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- [00:01]
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- [00:30]
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- [01:01]
Lisa Schneider
Ten years from today, Lisa Schneider will trade in her office job to become the leader of a pack of dogs as the owner of her own dog rescue. That is a second act made possible by the reskilling courses Lisa's taking now with AARP to help make sure her income lives as long as she does. And she can finally run with the big dogs and the small dogs who just think they're big dogs. That's why the younger you more you need AARP. Learn more at aarp.org skills Today's show.
- [01:31]
Michael Popak
Is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play in this podcast today. Smart Choice make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. Today's show is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play in this podcast today. Smart Choice make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates for multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.
- [02:21]
Political Analyst
As a war brews in the Middle east, which many are calling perhaps the defining moment of this Trump presidency. Donald Trump's relationship with the Federal Reserve chairman that tethers the US Economy to planet Earth that keeps our economy humming. Not Donald Trump's erratic, abrupt shift in policy around worldwide global economics, but Jerome Powell, Jay Powell and his decision making from his perch as the head of the Federal Reserve, as the Federal Reserve has decided, because of Donald Trump's tariffs, because of his undermining worldwide confidence, because of its impact on inflation in America, on prices in America, on lowering the gross domestic product, the economic engine of America, he's not going to cut the rates. In fact, the entirety of the Federal Reserve voted not to cut interest rates because inflation is too high, because of job uncertainty, because of price uncertainty. And in a little covered comment that I caught with wearing my Wall street hat, Jay Powell also said and lamented that Donald Trump is undermining the ability of the Federal Reserve and other economists to accurately predict where the contours of the American economy are going. Because he's undermining and defunding U.S. statistical agencies that provide a fair factual, or supposed to provide factual economic data, mainly through his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, and because of the defunding uncoupling of data and facts that the Federal Reserve relies on, their ability to make accurate predictions, he says is in jeopardy. I'm Michael Popak. You're here on the Midas Touch network and Legal af. Let's get into the Federal Reserve. It is an independent agency. Donald Trump threatens to fire Jay Powell about every other day. But the only thing that keeps Wall street humming, the only thing that keeps our economy connected to the American people and not have it spin out of control, into orbit is Jay Powell. Jay Powell has another almost year left on his 10 year term. Donald Trump has already suggested he may elevate Scott Bessette as the Treasury Secretary into that role. But the markets, the financial markets that drive the American economy are comfortable and confident in Jay Powell. They may not always agree. Everybody wants free money. Everybody wants more money. Everybody wants lower interest rates in financial services, right? It makes their job easier. Transactions are cheaper, acquisitions are cheaper, mergers are cheaper. The more money you can borrow at a lower interest rate, right? You're already improving your return on your own investment, your roi. So of course Wall street wants cheap money. But cheap money and flooded too quickly into the market creates hyperinflation or inflation. And right now the target benchmark for the economy, for the Federal Reserve is to have inflation at no more than 2%. We're well over that. We've already. The prediction now is about a 3% inflation rate. That is a substantial increase, 50% greater than the Federal Reserve wants. That means Americans are paying for it. They're paying for the tariff, erratic tariff policies of Donald Trump at the, at the pump, at the now, at the pump because of the rise in gas prices, because The Middle east war. Donald Trump backed the United States into, along with food prices and rent prices and shelter and clothing and the rest. So that's too high. And then there's things that are too low. The gross domestic product, which measures output, service and goods, manufacturing and supplying for the United States, that's too low. Right now they're predicting that it's humming along at about only 1.4% better than last year. What you know, and that's down. They already dialed it down from 1.7%. Healthy economy, 2, 3, 4% increase, not 1.4%. You start having low increase in GDP and high inflation and you have high prices, you have stagflation. That's exactly what Jay Powell is trying to avoid. Donald Trump likes to attack Jay Powell. He did it again. He did it again right off of the failure to cut the rates. He knew the rates weren't going to be cut, so he started the campaign of undermining the independence of Jay Powell. He's not smart. He's costing America a lot of money. You know what's costing America a lot of money? Donald Trump. Donald Trump's failed economic policy and is adding trillions of dollars to the national debt as a result of his budget bill that still languishes in Congress, in the Senate. We haven't seen it lately. And on top of that, the impact on the consumer, the main reason, two main takeaways from the, from the Fed's decision. One, they're worried about tariffs, impact on prices and hurting the American consumer. Jay Powell said it out loud. The price increases are going to fall disproportionately on the consumer. And that means the middle class and lower. And so that's a problem. The other part that he said is I'm not getting the right data from the Commerce Department. Why? Because they've cut the funding. Because they don't want to properly, properly report labor statistics, worker statistics, which goes into the big input into the Federal Reserve to make their, their predictions and therefore their decision making about monetary policy and the cost of money. They're going to keep it now at between 4.5% to 4.7%. That's not the rate you and I are going to pay for a consumer loan, for a credit card, for, you know, for a home mortgage. That's the interbank rate. That's what they're lending to each other at. You gotta add 2, 3, 4 points onto that, if not more. And if it's consumer with no collateral behind it, no asset behind it, you're talking 18, 19, 20, 25, 30%, almost usury. Here's what Jay Powell said. He said ultimately the cost of the tariff has to be paid and some of it will fall on the end consumer. We know that's coming. We just want to see a little bit of that before we make judgments prematurely. Now the Fed has already predicted because they've got a dot plot sort of thing because they always want to tell you what's going on now but what they think in the future. So their crystal ball predicts that sometime in 2025, 2026, they're going to do a couple of rate cuts. I don't know how large they're going to be. Could be a couple of, you know, could be 0.2, could be 0.3, something like that. So they're signaling to the market rate cuts could be coming if we can just stop attacking the American consumer with tariffs. Here's a question most people don't ask enough Are you really getting clean after using the bathroom? I thought I was until I upgraded to a Tushy bidet. Tushy sent me one of their luxury bidets and I was genuinely impressed. It installed in under 10 minutes, no plumber needed. It looks sleek, fits right in my bathroom and and the experience far better than I expected. It's cleaner, more comfortable and frankly more hygienic than traditional toilet paper. Tushy uses fresh water to gently and effectively cleanse and many of their models include features like a heated seat, warm water and even a built in air dryer. It's a small upgrade that makes a big difference in your day to day. Keep your nether regions and body parts fresh and cool. For a limited time. Our listeners get 10% off their first bidet order. When you use code LEGAL AF at checkout, that's 10% off your first bidet order at hello Tushy.com with promo code LEGAL A F. That's hello Tushy.com promo code LEGAL A F. But they were unanimous the entire Federal Reserve governors about this particular issue and they're trying to figure out whether price pressure is persistent short term or long term. And they and they expect a rise in inflation under Donald Trump, which means pain at the pump paint around the kitchen table for Americans. I thought the Donald Trump tells the American people that he was elected on a mandate in order to go after migrants and transgender people. That apparently is the animating factor of his presidency, that he wants to go after women's rights, LGBTQ + rights and migrants and immigrants. Okay, I thought that he ran on a campaign and people voted for him because they were worried that Joe Biden was out of touch in terms of their economic pain. I thought that's why people voted for him. It's always the economy, stupid. To paraphrase Bill Clinton and James Carville. It's always the economy. It's always pocketbook and person wallet issues. And Donald Trump just ignores that in order to do maximum damage, to implement as much of the right MAGA Heritage Foundation Project 2025 playbook that he can do in the shortest amount of time before the midterms. That's what we're watching. We're watching Donald Trump paying off his debts, benefiting cryptocurrency so his family can benefit from cryptocurrency, having already earned hundreds of millions of dollars since January in that business, retaliating against all those that brought him to justice the first time around, the Department of Justice and the FBI, hollowing that out and diverting resources away from making our country safer and the national and the homeland security and national security and diverting it to chasing migrants waiting to pick up day jobs at Home Depot. And then he attacks Jay Powell. I don't know how I can put this any more simply, having worked on Wall street and financial services. If Donald Trump is successful and Jay Powell says, I've had enough and he leaves early, the financial markets will respond by trashing that decision and sending us into a tailspin. He is the thing. He is the oxygen that we need to breathe as an economy, especially given an irrational, rogue, out of control, lawless president who has no idea how to run the economy, because he's running the economy the way he ran his own family economy, failed businesses. You know, his record is littered with bankruptcies, multiple bankruptcies, failed companies, sucker bets. And now he's just taking advantage of the fact that he's in the White House and he's. And he's opened up a printing press there through cryptocurrency. He doesn't even care about the economy. He cares about cryptocurrency's economy and how much money he can make on the buy and the sell, in the transactions. In a tumultuous time. Volatility is Donald Trump's friend. He is the master of disaster. He is the king of volatility because it makes him money, but it doesn't make you and I any money, Right? Say a prayer, light a candle, whatever your personal religion or no religion is, pray that Jay Powell stays in his position and his independence is never compromised by Donald Trump. We'll continue to follow it right here on the Midas Touch Network. We're going to roll that odometer to 5 million subscribers. I've been here since day one. As people know, I joke with the brothers that I employee badge number four after them. I've been here. I've been here from day one. I contributed along with the legal AF audience to the 5 million. I'm so proud of what they've accomplished, what we've accomplished together. And now we've got our build. We got another build going on. Simultaneously be part of the first 1 million of Legal AF, our companion channel, Legal AF MTN. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popo. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing in the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal A for there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.
- [15:06]
Zoe Saldana
Hi, Zoe Saldana. Welcome to T Mobile. Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us.
- [15:10]
T Mobile Customer
Thanks. And here's my old phone to trade in.
- [15:12]
Zoe Saldana
You don't need a trade in. When you switch to T Mobile. We'll give you a new iPhone 16 Pro. Plus we'll help you pay off your old Phone up to 800 bucks and you still get to keep it.
- [15:21]
T Mobile Customer
There's always a trade in.
- [15:22]
Zoe Saldana
Not right now. @ T Mobile.
- [15:24]
T Mobile Customer
I feel like I have to give you something in return for karma.
- [15:26]
Zoe Saldana
That's okay.
- [15:27]
T Mobile Customer
I don't really have much in my purse. Oh, let's see. Hand sanitizer. It's lavender.
- [15:32]
Zoe Saldana
I'm good.
- [15:32]
T Mobile Representative
Seriously.
- [15:33]
T Mobile Customer
Let me check this pocket. Oh, mints.
- [15:36]
Zoe Saldana
Really, I'm fine.
- [15:37]
T Mobile Customer
Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec. I've got cupcakes in the car.
- [15:41]
T Mobile Representative
It's our best iPhone offer ever. Switch to T Mobile, get a new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple intelligence on us, no trade in needed. We'll even pay off your Phone up to 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits. New line 100 plus a month on experience beyond Finance Agreement 999.99. Again, qualifying, ported for well qualified plus tax and $10 connection charge. Pay off via virtual prepaid for allow 15 days credits end imbalance due if you pay off early or cancel ctmobile.com.