they'll add another $250 billion. it's astonishing. this is an enormous if headwind to growth, and no one seems to notice it. maria: yeah. it's an important point. great conversation, everybody. i so appreciate everybody's time. thank you so much to jerry, stephanie, doug, mark, chris and cheryl. thank you, everyone. we are 30 minutes away from the opening bell for a thursday. let's check markets here, we continue to see a rally underway despite these hotter than expected inflation firms. -- numbers. the dow up 113, nasdaq up 38, s&p 500 higher by 9.25 as bitcoin hangs around all-time highs, pulling back from yesterday and earlier in the week but still at $3 73,000 -- 73,000 on bitcoin. have a great day, everybody. "varney & company" picks it i now -- picks it up now. stu, take it away. stuart: everyone's looking at inflation so -- to see where the fed will go with rates. all right. in the last year, producer

prices -- that is the cost paid by business -- went up. 1.6%. that that suggests another uptick in price rises. month to month producer prices up a strong 0.6%. that means the pace of price increases is speeding up. the bottom line here, inflation running a little hotter. what impact on the extraordinary bull market? well, i'll show you with, no if impact that i can see. before those numbers were released, the dow and the and nasdaq were up sharply. they're still up after a those numbers. dow up 100, s&p up, what, 9 points, 30 points -- 40 points up for the nasdaq. the inflation uptick did not hurt stocks that much. interest rates, they're at elevated levels. the 10-year treasury now yields 4.23, and the 2-year is well above 4.5%, you're looking at 4.66. that didn't hurt the stock market. bitcoin, well, that's holding firm, $72,000 and change, 72,8. oil, $80 a barrel this morning. yeah, $80.47.

gas going up again, regular average as $3.41. it's up 2 cents overnight. no change for diesel, $4.03. all right, politics. the president campaigns in michigan today. it's a swing state where he has the uncommitted problem. he's in trouble in michigan for his support in israel. wednesday he was in wisconsin where he made a direct appeal to milwaukee's black community. he's going to fix the i-94 and i-43 highways that were built in the '60s, and the democrats say it separated the black community from opportunity and jobs. mean while, new polls show trump has a 2-point lead in pennsylvania. trump has a 4-point lead in arizona. on the show today we'll delve into the gigantic stock market rally that has added trillions to the nation's wealth. household wealth now totals $154 trillion. that's way out there as a record. and we'll look at the latest socialist dreams. biden wants a piece of that increasing national wealth, and bernie sanders wants to move to

a 32-hour workweek with no loss of income. tesla's stock taking a real beating recently. has that got anything to do with elon musk's erratic behavior? we'll cover it all. this is the thursday, march the 14th, 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ we got the beat, we got the beat, we got the beat -- ♪ yeah, we got it ♪ >> yeah, we do. [laughter] stuart: it was the go-gost. >> high inflation data doesn't have us down, we got the beat. stuart: thanks, adam. ever the optimist. we're going to start with your money, you've got a couple of key reads on the economy. lauren, start with producer prices. lauren: the bottom line, inflation is still hot.

stuart: yep. lauren: in february prices that merchants pay to stock their shelves rose .6% from the prior month, the most since july, and up 1.6% year to over year. yes, under 2% but hotter than expected. let's look at the core minus food and energies up .3 month over month, 2% year-over-year. no relief for consumers. their wallets are stretched. that's the takeaway, from if me, for ppi. stuart stuart the next one is retail sales figures. what do they show? lauren: because we're so stressed -- stretched, the consumer is cutting back. so retail sales did rise but .6, weaker than expected, and the january numbers were are revised way lore, down 1.1%. lower. if so in february what are we buying? sales at bars and restaurants rose over 6%, online up over 6%. but they fell if more than 10% on home furnishings. that's the housing market, right? can't afford a home --

>> no one's buying houses. lauren: not buying a house, you're not buying furniture, and you're done fixing up the one you live in. stuart: having seen all those numbers, let's look at the market this morning. we're still very much in the green. dow up, what, 120 points, nasdaq's up about a 54. interesting stuff. adam johnson is with us. how come inflation ticks up and the stock market rally continues? >> because i think we're, quote-unquote, over it. we're over our inflation fix sayings. and i'll tell you why, or stuar. as lauren just pointed out, the ppi data was hot today, 1.6. the estimate was 1.7. but hang on a minute, the fed's target is 2. so even though it's hotter than expected, the it's below what the fed actually wants to see for up nation. in addition to ppi being below 2%, the gdp price index is also below 2%. it too is at 1.6%. the pce number if, that's up at 2.4, a little hot. it's only the cpi that is above 3. so of the four measures of

inflation, two are below the fed's target, one is pretty close and only one, cpi, is above. so that's, i think, why the market's taking this in stride. stuart: the i want to talk about this record or or high in household wealth. >> right. stuart: we're now at $154 trillion, and a lot of that gain is from the stock market i presume. it's got to be. >> presumably, yeah. and house appreciation. home prices are still at all-heym tie -- highs -- all-time highs. stuart: that too. have we seen anything like this before? if i'm trying to get a gauge on how strong this huge stock marketally is. >> notch i mean, by definition if we're at all-time highs by definition, right, we've not seen this before. i think it's also fascinating, stuart, that you have $6 trillion of cash still on the sidelines sitting in money market funds which means that a lot of people don't believe in this rally. we've never, ever in history had $6 trillion on the sidelines. imagine what happens to stocks, and report to get aode head of -- ahead of myself p but imagine what happens as people

realize, wow, we didn't is have a recession, it's not as bad as i thought. you know what? maybe i should put a little bit more money to work. that pushes stocks higher. again, i don't want to get drunk on this notion that we've got to buy stocks, but, you know, there is an argument to be made when the economy is growing as it is now 2-3, earnings are rising 7-8% and we have people employed and they're spending money, there's an argument to be made to go into the market if you're sitting on the sidelines. stuart: fear of missing out might play a role. >> yeah. i'm fully invested, by the way. yes, i'm talking my book, but i bought or for stock on monday. stuart: interesting financial stuff this morning. we're going to transfer to politics. interesting politics as well. new fox polls from key battleground states. lauren, what have we got? lauren: pennsylvania. this election might be determined by pennsylvania. and trump is up there the by 2 points. that is within the margin of error. voters in pennsylvania say, guess what their top issue is as we've been discussing? the economy. number two, election integrity. number three, the border. biden won pennsylvania in 2020

by 80,000 votes. and after his state of the union address, one week ago today, where did he go on friday? pennsylvania. [laughter] stuart: why am i not surprisedsome. lauren: arizona, trump wins by a larger 4 points here, 49 for trump, 45 for biden n. 2020 they were basically dead even. stuart: got it. thank you, lauren. despite poor polling, biden says he's going to win in the november. watch this. >> i know it sounds like hyperbole, but it's all in your hands, and you -- folks like you all across the country. because this is how i won the first time ever -- i ever ran. a lot of you helped me in 2020, and we make sure -- [inaudible] and he is a loser. [laughter] and we're going to make sure that happens again. stuart: a very very weak voice that the president has. lady on the right-hand side of the screen, kaylee mcghee white, joining me now. do you think calling trump a

loser works for biden? >> no. and especially when it sounds like you're so -- not when it sounds like you're so tired you can barely stay awake. a very strange performance by biden there. and this problem of his polls in the swing states is only going to continue to get worse over the next several months because voters are not excited about biden. we've seen this repeatedly over the democratic primaries over the past few weeks that not only does he have this uncommitted vote problem in states like michigan and north carolina, but the bigger story is the sheer number of democratic voters who are not showing up for biden at all. in michigan, my home state, for example, you had the 100,000 protest votes against bide, but you also had 200,000 fewer democratic voters vote in this year's primary compared to in 2020. if biden cannot figure out a way to get people excited about his re-election campaign, if he cannot figure out a way to get them onboard with what he's trying to sell to the american people, that is going to be why

he loses to trump. stuart: i want to change the subject because england's national health service, we've been reporting on this, they will no longer prescribe puberty lock blockers for children under the age of 18. you have an opinion on this, and and you say the u.s. must follow the u.k.'s lead and abandon the gender experiment. first of all, why do you call this a gender experiment? >> i call it a gender experiment because the overwhenning evidence proves that children who are confused about their gender will grow out of that confusion if into adolescence. very aeroly do the they remain -- rarely do they remain gender confused past the point where they reach maturity as a teenagerses. and i say that the u.s. should follow the u.k. which is not going to prescribe puberty blockers anymore, but really the u.s. should follow the science, to quote one of our favorite so-called medical ec eberts on this. because the evidence overwhelmingly proved that -- proves that they're not reversible, they're not temporary, they do have long-term are consequences.

especially on vulnerable and impressionable children who shouldn't be expected to know any better. stuart: is it hateful to oppose gender transition in children? because that will be the accusation against you, you're hate-filled. >> it's not hateful at all. what is hateful is forcing a life of being a permanent patient on to children who may have been confused about who they were and who are desperately seeking answers. but this is not a solution. if making them a permanent patient is not a solution, and it's not composition passion sate -- compassion sate. stuart: thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> thank you. stuart: take a look at a this, this is british airways concord jet, you can just see it. that is the old concord. it's on its way to new york city's intrepid sea, air and space museum right outside this building, actually. it had a months-long restoration, the supersonic jet holds the record for the fastest transatlantic passenger flight in 1996, just 2 hours and 52

minutes from london's heathrow to jfk. there it is on its way to the intrepid right there on the hudson river. we'll show you that throughout the day. coming up, president biden's been using tiktok for his campaign. despite that, the white house says they're glad the house passed the bill that might kill tiktok. roll it. >> we are glad to see the bill move forward. we will look to see the senate take swift action. this bill is important, and we welcome the the step in ongoing efforts to address the threat posed by certain technology services operating in the united states. stuart: here's the question that we're going to deal with, should the app be removed from china's control or outright banned? yes, we get into it. senator bernie sanders bereaves americans should -- believes americans should work less but get paid the same. senator bill haggerty is part of today's hearing on the 32 hour workweek. senator cassidy is next. ♪ ♪

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stuart: senator bernie sanders introduced a new bill calling for a 32-hour workweek with no loss of income. khat bid grill on capitol hill. -- pilgrim. are we all going to get fridays off from here on out? >> reporter: stuart, hard at work who or hardly working. sanders is pushing a 32-hour workweek for people. sanders believes people should work less but get paid the same. uaw president shawn fein if appear ifs at the hearing chaired by sanders today. >> look, i think we deserve a 3 2-hour workweek, and we were laughed at for that, but we got the country talking about that now.

and there are schedules like that in this world. we were able to eliminate some of the aws schedules that don't work for our membership, not all of them, but some of them. we've just got to keep fighting on that. >> reporter: sanders says new technology and a.i. makes workers more efficient, yet they work more and earn less than decades ago. if that's why there is a push to boost pay. >> i have your back -- [applause] pass the pro act for workers ' rights. [cheers and applause] raise the federal minimum wage, because every worker has a right to a decent living more than $7 an hour. [applause] >> reporter: there is a plan by democrats to increase the minimum wage to $17 an hour. that's long been a democratic priority. so more pay, not as much work. however, a shortened workweek could impact auto assembly

lines, filling a fifth shift at the plant could drive up lay costs, and that could be passed along to the consumer. stuart? stuart: there's all kinds of things wrong with it, chad, but we'll move on. chad pergram. louisiana senator bill cassidy joins me now. mr. senator, i want to get your take on the 32-hour work workweek, but first i want to talk social security. please take a listen to this from president biden. roll it. >> you know, just this week donald trump said cuts to social security and medicare are on the table. when asked if he changed his position, he said, quote, there's a lot we can do in terms of cutting, tremendous am of things we can do -- amount of things we can do, end of quote. i want to assure you i will never allow are it to happen. [applause] i won't touch social security, i will not touch medicare. stuart: okay. mr. senator, if we don't touch social security, it goes bankrupt. something's got to be done. either raise the retirement age or raise the taxes. am i right? >> well, a couple things.

first, joe biden's plan -- which has no political chance of passing whatsoever -- will result in a a 24 cut to social security. period. that's under current law. 4%. and and, frankly -- 24%. and and, frankly, trump doesn't have a real plan either. there is a real plan, and i've been involved with it. you'd set up a trust -- set up a fund separate from the social security trust fund, put $1.5 trillion in it, invest it in the stock market just like 401(k)s do and allow it to grow over time. that's what the canadian pension fund does. the teachers -- the ontario teachers' fund does. every national fund around the world does it except for social. if we did it for social, we could actually bail out social and and make the program better, for example, by repealing things like weapon gpo which you don't know about, but a lot of americans do. stuart: under your plan, your idea, would individuals have their own plan as opposed to being part of a group? >> no. they would be part of the group,

and the individual would repeal that 24% cut in benefits which right now joe biden and donald trump, frankly, are going to enforce on the american people because their plans have no political chance of passing. no. you repeal that, the risk is borne by the fund, not by the individual, and the proceeds over time accumulate. they bail out the fund and, again, they do other good things for it. stuart: what happens if the fund invested in stocks goes down? >> yeah. so the individual is actually protected against any loss. but if you look at the stock market and the investment in the economy since 1929, it's averaged an 8.5% return on investment: now, we actually don't even assume that much. we assume a lot less than that. and nonetheless, we feel make the numbers work -- we still make the numbers work. if the economy sinks, we've got bigger problems than social security. so we just feel like we continue to rise with the economy, and we do a lot of good things for the american people. that's a plan that can pass.

that's a real plan. stuart: okay. health get back to the 3 2-hour workweek. now, i think that may be politically popular but, mr. senator, is it good economic policy? >> it's one more example of the federal government trying to promise free money as if there's no consequences. if there's incredible consequences of paying workers the exact same amount of money for working 32 hours instead of 40 hours. so, for example, you increase the cost of labor which means that companies are more likely to automate if. they're more likely to move overseas their operations for cheaper labor costs and, lastly, it contributes to inflation. it is a bad deal for workers. one more example free money, nothing's free. stuart: last one, senator. iowa senator joni ernst says she wants to end secret spending by the administration. she wants to end what are called, what are labeled other transaction agreements. do you know what these secret transactions are, mr. senator? >> i know that it's a way for

the biden administration if just to kind of put money where they want to without the more than people knowing it. and if -- the more than people knowing it. and if you're trying to hide something from the american people, that's a bad thing. stuart: do these payments, secret payments, amount to a whole hill of beans? >> oh, it does. $40 million a pop, and $40 million a pop adding up to large sum of money. so it's not just the principle, you're hiding it from the american people, it's the amount which is actually a drain on the federal f if isc. stuart: mr. senator, thank you very much for being with us. by the way, senator joniensst will be here in the 11:00 hour to dig deeper into her bill on biden's secret spending. i want to check futures. this is getting real interesting now. they're all in the green. not as a much as they were before those inflation numbers came out. the inflation numbers were hot, but we've still got green on the screen. dow up 90, nasdaq up nearly 20, small gain for the s&p.

green on the screen, the opening bell is next. ♪ ♪ turn it up, turn it up, mash it up. ♪ if it ain't the end of the world ♪ if you always got your mind on the green. not you. you!

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stuart: we like this. happening now, that is the spacex trying for a third test flight of the starship rocket. it has taken off, there you can see it, the light in the sky there. it's launching from its facility near boca chica in texas. back to the market. new research shows household debt hit a record high, but household wealth has grown much faster. interesting. d.r. barton with us us now. do does that mean that the households are actually improving their financial situation? >> well, stuart, i think for any business or a household runs a lot like a small business, your bottom line, your overall wealth, your balance sheet9 is most important. so if the debt grows a bit --

and here the debt per if household wasn't up much, but the overall debt because there are more households in the u.s. is up over the past 25 years. the data looked at. but having, having asset is -- assets grow three times faster, pretty darn good. stuart: so it's kind of a -- that is a healthy situation. if household wealth is at this $154 trillion mark, there's nothing wrong with that, is there? if. >> no, there isn't anything wrong with that,s especially if the debt's just going up a bit, stuart. stuart: yeah. >> i think anybody wouldn't want to take on a pile of debt hoping to get assets to grow in the future. but to take on a little bit more debt especially when we went through all of the money that was thrown at the citizenry during covid, i think we did pretty well not to increase more than the numbers show. stuart: well, the stock market rally has clearly helped

everybody in this country. household wealth at that level. now, you've got stock picks. start with general dynamics, defense play. >> yes. we have talked about general dynamics about 80% ago. they've gone up, or they're near their all-time high. still throwing off a nice dividend, stuart. but with i think while we're really excited about magnificent seven and everything else, it's good to have a part of your portfolio diversified into something that's going to do well and give us some backup if things don't go quite some so well 6, 8, 18 months from now. stuart: you got 15 seconds to tell me about a google and emerging from the a.i. mess. go. >> yes. i believe that google's misstep with schedule knew has been priced into the -- gemini has been priced into the stock. they've been performing the worst of the mag 7 over the past six weeks. i think it's a good place to ping a little if you don't have it. -- pick up a little.

stuart: dr. d.r., thank you very much, indeed. the market has opened, the dow industrials, 87 points higher, 39,134. the dow 30, there's more buyers than sellers at this point. the s&p 500 also opening very slightly higher, .18. that's it for the gain. 5,174, though, is the level. and the nasdaq composite, that's on the upside to the tune of .17%. all of these gains coming down a little bit from where we were right before the inflation numbers came out. big tech headed by microsoft, it's close to $420. apple, 172. meta, nearly $500. apple, 172 and amazon 177. let's look at the tesla. -- look at tesla. that stock is down 3 32% this year. ubs is cutting their price target. it was 225. what's the target now? lauren: 165. so down $4 -- stuart: it's almost there. lauren: it's the latest

brokerage to cut their expectations on deliveries for tesla, their forecast is 432,000 for this quarter. and they don't see meaningful growth coming anytime soon. they don't see it happening until 2026. that takes a lot of patience, right? if you look at tesla, which is 234r59 today, and if also boeing, they're the worst performing stock os telephone -- stocks on the s&p 500. tesla lost a third of its value. stuart: later in the show we're going to look at the whole idea of musk's erratic behavior and has that had some impact on the stock. i think he's looking for over $200 a share. let's run through some of the earnings that came out before the bell. dollar general, they must have done well. lauren: yeah, a good report. the reasons are a sad commentary on the times though. so their strategy at dollar general, which is good for a 6% gain, is to get back to the basics. customers are coming in to buy basics, essentials. food at the dollar store because they're cocking -- cooking from

home. and even doing traditional things like having human workers be there and present to help you answer questions. the strategy is getting back to the basics. same-store sales rose versus an expected decline, and their outlook is pretty good. stuart: cooking at home saves you a fortune -- lauren: cooking from the dollar store saves a fortune. >> i need to adopt that from my own practices. stuart: dick's sporting goods. lauren: have you taken a kid to baseball practice or soccer practice if anytime soon? i mean, the stuff that they need is tremendous. kids are on, like, seven teams a year these day, and they need a lot of sportswear, sports gear. that's helping dick's. the revenue came in at a record $3.8 billion. their comps were much stronger than expected x. then, cherry on top, they rose their dividend by 10%. stuart: fisker, electric vehicle maker. the stock is vir chilly worthless. are they going to declare

bankruptcy? lauren: they are preparing a bankruptcy filing, and this would be the second bankruptcy for henrik fiskinger. of this time around he wants to do things differently. he said i don't want to operate a factory, i'm going to outsource production. and he did, to austria. well, that's problematic. the cost of getting the cars here. delivered their first if vehicle last her, sold less than 5,000 in that time. evs aren't in gland, especially expensive ones -- in demand. >> and, by the way, you look at a stock at 36 cents, you say, oh, my gosh, it's only 36 cents, right? guess what, it could be 0, now you lost 100%. just don't touch it. stuart: robinhood, i know that they are way up this morning. there's a lot of good news on that stock, it's up 7%. lauren: fomo. retail investors are excited for yield, and trading activity surged across all of their asset classes. if you look at their equity

trading -- 80.9 billion, a gain of 41% $$80.9. crypto trading up to $can 6.5 billion. they're in the sweet spot. i want about to point out what bernstein is saying, they've initiated robinhood at a buy. the stock's at a $18, they think it's going to $30. and this is what bernstein says about krill -- cryptocurrency, bitcoin particularly, it's going to $150,000. they don't say when, but they expect the market for cryptocurrencies to triple by next year with a market cap for cryptocurrencies in general, $7.5 trillion. just for crypto. by 2025. stuart: i have memories of the dot.com bubble. >> yeah. stuart: i can't shake that. when you start having people saying it's going to $150,000 on bitcoin and it's, what, $73,000 the now, that has me worried with. lauren: these spot etf funds, what if they decide to lump clip. to currencies in with other asset classes, would that be

more widespread adoption and boost prices? >> well, okay, the one argument in favor of bitcoin, quote-unquote, or going to the moon is that there are only going to be 21 million bitcoin mined ever in the world with, period,ened e of story, and we're at 19 now. and a lot of the institutional investors won't vel it, so there's -- won't sell is it, so there's the scarcity value. you have a new group with of etf investors chasing, effectively, less bitcoin. stiewfer stuart can you put the market -- >> and you happen to own it. stuart: a tiny sliver. >> so do i. do you own microsoft? lauren: i don't want. maybe in a fund if somewhere, but not directly. stuart: 420. sounds like marijuana. adam, you brought a couple op stock pix. wait a minute, or you like boeing? >> i know. stuart: ultimate dip. >> well, and i pine the ultimate ultimate dip.

stuart, in all seriousness, there's a theme that has served me well over time, and the theme is when great companies stumble, dot, dot, dot, you why them. finish -- you buy them. think of ge went down to single digits and is back in the 30s. intel that went from 60 down to 20 and is now in the mid 40s. you know, disney, even meta, you know? if which, again, or i'm long. meta went down from 350 to 82 and now it's at 450. when great companies stumble, you buy them. this company right now, boeing, is only earning about $3-4. peak earnings is, like, $16. the stock is still down 70% from where it was so, yes, i see up upside. i think they will right the ship.. i'm willing to give dave calhoun the benefit of the doubt having met him. stuart: oh, there you go. >> you look in a man's eyes and talk to him, what are you going to do to right the ship, you start to get a sense for what's possible. stuart: quickly, meta, you think it's going above $500?

if. >> yeah, i do. the stock is only trading at 24 times, so you've got the s&p trading at 2times growing 7% or you've got meta trading only, you know, to a few handles more and and growing 35%. you've got to buy it. stuart: adam, stay there, please. send in your friday feedback to varneyviewersfox.com. president biden wants federal marijuana reform. roll it. >> if no one should be jailed for just using, possessing marijuana. and staying -- stain on their record. >> yes, sir. [applause] if. stuart: the campaign is enlisting celebrities like fat joe, they even brought in vice president kamala harris. inflation if ticked up, where are we going with price increases? economist peter more are race city after this. ♪ if 'cuz you're so smooth if. ♪ and it's just like the ocean

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stuart: coming up, the president has a new economic strategy. he is right what -- is that the right place -- that's the wrong place on the script, you see? every now and again i make a mistake. look at the mistake i just made. i read the wrong script -- [inaudible conversations] [laughter] microsoft is at 423, ladies and gentlemen. >> yes. and stuart owns microsoft! [laughter] so do i, so do my clients. stuart: some of our viewers are getting fed up with me talking about -- lauren: they are, actually. i field that question a lot for you. >> they're only fedup with themselves because they didn't buy it. stuart: can we move on and let me talk about this: donald trump teasing a possible pick for treasury secretary. who is it?

lauren: john paulson. do you remember him? made $20 the billion shorting the housing market in '08. yeah. well,ing john paulson hosted a trump fundraiser a few weeksing ago at his palm beach home, and he's hosting another one with next week with cantor fitzgerald's howard limb nick. so he is a potential name being floated on the short list. stuart: what do you think? >> that's a tough one, he's a man who has made enormous if amounts of money some years, but he takes as though he makes enormous amounts of money every year, and it kind of rubs prose on the street the wrong way. of -- pros on the street the wrong way. stuart: thanks very much is, adam. now this, we received the producer price inflation report this morning. janet yellen spoke with fox business' edward lawrence on inflation. this was yesterday. roll tape, please. >> i wouldn't look at expect this to be a smooth path month to month, but the trend is

clearly favorable. that said, president biden's top priority is addressing the issue of high costs that concerns so many americans. stuart: it was a heavily hedged position. newist peter morici joins me no. producer prices up 1.6% over the last year. where does peter morici see inflation going from here? >> i think inflation is going to stay about where it is in terms of the cpi and the personal consumer price index at around 3, 3.5%. the reason for that is inflation in the services sector are is becoming very, very stubborn, and we're starting to see those expectations that mr. powell says are anchored, firmly anchored at around 3. in fact, the lowest measure of that was put out by the new york fed, and that is now rising up to be in line with what the conference board has and the michigan survey and so forth9.

so my feeling is that people expect 3% ininflation. service providers are pricing 4 or 5% in which is customary that they're a little more. and so i think we're stick. stuart: okay. you've got a new op-ed. you say that the federal she -- reserve should leave rates alone until a recession is an actual threat. okay, i got the point. but that would be a long way off, wouldn't it? >> well, not necessarily. i mean, if you survey economists, now, they haven't been terribly accurate in recent years, they're a saying that growth will be slow in the second and third quarters. if we have any kind of hiccup whatsoever, that could become negative pretty easily. but the reality is that right now monetary policy's pretty easy. with inflation at 3% and the real rate of interest a little bit more than 4 judging it by against the 10-year treasury, most people in my profession now think that we're returning to the bad old days before the

financial crisis when the real rate of interest was generally 2-3%. you know, if you look at what treasuries were going for and you look at what the inflation rate was, 2-3% which is consistent with the late of growth and everything that economic theory says it should be. so -- and even janet yellen as now admitted we're going to have higher interest rates going forward. my feeling is, is that right now the interest rate is hardly restrictive, and the fed is sending out terrible signals. next week they're going to talk about slowing quantitative tightening. why? if. stuart: yeah. >> you know, or why? and if they slow it, they're going to be sitting on this mountaining of treasuries and all that money sloshing around outside for a very long time. stuart: yeah. well, the market seems to love it. investors or like this. >> yeah. they like easy money. stuart: they do, indeed. don't we all? peter morici, thank you very much is, indeed. all right, it's on my script here, it says what's this about a $22 burrito in san francisco? i guess that's the one on the

left-hand side of the screen. lauren: uh-huh, that is. stuart: has inflation become that bad? lauren: yeah, the owner has doubled the price of his signature burrito. stuart: what's in it? >> gold. [laughter] lauren: every ingredient in it, it's the normal ingredients, high end, but each ingredient as has doubled if not more for him. i was watching an interview with the local station, he said i used to pay $9 for a stack of onion, now i'm paying $80 for a sack. he says that has more than doubled his costs. but the thing is he's always busy. people are accepting and willing to pay what they view as a quality. stuart: i would definitively say i would not pay $22 for a burrito, would you? >> no, absolutely not. it's a burrito. stuart: exactly. >> like chinese food. it's the not supposed to be expensive. stuart: a burrito is not chinese food. >> but it's like chinese food. when you get chinese food or a burrito, your hooking for value. when i started off on wall street, i was making 29,5 a

year. that's not a lot. lauren: that the one's probably really good for a little bit more. stuart: thank, adam. thanks, lauren. [laughter] the president has a new economic strategy. he is right what a he considers the racial wrongs of the past. that's politicians in an election year, but will it bring real change? that's my take coming up, top of the hour. and there's this, there are still questions over tiktok's algorithm targeting children. here's my question. if you ban tiktok, won't use or just go to another platform? a report on that next. ♪ i got new rules, i count 'em. ♪ i got new rules, i count 'em ♪

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stuart: how about this, a national ban on tiktok could drive users to other platforms, couldn't it? kelly to grade ifty with me this morning, is tiktok just part of the problem? >> reporter: yes. and, actually, this was one of the contentious points that came up during the house debate yesterday. national security concerns are just one part of this. there's also user safety when it comes to the content algorithm. and you see this with tiktok, there are concerns over how it enables the flow of drugs into

the u.s., how the content on there impacts your mental health and, of course, tiktok isn't alone. you've got instagram, facebook, snap, they're all facing lawsuits, and it also raises the question if tiktok does need to find a buyer, what u.s. company do we feel comfortable tackling those challenges? last night if tiktoks' ceo underscored those 'em -- implications if this bill does go forward. >> this legislation, if signed into law, will lead to a ban on tiktok in the united states. even the bill sponsors admit that that's their goal. this bill gives more power to -- to a handful of other social media a companies. >> reporter: the tiktok influence campaign is raging. users are up in arms about losing access to the platform, and leadership is really feeding into that fear saying small businesses, creators are going to lose billions of dollars. but when it comes to the path forward, i want to underscore this is not a ban. this is a forced sale. there's a lot of misinformation on social media a there. next up it's going to head to the senate. you may not see as much smooth

sailing there. there's a lot of tension about the impact on free speech. for example, senator rand paul called the legislation a da draconian measure. but it does have bipartisan support. the president indicated if it gets to his desk, he would sign, of course, that could cause issues with young voters. stuart: that's hair main concern. 40, 50 million youngsters are going to be very annoyed at this. adam, we touched on this earlier. you think that a tiktok ban outright is bad, right in. >> bans don't work. and it's inappropriate government overreach. i agree with senator rand paul who, by the way, tends to not say these sort is of things, but he says it's draconian, and i agree. do you want the government banning your gas stove, banning your gasoline-powered car, on and on and on, banning tiktok? no, that's government overreach. bans don't work. they're artificial. i think it's become a witch hunt. i'm far more concerned about the fact that 80% of the cranes at u.s. ports were made by a chinese company that can dial in

via modem and manipulate those cranes. that concerns me a lot more than tiktok. stuart: okay. adam, thanks for joining us for the hour. kelly, great report. check the markets, please. i see some rid red ink for the dow, down 100,s and -- and the nasdaq is down 66. that's quite a reversal. if still ahead, deroy murdock. putin issued a certain warning to the west. he says russia's ready for a nuclear war. now, or why is he saying that right now? christian whiton has more on that. and what's this secret spending we've been hearing about? senator joan -- joanny ernst is here to explain. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪ ♪

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