The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - The Stone Zone ｜ 05-12-25

00:00:00.000 this is the stone zone with roger stone people love him and respect him roger stone now get

00:00:17.540 in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone i'm roger stone and you're back in the

00:00:26.840 stone zone the hottest political commentary show on radio today i don't know about you but i for

00:00:34.120 one am not tired of winning under president donald trump we have a ceasefire in the war between india

00:00:41.840 and pakistan we have the russians agreeing to meet with the ukrainians at long last we have the

00:00:48.400 announcement of a trade deal with china and the president has made a historic announcement that

00:00:55.880 is expected to cut prescription drug prices by as much as 50 perhaps more i'm particularly impressed

00:01:06.020 with secretary of health and human services robert kennedy only two days after federal officials

00:01:12.820 including rfk took action against synthetic dyes for foods and beverages pepsico and their chief

00:01:21.220 executive officer announced that their company has already begun phasing out artificial colors

00:01:26.360 and reducing other ingredients in its products to meet consumer preferences quote we obviously stand

00:01:34.380 by our science uh ramon laguata the head of pepsico said our products are very safe there's nothing to

00:01:41.900 worry about but we understand there's probably going to be consumer demand for more natural ingredients

00:01:47.620 we're going to be accelerating that transition ideally we do this in a very pragmatic orchestrated way

00:01:53.680 as an industry and not create unnecessary panic and chaos what's shocked me is how many cereals and

00:02:02.580 other common foods that we buy here in the united states which have dangerous in some cases toxic

00:02:08.980 additives uh when the same exact name brand is sold in europe they don't because those ingredients are

00:02:16.520 already illegal there now under the leadership of rfk uh we are outlawing those toxic ingredients here

00:02:26.020 in the meantime rfk has determined that the vaccinations the mrma vaccinations actually include dna

00:02:35.920 fragments from aborted fetuses this has caused a religious objection among some americans let's listen to

00:02:46.500 rfk we also understand that some people don't do that the mmr vaccine that we currently use

00:02:53.040 has over it has millions of particles from um that were created from aborted fetal tissue

00:03:00.120 millions of dna fragments and there are people who have religious objections toward those and those

00:03:07.460 people should be treated with compassion if they come to a hospital and they're sick we need to know

00:03:13.600 how to treat them and one of the failures of the cdc in the past is they weren't telling doctors no

00:03:19.180 no kids should die of measles in this country even in 1963 for the introduction of the vaccine there

00:03:26.140 were 400 deaths a year and there were up to two million measles cases so it's only very very sick

00:03:33.080 kids should die from measles you know nobody should there's something we're saying that the rubella portion

00:03:37.420 of the vaccine and you're talking about the produce from the fetal cell line originated from an

00:03:42.500 abortion that took place in the 60s but the mmr vaccine doesn't contain the cells in its final

00:03:47.240 form it doesn't contain cells but it contains dna fragments got it got it and so that's your point

00:03:53.800 yeah so and people have religious objections to that and although i might not share those objections

00:04:00.900 i i respect them and i think those people you know a lot of the men and i said told me and i went

00:04:08.180 down there and spent time with the community during the outbreak and they said they didn't want to go

00:04:12.920 to the hospital because they were treated as pariah they said we were treated like lepers there

00:04:16.980 and that should not be part of american health care if somebody comes in if they have religious

00:04:22.220 objection we should still be treating them and your big point is a choice i agree completely with rfk

00:04:30.480 i do object and i think he's been very forthright about saying it meanwhile he has announced plans

00:04:38.040 for the fda to phase out six remaining synthetic dyes for food green number three red number 40

00:04:44.920 yellow number five and number six blue number one and two by the end of 2026 in january the fd had

00:04:52.500 already ordered that red number three be out of u.s foods and beverages by 2027 but now under rfk the

00:04:59.540 agency is moving much much faster he's also announced that the hhs will begin looking into

00:05:08.060 geoengineering that's what some of us know as chemtrails you've seen them in the sky behind

00:05:14.600 airplanes now as as hhs secretary robert kennedy jr has confirmed that this geoengineering has been

00:05:22.140 happening and he has correctly labeled it a crime after the british government announced new geoengineering

00:05:29.480 efforts to quote combat climate change last week rfk responded we will soon end this crime against

00:05:36.340 humanity and our planet and bring justice to the plutocrats who are perpetrating this mass 1.00

00:05:41.720 uncontrolled experiment to be very specific what we are doing is releasing these toxic chemicals

00:05:48.960 through aerosols into the air in fact rfk recently sat down on a segment i saw with dr phil and he

00:05:55.960 stunned the audience when a woman asked him point blank about the toxic aerosols being sprayed over

00:06:02.160 us every day my biggest concern is the stratospheric aerosol injections that are continually peppering us

00:06:08.700 every day the lady asked bromium aluminum strontium it's sprayed into our skies you know we don't do that

00:06:16.960 but it is done we think said kennedy by darpa naming the defense advanced research project agency

00:06:24.040 a lot of it is now coming out of the jet fuel those toxic materials are being put in the jet fuel i'm

00:06:29.480 going to do everything in my power to stop it we're going to bring anyone who's doing that to stop

00:06:34.220 this is why i respect rfk and why he is making work good on his word to make america healthy again

00:06:43.780 meanwhile president donald trump has signed a historic order to reduce drug costs for americans

00:06:51.180 he signed this executive order yesterday implementing most favored nation prescription drug pricing

00:06:57.380 which delivers dramatically lower drug prices for the american people but the president is well always

00:07:04.340 entertaining in the way he announces things let's listen to what the president had to say i mean i'll tell

00:07:10.160 you a story friend of mine who's a business man very very very top guy most of you would have heard of him

00:07:17.400 highly neurotic brilliant businessman seriously overweight and he takes the fat the fat shot drug 0.61

00:07:27.120 and he called me up and he said uh president he calls me he used to call me donald now he calls me president

00:07:35.580 so that's nice respect but she's a rough guy smart guy very successful very rich i wouldn't even know 1.00

00:07:42.560 how we would know this but because he's got comments president could i ask you a question what 0.95

00:07:46.600 i'm in london and i just paid for this damn fat drug i take i said it's not working he said he said 0.94

00:07:55.780 i just paid eighty eight dollars and in new york i paid thirteen hundred dollars what the hell is going on 0.98

00:08:04.620 uh there he is uh the uh the comedian in chief the stand-up comic in chief donald trump

00:08:13.000 uh always entertaining but making an important point uh again the secretary of hhs robert f kennedy

00:08:20.080 will establish a mechanism to which american patients will now be able to buy their drugs

00:08:24.640 directly from manufacturers who sell to americans at a most favored nation's status price bypassing

00:08:32.860 the middlemen this order is expected to reduce the cost of pharmaceutical drugs by up to 30 as high as

00:08:39.920 80 percent the order also directs the u.s trade representative and the secretary of commerce

00:08:45.780 to ensure that foreign countries can no longer take advantage of americans as other administration

00:08:51.400 officials work to negotiate with directly with manufacturers americans fund about 75 percent of

00:08:58.600 big pharma profits while we've been paying three times what other nations do for the exact same drugs

00:09:06.220 drug manufacturers discount these products to gain access to foreign markets and then they subsidize

00:09:12.140 those discounts through high prices charged in america in essence americans therefore have been

00:09:18.060 subsidizing drug manufacturing profits and foreign health systems despite drug manufacturers benefiting

00:09:25.420 from generous research subsidies and enormous health care spending by the u.s government trump's order

00:09:32.540 ends this scam once and for all no more subsidizing foreign socialism with u.s wallets starting today

00:09:40.860 the united states will no longer subsidize the health care of foreign countries president trump said

00:09:46.420 and we will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from big pharma meanwhile president

00:09:55.660 uh donald trump's secretary of the treasury scott besson by the way i think scott besson is absolutely

00:10:02.820 among the president's very best uh nominees uh very best appointments uh announced uh a historic win

00:10:10.660 in a major win for the president uh besson said that we had reached the framework of a trade deal

00:10:17.900 with the uh communist chinese let's listen to the secretary of the treasury what has to happen is it has to be 0.90

00:10:25.260 fair for the american people but in january 2020 president trump produced a template we had an excellent trade

00:10:34.660 agreement agreement agreement with china and the biden administration chose not to enforce it

00:10:41.220 the chinese delegation basically told us that once president biden came into office they just ignored

00:10:48.220 their obligations so uh you know we all already have a large framework the other thing to remember here

00:10:55.260 jonathan is that this is a pause down to 10 percent the april 2nd level for china is 34 percent so

00:11:06.100 we will be working to see where their final reciprocal number ends up and the negotiations are

00:11:15.140 a combination of tariffs non-tariff trade barriers currency manipulation and subsidies of labor and capital

00:11:24.180 so this is a major major win for president trump and his america first trade doctrine the united states

00:11:31.320 and china have agreed to a deal that cuts both countries tariffs on each other's imported goods by 115

00:11:37.460 percent for at least 90 days the treasury secretary held these discussions in geneva switzerland with the

00:11:45.200 chinese the talks aim to address the escalating trade war which has seen the president impose tariffs as high

00:11:52.140 as 145 percent on chinese goods with china then retaliating with 125 percent tariffs on american products

00:12:01.200 clearly the president's strategy has brought the chinese not only to the table but to a deal now

00:12:07.580 under the new deal the u.s will slash its previously imposed 145 percent tariff on chinese imports down to a

00:12:15.100 mere 30 percent while chinese will then match that reduction with a uh from its retaliatory 125 percent 0.80

00:12:23.160 duties cutting them to just 10 percent additionally secretary besant said china had agreed to help

00:12:29.860 the u.s take aggressive actions to stem the flow of deadly fentanyl and other precursors of fentanyl

00:12:37.200 from china to elicit drug producers in north america besant told reporters that china blew off their

00:12:44.920 trade obligations uh as soon as joe biden entered office he pointed out that uh as you heard that the we had a deal

00:12:52.760 we had a template for trade with china under president donald trump but as soon as joe biden became president

00:12:59.480 he decided not to enforce us so they basically the chinese just blew us off on true social the president expressed he was 1.00

00:13:07.820 very happy with this exciting new deal a very good meeting with the china chinese in switzerland he said

00:13:14.400 many things discussed much agreed to a total reset negotiated in a friendly but constructive manner

00:13:21.220 we want to see for the good of both china and the u.s opening up of china and american business

00:13:26.820 and under secretary of the treasury scott besant great progress has been made we have more political

00:13:34.580 news coming up for you here in the stone zone we appreciate your tuning in every day here five

00:13:41.240 days a week we talk uh history news politics style uh culture oh and yes of course food so whatever you

00:13:50.380 do don't touch that dial we'll be right back in the stone zone we're going to talk about uh the pope

00:13:56.040 and his brother because the pope seems to be maga the pope seems to be probably the pope's brother

00:14:02.700 seems to be maga i'm hoping that the pope's brother will go visit him in rome and maybe give him some

00:14:09.080 of that maga religion you tuned into the roger stone show and we'll be right back this is the stone zone

00:14:16.920 with roger stone the stone zone

00:14:21.200 if you're looking to create grow and sustain your wealth download and subscribe to the pain points of

00:14:32.240 wealth podcast at be bullish.com with bob ryan and chris pain it's your podcast for market insights

00:14:39.120 money tips and real talk on the economy download and subscribe at be bullish.com

00:14:45.120 this is the stone zone with roger stone they went after a guy named roger stone who's sitting in the

00:15:00.960 office and i'll say this in front of roger he's no baby and right now he's cleaner than anybody in

00:15:06.080 this place now as i treated him very unfairly now get him a zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone

00:15:15.680 welcome back in the stone zone the far left media and their allies the democrat party are in full

00:15:22.180 panic mode after it was revealed that lou provost the straight shooting floridian who's the brother of

00:15:28.600 the newly elected american pope leo isn't just a catholic but he's unapologetically maga provost a

00:15:37.240 port charlotte florida native proudly lives his life like many forgotten americans with faith freedom

00:15:43.320 well and the first amendment but now after his younger brother ascended to the papacy as pope leo the

00:15:50.280 the 14th the leftist media mob is frantically digging through lou provost's facebook looking for anything

00:15:57.240 they could use to cancel him over and i guess they think they found gold what they found instead was

00:16:03.640 a red-blooded american patriot who tells it like it is it's absolutely glorious lou provost shared a

00:16:09.720 video of a liberal support group for those suffering from trump derangement syndrome with the caption for

00:16:15.880 my upset crying left-leaning friends and others suffering from tds this service seems right for you

00:16:23.800 even more amusing on april 4th lou provost we posted a video of a younger nancy pelosi arguing for tariffs 0.99

00:16:31.880 on china exposing the radical 100 degree flip-flop that pelosi and her democrat cronies have pulled

00:16:39.080 to appease the leftist globalists the original polls didn't hold back saying these effing liberals

00:16:46.280 crying about tariffs are just unreal don't they know there's such a thing called video just listen to

00:16:52.760 what a drunk has to say in the middle 90s before her husband had grinder dates that's pretty hardcore

00:17:00.680 by lou provost also i found it entertaining that lou provost it seems to be red-pilled when it comes to

00:17:07.560 nixon and watergate he actually posted a graphic in which it pointed out that well while nixon only erased

00:17:14.600 13 minutes of a tape hillary clinton erased 33 million classified emails destroying them with a 1.00

00:17:22.920 hammer and uh and beach bit bit bleach pardon me uh when they were under subpoena so the president's

00:17:32.200 brother pardon me the pope's brother uh is a maga the pope is a registered republican he seems to be a

00:17:39.000 moderate but uh like all good catholics we pray for him uh appears that on matters like uh gender

00:17:45.640 nonsense uh and the right to life he remains solid in the traditional teachings of the church when we

00:17:52.920 come back we're going to talk to barry habib one of the country's leading experts on hauguses and

00:17:58.520 mortgaging and a keen economic analyst about the impact of the announcements by president trump that

00:18:05.800 not only are we going to deeply cut prescription drug prices but we have a trade deal with our

00:18:12.760 foremost adversary of communist china we'll be right back with barry habib on the other side whatever

00:18:20.040 you do don't touch that dial this is the stone zone with roger stone they went after

00:18:35.720 a guy named roger stone who's sitting in the office and i'll say this in front of roger he's no baby

00:18:41.240 and right now he's cleaner than anybody in this place now as they treated him very unfairly now

00:18:48.120 get in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone and you're back in the stone zone joining me now

00:18:57.720 is barry habib he is the chief executive order for officer of mbs highway more importantly

00:19:04.760 he is one of the country's leading authorities on both housing and the mortgage industry uh he is

00:19:12.600 the go-to guy on mortgages and housing but also a keen economic analyst he is widely credited with

00:19:21.080 saving the mortgage industry back in 2020 from margin calls due to federal reserve actions it was barry

00:19:27.720 habib's presentation to the fed that created stability at a crucial time he is now the four

00:19:34.520 time winner of the crystal ball award given by fanny may pulsonomics and zillow for the most accurate

00:19:42.280 real estate forecasts uh among the 150 top economists in the country we're always honored to have him

00:19:49.240 because it did economic matters simple and understandable barry habib welcome in to the stone

00:19:57.240 zone always great to be with you roger thanks for having me so uh barry we had some moment of uh

00:20:03.880 momentous uh announcement yesterday the united states and china have agreed to slash tariffs for

00:20:09.960 90 days uh do you believe this will lead to a longer and more permanent agreement i do and i think the

00:20:18.360 incentives on both parts uh the u.s is about to feel the pinch of it you got to remember roger that

00:20:25.240 as of friday no ships left chinese ports for the u.s and i think that was a big incentive to making

00:20:32.440 sure there was a deal put together from the u.s side because from the consumer standpoint if you

00:20:36.840 hear you know you've been hearing about tariffs you haven't really felt it too bad so far um but where

00:20:43.480 it really could hurt is that there's an item that you want that you can't have access to and i think that

00:20:50.200 that was going to actually manifest itself as we approach the next 30 to 45 days because it takes

00:20:56.760 from ships leaving china about 30 days to reach the west coast of the united states 45 days the

00:21:01.160 middle of the country about 60 days to reach the east coast so in the next 45 days ish or so

00:21:09.000 we may see a void on some of the items that people are accustomed to having readily available

00:21:14.520 and that's when people start to get antsy so this could be very very good as a preemptive move now

00:21:20.600 i'd like to just discuss the level of tariff whenever you'd like roger because the percentages

00:21:25.320 do make a difference you anticipated my next question professor proceed so uh you know that 145

00:21:33.960 and we've talked about this that's window dressing once you get above 50 you essentially shut down

00:21:40.520 viable trade because it's just too costly so dropping to 30 starts to make it viable again

00:21:46.920 and maybe there's room to negotiate so this 90 day period is going to be really good hopefully that it

00:21:53.080 can extend beyond that i think it will as i said the incentives are there but roger let's take a look

00:21:58.360 and understand how the tariff works because what i've discovered is there's so much confusion out there

00:22:05.000 and and let's let's use an example of of a shirt that you buy from china so let's just say there's

00:22:12.040 a tariff of 10 now the confusion starts with who pays the tariff some people think china is paying the

00:22:18.200 tariff they're not paying the tariff if you have a a shirt that you're importing from china and let's

00:22:24.120 just say that shirt is ten dollars and there's a 30 tariff on it that means the importer is going

00:22:31.720 to pay a three dollar charge for that tariff now what happens after that's important because then

00:22:39.240 nothing else is tariffed there's markups that importer is going to send it to a wholesaler

00:22:44.120 they're going to mark it up a couple of bucks that wholesaler is going to send it to a retailer and

00:22:49.160 they're going to mark it up a couple of bucks and then the retailer when they sell it to the consumer

00:22:53.720 will probably mark it up at least a hundred percent if not more so you could have an item that does have a

00:23:00.440 30 percent tariff which sounds onerous but the cost of the item might only change from 45 to 48

00:23:11.720 instead of like being 44.99 being 47.99 so while that's certainly something that's meaningful and

00:23:20.200 something that makes a difference when we look at a number of 30 we start to think oh my gosh that's

00:23:27.400 30 that seems like an awful lot and in some cases like if it's a vehicle that we're imported and

00:23:33.560 everything's imported it could be but on much of the items that we get people often forget that the

00:23:41.320 other markups to the wholesaler to the retailer to the consumer are not subject to the tariff so the

00:23:48.200 tariff is only on the raw imported item at that percentage it gets diminished on a percentage basis

00:23:55.080 before it hits the customer obviously secretary of the treasury beset made this announcement about

00:24:01.320 of a trade deal with china at a time that the stock markets were closed how did the markets react this

00:24:08.040 morning to this news they had a huge rally in the stock market obviously trade is very important

00:24:15.240 we know that it also means a lot to the job market because you know the dow today responding by up over

00:24:22.280 1100 points uh this is this is a sign that the stock market really loves this news because

00:24:28.520 look it means a lot for jobs those people that unload the ships that transport the goods the

00:24:33.160 retailers that have to have those goods on their shelves it's very important for the economy to keep

00:24:38.440 the economy in good shape well in addition to that there are things that could come out of it

00:24:43.960 bilaterally if there is a more fair platform for trade if it does help american workers if it does

00:24:50.680 help american exports that in addition to it will also help the u.s economy so you know president

00:24:57.800 trump's negotiating tactics are not conventional um and but maybe they shouldn't be because they

00:25:04.360 in the past some of the more conventional ones have not been effective but if we do get something

00:25:10.120 good out of this this could be this could be a very effective way to have a more level creating

00:25:16.520 partnership with china and something else that seems to have come out of it that president trump was

00:25:21.080 also discussing was that china will be more cooperative in restricting fentanyl from coming

00:25:28.200 into the u.s too which obviously is something really critical so you have been a pretty articulate

00:25:34.120 critic of the federal reserve chairman jerome powell i saw recently where he announced that he was

00:25:39.800 essentially not going to hike rates he was going to do nothing with inflation down to 2.4 percent from a

00:25:47.000 9.1 percent rate in june of 2022 under biden seems to me the president is already stabilizing the economy

00:25:55.480 what should the fed be doing at this point if anything they should they should be cutting rates

00:26:00.760 clearly jerome powell is like a deer in the headlights who is more concerned with his legacy

00:26:06.280 than doing what's right because he has zero in the way of backbone or gumption and i was very critical

00:26:15.400 of jerome powell because he was complicit after after after biden went with that 1.9 trillion dollar

00:26:23.560 budget buster which was going to be inflationary your own powell was complicit and potentially

00:26:28.920 politically motivated by keeping interest rates at zero and to add gasoline to the fire keeping

00:26:35.400 quantitative easing going which then caused inflation to explode explode as you perfectly

00:26:40.760 articulated to 9.1 percent inflation like we had not seen in 40 years rome powell has a lot of dirt

00:26:47.640 on his hands for that but one of the reasons why he had so much dirt on his hands is because he looked

00:26:54.840 at data that has a very long lag unfortunately the data in the united states not only has a long

00:27:01.560 two-month flag on the pc inflation reports before it's reported so you'll get you'll get may's report

00:27:07.880 at the end of this month i'm sorry you're going to get a report within the month of may for the

00:27:11.400 end of this month but that's going to be for the beginning of april so it takes two months

00:27:16.040 for it to come out you don't get it till almost the beginning of june to see what happened in april

00:27:20.440 and that in of itself is a delay but the components within it that we've discussed in the past

00:27:25.640 like shelter which is the largest component 44 of core cpi these reports have a lag of 9 to 12 months

00:27:35.400 so he's looking at that it's like trying to drive your car down the highway but only looking in the

00:27:39.320 rearview mirror he's not looking ahead now i have a lot of issues with jerome powell but i also feel

00:27:45.080 that he has been inconsistent so let's just take apart a few things from jerome powell number one

00:27:50.040 is policy the by his own words we are in a restrictive policy stance that means that interest

00:27:58.680 rates are currently designed to slow the economy by his own admission and john williams the new york

00:28:05.000 fed president articulated it very well he said if you take the fed funds rate 4.375 you subtract the

00:28:12.840 rate of inflation let's use round numbers it's about two percent the difference between the two and

00:28:17.800 then he thinks there's a number there that they call this fancy name called r star you add that

00:28:23.400 above the inflation rate which means the difference between the two will tell you where the neutral

00:28:28.360 rate should be we are currently one and a quarter percent restrictive that's pretty restrictive

00:28:33.880 roger we are pretty sure so we are designing it the the fed is causing the economy to forcefully and

00:28:42.280 purposefully slow which i think the labor market's a lot weaker than we think and i think inflation is

00:28:49.800 heading in the right direction yes there are uncertainty of tariffs but we are forcing the

00:28:54.040 economy to slow down and that's why president trump has been i mean maybe a little overboard in his

00:29:00.040 comments but he has a lot of merit in the things he's saying about sean powell and the fed roger

00:29:06.280 they're like a bunch of freaking lemmings okay these guys they follow each other they're afraid of 1.00

00:29:11.240 their own shadow look at the uk the uk just had a vote five four four dissenting votes that's a 0.98

00:29:17.800 meaningful discussion where people are not afraid people's voices are heard they represent different

00:29:23.000 thought problems the fed is like a bunch of leather like a bunch of freaking penguins jumping in the

00:29:28.120 water one jumps in the rest of them jump in nobody has their own mind nobody has their own backbone

00:29:34.280 and jerome powell is just worried because in february of next year he goes off into the sunset right

00:29:40.440 and what he does he's so fearful that it's going to have oh he let inflation get out of control

00:29:45.880 that he's willing to risk to the health of the u.s economy because of his reputation but there is no

00:29:51.800 evidence that that inflation is getting out of control if anything inflation's come down you you're

00:29:57.880 a hundred percent correct the only uncertainty is is these tariffs which is what they're running for cover

00:30:03.800 under because tariffs potentially it's different than inflation because it is a one-time price

00:30:09.080 adjustment whereas inflation is persistent year over year however inflation is something that

00:30:16.760 that has been improving but there is a period of uncertainty but you are a hundred percent correct

00:30:21.800 it has been coming down although i will tell you that the run rate for the last three and six months

00:30:27.480 is above the year over year rate so there is reason to believe that potentially it could nudge up but

00:30:33.480 not in a meaningful way and not to risk the health of the economy in the labor market there is one other

00:30:38.680 thing that i'd like to talk about is one more inconsistency of jerome powell so we recently had first quarter

00:30:45.160 gdp first quarter gdp came out with a negative number it's the first time in three years we've seen that

00:30:50.760 clearly a red flag but your own pal in this particular instance roger was able to say hey

00:30:57.640 you know what let's use a little critical thinking here so he rationalized it by saying and he was

00:31:03.240 correct that a lot of it was front-running imports the calculation for gdp takes imports minus exports so

00:31:10.280 you you then are reducing gdp artificially by this front-running so therefore you could say okay

00:31:17.080 well he's probably right but yet it's amazing to me that he doesn't use the same strategy when

00:31:22.680 contemplating the lads he just looks at data in other words ddp no but i don't like the number so

00:31:28.680 i'll rationalize and i won't look at just the data but the job report last month 177 jobs i'm pulling bs

00:31:35.160 on that one because first of all there was 60 000 revisions they'll be revised lower so it was a much

00:31:40.920 weaker number and the numbers came from imputed data we've talked about in the past this birth death ratio

00:31:45.960 which accounted for about 80 000 of the jobs this number was really closer to a 50 000 job report

00:31:51.560 it was a lousy job number but yet your own powell looks us in the eye and says economy's in great

00:31:57.400 shape labor market's in great shape he knows all too well that's bs and he's able to be critically

00:32:03.880 use critical thinking on the gdp number when he doesn't like it but the jobs number no he's just

00:32:09.560 going to take any face value that's a double standard i'm calling bs on it uh barry how do you think

00:32:15.320 the president's announcement regarding lower pharmaceutical prices for all americans uh will

00:32:20.760 affect the economy well i think that could be that could be a great thing so long as it does not

00:32:27.560 discourage research and development i think it could be one of the greatest things for us because

00:32:32.920 it is an unfair playing field we pay so much so much more but we are also the bread basket of

00:32:39.960 all these new breakthroughs so so long as there are still incentives in place and there's a way

00:32:46.760 to thread the needle by keeping the incentives in place but reducing the cost it could be one of the

00:32:51.560 greatest things that happens to us we have about doing an amazing job uh we have about two minutes

00:32:56.680 before we have to go to a break and we'll be back with more of barry habib barry how important is it

00:33:01.400 that the president's tax cuts be renewed in january well as you know i've been kind of involved in this on a

00:33:07.960 a couple of of committees that i belong to and i think it is very important if you uh if we if

00:33:14.200 they're not uh the stock market will not like it roger it will not like it one bit um but by the same

00:33:21.560 token we do have to be careful that we don't take the budget so far out that yeah i know that we're

00:33:27.960 going to play the come here and we're going to say look it will increase revenues and and all that is

00:33:31.640 true but if you do blow out the budget further than the bond market is willing to accept it can

00:33:38.040 potentially backfire so they have to again this is a matter of threading the needle and using and using

00:33:44.200 just enough to get the tax cuts extended without loading it up with too much i know he wants the big

00:33:49.880 beautiful bill but he can't get the bond market to the point where you get the bond vigilante saying

00:33:55.320 hey you know what the depth the deficit's going to be too big there's going to be too much supply

00:33:59.400 coming to the market and we see interest rates increase dramatically that will also hurt the

00:34:03.480 stock market so if we've got to be careful uh when we come back on the other side i'm going to ask

00:34:09.480 barry habib the chief executive officer of mbs highway one of the leading experts on the housing

00:34:15.480 and mortgage industry as well as the overall economy about the national debt and the deficit so please

00:34:22.920 don't go away we'll be right back uh in the stone zone with more of barry habib uh and a breakdown on

00:34:29.000 the economic news of the day donald trump keeping a number of his key promises and the impact of those

00:34:35.800 announcements whatever you do don't touch that dial because we'll be right back this is the stone zone with

00:34:43.080 roger stone this is the stone zone now get in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone

00:35:08.120 and we're back in the stone zone my guest barry habib the chief executive officer of mbs highway

00:35:16.920 more importantly one of the most brilliant economic analysts in the country specifically an expert on

00:35:22.920 housing and mortgages but also a shrewd economic analyst who has won numerous awards for his accurate

00:35:30.280 real estate forecast joining me here in the zone uh barry how concerned should americans be about the

00:35:37.960 national debt uh that was allowed to grow so exponentially under joe biden and what is the

00:35:43.720 very best way to address it you know roger it's a great question and we're not left with many good

00:35:47.960 choices right now because the time for making good choices is passed the can has been kicked down the

00:35:53.880 road and it's been exacerbated by the biden administration now when we look at the size of the

00:36:02.280 yearly deficit it's about two trillion dollars so we're not going to be able to get this down

00:36:08.840 in one shot but if we can get the trajectory to be reduced that's why the president is so concerned

00:36:15.480 about gross domestic product it's not necessarily the size of the deficit but its relationship to gross

00:36:23.800 domestic product this is the key you can have a two trillion dollar deficit be manageable if the economy

00:36:30.520 is growing at a much faster pace that's why jerome powell has to wake up and has to understand that we should keep

00:36:38.280 this economy accelerating and not contracting and not in a restrictive stance because that exacerbates

00:36:45.160 the level of debt as to the gross domestic product so what we want to try and do is we want to try and see if

00:36:53.000 we can a through doge and other spending cuts try and eliminate waste fraud abuse but also try to

00:37:00.680 make some reasonable cuts it's hard to do because nobody wants to see cuts and when you think about

00:37:06.040 the compensatory spending that you have you have very little discretionary that's left unless you start

00:37:13.400 to touch something like medicare or obamacare because that's where the big money is and that's where you can

00:37:19.080 really make some cuts but they may in turn be unpopular and you know nobody knows better than you

00:37:26.520 how that could you know influence midterms or presidential elections so these are things that

00:37:32.040 you know i'm sure that they need to be very cautious and strategically minded uh with making

00:37:37.640 these cuts but we do need to get this deficit down yeah last time we talked about this you pointed out

00:37:42.840 that there were three legs of the stool that yes the president needs to use the tariff stick to get

00:37:48.280 better trade deals for the country we have to renew the tax cuts in fact if you're opposed to renewing

00:37:54.440 the tax cuts in january well then you de facto supporting the largest tax increase in american

00:38:00.760 history but we have to get serious about spending elon musk has shown us the way with his doge project

00:38:06.760 uncovering not millions not billions but trillions of dollars of waste fraud and corruption all right i want

00:38:14.440 to thank our guest to barry habib the chief executive officer of mbs highway uh and the the voice i

00:38:22.200 respect the most when it comes to the overall economy in america barry thank you so much for joining us

00:38:28.040 today in the stone zone thank thank you roger you're the best thank you uh to those out there in our stone

00:38:35.080 zone audience god bless you and godspeed until we meet again please remember to tune in tomorrow for

00:38:41.080 more of the stone zone we talk news history politics culture food well particularly food and uh

00:38:48.920 we'll see you tomorrow god bless you

00:39:02.920 thanks for listening to the stone zone with roger stone you can hear the stone zone with roger stone

00:39:09.160 weeknights at 8 on 77 wabc if you like the podcast share it with your friends and listen anytime at

00:39:16.840 wabcradio.com and download the wabc radio app hit that subscribe button on all major podcast

00:39:23.960 platforms plus follow wabc on social on instagram tiktok facebook and x see you next time for a new

00:39:32.040 episode so you never have to wonder what the heck is going on here

The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - May 12, 2025

The Stone Zone ｜ 05-12-25

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript