Voting machines in Georgia are no longer allowed to vote on their own. Judge Amy Totenberg rules in favor of the plaintiffs in a case that went to trial a year ago. The case centers around the vulnerability of voting machines to hacking and vote rigging.
00:26:11.160Well, I just think there's a perception in the rest of the world, and there's a perception in parts of the U.S.,
00:26:17.880that the U.S. is so wealthy that we can afford anything.
00:26:21.460So, whereas, you know, the poor farmers in Quebec, you know, who have their little, their French cows, you know, need to be protected, or else the giant U.S. agricultural combines will destroy their way of life.
00:26:37.480And so, they justify that to put quotas and their tariffs into effect to protect the industries they want to protect.
00:26:45.280And when you start talking about this general topic, if you listen to any Canadian official, they quickly get off of it.
00:26:52.540They don't want to talk about what they do.
00:26:54.240They just want to talk about the terrible things that President Trump is doing and that U.S., the U.S. is threatening.
00:27:00.680So, that's what I believe President Trump's talking about when he's talking about reciprocal tariffs and trying to set those things right.
00:27:09.320It's really, if it's hard for the U.S. to justify, in their minds, you know, putting tariffs on important goods, then how come they can do it?
00:27:17.900And their answer will be, well, the U.S. is so big, it would destroy us if we didn't do that.
00:27:21.680And meanwhile, you know, we have this giant market that's open to them, and you go through city after city in our industrial heartland, and you see closed factories and, in some cases, you know, very poor living conditions.
00:27:39.180And you look at some of the things that we import and export from Canada, it's things that we can do without, we can certainly do without crude oil.
00:27:48.100We import a massive amount of crude oil from Canada.
00:27:52.020I mean, we're the largest crude oil exporters in the world.
00:27:56.800Why are we even wasting our time with these people when they clearly, number one, they don't appreciate anything we do for them.
00:28:03.040We're also their military power, too, they seem to forget.
00:28:08.040You hear things like, I'm going to play this clip from you from Ontario's premier, Doug Ford, taking it extremely personal when it's business.
00:28:18.580We either roll over as a country, and he runs us over 15 times and gets what he wants, or we feel a little bit of pain, and we fight like we've never fought before.
00:28:29.100I do not want to hurt other provinces on that, but I can assure you one thing.
00:28:35.080We're going to make sure that we inflict as much pain as possible to the American people without inflicting pain on the Canadian population.
00:28:46.160I mean, to me, that's extremely petty and extremely personal.
00:28:50.120Donald Trump has not made it personal at all.
00:28:52.320He's made it about the fact that we're being taken advantage of.
00:28:56.740Well, you know, I think we'd all like to get to a point where nobody was doing it to anybody, and it's disingenuous to imply that it's all one way, and that's the problem with what he's saying and what they're saying.
00:29:12.680And so they want to keep in place a status quo that's not equal.
00:29:17.460And so what I hear from our administration is they want reciprocity.
00:29:22.520And so I think we'd all be happy with that.
00:29:24.560I think we'd be happy with no tariffs in either direction if everyone would agree to that.
00:29:28.100But that's not – that's the whole point of reciprocity is to whatever it is, whether it's zero or whether it's 20 percent, it should be the same.
00:29:34.760Right. You need to level the playing field for people.
00:29:37.500Back in 2018, 2019, you and I were talking before the show, this is not the first time President Trump has put retaliatory tariffs on people.
00:30:12.440And I said then it wasn't going to be as bad as people were saying.
00:30:15.500They did, by the way, say that the sky was falling back then.
00:30:17.760And the stock market, as I recall, did decline by several percent, 3 percent, whatever the day it was announced.
00:30:22.980And there were a couple of declines back then, nothing like what we're seeing now.
00:30:26.000And again, it wasn't the tariffs weren't as broad-based either, as what President Trump is talking about now.
00:30:31.680But when all is said and done and the dust is cleared, what all the studies I see say is that the tariffs on China, for example, that affected the toy industry that I knew quite deeply and other consumer goods, that 87 percent of them were absorbed at the source.
00:30:47.820In other words, the manufacturers absorbed 87 percent of the tariff increase.
00:30:51.840So it wasn't a giant price increase on the American consumer.
00:30:58.160Keep in mind that tariffs are on the cost of the goods, not on the retail price.
00:31:03.220And that's why there are billboards up all over the place that, you know, in Florida now, the Canadians put them up saying tariffs are a tax.
00:31:09.720Well, you know, they're not a sales tax.
00:31:11.640I'll tell you that because the sales tax would be on the retail price.
00:31:14.500Tariffs are on the cost, which is often a fraction of the retail price, depending upon the item that you're talking about.
00:31:19.560It could be only a third of the retail price.
00:31:21.440In some items, it's it's more than that.
00:31:23.720So you're starting with the 20 or 25 percent on only the cost, not on the retail price.
00:31:29.420And then even of that, then you debate that with a manufacturer.
00:31:32.820How much are they going to take or how much are you going to take of that?
00:31:36.440And a lot of that balance of power depends upon how much you can be, you know, in your negotiating position as a as a retailer or someone buying the product from the from the China or Canada or wherever.
00:31:48.460On your ability to move it elsewhere, that gives you leverage.
00:31:51.260And if they're afraid you're going to leave, then they might be able to eat almost all of it.
00:31:54.880And so it just depends on the product, what really gets passed along and how much of a tax it actually is.
00:32:00.360I want to turn to the reasoning behind these tariffs and the reason behind it all, because it really annoys me because the Trump administration has such a good opportunity right now to tell the American people what's happening,
00:32:12.980why we're in this situation in the first place, how we got here and how we're going to get out.
00:32:17.600And the thing that annoys me is I don't I haven't seen from anyone.
00:32:22.420It's his administration to come out and say, this is how we got here from President Clinton all the way back up to Joe Biden to Barack Obama.
00:32:30.620They took everything that you guys owned and they offshored it.
00:33:41.040So I want to get your sense on why we're really in this situation as to why President Trump is so upset about the offshoring of American jobs and what it's done to this country and this economy.
00:33:52.480Look, the reason why products are made overseas instead of the U.S. is it's not complicated.
00:33:59.020It's because it's less, less expensive.
00:34:01.520It costs less when you you know, when you look at what it costs, for example, to make a great one, batteries.
00:34:35.860They don't earn very much money and they work really long hours.
00:34:39.520And, you know, when you go over to China, I've been over there many times and visited factories.
00:34:43.680These the workers don't even live in their hometowns.
00:34:45.620They live in dormitories on the manufacturing campus far from their hometown so they can make money to get back to back to people, live back home.
00:34:55.240Their wage conditions would not be acceptable to us.
00:34:59.000And I'd say to violate our health and safety laws, we wouldn't allow it.
00:35:02.500There's a lot of discussion about the Uyghurs, you know, ethnic minority in China, where they talk about using slave labor to make products.
00:35:08.960OK, so there's a lot of reasons why it's cheaper.
00:35:24.020That's because they use coal to manufacture products.
00:35:26.400I've seen people working late at night in China in like small, small factories, small areas where they're burning like the smoky coal to keep the building warm.
00:35:41.500There's child labor, slave labor, everything else in the world over there.
00:35:45.340And we try to regulate it theoretically and all this from afar, which we really can't do.
00:35:49.640So the question is, is that an even playing field?
00:35:52.920So, of course, it's cheaper to make it there than it would be in the U.S.
00:35:55.980It's not because they're smarter or better people than we are, that are people who live in Michigan and work hard for a living, too.
00:36:03.920So is that are we OK with that, with having them be sort of the world's factory?
00:36:08.500And it doesn't change, by the way, if you if you are a big, big advocate for stopping global warming, whether the pollution takes place in China or the U.S.
00:36:17.640So so if you if you if you don't care about those things, fine, we'll get the cheapest possible place and won't even look.
00:36:24.260Now, if you start looking, maybe you go, wait a second, that's pretty bad.
00:36:27.560So maybe the idea behind something like tariffs is to equalize that and say we've got to put the true cost of what they're doing on the product and not act like it's cheaper when the only reason it's cheaper is stuff we find totally unacceptable as a country, as a people.
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00:39:30.500Well, you know, I'm a big believer in capitalism.
00:39:37.260So if the product is differentiated and if you could really – and the buyer is willing to pay the price, I don't have a big problem with that as long as all the facts are available that are on the table.
00:39:49.260And you talk about what the cost of lettuce is.
00:39:52.720There's no doubt that the cost of employees in that restaurant has increased, but maybe not by as much as the cost of the salad.
00:40:01.360So I guess I'm not quite as kind of whacked out if it's a free enterprise system by an increase in prices.
00:40:09.120What I want to make sure is that you have a system where competition does take place, where it's not so heavily regulated that you can't have competitive outlets arise to compete with the ones that exist because I want to count on the free market and capitalism to sort of tampen down greed, to tampen down price increases.
00:40:28.740And you go, well, why isn't that happening?
00:40:30.520Because I'm seeing all these things that look like it's not happening.
00:40:32.480Then I have to conclude that there are, in essence, monopolies that have been created, even at a low scale.
00:40:39.060And what would create those – and I come right back to the biggest thing probably is overregulation.
00:40:44.760There's a lot of talk about the lack of housing in California because you can't build it because there's so much regulation involved in trying to construct anything.
00:40:53.680You can't get land for it because of the environmental regulations.
00:40:57.580You know, whatever it is, if you can – if you have less regulation, let capitalism be unfettered, then greed only works for good then because then people come in and try to open up competitors and that will drive prices down.
00:41:55.780You've got other people who have tried to enter the markets.
00:41:58.240Huawei, obviously, we're not selling Chinese phones here in America.
00:42:01.360But you have certain things where these people are turning record profits.
00:42:06.020And I'm not sitting here being a Bernie Sanders kind of guy.
00:42:08.620I'm looking at it from being an American who are watching American people struggle,
00:42:12.920watching debt rise to the roofs in every single home.
00:42:16.060And as you said before, for bare necessities.
00:42:18.960So at what point does it become price gouging on these people who are just getting greedy off the backs of slave labor in China and capitalism?
00:42:26.720Well, I'm not smart enough to know that.
00:42:29.520But when you try to say, when is it price gouging?
00:42:32.580And I don't want to be the regulator in charge of enforcing, you know, sort of prices.
00:42:37.900And because that prices are the most important signal in capitalism.
00:42:41.200What I want to be is the person who makes sure that the markets are, in fact, open to new competition and that whatever it is that sets a barrier to entry for new combatants in this capitalist war, that those barriers are low.
00:42:54.940And that competition can, in fact, enter and can drive the prices down.
00:42:58.660And the history so far has shown that's what happens.
00:43:01.580You know, the Dutch East India Company used to be the greatest company in the world.
00:43:06.720And retailing, Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward used to be the biggest retailers on the planet, and they controlled everything.
00:43:14.080So then a Walmart comes along and does it better and provides lower prices for consumers.
00:43:19.420So I want to make sure that that Walmart can come along in every industry.
00:43:23.480And that should be the focus, I believe, not trying to say what the price should be, but trying to make sure there are competitors who drive the prices down.
00:43:31.500Can you give me your opinion on do you believe these tariffs on China on some of the goods?
00:43:36.140Not so much Canada, because Canada is more retaliatory for what they're doing to our farmers over here.
00:43:41.280But for China, per se, are you confident that President Trump putting a certain tariff on electronics or machinery can bring Apple to produce phones in America, to produce computers in America, for Caterpillar to come and produce equipment in America?
00:44:00.500I have no doubt some of it will move here.
00:44:03.540And in fact, I said, you go back and look, you'll find it.
00:44:07.000I said, you know, on Maria Bartiromo's show, I said it over and over again.
00:44:12.000In 2018, you know, it's management malpractice for the companies not to be diversified in their supply chain away from China.
00:44:30.420Look what's happening with the Red Sea right now, where the Houthis cutting off supply.
00:44:35.280You have COVID showed us that trying to rely on everything from overseas created a terrible supply chain problem when that wasn't working very well.
00:44:46.160You don't need to just rely on tariffs to know that it's not smart to make everything in one place.
00:44:51.920And in fact, you should be diversifying it and making as much in the U.S. as you can.
00:44:55.660And with AI, with automation, with robotics, it should be much more reasonable to make products in the U.S.
00:45:02.480than it was when shipping it overseas was entirely dependent upon the low cost of labor that we talked about before, because that gap changes.
00:45:10.620One of the companies I'm very familiar with, being a toy guy, by the way, is Lego.
00:45:13.600You know, they still make a lot of Legos in Denmark.
00:45:16.060You can't find a more high cost production place than Denmark.
00:45:20.760It's somewhat of a socialist type of environment.
00:45:24.760It's not a low cost operating environment, let me tell you what.
00:45:26.920But it's heavily robotics, the Legos that they make in Bill and Denmark.
00:45:32.160You know, it's not the same kind of thing as what it used to be.
00:45:35.340So, more and more Shibota brought back to the U.S. with automation driving it.
00:45:41.760You mentioned Maria Bartiromo, a very good woman, does a terrific job.
00:45:44.940I have to mention, Maria Bartiromo's first job in television was working for Lou Dobbs some time ago.
00:45:51.700Before we wrap up here, we were talking before the show, and it's something that I wanted to end on here.
00:45:56.460And it's Toys R Us, a company that you know very well, a company that you ran for many, many years.
00:46:02.120I had mentioned before the show, I was always under the impression that Toys R Us went out of business because they couldn't compete with Amazon in the prices.
00:46:09.800You're telling me I'm wrong and I stand corrected.
00:46:12.440Tell the audience, if you will, what happened to Toys R Us?
00:46:16.700Now, I think a combination of factors, the biggest one is simply it was over leveraged.
00:46:20.500It was bought out from being a public company by consortium of private equity owners.
00:46:25.240And they paid a fortune for it and put a lot of debt on it.
00:46:28.200So almost every dollar of cash that was generated by the business was used to pay interest on that huge debt.
00:46:34.180It's kind of like our country right now.
00:46:39.620It didn't leave any room for missteps, some of which inevitably happened and led to a downturn in the business.
00:46:47.200With that great leverage on it, it just couldn't keep going.
00:46:50.340It wasn't so much the Internet because the, you know, Toys R Us had a big Internet business and did a pretty good job for a long time of having different products than what Walmart had or Target.
00:47:01.620So that you had to go to Toys R Us to be one of those great different products that they had overall.
00:47:05.900But that leverage just was it was so tight that you couldn't make a single misstep.
00:47:59.100I remain optimistic, but the future is going to depend on how rapidly the administration can move to accomplish everything that it's promised.
00:48:07.280And if it can move, you know, we have a two-year window here.
00:48:10.900If there is a significant improvement, then there's another, you know, obviously the House races and Senate races in the midterms.
00:48:16.980And, you know, a possibility that the monopoly on Congress that we have right now could change.
00:48:23.080So we have to move rapidly if we want to see the country improve.