road joining me now is kevin asset he's
former chairman of the council of
economic advisors he's the author of the
most important book of the century it's
called the drift stopping america's
slide to socialism uh kevin has it uh
welcome back great day for you to come
back
kevin look
i apart from making forecasts about the
economy i will just say this
this crazy woke progressive policies big
government socialism newt calls it
regulatory control the economy spending
and taxing and printing money i mean i
think these are key factors behind this
stock market sell-off what do you think
yeah absolutely and you know i think
that sadly you guys were just talking a
little bit about timing but as you
mentioned that the retailers have
started to see it as well it's not just
the high-tech companies the s p retail
index is down about 35 year-to-date and
that's what you see in recessions you
know i i've been a little bit ahead of
you over the last few months on
recession i don't know if you've caught
up yet and we'll concede that we're in
one now but i i think we are but but you
know in terms of markets one of the
things that you see regularly is that
markets have a really hard time with
election years uh they don't like the
uncertainty of you know maybe the
democrats somehow are able to you know
maintain control and then all of a
sudden all of these policies going after
price gouging firms and so on are real
and so my expectation is that markets
are not going to start to rally until
after the election and so it's really
really really going to be a bumpy ride
yeah we ain't seen the word the worst of
it yet i i really agree with that um i
don't know if we're in a recession now
but i think all this stock market action
and other things real world events are
pointing to a recession kevin you know
it's an odd thing in the middle of all
this
you get the white house uh
press room saying oh we don't look at
stocks we don't look at stocks not very
important now you and i worked for a guy
who looked at stocks
a lot
in fact over the course of three years
however many hundreds of times i walked
in the first thing he asked me is how's
the market but kevin i know the market
is not perfect but it is an important
gauge of the future economy of
confidence and so forth
don't you think the bidens make a
mistake ignoring the market and isn't
that kind of this you know sassy
left-wing progressive we don't like rich
people type stuff
you know i hope their economic team is
not ignoring markets but when you're the
president and things look as bad as they
do
then you probably are just pretending
you know what me worry right
and so absolutely they're trying to
ignore markets but the fact is that the
markets are the ultimate judge of their
policies and the markets are saying no
you know my favorite trump story about
markets uh larry is you remember there
was this talk about firing jay powell
and then the president decided not to do
it and just for some reason i was doing
a gaggle outside the white house and i
said hey we're not going to fire jay
powell and then all of a sudden it's all
over the news and the market went up a
thousand points that day and uh the
president called me up and he said we we
gotta we gotta put you on every day
you know maybe that's what the white
house should do is bring me back and
stick me out every day and see if we
can't reverse this thing but it really
honestly though seriously they need to
take take this seriously they need to
not talk about price gouging they need
to recognize that supply is the answer
and it's not just the fed's fault it's
not just putin's fault it's it's the
fault of all this fiscal policy and you
know there are two academic studies out
that show that the biden stimulus is the
main cause of this inflation one from
morgan stanley and one from a regional
fed and so it's not just us you know
it's the academics now that are pointing
the finger at biden i mean it's just um
we had a very healthy stock market
during the trump years trump did look at
the market the market signals it signals
what it signals there are issues
confidence no confidence as you say the
j pal thing i remember when i first
pulled into town um i tried to calm the
waters about trade and tariffs and
markets seemed to like that a lot uh i
think the bidens make a big mistake and
kevin again it's part of this wokeness
isn't it i mean they look at stocks as
like rich people and they don't pay
their fair share and whatever happens
whether it's baby formula or oil prices
or poultry it's their fault their pros
get price gouging and we should tax them
and we should regulate them and i think
frankly if they could regulate the stock
market they would try i mean i think
this part of this progressive idea which
has failed so much
right and to put their proposals in
perspective and to see how they really
are part of the drift towards socialism
that i write about in my book is that
the proposal right now in congress for
going after price gougers says that the
ftc has the authority the federal trade
commission to decide whether a company
is price gouging or whether you are
price gouging or i am for my book the
drift right and then if they decide that
you are price gouging then they get to
charge you a penalty of five percent of
your revenues not of your profits but of
your revenues five percent of revenues
is about a hundred percent of profits
for a lot of companies right they don't
have margins that are that big and so if
that really were to happen then it would
absolutely be devastating for markets
and so if you think there's like a 20
chance that the democrats control
congress and they could do that stuff
then you should really really be pricing
that in today and i think that's what
your point is that people look at these
crazy work policies so they they're
pricing a 20 chance that they happen in
today and these policies are so negative
that 20 of that awful thing is a really
bad number well for sure i mean look at
um
they don't like the the work progressive
idea does not like profits the
capitalist idea is
profits are the mother's milk of stocks
and the lifeblood of the economy if
you're not making money right you can't
expand and hire and pay out greater
wages
now
carrying that over
i think there's a still
very apart from specific overspending
and over regulating and over money
printing kevin there's a lack of
confidence i i think the stock market
has been wobbly on confidence of the
bidens going back to last autumn and i
think that wobbliness and lack of
confidence and you see it in the polls
continues and is deepening and worsening
right and and think about it larry when
you and i were there and there was
something that rattled markets then you
went out there first and then the next
day i went out you know and and
delivered the message that we worked on
to help markets understand what was
going on and to understand that we were
you know act aware of the risks facing
the economy and that we had a plan to do
something about it right now what's
going on is they're in denial and
secretary ellen sadly is talking about
how you know repealing roe v wade is
going to hurt the economy and so they
are not focusing on the solutions that
would calm markets and that's why
markets are spinning out of control and
you know my old friend alan greenspan
who i worked with at the fed and you
know i still stayed close with when i
was at the white house as you know he
used to come have lunch with us at the
white house he once told me when things
really start going south
then you have no idea how far they're
going to go and i got to say that with
the white house this out of control and
a fed this far behind the curve that i'm
really about as anxious as i've ever
been like going back to the financial
crisis of how bad this could really get
kevin uh
have you and uh christy gone shopping
lately what does that look like in
grocery stores the price story
yeah
you know it was one of those things you
know that i'm like the nerdy economist
who actually really loves to shop and
look at prices and so today
uh you know we grabbed just like a tub
of watermelon because we're gonna have a
little barbecue and a pound of hamburger
and then stop for gas on the way back
and so i was just paying attention to dc
prices and so the the tub of watermelon
was 18 and this is not at a fancy
grocery store the the the hamburger was
six dollars and 60 cents a pound and
then it was almost six dollars a gallon
uh when i filled up on the way home and
then to top it all off when i get into
the house uh because it's hot in dc now
it's a brownout so i don't have
electricity you know this is this is
what's going on in the country right now
this is joe biden's america and we need
adults to come back to the white house
and back to congress and fix this before
it gets really really out of hand he's
already out of hand but the fact is that
that you know there's shortages of
everything so let me go right now in the
nation's capital let me get this right
which was more expensive the hamburger
or the gasoline
now the hamburger was more expensive on
the list price on a unit because today
was the last day for it it was marked
down a little bit but if i don't eat it
today i'll probably get some disease
so you're bar you're barbecuing we're at
the bargain aisle
fortunate barbecue thanks for the
invitation i'd love to come down for
dinner to pass the barbecue anyway kevin
has terrific stuff thanks very much talk
soon