so good earnings prospects, nice dividend yield and also it's just been beaten up so badly. cheryl: andal too, you know, with the financial sectors when interest rates start to come down, you have to wonder how that's going the affect the books. cpi's next week, ppi as well. quick, your expectations. >> i think we're going to see numbers that are equal to or below the prior month, so we're going to continue to feel encouraged by the downward movement in the overall inflation picture. cheryl: all right. sam stovall, it's always great to see you. like the picks. very you unique -- very unique. monday, fran drescher going to be joining liz talking about the actors' strike and the aftermath. that is on monday. that's it for me. next is "can kudlow." ♪ larry: hello, folks, welcome to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow. all right, hunter biden indicted again, nine new tax charges in

california. could be facing up to 17 years in the poke key. fox news' jonathan hunt standing by for us with much more. jonathan, what can you tell us? as though we don't already know. [laughter] >> reporter: well, what we're all wondering, larry, right now is when hunter biden will make his initial appearance. we know that it will be in the federal courthouse behind me. in theory, it could be anytime now. in practice we believe most likely it will be early next week that he comes here to face those nine tax-related charges that include, by the way, three felonies. now, the bottom line according to the special prosecutor, david weiss, is that hunter or biden, quote, spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills. and where that money was going makes for fascinating reading mt. indictment. quote, between 2016 and october 15, 2020, the defendant spent

this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature. in short, everything but his taxes. and here's just one fascinating payment detail. another quote, a $1500 venmo payment on august 14, 2018. that payment was to an exotic dancer at a strip club. the defendant described the payment in the venmo transaction as for artwork. the exotic dancer had not sold him any artwork. now, hunter or e biden's attorneys have dismissed the entire indictment saying if hunter's name was not biden, there would be no case. while hunter himself told the music star moby of all people in an interview released today although we don't know when it was recorded, that this is just about political enemies trying to hurt his father. listen here. >> i recognize that none of this

is necessarily about me. they are trying to, in their most illegitimate way but rational way, they're trying the destroy a presidency. and so it's not about me. >> reporter: now, it's important to point out, larry, that nowhere in the 56-page indictment is president biden accused of any wrongdoing whatsoever. but, obviously, there will be ramifications on the campaign trail politically speaking as this court case begins to play out. interestingly and quips dentally, president biden -- coincidentally, president biden is due to arrive here in los angeles later today for some fund raising events. he'll be here, as we understand it, until sunday. but no word yet, larry, on when he's -- when he is going -- whether he is going to find time to meet with his now-indicted son who, of course, lives right

here in the l. alt area. larry? larry: jonathan hunt, great rundown. we appreciate it very, very much. thank you so much. all right, folks, from what i can gatherer, conservatives are rejoice joyceing over the nine charges filed in the 56-page grand jury indictment against the president's son, hunter biden, filed by federal prosecutor david weiss, and it's a pretty seemmy indictment as jonathan just said. i'm not sure hunter's not too happy about this. and i'm sure his father isn't thrilled about it either, okay? i get that. but speaking as a nonlawyer, really just as a poor, impoverished news host, i'm not is so sure about this alleged christmas present because with, because now hunter is going to use this as an excuse to avoid any private deposition under oath before any of the congressional oversight or judicial or or ways and means committees. or worst case, he'll take the fifth if he he has to go up

there. what he will not be forced to do is to reveal all the details of the alleged influence peddling and bribery crimes that might just happen to come up in a discussion about his failure to register as a foreign agent. let me italicize that foreign agent part, because the weiss indictment didn't include that for some reason. maybe an oversight. the whole world knows that papa biden was involved with his son's business. that is way too easy now. but the world doesn't yet know precisely how he was involved. and hunter ain't gonna talk about that because he's already been busted for not paying his taxes, right? since if he just got busted for three felonies and six misdemeanors and, yes, he could go to jail for 17 years and, no, hunter's not going to have any fun in jail, but he won't go to capitol hill east. either. my nonlegal suspicion is that

this whole series of events actually brings gop oversight investigators further away from joe biden. because hunter's to going to be untouchable for quite some time. and if i were really a cynic, i would say the special counsel, david weiss -- who has zero credibility -- decided to put hunter on ice for exactly this reason. i mean, i can just imagine the phone calls between weiss and attorney general merrick garland. look, we've got to do something here because these ir are s whistleblowers made such a strong case, and judge near yenning ca in wilmington blew up the first phony deal beyond repair, so let's protect the ultimate boss, joe, by throwing hunter under the bus. just for a little while. put him on ice for the rest of the election period. and if papa biden does beat trump, well, he'll undoubtedly pardon his son. in fact, press secretary kjp

said again that the president would never pardon his son. which, of course, makes it all the more likely that that is exactly what the president would do. remember the political axiom. politicians say, no, no, no right up until the time they say yes, and that law will apply here, trust me. or if donald trump should win, then hunter will make some kind of deal but, yes, he'll spend some time in the pokey. not the worst thing in the world from the standpoint of his octogenarian father who will whisper under his breath, better him than me. so just to end this totally absurd riff, since when have conservatives suddenly decided to entrust special counsel david weiss after his incredibly unenviable track record about all of this? and that is my nonlegal, impoverished news host riff. okay? there you have it. now, let's bring in some legal

experts, all right? if i'm going to see how part smart they are. we have brent tolman, former u.s. attorney and former senate judiciary counsel, and we have gregg jarrett, fox news legal analyst and author of "the constitution of the united states and other patriotic documents." gentlemen, welcome to the show. okay, i've set my trap for you. you heard what i had to say. i'm going to start with you, or gregg. i don't trust weiss as far as you can throw him. i think they put this thing together precisely to keep the son away from the father. that's what i think. go ahead, poke loopholes into this. >> larry, you missed your calling. you should have been a lawyer -- [laughter] larry: no, no. >> you should have. you're on to something here. look, david weiss is still going soft on hunter biden. larry: yeah. >> what, no money laundering, no bribery, no foreign lobbying crimes, nothing whatsoever to do

with the burisma shakedown involving joe biden? so so don't be fooled, the doj protection racket is alive and well. weiss, you're right, larry, deserves zero cred -- this is the guy who wanted no charges at all. he conjured up a sweetheart deal, and only when a federal judge in delaware blew it up, was he he forced to bring the gun charges. and then, of course, the damning evidence produced by the courageous irs whistleblowers that forced weiss to bring these most recent new charges. you know, weiss was publicly shamed into following the law. and only after he got caught lying to congress was he compelled to bring these the charges -- these charges which just so happens as you're alluding to, larry, happened days before hunter was scheduled to give a deposition -- larry: right. right. >> -- which gives him an automatic fifth amendment get out of jail free card.

larry: isn't that a coincidence? gregg jarrett, you're so smart, you must be a lawyer. isn't that a coincidence? [laughter] days before he's scheduled to go to capitol hill, look what happens. the kid gets busted for all kinds of unseemly behavior spending on stuff and not giving uncle sam and the irs their just ree ward or their just dessert or their just something. [laughter] but, you know, brett, i mean, it's not that i'm a lawyer. i don't want to be a lawyer. i never really wanted to be a lawyer. i don't know what i wanted to be, but that's another segment. [laughter] but the point is being in politics all these years or in and out of politics, brett, i kind of smell a fish, a bad fish, a rotting fish, all right? i think they know exactly what they were doing. what do you think? >> well, i will say i'm glad we're all on this panel together today because all the commentary i have heard has been absolutely

outrageous, wrong, and they're taking the bait. larry: yes. >> let's put facts, let's put data and facts out there. one, is he looking at 17 years? not a snowball's chance in hell he gets 17 years. they don't stack like that. he's facing under the guideline range probably 1-1 and a half years in prison because of the way they charged it. you wouldn't know that unless you've done these types of cases before. the other thing that's very significant, larry, half of the investigation is shockingly absent in this indictment. they didn't do what is called sourcing investigate -- investigation which is to find out where the money came in from. i'm not aware of an irs investigation in this country that doesn't look at the validity of the money coming into the individual that they're investigating for tax evasion. here though it's not there. and there's a reason why, because gregg said it. this is the deflexion to get

hunter -- deflection to get hunter out of having to testify and expose more about his father, also the distraction to keep joe out of the limelight because we're starting to see more and more about a his corruption. larry: i mean, look, this whole thing is a snare and a delusion. this guy weiss, don't forget who he's working for, merrick forwardland. don't forget who's running that justice department, joe biden. don't think for a minute -- i speak from experience, gentlemea minute the senior most people in the white house aren't involved in this stuff. don't believe that for one little is second, because they are. this is sheer, raw election year politics. gregg, they are going to throw hunter under the bus. actually, they don't have to really throw him under the bus, they just have to put him on ice for a year until the election, and then they'll see. if joe biden wins, he'll, you know with, give him a pardon in about two minutes. make that two seconds. if he doesn't win, okay, he'll throw him under the bus, maybe

he'll spend a year or two in jail. and you know how joe has that great whisper of his. well, better him than me. he'll to do that kind of thing. [laughter] meanwhile, that's what this -- it looks like david weiss is doing something. it looks like the justice department is doing something, and we don't have a dual system of the justice in this country. but we do have a dual system, don't we, gregg? isn't that really what's at a stake here? >> oh, we absolutely do. and, you know, this indictment more than anything else underscores the corruption within the doj, u.s. attorney's office investigation. and, of course, you've got the media apologists already dismissing these charges saying, oh, it has nothing to do with joe biden. that's untrue. the tax crimes arose from hunter e biden's corrupt influence-peddling schemes, and the evidence is compelling that his father, joe biden, actively aided and abetted those schemes. you've got documents, testimony, white house logs, photos,

e-mails, text messages implicating joe biden, showing that, you know, he would speak by phone to hunter's clients. he'd meet personally with the overseas partners. he even attended meetings. he was selling the biden brand which was access to him and promises of influence. look at devon or. er's -- archer's testimony. he confirmed it. and, of course, the secret e-mail if, don't ever mention joe's involvement which is why they used code names for joe's involvement, celtic and the big guy. larry: march yeah, but that's too easy. everybody on the planet knows that joe is involved in his son's business. that's way too easy. i mean, they even had, you know, a nice pasta dish at café milano. everybody knows that. but what they don't know and what weiss didn't open up in this indictment is all the foreign registration stuff and, as brett said, the foreign payment stuff. none of that stuff's in there.

you know, he's going to pay some taxes for some hookers. oh, gee, that's not going to -- that's not enough anymore. in 2024 united states elections, paying hookers for taxes or not taxes, man, that's not going to do it. we gotta go further than that. we've got to go much further than that. anyway, i'm going to lose my mind. brett tolman and gregg jarrett, i'm glad you guys didn't dismiss my nonlegal theories completely. >> excellent stuff. [laughter] larry: gregg, i'm going to see you on the radio for more of this nonsensical stuff. anyway, folks, right here on "kudlow," we'll still doing tv, wisconsin senator ron johnson who really started this investigation a while back, he's going to weigh in on this. and i'm hoping senator johnson can talk to us about the immigration business. republicans could really conceivably make a difference to close the border over this foreign spending bill. so we will talk to senator ron johnson of wisconsin. i'm kudlow, i'm not a lawyer.

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larry: all right, let's talk a little bit more with one of the originators of the joe and hunter biden scam and maybe a

little bit about fixing the border if such a thing is possible. we're going to bring in your friend, wisconsin senator ron johnson. as i said, he started this in the first place. senator johnson, i don't know if you saw any of our opening segment, but color me very suspicious about this david weiss indictment, blah, blah, blah, coming a few days before hunter biden was going to go and be deposed in front of the oversight committee or the judiciary committee or one of them. and, you know, he didn't mention anything about the foreign registration act or any of the influence peddling or any of those kinds of things. so color we a skeptic, senator johnson. and as one of the originators of this whole process, what do you think? >> well, larry, yeah, listen, i think this investigation's been corrupt from day one. we certainly knew most of what's in this indictment, not all the a details. what i found stunning about the indictment is the listing of

expenditures. $4.9 million over 4 years? that's almost $24,000 a week, $33900 a day -- 3300 a day. $872,000 spent on women and adult entertainment. that's over $4,000 a week and $600 a day. so that,s you know, we knew he was spending money on women, probably trafficked through international sex trafficking rings. i find that outrageous. i think it's outrageous the media hasn't covered that. i'm also suspicious. the timing of this just is as james comer's trying to bring hunter biden in for a transcribed interview, obviously, hunter's trying to avoid that. so this'll probably frustrate chairman comer's attempt to get to the bottom of this as well. so color we suspicious as well with. these indictments should have been brought years ago. larry: yeah, exactly. i mean, i think this is going to stop it. this is going to -- because everybody knows that papa biden was involved in his kid's business. that's too easy. but we don't know the exact

details which might have come out if they allowed hunter to go up there, you know, at risk of contempt of congress and actually do a private, under-oath deposition. now they can't -- he won't do that. he'll either take the fifth, or he won't show up because they already busted him. i think it's insane, and i sea right through it. and i think merrick garland sees right through it, and i think that the biden white house helped orchestrate this, senator johnson. that's the way hardball politics works. >> not at all. and, of course, the most important thing in this investigation are documents. and chairman comer, chairman smith, they had the whistleblowers, they were key, but we need documents. i don't know exactly what kind of resistance they're getting in terms of getting all the bank records. senator grassley and i had the treasury reports, showed autosuspicious activity, millions of dollars flowing from adversarial companies into this lab hillary clinton of companies set up for money laundering.

it's the detailing. money went in. where'd it all go? we're finding out it's going to many members of the biden family that did nothing other than have the right name. it's been corrupt from the get go, and this investigation is as well. larry: let me turn to this whole business about the foreign aid funding supplemental bill and so forth because we had senator lankford on last night. nice fella. i guess oklahoma conservative. but i didn't want really hear, i mean, the gop if has a chance to use this funding bill as leverage to get some significant progress in closing down our southern border. which has been open wide by mr. biden in the last three days. the numbers are incredible. the terrorist threats are unbelievable and the drugs and the sex trafficking and everything you know about. but you got a chance now to stop this perversion. of the asylum seeking business. keep them in mexico while they're waiting for some kind of

state department decision about asylum. for example. i mean, that's where i'd start, but i'm not hearing that from your colleagues, sir. >> you're certainly hearing it from me. the open border, biden, the democrats' open border is a clear and present if danger to this country. it should be our number one national security, homeland security priority. and and we have to use whatever leverage we have. biden wants money for ukraine, regardless how you, you know, how you view funding for ukraine, we must use that as leverage. we just wrote an op-ed, senator scott and i did, for fox news that says that any money going to ukraine must be contingent on actually securing the border. we need to establish benchmarks just like any kind of incentives you'd have in business. they must be met before money flows on a monthly basis e to ukraine. it's common sense. they're looking for $60 billion. president trump, under current law, secured the border in about 12 months.

he went from peak to trough in 12 months with remain in mexico, safe third countries. listen, i want the language senator lankford is trying to negotiate for. democrats are not negotiating in good faith. but regardless of what language we get passed, we cannot count on this president to faithfully execute these laws. this is a lawless administration. they want an open border. let's face it, supreme court said eviction her tore yums are unconstitutional, he ec tended it. -- extended. the supreme court ruled that student loan forgivenesses was unconstitutional, he keeps forgiving them. we have to hold this administration's feet to the fire. he does not get the money unless he secures the border. larry: and shows it. >> right. larry: they can measure this every week and every month. that's a terrific idea. right now, last one, senator johnson, as i understand it what the bidens want and what senator schumer apparently wants is they want what are, 5, 10, $15 billion that will facilitate the

illegal immigration. >> right. larry: i would rather stop illegal immigration, wouldn't you? >> that's the administration's policy. they are actually saying they're successful by facilitating more rapidly the processing, dispossessorring of ill real immigrants in this country. they think it's a challenge, and they think they've risen to the challenge by make it more efficient. it's ridiculous. larry: senator ron john, so, thank you, sir. as always, we appreciate your work and your visiting with us. we'll see you soon. >> merry christmas. larry: all right, folks, fire the ivy league presidents who do not have the backbone to fight anti-semitism. we have steve forbes coming up next. he wrote a very brilliant, tough article about the rise of anti-semitism. i want him to share it with us. i don't know as this show goes on whether this woman running penn has been fired or not, but she should have been fired. the one at harvard should have been fired.

the one at mit should have been fired. it's an absolute disgrace. such is life. then we'll talk about the jobs outlook. jobs, jobs, jobs. wasn't a bad report, wasn't a fabulous report. kind of a soft landing report. see if inflation's going to come down. maybe we'll have a nice christmas. hunter biden may not have a nice christmas, but john carney might promise us a nice christmas for the rest of america. i'm kudlow. i'm looking forward to a nice christmas, whatever.g un but i'm not a lawyer. ♪ w experian smart money™ debit card and digital checking account. it finds payments that could raise your credit scores without adding debt. it's no ordinary debit card... it's the smart debit card... only from experian. and that is worth celebrating. build credit without the debt. get your new experian smart money™ debit card and digital checking account through the experian app.

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♪ larry: all right, welcome back, folks. we're going to turn to the israeli war where the israeli idf continues to grind down hamas in gaza. fox news' nate foy live from northern israel with much more. of nate, welcome back. thank you for your help again with. what can you tell us tonight? >> reporter: hey, larry. so just in the past half hour or so the united states vetoed a u.n. resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza. so the united states continues

to be israel's most important ally, and the war rages on across the entire country including here on the northern border where israel and hezbollah continue exchanging fire. but the focus are remains in gaza is where just moments ago the idf released this video showing soldiers confronting hamas terrorists in a school. watch this. [inaudible conversations] [background sounds] [gunfire] >> reporter: so, larry, this is happening in northern gaza where the idf is still fighting pockets of resistance even as it pushes farther south. the idf found a hamas tunnel in this school connecting a classroom to a mosque. over 130 israeli hostages remain in gaza including 8 americans, and today we spoke with the father of an israeli-american mother released by hamas last week. >> now my daughter has to work

about putting her life together. and i think that she's up to it. she -- i have no doubt that she's up to it. >> reporter: liat spent 54 days in hamas captivity. the terrorists murdered her husband, aviv. but now as israel pushes deeper into gaza to eliminate hamas, her father is calling for the immediate reelite of all hostages. >> every day is taking a terrible toll. >> reporter: and he has this message for the families of hostages still in gaza. >> the message i gave to my daughter from the bible. [speaking in native tongue] be strong and courageous. this is no other alternative. >> reporter: larry, we are also learning today that two idf soldiers were severely injured overnight while trying to rescue hostages from gaza by force. they, unfortunately, were not able to bring home any of those

host ago as. we'll -- hostages. send it back to you. larry: a poignant interview, nate foy. thank you for helping us. please be safe. appreciate it very much. all right, folks, move on from what's happening, actually, in israel to what the -- the anti-semitism story, the shameful anti-semitism story. the president of penn has still not been fired. there are a lot of rumors about that today. if you ask me, they should all be fired for their pathetic performance in front of congress. but anyway, we've got steve forbes to talk about it, "forbes" media chairman, editor in chief. steve forbes, you wrote a brilliant piece, i don't know about a week ago about the spread of anti-semitism in our time. you would think in a modern, civilized country, we wouldn't see this. but it looks like it's getting worse. and even worse than that, our

professors and our elite college presidents are relate -- are letting it fester. >> well, that's the shock. we saw the antisemitism of the 1930s, we saw what happened in germany and elsewhere. at least in this country, you didn't have it out in the open like we have today. so it's come out in the open. but the shameful and shocking thing is our civic leaders have not confrontedded it. they coddle it rather than condemning it. they don't want to seem judgmental. somebody might if criticize it. -- them. what it sets up is an variant where bad things can happen. they see a united states not being open to real diversity anymore, the real kind of diversity that made this a great melting pot as well. so in terms of that anti-semitism, it's a sign of the rot of the times, a sign of the rot of our institutions, our education al institutions that these leaders could go before congress when asked about the holocaust, when asked about killing jews and say depends on the context.

larry: remarkable it's just beyond words. larry: and kudos, actually, there was a good column in the new york sun, actually two of them, but one of them was elise stefanik, the ranking -- she's part of the republican hierarchy in the house. elise stefanik for president, dot, dot, dot, of harvard. i mean, everyone's killing the woman from penn, everyone's crashing down on her. she deserves it. i think the woman from harvard deserves it. mit, at one point they would not let jewish kids go in the front door because they would be attacked by other people, they were just conceding -- >> it's like the 1930s. your presence is provocative. the victim becomes the villain, and that's the kind of thing that leads to the disaster we saw in civilization. nearly caused the end of civilization in the early 1940s. and now we have a world today absolutely unraveling. we see it in guy ariana now. -- guyana. is the biden administration going to be strong like bush and

thatcher were when kuwait was seized? is that going to be allowed to happen? does biden have the backbone to stop that? when you have that kind of unraveling, mistakes are made, and that a's where you get a global conflagration. it's something you don't want to think about, the markets don't want to think about it. we live in a dangerous world of miscalculation, and the moral rot here encourages all the enemies of true civilization. stuart: larry: another good piece in the new york sup by our friend ira stoll about the linkage between anti-semitism and capitalism. it's interesting, all these left-wing professors who hate israel talk about the downfall of capitalism, but also he goes into the iranian constitution and what the mullahs have said there and how that's a state-run economy, and they hate capitalism. maybe, i mean, i don't know, there's a lot of reasons for this awful situation. but perhaps the attack on capitalism is one of those reasons. >> well, when governments create

an environment where you don't have real free markets, you have scapegoating, i.e., the anti-semitism, but you also have, you blame capitalists. you blame business people for the woes out there. and so you undermine the very system that made the prosperity and the progress we've made over the last 200 years possible. so it's a bad, bad, ini have white house circle. -- invir. [applause] ous circle. larry: rashida tlaib, aoc and these crazy ones in congress, they're coming -- they hate israel. they call themselves socialists. so there you have another anti-capitalist thought into the mix. but just -- >> and social isism leads to tyranny. larry: yes. okay, there to you go. yes with. no, no, that's 100% right. >> and that's the danger you see in all these regulations. you see it in now we can't even eat meat anymore, we're going to eat ants and fleas, whatever. larry: hate crime. it's hate crime. this whole anti-semitism is easy

hate crime, and these professors, these college presidents should have labeled it as such. should be the easiest thing in the world. >> what the alumni have to do now is ask, what happened to our institutions? why this, unable the face this great moral threat to western civilization. larry: all right, thank you, steve forbes. terrific stuff. we appreciate it. all right. steve's going to switch chairs with john carney who's going to talk about the jobs report which wasn't a fabulous report, but it wasn't bad either, and it may have something to do with a soft landing. here's the great john carney from breitbart with his, what is it called, the breitbart busy jest. okay. we have a picture up from the wall street journal web site on the jobs story. here it comes, hold your breath. look at that, the system worked. it ain't fabulous, but it's not crashing either. and you're saying there's not going to be any fed rate cuts anytime soon.

>> no. larry: tell me i'm wrong. of. >> no, absolutely right. this was not a fabulous jobs report. there was a lot of weakness. if you look at things like temporary hiring which is a measure of business demand, that's down in a lot of categories. you see business professionals down. leisure and hospitality, way up. social services, way up. larry: government. >> government, way up. state and local government, by the way. interestingly, the federal government hiring did not increase. but this is enough that it's made the market rethink the idea that the fed was going to cut in march. i think that was a crazy idea. because, look, jerome powell says he looks at 3-month averages, 6-month averages. we don't have enough time between now and march for the averages to move enough for the fed to get comfortable with cutting as early as march. so the odds went from 70% of a cut in march to now it's like 30%. march a march we have another chart from yesterday's front page of "the wall street journal" on inflation coming

down. look at that. that's the pce deflater, perm consumer price deflater -- personal consumer price defacilitater. the peak there was 7%. it's down to 3%. these two chartsing i want to ask you about it. the jobs thing looks like a soft landing, and the inflation thing looks like the fed's going to corral inflation. now, that's the best of both worlds. that's very pan gloss january. remember pan -- >> yes. [laughter] larry: i believe it was the 17th century. john carney, are you a follower of dr. pengloss? >> i do think we're going to see a soft isish landing next year, but i don't think -- it's going to be closer to no landing at all. i think inflation is not coming down to 2%. i actually think there's a problem with these numbers we're reading right now both in the jobs numbers and in the inflation numbers. the inflation numbers were held down by the fact that businesses now put things on sale for the holidays in october.

walmart, target, amazon all had big holidays back in october. same thing with hiring. one reason hiring wasn't impressive was because of the seasonally-adjusted numbers. retail hiring went down in november. people said, uh-oh, that's a terrible thing. retail is going down in november? that means consumers must not be spending. if you don't do the seasonal a adjustment, it went up by hundreds of thousands of jobs in retail hiring. what's happening is people are getting hired in october and not november. so the month-to-month number doesn't go up by a lot. but if you look year to year, we actually had more people ending ployed in retail this year than the year before that and more than the year before that. so it's going up, it's just getting concealed by seasonal a adjustment. larry: why is it -- last one -- the investors' daily tips poll which is a highly regarded poll just came out earlier this week, 50% of americans think we are currently in a are recession,

and the interesting part is across the political spectrums just about even republicans, democrats and independents? so if things are so good, why are they so bad if? >> right. so the key to this is that most people -- the recession isn't the technical thing that the nbre says it is. they think of it as a bad economy. and what they look at is can i afford this year what i could afford last year? and the answer is, no, you can't. people noticed at thanksgiving they had to pull back on what they were able to buy. when they go shopping now, they think i can't buy as much as i could before the pandemic for my family for christmas. so people really look at it as am i were the off, and the answer is -- better off and the answer is, no, i'm not, so they say it's recession. larry: that's their recession. more important than the egg eheads. i got it. john carney, breitbart busy can jest. he has a cult following, folks. gotta read it every day.

all right, folks, here go the bidens all again going after fossil fuels, one again attacking fossil fuels. donald trump says drill, baby, drill. bidens say don't drill, don't drill, don't drill, all right? somebody's right here and somebody's wrong. we're going to talk to former energy secretary rick perry. he will weigh in. and remember, folks, "kudlow e" is available as a podcast every day after our show on not spy, apple and fox business podcasts.com. hello, i'm a podcast. we'll be right back. ♪ hi, i'm ben and i've lost 60 pounds on golo. (guitar music) with other programs i've tried in the past they were unsustainable, just too restrictive. with golo i can enjoy my food and the fear and guilt of eating is gone.

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larry: there they go again, the biden ass attacking ifs sill fuels -- bidens attacking fossil fuels. joining us now, the great rick perry, dear friend of "kudlow." welcome back. have not seen you in a while. you know, there's a couple cool things out there. so saudis, opec+ and the russians, they say they're cutting back on their oil production, but actually global prices are going down. okay? so they can't seem to stabilize it. let's start with that one. is no one listening to this crowd, or are they all cheating on each other? what do you think? >> well, i suspect it's a little bit of everything, if you want to know the truth of the matter.

[laughter] anybody that trusts the russians to live up to an agreement, then, you know, that's your deal. but, you know, i think it's the splay and demand issue. it always has been, and we're going to be out there producing as much as we can in this country given the restrictions that the federal government's trying to put on us. that's my big concern, is that, you know, the command -- demand's out there particularly for liquified natural gas. i don't want to spend too much time on it, but we had the opportunity to really get a market in place in europe back over the haas four of or phi years, and we were doing a great job until the current administration came in and put a had -- halt to it. and the germans have figured out that shutting down their nuclear plants, their old inefficient coal plants and other fossil fuel plants was a fool's errand. and now they're having to go put older coal plants back online to keep the lights on. so there's a real market out

there for american clean-burning energy. larry: so naturally, because what you say is true and i've tried to help grow sell that stuff oversees -- overseas, especially lng, now the bidens are going after methane, and they want to stomp out the only clean-burning fuel, really, natural gas can. although we have clean-burning oil also. here's the thing, rick, they don't have the authority to do that. these new epa regulars, the -- regs, the clean air act says the states are supposed to regulate late. and you had west virginia v. epa where the supreme court ruled in favor of that. so they may be barking up the wrong tree, the bidens, as usual. >> spot on. you're going to see a considerable amount of litigation relative to this. but this shouldn't shock anyone. this is the playbook for the biden administration. they will look for every way in the world to stop the fossil fuel industry.

they -- this is the bogeyman. i'm not sure this is not as big a bogeyman as a donald trump in the eyes of the biden administration. and stopping both of those is their game plan. they will do anything, i mean, and forget about a doing anything within reason, they will do anything to stop the fossil fuel industry. and the states will stand the up together, i think, and push back, push back hard as a we should -- as a we should. this could cause 300,000 the oil wells to be shut in if they were implementing what they're talking about. you talk about putting a strain on the electrical grids, for instance, i mean, this could be catastrophic. larry: last one, rick, it's kind of my favorite. at this global warming conference, cop28, it was in the uae, and the uae's sultan in charge of oil gets up there and says i am not in favor of getting rid of fossil fuels. if we get rid of fossil fuels,

we'll all go back to the caves. and the whole crowd went bat you know what. and so i want to make him "time "'s man of the year. i know taylor swift has already won it, but i liked what the sultan said. >> the yeah, he's a bright, capable leader, and, you know, he's just saying the truth. he's just talking reality. the idea that if you are to go to net zero by 2050 the way these radical environmentalists want, then you're going to lose your ability to keep the lights on in europe. and even worse, you're going to put the people in africa into continued rank poverty. larry: yeah. >> and that is, that's racism -- larry: gotta jump. >> [inaudible] larry: rick perry, you're 100% right. i want that guy to be "tyke "magazine man of the year, folks, i'm kudlow. i'll be right back with my last a word. ♪

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larry: everybody's got to work as hard as they can e to eliminate the hate and scourge of anti-semitism sweeping this country and elsewhere. and if you have to start with a couple ivy league presidents, then so be it. but that sean detract from watching liz macdonald. that's a very important -- elizabeth: larry, you're the greatest. we appreciate you. merry christmas. i'm elizabeth macdonald, "the evening edit" starts right now. ♪

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