Ric's Review of the Hottest Election Issue: Immigration & Border Security

Plus, why stock prices can go down so dramatically in one day

Ric Edelman: It's Thursday, October 24th. We're going to tackle one of the top issues that American voters have today. Immigration and border security, all part of my 34 topics that we're covering across these 19 podcasts in an effort to help me decide how to move from undecided to decided. But before we get into immigration and border security, here's a question I got from Ramon.

He's in Brooklyn, New York

Ramon: “Can you explain what causes markets to go down? When the market suddenly drops big time, it means that lots of investors sell a lot of their shares all on the same day. We're probably talking about not just billions, but trillions of dollars. Now the question is, if somebody sells, that means somebody else buys.

So, if there are both sellers and buyers, why does the stock go down? How does that happen? How does it work in real life?”

Ric Edelman: Yeah, Ramon, your question makes a lot of sense. And then people will simplistically say, oh, it's supply-demand. But it's really a little bit deeper than that. I mean, you do fundamentally get the supply-demand thing, but you're asking a logical question.

So, what's the answer? It's real simple. Although the numbers of buyers and sellers are the same and the number of shares they are buying and selling is the same. In other words, I'm selling, your buying. There's one of each of us. I'm selling a hundred shares. You are buying a hundred shares, same number of shares.

What causes the share price to go up or down? It's real simple. Right now, let's say that security XYZ is selling for $100 per share and I own 100 shares and I want to sell them. And you come along and you say, I'd like to buy them. But I don't feel like paying $100 a share.

I'll give you $80. And I'm saying to myself, but I really want $100. In fact, I’d really like $101. I don't want to give 'em to you for just $80. That's where you and I have to negotiate. If I really think that I can find somebody else to pay me $101, I'm gonna go look for somebody else. But if I can't find the somebody else, all I got is you.

And I really do need to sell because maybe I need the liquidity, maybe have bills to pay. I have who knows what going on in my life and I just need to sell, then I'm going to agree to sell to you for $80. And you're going to agree to buy for $80. That's what the open marketplace is. That's what capitalism is all about, the free market system.

And that's how it works in real life. Now you multiply this by my simple example of you and me to millions of investors, all around the world, all working together in sync simultaneously to derive the price of that security at this very moment.

So, if you watch the ticker of any given stock on CNBC, or on Yahoo Finance or whatever site you choose to go to, Reuters or Bloomberg or, you name it, you'll see the price changing moment by moment. And that's because the investors are negotiating with each other moment by moment. It's really that simple. That's how it works in real life.

Okay. Let's move on to our topic today, immigration and border security. This is without a doubt, one of the top two most significant political issues, according to every poll that has been done throughout this election season. The economy is the other one.

And, that's what we're going to tackle today. I have received, as I have been telling you, a huge number of emails from my listeners. Thank you so much. I continue to get more every single day. I read them all and I share with you a great many of them. And as I told you at the very beginning of this series, a couple of weeks ago, it's still true today, of all the emails that I'm getting from all of the people who are writing into me.

The tally is 50-50. The vote is split among those who are writing to me. I had expressed earlier some surprise at that. I just had assumed that being a money- based conversation, that it would be therefore more conservative-based audience, but that has proven not to be the case, at least by judging from the emails that I'm getting.

Half of you are supporting Trump, half of you are supporting Harris. And that is true, even to today with the new emails that I'm continuing to get daily, with one very notable exception. Of all the emails that I've gotten, one of the most talked about topics is immigration. The other one was the economy and not a single email that I have received on immigration and border security, has been favorable to Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. Every single one has either been favorable about Donald Trump or highly critical of Biden-Harris. So let me just share with you some of the emails. I'm not going to play very many because it'll get redundant. So let me first start off with this email that I received from George in Delaware.

George: “Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have allowed 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants into the country. They allowed fentanyl to be smuggled into the country, which is killing about 100,000 Americans each year. She stopped building the wall at the southern border. She supports decriminalizing illegal immigration. She opposes deportation of illegal aliens. She supports taxpayer funded health care for illegal aliens.”

Ric Edelman: And now, on the other side of the country, here is Ron. He's in California.

Ron: “Donald Trump doesn't hate immigrants. He hates illegal aliens with criminal and violent backgrounds and terrorists who come here to do us harm. Securing the border is the first step. We welcome good, educated, productive immigrants so criminals don't take over.”

Ric Edelman: Next, we've got Henry from Wyoming.

Henry: “Harris is the border czar, but she let 10 million immigrants enter illegally.”

Ric Edelman: And finally, the last one I'll share with you, Paul. Here's what he wrote to me.

Paul: “The human suffering at our southern border is beyond comprehension. Over 300,000 children have been lost by this administration. The drug cartels are making billions of dollars by charging refugees for escort across the border. Fentanyl is killing tens of thousands, yet we do nothing to stop the flow.

We are being asked to accommodate and integrate 12 plus million immigrants in a short period of time. Immigrants are placed in towns throughout the country with little or no notice. Kamala was the border czar for three years and has done nothing.”

Ric Edelman: So these four folks, thank you so much for your comments, are highly representative of the emails I have received on the topic of immigration and border security. I think that it is obvious. There is nobody I believe in this country who is capable or willing to endorse the performance of Kamala Harris as border czar, or of Joe Biden, as president in the management of the border, across our southern states. And that's why I think every Democrat, every liberal, every Kamala supporter has been totally silent on this issue in all of the emails they send to me and all the reasons they give me for supporting Kamala, nobody raises the border.

Clearly Kamala has failed. She was the border czar. In 2021, early in his presidency, Joe Biden appointed Kamala to head the border immigration issue. This is the single issue that she was specifically tasked with heading and she failed miserably. But why?

Quite frankly, my perspective: It's because she has had no executive experience. Let me just run through the numbers with you. We have had 46 presidents of the United States since our founding, very first of course, George Washington. Of the 46 presidents, 12 of them were governors before becoming president. Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, James Polk, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. 12 of them were governors.

They got extensive executive experience in government. 10 of our presidents were military leaders. George Washington, of course. Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush. All of them had prominent military records. Many downright war heroes.

Five of our 46 presidents were both governors and military leaders. Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, James Monroe, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Teddy Roosevelt. Two others are technically in this category. They were both governors and military. That's Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, but I discount them because Reagan's military service was really administrative during the war, and Bush was never in combat. He was in the Texas Air National Guard, but never served in combat. But nevertheless, they were both governors.

So, all told of our 46 presidents, 14 of them were governors. 10 of them were military leaders. Five of them were both. That's 29 out of 46, nearly two thirds of our presidents throughout the past 200 plus years were governors or military leaders. Check this out. Out of the 46 presidents, 11 of them were one term presidents. Meaning, we didn't like them, and we threw them out of office. We failed to reelect them. 11 of the 46 were one-termers.

Of the 11 one-termers, 8 of them were neither a governor nor a military leader. In other words, 8 of the 11, who we didn't like, had no prior experience running a government. Or running military operations. In fact, some of them were among the worst presidents in history. John Adams, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, no government leadership experience, either as governor or running a military operation.

Oh, by the way, there are three others in this category where they were not a governor, nor in the military leadership, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. What does that tell you?

Are we setting up Kamala Harris to be a failure as president? Because she was never a governor. She doesn't have any military leadership experience. And guess what? She was elected to the Senate only once, in 2016, and she didn't even serve a full term.  Because she immediately decided to run for president in 2019. And she was the first to drop out of the race before I think there was even a single primary.

Yet, nevertheless, she was appointed VP by Joe Biden. Her executive experience from all press accounts that I've seen…it's been awful. She apparently is a horrible boss. In her three years as Vice President, 92% of her staff quit. Only four out of 47 who started with her in 2021 are still there. She had the same problem apparently when she was District Attorney and Attorney General and Senator.

And this really irks me as a business owner. You know, Jean and I started our business in our 20s. And we ran our company for 30 plus years and we did everything we could to give our staff a safe, secure environment that gave them respect and career growth and opportunity. We had voluntary turnover, meaning people who just quit, they weren't fired, they quit…less than 3% percent a year.

In our 32 years of running our financial planning practice, not a single financial planner ever left to join another firm. We fired a few over the years, three died horror, sadly, and several retired, but no financial advisor ever left to go join a competitor. That's unheard of in the financial services industry, where turnover is about 25% a year at the big firms. We won multiple “best places to work” awards.

We worked really hard at creating a family-friendly respectful workplace. And so when I see that 92% of her staff quit and news reports of her having a toxic workplace in every workplace she led as District Attorney in San Francisco, as AG in California, at the U S Senate and now as VP, I'm just like, I have to wonder, is she capable of running an effective organization that can get things done? No wonder she totally failed as border czar.

And if she couldn't succeed at running just that, how can I believe she'll succeed at running the whole country? And none of this speaks to the failure itself of immigration and border security. President Biden, like I said, gave her the assignment early on back in 2021. He said at the time, and I quote, “She is the most qualified person to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern triangle in stemming the movement of so many folks to our Southern border.”

Really? She was the most qualified person? She had absolutely no experience with Mexico or Central America or South America. She made a very famous statement to migrants when she took the job. She said, quote, “Do not come. If you come to our border, you will be turned back.” That's what she said.

And guess what? Nobody was turned back. 10 million undocumented immigrants crossed the border over the past three years. I don't think anybody anywhere, not any Democrat, not any independent, not any undecided like me. I don't think anyone anywhere gives Kamala Harris any credit for her performance on the immigration and border security issue.

And here's the thing. On most topics where Donald Trump bashes her, he's really bashing Biden. He's trying to sweep her under his rug, because that's what you do when you're campaigning. I mean, Joe Biden has been president these past four years. When Trump bashes Kamala, he's really bashing Biden, not her. She's just been the VP. And we all know that vice presidents have little to no say in what the presidents actually do. So, whenever I hear Trump criticizing Kamala Harris because of stuff the Harris-Biden administration did, I take all that with a grain of salt.  But on the border issue, that was hers. Biden handed it to her and told her to fix it, and she failed in every respect.

Meanwhile, we saw how stern Trump has been on immigration. Well, we saw what he did when he was president. No question he'll do it again. There's no question he's going to be stern. He's talking about deporting 10, 12 million illegal immigrants. And he says, in fact, it's going to be bloody. That's a little scary if you ask me, but nevertheless, Trump managed the borders far more effectively than Kamala Harris.

Clearly on this topic. I vote for Trump, not Harris. And her broader performance as a boss, where she gave us some pretty clear evidence of her performance as a boss on the border issue, and more broadly with her staff turnover, gives me real pause about naming her the commander-in-chief and the executive-in-chief of our nation.

Tomorrow…transportation and infrastructure.

And if you missed yesterday's webinar on longevity, a fascinating conversation with Nate Conrad, the head of LifeX. If you're worried about running out of money before you run out of life, hear the innovative solution that we talked about yesterday with Nate. It's really worth paying attention to. If you missed the webinar, we've got an encore replay opportunity for you. The link to it's in your show notes. Watch it whenever you like it's free. I encourage you to check it out. And I'll see you tomorrow when we talk about transportation and infrastructure.

If you like what you're hearing, be sure to follow and subscribe to the show, wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and remember leave a review on Apple podcasts. I read them all. Never miss an episode of The Truth About Your Future. Follow and subscribe on your favorite podcast app.  

I'll see you tomorrow.

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Links from today’s show:  

Click here for Ric's worksheet to help you evaluate the candidates

The 34 Issues of Election 2024 – The Daily Podcasts https://thetayf.com/blogs/this-weeks-stories/tagged/election-2024

Kamala Harris Official Campaign Website Policy Page: https://www.kamalaharris.com/issues/

Donald Trump Official Campaign Website Policy Page: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform

11/13 Webinar - An Innovative Way to Generate Income in a World of Declining Rates: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/november-13-2024-an-innovative-way-to-generate-income

10/9 Webinar Replay- Crypto for RIAs: Yield, Staking, Lending and Custody. What’s beyond the ETFs? https://dacfp.com/events/crypto-for-rias-yield-staking-lending-and-custody-whats-beyond-the-etfs/

Certified in Blockchain and Digital Assets including Crypto Taxation Course/Webinar: https://dacfp.com/certification/

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