00:00More than 40 million Americans are getting food assistance in what is supposed to be one of the richest or
00:07the richest country in the world.
00:09What does that mean about our economy? What does that tell you about our economy?
00:12Well, that's kind of a political question. Obviously, economically, it doesn't suggest that we're allocating our resources in the best
00:20way.
00:22This is a big, SNAP's been a big political football in Washington, and it's even more so now because it's
00:30in the middle of this government shutdown argument.
00:32But the Republicans have said that, along with Medicaid, they want people who get these benefits, they should work.
00:40But 98% of them, or 96% of them, I think, are children in school or caregivers or retired
00:50people.
00:50So that doesn't really work either.
00:55So it's kind of, again, it comes down to what kind of country do you want to have and how
01:03do you believe that you get there?
01:05Because there's certainly an argument that Republicans make that people should make their own way or that this should be
01:11handled privately by charities and things like that.
01:14Well, that's what I wanted to talk about, Mike, is who picks up the slack in a situation like this.
01:17Yeah, so I have family all over the country, and we have, like, many families out there, group techs, where
01:22we're talking about everything.
01:23And my mom and my sister brought up something interesting, and it's the idea that on Halloween, people are thinking
01:28about making available foodstuffs,
01:31like shelf-stable things that they can give away to people who might experience hardship if they are losing SNAP
01:38benefits.
01:38They're talking about schools in different parts of the country, and these are local issues, but it's also a national
01:43issue.
01:44Having parents step in to help other students who would traditionally get SNAP assistance, and instead, the parents at the
01:53school or even people who don't even go to the school are bringing food to the schools.
01:57It seems like people are stepping in a different way.
01:58Yeah, it's been kind of a nationwide thing, and a number of states are saying they will do their best
02:04to cover as much as they can.
02:05The administration has said those states will not be reimbursed, and, of course, they don't have the money to fund
02:12the entire program.
02:13All this SNAP money is federal money, so they've got to take it from somewhere else, and they won't have
02:19enough for a whole month.
02:20But there is certainly a rising effort to take care of it.
02:25We're going to get to the Fed, I promise, in a second.
02:26But this conversation really has me thinking about the way that a government dollar that goes out has this multiplier
02:33effect when it is spent by somebody buying something.
02:36Do we have any research on that?
02:37Do you have anything on the top of your head, Mike, about a SNAP benefit and to what extent that
02:41ripples through the economy?
02:42And the absence of that would actually cause some sort of pullback.
02:45Well, it would, just basic economics.
02:48If the dollar is not spent, it doesn't cycle through the economy.
02:52I don't have any specific numbers on SNAP itself, but, again, it's $8 billion a month, roughly.
03:00So that's money that comes from the taxpayers in one place or another or comes from selling bonds to Wall
03:08Street, probably.
03:09And then that money goes through the economy, goes to the store, and the store then, you know, pays its
03:15suppliers who pay its workers and et cetera.
03:18I'm going to call an audible.
03:19We were going to talk to Nathan Dean after we were done with Mike.
03:21But because we're talking about SNAP and Americans and food benefits and the government shutdown,
03:27we do want to bring in Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Policy Analyst Nathan Dean into the conversation.
03:30And, Mike, we're going to come back to you on the Fed.
03:32But, Nathan, I'm assuming you're listening to us.
03:35I mean, Mike mentioned SNAP benefits are, I guess, a political football, if you will.
03:41What are your thoughts about this against this government back, you know, this government shutdown, that it is impacting workers,
03:48it's impacting Americans?
03:50I mean, absolutely.
03:51I mean, this was one of the key pressure points of which would potentially bring Congress together on a deal.
03:56And obviously that didn't occur, but I will say is that there's open ideas, call them chit-chats, as we
04:02go into next week,
04:03among some of the certain Democratic senators about this idea of reopening the government.
04:08Now, today's ruling most likely takes away a little bit of that pressure if the administration falls through and actually
04:13pays the benefits here.
04:15But from an investment point of view, I just point out here is that it's really Walmart, Kroger,
04:19and Albertsons are the three equities that you should be looking at in terms of SNAP benefits.
04:24Walmart takes in about 25% of SNAP, Kroger and Albertsons around 8% to 6%.
04:29So if this were to go into November, and I don't think it will, but if this were to go
04:33into late November, into December,
04:35those three equities in particular would be harmed by this decision, or by the idea of not paying out SNAP
04:41benefits.
