00:00I wanted to ask you, because you mentioned affordability and the effects on the U.S. economy just a while
00:05ago in one of your previous answers.
00:07What are the visible effects of this already for, you know, average U.S. consumers?
00:13How is this being felt on Main Street?
00:16Well, I think right now what you're feeling is obviously the price of gas has gone up and diesel has
00:23gone up.
00:23Diesel was in the $3 range.
00:25Now it's in the $5 range.
00:27That's a significant jump.
00:28And the reason that I point out diesel, gas certainly went up too, but diesel is how goods are transported.
00:34And so if goods are transported when diesel has gone up almost 50%, then you have a problem because the
00:43cost of goods are going to start going up.
00:45And that's where people are going to feel more of a macro impact than just the price of gas.
00:50You know, people can say, oh, well, you know, I walk to work or I don't need gas, you know,
00:54I don't use it as much.
00:55Or, you know, for those who don't frequently need it or can say, well, I can withstand a $2 increase
01:01in gas or a dollar increase in gas.
01:03What they can't withstand is for those everyday products that they're buying multiple times a week or multiple times a
01:09month that are going to go up because the price of oil has gone up, which means the price of
01:14diesel has gone up.
01:14So the transportation costs have also gone up for their everyday goods and services.
01:20That's a problem.
01:20And again, I want to stress, we're going into an election in November.
01:24We are seven months away, almost seven months away from an election.
01:29This is going to be very challenging for the members of Congress, all of which are on the ballot.
01:36And then the, you know, one third of the members of the Senate who are on the ballot, this can
01:42be very problematic for them.
01:43And President Trump is not at the top of the ticket, though everything that he does, in essence, is at
01:48the top of the ticket.
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