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Mark interviews Steve Forbes, Chairman of Forbes Media. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: Here's more of the Mark Zimont Show on Doubo. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we bring you the smartest people on Earth. Steve Forbes,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the chairman editor in chief Forbes Media. Also,
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  Speaker 1: you know he's the best selling author. You should get
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: his latest book, Inflation. There is no better book on
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the subject. Just go to Amazon. You can get it there. Inflation,
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  Speaker 1: excellent book. Steve Forbes. How are you.
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  Speaker 2: Doing fine? Thanks? How are you in this new year?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Lots happening. Seems like the year's half over already with
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  Speaker 2: every hum it's going on.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of Hey, we're talking about affordability. Democrats found
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  Speaker 1: that word through focus groups. Affordability. But it has improved
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  Speaker 1: a lot in my last year, hasn't it.
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  Speaker 2: The real progress is being made. One of the things
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  Speaker 2: I think the Trump president Trump and his team underestimated
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  Speaker 2: was how big of a mess they were actually inherited
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: from the Biden administration. But when you go down the
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  Speaker 2: list of what they've done and what I hope they're
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  Speaker 2: going to be doing this year, it's impressive. One of
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the most boring subjects in the world, of course, is regulation.
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  Speaker 2: It's not the kind of thing that has people really aroused,
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  Speaker 2: but it's been a huge drain, huge burden on American
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  Speaker 2: manufacturing and what they've done and things like with evs.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if they make these regulations permanent through legislation,
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  Speaker 2: the auto industry is going to have a revival and
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  Speaker 2: renaissance that we haven't seen since the nineteen fifties and
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  Speaker 2: nineteen sixties in terms of new designs and new ways
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  Speaker 2: of doing things instead of everything looking like a jelly
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  Speaker 2: bean because of government regulations. So they're doing really really
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  Speaker 2: important things. Hundreds of billions of dollars are going to
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  Speaker 2: be saved through a deregulation. The tax cut is a
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  Speaker 2: savior of preserving the twenty seventeen tax cuts, but also
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  Speaker 2: the big write offs for investment in manufacturing and businesses
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  Speaker 2: today is going to kick in. And one of the
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  Speaker 2: things they're talking about, which I hope they'll do Mark,
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  Speaker 2: is have a second reconciliation bill and cut personal income
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  Speaker 2: tax rates, cut the corporate rate with President Trump wanted
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  Speaker 2: to do from twenty one to fifteen percent, cut the
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  Speaker 2: capital gains, which that should be a no brainer. It's
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  Speaker 2: good for investment, but also instantly raises revenue. So some
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  Speaker 2: things are moving in the right way. And a big
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  Speaker 2: battle coming up again. Another boring subject monetary policy is
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  Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve getting somebody in there who will fundamentally
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  Speaker 2: re rechange change the way the Federal Reserve operates on.
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  Speaker 2: The FED operates on the assumption the prosperity causes inflation.
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  Speaker 2: They have an allergy to a vigorous, growing economy, and
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  Speaker 2: that's got to be changed because that's been a dead
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  Speaker 2: weight for decades.
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  Speaker 1: Yea, But how crucial is the FED nowadays? You know
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  Speaker 1: you can't rate cut your way to prosperity, can you.
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  Speaker 2: No, But what you can do is have rates actually
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  Speaker 2: set by the marketplace. What the Fed is doing now
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  Speaker 2: is a form of rent control. We know what that's
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  Speaker 2: done in New York, and we'll do even more. But
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  Speaker 2: you know, they used to talk about renting the money,
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  Speaker 2: So when you're borrowing the money, you're renting it, and
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  Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve is setting the rental rates instead of
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  Speaker 2: letting the market do it. So the key thing is
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  Speaker 2: not to have the FED come up the financial markets,
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  Speaker 2: which is done with their artificial coming around with interest
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  Speaker 2: rates and go for a stable dollar. That's why I
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  Speaker 2: hope Treasury Secretary Besson and President Trump say they want
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  Speaker 2: a strong, stable dollar. They want the dollar to remain
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  Speaker 2: a reserve currency. Well, you have to have a stable
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  Speaker 2: and trustworthy So I hope they get the FED in
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  Speaker 2: the right direction. And I'll make a prediction even though
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  Speaker 2: I'm probably wrong, but you never make money going with
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  Speaker 2: the crowd. In terms of the head of the FED,
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  Speaker 2: I think a good thing would be to send Scott
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  Speaker 2: Besson over to the FED. He's got the strength and
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  Speaker 2: knows what needs to be done, and have Kevin Hassett
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  Speaker 2: go to the Treasury Department.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, listen, you know more about this than I do.
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  Speaker 1: But Scott Besson's a great Treasury secretary.
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  Speaker 2: And there's oh yes he is.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, other people could be great FED chairman, but look
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  Speaker 1: who I'm talking to, Steve Forbes, you'd be perfect for it.
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  Speaker 1: But you got that to Kevin.
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  Speaker 2: I'm an agitator now.
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  Speaker 1: But is it your top guy? If it's Scott Bessonton,
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't need be more valuable as a Treasury secretary than
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  Speaker 1: a FED chairman.
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  Speaker 2: I think he would be. Actually, Well, the reason I
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  Speaker 2: would like him at the FED is that one he's
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  Speaker 2: got a fixed term, and he would not. I think
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  Speaker 2: he's because of his background in finance and the success
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  Speaker 2: in finance. There's no way they can capture him, no
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  Speaker 2: way they can buffalo him the way they did Jerome Powell.
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  Speaker 2: And I think he would also know how to ask
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  Speaker 2: the right questions, that's key, and have the and not
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  Speaker 2: be intimidated by PhDs. They're over three hundred there now
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  Speaker 2: they should be uber drivers, but they're they're at the
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  Speaker 2: FED right now mucking things up, and so I think
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  Speaker 2: Besson would have the strength to really turn things over.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we've already seen what lee z Elden's done
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  Speaker 2: at the EP in terms of deregulation and the tread
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  Speaker 2: of the Energy team with this administration's phenomenal, right, and
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  Speaker 2: Bergham's that that's going to pay real dividends and already
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  Speaker 2: is at the hump. And by the way, by the way,
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  Speaker 2: the lower price of gas lead somehow doesn't make the
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  Speaker 2: headlines the way it does when the Democrats are in
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  Speaker 2: and prices are going up and gets ignored. Prices are
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  Speaker 2: going down and the media ignores it. But with winner
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  Speaker 2: right with us, boy, people want those low rates, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Part of the problem though I don't know how they
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  Speaker 1: managed to do it. But as the price has dropped
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  Speaker 1: a lot on gas here in New York and in
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  Speaker 1: California they kept the price way up there at four
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  Speaker 1: dollars a gallon, which is where most of the reporters
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  Speaker 1: in the media live, so they haven't felt the effect yet.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point. And but you know, since
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  Speaker 2: they pride themselves and being a great journalist, ask the
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  Speaker 2: question why and the answer is thing called tax.
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  Speaker 1: Steve Forth, let me ask you about Venezuela. It was
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  Speaker 1: a booming economy for many years and then Chavez and
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  Speaker 1: Maduro come in with their socialism and screw it up.
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  Speaker 1: What's the potential for the economy in Venezuela with the
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  Speaker 1: right leader.
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  Speaker 2: The potential is phenomenal. We all know about their oil
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  Speaker 2: reserves and it will take time to get the fields
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  Speaker 2: back up. They've been erecked and that takes time. But
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  Speaker 2: one of the things I hope we do before we
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  Speaker 2: have a new democratic elected government. There is a couple
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  Speaker 2: of things. One is keep out the International Monetary Fund
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  Speaker 2: the IMF. They always recommend higher taxes and currency devaluations
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  Speaker 2: with triggers inflation, So keep out the IMF and know
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  Speaker 2: what they should do do in Venezuela. Is, since nobody
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  Speaker 2: pays attention to their Bolovar currency anymore, even toilet paper.
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  Speaker 2: Is it dollarize it? Malay should have done that in Argentina,
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  Speaker 2: the president of Argentina. But dollarize the Venezuelan economy. They're
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  Speaker 2: always already using dollars informally anyway, so make it formal
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  Speaker 2: and then put in a low rate tax system. And
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  Speaker 2: by golly, you'd see you've got millions of people who
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  Speaker 2: left Venezuela. They would bring capital back. You'd see domestic
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  Speaker 2: capital being created again. And there you said, they have
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  Speaker 2: an entrepreneurial spirit, and you could see that economy not
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  Speaker 2: revived just because of oil, but doing other things. And
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  Speaker 2: you have a success in Venezuela. You've got a new
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  Speaker 2: president of Chile to get that country back on track.
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  Speaker 2: Hopefully Malay gets it right with the currency in Argentina.
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  Speaker 2: You have those three countries booming. By golly, that changes everything,
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  Speaker 2: not just in Latin America, but as a model for
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  Speaker 2: other countries around the world.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, Steve Forbes, what's your outlook forecast for New Jersey
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  Speaker 1: with another crazy Democrat governor coming in?
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  Speaker 2: Man, You know, whenever you talk, whenever you talk to
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  Speaker 2: a financial advisor. The first thing they say to me,
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  Speaker 2: they they're more polite than I'm about to be to myself,
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  Speaker 2: You idiot. Why he's staying in the state of New Jersey.
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  Speaker 2: That's one of the most misgoverned states in the Union.
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  Speaker 2: And the sad thing is years ago, Larry Cudler and
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  Speaker 2: I did a tax program for Christy Whitman when she
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  Speaker 2: became governor, and we helped get through big cuts in
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  Speaker 2: the state income tax rate. And one of the things
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  Speaker 2: we learned back then was New Jersey was once the
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  Speaker 2: most prosperous state in the country, grew faster than the
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  Speaker 2: rest of the country, recovered faster than the rest of
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  Speaker 2: the country, and high taxes and regulation killed what had
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  Speaker 2: been a booming economy, always doing better than the national average.
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  Speaker 2: And that can be brought back again. That's why the
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  Speaker 2: pharmaceutical industry is based in New Jersey and other industries,
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  Speaker 2: and the policy wrecked it. And that's what is so
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  Speaker 2: frustrating as we see real life examples of before and after,
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  Speaker 2: and yet and yet people continue to talk about the
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  Speaker 2: need for re education centers, maybe for economics, I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: but well, it's sad because the potential is enormous, but
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  Speaker 2: people and capital are moving elsewhere.
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  Speaker 1: Well I would laugh at you, but we just elected
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  Speaker 1: Kathy Hockle and Mamdani, So who am I to But yes,
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  Speaker 1: Steve Forbes, great to talk to you. Everybody should get
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  Speaker 1: his book. His latest book is Inflation. No better book
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: on the subject inflation. Just go to Amazon and get
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  Speaker 1: Steve Forbes' book, read his columns, watch them on television.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, Forbes one of the great media companies in America,
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  Speaker 1: in the world. Steve Forbes, thanks for being with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, and keep up your a great fight, especially
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  Speaker 2: now that we've got a communist running the great city
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  Speaker 2: of New York. Venezuela throw gets loss of communist and
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  Speaker 2: we gave one.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thanks for reminding us, Steve Forbes. Have a great
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  Speaker 1: new year. Thanks for being with us. You too, Thank you, Mark,
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  Speaker 1: take care. Hey, don't forget Buck and Clay coming up
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: at noon today. They do an excellent show every day
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: twelve noon. Then you got the most listened to radio
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: show in America, Sean Hannity three o'clock. You got Jesse
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Kelly at six, and if you heard the new Jimmy
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Fayla show every night at nine, it is excellent on
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: seven to ten. Woor