Tariffs as bargaining chips.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, Thanksgiving is over. What’s going on in the world, well, the economic world. The least we have Steve more with us, and Steve give us an update. I mean, we only have a month left to the new year. We only have like fifty days left to a new president. You tell me what’s going on.

0:22 Speaker 2 Well, there’s no question, John, there has been a Trump out, just no question about it. From the day he was elected. We saw the stock market sore by fifteen hundred points. It’s not a role. You know, investors all over the world are betting out of America right now. And then you look at the consumer competence numbers, John, they took

0:41 a huge leap up, one of the fast his biggest increases in consumer confidence that the posters have ever seen. And same thing with small business competents. Small businesses are saying, hey, we think this administration will be pro small business, that they’ll get rid of some of the odorous regulations that makes it so expensive to make a profit and then

0:59 to make the products that are great small businessmen and women produced in this country. So there is the bounce in the step in America today. And even by the way, some of my Democratic friends who normally, you know, have been very hostile to Trump. You to say, well, you know, maybe this guy isn’t so bad after a while, because

1:16 after the disaster of the Biden administration, a lot of people see a lot of blue sky ahead. And I’m one of them.

1:23 Speaker 1 How about the Biden is giving away all this money to a lot of people. What is that going to do? How do you do give about six billion dollars to a bankrupt electric vehicle company?

1:37 Speaker 2 Yeah, this is outrageous. Here we have an enterprise called the United States government that is losing almost two trillion dollars a year. You would think the Biden administration, on their way out, would try to save every penny they could, so they’re not going to leave an economic disaster behind.

1:54 And yet you’re right, all of the cabinet officials are scrambling to spend money. The Commerce Secretary, the Transportation Secretary. Uh, they they are. They’re giving money out in corporate welfare grants. And it’s I think it’s actually unpatriotic what they’re doing, because we one of the biggest problems we have as a nation right now is this enormous debt, and they’re

2:15 they’re scrambling to add as much as they can to it.

2:19 Speaker 1 Understood. You want to tell you margan people, Well, I mean, I think the confidence is there that this government, that that uh President Trump is going to save the world as far as this, I don’t think we’re going to have a World War three. I think the terrorists, I could say, I think the terrorists have been terrorized. They

2:43 are worried. They’re not going to screw around with Trump.

2:46 Speaker 2 That’s right. And you know who else isn’t going to screw around with Trump. I believe in the end of the day he’s gonna win on this one. Is you may have seen what happened earlier or later last week, which was the the fact that Trump is threatened triffs on China and Mexico if they don’t help us on

3:04 this war against ventol and John Look, you know me a long time. I’m a free trade guy, but I believe these countries are poisoning our children. Did you know Ventanyl is one of the leading causes of death of young people in America today? Thousands of a thousands of our young children and our teenagers and young adults are

3:23 dying from this poison in this deadly drug. And China and Mexico are not doing virtually anything about it. So I don’t like tariffs generally, but I think if we can use tariffs in a strategic way to get these countries to keep these evil drugs out of our system, I’m all for it.

3:42 Speaker 1 Well, you know, as you understand, what do Europeans countries do, And I don’t think the American people realize they use tariffs and they use well what else you call it in Europe the tax they use on products.

3:57 Speaker 2 Oh, they have a value added tech the value added tends.

4:00 Speaker 1 Yeah, right, and they get away from the income tax. That’s right. So somebody should scratch ahead and at least think about it.

4:13 Speaker 2 Yes, look what Trump is talking about again, you’re talking to a guy who’s a free trade guy. I go back to you know, I read Adam Smith when I was in college, and you know, he talked about the benefits of free trade. But when you have countries that are not playing by the rules, and what Trump is

4:27 basically saying is, look, if you have to tax something, let’s tax a little bit more of the stuff that’s coming in from China, which is an enemy in the United States, and tax a little less on the things that are produced in New York or Michigan or Pennsylvania or California or Maine, and you know what, I’m with

4:42 them on that.

4:43 Speaker 1 Yeah, yep. Well, have a good Thanksgiving weekend and we’ll catch up again during the week.

4:53 Speaker 2 Thanks John, thank you.