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Sharing Declines


Chief and Matty Weber open the show talking $NFLX before wondering what is going on with our Commander in Chief. Spencer Israel of Benzinga talks earnings. Hal Snarr of Westminster College discusses different levels of economic competition. Chief and Matty Weber close the show talking technological advances and last night’s Home Run Derby. 

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Guests & Co-Hosts

MATT WEBER

Matt Weber is currently the Executive Producer, Update Anchor and starting Center Fielder for Stocks & Jocks. He is a die-hard sports fan (Cubs, Bears and Bulls especially) and has worked for WSCR-AM 670 The Score, 120 Sports Network and Chicago Sports Webio while also appearing on Comcast Sportsnet Chicago. Matt has covered the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Marathon as a field reporter and has interviewed some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment. Matt lives in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on the Northside of the city.

FAVORITE SPORTS MOMENT

November 2, 2016.

ONE THING LISTENERS MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU

I actually prefer cats over dogs … don’t tell anyone.

ONE TRADE YOU’D LIKE TO HAVE BACK

I turned down free tickets and a ride to Milwaukee to go watch the Cubs vs. Astros play a Hurricane Ike makeup game back in 2008. I decided instead to play pickup basketball with a few of my friends. Of course, Carlos Zambrano ended up throwing a no hitter that night … and I ended up with a sprained ankle. Bad trade.

SPENCER ISRAEL

Spencer is the producer of PreMarket Prep, doing all the behind-the-scenes work necessary to make sure the show runs smoothly. He also helps with Benzinga’s editorial and newsdesk operations. Spencer has a background in media, graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism in 2013. His previous stops include time at USA Today, Sports Illustrated, The Baltimore Sun, and the MLB Network, where he held various roles across multiple platforms in the media industry. Spencer moved to Detroit to join Benzinga in September 2015 after spending the first 24 years of his life on the east coast.

HAL SNARR

Hal W. Snarr is the son of a third generation Idaho potato farmer who was raised in an ignoble but resolute Mormon household. His career is a result of a fortuitousseries of accidents.

Hal got his first taste for teaching after shining in Naval Nuclear Power School, but was not aware of what a Ph.D. was until he took Calculus I, II and III for fun at Idaho State University. A couple of years later he found himself teaching algebra and proving theorems in the master of science in mathematics program at ISU. Although he was having fun, he wanted to use mathematics in more meaningful ways. He discovered how to do this while taking mathematical economics at ISU. In this course, he gained an intuition of the eigenvalue. This set him on his present path. After all, wouldn’t you do the same if you had just learned that negative eigenvalues mean you are on the peak of a three dimensional surface because steps taken in thex and y directions are downward?

His unconventional journey gives him a unique insight into the cohorts he studies.Most economists were not raised by low-income single mothers who had to, on occasion, reluctantly use public assistance and purple money (old school food stamps). As a teenager, he also observed beer-for-purple money exchanges.

Between 2004 and 2013, Hal was taught economics and statistics at North Carolina A&T State University. In 2013, Hal accepted a similar position at Westminster College. He regularly teaches money and banking, macroeconomic principles, business statistics, introductory regression analysis, and labor economics. His research studies how welfare and other policies affect labor supply, marriage, fertility, migration, dependency, and poverty.

Hal’s hobbies include producing instructional videos for his YouTube channel, The Snarr Institute, and commenting on economic policy proposals and politics on Twitter and Facebook. He occasionally writes op-eds for PolicyMic and OpEdnews. He enjoys home improvement projects, vehicle repair, watching the news and movies, walking, attending church services, a good debate, and spending time and traveling with his family.

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