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tv   Varney Company  FOX Business  January 18, 2024 11:00am-12:01pm EST

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>> it's time for the party to uniter and to focus on what matters, which is winning in november, beating joe biden. this country is on disastrously the wrong path. >> with nikki haley you can swift and see a plausible path to at least making this a race. she'd have to win in new hampshire rather than go home and announce a big come back. >> every time the price of coffee goes up a nickel, it reminds people of the fact that it used to be $3. now it's $4.55. >> sad for all of us as americans to see our president, our leader so un-ability to do so many simple things we take for granted. jaire joe biden cannot do this job for another four minutes much less another four years.
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stuart: what is this? michael buble. sounds so old fashion, doesn't it in like a cruise in the 1950s. >> he's good. stuart: whatever you say. lauren: he performs at weddings. stuart: he performs at weddings? whoa. it's 11:00 eastern and thursday, january 18th. a look at markets and 90 minutes worth of business. nasdaq up 150 and small loss for the dow, down 75 and modest gain for s&p up 15 points. big tech mostly higher. in fact, they're all higher, the ones on the screen. apple, meta, alphabet, amazon and microsoft, look at microsoft, 392. 10-year treasury yield going up. nasdaq has gone up, normally they go down with the treasury yield goes up but you've got 412 on 10-year treasury. now this, congressman jamal
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boman is a democrat representing part of new york city. he wants $14 trillion reparations for the descendants of enslaved people and bill 41hr4 has 14 other supporters in the house. $14 trillion. obviously question, where does all that money come from? boman says we don't have to raise taxes. no, we should do what we did with covid, that is print the money. bowman's a socialist and don't expect him to understand the consequences of printing $14 trillion and chucking it into the economy. he doesn't want to remember the inflation that started when the fed printed trillions during covid and after all, there were no serious consequences when bowman pulled the fire alarm on capitol hill to delay a vote on something he didn't like. bowman is buying votes, blacks are drifting away from the democrat party. without 90% of the black vote, biden's chances of win willing slim. offer money and lots of it.
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if mesh sun willing to pay up, we're a racest -- america is unwilling to pay up, we're a racest nation. biden will have to deal at some point and he'll be asked about it and he'll be on the spot. one more split in a democrat party split on just about everything except hatred of donald trump. third hour of varney starts now. stuart: ben domenech is with us this morning. sounds like the democrats are getting desperate, what say you? >> i think all the reparations talk is more what you've pointed out and completely economically eric republican reinceable and in -- e inafford physical and ty have reparations and would that
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stop people like jamal bowman from saying america is a racist nation and founded in racism and slavery and subjew grace of litany of -- subjugation of things from the left? of course not. they want to have their cake and eat it too. as you acknowledged, it's a weight of inflationary prospects for the economy that would fall on the working class of america the hardest. it would hit the families that would have to experience that inflation the most and on a daily basis, it hurt them over the past several years and would hurt them even more. so it's completely nonsensical and does speak to the desperation of a party increasingly seeing aigretter appeal to diverse generation of voters from the republican side and their arguments make sense and not about victim hood. stuart: vice president harris went on the view and blamed republicans for the crisis at the border. senator ted cruz joined us earl
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herrera on the program and responses. watch th >> joe biden inherited lowest rate of illegal immigration in 35 years and the week he was sworn in, the numbers skyrocketed. he's flouting the law and the reason is simple, biden and kamala and every democrat, they want this inflation, and they see feature democrat votes. joe biden and kamala harris are the last mile of the human trafficking network, and they're sending illegal immigrants to every city in america because for them, politics are more important than the human lives they're destroying. stuart: he once mincing his words and used the word invasion and said it was deliberate. deliberate policy on the part of the administration. what say you to that? >> it is absolutely deliberate and keeping in mind, the laws are not changed and they did not somehow vanish overnight when donald trump left office. these are all the same laws in place that joe biden and
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secretary mayorkas and the entire entity of biden harris administration is refusing to enforce. they're refusing to follow the laws as written on the books. so they can talk about weeking things or having proposals sent up to congress. that's not what this is about. it's about enforcing the law as it's written and in so doing preventing this kind of chain of human trafficking that has been a boon to the finances of cartels and america's enemies and to those who want to sent and profit from human suffering. unfortunately i don't know why democrats on capitol hill, especially those who are up in critical senate seats coming at the end of the year, why they're not tearing their hair out and screaming to high heaven at the white house. perhaps maybe behind closed doors, you've got to do something about this because this is the number one issue that that's going to hit the fall. stuart: i think they're tearing their hair out in private and at some point it's going public because this isn't doing away.
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going away. thank you, ben. >> good to be with you. stuart: check the markets, nice price action in the nasdaq and big tech up 140 on the nasdaq. lou basenese with us today. how can the fed cut rates dramatically or cut rates when you've got consumer spending strong, job growth is strong, and there's some growth in the economy? >> pull up the old dana carvy impersonation of george bush and not going to happen. investors are behaving like the economy and they're making predictions that end up completely wrong. look at retail sales. the last six months retail spending and consumers spending like energizer bunny and befuddled economists six months in a row. investors have been wrong too, even though policymakers are leading with their lips. they told us all last year we're going to keep raising rates and they did and guess what they're telling us now, you've got to reign in your rate cut expect taces and not going to happen
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immediately as recently as this week the fed is out saying it's not going to happen right away. even european central bank is saying the same thing. stuart: in the immediate future, that's putting a lid on broad stock market gains? >> i agree and only thing that can break us out of that theme is earnings. if earnings coming in strong and magnificent seven starting to report next week with tesla and week after, we have rest of them outside of nvidia, that could take over as the theme that matters to the markets. stuart: elon musk wants more control of tesla. why and will he get it? >> he's 100 bernards healthcares going to get it or he'll take his ai ball and go home. he's the richest man in the world. it gives you a lot of leeway and leverage and look at what heavyweights done. he's not afraid to spark controversy to get what he hospitals. he told disney to take ad dollars and stick it somewhere and he doesn't care and telling the board i want more control and 25% compensation or i'm going outside of the company to pursue the ai ambitions. tesla needs ai.
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they're the most richly valued awed toe makers by hundreds of thousands per car. ai is the growth engine for that company. stuart: he's saying i want more money >> he pes more control. stuart: if you don't give to me, i'm out of here with ai? >> yeah, he'll take it. look what he's done before. why didn't he build spacex under the same umbrella or other companies. he brought solar city underneath and didn't work out and now he's going to look to do things outside. he's a smart man, and he's got all the leverage in terms of billions and billions of dollars in the world. stuart: he's fascinating. lauren: he's a smart man and instead of cutting prices on teslas for market share, he should run an ad, an expensive one, saying, hey, this is how easy it is to charge a tesla and this is what we're doing to make sure that you're not stuck in the snow in a cyber truck. stuart: that would really make sense. lauren: he needs a big ad to save the ev industry he pioneered right now. >> i've always been a critic of elon musk and i've not liked him or tesla, but i think in this way, he's a very smart man and
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he goes directly at his critics and attacks them and does what he says he's going to do eventually. stuart: read the book on musk, it's fascinating. lauren, tell me about boeing. it's moving on the upside. lauren: up. 2.5% and new indian airline ordered 150 737 max airplanes and that's a sign of confidence in the plane maker, but does not include the max 9 nonetheless sign of confidence. stuart: fasinal. lauren: great earnings report and big demand for on site safety products and safety gloves and glogg les. stuart: plug overall over the place and it's down today? lauren: it's only $2 right now. it's a clean energy provider, the premise is it's hydrogen fuel cells can replace the traditional battery. amazon is the stop customer and plug power needs cash and $1 billion equity raise and already warned it could go bust.
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this is crazy. >> they've been out there forever trying that make this happen and incinerated more capital in terms of that . stuart: they want a billion more and stay afloat. lauren: yeah, but this is a consequence of higher interest rarates and consequence of green policies that the market might not be ready for. stuart: thanks, lauren, cam ha harris says the 2024 race is about competence versus chaos. listen. >> it's going to be the choice between what is about respecting our democracy, what is about competence versus chaos stuart: maybe i can put my two cents worth in here. it's also a race between a man who spends his time tiding from the public and a man whose vigor would make a youngster jealous. brent bozell on that. putting together a bill to remove the statue of liberty one person saying. time up for texas national guard to reopen shelby park for federal border officials and
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texas saying, oh, no, no, we're not going to budge. what happens now? a report from shelby park after this. awkward question. is there going to be anything... leftover? oh, absolutely. [inner monologue] my kids don't know what they want. you know who knows what she wants? me! with empower, we get all of our financial questions answered. so you don't have to worry. empower what's next.
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stuart: let's get to the crisis ornament the boarder and the battle between the feds and state of texas for control of the border. texas refusing federal agents inside and matt finn is at the park and the fed said there would be consequences. anything so far? reporter: so far no physical consequences on the ground, stu
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and not only did texas defie the federal deadline and i noticed a short while ago, texas is putting up even more razor wire and fencing inside this park and texas dps tells me that texas is more capable of deterring migrants it feels because the pieden administration wants an open worder. >> we're trying to pre-september illegal border crossings to not see the loss of life. it's not normal and it's not humane for cross a river including children and contradicts what we're trying to do and shows how the federal government is attacking texas for trying to prevent that and what they want to do, they want to keep the border open. >> as part of governor abbott's emergency declaration, the state of texas is now arresting migrants that illegally cross into the park and the state and from our observation, that is a massive change in procedure. for nearly thee years leading up
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into past december, sometimes they were ushered across the river and then taken by border patrol and this is the why texas kicked autoborder patrol and texas said border patrol is acting as a mig magnet for migrs and they can stand on the other side of the river and seeing them being processed by border patrol. we want to remind you why the particular park is a hot battleground. last month you may recall, there was a historic surge of migrants crossing into this park it overwhelmed border patrol and forced closure of legal ports of entry. now this morning, we're standing on that aim property and it's a much different scene and it's been fortified with razor wire and we do not see large groups crossing right now. stuart. stuart: thank you, matt. staying on the border, the white
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house claims republicans voted to cut 2,000 border patrol agents. the washington post debunked that claim giving it three pinocchios. chris cabrera is the vice president of the the national border patrol council and joins me. chris, why does the white house stick with this claim when it's obviously not true? >> what we've seen lately is the white house is -- the claims they make are all over the map. look at out in eagle pass. we're supposed to be securing the border, we're not. mayorkas is supposed to be securing the boarder and they're not. i don't know who they think they're fooling but they're pandering to someone and a small minority but apparently think they it's working and it's not. stuart: basically the left the democrats say the border mess is the republican's fault. you disagree with that entirely?
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>> 100% and look at last administration and numbers by month and then by month in this administration you can see for yourself the administration wants to address root causeds all over the world but the truth of the matter is the root cause is here in the unit. united states. it's the federal government allowing it 20 happen and people will take advantage of it. stuart: we have a new poll showing 62% of voters in california of all places think the border is not secure. 62berg. california is a deep blue sanctuary state. do you think, chris, the democrats are beginning to wake up to the -- beginning to change opinion on the border, the democrats that is? >> i do believe they are. look at new york and chicago for instance, i think the people on the ground and residents there are realizing that the border is not secure and people are
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getting busted and taking a lot of their resources. people around the country and especially in the large urban areas that are predominantly democrat with predominantly democrat voters are wake up realizing there's a problem on the southern border. stuart: chris, i don't see much change coming in the very near future, do you? >> unfortunately, no, i don't. hopefully we'll get something but hope is not a strategy. stuart: we have to wait for the election perhaps. chris cabrera, thanks for being here, sir. >> thank you, always appreciate it. stuart: see you soon. this one democrat thinks republicans should introduce a bill to remove the statue of liberty. ashley, i know there's a story behind this, tell it, please. ashley: i will indeed. congressman maxwell frost, he's a democrat from florida says if republicans support a measure, house hr2 is the name and restricts the asylum process and
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creates tighter immigration policies and he'll propose a measure to remove the statue of liberty. watch this. >> if you keep pushing your bigoted hr2 bill, pass this bill, i've taken the liberty of drafting it for you. it removes the statue of liberty, our largest symbol that tells people to come here. this is who you are. removing the fabric of america. ashley: give me a break. republicans say a new immigration bill is needed to stop the hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring through the southern border but frost accuses gop lawmakers of peddling hate than finding solutions. huge difference between immigrants that came to the u.s. legally through ellis island and the masses of unvetted migrants that crossed the border illegally every day. stuart: yeah, it took you and i quite a long time to get in legally. ashley: oh, yeah.
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years. stuart: paid the money and go through the interviews and all the rest of it. that was then and this is now. thanks very much, ash. listen to this, a new block claims that issue -- book claims king charles brises les at the claim that he's keeping the throne warm for william. reaction from a royal watcher next. dhs reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund anti-conservative propaganda. we'll ask a media guy, present bozell, lay out the proof, please. with the majority of my patients with sensitivity
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stuart: back to the mashes. lou basenese with us. you've brought stock picks early intervention program colluding cybersecurity eff hack. >> i'm going to tell you, we're be fighting a forever war against cyber criminals and that make this is a forever growth and investing trend. here's why. if you think about traditional
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warfare, it's limited by a finite land mass. we know where the boarders are and digital warfare is infinite and the amount of data we're producing as a society and world grows exponentially. we're going to produce 22 zeta bites of data. that's a trillion gigabytes. this surface area that cyber criminal cans attack keeps expanding and the other thing about cybersecurity is we're always two steps behind the cyber criminals. can't play with a silver bullet one company. etf that gives you expose uroto 50 different companies on the leading edge of reacting to cyber warfare. stuart: another one inno data. that's a cybersecurity firm. >> more of a data firm but more ai. the old ads and old ads about intel chips and intel inside we had that little sticker. the best thing to gauge when to invest in new tech trends is hype cycle of emerging technologies and when thing haves gotten too hyped and over hyped and that's ai right now. nvidia is way overhyped and the next leg will come from those
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providers that support the nvidias, googles, amazon and apples of the world, and that's innodata and there's five tech companies they provide data services for and this is a pure ai play giving you exposure and not like everyone else when they talk about ai saying nvidia. stuart: data services and providing data? >> providing data and data intelligence allowing them to do computations and they've been in business for a long time and about to turn the corner on profitability and revenue up shortly and not income bernardss healthcared by other divisions and -- microsoft is going great. this is a weight that's a pure play on ai. stuart: fair enough. i want to get away from the markets back to politics, which is my bread and butter. vice president kamala harris says the next election comes
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down to competence versus chaos. >> there's a split screen you can throw up and see. it's going to be the choice between what is about respecting the democracy and competence versus chaos. someone that's called those who would attack our capitol and try and undo the votes of millions of americans in a presidential race and dare calling those who committed acts of violence patriots. stuart: there's a lot to go at right there and brent bozell is the man to go at it. brett, competence as in biden and chaos as in trump. would you like to comment on that? >> you know, if i was advising donald trump i would invite joe biden on his terms for a national debate and might point out the commander is chief is so competent he doesn't even know where his secretary of defense
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is while there's two wars going on. he's so competent, he brags about bidenomics, which is an absolute disaster. he's so competent he brags about how the border is secure and we know estimated 8 million illegal aliens invaded the country, at the very least. 8 million. there ought to be a debate about competency. it won't go well. stuart: would you debate the other side of their coin, which is chaos. implication that trump brings chaos and my position and your media watcher is it was the media create ago lot of chaos deliberately and unscrupulously for trump and they've did it. >> the media has not let up and you and i have commented for years how the media while he was a candidate and while president on a regular basis, 90, 95% monthly no matter how good the news was, attacks on donald trump and we're looking at it again in the campaign.
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last month, qataris we're advising donald trump, i would say go to the american people and basically with the reagan version of morning in america and simply say this is how i left the presidency when i left in january of 2021. here is where we are today. if you call that chaos, you want joe biden and if you want what i had, vote for me again. stuart: that's exactly what we are seeing, the split screen and four years of trump and successes and three years of biden and the lack of success. that's the split screen people are paying attention to, i think. last word to you. >> i don't think anybody in the biden administration has pushed a shopping cart four years. if you go to the grocery store and saw the prices of it.
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if you make over $200,000 like many do, it might not affect you. if you're on an hourly wage and for them to suggest things are going well, it's just disastrous and i don't think they go to the gas pumps and pump their own gas. they say the prices have gone down. they're still sky high compared to how it was when joe biden came to office. no, no, no, the national security scene what's going on overseas and houthis bombing america and us barely doing anything about it. the wheel haves come off this administration. stuart: yes, they really have. brent, all good stuff. thank you for being with us today. always appreciate it. come and see us soon. >> thank you. stuart: now this, florida board of education approved rules that will prevent colleges from spending money on dei initiatives. that's pretty radical stuff. ashley, what else are they doing? ashley: the board removing a sociology class from a list of core courses called principles of sociology that officials say violates a new law dealing with
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teaching of identity politics and theories. as for dei, ben gibson, is the chair of florida's state of board of education saying in reality it stands for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination. it has no place in florida state colleges. under the new law that was passed last year, florida's 12 state universities have been stopped from spending money on dei initiatives as you say and critics calling the regulations and un-abashed assault on democratic values and a shameless violation of the freedom of speech. but the board of education says these measures prohibit any effort 20 promote or engage in political or social activism. stew. stu. stuart: strong stuff, ashley. back to lou basenese. what happens to the stock market if trump is the next president of the united states? what happens to the market if biden does a second term? >> could be the easy question
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you've ever asked me. a change in leadership is one of the most powerful catalysts for the markets and we know whether the promise of trump ever gets fulfilled and comes into office and lower taxes and government waste and they're all positive catalyst and lower regulations and they'll be things that investors react in a positive way. we deal with a lot of clients and it's not a political issue. it's an economic reality. we deal with a lot of clients that sit on both sides, even the democratic ones would say they'd welcome, they won't admit publicly, would welcome a trump presidency and wanted a reelection for portfolio because it's more economic. stuart: i thought wall street liked big spenders? chuck that government money out and stock market goes up. >> no, we don't see that . look, i've made more money doing democratic presidencies than during republican ones but the policies of republicans are more consist with economic growth and it's really more about the change; right. a change in leadership always brings hope that something's going to change and whether it happens it not true. stuart: got it. lou, thank you. coming up, imagine walking into a wal-mart and seeing all the
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sosocks and underware locked up. that's becoming a reality in some stores across the country. full report coming up for you. health issues rattling the royal family. princess kate recovering from unspecified surgery, king charles headed to the hospital next week. royal watcher neil shawn bringing us the very latest, next. ♪ students... students of any age, from anywhere. students in a new kind of classroom.
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stuart: health issues rocking the royal family. the palace reports the princess wales recovering from unspecified abdominal urge reigns leading and in the hospital for two weeks and not back to work till easter.
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king charles needs surgery next week for enlarged prostate. knneil shawn is are us as a royl watcher. 10-14 days in the hospital sounds like a serious condition. do we have any idea what's wrong with the princess? >> good afternoon, stuart. from london. well, actually the situation is this afternoon the prince of wales made a public visit after three days now in hospital at the london clinic. a clinic by the way that did host jfk and elizabeth taylor no less and the very best as you can imagine. here's the problem that the princess of wales has, stuart, really by withholding that medical information, it's leading to a lot of speculation as one could imagine because now everybody is saying, why is it taking so long, why will she be out for this period. that's probably the biggest glitch so far in this ongoing story. let's not forget and this is the serious road many elements of this story, the princess of wales has been going through a very little time, no two ways
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about it and backlash she received from the end game and royal races and all that sort of stuff, i've been told by very good source that created a lot of stress and anxiety and tension b battling on it's not relevant to the condition and it wasn't buck teen as much as people pointed out and it was a moment where suddenly the princess found she had to go to hospital. stuart: do the people of britain believe the royal family deserves some degree of medical privacy? >> i'm sure you and i feel the same thing. i wouldn't want that personally. it's a different thing. if you liked to your subjects and really because we live in the digital media world, everybody, even yourself, stuart, some would speculate something about you if you not open because everybody really starts to dig around. that's where the problem lies. i think half of the british public think leave the poor lady
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alone. nobody likes being in hospital. let's get on with it and move on. the others are many from the republicans are very negative saying she's gone to a private hospital. we all would if we could. stuart: we all would if we could, especially if they're that good. next one, king's princess anne said the king was at the suggestion he's just a caretaker for the throne and people are waiting for william to be king. how's that viewed by the public in britain? >> well, king charles is more popular than ever before and re-really turned things around and people were really worried as we were losing the wonderful monarch of 70 years. this story is from an unofficial biography and a lot of bomb shell things. let me tell you knowing the prince of wales that it's the bottom line is he's no rush to become king and as he pointed out, which is very true, the thing about this job is someone has to leave for you to get
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promoted and who would want that? that's really the story and king charles waited a long time, stuart, for this promotion. i think he's doing the public believe and polling believe he's doing a terrific job. no two ways about it. stuart: come back soon. we want an update on this. ashley, as the other person on the show with a british accent, what do you make of all the headlines? ashley: it's remarkable that two hospital visits announced on the same day out of the royal family, which is very unusual and the fact that kate middleton is staying in there for two weweeks is very worrying. she's clearly not there on the nhs. i think the nhs would kick you out after three days but we hope of course she's okay. charles by the way discussed his prostate diagnosis because he wants all men over a certain age
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of 50 to get regular checkups and that was a good move by him. as for him being a caretaker, no. as neil shawn pointed out, he's been waiting a listening time for this and very interesting to see he's now become very popular so interesting times for the royal family. stuart: all right. lou, the only american on the set, give me 30 seconds on your reaction here? >> look, i'm not one qualified to comment on this, but what i can say is interesting as neil shawn brought up is being transparent is necessary to be an effective leader. as a american looking on the british, one thing i can admire is the etiquette and just the properness of t right. that's something that's been lost in american dullture. there's no respect. culture. there's no respect. stuart: think i'm etiquette? >> ashley is more than you. stuart: give me that sense of the market. it's about one-third up and
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about how far reigns leading half down. something like that. the dow is just down a tiny fraction. that's it. next case, journalist in san francisco sounding the alarm that the downtown shopping district has been gutted. gee, i thought it had been kind of restored for xi jinping's visit. erica sanburg will tell us what it's like in san francisco now. we'll be back. ♪
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stuart: it is no longer just electronics and toiletries. america's biggest retailers are now locking up basic items like socks, underwear. lydia hu with us. turn this around, what do shoppers think of this lockup? what do they feel to get an assistant to unlock every door? >> we talked to shoppers here in new york city. we're accustomed to seeing a lot of things locked up on the shelves, especially in the pharmacies so they're not really shocked by the development, but doesn't mean they're waiting around for a sales associate. watch this. >> shopping and i seen regular deodorants and things like that.
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yeah, so i went if and pressed a button and nobody came. >> sometimes i wait if i have the tree time otherwise i leave and go to a different store. >> i had to wait ten minutes for somebody to come. >> yeah, shoppers are sharing photos like these, underwear and socks or basic undergarments stored under lock and key in the places like target and wal-mart. at one location, look at this, stuart, an entire aisle, aisle after aisle after undergarments are secured. businesses as you know are taking this step because it's a necessary battle in preventing theft. it's a very expensive retail problem and most recent data shows more than $112 billion worth of merchandise was lost, stolen, or damaged in 2022. that's up from almost $94 billion the year before. we reached out to wal-mart and in a statement they acknowledged locking up basics at some stores saying wal-mart will county to explore additional ways to
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protect the merchandise, keep prices low and product in stock. target did not respond to our request for comment, but you may remember the retail giant closed nine store locations last year blaming violence and theft and at that time they said locking up merchandise in cases will be one of several steps taken to combat organizized retail crime and here we are, socks and underwear behind lock and key. stuart: locking up whole isles as we saw. good stuff, thanks, lydia. take a look at photos of son fran, boarded -- san francisco. boarded up shops, empty store fronts and graffiti that was a bustling shopping area. erica sanberg joining me you. this used to be full of shops and restaurants and i thought it was restored and cleaned up for xi jinping's visit. i guess that didn't last? >> nothing that can be done to open audiotape shop that's been close -- up a shop that's been closed for months and other shops to follow down that road with a single visit. it's just not going to happen.
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we're seeing blight in yardeni area that should be the bye bye bye an area that should be the most bustling and busy corridor and it's a travesty. stuart: which shopping area in particular are you talking about, the store fronts boarded up? >> right, this is right off of union square. union square itself is doing okay but this is powell street. that's where the cable car goes down and turns around until it gets to market street. it is where all the tourists go. this is where our visitors come and they should be seeing the extreme beauty and safety and vie presence of our city and in-- i vibrants of the city and instead this is what they're seeing. stuart: you love the city and is that why you're not leave something >> i love my city with all my heart.
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this can turn around and that's exciting and why i don't leave and why i report on my city and it is because with a proper policy and the right politicians, we will be able to change this. but 2024 is the year of the dragon, that's a very powerful year in san francisco. china town is ready to go. we're all ready to go. we're reed i did to make changes with our politicians. it's an election season. stuart: i got my start in television in san francisco in 1975. i've not been back since. maybe i should come back and see what changes have been made. erica, great stuff. thanks for being with us today. always appreciate it. >> thank you so much. stuart: we're going straight into the thursday trivia question: i like this one. how many federal holidays are there this year? 8, 11, 14, or 17? the answer when we come back.
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stuart: we've been sitting around the set going through january, february, march, figuring out what are the federal holidays. point on the question is how many federal holidays are there this year? that's important for this year. i'm told that next year will be a different number. you are first. give us your number.
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ashley: i have no clue. people love to work in the us. i will go with the lowest number, 8, number one. a when you are totally wrong. i know you are totally wrong. lou and i have gone through january, new year's day, martin luther king, presidents' day, july 4th, we got up to 12 so i am going to say 14. >> i will go with 11. stuart: 11, got it right. here they are. next year we will have 12 federal holidays because we have an inauguration. juneteenth, independence, labor day, columbus day, thanksgiving, christmas. 11. good question, that made us think. we did it right.

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