Kelly Evans (Anchor) 00:00.230
joining us now is bill smith he's the chief investment officer at smeet capital management bill it's great to see you again welcome
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 00:07.270
hey great to be with
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 00:08.950
you jump in here you can pick the housing piece first if there's anything in that last discussion that you know you wanted to chime in on
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 00:15.830
well i i don't want to pick on your prior guests too much but somebody once said if you put all the economists end to end you'd never get anywhere understood
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 00:25.350
but where so do you come down as as in this is an economy that can be strong with productivity and low inflation or no that's what the president wants or thinks can
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 00:33.990
happen the the most productive multiplier effect in all of economics in the united states economy is home building and household formation so my opinion it's more important how soon taylor swift has a baby is more important to the economy than what what the fed does the greatest
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 01:00.360
fed stuff right so so think about it the president has suppressed gasoline prices to give people the feeling when they go to the gas pump that they're getting a deal while the strategic petroleum reserve is empty if we ever actually had to fight somebody we would have no oil in
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 01:19.150
the tank and and then hope you ignore the fact that when you go to your favorite restaurant you're paying thirty percent more than two years ago right
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 01:28.030
even if taylor has a baby bill is that going to help people start families afford housing give the economy the kind of kickstart you're envisioning
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 01:37.350
well you you get out of an apartment when when you have a a baby when when when the baby 's crying you don't want your next door neighbor banging on the wall and and saying gee can you get him to be quiet and the answer is no you're not you're not supposed to get a baby to be
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 01:53.590
quiet so so the the the the the situation is that the trump administration has been brilliant in pulling all these levers and attempting to make all these relatively violent short term disruptions but the most important thing to the economy is too much money chasing too few
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 02:18.800
goods and one of your economists made a great point and i see this in my my neighborhood there are ten million dollar homes being built in phoenix like hotcakes but yet the the mortgage rates are too high to convince someone one that has a three or four percent mortgage to trade
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 02:41.110
up right to another home
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 02:42.670
which is which so of primary mortgage holders the journal had this stat this week they said fifty four percent of people have a mortgage at three or four percent i think it was so what would you envision i mean are these policy changes going to be able to rectify this whole
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 02:55.470
situation or no
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 02:57.550
no we have a kind of a strange theory and it has to do with why does willie sutton rob banks
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 03:05.270
that's where the money is
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 03:06.990
and that's where the money is so if the fed or anybody else wants to get long term interest rates down money has got to go from where it is which is in the eight largest cap stocks in the S and P five hundred index to something that that that would to buy bonds that that's where
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 03:31.480
the money is and it's not in long bonds so they cut the short rates and the and the long rate goes up the only way you're going to get long rates down is break the mania for the S and P five hundred passive index right
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 03:47.670
that's the the only way you're gonna get long rates higher right well well the whole bonds they're kind of unch i mean you're doing OK you're not doing great so people would have to think i'm gonna make a lot of money or the alternatives are not gonna look that great and i don't
Kelly Evans (Anchor) 04:00.270
think the president's interested in either one of those outcomes
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 04:03.350
no that's right you're absolutely right so the answer is from a historical perspective stocks have been fantastic for really fifteen years off and on with only relatively short bear market interruptions and and when people get afraid of stocks that is when long term rates will
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 04:26.670
go down people seek safety and the equity risk premium is completely out of line and so are somebody mentioned yesterday or the day before that you you an ounce of silver is is worth more than a barrel of oil correct and i think that's only happened once or twice in the last
Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer) 04:47.230
forty years or something