Squawk Pod: "Fast Food Economy & America’s AI Regulation"

Date: February 12, 2026
Host: CNBC (Kelly Evans, Brian Sullivan, Steve Liesman)
Notable Guests: Patrick Doyle (Restaurant Brands), Alex Boris (NY State Assembly)

Episode Overview

This episode explores two dominant themes shaping the American economic and regulatory landscape: the evolving fast food economy under persistent inflation, and the rising urgency for effective AI policy and regulation. CNBC anchors Kelly Evans, Brian Sullivan, and Steve Liesman guide a lively discussion, drawing on breaking news, prominent interviews with industry figures, and the latest congressional debates, notably around tariffs and AI policy. The episode features in-depth interviews with Patrick Doyle, chairman of Restaurant Brands (Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes), and Alex Boris, assemblyman and congressional candidate with a tech background at Palantir.

Market & Economic Recap

Treasury Yields & Deficit Talk

• Stable, Range-bound Yields: Treasury yields have been stuck in a range; Fed cuts aren't moving longer-term rates as expected. (02:56)
  • Steve Liesman: “It’s boring after a while this ten year thing, right. It just looks like it’s going to be a story and then it comes back.”
• Deficit Concerns: Discussions on federal budget deficit, with differing numbers between the administration and the CBO (Congressional Budget Office), partly due to calendar vs. fiscal year accounting. (04:06)
  • Kelly Evans: “It’s going to be hard for this [yield] level to come down while we’re talking about deficits that are $3 trillion.”
  • Steve Liesman: “The big beautiful bill goes the wrong way on the deficit, immigration goes the wrong way. The only thing that goes the right way are the tariffs.”

Labor Market Analysis

• Strong jobs report, but skepticism on the robustness and sector concentration of job growth.
  • Brian Sullivan: “Jobs number yesterday was double the expectation... but it’s all health care, it doesn’t really count. Does it count?”
  • Steve Liesman: “It absolutely does count... Health care and social assistance has been the number one sector. It’s a little dangerous... but I’m giving this jobs number a pass.” (05:16)

Fast Food Economy in Focus

Shrinkflation & Value Meals (07:10–08:49)

• Rising Fast Food Costs: Discussion of fast food meal inflation and consumer scrutiny of value.
  • Kelly Evans: “A McDonald’s chicken nugget value meal used to cost $10 after the inflationary thing a couple of years ago. Which brings us into their earnings.” (07:13)
• Shrinkflation Humor: Brian recalls social media post questioning if burgers are shrinking or his key is getting larger.
  • Brian Sullivan: “Is there any shrinkflation in there as well?... Maybe my key or my hands are getting larger in my old age.” (08:30)
  • Steve Liesman: “Once you call it a Quarter Pounder, you’re a little locked in.” (09:04)

Tariffs and Congressional Pushback (09:13–14:27)

• House Rebukes Canada Tariffs: House votes to revoke Trump-era tariffs on Canada; rare bipartisan move ahead of Senate debate.
  • Emily Wilkins: “Trump has already threatened retaliation… any Republican that votes against tariffs will seriously suffer the consequences come election time.” (10:52)
• Institutional Power Dynamics: Discussion on the difficulty of clawing back executive powers, especially around emergency tariff authority.
  • Steve Liesman: “Congress is learning a lesson here—when it provides authority to the president… Clawing it back is very, very difficult.” (13:33)

Interview Highlights

Patrick Doyle, Executive Chairman, Restaurant Brands International

[Interview Segment: 20:59–26:21]

• Bifurcated Consumer Landscape:
  • Patrick Doyle: “If it’s a household income over 75,000, it’s positive. If it’s under, they’re still being a little conservative about how they spend.” (21:29)
  • Steve Liesman: “Are you seeing it more the case now, this bifurcation, than it usually is?”
    Doyle: “No, much more. Certainly in the last year, year and a half, that’s a relatively new thing.” (22:11)
• Value Proposition vs. Product Experience:
  • Brian Sullivan: “There’s this debate about value versus money, right? What do people feel?”
  • Doyle: “We’ve been very consistent with the value… What we’re focused on is giving better value by having better food, better service, renovating our restaurants.” (22:59)
• AI’s Influence on Restaurants:
  • Steve Liesman: “AI is going to have an influence on your business?”
  • Doyle: “You’re going to see almost everything. You’re going to see labor, scheduling, you’re going to have cues about what’s selling well, what you need to make more of... It’s going to have a very big impact.” (25:23)
  • On bottom line: “If we get more growth, if our franchisees are making more money… We promised the market 8% operating income growth. We’ve done that three years in a row.” (25:40)
• Memorable Moment:
  • Steve Liesman asks for AI example; Doyle says: “You’re going to see almost everything.” (25:23)
  • Liesman jokes about wishing for better AI ordering kiosks. (25:54)

Tech Stocks & Supply Chain

Hardware Cost Pressures & Cyclical Tech Recovery

• Cisco Earnings: Despite positive results, margin concerns and memory costs drive an 8% stock drop.
  • Brian Sullivan: “Cisco was one of the last of the old tech giants to finally reach its new highs.” (15:32)
  • Steve Liesman: “There’s a cool new box—they have that’s going to use an Nvidia chip and help chips talk to each other faster.” (16:35)
• Apple & Memory Costs: Potential iPhone price hikes due to memory price inflation. (16:56)
• Corning's Quiet Success: Role in fiber optics and smartphone glass, with light regional banter. (17:18–18:10)

AI Regulation: National Policy Debate

Interview with Alex Boris, NY Assemblyman & Congressional Candidate

[Interview Segment: 28:46–36:14]

• Boris’s Mission: Bring “guardrails” to AI development and deployment.
  • Alex Boris: “I want to give Americans a say in AI. Most Americans are pro innovation and pro AI, but they think there need to be some guardrails. And it’s moving incredibly quickly.” (29:29)
• His Eight-Point Plan:
  • Focus areas: Kids’ exposure & chatbots, workplace impacts, deepfake threats, democratizing research access, and public trust.
  • Boris: “It’s an eight point plan focused on making sure that AI benefits the many and not just the few.” (29:56)
  • On NY’s $400M Empire AI cluster: “We should be doing that same thing and investing in the capacity at the federal level as well.” (31:10)
• Pushback from Tech Billionaires:
  • Super PACs backed by Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Joe Lonsdale (Palantir), and Andreessen Horowitz funded opposition to his legislation and campaign. (28:46, 29:29)
  • Boris: “The opposition is trying to keep power concentrated and make sure that the American people can’t put standards on it.” (32:09)
• Balancing Regulation & Innovation:
  • Kelly Evans asks: How to ensure you don’t “hamper innovation” ([30:30]), Boris responds with nuance and technical fixes like privacy-preserving age verification (33:10).
  • Boris: “You could require every single company to scan every license… But there are good technical advances that have been made.” (33:10)
• Why Now? The AI Acceleration Imperative:
  • Brian Sullivan: “AI is doubling in compute capacity every year… Is now the time? If we don’t do this now, we might not get the chance.” (34:24)
  • Boris: “Every seven months, AI is doubling the capacity… Recently it’s going closer to four months.” (34:27)
• America vs. Europe, Trust as a Differentiator:
  • Steve Liesman: “Why regulate if it risks our lead over Europe?” (34:40)
  • Boris: “The market actually currently is undervaluing trustworthiness of AI. The AI that will win in the long term will be trustworthy AI.” (34:54)
  • Notable quote: “If you’re in Europe, why do you want to use American AI? People want there to be verification. They want to know that the AI has been tested.” (34:54)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Steve Liesman, on jobs data:
  “It absolutely does count. Health care and social assistance has been the number one sector. It’s a little dangerous… but I’m giving this jobs number a pass.” (05:16)
• Brian Sullivan, on shrinkflation:
  “Is there any shrinkflation in there as well?... Maybe my key or my hands are getting larger in my old age.” (08:30)
• Patrick Doyle, on consumer trends:
  “If it’s a household income over 75,000, it’s positive. If it’s under, they’re still being a little conservative about how they spend.” (21:29)
• Emily Wilkins, on tariffs power struggle:
  “If we normalize broad emergency trade powers today, we should expect that a future president of either party will rely on the same authority in ways many of us would strongly oppose.” (10:52)
• Alex Boris, on AI regulation urgency:
  “Every seven months, AI is doubling the capacity… It used to be you would talk about Moore’s law and every 18 months… Seven months, recently it’s going closer to four months.” (34:27)
• On trustworthy AI and America’s edge:
  “The market actually currently is undervaluing trustworthiness of AI. The AI that will win in the long term will be trustworthy AI.” (34:54)

Timeline of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic / Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------| | 02:56 | Yield, deficit talk, CBO vs. Admin accounting | | 05:16 | Job market, sector concentration dilemma | | 07:13 | Fast food price inflation, value meal woes | | 09:13 | Tariffs & Congressional vote, pushback on Canada | | 20:59 | Patrick Doyle interview: fast food consumer paradox | | 25:23 | Doyle on AI in restaurants (labor, metrics, ops) | | 28:46 | Alex Boris interview: AI policy plan & implications | | 34:24 | The case for urgency in AI regulation | | 34:54 | Trust as AI’s unique US differentiator |

Conclusion

This episode brings into focus the everyday economic pressures felt by American consumers—especially around food prices and value—and examines the crucial and complex choices policymakers face in the age of accelerating AI. The nuanced insights from both fast food industry leaders and a tech-savvy legislator paint a picture of an economy and society at the crossroads: between innovation and regulation, cost pressures and value, concentrated power and democratization. The tone is candid and occasionally irreverent, but the content underscores major shifts shaping the American present and future.