A digital equivalence to cash Federal Reserve board governor lowell brain ard said given the dollars Important Role it is essential that the Federal Reserve remain on the frontier of research and policy development regarding c. B. C. s but many are questioning its safety and whether or not it will actually bypass Central Banks well for more on this were joined by ben so on and Christiane I Ben lets start with you because this is something that weve talked about multiple times on this show that the fed will soon attempt to create its own Digital Currency now i think its fair to say this move doesnt catch you as a surprise break down what this could look like would we have a digital wallet separate from your regular Bank Accounts well essentially thats probably what would happen i guess thats what theyre trying to get in my teeth to take a look at whats fascinating about this is the feds terminology ive been saying for well over a year the fed was going to do this its. Point very soon in fact i think i even said it this week and yet here we are at this moment where the fed is saying well were going to create a hypothetical Digital Currency is not hypothetical they dont even talk like that right thats ridiculous terminology the reality is the fed knows that its way behind the rest of the world in this way behind the cryptocurrency boom that has taken place since 2013 with the advent of big going and then moving forward from there and so theyre trying to catch up now while pretending what were checking safety were checking security no theyre not what theyre trying to do is theyre trying to figure out how to develop a Digital Currency and then once theyve created that currency to make it the only game in town because i guarantee you the fed has no interest in being a competing Digital Currency they want to be the only Digital Currency certainly in the United States and good luck to them right now when you watch whats happening with big coing now on the rise again headed back towards 12000. 00 and probably from there so i think its going to be an interesting kind of process to watch this happen but theres a 2 to 3 years thats an eternity in the lifespan of Digital Currency that gives a big a chance to go even higher but kristie you 2 have been very critical of this idea as Government Back to jail currencies are not the same thing as crypto currencies are you weary of this move by the. Extremely this is a very very concerning because the entire point of crypto currency was to have Financial Freedom and bypassed the central bank as a whole so now its c. B. C. s us centrally or something going to counter the exact same problems that we currently have with the us youre going to be subject to the manipulations by the central bank whether or not they want to tighten or loosen their Monetary Policy theyre going to be subject to any of the intermediaries when it comes to transferring and making payments its going to be the exact same thing except even worse because every single action every single payment is now going to be monitored and scrutinized and traced so this goes against everything that could the currency currently stands for because banks will have full control over every single penny that you own. Block any transaction for any reason at all so access to your money can be blocked with the click of a button when and if banks need clarification from you which will take weeks thousands of questions and thousands of passwords so essentially the government will decide what you can or cannot purchase so like how many of us have bought alcohol under age if we were to be honest probably all of us at this point thats just one very harmless example but expand that and just imagine the freedom that will be stripped away once every single transaction once every action is being monitored and being okayed or denied so that is the reality of the c. B. C. Ok break this down for us because i also heard then that youre going to get some money in this Digital Currency the basically the Federal Reserve would give you money essentially to spend and control even what sectors that money is going to be a risk that could be a very big risk because that means that money that they give you is going to be deemed appropriate or not appropriate for every single action so you do not have any control or freedom or what you want to purchase so thats basically someone telling you hey this is money but you can only spend it for these items whether its for food or entertainment whatever but you cant spend money that you earn for any other reason other than the reason that they provide you with so this is essentially coming from your bank account stilling to your bank account but youre still looking or might be told are controlled where where you can take your money essentially spend your money as a consumer exactly which is a violation of every single kind of freedom that we currently enjoy right whatever happened to the free market then go ahead i was going to say but keep in mind too so thats and i agree with everything chris you say thats the negative side of it right but whats the Positive Side of all this with the Positive Side if there is one is that where did big come from burst out of a rebellion to the big system the Banking System that said well control how much money you have. Where you place it the value in return will control what kind of transactions take place where its into what parts of the world get your money and so the controls that were created through the Banking System birthed the idea of big point right which was lets remove the banks and go to a peer to peer system so well i think christie is absolutely right that this is what government wants to do with their Digital Currencies out of that births even more rebellion if you will on the financial front the economic front of people saying so what are the systems where we can opt out and get away from that greater control the tighter government squeezes is always going to have more people who now slip through your fingers because they dont want that kind of control and heres one more positive that i could think of right now during the pandemic the sectors that are struggling and suffering what about money instead you should spend it here or there to help the factories that are hurting most right. No i disagree i mean listen thats a great you say it in a very noble way yes but freedom means that i make that choice you dont know dont dictate it to me you dont see me in that direction i might be here i understand but then what what would this movie actually mean for the existing crypto currencies like that coin or even if the area well i think number one its going to give more credence to big coin theory and its going to give more credence to all crypto currency because what its saying is that you are in fact ahead of the curve if you get into this space because now governments around the world are chase scene youre theyre chasing where youve been and those actions the problem is going to be when government decides it doesnt want competition because theres nothing government hates more than competition and so what theyre going to want to do is is a limit access to these other crypto but i think its there were too far down the road to that is this what it becomes as an economic revolution do you go back and now say all crypto currencies are deal with generalized except for the ones that we create with your grip those are just digital or deal with generalized and so i think what happens is maybe even as a rebellion to that comes about some form of cash back into society that people use in order to trade because that becomes less traceable right i cant imagine a world where the Cashless Society and to be honest kristie how does this move a fact iris policy theyre refusing to recognize crypto currencies as currencies when the fed is attempting to create the very same thing and then calling it money themselves well its really not the same thing because crypto currency is what threatens the existence and the 1st place so of course they are as in effect of course they will not acknowledge crypto currency as that is quite a theory of any type of all quite as legitimate legal tender their competitors this new Digital Currency that the fed wants to develop that while it utilizes watching technology it is nothing more than just a digital representation of the dollar its the actual antithesis of what it currently means to be a corrupt a currency as it is a centrally backed unit of exchange essentially. Basically a digital representation of the dollar thats absolutely no different than the current alley bucks system which is a reward that you get on alley pay right now. Very interesting conversation here thank you so much for breaking it down for us it might take 2 to 3 years but im sure this conversation will continue to keep going but west coast pencil thanks for being with us. Here. The pandemic has hit nearly every single factor in the economy but there is one that no ones really talking about lumber thats causing prices to skyrocket on some pretty high demand which means your home remodel may take longer than expected arties john how do you take that the problem. The coded 19 pandemic has impacted everything from cruise lines to construction and its hitting americas lumber industry hard as well while Single Family home demand has actually jumped during the pandemic with new Single Family home sales rising 14 percent in june and new home sales up 3 percent in the 1st half of 2020 the average cost of lumber is skyrocketing according to the National Association of Home Builders average lumber prices because of lumber shortages due to the pandemic have surged 80 percent since mid april 2020 from a low of 348. 00 per 1000 board feet to 627. 00 per 1000 board feet as of july 31st and that could ultimately push the cost of the new home even higher construction has remained an essential service in the u. S. And homeowners have renewed Home Improvement jobs during the pandemic lock down according to Industry Research thats the good news the bad news is the n h b says the sharp increases in lumber and home prices are unsustainable this home depot in miami is pretty well stocked with lumber but i am also seeing that some of the shelves are empty. While the home depot and lowes reported an increase in revenue during the pandemic the lumber shortage is now reportedly resulting in empty. Shelves in many parts of the u. S. And in august 7th letter to President Trump and a h. P. C. E. O. Gerald howard asked the president for help in urging domestic lumber producers to increase output while negotiating a new lumber trade agreement with canada writing quote housings potential for growth and to lead the economy forward is limited as long as lumber remains expensive in scarce and the ramifications for job growth are significant housing can do its part to create jobs and lead the economy forward but in order to do so we need to address skyrocketing lumber prices and chronic shortages all this leading to a question is this the construction boom before the bust for boom bust john hardy. In russia the molex is up for the week after the nation pushed out its kovan 1000 vaccine but also Russian Oil Exports to the United States actually doubled in the 1st half of 2020 this was despite demand issues due to the pandemic lets move to asian markets where were seeing more green arrows the shanghai composite finished the week just above consumer shares lead gains at the end of the week even though chinas retail sales for july they actually fell slightly from the prior year missing analyst expectations and hong kong the hang seng rebounded after 4 straight weeks of losses Chinese Industrial output jumped 4. 8 percent which helped that push banking real estate and airlines also helped with some of those gains in japan the nikkei is also up pushing 6 month highs this week real estate railway and bus shares while they all saw some pretty strong gains and we see our 1st red arrow of the week in india where the sensex actually fell over one percent on friday alone auto and fred. Dragged down by index now in australia the a. S. X. Is up for the week the country reported a 22 year high Unemployment Rate of 7. 5 percent now the index actually went up on friday on hopes of that us stimulus in south africa the all shares also up this week it was actually closed on monday for a National Holiday but an increase in gold did push the sector up and the Mining Sector even higher but we perform and banking pushed the index down on friday and lets move over to europe and the americas where were seeing some pretty similar trends here we have 3 green arrows in europe where the footsie is up on the week despite the u. K. s plunge in g. D. P. By 20. 4 percent for the 2nd quarter of 2020 tourism is down as the country added france and the netherlands to its quarantine list the german dax and the cac following similar trends here both with a slightly positive week but failing actually are falling on weak Economic Data from both the u. K. And china and brazil the evo best buy is actually in the red for relatively balanced 1. 5 percent earlier in the week as the Services Sector saw some gains in june this was the 1st time in 5 months now lets move north where the b. M. V. In mexico also another green arrow the bank of mexico key Interest Rate for the 5th time this year to 4. 5 percent its hitting 4 year lows though in the u. S. The s. And p. And the dow are actually in the green where the nasdaq is actually in the red this comes as lawmakers theyre stalling on the next Coronavirus Relief packages well new unemployment claims fell below 1000000 last week this actually helped bolster the market a little bit and finally in canada where the t. S. R. Is down for the week Energy Stocks really helped push that index up on friday but it still was a. Enough to make up for those losses that they saw earlier in the week now Canadian Housing starts actually rose by 15 percent in july pointing to that positive recovery and as weve seen for the last few weeks down markets theyre going to continue to keep an eye on the latest u. S. Coronavirus relief package and even more of acting Development News and that is a Global Market walk. Time now for a quick break but when we return michigan unveiled its plan for the future of the auto sector but how long before we actually see the plans come to fruition well talk to lauren fix the car coach in just a moment as we go to break here the numbers are. As the u. S. Economy was booming growing numbers of people. You can work 40 hours in a week and still not have enough to get housing everybody believes america still has the lead up to the reality of those who were not financially equality and then that can flow to the mounting living minimum wage give many people new choice you know theres been a problem with the city knows turn to richard and told me stay away i dont need this whole to this is stuff this will do that there is no way its because you know its the records these thoughts. Are abandoned on the streets to become invisible clubs. Is youll be a reflection of reality. In the world transformed. What will make you feel safe. Isolation it will get you to treat. You. You going the right way or are you being led. By. What is true. Is faith. In the world corrupted you need to descend. To join us in the depths. Aura maybe the shallow. Illustrations but its put to them not mr but just tell them. Which never. Hurts you march. For the. Rest. Of. You push too much think its become much more some. Automakers like bokes wagon General Motors and even ford while theyre racing to develop the most cutting edge self driving cars but in fords latest push to market itself as the leader in the autonomy as Car Development the company is unveiling its plan for a road to the future arties turn a chavez has more. Despite a global slowdown Driverless Cars are gaining speed and automakers are betting billions that its hot on this vehicle is what we need to get. Again while company is even taking steps on educating the community about the future of transportation. It looks like the state of michigan is getting a make over well 40 miles of it at least thats because the state along with some private partners are paving the way by assigning dedicated lanes for Automated Vehicles on a 40 mile stretch of highway between where else but the motor city and ann arbor the vehicles would be linked to a central Computer System and would share data from sensors along the roadway and other vehicles coordinating their speeds and allowing them to travel faster than regular traffic making travel faster safer and more accessible the project is being led by cab new and infrastructure startup along with the support of ford General Motors as well as out of its driverless car subsidiary we know theyre set to begin with a 2 year study to figure out whether existing lanes or shoulders could be used or new lanes need to be built as well as how to handle wildlife for humans in train the dedicated lanes Companies Like microsoft amazon and argo ai are already enlisted to help create next level Driverless Cars but their vans been so deployed fully self driving cars have fallen short some Industry Experts believe the Ambitious Initiative in michigan would be the next practical step in making self driving vehicles a reality and because that reality might be happening sooner than later the Michigan Science Center is taking steps to educate the public about autonomy Vehicle Technology the institution announcing his partnership with ford motors to create the centers 1st autonomy vehicle exhibit that allows people to sit and learn about the technology through interactive displays and simulation while Chinese Media has reported on a similar project on a new freeway in china and others have proposed similar ventures in the u. S. Industry experts say the michigan project would be the 1st in the u. S. Reporting for boom bust Trinity Chavez r. T. For more on the Auto Industry lets bring in the car coach lauren fix lauren good to see you now we just heard trying to report on michigans plan to to assigning dedicate the lanes to the. Thomas vehicles is the u. S. Ready for this. Well i do know how the traffic goes between ann arbor in detroit and its always backed up so taking away one of the regular traffic lanes to go just Autonomous Vehicles could be very frustrating to consumers because obviously youre forcing them to be backed up but i think that what ford has been doing and this is a lot of people know this is theyve had their own autonomous campus where theyve been testing things for years and so have other manufacturers and so that they now own argo a b. And because of that they are trying to utilize that company to get to market quicker than anyone else there are still 5 hurdles before youre going to see them as cars hit the market we may never see them because the biggest hurdle is the weather and that can happen any time as we all know but the other one that is an issue is hackers and there is no fire wall today that any manufacturers been able to put together even the consortium of them in germany to block these potential hackers plus youve got government regulations and Insurance Regulations well and officials are saying that this wouldnt be for a few couple of years several years actually you mentioned a little bit about the hocking is the Technology Even safer this. Well they can produce self driving cars they have since 2009 ive actually been in a self driving car and gone from. The west coast to las vegas for a treat show but the only problem that i see is one consumers have to be ready for it and thats a big hurdle and i know they can produce these cars today they can absolutely produced self driving cars but our consumer do Consumers Want it and can we clear all those government regulations and that is a big issue well lets turn to to michigan whos seen a long history of this leading innovation and the Auto Industry specifically just like the various other sectors the Auto Industry its been flan by the pandemic and the 2nd quarter of this year and actually revenue fell by by half at General Motors ford and auto suppliers like. Cooper standard is this new version of ford is this part of this innovation to try to help. Where you ford and all the other manufacturers are all working together to try and get Autonomous Cars again the biggest problem with coated the impact to the Auto Industry at least in the u. S. That well mostly globally was getting parts out of china because you cant produce a car thats only 99 Percent Complete on top of that theyre still trying to ramp in back up to get product to market so its going to take them a while to catch up i think by the fall youll see the 4th quarter for auto sales will start to improve and globally youre starting to watch that happen as well. Obviously comes a pretty hefty price tag were talking about a lot of money thats supposed to go into this with these the auto sector already struggling and be hit by the pandemic whos in a position to actually fund these projects. Were going to see funding coming from from literally every where youre in the auto manufacturers Investment Groups i know china has invested a lot of that for their country as well but theres going to be a lot of investors because who doesnt want to miss that next potentially big thing once we clear at least the bulk of these hurdles i think you will see a lot of these type of shuttles happening on College Campuses and places where we can guarantee that theres less traffic and a safer way to travel and big tack do you see them cooperating as well. Absolutely because theres a lot of money to be had here because if all these Big Companies are getting involved youve got bell helicopters involved boeings involved everybody is investing in this because who doesnt want to be 1st to market everybody wants to be 1st to market absolutely especially with such an evasive technology lets turn it over to china where they actually saw a pick up in sales in the month of july will the country reported an increase of 37. 7 percent on that month thats from a year earlier thats a huge increase for them how important is this to chinas overall economy. Oh its very important the Auto Industry number one industry for china across the globe as far as automotive is china outsell the u. S. Marketplace and when covert hit obviously they were purchasing vehicles but now theyre getting ramping back up and youre watching people purchase vehicles there was a shortage on electric vehicles that people werent buying them because they reduce the incentive and when the government wasnt involved in assisting in the purchase consumers went back to looking at gasoline or diesel powered vehicles but it looks like eveys are starting to pick up there is a problem with getting enough infrastructure so theyre Building Nuclear power plants in china and that is jobs which means people have money to buy cars so i think its starting to ramp back up and china will probably get back to more normal numbers before other countries do. This could be part of their v. Shaped recovery that were seeing the auto sector we know the United States employs and makes up a huge number of the g. D. P. As it does in several other countries around the world and that sector has definitely been hit pretty hard by the pandemic with all these sales though that were starting to possibly see a little bit of an increase in the auto sector it means all the help it can get lauren fix the car coach thank you again for being with us and breaking all this down. Thank you. Can be a sense of confort when were having a bad day or just trying to get through the Global Pandemic well good news because this air b. N. B. May feel like a time machine back to the ninetys with a last blockbuster is being rented out with a living room set get this its full of snacks a pull out couch and even a v. C. R. With enough ninetys movies to keep you up through the night well the listing says that youll have the entire space to yourself so turn up the volume as you crawl up in your pajamas or puffy starter jacket the only catch is you have to be a resident of bend urged to shoot county in oregon its not clear if it will be open to the rest of us later on. Thats it for this time catch us on demand on the brand new portable t. V. Which is available on smartphones and tablets through google play and the Apple App Store by searching portable t. V. Portable t. V. Can also be downloaded on newer models of Samsung Smart t. V. s as well as devices or simply check it out a portable the t. V. Thats kind of your financial survival guide. That you can convert. To keep in mind to place. Because. Of this connection to mom im glad that i ask for the last 70 and seeing and on the day today for the rights Promotion Commission sue the merchant ships the. Disc in the. Asian community the mommy. Teaching mom. And i dont look are so set on the open to much fame the mamma says that are. Brussels threaten sanctions over by the roosters heavy handed response to antigovernment protests minsk in turn says it will cut all ties with the e. U. The german state of bavaria apologizes after failing to tell 900 people they had because growing a virus comes as countries across europe see covert infections spike. U. K. Holiday makers scramble to get home after france is added to britains coronavirus quarantine list but with only a few hours notice given it sparks chaos for travelers. Over. The students the. Way there was no