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Ken interviews economist Steve Moore. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: Live from the WOR LifeVac studios, The Mark Simone Show.
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  Speaker 1: Guest hosting for Mark today, Ken Rosato. And so nice
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  Speaker 1: to be with you on a Thursday, the Thursday of
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  Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend. You are listening to The Mark Simone Show.
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  Speaker 1: We like to call it Friday Eve. How about that?
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  Speaker 1: Friday Eve. Ken Rosato filling in for Mark. And, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the economy seemed to be humming along pretty well a
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  Speaker 1: few months ago. Then came the conflict with Iran. It
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  Speaker 1: seemed to stall things. Job creation slowed, gas prices increased,
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  Speaker 1: grocery prices did not decrease, at least not to the
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  Speaker 1: extent that we were promised or expected. All this as
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  Speaker 1: the midterms are creeping up faster and faster. Yesterday, there
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  Speaker 1: was a big sell-off of the bonds. So where is
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  Speaker 1: the economy headed? Well, one of the best economists in
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  Speaker 1: all of America, co-founder of of the Club for Growth
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  Speaker 1: Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, former Wall Street Journal
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  Speaker 1: Editorial Board member, who served as Senior Economic Advisor to
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  Speaker 1: President Trump's 2016 campaign. And I do believe he's a
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  Speaker 1: friend of Jesus Christ himself. We say good morning to
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  Speaker 1: Steve Moore.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning thanks so much for the very nice introduction
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  Speaker 2: and uh by the way you call it friday i
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  Speaker 2: call it thursdays a practice friday oh no.
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  Speaker 1: I i'm gonna borrow that i like that i like
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  Speaker 1: that a lot so now you know better than anyone
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  Speaker 1: i mean i'm a novice at this but there was
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  Speaker 1: that big market sell-off uh bond market sell-off yesterday and
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  Speaker 1: that usually what suggests that investors expect higher interest rates
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  Speaker 1: or inflation right yes that's exactly what not a good
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  Speaker 1: thing and.
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  Speaker 2: No, but we have something in our hotline today. By
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  Speaker 2: the way, I hope everyone's getting that newsletter. Just go
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  Speaker 2: to UnleashedPossibility.com and get it for free.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you're getting that, everybody.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I do. I get it. But anyway, we have
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  Speaker 2: something you may not have gotten yet because it just
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  Speaker 2: got sent out this morning just about an hour ago.
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  Speaker 2: But what I looked at was the current bond rate,
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  Speaker 2: the yield on the 10-year Treasury over the last year,
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  Speaker 2: and it's up a lot. It's gone up from– Let's see,
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  Speaker 2: what are we at now? It's almost, what is it
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  Speaker 2: at now? I forget the number, but it's been rising.
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  Speaker 2: But if you look at the bond rate today on
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  Speaker 2: the 10-year, if you look at over the last 50 years,
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  Speaker 2: it's actually slightly below the average of the last. We're
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  Speaker 2: at 4.8% right now, and we may be headed to 5%,
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  Speaker 2: which is bad. We don't want to see interest rates
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  Speaker 2: rise because that means that the cost of everything from
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  Speaker 2: federal borrowing, and the United States government is the biggest
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  Speaker 2: borrower in the world, taking out a mortgage gets more expensive.
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  Speaker 2: And so I am concerned about that. But overall, I'm
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  Speaker 2: pretty bullish on this U.S. economy. I mean, the latest
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  Speaker 2: indications are that we're seeing a big boost in the
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  Speaker 2: economic output this quarter, both in manufacturing, construction, and investment,
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  Speaker 2: three of the most important things we want in this country.
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  Speaker 2: Our technology industries are doing amazing. We lead the world
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  Speaker 2: in all of the high-tech areas. We have the best
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  Speaker 2: stock market in the world. So, yeah. I mean, look,
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  Speaker 2: I get... By the way, yesterday, we have two cars,
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  Speaker 2: and one of them is an Audi that's a diesel car.
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  Speaker 2: And yesterday, I went to the service station. Now, it's
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  Speaker 2: not exactly the cheapest service station in the world. But
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  Speaker 2: you know what cost me to fill up my tank?
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  Speaker 1: I'm afraid to ask.
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  Speaker 2: A hundred bucks. Oh, jeez. A hundred bucks.
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  Speaker 1: What is it, like $ 6 a gallon now for diesel?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: Yep. Yep. So, that's what we're at right now. So...
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  Speaker 2: Everybody wants to see gas prices come down. That will happen.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, there's no shortage of oil in the world.
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  Speaker 2: We have massive amounts of oil. It's just the sticky
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  Speaker 2: problem we've got in the Middle East. But overall, I
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  Speaker 2: feel like I actually think this may be the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of a boom stage in the U.S. economy as soon
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  Speaker 2: as we get those oil prices down.
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  Speaker 1: And, of course, we have oil now in the low
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  Speaker 1: 90s per barrel, right?
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  Speaker 2: Don't say that.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
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  Speaker 2: Sorry.
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  Speaker 1: You just ruined my traffic Friday. I know it had
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  Speaker 1: been 83 up until last week, and it just kind
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  Speaker 1: of crept up. When I saw that, my heart sank.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, you know, you can look at what I do.
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  Speaker 2: This is a little tip for investors and just people
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  Speaker 2: want to know where their economy is headed. Every morning,
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  Speaker 2: and in fact, I'm delinquent, I didn't do it yet
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  Speaker 2: this morning, was to check what's happened to the global
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  Speaker 2: oil price. It was at 82. You're saying it's now
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  Speaker 2: up to 90?
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  Speaker 1: Is that Izzy or at the board, you say it's
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  Speaker 1: up to 92? Yeah, WTI 92. So there you go.
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  Speaker 2: So that means, you know, we're going to see higher
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  Speaker 2: gas prices over the next couple of weeks because when
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  Speaker 2: the oil price goes up, obviously the gas price does.
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  Speaker 2: So that concerns me, no question about it. But thank God,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've got a president in the White House
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  Speaker 2: who says, drill, baby, drill. I mean, can you imagine
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  Speaker 2: how much the oil price would be if we weren't drilling?
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  Speaker 2: Do you know we're the number one producer of oil
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  Speaker 2: and gas in the world today?
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  Speaker 1: We're exporting, right, more than anybody else? I mean, that's
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  Speaker 1: an amazing thing.
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  Speaker 2: We export.
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  Speaker 1: That's an amazing thing.
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  Speaker 2: We actually produce more oil than we consume.
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  Speaker 1: That's amazing. Now, here's the big question, though. Do you
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  Speaker 1: see the economy correcting in time for the midterms?
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  Speaker 2: It could be.
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  Speaker 1: That doesn't sound very effective.
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  Speaker 2: I would have said absolutely yes if you hadn't told
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  Speaker 2: me we're at $ 92 a barrel on the oil price
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  Speaker 2: right now.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry.
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  Speaker 2: But a lot of it does depend on what happens
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  Speaker 2: in the Middle East. And, you know, what I hope
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  Speaker 2: to see is that– You know, we have to be,
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  Speaker 2: one of the reasons I've been so much in favor of,
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  Speaker 2: you know, total American energy dominance, so we don't have
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  Speaker 2: to be dependent on the Middle East any longer. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: for most of your and my lifetime, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: Middle East has been able to throw the whole world
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  Speaker 2: economy into recession and depression by just, you know, choking
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  Speaker 2: off the oil supply. So I don't want us to
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  Speaker 2: ever be dependent again on Middle East oil.
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  Speaker 1: I hear that. Nor should we ever, ever. And that's
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  Speaker 1: why many in the Middle East are turning to other things,
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  Speaker 1: tech sector and things like that, right? But the one thing,
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  Speaker 1: as much as people may look at our economy as
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  Speaker 1: potentially challenging, and you said, you point out that it's
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  Speaker 1: actually in much better shape than we're thinking, is that
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  Speaker 1: we're still better off than just about any other economy
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  Speaker 1: on Earth, right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure. I mean, I can't think of any
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  Speaker 2: major economy. There may be some small island economy that's
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  Speaker 2: doing well that I'm not aware of. But if you
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  Speaker 2: look at all, if you look at the European countries,
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  Speaker 2: if you look at China, Japan, the UK, every other
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  Speaker 2: major country in the world, we're beating the pants off them.
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  Speaker 2: Our stock market is through the roof. Let's not forget,
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  Speaker 2: the stock market is through the roof. In fact, somebody
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  Speaker 2: just sent me a chart this morning. We have more
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  Speaker 2: millionaires in America today than ever before. And these are
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  Speaker 2: people used to be middle class people, but they invested
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  Speaker 2: in the market and now they have assets of worth
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  Speaker 2: more than a million dollars. And it's the numbers are
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  Speaker 2: just surging. So, you know, if you want to get
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  Speaker 2: rich in America, you obviously have to work and earn
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  Speaker 2: a good paycheck. But you have to then save and invest.
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  Speaker 2: And if you do that, you can become a millionaire
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  Speaker 2: in this country. Nowhere else in the world can you
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  Speaker 2: do that.
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  Speaker 1: And we got about a minute left, Steve. I have
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  Speaker 1: to let you touch on. I read your editorial on
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  Speaker 1: the Fox News Web site. about data centers and how
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  Speaker 1: we're being duped in many cases to think that all
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  Speaker 1: week not in my backyard but the dissenters are bring
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  Speaker 1: a bone economically duke to a local economy something.
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  Speaker 2: They they really do it and i uh... there's a
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  Speaker 2: story of this little uh... kind of run down uh...
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  Speaker 2: dilapidated town and um... in the world uh... washington state
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  Speaker 2: and you know everything was going to go in the
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  Speaker 2: wrong direction of these leaving and also made open data
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  Speaker 2: center also the jobs came in the construction Industry started
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  Speaker 2: to come back, and it rebuilt this little community. We
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  Speaker 2: could be doing that throughout America. I don't understand your
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  Speaker 2: governor there, Kathy Hochul, saying we're going to outlaw data centers.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, the state already has 40 data centers.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, data centers are the construction projects of the future.
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  Speaker 2: You know who are the biggest advocates of data centers
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  Speaker 2: right now?
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  Speaker 1: Who's that?
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  Speaker 2: China? China. The unions.
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  Speaker 1: I thought you meant outside of the country.
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  Speaker 2: Where all the jobs are.
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  Speaker 1: Of course.
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  Speaker 2: I visited our data center out in Loudoun County, Virginia,
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  Speaker 2: right outside of Dulles Airport in D.C. I've never seen
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  Speaker 2: so many construction jobs in my life. People say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: we need to bring back blue-collar jobs. There they are.
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  Speaker 1: And I heard that in Loudoun County, if they were
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  Speaker 1: to shut down all the data centers, everybody's property taxes
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  Speaker 1: would go up by, what, $ 6, 200 a year. That's how
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  Speaker 1: much they contribute to the economy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, you know, my feeling is if a community
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  Speaker 2: doesn't want a data center, they shouldn't build them there.
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  Speaker 2: But there are plenty of thousands of communities in this
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  Speaker 2: country that would love to have the jobs, love to
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  Speaker 2: have the new businesses. And so but we got to
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  Speaker 2: build them because, you know, I wouldn't be talking to
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  Speaker 2: you right now. People say, I don't want data centers.
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, do you like the Internet? Do you
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  Speaker 2: like the GPS system you're using? Do you like using
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  Speaker 2: your cell phone? Do you like the fact that we
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  Speaker 2: have a military system that's based on our data? So
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  Speaker 2: we have to have them. It would be like saying, well,
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  Speaker 2: I want my lights to come on, but I don't
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  Speaker 2: want electric power.
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  Speaker 1: See, these are the same people who are against having
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  Speaker 1: cell towers, but yet they all wanted cell phone actors.
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  Speaker 1: Go out to the Hamptons. You will not find a
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  Speaker 1: cell tower, and everybody whines about the fact that there's
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  Speaker 1: no cell signal. Yeah, it's your fault because you refused
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  Speaker 1: to have one built. Steve Moore, economist extraordinaire. I could
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  Speaker 1: talk to you for hours, my friend. I always love
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  Speaker 1: hearing your voice, and now I'm so glad to get
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  Speaker 1: to talk to you. It's great to have you on today.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Have a great weekend, folks. Labor Day weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. Thank you, Steve. Have a great day. Thunderstorms today, though.
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  Speaker 1: Highs in the mid-80s, but nice for the weekend. That's
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  Speaker 1: a good thing. Ray Stajic saying you're going to have
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  Speaker 1: a gorgeous weekend for Labor Day weekend. Taking your calls next,
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  Speaker 1: 800-321-0710 for WOR.