The Charlie Kirk Show - Inflation, the Dollar, and the End of Pax Americana with Steve Cortes

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody, today at the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:02.000 Steve Cortez unpacks inflation, what the government is doing about it, and why Republicans won't act on it, that and so much more.

00:00:08.000 Email me directly, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:10.000 If you want to subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast, take out your podcast tap type and Charlie Kirk Show and hit subscribe in the upper right-hand corner.

00:00:17.000 Get involved with Turning Point USA today.

00:00:19.000 At TPUSA, we are the ones that are pushing forward on college and high school campuses across the country.

00:00:24.000 tpusa.com is the place where you are able to make hope happen.

00:00:28.000 Start a high school or college chapter today at tpusa.com.

00:00:32.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:00:33.000 Turningpoint USA very well might be America's best hope for it to remain free.

00:00:38.000 Start a high school group, start a college group, get involved at tpusa.com.

00:00:42.000 Buckle up, everybody, here.

00:00:44.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:44.000 We go.

00:00:46.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.

00:00:48.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:51.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:55.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:56.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:57.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:59.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:01:05.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:14.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:17.000 Brought to you by Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage.

00:01:20.000 For personalized loan services, you can count on.

00:01:22.000 Go to andrewandtodd.com, the wonderfulandrewandtodd.com.

00:01:29.000 So let's get into it.

00:01:30.000 I want to kind of play around with this whole kind of topic of the great reset.

00:01:34.000 Where does China play into this?

00:01:36.000 Where does George Soros play into this?

00:01:38.000 And kind of this new world order that is trying to be ushered in.

00:01:41.000 I think there's a lot there that we could kind of unpack together.

00:01:44.000 And then I'd love to get Steve's thoughts on this.

00:01:46.000 So I want to start with this clip here, Cut 6, where CNN host says that we're entering a post-American era under Biden.

00:01:53.000 Play Cut 6.

00:01:55.000 One of the defining features of the new era is that it is post-American.

00:01:59.000 By that, I mean that the Pax Americana of the past three decades is over. 0.71

00:02:04.000 You can see signs of this everywhere.

00:02:06.000 He's not wrong.

00:02:07.000 Frid Zakari is wrong about a lot.

00:02:09.000 He's not wrong about this.

00:02:10.000 And so this is, look, on our program, we are not ideological when it comes to foreign policy.

00:02:14.000 We're certainly ideological on some things.

00:02:16.000 Not on foreign policy, though.

00:02:18.000 We're very ideological on gender policy, wouldn't you say, Connor?

00:02:21.000 And on pro-life, I'd say.

00:02:24.000 So, but when it comes to foreign policy, we want what's best for America.

00:02:28.000 Real politic.

00:02:29.000 And so, in certain places, I could see a prudent argument for America to police shipping lanes.

00:02:33.000 I think that's actually a good argument.

00:02:35.000 We're not isolationist.

00:02:37.000 I can't stand people that immediately default towards ideology when it comes to foreign policy.

00:02:43.000 I think that's the worst, actually.

00:02:44.000 If I were to try to say, what would the worst category to be ideological in, it would be foreign policy.

00:02:52.000 And here's why.

00:02:53.000 You're dealing with separate actors, incentives, impulses.

00:02:58.000 You're dealing with moving targets.

00:03:00.000 You're dealing with unlikely alliances.

00:03:02.000 So let me give you an example: why ideology is so dangerous when it comes to foreign policy.

00:03:08.000 Okay, let's say that we sit in a room and we say, under no circumstances whatsoever will we ever get into an alliance with a communist dictator.

00:03:18.000 Good rule, right?

00:03:19.000 Great rule.

00:03:20.000 I think it looks great on paper.

00:03:22.000 So let's just write that down, right?

00:03:23.000 We're all in a room.

00:03:24.000 We say, this is our ideology.

00:03:26.000 We hate communism. 0.57

00:03:27.000 We hate dictators.

00:03:28.000 No alliances with communist dictators.

00:03:30.000 And we all say, yeah, that's right.

00:03:32.000 Okay.

00:03:34.000 Do you get an alliance with Joseph Stalin to defeat Hitler?

00:03:37.000 Your rule says you can't do that.

00:03:39.000 Real politics says what's best for the civilization.

00:03:44.000 Do you ally with an evil to defeat a greater evil?

00:03:48.000 The answer is yes. 0.98

00:03:49.000 That was the right decision, by the way, coming in alliance with the Soviets. 0.84

00:03:54.000 So you can have principles, and the principles, by the way, should mainly guide to how you treat other humans, basically how you combat, how you interact with war, in war. 0.79

00:04:05.000 But unfortunately, sometimes those rules have to be bent or broken.

00:04:09.000 So for example, one of the rules would be, we do not like bombing civilian centers.

00:04:17.000 Good rule, right? 0.65

00:04:19.000 Well, Winston Churchill, after London was bombed relentlessly, firebombed Dresden.

00:04:25.000 That's highly controversial, by the way.

00:04:26.000 There's a lot of different, there's a lot of different accounts on the fire burning of Dresden of whether or not it was intentional or not.

00:04:32.000 The point is this, is you must be non-ideological when you look at foreign policy.

00:04:37.000 That ideology can be one of the most dangerous of all of the precepts that one has when they approach these sorts of decisions.

00:04:47.000 Okay.

00:04:49.000 So Farid Zakaria, who I disagree with on almost everything, actually has a pretty smart take here, where he says that the Russian invasion of Ukraine marks the end of one age and the beginning of another. 1.00

00:05:02.000 This is a pretty insightful point. 0.97

00:05:03.000 Play cut 50. 0.56

00:05:05.000 This war marks the end of an age.

00:05:08.000 But what can we say about the new one we are entering?

00:05:12.000 Most important, it is marked by the triumph of politics over economics.

00:05:17.000 One of the defining features of the new era is that it is post-American.

00:05:22.000 By that, I mean that the Pax Americana of the past three decades is over. 0.51

00:05:27.000 Okay, but essentially this, is that the impact will be felt globally for the big changes in a post-American world.

00:05:32.000 Who wants a post-American world? 0.96

00:05:35.000 And who's been fiddling around in Ukraine for quite a while?

00:05:38.000 Well, many of you have been familiar in one way, shape, or form with the name George Soros.

00:05:44.000 George Soros has a very interesting metaphysical viewpoint.

00:05:49.000 He does not believe there is a God, and if there was a God, he believed it was him.

00:05:53.000 When I speak at a church, I say, look, we might have our own theological approaches to things, but we all agree on two things.

00:05:59.000 There is a God, and we are not him.

00:06:02.000 Those are the two most important things that I believe we could teach a young person.

00:06:06.000 And that is the two things that they teach evangelistically the opposite on a college campus.

00:06:11.000 They say there is no God, and if there was a God, it would be you.

00:06:14.000 Here's a little bit of a 60 minutes tape on George Soros.

00:06:18.000 Now, before I go any further, I do not know Hebrew that well, but I know enough of Hebrew where Soros means stones in Hebrew.

00:06:26.000 In fact, specifically, it means shaky rocks.

00:06:30.000 Soros means on, let's say, the ground of which the horses or the mules used to get there, or donkeys used to get their hooves stuck and they would break.

00:06:41.000 Soros is a synonym in Hebrew for trouble.

00:06:46.000 George Soros, George Trouble, speaks about Ukraine and his belief or lack thereof of God in Play Cut 28, which, by the way, this is one of the hardest clips to find on the internet.

00:06:59.000 One of our friends found this clip from Chicago.

00:07:01.000 Thank you for that.

00:07:02.000 Play tape.

00:07:04.000 If I weren't there, of course I wasn't doing it.

00:07:08.000 But somebody else would be taking it away anyhow.

00:07:11.000 In other words, whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator.

00:07:15.000 The property was being taken away.

00:07:18.000 So I had no role in taking away that property.

00:07:22.000 So I had no sense of guilt.

00:07:24.000 Are you religious?

00:07:26.000 No.

00:07:28.000 Do you believe in God?

00:07:29.000 No.

00:07:30.000 Soros told us he believes God was created by man, not the other way around, which may be why he thinks he can smooth out the world's imperfections.

00:07:41.000 When we went with him to Ukraine, he was treated like a visiting head of state and was received by the president.

00:07:47.000 Then he was received by the prime minister and finally the central bank.

00:07:51.000 20% in cash.

00:07:53.000 They even allowed him to look at the books and asked him for advice.

00:07:56.000 Lots of people want George Soros' advice.

00:07:59.000 Most recently, South African President Nelson Mandela.

00:08:03.000 They asked George Soros for financial advice.

00:08:07.000 They let the Ukrainian central bank sits down with George Soros and opens up the book.

00:08:13.000 That's an interesting little wrinkle in all this, isn't it?

00:08:18.000 With all the noise surrounding the topics of money and the economy, Today, more than ever before, you need a financial guide that you can trust.

00:08:26.000 That's why I trust PAX Financial Group.

00:08:29.000 Not only do they share my conservative values, they are committed to putting your interests ahead of their own. 0.80

00:08:34.000 Big Wall Street firms are forcing their political agendas into your investments, and it's time to stop giving your money to companies that don't share your values or use their profits, my profits, as a way to silence Christians. 0.78

00:08:48.000 PAX is proud to offer an alternative called BRIs, Biblical Responsible Investing.

00:08:55.000 Look, I got to know the people behind PAX Financial at a pro-life dinner in San Antonio.

00:09:01.000 I got to know them, and they told me about biblical responsible investing.

00:09:04.000 And at first, I wasn't really sure what to make of it.

00:09:07.000 But as I got to know the team behind PAX Financial, we agreed to partner with them here on the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:09:12.000 Biblical Responsible Investing supports and promotes our values of being pro-family and pro-life and screens out companies that support pornography or anti-Christian or anti-conservative.

00:09:24.000 If you have $150,000 or more in investments, text them, Charlie, at number 74868.

00:09:32.000 Text them, just Charlie, right now to number 74868.

00:09:37.000 They'll be able to schedule a 15-minute free no-obligation consultation.

00:09:40.000 I'm moving some of my money over to PAX Financial, and honestly, I hope they do well with it with some of the returns.

00:09:47.000 But I'm happy that part of my portfolio will be able to go towards biblical responsible investing. 0.71

00:09:54.000 I think they're going to crush it for me in the market, but I'll be able to know that my hard-earned dollars are not going towards pornography, anti-Christian, pro-BLM nonsense. 0.53

00:10:04.000 You'll be connected with a financial advisor who will walk this through with you.

00:10:07.000 Text Charlie at number 74868 today.

00:10:10.000 Invest in companies that don't hate you.

00:10:12.000 Invest in companies that I believe are actually consistent with biblical truths.

00:10:16.000 Go to biblical responsible investing.

00:10:18.000 If that interests you, text right now to 74868.

00:10:22.000 Just Charlie in the body there.

00:10:24.000 Check it out right now.

00:10:25.000 Brought to you by PAX Financial Group PAX.

00:10:30.000 With us right now is a very smart and great patriot who has been predicting the inflation crisis for quite some time.

00:10:37.000 He's an economic analyst, but also a former Trump advisor, senior advisor.

00:10:43.000 The president thinks very highly of him.

00:10:45.000 He's a Chicagoan or was a Chicagoan until he probably fled to a nicer state.

00:10:48.000 Steve Cortez, Steve, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:10:51.000 I appreciate it, Charlie.

00:10:52.000 I did indeed flee like you.

00:10:54.000 I am a refugee from the Blue States.

00:10:56.000 Now I live in Tennessee, a place that is wonderful.

00:10:59.000 I'm sad to have to leave Chicago.

00:11:01.000 I raised a family in the city for 25 years, but it just became to me untenable.

00:11:06.000 Thankfully, I had options.

00:11:07.000 I know a lot of people don't have options there. 0.70

00:11:09.000 And anyway, it's good to be in Red America, but I still care very, very deeply about what goes on in our common home state of Illinois and what's happening in Chicago.

00:11:18.000 And I try to warn America, by the way, that I think a lot of what's happened in Chicago should serve as a political carry in the canary in the mind, warning America of what the Democrats will do nationwide if we allow them to. 0.51

00:11:29.000 That is so right.

00:11:31.000 I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Wheeling, Arlington Heights area.

00:11:33.000 You know it well.

00:11:34.000 I still consider Chicago to be my home.

00:11:36.000 And it's just unrecognizable now when I fly in.

00:11:39.000 It just is in so many ways.

00:11:40.000 It's tragic.

00:11:40.000 Chicago was, in my opinion, the great American city.

00:11:44.000 It was second city to none in so many ways, but we could talk about that at great length.

00:11:49.000 So, Steve, you've been predicting about stagflation for quite some time.

00:11:53.000 This is a shorter segment before we can really dive into it.

00:11:56.000 Tell us what we know about inflation, what is causing it, and then we'll talk about what Americans can do about it, but go from there.

00:12:04.000 Sure.

00:12:04.000 And by the way, I take no pleasure in being correct and being prescient on this topic, but literally since the day of the election, November of 2020, and certainly once we got a clearer picture of what Biden was going to do with a Democratic Congress into early 2021, I've been trying to ring this alarm bell for all of America.

00:12:21.000 That's something we have not really dealt with in this country in 40 years, since the late 70s and early 1980s, that inflation was on the way.

00:12:29.000 I frankly didn't know that it would get this bad this fast.

00:12:32.000 The most recent data we got out was the producer price index.

00:12:35.000 Prices at the wholesale level rose 10%.

00:12:38.000 That is the worst ever on record.

00:12:40.000 Of course, producer prices, Charlie, very soon become consumer prices.

00:12:44.000 And the consumer price index is also terrible at 7.9%, a 40-year record and rising.

00:12:50.000 I think inflation, in fact, is even higher than that.

00:12:52.000 And I won't bore the audience with all the details of why, but we used to formulate it a different way.

00:12:57.000 We would already have double-digit consumer price inflation if we used the old formula.

00:13:02.000 But even using the government's figures, we're still at a 40-year worst record for soaring prices in this country.

00:13:09.000 It's terrible for all of the economy.

00:13:11.000 It's terrible for all Americans, but it's, of course, most damaging to the people who can least afford it, middle and lower income folks.

00:13:18.000 And their costs right now for apartment rents, for gasoline, for food, they are all soaring.

00:13:24.000 And it's not circumstance.

00:13:25.000 It's not bad luck.

00:13:26.000 It's not the business cycle.

00:13:27.000 It's not Vladimir Putin.

00:13:29.000 It is because of the policy choices of Joe Biden, with unfortunately some complicity from some Republican senators who I view as really political collaborators with their participation as well.

00:13:41.000 But this is because of policy failures that we are dealing with an inflationary spiral for the first time in over a generation in this country.

00:13:48.000 Yeah, I think inflation is closer to 25 to 30%.

00:13:51.000 And I could prove it.

00:13:52.000 I mean, rents in Phoenix alone are going up $800 to $1,000 a month.

00:13:56.000 Everything is double-digit increase.

00:13:57.000 Housing in Phoenix is up 75% over the last two years.

00:14:01.000 So I don't want to hear any more of this 7%.

00:14:02.000 And we don't calculate the same.

00:14:04.000 The way we calculate inflation is a con.

00:14:06.000 But the problem is that, okay, inflation's bad.

00:14:09.000 But if we had like 4% to 5% inflation, but 6% growth, you can manage that.

00:14:14.000 But we're seeing the opposite, right?

00:14:16.000 Steve, walk us through that.

00:14:17.000 No, that's exactly right.

00:14:18.000 So what matters the most is real wages.

00:14:19.000 I mean, look, inflation is always a dangerous, dangerous dance partner, right?

00:14:24.000 Even in the best of times.

00:14:25.000 But if wages are exceeding, wage growth is exceeding the growth of inflation, then you have positive real wage growth, meaning what actually matters to your life.

00:14:33.000 Can you buy more?

00:14:33.000 Are you getting more prosperous?

00:14:35.000 And by the way, we had that in spades during the Trump presidency, particularly the year 2019, massive increases in real wage growth.

00:14:42.000 We now have under Biden, 12 consecutive months of declining real wages.

00:14:47.000 So you have to work harder just to stay in the same place.

00:14:52.000 If we accept the government's number, that's 7.9%.

00:14:54.000 If we put that in perspective, that means a full month of your wages is gone because it's just about exactly mathematically a 12th of your total wages.

00:15:02.000 Literally the month of March, your wages have disappeared because of Biden's inflation.

00:15:06.000 Let's put it in that practical term.

00:15:09.000 Steve, I'm really interested in what you said earlier.

00:15:11.000 And we like to go a level deeper here, not just kind of stay at the surface.

00:15:14.000 How did we change the calculation of inflation?

00:15:17.000 Whose idea was that?

00:15:18.000 I'm just really fascinated by that.

00:15:20.000 Right.

00:15:20.000 Well, it was a lot of leftist economists, quite frankly.

00:15:23.000 It was their idea to try to make inflation look less damaging than it, in fact, is to regular Americans.

00:15:29.000 And here's like many distortions, right, from the left and from academia.

00:15:34.000 There's a kernel of truth there that was manipulated.

00:15:36.000 The kernel of truth is that you shouldn't price something apples to apples if the good has materially changed and improved.

00:15:42.000 What I mean by that, let's take the example of a cell phone, right?

00:15:45.000 So a flip phone compared to a current smartphone.

00:15:48.000 There's really no comparison, right?

00:15:50.000 And so the current smartphone costs more, but it's also massively more productive.

00:15:54.000 And for some people, it may have even replaced your laptop.

00:15:57.000 So it costs more, but that should be your camera, correct, correct?

00:16:01.000 Your watch, whatever it is.

00:16:03.000 So that should be factored in.

00:16:04.000 So there's validity to that line of thinking, right?

00:16:06.000 But it also opens the door to all kinds of abuse.

00:16:10.000 And that's what unfortunately did indeed happen, which is why, by the way, I'm glad you brought up the idea of rents because there, let's face it, apartments haven't really changed very much, right?

00:16:18.000 I mean, there are certain accoutrements that are different, but in general, living space is living space, right?

00:16:23.000 And so it's a much more constant apples to apples comparison.

00:16:26.000 And when we look at apartment rents to this point of I think inflation is vastly higher than the government statistics.

00:16:31.000 Again, even the government statistics are incredibly damning in and of themselves.

00:16:34.000 But let's talk about apartments because on apartments in 2018 and 2019, the two pre-COVID years under Donald Trump, even though we had surging real incomes in this country, apartment rents, according to apartmentlist.com, went up 2% and 3%.

00:16:49.000 Very contained increases there.

00:16:51.000 In the year 2020, not surprisingly with the lockdowns, went down, but went down very slightly, didn't crash slightly below zero.

00:16:57.000 So you had three years in a row of basically low single-digit increases on average for apartments.

00:17:03.000 2021, with Joe Biden in charge, with the exorbitant borrowing and spending that he and Nancy and Chuck embarked upon, plus war on American Energy, plus onerous mandates, which really in many ways bottlenecked the supply chain in this country and also forced inflation higher.

00:17:18.000 What happened to apartment prices?

00:17:19.000 Up 18% for the year.

00:17:22.000 Now, that's on a nationwide basis in a lot of hot parts of the country.

00:17:25.000 You mentioned Phoenix certainly being one of them, much more than that.

00:17:29.000 30% plus average apartment increases in some of the hotter areas, metro areas of the country, 18% overall.

00:17:36.000 And here's the thing, too, Charlie: those price increases are incredibly sticky.

00:17:40.000 And what I mean by that is once they go up, they almost never go back down.

00:17:44.000 It's extremely rare for a landlord to lower apartment rates.

00:17:48.000 It just almost never happens.

00:17:50.000 And not only that, but you agree to pay for an extended period of time.

00:17:53.000 Almost all apartment leases are a year, if not even longer.

00:17:57.000 So unlike food and energy, which can be volatile, rental prices are sticky.

00:18:02.000 They're real.

00:18:03.000 I think it's a better apples to apples comparison to look historically.

00:18:06.000 So the reality is, even by the government's reckoning, we have double-digit inflation right now, by the experiences of millions of citizens, we know that it's worse than that.

00:18:15.000 In fact, and here's the worst news of all, Charlie, and why I want to give a call to action though, not just curse the darkness, but also light the candle.

00:18:22.000 It's going to get worse unless we do something.

00:18:25.000 And we can't wait until November to elect the right people in 2022.

00:18:29.000 That's important, but we've got to put pressure on these feckless, coward Senate Republicans right now because they keep facilitating, they keep acting as political collaborators and allowing this borrowing and spending to continue.

00:18:42.000 They just did it with another trillion and a half dollar discretionary budget that included, by the way, $14 billion for Ukraine to defend their border when we're not defending our own border in the United States.

00:18:54.000 And while Americans are literally suffering to try to simply pay bills, and here's another point I think is crucial: how have Americans managed this pricing, these price increases so far?

00:19:04.000 The data show us, unfortunately, they've largely done it through credit card borrowing.

00:19:08.000 Now, it's understandable, but it's also very regrettable.

00:19:12.000 And it's a very short-term solution that makes the long-term problem even worse.

00:19:16.000 Credit card debt and credit card originations to subprime borrowers have exploded in recent months.

00:19:23.000 I've done some of my chalk talks recently on the data, the numbers of this exact phenomenon.

00:19:27.000 So I fear that while the inflation gets worse, the scenario also gets worse for working class people.

00:19:33.000 So things are likely to get worse before they get better.

00:19:35.000 But one way to make them get better is to pressure the spineless Republicans.

00:19:40.000 I'm talking about people like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham to finally act like they have power in the United States Senate because they do. 0.66

00:19:48.000 Yeah, that probably won't happen.

00:19:50.000 Probably not.

00:19:51.000 We should keep the pressure on them.

00:19:51.000 I agree.

00:19:53.000 Yeah, the worst thing about credit card debt is it's by definition, it depreciates with value, right?

00:19:57.000 So it's the worst kind of debt you could have.

00:19:59.000 Student loan debt's bad, but if you did it to educate your, I mean, I'm not a fan of it, obviously.

00:20:04.000 Medical debt, I mean, I guess you're alive.

00:20:05.000 That's good.

00:20:06.000 House, you know, the entire tax structure is built around a mortgage debt.

00:20:10.000 There could be some very positives around, especially if the value goes up.

00:20:14.000 But if it's like Christmas gifts and you forget where they, you know, what they are 90 days later and you still have the debt burden alongside of it, it's very, very dangerous for an economic model.

00:20:23.000 So yeah, let's get into it.

00:20:24.000 So like what are the Senate Republicans supposed to do?

00:20:28.000 They don't do much of anything except go saber-rattle with Ukraine or whatever, you know, the newest thing we're supposed to get super outraged about.

00:20:35.000 Meanwhile, Americans are getting destroyed financially.

00:20:38.000 So I'm afraid they're not going to do it, Steve.

00:20:41.000 We're going to run out of time and we're going to see that 25 to 30% inflation.

00:20:44.000 No, listen, I do worry.

00:20:46.000 You know, if I had to wager on it, I would bet on your prognostication being correct, that they will remain spineless.

00:20:52.000 They will continue to act as a Washington uniparty rather than advocating for their constituents as they should.

00:20:57.000 By the way, we see, for example, even in deeply red states, for example, in this recent budget that was passed, the states of Alabama and Mississippi about as red as they get.

00:21:06.000 All four senators from those two states, Republican senators, voted in favor of this obscene budget, which again included $14 billion for Ukraine.

00:21:14.000 It's not that consequential financially, but it sure is symbolically, at least to people like me.

00:21:18.000 But here's what I think can be done then, bigger picture, if we are unable to pressure the Senate Republicans into doing the right thing, is we need to elect the right candidates who don't just have an R after their name, but are truly American first and are truly economic nationalists when it comes to fighting inflation.

00:21:34.000 How do we do that?

00:21:35.000 Well, the first thing is, first answer is relatively simple, which is stop the borrowing and spending, right?

00:21:40.000 It's just, it's reached such exorbitant levels that it's totally unsustainable.

00:21:44.000 The second may not be as obvious, but I think it's critical.

00:21:46.000 And that is get control of the border.

00:21:48.000 Because right now, in a time where real wages are crashing in this country, the worst possible idea, Charlie, is to entice in millions of illegal new workers to unfairly and unlawfully compete in the labor market against Americans depressing wages.

00:22:05.000 So it's not only important as a matter of justice and a matter of national security, but I believe it's also an economic prosperity issue to get control of our border.

00:22:13.000 So those are some of the policy solutions.

00:22:15.000 And then there's also, as you mentioned, this bigger issue of the dollar.

00:22:19.000 And I am extremely worried that a century, it's literally been a century that the dollar has been the reserve currency of the world, a century of the primacy of king dollar is very much at risk right now because of the policy failures and because of, frankly, the outright lies that the Biden administration is inflicting upon the United States and insists on inserting itself into what should be a regional conflict in Ukraine and is using the dollar in unprecedented ways as a weapon of war.

00:22:48.000 We really are, we are waging economic war against Russia and not against Putin and the oligarchs, but against the people of Russia right now.

00:22:54.000 We're using unprecedented, never-before-used, utilized tactics to do it.

00:22:59.000 We are successfully collapsing the ruble right now, which I think is incredibly dangerous.

00:23:04.000 But the point is, it also has dangers for the United States.

00:23:07.000 And as you mentioned, we right now have alliances forming, which could be extremely troublesome for the United States dollar.

00:23:13.000 For example, Saudi Arabia and China, according to Wall Street Journal reporting, the first foreign visit for Xi since the CCP virus outbreak from Wuhan, he has not left the country.

00:23:23.000 The first foreign visit is going to be to Riyadh.

00:23:25.000 And the Saudis have at least signaled that they are going to start accepting payment in Yuan in the Chinese currency for oil.

00:23:33.000 Now, some folks out there might say, well, why does that matter to me?

00:23:35.000 I'm not that concerned with foreign affairs.

00:23:37.000 Matters to every American because the status of king dollar as the reserve currency for the world has allowed us, in a sense, to get away with, to finance the nightmare deficits that we have run for a long time in this country and to do it with maintaining low inflation until Biden took office.

00:23:55.000 So we might now see a double whammy.

00:23:57.000 His domestic policies are enticing, are really inflaming inflation in a market way in this country.

00:24:04.000 If you combine that with a loss of confidence in the dollar, and if foreign investors no longer clamor to hold dollars as they have for a century, and they price our debt in a more sort of market-oriented way, we can become Argentina in a hurry.

00:24:18.000 And I'm sure a lot of people think I'm exaggerating, but look, Argentina was once a very wealthy country, as wealthy as the United States, if not more so, a century ago.

00:24:26.000 And they have had basically a century of economic misery.

00:24:28.000 Don't think it can't happen here.

00:24:32.000 Maintaining king dollar should be first and foremost on the minds of our economic leaders.

00:24:37.000 Unfortunately, like so many of their mistakes that put America last, they leave the dollar for last.

00:24:43.000 Yeah, I mean, the dollar very well could collapse the world reserve currency.

00:24:46.000 And the petrodollar and the world order that we currently live under is really dependent on the full faith and credit of the United States.

00:24:52.000 A lot of people don't have full faith in the United States right now.

00:24:55.000 Our borders are wide open.

00:24:56.000 Our military is teaching CRT and woke nonsense, and there's no deterrence that are happening.

00:25:03.000 So let me just kind of close with this, Steve.

00:25:06.000 Philosophically, the conservative movement seems fractured on the Ukrainian thing.

00:25:10.000 We've made the argument that this is actually this regional conflict could unfold into a financial Pearl Harbor that could destroy the U.S. dollar.

00:25:17.000 How should we think as supporters of Trump about this Ukrainian-Russian situation?

00:25:22.000 You know, putting aside that this shouldn't have happened and it wouldn't happen under Trump, what should we do about it?

00:25:26.000 Because it seems that the Uniparty says 15 billion isn't enough.

00:25:29.000 We need a no-fly zone.

00:25:31.000 What's your perspective here?

00:25:32.000 Listen, we should be promoting de-escalation right now.

00:25:36.000 There's not a vital U.S. national interest in Ukraine.

00:25:38.000 There simply is not. 0.92

00:25:40.000 This is an ancient enmity.

00:25:42.000 This is a regional struggle of over borders that have moved significantly over time and frankly, which are none of our business and really should not be our concern. 0.80

00:25:51.000 We have started, here's what I really hope people can grasp and realize: whether you like it or not, you are already a combatant in this struggle because we are waging full-on economic war against Russia. 0.71

00:26:01.000 We have essentially debanked the entire country, 150 million people, something we have never done before. 0.66

00:26:07.000 It was not even done to the Nazis, as atrocious as they were. 0.55

00:26:10.000 We didn't even do this to them in World War II. 0.52

00:26:13.000 Now, the foreign policy establishment believes that they can compel regime change within Russia.

00:26:20.000 I think that's an incredibly dangerous game that has backfired on us numerous times, even just in recent years.

00:26:26.000 But regardless of whether or not that occurs, the financial war, the money bomb that we have already unleashed to me is incredibly dangerous. 0.55

00:26:35.000 And it's already inflicting pain upon the Russian people.

00:26:39.000 It is very likely to have serious fallout and ramifications for the United States.

00:26:43.000 So my proposal is de-escalation.

00:26:47.000 Let's stop.

00:26:48.000 Right now, we're funding both sides of this war.

00:26:50.000 How about instead we pressure both sides to come to negotiate?

00:26:54.000 That's exactly right. 0.99

00:26:55.000 And how about we preserve the dollar so that we don't destroy our economy or that we don't allow the Saudis and the Chinese to get close to one another? 0.99

00:27:02.000 And the Iran deal is playing right into that. 0.89

00:27:04.000 But that's way too complex for the foreign policy establishment that's too worried about the next tweet they have to send.

00:27:09.000 Steve Cortez, Trump advisor, great friend, and does a wonderful job.

00:27:13.000 Thank you so much, Steve.

00:27:15.000 Thank you, Charlie.

00:27:18.000 Look, inflation is out of control.

00:27:20.000 One area we see it more than ever is the grocery store.

00:27:22.000 Even though grocery prices feel like they've doubled, good ranchers' prices have stayed low and affordable.

00:27:27.000 Once you subscribe, it's locked in.

00:27:29.000 The price never goes up.

00:27:30.000 Your best price is locked in for life.

00:27:32.000 They sell 100% American meat and deliver it to your door for a great price.

00:27:36.000 Good Ranchers help solve your meat problem.

00:27:38.000 And the problem is 85% of the grass-fed beef in stores and online is imported.

00:27:42.000 Shop Good Ranchers for all your beef, chicken, and seafood needs.

00:27:45.000 Their pre-trimmed and pre-marinated chicken breasts are absolutely delicious.

00:27:49.000 I love Good Ranchers, and you guys should too.

00:27:51.000 Their animals are ethically raised, and they're beautifully sourced.

00:27:55.000 They do the things the right way, and it shows in every box.

00:27:57.000 Good Ranchers takes the guestwork out of the meat aisle and grocery shopping.

00:28:01.000 Get a steakhouse quality at home with Good Ranchers.

00:28:05.000 Right now, go to goodranchers.com/slash Charlie and do it right now.

00:28:09.000 It's Good Ranchers, American meat delivered.

00:28:12.000 I love Good Ranchers.

00:28:13.000 When Good Ranchers get delivered to our home or to our office, it's something incredible.

00:28:18.000 If you don't buy the meat in your house, tell the person who does to check out Good Ranchers.

00:28:23.000 Support the Charlie Kirk show, support America, goodranchers.com/slash Charlie.

00:28:31.000 The United States Senate has finally done something meaningful.

00:28:36.000 The U.S. Senate has finally done something I approve.

00:28:38.000 This shouldn't have taken so long, but it's finally done.

00:28:41.000 The United States Senate has passed the Sunshine Protection Act by unanimous consent to make daylight savings times permanent.

00:28:51.000 I'm not a fan of daylight savings time.

00:28:53.000 Falling back, springing forward should just remain the same time throughout the entire year.

00:28:59.000 In fact, we should spring forward even more so that the fall, it's the opposite.

00:29:05.000 I never understood that in the most depressing time of weather, we also made it darker intentionally.

00:29:13.000 Who thought of this thing?

00:29:16.000 Makes zero sense.

00:29:17.000 Now, I know you're going to say it's Benjamin Franklin and all this.

00:29:21.000 No way.

00:29:22.000 He was too smart for this.

00:29:23.000 I think it's a Nicole Hannah-Jones conspiracy against Benjamin Franklin.

00:29:27.000 There's no way.

00:29:29.000 A 2015 study published in Sleep Medicine.

00:29:32.000 Researchers compared the rate of strokes during the week after daylight saving to the week two weeks after the two weeks before.

00:29:37.000 They found the rate of 8% higher the first two weeks after the shift, and people with cancer were 25% more likely to have a stroke later than the other times of the year.

00:29:45.000 People over 65 were 20% more likely.

00:29:47.000 A 2019 report found a higher risk of heart attack after both time changes, but particularly during daylight savings times.

00:29:54.000 Interruptions to circadian rhythm can also impair focus and judgment.

00:29:59.000 A 2020 study found fatal traffic accidents increased by 6% in the United States during daylight savings time.

00:30:06.000 This shouldn't have taken so long, but it did.

00:30:09.000 And the U.S. Senate has finally done something useful.

00:30:15.000 Okay, I want to get to some other tape here.

00:30:18.000 There's so many other stories that we can get to.

00:30:20.000 Let's go to, and by the way, thank you guys for all the warm comments and notes and congratulations for the success of our podcast.

00:30:30.000 We deeply appreciate that.

00:30:31.000 You guys can always email us, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:30:36.000 Okay, let's go to Cut 38.

00:30:39.000 Biden says, I'm sick of this stuff.

00:30:41.000 The American people think the reason for inflation is government spending more money?

00:30:44.000 Simply not true.

00:30:45.000 Oh, really?

00:30:46.000 This is Biden's new messaging campaign.

00:30:50.000 Play Cut 38.

00:30:52.000 I'm sick of this stuff.

00:30:55.000 We have to talk about it because the American people think the reason for inflation is government spending more money.

00:31:00.000 Simply not true.

00:31:03.000 So we're spending $2.6 trillion that we do not have.

00:31:06.000 80% of all dollar bills ever in circulation were created in the last two years.

00:31:11.000 We have a $7 trillion debt burden that was added onto our already $23 trillion debt in the last two years, and none of that has had a net zero impact of inflation.

00:31:19.000 That's Joe Biden's new messaging campaign.

00:31:21.000 Good luck.

00:31:23.000 Janet Yellen says we're likely to see another year in which 12-month inflation numbers remain very high.

00:31:28.000 Play cut one.

00:31:29.000 I don't want to make a prediction exactly as to what's going to happen in the second half of the year.

00:31:37.000 You know, we're likely to see another year in which 12-month inflation numbers remain very uncomfortably high.

00:31:46.000 And then Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says that it's possible to have more than one reserve currency.

00:31:52.000 Why would he be saying that?

00:31:54.000 Because inflation numbers are so high that the U.S. dollar is eating itself.

00:31:58.000 It's destroying itself.

00:32:00.000 You want to destroy Western values as the great reset predicted by 2030?

00:32:04.000 You want to deteriorate American exceptionalism?

00:32:09.000 You want to make America no longer the envy of the world?

00:32:13.000 Well, then break the back of the medium of exchange of the civilization you're trying to crush.

00:32:18.000 Play Cut 58.

00:32:19.000 Over time, the question is, if some want to move away from the dollar, what will be the effect on us?

00:32:27.000 I don't think it's something you would feel right away.

00:32:30.000 There wouldn't be any short-term effect of that.

00:32:32.000 Over time, though, you know, it would, I suppose, it would diminish our status as the reserve currency.

00:32:40.000 It's also possible to have more than one large reserve currency.

00:32:45.000 Well, of course, it's possible.

00:32:46.000 Is that the best thing for the country, though?

00:32:48.000 Is he the central bank of the world or the Central Bank of America?

00:32:51.000 The entire creation of the Federal Reserve, there's a great book called The Creature of Jekyll Island.

00:32:56.000 If you guys ever want to go deep into the actual creation of the Federal Reserve, Jekyll Island, I believe, is a vacation spot north of Sea Island, Georgia, on the southeast coast, not far from Savannah, Georgia.

00:33:07.000 You can add that into the pile of useless information that suddenly became useful.

00:33:11.000 The Creature of Jekyll Island is a great book about the illegal and unconstitutional creation of the central bank, the Federal Reserve.

00:33:17.000 Who does he work for exactly?

00:33:18.000 Why does he have the power to destroy your currency?

00:33:21.000 Founding Fathers never anticipated an unchecked central bank.

00:33:25.000 In fact, that's a great topic for a future hour.

00:33:28.000 The old debate about the central bank, it now resurrects itself today as the dollar is eating itself because our leaders seem to want it to bring in the great reset.

00:33:38.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:33:39.000 Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe right now to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast.

00:33:44.000 Thanks so much for listening.

00:33:45.000 God bless.

00:33:48.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - March 16, 2022

Inflation, the Dollar, and the End of Pax Americana with Steve Cortes

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript