Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street right to you on Main Street.

Frank Curzio: How’s it going out there? It’s October 21st. I’m Frank Curzio, host of the Wall Street Unplugged podcast where I break down the headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets. We just took my kids to a jump house this week in Jacksonville called Rebounderz. It was cool. We had a great time. They had staff dressed up as zombies chasing the kids around. Some of these costumes and the makeup, it was pretty insane. They had a laser tag room. It was all dark, and these zombies running around chasing them, and the kids were like screaming for their lives, it was pretty funny.

Frank Curzio: But I took my kids to a similar place about two months ago, also in Florida, where they had all the protocols in place for COVID. They took everyone’s temperature, then they asked you the normal questions. Have you been in contact with anyone with COVID? Are you feeling okay? All that nonsense. And they let you go in and jump and everything was cool. Practice social distancing, but it was a little bit of a process. At this place, I won’t say there were zero protocols for COVID, but they didn’t take your temperature, very few people wearing masks. And we even asked do you have to wear masks? They’re like well, we leave that up to you. Of course, adults were practicing social distancing. Unless you came with certain adults, and you’re watching your kids have fun. This place was pretty big too. It’s a very big place. All the kids are just running around, having a good time, going crazy. And I have to tell you, nobody was worried. Like it didn’t even cross anyone’s mind. Like wow, I can’t believe it, these kids should be wearing… It didn’t even cross our minds.

Frank Curzio: And a few takeaways here, because this is going to sound like a huge shock to many of you. Having a place that’s indoors, open to kids, and not having mandates, rules in place to protect you from COVID, forcing you to do stuff… The first takeaway here is people are getting sick of wearing masks all the time. Sounds crazy. Florida was first to the party, along with Georgia, I guess. Opened up their economy all the way back in May. I know in Florida, they opened up at 25%, pushed it to 50%. As of September 25th, Governor DeSantis removed all COVID restrictions on bars and restaurants, which basically were the last establishments to open up, of course, in every state. But having our economy open since May, we watched more people get COVID, they pulled back a little bit, then reopened and said okay, we’re all right. But again, we’re seeing across the board, a lot of people get COVID. But we’re also seeing more than 99% of these people who are outside the danger zone. So if they’re over 70 years old or people with underlying conditions, perfectly fine. So people are getting more comfortable going out now. And I guess it should be expected since we know so much more about COVID.

Frank Curzio: And we look at September 11th, at how crazy it was. I remember when it first happened and they shut down travel. I remember looking up in the air like the weeks after just to see if there’s any planes. I mean, it was crazy. It was something we’ve never seen before, like the pandemic, something that we’ve never seen and emotions are high. You know how long it took people, just average people, to fly again after that? If something like that happens, it’s a shock to the system. Total panic. And over time, we realize how to deal with it. But 99.9% of the people who fly now, they don’t believe it’s going to get hijacked. It did take time and sentiment changed. And that’s what’s happening in Florida and Georgia. I can’t say what’s happening in all the states that you live in, I’m just telling you here. But people are definitely feeling better about going out and also getting very sick of wearing masks which is a crazy process on the whole. Not saying not to wear masks. I’m just saying usually even in other cultures you wear masks when you’re sick, not when you’re not sick. And when you’re wearing them all the time, all the time, all the time, and you’re seeing a friend get COVID and they’re okay, and again, you’re not in that danger zone and have any underlying conditions, they’re like, okay. They’re treating it differently.

Frank Curzio: I’m just telling you that. I’m not giving you an opinion here. The second takeaway… And I want you to look at New York City and California where I have most of my subscribers. I wouldn’t say most. Those two cities have the most subscribers. So cool off a little bit. Not going to rip you apart here. But if you look at these areas they’re barely open. Maybe at 25, 35% in most areas. I mean outside New York City, Long Island’s open, Westchester a little bit more open and also maybe a few areas in California, the rules might be relaxed a little bit from what I’m hearing. But overall, they’ve been late to the party opening up and that’s okay. That’s just those areas. And sentiment in these two states are much different than what we’re seeing her in Florida and Georgia. The people outside the danger zone, they’re still deathly afraid of COVID which is kind of crazy. But it is going to take a while for this type of sentiment to change. Maybe three to six months, maybe when we get a vaccine by year end. But it’s going to take a while.

Frank Curzio: For example, when they open up schools, which every school should be open right now since, what is it, 99.8% of kids under 15 are perfectly okay if they catch COVID. Most show little symptoms and most are not able to transmit the disease to adults based on numerous, numerous, if not more than 90% of the studies. If you don’t believe that, we’d see millions of teachers of getting COVID right now because there are kids in school that are getting it, and then they’ll separate them and separate classes. Seeing a little bit here and there. But it shouldn’t be mandated. It should be open, and it’s up to the parents if they want to send their kids there. It’s up to them. But when they open up, and say if you’re like, well, I’m not going, no way, it’s crazy. What are you going to see? You’re going to see people start sending their kids to school. Not everyone. But if you’re watching your friends and their kids go to school for two to three months and being perfectly fine, you’re seeing the protocols in place, sentiment’s going to change. And they’ll start sending their kids to school. I mean, that’s the way sentiment works. The biggest thing with sentiment is timing. Time is the biggest issues.

Frank Curzio: We’ll see people start looking at COVID as they look at the flu. Which again, that’s what symptoms are like for almost everyone outside of the danger zone and have no underlying conditions. You don’t have to take my word for it. All of you now know people who got COVID. Talk to them. Again, I’m talking about people with no underlying conditions and people under 70 who got COVID. Talk to them. You look at every athlete and facility that’s been closed. They’re all fine. Cam Newton back to playing. Remember the Marlins, the whole team, they’re all okay. Nick Saban just got it, back a week later, had no symptoms. Got a bunch of negative tests. Congrats to Alabama beating the crap out of Georgia in the second half. Man, that game was so good in the first half, I don’t know what happened. You had Tom Hanks and his wife get it. They’re okay. Their symptoms weren’t that great, which they said they had tough symptoms, but they’re okay now. Of course, they’re in the danger zone or close to that or older. Jack Nicholas and his wife are okay. They’re definitely in the danger zone, over 70.

Frank Curzio: But eventually people are going to start going back to their everyday lives. And that could accelerate or happen even quicker if we get a vaccine, which is probably expected by the end of November, which is a good thing. I mean, because anything approved before the election would be all political, don’t take it. And we don’t want that. This is about people’s lives. We want to just take politics out of it. Because I’m not here to argue what side you’re on. Whether you think you should send you kids to school or not, it’s the parents’ choices. I’m a believer that schools should be open based on the statistics. If there’s another strand of COVID that just started killing people and the infection rate for deaths went up to 10%, 15%, I’d say stay home, lock your door, and don’t go out. It’s not like that. It’s not like that. I’m not here telling you whether you should go to bars or restaurants or if you’re a Democrat or Republican. I’m not telling you what side to pick here. I don’t care. Because party lines, which is crazy, has a lot to do with what you believe in right now.

Frank Curzio: When you look at blue and red states and which economies are more open than others, just look. You’ll see the difference about politics. But again, I don’t want to argue about that. That’s not what this podcast is for. What I am here to tell you is COVID cases are going to continue to rise across the US. That’s not a bad thing. Why? Because more people are going out now. That’s why you’re seeing 35 states, cases rise. Those are the headlines. They’re trying to scare the hell out of you. That’s how they generate revenue, by more people clicking these things and telling these stories. You know what nobody wants to hear though? Nobody wants to hear this. The infected death rate percentage continues to move lower even though cases are going higher. It’s now at 2.64%. To put that in perspective, it was at 8% at the beginning because nobody knew what was going on. And it’d be well, well under 2% if we took out the statistics for February and March, when a lot of infected people were put in nursing homes because we had no clue about COVID and who it targets at the time.

Frank Curzio: Not blaming anyone at all, but that’s what happened and we saw the rates rise. That’s why we’re sending these cruise ships. Massive ships, right? Not cruise ships, big massive Navy ships, materials and everything right up the coastlines. We need more beds. It’s crazy. It’s because when we first saw the data on this and we were trying to put these people in different places, a lot of older people are getting infected and sick, and we put them in nursing homes. Again, it’s really nobody’s fault, it’s just nobody knew about the disease back then. But those numbers, if we take out… Now with what we know now and who gets infected, we’re looking at a death rate that would be like 1.2, 1.4%, which is nothing. An infected death rate. Because we see COVID cases rise, it’s okay. As long as that death rate is a percentage and hospitalization rates, again as a percentage, go lower. And of course, while we’re all helping protect people in the danger zone. It makes sense, right? I say some of this stuff on social media, and I’d probably get banned just for looking at statistics and saying this.

Frank Curzio: Now, what does this mean to you as an investor? After the election is over… I can’t wait. We head into next year. Every state’s going to open up more than 70%. I give it first quarter the latest. We’re also going to get a new stimulus plan which is extremely needed. I mean, people saying that it’s not needed and the market’s higher and retail sales are at all-time highs. Guys, bars, restaurants, airlines, theaters, theme parks, they can’t survive operating at below 70, 75% much longer. That’s their breakeven. And they were operating at zero, 20, 40, 60, and people are still not coming back. But we’re still below 50% in so many indoor places. These people can’t survive. They were forced to shut down. They were forced to shut down. It’s not like hey, we opened up in a stupid spot, location was terrible, nobody came in. Our food was… No. Those are people that built their businesses for decades that were just doing great and forced to close. Now, you sit there going, all right, you’re still not really giving us much hope here when you’re not opening up past the percentage that we need to breakeven economically. A lot of these people need money.

Frank Curzio: The problem is the first stimulus plan which was six and a half trillion altogether, went to everybody. You had Harvard apply for it. They were first in line with those algorithms. Holy cow, Harvard. Amazing. How many businesses had to give that money back? It’s different. We need that. But now we’re going to have at least, whatever, 1.7, 1.8 trillion stimulus on the way. Pelosi just came out and said, we got two days to get something. Whatever. I’ll be very, very surprised if happens before election, but it is going to happen. It is going to happen. Say it was around $2 trillion. That’s nothing these days. But when you put it in perspective, it only cost $450 billion to backstop all the banks in 2008 during the credit crisis. Two trillion you’re going to throw into this market. It’s a lot of money. A lot of money. We’re also going to see economies opening back up. Sentiment getting much better as people don’t think they’re going to die anymore once they go outside and get COVID. Remember, over 98% of people under 60 who get COVID are perfectly… They live. They’re fine. Yes, I’m sure you could send me a case here or a case there. Just like a case with the flu, that somebody’s going to die if they catch the flu. But overall, you can’t shut down the entire economy to help 1% of the population.

Frank Curzio: It sucks. You want no deaths but you have to look at the entire picture, right? Not to mention we’re probably seeing more deaths where, man, just from people staying home and depression and suicides. Guys, you see the rates on these things? It’s insane. Poverty levels. Incredible. But talking about the markets here, what else is going to happen? Interest rates going to stay super low for a very long time. Over the next three years at least, right? That’s what the Fed told us the short-term rates. I love how they say, well, the rates are going higher. They spiked on a possible stimulus plan. The 10 year spiked to what, .78, are you kidding me? Spiked. But long-term, they’re not going any higher. If they go a little bit higher, the Fed’s going to implement yield curve control immediately, which is basically putting a cap on long-term rates. They have to. They don’t have a choice. That’s a fact. Next year, what are we going to see? Tons of volatility, I guarantee it. But at the end of the day, these conditions… And you need to understand this guys, these conditions are great for anyone owning assets.

Frank Curzio: There’s a reason why home sales are skyrocketing along with home prices. And they’re going to continue to skyrocket. I just posted a chart, Goldman Sachs. Inventory levels for new houses are at a three decade low. There’s massive demand and not enough supply. You do the math what’s going to happen. Look at next year. Owning assets, that includes equities, especially those paying above average yields. And look at Intel. The company reported earnings last quarter, it was late July. The stock got crushed. Fell to $47. They fired their entire engineering team since they fell so behind in producing the sim and animated chip, they fell behind AMD. They were pissed, they were firing people. Got to change. There’s been really no news on Intel since. Nothing. Yet, the stock has quietly moved sharply higher. Did you know that? It’s trading around $54 a share. 15% gain against S&P 500, which is up around 7% over the same timeframe. Intel also pays a two and a half percent yield. Pretty nice in a zero interest rate world. Probably see the same from IBM. That spin out their high growth assets. They pay a 5% yield. Now that has a growth component to offer investors. AT&T dividend is at 7%. They should cut that in half, and it’ll still be great. They’d save a ton of money, even though they have no trouble paying it at 7%.

Frank Curzio: If you look at AT&T’s divisions that got hit the hardest during the pandemic are now starting to come back. I mean, sports with their Turner sports network. We get live spots. TBS is doing okay. They still own CNN where ratings are going to skyrocket this quarter from the election. Warner Brothers Entertainment and movie division. I mean, Hollywood’s opening back up finally. You throw in streaming, HBO Go, it’s a massive cash flow machine. And wireless, which will benefit from the massive sales of the iPhone 12. Not sure if you saw the early numbers, but Apple sold over two million iPhone 12s. Two million in one day. Pretty amazing considering you don’t get a plug, you don’t get headphones, 5G is not going to be available for probably 90% of people until 12 months from now, maybe. But it’s a great company. People love their products. They’re willing to pay up, paying more for this phone than they did for the 11. It’s amazing. But that’s great for a lot of the carriers. These are companies that own massive assets and pay a nice yield in a zero interest rate world where trillions of institutional dollars need to flow into.

Frank Curzio: So instead of putting your emotions into who’s going to win the election and the next Twitter post and how pissed you are and Biden’s an idiot and I hope Trump dies and all this crap. At the end of the day, these politicians don’t care about you. They don’t care about me. We know that. If they did, they’d had a stimulus plan. The second round of stimulus would have happened two months ago. They don’t. They care about power. That’s it. We all know that right? Everybody has to know that. I’m sure you guys are smart enough to know that. Instead of caring about all the BS, start finding out how to make money from who wins. How to make money when the economy starts opening back up. How to make money from stupid fed policies that are going to be in place forever. So to say look at the debt to GDP ratio, it’s through the roof. Oh man, so many comments. They’re going to continue to spend. They’re going to continue to pay their bills, debts going to go higher. Talk about debt to GDP ratio, since 2008 look where the markets went. Is that a factor of the market? No. And believe me, you’ll know when it becomes a factor because the bond market would tell us in two seconds.

Frank Curzio: We’re not there so stop focusing on that. It’s a nice number. It’s crazy. It’s going to go over to 200% of GDP. We’re going to be a third world country. You know what? Make 300%, 400% first. And when that happens, you’ll still be able to get out of the market. Again, there’s a lot of indicators that would tell us that, holy shit, this is about to blow up. And they’re not telling us that right now. If you’re looking at all these things and how to position yourself, I mean, that’s what life is about. You and your family, not who wins the White House. And to have that kind of sentiment, it’s not easy. And just look at the emotional posts on social media from your friends when it comes to the election. These are people that are nice people that you hang out with are just totally angry and want to kill somebody. It’s insane when you look at social media. You would never talk to anybody the way you talk on social media to people. It’s unbelievable. I’m sure you guys have friends that are nice people and then boom, these freaking posts come at you like whoa.

Frank Curzio: But if you really start thinking like that, focusing on yourself, focusing on making money instead off all the BS and who’s going to win the… All that. You’re going to be making a lot of money while your friends sit around bitching about how living in America sucks as they tweet on their new iPhone 12 while driving their Teslas, while they just refinanced their four bedroom, three bath home at 3%. Going to be bitching. Let them bitch. But you need to own assets in this market. With interest rates low, more stimulus coming, position yourself. It’s an opportunity to make a fortune if you put emotions aside. That’s how you make a shitload of money. Investing in what’s working and what will work in the future based on the new policies that are coming. That’s how you become a millionaire. That’s how you become wealthy and own three, four, five houses, have your kids taken care of. That’s how the greatest investors think.

Frank Curzio: Now, I’m bringing in my buddy, Daniel Creech, senior research analyst at Curzio Research, to tell more about this philosophy. Again, of ignoring the politics and doing what’s best for your wallet, which is, we all know, not easy to get behind since we all have emotions, especially now that the election’s two weeks away. But Daniel, thanks for joining us on Wall Street Unplugged, man.

Daniel Creech: Hey, what’s up Frank? Great to be here, as always, and I am going to talk about politics.

Frank Curzio: We all have our own opinions about it. But I mean, there’s one debate left tomorrow, then the election in early November. But let’s say the polls are right. Forget about what the polls said last year about Clinton winning and she didn’t win. But let’s say all the polls are right, which Biden should win pretty much in a landslide, what it’s telling you right now, most polls, over 90%. And that, there’s a very, very good shot that they take over the senate. Now, one of the things that he plans to do is raising taxes. And this on anyone paying more than… Well actually, generating more than $400,000 a year. And I wanted to ask you about this, because instead of complaining about higher tax to 400,000, I guess it’s mind boggling to me of why rich people… And I wouldn’t say $400,000 if you live in California and New York City, I know that’s a ton of money, but that’s considered middle class in some of these areas, which is insane when think of that’s how expensive it is to live in these areas. Rich people have suddenly become the enemy and need to pay taxes. It’s bad. They have to share everything.

Frank Curzio: What are your thoughts on this? Because that’s something that we are going to get. Biden has said… Let’s say if Biden wins because if Trump wins, then we’re going to see kind of like the status quo or whatever. But there will be certain sectors that benefit and certain ones that don’t benefit. But let’s start with taxes and tell me your thoughts on that.

Daniel Creech: Well, it’s pretty crazy to me because I love how all the rich guys like Buffett saying that we should tax the rich more, none of them send an extra check into the treasury. So you can pay as much as you want to in taxes. You can send all kinds of money to them. So that cracks me up from the get-go. The underlying momentum here that’s scary to me is the back and forth between the haves and the have nots. I’m 34. If you’re younger than me there’s a lot more of this entitlement. Like younger friends of mine have a, hey, they’re rich because they’re bad, or they’re rich and that’s bad. And it’s like, well, you have this bigger concept that the economic pie is only so big and if somebody else is making more than you, then you are going to make less by definition. That’s not how it works. That’s what’s really scare to me. From a higher tax base, yeah, there’ll be some winners and losers, but the market’s already going to price that in, I think. I don’t think there’s going to be anything shocking on that if capital gains go up and all that. But you’re going to see some volatility around that of course, which is exactly what’s going to happen.

Frank Curzio: I can tell you, these are the numbers that you’re going to see based on a Biden win. Hear me out first. I’m just going to tell you how to play it. So if you live in California, the top tax rate is going to be 62.6%. New Jersey, 60%. New York, 58%. New York City will be 62% if you live in New York City. But New York, 58%. And if you look at the top federal tax rate under Biden is going to be overall 49.6%. So 50%. And they say well, if you make over 400,000, 50%. But again, I won’t even beat that point to death. The fact that if you run your own business and you turn out to be successful and you work your ass off, you have to take time away from something. There’s a little time I take away from my family. The benefit is I want to leave them something that’s great with Curzio Research. Be able to support them and make sure that they’re okay in the future. But the more successful you get, you’re seen as the enemy these days, which is insane. But when I look at those tax rates, the first thing that comes out to me is why would anyone live in New Jersey? I could see California and New York, but Jersey? Really Daniel?

Frank Curzio: Again, that’s my New York coming out because New Jersey tries to be like New Yorkers, but they never will be, and yet, they’re getting taxed like them, so why don’t you just live in New York? More things to do. But this tells me right here that the rich people are going to leave these states. And we’re seeing that now. And maybe they don’t, but I think it’s pretty logical to assume that that’s what’s going to happen. Now, where are they going to go? What states are they going to go to? And if you look at these people and if they’re moving their companies… Let’s say the rich is the enemy, but they do provide lots of jobs for people. So are they going to move jobs out of California, Jersey, and New York and into… We talked about this before, Daniel, to no income tax states. Like for example, I’ve done it, went to New York to Florida. And you might stay on the East Coast in New Hampshire or maybe Texas. But California, you can go to Washington, Nevada. And then you have Mid-West, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, some of the others have no income taxes. But I would think this is pretty much a certainty right?

Daniel Creech: Oh yeah. Yeah. You see that already. Who just bought the Panthers a couple of years ago, the hedge fund guy? Tepper?

Frank Curzio: Tepper. Tepper, yeah.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. Didn’t he move out of Jersey? He just moved south.

Frank Curzio: I think he moved out of Delaware. I think they were headed to high taxes.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. You just pack up and go to Florida. Yeah. I think that’s only going to continue, and then you have a huge problem with the people there in an economic cycle because if the people that you’re… You’re only going to raise the taxes on a small number of people because you can’t do it on a large base because then they won’t vote for it. So if those small amount of people pack up and leave, obviously you’re not going to have that tax revenue anymore, so it means you’re going to a bigger deficit which means the government has to step in and do even more to fix the problem that it’s trying to fix anyway. It’s not rocket science, it’s actually buffoonery, but that’s what we do.

Frank Curzio: And we’ve heard this argument before. But things are different since the pandemic. I mean look at California where you have the wild fires, you have your electricity getting shut off. I have a lot of friends in California. I think it’s one of the most beautiful states in the world.

Daniel Creech: I have to interrupt you. I will say, I’m sorry.

Frank Curzio: In the United States. Go ahead.

Daniel Creech: When that governor in California tweeted out that it was like coming up at 3:00 and everybody’s got to use less power and all that, that is embarrassing as all get out to me. How in the hell does California tell the people… I thought it was a joke. I’m sorry, that’s a tangent.

Frank Curzio: It’s a new world.

Daniel Creech: That’s unbelievable.

Frank Curzio: Or you’re going to shut their electricity and water off if there’s… Don’t have a birthday party for your kid. Forget it. Like the place I told you at the opening, they would have shut everything. Electricity would have went off in a heartbeat, right?

Daniel Creech: Bring your own beer, that’s old stuff. Now you got to bring a freaking generator to parties because they’re going to shut us down.

Frank Curzio: But when you’re looking at these… In New York City, you look, the crime rate has gone up. I lived there and back then I didn’t think you got what you paid for. And that was over 10 years ago now. About 10 years ago. I didn’t want to pay $600,000 for a shack, for a home. That’s what you really pay there. And that’s not even… I’m not talking about New York City, but just in Queens or Brooklyn, Bronx, the burrows. Everything just started booming there, and I was like, this is crazy. These houses are 125 years old. Now, at least in New York City, you say I’m going to pay that money. Why? Well, you got all the restaurants. The atmosphere’s amazing. 24 hours, you can go out get anything you want to eat, be entertained. I mean even certain places in California, when I look at these states and how the conditions are deteriorating, which I think nobody can argue, right?

Frank Curzio: Not in every area, but nobody could argue that they have deteriorated significantly and there’s an argument it may not come back as soon. And it makes sense for a lot of people to say you know what? I’m out of here. And we’ve seen it from both areas. If you look at South Hampton I think enrollment… South Hampton is Suffolk County, outside New York City. You have Nassau county. You have Queens, Nassau county, and then you go all the way out to Suffolk. That’s where the Hamptons are. But enrollment for these schools was up tremendously, meaning you’re taking your kid out of their normal school… Means that’s not permanent, but your kid’s going to be going to that school ’til the end of next summer. And who knows where they’re going to be. But if they’re moving out because of this, you could argue, you could bitch, you could say well, what are you talking about? This is Biden’s plan. This is what it is. It is what it is. That’s it.

Frank Curzio: When you’re saying we’re not going to have taxes being raised, but capital gains taxes are going up. And he says, well, it’s going to happen for more than a million people. Capital gains taxes are going to go from 23.8% to nearly 40%, capital gains tax. Do you know how much that is? A lot of that money’s being reinvested in more companies, being reinvested in your own company, being able to hire people. I don’t know. I’m not too sure. For me, personally, I would say, the distribution of wealth has never worked in any country ever. Ever. Ever. But it is what it is. And again, I don’t want to get political here, but I would be focusing on Daniel… I mean real estate in Florida is booming right now. In some of these-

Daniel Creech: I need to buy a house.

Frank Curzio: You need to buy a house, you need to buy assets. And that’s where we’re going with this. You can bitch and say, “Well, I didn’t want to vote for Biden. I can’t believe he’s raising these…” Or, you could say, “Okay, this is what’s going to happen. Here’s what he outlined on his site about his tax policy.” And know that if this is the case… And by the way, if these rich people move out of these states, that means there going to provide less jobs for people, which means that’s less tax revenue coming to the states, which means that they’re going to raise taxes even higher. Simple; can’t really disagree with that or argue that. That just makes sense. You need money coming in, and a lot of that money, you’re pushing these people out, which is insane. But look to buy real estate in a lot of these areas. Because I got to tell you, I live in a small little island, it’s booming. They’re building houses, buying houses, houses are going on sale and three, four days later, and they’re getting 20, $30,000 more than they were asking. I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.

Frank Curzio: It’s just a matter of where you’re going to put the capital, and it’s going to be allocated to different areas. Now, we could talk about another issue Daniel, which is alternative energy, which I know you love talking about politically.

Daniel Creech: Oh, gosh, yeah.

Frank Curzio: But you’re looking at money being pushed into solar and wind. Again, this is our base load power like nuclear which is fine, but there is going to be more money pushing into this market with a Biden win, and I’m interested to see what happens with natural gas and oil stocks. You’re looking at whatever it is… You had Biden saying he was not going to allow fracking and same with Kamala Harris, no fracking. Now it’s no fracking on federal land. Whatever it is, it’s going to result in less fracking at a time when oil companies have balance sheets are trash. They were trash when oil was at $75, $80. They’re highly leveraged. So it’s interesting right? Because you talked about it Daniel, what’s happening right now with some of these bigger players.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. Looking like you said earlier, if you accept the polls, and let’s say Biden wins and you get this blue wave, well, if you’re a CEO of an energy company, it’s not like you don’t know what’s going on right now. It’s not like you don’t know the pain. And yet there are multi-billion dollar deals going on. So Chevron bought Noble Energy. Devon Energy, which was a former pick in a well-run company just in a tough environment. They bought WPX. And then today, what broke today Frank? ConocoPhillips.

Frank Curzio: It’s a big deal.

Daniel Creech: And they’re all using their stock as currency. Which is interesting to me because oil’s still down, what, 30% from the beginning of the year. And if you’re thinking, okay, you’re doing these major deals, you’re going to shore up some assets, they’re still looking forward, and that’s what’s interesting. Anytime a market drops 30 and 40%, you better start going and looking because there’s deals. And it’s interesting to me to see a lot of these deals going on right now when times are tough, but things are coming back slowly and you have the election right around the corner. So it’s interesting on that side. But it shows you while it’ll be some head wins, nothing’s going to happen overnight; or at least, that’s what the market is telling us at this point.

Frank Curzio: I don’t know how to play this as an investor yet. Because I know a lot of these companies can’t afford to drill less. They need to drill to make money, and they need oil prices a lot higher. If you’re looking at… People are going to cite the Permian, where there’s a few places that you can make money fracking for $35, $40. But mostly, it’s higher than that for most places. But in terms of not playing it… So, you are going to reduce the amount of fracking right? We can all agree with that. Whether it’s going to be on a crazy scale or just a limited scale, which is going to result in fewer profits, but fewer wells being drilled, which is going to lower the supply, and then we have the economy opening up here and opening up globally as well. Because some of these companies have global operations so you can say, wow, these companies’ profits are going get hurt significantly. Yet, it should result in oil and natural gas prices going higher.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. That’s the… Hey, why would this make any more sense then everything else in our screwed up world?

Frank Curzio: That’s why you’re probably seeing in a lot of these, and you brought this to my attention too because, again, we’re looking at the markets all the time and go crazy. I’m actually going away to Denver and then to Wyoming to visit a site. It’s going to my first trip since COVID. People who are meeting me there are coming from Canada, which means they’re going to have to be put on quarantine as soon as they get back into that country. So they have it worse than me, but yeah, looking forward to that opening up. But yeah, the deals that are happening in this space are all being done for stock. They’re using their stock, and there’s a reason why you’re going to see even more of these deals. I mean, a few companies have amazing balance sheets, much, much better than everybody else. You have the Conocos, Devon has a good balance sheet. You’re looking at Chevron. I’m surprised Exxon is not going to come in, and I think they’re going to have to at least cut that dividend in half. I don’t know how they can afford it. I don’t know. It’s crazy. But now you’re consolidating, what does that do? It results in you having more assets, which we just talked about how important it is to have assets. Assets are going to be inflated with low interest rate environment.

Frank Curzio: Lower overhead. You’re going to be able unfortunately to get rid of a lot of people since you’re going to have overlapping divisions. And now, these guys are going to be in position to where the strong are going to survive and then get bigger and bigger. So I mean, I would expect a lot more deals going forward Daniel. But again, you may have a different opinion than me.

Daniel Creech: No, I would. I mean I think the big picture… What seems too easy to me, and not to sound arrogant, but the big picture is the bigger and better are going to continue to get bigger and better. And so what bugs me from all kinds of different viewpoints, depending on if you’re looking at energy or investors just in general, is you’re not going to have much of a middle class anymore. So there’s either going to be giant, well-run companies, big investors, or there’s going to be the little people. And that’s going to be a real difficult… We’re not complaining here. That’ll make it a little difficult on our job to pick the better ones. But I think you’re just going to continue to have a discrepancy there, and it’s going to grow and grow and grow between the haves and have nots. And I don’t think that’s any different from the energy sector to the auto sector in a sense of how the… Well, that’s a bad analogy, actually, because they already got your big players. But it’s just we’re going to see winners and losers speed up, I think, and that’s kind of scary.

Frank Curzio: It’s separation, just like we saw in healthcare. There’s so many different segments. Of course, online healthcare, the insurers are doing great. Other areas, especially those that provide surgeries that aren’t necessity right now are really getting hurt. Again, I’ve been to hospitals with my daughter a few times, and compared to when I went when my mom was in ICU for four months until January… Thank god she got out by mid-January before all this stuff really hit at the end of January and February for the US and coronavirus. But it was jam packed then compared to now. You can get spaces wherever you want because everything’s COVID-related. You got to push off… I read studies about the screening that they’re pushing out. The screening for breast cancer and stuff and how that can result in major problems. So there’s different sectors in healthcare that benefit just like… If I would look at this, I’d say the large caps are in a much better position. There’s pure plays in fracking that might not work out as good like continentals and stuff. But the major players with something like Devon, even offshore names. If prices start going higher, that’s going to put Diamond Offshore… Transocean has gotten decimated. These guys need 60 minimum. Six sell-off prices to make money.

Frank Curzio: You have your hedges in place that run out after 12 to 18 months, they’ve all run out. But if oil prices go higher, you’re going to see these companies get a bid. While, I would think the oil services companies… And I don’t know if you took a look at them. They have been decimated. I mean these companies… You look at the Apple’s right Daniel? The market cap on Apple is two trillion. I mean, you look at some of the biggest players, I think they have a 20 billion dollar market cap now, something like that. Halliburton is another oil service provider, but they provide the equipment for all these companies, and a lot of these companies aren’t going to be using that equipment anymore, especially with all the acquisitions taking place. So, I agree with you, man. I think there’s going to be different segments within the oil industry that do good. I wouldn’t say all oil is bad and everything is horrible, but there are going to be some players that do well and others that don’t, and that’s different from what we’ve been seeing pretty much since COVID started, where a whole sector, online eCommerce going higher, technology going higher. And yeah, I think you’re going to see some separation within these industries and getting to all energy to finish this segment… I love your thought on this. The alternative energy.

Frank Curzio: I wish you guys could be in the office when Daniel and I talk about this because I feel for him because the fact that I’m through three washing machines in six years because they have all these bells and whistles and use less water and all this stuff. But yet, they break immediately and after a year, they don’t have the parts. And they say, “Sorry, we don’t have those parts anymore,” which means we have to buy a new one. It seems like everything breaks a lot. My bottle of water doesn’t stand up anymore. It just falls over because of the plastic that’s being used, and it’s so frustrating. But your thoughts are pretty funny when it comes to alternative energy.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. I just don’t understand why… I don’t understand the passion behind it. A lot of people that push it think, well, we’re ruining the earth and you got to get off oil and all that stuff. Obviously I don’t agree with that at all. And it just shocks me when you have abundance of reliable energy that we can use in very clean ways, natural gas and all that, it surprises me on how little that gets looked at. So that’s another one with… Goldman Sachs had a good one today about a note with a higher stimulus. And obviously, if Democrats get in, they’re going to have more stimulus go towards more of their favorable projects than Republicans. Alternative energy, wind, that’s up there for them, and they’re going to go push those agendas. Selfishly, we’ll see who’s a big player there and how you can make money off all that because if they’re going to throw good money after bad. You don’t have to be in it the whole time, but it’s an opportunity to look at something and make money. So, they set the rules, and we have to either play by them and look into where they’re telling us to look, or we have to sit there and be upset with how reality is.

Frank Curzio: Yeah. And the reason why I just mentioned you to say that because I know everyone has strong opinions on a lot of different subjects, immigration or whatever, I know with why it’s alternative energy. But the bottom line is, it’s really not about your opinion. It’s about what’s going to happen. And if Biden gets elected, which he is leading in the polls, which is almost guaranteed to happen if you listen to everyone out there, if it happens you’re going to see a lot of money pushed into alternative energy. So whether you believe it or not, you should be positioning yourself in some of these things. And they have been going higher along with marijuana stocks because conservatives don’t believe in marijuana still, which is insane even though the studies out there are incredible. Just the health benefits are pretty incredible, not to mention the biggest health benefit for marijuana is probably relaxation in a world where everyone is pissed off. I mean, it’s kind of funny right? I mean, everybody’s really, really pissed off. I think the whole world would be better if they just smoked a joint and relaxed.

Daniel Creech: Everybody has to go on Joe Rogan and hang out with him.

Frank Curzio: Yeah. Just relax a little bit. Enjoy yourself. Live your life. Everybody’s just so freaking angry. But you’re going to see marijuana stocks catch a bid, which they’re kind of cyclical to the… I wouldn’t say towards the economy type thing, but cyclical when it comes to politics and elections where they usually rise around this time and go higher. And more states are out there, they’re going to try to approve this thing, and especially for medicinal purposes, where we have lots of states approving it for medicinal, but recreational is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger, and states are going to have no choice, considering the tax revenue is down considerably. And this is the easiest way. I mean, look at Colorado. Look at their numbers. The easiest way to generate more money. But these are the sectors that you should be looking at.

Frank Curzio: But overall, what’s going to happen? And even if it’s a Trump win, interest rates are staying low, more stimulus is on the way. It is going to benefit a lot of companies. We’re going to see the economy open up. We’re probably going to get a vaccine by end of this year. I’d be surprised if it doesn’t come by the end of November, right after the elections. And that’s going to result in sentiment changing, so position yourself. You could still post, I promise. Post on Twitter. Yell at me if you want, @FrankCurzio. I post all the time. Every time I post something positive, I get ripped, on anything COVID related, anything, I get ripped. People hate positivity these days. But yell at me and get the emotions out. I don’t care. You can yell at Daniel, right? Daniel, what’s your email again?

Daniel Creech: Yeah. Frank at whatever email you give me. Don’t email me about that.

Frank Curzio: Yeah. I’m actually going to send this to-

Daniel Creech: Hey, real quick on the vaccine thing. I’d be interested what everybody else thinks because I don’t understand… I understand the rush for a vaccine and the peace of mind, but I’m just hoping for a good treatment. I think that would do tons more. Like if you caught it… And I don’t want to sound like a tough guy. I don’t want to get sick of anything. But I don’t get flu shots and all that stuff, so I’m that type of guy. But if a vaccine comes out, I don’t want to take it anyway. I don’t want to take any vaccine really. But if I know, and if I think people knew, hey, if I get it and they can treat it and you can back that up with great stats, I think that would be huge. Maybe I’m bass ackwards on that, I don’t know. I’d like some feedback on that. I just don’t understand why people would… I mean, I understand why we’re trying to rush and get it. But my thing is, man, if you can treat it, I would think that would do huge for people like helping with the idea of opening up and the mindset and not being scared to travel or whatever.

Daniel Creech: So that’ll be interesting. I could be backwards on that, but that’s me. And don’t get me wrong, I want them to get one. I want them to be successful. I don’t know who’s going to line up and do it, and the real scary thing is if they make you take it. That’s for another day.

Frank Curzio: I don’t think they’re going to make you take it, but if I was probably over 70… Again, I don’t want to take it right away. I’d like to see like six months and wait to take it. But I think over 70 and underlying conditions should be taking it, but again, you have to make sure it’s safe. They’re going to say it’s safe when it comes out, but I have to tell you Daniel, I think the conditions and what’s going on right now at Regeneron with certain steroids, with Gilead, even though CDC’s… They came out and said, or the WHO came out, which I don’t why anyone believes the WHO. They said China was okay, and they did a great job, and they didn’t spread it, and nobody has anything to worry about. At the beginning, that’s what the WHO said, World Health Organization. Those guys are awesome over there. They care. But they were saying, “The Gilead thing doesn’t work.” Gilead works. It works. There’s a lot of people that have been taking that. And you’re seeing more people that get it where even… This is important. Most of the time people get it their symptoms are mild, flu-like.

Frank Curzio: But for some that get those symptoms that are really bad, that’s when these new remedies, I would say, or Regeneron, the steroids, these are things that are in place where we saw the president go in and come out. Yes, he gets special treatment because he’s the president. But a lot of this stuff is going to be available where people are getting sick and being worried, and then that’s just going to get better and better. We have the whole world. We have tens of billions of dollars, if not even more than tens of billions of dollars because our whole healthcare industry globally is focusing on this right now. We’ve never had something like this where everyone’s throwing money into this. And the government’s behind these things. All from money and grants to get this technology rolling. But you’re right; you want to see a little bit more. But right now, those treatments have been pretty good, and that’s why you’re seeing the death rate come down, the hospitalization rate’s come down tremendously. When they’re in there, they’re out pretty much right away. But it will be interesting to see about the vaccine and when it comes out and who’s going to take it.

Frank Curzio: So, a lot of stuff we covered, right, Daniel? We just wanted to talk about the best ways to position yourself no matter who wins and try to take the politics out of it. If you’re Democrat, Republican, who cares? It’s about you. Remember, they don’t care about you. You got to care about yourself, care about your family. Position yourself. I promise you can still go on social media, yell at everyone you want, and hold up a sign if you want, but position yourself. Start owning assets. We have a zero interest rate world that’s going to be zero interest rate from a very, very long time. Tons of more stimulus coming down, which is going to result in higher retail sales. A lot of companies are going to be benefiting. And that’s how you really need to position yourself regardless of what side of the aisle that you’re on. So Daniel, I wanted to say thank you so much for coming on. Actually, I might come back to you in a minute because I do have a segment I’m going to get into, which is Dollar Stock Club, but thanks for your thoughts on that. I really appreciate it, man.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. As always, man, a lot of fun.

Frank Curzio: Okay guys, moving on here. Man, earnings season. Forget about what they’re telling you in the news. There’s a stimulus coming. This week, the news basically went from the market’s up because they’re expecting a stimulus, to the market’s down because they’re not sure if stimulus is coming. Like, in the same day, back and forth. Guys, earnings are going to drive stock prices, and it’s at full throttle. And this week, we’re seeing lots of earnings come out, even tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, we’re seeing Capital One, Boston Beer, Intel, Mattel, Seagate, they report tomorrow. Friday, it’s American Express, Triton, Illinois Tool Works, Autoliv. But next week, holy cow, next week is going to be awesome. I mean, you have Caterpillar, 3M, Cummins, Corning, Merck, Pfizer, Sherman Williams, Xerox, Chubb, AMD, Garmin, Boeing, Microsoft, GE, UPS, Visa, Ford. Guys, all these companies are reporting, and that’s just the first two days.

Frank Curzio: Alibaba, Comcast, Kellogg. Then Thursday, the 29th, Thursday alone, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, all report in the same day. Expedia, Starbucks, MGM, Lumina. And we have hundreds… Probably, if I had to guess, more than 200 companies are going to report next week that are in the S&P 500 or pretty close to that. So, it’s going to be nuts. This is what’s going to drive the markets. And I’m going to tell you something, as someone that follows earnings season very, very closely, these estimates have been rising into this quarter. They’re still super conservative. So, expect some fireworks because most of these companies for the first time are finally offering guidance. They removed guidance. You have no idea. We have no idea what’s going to happen next month, nothing. We have no idea. A lot of companies reporting are finally offering guidance. They feel more comfortable. More things are opening up, their business opened up, their end markets are opened up, they have the supply chains opening up to the point that they had to move them out of other countries. But things are going all right now, where they’re offering guidance to market-like certainty. So, we’re going to see a lot of what people who raised their guidance, you’re pretty going to see a lot of these names take off, while others…

Frank Curzio: Fastly is another example. Just some of these names that don’t get it done are going to get hit. But you’re finally going to see separation, where it’s just not the whole market going up. But this earnings season is going to be awesome. I covered it last week of which sectors and which companies to listen to, not just for the companies that are going to give you a general outlook on different geographies, different end markets. I love Sony coming out with the new PlayStation. What do they think about the video concept? We have electronics. Mastercard and Visa, we know those trends are good. Let’s hear from Corning. Again, another one electronics. Sherman Williams, just killing it right now. All the major healthcare companies are reporting, and all the major technology companies are reporting. So really, really cool stuff next week, and that’s really what’s going to drive stocks. Not so much what happens with the debate and the election coming up. That’s what’s really going to drive stocks, at least over the next couple weeks. Maybe until November 3rd; and hopefully, we get a quick outcome regardless of who wins.

Frank Curzio: Because I think we’ll be okay with a quick outcome within a couple days, but anything longer could result in a market that comes down tremendously due to uncertainty, especially if everybody just starts suing each other. We saw that with Gore and Bush, but we only saw it out of Florida. Guys, there’s a lot of states that are close where we could see this happen in four different… You’re not going to know who’s the winner for a while. That’s why we created a free report. It’s on our website, Curzio Research, called “The Third Option.” So, I gave you sectors and lots of stocks that benefit from a Biden win and a Trump re-election. The third option is chaos and uncertainty, where if people really don’t believe in the outcome or if it gets extended, we could see stocks fall. And I tell you exactly how to position yourself, where you can make a fortune, if that happens. And again, that’s probably going to be something that’s temporary.

Frank Curzio: Now, last thing here is getting lots of requests for Dollar Stock Club. Now, Daniel, I want to bring you back in here. You’re the person that writes this. We take a stock pick from the guests that I have on this podcast every single week. Sometimes, you find that pick, they mention it in the podcast, and other times I talk before and after when I interview these people because I haven’t speak to them in a long time, especially names that have been on the podcast, and I’ll say, “Hey, I’m looking at this or I’m looking at that,” and we’ll throw that into a special portfolio. This is basically getting picks from the pros. And we’ve lowered this price to where everyone should own it. We call it Dollar Stock Club because it’s $1 per pick, so $4 a month. But Daniel, as someone who writes it, tracks the portfolio, does everything with that behind the scenes, why don’t you talk a little bit about that? Because I am getting a lot of requests for Dollar Stock Club.

Daniel Creech: Nice. Yeah, it’s a good product. Like Frank said, guests give some picks. Frank and I have thrown a few picks in there every once in a while, and it’s just something to really… It’s a great starter for investors, really, because you’re going to get ideas from all different types of sectors and companies, different people, different styles of analysts, macro everything is kind of thrown into there, and we keep it real general. So if you see it, it’s basically like a three bullet point. It’s not to come across as lazy. It’s just something that, hey, this will get you started. This is what you need to look at. This is why it’s a good idea. A lot of times, like Frank said, they go along with the interview process, but sometimes they don’t. But it’s a great starter kit for investors, I think. If you look at our portfolio, we have everything from gold and some oil to consumer discretionary. It gives you exposure to everything, and it puts a lot of names on your radar, and it’s good to dive right in and be exposed to everything.

Frank Curzio: Yeah. And it is a starter newsletter. And the reason why I like it so much… And again, I’m not even talking my book here. I wouldn’t sell a product if I didn’t think it was great for you. But it’s $1 per pick, so $4 a month that you get charged for this. But Daniel, why don’t you go over… I’m sure you have some of those picks there in front of you, of some of the things that are in the portfolio now. Again, they’re probably past the buy-up-to price. I don’t want to give anything away, but just to give you an example of some of the guests that we’ve had here where they mention a stock and you might not have known about it. We write a one-page report on it. We send it out to you. And again, we’re not going to make a fortune from people paying $1 or $4 a month, but it does show you the type of research that we do here and leads people to the podcast even more; and usually, those people tend to buy more products and services from us. So for us, if you’re looking to get into stocks and stuff, I mean, Dan, again, go over some of the things in the portfolio.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. We tell you the buy-up-to price, we tell you a stop loss to have on all the trades and everything. But we have Watsco that’s been in the portfolio just over a year. That was from John Petrides. That’s up over 40%. I told you we had exposure to gold. We’ve struck out a few times on that, but GoldMining’s up over 100%. The GDXJ is up over 30% for us. And let’s see here.

Frank Curzio: We have shorts in there still or no? Any shorts?

Daniel Creech: We do. We have one short right now. I mean, we’re allowed to do whatever in the product, but typically most things are always long. We have done a few shorts. Wayfair is still a short right now. That was from Andrew.

Frank Curzio: And that was recent, thank god.

Daniel Creech: Yeah. Exactly.

Frank Curzio: Yeah, Wayfair was-

Daniel Creech: And then we have another one is Coca-Cola. So, you have everything in this portfolio. I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff in there.

Frank Curzio: And even cryptocurrencies. We’ve had people come on and recommend Bitcoin and stuff I think we’ve had.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, we do. We don’t have any of those right now, but yeah, we’ve had Bitcoin, and I think Ethereum, maybe. Yeah.

Frank Curzio: Yeah, Ethereum in there. So it really is a cool portfolio, and the reason why we just talk about it now is because I never pushed this, I never really talked about it much. I just talk about, hey, Dollar Stock Club, and you can get the picks and everything, but I was just surprised to see how many of our subscribers actually own this, and it’s a small percentage, believe it or not. And this is where you get a lot of picks and a lot of cool stuff. And we vet these picks, so I’m not just giving it to you blind. Even if there’s a pick that I see somebody recommend, we’re looking at the research on it, and if I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I might not have a pick that week, or we might just shift to something that Daniel and I were looking at that we like. But it really is a cool newsletter, especially if you don’t have any products or services. But that’s like a starter kit. And you’ll see how it reflects on what we’re saying on Wall Street Unplugged. And again, I made sure that it was really cheap; this way, so many people could afford it. And hopefully, you guys take advantage of it. It’s really cool. It’s probably going to be its own standalone service soon, like just its whole division.

Frank Curzio: We might branch out because I think we can really sell this to new investors and millennials and stuff like that, so I’m really, really excited. And I want to thank Daniel for doing a lot, a lot of the work behind the scenes on that, which is cool, and stuff you don’t see. But I want to thank you, Daniel, for that. I really appreciate it, buddy.

Daniel Creech: Oh, absolutely.

Frank Curzio: All right guys, that’s it for me. Hopefully, you enjoyed the podcast. Expect a really cool guest on for next week. Again, away for two days, and the first trip that I’m taking, and I’ll come back with any good findings from this site that I’m going to see and talking to very, very influential people, one very influential person. Follow me on social media. You’ll probably see a couple pictures and stuff like that. I’m not going to mention the company I’m seeing because I don’t know if I’m recommending it yet. That’s why I’m going there. I have to do the boots-on-the-ground research and really take a look and meet everyone involved, because everybody talks a big game from the CEO side, but we have to make sure. And I want to make sure by going to these sites and making sure I’m busting my ass for you guys and doing that research before I recommend anything to you.

Frank Curzio: So anyway, I want to thank you so much for listening. As always, I really appreciate all of your support. And I’ll see you guys in seven days. Take care.

Announcer: The information presented on Wall Street Unplugged is the opinion of its hosts and guests. You should not base your investment decisions solely on this broadcast. Remember, it’s your money and your responsibility. Wall Street Unplugged, produced by the Choose Yourself Podcast Network. The leader in podcasts produced to help you choose yourself.