2017 tax cuts are extended in the Big Beautiful Bill.

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, it’s going to be a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. The bill is signed ready for I guess the signature of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and a great weekend with us today is Steve Forbes, Steve, it’s going to be a great weekend.

0:19 Speaker 2 It is, indeed, and the deed got done. And even though there are lots of parts of the bill that we may not particularly like or things that we wish could have been in it, the key thing is they got it through. Some very good stuff in there. Whether it’s not having to report these things like PayPal these

0:39 transactions above six hundred dollars, small thing, but that would have been a gross invasion of privacy. Congress is killing that. But the key thing is they kept the tax cuts of twenty seventeen going, renewed instant expensing which was expiring, and also included factories. So even though it may not have been perfect for everybody, it got through, and that’s

1:03 a huge achievement at a time when the economy needs something. Certain.

1:08 Speaker 1 Well, the markets at all time high, and I mean the banks are doing phenomenal. I mean, I can’t believe goldn SATs is over seven hundred, jp Mwuggen over three hundred. Where are we going, Steve.

1:25 Speaker 2 Well, I think where we’re going is that now that the bill is out of the way, we’ve got to get these tariff issues out of the way. The Vietnam thing looks like it’s a good template, so hopefully in the coming days we’re going to get more of these big trading partners out of the way. Vietnam has become

1:40 a major trading partner with the United States, so getting that out of the way. And then the other big thing that the President’s going to have to tackle, which he’s already started, is the mismanagement, fundamental mismanagement of the federal reserve, which is keeping short term interest rates absurdly high.

1:57 There’s no reason why a six month Treasury bill should be yielding four point two four point three percent. The interest rates that the Fed is paying on bank reserve should be cut at least an half so the banks can be encouraged to lend again. And I think the fact that there’s going to be some positive changes in

2:15 bank regulation on absurd capital requirements is also why the bank stocks are doing well. They may be able to cruly get back in the business of lending. How about that?

2:25 Speaker 1 Well, I look forward to that, and I mean without getting the bank breaks down. Powell, in my opinion, Powell is trying to hurt the real estate companies, create a recession, and hurt the regional banks, and then that will help the Democrats get elected in twenty six.

2:47 Speaker 2 Well, clearly Powell has been acting like a politician, and a pretty crude and open one about it. As we all know, he cut interest rates twice just before the election last year, was supposed to help the Democrats. Here we have the official inflation numbers going down and these refuses to reduce the rates more so, that’s political, not

3:12 relying on facts. And I can’t wait for the federal reserve governorships to open up. We’ve got one in December, and then of course we have Powell coming early next year. Replacement with people who understand the commerce requires liquidity.

3:26 Speaker 1 Steve Forbes we need. I wish we had two or three Steve Forbes with us in the Washington. Thank you so much for reporting in and let’s catch up again real soon.

3:38 Speaker 2 Look forward to it, and let’s celebrate a good weekend.

3:41 Speaker 1 I look forward