E.J. Antoni
Appearances
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
It's largely because people are having trouble planning for the future. They don't know how the tariff game is eventually going to shake out. Now, some of that, you could argue, has to do with different folks in the administration not singing from the same hymnal. But I would argue a lot of it has to do with the fact that as soon as we're talking about reciprocal tariffs,
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
you now have a whole nother element that's completely outside of your control, which is what is the president of Mexico going to do? What is the governor of Canada going to do? We don't know. And because our reciprocal tariffs are based off of what those foreign leaders are going to do, we have to essentially wait and see.
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
You can't plan on anything because you don't know what that foreign leader is going to do. And our response, again, is dependent on what that foreign leader does.
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
In a lot of ways, the market was simply just overbought. For literally years, we had government debt fueling both government spending as well as consumer spending, government handing out welfare payments, for example, that were funded by borrowing.
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
And all of those different things have helped to drive corporate earnings, but they didn't create any kind of sustainable growth within the private sector. And the result of that has been people thinking that this runaway so-called growth would last forever. And clearly that's not possible. It
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
Anyone who has had too much to drink and woke up the next day and had to deal with a headache knows exactly what this feels like. And so the solution is not to say, hey, I felt better when I was drinking, so I should go back to alcohol, right? And yes, the detox is a painful period. But look, the sins of the past always catch up to you, be they moral or monetary.
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
What we're dealing with today is the result of all the runaway government spending and debt and other profligacies that we've had for several years now. So it will be painful to undo all of that mess, but that's the only way you get to long-term economic health.
Morning Wire
Wall Street Turmoil & Ukraine’s Ceasefire Agreement | 3.12.25
All of the models pointed to the market being overbought. And so some of this is simply rebalancing.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
It's a fallacy that the entirety of a tariff is always and everywhere passed along to the end user, to consumers. If that were the case, for example, American dairy farmers who are facing a 270% tariff trying to get their products into Canada, they would simply pass that cost along. But they can't because it would make them uncompetitive, right?
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
A lot of the equations I've seen have it penciled in at about 50%. So again, that's not great because that means consumers are still going to bear some costs. But the idea that they're going to bear the entire cost, again, it's just a fallacy.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
You know, the Fed cut interest rates when they had no business doing so back in the autumn. That caused commodity prices to spike. That is now turning into higher wholesale prices and higher retail prices that you and all the listeners have to pay. That's one of the reasons why we're still dealing with some inflationary fallout.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
So that's basically the mess that has been dumped into this administration's lap and that they're now having to deal with.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Well, I would love to know by what metric he is using to determine that this is the greatest economy ever. I mean, look at inflation, for example. He is handing President Trump an economy with a higher inflation rate than it ever was at any point during Trump's first term. So this idea that somehow the economy is firing on all cylinders, I'm sorry, I just don't see the evidence for that.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
You know, there are fewer... native-born Americans with jobs today than there were in 2019, five years ago before the pandemic. Again, by what metric are we using to say that the economy is better now than it ever has been before? What's better now than it ever has been before is government employment. The number of people employed by the government, over 23 million.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Government is growing at an exponential rate. We're going to spend about $1.4 trillion to finance the debt in the year ahead. I mean, that's the only metric I can see that shows the economy really growing at a brisk pace.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Sure, there have been some native-born Americans, for example, that have found work over the last several years. But on net, meaning if you consider the number of Americans who have also lost jobs, that exceeds the gains. So the number there is negative. That means that all of the net job creation we have seen over the last five years is has gone to foreign-born workers.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
So what's really sad is that the Biden administration has effectively turned the American labor market into a kind of temp agency for foreigners and for government bureaucrats, because we've seen a disproportionate amount of job growth in the government sector. We've seen the economy actually lose full-time jobs, not gain them. So we're gaining only part-time jobs.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And again, if you look at the demographics, the only people who are gaining jobs on net are foreign-born workers.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
The latest on inflation, unfortunately, is that it is re-accelerating. And some of that has to do with the fact that the Biden administration continues to spend money we don't have. The Federal Reserve, in an act that I think is election interference, they took their foot off the brake and stomped back on the gas by cutting interest rates right before the election.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
These are all things that are going to contribute to higher prices. And we're only feeling some of the effect right now. Most of that inflationary impulse, though, is really going to play itself out in 2025. And frankly, I think they're handing Trump a bit of a ticking time bomb. when it comes to inflation.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And, you know, we have this notion that's fueled by the media and by Federal Reserve officials that we've been trending towards this target inflation rate of 2% per year. But that's simply not true. We haven't been trending there. We've been trending to about 3%. And we actually arrived there quite some time ago, and we have been stuck there at about 3%.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And there's no sign that we're going any lower anytime soon.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Well, unfortunately, when the government does a bad action, we don't feel all of the bad effects right away. It's very similar to if you drink too much, you know, you get that buzz first, but then the hangover only comes the next morning. And we see the exact same thing with a lot of government overspending.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Initially, we didn't get to 9% inflation right away at the start of the Biden administration. We got there about a year and a half into his term. And the reason for that was that it takes time for all this government spending to slosh its way through the financial system. But eventually it does work its way through and it ends up creating higher prices for consumers.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
That's what we're seeing play out yet again as the Biden administration not only continues the runaway spending, but now, again, we have this what I would think is election interference on the part of the Fed.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
cutting interest rates hard and fast right before the election to, I think, try to produce a certain outcome, which they obviously didn't get, but which will nonetheless produce some very bad effects for the American consumer next year. Now, on the other side of the equation, you have President Trump with a very pro-America energy policy that should help reduce prices.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Because if you increase the supply of energy, you'll reduce the price. And when you reduce the price of energy, you reduce prices throughout the economy, since everything uses energy, all kinds of goods and services. So you have one thing from the Fed that's going to help push up prices. You have another thing coming out of this administration that will help push down prices.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Which of those is going to win out at the end of the day is unclear.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
A deregulation would have a tremendous impact. And we actually saw that during the first Trump administration. There was an interesting gathering where he asked several hundred business leaders from everything from small to large businesses, what did you love most about my first term? By the way, you got to appreciate how the president always phrases these things. What did you love most about me?
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
But he gave them a choice. What was better, the tax cuts or the deregulation? Every single one of them said it was the deregulation. That provided much more benefit. And it not only provides benefits to those business leaders and to those businesses, but also to the broader economy. The reason being that when the government taxes you,
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
They take money from you, but that money is going to get spent somewhere else. So it may be less efficient, but it's not a complete subtraction from the economy. Regulation, however, is exactly that. It is a complete subtraction. It represents a loss of economic activity that's not being transferred from one person to another. It just vanishes.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And so that deregulation can have a tremendous impact on increasing economic activity, on increasing profits for businesses, and on increasing take-home pay for workers. Again, all of which we saw during the first Trump administration. And it looks like they're really willing to go whole hog during their second term. So that's a reason to be very, very bullish.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Manufacturing is a big one. People don't realize that there is a tremendous regulatory burden on the manufacturing sector in this country. And it's a key reason why so much of our manufacturing has been shifted overseas, why there has been so much corporate inversion of our heavy industry.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
For a typical manufacturing worker, let's say they're making about $50,000 a year, it's not uncommon for the regulatory burden attached to that worker that the factory owner, let's say, is effectively paying, that that regulatory burden would be $60,000. In other words, it's even more than the person's wages.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Now, you throw on a benefits package, let's say, of another $40,000 or $50,000 for that worker, and all of a sudden, what looks like a $50,000 worker is to the rest of the world is actually about $150,000 in terms of total compensation costs for that factory owner. Conversely, you can send that job overseas and avoid most of that regulatory burden, avoid a lot of that benefits package, let's say.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And you throw on top of that the fact that we tax manufactured goods at a lower rate when they come in from overseas than when they're made here at home. And all of a sudden, it's a no-brainer to send those jobs overseas. burden would be a tremendous boon for the American economy and for the American worker.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
I think so. It's very much a carrot and stick approach at the same time. We saw it in more distant history as well, and it produced exactly the same results. We forget that during America's golden age, when we saw our fastest rates of sustained economic growth, we didn't even have an income tax. The federal government fueled itself entirely basically based on tariff revenue.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And so this idea that somehow increasing tariffs or relatively high rates of taxes on imported goods is somehow going to crash the economy or cause runaway inflation, I'm sorry, nothing could be further from the truth. Again, America's golden age had exactly those circumstances, high tariffs, except we didn't have high inflation.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
We actually had slight deflation during that period of about a tenth of percent per year. So again, there was no runaway inflation. There was no widespread unemployment. It really was America's golden age. And I think it's a key component to repeating that economic success.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
No, it wasn't, and it really demonstrates her complete economic illiteracy and also her ignorance of history. Again, just recent history, because under the first Trump administration, every dollar that was imposed of tariffs, only about 19 cents out of each of those dollars was actually paid for by American consumers. The other 81 cents about...
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
was paid for by overseas producers like Chinese steel producers, for example. The reason being is that if they tried to pass the full cost of the tariff on to American consumers and American businesses in the form of higher prices, then American consumers and businesses would simply choose an alternative that would at that point have been cheaper.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
So maybe that was importing from another country like Sweden and getting our steel from there. Or maybe it was getting our steel from domestic producers here at home, whatever the case may be. So you have to always keep in mind what we like to call tax incidents, which tells us not who is actually literally paying the tax, but who is actually paying the tax.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
In other words, just because a Chinese company is writing the check to the treasury doesn't mean that they're ultimately the ones bearing the cost. Now, in this case, they were. Again, it was about 81 cents on the dollar that they actually had to pay. But that's just one example of what would happen if we continue this policy.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Now, that stands in stark contrast to domestic taxes, like the income tax or like a sales tax, where no matter where the tax incidence is, either on the seller or the buyer, it's still falling on an American.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And so the difference between tariffs here and any of those strictly domestic taxes is that the tariffs are essentially causing foreigners to help pay America's tax liability instead of putting the entire burden on the American people.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
I love it. I can't tell you how much I love it. People don't understand the amount of red tape, especially from these different government three-letter agencies like the EPA that throw up roadblocks anywhere and everywhere and make all kinds of productive economic activity. simply unviable because the regulatory burden is so tremendous.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
But again, if you can get rid of that, then all of a sudden you get rid of the deadweight loss and you can create an economic resurgence. It's difficult to overestimate just how many projects there are in this country, or I should say that there could be, in this country, but for the regulations that get in the way of entrepreneurs and people who actually want to serve their fellow man.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
Because at the end of the day, that's how you make money in this country. You provide a good or service that people want, and in exchange, they're willing to pay you for it. But when government is going to throw on this tremendous regulatory burden, it makes it impossible for people to do that. Elon Musk gave a couple of really good examples lately
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
with his SpaceX program, where the EPA and different other agencies threw up all these roadblocks, like making him conduct an ocean survey to try to determine whether or not if one of his rockets fell out of the sky, it might happen to land on a shark in the ocean. I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but those are the kinds of things that organizations like the EPA are forcing businesses to do.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And if you're a small business, you can't afford to do those things.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
I'm optimistic, but largely only because of the people that are going to be at the helm. The ship of state is going to go through some very, very turbulent waters in the year ahead. We have a lot of what I would call ticking time bombs within the economy. You know, we talked about inflation resurging. That's one of them. The commercial real estate market is on very, very shaky territory.
Morning Wire
Trump vs. Inflation: Can He Fix the US Economy? | 12.14.24
And that means that the small banking sector, which provides all of the commercial real estate loans, they're also looking at a lot of trouble coming down the pike. So again, we're facing a lot of economic headwinds. Let me put it that way. But I have a lot of confidence in leadership that they're going to be able to get us through. Great stuff. Thank you so much for talking with us.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Well, Andrew, thanks for having me. Unfortunately, a lot that we have to go on right now is really just rumor, and that's why there's so much volatility in the marketplace. Now, there are a few things that we know for sure, right? Like you mentioned Benjamin Netanyahu being in town. That's something we can definitively say is the case. But as far as nations being at the negotiating table,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Again, there's rumors that there's a lot more. There's rumors that there's a lot less. We have heard some EU officials go on the record saying that they are willing on certain things to go to zero tariffs if the US does as well. So again, there is definitely some good progress here. But overall, there's a lot of rumor, which means there's a lot of volatility. Another thing that we know for sure
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
was that because there were so many short positions on wall street as soon as we saw a little bit of an uptick today in stocks there was a rush to cover in other words people were starting to uh to buy stocks for fear that if the price went up they'd have to buy them at a an even higher price now normally stock prices going up would be a good thing but
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
In the case of a short position, it's exactly the opposite. You're betting on things going down, not up. So whatever the case, this all caused a tremendous amount of not just volatility, but a huge swing. The Dow had its biggest intraday swing ever, moving over 2,600 points. between its lowest and its highest point of the trading day, and we're only halfway done at this point.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
So, again, tons of rumors, which means tons of volatility. Markets are looking for direction. They're looking for definitive answers. We thought we were going to get that last week with the tariff announcement, and unfortunately, because of the way these tariffs have been structured, we've gotten exactly the opposite of clear answers. We've gotten a lot of misdirection.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Andrew, these are great questions. Thank you for asking them. And it's really something I think where we need to set the record straight because there is so much misinformation out there. There are way too many versions of the truth here. There's only one truth. So here it is. What President Trump wanted were true reciprocal tariffs.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
In other words, he wanted a kind of economic golden rule, if you will, where we say to other countries, look, you are imposing these tariff and non-tariff barriers on us. You are penalizing our exporters and therefore our workers. So we're going to do exactly the same thing to you, holding up a mirror, as it were, to these other countries.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
That is what he tasked members of his administration with, like the Commerce Department, like the U.S. Trade Representative, etc. That was the whole reason for the delay, for example. Waiting until April 2nd was to give those folks time to calculate what are the average effective
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
tariff rates among all these different countries around the world instead what we got was something that has literally nothing to do let me be perfectly clear these tariff rates have nothing to do with other nations tariff and non-tariff barriers they simply looked at the ratio of imports to exports, and only looked at the imports and exports of products, not even services.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And so at the end of the day, you're simply looking at trade deficits. And again, it's just the trade deficit in terms of goods. Unfortunately, that means for some countries where we actually have an overall trade surplus, You know, maybe we sell them shoes. Excuse me. They they sell us shoes. So we're buying shoes from them, let's say.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And then maybe we turn around and sell them financial services. And they are buying much more in financial services from us than we buy shoes from them. That's a trade surplus for the United States, except that according to this formula, it's counted as a trade deficit. And we impose a penalty tariff rate on that country for having that trade deficit in goods with them.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
That's a ludicrous trade policy. It's not going to get us what we want, which is more free trade. That's the whole point of reciprocal tariffs. It's to force other nations to get rid of their tariff and non-tariff barriers so that just as foreign nations have access to our consumer markets, Our producers can have access to their consumer markets. That's the goal here.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
We want more free trade, not less. It's not that we're protectionists. It's that, again, we want true reciprocal free trade, free and fair trade, what some people call it. And the problem with how these tariffs are structured, because they're not actually looking at other nations' tariff and non-tariff barriers, is that we have imposed penalty rates on many countries who don't deserve them.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Why on earth is it we have a tariff rate on Israel that's almost twice as high as the one on Iran? Why is it that China has a tariff rate that's just, frankly, middle of the pack? They should have the highest rate among any nation because they engage in the most trade abuses, whether that's manipulation of the currency.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
subsidizing industry and dumping artificially low-priced products in other countries' markets. You have slave labor. I can go on and on, whether it's currency manipulation, etc. The list just goes on and on when it comes to China and all of their unfair trade practices. And yet again, they have a middle-of-the-road tariff rate. So, The issue here is not the goal, right?
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
President Trump absolutely has the right goal. And I even think that his method, if you will, or his tactic of reciprocal tariffs was a good one. The issue here is how that was implemented. The issue here is that he has people within his administration who frankly have not served him well enough, who did not provide him with the reciprocal tariff schedule that That was promised.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
That's the issue here. And again, if you look at markets reaction, when it was first announced we were going to have this 10% across the board tariff, markets actually rallied initially. The futures markets went up, I think, about 1.5% on that news. But then all of a sudden, when this tariff schedule appeared. where it made absolutely no sense.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
These numbers clearly did not come from tariff and non-tariff barriers. That's when futures started to tumble. And then we've had now three days, basically, where the markets have really taken it on the chin. Again, this all has to do with uncertainty. People don't know where we're going to go from here. And that's a problem.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Well, I think one of the key things is going to be during these negotiating processes with different countries will be to come up with actual average effective tariff rates. So you look at a nation like Canada, look at all of their tariffs, but also their non-tariff barriers, their quotas, for example, that they put on things like American dairy products.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
You know, that really hurts our dairy farmers. So figure out, okay, what is the mathematical equivalent in terms of an overall tariff in And so say to Canada, look, if you are willing to get rid of X, Y, and Z tariffs or non-tariff barriers that you currently have in place, we will reduce this tariff rate by a certain amount, okay? And that's your negotiating tool.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
But the problem with, again, with the current tariff schedule, when there is no real relationship between those trade barriers and the rates, Some of these nations are coming to the negotiating table with their arms up in the air saying, we have no idea what we're supposed to do here. We have no idea how we can actually get these tariff rates down.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
So I think some further explanation from the White House and some further clarification on what the actual rates should look like would go a long way. The other really big thing. is that it seems like we've kind of put the cart before the horse in a certain sense. You know, what this economy really needs is supply side policies.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
We need drastic, I mean, drastic cuts to government spending, to taxes, to regulation. We need an energy production boom in this country. And so by getting tariffs first without all of those other things, The American middle class who has been drowning, it's like we just threw them an anchor without first building them a boat.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And so it is imperative that we get things like the tax cut across the finish line. And also what I would really like to see from Congress, this isn't just the administration's fault. Congress has been painfully slow to act on this. So I would love to see Congress in the reconciliation process where we get the tax bill through
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
to include in that process this 10% kind of baseline tariff that the president has put in place, put that into statute, but do it as a border adjustment tax. And that has a lot of different advantages. First, it gives a huge benefit to our exporters, which encourages production here, encourages manufacturing, and encourages American jobs, which is tremendous.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
But it also puts the tariff only on imports. So you're not going to have Things like the car industry, where a car part may cross the border between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada half a dozen times before it goes into the final car assembly. You don't want that to get hit with a tax every single time. So a border adjustment tax solves a lot of those problems.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And the other great thing, by putting it in statute, is the fact that now you can include that in the calculation of the reconciliation process so that all the revenues can be used to reduce income taxes.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Well, thank you, Andrew. these different tariffs, which are going to generate revenue. These tariffs are being put in place by the executive and not put in statute by the legislature. They can't be counted in the reconciliation process in terms of revenue that's going to come into the treasury.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And that's so important because under reconciliation, this is supposed to be a process by which you take an existing budget and you basically just tweak it. And so you're not supposed to have drastic changes to either revenue or expenditures. you're supposed to essentially have no effect. It should even out.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
So if we're going to make a change like reducing marginal tax rates on income taxes, which is terrific, that's a great thing. It's exactly what the economy needs. It's what the middle class needs. They need tax relief. But now you're going to need to offset that somewhere. And I understand the fact that there's a law for curve effect here.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
In other words, as you reduce tax rates, that increases economic activity, which grows your tax base significantly. And if you grow the tax base faster than the tax rate declines, overall tax revenue actually increases. That's what we saw during the first Trump administration. The problem is that's not how the Congressional Budget Office scores it.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And so you need what they sometimes call an offset to the reduction in personal income tax rates. And a great way to do that would be to take the revenue that's going to come in from a tariff, a border adjustment tax is what we really have. Totally agree.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And then you can now essentially shift some of the tax burden onto foreigners, which is great from an economic standpoint because there is actually an externality at play here. It is our Navy that patrols the world's sea lanes. It is our Navy at our expense that keeps the ocean safe for international trade. And so it only makes sense that other nations would help pay that expense.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
And a great way for them to do it would be to tax the the very thing that our Navy is supporting, which again, is international trade.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Rejecting Tariffs, or Rejecting Uncertainty?
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
I think it was certainly a surprise to a lot of folks who weren't expecting it, at least not this soon. Now, some of it is not going into effect immediately. In other words... cars currently made in Mexico, in Canada, they're going to have some time to verify, for example, what percentage of the components are actually being made in North America.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
In other words, what does qualify for the USMCA and what does not. Part of the reason why so much ire has been directed at Canada lately, for example, is because of all the abuses that have been alleged within the USMCA. In other words, when you allow a Chinese company to come in and set up shop in Canada and sell stuff, That's really not Canadian. It's actually coming in from China.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
But you're selling it under the guise of the USMCA. That's really an abuse of these country of origin laws. And so if Canada is not willing to crack down on that, then we're going to have to crack down on it.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
Exactly. And it's not just the fact that they are evading the tariffs on China, but then they're getting it's kind of a one to punch because they're evading the Chinese tariffs. And then they're also getting the preferential treatment that other nations don't get within the USMCA. So it's not simply that China is not China, but they're on a level playing field with the rest of the world.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
No, it's one step further. They're even getting preferential treatment.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
Yeah. That's my late grandfather's. And since we have the same initials, it was, it was left to me. That's cool.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
It's interesting. If it really was the case that all of these tariffs would instantly be passed along to the consumer in all instances, then American dairy farmers would have no problem competing in Canada because they would just take that 270% tariff or the equivalent thereof. and pass along to their Canadian consumers. Except they can't, because it would make them uncompetitive.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
So that's clearly not what happens, at least not in all instances. Now, there are a lot of different factors at play. There are different elasticities from one good to another, from one market to another. You also have changes that happen in terms of currency exchange rates. So there's a lot of moving parts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
Thank you.
The Dan Bongino Show
E.J. Antoni On Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Economy | Ep. 09 - 03/27/25
Thank you.