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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Mark Simoniall on sevent tenor well, we like to
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  Speaker 1: bring you the smartest people on earth, and Steve Forbes
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  Speaker 1: is one of them. Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media,
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  Speaker 1: and you should get his latest book. It's an excellent book.
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  Speaker 1: You should read this book. It's called Inflation, and there's
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  Speaker 1: no better book on the subject. Steve Forbes. How you doing.
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  Speaker 2: Doing fine today? Good jobs report and we're having, as
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  Speaker 2: you know, in the New York area heat wave in
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: the thirties after single digital temperatures. I feel like getting
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  Speaker 2: out the sunlation. It's quite wonderful, Yeah, shivering.
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  Speaker 1: Job much. Job report was big, it was much a double.
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  Speaker 1: I could tell it was a good jobs number because
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  Speaker 1: I have all the TV networks on. I see no
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  Speaker 1: coverage of it, so it must have been really good.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and just just a little note of caution the
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  Speaker 2: way they do seasonal adjustments, and with all the government
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  Speaker 2: problems with the numbers recently, I'm waiting for February, I
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  Speaker 2: think for you and Marshall finally get some sanity back.
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  Speaker 2: But the number, though, no denying, the number that came
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  Speaker 2: in today was about two or three times what they're
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  Speaker 2: so called experts are estimating. So take what we can
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  Speaker 2: and certainly fourth quarter growth looks are pretty good. There
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  Speaker 2: are some very big roadblocks ahead, but that's true of
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  Speaker 2: the world. But in the meantime things the arrows are
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  Speaker 2: green rather than red in terms of the economy moving
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  Speaker 2: and joy why you can even if the weather's a
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  Speaker 2: lousy These are real jobs.
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  Speaker 1: In the Biden administration, often they would just throw in
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  Speaker 1: government jobs to get that number up. These are real.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, that's why you hit on something very important. Government jobs,
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  Speaker 2: according to these numbers fell and so that means that
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  Speaker 2: we have which might call more productive jobs, people doing
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  Speaker 2: real things. Yay.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So in the Biden years they would go out
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  Speaker 1: and hire a few hundred thousand people that would get
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  Speaker 1: a job. Number to go on.
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  Speaker 2: And by the way, they did a revision of twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty four, the last year of President Biden or whoever
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  Speaker 2: was handling him, and the number of estimated jobs went
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  Speaker 2: down almost by a million. So so so so much
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  Speaker 2: for his economic performance.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, he was He was a pretty impressive president,
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  Speaker 1: don't you think I'm kidding?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, you have to put make a plural presidents. Yeah, whoever,
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  Speaker 2: whoever was running, whoever was running it behind the scenes,
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  Speaker 2: including Missus Wilson aka doctor Joe Biden.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the problem with government spending, one of the big
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  Speaker 1: problems which people forget, is you're overpaying by about ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand percent for everything, I mean, the fraud, the waste.
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  Speaker 1: Are we ever going to fix that problem?
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  Speaker 2: I think the answer in this high tech age is yes.
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  Speaker 2: Because one of the things that is coming out, and
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  Speaker 2: especially it's amazing how these things really hit the critical mass,
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  Speaker 2: is what's unfolding in Minnesota. Twenty three year old comes
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  Speaker 2: in and actually looks where does this money go? And
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  Speaker 2: we find out about the Leering Center and other massive wastes.
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  Speaker 2: And so the key thing is and what the Republicans
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  Speaker 2: have to get across. We're not toying about taking things
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  Speaker 2: away from people. We're toying about taking money away from people.
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  Speaker 2: Are stealing it from you and not using it for
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  Speaker 2: stated purposes. And that Liering Center, so called learning center,
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  Speaker 2: will stand as a symbol. And so people get that,
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  Speaker 2: and that says and of course it's not just Minnesota,
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  Speaker 2: it's everywhere Illinois. You name it, you're going to find
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  Speaker 2: it there. And so if people are dedicated online is
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  Speaker 2: doing some basic research going and finding out where do
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  Speaker 2: these things go, what are these people being paid for?
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  Speaker 2: Going to set in motion and grass roots reduction in
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  Speaker 2: terms of wastele spending, not from hearings in Washington, but
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  Speaker 2: grass roots and that's where you get results, not just
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  Speaker 2: with the federal budget budget but state and local budgets.
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  Speaker 2: People are going to take in a good way the
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  Speaker 2: budget law in their own hands.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, what about California. Besides the fact that we're
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  Speaker 1: probably going to find more fraud out there, but what
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  Speaker 1: about you know, they'll get like one hundred billion for
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  Speaker 1: a high speed rail and it's twelve years later and
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  Speaker 1: they haven't built one inch of it. How do they
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  Speaker 1: get away with that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they get away with it because you have very
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  Speaker 2: powerful interest construction interests that want things to do, and
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  Speaker 2: we have very real needs in terms of infrastructure. But
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  Speaker 2: these kinds of things are just political payoffs. You mentioned
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  Speaker 2: that train to nowhere spending billions and billions of dollars,
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  Speaker 2: and even if they ever completed a thing, which they won't.
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  Speaker 2: Even if they completed it, the estimates are you're only
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  Speaker 2: going to get a handful of peace people using it,
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  Speaker 2: and so you're taking real resources created by real people
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  Speaker 2: for something that does nothing, that is a drain and
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  Speaker 2: diverting it for unproductive purposes and being polite here. And
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  Speaker 2: I think the public is going to react against that,
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  Speaker 2: and that's what we have to run against. We're not
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  Speaker 2: we're not taking away safety nuts. We're just making sure
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  Speaker 2: that the fraudsters are ferreted out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, Steve Forbes, voter i D. It's used everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: You can't go into NBC.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right about that. You go you got to Fox,
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  Speaker 2: you go to NBC or any place you have to
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  Speaker 2: show an ID, not to mention getting on an airplane.
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  Speaker 2: And so this whole thing that this is a great
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  Speaker 2: smear against voting, well, we've states that have voter ID,
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  Speaker 2: like Georgia, where everyone was saying, oh, this is going
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  Speaker 2: to throw hundreds of thousands people off the rolls. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you've covered it. Voting, voting went up, turnout went up,
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  Speaker 2: so and people. I think one of the reasons people
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  Speaker 2: are one of the factors in their sour mood is
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  Speaker 2: no trust in the integrity of elections. The whole thing
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  Speaker 2: on redistricting, that mess, jerry mandering. People just feel the
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  Speaker 2: game is rigged, so they want it's overwhelming. You've seen
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  Speaker 2: the polls, You've discussed them. It's across every every segment
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  Speaker 2: of society wants voter ID, they want honest elections.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, it's a good, good point. Steve Forbes, A
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  Speaker 1: long time ago, a couple of years I asked you
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  Speaker 1: about AI and you said, you know, back then, thought
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  Speaker 1: it was going to kill us. It was going to
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  Speaker 1: wipe us out, it was going to take over, and
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  Speaker 1: you you caution, you said, it's going to be fine.
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  Speaker 1: It's but now there's other things I'm worried about. Apparently
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  Speaker 1: it takes double the electricity we can produce in this
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  Speaker 1: country just to run AI. For all the benefits, is
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  Speaker 1: it going to cause us a lot of headaches too?
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  Speaker 2: Well, anything new like that is going to We get
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  Speaker 2: the benefits, but also it has repercussions, and one of
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  Speaker 2: them is they are huge consumers of electricity, and the
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  Speaker 2: AI spending now is far above what we might say
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  Speaker 2: really need because every company feels, even though there may
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  Speaker 2: be a temporary surplus, they have to do it if
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  Speaker 2: they're going to stay in the game. So these things
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  Speaker 2: are normal, they shake out. And what it also underscores
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  Speaker 2: is in terms of electricity. Hopefully it leads to we
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  Speaker 2: can always hope Pollyanna existed for a reason, that this
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  Speaker 2: will bring about reform of the electricity grid in the
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  Speaker 2: US and stop cluttering the grid, especially in California with
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  Speaker 2: all these renewables that are expensive to make, and when
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: you go on these renewables, especially the windmills and the
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  Speaker 2: solar panels from the beginning, when you mind, when you
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  Speaker 2: need these special minerals, rare earth minerals, and the finding
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  Speaker 2: which takes place in China you go from, and then
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  Speaker 2: when you have to recycle these things. These things don't
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  Speaker 2: last forever environmentally, they don't do anything for the environment.
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  Speaker 2: They harm it actually at the end of the day.
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  Speaker 2: So let's pull back on these mandates. If somebody's got
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  Speaker 2: a good solar panel and makes sense, fine, But these
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  Speaker 2: mandates are killing the grid, overwhelming the grid. So we've
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  Speaker 2: just got to make some major reforms in what we're
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  Speaker 2: doing here and going to what we know works. One
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  Speaker 2: is natural gas beautiful and even though it's going to
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  Speaker 2: take years, nuclear power is suddenly oh it's clean revelation.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, we only got a minute left. Steve Forbes, you
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  Speaker 1: wrote the best book on inflation get his book called Inflation,
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  Speaker 1: So give us the scorecard. How are we doing right
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  Speaker 1: now in inflation?
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  Speaker 2: Well, in terms of nominal inflation, it's going up less
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  Speaker 2: and there'll be some blips, but people still feel pressure
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  Speaker 2: because while their wages are starting to rise again, it
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  Speaker 2: hasn't had enough time and momentum for people to really
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  Speaker 2: feel Okay, I'm finally getting head on the instead of
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  Speaker 2: being on a treadmill. And one of the things the
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  Speaker 2: Federal Reserve is sewing though, and that's why we got
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  Speaker 2: to get Kevin Warsh and some other governors in there,
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  Speaker 2: is that they're undermining the value of the dollar. You
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  Speaker 2: see it against other currencies. We're a week against things
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  Speaker 2: like the British pound for crying out loud, and they
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  Speaker 2: see it in the gold price.
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  Speaker 1: Ye had.
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  Speaker 2: Gold took a big hit, but it's still more than
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  Speaker 2: twice what it was a couple of years ago. All
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  Speaker 2: those things say the dollar is wobbly. So we've got
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  Speaker 2: to go in and restore integrity and belief in the dollar.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what I worry about longer term. It's not
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  Speaker 2: going to affect us this year, but longer term, great
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  Speaker 2: countries don't have weak currencies and that destroyed George W. Bush.
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  Speaker 2: They thought they could gradually weaken the dollar, and it
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  Speaker 2: ended up giving us the crisis of two thousand and
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  Speaker 2: eight two thousand and nine, which is still coping with today.
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  Speaker 2: Good countries have good currencies, Steve. Great countries have great currencies.
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  Speaker 1: Steve Forbes, brilliant as always, great stuff. Make sure you
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  Speaker 1: get his book Inflation. It's the best book on the subject.
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  Speaker 1: All of his books are great, but get the latest book,
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  Speaker 1: and of course read Forbes and read his columns. And
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  Speaker 1: we'll see you all over television too. Steve Forbes, thanks
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  Speaker 1: for being with us. Thank you all right, take care, hey,
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  Speaker 1: don't forget Buck and Clay coming up today twelve noon.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Excellent show, in fact, they were yesterday where the name
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the number one syndicated show in America, and then the
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: most listened to radio show in America, Sean Hannity right
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: after that at three, Jesse Kelly at six, and the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: funniest show it's on every night at nine. It's Jimmy
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Fayala every night nine to midnight. Here on seven to ten,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: WR