midnight. stuart: that doesn't help. we have 15 seconds left in the show. we've been you close on three hours. i'm tap dancing towards the close here. i have about six seconds left. neil cavuto is getting ready. he is getting tense. neil, it is yours. neil: i'm not really that tense. i'm appreciating the throw to me. talking about apparently a low-rated football game. cavuto, go! stuart: there you go. neil: a little weird. have a great weekend, my friend. we're following a number of developments. first the jobs report. there is strength in it. some weakness in it. strength that the federal reserve may hike interest rates. wage growth is not all that robust. there is something for everyone. net wash at corner of wall and broad. the dow down 30 points. they don't want it to be a losing week. as we stand nows it is close as

a tick on that front. deirdre bolton is here and last but not least, charles payne. the fact of the matter is, big job gains, we're still at or near record low unemployment in the cycle. so net-net positive. every time we hear the positive, we also hear fears of rates going up. >> right. neil: wasn't that a given already? maybe more the issue is -- >> go to the highlight, of this report. was that 2.9% year-over-year jobs growth. hasn't happened since 2009. but if you remember, on february 2nd, when we got the jobs report for january, the initial read was 2.9%. the stock market got crushed. the dow was off 666 points. so, why isn't it getting crushed this time? i think it is between then and now, this federal reserve has kind of made it clear, first jerome powell at jackson hole. john williams, second most powerful member of the fomc,

gave a speech in buffalo. a known hawk sounded very dovish. i think we'll have a federal reserve that will allow main street to make money. 3%, somebody in beauty, montana, got a 3% year-over-year raise, doesn't have to worry about the fed derailing this whole thing. neil: that is the hope of the trump administration who bemoaned federal reserve pavlovian response to raise interest rates. other presidents said as much, maybe not as loudly. is that likely? what do you see changing here? >> i don't think the fed trajectory changed in any way. we have a clear sense where it is going. that can be priced into the market. what we learned today more than anything there is no more slack in the labor market. if employers have jobs to fill, they will have to pay up. that creates a little bit of risk on margins. it maintains the threat after fed rate increase. neil: you said puts a threat on the margins, what are you talking about? >> margins for the companies.

their costs are going up. are they going to be able to charge more, that is a different question. neil: some have been able to do that deirdre. they have more flexibility than in the past. good for them, touche for them but isn't that the fear that holds this market back a little bit, not by much, i stress, inflation gets out of the bottle. >> that is certainly one worry. look at fed funds futures. charles, 79% chance we see a fourth increase this year in september. so september 25th, 26th, when the fed meets next. to your point, glen, about the skills gap, that will be an interesting piece of puzzle for the employers to tackle. we talk about millions of jobs, actually are available right now. where employers are looking. these are, i guess, typically talk about them in stem sort of fields, right? tech, engineering. neil: right. >> that for whatever reason right this second we're either not, employers are not finding where these americans are or we

just have to improve something a little bit earlier in the game, perhaps in the education system. neil: so it seems, i told you guys this is a good report, it's a sound report. the only worry is that just feed this is narrative of too good to be true. you're saying, there might be flexibility on the part of some hawks, we don't have to become nuts. don't go nuts. play out what we can expect for rates. >> you know, september is a given. maybe, maybe two more rate hikes this year. i think wall street will be okay with that. neil: even one in september, one after that? >> right. neil: okay. >> i think wall street would be fine with that as long as the data is there. remember when janet yellen hiked rates for the first time, it felt like she was going, trying to show wall street her independence. the data wasn't there. it was an odd move. it caught a lot of people off-guard. that was in december. that january, first two or three weeks of the month were the

worst two or three months ever in the history of the market in january. wall street sent a message pretty loud and clear. wall street guy, not classically trained economist. you can't go strictly by the spreadsheet. he understands markets. he understands the economy. he understands main street. remember the rally we had after his comments at jackson hole were phenomenal. i'm hoping, i believe, i really believe, unless the data gets so overwhelming, you know, for instance, that the construction jobs, 23,297 over last year. i went over each category. that is only one where pay went down. neil: is that right? >> not a lot but only category we saw a decline. slow and steady, room to grow, not wedded to the idea of instant knee-jerk reaction based solely on the rigid parameters. i think that is what investors should hope the fed is doing. that is what they're doing. neil: that is what they're hoping to see here. the only wrinkle we have

expansion and possible trade war that will go after japan. i'm just wondering whether this trade thing is a wild card, like for you. when you write and report on all this stuff, lo and behold, we find out we have another target. >> the risks to the u.s. economy are external for the most part right now. the rest of the world is not growing at this pace. saw weaker numbers out of europe today. when you add that all up, put on top of it these tariffs bat es we're going through, represents a certain amount of growth rate to the economy. i don't think it represents a total reversal of the growth. slow and steady applies to growth in this country as well. >> if we haven't resolved the impasse with the canadians and we haven't come close to getting anything sealed, signed and delivered for the chinese, that wasn't expected anyway, now we expanded this potential to japan, that, that's a worry. >> it's a worry but i think we should also keep in mind that our economy has been fueled domestically for a while now.

that is still going to be the case. the weakness in other parts of the world might mitigate the tariff threat. they weren't spending anyway. >> we talked about the fact that americans consume, we consume 80% of what we produce. that is pretty much highest there is in any developed economy. neil: we're keeping one eye on former president barack obama today, in california, campaigning for half a dozen, maybe more, congressional candidates. illinois, i apologize. he is going to california, i'm told with that. he is beginning the midterm push on behalf of the party. he is their rock star. the problem, charles payne, with barack obama, when he is on the ballot, they do well. when he is the off the ballot arguing on behalf of those who are trying to get elected not so much. he suffered big losses in both of his midterm years. i'm just wondering is it opening up sort of like you know, a

rocky-apollo creed battle here for the president who loves to cite what he inherited from barack obama. it was a disaster and the former president who is arguing no doubt on these campaign stops? no, i created this. >> well, i do find it interesting democrats sort of dismiss the economic, you know, the initial big moves, directional shifts in the economy. for instance i heard an economist yesterday, a left-wing economist, well rate of cars are about the same, automobile sales rather, right? yeah, but the composition isn't the same. last month cars, went less than 30% of all total automobiles for first time in history. so yeah, big number is the same but composition shows me of a more confident, robust america because they're buying more expensive suvs. more expensive crossovers. more expensive pickup trucks. neil: dollar amount is higher? >> right. so that is, there are ways of saying, you know, president obama gets a degree of credit

but what we're seeing in this economy right now is that, a trajectory change. so many different levels. it is really remarkable, including idea of 3% gdp growth in a single calendar year. as far as president obama is concerned i think it is interesting he is back on the trail, not just because he is trying to help dems, there sin ternnal battle between the obama wing and bernie sanders wing. i think the bernie sanders wing is winning. i think they have momentum. i think they will change the democratic party. neil: i just wonder, see him back out there, he was averse to doing this, poo-pooed coming out judging his successor and all that he made more these type of appearances. this is a campaign appearance, will be many more, leading up to the midterms in six weeks? what is your thought potentially moving the needle? candidates have to rest or fall based on themselves, their own pitch, whatever, no matter who is backing them? >> i definitely agree with that and to charles' point, seems you

have more of these democratic socialist voices really taking a bigger stage. i don't know honestly if that is going to help or hurt democrats. i do think there is a large group of the american population that is pretty much a little bit more centrist. now, i just don't know if that leftist -- i hear what you're saying. you think the sanders crowd will get a lot of momentum. i just don't know if it is practical enough for even people who typically vote democrat. i just don't know. >> it will come down to turnout. midterms are historically low. you can make larger number of moves with lower turnout. the economy will turn on the election. neil: 2014 for barack obama was sound. a lot of concerns about the health care law and all, and he still lost seats. very, very crucial in presidential election year. i think a little less so. but i could be wrong. >> affects turnout.

economy is good, wages are growing, got jobs, less angry and less motivated to go out and vote. neil: if you're feeling good you could be sitting on the couch which is one thing president trump fears they don't, right? >> i say townout. -- turnout. if you look at polls, economy is drifted down to 15%, so it is doing well. people are not necessarily worried about it. what goes up, things they are worried about health care. i think dems have an advantage there. that is their bailiwick. that is something they're talking about. talking about feeling good, there are a lot of people who don't feel good. that is who bernie is hitting. bezos attack. think about that for a moment. two, three years ago, that would be walmart tax, mcdonald's tax. he is going after the quintessential silicon valley billionaire, someone that backs a newspaper that attacks president trump every day. they're going after those folks. anybody who can accumulate $160 billion is part of the

problem. he is reinforcing that notion. it is dangerous road to go down. i think it is working for him. neil: guys, thank you very much. things not to do in a media interview. smoke marijuana and sip whiskey. just saying, after this. making my dreams a reality

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♪ neil: all right. it is not probably the best way to start an interview smoking marijuana and sipping some whiskey and sticking around for 2 1/2 hours. then things got worse. susan li has details on the elon musk interview that is causing waves across the country, across the world. what happened? >> 2 1/2 hours, a lot to talk about on the joe rogan podcast. yes they drank whiskey, talked about artificial intelligence, rockets, tunnels, samurai sword brought out. the part making the most news, elon musk seeming to take a toke of marijuana. >> okay. >> ever had that. >> i tried one once. >> come on, man. >> [laughter] >> probably can't because of stockholders, right? >> i mean it is legal, right? >> totally legal. >> okay. >> how does it work? do people get upset at you if you do certain things?

tobacco and marijuana in there. all it is. >> totally legal in california. so no crimes committed here. conversation at times turning personal. musk, seemed to know was different from others pretty early on in life he says. >> i think when i was, i don't know if i was six or something, i thought i was insane. >> why did you think you were insane? >> because it was clear other people did not, their mind wasn't exploding with ideas. >> personal. no denying that musk is a hugely successful entrepreneur. the man has been called a visionary, but then the erratic behavior of emails, tweets, cannabis smoking, has analysts questioning leadership at tesla. some notes came out today, selling in the shares. stock was down as much as 10%. we're still down 6%. biggest intraday drop in two

years since 2016. this follows on news of departures of two more executives at the car company. the chief accounting officer, dave moore, stepping down after less than a month in the job. he says the public attention, public scrutiny on the company, made him really reconsider his future at tesla. also slated today was tesla's vice president of communications, sarah o'brien, last day the at company as well. this is after another slew of departures, chief of sales and treasurers leaving tesla. that has people questioning the future of the car company. neil, back to you. neil: this screams for intervention. >> bring in somebody else. neil: it isn't looking good. thank you very, very much, susan. meantime we wanted to get a reason to attach whether market losses picked up steam. president trump apparently said he is very close to targeting $267 billion worth of chinese

imports for additional tariffs. he said tariffs would be ready to go. no response from the chinese, but that explains that. we wondered how all of sudden out of the blue this happened. donald trump is ready to up the trade ante. to charlie gasparino. i stress he has not come here with any drugs within him. >> neil. neil, i got some good stuff here. ah. neil: i can't, what i was going on -- >> i watched cheech and chong last night. [laughter]. neil: you have lived like cheech and chong. what is going on with this guy? >> i don't know. just so you know, i, basically focus on covering banks and hedge funds and stuff like that. every now and then i will do a media story if it catches my fancy like cbs, whatever. mainly wall street and washington. i shied away from tesla, i thought it was -- i don't

believe in electronic cars but i saw the stock go way up. neil: electric. >> electric cars. right. so then the stock, then something happened about two or three months ago. musk started attacking a reporter that i know, in such a weird way. i was like, this is not the normal way a ceo acts. her name is lynnette lopez at business insider. she wrote stories he didn't like. some of the cars were working, didn't hit production. i had ceos hate me for years. they didn't dot types of things he did. he was really strange. he put out the tweet of funding secured. it came right after somebody leaked saudis were in the stock. he was in a pitched bat well short sellers. at that point i'm putting two and two together. this guy is doing crazy stuff. that is how i got into the story. we broke the stuff on the sec investigation.

now i want to go grab a joint on the corner. i'm saying, the train is coming off the tracks obviously here. neil: this is what i don't understand. he keeps getting down here. key staff members are leaving. i wonder if it is something much bigger here? when people are bolting, including the one guy there for just a month, the chief accounting officer. what -- >> if you go on twitter there are all these shorts, these are guys in their mom's basement. neil: one is suing. >> that is a real guy. if you listen to the real guys, not the clowns on twitter shorting the stock, every time you write something mildly positive about the stock they attack you. they are betting on it to go down. that is how they make money. jim chanos, dan loeb, einhorn, david einhorn, they will tell you, look at the numbers and look at musk's behavior. the numbers suggest, he keeps missing, he keeps stating that they will hit certain

performance and production targets. they keep missing. he keeps saying -- neil: but he creates those targets. >> he keeps stating they will be profitable and they're not. neil: right. >> he then, did the mother of all misleads which is the funding secured tweet and you know, what they will say is, look at the numbers. they don't add up on this company. it is not a 300-dollars stock. it is trading 270, whatever now. look at, look at the, how much they're selling. look at really what the product is. the product, which cannot be commoditized maybe is the battery. the question you have to ask yourself, is a battery worth $200 a share? that's what is going on right now. neil: these cars are beautiful cars. >> right. but you can commoditize them. other people are getting in. neil: you're going a little bit further to say tesla itself as an on going entity, the sort of

personification of these vehicles, could be in trouble? >> it could be and here's why. if the stock is not worth 250 to $300 a share, they are going to have, if you talk to chanos, he will tell you they could have a severe liquidity crisis. why is that? they borrowed so much convertible debt over the years and one of the terms of the convertible debt, if the stock doesn't trade at 360, it might be 364, i can't remember, if it doesn't trade at 360, he owes the convertible bondholders a billion dollars. where will he get a billion dollars? can he raise capital again? can he go to the banks? it will be hard. look where his bonds are trading. can he issue more stock? not that people right now because people think he is insane. this is a company in existential trouble, if you listen to the shorts, the real guys. they're adding up the numbers. the numbers are not adding up. plus you have an unstable guy they say at the top.

that is a real problem for any company. neil: thank you, buddy. i appreciate that the president by the way, we're getting into the newsroom, wants attorney general jeff sessions to investigate who wrote this anonymous "new york times" opinion piece about the white house. he is very angry about it. also saying that, wants japan to know that we will ultimately force the issue with japan and getting trade concessions with them. he does not specify what areas he wants to target. i would assume autos but i don't want to make that leap there. he is saying, quoting the president here, if we don't make a deal with japan, japan knows it's a big deal. apparently so does the world. we're down 140 points after this

neil: all right. we are at session lows right now. the dow down 150 plus points. this word from the president that the u.s. is ready to go to slap additional tariffs on

$267 billion worth of chinese goods. you might recall the worst case fear yesterday rumored in the markets were 200 billion. and they didn't think that would come to fruition. now the president is saying 267 billion. and while we're on the subject of asia and fallout from this, he is beginning trade talks with the trade talks as well. the japanese need to come to the table more than we do, paraphrasing here. two-prong offensive on trade. one aimed at china, which is the case for quite some time, just upping the ante and a new one on japan. blake burman in the middle of it all from the white house. blake. reporter: we had a news avalanche dumped upon us by president trump, neil. he was onboard air force one flying from montana to north dakota. as we're getting it from the colleagues from air force one, the president stopped, talked, we don't know if he took questions but headlines are starting to roll in. let me tick through some of them. we are a way iting a decision whether or not president trump

will impose future tariffs against china. very important to note the white house has not officially said if that will happen. the next patch of 200 billion and at what level that could happen. whether 10%, 25%, a number in between but aboard air force one the president said on top of that 200 billion, yet another $267 billion is ready to go. view that as a threat if you wish. it appears to be that, but that is the message from the president to china today on the tariff front. as it relates to another trade situation, nafta, the president says, we'll see what happens. you talked about japan, as well as the president says he is gearing up for the potential of a deal with the japanese as well. there are a slew of other headlines as well. as you know, one of the things that has gripped this white house over the last couple day is the author, the anonymous author, senior administration official of the op-ed.

the president saying aboard air force one that the justice department should investigate the writer of that item. the president commenting on the mueller investigation, perhaps the biggest single question surrounding the white house, whether president trumps sit down for an interview with robert mueller and under what circumstances if he does. president trump said he would meet bob mull lever under certain circumstances and he doesn't want to be set up with a perjury trap. neil, i don't know if all the news that was mad. it is certainly a lot. we anticipate to get those fuller comments here soon from my colleagues aboard air force one, 12:30. we'll see where the day takes us, neil. neil: all right, thank you very, very much the dow down 128 points. any company, any entity to do with trade, or likely depends on trade particularly abroad is feeling the pinch. a lopsided approach, cyclical

companies, global entities, dominating the dow particularly feeling the pinch. the president saying he is ready to take action on "the new york times." he wants his attorney general to investigate. "real clear politics" cofounder tom bevin. is this going to amount to much, tom? obviously he is trying to root out who is behind that. now to get his attorney general involved, what do you think? >> it is striking. one thing lindsey graham he talked to trump and trump was still very upset, livid over this article. graham advised him to move on. trump's response was he has to fight back. he has to punch back. i'm not sure this is the right move. this may be a suggestion that he is throwing out there. i'm not sure he will follow through on it. if he did follow through on it, we would see another whole round of stories this is abuse of power, et cetera, et cetera. that really i think would distract and prolong the story which i don't think trump wants to do.

we had great economic news today. trump can talk about job growth. talk about wage gains. can talk about all these things. here we are 60 days from the election, instead he is talking about the attorney general investigate this leaker, this author, potentially taking action against "the new york times." that is a bit of a distraction i think for trump. neil: tom, what does a senior administration official mean to you? some interpreted that to mean a cabinet official. virtually the entire cabinet, man and women alike came out to say it is not me, it is not me so could it be just below cabinet level? what is your understanding? >> that is part of the problem it could mean a lot of things. the amount of people that can be contained under heading of senior administration official could be in the hundreds. so it is not obvious who this person is. it could be someone very, very senior. it could be someone who isn't very senior and portraying themselves more senior than they are. that is part of the problem with the characterization of this

individualably "the new york times" and i think folks on the right and left are critical of "the new york times" publishing this as a anonymous opinion piece. neil: his predecessor, barack obama speaking at the university of illinois and in veiled reference, to donald trump, sometimes talking about comes from people, changes who are afraid of change, but more often manufactured by the powerful who want to keep us angry because it lets them keep their power and privilege. you happen to be coming of age during one of the moments. it did not start with trump. he is a symptom. he is not the cause. what do you make of that? >> well, this is obama actually, for the first time really notably engaging in the elections and in the quote, unquote resistance. this is something democrats have been clamoring for him to do. he resisted it to this point. now he is fully engaged.

look, this is a man in donald trump, who erased a lot of obama's legacy. i think obama, this fight has become pretty personal for him. he is going to try to turn democrats out to vote and encourage them to get to the polls in november. we'll see what happens. i mean obama has famously done that before. he was able to do it when he was on the ballot but in 2010 and 2014 he campaigned as hard as donald trump is campaigning right now and to no effect. we'll see whether obama is as much of a boon to democrats as they think he is going to be. neil: donald trump said, welcome, i sucked you into my lair. back and forth they go. >> exactly. neil: tom, thank you very, very much. tom bevin. the dow down 146 points right now. the president upped the trade ante if you will. $260 billion worth of additional chinese goods targeted. they are ready to be implemented. the president indicate how soon.

lo and behold, actions against the japanese as well. we believe auto, auto related goods. we believe the bloom is off the rose on that relationship as well. the president saying this is a big deal for japan. we're getting word in the japanese press that it is indeed after this. ♪

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neil: the president arriving in north dakota, fargo, north dakota. he created a bit of an uproar on standard trade threats, on china i is promising tariffs ready to go on 2 $67 billion worth of additional chinese goods. that is the worst-case scenario than he what was bandied about $200 billion. the japanese we need to get a fair deal with them. they are getting into talks and need to make a fair deal for their interest.

we have the international federation of business ceo. juanita, what do you make of all this? >> thank you, neil. nfib representing small businesses 75 years and our jobs numbers came out yesterday. the small business economy is on fire. it is the best small business economy we've seen in 50 years. this jobs report hit record for number of job openings. it hit records for plans to hire. this is very significant. it is clear that the small business economy is on fire. most importantly about these numbers, it shows that 2/3 of small businesses are trying to hire, to have job openings and 90% of those are having difficulty finding qualified workers or have no applicants. so, this is becoming a structural problem for us. you know, it is very good news. neil: if this were to all of sudden met at metastasize sometg

bigger with the japanese or chinese, all bets are off, are they not? >> we survey members every month. we've been doing that for 45 years. it's a very sensitive index. so when small business owners become concerned about these things, we'll see it in our numbers. so far we have not. neil: so you would not see an impact, your members are not seeing a impact yet. so a lot of the small businesses felt they would be at a disadvantage, you've not seen that materially? >> they have not been talking to us about this. neil: okay. >> as i said, we would see it when it becomes a problem for them because we, we asked them these questions every month. neil: i know you don't like to wade into politics here, it just so happens on this day, both president trump, and predecessor barack obama have been talking about the economy. the president echoing last night in montana, this is the best of both worlds, in large part because what the administration

has done. a few minutes ago, i believe barack obama offering a different view of that. i want you to react to this. >> well certainly -- [applause] by the time i left office, household income was near its all-time high and the uninsured rate hit an all-time low and wages were rising, poverty rates were falling. i mention all this just so when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started. [cheers and applause] neil: what did you think of that? >> well, certainly the small business economic index nnfib is creating, pessimism numbers during that time were pretty significant. small business owners were very pessimistic and lacked confidence. it showed in our numbers. these extraordinary lift in the optimism index began the day of

at election. our members were telling us for years, taxes were too high, regulations were stifling their environment. now those two things have been taken care of by congress and the trump administration you've seen this extraordinary optimism and record profits. you're seeing record job openings. you're seeing record sales in some of our indexes. so the small business owner and the nfib member out there believes the last 20 months, are months that affected their economy and businesses. neil: so your members are not of the view that both presidents can take a bow, if you want to be technical about it, started under barack obama, maybe make the argument as you think you did very eloquently under donald trump it was put on steroids, recovery ensues thanks to cuts in regulations, in taxes? do you think both can take a bow? >> well, all i can tell you that the small business owners, numbers during those years for our small business economic trends reports were very, very

low. you can even say historically low. they had been pessimistic for a very long time. now, in the last 20 months, small business owners have never been as optimistic for so long. we've been in a very high level of optimism for 20 months and that is unprecedented in our survey. so also remember that the nfib members were impacted by the obamacare bill. we were the ones who tried to overturn obamacare at the supreme court. and that had a very, very depressing influence on our membership. neil: all right. juanita, thank you for taking the time. as juanita intimated right there, you can take your positions because the battle is on. barack obama drawn into it today, first of his many midterm campaign appearances on behalf of democrats. he wants to see elected to the house and to the senate. a number of governorships. he will be a busy campaigner over these next five or six weeks, and answering president trump's call about who takes responsibility for the recovery

we're enjoying. barack obama is saying it started under him. of course donald trump saying he inherited a disaster and really picked up steam, and pretty much everything we have now is because of him. this is in subtle way the clearest of choices. the present occupant in the white house saying keep me, because i have put this economy on fire. the former resident saying remember me and democrats, because we started it. after this. over 260 years later as the nation's leader in energy storage we're ensuring americans have the energy they need, whenever they need it nextera energy.

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it's the final days where all beds are on sale. the queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is now only $899. plus, 24-month financing on all beds. ends sunday. sleep number proven quality sleep >> i complained plenty about fox news. [laughter]. but you never heard me threaten to shut them down. or call them enemies of the people. it shouldn't -- neil: well, i mean, to be fair president obama did kick fox reporters out of the press briefing room. didn't want us there. so that was then. this is now. maybe a big difference to a lot of people now. obviously the president saying that his successor has gone a little too far. market watcher and gary kaltbaum is here who takes credit for the strong economy? president obama saying it began with him. he provided a good foundation for president trump. president trump says all him. gary, who is right?

>> under barack obama $9 trillion of new debt was created. that is not a good foundation if you ask me. he also used zero percent interest rates for eight years in printing of $5 trillion. for me that is a legacy that is not very good because eventually that debt and those deficits and continues to this day will come back to haunt markets and the economy unfortunately. neil: well, unfortunately his successor is racking up that debt. >> you bet they are. oh, you bet. this administration raised spending 300 billion a year. i'm not happy with ryan, mcconnell, or trump at this point in time as someone who cares about the fiscal well being going forward. neil: jeff, only so much you can say about how a politician or president can move markets. we know they move mightily under this one. they came back from record lows under the last one. is it fair to say each in his own way can take credit for a

bull market that is already officially the longest on record? >> i take issue with that, by the way. 1949 to 1966 secular bull market -- neil: you're right. i'm getting no the weeds on that. you're a genius, i apologize, i'm not. they can both take credit in one way, shape or form for the bull we've had? >> i think that is fair. i attribute it to the federal reserve that prevented the country from going into depression. neil: gary touched on keeping interest rates at zero. had it not been for that we might have been in deeper doodoo, right? >> yeah. i think you would have a lot of banks go under. neil: we'll never know what ifs. gary we know that barack obama is sort of out of his shell here. saying enough already. he will campaign on behalf of democrats, tell them, you have to own up, this boom, this

recovery, it is on you, too. you're, you should take a bow. i'm paraphrasing there. but, what do you make of that argument and how it will go down in november? >> well, it is kind of weird because all i keep hearing from the left right now is their mantra, for this, of this midterm election, is we're going to raise taxes. that is what i keep hearing from them. we're getting avowed socialists, they don't hide it anymore, saying we want more government control over everything, while donald trump is basically doing the exact opposite with rules and regulations so they're going against everything that is kind of sort of working right now. so i am not so sure that is going to work very well. if i was the trump administration and everybody that is running on the right, i would be yelling and screaming that tune where gdp is, the potential of why, with rules and regulations, as well as we'll give him the tax cuts on corporate side which is helped

also. neil: in the middle of this, jeff, we have what could be expanding trade war. one involving japanese and the president. some say close to $270 billion worth on additional chinese goods. does that worry you. or is that just noise? >> at this point i think it is noise. i don't think we'll get into a full-fledged trade tariff war if you will, but we'll see what happens over the weekend. neil: what do you look for over the weekend? >> i've been actually been wrong on short-term trading basis. we raised cash in january. put it back in february after a 11% decline looking for new all-time highs. we got new all-time highs a week ago last tuesday. i actually wrote i didn't think we were going straight up since we made new highs. i thought we would get a stall, but i didn't expect the s&p to

pull back under 2890. on short-term trading basis i'm plain wrong. neil: you shouldn't do that too much. you're a giant. you and gary have done that admitted if you had a bad call. i never try to do that so don't do it again. gary, these markets look for aberrant events, black swan developments i don't know whether any trade stuff could be that or the debt situation in argentina an confusion in brazil and venezuela, on and on. are these events that you look at and say, well, here is my non-bullish scenario? >> neil, i never had to look at currency so much as i have in the last few months. currencies around the globe and too much. i was not just looking at our markets and everywhere else, we would be at 20,000 on the dow right now. that is how bad things are. you mentioned argentina.

they're 70 cents on the dollar on their bonds. yeah, there is something to worry about. when donald trump ratchets up the tariffs, that really worries me. we're less than two months from an election and nothing good could come from this. why not wait to see what happens? i don't get it. i believe that is taunting markets, potentially taunting areas of the economy. nothing good comes from it. i'm hoping he backs away. looks like he is going full steam ahead. neil: the markets also hope cooler heads prevail. >> oh, yeah, i want to thank you gentleman both as always. trade war is expanded or at least is on. the question is now what do the chinese do and the japanese do. after this. h. math. ooh. so, why don't traders have coaches? who says they don't? coach mcadoo!

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that's right, $36,000. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. my unlimited 2% cash back is more than just a perk, it's our healthcare. can i say it? what's in your wallet? neil: all right. we're down about 123 points right now. a lot of this has to do with growing trade tensions. the president, meanwhile, in north dakota after appearing in montana, telling an audience there that this economic boom is the real thing and he is responsible for it. he will echo the same, we are told, in a session with fund-raisers and the like, supporters in fargo. but this comes on the same day barack obama is finally joining the fray for the midterm elections at the university of illinois, saying we have a back and forth here on this economy, and i think all of this started

with me. it all started back in 2009, a couple of months after i took office and implemented a lot of things that got the ball rolling. to larry glazer. larry, i always argued both presidents could take a bow on this and i always hear from people the never trumpers, all that and others, oh, no, it's all obama, but i do see enough from both men to take a bow and i see enough for each to thank the federal reserve for providing the means by which we could dig out of the hole, 0% interest rates that provided certainly the cushion we needed to bounce off of this. what do you make of that? >> look, there's no doubt that there's a lot to share in this and there isn't one person that's accountable for the recovery of the stock market or the economy, and the adult in the room was the federal reserve, who took emergency measures, justified or not, to save this economy as we were going off a cliff. i think, look, the president, the current president, the past president, all deserve some

credit but the animal spirits were unleashed under the current administration. this is when small business really took off and felt emboldened to put a shovel in the ground, to hire people, to take the necessary steps to grow the u.s. economy. those animal spirits can be very fragile. they are a function of pro-growth policies. the pro-growth policies started under the current administration. we talk about things like tax reform. it isn't just one policy, but it's the concept, it's the enthusiasm, it's the confidence that businesses need to take the necessary steps to grow the middle class in this country. i saw earlier you had the national federation of independent businesses, and again, small business confidence is so critical. it's the backbone of the u.s. economy. that really has only taken off as of late. we need to maintain that enthusiasm to maintain the current recovery. i think that's where we talk about things like trade. it's important that pro-growth policy continue and tax cuts may be a component of pro-growth. we worry about sometimes tariffs may actually be a tax hike on

the consumer. a tax hike -- neil: we have upped the ante there. i'm wondering, this has happened before and i have seen this play before, where all of a sudden the concern that we are going to get tough with the mexicans and maybe not get a deal and if we get a deal, we will go after the south koreans and the prospect of a deal is shot and we might get a deal. may not be perfect but we do get a deal. the europeans, those discussions are going nowhere, then all of a sudden the commissioner is here and all of a sudden they do have at least the outlines of an agreement. do you think the same will happen here, that the concerns about getting even rougher with china, now including the japanese, are settled? >> you know, so far, this has been nothing more than a distraction for the u.s. economy. we haven't missed a beat in terms of gdp growth, in terms of the wage growth we saw today, jobs report, in terms of the employment growth, so none of those has really had any material measurable impact yet on the u.s. economy. we talked to a lot of small business owners, we talked to

lobstermen in maine. they are worried about trade with china and how it will impact their business. we talked to cranberry growers in plymouth, massachusetts, and they are worried how this could impact their business. you run the risk of distraction to having an impact on the u.s. economy and derail this great recovery. that's what we don't want to see. of course, canada, mexico want to make a deal, europe wants to make a deal but it's the waiting game with china. china may be more patient than we are and we are picking a big battle as we double down on tariffs, which is the news today. neil: thank you, my friend. good perspective on all of this. the president wants the justice department separately to look into this "new york times" op-ed t so-called anonymous one by a senior official, something that could go as high up as cabinet members. virtually all cabinet members have come out with statements, not me, not me, not me. the former reagan press secretary, i don't believe he ever penned an anonymous editorial, but he joins us right now. what do you make of this whole dust-up? >> it's quite a dust-up. it's really unprecedented. i think frankly the person who

wrote this was cowardly. they should have put their name on it and resigned and not remained on the government payroll. i think the president has every right to be angry and want to know who this was. neil: you have been a critic of this president on a variety of other matters but even on this, i would agree. i don't see anything brave about doing something like this and the message it sends the world here. you create an even greater panic than might be warranted, but it is what it is. you think if they fish out whoever it is, this will even get rougher? in other words, if you were to take this at face value, there are plenty of others who feel the same way, are part of this group of people trying to stop the president from himself? >> that's a nice phrase. i don't quite know what that means. if you look at today's job reports, clearly there's significant successes the president can legitimately claim. here's the thing, if you are going to work in the administration and be a political appointee, you should support the president's agenda.

if you can't, then you should leave. it's very simple. we have a similar instance to this, although not quite anonymous, when david stockman in 1981 gave an interview to "the atlantic monthly" i think was the publication where he was seen to credit criticized reaganomices. the president read the article, was quite angry, took him to the woodshed but he retained his job. neil: when president reagan was in office, there was a concern right before iran contra, he was getting old, feeble, some had wondered whether the 25th amendment would have to be exercised, in other words, that he was maybe not up to snuff. it didn't get very, very far. i believe. you would know more than i. but it was never seriously entertained. now this group, this cabal, however you want to put it, concerned about president trump, is seriously entertaining that, we are told. what do you make of that? >> that's not the purpose of the 25th amendment.

the 25th amendment is not to settle political scores or relitigate an election. if there's a serious true impairment, that's what it's designed for. in the case of reagan, after iran contra, there was some thought that maybe he's forgetful and losing it a bit. when howard came in as white house chief of staff, he had a meeting at which president reagan attended and it was a luncheon, at which senior aides had a robust discussion with the president, the purpose of which was to see that reagan still had it. they came out and unanimously told howard baker reagan's still got it. and he did. neil: he did. he did. president obama has been reflecting on this. of course, he's had somewhat of a speech in illinois but talking about these revelations. this is president obama's take on it. >> there are people inside the white house who secretly aren't following the president's orders. that's not how our democracy's supposed to work. they're not doing us a service

by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this white house and then saying don't worry, we're preventing the other 10%. that's not how things are supposed to work. neil: what do you think of that? >> he's right. the way it's supposed to work is if you work in the administration and don't support the president's agenda, you should leave the administration. it's a pretty straightforward thing. there's really not a place for this kind of disloyalty, this anonymous disloyalty. if this person, whoever he or she is, should man up or woman up, give their name, resign and take whatever consequences come. neil: normally i agree with that. here's what is the argument for those who agree with this individual's anonymous editorial, that if he left, i assume it's a he, it's been identified as such in other

venues, there is no defense from a president who could get out of control. sort of like you need sort of the check on the president and we would have that in the past during the last year or so of the nixon administration and all that, and you need something like this in effect, just in case. just in case. it seems like a weak argument, but your thoughts? >> i don't think so. i don't think the future of our country depends on one person unwilling to give up his or her name. there are a lot of people in the administration and the president has acted the way he has acted sometimes to people's delight and sometimes to their chagrin but no, i don't think this one individual is single-handedly saving the country. neil: apparently he's saying he's doing it in concert with others and if there isn't such a system in place, god knows what we have saved you from and what we could save you from. again, i think that's a bit of a leap myself, but that's the argument for this person, a,

being anonymous and b, being part of a group that's doing what it's doing. if you think about it, what's scary about that is even if you justified all of that, you are talking about a shadow government and that's like third world stuff. >> that's not the american democracy and if he's saving us from 200 some odd thousand jobs reports, well, don't save us. neil: well put. all right. mark, thank you very, very much. mark wineberg, former assistant press secretary to ronald reagan. more fallout from this, because this is remarkable. you are having former president obama finally, after, what, a year and a half of relative silence on the issue, taking a lot of blows from this president, responding in what will be the first of a nationwide tour on behalf of democratic candidates to see democrats take back the house. we have not heard the president, the present white house occupant, respond to that but you can imagine he will, after this. nah. not gonna happen.

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neil: all right. bret kavanaugh in his testimony before the senate judiciary committee is over, but the senate judiciary committee is not done with brett kavanaugh.

this process looks like it's following along party lines. anything can and will change in the timeline, optimistic for republicans who hope to have him seated within the new supreme court session on october 1. let's look at that timetable with our capitol hill senior producer. chad, is that an optimistic timetable? how does it look? reporter: that's pretty realistic. what we would expect is the judiciary committee could meet as early as next thursday, the 13th, but there's a provision in their rules where they can push it back by a week. that will be requested by the democrats so the committee vote will be probably on the 20th. now, it is an 11-10 advantage for republicans on the committee, 21 members on the committee, so probably a party line vote, then mitch mcconnell on the 20th would likely file what we call cloture. that's the end debate on the nomination right away. we would have a procedural vote probably on the 24th of september and then a final confirmation vote up or down on the 26th. keep in mind there's something at play called the nuclear

option. last year when they were moving through neil gorsuch to put him on the supreme court, mitch mcconnell changed the senate precedent, not the rules, but the precedent, lowering the bar to end filibusters on supreme court nominees from 60 votes to 51. just this past week, they seated jon kyl, republican senator from arizona, to succeed john mccain, so republicans will have 51 votes on that procedural vote. neil: let me ask you a little bit about the controversy over the e-mails that came to light going back to the brief period where the judge was part of the bush administration, talking about roe v wade, now making people think wait a minute, you just said in your testimony here to us that roe v wade is precedent, back then he's talking about well, maybe not. i'm wonder iing, the debate is over what, would that be enough

to get republicans like susan collins, for example -- reporter: those are the two wild cards. susan collins and lisa murkowski have not announced their positions. we would expect to hear from senators in the next couple of days once the confirmation hearing breaks up at the end of the day today, to start to announce their positions. we look on the democratic side of the aisle, lot of democrats who are up for re-election in swing states like joe manchin, heidi heitkamp but collins and murkowski, sometimes their views on abortion are a little different than the viewpoints by the rest of the republican party. that's why this 2003 e-mail from kavanaugh is so interesting and democrats are saying wait a minute, maybe he didn't tell the truth here and they are urging collins and murkowski to go back and look at that e-mail in particular. when he spoke with susan collins, kavanaugh said he thought roe according to her was quote, settled law. neil: yeah. if he was -- i think he was arguing as a lawyer, how that is interpreted, but it was a fine

line. i'm wondering if those two republicans you mentioned, or anyone else you can think of, would be less likely to write off on it. reporter: even if they lose one of those, if they are able to get to 50 votes, that's when we think democrats will start to come on board. i mentioned heitkamp and manchin. if they can't get to 50 votes that's a problem. that's why the swearing-in of kyl was so important. he was the sherpa, who took kavanaugh around to his senate meetings. he told me when he was coming into the senate this week he couldn't imagine a scenario where he wouldn't vote to confirm unless there was a quote, comet coming in from outer space. neil: president obama is back on the stump on behalf of the democrats, first of many speeches on candidates' bee hha here. he sort of let it rip, talked about his concern for the republican party, wondering what happened to it, that donald trump isn't necessarily, you know, the guy who should be

taking credit for something that started under him, this economic recovery, et cetera, and he certainly rallied the base, if that's what the goal of these things is. now, we do know, you reminded me in off-year elections, or years in which his name isn't on the ballot, it only gets you so far. what is your sense of the impact barack obama is going to have on the midterms? reporter: donald trump's name is not on the ballot and certainly barack obama's name is not on the ballot. we found that out in 2010 because barack obama developed this big coalition in 2008 which is why democrats won big in the house and senate elections. he won the presidency and then that all went away at least in the house, they lost 63 seats. we are in a different political time, and when we are in a different political period like this, one wonders that even if donald trump is not on the ballot, does the trump voter show up. we keep seeing these trends and the so-called generic ballot, where they say you have a democrat and generic republican. it's up to about 14 points in

favor of the democrats right now. it always favors the democrats by a little bit, so that number needs to be up to at least six or seven to flip the house. if it's up 13, 14 points, that probably means there's a very good chance they could win the house of representatives. the big problem here for the republicans are defending all of these open seats, 40 plus open seats. there's a couple of districts i would look at. there are some problems for democrats in minnesota. there might be some problems in florida. mentioned one of thigese potentl swing votes, bill nelson, florida voted for president trump. very competitive re-election bid there. rick scott, the governor. this is not a done deal by any stretch of imagination, particularly in the senate and certainly in the house as well. neil: thank you very, very much. i want to talk to elena green, axios reporter. just on that, the latest generic ballot reads we're getting that show it widening out in favor of democrats, i know they are

volatile and can swing wildly but what do you make of that? >> well, it's unclear a lot of people are trying to make predictions and i think one thing where it will be precarious, people say there will be a blue or red wave. it is looking right now like it is in the democrats' favor, again because they are showing, they have shown up in large numbers in a lot of special elections, they have had higher turnout rates and it all comes down to energy. i think if the democrats keep up this momentum in november, it will be hard for republicans to match that. i think that's the key thing here. again, after 2016, a lot of people aren't making predictions like they did before, because the polls might be saying one thing and right now, polls are saying it probably will be democrats who take the house. but you never really know until the day when they came out. neil: the republicans say in their favor is the improving economy and markets. i wonder if part of barack obama's strategy today, first time on the stump for candidates since he left office, that wait a minute, that thing they are

bragging about, that's on us, we did that. i did that. that happened under my administration. this turnaround in the economy happened with me. the thing they are owning up to and bragging about, we did that, democrats, not the other side. what did you make of that? >> well, it's an interesting argument because it's true, what we have seen today with these job numbers, that's been the longest streak of these gains that we have seen in a long time and some of that did come from under the obama administration. but as we know, president trump is taking full credit for the economy and the stock market doing so well. so i think this is a polarizing issue. i think a lot of people especially on the right will say this is all president trump's doing and this administration's doing, whereas some democrats are going to go more of the way that obama, president obama is saying, this has come from us. it is an interesting thing -- neil: interesting argument. i get both sides ticked off at me. both can take a bow. both can take credit but apparently that won't do. thank you very, very much. the dow is down about 150

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neil: all right. les moonves and the saga of how he parts with cbs. what's happening here, charlie? >> there's two parts to this deal, the what's happening with parting with cbs, how he's going to leave and how much money he's going to leave with. i understand it's more than $100 million. they have issues in giving him that money because if they do, they face shareholder lawsuits. the other part of the deal is fascinating. that's between cbs, corporate and sherry redstone. they are in a big legal battle about separating out. cbs wants total freedom from sherry redstone. neil: which is what he wanted. >> here's what i understand is on the table. cbs is trying to negotiate, i heard they are pretty close to it, a two-year stand-still

agreement with sherry redstone where she doesn't touch cbs for two years. what does that mean. that means instead of fulfilling her desires to merge cbs with the other company she controls, viacom, that's the thing that moonves and cbs doesn't want to do, it's bad for shareholders, cbs goes out and can be free for two years, operate independently, and sell itself to somebody else. who would be the buyers? there have been other potential buyers, at & t asked about it, viacom has been in the mix but they want to sell cbs, not merge it with viacom. sell to a separate player. the way you get that is to have a two-year stand-still agreement with redstone. from what i understand, that is on the table. from what i understand, they are fairly close in getting that. that doesn't mean it's going to happen. it means they are close in getting that. redstone is somewhat open to it, from what i understand, as of now. who knows.

this is a negotiating -- this -- neil: she would just be happy with him gone. >> maybe. but remember, he's gone, the board, if they get the stand-still agreement, can still do what he wants to do which is sell. neil: isn't the me too movement involved, too? >> he's gone because of the -- because of that, as you know, that ronan farrow piece which suggested he had sexual misconduct allegations against him. so that's where this is. two things going on here. there's the separation agreement and we might find out about this today, okay, and the stand-still agreement which is the reason when we first broke the stand-still agreement early today, stocks shot right up. investors like the fact cbs will be sold to somebody else, not merged with viacom. neil: thank you, buddy. meantime, elon musk in the middle of an s.e.c. investigation, trying to settle an issue that has been a financial embarrassment and lo and behold, a two and a half hour podcast with a comedian. take a look.

>> our thoughts on wealth, on social status, how many of those evaporate in our need for privacy? maybe our need for privacy will be the ultimate bottleneck we have to surpass. >> i think the things we think are important now will probably not be important in the future. neil: okay. i was expecting a more inflammatory piece of sound but maybe that was the problem. it went up and down like that. it was sort of a geiger counter of emotions. sun microsystems co-founder, scott, i cannot imagine you conducting such an interview with me, but i think i would have been the problem, not you. >> excuse me, excuse me, do you have a light? neil: incredible. incredible. what was he thinking? what was he thinking? >> about what?

that's an overbroad question. certainly i think you have a responsibility as a ceo to be a role model to young kids and kids in college and young executives to your employees. i think you have a responsibility to your shareholders. i think you have a responsibility to your customers and your suppliers. you know, i certainly always felt i had a responsibility to be a good role model to my four boys. i told them if the drugs don't kill you, i will. you know, i just think -- i just spin it a different way. neil: i wondered about the timing of it. it's one thing to go into an interview smoking marijuana and sipping whiskey, doing a podcast with a comedian two and a half hours. fine. given all the storm and controversy around him and his company and s.e.c. investigations, now was not that time. many people told me yeah, but he's a different egg and he's

not driven by the same things a lot of other people are. but it does show an aloofness and detachment that if i'm an investor, it would cause me great concern. >> i would have to think twice about it but again, life in the pinata is very stressful here. you are alone, you have a bunch of board members, bunch of shareholders, especially if you are as public as tesla is, especially with all the government subsidies and tax dollars they have used to grow their businesses, you know, he's under a lot of pressure. you never know. by the way, ceo genius comes in many forms and shapes. donald trump's one. steve jobs was one. larry ellison's another. elon musk is another. i think it takes an unusual personality to be willing and able to have the managerial

coura courage, maybe a doobie gives him the courage he needs. neil: no denying he's got the genius. i think what you worry about, just looking at the company and the financial impact, when its chief accounting officer resigns after just a month on the job, and then another executive leaves after a little more than a month on the job, that is getting the appearance of a jailbreak. i wonder if you think the company can survive this, because maybe it's bigger than elon musk now. >> well, it is hard to start an auto company. there's no question about it. because of the large barriers to entry in terms of capital and distribution and just the sheer cost of tooling up new product lines, all the rest of it, so you have heavy reliance, as a

new player, on investors who are looking for startup silicon valley venture capital-like returns. so you are under enormous financial pressure to keep the stock price up, keep your cost to capital low and you are dealing with some very large japanese and international car companies as well as the big players here in the u.s. like general motors, which got to recapitalize in a very unusual way, then you have ford, which is a very strong company also. then you have the other big players who have trillion dollar values getting into the game, whether it be an apple or google which is near a trillion dollars or whatever. you have some very, very big players playing in that space. it's very, very competitive. neil: the government is getting tough on a lot of social media concerns ahead of twitter. sheryl sandberg from facebook on capitol hill this week where they are all but inviting

government scrutiny, if not regulation. what do you think of that? >> they have got to stay away. the government is not who ought to be regulating free speech and i just think that people need to know that whatever you put on the internet is a digital tattoo. whatever you see out there, you have no idea who posted it, whether they are a bot, a liar -- neil: should we know? should we know? that was the issue. should we know the source of what we read? >> you can't. you just can't. i have always argued that every newscaster and reporter should have on the screen when they are reporting what their voting and donation record was from a political perspective, if there's anything political about what they are reporting on. i had to do that when i was ceo. i had to make all of my conflicts of interest and investments in potentially competitive or partner companies available to all my shareholders

so they knew where i was coming from and what decisions i was making, with what kind of influences and biases. you know, i actually had a very aggressive argument with a former -- he's current, still out there, newscaster in the political space, national newscaster, and he said i have no bias, i was trained not to have bias. i said then you were trained to have no brain wave activity, because by definition you have a bias. you just won't tell me what it is and it won't help me interpret what you're saying, from where you're coming from. a lot of people are pretty obvious but others are way more subtle and able to do that. neil: very interesting. look at the time. wish i could tell you some of my biases but i don't have any time. scott, always good seeing you. thank you very, very much. >> thanks, buddy. take care. neil: in the meantime, boomers ready for retirement and how all of a sudden, that could be the death of your housing value.

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neil: welcome back, everybody. we told you earlier about a case of good news being bad news. good jobs report, 201,000 more during the month of august but the problem seem to be fears interest rates go up as a result, maybe more aggressively than we thought earlier. edward lawrence just had an opportunity to interview the dallas fed president on that very issue. reporter: exactly. an exclusive interview with dallas fed president robert caplan who says the jobs report does show we have a strong economy. however, if you look at the average hourly wages, he is concerned the 2.9% wage growth year over year could mean inflation pressures. however, he says that automation and globalization offset that inflation pressure which means for him, he believes the fed will be on track for three to four more rate hikes in the next 12 months. now, he says one of the biggest

three, top three threats to the economy right now is what he's calling the possible unsustainable national government debt. he says that at the moment, right now, we are feeling the height of the stimulus package, the fiscal stimulus, but that government debt could spoil that party. >> that impact of that stimulus will fade in '19 and '20 and our concern at the dallas fed, my concern is in the medium term, if we either start moderating debt growth which i think is very possible, that tail wind is going to turn into a headwind and we haven't experienced that in our lifetime. i have said it's not a monetary policy issue but to the extent we can address this to moderate this debt growth when times are good, i think we will be well-served in the out years because this could be a headwind in the out years for economic growth. reporter: a warning there from the dallas fed president to

manage that debt. he's-co-hosting an energy conference right now. when you talk about oil prices going forward, he says russia and saudi arabia are increasing production but says going forward, the u.s., being one of the top three producers of oil, will be a further impact, a greater impact on setting prices in the future. neil? neil: great job, edward lawrence in washington. by the way, you will hear a lot of references to what edward was mentioning, the ten-year look-backs over the housing crisis and takeover of fannie and freddie and everything else. they said never again, it won't happen again. could it happen again, and would boomers be the reason, my generation? coldwell banker realtor on the impact of the market if a lot of old fogeys like myself start unloading their homes en masse and there aren't enough younger buyers to scoop them up. then we have problems, right? >> there are 75 million baby boomers so one out of every four people in the u.s. is a baby

boomer, between the ages of 54 and 72. as they are getting ready to retire, to downsize, to move into assisted living, they will be exiting the real estate market and the question is who is going to buy those homes. the generation behind them, generation x, is a much smaller generation. there's only 65 million people in that generation. so there's simply not enough people in that generation to absorb -- neil: the generation behind that generation? >> you have the millenials. the millenials got off to a late start. they came of age during the housing crisis, so they are not really financially going to be in a position to buy those homes because for the most part, baby boomers own those more expensive houses anyway, and there's a big age difference between millenials and baby boomers. neil: lot of younger buyers are not keen on buying the same homes, right? >> younger buyers tend to want turnkey, everything's fixed up, smaller. they're not looking for that

fixer-upper where over time they can get the house the way they want it. neil: there's a potential flood of homes on the market and there aren't that many buyers. i know everything is local. real estate guys remind me of that. where would this phenomenon be most pronounced? obviously boomers have been retiring as this cycle is continuing. >> first of all, i think it's important to point out that fannie mae just came out with a study and they predict in eight to ten years, you will see a significant increase in the number of homes. it makes a lot of sense, because in ten years, those boomers will now be 64 to 82. that's where all those life events happen. neil: if any of those boomers are listening now, they want to get out of their homes now. >> not necessarily. you need to educate yourself. knowledge is power. understand if you did sell your house tomorrow, what would be the most likely selling price of your house. also, in retirement, do you need to sell your house to pull that equity out, or can you age in place, or do you want to age in

place. neil: you seem to be telling me the asset this generation hangs on to is a declining asset right now, it's not going to increase in value? >> it's hard to have a crystal ball. there's obviously a lot of things going on in the economy, the tax breaks, the things of that nature. it's hard to look ten years down the line. neil: how has the tax thing sorted out for the housing industry? >> i haven't seen much of an impact on people in my local market not buying homes because of the tax break. i think with the tax breaks you see other advantages that come into play and that might mitigate some of the effects that you can't write off -- neil: same reason why those businesses in california that don't go to texas, for example, yeah it would be an easier move to do tax-wise but it's a pain in the neck. >> yeah. if you have a big multi-national company, it's hard to pick up operations and move them overnight. neil: in new jersey, where you and i are, where the governor raised corporate taxes on the

elite few, it's hard to get them to pull out of dodge if they are all over the world. >> yeah, and also, we both live in new jersey because it's a wonderful place to live, right? great beaches, so there's a lot of factors that go into where companies choose to locate, because they want obviously their employees to be happy and comfortable where they are. neil: the problem could be just simple supply and demand. too much supply on the part of boomers trying to get out, not enough buyers. >> correct. that is something that this study by fannie mae and the university of southern california -- neil: fannie mae didn't predict its own problems. >> well, we will have to see. we will have to see. once again, the future is hard to predict. you need to educate yourself. neil: it's a fascinating read. i read it. we will watch very closely. you are bumming me out. we are following this

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when you hear how great the economy's doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery start started. [ applause ] i mean, i'm glad it's continued, but when you hear about this economic miracle that's been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers, suddenly republicans are saying it's a miracle. neil: oh, no, he didn't. so now we're waiting for president trump's response, and it is on, my friends. it could get very, very nasty. who to take the credit for this economic recovery that continues and the trump folks will say because of them and on steroids because of them. the obama folks, president obama

himself saying because it started with me so it's on us. anyway, the center for freedom and prosperity chairman dan mitchell, i'm waiting to hear the response from president trump, and there will be a response very soon, he has said he inherited a disaster, he got it really going, the economy is fired up and unemployment levels among key demographics, the lowest in the cycle if not in history. who is right on this? >> they are both right. obviously we did have an economic recovery and expansion that began way back in the summer of 2009. the knock against obama wasn't that we were in a recession. the knock was that we didn't have the normal, very strong bounce-back and we never got back up to an average of 3% growth. now, are we going to get that under trump? maybe. i like what he's done on taxes. i like some of what he's doing on regulation. but he's letting spending go out of control, and boy, it looks like he's about to go off the

deep end on the trade war, and that kind of stuff can hurt the economy, just like it did in the 1930s. neil: you know, that was a worry and one of the reasons why we are down about 139 points on the dow, that we have expanded this with china to include $267 billion worth of additional goods from china, now extending the fight to japan. i know in the past with some of these things, the markets have worried about it, we have fixated on it. something miraculously happens, they get the south koreans to the table, the mexicans to the table, the europeans to the european commission to the table and maybe the same will happen here. let me flip that around. what if that doesn't happen? what if these tariffs do go into effect? what if china doesn't blink or whatever, and what if canada says we want no part of this u.s./mexico deal? >> that's precisely the concern. let's say i put a blindfold on and i run across a busy highway, and i do it five times and i somehow miraculously never get

run over. does that mean it's a good idea, does that mean i won't get run over the sixth time? i think trump is playing with fire. let me put it this way. some of my friends on the left have this big idea called intersectionality. you have to work all these social and diversity and cultural issues together. from a libertarian perspective, to be intersectional, it's to care about all the policy issues. i want the low taxes, i applaud trump for that, i like how he's cutting back on regulation, but if you mess up your own agenda, if you undermine your own pro-growth policies with a trade war, that can -- the republicans will rue the day they allow this to happen. neil: do you think that could happen? because it hasn't yet. >> let's say trump, while we're speaking, decides to do what was in that woodward article and actually pull out of nafta, pull out of the korean free trade agreement, let the ego really

crazy, pull out of the wto, you are talking major, major disruptions of world trade. you are talking about inserting all sorts of sand in the gears of the economy. you are talking about hurting consumers, manufacturers. you are talking about hurting exporters, farmers, all sorts of sectors of the u.s. economy will be hurt. right now, we are sort of like, you know, hitting one finger with a hammer. what trump potentially could be doing is like cutting off an arm. neil: thank you very much. dan mitchell. waiting for the president of the united states in north dakota. . . .

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neil: we're waiting to hear from president trump in fargo, north dakota. no doubt he will respond to a couple things president obama had to say. now to trish regan. trish: president obama had a lot to say. we'll get to that with karl rove later. suite hear from president trump any minute from now. you're looking at a live picture from fargo, north dakota, as he calls on attorney general jeff sessions to open an investigation into "the new york times" op-ed. the president is considering taking actions against the paper for publishing the anonymous op-ed. the president is in north dakota right now to help senate candidate kevin cramer unseat heidi heitkamp. the markets are off 132 right now on the dow jones industrial average. 25,864 is the level. president trump said he is ready to