The Meyers Report 09_13-2024 Fast 15
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00:00Welcome to the Friday Meyers Report, Fast 15.
00:07It is September 13th, 2024, Friday the 13th.
00:13Our quote for the week, something to think about, the society that separates its scholars
00:20from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.
00:29Euthysisites, the ancient Greek historian, our thought for the week.
00:37It's getting increasingly, I got to start this again, I screwed it up, 3, 2, 1.
00:48Welcome to the Friday Meyers Report, Fast 15.
00:52It is today, September 13th, 2024, Friday the 13th.
00:59Our quote for the week, the society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its
01:04thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.
01:09Euthysisites, the ancient Greek historian and warrior and, well, it's our thought for
01:19the week.
01:22We are increasingly moving toward a surveillance state.
01:26Ford is now filing an application for a patent for a technology that will equip all of its
01:33cars to basically monitor all the cars around it and be able to catch real-time speeding
01:40and other violations and automatically report it to the police.
01:44To me, this is too bizarre.
01:48Basically they're going to turn all of our cars into license plate readers.
01:55On top of that, Ford has just patented a program that will listen to our internal conversations
02:03in the cars and also track where we are going and then start to send us advertisements based
02:11upon what it thinks our likes and dislikes are.
02:15We'll go into this in greater detail, but it seems to me that Big Brother is here and
02:20they want us to pay for it.
02:23Okay, continuing.
02:25As the apparent, and I think it's an apparent, Trump failure on the debate fades, there are
02:31many independents who saw ABC's news effort as rigging the debate.
02:37This is hitting independent voters and pushing them almost two to one, interestingly enough,
02:42in favor of Trump.
02:45Next up, the Trump assassination attempt is coming back to center stage.
02:50Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, as well as some other Democrats,
02:57says that Americans will be shocked and appalled when lawmakers release their interim report
03:03on the assassination attempt of former President Trump.
03:06Blumenthal's statements were echoed by Democrats and Republicans alike.
03:13Bob, good morning.
03:16How are you doing out there?
03:19I'm doing great.
03:21Beautiful day.
03:22You are living a wonderful life and keep us up to date on the stock market.
03:28On this presidential election, we are looking at odds makers.
03:33However, the real bettors, I think, are the stock market investors.
03:38They, the S&P 500, seems to be saying that Trump is going to get back into the White
03:44House.
03:45If the markets thought Kamala Harris was going to win, wouldn't they be tanking?
03:49And why are they not?
03:51I think it would be, I think the market would take it hard if they really believe Harris
03:57would be elected.
03:58One of the key reasons is she has promised a huge tax increase.
04:03Now, she doesn't call it a tax increase.
04:06She said she wants to do away with the Trump tax cuts, which were across the board, affecting
04:12just about everyone.
04:14And those tax cuts expire at the end of next year.
04:18And she has firmly endorsed letting them expire.
04:21So the end of next year, meaning 2025.
04:23End of 2025, that's when they automatically go off.
04:27So even if Congress does nothing, if the president does nothing, we have a huge tax increase.
04:34And that tax increase is going to hit the middle class.
04:37There are some models that suggest where you are, and it depends on your specific situation.
04:43But anywhere from people earning $50,000 to $150,000, $100,000, $200,000, you'll still
04:51get like a $2,000 tax hike in most cases as a result of those taxes expiring.
05:01Capital gains taxes go up, and she wants to raise them even more.
05:05Capital gains is the most sensitive in terms of sending the economy in the right or the
05:10wrong place.
05:11We've got a great deal of history on capital gains taxes.
05:15She wants them not just to go up because of the expiration of the Trump tax cuts, but
05:21she wants the capital gains taxes to go up even more.
05:24So that would hit investors very hard.
05:28So I agree.
05:29I agree with you.
05:30If people really believe that Harris is going to win, the stock market should take a pretty
05:36big hit.
05:37Bob, from the debate, did you get any more of an understanding of what Kamala Harris's
05:43economic policies really are?
05:45No.
05:46The big problem with the debate is the moderators let her get away, and Trump let her get away
05:53without answering the key questions that everyone wants to know.
05:57She never did answer, are Americans better off today than they were four years ago?
06:02That was the first question of the debate, and why Trump doesn't come back.
06:07She couldn't answer that question.
06:08She said, oh, we'll deal with that.
06:11But first, let me tell you about my life story and what a middle class person I am.
06:15And she went on and on for the two minutes or whatever they got, and basically never
06:20said, are things really better off today than not?
06:25And that was an opening for Trump.
06:28All he had to say is, well, she didn't answer the question, and she didn't answer it because
06:32we all know most people are not better off today than they were four years ago.
06:37And he could have pursued it even further, saying, she may not even know that people
06:42are oversold, nor does she have any idea what the change in her policies did to the economic
06:50conditions, because she thinks they actually improved everything.
06:54And so he had an opportunity.
06:56He missed it.
06:57It was one of the worst performances I've seen from him.
07:01He simply wasn't thinking.
07:03And I think she did a lot of homework.
07:08She basically baited him on so many issues that he was just not on top of his game.
07:15And that's a shame, because that was a great opportunity with 65 million people watching
07:21to tilt things one way or another.
07:24No, I agree with you.
07:26But in defense of the man and the situation, it was crystal clear that he was in a hostile
07:33environment.
07:34But the bottom line is, people did not learn anything about her, and that was a loss for
07:42the public.
07:43If you don't learn anything about a candidate who you're considering for president, it's
07:48very difficult to vote for that candidate with any sort of conviction.
07:53Kamala Harris also claimed that Goldman Sachs thought her economic policies were better
07:58than Trump's, and the Goldman Sachs CEO kind of squirmed at some point when he was interviewed
08:05later.
08:06I don't think you built your take on it.
08:08And again, it's a perfect response that Trump missed on that one with her claiming all these
08:15economists support her program.
08:18These are the same economists that said that we would not have inflation because of the
08:24Biden-Harris program, economic program.
08:27They were just totally wrong on everything.
08:31And you could have pointed that out and said, clearly, they're wrong again.
08:34You don't point just to your economists for approval.
08:38Anyway, it was another missed opportunity.
08:44The economists that have been advising Harris and Biden not only were wrong, every sane
08:52economist that I know of said that they were going to be wrong when they first got it started,
08:58that this was totally, well, then again, what do you expect when you're being advised by
09:02music majors who know nothing about business and economics?
09:06You know, that's true.
09:07Looking at the background of her economic advisors and Bidens, which are the same people,
09:14there's very, very few of them that had any background in economics, which is very strange.
09:21I've never seen a situation like that where the head of your Council of Economic Advisors
09:26simply has no degree in economics, but rather has degree in social work and music.
09:33It's sort of like this is very, very strange.
09:36It's sort of like assigning a blind man to drive the bus of the economy.
09:42Things aren't going to work out.
09:45Has Kamala Harris demonstrated any knowledge of how the economy works based upon what you
09:51have seen and heard?
09:53The amazing thing is not that she seems to have no knowledge of economics, she has no
09:58knowledge of finance, no knowledge of business.
10:02And a survey was done of all the key advisors in the Biden-Harris administration, and the
10:11end result was only a very small fraction of them had any experience in business.
10:18These are people who came either through academia in one way or another, or were basically social
10:24work people.
10:26No business experience, a very small percentage were ever involved in business.
10:33And that, I think, is a huge shortcoming, both for Harris and for the future administration
10:40if she were to get elected.
10:42If you have no background in business, how do you go about hiring competent people who
10:47are able to deal with such matters?
10:49I don't think you can.
10:52It seems to me, looking forward, if Harris were somehow to get into office, and it's
11:00not dead certain that she won't, that our economy is not headed in a good direction
11:07at all.
11:08No.
11:09You know, I made a prediction when Biden was elected that we would have disappointing
11:16economic conditions over the next four years.
11:21And although a lot of people think the economy is doing well, I know the administration thinks
11:28it's doing well.
11:29Harris somehow thinks it's doing well.
11:32But it isn't.
11:33I happened to update the data from my book, Rich Nation, Poor Nation, which the data ended
11:40in 2015.
11:41And what it showed is that whenever the government got very involved in the economy, with more
11:47government spending, more regulations, we've had a decline, or at least no increase in
11:54living standards.
11:55It's been disappointing.
11:57And when I updated that data, and what I found is that during the Trump years, the workers'
12:03salaries after taxes went up about 6% in four years.
12:09In the next four years, actually starting with 2019, starting with COVID, and after
12:16that, salaries of after-tax for people went down 6%.
12:22I mean, the data are very clear.
12:23That's a big number.
12:24Yeah.
12:26The data are very clear.
12:27A lot of people have had very disappointing four years over the course of the past four
12:33years.
12:34So it's something that I think people feel, and I think it's something people should take
12:40into account if they want better times ahead.
12:43If Harris gets elected, as you said, the economic policies are not going to be positive.
12:50Living standards will continue to be either flat or down, which is what we see throughout
12:55history.
12:56I disagree with some of the words you're using.
12:59You're saying that the economic policies or results would not be positive.
13:03I think they could be horrific.
13:06Well, they could be.
13:09I consider a 6% drop in real after-tax wages pretty significant in the course of the past
13:17few years.
13:18I think it will be worse in another four years.
13:21Yeah.
13:22It depends on the policies.
13:23All I would conclude is policies under Harris are not going to be constructive, destructive,
13:31and that's going to, you know, we will all pay the price.
13:34However, I think it would be almost the exact opposite if Trump gets back into the White
13:39House.
13:40Particularly with energy policies.
13:41I think we've got a much better chance.
13:43Trump has some interesting policies.
13:45First of all, he wants to keep the current tax rates in place, the ones that help the
13:52economy so much under his conditions.
13:56That would be a huge plus, but it doesn't happen automatically.
13:59He'd have to have the Congress go along because it's going to take vote in Congress in order
14:05to keep tax rates where they are.
14:07If he doesn't have the Congress and Congress doesn't agree with him, we will have a massive
14:12tax increase.
14:14He also wants an efficiency council headed by Elon Musk to look at the whole government.
14:22Now, I believe, based on a lot of research that's been done, that roughly half of all
14:28government spending and regulation is wasted.
14:32So if you had someone like Musk come in and do what he's done in the business world to
14:38the federal government, we can really get government spending under control, maybe drop
14:44it by a significant amount.
14:47I can see government spending.
14:48And do so without really hurting programs like Social Security and Medicare, that those
14:53programs could still go forward and people could still get their money.
14:57However, because of the efficiencies that could be created, the cost of those programs,
15:02particularly Medicare, where their health costs are wild, could go down significantly,
15:08not by legislation, but simply eliminating the waste that's involved in the way government
15:14does things.
15:15So we've got a great opportunity under Trump, you're right, freeing up the production of
15:20oil, and most important of all, making better decisions with respect to foreign policy,
15:28decisions that promote world peace, and not decisions that encourage our belligerence
15:33to go ahead and create chaos throughout the world.
15:37Okay, at this juncture, do you see, who do you see winning the election?
15:42Well, I have a bias because I do not, as an economist, I don't like to see destructive
15:50economic policy.
15:51So I have a strong bias toward Trump.
15:53I believe he's going to win.
15:55I thought he was going to win four years ago, and I was wrong.
16:00So I don't think anyone knows for sure.
16:03I look at polls, I look at the betting odds.
16:07Right now they're not tilted toward Trump, they're tilted at the moment toward Harris.
16:14But I also look at some, like the Rasmussen polls, and Rasmussen still has Trump ahead
16:22by two percentage points nationally, which would probably put him in the White House.
16:30I think he's going to win, but I'm not highly confident, especially after what happened
16:35in 2020.
16:39I am guardedly optimistic that he will win.
16:44As you know, when he first started running, I didn't think much of him, but what he has
16:48demonstrated, particularly as being president, has totally put me on the other side.
16:55With that, we'll talk to you, we'll see you in our upcoming Fast Fifteens.
17:02I want to say be well, travel safely this weekend, and God bless America.