America's Truckin' Network · iHeartRadio and Newsradio 700 WLW

America's Truckin' Network 4/10/26

April 10, 2026·42 min·3 clips

Kevin Gordon predicts the Iran-Israel ceasefire won't last, citing Iran's uranium enrichment as a non-starter.

1. America's Truckin' Network with Kevin Gordon airs on 700 WLW on April 10, 2026, covering economic data releases and the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. 2. Kevin Gordon hosts solo, drawing on his accounting background and citing sources including the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the American Trucking Association, Reuters, and Oxford Economics. 3. The episode's central argument is that the 43-day government shutdown in fall 2025 caused a 4.9-percentage-point collapse in Q4 GDP and that mainstream coverage of the resulting data has failed to surface this explanation. 4. Gordon opens with commentary on U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations in Geneva, stating he does not believe the ceasefire announced by President Trump on Tuesday will hold because Iran has stated it will not relinquish uranium enrichment rights. 5. He recalls a 2003 radio exchange with Deepak Chopra, quoting Chopra as saying 'once in a while you have to cut out a cancer' when asked how to negotiate with a party that wants your destruction. 6. The BEA's third estimate of Q4 2025 GDP placed real GDP growth at an annual rate of 0.5%, down from a 4.4% reading in Q3 and far below the Atlanta Fed's early-December forecast of 5.4%. 7. Gordon reads directly from the BEA technical notes, quoting that 'BLS did not collect October 2025 Consumer Price Index data' due to the funding lapse, and that 'the full effects of the partial government shutdown on the fourth quarter estimates cannot be quantified.' 8. He argues the BEA's own estimate that the shutdown subtracted 'about one percentage point' is too conservative, and that the 4.9-point gap between the 5.4% forecast and the 0.5% final is attributable primarily to the shutdown. 9. Gordon calculates that 1.4 million furloughed military and federal employees went without paychecks for 43 days, removing $14 billion from consumer spending during the Thanksgiving-Christmas period. 10. He uses the closure of the Camaro factory in Norwood, Ohio as an analogy: when that plant shut down, the surrounding community — gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores — also collapsed, illustrating the cascading effect of payroll withdrawal. 11. He notes that BEA data teams are still catching up on releases six months after the shutdown, meaning companies relying on government statistics for planning are making decisions on incomplete data. 12. Initial jobless claims for the week ended April 4 rose 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 219,000, missing economist forecasts of 210,000 by 128%. 13. Oxford Economics lead U.S. economist Nancy Vanden Hooten is quoted saying it is 'too soon to assume the ceasefire will last' and that downside labor market risks have not yet abated. 14. Gordon cites Larry Kudlow, Kevin O'Leary, Charles Payne, and Phil Flynn (senior financial analyst, Price Futures Group) as supporting his position that tariffs do not inherently cause inflation, with government spending being the primary driver. 15. The ATA for-hire truck tonnage index rose 2.6% sequentially to 116.2 in February from 113.3 in January, representing a 2.1% year-over-year gain and the highest level in three years. 16. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello is quoted: 'February's robust gain is great to see, and the size of the gain is likely magnified due to lower industry capacity' following the prolonged freight recession. 17. West Texas Intermediate crude briefly exceeded $100 per barrel intraday amid ceasefire doubts before settling at $98.29, up $3.88 (4%); Brent crude closed at $96.56, up 1.81%. 18. Gordon reports national average gasoline at $4.17, diesel at $5.69, California highest at $5.93, and Oklahoma lowest at $3.48, all reflecting the war-driven energy price surge. 19. Professional truckers and fleet operators tracking the freight recovery and fuel costs will find the ATA tonnage data and oil price segment directly actionable. 20. Listeners seeking neutral economic reporting or who find partisan framing of GDP and shutdown data off-putting will struggle with the editorial tone.

As heard by us

A freight-radio hour that ties war talk, labor data, and inflation headlines into a single, unsparing argument.

America's Truckin' Network spends this hour moving from Iran, Israel, and United States ceasefire talks into labor data and inflation headlines, and Kevin Gordon keeps the thread tight enough that the shifts mostly work.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a blunt drive-time take that jumps from Iran ceasefire talks to jobless claims and inflation, press play.

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