A (1:48)

Credits for well qualified customers plus tax and $35 vice connection charge credit and balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancer Financing Agreement 256 gigs $830 eligible board in a new line $100 plus a month plan with auto paperless taxes and fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line. Visit t mobile.com Donald Trump just got a rude awakening. His threats and intimidation tactics are not working against the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. In a very methodical, calm, careful and honest matter, Chairman Powell explained what's really happening with our economy. He discussed what's happening in the housing, housing market and how. The real issue was that there's a lack of supply of housing and the dropping of the interest rate rates is not going to create additional supply. Powell talks about rising inflation and job losses continuing to increase as well. That's a form of something called stagflation. He continues to talk about the job losses and the impact they're having on our economy. Let me show you just, it's refreshing, I think, to hear the truth whether you like it or not. These are the facts and we all know it. If we have these lived experiences and Donald Trump hates the truth. So here is Chairman Powell talking about housing. Here, play this clip.

D (3:07)

I think, you know, the top, the top third accounts for way more than a third of the consumption, for example. So it's a good question how sustainable that is. You know, the best we can do is to, is to have a, you know, price stability and a strong labor market. What we saw, for example, what we saw at the end of the, the very, very long expansion that ended with the outbreak of the pandemic, we saw that it was 10 years and eight months or something like that, the longest one in recorded history. In the last two years, most of the job, the largest part of the wage gains were going to people in the bottom quartile, the bottom part of the low and moderate income. So having a strong labor market for a long period of time is really, really good. From a social standpoint, it's helping lower income levels and that's what we all want to get back to. But we got to, we got to have price stability and we got to have, you know, full employment, maximum employment.

B (4:09)

And just quickly, you mentioned the housing market remains kind of weak with these rate cuts that we've seen. Is there a chance we're going to see more affordability in the housing market so more people can maybe enjoy that part of wealth creation. The average age or median age of a first time homebuyer is now 40 years old. That's the highest on record.

A (4:25)

Yeah.

D (4:25)

So the housing market faces some really significant challenges and I don't know that a 25 basis point decline in the federal funds rate is going to make much of a difference for people. Housing supply is low. Many people have very, very low rate mortgages from the pandemic period and they kept refinancing and caught the really low. So it's made expensive for them to move and we're a ways away from that changing. Also, we haven't built enough housing in the country for A long, a lot of estimates suggest that we just need more housing of different kinds. So housing is going to be, you know, a problem. And, you know, really the tools to address it are we can, we can raise and lower interest rates, but we don't really have the tools to address, you know, a secular housing shortage, a structural housing shortage.

A (5:22)

And here's what Chairman Powell talks about in terms of inflation tilted to the upside and employment on the downside. Play this clip.

D (5:31)

In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks, risks to employment to the downside. A challenging situation. There is no risk free path for policy as we navigate this tension between our employment and inflation goals and this.

A (5:47)

While inflation is surging here. Play this next clip.

D (5:52)

Total PCE prices rose 2.8% over the 12 months ending in September. And excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices also rose 2.8%. These readings are higher than earlier in the year as inflation for goods has picked up, reflecting the effects of tariffs.

A (6:12)

Now he also talks about how the economy has lost an average of 20,000 jobs each month from April to September. Play this clip.

D (6:20)

Why did we move today? You know, I would say point to a couple things. First of all, gradual cooling in the labor market has continued. Unemployment is now up 310 from June through September. Payroll jobs averaging 40,000 per month since April. We think there's an overstatement in these numbers by about 60,000. So that would be negative 20,000 per month.

A (6:44)

Now, we know that Caroline Levitt wants to deny this fact. She and the Trump regime come up with fake numbers. Here's what Caroline Levitt said at the press conference this past week. Let's play it.

B (6:55)

First, very quickly, clarifying Caitlin's question, you acknowledged that CPI in January when you took office was 3%. And in September, the last month for which we have data, it was also 3%. So inflation, so it's 2.5%. Not in September, it was 2.5%. The average CPI right now, I have it in front of me. In President Trump's first eight months in office, inflation is measured by the overall consumer price index has slowed to a 2.5 average pace. This is down from the 2.9% inherited in January. January is one month.

A (7:28)

And here's what Donald Trump during an Oval Office press conference about the economy. Play this clip.

D (7:34)

You know, we had the greatest economy in history in my first term. I think we're blowing it away right now. I think we're blowing it away. And again, prices were the highest they ever were inflation was the highest in 48 years, or I think ever. They say 48 years. The press is 48 years. I'll accept that. But I think it was the highest inflation we've ever had.

A (7:57)

And as you know, Donald Trump gives himself an A plus plus plus plus on the economy. This While Trump's approval on the economy from Americans is just 31%, his overall approval rating in that same AP poll is 36%. The Americans are not buying what the Trump regime is selling. The American people realize that the Trump regime is selling fraud. The same way Donald Trump has been a fraud, a criminal, a felon, an abuser, a predator his entire life. I want to bring in the ranking member, the Democratic Party on the Budget Committee. Let's bring him in right now. Congressmember Brendan Boyle. Good to see you, Congressmember Boyle. You know, I showed those clips right there of Chairman Powell. I thought it was at least refreshing to hear the truth. Congressman Boyle, what do you think about that? You sit on the Budget Committee.

C (8:53)

Well, first, before I answer that, if I might, I have to say I have the same reaction that you did hearing Jay Powell's comments. It's just so nice to finally hear someone from this federal government speaking openly and honestly and just telling you when two plus two equals four, that it equals four and not 400,000. Because, of course, from Donald Trump, all the way down, when we're talking about executive branch officials, they just spew lies so effortlessly and so routinely, it's almost like you have to catch them telling the truth. Now, in terms of the economy, what Jay Powell said is correct, not just in those clips, but in his, his full comments. That we have an environment in which we are suffering job losses as well as high inflation. That is the textbook definition of stagflation. Something we haven't seen since the Jimmy Carter era of the late 1970s. This is a real and growing problem for our economy. We have not seen stagflation in my actually memory because while I was born in 1977, I don't exactly remember 78 and 79 in 80. I remember my parents talking about very high interest rates and how horrible inflation was in the economy. So that explains why a new poll out just showed that Donald Trump's approval rating on the economy is his lowest ever at 31%. He never was that low in the four years he was president previously, as well as the past year he's been president as well. People are suffering. And no matter how much Donald Trump and his minions want to lie about it, he's not going to be able to convince them of something that is contrary to their lived experience.

A (10:51)

You know, as what we see happen with Ponzi schemers, they go deeper and deeper into their fraud, causing more harm. Feels like we're seeing that in the economy now. So like, what's his move? What he does is, I think, and I want to get your feedback, the only indicator that you could say is doing well is the stock market, which has gone up, although most Americans aren't invested in the market. What's propping up the stock market? Mostly AI while the rest of the market's not doing great AI and tech. So now he sees that goes, okay, what do I do there? Let me unleash or allow Nvidia to give its H200 chips to China. Because we've seen Nvidia driving a lot of market, our market growth right now, so that they now open it up to China. China now gets our most highly classified super chips for basically nothing. China's response is, well, we appreciate that, but we've got Huawei here, so we'll take some of your chips, we'll take it. We'll then give it to our own kind of people. So we've now, I guess Trump's ploy and there's probably a self interest thing too and how he and his crypto business are going to benefit from this. But I think he wants to pump this for his billionaire friends and say, look, the market's doing well at the expense now of selling off our national security. And of course there's also the self interested component. But what do you make of that?

C (12:18)

Well, first, there are a number of companies over the course of this past year that the federal government has now taken a stake of that company. Can you imagine the reaction from Republicans or anyone on the right if any previous Democratic president decided that the federal government would take some ownership of that private company? I mean, they were screaming that Barack Obama was a socialist and a communist just because he adopted what had been the Republican right of center idea to allow people to buy among different health insurance plans that were all from private sector plans. So just imagine how they would react about the kind of textbook socialism that Donald Trump is engaged in. It's not a true capitalist, he's a crony capitalist. As long as he does well, as long as he gets his payoffs, as long as his buddies get their payoffs, then he's perfectly fine with it. In terms of who he's listening to, he only cares about the billionaire class, the folks that he is hanging out with at Bedminster and at Mar a Lago. And that's why the centerpiece of, of his economic agenda this year, the big bullshit bill, as I call it, the big beautiful bill, as he used to call it back before he just stopped talking about it altogether because it's so unpopular. Why is it so unpopular? Because it was the biggest tax breaks for billionaires in American history, paid for by the biggest cuts to health care in American history. Why again, did he do this? Because he thought it would make him popular? No, because it's the billionaire class that benefits.

A (14:04)

Show your post right here. I'll show it to you from a week ago where you said Trump will claim that he's brought in $17 trillion. Sometimes it's even 18 trillion. As the lead Democrat on the House Budget Committee, I haven't seen a dime come in, especially not for working families. It's all a con. The only people benefiting under Trump are billionaires. You know, and I just say, you know, he's always talking about, I brought in 17 trillion and just 22 trillions coming. And so I'm going to make you rich. Just you wait. It's right around the corner. Just you wait. And you're like, I'm on the Budget Committee. This money's not coming in. We would know on the Budget Committee for purposes of planning a budget, if this money was available. So either he's taken it for himself or he's lying. Both are plausible with Donald Trump, but it ain't. It ain't coming into the Treasury. Right.

C (14:58)

You know it. I have to give Donald Trump credit. He's actually the greatest con man in American history. When you think about it, he was able to con people into thinking he was a successful businessman. He wasn't. He was someone who inherited great wealth and literally had he just invested all of that wealth in an index fund or even T bills, he would have more money than he has right now. So his whole Persona was a con. It was all built around that dopey TV show for so many years. And then he was able to run around the country last year and said, you vote for me, I will lower prices on day one. Bullshit. Here he is now, he's been president for almost a year. Prices are higher today than they were a year ago. And as Jay Powell just said, they're higher mostly due to the Trump tariffs. Finally, on the 16, 17, $18 trillion lie, by the way, he cites different numbers each time he repeats the lie. I guess his philosophy is if you make the lie Big enough and so outlandish, some people will believe it. I just want to put these numbers into context. The entire federal budget for this year is just over $6 trillion. So the idea that in a few months or nine or 10 months, his tariffs have collected 17, $18 trillion is such a crazy, crazy lie. It's like, what if I told you with a straight face, you know, my height, I'm 11 foot 6. That would be the same scale as the lie that Donald Trump is trying to get away with.

A (16:41)

Well, he's basically giving a version of I'm 11 foot 6. He's saying, I'm perfectly healthy. Never have my health results been better. I win every golf tournament. He is doing. He's doing all of the above.

C (16:53)

Three, 200 pounds, could play in the NFL tomorrow. That's Donald Trump.

A (16:58)

You know, the last thing I want to hit before we go is Donald Trump this past week was in the Commonwealth. He was in a small banquet hall at a casino, which he pretended was a large rally where he called African nation shithole countries, which he denied during his first administration. And now he's out there saying it. He told people that the economy is doing great and everything's more affordable and amazing. Your state. He came to the Commonwealth. So I just wanted to get your take on what you saw.

C (17:26)

He visited my state more than any other last year in the election because, of course, Pennsylvania is the biggest battleground state in the nation. So he returned to the scene of his original crime, his original con, which is telling people he was going to lower prices on day one. It was quite ironic, though, that he decided to hold this in a casino, since I believe he is the only man in the history of casinos ever to own the casino and actually lose money.

A (17:54)

Yeah, multiple times. I think there were several bankruptcies, claimed bankruptcy.

C (17:59)

Look, I live in. I live in Philadelphia. Atlantic City is exactly one hour away. I remember I was, you know, just a kid, 9, 10 years old. He would come on the local news doing his whole shtick, the biggest, the greatest, the most gold ever, yada, yada. And then so many of those casinos went belly up. And by the way, do you know how bad that is? There used to be no competition from the surrounding states. Now Pennsylvania, as evidenced by the casino he was at. Pennsylvania has gaming. Maryland has it, a lot of other surrounding states. None of that existed when he owned those casinos in Atlantic city in the 1980s. That's how bad he is at business.

A (18:42)

And he created competition against himself. So the way we view some of his outlandish economic policies as being the dumbest things im imaginable. It's the same stuff he did, as you said, when he went to Atlantic City. He built three casinos right next to each other, over leveraged the crap out of it, had them all compete with each other. Then he couldn't pay back the lenders. And everybody was saying, why are you building three casinos? They're all going to cannibalize each other. And then he's like, no, no, you got to do three. You got to do three, everybody. And then, you know, history repeats itself. There were so many warning signs here, but we're seeing what. If you ever wanted to have a hypothetical, what would happen if you have like a felon who bankrupted all these businesses in the Oval? What would that look like? Like, like, like this? Anyway, thank you, Congressman. We appreciate you. We appreciate you fighting for this country. Thank you so much.

C (19:32)

Thank you.

A (19:33)

Great to be on everybody hit subscribe let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski. Add free episodes of our podcasts and more exclusive content Only available@midasplus.com.

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