bad socialism was. i didn't realize i got carried away. i will never do that again. of. ashley: right. right. stuart: until monday morning. you might get another dose on monday. time's up. neil, it's yours. neil: all right, stuart, thank you very, very much. look at the corner of wall and broad. we were down 200 point earlier. we're up about 30 points right now. a lot of focus on what the focus should be on. china where things are not looking good where trade talks are concerned or economic picture which looks very, very good. we have hillary vaughn on the trade talks, where they stand. gerri willis at nyse, how market are trying to digest all of this. later on we have ohio republican congressman jim jordan. he is reacting to attorney general bill barr exclusive with bill hemmer. this investigation into the investigation is still going on whether the democrats like it or

not. let's go to issue of front and center, dictate the market's direction, trade talks with china. this is another example as with yesterday where they don't look good. but this time the markets don't seem to care. hillary vaughn on that first. reporter: neil, the white house is pumping the brakes on car tariffs but meanwhile negotiations between the u.s. and china stalled entirely. a spokesperson for the chinese commerce ministry saying they're not even ready to talk trade with the u.s. former white house trade official cleat williams telling fox business's maria bartiromo this morning that the problems between the china and the u.s. are more political than economic. >> these are global problems. it is not just the u.s. and china. this is not the u.s. trying to keep china down. reforms will benefit china's economy. you hear china saying we can't change our laws. i want to point out that is routine in these trade agreements. all the trade agreement i dealt

with all the countries changed laws to address problems. reporter: they want the u.s. to cancel all tariffs. for now the president is easing up on everyone else but china. reports that the president is getting ready to lift steel and aluminum tariffs on canada and mexico to pave the way for the usmca trade agreement. president trump cooling off on car tariffs as well hoping to work out a deal by japan and europe putting car tariffs on the backburner next six months. that tight deadline is not sitting well with automakers. international automobile dealers association blasting the statement. truth imported auto and auto parts are not a national security threat. using this spurious claim to force our trading partners into new negotiations will only create more uncertainty for america's entire auto industry. the president is not just negotiating for a better deal on

cars. he wants the u.s. to draw down imports from overseas. saying american businesses need to bump up their r&d spending in order to meet our national security interests. neil? neil: hillary vaughn, thank you very, very much. this is the second day running we get worrisome news out of china. prospects of trade are not looking good. this is the second day running where the markets are shrugging their shoulders looking at other more promising backdrops including a good economy, by and large, i say by and large good earnings. gerri willis at nyse with more on that? reporter: neil, it is all about consumer sentiment out, university of michigan consumer sentiment index is out at a 15-year high. nobody saw this coming. economists didn't see it coming. more importantly on the legals of retail sales number which was so disappointing t was negative, down .2 of a percent. expectation was that it would be

positive. so this is really a shot in the arm to the market looking for direction as you said at the top of the show. but to hillary's point, yes, china, still a steady downbeat here. steady drumbeat for traders who want to hear every piece of news on this we saw china's marketdown overnight. shanghai composite was down 2.5%. some traders telling me today that they see it as a positive they don't expect trump and xi xinping to get together for a month. according to what he said to me, hey, we've got 30 days to play with this. but i have to tell you, they are focused on this stimulus china is talking about. countries are already lowered taxes increased infrastructure spending. so they're going to wait and see what that next step is. but for today, at least, it is looking a little closer to home. we're focusing on consumers. 70% of u.s. gdp they're liking that. so, stocks mixed to this point. we have the dow up 14 points.

s&p and nasdaq lower. not by a lot. kind of treading in a narrow margin here after a big move this morning. neil, back to you. neil: all right. gerri at the new york stock exchange. as gerri pointed out you heard what they're talking about. maybe talks don't get going for at least another month. so that means the tariffs kick in as scheduled around june 1. that is the chinese with $60 billion worth of tariffs on our products. we of course with better than $200 billion, $250 billion now on their products. yet the markets in this environment going up. now it's a little weird because normally the markets tend to move in lockstep with these talks. the better they look, the better stocks look. the worse they look, worse stocks look. that they are decoupling. we have mike murphy and we have "the evening edit," wicked smart

lizzie macdonald. >> it is weird. donald trump threatened 45% tariffs. neil: that's right. maybe this is a vacation. >> maybe this is a vacation from that. u.s. economy were chugging along. mike and i were talking outside, push back of delays, deal getting done. there were 32 times, media said it would tip us into recession. that hasn't happened. i think president trump and analysts on wall street realize he is in the catbird seat here. neil: you know, mike, it is interesting that you know the news has not been good on the trade front, yet stocks have been, for very good reasons. look at sentiment number that came out, surprised a lot of folks. by and large, better-than-expected earnings. a lot of buybacks. that has always been the backdrop, if you think about it. it has been overridden things bad with china. not this time. >> not this time, neil.

u.s. economy is strong enough to support higher markets at these levels, trade talks are dragging out, there is nothing out there that says we won't see a deal. neil: could you live with a deal, at least, at least 30 days off? >> i could live with a deal, 30, 60 or 90 days out. the problem for the market, no deal, massive trade war, u.s. versus china. that would be a huge selloff. short of that the market's fine. neil: if you think about it, lizzie, the week started off with the chinese media talking about we are very independent of the united states. we look at things in 5000 year cycles. i thought, 5000 years, that is even more long term than murphy. i'm thinking wow, they're really getting in our face. >> we think in two years or shorter. neil: if we're lucky. >> exactly. i hear, i totally get where you're at because i'm looking at this, the way china is seeing this, i don't mean to be wonky

historical, 1930 smoot-hawley tariffs hit everybody in the world. now china says you're just targeting us. that feels into the humiliation, century of humiliation at the hands of the west and jop. nixon came in with the ping-pong diplomacy. bring china into the world order, judge them to be normal and normal traders again. what is happening now this stokes feeling of a griefment, victimization. paint over communist party failures, this is the u.s. attacking us again. they can do authoritarian crackdowns. this stoke as sense of nationalism. i think that is what is going on inside of china. the fallout of that is sabre-rattling. just a footnote. i do not think as some market analysts suggested that china will start dumping u.s. treasurys. last time they did that 2015, 2016 yuan currency went up. it made their exports more expensive. watch this, the treasury yield on the 10-year note went down.

it's a safe haven asset. you put the treasury yield on fire-sale, the china is dumping, pension funds and other investors start buying. neil: i don't buy it t would hurt them. you could make the argument it is a little over one trillion, better than $22 trillion in debt. leaving that aside. mike, one thing that came up, they have this other weapon they can use, 3 1/2 trillion in government stimulus. that government supports its markets and its economy, will do everything in its power, not that we're not opposed to that and haven't done that to our financial institutions after the melt down, we have a history. they have more money available to do it. that is the argument. >> they could stimulate their economy. the president is clear. he would like us to stimulate our economy. so that i think can kind of cancel itself out. as long as two egos in the room, the president and, u.s. and china, unless they don't have complete falling out that something that breaks the deal, that one point i'm not going to

give in, we'll get a deal. >> that is better than nothing. neil: what do they meet in the japan for the g20. and they don't make a deal? you're saying it could go on for months and months. >> totally fine, as long as it doesn't fall apart, as long as they don't walk away from it market is fine. we'll focus on the u.s. economy. >> any deal is better than where we are at now. china continues to target trump country, voters in the farm belt. china says hey you're coming after our middle class which son the edge right now. neil: among the things the chinese are very interested following in our country is the polls. they saw this one poll out of pennsylvania showed joe biden leading the president by double digits and it is fueling this back and forth. we wait this guy out, hope -- >> 5000 years? neil: 5000 years, right. that was interesting to me. >> that is interesting. >> very interesting. i think they would, as the president said they would much rather negotiate in his opinion with joe biden than they would

with donald trump. i think this deal is in front of us. neil: joe biden said they're not competitive threat. they probably like him. >> that is the point. they would not rather deal with hard tactics of president trump. the deal is there. i think it comes way before the election. neil: we'll see. i will hold you to that. >> okay. neil: if you're right i won't bring up this tape. if you're wrong -- >> okay. >> funny. neil: we have a lot more going on here, including how this is all being viewed abroad. if you look at the world press it is getting increasingly sympathetic to the united states, how we're handling this trade thing. then there is the whole focus on iran and the ongoing russia probe and probe what started the probe. whatever that noise is it is not deterring the market to the degree you would normally think it would. it is just kind of weird. which is just kind of what we do, after this. ♪ -driverless cars... -all ground personnel...

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i'm saying that we have to look at that. neil: and so he is. the attorney general of the united states bill barr talking to our own bill hemmer about that investigation of what prompted the investigation. the read from all of this from former georgia republican, house manager during the impeachment of one william jefferson clinton, bob barr, no relation, where this is all headed. >> good morning. a lot going on here. neil: you're not kidding. what you make of what barr is saying that investigation is warranted to find out how this all started, how we got into this investigation into the first place? what do you think? >> i would say, hallelujah. at long last we have somebody in a position to do something about it, to figure out exactly what was going on in that very crucial period between the election and when mr. trump took office. as bill barr said he used the word several times in his

interview, strange. that's putting it mildly. what was going on here does not smell right and the only person in government really that has the authority and the jurisdiction to get to the bottom of it is bill barr. it is not the inspector general. that, that work of the inspector general at the department of justice is limited just to internal decisions within the department. bill barr is the attorney general has jurisdiction to look at what these other officials were doing in that process. neil: is it your sense, congressman, that whole matter becomes one investigation after another? obviously the house democrats particularly want to pursue more on the mueller report. republicans are responding now with this investigation, the investigation into counter what would prompted the mueller report in the first place. and this will go right through the next election? >> certainly the democrats have

one agenda and one agenda in mind between now and next year's election to get trump. pretty much the only thing that all element within the democratic party structure can agree on. they can't agree on anything of substance. they all agree they don't like trump, that becomes the agenda. so they will continue no matter what. what bill barr is saying is that the mueller report is finished. now what we need to do is something that has been bothering us since the election in 2016 and that is, how did this whole mess get started in? in order to take steps that might be necessary to prevent this sort of thing happening in future, you have to understand how it started, what was the motivation and what did these people do if they abused our system of law enforcement, then we have to know that so we can take corrective measures to make sure, hopefully, that it never happens again. neil: would the inspector general report do that? or is it not enough?

>> it is not enough, you have to in mind that the inspector general for the department of justice, man of tremendous integrity, mr. more wits is looking -- horowitz is looking at internal decision making within the department of justice only. that is as far as his jurisdiction extends n order to get to the bottom of this, since we know there were all sorts of players involved that were not within the department of justice, in the intelligence community, for example, bill barr has broader authority to do that. neil: if you don't mind my getting into politics sir and your wonderful state of georgia, stacey abrams is kicking around idea of running for president herself. if she were to join, it would be a very crowded field. she lost out in the georgia gubernatorial battle? what do you make of the field right now on the other side? right now polls seem to show that joe biden has a lead that

obviously can be fleeting but it's, it's unprecedented, a field this crowded and this constantly getting even more crowded? what do you make of it? >> it is hilarious really. i think from a republican standpoint it's very positive. you have the field so split up, with all these different people running around like smurfs and, you know the republicans can sit back and just sort of watch it play out. i do think though, that joe biden has positioned himself in a pretty strong position to present himself as sort of the adult in the room which sets him apart from pretty much all of these other folks running around. he is really the man that i think, or the candidate that all of the democrats eventually are going to train their fire on. neil: do you think he would be the biggest threat to donald trump? >> as things shape up now i

would say so. the others, i mean you look at them, each one of them has kind of a little, a little characteristic that they're running on. one particular thing but none of them have enough of the pieces i don't think of being a credible candidate like joe biden does. neil: all right. we'll watch closely. congressman, always a pleasure. >> thank you, neil. neil: congressman barr. then there is this little crisis we've got going on in the persian gulf. iran saying it has no sinister intentions towards the u.s. the u.s. has indicated they will not let iran get away with anything but are both sides misreading the other? after this. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies

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neil: kind of flat general market. but not so for luckin coffee, called the poor man's starbucks. that is the appeal in the

wall street debut, $21.58 a share. it is up appreciably right now. they are looking at better harbinger for things to come for initial public offerings down the road to get us over the lyft and uber debacles, whatever you want to call them. we're following that closely. market to the upside. we had been down 200 points a little bit earlier. there are some jitters, not the least of which is going on in the persian gulf. we learned the uss abraham lincoln is moving near iran. president says he does not want war. no one does but you can accidentally slip into something like that. former national security advisor to vice president dick cheney, happy to see him in the flesh, we always talk remotely, but john hannah. great to see you. >> good to see you, neil. neil: so much can go wrong or right. we're getting reports that each side might be misreading the other.

what are you hearing? >> of course i haven't seen the intelligence. but i don't think this is a failure to communicate on behalf of these states. they both know what they're doing. what the united states done is left the nuclear deal and has launched launched a major form of economic warfare against the islamic republic of iran. they are slowly but surely driving that country to its knees economically. i think the mullahs are looking for any way to get some leverage over the united states to inflict some degree of pain. the only ways that they know how, which is terrorism, which is economic sabotage of these ships in the gulf. neil: so you have no doubt, or it would be those sympathetic to iran? >> i have almost no doubt. i'm not the president of the united states. neil: why would he risk that though? i always look like, if you know you've got an a maude today u.s. ships and soldiers coming your way why would you risk rattling the tiger's cage? >> i think precisely because they see this train bearing down

on them, that is driving their economy into a ditch. the iranians to their credit are masters at asymetric call warfare. it would be suicidal for them to ever think about taking on the united states navy directly, but doing things against our allies, in the gray zone, just beneath the threshold of something that would actually trigger a u.s. military response, look what they have done in saudi arabia, on the pumping stations on ships in the gulf. neil: what would be the response? outright invasion of ira an? >> no. what trump is engaged in right now i think is a prudent demonstration of american night to send the signal to the iranians, don't think about doing anything. this is all about deterrents and avoiding war, if in fact the iranians were stupid enough to cross a u.s. red line, kill some american troops, for instance or

dramatically ramp up the nuclear program, i think you're probably looking at things, initially from the air, to inflict pain on the iranians but, i -- neil: wouldn't be limited. once we start something like that it is not a limited event. >> you don't know where you go up the escalation ladder, that is exactly right. i'm convinced the president doesn't want any part of that. he wants to avoid war. he is determined along with his advisors that the best way to do that is to send a message of overwhelming military strength if the iranians were decide to test us. neil: there is report of discord in the white house among the foreign policy aides. john bolton want to go one way. many other members of the team want to go the other. take a chill pill. to you know anything about that? >> i can't say i have any district insight. john bolton is a guy with very sharp views, sharp bureaucratic elbows, he wins a lot of policy

debates he gets into. there are people in washington looking for a chance to undermine john. this is a lot of washington politics. but i think everybody in the administration is basically on message here. of that the purpose of this military deployment here is to deter iran not to provoke a military conflict. neil: now you said at the outset you don't know the intelligence, you can't verify it. some earlier in the week had questioned it. whether it was worth the response that we're getting. i think it started with, we saw some missiles and some iranians vessels. the iranians said nothing there. certainly nothing offensive. back and forth this whole communication problem. it is in the eye of the beholder, but we wouldn't be creating a crisis where there was none, would we? >> i've never been part of a u.s. government, i've been part of three administrations that would have done that type of thing. neil: i'm asking, is this another weapons of mass destruction, be careful? >> you always need to be careful

about the way you interpret the intelligence. i think it is important. congress has a point, why the administration does need to be going to congress an and sharing as much as we can. there are problems that foreign partners delivering intelligence to us that may not be releasable to a broader audience. the administration, to the extent it can needs to be transparent with congress and public as much as possible about the nature of the real threats they're seeing here. neil: to the extent it can? it's a dicey proposition. john hannah, good seeing you. >> great to be with you. neil: look at the oil markets. something like this would have them going crazy nuts. right now we're giving back some of the gains we were seeing over three prior days. those gains were nominal in the scheme of things some might be concerned with the trade war between the two biggest economies on the planet and how

hard that would be depressing the economy. i would say that john hofmeister has something contributing to what is the response to oil and gas future prices. what is going on here, john? >> on a day-to-day basis, you never know for sure, neil, but on a trend basis i say there are some conflicting trends. one is destablizing of the middle east, which is an upside pressure but yes, you're right, you have the downside pressure coming from fears there could be economic implications of an extended trade standoff between the u.s. and china which could affect the economies of both countries but underlying all of that i still think there is a trend pushing oil upwards and the reason i say that is the u.s. depend upon a fair amount of heavy oil and we're not getting the heavy oil out of venezuela that we used to get, nor are we getting sufficient supplies out of mexico and a lot of what we produce in the

permian basin we ship offshore and export it, because our refineries are not set to handle the light grade of oil that is coming off. there is a little bit of imbalance. that pets pressure on the supply of gas even and the supply of diesel. with americans loving their mobility, and vehicle miles traveled continue to climb that puts extra pressure on the gasoline and diesel price that will stay that way as long as the economy is robust as it is. neil: we have our own oil production, 14 million-barrels a day. i don't know what blend that is that would affect the prices here but do you look for a summer spike then in prices? >> yes. i think we will see prices continue to creep up from a domestic market standpoint. i don't think they will skyrocket but i do think they will creep up on a steady basis until we reach the summer peek.

i'm not sure what that will come out? is it $3, just under or over $3 a gallon but i think we'll be close to that pretty soon. the thing we have trouble with is the logistics in the permian basin, getting oil to where we can actually refine it or getting the natural gas where it needs to go. there's a tremendous effort to resist pipelines in this country. you know, long island now, you can't get a new gas connection because they won't put in pipelines. 10 years ago i tried to put in liquified natural gas regasification terminal off long island. that got thumb as down on the state of new york. now you can't get a new fast -- gas connection. new york will pay a huge price for natural gas this summer because they don't have enough of it. there is a general lack of understanding in the american marketplace of the implications

for infrastructure, price, availability, and of course congress is in a do-nothing stage. so i don't expect anything help on the legislative side. on the regulatory side of course we're getting a lot of encouragement to do more. neil: well it could explain the phenomenon, the crossroads right now. thank you, john hofmeister, former shell oil president. want to update you on pinterest shares. we'll get into details on that. want to pass news along for millenials, the worst news you probably ever heard, baby boomers like myself? we're not going anywhere.

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neil: for all the young people out there, baby boomers that would be me, we'll never retire. we will work till i die.

that is apparently a trend going on across the country, actually across the world. one that enormous economic implications. "barron's" associate publisher, one of my favorite people on the show, jack otter, what that could mean longer term for you and younger people as well. >> i guess it means i won't get your job? neil: no. what is happening here? now a lot of it, whatever the reasons for older, baby boomers to continue to work but it does have big implications, right? what's going on here? >> sure. first of all it is the perfect storm in the sense that we're living longer, which is great. but that means you have to pay for a lot longer time. at the same time pensions are going the way of the dinosaurs. people are worried about social security. the college age, they have children later. now those kids are going to college. they can't stop working. they have to pay for college. this is happening at a time of massive disruption in the economy. so to be honest with you, i think it is a fairly good sign

that over 55s of unemployment rate of 2.9%. but i have huge advice for those people who have a kid in college, need to stay working, which is disruption is accelerating so much that whatever you did in your 40s, if you're in your late 50s, will be very different. you have to learn new skills. if you work in a factory, we're actually producing more than we ever have contrary to popular belief but with fewer people. you need the person who needs to operate the robot because 10 of your colleagues on the as assembly line will lose their jobs. one will be left to run the machine actually making stuff in the future. that is it true all over the economy, not just in factories. neil: a dramatic issue right now but certainly not, record unemployment among all groups, baby boomers, but i wonder if we're making more out of this. >> in silicon valley they have

to raise wages to find new qualified people. complaining not enough engineers coming out of school. a lot of people with blue-collar jobs, their dad had a great income for life, not only do they not have his pension, but they're losing that job and have to go to much lower paying more menial job. that is the underemployed. you're right, unemployment rate is low but there are a lot of people who are not making what they used to make. that is causing -- neil: is it a damning commentary on things too? that baby boomers can't afford to retire with added expenses? >> absolutely. neil: that with college and they're not in position where their parent were to retire? >> totally. they don't have the pension. college accelerated in terms of tuition way past rate of inflation. health care is better but you're paying for it. so that is a problem. americans are left to do this all by themselves. there is a financial writer investor bill bernstein i heard

him on a podcast, he said it is like you're gettingplane, you turn right to go to the seat. the flight attendant said, no, turn left, you're flying today. you need to create a income stream for 30 years after we're quit working. we're not prepared to do that. nobody says how to save that much, the geeky word, deaccumulation stage, paying yourself. you can't pull money out of a savings account until it goes dry? neil: what will it mean for inheritances? >> that is great question. at the wealthy end, it is fantastic. a trillion dollars a year being passed from boomers to the next generation. those are the rich folks. for a lot of people, yeah, mom and dad will take a dollar with them. neil: your mother and i are keeping everything. that usually gets this forlorn, what? >> tell your son, write you a check. toss that in the grave with you. neil: exactly. >> sure dad, you can have it. neil: not happening anytime

soon. jack otter, "barron's" associate publisher. this is the crux of capitalism, right? transfer of well, only something like societies of our own enjoy. if that stops, the fallout, after this. like my bike, and my calves. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ you wouldn't accept from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase.

>> how are all these ideas you want, how are they going to be paid for? >> i think the real question is why we're come placent with children across this country starving? people being in massive debt coming out of school, having no choice but to sell your wage for, sell yourself for -- >> how will you pay for it? to address that, wrong you want rectify? >> bring democracy to every aspect. >> you're shifting the subject, how you get back to these arguments about socialism. going at it based upon emotion. going at it based upon here is example. allow me to finish. i let you finish. [applause] >> socialism for me is a program to democratize the work place. it should have been done at beginning of the history of the united states. we're 200 years late. better late than never. that can solve our problem. neil: all right. charles payne did an excellent

job with that. but in the end we settled all our differences over socialism and capitalism. everyone is getting along just fine. there are big difference, aren't there? a lot of democratic candidates running for the presidency talking about a lot of socialist themes would do us well. looking at republicans, we'll look at a map where democratic candidates will be next 48 hours over the weekend, to a man or woman, they're offering varying themes how the government can be more helpful and the government can provide more benefits. details is how you pay for all of that. a warning for republicans that dismiss the socialist push, leave socialism out of it, talk about "medicare for all," helping kids pay for their college education or debt, it adds quite alluring appeal. former vice president joe biden in the latest polls is substantially over this crowd. he is a little bit less, far left on some of these issues. but he is not against them. and again he does parrot some of

the concerns that they do, the government wants to do more to rectify things. among the things he advocated, getting rid of president's tax cuts, starting from scratch. get the read on this where it is going with cast of characters running for dem crasstic president of the united states and chris at this sellser is, eric beach, and kat timpf. what is very clear the two parties have a different view of the role of government. i should hasten to add, republicans are no stranger to adding up deficits and piling on debt, they are not once to preach but nevertheless they're saying democrats is going overboard. no one is talk about reining in government and that is something that stands out. >> that is something that really bums me out as consistently small government type of person. you can't really say anymore that republicans are the party of lower spending because of the

deficits they have racked up. however you one thing you can say is that republicans are the party still of capitalism. and there are some capitalists obviously in the democratic party but there are also many people who are not. who openly say i'm a democratic socialist. so i think that, what we're talking about government, the scope of government, it is a different what economic system people in the party stand for. capitalism is a dirty word in a lot of the democratic party. neil: that might be a problem for joe biden. christie, i want to listen to a comment i had harvard professor cornel west on, a big backer of bernie sanders, but he has his doubts about biden for this reason. take a listen. >> well i think joe biden has a certain personal decency but we know his history. he is neoliberal in the classical mode and neoliberal system dying. the the center is dying. we have right wing populism or

left-wing populism. neil: what did you make of that? >> well i think he is speaking to the fact that many in the democratic base no longer want to compromise with a version of republicanism under donald trump. they see us having gone off the rails. so what he is saying is, joe biden is somebody comes out there look, i worked with people like dick cheney, they're not all bad. we have some things in common here he is going for a broad swath. he thinks he can have a argue victory over trump. in order to get that he needs to go to the middle. that is not where the democratic base on now. that will be really difficult. neil: will that work across the nation? >> it will give us a healthy primary argument. that will be one of the crux of the arguments in democratic party debate, should we work together with republicans on certain things or not? even things like infrastructure in theory we all actually agree. are there certain things that the trump administration has

done so beyond the pale, so upsetting so morally wrong that in fact no, we should say no to working with people that we think are you know, taking our country, not just the wrong direction, but morally wrong direction. neil: that is sort of saying of this president, never work with him because you don't like the guy. is that really grown up? >> not beyond just liking. neil: he is the president of the united states. eric, i'm wondering what republicans do? i know they dismiss a lot of this field with the socialist talk and all the other stuff i always wonder if they do so at their own peril, depending on the poll, how it is worded, americans like health care for all or protecting health care, in case something horrible happens we're covered they like someone helping out with kid's education or kids themselves demanding that. obviously depend how it is failed. a lot of them feel they're just between a rock and a hard place, to dismiss that grief might be

minimize potency of this summer. what do you think? >> not only that we also lost credibility as you mentioned, deficits have risen. you know, the economy is going strong but deficits and, our national debt have risen. so in my mind i think look, this reminds of 2018 than it does 2016. donald trump was a populist within the republican primary in 2016 but there was also a sense of economic nationalism. there was a sense of talking about immigration. so you have to talk about issues that will differentiate yourself from the rest of the primary field. i don't see joe been doing that right now. joe biden running to the left even if he is up by 30 point. it will be interesting to see how he responds to attacks that will come from those running to his left. neil: kat, it is interesting, you can make an argument, just based on the economy that donald trump should be running

away on this thing. to touch on christie's points he is not or behavior, tweets, i don't know what it is, he should be in ronald reagan territory just with the economy and market, whether you want want give him full credit or not but he is not. i wonder why people like joe biden are up double digits in pennsylvania, again very on, but if it was something if i'm donald trump i would worry about? >> absolutely. i think part of this is donald trump's fault. the things he tweets, things that he says, attitudes towards being divisive at times. i think another part of it has to do with a lot of the mainstream media. they won't cover his good things and breathlessly cover the bad things. i think it is far, far too early to tell if we would have had the republican front-runner at beginning of the 2016 election, we would have had jeb bush. what is jeb bush doing now? neil: exactly right. go to any race, hillary clinton was supposed to run away with

it, barack obama, very right on that. what do you think, eric, in the end republicans are watching, want to keep this economic thing going but what else? >> look, we're, this is all going to be about joe biden. i mean i will have to admit that. neil: if he were the nominee? >> that is my point is. neil: all right. >> if there is a sense in this democratic primary they can close the gap on joe biden, we know we'll be in probably for easy re-election campaign. if joe biden seems to run away from this, people rally behind him in the democratic primary, as he still runs to the left, we have our work cut out for us. neil: i want to thank you all very, very much. go out for quick commercial. dow up 29 points. interest rates are pretty stable. oil pretty stable. everything pretty stable. after this. termites, feasting on homes 24/7.

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now... grandpa, what about your dream car? this is my dream now. principal we can help you plan for that . neil: all right. well, i think it's called [ inaudible ] ending a rocky week for stocks. i think it's a safe bet no matter what happens today. what's interesting is how nonplussed investors seem to be, ignori distressing news. keep in mind the markets have kind of dovetailed the progress of talks, better for them when they're looking good, worse for them when they're looking bad. right about these days right now, focused on other things. that could be a sign of good things to come, we'll see, for the markets. blake burman will give us the latest from the white house.

first to blake on where those talks stand or maybe don't stand. reporter: i want to begin by pointing your direction on some news i got within the last little bit here as it relates to steel and aluminum tariffs and canada and mexico because the u.s. has imposed steel and aluminum tafriffs. a source familiar with the matter is telling me now that it is pointing in the direction as it was described to me that there could be a deal in the works to remove those steel and aluminum tariffs on canada and on mexico. this would be a big, big deal as it relates to the usmca because there are some republicans here in washington who have been saying they could not support the usmca if these tariffs were to stay in place. now we are hearing that there is a deal, at least pointing in the direction of a deal. a spokesperson for justin trudeau says president trump and the prime minister from canada

spoke earlier today and trudeau is set to host a news availability at a steel factory in canada in the next 30 minutes or so from here. so we await to see whether or not an announcement is imminent, though this was also described to me earlier today, at least the timing being very fluid. that's something we continue to keep our eyes on. of course there was also the announcement today from the white house that the president would be delaying auto tariffs, essentially here the decision is that it gives the president and his trade team another 180 days to negotiate, especially with the european union and with japan and at the end of that 180 days, then potentially the president could go forward with those auto tariffs, as he describes it being an emergency or not necessarily an emergency, but that it threatens the national security of the united states. essentially a punt on that front. so two big tariff stories and

then if you set that aside, oh, by the way, there is china. a spokesperson for china's foreign ministry basically doubling down on the comments yesterday that china does not have any plans negotiating with the united states going forward. that spokesperson saying quote, it takes sincerity to make a consultation meaningful. earlier today, maria bartiromo spoke with clete willams, once a senior level member of the president's trade team for a couple years at the white house. take a listen here to what he had to say about the prospects of a deal or not. watch. >> is there a chance no deal gets done? >> i think there is. i'm optimistic, i'm hopeful. i'm glad there is still engagement. i think there have been positive signals that have been sent but i do think if we don't find a way to get a better political understanding, it's going to be difficult to have a deal. reporter: just going back to the top, trying to connect some dots here as we are expecting to hear

from justin trudeau in about a half hour on steel and aluminum tariffs, weot an announcement f white house comes at any point. if there is an official deal or not, as i'm told it is pointing in that direction. neil? neil: thank you very, very much. you think we're the only ones looking at this or china is looking at the whole china relationship that we have with them and all that, it is a worldwide concern. all the world are following how the u.s. is handling these trade talks. amy kellogg is in milan with uncertainty with how europe sees itself fitting into this increasingly complex puzzle. hey, amy. reporter: hey, neil. here, europeans and japanese were touting the benefits of this recently signed agreement between the two sides but really, the elephant in the room with trade wars and tariffs and here in milan, all of these high level bankers and leaders of industry were trying to maximize

to try to optimize this new tariff free trade deal together, eu and japan comprise one quarter of the world's gdp but the conference here was set against concerns touching everyone about china. >> we do have tensions today and many of the tensions in the global trading systems can be traced back to china and the different approaches we are taking to address those tensions. because we play by a set of rules and china has been taking advantage of that, blurring the line between the state and private sector. reporter: now, with china and the u.s. caught up in their own trade standoff, people here to some extent were looking to exploit the void. japan has $900 billion in corporate cash reserves just ripe for investment and investors -- leaders from various sectors are eyeing that up here in milan. europe is looking to japan, though not an easy market to enter, something of a safe har

bob set against the tensions of china. it's said chinese companies are no longer the dominant force in the outbound investment market. they were at their peak. also, japan with its aging population, its demographic crisis, really, is looking into investments in automation and robotics because, and this is an interesting point, there are 60% more job openings in japan than there are job seekers. so all of this, people trying to look on the bright side to the future and ways to optimize free trade while worrying about these looming tariffs and this trade war with china. neil: very interesting. especially everyone getting older part. we think we're the only ones worried about it. it's a worldwide phenomena. thank you very, very much. do want to let you know those fears, that this leads to turbulence on the trade front, it is hitting bond prices right now. people more inclined to keep rates low in this environment. that is what's happening. that is helping stocks as a good backdrop.

but the ten-year note, a good sort of proxy for how people feel about safety and the relative security of that, was slipping last time i checked just under 2.4%. we had started a couple weeks ago at a little bit north of 2.5%. gary kaltbaum on all of that. these are uncanny times, i guess, right? >> i don't know if i can keep score anymore, neil. this week, auto tariffs, no auto tariffs. now lifting steel and aluminum on canada and mexico but we hear there's all kinds of other tariffs to be named later. i was reading a story today about toys, that coming up christmas, they may be priced 10% to 25% higher so aunt mary and uncle bob buying my kids some toys, they are going to be paying a lot more. i'm not sure -- there are just so many moving parts. i'm just thinking to myself what does a business do right now. trump was so great with business on lower regulations, less taxes, but now how do you plan

when you're not sure what's going to happen next. tariffs, no tariffs, it keeps changing overnight. neil: we are stocking up on goods but i don't think -- >> first quarter, correct. neil: now they might not have stocked up enough, right? >> exactly. that is known as the inventory build, so i suspect we will see some more of that in this quarter right now which helps gdp, but hurts gdp going forward. neil: what do you tell investors right now in this environment? just hang tough, what? >> the market's acting okay here, nothing special. here's the big worry. the first four months of this year was like two to three years of returns in the market, it was that darned good. you just wonder, are we going to have a 40%, 50% year. i'm not so sure of that. especially when earnings kind of flat right now across the board. neil: they grew when a lot of people thought they would contract. lot of stock buy-backs going on. >> right. which does help, but we are going to need organic growth.

people talking about walmart right now, their earnings were down 1%, revenues up a measly 1%. that's not going to do the trick. i want to see companies with 15%, 20% -- neil: still one of their best quarters. >> better than expected, the comps were good. with walmart, $500 billion in sales, comps are good, that's a decent sign. again, we need to see better and more uncertainty, bad. simple as that. neil: gary kaltbaum, thank you very much. he knows of what he speaks. meanwhile, whatever is worrying other folks in the market, it is not getting in the way of an off the charts debut for luckin coffee. i geuess it's the cheap man's starbucks. today they were optimistic. i guess they're happy now. susan: just got back from the nasdaq. needless to say, they are happy with this debut. luckin coffee was up as much as 47% in the first day of trade. they learned lessons from uber's

disappointment last friday. there was a lot of investor interest but instead of raising the price per share in this ipo, they offered up more shares to be bought so they raised to just around $550 million, close to $600 million to build out more in china. this company wasn't around two years ago, but in 18 months, they are poised to take over china in terms of the number of stores and they are taking over from starbucks which has been in this market for 15 years. there's a lot to like here because they underpriced their ipo, they were selling at nine times earnings, compared to starbucks which was trading at 22 times earnings. investors and fund managers i spoke to getting into this ipo, another factor you may not have thought about is the fact there might be more nationalistic buying in china, anti-american sentiment because of u.s./china trade. we spoke with the cfo this morning about that. luckin might be benefiting from a nationalist fervor in china, meaning anti-american.

they will go to luckin instead of starbucks. think that's true? >> we are very focused on your own model. the trade war is something we will monitor but i don't think it's going to drive the success of our model. stuart: you are going up against an american coffee champion, starbucks. i would surely suggest that nationalism could drive your business. >> yeah, well, that will be a tailwind. susan: investors agree as well. don't forget, this company, i'm not sure we can compare apples to apples with starbucks because a lot of these stores across china, it's one or two feet, mostly technology delivery driven model. they have been underpricing starbucks, 25% cheaper in china. most of this delivery, yes, but also giving out a lot of promotions and discounts. some say with this type of cash burn because they did quadruple their losses in the first quarter of this year, they really have to i guess prove to the markets at some point that they can make money. speaking of money, i want to show you the big money investors in luckin coffee. blackrock, singapore's sovereign

wealth fund, lot of cash there, and china's cicc as well. i did try to bring it back, get this, because this is kind of popular in china, the grapefruit chi jasmine tea for your eclectic tastes. they didn't have it at the nasdaq today. i'm sorry. neil: are you kidding me? there goes that relationship. susan, thank you very much. susan li following that very closely. it is official, the attorney general of the united states is in fact looking into how the mueller investigation started and how it is the mueller investigators never investigated how it all started. now congress and jim jordan is demanding answers. he's next.

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the fact of the matter is bob mueller did not look at the government's activities. he was not going back and looking at the counterintelligence program. we have a number of investigations under way that touch upon it. the main one being the office of inspector general that's looking at the fisa warrants. but as far as i'm aware, no one has really looked across the whole waterfront. neil: all right. so what if it really was a witch hunt? the attorney general of the united states not saying that to bill hemmer but indicating that

maybe, maybe, this investigation of the president started on a false premise and maybe a fake one. house oversight committee ranking member has been arguing that for quite some time, the ohio republican jim jordan says the attorney general is indeed serious about getting to the bottom of this, as is he. very good to have you. thank you. >> good to be with you. neil: let's talk a little bit about whatever the attorney general wants to do with this separate investigation of the investigation, how will that compare to what the inspector general will release when his report's out? >> the short answer is we don't know. what i do know is bill barr is not just serious, i think he's very serious. he said in his interview with bill hemmer that someone may have put their thumb on the scale. he's concerned about that, did that actually happen. when you take that statement and couple it with what he said four weeks ago in front of the senate, when he said that he felt there was a failure of leadership at the upper echelon of the fbi, that was certainly the case. he said spying did occur. there's a basis for his concern

about the sfipying that took ple and probably fourth and most importantly, he used two terms that should scare every american. he talked about unauthorized surveillance and potential political surveillance. so i think he's starting from the right premise and he's very serious about finding out what exactly took place when they launched this whole trump russia investigation in the first place. neil: do you think that when the mueller investigation started, they ever looked, the attorney general dismissed it, the possibility that it was a false premise? >> i don't think they did. go back and look at the charge they were given by rod rosenstein. it was very broad. it said you look at trump russia, you look at the interference in the election, was there any coordination between the trump campaign and russia to do this and it said anything arising out of that. it was pretty broad charge that they had. in fact, they ended up going after manafort for failure to register as a lobbyist and all these other issues. so why not look at that? why not look, was the dossier verified.

how did that whole thing get used at the fisa court. why not look at that. obviously they didn't and bill barr's going to, along with, of course, the inspector general whose report we expect now any week. neil: james comey, if you're right, lied. >> well, it's funny because you got comey and brennan pointing at each other. we don't know how this all took place. we have seen some of those text messages and one's sort of blaming the other, was the dossier part of the intelligence community assessment, was it not, who wanted to include it, who didn't. i think that as bill barr said, there was a complete failure of leadership at the upper echelon of the fbi. comey was fired. andy mccabe, deputy director, fired. lied three times under oath according to the inspector general. jim baker, the chief counsel at the fbi, left, currently under investigation by the justice department and it's interesting, john durham in connecticut will lead bill barr's investigation of this whole thing. lisa page demoted and left.

peter strzok, deputy head of counterintelligence who ran both the clinton investigation, launched and ran the russian investigation, he was demoted and then fired. so when he talks about a failure of leadership, that's a pretty accurate description of what was going on at the top levels of the fbi. neil: you know what happens with this stuff, congressman, people see things through their political prism. 80% of republicans are on board investigating the origins of this investigation. i don't know the exact percentage of democrats, just the opposite. i'm wondering what all this will mean going into 2020. is it going to be whatever the justification on both sides to continue, democrats pounding the mueller report and the details, republicans now getting to what prompted the mueller report, that it's going to fall on deaf ears or voters who are just tired of it? >> well, i look at the facts. i just described the top five people at the fbi, that's not

republican or democrat. those are facts. they were fired. they did do those wrong things. some of them are under investigation. some of them lied three times under oath. those are facts. democrats should look to that, too. so this should be about the facts and most importantly, i love the letter that emmet flood sent to the attorney general two weeks ago where he said if in fact this stuff took place, this leaking to go against the president, this spying on the president and his campaign, if in fact it happened, if that can happen to the president of the united states, imagine what they can do to you and i. imagine what they can do to the folks i get the privilege of representing in the fourth district of ohio. that's the fundamental point. this is not -- if it did, this is never supposed to happen in the united states of america and all the evidence seems to point, the facts and the evidence seems to point to it actually occurred and took place. bill barr is doing the right job. he's going to find out if in fact it took place, like i think it did. neil: do you know how long that investigation would -- >> i don't. i don't. i do know michael horowitz is

going to have his done soon. he's been at it almost a year. neil: the inspector general. >> yeah. sometime soon. i do not know when bill barr and john durham and his team will have this investigation completed. neil: congressman, always good having you. have a good weekend. thank you. >> thank you. neil: congress, we are told, is going to brief on iran next week and maybe get the skinny on what intelligence we can share about why we think they warranted the military response to the persian gulf. thoughts on that after this. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that.

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neil: all right. it's interesting, following what's going on in iran right now, that if the world is worried about an imminent war or clash or something accidentally getting way out of control, the markets have a funny way of showing it. oil markets have a funny way of showing it. interest rates have a funny way of revealing it. it just isn't there. it could be a way of saying

this, too, shall pass. that might be a cavalier approach to all of this. let's ask former presidential envoy to iraq paul bremer what he makes of these latest developments in the region. always good having you. i mentioned the sort of nonplussed reaction of the markets to this. are they just being too cavalier about it? what do you think? >> well, i had the honor of serving on the personal staff of six secretaries of state, both parties, at one time or another every one of those secretaries had to order an evacuation of american embassies or consulates and it's never an easy thing lightly done, because it is disruptive of operations, it's very hard on morale of the people who are evacuated and the people who stay. the result of that line of reasoning is that it must be that the administration has some persuasive evidence of the iranian threat to americans. we know that iran is the world's

leading sponsor of terrorism and we know that they have killed americans. they were instrumental in killing scores of american soldiers in iraq. so i assume that it's a fairly serious threat. i think that's how the markets interpret that, is their business, but i don't think it should be lightly dismissed. neil: you are wise to sort of dismiss that and go to people who have more substantive evidence. i assume there is compelling evidence to warrant this. there was mixed reports, as you know, early in the week, i believe particularly out of british intelligence, not sharing that. i think that's since been sort of clarified. but we are obviously basing this on something. a question i have to ask you is why would the iranians be acting so provocatively knowing we were going and sending all of these ships and manpower to the region with these attacks on saudi oil installations and tankers, even a norwegian tanker, united arab

emirates oil vessel, why would they risk that and sort of poke the tiger? >> well, they may be just testing us. they have seen over the last five or six years a progressive american withdrawal from the region and it stretches from the mediterranean to the himalayas. they are one of three ancient empires, persia, russia and the ottomans, now called turkey, who are trying to assert their authority in this area where we are leaving something of a vacuum. i think we are going to continue to be tested, not just by the iranians but probably by the russians and by the turks as well. a fundamental strategic decision whether to stay in the region and if so, how, obviously is still on the table, needs to be fixed. neil: the president terms these fake news, these reports. i believe they started in the "new york times," he was envisioning 120,000 troops going

to the region. do you put much salt in that? >> i really doubt that that number of soldiers, first of all, would be enough if we were involved in a serious confrontation with iran. that's fewer troops than we had in iraq. i don't know what the troop strength would be. the president is signaling, i think, in his recent comments to the iranians that he doesn't -- he's not looking for a war. he may be sending that message to people in his own administration, too, for all we know. but it is a serious situation. neil: that's an interesting point, because there does seem to be conflict within the administration. john bolton versus others. but they're not on the same page, or so it would appear. >> look, the question of going to war is the most serious question any administration faces. there are always going to be

people, mostly in the military, who are very, because they are the people who are going to pay the ultimate price, who are very cautious about getting into another scrape, although they will follow orders and if they are ordered to plan things, they will plan them. there probably is planning going on now. i hope so. that doesn't mean the president is on the warpath. on the other hand, it also doesn't mean that there's not a threat. neil: all right. ambassador, thank you very, very much. good seeing you again. >> nice to be with you. neil: the huawei ban, it makes sense because if you think they are spying on us, that's one little problem with that. a lot of u.s. companies even indirectly do business with them and a host of other chinese entities that have been targeted. the fallout, after this. ♪

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neil: you know, it sounded good on paper. go after huawei, they spy on us, they even write contracts promising that they won't spy on us but the trouble with doing that is they are so entangled in

so many other parts of so many businesses, easier said than done. deirdre bolton on who is getting in as a result. deirdre: there are about 30 companies huawei considers american companies and of course, the subtext as you just talked about is the trump administration really wanted to hit hard at one of china's biggest and most successful companies so it did in fact do that but take a look at what some analysts are calling this hot list. susquehanna is the list i'm referring to. qualcomm, micron, semiconductor firms, ones that some say may be hurt the most. huawei is at the very least, we can say, inconvenienced but these american farms are really caught in the crossfire. huawei has been quick to point out that the u.s. government decisions are hurting these u.s. firms. i will read part of huawei's company statement. this decision is in no interest, it will do significant economic

harm to the american companies with which huawei does business, it will affect tens of thousands of american jobs and disrupt the current collaboration and mutual trust that exists on the global supply chain. the nikkei asian review reported that huawei was essentially prepared for something like this. in fact, the company apparently told its suppliers six months ago, so these are the u.s. companies, that it wanted to build up a year's worth of inventory in anticipation of an escalation of the u.s./china trade war. one unknown, though, is the form of retaliation that china will take against suppliers with exposure to china, and some analysts here citing qualcomm as among the companies that has the most risk in more than a few scenarios. so like you said, it seemed like a good idea at the time but there are as always unintended consequences. neil: yeah. exactly. what a tangled web. thank you very, very much. let's go to charlie gasparino right now. he's breaking some news on t-mobile and sprint, the on

again, off again talks, where that's going. what's the latest? >> that plays into the huawei drama. t-mobile and sprint have gone to the government, mainly the economic adviser i ers in the t administration, saying you want to compete against 5g, you need three strong wireless carriers, not four wireless carriers, where two of them are strong, at & t and verizon, but two of them aren't so strong, meaning t-mobile and sprint. that's one of their pitches for -- to approve the merger. they have convinced the people in the white house. they need to convince the people in the federal communications commission and the doj antitrust, and here's what we know as of yesterday. we know that t-mobile and sprint were in the fcc offices and having what was described to us as constructive discussions with them about merger conditions. now, this is where the rubber's meeting the road. they are saying here are some of the conditions we might agree to if you approve the merger. one condition we understood is

known as buildout for 5g. remember, 5g does very well, the super-fast sort of frequency does very well in cities for wireless. it's a lot less effective in rural areas. but we are going to try to do this. that's what they're telling them so we don't put, you know, people in rural america at a disadvantage. they have also talked about keeping some sort of -- basically keeping prices down for a number of years. those are two of the things on the table. i will say this. stock is up on our report yesterday, it's still up today. i can't tell you that this deal is going to get through. it's a huge deal, $26 billion. there's a lot riding on this. national security implications if we can win the 5g race. by the way, that's millions of jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars. neil: are they better prepared together to deal with this? that would be an argument in its favor for the nation's interest, blah, blah, blah. >> that is their argument. their other argument is this. if we don't merge, guess what, sprint has problems, financial

problems. they may go out of business anyway. so if you are worrying about going from four wireless carriers to three with the merger, you meet get it anyway with a weakened sprint. there's a lot riding on this. i will say by june or in june, the decision is likely to be made. reports said it was a severe uphill battle. i think based on these conversations, i'm not saying it's going to happen, i think it's a 50/50. i think there's a chance it's going to happen. it's going to be a pretty big deal if it does. neil: great reporting as always. he moves markets. that's what he does. that's his job, america. all right. meanwhile, want to let you know smartphones are getting a lot of scrutiny, not just those that would hook up with sprint or whomever, but the idea that in new york, they are looking at giving you a ticket if you use it or if you are looking at your device while crossing the street. "wall street journal" digital science editor daniellea hernandez on some of the dangers of all of this. you write about, which actually

dovetails with what new york is trying to do, about how these things, these contraptions, these gadgets to distract us, do compromise our focus. obviously they are taking it to the next level and ticketing people who might do so. what do you make of all this? >> i mean, they are very, very, very distracting. i found myself walking down the street the other day looking at my cell phone crossing while i wasn't supposed to and we live in these devices. they are a microcosm of our world and it's really easy to get lost in them. it's probably for the best that they are doing that. neil: i'm sorry, what were you saying? sorry. little joke. but you know, i don't think that's new. i like the way you wrote it and laid it out. it's very, very clear. but what's getting to be a big issue now is between our kids and ourselves that it's gotten to the point where it's like a drug and now i know apple and

others have this built-in software reminder where they can tell you how much you have used this day versus yesterday or this day versus last week. but it doesn't seem to be changing the behavior, right? >> i mean, the thing with the phones is that they are so personal and so you can think of them as these reward mechanisms, like we get the notification, we get likes, and we like that. they make us feel good. we have to be really disciplined and it's hard to do that when we are being bombarded with these notifications that light up our day sometimes. they can be also very stressful but it's hard to put them away even for work because a lot of people depend on them to get jobs or to stay attuned to what their bosses need. so it's hard to put them away. neil: it is. i'm sure you discovered this working as a journalist, you

have a 24/7 job as it is. so this just reinforces how much of a 24/7 job it is. i haven't noticed it's hurt the industry, though. if anything, our growing dependence on the time we are on them and crackdowns on using them in cars, now just crossing streets, nothing seems to limit its use. >> well, part of the backlash is that we are always hyperconnected and that the companies are, you know, using psychology research to make the devices stickier. time on app, time on the website are things that we measure success by. so there is that inherent tension there about how we are supposed to be interacting with them in a more moderate way but also, we get this feedback constantly about how we are supposed to be on them so we are getting sort of a mixed message there. neil: you're right. very good article. very good having you. thank you very, very much. we had cornel west on with us yesterday telling us president trump does deserve

credit for the economy. the issue is will that be enough to tip the race against democrats who argue that he isn't doing such a good job? ben stein on that after this. introducing the first-of-its-kind lexus ux and ux f sport. also available in hybrid all-wheel-drive. lease the 2019 ux 200 for $329 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. (indistthat was awful.tering) why are you so good at this? had a coach in high school. really helped me up my game. i had a coach. math. ooh. so, why don't traders have coaches? who says they don't? coach mcadoo! you know, at td ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum-

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neil: would you give the president any credit for that? >> i give him credit for that. absolutely. but the issue has never been just the statistics. the issue has to do with are they jobs with a living wage, are people working two jobs still living in poverty, are we able to deal with the grotesque wealth inequality. neil: cornel west, the famed liberal economist. i was saying among other things life ain't fair, whatever is going on in the economy isn't fair to everybody. whether that's enough for democrats to win election in an otherwise solid economic environment, anyone's guess. let's go to ben stein. good to see you. >> good to see you. life is not fair, as john f. kennedy said. neil: so right. so right. is that enough of an issue to win in an otherwise good economic environment?

i know you and i chatted about this before. you could make a very good argument that donald trump should be up by a lot given the economy, the market. he's not. there are a lot of other reasons, obviously. but what do you make of that push to say certainly among the democratic candidates, this gap, this chasm is something that must be addressed and reason enough for you guys, the american voters, to try a new president? >> well, there's no reason to think that new president can do any better. we have always had a chasm between rich and poor people. there's a very big chasm between rich people and poor people under franklin delano roosevelt, a huge chasm under harry truman, john f. kennedy, lyndon johnson, clinton. there's no reason to believe under obama, there's no reason to believe that this chasm is going to shrink if we get rid of mr. trump. in fact, what's happening is everybody's getting better off. john f. kennedy famously said a

rising tide lifts all boats. this is a rising tide on a monumental scale. will it be enough to get him re-elected, that depends on whether the media goes full stop in trying to smear him and make him look like a bad guy. if the media is even remotely fair, which it won't be, he should win by a landslide. his work in the economy has been brilliant, no doubt about it. it's been brilliant. neil: you don't think there's anything he might be doing to contribute to that? >> oh, i think he's done a lot to contribute to it. i think it's his general atmosphere, attitude of optimism. this is a guy who's saying america can do and will do and we can do it together. he's not saying bad things about america. he's saying good things about america. i think that makes a big, big difference. neil: i'm sorry, i wasn't clear, then. this tweeting and some of the other things when he goes off message, you don't think that is denting his otherwise what should be solid numbers on the economy? >> no, i don't think so.

i don't think most people pay attention to tweets day by day. i think what people pay attention to is the fact that every time they go into a grocery store, every time they go into a drugstore, every time they go into a hardware store, every time they go in a big box store, there are signs up saying hiring. any time 24 hours a day, come see us, we desperately need you. everywhere in the country there's a hiring shortage. hiring frenzy. everywhere we see there is a tremendous labor shortage. this is unusual. in wartime, yes, we expect that labor shortage. but in peacetime, to have a labor shortage on this scale is unheard of. it's just brilliant. the last time it happened was under my boy, mr. nixon. but that was during part of the vietnam war. so that explains part of that. neil: you mentioned richard nixon. he was re-elected in a landslide. it didn't help matters for the democrats that they veered hard left, went to this guy george mcgovern. many in the party who can remember that are thinking we

got to be very careful making sure we do not elect a hard lefty or socialist just so we can win this thing, hence this fixation on joe biden for the time being. what do you make of that? >> i make of this the fact, if i may say this, i hate to say this, but i think the socialist mr. sanders has such a giant lead in the democrat party at this point that there's going to be no catching up with him, even sleepy uncle joe biden. i think uncle joe biden is a likeable guy. he's from the state i grew up right next to, delaware, and i like him. he's a likeable friendly guy. but he's wrong about everything. he's a dope. he's a first class dope. neil: who's a dope? who's a dope? >> mr. biden. neil: okay. you don't think he's going to be the nominee or you do? >> no, i think he will be the nominee. i think mr. biden, it's between mr. biden and mr. sanders.

mr. sanders has got everything going for him at this point. he's got the ideology, he's got the money, he's got the organization. it may be still that people choose biden but i think sanders is going to be the guy, and can a full scale capitalist beat a full scale socialist. that is an open question. but i don't think if i'm a republican, i don't think i would want to run against biden if i could run against sanders. sanders has just got too much socialist about him. he's just a little too much pink. neil: that's interesting. we are getting a bulletin in the newsroom that the u.s. has agreed to eliminate steel and aluminum tariffs on canada within 48 hours. canada will stop retaliatory tariffs in the same period. at least that trade discord would resolve. i don't know what it portends for china. but are these trade things a big issue to you, even in terms of 2020? >> they are a fairly big issue just because the media makes it into a big issue. look, we are going to get this resolved with china.

the chinese are incredibly smart people. they are incredibly pragmatic people. they are going to say to themselves at some point look, we want to keep selling things to the united states of america, that's how we got to be so rich and so powerful. by the way, that's the number one argument for capitalism in the whole world, look at china, when it was all communist people had a dollar a day to live on. now it's one of the most prosperous countries in the world. that's capitalism at work for you in china. now i think the fact we resolved things with canada is a hopeful sign that we are going to be able to resolve things with everybody. i think mr. trump is doing a brilliant job trying to fight the chinese stealing our intellectual property. i don't care that much about the deficit but the stealing of intellectual property is just not allowed. neil: real quickly, kelsey grammar expressing his support for donald trump. obviously hasn't hurt him in the hollywood community. what do you think of that? >> i think it's very unusual in the hollywood community for anybody to speak up for trump, and god bless them all but you

know, it's interesting, i watch tv and i see the laid-back talk show hosts making fun of trump nonstop and they don't get the huge laughs they used to get. i think the american people are getting to like mr. trump and feel more comfortable with him. there is just something comforting about him. people keep saying there is something comforting about biden. i think there's getting to be something comforting about trump. we trust him, we know him, we know he's got america's best interests at heart, we know he's not afraid. neil: very good. uncanny read of social trends, my friend. from your mouth. >> god bless you, sir. neil: have a great weekend. ben stein out of los angeles. we have a lot more coming up, including the dow up about 38 points. still going to be a down week for the major averages here but it could have been a lot more down. why exactly is that? after this. what if numbers tell only half the story? at t. rowe price, hundreds of our experts go beyond the numbers to examine investment opportunities firsthand.

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♪ neil: remarkably by the second day running things do not look good for the china trade talks. we're going to be exploring that in a lot more detail as is charles payne in the next hour but it doesn't hurt stocks. conrad brac, you know that fellow there, canadian publisher, conrad black was pardoned by the president of the night of the he will be my special guest on "your world." i will believe that will free him to travel into the united states. he has been stuck in canada better than three-year long jail

sentence he says on false charges. the president pardoning him. he will react. first time he had a chance to do so. pass it to charles payne. phenomenal job on capitalism, socialism thing, i understand no idea you were a socialist but out standing. charles: socialists love me, neil. and money. neil: they do. >> thank you and i appreciate your participation. neil: you were fantastic. charles: a lot of feedback from yesterday's special town hall. i'm charles payne. this is "making money." a lot of breaking news. stocks are whipsawing, goop pelling on one hand with the uncertainties of u.s.-china trade war and amazing economic strength and confidence. as the united states and canada agree to eliminate all tariffs that the u.s. imposed on steel and aluminum products from canada. we're waiting to hear from president trump on this. concerns ramming up that