Utah Stories Show

Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the nation.

In the last twenty years, our population doubled due to the beauty of the state and the quality of life.

Utah is surrounded by canyons. We have the best skiing on Earth, pristine mountain wilderness, and some of the most diverse landscapes. 

However, if this trend of doubling the population every twenty years continues, can we possibly preserve our quality of life?

Envision Utah, a Utah nonprofit organization is dedicated to answering this question. Their mission is to help build communities in a manner which will maintain both quality of life and create a more harmonious balance between suburban or urban living and the environment. 

We talk to its president and CEO, Ari Bruening on the Utah Stories Show and discuss what we can do to build the better Utah for tomorrow.

The downtown Salt Lake City protesters were peaceful until a mysterious group of four individuals (three of which were white) and likely one leader (holding a megaphone) decided to turn over a police cruiser that was parked on 400 South and 200 east (just North of the library).  Who were these people? Why was this police cruiser seemingly left directly in the path of the protesters? Why did the officer leave the scene who owned the cruiser? And where were the police when this all happened?

I’ve been following the local news on Coronavirus and I just want to point out a couple of stories in our local Salt Lake Tribune, which demonstrate what is clearly lacking in the coverage. We have a story about how nationwide a large number of the Latino population is getting the Wuhan Virus. And we also know that 100,000 people have now died. And no disrespect to those who have died, but I want to know who are these people who are dying? I would rather know the age and preexisting conditions than the ethnicity of the people who died. I’m bothered that there hasn’t been a single story in my local media providing these key statistics which can help us determine the risk factor for ourselves and the people around us. Eric Moutsos from the Utah Business Revival is planning to proceed with a concert on Saturday, May 30th, featuring country star Collin Ray at the Studio Ranch Amphitheater near Grantsville. Here we have to wonder if the First Amendment will supersede a judge's order to stop a concert?

In Utah and the west cattle ranching in our rural areas is one of the most defining characteristics of what most would consider our cultural heritage. But today more than ever, rural Utah ranchers and small towns and ranching communities are suffering more than ever. With beef prices for T-bones, briskets, steak, and short ribs now skyrocketing, due to COVID shortages, consumers might assume that Utah’s cattle ranchers and our beef industry would be raking in windfall profits. But actually, the opposite is true. Never before have cattle ranchers in Utah received so little for their cattle from meatpacking plants. According to Utah State Senator and cattle rancher, Scott Sandall Utah ranchers are currently selling their beef at a loss. How could this be the case? This is due to the fact that 80% of all meat packaging is controlled by just four multinational companies. And now these companies (Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS and Smithfield). Due to Covid-19 outbreaks in processing facilities, Tyson and JBS had to partially close down three facilities resulting in a glut of cattle that needed processing. While there is currently excessive demand for especially premium cuts, and plenty of supply in feedlots and in pastures, there is a bottleneck in processing capacity due to social distancing requirements. Meat packaging companies cannot process nearly as much as they could prior to COVID.

Senator Sandall spoke about this on the Utah Stories Show. This is what he told us:

We gave up a dispersed processing facility and morphed it into a more efficient processing facility. Those regional packers either closed or got absorbed and grew. For example the plan here in Hyrum, Utah we had 500-head per day processing facilities, they were modernized and ramped up to 1,200 head per day, then they were absorbed into the Monford system out of Colorado, which was absorbed into swift then JBS bought that up and now they are just a part of the JBS system and now they run 2,200 per day. JBS is a multinational company out of Brazil.

The paycheck protection program (PPP) is designed to help businesses reopen, but the CARES Act incentives employees to stay home. How one Utah restaurant group is managing the conflict.

Hoang Nguyen, is the Managing Partner of the Sapa Group. She is now beginning to understand the severity of the problem.

Nguyen was a guest on the Utah Stories Show podcast, she said, “Many of our employees can earn more by staying home, so they don’t want to come back yet.”

What is going to happen to our currency and our retirement accounts and pensions after the government spends $8 trillion to bail out the economy? What are the long-term consequences of spending and borrowing so much money in such a short period of time? What will happen as the federal government will be required to bail out city and state governments in order for them to remain solvent? These are some very important questions that we do not see our local or even national media beginning to tac

Due to Coronavirus, the number of Utahns suffering from alcohol and drug addiction is certainly increasing. Liquor store sales have spiked in Utah. Social isolation, loss of employment, and the inability of residents to pay their bills or buy enough food is certain to not only cause an increase in substance abuse, but also make matters worse for those seeking recovery.

Utah Stories examines the likelihood of inflation as the Fed plans yet another $3 trillion spending package. Where will this all end? Examining inflation from layman's terms is like attempting to look at watch gears and understand how it all works. It's not that I can begin to believe that I can understand inflation in entirety but by listening to many sources about how they describe what is happening and why things are happening the way they are, I'm beginning to feel that I have a better handle on it. In this post I'm not going to share my thoughts that I already shared in the episode, but instead share all of my notes in researching this topic. I hope readers will do their own research and come to their own conclusions. The basic questions we are trying to answer are the following: What are the causes of inflation? What is the government doing to mitigate inflation? If the government is drastically increasing the supply of money in the next few months what type of impact will that have on prices? Why does it appear the government has underreported inflation levels for the past ten years and what will be the consequences of the false numbers they have been reporting?  What can we begin to expect the new economy coming out of Coronavirus look like if the economy continues to remain shut down?   So those are my basic five questions I’m attempting to answer. I will be super happy if you happen to know more than me, or you see somewhere I have gotten it wrong -- please feel free to correct me. for more show notes and links to all of our sources visit UtahStories.com

In this episode we discuss four main points that Utah small business owners should be aware of:

1. The giant corporate handouts that the PPP turned into
2. Employees not wanting to work due to increasingly generous unemployment benefits
3. Utah’s coming reopening of our economy
4. Talking with one downtown restaurant owner about how he is doing