• 4 months ago
Transcript
00:00Well, remember that movie? We might be seeing the sequel, my friends, only this time it's
00:13not John Belushi stirring things up, but today, Kamala Harris accusing food companies and
00:18grocery stores of price gouging. Her solution? Price controlling. Force businesses to keep
00:25prices low or else. But today we ask the question everyone should be asking in this country.
00:32Or else what? Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto. Glad to have you. And the food fight
00:37is on, my friends, whether we're ready for it or not. And attention, customers, this
00:42ain't just a clean up in aisle seven. This is bigger, much bigger. To Jackie Heinrich
00:46in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the Veep, letting her rip. Jackie.
00:50Well, Neil, the vice president's plans have received some mixed reviews. Her proposal
00:57to create the first ever federal ban on price gouging for groceries prompted a Washington
01:02Post opinion columnist to warn of potentially shortages, black markets even hoarding. And
01:08Jason Furman, Obama's former economic advisor, seemed to concur, saying it's not sensible
01:14policy. He hopes it doesn't happen. And there's no upside and, in fact, some downside. However,
01:21her announcement today framed all of this as a necessary action that would penalize
01:26companies that are not playing by existing rules, plus a new set of rules to prevent
01:31companies from exploiting crises. But her plans to address housing costs with assistance,
01:37down payment assistance, rather, and tax credits for first time homebuyers could also exacerbate
01:43the housing cost problem if her incentives for builders to create more starter homes
01:48does not come to pass and come together first. Trump has likened these ideas to communism,
01:54but Harris says Trump's plan to hike tariffs on imports amounts to a national sales tax
02:00on everyday necessities. It will mean higher prices on just about every one of your daily
02:06needs. A Trump tax on gas, a Trump tax on food, a Trump tax on clothing, a Trump tax
02:18on over-the-counter medication. And, you know, economists have done the math. Donald Trump's
02:25plan would cost a typical family $3,900 a year. At this moment, when everyday prices
02:36are too high, he will make them even higher. But the nonpartisan committee for a responsible
02:45federal budget says Harris's plan comes with some costs, too. Increasing deficits by $1.7
02:51trillion over a decade, that becomes $2 trillion if the temporary housing policies are made
02:56permanent. They note the Harris campaign says taxes on corporations and the rich would pay
03:01for all of this, but they have not put forward any specific offsets. And this was Harris's
03:06first major policy speech since becoming the party's candidate. Notably, she did tie herself
03:13to President Biden on issues where it's popular, like capping the price of insulin. And that is
03:20all despite reports that she was going to potentially diverge from Biden on economic
03:25policy. By and large, a lot of it was mostly in line with what we've heard from his proposals.
03:32Got it, Jackie. Great reporting. Jackie Heindrick on all of that. Well, if the vice
03:38president was keen on having a food fight with the grocers, one grocery store titan,
03:44Stu Leonard, says food fight on. Take a look. I don't know anybody that price gouges. I don't
03:53know how the government's going to be able to control that. I mean, the thing I've learned
03:57in 50 years of retailing, guess what happens if you raise prices? Guess what happens to sales?
04:03Customer account, it goes down. So, I mean, let the market determine that like it has in the
04:11past. We don't need the government telling us, you know, how to price our products in our stores.
04:19I think there is a big argument back and forth. Grady Trimble has been following this very closely
04:23for Fox Business and Fox News that these grocers and these food players are not exactly the oil
04:28giants. They're not exactly some high tech, you know, gigantic figures here. Big, big difference,
04:34right? Right, Neil. And the response that business owners across the board are throwing back at the
04:40vice president and other figures in government who complain that their price gouging is they say
04:46the fact is it is simply not true that they're not overcharging customers on purpose. The food
04:52industry association, which represents retailers and wholesalers, points out that profit margins
04:58for the grocery industry at one point six percent last year, they're razor thin. And I know you just
05:04played that soundbite from Stu Leonard. He's one of the regional players. He says that he doesn't
05:09want the government getting involved in what price he sets. And the global companies say
05:14they're not price gouging either. Here's the CFO of Walmart. We constantly advocate for lower
05:21prices on behalf of our customers and members. Prices for us in the quarter were flat and they've
05:25been that way for a couple of periods now. And so we're driving this growth through units,
05:30trying to pass along value and lower prices to our customers. The American Association of Meat
05:36Processors says prices for the small and medium sized businesses it represents have gone up under
05:42the Biden-Harris administration. And it adds this. There's a direct correlation between the energy
05:48and regulatory policies of the current administration and the increased cost of goods
05:53to consumers. When costs become too great, a company unfortunately has to pass them along to
05:58consumers in order to survive and continue to meet consumers' demands. Republicans in Congress
06:04are pushing back, too. The thing she's proposing might sound good in the speech, but it's going to
06:11lead to more stubborn inflation, a slower economy. It all sounds good, but it does not work.
06:18Yeah, and Neil, there's real concern from GOP lawmakers that if you set these price controls,
06:24it leads to shortages, rationing, and an overall reduction in innovation and quality, which,
06:30of course, nobody wants. Neil? Thank you, my friend. Grady Trimble following all of that.
06:35And by the way, when it comes to wage and price controls, that sort of thing,
06:38it has been tried in this country, no less than by a moderate Republican. Does anyone remember this?
06:45The time has come for decisive action, action that will break the vicious circle of spiraling
06:51prices and costs. I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United
07:00States for a period of 90 days. All right, we all remember that,
07:05right, Richard Dixon, the wage and price controls that sent things out of control.
07:09But there is a method sometimes to the madness. If you're going to go this route,
07:13you better make sure that's what you want to do. You better shut down everything. You better
07:18control all prices from the earliest of stages right to the end result, the end product,
07:23you at the register. Easier said than done, according to Bar Rescue's John Taffer, who says
07:29it is horrific. Take a look. Think of a shrimp. The fisherman needs to keep his costs the same.
07:36His gas can't go up. His maintenance costs go up. Then the processing plant, their prices can't go
07:42up. Then the distributor's price can't go up. Then the company that retails it can't go up.
07:48Then when a restaurant gets it, his prices can't go up. If anything loses control along the way,
07:54the guys on the back end of the chain lose money. And this is what we've seen last time.
07:58You know, we saw landlords not rent apartments because they would lose money on it.
08:02So unless you freeze every single cost of every business in the country, you cannot cap some of
08:10them. And of course, Neil, if you were to do that, then our free market economy is gone.
08:15And that is socialism and entrepreneurship disappears. My ability to innovate and
08:21create profits and add value to my customers so I can increase price, make my service better
08:27so I can increase prices, create better work environments so I can attract better employees.
08:33I can't do any of those things anymore. Once this is put into place, it freezes us
08:39where we are, and I believe it stops any type of growth that we could ever have.
08:44You know, Neil, take a look at the last year. Red Lobster filed bankruptcy. Rubio's in California
08:50filed bankruptcy. A company called Miracle Restaurant Group with 25 Arby's fast food,
08:56they filed bankruptcy. Another company with 17 Popeyes filed bankruptcy.
09:00Tijuana Flats filed bankruptcy. Quiznos had 4,700 restaurants. They're down to 300 restaurants.
09:08These are the economic conditions that we're living in now. And rather than capping it,
09:14how about stimulating it? How about creating an environment where entrepreneurs can be
09:19entrepreneurs? Where innovative marketing programs and promotional programs and product development
09:24can take place that will pull us out of where we are. The policies proposed are the exact opposite
09:31of that, Neil. And if I can just add one more point, even Walgreens is projected closing 2,700
09:37stores, Neil, in the next couple of years. What happens to those local communities when they lose
09:43drugstores, when they lose restaurants, when they lose those jobs? This is far-reaching.
09:47It isn't about the businesses to me. It's about the families. It's about the people
09:52that are impacted by the loss of jobs and the loss of growth. It's a scary premise, Neil.
10:00I thought that was among the most brilliant comments I've ever heard on what the dangers
10:04are of trying to control prices at one level. You better start controlling them at every level,
10:10all the way down to the people who are shipping the goods to you, even foreign countries that
10:15are providing those goods to you as well. A great time to get my next guest in here to see what he
10:21thinks of what Jon Taffer and others are saying. He's Zane Tinkle. He's the chairman and CEO
10:26of Apple Metro, which operates, among many others, the world's largest Applebee's in midtown
10:31Manhattan. I was so intrigued by the way he framed it, Zane, that I wanted to replay that,
10:38because I think it cuts to the chase here. What about you? I think it does, Neil, but I don't
10:45know why anybody's surprised. Would you have a surgeon operate on you who did it from a manual?
10:52She's never done anything that deals with economics. She was a federal prosecutor on the
10:58dole of the government, and it's hand out free money. It's controlling the economy. That works
11:05all the time. Neil, the models out there. In California, where she comes from, they raised in
11:11April, I believe it was Act 1221, they raised the minimum wage to $20, which is a 25% increase.
11:21The first quarter, closures, high unemployment. Now, we're ending the second quarter, which will
11:30be the litmus test. Granted, it's the restaurant business. However, it's the canary in the cave,
11:37because the restaurant business has to make more money than it loses. Walmart has to make
11:42more money than it loses. What this woman is doing is, I don't want to sound like Donald
11:49Trump or the former president, that it's a catastrophe, the end of the world. I'll tell
11:52you this, it will take many years to unwind all that, if she gets there. I spoke to,
12:01one last point, a number of people since her speech today that are not sophisticated necessarily.
12:06They're just hardworking people, and asked if they got what she had to say, and they said they
12:12see through it. I'm hopeful that that's also the litmus test for the American people, because
12:18she's counterfeit. She won't throw us into the abyss. She will destroy that which we have all
12:27worked so hard to create, $25,000. Let me just step back, and I know you don't want to make it
12:33about politics here, but I do want to set the dangers of where this goes. We learned it with
12:37a Republican president. It doesn't work, and I do think that there's a lot of blame shifting
12:43going on here, and it's a convenient thing to do. Don't blame us. Don't blame the administration.
12:48Don't blame all of our spending at the outset. Blame those evil grocery store guys and food
12:53companies. As you very eloquently pointed out, that's a bit of a stretch. It's like me
12:58blaming maybe the five or six pounds overweight that I might be on a thyroid condition.
13:02Now, since you've met me in person many times, you quickly realize that's not the case. I just
13:07like to eat. I'm wondering what you make of where this is going, because if you can present
13:13a different boogeyman, you might have a pitch, but I think a lot of people kind of like their
13:19local grocery store. They might not like the prices they have to pay, but they're not like
13:23the big oil giants. They're not like some big high-tech concern. They're not like Google or
13:28Meta or any of these others. They're going after the wrong guys, and I think that repels a lot of
13:33folks. Absolutely, and it's always good to have a victim, and it's always good to have a culprit,
13:39so blame game. It is politics, but let's, if we may, separate theory from practice in the real
13:47world of economics. Economics is really simple, basically, overall. I learned that early on.
13:52More money must come in than goes out, and you have to take a payroll and pay your rent. It's
13:57simple, and as soon as less money comes in, as that gentleman said earlier about all the bankruptcies,
14:03which I'm very familiar with. In fact, some of them I posted you about. That's what happens. Less
14:08comes in, you close. He's talking about the local grocery store. What about all those employees that
14:13are now out of work and have to find a place to get to work? 2,500 stores closing. That's probably
14:1950,000 people, and it's pandering to the electorate. I'm praying. I'm hoping. I've never been as
14:27concerned about any presidential election than this one, and I don't like the former president's
14:33rhetoric. I know him personally. I don't like some, but his policies work, and it's out there.
14:42You can see it. What did she do? The porter? She was asked to go to the border. She said,
14:47why do I have to go to a border? I don't know. Why do you have to go to a border? Bottom line,
14:53there are a lot more questions this is raising than answers, Zane, to what you were saying.
14:56Thank you very much. Zane Tenkel, really good on this issue. By the way, we will be exploring this
15:01a lot more this weekend. Who pays for all of this largesse? Who pays for $25,000 credits and
15:09write-offs for housing and $6,000 for every child you're having? You might be surprised how that
15:15factors out and who gets stuck with the bill. That's coming up this weekend. In the meantime,
15:20Donald Trump and his people had a lot of time to sort of weigh in on this, and they didn't waste
15:24any time weighing in on all of this. Ayesha Hasnain with that part of the story. Hey, Ayesha.
15:29Hey there, Neil. Well, they were live fact-checking this Kamala Harris speech,
15:33the big policy speech on the economy, and they were not impressed. In fact,
15:38they had a very choice word to describe what they heard. That's next.
15:49Did you really think the Trump campaign would let some of the vice president's comments
15:53on forcing, controlling prices and all of that to get much shelf life? Probably not,
16:00and true to form, the Trump campaign has responded. Ayesha Hasnain has more on that. Ayesha.
16:06Well, and on top of that, the former president has now responded, Neil. He must have known we
16:11were about to do this segment because he just posted on Truth Social. I'm going to read a
16:14little bit of it for you. He writes this. If you think things are expensive now,
16:19they will get 100 times worse if Kamala gets four years as president. Under her plan,
16:25Kamala will implement Soviet-style price controls. She will abolish private health
16:30care and make California's ridiculous tax policies a law of the land, meaning every
16:34American will be taxed up to 80% of their income. If you want more cash and less tax,
16:40vote Trump. So that is his first response to the Kamala Harris economic plan unveiled in
16:46North Carolina. The Trump campaign also out with their statement, basically calling it all
16:52BS. OK, I'm not going to say the word. That's what they called it. And calling her out for
16:57this moment. Watch. So in the weeks to come, I will address in greater detail my plans to build
17:04an opportunity economy. So the campaign writes on Truth Social, early voting begins in North
17:09Carolina in just 21 days, and Kamala doesn't even respect the American people enough to provide
17:14details on her policies. I guess they're going to come later. Last night, Trump posted a TikTok
17:20video with his props from yesterday's press conference to talk about the rising price of
17:24groceries like eggs, milk, butter, saying it's all a disaster. Meanwhile, Team Trump is recruiting
17:30former aides now, including his 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. And today he was on
17:36with Martha McCallum pouring water on reports that he's been brought in because Trump might
17:43want to push out co-campaign chairs Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. Listen.
17:48There's going to be no change at the top.
17:52I believe that's to be I believe that to be true, Martha. I absolutely do. Look,
17:55Chris and Susie are consummate professionals. They have steered a very impressive ship through here.
18:03And Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, was in Wisconsin today. The pair,
18:09according to the campaign, will be ramping up their efforts next week as the DNC gets underway.
18:17Neil?
18:18Aisha, great job as always. Aisha Hasni following all of that and Team Trump response. Want to go
18:22to Julia Manchester right now, The Hill, a national politics reporter. You know, Julia,
18:27it always sounds good when a politician lays out getting something here. Susan Page is here as well,
18:33I should point out, the USA Today, Washington bureau chief. Sorry, Susan, that was not meant
18:37to be personal. But one of the things I've discovered is when you're getting something
18:41or promise something, you'll hear it out. And again, the benefit of being Kamala Harris for
18:47a lot of American voters, she is a blank slate. And so some of these plans, certainly right now,
18:52Julia, look very, very promising and intriguing until you get under the hood and look at the
18:56details. But your thoughts? Yeah, you know, I think she's a blank slate to a certain extent.
19:02I mean, she is running on President Biden's record, his agenda. And what you're going to
19:08see is Republicans like former President Trump continue to tie her to that agenda. And they
19:13already have, you know, blaming her in particular for inflation and for some of the rising cost of
19:19living that we've seen over the past three and a half years. So I think that's what you're going
19:23to see from Republicans really going forward, tying her to that. And also, you know, talking
19:28about she's got a lot of criticism for the vagueness of this plan, obviously saying that
19:33she would, you know, discuss this in future days to come. I'm sure she will continue to be pressed
19:39on that, you know, from Trump and maybe from members of the press when she sits down for an
19:44interview, you know, in the future at some point. But, you know, one thing that I thought was really
19:49notable today, though, Neal, is the fact that she did this announcement in North Carolina,
19:55which is a battleground state, but a battleground state that will be tough
19:58for Democrats in particular. We saw President Obama was the last Democrat to win this
20:05at the national level in 2008. So to see her talking about the economy, an issue that,
20:11you know, Democrats may not have a solid footing on in a battleground state like North Carolina,
20:16tells me that maybe they're feeling confident or at least projecting this image of being confident.
20:22Uh, that could very well be the case, but Susan Page, I know, covering various different groups,
20:27there are the evil corporate titans, and then there are others who actually most Americans
20:32really love. Like I did notice in the UPS workers strike, a lot of Americans really
20:36like their UPS local delivery guy. They really do, and it was palpable. You could see that,
20:40and they were rooting for them when they got their settlement. But I only mentioned that to say
20:45many feel almost the same way, not exactly, different kind of a business with their local
20:50grocery store, the local grocery. They know the manager, oftentimes they know.
20:54And so to put him or her in that kind of position that he's gouging you deliberately,
21:00they have a hard time rationalizing that. What do you think?
21:04Now, is there any place you spend more time shopping than at your grocery store?
21:08And of course, that's one reason that food prices have been such an issue
21:13for Americans the last couple of years, and even during this, the last few months with the
21:18election, people concerned about higher prices for food, although we saw with the new inflation
21:22figures that food prices have moderated 2.2% inflation in the new numbers. So there's a
21:29question, I think, about whether price controls are exactly the right remedy for what concerns
21:35people have about the cost of food. Also, this was Kamala Harris's first big policy address.
21:42She's still filling in the blanks about what kind of policy she will pursue. What we heard today
21:48was very much like President Biden's economic policies, but ramped up some.
21:52You know, doubling the size of the child tax credit that she would propose, for instance,
21:57and vowing to use incentives to construct 3 million new housing units in the next four years.
22:04So it is, I think, a more populist economic policy than we've heard from Biden. And it
22:10begins to tell us a little bit about what policy she might pursue if she wins the White House.
22:16You know, Julia, it might be a dumb question. You're used to them over the years we chatted
22:20from me. Why not just admit your administration is partly to blame? I'm not saying fully to blame
22:27for the run up in prices. And we could also say that, you know, coming out of COVID and the economy
22:31stopped, that inflation was inevitable to rise. You compounded, of course, the trillions of dollars
22:36worth of spending. But to constantly blame other groups, to constantly target others for a problem
22:43that occurred under your watch, it just looks bad. And I see it again and again. I don't know
22:50how that resonates with average Americans of any political stripe. What do you think?
22:55Yeah, I guess, you know, some critics would call it the blame game. But I mean, talking to
23:00Democrats in particular, you know, in the run up to today's address, I was talking to a number of
23:05North Carolina Democrats and asking them about the state of the economy. And they say, look,
23:10it's improved, obviously, under Biden and Harris, according to them. But they continuously point
23:15to the March of 2020 onwards during the COVID pandemic under former President Trump. And they
23:23say it's his handling of the pandemic that has led to in sort of the economic concerns surrounding
23:30the pandemic that has led to inflation. So, you know, I think it's difficult for them, obviously,
23:36that they don't want to take the blame themselves here. And I think there's also the argument of,
23:40you know, how much did legislation put forth by the Biden-Harris administration,
23:45like the Infrastructure Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, how much that contributed
23:50to inflation. I know a lot of Republicans like to blame those pieces of legislation,
23:54build back better, etc. But at the same time, that's a part of the Biden-Harris record. So
23:59it puts them in a difficult situation. Well, for good or ill, like you say,
24:03it happens under your watch. You might as well take responsibility for at least some of it. I'm
24:06not saying all of it, but when you constantly shift it, it does get a little bit old.
24:12Ladies, I want to thank you both very, very much on that. In the meantime, as you know,
24:16there's a big convention coming up for Democrats next week in Chicago, I hear.
24:20There are also fears that they want to avoid what happened in 1968.
24:24They've come up with a solution. I'll tell you all about it.
24:35There will be protests in Chicago for the Democratic convention. That is probably not
24:39a stunning development. They are very convinced, though, given some security preps they've been
24:45handling, that it will be nothing like what happened in 1968. Mike Tobin in Chicago with
24:49more on that. Hey, Mike. But, Neil, the shadow of the 1968 DNC riot still hangs over Chicago,
24:57and given how poorly things went during the George Floyd riots, and given the passionate,
25:01divisive issues of today, like the war in Gaza, business owners here in the city,
25:06the big shoulders, just don't know how things will go, and that is what scares them.
25:11So the boards have already started going up. Chicago Board of Services says they started
25:16getting calls a month ago, but in the past two days, their crews really started getting busy,
25:20and they expect more business in the coming days. One downtown business owner says the city of
25:25Chicago doesn't have a good track record with keeping businesses safe and secure,
25:28so he tried to get one step ahead of the chaos and board up in advance.
25:33Since 2019, we've been looted or vandalized on four separate occasions. So, like I said,
25:40you know, we have a little experience with this, and we haven't gotten any reassurances
25:45from the city that they'd be doing anything downtown specifically.
25:49So we want to make sure we were safe, the store was safe, and our employees were safe.
25:56John Catanzaro, president of Chicago's Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police,
25:59says the Chicago police force is already understaffed by a thousand.
26:03They'll be on a skeleton crew when the manpower is dedicated to the convention.
26:07He says criminals in the rough parts of town know this, and they're already unafraid of police.
26:12With tens of thousands of protesters expected to arrive in Chicago,
26:15the largest protest group, March on the DNC, got another victory this afternoon.
26:20They had been prevented from setting up a stage or sound system in the park
26:23where they want to rally after their march. This afternoon, the city
26:27relented, granting them a stage and sound system for the rally, even port-a-johns.
26:31This is the pro-Palestinian group. The pro-Israeli group was denied a permit.
26:36Neil?
26:38Mike, thank you very much. Mike Tobin in Chicago, of course,
26:41the site of this year's Democratic convention next week.
26:44Ahead of all of that, maybe a preview of coming attractions with these anti-Israeli protesters
26:49in New York this week. It got a little bit heated and stands to get even more so in Chicago.
26:56Congressman Jared Moskowitz of the beautiful state of Florida, kind enough to be with us.
27:00Congressman, do you expect it to be really dicey? I mean,
27:05a lot of people in Chicago are getting worried. Are you?
27:07Well, thanks, Neil. Thanks for having me. Thanks for talking about this.
27:10Look, obviously, I have the utmost faith in our police officers. I thank them, obviously,
27:16for doing their jobs and putting their lives on the line every day.
27:20But look, I expect, unfortunately, there to be, you know, professional agitators there,
27:25just like we saw in New York, just like we saw during the campus protests.
27:29I expect there to be people who are being paid to go, unfortunately, by foreign governments.
27:34We have reports of that. And so, yeah, I expect it there to be issues and situations.
27:39That doesn't mean people are unsafe. But yeah, I mean, we're planning. Members are
27:44contemplating in their mind that there will probably be some very difficult circumstances.
27:51You know, when it came to some of these New York protests that were going on,
27:54Congressman, they targeted Kamala Harris campaign event. She was not there in a night of
28:02was the vice presidential running mate. But it does serve as a reminder, this delicate battle
28:08within the Democratic Party, maybe all the way up to Kamala Harris herself,
28:12between keeping some of those protesters as though sympathetic to them, happy or angry and not losing
28:20the Jewish Democratic vote that's been almost monolithic in one election after another.
28:25How do you think that's going?
28:27No, no, I do think it's delicate. I think the vice president's done a good job,
28:32you know, obviously listening to both sides, being compassionate to the fact that,
28:37you know, there have been innocent people killed in a war in Gaza, which is Hamas's fault,
28:41of course. But in addition to being delicate, Neal, it's also dangerous because many folks
28:47in this movement don't just want a ceasefire. They want an arms embargo without a ceasefire.
28:54They want an arms embargo with Israel. They want the United States to cut Israel off.
28:59And they would have no problem doing that if that and the result was Iran invading Israel.
29:05And so, you know, there's a difference between, you know, listening to people and being compassionate
29:12versus changing policy. And the Biden-Harris administration policy on Israel has been good.
29:17And I expect Vice President Harris, should she win,
29:20to have very similar policy to the current administration.
29:23There's fears that certainly in, you know, in Israel, as I'm sure you're aware,
29:29Congressman, that whatever reticence they have about Joe Biden, and there's been some clashes
29:33back and forth, they have even more for Kamala Harris. Her views are much more hardened,
29:38you know, against the prime minister there. I just wonder if you think things could get worse
29:43between our two countries if she becomes president.
29:47Well, look, being Jewish myself, we're full of anxiety all the time.
29:51But I don't think that is warranted with Kamala Harris. She has a record in the Senate and she's
29:57part of the Biden-Harris administration, right? I mean, you know, Joe Biden is tying her to the
30:01Biden-Harris administration all day on the things we don't like. But the record on Israel is also
30:07her record on Israel. And ultimately, that's been a good record. Right now, trying to get a ceasefire,
30:13trying to get the hostages out, I think is very important. I know the Biden-Harris administration
30:19is focused on that, maybe trying to make a deal with Saudi Arabia to try to create a regional
30:23power against Iran. Very important Biden-Harris administration is working on that and the good
30:28work that the Trump administration did with the Abraham Accords. But no, look, Israel is definitely
30:32in a precarious situation. We see Iran's power growing in the region. We see them threatening
30:38Israel directly, launching strikes of ballistic missiles directly. And we see what's going on in
30:43this country and around the world of the anti-Israel, anti-Semitism growing around the
30:49country. So no, it is a very precarious time for Israel and for Jews around the world.
30:55All right, Congressman, great talking to you again. Jared Moskowitz of the beautiful state
30:59of Florida. We were talking about the convention, talking about politics.
31:03Just to let you know, Teamstress President Sean O'Brien will be with us next week, next Tuesday.
31:09You might recall that he's still waiting for a formal invite from the
31:12Democratic National Committee to speak to them that he did before the Republic.
31:19All right, we've been tracking Hurricane Ernesto. Kenna Lewis is doing a great job doing that for
31:24Fox Weather. She joins us right now. What are we looking at here? Well, it does look like things
31:28are still progressing pretty well when it comes to Hurricane Ernesto and its track. It's moving
31:32off towards the north-northwest. Neil, we'll continue to be watching this through the weekend.
31:35It looks like we just got that 5 p.m. advisory. So winds now sitting at 100 miles per hour.
31:41That north-northeast progression still continues as well. And that's going to take it right into
31:45areas like Bermuda, where we have a hurricane warning that does still remain in place.
31:50Right now, the storm is a bit lopsided. Notice that most of the heaviest rain,
31:53a lot of the convection sits on the eastern half of the storm. That's going to be pushing
31:57in that northerly direction through the course of today into tonight, as well as even tomorrow
32:02for areas like Bermuda. And it will be serving up some really high swell, as well as some big waves
32:08for areas like Bermuda. Along the east coast, though, we are still looking pretty quiet. We
32:12will be feeling the impacts in terms of the surf. So we do have a couple of surf advisories that
32:17remain in place all along the east coast, taking you all the way down to Florida.
32:21Here's the steering mechanism. So from here on out, it continues in that north-northeast
32:25direction. And thanks to a short wave that's going to be pushing in off of the midwest,
32:30there, we will continue to see, as I mentioned, deadly rip currents, high rough surf along the
32:34east coast, taking it really from New England all the way back down towards the Carolinas
32:39and into Florida for most of the weekend. So those areas should be monitored very closely
32:43as we go through Saturday, Sunday, and even into a portion of our Monday. Here's that threat zone
32:48a little bit closer here. So again, as Ernesto continues to move off towards the north and east
32:52away from the U.S. mainland, biggest threats are going to be the rip currents, as well as the rough
32:57surf here at home. Neal? Kiana, thank you so much for that. From very real storms to that
33:03market storm, does anyone remember that stock storm? A lot of people asking what happened to it.
33:09We know after this.
33:16This program is brought to you by John Deere. You just have to get in the seat.
33:22Remember that stock meltdown a couple of weeks ago? Distant memory now. All the major averages
33:26storming back since that time. Luke Lloyd, what happened? It's all about those earnings and that
33:34spending that the consumer is doing, right? If you ask Wall Street, two days ago, we were entering a
33:39recession. Today, we have a soft landing. Every day is a new day on Wall Street with new data.
33:45But if you ask Main Street, 60% of Americans think we're already in a recession, and every day
33:50is the same day and that same kind of feeling. So to me, it's actually pretty clear what's
33:53happening. Many consumers are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to keep their
33:59spending habits alive. If you look at the data that just came out a week ago, non-revolving
34:03credit, which is loans, went up $10 billion in June. Revolving credit, which are credit cards,
34:09actually went down $2 billion. And credit card debt doesn't usually go down. So what's happening?
34:14So you don't buy this advance, right? So you're not buying this advance, right?
34:19You're not buying this advance. I don't think this has much juice left. I really don't. I
34:24think middle class America will continue their spending habits, but as interest rates from the
34:28Federal Reserve are starting to break things, like we talked about a few weeks ago, the Federal
34:32Reserve is good at two things, bailing things out and breaking things. And it kind of feels like
34:37with some yellow flashing lights that some of the economic data is breaking. The question becomes,
34:41when there's lower interest rates, middle class is usually the one that pays for it,
34:45but Wall Street tends to benefit. So real quickly, when you have Home Depot,
34:49some of these others saying their customers are being a little bit more cautious, but they're
34:53still spending, and Walmart kind of telegraphing the same, what do you think? Yeah, I mean,
35:00I think this is really important to take a look outside of the United States, like we've talked
35:05about before. I really think that the United States markets have been the place to be. I mean,
35:10I know the reverse carry trade, that kind of Japan, I don't want to get too far deep into
35:14that. That's kind of been the topic of the news. But when people are selling U.S. equities,
35:19that money goes usually somewhere else, or when that carry trade goes somewhere else.
35:23So I do think India and Mexico, where the United States was about 100 years ago from a
35:28capitalistic mentality, these younger economies, I think a lot of growth is actually going to
35:33happen over there, especially when the government continues to deficit spend $2 trillion every
35:39single year. That's inflationary, and that's being offset by the Fed, which is making actually U.S.
35:43economy weaker. So enjoy this rally, I guess, while we have it. Luke, great seeing you again.
35:49We are going to explore this in a lot more detail this weekend about the good and the bad,
35:53the bullish and the bearish sides. Fair balance, as always. We always try to do that. In the
35:56meantime, if you're getting your kids school supplies, you already know a little thing or
35:59two about sticker shock.

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