Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Jimmy Carter, Former US President Dies at 100
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- 0:02Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
- 0:08Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
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- 0:23Speaker 3: I want to bring back in David Weston, host of
- 0:25Speaker 3: Wall Street Week, to talk about the legacy of President Carter.
- 0:29Speaker 3: And you know, we talked a little about his four
- 0:31Speaker 3: years in office, but I think where he really made
- 0:33Speaker 3: his mark was after that. He won the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 0:38Speaker 3: You mentioned the Camp David Accords. He worked towards peace
- 0:41Speaker 3: for the rest of his life. What are the standout
- 0:44Speaker 3: accomplishments achievements.
- 0:46Speaker 4: It's interesting you mentioned the Nobel Peace Prize, which was
- 0:48Speaker 4: actually for what he did after lift office, not for
- 0:50Speaker 4: the Camp David Accords. One might have thought he might
- 0:52Speaker 4: have gotten for that. Actually was for what happened afterwards,
- 0:54Speaker 4: because as you know, he set up the Carter Center
- 0:56Speaker 4: and really traveled the world a policing election, making sure
- 1:00Speaker 4: democracy was succeeding, also fighting for human rights and of
- 1:03Speaker 4: course for diseases like in Sub Saharan Africa. He was
- 1:07Speaker 4: really in the vanguard of that, so he did a
- 1:10Speaker 4: huge amount. And then of course there's habitat for humanity
- 1:14Speaker 4: in the United States where he would go out and
- 1:15Speaker 4: build houses. A really extraordinary period post presidency.
- 1:19Speaker 5: Something I've been thinking about a lot over the last
- 1:20Speaker 5: twenty four hours is some of the things that happened
- 1:23Speaker 5: at that time. For example, you mentioned Paul Vulker leading
- 1:26Speaker 5: the FED really bringing down inflation in a really aggressive way,
- 1:31Speaker 5: something Carter was very of course and supportive and needed
- 1:34Speaker 5: to happen. Did happen painful choice at the time. Do
- 1:37Speaker 5: you think choosing policy over politics would happen in that
- 1:41Speaker 5: kind of a manner.
- 1:42Speaker 6: That's a great question.
- 1:43Speaker 4: Certainly he did do that, and a lot of people
- 1:46Speaker 4: really say that's why he got beaten so badly by
- 1:49Speaker 4: Ronald Reagan, because he was very principled. Whatever you think
- 1:52Speaker 4: about his policies, he was a very principled man, and
- 1:56Speaker 4: he would follow policy no matter what, even with Paul Volker.
- 1:59Speaker 4: When Paul Vulker said, you know, we're going to really
- 2:00Speaker 4: run into a recession, he said, I'll handle the politics,
- 2:03Speaker 4: you handled the economy, And he really backed him on that,
- 2:06Speaker 4: knowing that he would pay a very steep price he
- 2:08Speaker 4: started to did have we seen that since then? I'm
- 2:11Speaker 4: not sure. I mean, it's fairly hard to find true
- 2:15Speaker 4: profiles and courage these days, I would say, and I'm
- 2:18Speaker 4: saying that for both Democrats and Republicans.
- 2:19Speaker 6: It's hard to find that.
- 2:21Speaker 5: Right even in today's Republican party. If you were to
- 2:24Speaker 5: go against the grain, your primary seat is being threatened already,
- 2:27Speaker 5: So I don't know that that could happen.
- 2:29Speaker 4: Well, that's true, but I would say this is getting
- 2:31Speaker 4: into politics. But I think there's a version of the
- 2:33Speaker 4: Democratic side too, where you had Joe Biden go in
- 2:36Speaker 4: and become president and it seemed to trim his sales
- 2:39Speaker 4: because of his concerns with the left wing of the party.
- 2:42Speaker 4: So you know, I think that to Song said he
- 2:44Speaker 4: was hemmed in by that as well. So I'm afraid
- 2:47Speaker 4: things have evolved. But Carter was sort of a transitional figure.
- 2:50Speaker 4: I mean, let's be frank Gerald. Ford lost him by
- 2:53Speaker 4: a narrow margin, in large part because he pardoned President
- 2:56Speaker 4: Nixon and so he came in. He was from no where.
- 2:59Speaker 4: He was an outsider, maybe our first outsider as president,
- 3:03Speaker 4: because his presidensor has all been insiders. Maybe in that
- 3:06Speaker 4: way he led the path. Wall Street Journal wrote about
- 3:08Speaker 4: this today, maybe led the path toward to Donald Trump.
- 3:11Speaker 7: I think one of the legacies of President Carter is
- 3:14Speaker 7: his post presidential career, which was so rich and so diverse,
- 3:19Speaker 7: and it almost kind of set the template for some
- 3:21Speaker 7: of the other presidents. How do I spend my post
- 3:23Speaker 7: presidential years, you know, having my centers and trying to
- 3:27Speaker 7: you know, be active and constructive and it. You know,
- 3:31Speaker 7: certainly President Carter did that as well as anybody.
- 3:34Speaker 2: No think.
- 3:34Speaker 4: I think he did change the nature of post presidency.
- 3:37Speaker 4: I think is exactly right, Paul. And certainly we saw
- 3:40Speaker 4: with Bill Clinton that happened, George Herbert Walker Bush for
- 3:42Speaker 4: that happened even George W. Bush, who doesn't get as
- 3:45Speaker 4: much attention for it. He's done a lot of good
- 3:47Speaker 4: with his Presidential Library and his center as well, and
- 3:50Speaker 4: has really devoted himself to doing good things and using
- 3:54Speaker 4: their status to really accomplish things around the world. And
- 3:57Speaker 4: I think Carter did change the entire nature of what
- 4:00Speaker 4: happens after your president.
- 4:02Speaker 3: All right, David Weston, host of Wall Street Week, thanks
- 4:05Speaker 3: very much for joining us on the legacy of Jimmy Carter.
- 4:07Speaker 3: What can we expect from Wall Street Week coming up
- 4:10Speaker 3: on this Friday.
- 4:11Speaker 6: Okay, So we're going to.
- 4:12Speaker 4: Take a look forward into what we're seeing in twenty
- 4:15Speaker 4: twenty five and what the biggest issues are that we're
- 4:17Speaker 4: going to have, and so we're going to try to
- 4:19Speaker 4: set that out, to set the table, as it were.
- 4:21Speaker 4: And then I'm going to get on the road and
- 4:23Speaker 4: go out to visit oil fields in the middle of winter.
- 4:25Speaker 6: Cool.
- 4:26Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm in with you on Wyoming out of Wyoming
- 4:29Speaker 4: to report on methane.
- 4:30Speaker 3: I would like to go to Wyoming right now too.
- 4:32Speaker 3: I feel like it's a great time to go to Wyoming.
- 4:34Speaker 3: I think you could go to Jackson Hall, Jackson Hole.
- 4:36Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I just stop in Jackson Hall, then I
- 4:39Speaker 4: drive for a couple hours outside of Jackson Hole.
- 4:42Speaker 5: David, thank you so very much for joining us. Of course,
- 4:44Speaker 5: on the legacy of Jimmy Carter. We're looking for to
- 4:46Speaker 5: your Wall Street Week. Of course, everyone is taking out
- 4:48Speaker 5: their playbook for twenty twenty five. It's going to set
- 4:51Speaker 5: up to be a difficult one, a lot of questions
- 4:53Speaker 5: around which industries will succeed.
- 4:57Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 5:01Speaker 2: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android
- 5:04Speaker 2: Otto with a Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen
- 5:07Speaker 2: live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station.
- 5:11Speaker 2: Just say Alexa Play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 5:14Speaker 7: Let's bring in Claudia Slam. She's a New Century Advisor's
- 5:17Speaker 7: chief economists, former Federal Reserve economists as well, and a
- 5:21Speaker 7: good friend of Bloomberg. Claudia, let's think about twenty twenty five.
- 5:25Speaker 7: I mean, I've got an economy that I think is
- 5:28Speaker 7: you know, kind of puts it along pretty darn well.
- 5:31Speaker 7: I got inflation that well, I'd like it to be
- 5:32Speaker 7: a little bit lower. The Fed would like it to
- 5:34Speaker 7: be a little bit lower. It's reasonable the labor market,
- 5:37Speaker 7: people who want a job generally have a job. They're
- 5:39Speaker 7: getting some wage increases. What are you telling your clients
- 5:42Speaker 7: about twenty twenty five in this economy?
- 5:46Speaker 1: Don't be complacent.
- 5:48Speaker 8: I mean these, as you said, if we could keep
- 5:51Speaker 8: it as it is right now, largely, this would be
- 5:54Speaker 8: another great year ahead of us. You know, we've been
- 5:56Speaker 8: surprised at how well the past two years have gone,
- 5:58Speaker 8: particularly when you think about both on how the consumers
- 6:01Speaker 8: have held up, uh and that, but that doesn't have
- 6:05Speaker 8: to keep going. So what we really want people to
- 6:08Speaker 8: focus on are what like the blind spots right what
- 6:12Speaker 8: could go wrong? Where who isn't getting enough attention? And
- 6:16Speaker 8: I think one area, you know, if I had to
- 6:18Speaker 8: maybe point some FED officials to a blind spot, I
- 6:20Speaker 8: think they showed a lot of complacency in their last
- 6:24Speaker 8: summary of economic projections on how well the labor market
- 6:27Speaker 8: would continue to hold up. You know what we saw
- 6:30Speaker 8: them kind of write down the typical.
- 6:33Speaker 1: Official was something that basically has.
- 6:34Speaker 8: The unemployment rates sticking out where it is right now
- 6:37Speaker 8: for the next three years. That's a pretty remarkable and
- 6:41Speaker 8: frankly not would be very unusual path to the labor market.
- 6:46Speaker 8: And that's and yet there was all kinds of concerns
- 6:48Speaker 8: about inflation and the answer to round inflation. But I
- 6:50Speaker 8: think I keep I'm still concerned that there are things
- 6:53Speaker 8: in the labor market, while good, don't quite look like
- 6:57Speaker 8: sustainable and that's where the problems can come in.
- 7:01Speaker 1: And so that's that's.
- 7:02Speaker 3: One way audio. So if I ask which is a
- 7:06Speaker 3: bigger risk a weakening labor market or stubborn inflation, you're
- 7:10Speaker 3: going with the former rather than the latter.
- 7:13Speaker 1: Inflation's fine right now.
- 7:14Speaker 8: I mean, we are really not that far from two percent,
- 7:17Speaker 8: and we've seen a lot of encouraging signs under the
- 7:20Speaker 8: hood that this we are getting to this last mile
- 7:22Speaker 8: on inflation.
- 7:23Speaker 3: But right now, before tariffs, that's before we deep work,
- 7:27Speaker 3: before millions of workers, that's before Donald Trump comes into office.
- 7:31Speaker 3: So things could change drastically after January twentieth.
- 7:35Speaker 1: Absolutely, they could change drastically.
- 7:37Speaker 8: And I think it's appropriate that we have had a
- 7:40Speaker 8: very deep conversation about the policies that have been put
- 7:43Speaker 8: on the table. There have been a lot of policies
- 7:45Speaker 8: put on the table, and it's really important to have
- 7:47Speaker 8: this conversation and talk about some of their potential pitfalls
- 7:50Speaker 8: and maybe we won't see all of them put into place,
- 7:52Speaker 8: and that probably would be a good thing, uh, for
- 7:55Speaker 8: the economy. And yet, you know, kind of taking for
- 7:58Speaker 8: granted the good stuff that we've got going in the
- 8:00Speaker 8: economy that's a little more nuts and bolts, like the
- 8:04Speaker 8: labor market functioning, and just saying, oh, well, that'll just
- 8:07Speaker 8: keep going, that's all fine, it's in a good place.
- 8:09Speaker 1: I think that's a real that could be a real mistake.
- 8:13Speaker 8: In terms of because the labor market in particular is
- 8:16Speaker 8: always and has been the past few year, is such
- 8:19Speaker 8: a lynchpin to this amazing period of a big disinflation.
- 8:26Speaker 8: Growth has stayed strong and unemployment has stayed relatively low,
- 8:30Speaker 8: you know, and that's something we want to keep going.
- 8:32Speaker 1: And I don't think that's to just be taken for granted.
- 8:35Speaker 5: I think I'm very unpopular for asking this question repeatedly.
- 8:38Speaker 5: I know, you got to look at all the risks,
- 8:42Speaker 5: right and if you have to think about potentially inflationary
- 8:44Speaker 5: policies and sticky areas of inflation next year, and worries
- 8:50Speaker 5: about growth as well, especially if you have kind of
- 8:53Speaker 5: a fiscal appetite to pull back. How big of an
- 8:58Speaker 5: issue with stagflation or big of a world whe is it?
- 9:04Speaker 8: There are absolutely paths we could go down where we
- 9:07Speaker 8: end up in a stagflationary environment.
- 9:09Speaker 1: We're good ways from that point.
- 9:12Speaker 8: Because again we're starting from a well above trend growth
- 9:15Speaker 8: and inflation is relatively low. It's not to do percent,
- 9:20Speaker 8: but it's relatively low. But there are absolutely paths we
- 9:23Speaker 8: could go on that are uh could get us a stagflation.
- 9:27Speaker 8: And the thing about stagflation is, you know, we talked
- 9:28Speaker 8: about Oh, think about all the different risks and keep
- 9:30Speaker 8: an eye out to the risk. And we do need
- 9:32Speaker 8: to do that.
- 9:32Speaker 1: But some risks come with.
- 9:36Speaker 8: Bigger problems, right, Solving a stagflationary economic environment, like policy
- 9:41Speaker 8: solutions for that are a lot trickier because, say, for
- 9:44Speaker 8: the FED example, they're fighting both inflation and trying to
- 9:47Speaker 8: keep employment high.
- 9:49Speaker 1: Right, and their tools are going to be at odds
- 9:51Speaker 1: with each other.
- 9:52Speaker 8: So there's some like dark corners of the economic world
- 9:55Speaker 8: that we want to stay away from because if we
- 9:57Speaker 8: get there, they're a big problems. So I think it's
- 9:59Speaker 8: important to think about secflation. I don't think that's one
- 10:01Speaker 8: that's like highest probability, but if we get there, is
- 10:04Speaker 8: probably one of the highest probability of being a big mess.
- 10:08Speaker 3: How does the consumer look to you, Claudia, Because as
- 10:11Speaker 3: you pointed out at the top, the consumer held up
- 10:15Speaker 3: much better than we had anticipated in twenty twenty four,
- 10:19Speaker 3: and yet all the savings I would guess are spent
- 10:23Speaker 3: off the pandemic era savings. This is a consumer that
- 10:28Speaker 3: at least the bottom you know, four Quinn tiles, is
- 10:31Speaker 3: not well prepared for retirement. The housing market is a
- 10:35Speaker 3: tough one to get into if you aren't already, and
- 10:39Speaker 3: I guess if you are, that's how you fund your retirement.
- 10:43Speaker 3: But what does the consumer look like to you right now?
- 10:44Speaker 1: In the US?
- 10:48Speaker 8: So as a whole, the consumer is still in a
- 10:50Speaker 8: good place. We certainly as time has gone on, we
- 10:53Speaker 8: have seen more strains at lower income household That's why
- 10:56Speaker 8: I keep coming back to the labor market as so
- 10:59Speaker 8: essential because from most Americans that's where the money comes from,
- 11:03Speaker 8: that they're going to be spending. So you need a
- 11:05Speaker 8: vibrant labor market that has good, strong wage growth as
- 11:08Speaker 8: we have seen, and good job opportunities. So that is
- 11:11Speaker 8: so important for the bulk of Americans, the bulk of consumers.
- 11:15Speaker 8: You know, we've also seen really positive trends with some
- 11:18Speaker 8: probably middle class, upper middle class, wealthier consumers bolstered by
- 11:22Speaker 8: you know, the stock market has been very good. We've
- 11:24Speaker 8: had you know, we've had some trends that have continued
- 11:27Speaker 8: to bolster the consumer and their demand. And you know,
- 11:30Speaker 8: I mean I always say, don't bet against the American consumer,
- 11:33Speaker 8: right Like, if they have if they have the music
- 11:34Speaker 8: out and spend, they're gonna they're going to spend.
- 11:36Speaker 1: And that's what we have that's what we have seen
- 11:38Speaker 1: the past few years.
- 11:39Speaker 7: Should I be concerned about this, this weakness in the
- 11:42Speaker 7: manufacturing sector. I know it's only and I just underline,
- 11:46Speaker 7: only thirty percent of the US economy, But what does
- 11:50Speaker 7: that tell you? How do you think about that?
- 11:54Speaker 8: I think we've seen not just one more data point
- 11:57Speaker 8: of weakness from the manufacturing sector. I mean, we've seen
- 12:00Speaker 8: years of what could be seen as contractionary trends in manufacturing,
- 12:06Speaker 8: and and there, you know, we have to have a
- 12:08Speaker 8: discussion that's more about a structural you know, this this
- 12:11Speaker 8: is an economy that just hasn't been based on manufacturing
- 12:15Speaker 8: the same.
- 12:15Speaker 1: Way it had been many decades ago.
- 12:17Speaker 8: And this is a transition that's been happening very slowly
- 12:20Speaker 8: over time. And it's probably one of the discussions that's
- 12:22Speaker 8: hardest to have data release date to data release, right
- 12:25Speaker 8: because it just kind of the trends get glomed together.
- 12:29Speaker 8: So and then you know, and we're having a very
- 12:32Speaker 8: robust and I think a lot you know, this year,
- 12:35Speaker 8: a big part of this policy discussion is going to
- 12:37Speaker 8: be center around do you revive the manufacturing sector in
- 12:42Speaker 8: the United States?
- 12:42Speaker 1: And how do you do it best?
- 12:43Speaker 8: I mean, we certainly saw under President Biden a lot
- 12:46Speaker 8: of tax incentives and big, large programs. We're trying to
- 12:49Speaker 8: give money to companies to build up manufacturing in different
- 12:52Speaker 8: specific sectors, and we may see an approach that's quite
- 12:56Speaker 8: different in using tariffs to protect domestic industries and manufacturing
- 13:00Speaker 8: being one in the area.
- 13:01Speaker 1: So I think it's going to.
- 13:02Speaker 8: Be an ongoing discussion, but it really is more about
- 13:05Speaker 8: the deep underlying structure of the US economy and what
- 13:09Speaker 8: we want that deep underlying structure of the US economy
- 13:12Speaker 8: to look like clytie.
- 13:13Speaker 5: You know, you look at the long end of the
- 13:14Speaker 5: curve and just how much tenure thirty year rates have decoupled.
- 13:19Speaker 5: How much ConTroll does the Federal Reserve really have over
- 13:22Speaker 5: that longer end when you see investors equally concerned about
- 13:27Speaker 5: other issues like the fiscal term premium needed.
- 13:32Speaker 8: So the FED never hasn't never will have full control
- 13:36Speaker 8: over a ten year horizon. So that much shorter horizons
- 13:39Speaker 8: of treasury is like the two year you can really
- 13:41Speaker 8: have a conversation about the FED is very active in
- 13:45Speaker 8: what those treasure yields look like.
- 13:46Speaker 1: Out of the tenure.
- 13:47Speaker 8: There always are a host of concerns about or issues
- 13:51Speaker 8: in the US economy that are going to fit into
- 13:53Speaker 8: what do those treasury yields look like? And I think
- 13:57Speaker 8: we may there's just a lot of action right now.
- 14:01Speaker 8: Right there's a lot of information coming out of the
- 14:03Speaker 8: FED in terms of where they think they're going to
- 14:05Speaker 8: end up in terms of or potentially end up with
- 14:08Speaker 8: the rates. And this whole discussion about the terminal rate
- 14:11Speaker 8: or the neutral rate of interest, it's actually one where
- 14:14Speaker 8: while it comes out of FED official's mouths, it is
- 14:17Speaker 8: tied very much back to these structural features of the
- 14:20Speaker 8: economy and those are things like productivity or concerns about debt, sustainability, demographics,
- 14:29Speaker 8: other big issues, and those then can get I mean,
- 14:33Speaker 8: those are also issues that the tenure Treasury plays into.
- 14:36Speaker 1: So while as you said, the FED doesn't control the
- 14:39Speaker 1: tenure Treasury, and maybe we're seeing that.
- 14:43Speaker 8: Potentially some of those links weaken even more just because
- 14:46Speaker 8: the room is getting crowded in terms of issues that
- 14:49Speaker 8: people in the treasure markets need to absorb. But I
- 14:53Speaker 8: don't It's it's nothing unusual per se. It's what's maybe
- 14:57Speaker 8: more unusual is we're having there's big question marks out
- 15:00Speaker 8: there about the structure of the economy like we are
- 15:03Speaker 8: we a stronger economy or are we going to withstand
- 15:05Speaker 8: and really thrive with higher interest rates than.
- 15:07Speaker 1: We did for the pandemic.
- 15:10Speaker 8: I mean these and they're very much open questions right
- 15:12Speaker 8: now and very very central to where those longer dated
- 15:17Speaker 8: treasury markets will land.
- 15:18Speaker 3: I have a curveball question for you, Claudia as Good
- 15:22Speaker 3: an economist. Were you at the Beta Theta pie house
- 15:25Speaker 3: in March of nineteen ninety No, I'm kidding. What do
- 15:31Speaker 3: you think about the effect of GLP one drugs on
- 15:35Speaker 3: the US economy? We had a listener right in earlier
- 15:39Speaker 3: asking why you know the government doesn't just subsidize these
- 15:42Speaker 3: things and save US billions of dollars a year in
- 15:46Speaker 3: terms of healthcare. What do you think about the effect
- 15:49Speaker 3: of this drug? Have you given it any thought?
- 15:55Speaker 8: I think the way an economists like I said, would
- 15:58Speaker 8: probably tie this back in into this economic discussion would
- 16:02Speaker 8: be to think about the ability it gives individuals to
- 16:08Speaker 8: be more productive as workers. You know, and this lives
- 16:12Speaker 8: in the broad category of health and all all the
- 16:14Speaker 8: different kinds of pharmaceuticals and healthcare that we provide individuals
- 16:18Speaker 8: or they have access to that. Can you know, potentially
- 16:22Speaker 8: lengthen lives, make them more rich and fulfilling, make them
- 16:25Speaker 8: more able to stay off save disability roles, and be
- 16:27Speaker 8: in the workforce. So I think, you know, a healthier,
- 16:30Speaker 8: more productive workforce is one that is going to you know,
- 16:33Speaker 8: benefit the economy as a whole, do I think, But
- 16:36Speaker 8: that's me again being macroeconomist, a very big picture thinking
- 16:39Speaker 8: about the labor market as I often do, and not.
- 16:42Speaker 8: You know, there absolutely will be disruption under the hood
- 16:47Speaker 8: in terms of winners and losers in the economy from
- 16:50Speaker 8: you know, particular industries or particular institutions, and there will
- 16:55Speaker 8: be I mean, there's an answer to that question in
- 16:58Speaker 8: the beginning. I mean the massive budgetary impacts if say
- 17:03Speaker 8: Medicare or large government programs pick up these these kind
- 17:06Speaker 8: of drugs. Right, So there's all kinds of issues here.
- 17:09Speaker 8: But I think in terms of you know, a quality
- 17:10Speaker 8: of life, a healthier, healthier population, there is a lot
- 17:14Speaker 8: of both individual benefits and then their social benefits from
- 17:17Speaker 8: you know, if the healthier population as a whole.
- 17:20Speaker 5: Gladdy, we have to leave it there. Thank you so
- 17:21Speaker 5: very much for joining us today. Of course, it's a
- 17:23Speaker 5: wild bond market out there, and expect expectations changing quickly
- 17:28Speaker 5: around the course for next year as well.
- 17:31Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch US Live
- 17:35Speaker 2: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, Cardplay and Android
- 17:38Speaker 2: Otto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever
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- 17:46Speaker 7: All right, President elect Donald Trump is offering his complete
- 17:50Speaker 7: and total endorsement to Speaker Mike Johnson as he wards
- 17:53Speaker 7: off a potentially crippling leadership fight in the House that
- 17:56Speaker 7: threatens to slow his agendic Greg Valley are agf ands
- 18:00Speaker 7: San's chief US policy strategist joints US. Now, Greg, what's
- 18:04Speaker 7: the position of President Trump? President Elect Trump here as
- 18:08Speaker 7: he gets ready to take office January twentieth.
- 18:12Speaker 9: That's incredibly uncertain, and it depends on who you talk at,
- 18:16Speaker 9: what time of the day is you know, we're going
- 18:19Speaker 9: to raise the death ceiling and we're going to invade Toronto.
- 18:22Speaker 9: Are we going to have who are we going to
- 18:24Speaker 9: have as Speaker of the House. These stories change almost
- 18:28Speaker 9: by the hour, and I think we're all going to
- 18:30Speaker 9: have to get used to this uncertainty for the next
- 18:33Speaker 9: four years.
- 18:35Speaker 5: If you have uncertainty over the next four years. Where
- 18:39Speaker 5: would it be the most at this point because there
- 18:41Speaker 5: are range of issues that investors are keeping an eye on,
- 18:44Speaker 5: the country is keeping an eye on. We talk a
- 18:46Speaker 5: lot about tariffs here at Bloomberg News. Of course that
- 18:49Speaker 5: is one of the places that of course we don't
- 18:52Speaker 5: know the plan yet. But how do you think about
- 18:55Speaker 5: this in terms of where the president elect will spar
- 18:58Speaker 5: with Congress.
- 19:01Speaker 9: His promises have been so grandiose that I think he
- 19:04Speaker 9: has to sort of stand up for what he has said.
- 19:08Speaker 9: I think on inauguration day, on the twentieth, we'll be
- 19:11Speaker 9: talking about terrace. I think he has to move on
- 19:14Speaker 9: that against China, Canada, other countries and immigration.
- 19:20Speaker 6: He has to move on that.
- 19:21Speaker 9: A failure to do what he has promised would would
- 19:25Speaker 9: really set him up for mockery and it would embolden
- 19:28Speaker 9: people like Elon Musk.
- 19:31Speaker 3: I will chime in on something that I haven't brought
- 19:34Speaker 3: up yet. Okay, Donald Trump promised to get rid of
- 19:38Speaker 3: the state and local tax deduction cap that he put
- 19:41Speaker 3: on the.
- 19:44Speaker 7: Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts.
- 19:46Speaker 3: So, as we all know, before Trump came into office,
- 19:51Speaker 3: you could write off your state and local taxes from
- 19:53Speaker 3: your federal filing. He said he's going to get rid
- 19:57Speaker 3: of that cap that he put into place. What do
- 19:59Speaker 3: you think the likely of that is.
- 20:02Speaker 6: I'll bet you live in New Jersey.
- 20:03Speaker 9: Just a wild guess, but I do think I do
- 20:07Speaker 9: think it's going to be an issue that he'll have
- 20:10Speaker 9: problems with for the simple reason that we can't afford
- 20:13Speaker 9: all this stuff. If you look at what he has
- 20:16Speaker 9: promised in the last six months, a tax break for
- 20:19Speaker 9: waiters and waitresses, the state and local tax as you mentioned,
- 20:23Speaker 9: all sorts of things that I think will annoy people
- 20:27Speaker 9: in this very fiscally conservative house. You know, people say, well,
- 20:32Speaker 9: Trump and Johnson, House Speaker Johnson will get along. I'm
- 20:35Speaker 9: not so sure about that. Johnson can only afford to
- 20:39Speaker 9: lose one or two votes. And the Freedom Caucus may
- 20:43Speaker 9: have an issue if people in the Freedom Caucus who
- 20:46Speaker 9: live in Texas or Florida, they may have a big
- 20:49Speaker 9: issue with the salt tax.
- 20:52Speaker 7: So, you know, Greg, One of the other big issues
- 20:54Speaker 7: that'll probably be a day one type of issue for
- 20:56Speaker 7: the president, like Trump, will be migration and perhaps deportation
- 21:01Speaker 7: of certain illegal immigrants. How do you think that's really
- 21:05Speaker 7: going to play out in practicality?
- 21:08Speaker 6: I think your practicality.
- 21:10Speaker 9: Trump and Elon Musk and Ramaswami are going to have
- 21:13Speaker 9: to align.
- 21:15Speaker 6: It's going to be difficult with the Trump base.
- 21:18Speaker 9: I think Steve Bannon will lead that base and say
- 21:20Speaker 9: we don't want any immigration. But that's that's just not practical.
- 21:24Speaker 9: There are areas in our economy that need people from
- 21:28Speaker 9: India or wherever. And I think Trump is going to
- 21:31Speaker 9: have to moderate his tone on this.
- 21:34Speaker 3: Yeah, Trump has said he's in favor of the h
- 21:36Speaker 3: one B visus. He's already come out on Musk's side,
- 21:40Speaker 3: on Rama Swami's side on that issue, and he goes
- 21:45Speaker 3: up against Laura Loomi and maybe Margaret Taylor Green on that.
- 21:51Speaker 3: But it seems that it's a fairly easy easy position
- 21:55Speaker 3: to hold because those aren't people stealing American jobs.
- 21:58Speaker 9: Right.
- 21:59Speaker 3: The problem is you can't fill those jobs to begin with.
- 22:02Speaker 6: Right.
- 22:03Speaker 9: And again, just to reiterate the problem is the uncertainty.
- 22:07Speaker 9: Is he going to stick to his guns on the
- 22:11Speaker 9: death ceiling? People I talked to on Capitol Hill last
- 22:14Speaker 9: week were incredulous that he would inject the issue with
- 22:17Speaker 9: the death ceiling a hammer the Republicans can use later
- 22:22Speaker 9: in the year, that he's going to inject it now,
- 22:24Speaker 9: it just complicates everything.
- 22:26Speaker 5: Speaking of complications, you know, when we're talking about that
- 22:29Speaker 5: immigration issue, you really did see a fracturing in certain
- 22:32Speaker 5: parts of the MAGA Party, if you will, or for
- 22:36Speaker 5: the right part of the Republican Party, where you did
- 22:40Speaker 5: see differences an opinion, very very vocal differences. Is it
- 22:44Speaker 5: too early to ask how this would play out in
- 22:47Speaker 5: the midterms.
- 22:49Speaker 9: No, that's a really good question. No, it's not too early.
- 22:53Speaker 9: I think it's going to confuse people so much that
- 22:58Speaker 9: it's going to get Democrats enthusiastic by spring that they
- 23:03Speaker 9: have a chance to regain control of the House and Senate.
- 23:08Speaker 7: Well, taking that a step further, Greg, if I'm a
- 23:11Speaker 7: part of the I don't know the Washington bureaucracy, I'm
- 23:15Speaker 7: going to be there five years now, ten years from now,
- 23:17Speaker 7: twenty years from now. In my department, Do I treat
- 23:19Speaker 7: this administration almost as a lane duck administration?
- 23:26Speaker 6: Not? Probably, not yet.
- 23:28Speaker 9: I mean, people who under estimate Trump do so at
- 23:31Speaker 9: their own peril. And I think Trump will have some successes,
- 23:35Speaker 9: but he can't keep changing his line every week or so.
- 23:38Speaker 9: That's going to exasperate people and it's going to cost
- 23:42Speaker 9: him the most important thing a politician has, and that's
- 23:45Speaker 9: political capital. And I think Trump's political capital just in
- 23:49Speaker 9: the last ten to fifteen days has taken a hit.
- 23:53Speaker 5: Greg. We thank you so much for your time. That
- 23:55Speaker 5: is Greg Valuer of AGF Investments. He's the chief US
- 23:58Speaker 5: policy strategist there. You might have missed it. This is
- 24:01Speaker 5: another big question. But late Friday night you had Janet
- 24:04Speaker 5: Yellen sending a letter to congressional leaders saying when the
- 24:07Speaker 5: new debt limit is going to come to the surface,
- 24:10Speaker 5: and the window is right around drum roll inauguration. So
- 24:17Speaker 5: that's another thing to watch out for in the coming weeks,
- 24:20Speaker 5: as well as those debt disputes coming back to the surface.
- 24:23Speaker 3: I'm surprised you don't have a drum roll button. Yes, Tom,
- 24:25Speaker 3: not pushed to get those kind of things.
- 24:27Speaker 7: You're right, that's a great point.
- 24:28Speaker 6: I'll put that up.
- 24:29Speaker 7: I'll put a ticket in for that.
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