Good morning and welcome, welcome to Matt Nair on air, Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text the number is the same, 855-752-4842.
You can leave a comment as well.
If you're watching on the live stream, on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter, you may not have been expecting us.
But here we are, yes.
There's a little change.
It's a change, a big change.
Across the civic media radio network, Pat Critello, his expanded show from six to nine now.
Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.
And then we will be with you from nine until 11.
Taking over at 11 o'clock, the wonderful Tom Hartman from 11 to two.
Our friend and colleague, Todd Alba from two to four.
Great, Maggie Dawn.
from four to six, Pete Schwabba and Nightlight staying in their slot at six to eight PM.
Not everyone is going away.
Earl Ingram is going to be doing special reporting that is going to be all over the network and really drilling down into some deeper issues, including one that is on the front page of today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a judge in Milwaukee County being accused of helping an immigrant avoid ICE.
Oh, no.
The Earl is working on that.
So Earl's not going anywhere.
He is still a very important part of civic media, as are John and Gordy in Madison on WMDX.
And also Mino and the Mayor, which by the way, someone pointed out yesterday, I've been pronouncing it incorrectly.
It's Mino and the Mayor.
in Green Bay on WGBW.
And as will chat homes as well.
Chat homes will be in the same capacity as Earl doing special reporting projects and podcasts for civic media.
So
we're not going away.
You're just not going to hear them every day on the radio.
Just a couple of switches.
And we know change is hard and people like what they like, but we invite you to stay with us and listen to, I mean,
You were listening to us before.
Now it's just an hour earlier.
Just an hour earlier, exactly.
We do have a busy show today.
Coming up after the 9.30 news, we're going to talk economic nuts and bolts.
Oh, thank God.
This is something that Greg and I have been talking about for quite a while.
We are not experts.
No.
This is why we bring on people who are.
We are expert adjacent.
We're expert adjacent.
So Rick Reed is going to be joining us after the 9.30 news.
He's a professor of economics.
And again, just some basics.
which I need to learn more about.
Yes.
Bond market.
What is the bond market?
Trade deficits.
What does that mean?
All of those things, if you have a question, please send it in now to janesays at civicmedia.us, J-A-N-E-S-A-Y-S, janesays at civicmedia.us.
You can also text it in as well, and we will
Ask it.
Well, Rick Reed, when he joins us after 9 30, after the 10 o'clock news around 10, oh, six, he's from the Main Street Alliance.
He's been on the show numerous times.
Sean Fetterplace is going to be here.
We're going to be talking about tariffs and what he is hearing from the small business community in Wisconsin and their concerns about that.
Although overnight and even this morning now, there are rumors that President Trump is going to be backing off on these tariffs against China.
So the market is up.
Shocking.
Oh my gosh market is up.
Dao is above 40,000 right now.
Well, that's good.
That is good news So that's all coming up a little bit later on and then as we always do for the last half hour of this show We try to lighten things up a little bit and take a little break from the news so we can all catch a breath.
We call it audio Sorbet Cleansing for our ears Benny Affleck was
on the Today Show, I think it was yesterday, talking about his son and something that his young son wanted and dad said, yeah, no, not unless you buy it yourself.
So we wanna ask you, what was one thing you wanted so badly as a kid and your parents said you can have it if you work for it?
What was that thing?
And then we'll wrap it up as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing, today it is the next rounds on me.
That'll come your way around 1051, so I hope you can stick around for that.
Wanted to start off, though, with where we began yesterday.
As expected, the Wisconsin Senate did pass its bipartisan measure to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage.
Overwhelmingly, except for one.
Which is odd because it's a capenga.
He voted in favor of it last time.
And yesterday he voted no.
I'm not quite sure what that gets him.
Maybe there's a favor down the road somewhere we're unaware of.
Maybe that's
able to say like, hey, see, not everyone in the Senate agrees on it now.
I have
no clue what the reasoning is.
Yeah, Wisconsin Senate voted nearly unanimously yesterday, passing this bipartisan measure to extend Medicaid coverage for new moms to 12 months.
For a year.
Yep There are many things that can happen after a woman gives birth postpartum depression There could be other physical problems that pop up that are unexpected Not every pregnancy is just smooth sailing and not every post pregnancy is smooth sailing
Even the most smooth sailing pregnancy as dr. Lierly has told us comes with just the basic healing of the body
And what she has told us, and as what I remember, because this blew my mind, I'm a guy, so I don't know really much about it, is that a full healing of the body takes around a year for everything to get back to normal.
Just for your
hormones levels to get back to where they were.
And Jane, can you please remind the listening audience how many states have this expanded Medicaid in place right
now?
Every single one of them, except for Wisconsin.
Boo.
And Arkansas.
Dang.
And Arkansas is moving closer to this expansion of Medicaid for new moms.
So if this doesn't pass in the assembly, we'll be the only ones.
I mean, it's not even being brought up in the assembly.
He doesn't even want to talk about it.
Which
brings us to the popcorn king.
Popcorn king.
Popcorn king.
He has arrived.
He is in the chat Robin boss is the one who keeps killing this It's an expansion of welfare.
That's what Robin boss says.
It's a welfare expansion and I will never be in favor of welfare expansion So it again, it's highly likely it'll move to the assembly and that's where it will die again.
Yeah, thanks to Robin boss
and
Couple things, I am not for an expansion of welfare.
Okay, congratulations.
You know who's in, let's talk about what it actually is.
You know who is in favor of the expansion of this program.
Let's see, moms, dads, professionals, pro-lifers, pro-choicers,
clergy,
medical professionals, scientists, people who work in this field as far as data research, and your other Republican colleagues believe in this.
And you said something yesterday, and Pat repeated it today.
about the fact that Robin Voss is happy to stand in the front and take all the shots.
That's not something to be lauded.
To stand up in front of the world and say, I do not care about new moms and their babies, that's not something to be congratulated for.
You are, once again, as usually on the wrong side of the argument of this, and doesn't seem very...
quote unquote pro life to me.
Well,
it doesn't seem very pro family.
No, definitely doesn't seem very pro children.
No, no, I mean, well, I mean, if Robin had his way, the mom would be working a week after she has birth and the kid would be in the in the coal mines by age two.
The good old days, the good old days, good old days, when
everyone earned their keep.
Senate Minority Leader Diane Hisslebine, this by the way, from WPR said she's both happy and disheartened.
that they've had to take this up again, quote, we did this last session.
We gave it to the assembly and they sat on it and did nothing.
And during that time, women and babies have been hurt in the state of Wisconsin because they are not getting the care that they need, unquote.
Ahead of yesterday's vote, Robin Voss, Popcorn King asked if he would stop this from getting an assembly vote this session, quote,
My position has been fairly clear from the very beginning Robin says I've never Supported an expansion of welfare.
I can't imagine that I would ever support one But we have to talk about it as a caucus unquote isn't that cute?
I love that he is he likes us throws out there that they're gonna have a discussion about it
I Have I have two points to make what a question what a point
He is all about the expansion of welfare when it benefits corporate welfare.
Oh, that's all good.
He's
all about corporate welfare.
He loves corporate welfare.
So don't talk about welfare, friend.
Second of all, and this is a question, comment complaint to the sitting GOP in Madison right now.
When are you going to get off your cowardly duffs and do something about this guy?
He is one man.
and you can all work together.
I'm not saying you can do it today or even tomorrow, but how about over time, you work to make sure he's no longer the man in charge of your voice, because he's making you look like a bunch of idiots.
It just shows how much power one
person
has.
And that's really kind of disgusting and frightening.
I mean, I guess right now we're seeing it in NDC as well.
I mean, there's so much stuff happening there.
We could talk about what we only have two hours, but this notion that he should be able to hold the reins like this after so much time, it's
Maddening, and I can't imagine what it's like to be a GOP member in Madison who just wants to do the
work.
And wants to get something done.
Yeah, it's got to be immensely frustrating.
855-752-4842.
If you would like to join the discussion, Cindy from Appleton is on the line.
Good morning, Cindy.
What do you think about this?
Well, I guess Voss wants to emulate the felon.
That's all I can figure out.
But you guys pretty much stole my thunder.
Sorry.
Voss has no problem with...
Corporate welfare, that seems to be one of his better things, he can get done.
And he's supposedly a man of family values.
We're in the age, does he get off talking about family values when he has no flip and clue what they even are?
You gotta wonder, and to Cindy, I think what is so frustrating again is that this is bipartisan legislation.
We had both Republicans and Democrats who have sponsored this, including Senate President Mary Felskowski, a Republican who thanked her colleagues for saying yes to the legislation.
She says sometimes it takes more than one term to get a bill done.
Sometimes it takes two or three, sometimes it takes four.
We'll get the assembly there sometime, hopefully in the next century, I guess.
I'm getting Lisa Murkowski vibes right now of like, we can do it right.
And every time they're taking the heat, Robin Voss is Lucy and the Republicans are Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.
Every time he takes it away from them.
Thank you, Cindy.
Appreciate it.
Jim from Brookfield is up next.
Good morning, Jim.
What do you want to say about this?
Good morning.
I say if there ever was a case that fair maps are needed, not gerrymandered maps, this is it.
And we are making headway to having the assembly more balanced.
And hopefully at some point, and we can all have a party, the other Democratic party will be in power at some point.
And Mr. Voss will no longer be the speaker and be able to pull such ridiculous stunts.
I mean, come on, calling this welfare really.
So anyway, I encourage people to really push for a fair map, get out and vote.
So we have a different party in charge for a change.
And the system is not made for one man to be in power this long, more than a decade.
It all goes back to Scott Walker 2010, when they strictly gerrymandered those districts with
precision cost us as taxpayers millions of dollars to that law firm to come up so precise.
One person should not be in power that long.
As soon as he's out, we have to throw a big party.
I appreciate it.
We'll have it at your house.
I'll bring the popcorn.
That sounds good.
It'll be we'll all bring a dish to pass.
It'll be fine.
They love children, except for these next things.
We're going to kick around.
Stay with us.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good, good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt and air on air.
Jane, Matt and air Greg box, sweet Calbee on the board coming to you from our studio here at radio park in Racine.
You can always join us.
You can call you can text the number is the same 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter if you would like.
Civic media is daily.
News around a podcast, which I highly encourage you to do.
All you have to do is sign up, go to civicmedia.com, find your local Civic Media station website, click in the banner on the top, and go to your local news roundup podcast.
In Madison, you would do that at wmdx.radio.
Here in Racine, Milwaukee, waukradio.com.
in Wisconsin Rapids, WFHR.com.
Our news team is expanding.
They're
all over the state.
And what we're doing is very much curating news to depending upon where you live.
So sign up for the Daily News Roundup Podcast.
It'll come right to you.
And it's pretty great.
Right before we went to the break, we were talking about
It's like deja vu.
Every time.
It is.
It's like deja vu.
Wisconsin Senate passes bipartisan measure to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage.
The vote was overwhelming, except for one holdout, Chris Capenga, not quite sure what that happened.
It was 32 to one.
Now, of course, it moves over to the assembly, where Robin Voss, the speaker, is highly expected to just not bring it to the floor and let it die there.
Yeah.
As he always does.
Helping out Wisconsin families.
Thanks a lot Robin.
You're doing the hard work.
Jake from Madison texting in on WXCO.
Don't let the GOP assembly members off the hook.
They could give Robin Vos the boot as speaker and get this bill through at any time.
All of them are guilty if this does not move forward.
You're
not wrong.
You're not wrong, Jake.
And that's what I said earlier.
Get off your cowardice doves and do something.
Stand up
for something.
Come on.
Stand up for it.
Seriously, you'd be standing up for families in Wisconsin.
No one would fault you on this.
You wouldn't think so.
There will always be some detractors.
There will.
Yeah, absolutely.
And yeah, it's just
despicable behavior.
Are
we just such delicate snowflakes?
Apparently they are because they don't want to hold any town halls where people are not necessarily happy with them.
Carol, listening to WAUK sent a very nice text as well.
Good morning, Jane and Greg.
Best of luck in your new time slot.
Love your show and thanks for your hard work.
Well, thank you very much, Carol.
We appreciate you listening.
Absolutely very much.
I did want to continue talking a little bit before we go to the news at the bottom of the hour about how much the GOP loves children because they're the party of family values and they want more babies in this country.
Women should start having many, many, many more children.
Yes.
There's actually
And we're not going to have a lot of time to delve into this right now.
They're talking about giving an award.
Oh, really?
For women who have the most children.
Really?
Yes.
Tell me
more about this,
Jane.
I really would like to
know more about this.
Well,
that's getting kicked around in the background.
But right now I want to focus on what the Republican Party under Donald Trump is doing for our children.
For example, this is from ProPublica, the staff of a program which helps millions of poor families keep electricity on.
have all been fired, the federal office overseeing the enforcement of child support payments has been hollowed out, Head Start preschools, which teach toddlers ABCs, is going to be forced to shut down and mess some as soon as the 1st of May, and the funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against kids, responding to reports of missing children and preventing youth violence, those have all been withdrawn
indefinitely.
But they love kids and we should all have more kids.
The administration has laid off thousands of workers who supervised education, childcare, child support, child protective services, and has blocked or delayed billions of dollars in funding for school meals and school safety.
This is another one of those situations where I want to talk to specifically to our
non-fans, the people who listen to us yet disagree vehemently with us, I would like you to tell me why this makes sense.
I've seen so many people out there who love Donald Trump, who then in the same breath will talk about the dangers and horrors of child abuse, sex trafficking, pedophilia, all of those things.
And how, and honestly, I agree.
They're all bad things.
These are bad things.
Children should be protected.
Children should be loved.
Children should be raised and educated.
And nurtured.
And nurtured and all those things.
We are in agreement with that.
But where it always seems to stop is when he does something to change the situation like this right now.
We're basically saying there's gonna be no mechanism to investigate possible crimes, people.
It's gone.
Head Start programs,
What did you say?
They were defunded or they were?
Many of them are expected to close as soon as May 1st.
Yeah, so tell me how this helps and tell me what we need to do now instead to help love, protect, and take care of our kids.
Bruce Leslie is the president of the group Focus First on Children.
He says everyone's been talking about what the administration and Doge have been doing.
No one seems to be talking about how in so many ways they are assaulting our kids.
referring to Trump's goal of closing down the Department of Education.
Already about 2,000 staffers have lost or left those jobs.
I don't see why I don't understand why this is a good thing.
Neither do I. I don't understand how this is helpful and I don't understand how this backs up.
their claim on how much they love women and how much they love children, and they don't understand why women don't want to have more kids.
Well, they love women as long as you do exactly what they tell you to do.
We have news coming up next, and then when we return, we're going to talk about economic nuts and bolts with Professor Rick Reed.
Stay with us.
You are listening to Matt Nair on Air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Good morning and welcome to Matt and Air.
On air, Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach and the Calvinator on the board.
Coming to you from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine, you can always join us.
You can call or text the number is the same, 855-752.
4842, leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
After the 10 o'clock news, we're going to talk to Sean Fetaplace from Main Street Alliance and talk about small businesses in Wisconsin, which really are the backbone of the economy and Wisconsin small businesses, at least in my estimation, we'll ask Sean about this, but they really helped us weather COVID.
So we're going to talk to Sean Fetaplace about the Trump tariffs.
And what he is hearing from small businesses around the state, if you would like to chime in, please join us after the 10 o'clock news to talk about that.
Right now, though, we've been planning on doing this for quite a while, took us a little time to find the right person, and we finally did.
He is an economics professor with Fox Valley Technical College.
Professor Rick Reed is here.
Good morning, Professor Reed.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
We are wonderful.
Thank you so very much for joining us.
As we always say on our show, we are not experts.
We are expert adjacent, which is why we bring in people like you to explain things.
I think, you know, we hear all these economic terms, Professor Reed kicked around.
And I know in some circumstances, I just kind of nod my head and go, uh-huh, uh-huh.
And I have no idea what they're talking about.
So if anybody has a question, some basic econ questions, here's your chance to get them answered at 855-752-4842 or leave a comment on the live stream.
You can also shoot us an email at janesaysatcivicmedia.us.
One of the first things I wanted to ask you, Professor Reed, is about treasury bonds.
It was either last week or the week before that there was a lot of turmoil among the bond market.
Can you explain first and foremost, what is a bond?
What does it do?
You bet.
A bond is basically a debt instrument.
We hear a lot about the nation's debt and deficit.
The bonds are the way the
that a country like the United States borrows money from people willing to lend it.
So when we talk about the national debt, for the most part, we're talking about how many treasury bonds, bills, and notes we have extended.
And basically what the government does is it writes an IOU and sells it to someone who's got money to lend.
So I could do this as an individual.
I can invest in a bond market and essentially the government is taking out a loan from me.
Right, absolutely.
And countries around the world use that vehicle to generate funds.
And other countries can also buy our bonds, is that correct?
Absolutely, and we buy theirs too.
So when...
When this happened either last week or the week before, I forget, forgive me.
This distress over the bond market, what did that signify?
Well, I think there are a lot of people that are scratching their heads on that right now.
One of the things that you expect with a U.S.
Treasury bond.
We want to step back for a second and recognize that the US is a little bit different than many other countries in that the US Treasury bond has never defaulted.
So when you lend the US government money,
it's kind
of a sure bet, right?
It's about as close as you can get to a sure bet.
You're going to get your money back.
It's not like somebody's going to take your money and run.
So for that reason,
the US Treasuries historically have had an extremely low interest rate, right?
Because it's very low risk, right?
So when you think about that in contrast to other investments, if you have a retirement fund to 401K, whatever, you probably have a mix of some bonds, stocks, maybe some corporate bonds and some other instruments.
But when you're buying US Treasury bonds,
that's really kind of your, that's almost cash in terms of certainty of being able to access it and knowing that it's going to be there and hold its value, right?
So the other thing that that does is because it's a low interest rate and effectively because it's so secure and so reliable, it ends up establishing a floor for interest rates for other things, car loans, mortgages, everything in our
in our world.
So with that kind of a backdrop, we're taking a very low risk instrument that's very reliable.
It's never had a default.
And now, as a result of things that have been going on in the news, the market has basically communicated that investors are starting to pull away from the US Treasury
bond, right?
So when you buy a bond, you get, you get paid interest semi-annually.
And by the way, when we talk about a bond, there's a lot of different categories, a lot of different denominations and durations.
It
ranges anywhere from three months to 30 years.
It's like a CD does, right?
So you're an investor for so many months, for a certain length of time.
Right, right, right.
And so you buy it and it has a stated rate of interest and you get paid that.
Now, when the investors aren't quite as interested in lending money to the government, for whatever reason, a variety of different reasons, what ends up happening is the selling price of the Treasury bond moves down to be able to provide the investor with a higher rate of return.
known as a yield.
So what you've heard a lot about is yield rates on bonds.
And that basically is the interest rate plus the difference in selling price that you would normally expect for that bond.
So when the yield rates go up, the yield rates go up, the price of buying a bond has fallen.
It's cheaper.
And what that tends to signify is that investors
need that little extra incentive to be able to buy it.
They're not as
interested.
Does that indicate less confidence that the government is going to be good for this?
Well, that's a good question.
With standard economics answer, it depends.
So it could be that.
It could be general.
uncertainty in the marketplace.
It may not be so much that the government's not good for it as much as the variety of events that are happening all at once are happening and in a way that creates a great deal of uncertainty and unreliability.
So again, getting back to the idea of why you buy a bond, you buy the bond for certainty.
you know you're going to get paid, you know what you're going to get for an interest rate, there's really no question that you're you know it's it's kind of a certain thing.
When that starts to move up and down in terms of a yield rate that's kind of a signal that the market is is not quite as certain about the value of the bond anymore and or the future direction of the economy overall.
So it's, it can be an indirect measure of consumer confidence.
If you're just joining us, we're talking economic nuts and bolts with economics instructor, Rick Reed from the Fox Valley Technical College.
So Rick, one of the things we were talking about last year was looking at the economy as far as like, you know, all of the, the economic indicator.
So everything showed that we could see that the economy was doing well.
you know, the jobs were up, the markets were up, interest rates were state, you know, we weren't seeing anything that was showing huge problems.
But of course that didn't, it didn't translate to a lot of people because, you know, they don't care about the Dow Jones, they don't care about how many jobs were added, they care about the food they're buying, they care about the gas they're putting in their car and interest rates on their homes and things of that nature.
The question I have is for those who are interested in this topic,
What are the indicators they can look at to give them a better idea of how the country is going economically forward?
Like, what are the things that they need to look at to just get a basic idea and understanding so they can say, oh, yes, egg prices.
I'm just going to use egg prices because we weaponized eggs in this country.
Egg prices have gone up.
But I also know that the Dow Jones is at like 45,000.
this week, so I know that businesses are doing that.
What are the economic indicators they can look at to see where we are as a collective country as a macro look?
Yeah, there's a couple of different ones.
And you make a really good point.
Last year, we had a situation where people weren't feeling that the economy was as good as it really was.
We had a really low inflation rate.
It had been coming down.
We had
We have full employment still.
But oftentimes, there's what economists call a time lag so that when things change, it takes a while for it to be felt by you and me
and
everybody else.
So when prices are coming down, that's great.
we remember them being higher, and oh by the way, when they were higher, our wages didn't go up quite as fast.
Wages always lag behind prices, right?
So the price goes up, our wage is going to be later to arrive at the show.
So I guess one thing that I would look at is the CPI, that's just a real easy figure to look at, consumer price index.
you know, what do you expect for inflation?
The Federal Reserve has targeted two-ish percent, two to two and a
half
percent.
And so if that's close to two and a half percent, that's good.
Unemployment, if the unemployment rate is somewhere between four and five percent, that's normal.
That's what we would expect.
That four to five percent, generally speaking, are people that are leaving a job voluntarily to find a different job or because they've got a different job lined up.
So that's another good indicator.
And frankly, I think an easy indicator to look at is to look at the Dow Jones average and to see what that's doing in the S&P and see where they're trending.
I do feel like there's a disconnect, though, between folks.
When you look at the Dow, it's like, well, great.
Again, very wealthy people and people who can afford to be day traders and all that, they're doing great.
But what does that mean for me if I'm just a regular Joe?
Right, right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
You mentioned the debt, and one of the things that comes up with the debt is that if the yield rates are rising, what that means is that the government is having to pay a higher interest rate now on the debt that it accumulates.
So think about your own household.
If you get the statement from whatever department store that you work with and the credit card rate is going up by
two or three percent, you panic and you kind of go, oh my gosh, I owe a thousand dollars on that thing.
Now I'm going to owe that much more in the monthly payment.
It's that multiplied by several fold when you're dead is $37 trillion.
Yeah.
That's a lot.
That's a lot.
It's a similar reaction, only much bigger.
Yeah.
Um, well, we have to go to break, but I do have a question.
I want to go back to with a question when we come back.
about inflation and the number itself, because that one is a sticky point.
It's used once again as a weaponization of the economy to get people happy or very mad.
We're going to continue our conversation with economics.
Professor Rick Reed is here.
If you have a question, 855-752-4842, you can leave it on the live stream as well.
We'll be right back.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach and Calviente on the board coming to you from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
We are talking economic nuts and bolts.
And we've been trying to do this for a long time.
Really delighted to have with us economics instructor Rick Reed from the Fox Valley Technical College.
And Greg, you had kind of a follow up to a question we had right before the break.
Yeah.
Before the break, you were talking about the economic indicators.
And one of the things you brought up was what to see inflation as, as far as the percentage number.
And if you said about two and a two and a half percent, but we see
politicians on both sides of all politicians wanting to talk about getting rid of inflation, knocking it out, being done with it.
But there is a cost that comes with 0% inflation, correct?
Oh, absolutely.
Can you speak on that?
Oh, sure.
Okay, so let's go back and talk a little bit about what we mean by inflation.
And when we define inflation, what we're really talking about is the overall level of prices and wages are rising.
Okay, that doesn't mean one particular price or one particular wage.
We're talking about the market basket of wages and prices over time.
Generally speaking, economists agree that there needs to be some modest upward movement in terms of the prices and wages over time.
It doesn't need to be very big, but just a little bit, right, to allow for growth and expansion, etc.
When you get to zero, the risk you run is that you start to fall negative.
Zero is not necessarily in and of itself bad, but it's a really specific number and it's really hard to fall off.
And think about sitting on the edge of a fence.
You don't want to fall on the wrong side of the fence.
If you go below zero, if you start to see falling prices, you necessarily will see falling wages, right?
Because your employer all of a sudden
is taking in fewer dollars.
Each dollar is worth more.
And therefore, when you get your paycheck, it's likely to be trending downward.
And the employer shrugs their shoulder and says, yeah, but the dollars are worth more.
It buys more.
So you're OK.
You don't feel OK.
So when we talk about falling into a recession or depression,
That's one of the characteristics that you're running into is the overall decline in prices and wages.
We have a question from someone on the text line.
John from West Bend said, please ask Professor Reed about the claim that the government has borrowed from social security and never paid it back.
It's my understanding that social security buys US bonds and then uses the proceeds to fund social security per US
law.
That's an interesting question.
The thing is that if you buy a treasury bond, you could very well roll it over, you know, sell it at the end of the maturity date and buy a new bond.
Okay, so from that perspective, if that's what Social Security is doing, then Social Security in effect is continuing to borrow money or lend money to the federal government.
And that's certainly
a possibility.
And just like any other investor in a Treasury bond, the interest rate or yield that comes off of that investment is revenue, income, and it can be spent any way it wants.
But I think one of the things that is maybe a little bit implied in the way that was worded is that the U.S.
government is
declining to make Social Security whole.
Social Security is, in this case, borrowing money.
It does so like any other investor, borrows it at its will.
Thank you.
We have one more question, and we've got about two and a half minutes left, Professor Reed.
Are rich people the only ones who buy bonds?
Well,
if you think it trends towards that because it's you know let's face it bonds are pretty expensive they you know I think you can buy a hundred dollar bond you certainly can buy a thousand dollar bond and then it goes up from there pretty significant numbers
Institutions are more likely to buy bonds and by institution.
I mean the company you work for the Investment house if you have a if you're lucky enough to have a 401k or an IRA There's a good chance that one of the funds that's one or more of the funds that you're investing in Includes some treasury purchases.
So it's something that you don't necessarily even
know a
lot to necessarily.
Yeah, you know, I'm sure it's in the fine print somewhere in the disclosure agreement, but
So those are typical investors, and yes, it could be wealthy people as well.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
If you have a question for Professor Rick Reed, we're talking economic nuts and bolts.
David from San Francisco has been patient.
We don't have a whole lot of time, David, if you can make it quick, please.
Oh, yeah, I was just gonna give a post of this on your Facebook show.
Bonds are fixing our stuff.
You know, we've got library bonds, sewer bond issues, whatnot.
And Trump is known as a slumlord, and a slumlord is not reliable for maintaining maintenance on property.
So what I just posted on the Facebook page, he wants to cut off sewer repairs in Alabama because he calls them DEI.
I appreciate it, David.
Again, we don't have a whole lot of time, and we're trying to keep this...
Non-political.
More educational.
More educational.
And again, the economic nuts and bolts so we can all understand what's going on.
We are out of time.
We got a minute left.
Professor Rick Reed, economics instructor at the Fox Valley Technical College.
We would love to have you back.
There's so much more to talk about.
Really appreciate your time, Professor.
Thank you so very much.
You're very welcome.
Thank you for having me up.
News is coming up next.
Stay with us.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt and air on air.
Jane, Matt and air and Greg Bach, Kevin butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at radio park in Racine.
You can always join us call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
He is with the Main Street Alliance.
Delighted to have him back on the show.
Sean Feta place.
is here to talk about small businesses in Wisconsin.
Good morning, Sean.
How you doing?
Good.
How you doing, Jane?
Excellent.
Thank you for joining us.
I am curious as to what you have been hearing from Wisconsin small businesses, and we've said this a lot, that small businesses in Wisconsin really helped the state weather the after effects of COVID because Governor Evers spent a lot of a lot of attention
at propping up our small businesses.
And now they're dealing with all these threats of tariffs.
So I'm curious what you're hearing from your members in the Main Street Alliance.
Yeah, so I mean to take a 30,000 foot view for just one second There's a Gallup poll that came out.
I believe it was yesterday That's consumer confidence worse than either COVID or the 2008 financial crisis It is real bad and what I've been comparing the tariffs to would be a bit like
getting COVID, but you injected it into your own arm.
Because, you know, realistically speaking, this is a huge own goal.
And there's a reasonable use of tariffs for national security reasons for industrial policy reasons.
And there's legitimate abuse of our, you know, especially from China on like intellectual property and things like that.
This is not dealing with that properly.
And I actually am here in lovely La Crosse, Wisconsin, we had a
Roundtable last night with Carson Mark Pocan.
We invited president of Derek Van Orden.
There was over 300 people there.
And tariffs came up a whole lot.
I'm currently drinking a Wednesday coffee from Root Note, which is a coffee shop right downtown.
They're members of MSA.
And those businesses have very tight margins.
And it's very difficult for them to pass on those costs to the consumer.
So what I'm hearing is both there's a lot of uncertainty.
and B supply chains are starting to break down.
And it could get real bad.
That's interesting that you say that because this I just pulled up from CNBC.
Chinese freight ship traffic to the busiest U.S.
ports see steep drops.
And I saw another headline this morning that essentially said that shipping containers now are coming in empty because of these tariffs.
And I would imagine that a lot of our small businesses
rely on cheap products from
China.
Awesome business owner in Minnesota named Beth Benikey.
If any of your listeners not to plug a competitor, but the New York Times, the Daily had her on last week.
She has a business where they produce baby products and it's literally impossible to get the kinds of plastics and the kinds of products necessary in the U.S.
And she's currently facing 145 percent tariff.
Oh my God.
Yeah, and what a lot of folks are hearing is, you know, they're talking to their suppliers and their suppliers aren't just saying, we're going to raise your costs.
They're saying we're just not going to sell to Americans because the risk is too high that the tariffs might change.
And you don't know what the tariff rate will be by the time you actually produce the product and sell it to the American business.
And so now there's almost like a soft embargo.
And, you know, there's some marginally encouraging signs this morning from Besson and others, but.
I'll be honest with you.
They didn't need to move.
They needed to move quick.
Otherwise, this is going to be catastrophic.
Well, and to what happened with Scott Bassett this morning, President Trump yesterday was all about implying that he was going to fire Jerome Powell, who is the head of the Federal Reserve.
He has since backed off on that almost completely and done a turnaround on that.
And now I saw also this morning that he wants to make a deal with China and that he's going to back off on these
125 percent, 145 percent tariffs.
Whether or not that's going to happen, we'll have to wait and see.
But that's what I saw crossing on some of the new sites this morning.
But that's really disturbing what you said as far as suppliers saying, essentially, we can't trust your government.
If I make a deal with you today for something to be delivered in two months, I can't trust that
This deal is still gonna be in place by the time I ship things to you.
That's right, and it's...
I think especially concerning because, you know, Trump likes to say the other countries have taken advantage of us.
There are some abuses.
But if you look at kind of like the broader economic system we have, you know, the dollar has been the reserve currency for a long time.
You know, folks buy our bonds and that helps to make investments in things that we all need.
You know, we benefit a lot from trade.
And, you know, the thing that's interesting is that Trump seems to have this idea that if somebody buys
Um, less stuff from us than we buy from them that that's like stealing.
But I've heard kind of a funny remark, which is, uh, if like you're a YouTuber, let's say, and you go and buy coffee, but that person who sold you the coffee doesn't watch your YouTube channel.
That doesn't mean they are stealing from you.
It just means that you had a product that you wanted.
and gave you something, it fulfilled a need, right?
And so having a trade imbalance on its own is not necessarily a negative.
There needs to be, you know, obviously some steps taken to make sure we remain competitive as a country, but it really is misguided to think as, you know, trade balance is being a zero sum game.
And that's something, Sean, that's really, for me, has been a point of confusion as far as hearing the rhetoric.
when the president and everyone who supports him says we are getting screwed over, we are being cheated and robbed, and they're making it seem like all these countries have us over a barrel, when really I know that's probably not the case.
You as a business owner, you as someone from Main Street Alliance, how do you approach that conversation and say, let me tell you, and you started it right there, but like that talking about trade imbalance, because of course it's gonna be a nuanced discussion, how do you,
approach the nuanced discussion of trading balance to possibly make someone go, oh, it's not as bad as I thought it was.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't think the thing that business owners, if they feel comfortable doing this should do is tell folks how much is it going to increase costs?
Like how much is it going to increase costs?
Um, you know, for example, I know a TJ from understate's been talking a lot about this and his costs are going up by $300,000 a year.
Um, and.
Yeah, and that's not uncommon.
I heard of another member, Molly Mounetzel, who's out in Seattle, Washington.
She has Molly Moun's ice cream, which I haven't tried yet.
I would like to get at some point, but I have had the sprinkle.
She gave it as a gift to my son.
But she, it's 400K for her.
And this is like, that's literally the profit margin.
So they become all of a sudden unprofitable.
And so I think it's like making sure people understand that.
And then what's a very basic thing to say, which is.
If you're going to do these tariffs, you have to phase them in because you cannot build a new factory in two weeks.
And
just that very basic point needs to be made because it's on its faces, pretty common sense, but it bears repeating that that is part of the reason why this is so unworkable.
If you're just joining us, Sean Fenn of Place is here with Main Street Alliance just talking about what he's hearing from their various members around the state.
And I'm glad you brought that up too as well, Sean, regarding the, the, the bringing back of manufacturing in the United States.
We had James Vanderloo, who's the head of OEC Milwaukee on the show.
And I just want to paraphrase something he said with us earlier when we had him on the show, I believe on Friday, was that it'd be great to be manufacturing back to America.
There are some situations where it can happen, but in the best version of that, it's going to take about two years
in a
height.
Everything
goes.
Yeah,
we're
talking the best situation in the darkest timeline.
If there's, if it's high tech and it needs a lot of work, you're talking five plus years.
So this notion of, you know, tariffs now to stoke the fire of manufacturing in America, boom, we've got manufacturing.
That's not how it works.
It's, it's, it's, it, as you said, if we're going to do tariffs, we got to introduce them over time.
We have to take our time, do our research and do it, you know,
strategically,
surgically, surgically, and
with, with, with strategically, I almost said strategically, seriously.
Oh my God.
Okay.
John, are you still with us?
I am.
I went off video because my signal wasn't being the greatest, greatest, but
Yeah, I mean, it really is, you know, and generally speaking, we think that these kinds of terraces, if you face them, that aren't the solution.
But this is like the worst of all worlds.
And, you know, you look at, I think it was the Wisconsin Policy Forum, put out a report recently that showed our exports in Wisconsin were already declining.
And I'm here in La Crosse, which is a beautiful town, but if you just go south of me, you know, there's a lot of farms or game valleys based there.
There's a lot of small family farms in this part of the state.
And, you know, what Trump has talked about doing is, you know, he's imposing these tariffs, which are greatly hurting the farmers export opportunities.
And then they're going to bail them out with other money.
And it's like, well, if you have to bail them out, doesn't that mean it's hurting them?
And he did this in the first administration too.
And the other thing that's really a problem with a lot of this and how it's been implemented is, you have Secretary Besant last night or yesterday, he had like a closed door meeting with I think JP Morgan.
There was a series of bankers that he was meeting with, not public information, it leaked, but he's sharing private information with these folks.
you had multiple cases where as decisions were being made, it was very clear that information got out.
I don't know to who, but there was a lot of front running of those announcements and insider trading that was taking place.
And if you're the Apple CEO, you should not be getting special treatment over a local small business owner.
Unfortunately, that local small business owner wasn't able to donate a million dollars to the Inauguration Fund.
Otherwise, they might get a special car vote.
I understand that that has happened with some big, big, big businesses and subsequently Trump donors.
I think also it's, you know, I totally agree with you, Sean.
It's funny though that like they shouldn't be allowed to get insider information, but the people who had stopped us from happening are the same people who are also benefiting from insider information and making their own wealth in our own government.
So it seems like once again, Main Street, USA, hardworking folks, we're just sitting here waiting for the next shoe to drop and having to deal with it because
the ones in charge think they know better when I mean if you said you said it right on your on your on the screen on our live stream and tariffs now because it's really really affecting what you and I mean a $300,000 price increase
that's just joking and the other thing too Sean that that really stuck stuck out with me there are some things no matter
What we do with infrastructure, no matter what we do to support bringing back manufacturing, there are some things we cannot make here.
There are some things we cannot grow here like coffee.
That's right.
And this whole situation is creating some very odd bedfellows.
I've been talking to the Cato Institute and National Review and folks who I would not have anything in common with other than this particular issue.
And Cato actually came out with an analysis that showed that 80% of Americans wanted manufacturing to come back to the US, but only 20% of those people were willing to work.
in manufacturing.
And so it's like, you know, we need to make sure we have a smart policy and our leaders are doing what's best for the country and not just following, you know, the next strong wind.
We're going to continue our conversation with Sean Fetaplace from Main Street Alliance.
Stay with us.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air coming to you across the vast statewide countrywide.
You can get us in New Zealand if you have the app.
Civic Media Radio Network.
Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt and air on air.
Jane that near Greg Bach and our resident young person Kelvin on the board coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
Join us call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment.
If you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter coming up after the 1030 news as we always do, we'll lighten things up a little bit with a segment we call Audio Sorbet.
Little cleansing for our ears from all the politics and the heavier things.
We try and lighten it up so we can all take a collective breath.
After the 1030 news, we're going to talk about what did you really, really, really want as a kid?
And your parents said,
Either you work for it or you're not getting it.
This relates to something that movie star and really wealthy person Ben Affleck, a discussion he had with his, I think he's 12, his 12 year old son about a pair of shoes.
But that is coming up after the 1030 news.
I hope you will join us.
We are joined right now by Sean Fetaplace from Main Street Alliance and we're talking about tariffs and what he's hearing from their members across Wisconsin.
Small businesses.
Greg, you had a question.
Uh, yeah.
So one of the things, uh, Sean, that you, uh, you sent to me in our email conversation was a Twitter link of a town hall.
You mentioned it earlier before that you just had a town hall last in over 300 people, uh, representative Mark Pocan, who loves town halls, loves talking to the people was there.
But unfortunately there was one person who wasn't there.
Can you tell us more about it?
Yeah, so representative Derek van Orden represents the third congressional district and he's been in there for two cycles now I believe after Congressman Ron kind who the full disclosure I used to work for years ago Yeah, you know retired and Derek is an interesting dude if you look at his Twitter feed Seems like he has a whole lot of time to comment on things and versus doing his job and showing up
to a town hall to hear from his constituents.
He received an invite quite some time ago to this town hall.
We really did want for him to be there to hear from folks in his district about tariffs, about concerns about Medicaid cuts, Head Start, things to that effect.
And unfortunately, he said no.
He is holding a virtual town hall today, you know, good for him, I guess, you know, where they can vet the questions
and
where they can,
you know,
essentially.
Yeah, it's honestly a bit like doing theater.
It's all pre-orchestrated and pre-planned.
It really is unfortunate because it has become a general trend where members of Congress do not hold town halls.
I think it's really unfortunate because ultimately these folks work for us.
act accordingly.
So, you know, we're going to keep on him.
We're going to keep inviting him.
But I was encouraged.
We had over 300 folks there yesterday here on La Crosse.
Had a huge turnout.
Senator Bernie Sanders did join via phone for a little bit.
I was
responsible for Pat.
I was responsible for patching him in, which was mildly stressful at
the time, but it
worked out.
But yeah, and Mark has been great.
He's been getting out there.
And I know that he wants to make sure people have a voice.
regardless of whether or not the member of Congress wants to show up.
Just out of curiosity, because Elon Musk just said this yesterday that all the people who were showing up at these town halls are all getting paid, Sean.
So did everyone show you their checks from George Soros?
I'm just curious.
No, and I mean, that's pretty rich coming from a guy who literally gave blown up checks.
Uh,
two folks,
uh, take her some to vote and violated state law.
Um, so I, no, I mean, like, actually Mark last night, he asked folks, where are you from?
Uh, did you get paid by Georgia to be here?
And the answer was, it was a strong no.
And so it's absolutely ridiculous.
And it's just, you know, it's deflection.
They can't handle the fact that Trump's approval rating is dropping like a rock right now, especially on the economy.
So they want to make up any kind of excuse.
But ultimately, these are regular people who want to make their voice heard in the third congressional district.
Well, and I guess I have to say the one thing that I find endlessly amusing is that Derek Van Orden presents himself as this tough former Navy SEAL.
He's a fighter.
He's, you know, he's a he's a manly man.
Yeah.
But not when it comes to actually facing the people who he is supposed to be representing.
And let's not forget, too, that Derek Van Orden
represents a whole bunch of farmers.
Yes, he's on the Ag Committee.
He's on the Ag Committee, which is still, if I am correct, sitting on that farm
bill.
Yeah, yeah.
No, not happening right now.
And he also, and this is just something we've seen from video.
has a problem when authority confronts him.
So
I don't know,
Sean, I do not know how he would have reacted to 300 people being unhappy with him or even asking him questions.
So I don't know.
I don't want to say it's good.
He didn't show up, but that would have been because I've seen so many videos of politicians who are just getting yelled at, but she's who have the live stream.
referring to how you described it, Mr. Van Norton, she said, interesting dude, so unnecessarily polite, Sean, so unnecessarily polite.
Yeah, well, you know, I mean, I want him to show up to
watch these.
Yes, of course.
And I want him to hear from the voters.
And I think ultimately, and we worked with some other great organizations, Opportunity Wisconsin, you know, folks working on healthcare and other issues.
And it was really great to work collaboratively to do this.
I know there was a similar event up
Claire, a bit ago, a representative of Spokane was in Veroqua, not all that long ago.
And so, you know, definitely making our way all across, you know, the third congressional district, which has, it's been a little bit since I thought about it, but I think it has about 19 counties, very widespread.
And you know, when it comes to, you know, farmers, which you spoke to, you know, if you look at the, you know,
Derek Van Orden voted for the budget resolution recently that instructed the Ways and Means Committee, or sorry, the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $800 billion to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy.
Yeah.
And the only way to do that is to massively cut Medicaid.
Sean,
we gotta go.
We're just up against the clock.
Sean Fetaplace with the Main Street Alliance has been our guest.
Really appreciate your time, Sean.
We will have you back as soon as possible.
It's good.
Check us out at MainStreetAlliance.org.
MainStreetAlliance.org, go to your local small businesses and spend some money they need to help.
News is coming up next.
Stay here.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Good morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach.
Doctors slide on the board coming to you from her studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
We got baseball tonight.
Brewers at San Francisco.
It's kind of late because they're on the left coast.
eight time eight ten rather our broadcast starts you can listen to the game over the air terrestrial terrestrial
radio
old-fashioned terrestrial radio
get yourself a radio if you have a porch put it on the porch
yeah
back
Sit in a chair, drink
some
lemonade.
Nice idea.
Listen to the ball game.
You can catch the game tonight starting at 810 on WRCE in Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh, WRJN here in Racine and Kenosha, WCQM in Park Falls, and our newest Milwaukee Brewers affiliate WBZH in Hayward Crew tonight at San Francisco.
Our broadcast begins at 810.
This is the segment that has delved developed into Yeah,
it's
becoming kind of a regular thing.
We love it.
We do love it.
People love it.
I'm well so far.
We call it audio Sorbet We
need robes we need Jane we need robes we need robes robes like when we do this segment we should be in like spa robes
and just like
kicking back a little bit maybe Calvin can like slippers
like retreat from the board and just, you know, fan us with a giant leaf.
I like the idea of Calvin.
Calvin says yes.
Sure.
Calvin says yes.
So here's the question for today.
And this all stems from actor Ben Affleck, who is on the Today Show recently.
And apparently he had a photo with his son that kind of went viral.
A video,
I believe.
A
video
of Ben Affleck and his son checking out some very, very fancy footwear.
Yeah.
And he has this little segment we're going to play from the today's show.
Calvin, if you can play that clip, please.
We were talking in the makeup room before the show about this clip that went viral of you with your son and he was just with this looking at these sneakers which were an absurdly high-priced and he wanted them and you had the best line which I
plan to use.
I'm rich.
You're not.
He's like one of these shoes he likes to see these sneakers.
I was like this is $6,000.
What are you talking about?
What are you going to do?
Mollons?
Like
you got
$6,000.
I was like, I have some
money.
So his 11 year old
son wants these $6,000 shoes and says, dad, we're rich.
And dad says, no, I'm rich.
You're not rich.
So we started talking about something we really, really, really wanted as kids.
And mom and dad said, you either work for it or you're not getting it.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
I mean.
Also, you ain't going to stay rich buying $6,000 shoes.
No,
you're not.
855-752-4842.
What was the thing that you wanted when you were a kid?
Great school, high school, what was it?
Kind of out of reach.
And mom and dad said, if you can work for it, you can have it.
But otherwise, no, I'm not buying you $6,000 sneakers.
Nice try.
Actually, my story is...
Not the exact same.
I didn't ask for $6,000 back in 1980s, whenever $6,000 sneakers did not exist.
But I am a child of the 80s and 90s when I was young and played basketball and I came up.
Just as the Air Jordans came to light
which was
very expensive for the time hundred dollar pair of shoes Unheard of before this you didn't have hundred dollar pairs of shoes sneakers I mean if you like if you had fancy shoes you
could address shoes for men maybe but
a pair of Nike's didn't cost a hundred dollars and There was a there was a I didn't want the Air Jordans.
I wanted a shoe called the Reebok pump
Was that with the
Yeah,
very very gimmicky.
I just I still can't believe but they were about a hundred dollars as well And I was a paper boy and my mom said all right.
We'll set up a budget You will work so many weeks You will take so so much of your paycheck and we'll put that into a fund for your shoes cool And what was funny is I said, okay, and I totally forgot about it and one day my mom goes Hey, guess what I said what she goes you can get your shoes now, and I
It was like, and the thing is, I worked for it.
It was my money, because I've been working since I was 12.
It was my money.
It was my achievement.
And I felt so good buying them because it was like, no, granted, yeah, a kid loves to open up Christmas present or birthday present, get what you want.
I'm not taking that away from you.
But the fact that I put myself into a budget system, I.
made a plan, and then I bought the shoes.
It was an achievement from start to finish.
And thought
you were a really valuable lesson.
Absolutely, which I totally forgot of my
20s.
Credit card, credit card, credit card, credit
card.
Yeah, well, that's a whole other segment.
855-752-4842.
What was the thing?
You really, really, really wanted when you were a kid or a teenager.
And mom and dad said, yeah, sure, if you work for it, otherwise it's not happening.
What is your thing?
8-5-5-7-5 Civic.
Shizu on the live stream says, for me, it was graphic novels, i.e.
manga.
My parents didn't consider them books.
Still collecting to this day, and I have about 3,000.
Wow.
That's a $30,000 investment.
Wow.
Some of
those, I mean,
If you know what you're doing and you collect them correctly and by that, I mean like bag them bored now with.
Yeah, sure.
They have to be pristine.
Take
care of them.
You can make a lot of money on certain books.
And yeah, that's, that is an absolute, absolute investment for me.
I love comic books, but I just don't want them in my house.
So I have a digital subscriptions.
So I'm like, this is easier.
Calvin, what about you?
Was there something that you really, really wanted as a kid and mom and dad said, yeah, no.
Yeah.
So a lot of things.
I was pretty low maintenance as far as like expensive clothes and expensive shoes and like that kind of stuff but me and my brother both played video games growing up and we would always ask for consoles like in June and they would tell us we could buy it ourselves but we were 12 didn't really have money to save and then eventually it would show up under the Christmas tree on Christmas.
So you did have to wait for it at least.
We had
to wait for it.
And we had, like, just regular, like, minor chores, but we didn't really get allowances.
Most of our things were, you can have money if you absolutely need it, or you can get a big present on Christmas or your birthday.
Fair enough.
I want to go back to the question that Jane asked you before the show when we were asking, we were kicking this around when you said, did you have chores?
You said, my dad wish we would add more,
but
just imagine Mr. Butenhof being like, these kids play a lot of video games.
eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
What was the thing you really, really, really wanted when you were a kid or a teenager and your parents said, sure, you can have it if you work for it.
What was your thing?
And from Chippewa Falls is on the line and joining us.
Good morning.
And what was your thing?
Good morning.
Well, we had six kids in our family.
And one Christmas I asked my dad if I could get a guest sweatshirt.
And when he
It was like 50 bucks, whatever they were then.
He's like, uh, I don't think so.
He goes, I'll buy you a sweatshirt and I'll get some spray paint and we'll put some gas on.
I feel like that was always the parents fix.
They're like, I'll make it for you or I'll just make it myself.
You're like, that's, you don't
know.
But there was a label thing, right?
And all the cool kids had the guest sweatshirt, I assume.
Yes, and I was not getting one because I thought I'm not gonna have my dad spray paint gout on a sweatshirt
My so like I as I said I grew up in the early 90s There was a line of clothing I owe you sweatshirts that all the kids in middle school and high school had and Z. Cavarici pants and things.
Yeah, I know
And there was the Varney label as well.
And I always told people, you could tell if the label, if you could tell that it was out of fashion when I started wearing it because it started to appear in the bargain barrels, where you're like, oh, the $30 Varney t-shirt is now 15 bucks.
We
can afford that.
Greg's got it.
Yeah, Greg's got it now.
My thing was chick jeans.
Chick jeans.
Chick jeans specifically.
They were kind of like a step under Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, which I couldn't get either.
But all the cool girls in high school had chick jeans.
Yeah.
And my mother was like, I'm not buying you.
Then they were probably $25.
You're not getting $25 jeans.
Go to pennies.
Were they the same as, was it Sasuna?
No.
No, that's Vidal Sasuna.
No, Vidal Sasuna.
There was another.
They were specific.
Chick jeans were the cool girl jeans, which I never got.
And I worked.
I don't remember.
She must have said, if you save up for it, you can have them.
But then I decided it wasn't worth it.
Yeah.
What is your thing that you wanted as a kid?
And your parents said, you can have it if you work for it.
This all jumps off of Ben Affleck on the Today Show talking about his son, who's about 11 or 12, who wanted a pair of $6,000 sneakers.
And he said, but dad, we're rich.
And Ben Affleck said, no, I'm rich.
You're broke.
Had I said that to my father?
I would
have immediately braced and been like, oh God.
If you say we're rich.
Oh no, Jane, I'm talking about the request of just
$6,000.
If
I
would have had the temerity to say, we're rich, I would have been like, I'm getting my own apartment now.
I just got kicked out.
Let me duck.
Yeah, exactly.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2 Megan from Sun Prairie listening on WMDX.
I can't remember if I ever asked them for it.
But I wanted a TV in my room for my Xbox.
So I bought one during a Black Friday sale at 17.
I was terrible at asking for things growing up because I felt bad doing so.
It's that guilt.
You're being ungrateful.
You want more than you should have.
Yeah, and also it's just like, yeah.
Something similar, Megan, only I didn't go to a Black Friday.
There was a TV in the house that wasn't being used that barely worked.
They're like, you want a TV in your room?
You can have that one.
It was like.
color sometimes.
And I just wanted to play my Nintendo.
I just wanted to play by NES, my classic NES in there.
And I, and I was like, I got a TV in my room.
That excitement lasted 30, 39 minutes.
It was done.
That was it.
Yeah.
Because it's like, you don't have a TV in your room.
You have a computer monitor, essentially.
Calvin.
Yeah.
I know, uh, when I was around, when I was 16, uh, fights over the PlayStation were growing between me and my brother and my
Mom did draw a line that she was not buying a second PlayStation.
If I wanted my own PlayStation, I had to buy it myself.
So the first $400 I made of my very first job went to my own PlayStation.
Oh,
wow.
400 bucks.
Yeah, that's how much they were.
How much are they now, Calvin?
How much is a PS5?
A PS5, well, running $500, I think.
Maybe 600, I don't even
know.
What were you doing that you earned
400 bucks?
I started like busing tables and running food at a nursing home.
Did you immediately quit your
job and then you got that $400
check?
You're like, I'm out of here.
I'm done.
No, I worked there until it got too hectic with playing basketball and trying to have a job at the same time.
Wow, okay.
It was only, it was like...
six or seven months.
Those little bits
of Calvin
we learned about, I love it.
Absolutely.
What did you really, really, really want when you were a kid or a teenager and mom and dad said, yeah, you know, you're not getting that unless you get a job or you earn it, 855-752-4842.
For me, again, it was the Chick Jeans, which I never got.
I was looking up some old brands, Jordash.
Jordash were cool
too.
It was Sassong Jeans, S-A-S-S-O-N.
Yeah, those were...
Hilarious and highly all the cool girls had them.
Yeah, I was not one of them When you're cool in my heart Jane.
Thanks.
I appreciate that when we return We're gonna wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing today It's the this rounds on me addition stay with us.
You're listening to matinee around here.
I'm a civic media radio network.
Stay close.
We'll be right
back
Welcome back to Matt and air on air Jane Matt and air Greg Bach and Our resident young person Calvin on the board coming to you live from her studio at Radio Park in Racine
You can always join us.
Call or text the number is the same.
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Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.
Are you okay?
I'm fine.
I'm fine.
Quick story.
Before, before we came back from the break, I had some, a minor sinus procedure last week.
So I have some aftercare in one of the parts of the aftercare.
You're on the live stream.
I use a saline nasal spray one to two times an hour to keep the nasal passages moist Sorry, I said it.
That's all right.
I missed my nose completely and just shot it right in my eye and Like I felt right as we were coming back.
I just felt like a complete moron.
So you're okay now I'm great.
My eyes nice and moist
and so now we know saline is fine
You end up shooting it in your eye.
Yeah.
You should be all
right.
Oh my goodness.
Okay, good.
It is just about 11.54.
We better get going.
Calvin, that means it's time for this shouldn't be a thing.
If you ever have a thing you think should not be, send it into Greg and me at Jane says at civicmedia.us.
J-A-N-E-S-A-Y-S.
Jane says at civicmedia.us.
This one from UPI.
Calvin found it again.
Ben Hooper is our guy.
He's a
guy.
He is the man for tisbets.
The headline reads party animals.
chimpanzees caught on camera sharing alcoholic fruit.
A team British researchers
Studying chimpanzees in West Africa, say they have documented the chimps eating and sharing alcoholic fruit.
The University of Exeter team set up their cameras and captured the chimps sharing fermented African breadfruit, which was later confirmed to contain ethanol.
The team's study suggests the chimps could be using it for a similar person as humans who drink.
Quote for humans,
We know that drinking alcohol leads to a release of dopamine and endorphins and resulting feelings of happiness and relaxation.
We also know that sharing alcohol, including through traditions like feasting, helps to form and strengthen social bonds.
So now we know that wild chimps are eating and sharing ethanolic fruits.
The question is, are they getting similar benefits?
I don't know.
You have to watch and make sure are they like looking each other to say as if.
as if they were saying, I love you, man.
You're really cool.
I don't say that enough because I was taught not to feel my feelings, but you're awesome.
The other way to tell for sure that it's having the same effect as if they regretted in the morning.
Yeah, make sure, are they texting their exes at night?
I really
didn't mean to say that.
I'm
so, so
sorry.
I
didn't, that was a mistake.
This all started as some fruit brunch and it got crazy.
I
hope you can forgive me.
Please.
Jim, don't share food all the time, says researcher Kimberly Hawkins.
So this behavior with fermented fruit might be important.
We need to find out more about whether they are deliberately seeking these out.
But this behavior could be the early evolutionary stages of feasting.
Oh, if so, this suggests the human tradition of feasting may have its origins deep in our evolutionary history.
So party.
We've been partying for a long time.
Don't tell my uncle that because he doesn't believe in evolution.
that wraps up today's episode of this shouldn't be a thing coming up tomorrow we have a jam jam pack show for you jim santel will be here our friend and colleague from amicus a law review you can catch his show across the network saturday mornings from nine to eleven he is a brilliant attorney many many things going on yeah we need to update with jim santel then uh state representative lee snongress
is going to be joining us in
hour
number two.
Brittany Merleau will be here as she always is with weather and wine in hour number two.
And then Paul Nunin, who joins us every other Thursday, he and JR Radcliffe from the Journal Sentinel take turns off and on to update us all things sports and the draft gets underway.
The draft gets underway tomorrow.
I also want to throw in a quick plug.
for Dr. Kristen Lierley's show that is on Saturdays and Sundays.
You can go to civicmedia.us slash shows and find her show as well.
I always look at this way.
You can have Saturday with a lawyer, Sunday with a doctor, and they're talking about great topics.
I mean, Jim Santel's show is like mini law school.
But in a way that's really understandable.
Yes, yes.
You know, and I just think that's important.
It's not like you're gonna be
You're not sitting in class and you're listening to some boring guy drone.
Jim has a way of breaking things down.
because the law is complicated.
The law is complicated and he finds it joyful to explain it and talk about it.
It's important.
It is important, especially with so many things that are going on right now.
So and if you ever have a question for Jim, you can set it in to us at Jane says at civicmedia.us.
If you have a guest idea, if you have something going on in your community, something specific to Chippewa Falls or Park Falls or
Butternut, for example.
You can always email that to us too.
And we would love to take a look at it.
Jane says at civicmedia.us.
Thank you, Greg and Calvin and all of our engineers.
Without you, nothing works.
And thank you most of all for calling and for texting and for listening.
It truly doesn't mean the world.
I hope you find some joy today and you have the chance to share it.
Keep it right here.
News is coming up next.
followed by Tom Hartman from 11 to two, Todd Alba, two to four, Maggie Dawn from four to six, Pete Schwab and Nightlight, wrapping it all up from six to eight PM.
Keep it right here.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll see you tomorrow.
