The Great America Show - January 29, 2025


SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE ECONOMY？


Episode Stats


Length

46 minutes

Words per minute

163.50432

Word count

7,632

Sentence count

574

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

20

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Jimmy Acosta announces his plans to leave CNN and become an independent journalist. President Trump's pick for the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing an uphill battle to be confirmed and we're not going to be silent about it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody, and welcome to The Great America Show.
00:00:05.060 It's great to have you with us today.
00:00:06.280 Thank you so much for joining us.
00:00:08.060 While the confirmation hearings are underway for President Trump's cabinet pick of RFK
00:00:12.860 Jr. for HHS, RFK testifying first before the Senate Finance Committee, he faces an uphill
00:00:19.600 battle that we're not going to be silent about it.
00:00:22.880 The truth of the matter is there's rhinos in the House, in the Senate, who are going
00:00:27.200 to do everything they can to stop this man, whether it be Mitch McConnell or Susan Collins
00:00:30.860 or Lisa Murkowski or Curtis or John Kennedy down in Louisiana.
00:00:36.240 There's a few of them who are doing all they can to stop this man.
00:00:39.660 Now, for what reason?
00:00:40.540 Is it the vaccine stance where he wants to look further into vaccines and what they're doing
00:00:45.060 to our children and the possible long-term effects of them?
00:00:48.340 Or is it the taking of chemicals out of our foods?
00:00:51.980 I can't seem to figure out why people don't like this man.
00:00:55.020 And if you look deeper, it's because he challenges the status quo, just as President Trump does.
00:01:01.220 He's not a fan of big pharma.
00:01:04.080 He wants them off of our television screens for our kids who are watching television.
00:01:07.880 I think these are all great things that have gone on for far too long.
00:01:12.140 And now we have a man who's a threat to it.
00:01:15.260 And we have the rhinos, our own party, trying to stifle this man and stop him. 0.95
00:01:20.100 The White House is not holding back.
00:01:21.660 They're saying there's going to be a price to be paid if this man doesn't get confirmed.
00:01:25.940 And I think there should be.
00:01:27.360 President Trump tapped this man for a reason, and he believes in him.
00:01:31.280 The American people overwhelmingly voted for President Trump and his America First agenda.
00:01:36.180 So it's time for these rhinos to stop playing politics and stop playing games 1.00
00:01:39.280 and approve and confirm all of President Trump's cabinet.
00:01:44.540 Turning now to some news, Jim Acosta, we told you yesterday, may be leaving CNN.
00:01:49.360 It's now confirmed that the liar, a man who is filled with deceit and hate,
00:01:54.760 and has a severe, severe case of Trump derangement syndrome,
00:01:57.320 announcing yesterday on his show that it would be his last show.
00:02:00.220 Take a listen.
00:02:01.100 There's never a good time to bow down to a tyrant.
00:02:04.000 I have always believed it's the job of the press to hold power to account.
00:02:08.080 I've always tried to do that here at CNN, and I plan on going doing all of that in the future.
00:02:13.920 One final message.
00:02:15.780 Don't give in to the lies.
00:02:17.560 Don't give in to the fear.
00:02:19.680 Hold on to the truth and to hope.
00:02:22.400 Even if you have to get out your phone, record that message.
00:02:26.460 I will not give in to the lies.
00:02:28.760 I will not give in to the fear.
00:02:31.320 Post it on your social media so people can hear from you, too.
00:02:35.320 I'll have more to say about my plans in the coming days, but until then,
00:02:38.660 I want to thank all of you for tuning in.
00:02:40.460 It has been an honor to be welcomed into your home for all these years.
00:02:44.100 That's the news.
00:02:45.200 Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta.
00:02:47.520 I don't think anyone cares to ever hear from Jim Acosta again,
00:02:54.520 but after putting out that video on his last show,
00:02:57.480 Acosta came out and said he's going to be now moving to independent journalism.
00:03:00.840 He had no viewership on CNN.
00:03:03.420 I'm not entirely sure who's going to pay out of their pocket to tune into Jim Acosta.
00:03:08.760 The man has been a Trump hater, an America first hater, a hater of America from the inception.
00:03:15.440 I'm not entirely sure what's up his neck or what's wrong with the man, but he's severely defective.
00:03:21.520 And we thank the people who watch CNN who have tuned out, who don't want to listen to that nonsense.
00:03:26.940 People are tuning out of the mainstream media as a whole.
00:03:29.580 It's the reason this podcast does so well.
00:03:31.080 It's the reason many other podcasts do so well.
00:03:33.360 We're able to bring you the news whenever you want to watch it, whenever you want to listen to us.
00:03:36.540 At your own leisure, at your own time, we give you the facts and we let you make your own opinion.
00:03:40.940 We don't come in here and berate you with nonsense and tell you this is how you have to think.
00:03:46.120 Groupthink is how you have to think.
00:03:47.860 That's what CNN, MSNBC and Fox News all do to you.
00:03:51.680 So as I said, this is why independent journalism is doing so well among people on the right.
00:03:57.020 On the left, you can't go further left than MSNBC.
00:04:00.080 So I don't see Jim Acosta doing too well.
00:04:03.080 New polling out from our friends at Rasmussen, surveyed just about 1,300 voters this week, actually, asked a very simple and straightforward question.
00:04:12.800 Who do you trust more?
00:04:14.220 Choices were Donald Trump or the news media.
00:04:17.240 A plurality of 44% chose Donald Trump, only 41% choosing the news media.
00:04:22.980 And there's a reason for it.
00:04:23.940 These people have lied to us all along the way.
00:04:26.320 They told us January Sixers were insurrectionists and terrorists, domestic terrorists, debanking them, deplatforming them.
00:04:33.820 President Trump faced 700 years in jail for simply challenging an election.
00:04:38.420 We're supposed to continue to believe these people, the deceit, the lies.
00:04:42.420 You guys out there, the American people are all way too smart to fall for it.
00:04:45.980 And it's the reason why CNN is in the tank, laying off people, laying off top talent, top talent at their network.
00:04:53.180 It's the reason they're all in the tubes.
00:04:55.080 The American people have woken up.
00:04:56.840 We're not woke.
00:04:57.480 We've awakened to this nonsense.
00:05:00.600 And as I said, independent journalism is the new way forward.
00:05:04.060 Turning now to some illegal immigration news, illegal aliens, I think is the right way to say it now.
00:05:09.800 Just about 8,000 have been deported in President Trump's first nine days in office.
00:05:15.800 I think that's more than what Joe Biden has done in his entire term.
00:05:19.740 President Trump apparently wants 1,000 a day to be deported.
00:05:23.460 So just behind on pace on that.
00:05:25.680 But nonetheless, he's doing a hell of a job.
00:05:28.920 DHS chief Kristi Noem, confirmed just a few days ago, has said that she's going to cancel the Democrats' last-minute amnesty extension to 600,000 economic migrants, is what they call them, from Venezuela.
00:05:41.020 These are people who are brought in here on work visas allowed to stay.
00:05:43.620 The Biden administration and Secretary Mayorkas tried to extend them an olive branch before leaving office, thinking we wouldn't all find out.
00:05:52.220 But Kristi Noem on the job.
00:05:54.840 We've got to give a special shout-out to our friend on the show, Tom Holman.
00:05:58.180 And he's perhaps the hardest-working man, not in Washington, but in the administration, second to President Trump, of course, out on the streets of these raids.
00:06:07.380 He told us what was going to happen, and it's being done now.
00:06:10.020 From Chicago to now New York, the Trend Day Agua gang members, all being wrapped up and brought back to their countries, just as they should. 1.00
00:06:17.880 Here illegally, you're committing crimes.
00:06:19.700 You're out of here.
00:06:21.240 Our show today is going to be on the economy.
00:06:23.340 We want to figure out what's going on.
00:06:25.380 Is the market safe?
00:06:26.740 What's happening with inflation?
00:06:27.880 Are gas prices going to go down anytime soon?
00:06:29.740 Grocery prices?
00:06:30.520 The eggs?
00:06:31.520 What's happening with Jerome Powell over at the Fed?
00:06:33.720 To take all this up and much more, our guest today is John Lonsky.
00:06:36.940 He's the founder and CEO of the Lonsky Group.
00:06:39.380 John, it's great to have you back with us here on The Great America Show.
00:06:41.600 I want to start with something that kind of rocked the stock market this week, sending tech stocks into a trillion-dollar sell-off, recovering since.
00:06:48.800 But the fact that traders can be so dumb and naive to news that China is beating us in the AI race with the company DeepSeek,
00:06:59.560 your thoughts, first, as for China's allegations that they're beating us in the AI markets.
00:07:07.840 And then next, I want to get your reaction to investors just absolutely caving to China.
00:07:14.620 Yeah, it's something when you stop and think that DeepSeek could be such a shock, not only to investors,
00:07:25.520 but apparently also to the artificial intelligence industry in the United States.
00:07:31.840 Didn't they see something like this coming?
00:07:34.540 I mean, you know, the AI industry in the United States was talking about the imperative of stepping up capital spending on AI,
00:07:45.520 I think to the tune of it's about a 50% to 70% increase in 2024, excuse me, in 2025, compared to what they spent in 2024.
00:07:57.700 That's a huge jump in 2024, that's a huge jump in AI-related capital spending.
00:08:02.900 And yet here we have this Chinese upstart.
00:08:06.940 You know, this Chinese company, again, DeepSeek, is only a year old.
00:08:12.540 That's all.
00:08:13.220 It's fairly new.
00:08:14.780 And my goodness, they claim, and many believe that this is correct,
00:08:19.280 that they have developed an AI model that is much cheaper to run, to set up.
00:08:26.460 And moreover, this AI model of DeepSeek supposedly outperforms existing AI models offered by U.S. companies.
00:08:40.220 You know, my own first reaction to this is I find it hard to believe.
00:08:46.020 Of course.
00:08:46.300 Is it really true that the engineers, the computer scientists at places like NVIDIA and even Google are so far behind the curve
00:08:59.400 that this year-old Chinese company can outperform them, outpace them at a far, far lower cost,
00:09:10.680 using what were basically rudimentary microchips to run this particular model?
00:09:18.520 The crazy thing to me, John, and you'll probably remember this very well.
00:09:22.400 I don't want to change subjects, but I just want to bring this up as sort of deja vu.
00:09:26.200 You may recall the race for 5G.
00:09:29.120 And the name that comes to mind is Huawei, where China continuously told us that Huawei was developing this, this, this, and this.
00:09:35.920 They were beating us in the 5G race.
00:09:37.680 It turned out all to be a total lie.
00:09:40.500 Six years ago, you went into a phone store in Europe or anywhere in the world, and Huawei dominated everything.
00:09:46.180 There were products everywhere.
00:09:47.060 You go into them now, you barely see anything Huawei.
00:09:50.520 The thing that's insane to me is that these guys, and you had mentioned DeepSeek is cheaper to run.
00:09:55.660 Of course it's going to be cheaper to run.
00:09:56.660 Everything in China is cheaper to run.
00:09:58.700 It's the reason why you look inside your wallet.
00:10:00.860 You look inside the back of your phone.
00:10:02.680 You look inside anything, and it says made in China.
00:10:05.320 They use slave labor there.
00:10:07.080 The human rights conditions are far different there.
00:10:10.000 $15 minimum wage, John, I don't think it exists over there.
00:10:12.760 Health care for all, I don't think it exists over there.
00:10:15.560 So, of course, everything that's done in China is going to be cheaper.
00:10:18.180 Is it going to be better?
00:10:18.820 Probably not.
00:10:19.620 They cut corners.
00:10:20.760 A lot of their stuff is based on stealing from us, so they don't have the full surroundings of whatever is being developed.
00:10:28.680 But how are investors, these guys on Wall Street, who are brilliant people, falling for this once again?
00:10:36.700 How are they letting us be manipulated by China once again? 0.63
00:10:40.660 I mean, are they in China in their back pocket?
00:10:43.240 Are they in China's back pocket? 0.98
00:10:45.160 Or are they just that naive?
00:10:46.680 Well, I think investors were caught off guard, which is hard to understand because you're supposed to have experts on Wall Street that follow these high-tech companies, that follow NVIDIA, that supposedly have a deep understanding of microchips and what's realistic and what is not realistic.
00:11:09.860 And, you know, touching upon the difference in cost, I mean, it's mind-boggling to think that DeepSeek developed this high-performing AI model for what they claim, I think, was no more than, was it, $6 million?
00:11:25.320 By contrast, in the United States, the AI models we develop come as cheap as $100 million and can be as expensive as $1 billion.
00:11:40.540 And moreover, the DeepSeek AI model supposedly uses a lot less energy than the U.S. AI models.
00:11:52.560 I don't know if this, you know, it almost sounds to be too good to be true.
00:11:57.580 And we know in the investment world, when a financial product is too good to be true, that turns out to be the case.
00:12:05.440 It's not true.
00:12:06.440 It's a lie.
00:12:08.740 But some of the, again, leaders or thought leaders in AI investing have come out, and quite frankly, they stated they find it hard to believe in the DeepSeek story.
00:12:21.820 And instead, they hold, firmly hold the company, at least like NVIDIA, have a commanding lead in the development of artificial intelligence.
00:12:33.000 And that lead is not going to go away anytime soon.
00:12:36.420 And this lead would also hold true for other U.S.-based, U.S.-centered developers of artificial intelligence technology.
00:12:47.100 So, we haven't seen any tariffs yet, as far as I'm concerned, on China.
00:12:52.000 We've had threats of them on other countries.
00:12:54.460 We're going to talk about that in a little bit.
00:12:56.100 But we haven't seen anything yet on China.
00:12:58.140 President Trump says he's mulling them.
00:13:00.220 Do you think this is grounds for President Trump to finally start putting the pedal to the metal?
00:13:06.380 You know, eight days into this administration, 90s into this administration, the man has done more than Joe Biden did in four years.
00:13:13.440 I'm not going to take that away from him. But China is obviously the biggest problem I think we have in this country right now. 1.00
00:13:19.020 You could put that with the southern border, but they go hand in hand, the fentanyl and the drugs pouring in from China.
00:13:23.420 But do you think this is grounds now for President Trump to accelerate the process to finally, you know, put the pressure on China and start hitting them with some tariffs to let them know we're not going to tolerate this?
00:13:35.860 Because the truth of the matter is, John, nothing happens in China without Xi Jinping and the CCP okaying it.
00:13:41.880 Right. So they didn't come out with this whole development, this six million dollar company without Xi Jinping saying, OK, Xi Jinping is a very smart man.
00:13:48.700 He knew exactly what it was going to do to the U.S., the economy and the stock market, maybe not in the long term, but definitely in the short term.
00:13:54.660 So is this grounds for President Trump to go ahead and start tariffs on China?
00:14:00.120 Well, you know, it's a warning that China is our principal adversary. 0.92
00:14:04.600 But, you know, regarding tariffs, believe it or not, this Saturday, February 1st, the U.S. will impose 25 percent tariffs on goods being imported from Canada and Mexico.
00:14:20.080 Yes. It might be, though, that there will be a last minute deal between the U.S. and our two principal trading partners, wherein Mexico and Canada agree to the immigration reforms and the, how should I put it, drug importation reforms demanded by the Trump administration.
00:14:45.000 And perhaps, you know, maybe we'll get lucky and Trump will get Mexico to agree to re-gift fentanyl to the Chinese people somehow. 0.58
00:14:54.900 I don't know if we'll be that lucky.
00:14:56.540 So Saturday's going to, you know, how this plays out, this initial imposition of tariffs on Canada and Mexico will perhaps offer some insight as to how Trump's tariff policy will play out.
00:15:11.780 Yeah, I think, you know, you can make and I'll remember the additional, you know, the tariffs to be placed on imports from China are 10 percent on top of existing tariffs.
00:15:25.320 Well, I would think that this would make China, you know, perhaps pay closer attention to the demands of the Trump administration.
00:15:35.660 It should. A Chinese economy is not doing well. 1.00
00:15:39.440 It's struggling. And quite frankly, it borders on idiotic to think that the Chinese leadership, the Chinese Communist Party seeks alliances with countries like Russia and Iran at the expense of having stronger ties with their principal trading partners, such as the United States and Europe.
00:16:04.860 It makes absolutely no sense. It's like the leadership in China is doing everything they can possibly do to make life more miserable for their own population.
00:16:17.520 And it's also idiotic. I agree with you 100 percent on all of what you just said.
00:16:21.360 But it's also idiotic that the American people, our investors, our people on Wall Street, our hedge fund managers, managers are still so slayed by China. 0.99
00:16:31.520 You know, it perplexes me back to the tariffs.
00:16:35.840 February 1st happened to be coming on a Saturday.
00:16:38.120 So brilliant. And Trump asked to make sure they roll out on a Saturday so that the markets, they don't like it.
00:16:43.400 They have a day or so to, you know, relax and wake up on Monday morning to do some news.
00:16:49.580 Yeah, right. I think maybe the negotiators in China and Mexico can skip church Sunday morning and come to a deal by the afternoon.
00:16:58.580 You know, when the we're talking, we're talking with John Lonsky, folks.
00:17:04.360 We're coming right back with him as the CEO of the Lonsky Group.
00:17:07.120 Stay with us more ahead on tariffs, the deportations and the overall U.S. economy and how how John sees it from right now to four years down the road.
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00:18:20.000 We're back with John Lonsky.
00:18:23.920 John, we were talking about tariffs in that last segment.
00:18:26.600 So I want to turn to some that we just saw this last week.
00:18:29.720 I see people on Twitter posting, you know, in a matter of a week, we've got Greenland mad at us.
00:18:34.320 We've got Canada mad at us.
00:18:36.200 Now we've got Colombia mad at us. 0.76
00:18:37.940 What are we going to do without that?
00:18:39.320 Without that coffee, John?
00:18:40.600 What are we going to do without the roses that come from Colombia?
00:18:43.840 What are we going to do?
00:18:45.160 And the basis of it all was that we sent two planes over there with illegal criminal migrants.
00:18:52.280 And we asked, take your people back, please, because they do not belong in this country. 1.00
00:18:56.380 They came here illegally and they're criminals. 1.00
00:18:59.620 Canada, the president of Colombia, who, by the way, I don't think a lot of people know this because it wasn't really in the mainstream media, got caught with a transgender prostitute. 0.78
00:19:07.680 It was two years ago.
00:19:09.000 So he's in a little bit of, you know, deep trouble himself.
00:19:12.020 I have a lot of Colombian friends, John.
00:19:13.380 They hate this man.
00:19:14.140 He's doing exactly what Joe Biden tried to do.
00:19:16.820 He's trying to flood the Venezuelans into his country to take the place over. 1.00
00:19:20.560 He's a socialist.
00:19:21.680 So President Trump says, that's fine.
00:19:23.800 You don't want to let our planes land there?
00:19:25.840 That's a national security threat now.
00:19:28.000 Tariffs going on you.
00:19:29.440 Come get your people from the embassy.
00:19:30.880 Anybody who had applications to come to our embassy, canceled.
00:19:34.800 And this man folded like a cheap lawn chair, John.
00:19:38.680 That's what you expect to see now over the next four years.
00:19:41.620 And this is the first test.
00:19:43.080 It gives me chills.
00:19:44.140 This was the first test on President Trump.
00:19:46.480 And he won.
00:19:47.440 And he passed with flying colors.
00:19:50.080 President Trump is playing his strong hand.
00:19:54.000 Why not do so?
00:19:55.420 Going back to tariffs, I think this is worth mentioning.
00:19:57.940 The U.S.
00:19:59.280 The U.S. economy is outperforming most economies in the world today by a significant margin.
00:20:06.580 And it should that gap may only widen now that Trump occupies the White House, by the way.
00:20:13.120 People don't realize this, but when you're looking at countries like Canada and Mexico, believe it or not, their rate of economic growth is, I think, slower than 2%, whereas U.S. economic growth is approaching 3%.
00:20:28.460 And in the case of Mexico, they need a much faster rate of economic growth given the high incidence of poverty they have in that country.
00:20:37.380 So the Mexicans, the Colombians have no choice but to heed the request of President Trump and for the purpose of avoiding tariffs that could prove to be quite harmful to their respective economies.
00:20:56.540 Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela cannot afford any imposition of tariffs that will make matters worse for already struggling economies.
00:21:11.260 You know, John, it's insane to me.
00:21:13.200 And I don't maybe you agree with me.
00:21:15.860 Maybe you disagree.
00:21:17.020 What President Trump is asking from these countries is not much, John.
00:21:20.320 He's not asking them to invest billions of dollars into America, although he welcomes that.
00:21:24.920 He's not asking them to come do our laundry.
00:21:28.120 He's not asking them to come make coffee for us.
00:21:30.400 He's simply asking them to take back what's theirs. 0.72
00:21:34.420 So for anyone to suggest otherwise that President Trump is starting trade wars, he's starting this.
00:21:40.300 He's got a very, very simple ask, John.
00:21:43.100 These illegals belong to you. 1.00
00:21:44.620 They came into our country from your country. 1.00
00:21:46.660 Take them back.
00:21:47.780 It seems very simple to me.
00:21:49.880 But what I'm seeing this time around, John, and you tell me I want your thoughts on this, is a very calculated and focused Trump.
00:21:57.120 I mean, it seems he's laser focused on what he wants to do.
00:22:01.260 His team, Stephen Miller, calls most of the shots over there in the White House, doing an absolutely terrific job.
00:22:08.660 They're laser focused, no shenanigans, no nonsense, no drama, nothing.
00:22:13.060 It seems this time around, this is going to be a way different administration, and I think they're going to be able to move the world.
00:22:19.040 What's your thoughts so far, nine days in?
00:22:21.820 Well, first of all, I think the overwhelming majority of Americans applaud the deportation of criminal illegal aliens.
00:22:31.260 Who is the legacy media trying to kid?
00:22:34.460 I mean, this is, again, the stance that the legacy media is taking on this issue makes me think that they're going to lose even more viewers and more readers.
00:22:45.500 Nobody's going to be paying much attention to them any longer.
00:22:49.720 And that would even extend beyond regular news media.
00:22:53.020 It might also apply to things like sports and entertainment.
00:22:56.180 We could, the American, Americans could care less.
00:23:00.560 There's no getting away from that.
00:23:02.320 Yeah, Trump is making it clear that he's going to follow through on what he campaigned on.
00:23:08.400 And the reason why he won the presidency is because the American voters, by and large, agree with the changes Trump wants to make.
00:23:19.840 And in the case of the deportation of criminal illegal aliens, that was a very,
00:23:25.760 And that issue had a lot of support among Americans prior to the election and helps to explain why Trump won.
00:23:35.840 Americans want an end to what was something worse than, worse than incompetence on the part of the Biden administration.
00:23:45.320 And, you know, he had mentioned the deportations, which, John, in every poll I've seen, outside the margin of error by the tens, Americans, like you said, support the deportations of these people.
00:24:00.020 In his first week in office, they've deported already 7,300 illegals.
00:24:03.940 Kristi Noem is DHS chief, has canceled Mayorkas's amnesty award to 600,000 Venezuelan migrants.
00:24:13.440 The ball is rolling here, John.
00:24:15.480 And, I mean, I think there's no rolling back.
00:24:18.040 Now, the New York Times had a piece out last week.
00:24:22.180 And, I mean, it was titled absolutely brilliantly.
00:24:24.740 How labeling cartels terrorists could hurt the U.S. economy.
00:24:30.200 Isolating U.S. companies from cartel activities could be almost impossible, given that the criminal groups operate in sectors like agriculture, tourism, leaving some American businesses vulnerable to sanctions.
00:24:41.420 Now, we know, John, that the mainstream media is not on the side of the American people.
00:24:47.000 We know Jim Acosta leaving CNN, I think, is, by the way, a great service to this country.
00:24:52.160 But for the mainstream media now to be defending what they know is inherently wrong, criminal, is absolutely mind-blowing to me.
00:25:01.200 Siding with the drug cartels, John, is that something you thought you'd ever see in this country from probably, like, the most popular news outlet in America, the New York Times?
00:25:13.600 That's absolutely insane.
00:25:16.140 It's an insult to the American people.
00:25:18.160 And, my goodness, you know, that's akin to having U.S. companies, based companies, cooperate with the mafia in the United States to improve market share.
00:25:30.740 It makes no sense.
00:25:31.800 And it's time for the CEOs to go ahead and wake up and realize what's damaging this country.
00:25:39.440 It can't be tolerated any longer.
00:25:42.480 They have to wake up and smell the coffee, you might say.
00:25:45.720 Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
00:25:49.680 Another issue we're having, we discussed it briefly, is Canada.
00:25:52.920 Canada is now threatening a U.S. alcohol ban if Trump imposes any tariffs.
00:25:58.660 What are their people going to do, John?
00:26:00.460 Do they realize where, like, the world of beer comes from in the world?
00:26:03.400 It's not from Canada?
00:26:05.840 Right.
00:26:06.340 Not everyone drinks Labatt.
00:26:07.820 Right.
00:26:08.220 They're getting tired of the Molson's and Labatt.
00:26:11.380 They want more Budweiser, Miller, or whatever.
00:26:13.560 I mean, you know, there may perhaps Bud has been dumping Bud Light in Canada for how we know.
00:26:20.280 It's keeping the company afloat.
00:26:23.040 And, of course, the Canadians are risking a repeat of those hockey riots they had not too long ago if the Canadians are denied American beer.
00:26:32.160 I don't know if it's that great of an issue, you know, big of an issue in Canada, if it really matters all that much to the U.S. economy.
00:26:41.160 But more has to be done in terms of immigration reform.
00:26:46.160 There's no question about that.
00:26:48.520 And, you know, more has to be done in terms of energy policy.
00:26:53.040 We want to help assure that we have an adequate supply of relatively inexpensive energy coming into the United States,
00:27:01.840 and perhaps in some cases natural gas being shipped to Canada if they're importers of U.S. natural gas.
00:27:09.320 We have issues with perhaps pipelines that might run from Alaska to the continental United States.
00:27:18.040 But I think all of these matters are going to be settled quickly enough.
00:27:21.020 As I said, the Canadian economy is not performing well.
00:27:25.120 You know, Pierre Trudeau, he's going to be gone.
00:27:29.340 So I think there is room for improved relations between the U.S. and Canada.
00:27:35.540 And who knows, if we go far enough, we might have something akin to a more flexible trade policy,
00:27:45.640 a reduction of all tariffs between the two countries.
00:27:49.180 But a lot of negotiations have to take place first.
00:27:52.480 Well, we're now learning that Justin Trudeau in Canada is planning a, quote,
00:27:58.600 pandemic-style bailout program to protect his industries in the event that President Donald Trump does impose those sanctions come this Saturday.
00:28:06.680 There's one problem with that.
00:28:08.660 With Trudeau announcing his resignation and their parliamentary procedure over there,
00:28:13.180 he's sort of frozen up and paralyzed Parliament through at least the end of March.
00:28:19.200 So Canada is going to get hit hard by this.
00:28:21.940 And it doesn't make the Americans bad people.
00:28:23.800 It doesn't make Donald Trump bad people.
00:28:25.720 They did this themselves with what they've done to us,
00:28:29.640 the costs that they've tried to make on our backs.
00:28:33.280 It's unbelievable.
00:28:35.060 And we're finally getting justice because President Trump is back in office.
00:28:39.380 Yeah, the imposition of tariffs are going to hurt certain Canadian industries.
00:28:47.080 I'm not so sure that the macroeconomic impact will be all that great.
00:28:52.020 That remains to be seen.
00:28:53.440 We know in the case of the United States, for instance, we had the tariffs that were imposed in 2019.
00:28:59.180 But as it turns out, the rate of inflation did not move higher in the United States.
00:29:04.660 And in fact, in 2019, despite the imposition of tariffs by the U.S. government, by the Trump administration,
00:29:14.640 the Federal Reserve went ahead and they cut interest rates anyways as inflationary pressures subsided.
00:29:21.880 So let's not get too far ahead of ourselves with how destructive tariffs might be to the U.S. economy
00:29:29.780 and perhaps to the overall Canadian economy.
00:29:33.440 But again, everything that is damaging to Canada right now hurts because that economy is underperforming.
00:29:40.660 And thus, I think they're going to heed the request, the demands of Trump quickly enough,
00:29:46.160 so that this 25 percent tariff doesn't prove to be long lasting.
00:29:51.880 What's the saying, John? I'll say the PG version of it.
00:29:54.320 Mess around and find out. And these guys are about to all find out.
00:29:57.140 I want to take one more quick break here. When we come back, I want to take up the issue of inflation.
00:30:00.660 Where is it going? Have we got it under control?
00:30:03.300 I want to take up grocery prices, gas prices.
00:30:05.480 And I want to take up you mentioned the Federal Reserve and Jerome Powell.
00:30:09.220 Last time we spoke, we discussed his manipulation.
00:30:11.740 We'll call it election manipulation because he was cutting rates, making it nice and fluffy for Kamala Harris. 1.00
00:30:18.460 I want to take that up on the other side of this quick break.
00:30:20.300 We're coming right back with John Lonson.
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00:31:18.760 From all of us here at MyPillow,
00:31:21.220 Thanks for making it on!
00:31:22.980 Folks, we're back.
00:31:26.840 We're talking with John Lonsky of the Lonsky Group.
00:31:29.340 John, I want to start with inflation here.
00:31:32.100 Where are we at right now?
00:31:33.640 Do we have it under control since President Trump has taken over?
00:31:38.660 I know it's only been nine short days, but your outlook, you're an economist.
00:31:42.940 You prey on outlooks.
00:31:44.460 What's your outlook on it?
00:31:45.500 You know, we've had a declining rate of inflation, but that decline appears to have stalled for the time being.
00:31:51.460 I think the biggest worry about inflation going forward is that Trump's economic policies proved to be too effective at spurring U.S. economic growth.
00:32:04.520 And given the fact that we have a near-full employment economy, we could be looking at an acceleration of wage growth by the middle of 2025.
00:32:17.400 And that would make it difficult to have the inflation rate decline towards that 2% target favored by the Fed.
00:32:27.780 So if inflation is going to be a problem, it's going to be a problem only because Trump was too successful at getting America back to work.
00:32:38.980 Is that a bad thing?
00:32:40.520 Perhaps not.
00:32:41.600 And I think people want more employment opportunities.
00:32:45.400 People want to get jobs in areas other than government, where, by the way, employment may be declining, and in health care and social assistance.
00:32:53.820 Now, we also spoke about Jerome Powell in that last segment of Federal Reserve.
00:33:01.940 Not so much Jerome Powell, but last time we spoke, we talked about Jerome Powell and his manipulation of elections,
00:33:07.340 trying to make it a little bit more favorable for Kamala Harris with his rate-playing games.
00:33:14.240 It's not clear that President Trump could fire him because he doesn't really have the job.
00:33:19.420 He sits on a board and he's the chairman of the board.
00:33:24.360 I believe there's some remedies to get him to get out of there.
00:33:27.580 Do you think he'll be able to be a ball-and-strike caller and not a politician as we've seen him be over the last four to eight years?
00:33:38.420 Well, let's start.
00:33:38.980 You know, right now, at this point in time, I think the legacy media and mainstream economists are getting too carried away with the inflationary threat posed by tariffs, okay?
00:33:52.140 That keeps popping up.
00:33:53.520 And as I said in 2019, it turns out that tariffs did not increase inflation.
00:33:59.560 I think the problem with inflation is basically having the U.S. government spend nearly $2 trillion more than what it takes in terms of taxes.
00:34:10.520 Something has to be done about that huge budget deficit.
00:34:14.620 We have to slow down at least the growth of federal spending, if not stall it.
00:34:19.420 And that's why it's so important that Trump is undertaking these measures where he is attempting to pair to reduce the federal workforce.
00:34:30.100 Good idea.
00:34:30.940 Long overdue.
00:34:32.280 Any company that was spending $2 trillion more than what it was taking in in terms of sales would be cutting its workforce pell-mell.
00:34:41.420 You know, as far as Jerome Powell is concerned, he's got to have to, he'll have no choice but to try to be more politically neutral.
00:34:53.520 But let's face it, you're talking about that 50 basis point cut back on September 18th.
00:34:59.100 One cannot help but think that the depth of that rate cut was sort of like a Hail Mary pass trying to help Kamala Harris's chances to be elected president.
00:35:10.780 And, of course, that was a Hail Mary pass that was intercepted by somebody from the Trump team.
00:35:19.700 Mike, Powell, keep an eye on him.
00:35:23.500 I think that he would like to resume rate cuts at this point in time.
00:35:29.760 It remains to be seen, again, whether or not the U.S. economy is going to slow enough,
00:35:34.420 given Trump's very pro-growth policies so that inflation risks continue to decline quickly enough.
00:35:45.640 A little uptick by inflation in response to more job opportunities, more new businesses, small businesses being started.
00:35:54.820 That's not necessarily a bad thing.
00:35:56.760 Yeah, and I don't think Donald Trump or the American people or our folks on Wall Street are asking too much from Jerome Powell
00:36:03.280 because too low of rates is also not good for the economy, especially in the long term.
00:36:08.960 It's not good for banks who support this country.
00:36:12.480 So I think what we're just asking from him is to do his job and adjust rates as he sees fit, not as he feels fit, I guess, if that makes any sense.
00:36:21.720 I think the ball right now is in Trump's court.
00:36:24.640 If he follows through with deregulation, if he can go ahead with strategic, helpful tax cuts here or there,
00:36:32.440 I think deregulation, again, is very, very important.
00:36:35.620 He can lend some impetus to the U.S. economy.
00:36:38.340 So lo and behold, if you're looking for a job, you don't have to accept a job in health care or social assistance, something like that.
00:36:45.940 You might be able to get a real attractive job opportunity in some other area.
00:36:51.880 Before we wrap up, you brought us to an excellent point.
00:36:55.240 President Trump, you know, he does something very interesting.
00:36:57.980 He treats the federal government and how he runs it as he runs a business, which I think is the smartest thing you could possibly do.
00:37:05.460 We've had people in government for, we'll say, the last 25 years who have absolutely ruined this country, brought us into wars, spent ridiculous amounts of money.
00:37:13.420 I mean, up until two weeks ago, three weeks ago, where we're sending Ukraine more money.
00:37:16.620 President Trump is now offering incentives for federal workers to offer them to take a leave and resign, giving them pay for eight months.
00:37:26.880 And it's all part of his plan to shrink the federal government.
00:37:29.240 But it also, when they are ready to rehire, it's the most brilliant thing that a lot of companies did during COVID.
00:37:36.320 If you fire a guy or you give a guy a package who's making $100, we'll use easy numbers, $100 an hour, right?
00:37:42.440 You give them this package for eight months.
00:37:43.700 Because now, when you're ready to hire again, you go ahead and bring in two or three guys who are making $50 an hour or $33, $33 an hour who are doing the same job.
00:37:52.800 You've got now three guys who are doing for the price of one.
00:37:55.180 I think it's the most brilliant thing you could have possibly done.
00:37:57.820 Your thoughts, John?
00:37:59.580 Well, you know, that's often done in the private sector.
00:38:01.660 When a company suffers through an unexpected drop in sales, they will go ahead and lay off seasoned employees, highly paid seasoned employees, and then turn around and hire younger, lower paid employees.
00:38:18.280 And, of course, this provides an opening for young people to go ahead and prove themselves in the corporate world.
00:38:26.580 And so this is what he's trying, perhaps, to do with the federal government.
00:38:30.560 But I would go a step further for now, given the fact we have such a huge budget deficit.
00:38:35.340 Let's see if we can get by with a smaller federal workforce.
00:38:42.440 Let's see if we can significantly improve the labor productivity of federal government employees.
00:38:51.340 You know, John, the federal government, I think, is the largest employer in the country, right?
00:38:55.100 Well, I guess, you know, in and of itself, it would be, and let's not forget, all of the subsidies, all the government spending that many businesses in the private sector benefit from.
00:39:08.440 I'll give you one example would be the strongest performer in construction spending is the amount of money now being spent on the construction of manufacturing facilities.
00:39:20.800 By strong, it's the biggest growth rate compared to the previous year.
00:39:26.260 And the reason why you have so much money being spent by the private sector on manufacturing facilities is in large part the consequence of the subsidies offered for the construction of microchip fabrication facilities for the construction of green energy related projects.
00:39:46.980 It could be windmills.
00:39:48.980 It could be battery producing plants and so on.
00:39:52.840 So, you know, the government is like it's like an octopus.
00:39:56.880 It's all over the place in spurring U.S. spending and providing support to U.S. growth.
00:40:04.500 The only problem with this, though, is that the government is not like the market.
00:40:09.820 The government really doesn't have a good handle on the most efficient way, the most productive way of supporting U.S.
00:40:19.700 economic growth, of driving the U.S. economy forward.
00:40:23.820 Right. Yeah.
00:40:24.360 But with Donald Trump there, like I said, we see it from a different perspective.
00:40:28.340 I want to wrap up with President Trump addressed some CEOs over in Davos.
00:40:32.440 I don't even know why these guys still go over there.
00:40:34.460 I mean, it's so ridiculous.
00:40:35.900 When you look and you see guys like Paul Ryan over there, it makes you wonder why Jamie Dimon and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America are over there.
00:40:42.600 But President Trump was on a video conference and sent a message to these folks because we learned in 2020 that they were Bank of America.
00:40:50.620 And J.P.
00:40:51.020 Morgan, Chase, were censoring conservatives, taking away their bank accounts.
00:40:55.300 They did to General Michael Flynn.
00:40:57.460 President Trump getting right on that stage and telling them, open your banks to conservatives.
00:41:01.760 Enough of this nonsense.
00:41:02.920 You know, let's get back to the American values.
00:41:06.460 Do you think these private corporations will start to adhere, the Walmarts of the world, the J.P.
00:41:12.020 Morgans, the Bank of Americas, the Amazons of the world, start to adhere to getting out of the game of politics and hiring people, regardless of they're Republican, regardless of they're conservative or Democrat or whatever it may be? 0.99
00:41:24.740 Yeah, that's not a bad idea to hire the best qualified person for any opening you might have in a company.
00:41:32.540 If you want to go ahead and maximize shareholder wealth, where are the shareholders?
00:41:36.560 Why weren't they complaining about this type of behavior?
00:41:40.320 I want to add something else.
00:41:42.280 When a corporation or business practices censorship in any way, that has the way of sort of like finding itself, coming down into how companies perform in corporate-related tasks.
00:42:01.480 People will be less afraid to speak up on more mundane matters involving how to improve operations if they're fearful that their employer might discover that they are a conservative.
00:42:18.240 Once you start creating a climate of fear, as far as free expression is concerned, it has ramifications that often go well beyond just politics and can actually adversely affect the operation of a company.
00:42:37.700 You'll end up with a company just full of yes-men. 0.93
00:42:42.300 And believe me, that's a very dangerous situation for a company to be in.
00:42:47.440 That could be very harmful to their near-term and long-term prospects.
00:42:52.980 John, before you wrap up, you brought up such a good point about the hiring of people for their merit and who they are.
00:42:59.160 A question that perplexes me every single day, and it's a very simple one, yet so hard.
00:43:04.000 I don't want to know if there's aliens out there.
00:43:05.820 I don't really want to know or care to know if we really put a man on the moon or any of these crazy things that people want to know.
00:43:12.840 I want to know one simple thing.
00:43:14.240 Why do we still ask people on a job application, on a college application, what their ethnicity is?
00:43:21.680 And why are we asking them on job applications if they're gay, straight, bisexual?
00:43:26.500 What does that have to do with anything?
00:43:28.500 Why are we asking people this?
00:43:30.340 Yeah, it sounds, well, it sounds discriminatory.
00:43:35.240 Right.
00:43:35.660 If anything.
00:43:36.540 And if I'm a person of color and they're asking me whether, it's sort of like they're telling me that maybe I need some special consideration.
00:43:44.580 Right.
00:43:44.900 What it comes down to is I just am maybe not as bright as, let's say, a white guy is, which is, it's an insult.
00:43:53.500 Right.
00:43:53.740 You can look at it this way.
00:43:55.460 When they start asking you those questions, ethnicity, racial background, sexual preference, they're in a way, you know, trying to provide you with some extra benefit.
00:44:06.580 Because they don't think that you, on your own merit, that you compare to other applicants.
00:44:15.580 It's, I think you're absolutely right.
00:44:17.480 It's so, so simple.
00:44:19.520 You know, one of the first things that the great Lou Dobbs told me, John, when he hired me, after he hired me, we started discussing what I wanted to do with my career.
00:44:27.080 And I told him I wanted to go to television.
00:44:28.720 And he said, you know, I want to, I want to tell you something, John, you know, you're brilliant.
00:44:32.940 You're going to do great in it, but you're going to have a very hard time.
00:44:35.560 And I said, why?
00:44:36.040 He goes, you're a straight white male.
00:44:37.600 He goes, affirmative action is going to kill you, your whole rest of your career.
00:44:40.620 And he wasn't lying.
00:44:41.700 I mean, I've had uphill battles, John, the entire way, whether it be at Fox News or through this.
00:44:47.180 Why is he on TV?
00:44:48.300 Why is Lou Dobbs putting John Fawcett on TV?
00:44:51.000 And I, you know, at the end of it, I said, Lou, I don't even care about going on TV.
00:44:53.760 I don't even want to hear it anymore.
00:44:54.880 But that's what this world's come to, John.
00:44:56.760 If you're a straight white male, you're the minority.
00:44:59.980 That's what it's come to.
00:45:02.960 Yeah, I guess that's what they want.
00:45:04.900 But, you know, as I can't help but say, but they are telling other people that they have an inherent disadvantage.
00:45:12.760 And that is a horrible thing to tell to a young person, believe me, because that's going to make them feel inferior.
00:45:20.080 And if you feel inferior, you are not going to be able to perform to your full potential.
00:45:26.500 There's no escaping that.
00:45:28.100 Yeah, I don't see color.
00:45:29.420 And I don't think you do.
00:45:30.420 And I don't think the majority of Americans see color as as anything other than a skin tone doesn't differentiate us.
00:45:37.320 John, we're all the same on the inside.
00:45:38.740 And I hope these colleges and these these private sector jobs and these government jobs wake up and realize and get this crap out of here and let America be America.
00:45:49.140 John Lonsky of the Lonsky Group.
00:45:50.480 Thanks so much for joining us today.
00:45:52.160 You're a great American.
00:45:53.640 Thanks, everybody, for being with us today.
00:45:55.160 Please be sure to join us back here tomorrow for the Great America Show.
00:45:57.960 Our quest for truth, justice and the American way continues.
00:46:01.340 See you back here tomorrow.
00:46:02.320 Same time, same place.
00:46:03.380 Until then, may God bless you.
00:46:05.080 God bless America.
00:46:05.980 And may God bless the great Udals.
00:46:07.520 God bless you.
00:46:08.260 God bless you.
00:46:10.680 Thank you.