Ron Paul Liberty Report - Another Fed Rate Hike In A World Where Rates Must Be Set By The Market
Aired: 2022-12-16
Duration: 25:00


=== Inflation's Aggressive Return (14:49) ===

[00:00:22]  With us today is Chris Rossini, our co-host.
[00:00:24]  Chris, welcome to the program.
[00:00:26]  Great to be with you, Dr. Paul.
[00:00:28]  Chris, once again, we are honored by the presence of the economist from Birch Gold.
[00:00:35]  He's been with us several times.
[00:00:36]  Now, Philip Patrick is here, and he has a lot of explaining to do.
[00:00:43]  I don't understand what's going on in these markets, and I've been looking at them for 30 years.
[00:00:47]  So Philip is going to straighten us out and explain all the problems going on.
[00:00:52]  Philip, welcome to our program again.
[00:00:55]  Thank you so much for having me, guys.
[00:00:57]  It's an honor, as always.
[00:00:58]  Very good.
[00:00:59]  Philip, I want to start off with talking a little bit about the Fed, because they are big in the news, not only this week, but eternally.
[00:01:08]  The Fed has been an issue, a big issue since 1913, certainly since the middle 30s, certainly since 1971, and all the tragedies that have occurred with our dollar.
[00:01:22]  But this week was very, very active, and they were doing things, and I thought it was fascinating.
[00:01:29]  They said that they would lower the rate of decrease of increase in the interest rate because their solution to a weak economy is raise interest rates.
[00:01:39]  And the whole thing is fallacious.
[00:01:41]  And I want to address the subject, and you're good at this, is where did they get this authority?
[00:01:47]  Is it a good idea that we think, and so many trillions of dollars depends on a few words by a Federal Reserve, like, oh, next week we are going to do this, and boom, boom, boom, the money exchanges.
[00:02:01]  I just think it's a rather fragile system.
[00:02:05]  But tell us what you thought about this week.
[00:02:09]  Did you get any reassurance that we're on a road to recovery and everybody's going to be happy next year?
[00:02:15]  Sadly not, Dr. Paul.
[00:02:17]  It was a little bizarre.
[00:02:18]  I mean, this Fed telegraphs more so than other Federal Reserves have.
[00:02:24]  And I think most people were expecting a 50 basis point rate hike.
[00:02:28]  But it was a little surprising or a little strange, I should say.
[00:02:31]  The whole point of these rate hikes ultimately is to lower inflation.
[00:02:34]  And rates hikes now are slowing, even though inflation isn't really, right?
[00:02:40]  We've seen a small reduction in overall inflation, right?
[00:02:43]  It came down from 7.7 to 7.1.
[00:02:46]  But when you delve into the numbers, it gets a little bit more concerning.
[00:02:50]  So core inflation, which is everything outside of food and energy, was up about 6% year over year.
[00:02:57]  The only metric within core inflation that reduced was used cars.
[00:03:01]  And of course, that's because prices had gotten so high, they had to come down.
[00:03:06]  Outside of core inflation, it was energy that saw the real reduction, about 1.6%.
[00:03:12]  Food prices, however, up.
[00:03:14]  So what it's showing us, I think, is that the Fed really don't have a handle on inflation, right?
[00:03:20]  What's come down, energy and used cars.
[00:03:22]  What's gone up?
[00:03:23]  The essentials, food, shelter.
[00:03:25]  So taken all together, I think the Fed have a lot of work to do.
[00:03:29]  And of course, the strong employment numbers we're seeing, I think are still working against them.
[00:03:35]  Chris, do you have a question for Philip?
[00:03:37]  Yes, Philip, great to see you again.
[00:03:40]  I wanted to talk about inflation targets because it's so ridiculous.
[00:03:44]  Even the idea that targets exist, I mean, nobody gave the Fed any taxing authority over us, whereas they want to steal 2% of our purchasing power, as a matter of fact.
[00:03:58]  And that was for years.
[00:04:00]  Oh, we want to get 2%, 2%.
[00:04:02]  Then it shot up to, it's probably 15% now.
[00:04:06]  Correct.
[00:04:07]  And now they're just talking about, oh, we just need new targets, new higher targets.
[00:04:11]  I mean, so I thought of an analogy.
[00:04:14]  What if the government, you know, and we believe that the income tax itself is theft.
[00:04:18]  You know, so if we pay 35% income tax and one day they just take 75%, would we just accept, oh, sorry, we overshot this year.
[00:04:29]  We'll try to bring it down to 50.
[00:04:31]  I mean, can you just talk about this whole charade called inflation targets?
[00:04:36]  I mean, it's absurd, right?
[00:04:38]  Particularly where you can just move the goalpost.
[00:04:40]  It's like me not achieving our company's targets and saying, well, let's just lower the target.
[00:04:45]  That way we achieve it.
[00:04:46]  It's nonsensical.
[00:04:48]  Look, the Fed is, as you know well, have a dual mandate to maintain maximum employment and that 2% target.
[00:04:54]  For me, it's not going to be achievable for the foreseeable future.
[00:04:59]  I think the Fed are really pinned into a corner here.
[00:05:02]  They can raise rates, and I think next year when the reality that they really haven't got a grip on inflation kicks in, they're going to have to get more aggressive with the raising of interest rates.
[00:05:12]  But the problem, as we've discussed before, I don't know how aggressive they can.
[00:05:16]  And it has a significant effect on the federal government.
[00:05:19]  Let's not forget with $31 trillion in debt, every time the interest rate goes up 1%, that adds $310 billion in debt service.
[00:05:31]  That alone accounts for a massive category of government spending.
[00:05:35]  A 1% raise equates to our Medicaid outlays.
[00:05:39]  2% are defense spending, which is colossal compared to other nations.
[00:05:43]  And 3% Social Security.
[00:05:46]  I don't think they're going to be able to raise rates enough to really slow the inflation.
[00:05:50]  And I think the 2% target is a pipe dream for a long, long time.
[00:05:56]  Very good, Philip.
[00:05:59]  You know, the timing of all this is a big problem because the markets move quickly.
[00:06:07]  So the Fed only has to say a couple words and the markets can shift and trillions of dollars can be bought or sold or whatever.
[00:06:14]  So it doesn't make any sense.
[00:06:16]  And I think one of the basic problems is this idea that you can plan an economy.
[00:06:21]  You can raise interest rates a certain point and then you know what's going to happen and they make these calculations.
[00:06:27]  And so now when somebody gets a PhD in economics, you have to learn these mathematical equations that's going to perceive the human action of billions of people who are dealing in the market.
[00:06:40]  And so what the Fed does, of course, is the best thing, and they can get away with it as long.
[00:06:45]  Well, keep interest rates low.
[00:06:47]  Prices aren't going to go up immediately.
[00:06:50]  And the people love it.
[00:06:52]  But that locked into place.
[00:06:54]  So someday, that artificial manipulation of interest rates is going to give us this downturn, which always comes.
[00:07:02]  But then they're in a dilemma.
[00:07:03]  The downturn occurs and they achieve at least their 2% price inflation that they want.
[00:07:09]  And it turns out to be 10% price inflation.
[00:07:13]  And then what do they have to offer?
[00:07:15]  Can they recalculate?
[00:07:16]  No, the market is more powerful than they are.
[00:07:20]  So what they do is they say, the only thing we can do is stop this boom that we created.
[00:07:27]  Give the people a recession or depression.
[00:07:30]  That'll solve our problem.
[00:07:31]  How crazy could that get?
[00:07:34]  I mean, it is absolutely absurd.
[00:07:36]  And we've seen this.
[00:07:37]  Listen, Federal Reserve policy, quantitative easing, government spending has driven massive bubbles in the economy, right?
[00:07:46]  And the old saying is what goes up must come down, particularly when that growth was not driven by fundamentals.
[00:07:53]  It wasn't driven by earnings.
[00:07:55]  It was driven by policy.
[00:07:56]  And I think the point you made earlier was absolutely spot on.
[00:08:00]  Look at what we're seeing in the markets now.
[00:08:02]  Markets are rallying on the back of Federal Reserve minutes, right?
[00:08:06]  They're combing through looking for any sort of dovish words, right?
[00:08:12]  And then markets respond on the back of it.
[00:08:14]  Since when did Federal Reserve minutes become more important than earnings reports?
[00:08:18]  Like, that's how crazy things have gotten.
[00:08:21]  And for me, this is classic late-stage bubble behavior.
[00:08:25]  Heading into next year, I think we start to see this bubble unwinding, and it could get tough.
[00:08:32]  Very good.
[00:08:32]  Speaking of the bubble.
[00:08:33]  Chris.
[00:08:34]  Sorry, Dr. Paul.
[00:08:35]  Yes, speaking of the bubble, in the past, when the Fed wants to pop the bubble that it created, if you go back to dot-com, the housing bubble, they would raise rates until something finally breaks.
[00:08:47]  Well, it seems like they're doing that again, waiting for something to break, but nothing major, at least in America.
[00:08:53]  You know, we've had some crypto problems, but no major dominoes have come down.
[00:09:01]  And, you know, everybody speculates, how can this market now keep stay up?
[00:09:06]  You know, the Fed just keeps raising into it.
[00:09:08]  And, you know, one of the speculations, and I tend to think along these lines, is that because Europe is in such bad shape, that money has to go where it feels safest.
[00:09:20]  And it's probably flowing into the United States and into the dollar and into our markets.
[00:09:25]  So when something major breaks, do you think it will be in Europe?
[00:09:31]  I mean, Europe's falling apart, quite frankly.
[00:09:34]  And you're correct.
[00:09:35]  I think, you know, a lot of the dollar strength we've seen over the last few months has really been by proxy.
[00:09:40]  It's been on the back of weakening of other currencies.
[00:09:44]  But you're right.
[00:09:44]  The Fed has a really tough task, right?
[00:09:47]  What they're trying to do right now is to kill demand, and it's not really working.
[00:09:51]  The Fed has raised the effective interest rate 400 basis points over the last year, and it hasn't really slowed consumer spending that much, which is about two-thirds of U.S. GDP.
[00:10:02]  It's the bulk of the story for the U.S. economy.
[00:10:05]  So it's left us in the position today of too much money tasing too few goods and services.
[00:10:10]  It's a tough position.
[00:10:11]  Could Europe be the catalyst for broader correction, broader sort of recessions across the globe?
[00:10:17]  Absolutely.
[00:10:18]  I think they have big, big problems, as do we.
[00:10:22]  Theirs may be slightly bigger than ours at the moment.
[00:10:24]  But, you know, for me, it's really interesting because we're in a position now where, you know, we have to combat inflation by killing demand, by forcing a recession.
[00:10:34]  But there's another way to combat inflation, which is, of course, increasing supply.
[00:10:38]  And that, for me, is another failure of leadership.
[00:10:41]  This was an opportunity that the Biden administration has.
[00:10:44]  Listen, the U.S. used to manufacture things, right?
[00:10:46]  We used to make things.
[00:10:47]  We've lost 91,000 factories, 5 million manufacturing jobs.
[00:10:52]  Our destiny is out of our hands.
[00:10:54]  And that, for me, is another side of the problem that not too many people are talking about today.
[00:10:59]  But for me, what we need is some good leadership.
[00:11:02]  We start need to be making some fiscally responsible decisions.
[00:11:06]  It's not happening at the moment, and it's creating a big problem.
[00:11:10]  You know, we talk about the dollar.
[00:11:13]  We talk about gold.
[00:11:14]  Gold is the real money, but the dollar reigns as the king still of the world, even though it's being challenged.
[00:11:21]  In the last probably a year or so, especially when the rates started to go up because they were artificially low, and people knew they would start up.
[00:11:32]  But as the rates went up, it drew money and some dollars away from gold, and gold tended to go down.
[00:11:40]  It's still related to that.
[00:11:43]  On a daily basis, you might see this.
[00:11:46]  If the rates are going to go up, and that's where the Fed sends very confusing information.
[00:11:53]  You know, once some one thing is happening and they're doing something opposite to it, and to sort it out, it's just practically impossible.
[00:12:01]  But right now, though, my theory is that eventually, yes, interest rates are very, very important on gold.
[00:12:09]  But as I recall watching what happened in the 70s, it wasn't the whole thing.
[00:12:14]  We ended up with very high interest rates and very high gold prices.
[00:12:18]  So do you think about that connection one way or the other?
[00:12:21]  Do you agree that the dollar, you know, the interest rates is dominating some decisions, but maybe there'll be a lot more fed into the system than just that?
[00:12:33]  Absolutely, yes.
[00:12:34]  And, you know, we saw gold up until the last couple of months dip off on the back of major market downside earlier in the year.
[00:12:43]  And a lot of times when stocks drop, right, and when, as you mentioned, other currencies are getting hit worse than the dollar, a lot of people flood to dollars.
[00:12:52]  It tends to be short term, right?
[00:12:54]  After the crash in 2000, we saw a strengthening of the dollar that lasted two or three months before it corrected down.
[00:13:01]  Same thing in 08, right?
[00:13:02]  And, you know, everyone thinks about 2008.
[00:13:04]  They think about gold prices going through the roof.
[00:13:07]  What they forget, initially, gold dipped about 30% on the back of a stronger dollar, and then it went parabolic.
[00:13:14]  But I definitely see parallels today to the 1970s.
[00:13:20]  That was the last time we had a climate of stagflation.
[00:13:24]  And I think one of the big drivers for gold, obviously, was the inflationary piece, right?
[00:13:28]  As inflation rises, it drives gold and silver up.
[00:13:32]  They are, at the end of the day, intrinsically, they are commodities.
[00:13:35]  So by definition, as inflation rises, it drives them up.
[00:13:39]  The other thing about the 70s is there weren't too many options, right?
[00:13:43]  Stocks were coming down, housing was coming down.
[00:13:46]  So it drove a lot of safe haven demand to gold.
[00:13:49]  And gold grew tenfold between the 70s and the 80s.
[00:13:53]  Let's not forget something.
[00:13:54]  In the 1970s, we had more options than today, because at least in the 70s, you could put your cash in the bank and beat inflation, getting 16, 17%.
[00:14:04]  We don't even have that today.
[00:14:06]  And I think, you know, I talk to people a lot.
[00:14:08]  I think we got a very conducive climate for gold in terms of the nature of our problems.
[00:14:14]  But I think the other side of it is a lack of viable options out there.
[00:14:18]  For me, precious metals are the way to weather this storm.
[00:14:22]  Right, Chris?
[00:14:24]  Dr. Paul, this will be my last question.
[00:14:27]  I wanted to make a comment about Birch Gold because we value our relationship with Birch.
[00:14:33]  We love having Philip on from time to time.
[00:14:36]  But me personally, I'm the one that deals with the company behind the scenes.
[00:14:41]  And I do want to say that these are from everyone that I've dealt with, they are a bunch of professionals.
[00:14:47]  It is a pleasure to deal with them.
[00:14:49]  And I'm glad that we have our partnership.
[00:14:52]  But the question I wanted to get to is: a lot of our viewers, some, in our comments, will say, you know, we love what you have to say about gold.
[00:15:03]  Everything you're saying is true, but it's just too expensive.
[00:15:06]  You know, we don't have the money to buy gold.
[00:15:08]  So I wanted to get your thoughts on that, Philip.

=== Oil Prices and Currency Fluctuations (05:20) ===

[00:15:11]  And I also wanted to say, you know, this week, the price of silver has gone up substantially.
[00:15:16]  So what are your thoughts?
[00:15:18]  And how do you handle people that, you know, they think that gold is just out of their reach?
[00:15:23]  Look, you know, gold as a price per ounce today is about 80 times the price of silver.
[00:15:29]  So, you know, in terms of dollar amount, it's a sizable chunk of change.
[00:15:34]  In terms of value, though, I think gold is still cheap today, right, in that respect, in the sense that look at where it was in 2011.
[00:15:42]  Gold was 1,960 an ounce.
[00:15:45]  Today, over a decade later, we're trading below that level.
[00:15:49]  So it constitutes a good buying opportunity.
[00:15:51]  But you are right.
[00:15:52]  Look, thousands of dollars is a lot of money.
[00:15:56]  Silver, for me, is a very good alternative.
[00:15:58]  Price per ounce, very, very low relative to gold, right?
[00:16:02]  Spot price is around $26 today.
[00:16:05]  And really interesting from a growth perspective, silver is actually very undervalued relative to gold.
[00:16:12]  Historically, they traded around 16 to 1.
[00:16:15]  Today, they're over 80 to 1.
[00:16:17]  Post 70s, 30, 40 to 1 is about normal.
[00:16:20]  So silver's really cheap.
[00:16:22]  It's also used a lot, right?
[00:16:24]  Industrial consumption is rising.
[00:16:25]  Solar technology, electric cars require it.
[00:16:28]  So silver is a very interesting alternative to gold and a very interesting growth play today.
[00:16:33]  So I would say to those listeners where gold is maybe out of reach today, look at silver.
[00:16:38]  Very interesting alternative.
[00:16:40]  You know, we talk a lot about the various things in the economy that will affect the dollar and gold.
[00:16:48]  And under a gold standard, we wouldn't have enough activity to do because we would probably say gold is a stable currency and we can define it.
[00:16:59]  And as long as you have free market pricing, it works pretty well.
[00:17:02]  But that's not the case.
[00:17:03]  We have this interventionist economy and they have to weigh things.
[00:17:06]  Like earlier, we talked a lot about interest rates, how that affects it.
[00:17:10]  But, you know, if you look at just the CPI, that's pretty important if it's up and down.
[00:17:18]  Sometimes when it goes up, gold goes down.
[00:17:21]  I keep thinking, oh, no, when the CPI is going up, the gold ought to be going up.
[00:17:25]  Eventually it does that.
[00:17:26]  But on the short run, the interpretation might be different.
[00:17:30]  Also, the value of the dollar on an international exchange market.
[00:17:33]  And Chris touched on that.
[00:17:35]  The dollar is very, very strong compared to the other ones.
[00:17:38]  But maybe the other ones are just very, very weak.
[00:17:41]  Anticipating, you know, what the dollar is going to do, I think, is a major challenge to the people who are in and out of the currencies.
[00:17:49]  But the dollar, it's interesting to see and try to speculate and when will happen.
[00:17:56]  And I'll tell you what, I don't think it's very easy.
[00:17:58]  That's why I like stable definitions.
[00:18:01]  I want people to know what the definition of a currency is.
[00:18:06]  And interest rates, we've already talked about the interest rate.
[00:18:10]  But the other thing that we haven't mentioned yet, but was a big deal in the 70s and has been a big deal already, and that is oil.
[00:18:19]  And, you know, Saudis, it's not the same as it was in the 70s, but we had oil skyrocketing and boycotts, and oil went from a couple of bucks a barrel up, you know, huge, huge amounts, increases.
[00:18:35]  And that always, the oil went up, gold went up.
[00:18:37]  We kept doing this.
[00:18:39]  And right now, we've had, at the beginning of this downturn and this inflationary siege that we're under, you know, the oil prices did go up up to over $100.
[00:18:51]  Tell us a little bit about how you look at these oil markets, because, you know, basically, if you look at the fundamentals over a period of time, my impression would be, well, the oil prices are going to go up.
[00:19:03]  But there are variables.
[00:19:05]  Right now, gold is gold.
[00:19:07]  I mean, oil is significantly down from a peak, you know, a few months ago.
[00:19:12]  But what's your opinion of what's going to happen in the oil market?
[00:19:16]  Look, oil is an interesting one.
[00:19:18]  We've seen a reduction in oil prices, as you rightly point out, but it was basically on the back of oil prices absolutely skyrocketing.
[00:19:26]  A lot of it depends on policy, right?
[00:19:29]  Let's see what happens in the elections in 2024.
[00:19:32]  If we start pushing domestic, you know, we could see a reduction in oil prices nationally.
[00:19:37]  But, you know, long term, I think prices just go up in general.
[00:19:41]  I think this inflation, everything that's happening in Russia, obviously the Europeans are struggling massively on the back of surging gas prices.
[00:19:49]  All this does is create more economic uncertainty.
[00:19:52]  Economic uncertainty, at the end of the day, is good for safe haven assets and I think ultimately good for gold.
[00:19:59]  Look, you know it better than me, Dr. Paul, but in my lifetime, certainly, looking at the state of the global economy, looking at the decisions being made geopolitically, I haven't seen a better climate for gold, right?
[00:20:13]  We talk about our global reserve currency.
[00:20:15]  We talk about the Saudis.
[00:20:17]  I think there's been a lot of political blunders.
[00:20:19]  China right now, obviously speaking with the Saudis about trading oil outside of U.S. dollars.
[00:20:25]  We have BRICS nations pushing to set up a global reserve currency to rival the dollar.

=== Wasteful Spending Dilemma (03:12) ===

[00:20:31]  Obviously, I think that's things like that tend to happen at a glacial pace.
[00:20:36]  But for me, the trajectory that we are heading into as a nation is very, very concerning, and we're getting very close to the point of no return.
[00:20:44]  Like I said, this for me is a problem of leadership.
[00:20:47]  And I think if we can get a handle on that, we can change the trajectory.
[00:20:51]  But either way you look at it, we have a tough storm to weather.
[00:20:56]  And I think precious metals are about the only way to weather this storm.
[00:21:00]  Very good.
[00:21:00]  I'm going to close pretty soon, but I do want to bring up a subject that's in the news even yesterday, dealing with the federal budget.
[00:21:09]  It tends to be excessive, I would agree.
[00:21:12]  A little bit high.
[00:21:13]  But anyway, they passed an emergency bill for it's going to last a week.
[00:21:18]  By that time, it'll be a couple days before Christmas.
[00:21:20]  Then there'll be more arm twisting and they're going to try to pack it in.
[00:21:24]  It's just criminal what they do up there because it affects the American pocketbooks.
[00:21:31]  But last night they got this passed.
[00:21:34]  In the Senate, the House has already passed $858 billion.
[00:21:38]  Talk a minute about, a lot of people say, well, the spending is inflation.
[00:21:42]  Well, there's a relationship there, but we have to have a Fed to deal with that and turn it into inflation.
[00:21:50]  And that to me seems like the real dilemma.
[00:21:53]  And I'm sure you've given that some thought and pay attention to some of these deficits that don't seem to be going to go down anytime soon.
[00:22:02]  Yeah, listen, look, not all spending is bad, right?
[00:22:06]  But sadly, wasteful spending is absolutely inflationary.
[00:22:10]  And this is a point that I stress often.
[00:22:13]  The Federal Reserve have a job to do, but that job will be impossible if we keep running massive deficits.
[00:22:22]  I mean, it's unbelievable, right?
[00:22:24]  And the problem, like I said, is the nature of the spending.
[00:22:27]  It is very wasteful.
[00:22:28]  This is not a time to be building bridges to nowhere.
[00:22:32]  This is not a time to be paying down student debt.
[00:22:36]  This is a time to be hunkering down, pulling money out of the economy and getting through tough times.
[00:22:41]  And this, for me, is the big issue.
[00:22:43]  And like I said, it's the nature of that spending.
[00:22:47]  Sometimes debt spending can generate economic activity.
[00:22:51]  But my concern is that most of the spending being pushed forward by the Democrats looks like a desperate attempt to buy votes in anticipation of a 2024 election.
[00:23:02]  And for me, this isn't the time to be saddling the country with debt just to try and get another term.
[00:23:07]  It's irresponsible and it's never going to work.
[00:23:10]  Listen, there was a guy called Alan Meltzer, and Meltzer was a Federal Reserve scholar at Carnegie Mellon.
[00:23:15]  And talking about government spending, I think he summarized it well.
[00:23:18]  He said, look, never in history has a country that financed big budget deficits with large amounts of central bank money avoided incredibly high levels of inflation.
[00:23:30]  I think that tells people what they need to know.
[00:23:33]  There are no exceptions to this.
[00:23:35]  So it is very important to stop this wasteful spending.
[00:23:39]  Otherwise, inflation will be here.
[00:23:42]  Excuse me.

=== Inflation Warning (01:16) ===

[00:23:43]  Go ahead.
[00:23:46]  I want to go ahead and close, but I want to emphasize the fact that Philip is the economist for Birch Gold, and he keeps up on this.
[00:23:54]  I want to give them a chance maybe to send out an address there if they want to follow him more closely on what he's doing, because he gets here periodically.
[00:24:04]  So far, we've had a lot of favorable comments about it to go over some of these details that he goes over a little bit differently than we do.
[00:24:14]  But Philip, why don't you go ahead and sign off and tell the viewers what they can do if they'd like to follow what you're writing and saying and doing a little more closely?
[00:24:28]  Yeah, so look, they can reach me personally.
[00:24:33]  I have a social media account on Getter.
[00:24:35]  It's at Philip Patrick on Geta.
[00:24:39]  And for some really good information for all of your listeners, they just have to text secure, S-E-C-U-R-E, to 989898.
[00:24:49]  Again, that's secure to 989898.
[00:24:54]  Philip, I want to thank you once again for being with us today.
[00:24:57]  And I want to thank our viewers for tuning in.