do want to give a lot of friends and family that I have is from the like the Asheville Brevard area. There's a site on Instagram, our page, Beloved Asheville is actually. And that's really where, look, there's devastation everywhere.

5:32But the most devastation, most life that was taken and really like homes gone was in that North Carolina, Asheville area, the mountains, foothills, all that stuff. So I'm actually going to be making a donation to Beloved Asheville. You can check them out on Instagram at Beloved Asheville, not Nashville, remove the N. Same spelling, but remove the N. My good friend Michael Hobby checked on me, who was in Nashville with Thousand Horses, actually sent me a text right when we started this podcast checking on me, which made me think of Nashville. But anyway, their Venmo is Venmo dot com backslash beloved hyphen Asheville.

6:12So if you want to make a donation again, it is money that is needed for a lot of families and a lot of impact that's happening there. I will be making a donation. You'll see that on my story after the show. and would love for anyone listening that is capable or able to make a donation to do it in a time of need for this area. So we're here to do our part as part of the community and to acknowledge it. It's both a major news story, but also just a major life story. And I think this is the time. This is what makes America great, though. These things happen and we come together and so much of the bad gets politics and all the stuff.

6:51But when shit hits the fan, Americans take care of each other. and that's what it's all about. And so we'd encourage you to check that out. A lot of other organizations, there's probably endless ones that are taking donations, but the areas that we've seen hit the hardest was in that Asheville area. So again, you know, they say you can control everything but the weather, unfortunately, and our hearts go out to everyone that's been impacted even more than we have here locally. Any final thoughts on this topic here, Brianna? I just wanted to say, just kind of reading through this article, over 150 people have lost their life from the storm and the aftermath of the storm, not just the hurricane, but the flooding and the landslides.

7:38There's still 1.3 million people without power. So just thoughts and prayers to everybody that has been impacted by this storm. And we really appreciate all of the support, if you're giving financially, if you are bringing donations to, you know, a credible boots on the ground resource that's going to be getting those things to people who need it. You know, we just, we pray that everybody comes together during this time and we appreciate all of the donations. And like you said, Americans helping Americans. Moving on, what's else on our list today? We have quite a bit on the list today. So some interesting corporate chaos going on in the world.

8:17I have an article here from Fox Business. CEO exits are up at an unprecedented rate. Record CEO turnover in 2024. There were over a thousand CEOs that left their position by the end of quarter three in 2024. I just thought this was super interesting. How many, like, is it an economic thing? Are things changing in the business landscape? What are your guys' thoughts on this. That seems like quite a bit of turnover. Average age of departing CEOs is 61. So the question is, is it an economic or business indicator or is it an age factor? I think it's both, but I do think it's an economic. I'll start with the economic.

9:01I don't know the 61 and it with today's biohacking and everything else. Like if they're drawing the same potion my dad's on, who's 72 and looks like 58. I don't know what he, that guy, I just hope I got his genes. But I will say it's the uncertainty of the economy combined with short-termism a little bit. Everybody wants results now. There's no patience anymore. These companies pay millions of dollars for CEOs, CMOs, like CMOs are turned over even faster. That was sort of my route. I was a CMO in an agency before starting my own agency. That's where I would be if I didn't own my companies, I'd be a CMO somewhere.

9:40That's my path. And I'm glad, I mean, you know, it's not easy running your own companies, but I'm glad I'm not in that sort of grinder because I know no matter how good it's, you know, Johnny come lately, how good of a job you do that first year. It's like CMOs average 10 years, like 18 months or something. It's like fast turnover and CEOs is usually not as fast, but I think you have this uncertainty combined with unrealistic expectations from boards and stockholders and everything else. And a lot of reaction to maybe their competitors, like if they start doing something different, like they want to be reactionary really quick to, oh, we're dated or we're not doing what we should be.

10:25But I do think the overall climate of the economy is playing an impact here. I don't know what you think, Chris. Yeah, I tend to agree with everything you said. And the only thing I would maybe add on top of that is technology is moving so fast now that I think you might even have a lapse of understanding. And when you said your father, I think of my dad and how adapt are they at understanding this new emerging AI and this type of stuff where it's not even a matter of how smart you are. It's like your brains just weren't ever introduced to this type of thing. It's a completely foreign concept.

10:59It's like teaching someone a foreign language. So that popped in my mind. but I think the main thing is like you said boards want to see numbers if you're not putting up numbers you're you're on the chopping block that's it and I think now like you said people want results faster than ever yeah I think you nailed it with the technology I think I'm going to talk maybe b2b more for a second than b2c but like the technology and the decision makers are younger and younger and younger, like on sales. And the founders. Yeah. And so they're used to this digital technology and the old way of selling doesn't work anymore.

11:45It's not personal as much. They're consuming content. So you have to feed the top of the funnel with content, interesting, informing because they're consuming the content without a salesman like selling it to them. Like they're consuming it when they're at the beginning of the buyer journey. And then you have to digitally, you're DMing. Hey, DMing on Instagram, DMing in LinkedIn and starting the dialogue there. And then self-serve channels, even for B2B in purchasing are getting higher. And I think the businesses that are embracing like the new reality that that is versus the old reality are thriving, but then the older CEOs that don't understand, hey, we just got to make some more calls today.

12:31We got to make some more calls today. And it's like, no, I mean, no one's answering the phone. No one. So I think that's where the age, it is the age, but I think it's a mindset thing. I've met some 60 year olds that know more about AI than I do. Yeah. So it's a mindset thing more than a I think an age thing. Yeah definitely you know beg the question for me when Chris was talking about technology and technology advancements in this average age of the CEO this is a question for you too what do you guys think about average age of U.S. presidents if they're regulating all the technology in the AI I feel like they would have to understand it.

13:14Great question. Yeah. No one's going to get on that. I think that the average, it should be like 65, like cut off. Now, maybe when I run for president, when I'm 66, I'll change my mind. But like, hold on. This is our problem. Ryan offered for president. There's a disconnect from the lawmakers and the actual population. Right. And that's a bunch of grandmas and grandpas voting on things that they don't understand. Right. And that's where probably companies like Facebook could get away with violating our privacy laws for a decade. Oh, they've taken advantage of the aging of the boards in Congress and Senate.

13:54You ever watch Zuckerberg or the CEO of Google get questioned by Congress? It's a joke. Yeah, it's a total joke. That's when you realize they have no idea what they're talking about. So how can they regulate it? Yeah. Well, speaking of politics, I wanted to kind of jump down to Vance and Walls had a debate last night. I was surprised, you know, it was a little bit heated at moments, but they were finding some common ground on some issues. It was surprisingly civil. They were getting along pretty well. They had quite a bit that they agreed on. Some key topics, I know that this is, you know, huge for the American people right now, paid family leave.

14:31So they both both supported that idea. Walls favored a federal mandate while Vance advocated for more kind of business choices, more flexible, bipartisan solution. They both acknowledged the severity of gun violence, especially among children and school shootings. You know, we recently had one in Georgia and they agreed on housing being way too expensive, uneconomical for a traditional family to continue to buy a home and be able to have home ownership. and then they interestingly they kind of went back and forth here on abortion rights so vance of course leaving the issue to the states agreeing with trump walls highlighting his whole stance on abortion very interesting though that they had quite a bit of common ground there what do you guys think i'll say this i mean i hate the lack of civility that we have in politics now and i don't care for Walls personally.

15:29I don't know why Vance gets such a bad rep. I think he's so well-spoken and I could get why he's kind of, he's kind of got that pretty frat boy look to him that I think annoy people. And I understand it. I get it. But the guy is intelligent and speaks very eloquently and knows his shit. And so, but I'll say this, the civility of it was refreshing and I don't have to love Donald Trump to vote for him. You know, love every tactic, every way. There's a lot of shit I don't like that he does. But I believe, I do believe in the heart of heart, he wants what's right for America. And he's standing up for what's right for America.

16:09So it's not, we don't keep it hidden on the show who I'm voting for. But I will say to give them both credit, the civility of it all was more of the way forward. That's the American way. Because I'll tell you this, America at war with each other is only good for everyone that's not America. So it ain't good for America to be at odds with one another to the level that we are. It's okay to disagree. And we can be passionate about that disagreement. But it's just not great for America to neighbors to be hating one another over blue or red. Yeah, 100%. Chris, your thoughts? Nailed it, Ryan. And I don't even need to say anything else.

16:52I mean, it's exactly how I feel. We need civility. We need real conversation. We need to mature. Have a mature adult conversation and debate. And my mind can be changed on things. It has changed on things. But it will never change in an emotionally charged, dramatic debate. And they almost know that. Yeah. and i don't think donald trump created that environment i think he's playing the ball field that i think got created some of it because of him and not but not by him the hatred for him and sort of the easy mark that he becomes for the lightning rod because he does that's a lot Stupid shit sometimes.

17:39I'm sorry. I love the guy. I respect him as a president and a freaking warrior for getting up for taking that bullet. He has my utmost respect, but I also don't have to love every approach. And so I do commend them for that civility. But ultimately, the policies for me are one side. But I can talk about it. And I'm not going to let my hatred or disdain for a candidate guy. This isn't the class election for the, you know, back to high school, you know, it was just popularity contest. Who's the president of the school? This is not a popularity contest. This is real policies that have real impact on dollars and cents and the cost of gas and the cost of everyday goods and the cost of running a business and the cost of trying to take care of your employees.

18:28So policies predict future outcomes and just go with your heart on your policies and not the popularity. Because I think that's what it's turned into. And the guys last night, it turned into it felt more about the policies. Yeah, definitely. I have here the debate displayed a notable shift towards a more issue oriented and respectful discourse despite lingering partisan disagreements. agreements. So I think we're on the right path there. And it always seems like in VP debates, they're a little bit milder, a little bit less dramatic. Always. But we can learn something from that whole exchange. And I mean, I think if you poll the average person, though, they want to see more of that than the lightning rod shit.

19:20You know that they do. You know they want to see more civility. If you ask anyone, everyone's fatigued from it. They don't want the mud slinging and the knife throwing at all times. It's not productive. A lot of the reason that ultimately I am independent. I vote the way I want based on policies and not red or blue. That's why I support Independence Center. They are an official sponsor of Right About Now. It's about independent thinking. It's about elevating the discussion in a civil way. I think the guys last night represented that. Go to independentcenter.org. We have the link in my bio and on the show notes to them.

20:03Sign up for the newsletter. You're going to get poll data, all kinds of stats and ways to have dialogue about policies and not parties. Check them out, independentcenter.org. We support them because we need to be thinking through the lens of what matters and not popularity contests. Business bombshells, you guys, we have to talk about this. So what is going on with the ports and the fact that we are facing on the heels of a hurricane, a global supply chain shutdown potential? so what we're facing is some corporate chaos so this is something I'm going to kind of bring to you guys when there is stuff going on in the world that is a little chaotic that's what I'm calling it corporate chaos so right now what we are having is the first strike in nearly 50 years by dock workers on the U.S.

21:01east coast so it's freezing trade routes from New York to Texas the ports are paralyzed shipments are delayed and businesses everywhere are starting to scramble I've seen it Oliver Social, have you guys seen it? I'll let Chris start on this one. Yeah, definitely. And I mean, the Port of Miami is right down the road of my house. I've seen videos of them protesting and whatnot. This is bad. This is really bad. You got a question. This has something to do with politics, right? The timing is suspect. I don't know. It's not a good situation. I mean, I can empathize with the port workers, right? But then you see these videos of these ports that are becoming fully automated.

21:43And it's like, at what point do you realize you got to find something else? Yeah. I hate to say that. That's the reality of the world we're living in. And we've talked about this a lot with AI taking jobs. And I saw another port worker in Los Angeles port put up a video while he's working, showing everything automated, saying this used to be a guy working this. This used to be a guy working this. so if i'm seeing that and i'm a port worker i'm saying oh shit i need to start to look for a new career path yeah gotta gain some new skills i hate to say that because i'm a fighter but right now you're not going to get the empathy of the american people as a union guy right now doing this shit i hate to say that but it looks to me like a lot of people are getting more angry at the union people because it's gonna obviously affect everyone's pocketbook oh yeah i mean tens of thousands of striking dock workers halting operations at ports causing significant economic disruption i've heard like hey prices at the supermarket are going to go sky high especially for things like produce cold items milk eggs meat it looks like biden proud of his pro-union stance refuses to intervene in the strike and calls on shipping companies to appropriately compensate workers who kept the ports running during the pandemic okay that's great but like Like you said, we're, what, 45 days ahead of the election right now?

23:05We have people in the Carolinas who haven't been able to get food for the last week. And now we're facing a port shutdown, which could cause the price of milk to skyrocket. It's like, where do the people, the American people, find relief? Ryan, what do you think? We also just had how many millions of men immigrants come in that if they needed, they could probably fill these jobs and pay less money. I hate to say that, but that's the reality of the situation, too, is like these blue collar jobs. They can be filled from other bodies. Yeah, that's where I was going to go is like, I mean, it's this dangerous part with union, the good and the bad with unions.

23:46Like, yeah, be careful. There's somebody that might do that job for you for less. I mean, it's a slippery slope. And I just think the whole inflation thing and the cost of goods is a very complex subject. And if we want to, like, give the administration that is there now a pass somehow, like, on no accountability for it, it's the reaction or non-reaction to things like this or the planning ahead on some level. because all of these things are adding up to higher costs of goods. And they're like, it's complex. It's not one thing. Well, how are we thinking ahead on this sort of thing? And what are we doing to turn it around so that the prices start to fall?

24:38I keep coming back to like, okay, why do I feel the way that I feel? It's this lack of accountability all the way around. and that brings me another question i'll bring it up yeah like but that the accountability of policies behaviors actions and inaction sometimes inaction is the unintended consequences of in action creates more issues than anything else and i think if i and that's sort of my biggest problem with like harris is like she's so wishy-washy on certain things she's played that You know that guy or that girl, that person that you know that sort of stays in the middle and falls down to the side that seems the most popular, like the last second or something.

25:28They never really take a stance. It's a lot of inaction until forced to have action. And that creates more trauma than anything else sometimes. We've played no offense. And like you said, and this is what bothers me, and this can be applied to the hurricane victims as well, right? We've got these union guys, very important part of our economy, keeping our ports open. They can't reach a deal with the government on the pay. But in the same week, we can send another care package with billions more money out of the United States that does not affect our economy at all, right? I don't know what kind of imports we're getting from Ukraine.

26:05I know we're exporting a lot of weapons. I don't know what we're gaining as an American consumer, but I know that they're quick to help Ukraine. But why are we not proactively thinking, oh, this contract is going to expire with our port workers unions, whatever, with landshoremen? And if this doesn't get done, it's going to affect every American and inflation is going to skyrocket. And you see videos today of people at Costco cleaning out water, cleaning out toilet paper. People, you're seeing the same crazy COVID stuff going on. But that's my question is we have so much aid money to every other country.

26:40We have hurricane people suffering right now because we can't get a federal mandate to get to relief money in there yet. Yeah. You know, it would seem to me every time the government's about to shut down the last minute, they approve a new spending package real quick. Why would we not already have that in place to keep our economy moving in such a vital part? It's really interesting, too, because I'll say this. it's always eye-opening to me, especially seeing these aid packages go out in the billions of dollars. And then when we have a devastating thing happen in the United States, whether it was the fires in Hawaii, right?

27:17Or this hurricane here in the Carolinas, just watching the world stage and watching nobody come to our rescue. How much is mainstream media covering the hurricanes compared to the wars overseas? Yeah. Not. Yeah, not the same. And it's like, yeah, they're going to get money for the hurricane victims, and that money will come. But it still hasn't changed the fact of what Chris is saying. It's like that money comes from somewhere. It's 100 different things that add up to why things cost more, why they're taxed more, why all this. and I wish we didn't have weather issues that created billion-dollar issues in the U.S.

27:59so that we could give away hundreds of billions of dollars, but we do. And where are we prioritizing? Because the net sum isn't just printing more money. It's coming from somewhere. We're either stealing from the future or we're borrowing from the past. and right now it feels like we're stealing from the future 100 well speaking of the middle east i do have that on the list of things to talk about today tensions are really high in the middle east again um and it's causing two things in the business world number one oil prices are going to surge up and number two bitcoin is down um so for this week middle east tension has sent oil prices soaring.

28:51So defense stocks are booming, but it's not all profits. Industries like airlines and manufacturing are bracing for impact. Ryan, how do you see this price spike hitting the global economy? And are we on the brink of another recession that we're already in? How are we going to handle that in addition to the port strike, in addition to the hurricane? Like, where are we going to be between now and November? I probably go a direction you wouldn't think we need to be pumping more oil where we live we have it here the pipelines should be more active than they are we've put such limitations on it here we don't need to be so dependent on the Middle East we've become less we don't really need to be dependent on them at all practically and it's that's let's start there because then you just have less pressure when this stuff starts to happen, right?