Walker Wildmon: This is At the Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to the show. Glad to have you with us on this edition. Chris Woodward from American Family News will be with us in the last segment to bring us some of the news of the week. We will talk through some of the economic numbers that are coming out and update you on what American Family News is covering each day at americanfamilynewsafn.net.

Walker Wildmon: Let's turn our attention to Scripture, and then we will jump into some of the stories we are going to talk about today. We are in Acts chapter 26, where we have been this week. The phrase "You are beside yourself" originates from Acts chapter 26.

Walker Wildmon: Paul is giving his defense for the faith, for the Messiah, and for the early church. He is explaining what God is doing through His providence. One of the individuals before Paul was Festus, who said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are beside yourself. Much learning is driving you mad."

Walker Wildmon: Paul responded, "I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason." There is a little bit of a comical back-and-forth here. Paul is being accused of going crazy, and Festus tries to discount what Paul is doing. Paul continues to give a defense for the faith.

Walker Wildmon: That is where the term "You are beside yourself" came from. Even today, one of the ways the world and those who do not believe in God try to discount or discredit people of faith is by accusing them of being crazy, saying they have lost their minds, or saying their beliefs are unbelievable. That is another tactic of Satan to discourage and discount God's people.

Walker Wildmon: Do not listen to the enemy. Faith in Christ and belief in the Bible and in God are among the most logical belief systems you could have when you consider all things. That is Acts chapter 26, looking at verses 24 and 25.

Walker Wildmon: The post-midterm debates are still ongoing, and I think they will be for the next several weeks or perhaps the next month or two. Hopefully, at that point, the conservative movement will have moved past what happened across the country, at least as far as reflecting on it. But we cannot ever forget what led to this historic defeat of Republicans and conservative elected officials around the country, because if we forget, we are bound to make the same mistakes again. I think there is a quote out there about that very thing.

Walker Wildmon: I wanted to talk about an interview Senator John Kennedy did on CNN. A lot of people like Senator Kennedy because he says funny things and is very bombastic. I do think he is comical at times. But the fact of the matter is that Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana is not a conservative. He is not one of us, so to speak. The statement he made actually bears out my point.

Walker Wildmon: He was questioned about Vice President Vance and Vice President Vance's statement regarding the midterm loss. I am going to pull that up because the vice president had some pretty wise words in retrospect. I talked about this a little bit after the election, but I am going to read the vice president's post. It is fairly lengthy, and then I am going to tell you what Senator John Kennedy said in response.

Walker Wildmon: Here is what the vice president said the day after the election: "One of the things that the data analysts on our side obsessed over was composition, whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept telling us the same story. In some states, turnout was merely okay. In other states, it was downright amazing. And in no state was it catastrophic.

Walker Wildmon: "There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team. Our people were showing up. This was before the election. So I asked the smartest data guy I know, 'Does that mean we are going to shock the world?' 'No,' he told me. 'We might do better than the polls suggest, but the data is telling us that a lot of the Trump-Vance 2024 voters are mad and planning to vote for the other guys,' using different words to keep it appropriate for radio.

Walker Wildmon: "'Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us.' Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was nine points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple of points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly, there were places where we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump and Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.

Walker Wildmon: "There will be a lot of infighting, which we are going through now, and arguing over what happened and why. One of the pollsters I really respect recently told me that our economic message was not sharp enough. I am sure that is true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.

Walker Wildmon: "Another pollster, one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday that we would lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of the 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote Democrat.

Walker Wildmon: "He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back to our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses, were the following: Number one, end the war in Iran. Number two, focus on the cost of living and inflation. Number three, put America first. Number four, change our relationship with Israel.

Walker Wildmon: "Our voters showed up, and those four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos-Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, referring to Israel, it turns out her political advice was sound."

Walker Wildmon: There is much more there, but for the sake of time I am going to stop there. That is the vice president's autopsy, or summary, of the results after November 4, or November 3, rather.

Walker Wildmon: Here is what Senator Kennedy said. He disagrees with the vice president. Kennedy said, "I don't think the vice president did himself any favors by sending out that tweet, or whatever it was, after the election. This loss was not because of Iran," Senator Kennedy proclaimed. "That might have played a part, but I don't think every statewide Republican in Texas lost their election because they think American foreign policy is too interventionist. I mean, put down the crack pipe. It is a lot deeper than that."

Walker Wildmon: Here is why Senator Kennedy is wrong, and here is why Vice President Vance is right. If this is not realized by the Republican Party at large by 2028, we are going to be in serious trouble.

Walker Wildmon: Leading into the election, Pew Research did extensive polling on what the public thinks about the Iran war. Regardless of your worldview, and regardless of your passionate support of Israel, which many of us have, including myself, the fact of the matter is that the Iran war is massively unpopular with the American people. There is no universe in which the Iran war is popular with a majority of the general public.

Walker Wildmon: You can find elements of the American public, such as evangelical Christians, who would say that we support doing whatever is necessary to protect Israel and keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon. But that is within a segment of the voting populace. Across the entire country, the Iran war is massively unpopular.

Walker Wildmon: A net 65 percent of voters disagree with how President Trump has handled the military action against Iran. When Pew asked how much longer people thought the U.S. military action against Iran would last, 47 percent said it would go on for months or years. The expectation is that this thing will drag out for a long time.

Walker Wildmon: Forty-seven percent said they thought it would last longer than another year. This was a recent poll conducted in late September, so that takes us to the two-year mark. If voters think this is going to drag out that long, that is not a good thing.

Walker Wildmon: The second thing I want to say is that there is a lot of parsing out of the Iran war and the economy, trying to act as though the two are unrelated. Senator Kennedy alluded to the same thing when he said the Iran war might have played a part in the midterm losses. You cannot separate the economic situation we are in from the Iran war and act as though they are two completely separate things. They are very much interrelated.

Walker Wildmon: When people see negative economic numbers and negative economic effects from a war, they are naturally going to take that negative feeling about the economy and connect it directly to the decision that led us to this point, which is the Iran war. You cannot separate the two. You could almost bundle the economy and the Iran war into one category when it comes to the effects.

Walker Wildmon: The reason I keep harping on this, and the reason I think the Republican Party has to understand it, is that at some point the Republican Party has to understand and govern knowing that these foreign interventions are widely unpopular. They are so unpopular that I cannot explain it enough.

Walker Wildmon: We have been doing foreign and military intervention for as long as I have been alive. Even before 9/11, we had the Gulf War, which I believe was in the 1990s. We have been in the Middle East in some form or fashion for more than 30 years.

Walker Wildmon: The Middle East is about the same way it was before we started all of this. There is nothing to brag about. We left Afghanistan with the same people in charge who were there when we arrived, the Taliban. After decades, we handed the government back to the same group, the Taliban, that we went there to unseat. That cost trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.

Walker Wildmon: Every election cycle and every year, conservatives talk about the fact that this foreign intervention approach, this military intervention, bomb-everybody, nation-building approach to foreign policy is not working and is widely unpopular. It is falling on deaf ears. It is falling on deaf ears to such an extent that President Trump, even though he promised no more new foreign wars, went back to war in the Middle East within about a year of being sworn in, and we are still there today.

Walker Wildmon: Continuing our discussion of American politics and the latest issues of our day, let's talk about the Democrats. For better or worse, we are going to be living under a Democrat Congress, both chambers, the House and Senate, for at least the next two years, and probably longer from the Senate standpoint.

Walker Wildmon: The voters thought they were going to get a magically fixed economy and a magically resolved Iran war. Unfortunately, they are probably going to get neither. Instead, the same Democrats who tried to pose as moderates are now saying they support undoing the Electoral College.

Walker Wildmon: Nevada Governor-elect Aaron Ford, a Democrat, said he would sign legislation to undercut the Electoral College, which he described as having racist underpinnings, by pledging the state's votes to the winner of the popular vote.

Walker Wildmon: Let's first talk about the Electoral College and the fact that it has effectively zero racist underpinnings. The Electoral College was designed by our founders. It is an absolutely brilliant institution. It was designed so that the larger states could not bully and cancel out the votes of the smaller and less-populated states in the union. It has worked very well.

Walker Wildmon: To put it simply, you have the popular vote in each state, but each state is awarded Electoral College votes based on population. Every time the census is conducted, Electoral College votes are redistributed or reassigned.

Walker Wildmon: Even if the Democrats' wish list were complete and they got rid of the Electoral College, that would not guarantee them victory, because President Trump won the popular vote in 2024.

Walker Wildmon: Another point is that many of the changes the Democrats are attempting would not necessarily guarantee them permanent control of government. But the point I want to make is that the Democrats will do anything for power, and this proves it. Something as established, long-lasting, and just as the Electoral College is something they are willing to throw out.

Walker Wildmon: Pete Buttigieg, who I am sure will run for president again for the Democrats, is pushing the abolition of the Electoral College. He said the Electoral College makes no sense. I do not know how it does not make sense. It is pretty self-explanatory. He called it "some very arcane, parochial politics in the 1770s."

Walker Wildmon: This is how you know when a political class has gone off the deep end: when it finds the audacity to criticize the institutions and framework that our founding fathers put in place. Our founders built an absolutely brilliant form of government and a brilliant system that has lasted more than 250 years. The best thing Pete Buttigieg and the Democrats can do is criticize our founding fathers and the very systems they established that have allowed us to last this long.

Walker Wildmon: Democrats believe that if they get rid of the Electoral College, they can have permanent control of Washington, D.C., and permanent control of both chambers of Congress.

Walker Wildmon: Another thing the Democrats want to do, and an idea that used to be fringe five or seven years ago, is pack the Supreme Court. These positions are now becoming mainstream within the party.

Walker Wildmon: Why do they want to pack the Supreme Court? They want the majority of justices to be left-leaning Marxists. Coincidentally, the number of seats they want to add is the exact number they need, according to the current ideological makeup of the court, to get a majority. That shows this is about power.

Walker Wildmon: They will add as many justices as they need to get a majority. If Republicans got back in charge and regained the majority, the Democrats would change the numbers again. It is a goalpost that is always moving. They will do anything and everything, and they will rewrite the rule book, to get power and control and make that power last longer.

Walker Wildmon: During the Biden administration, when Democrats last had Congress, they were only a few votes away from packing the court. I believe it was Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, along with perhaps one or two other Democrats, who said, "No, we are not doing this. This is crazy. It is unnecessary. It is political. We are not reshaping the U.S. Supreme Court because we do not like who is in charge of the court or because we do not like its rulings."

Walker Wildmon: Thankfully, there were two or three Democrats who prevented the left from packing the court. That shows how close they were. There were approximately 48 or 49 Democratic senators on the record saying they would pack the court. They were only a few votes short.

Walker Wildmon: What concerns me about the margins Democrats will have in January is the number of Democrats they are going to have. Right now, they are sitting at 55 Democratic U.S. senators. All you need is 51 Democrats to pack the court. Of course, you need the White House for nominations, but if you have a Democratic president and 51 Democratic senators agree to it, they can add justices to the Supreme Court whenever they want.

Walker Wildmon: The Constitution does not give a specific number of justices. The current count of nine has been in place for close to 100 years, if not longer. We have had nine justices for a long time. But this shows how close we are to the Democrats putting their wish-list items in place. Do not think they will not do it. They absolutely will.

Walker Wildmon: Democrats have shown that when they get in charge, they are willing to do anything and everything to exert their power, control, and influence for years to come.

Walker Wildmon: Abolishing the Electoral College is a whole other matter that would take a lot more to accomplish, including, I believe, a constitutional amendment. Nonetheless, that is where we are. That is what the Democrats want to do. Nevada Governor-elect Aaron Ford is saying the same thing about Nevada, the popular vote, and the Electoral College vote.

Walker Wildmon: Historically, meaning in the last 20 to 30 years, Republicans have held a majority of state legislatures and state governorships, attorneys general offices, and other positions. That 30 to 32-state Republican majority has acted as a firewall against the left, against an out-of-control Congress or an out-of-control White House.

Walker Wildmon: Unfortunately, a lot of those traditionally red states have now been given over to the Democrats. I think Texas is going to fare the worst out of all of this, and here is why. Texas is a border state.

Walker Wildmon: Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrat Party and the incoming Speaker of the House, is now saying on television, after the election, what Democrats would not have said before. When asked whether the illegal immigrants who had been deported should be brought back, he said, "Absolutely. Certainly we should. We should bring them back." He used language about restoration as well.

Walker Wildmon: So when you have the Texas governor now being a Democrat, what do you think she is going to do? The majority of her party wants to open the borders. For the first time in Texas history, since the Democrats went off the deep end, you are going to have an open-borders party letting illegal immigrants flood the state, while the executive branch is controlled by President Trump, who says we have to keep the borders shut and keep illegal immigrants out.

Walker Wildmon: This is going to be a very interesting dynamic, with some interesting court cases about who wins out. But I will almost guarantee you that if you went back and asked voters, this is not what they thought they were signing up for.

Walker Wildmon: You have to ask yourself what they did sign up for. I am not sure they know. It was, "We are upset, so we are going to close our eyes, vote for the Democrats, and hope things go well." I am pretty positive that is going to turn out to be a very unwise choice.

Walker Wildmon: But I do not think this is permanent. I refuse to accept any talking points or narratives suggesting that the republic is lost. We are living in a very volatile political environment, especially from an electoral standpoint.

Walker Wildmon: We know that because the difference between 2024 and 2026, a period of only 24 months, is completely night and day. Black and white could not be farther apart. President Trump won the presidency in 2024 by the popular vote and Electoral College dominance, with more than 300 Electoral College votes. People looked at that and thought Republicans would win the presidency forever and that it was the end of the Democrat Party.

Walker Wildmon: I thought it was the end of the Democrat Party for at least a couple of election cycles, but it turns out I was wrong. Now there are predictions on the other side saying this is the end of the Republican Party. No, it is not.

Walker Wildmon: This is a serious uphill climb to regain control of these states, legislatures, Senate seats, and congressional seats. But if you give the Democrats control of both chambers of Congress for the next two years, there is no telling what they will do.

Walker Wildmon: I think voters are going to figure out over the next several months, especially well into next year, that the Democrats' messaging about affordability and their promises to save the day and be bipartisan and work with President Trump are all fantasy.

Walker Wildmon: Honestly, this might be controversial, but I do not want bipartisanship. I do not want President Trump working with the Democrats. The reason is that I do not trust the Democrats, or at least I do not trust a majority of them. There may be some well-meaning people in the party, but they are few and far between.

Walker Wildmon: If the Democrats get an agreement with President Trump, you can be sure there will be something in the legislation or agreement that is far left and that we do not want to have anything to do with as a country. Those types of compromises are not good in the long term.

Walker Wildmon: The best-case scenario we can hope for and pray for is that President Trump uses his veto power. Some legislative stalling and a legislative freeze might actually be good for the country. Let us have two years of Congress not doing anything and see how it goes. It might be a good experiment so Washington does not do more damage to the country through its legislative power.

Walker Wildmon: We have Chris Woodward with us from American Family News. Stick around.

Walker Wildmon: Welcome to the last segment of At the Core on American Family Radio. I cannot get my words together because I have been doing a lot of shows all week. It is Friday, and I have Chris here to substitute for me and help me out a little bit. Chris, welcome back.

Chris Woodward: Thank you very much. You know you have been talking too much when you just cannot get the words together.

Walker Wildmon: I feel like I am Joe Biden. I just cannot get it out. We are glad to have you with us, Chris. Folks, you can check out Chris and his team, Fred, and everyone over at AFN.net. You can also subscribe to the AFN Newscast in your podcast library. Those are hourly updates with the news of the day, about four- to five-minute clips. If you want a quick summary of the news, that is a great way to keep up to date. I listen to it daily to get the breaking news, and they update it frequently throughout the day.

Walker Wildmon: Chris, I know there is a lot to talk about, but what is on your mind?

Chris Woodward: We talk a lot on this show about things like Federal Reserve news and interest rates. One of the big stories from earlier this week was that the central bank will make seven interest-rate decisions in 2027, down from eight decisions this year. The benchmark rate is staying somewhere between 3.75 percent and 4 percent.

Chris Woodward: I would say it has been a positive week in that realm, especially when you consider that the stock market is still doing well after the midterm elections. We have had days of ups and downs, but nothing terrible. When the Nvidia news came out about the CEO resigning because of extramarital affairs, including an alleged relationship with a supposed Chinese spy, other technology companies stepped up and helped bring some balance. So it has been a positive week.

Walker Wildmon: Let's talk about that. I was not planning on it, but let's talk about the former Nvidia CEO and founder.

Walker Wildmon: It came out earlier in the week that he reportedly had multiple affairs, allegedly with Nvidia employees or with an alleged Chinese spy, or at least a Chinese asset or associate. Nvidia ended up forcing him to resign. The CEO and founder having to resign is difficult to understand, especially when he had founded the company more than 30 years ago and it had become a trillion-dollar company.

Walker Wildmon: There is a report that roughly 1.5 gigawatts of restricted Nvidia chips ended up in China. The report suggested that U.S. intelligence officials pushed to get rid of Jensen Huang to have one less vocal voice opposing restrictions on chips going to China. This is a report from equity research, and we will try to link to it in the show notes.

Walker Wildmon: I am totally speculating here, but I think we are going to find out this was about more than just an affair. As bad as that is, firing your founder after 35 years from one of the most successful technology companies of the last five years is a big deal. Maybe it was only the affairs, but I think it is likely that more will come out that looks very bad for the company, not only from the standpoint of extramarital affairs but also from a national security standpoint.

Chris Woodward: If I were another technology company in America, especially one doing work with artificial intelligence or chips, or one with some kind of connection to the White House, I would be having a serious private discussion with my leaders today. I would tell them that if they have anything going on outside the office, they really need to take that into consideration.

Chris Woodward: It is wrong enough for somebody to have an extramarital affair. It is another matter when someone is having an affair with somebody who works for a country that does not like us and wants to defeat us in every area of life, including business.

Walker Wildmon: I know it sounds like the plot of a Mission: Impossible movie or something from James Bond, but it happens every day.

Chris Woodward: The so-called honeypot tactic has been going on for a very long time.

Walker Wildmon: What the Chinese Communist Party has been known to do, beyond this week's news, is send young women, and sometimes men, who become involved with people. Over time, they build relationships and get to know those people. Through those kinds of situations, secrets can be obtained.

Chris Woodward: Sometimes they even marry them.

Walker Wildmon: Sin enters into the equation, and sometimes secrets get spilled. Someone may go through that person's belongings when they are not there or may gain access to information at the office.

Walker Wildmon: This is a major problem. I saw a funny post the other day that basically said if a pretty woman from China tries to marry you and you are a successful multibillion-dollar CEO, you probably should be skeptical.

Chris Woodward: This is becoming a common denominator among high-level business leaders in America, and it is a major issue. Business leaders now have to factor in something that perhaps was not part of the equation 50 years ago.

Walker Wildmon: Earlier this week on Washington Watch, one of the programs that airs on American Family Radio, they interviewed a retired brigadier general. I think his name was Robert Spalding. He talked about how serious this honeypot situation is. He said that, based on all the technological capabilities the Chinese Communist Party has today, we should be thankful the Soviets did not have those things decades ago when we were involved in the Cold War, because we might be having a different conversation today.

Chris Woodward: That is how serious it is. Communist countries can come into possession of our secrets and technology and use them to defeat us in business. They are not just trying to beat us in business. These things can also wind up in weapons, and that is a major concern. They are not only going to try to beat us in manufacturing. They can use things that will kill us or anyone else who tries to tell China it cannot do something.

Walker Wildmon: I heard Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussing this. I sometimes get Treasury and Commerce mixed up, but Bessent is Treasury, while Howard Lutnick is Commerce. Bessent said that between 2018 and today, the United States has increased its domination, or control, of computer-processing capacity.

Walker Wildmon: In 2018, the United States had roughly 50 to 60 percent of the world's internet computer-processing capacity. Now we have about 80 percent. We have increased our ability and capacity to process the world's technology on computers and servers, and much of that has to do with data-center buildouts.

Walker Wildmon: That is a positive trend, but the point is that we want to keep China far behind us in this area. That is what makes this potential Nvidia scandal much worse. If it turns out they aided China through backroom deals with a Chinese spy and an affair, that is a major issue for the United States.

Chris Woodward: This may be getting into the weeds a little bit, but it sets up a major battle for the next couple of years between the Trump administration and Congress. Presidents have always released their budget plans, and Congress gets to weigh in and say what it does or does not like.

Chris Woodward: We now have a Congress controlled by Democrats, people who oppose President Trump. He will logically try to increase defense spending to protect us from countries such as China, based on what we have been discussing. But Democrats control the purse strings, and they are going to want something in return.

Walker Wildmon: I think President Trump will get most of what he needs funded. Even Democrats, behind closed doors, know the national security issues we face.

Chris Woodward: They may fund most of it, perhaps not all of it, but they are going to want something in return. That is what concerns me: what the Democrats want in return and what kind of deal they want to make.

Walker Wildmon: Let's talk about specific economic issues, whether it is the Federal Reserve holding rates or inflation numbers.

Chris Woodward: The best number this week is gas prices. Praise the Lord, they are below a $4 national average. The national average today is $3.87. A month ago, it was $4.34. Gas prices have fallen since the election, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Democrats won the midterm elections. They have not even assumed control of Congress yet.

Walker Wildmon: Do not let anybody tell you that. A lot of it has to do with the fact that this is the time of year when gas prices tend to fall.

Chris Woodward: Praise the Lord, gas is back under $4 a gallon, and it will probably fall even more. A year ago, the national average was $3.07, so it is more expensive than it was at this time last year, but it is better than it was going into the midterm elections. Diesel is back around $6 a gallon. That is another good number. It is not a bargain, but everyone listening is paying for the price of diesel in some way through what they buy at stores.

Walker Wildmon: To your point, there are some good numbers out there. Everything but inflation is trending in the right direction. The 10-year yield is down a little bit, but the October Producer Price Index was released this morning. Inflation from the people making raw materials rose to 6.5 percent, its highest level since November 2022.

Walker Wildmon: My point is that I think more rate hikes are coming, unfortunately. We are far from having fixed the inflation problem. It has improved under President Trump, but it is far from being completely fixed.

Chris Woodward: If I were president for a day, and Donald called me today and asked what he should do, I would say to do everything possible to bring more energy into the world supply. The more supply we have, the better it will be for everyone involved.

Chris Woodward: There is going to be an internal struggle with Democrats for the next couple of years. But if you can bring about more supply, you can help bring down and combat the inflation problem, because energy is a major factor in inflation. It may sound strange to ask how oil and gas affect inflation, but they do.

Chris Woodward: You may not be able to get anything done with members of Congress, but you can do things through the executive branch, which, frankly, controls the country because Congress long ago left so much to the executive branch. If I were President Trump, I would be talking closely with the energy secretary and the interior secretary and working with other countries to introduce more supply into the world. That would help combat inflation here and in other parts of the world.

Chris Woodward: Things will get better, though they will not be solved. We are not going to have sunshine and rainbows next week or next month. But if we work together and do what is possible with the resources currently at our disposal, things will be better. Whoever the Republican nominee is in 2028 can say, "Republicans ran on this, and they delivered on it. Vote me into office."

Walker Wildmon: I do think President Trump needs to do everything within his control to drastically improve the economy between now and 2028. If he does not, it will be very difficult for a Republican successor to take and keep the White House.

Walker Wildmon: That will be especially challenging if the person worked for President Trump during this term, whether it is Vance, Rubio, or somebody else.

Chris Woodward: A moderator is going to have to ask whoever the candidate or nominee may be, "Trump did this. What do you think about it?" Especially when that person worked for President Trump, man or woman, that question will have to be asked.

Walker Wildmon: Let's talk about housing. Housing prices and interest rates have been elevated for the last few years, especially going back to the Biden era. October sales of existing U.S. homes fell 5.5 percent to the lowest level in 16 years. This is the coldest housing market in 16 years as far as existing-home sales go.

Walker Wildmon: This is not 2008 levels, and it is not apocalyptic, but it is concerning. It may be a good sign that prices will ease, because if the market slows down, sellers will be forced to make their prices more competitive.

Chris Woodward: That would benefit younger Americans. We have all heard younger people say, "I cannot afford to buy a home. I may never be able to buy a home," compared with a baby boomer or a member of Generation X. It is a very real concern.

Chris Woodward: It is not just a concern in high-price places such as California. Even in Mississippi, a lower-cost state like ours, there are people who cannot afford to buy a home. Land is cheaper, homes are cheaper, and yet people still cannot afford them. The average price of a home in Mississippi is a number we would not have imagined 10 years ago.

Walker Wildmon: You are right. One thing I like to correct when people say, "When I was growing up, mortgage rates were 18 percent," is that the valuations of the homes themselves were not out of reach. You could buy a home for about $40,000. Now that same home might cost $300,000, which is insane.

Walker Wildmon: The valuations on homes are one of the primary problems. Whether the mortgage rate is 5 or 7 percent, you can work through that in the grand scheme of things. But the overpricing is making matters worse and putting homeownership out of reach for many people.

Walker Wildmon: Chris, thanks so much.

Chris Woodward: Thank you.

Walker Wildmon: At the Core, glad you joined us today. Do not forget to check out American Family News at AFN.net.