>> i think it's about the framing. it's how democrats frame it up. if you are talking about reform, talk about how it frames up against the bank bailout. you bailed out the banks, time to bail out the american people. dagen: millenials are just looking at the student loan situation. thank you all. right now, "varney & company." david asman is in for stuart. david: thank you very much. i am david asman. stuart is off today. he will be back tomorrow. here's the big story. it's shaping up to be another wild week on wall street. stocks are going to be down when the market opens in 30 minutes. we are looking at a triple digit loss for the dow, although that's come down in futures a little bit. the s&p and nasdaq are also looking at significant losses. trade tensions, of course, once again driving the market and goldman sachs says the trade war is having a greater impact on the economy than expected. raising the risk of a recession before the 2020 election. remember, president trump says he's not ready to make a deal with china yet.

also weighing on investors, continued protests in hong kong. all remaining flights today out of hong kong have been canceled, as demonstrators are occupying the airport there. it follows a violent weekend of protests, including clashes between demonstrators and police, beijing officials condemn the violence and linked violent protesters to terrorism. a bad sign. also, low interest rates affecting the market. check the ten-year yield. it's 1.69% now. the other big story of the day, the death of jeffrey epstein. we're learning that epstein was not checked on for several hours leading up to his apparent suicide in his prison cell. attorney general william barr is furious and says there will be a federal investigation. there's a lot of news to go at today. you don't want to miss a moment of it. "varney & company" starting right now.

david: a quick look at stock futures and they have improved a little bit from where they were. let's go right to susan li at the stock exchange. what's the buzz, susan? susan: the buzz is about goldman sachs. you know, they said there will be no trade deal before 2020 and they also say chances of a recession are increasing at this point. they lowered their forecast to 1.8% and say the 10% tariffs on $300 billion worth of chinese goods will go into effect september 1st. this is what we have seen across the board. jpmorgan of course saying the chances of recession went up to 40% and this is of course on the u.s./china trade deal which looks to be off at least for now, if you listen to president trump. also, what's happening in the developments in hong kong, not helping the picture as well, with a lot of global risk they see, especially in china at this point, and the yuan last night being set at past seven, closer to 7.1 versus the u.s. dollar.

they say that is a bit unsettling. it's unclear at this point. back to you. david: susan, thank you very much. hong kong airport brought to a standstill, as susan mentioned, by protesters. meanwhile, president trump said he's not ready to make a china trade deal just yet. joining us is curtis ellis, former trump campaign trade and jobs adviser. how do hong kong protests fit into the trade talks if at all? >> they certainly complicate things for china. if china were to crack down on these protesters where they seem to be making noise, calling them terrorists and accusing the united states of having the cia involved in this, that would just be a replay of tiananmen square. it would increase the pressure on president trump to say no deal. david: some people have been criticizing the president for not playing a more direct role in this in terms of backing the protesters, and throwing his support with the protesters. should he be doing that? >> we have the secretary of state doing that. you don't always have the king make all the moves on the chess

board. so he's got the secretary of state making clear indications that this is unacceptable for the chinese to take a hard line and a crackdown and repeat tiananmen square. david: last monday was a debacle for the markets. it doesn't look like it's going to be that bad a day for the markets today, but the reason for last week's problems with the markets, the market seemed to be pricing in the possibility of no trade deal with china before the elections. up until last week, it seemed that maybe it would be right before the elections but there will be something. last week, no deal. what's your opinion? >> look, everybody's got to get over this negativity. we hold the high cards in this poker game. we do not need a trade deal before the election. we do not need a trade deal at all. what we need is for china to stop stealing our intellectual property, because what kind of economy will we have if we can't protect our innovation?

david: you look at the way they reneged on so many things that they promised so far. just in dealing with president trump, they said they were going to buy ag products. they haven't. they said they were going to give us these guarantees. they actually said they were ready to sign, then they backed out. how can we trust anything they sign? >> exactly right. you're making my point. the idea we have to have a deal now, now, now, we can't trust these people to enforce any deal we are going to make. we've got the best negotiator on the planet in bob lighthizer. he's insisting on enforcement mechanisms that are -- that actually work. david: that's why they pulled out at the last moment. >> right. david: yeah. >> that's right. and look, here's a little secret. there's a difference between the wall street economy and the real economy. goldman sachs, big bankers like that, they make money off huge trade deficits. they make money wherever a deal is made, whether it's in a t totalitarian china or democratic ohio. so they don't -- they are like we need a deal, we need a deal. the real economy of america is

actually benefiting from investment in america instead of china. david: that's a tough sell. we will have you back to talk about that one. thank you very much. good to see you. a lot of questions swirling around the apparent suicide of billionaire financier jeffrey epstein. lauren is here with the latest on that. i say apparent because there are a lot of questions. lauren: yeah. lot of conspiracy theories. here is the news. he was found dead over the weekend in his cell in manhattan. so many questions, because fox news has learned that the guards were supposed to check him because he just came off suicide watch. they were supposed to check him every 30 minutes but apparently, that was only happening every few hours. he also didn't have a cell mate which is odd. and there was no camera in that cell. so folks are saying hey, this is someone who needed to be watched and he just wasn't. so what exactly was going on. we are awaiting the results of an autopsy and of course, will bring them to you when we have them.

but this is raising a lot of red flags and conspiracy theories. david: let's stay on this issue and bring in fox news contributor, former new york senat senator. great to see you. lot of things don't add up here. >> certainly doesn't. to use the street vernacular, it smells. something's wrong. as our beautiful hostess here pointed out, no camera? at the very least, i understand if a guard can't be there every 15 minutes or every 30 minutes. but to not have a camera on somebody who was on suicide watch and you just took him off? that's ridiculous. you can't walk down the corridor anyplace today without some camera being on you. at the very least, you had either an apparent attempted suicide or an attack. i think it was an attack. david: based on what do you

think it's an attack? >> he was strangled. who tries to commit suicide by strangulation with your hands? that's ridiculous. okay? of course, his cell mate says, who is a big 270 pounder, said oh, it wasn't me, former police officer from westchester. who the hell was it? was it the fairy that came in? so when the media says oh, we shouldn't be conjecturing. are you kidding? you, the media, i will talk about cnn and company, you question everything. you raise things, conspiracy theories about every single thing there is. david: you are an expert in new york politics. you were a senator here for many years. before that you knew local politics. the prison system in new york, this is a federal prison system. whitey bulger was killed in the federal prison system as well in october. the question of how this could happen in a federal prison in new york, have you ever seen

anything like this before? >> nothing. and such a high profile case. he was placed there. remember, to protect him, to keep him out of the state system. we all forgot that. he got moved from the state system to the federal system, his lawyers petitioned for that. he got in there. now, do you really think a guy with this ego, a crazy son of a gun, he was really going to commit suicide? i don't believe it. david: all right. we have an autopsy is either being done as we speak or has been done. michael baden, fox news contributor, is working with one of the people that was accusing jeffrey epstein of some of the awful things he did. we are going to find out from michael baden who is overseeing that autopsy exactly how he died. will that tell us something? >> i will tell you, because let me tell you, they will say by hanging, strangulation, absolutely. how did he -- who put him there? did he put himself in that position? did he do it?

or was it set up so it would look like it was suicide? david: attorney general barr has a lot of work to do, as his investigators do as well. thank you for being here. >> good to be here. david: let's look at the futures. they are down significantly today. by the way, gold was down -- or was up, excuse me, about $8 or $9. it's now come down a little as the futures have recovered just a bit. they were down over $200 at one point. meanwhile, vladimir putin facing his most serious challenge in years as violent anti-government protests break out in moscow over the weekend. we are on that. and universal canceling the release of its controversial movie "the hunt" after dealing with a massive backlash. the film is all about elites killing deplorables. meanwhile, joe biden making yet another gaffe while on the campaign trail, this time about the parkland high school shooting. are biden's continuing mistakes going to cost him support among democrat voters? we are asking the question.

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david: we're focused on hong kong but there are big protests going on in russia as well. demonstrators there not happy about the economy or the lack of options when it comes to politicians. lauren knows all about it. tell us. lauren: you know, we keep talking about hong kong, but take a look at what happened in russia over the weekend. tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to protest their life situation. they're fed up with the way things have been under vladimir putin. 20 years in power, western sanctions are crippling that economy and quite frankly, they are sick of it. hundreds were arrested at these protest rallies over the weekend. david: wow. they are tough. they are brutal. meanwhile, joe biden leading the iowa state fair's cast your kernel, talking about corn, poll despite memorable gaffes lately. roll tape. >> i watched what happened with those kids from parkland came up to see me when i was vice

president. >> poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids. >> we choose truth over facts. david: just for the record, he wasn't vice president when parkland happened. joining us is marc lotter, trump 2020 strategic communications director. are you worried for uncle joe? >> well, if you watch a lot of the mainstream media, including "the washington post," they are saying democrats should be worried that they've got to rethink the status of their frontrunner. let's make one thing clear. these aren't gaffes. this is a pattern for joe biden. this is his third time running for president. he has been gaffe-prone since then and you would think the third time is the charm but it's the same old blundering biden. david: it's funny because some people say it might be the age kicking in and everything but again, as you say, this is something we have seen when he was a much younger man as well. >> absolutely. he made insensitive comments about race in 2007 when he was running. then again, even this weekend, he on multiple occasions has

confused the british prime minister as being marrigaret thatcher who left office in 1990. there's a lot of things here. it's a pattern. david: nevertheless, this time the sharks are circling. there are a lot of competitors he has in the democrat party who so far, they have been really cutting him a lot of breaks, cutting him a lot of space and not saying, suggesting, i'm sure if this happened with donald trump they would be saying all kinds of things about how demented he was or racist he was or whatever. they are giving biden a break but i don't think that continues forever, with all those competitors in the water. do you? >> no, and we have been predicting and our pollsters have expected by some time this fall joe biden wouldn't even be leading this race anymore. it seems like he's doing everything he can to live up to that prediction. you have his other competitors who are closing in. democrats are confused right now. they are still marching down toward that path of radicalism, socialism and joe biden just

seems to be hanging on for the ride. david: you know, the positioning has changed a little. bernie sanders has been replaced by liz warren. bernie has lost a lot. liz warren has gained a lot. although her policies are practically as left wing and socialist as his are right now. >> you are absolutely right. it doesn't matter from our perspective which one of these radical democrats comes out of their primary. they have all endorsed things like taking away people's private health insurance, eliminating cars and cows and some of these -- david: by the way, eliminating cows in iowa is not a good thing to do. that's come back to bite them literally. strong words. meanwhile, you mentioned immigration from kamala harris about the dhs raid on illegal immigrants in mississippi. roll that tape. >> this administration has directed dhs to conduct these raids as part of what i believe is this administration's campaign of terror.

which is to make whole populations of people afraid to go to work. children are afraid to go to school for fear that when they come home, their parents won't be there. david: a campaign of terror, marc. how do you think that will go down, those words, with voters? >> it's just so irresponsible because this is a result of about a year-long investigation. it is talking about companies and people who are here illegally. it is enforcing the law as it is currently written by congress. this just shows you that democrats, not only do they want to decriminalize illegal border crossings, give them free government funded health insurance, now they want to stop enforcing the laws that we have on the books. it's just providing a huge incentive for more illegal immigration which is going to depress wages and hurt the people at the lower end of the income structure that democrats supposedly represent. david: i just fear for the english language. a campaign of terror is something that the soviet union

did that resulted in millions of people dying. it's not a phrase you want to use in this context. great to see you. thank you very much. appreciate it. take another look at futures. they are still down significantly down, triple digits, but again, they were worse. we'll have to wait and see how things pan out. remember, a week ago today was the day the market lost over 700 points. everybody was afraid that was going to continue. it didn't continue into the week although it wasn't a great week last week, but it wasn't the debacle we thought it was going to be on monday. so monday morning, things can change throughout the week. meanwhile, disney reportedly cutting workers' hours at disneyland in california as crowds for the new "star wars" theme park fall way short of expectations. that's coming next.

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david: take a look at dow component disney. the "lion king" remake is the highest grossing animated movie of all time, making $2.3 billion worldwide. disney's new "star wars" land is not the blockbuster hit everybody thought it was going to be. now the park is actually cutting employee hours there. lauren has the details. lauren: well, we are a little surprised. the new "star wars" attraction that opened in may in disneyland in california, not a hit.

foxbusiness.com is reporting that because of low attendance, we are seeing workers, they make about $15 an hour, who get 40 hours if not more a week, now are getting 30 to 35 hours so that is a significant loss in their paychecks. but there's hope. there's a new "star wars" movie coming out december 20th. it is "the rise of skywalker" and you have a new "star wars" attraction hitting disney world in orlando. david: it makes you wonder whether "star wars" has lost something. it's been a long time. so many -- i can't even count how many -- lauren: there have been so many. i will spin a positive for you, though. this is what ceo bob iger says. look, this is so popular that people in california thought the lines would be so long, they decided not to go. then kind of nobody went but -- david: they are waiting for the first wave which never came? lauren: so they say. david: we wish them the best. they are part of the dow.

speaking of the dow, it is trading down in premarket activity. come down a little bit more than it was the last time we mentioned just about ten points down. it's down about 154 points in premarket activity but anything can change when the bells ring on wall street. we will bring you the opening bell in just a moment. ♪ all right brad, once again i have revolutionized the songwriting process. oh, here we go. i know i can't play an instrument, but this... this is my forte. obviously, for auto insurance, we've got the wheel route. obviously. retirement, we're going with a long-term play. makes sense. pet insurance, wait, let me guess... flea flicker. yes! how'd you know? studying my playbook? yeah, actually.

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david: opening bell in just about a minute from now. meanwhile, comcast nbc universal is canceling its controversial movie "the hunt" about hunting down deplorabledeplorables. what's happening? lauren: it's canceled after the president said if this movie "the hunt" was made to inflame and cause chaos, it was set for release september 27th, the theme of it was the elite hunting for sport trump supporters, deplorables, they're called, and they come from the red states, the trump states, and in this environment, of gun control conversations and violence, universal instantaneously after that statement from the president has canceled the release of this movie. david: even if it wasn't for the mass shooting, should have ever have been made? lauren: it goes under the category of violent satire and comes from the same movie house that did another satire "get out" about race relations.

in that context i'm okay with the idea of it but in this environment, not at all. david: no satire with the market. they always speak to the facts, the bottom line. there is the opening bell as we begin this day of trading, this week of trading. remember, last week at this time, the markets were down significantly more than they are now. but we have -- we are checking the board. it's now down about 130 right off the bat, triple digit loss. you see a lot of red on the screen. there is one green, chevron. oil is in the green. there's a couple more joining chevron now. another oil company, exxon, verizon joining now. so it's not as bad as it could be but again, it looks like it's heading toward a 200 point loss. the s&p, if we can check that, the s&p is now down about half a percentage point to 2,903, down about 15 points. the nasdaq, the biggest loser so far, down over a half a percentage point, down about .6,

48 points to the downside for the nasdaq. the treasury yield is still very low. look at that. 1.69% on a ten-year. gold had been up about eight bucks earlier. it's now up about $5 to $1513. and oil is up a bit, up about a half a percentage point to $54.82 a barrel. joining us, jeff sica and john lonski. lauren simonetti is also with us. jeff, why are we down again? is this all trade? >> keep in mind, the market has been drunk with false optimism and cheap money, and now it's beginning to sober up and see that we have headwinds, we have serious issues right now. david: what's the biggest headwind, from your perspective? >> clearly from my perspective it's trade. i think china is not backing down. i have been saying it all along, that they wouldn't back down. i think it's -- david: no deal before the election? >> there will be no deal before the election. i think it's going to escalate

and if anything, what they can hope for is a very watered-down agreement at some point, but i think it's not going to in any way accommodate what president trump wanted. i think trade is a big issue. i do think that the fed has a lot to do with this. president trump wanted those low interest rates, wanted rates to go down. the fact that the fed is not cooperating is a concern. david: but there's the resilience of the markets. you look at what happened last monday when the markets were down 700, some people thought we were going to see multi-thousand point drop by the end of the week. instead, the markets were quite resilient. >> that's a good point. we are still way up from that christmas eve low of 2018, up double digit percentage points. the markets believe that interest rates will go lower. the markets are confident, rightly or wrongly, that we are going to see a return of earnings growth later this year. david: i think the markets did what jeff suggested, they priced in the fact we are not going to get a trade deal by the election

time. you agree? >> that could very well be the case. they probably did. to offset the drag of trade on economic activity, i would look for interest rates to go significantly lower. i think, you know, at a maximum, the fed funds rate finishes the year at 1.63% and could finish the year as low as 1.38%. david: will we go negative in the united states? >> i don't think that's going to happen. we are the world's reserve currency. we have the world's principal credit market, the benchmark, the u.s. treasuries. i think it's going to be very difficult for the fed to take the federal funds rate below 0%. david: this is such a familiar line but again, where else is money going to go but the united states? they're not going to go to china, certainly, with all the problems they have. europe can't ever get it straight. they're not only in negative interest rates but they still fail to cut regulations and to cut the taxation that

strangles -- lauren: there's no growth in europe. contraction in great britain and we are expecting contraction in the powerhouse of europe, germany as well, so a lot of folks here in the u.s., lot of people that we have say the same thing. what's the issue with the u.s. economy. there isn't one. china could create a slowdown but how severe does that slowdown get, and you know, ubs put out, talking about the goldman sachs, you know, but ubs put out a note saying we kind of see the status quo here. we don't see a trade war escalation but we don't see a deal either. what do you do in the meantime? you move a supply chain. that takes a long time to make an impact. david: check the ten-year. it's well below 2%. stuart is always bringing up the point that if you are looking at negative interest rates in europe, even though they have $13 trillion at least of negative interest rate bonds, still, you move some of that over to u.s. even if it's only 1%, as john was saying, you're still getting a lot more cash

than if you put your money and lose it in europe. >> here's the overriding problem that i see. the overriding problem is you have, that starvation has already happened. investors have been starved out of the bond market, gone into the stock market and yes, we are the ultimate safe haven here in the u.s., but there's going to come a point where investors either take more risk, go back into the stock market, or just don't look at any dollar denominated -- david: sit on their cash. >> yes, sit on their cash. because there needs to be some sort of equilibrium here. they used this process of lowering interest rates to the floor to get money into the stock markets. that's been my opinion. david: look at the economy, john. you have this extraordinary jobs-based economy which means the job market is so good right now that employees are able to argue for and get significant wage increases like we haven't seen in years, in decades, really.

>> that's important. we have a situation right now where job openings exceed a number of people out of work by more than one million, perhaps 1.5 million people. that's incredible. so i don't think we are going to suddenly suffer a contraction by consumer spending any time soon. it will be important this week, on thursday, the retail sales report. as long as we get growth in terms of retail sales, consumer spending, we should remain safely distanced from recession. david: goldman sachs, talking about recession, was talking more about recession although they seemed to be pulling back a little bit from that later this morning than they were earlier this morning. what do you think of that? >> let me say something about that. earlier this year, a lot of banks including goldman sachs were calling for three to four rate hikes, rate hikes, for 2019, when it was already apparent that business sales were slowing down. david: right. >> okay? and here they are, changing their tune. so if goldman sachs is right, if there's an increased risk of recession, then in all likelihood, we are going to see fed funds being cut at least

four times in 2019. david: let's take a look at the big board. the dow is kind of racing the nasdaq downward. they now both have a loss of .85%. both the dow and the nasdaq. not good news on the big money stocks, but we are going to be following that closely although again, it seems to be finding kind of a ceiling at about $210, $220 right now. the dow is down 205 as we speak. look at blackrock. it's reportedly getting ready to take a major stake in authentic brands. it is down about 1.5% right now. authentic brands owns "sports illustrated," nine west, aeropostal. don't forget about bitcoin. gold is seeing a light increase. not so bitcoin. they are down about $500, trading at $11,352 right now. cbs and viacom, we always like to look at them because charlie gasparino's reporting on

every tick that they make. a deal is likely to be announced after the bell today, according to charlie. they are working on final details and have pretty much settled on a price. any more developments from charlie and we will bring them to you live. rough ride for big tech names lately. i don't see many bargains here, jeff, do you? >> no. i think what the technology companies have to be -- investors have to be concerned about is these stocks have driven the market on the way down. they are going to lead the market on the way up. they are going to lead the market on the way down. i'm not seeing anything that's of value now. these stocks i think will have value at some point in the future -- david: which ones in particular? >> i like amazon, i like netflix, believe it or not. they have some challenges. i think apple is still amazing to me that apple has the momentum it has. i think they are in trouble. and facebook -- keep in mind

technology companies are going to be facing a lot of government scrutiny over privacy. david: particularly the social media companies. those are the ones, john lonski, that concern most people. we are going to talk about this later in the program, but even california, which relies on silicon valley for so much of its tax wealth, is beginning to look cross-eyed at these silicon valley companies, maybe going to regulate them. >> you have to worry about regulatory risk but don't overlook the fact some of these tech giants have mountains of cash to be used to pay fines, to buy back shares. lauren: but in europe, the regulatory authority there, by the end of september, they have 11 cases open that affect these big tech companies, many of them like facebook frirngs. we get decisions, europe has more power to change behavior than the ftc does of these companies. the ftc right here in the u.s. david: on the opposite side of the spectrum, jc penney, classic

retail store, so sad, it is now so low that it may be de-listed from the new york stock exchange. this is just one of the many casualties the retail ice age, no? >> yes, i would say so. we nowadays have to take into account the growth of the internet, e-commerce and that's really done -- created a lot of problems for these bricks and mortar retailers. david: now a penny stock. are you bailing yet? there was one time you were kind of in favor of penney. >> i'm sorry. i believe in this model that tj maxx uses. jc penney is the bane of my existence. i picked it, i thought they were going to pull through, i loved this model tj maxx uses, i love tj maxx, they use the treasure hunt model. jc penney assured me they were going to do that. they were going to execute it and i looked at that -- david: did they let you down? >> they let me down. david: oh, man! >> for that alone --

>> i drag that penney stigma around. david: look at the dow again. they are kind of stuck in that range between 175 and 220. it's trading down now about 210 points. thanks to everybody. that was a great session. quick check on the big board as we saw, 214 on the dow. the nasdaq is down percentage-wise, just about the same amount, about .8 on the downside. california raking in billions of dollars from big tech but as we just mentioned, state law makers there are continuing to go after these companies with new regulations. could all these restrictive new laws cause a tech exodus out of california? what would that mean for the state's budget? we will be asking that question. au anheuser busch rolling oa new line of drinks in order to attract millenials who have ditched beer.

protests in hong kong showing no signs of ending any time soon. what is the end game in hong kong for the chinese and for the protesters? will china's military intervene? we will ask one of our china watchers coming next. ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

david: checking the big board, the dow is down about 205 points right now. you're not drinking beer, so now anheuser busch is pivoting to hard seltzer. i could never make the switch but apparently they think it's going to work. susan: it's a trend. in 2016 was the introduction, sales climbing 300% in the past year so ab inbev took a look at

the trend and said let's get into this, especially as we are dealing with falling beer sales. they are launching light seltzer, it comes in a 24-case bulk offering, has 130 calories, 6% alcohol. 130 calories, a little more than the other brands on the market. it starts selling in just a few weeks time. the original two flavors, mango peach, black cherry lime and guess who they are marketing to? college aged drinkers, millenials who have been moving away from beer. we have seen beer sales falling, but beer sales volume still the biggest driver for ab inbev. back to you. david: if mango peach seltzer transplants beer, i don't hold much hope for our future as a

nation. that simple. susan, thank you very much. back to the protests in hong kong. bringing the airport to a virtual standstill. joining us, former television news anchor, phil yin. i can't imagine the airport being allowed to be closed for long before somebody breaks that up. >> well, good to be with you. good morning. the tweets and information coming in from asia is coming in very fast this morning. we saw futures were higher prior to that announcement that the airport was going to be closed. following that announcement we saw the dow futures drop nearly 200 points which is right where it's sitting right now. a couple statements here. cafe pacific saying non-essential travelers need not go to the airport because it's closed. they are planning to reopen the airport by 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. so you can do the time zone change. they are going to try to get things back to a bit of normalcy, if you will. david: what if the protesters don't leave? how does the chinese, do the

chinese authorities break it up? >> it has been a very difficult weekend for hong kong. we are now in the tenth week and the chinese would like the protests to sort of stop and calm down. there's a couple thoughts to this. one, the school year is about to begin. perhaps that might calm things down. the second thing is that you know what happened in 2014 with the previous round of protest, that the protesters essentially just got worn out after awhile, and beijing continues to make its demands that things are peaceful. there are a number of rumors on social media that troops are amassing across the border in shenzen and i don't want to throw more fire into that, so to speak, pardon the pun, but we have to be very careful not to speculate too much of what's happening across the border or what might happen down the road. boeing issuing a statement regarding air travel. keep in mind, hong kong is the eighth busiest airport in the world. they are saying that, you know, this goes back to the trade deal, too, that boeing wants a

healthy relationship between the u.s. and china. one in four planes being manufactured here is shipped over there. and they say that for a good u.s. trade deal, that a strong aerospace community globally is going to have to be part of that solution. david: we only have 20 seconds. the banks in hong kong were vital for a lot of rich chinese trying to get their money out of china during the last devaluation four years ago. is that one of the real primary goals of the chinese government, to sort of tie up those banks so they don't ruin the plans of what the chinese have for their currency or other things? >> the chinese, we can go on about the currency war. we will leave that for another time. but what the chinese and beijing wants, they want stability in hong kong. they're not getting it right now. they are getting extremely frustrated. from an investor standpoint, if you're not watching these geopolitical hot spots, including hong kong, you're in trouble. you need to be watching that because they are moving markets. and one of the key issues that

i'm getting from my sources is that big investors are starting to move money around. as you can imagine, that might very well create more volatility. david: phil yin, good to see you. thank you very much. appreciate it. check the dow 30 stocks. they are down 200 points. we'll be right back. there's a company that's talked to even more real people than me: jd power. 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality.

and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room.

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david: markets coming back just a little bit. both the dow and the nasdaq making a little bit of a comeback. still 193 points down on the dow, almost exactly the same percentage wise on the nasdaq. at one point, nasdaq was doing worse than the dow. now they are about equally bad. well, now, 200 points to the downside on the dow. the justice department taking a closer look at the circumstances surrounding the death of billionaire financier jeffrey epstein. attorney general william barr said that he was appalled at epstein's death while in custody. joining us now, matt whitaker, former acting u.s. attorney general. are we ever going to get to the bottom of this, what happened? >> the circumstances are very unusual, and the bureau of prisons typically runs a tight ship, and you know, the acting director is a very

detail-oriented individual. david: details missed on this? >> yeah, there were. i think when bill barr says i will have the fbi together with the inspector general look at it, i think that's important because the inspector general has done a lost work investigating other situations surrounding b.o.p. including some of its new york establishments. david: one of those details, why was he taken off of suicide watch, and there was no camera in his cell? if there was a camera in his cell, we could clearly see definitively whether there was any funny business or not, but no camera there. >> right. and if you think about sort of he was found unresponsive just weeks before this situation happened, and it seemed surprising to me that within a week they would determine he was no longer a risk, but he was still in the shoe or the special housing unit, segregated from the general population. the question that really fundamentally needs to be asked is why was protocol not followed. we have heard a lot of anonymous sources saying it was a staffing issue or other reasons, but fundamentally, the bureau of

prisons is a protocol following the checklist because that's the way you manage over 180,000 inmates across the country, so these circumstances just are very unusual and i think bill barr's right. he should be outraged and demand answers, and i think there should be transparency on these answers as well. david: want to get this in. you are joining antivirus company, what's it called again? >> pc-matic. through my law practice, i will help as their outside general counsel. they are 100% american-made company and -- david: that's good. >> very proud to have them as one of the clients that i'm helping with business-related legal issues. i have been, now that i'm no longer in the department of justice, i have been out in the private sector, i'm enjoying sort of my second time coming out of the department of justice, and i have been able to help some clients, you know, sort of with their business-related legal issues and this is a company that i

believe in. david: matt whitaker, thank you very much. nbc universal pulling its controversial movie "the hunt." that's the violent film showing deplorables being murdered by rich elites. still, the rhetoric against republicans is becoming more and more dangerous. we have brentmozell to respond to that. also in the next hour, the ceo of overstock.com. my buddy patrick burn, launching a cryptocurrency today that everyone can now trade. it's open to the public. 50,000 investors expected to jump in. in our 11:00 a.m. hour, "wall street journal" all-star kim strassel, her latest headline on the democrats threatening to take voters' firearms away is not the way to beat donald trump. she will explain, 11:00 a.m. second hour of "varney" is next. from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity.

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david: hi, everybody, i'm david asman filling in for stuart. stuart will be back tomorrow.

stocks are in a downtrend. they're down in 190 points. they have been trading in the 200 down point range for a while. the hong kong protests they have become more violent. the airport now, the 8th busiest airport in the world, is shut down completely after demonstrators stormed the gates. all flights have been canceled at least until 6:00 p.m. eastern time tonight. that is 6:00 a.m. in the morning for them next day. and then there is the mysterious death of disgraced financeer jeffrey epstein that was a shocker on saturday morning. no guard apparently was watching him continuously. no camera in his prison cell. a autopsy has been performed. as of now no details have been released. we'll have all the stories coming up. first breaking news from the white house the trump administration about to announce new rules on immigration. edward lawrence is standing by with details. edward? reporter: literally within the

next minute, the head of the u.s. citizen immigration service. a new rule, basically any illegal immigrant trying to come into the united states who used public housing, who used public assistance in some way, like food stamps, medicare will have another black mark against them when trying to reach the legal status coming into the u.s. this affects folks applying for green cards. it affects those trying to come into the country in a legal way, to obtain the legal status. exempt from the rule are pregnant women, children, military members and family of military members. this affects 382,000 people applying to become citizens of the united states and this rule again is one more black mark against that person trying to get that status. back to you, david. david: edward, thank you. let's get to the your money of. it is down on trade fears. let's bring in dennis gartman, gartman letter and ceo. dennis, the market is baking in

the idea that there won't be a deal before the election, do you agree. >> i'm not certain there won't be one before the election but certainly hoped for meeting in is put off sometime in the future. we'll drag this out for a period of time. whether it gets accomplished before the next election is up for debate. trade is a difficult, disconcerting, confusing circumstance. since all trading is people's propensity to act, i have to expect people's propensity to taking a agressive, bullish positions is greatly limited. david: you look what happened with the markets. last monday was awful, horrible, 700 point loss. but the market found its moment of resilience and fought back. traders were buying. maybe a lot of money was coming from overseas because there is no other place to put it? >> that is the dominant theme now? it, there is no alternative.

if you're sitting in the middle of the ocean someplace, money will go to the united states first, go to the united states bond market before it moves any place else. tina is the operative circumstance. right now tina is dancing. david: you were skeptical. where do you put money? >> i only trade for my account. i don't trade anybody's money. i am public for what i do. corporate and etf instruments paying dividends. i'm there. i'm in gold. modestly short the stock market to hedge off that bond position a bit. those are the places i'm at. i've been in polled for a while. i will continue to be a buyer. david: i was going to say, because it had a tremendous runup, over $1500. would you continue to buy at this level? >> i think the fact, david, we've seen gold past week or two

consolidate $1500 in u.s. dollar terms a little stronger in euro terms, the fact it consolidated, hasn't given back any gains, it held on friday, fridays have not been gold's friend for several months. the fact that gold was able to hold on friday i thought was quite impressive. i would tell people, even after the strength you can buy gold after a week of consolidation. david: it is up 8 bucks, trading at 1516 right now. let's check the 10-year treasury yield, flirting with a new low again this morning, 1.69%. did you think you would ever see the day, dennis. >> the trend in interest rates is clearly downward, isn't it? david: i'll say. >> if you fight that trend, it has been a losing fight. given the fact that there are so much denominated debt in negative terms around the world, we are still the lead dog. so money is going to come here first of all. 1.69 looks like an incredibly low elf when i can remember

trading the 10-year at an 18% coupon at one time back in the early 1980s. 1.69% seems extremely low. nonetheless, the trend is down. if you faded that trend, you have erred badly and whoa upon you. david: do you think we'll ever see negative interest rates here? >> i doubt it. first of all, say i hope we don't see negative interest rates. david: agreed. >> but nonetheless the possibility still exists. would anybody have told you five years ago germany would be at negative interest its you would have laughed. david: crazy idea. >> let us hope, let us hope we don't go to negative interest rates because the confusion that abounds derived from that is deleterious to the economy in general and public psychology. david: dennis, i couldn't agree more. let's switch gears to the campaign trail. democrat candidates, senator bernie sanders continuing to push government freebies. take a listen. >> think big. there is no reason why we don't

make the public colleges and universities tuition free. it cost as little bit of money. >> senator, give me a number, approximate number, how much would it cost? >> somewhere between 30 and 40 trillion over a 10-year period. david: somewhere, somewhere. let's bring in ed con ard, upside of. you have free education, guaranteed income. we're talking about transplanting a private economy with a government economy. that is socialism. >> sure. if we talk about european liberalism, the average american household earns 30% more than the german median household. up from 18% in 1990s. that understates just how big the difference is. everybody wants to compare america to northern europe because the test scores are very high, low scoring american earns 20% a hour. high-scoring american earns 50%

more than an hour. american employees give their employers 20 to 30% more hours. scandinavian american are earning 50% more than than counterparts. who would want that. david: an american employer can give them a job. start with that we have extraordinary job market. compare it to france, they have certain groups like young people have over 10% unemployment right now. we can't find workers for jobs. >> even in germany where the highest capable people still have substantially 30% less hours on average than an american has. which has a huge impact on the amount of money they earn. you know, their incomes are lower, with half the tail, we're producing 16 times startups than europe is. they're benefiting greatly from outsized cribbion of our innovation. their freeloading off of our defense spending. they're freeloading off of our medication. david: not as much as they used

thanks to donald trump. >> a little bit more. without a lot of pushing and pulling. it has a big impact. david: do you think donald trump is a little too positive about the ability to beat a socialist candidate, whether it is bernie sanders who announces he is socialist or liz warren who basically us did the same thing, policywise? >> i think he has to hammer home the facts, the differences between the u.s. and europe. the average american doesn't appreciate just how much more produce produce the u.s. is. they buy into a lot of propaganda like that, health care is better. yeah, they have cancer survival rates 30 years behind the united states. if you really go through the data, you find no place, no place where you would ever say i would want to be in europe. plus you don't want to work. it's a different story. david: to the death of billionaire financeer jeffrey epstein. several investigations underway as we await the results of an autopsy. lauren, what is the latest? >> we're waiting results of the autopsy. this is a suspected suicide. it just smells fishy to so many

people. where was the cellmate of jeffrey epstein? where were the cameras in the cell? why were the guards only checking him at mcc, not every hour but after several hours, when they were supposed to be doing that every half an hour? a lot, doesn't smell right, doesn't sit right with a lot of people. we are seeing conspiracy theories as a result. we're also seeing you know, this death is putting a focus on people who allegedly helped recruit the young women for this sex trafficking ring that he accused of having. david: we're going to be talking more about this throughout the next couple hours. ed, thank you very much for being here. we appreciate it. an update on the chaos in hong kong. thousands of protesters flooding the airport. all flights have been grounded. so what is the endgame for the protesters and the chinese government? military intervention? talking about bringing the pla over from china.

we'll discuss that. california biting the hand that feeds it. it is leading the charge against big tech companies. lawmakers want to pass a bill making uber and lyft drivers regular employees. we're all over that. ♪ ♪ all right brad, once again i have revolutionized the songwriting process. oh, here we go. i know i can't play an instrument, but this... this is my forte. obviously, for auto insurance, we've got the wheel route. obviously. retirement, we're going with a long-term play. makes sense. pet insurance, wait, let me guess... flea flicker. yes! how'd you know? studying my playbook? yeah, actually.

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david: it is not quite as nasty as last monday. the nasdaq is down about the same percentagewise. not a great day. could be a lot worse. always focus on china. at least in the past couple weeks, certainly that is the focus now. today, the ongoing focus with the chaos in on kong where

thousands of protesters closed airport, causing thousands of flights to be canceled. we have steve who sissits on the china u.s. communications. how long do you think the chinese authorities will leave that shut? >> i think they're leaving in the hands of the hong kong authorities to decide what to do. they're putting pressure saying this can't go on. the economic consequences closing the airport is catastrophic. not just catastrophic in the short term, missing plans and meetings, but long term, think about the multinationals headquartered in hong kong, are they thinking should they move to singapore, move to taiwan, move to tokyo? it is really booed for hong kong in the long term. what i hope the demonstrators understand that this is going to cause hong kong to deteriorate in the long term. david: i hope what china understands, if they get, i understand there are some plo, pla forces now. >> they are garrisoned.

david: peoples liberation army in hong kong. if they really bring a force of pla army troops over into hong kong and do there, what happened in tianamen i don't think china would be the same for decades. >> no. i don't think that is going to happen. for starters, there has been a lot of fake news about the pla massing troops on the hong kong border. it is, number one it is the police, ministry of public security that have exercises in shenzhen, the areas that border hong kong. what they're doing sending a message to the demonstrators we have this capability. they are not, they are not talking about using it and i would be shocked if they did. the situation would have to deteriorate immensely for china to make that decision. for the hong kong government to invite the pla. now the pla is garrisoned in the old british -- david: how many troops are there. >> not many. not many. david: couple thousand? >> i think so.

i don't know the exact number of. david: if you're wrong, god forbid, the pla comes, is that the end of our relations with china for the near future. >> i just don't think it is going to happen. david: you don't want to go there? >> i can't imagine it t would be such a terrible decision by the government of hong kong. by the government and main land. they have the capability to deal with the demonstrators. what they need to build is a consensus on how they should go forward. david: right. >> which basically is going to be, withdrawn, they said the bill is dead. carrie lam the argument is withdrawn or dead. what is really the difference? the chief executive should say it is withdrawn. the other is, they need an independent team to kind of evaluate what happened with the police. david: hard to find anybody there right now. >> police review boards, which we have in the united states, which are independent of the police, should review what has

gone on. i think that is a path for compromise. david: steve, i want to get your impression what is happening in russia. not only hong kong where you have pro-democracy protests, you see it in russia too. the demonstrations there are focusing on very similar things about an autocracy, controlling the way they run their government. not enough freedom in the private sector where certain big guys get sweetheart deals. but, normal folks don't. what do you think of this? the fact that they are in russia, also kind of pushing these pro-western values? >> i'm not russian expert but to me the contrast is striking. the gentleness which the hong kong government treats its protesters versus the harshness treats its protesters. david: i have to push back a little bit. i have seen video over the weekend of very harsh treatment of protesters in hong kong. very harsh treatments. people getting bloodied as a result. >> what the police force are

saying people have been hurling petrol bombs. they have been hurling bricks. david: you can see the videos. i would not defend some of what the police force is doing in hong kong. >> i think we should have an independent body investigate whether there has been police -- david: who would be on that body? >> you can find people who are independent. there are certainly is a huge both academic and ngo community in hong kong that is perfectly willing to kind of be objective in opining what has happened here. if there has been brutality, if there has been unauthorized use of force. david: no question of if. it has happened. the only question if it is widespread as some people say it is. they have to come to a conclusion. what i'm hoping and praying, somehow the trade negotiations we're a part of can induce better behavior on the part of the chinese authorities. do you think that's possible? >> trade negotiations unfortunately because of the foundational mistakes in our approach make it very difficult for the chinese to compromise.

focus on the bilateral trade deficit which is kind of a violation of the principles of economics 101. the branding of china as a currency manipulator when in fact they have been trying to support its currency made -- david: a lot of economists as well as administration officials would differ with you. >> i don't think so. i don't think so. david: we have had them on air. >> i think they're miss tating the case that economists who look at this fairly will say the chinese have spent tens of billions of dollars propping up their currency. if you look back 10-years -- david: they spent a lot of time stealing what we have. >> that is not a trade negotiation. david: it should be. >> we should be making representation with respect to intellectual property. david: we have to have you for an hour. >> this is great fun. david: toyota is hiring right here in the united states. thousands of jobs are up for grabs. we take you to one of the auto

plants next. universal pulling the release of "the hunt." following significant backlash. unique thrill-seekers hunting deplorables for sport. do you think the film will be see the light of day. more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪

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save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. plus get $250 back when you buy an eligible phone. click, call or visit a store today. david: checking the big board, it is recovering a little bit. it is down 155 points now on the dow. the nasdaq again is tracking almost per tick down by the same percentagewise. it is about little more than half of a percentage point loss

on both the dow but it is, as you can see as we speak it is recovering a little bit. no way to tell what's going to happen of course. disney down about a full percentage point. down to $137 a share. having a lot of problem selling "star wars" and the new "lion king" passed "frozen" for the biggest selling movie of all time. that didn't take long for disney. toyota is looking here at home to your thousands of more workers. fox business's grady trimble is live at the plant in princeton, indiana. is toyota having a hard time finding folks, grady? reporter: unemployment at a new low so it is hard to fill them. this is the heart of the new toyota plant a lot of cars on the road start right here. i want to bring in millie marshall. she is the plant president. she is tasked with the job of

bringing 400 new employees here. that's a hard job. >> yes it is. but we have great benefits, competitive wages. we would love for everybody to join our family here at toyota indiana. reporter: it is fascinating to see everything that goes behind the scenes. tell us what we're looking at here? >> they're doing install on the scuff plates. they are tightening the seatbelts and putting in sliders for the seats. reporter: they work in 56 second increments. it goes on to the next folks. >> goes on to the next process, yes. reporter: these are good-paying jobs. these are 20 to 30 an hour jobs. jobs you can have a family and raise kids. start right is 18.25. our top rate is $29. reporter: thanks so much, millie. david, this is how the sausage is made. we'll be here all day as they recruit hundreds of employees to come to indiana. david: i envy you.

there is something of a factory floor, the smell, sounds, puts a lot of people off. i just love it. thank you very much, grady. reporter: i love it too. david: california is making enemies with big tech. the latest targets uber and lyft. here is a fact. big tech accounts for nearly 20% of california's income. why is the state putting a bullseye on its cash cow? check facebook. eu regulators are getting closer to fining facebook billions of euros over privacy issues. it is down not as much as you might expect considering that fact. we have got details coming up. ♪ fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely.

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♪ david: that is the white album, white? stuart would know. even with us americans here. we still love the beatles. i think it is the white album. we're recovering a little bit, 139 down on the dow. 137. point .5% down on the dow. the nasdaq is tracking as well. we're recovering a bit from a down day on the markets. meanwhile the european union is nearing a decision on facebook privacy cases. lauren, how big can fines be for facebook and other social media

companies? lauren: in billions with a "b." compare it to the 5 billion-dollar ftc fine for facebook. that was one instance, one fine. we're learning that the ireland data protection commission is leading the investigation. they have 11 cases against facebook open. we'll see draft decisions by nextmont. this is all coming soon. because there are so many of them we could see these fines be big but individually, probably not as big as the ftc fine and here is why. unlike the ftc, the european watchdogs have the ability to change the behavior of facebook. that would be a severe negative for the company. maybe good for us as users but a negative for the company. and that's why this is so significant. david: given europes propensity for regulation, maybe this is not so surprising but california is now going to consider a bill that would classify drivers for companies like uber and lyft as employees which would entitle

them to better pay benefits this comes as california continues to impose big regulations on the tech industry, kind of like europe is doing. bring in market watchers technology editor jeremy owens. jeremy, i'm just wondering if we can get so many regulations from california, we might begin to see an exodus of some of these companies which are, golden cows for california out of california, someplace like texas? >> well, it depends on if these laws spread. california tends to be a precursor. they pass these laws, then other states pick them up. if you look at the privacy regulation that california has established or will establish last year, we passed that last year. so many states have gone in to add that type of privacy regulation. the feds will look at it too. i don't think you will see a lot of companies jump to texas, knowing texas can come up with similar or same bill in a couple years. they don't get access to the same type of employee, with the same type of experience they do

outside of california. david: do california legislators care at all about the how much money the silicon valley companies contribute to the to the government and not just the private sector but are they concerned at all about losing some of that? >> i'm sure they are concerned about losing some of that tax revenue, and their citizens, right? if you talk about the negative effects of these tech companies it is felt in california the worst and hardest. uber and lyft put out a traffic study how their services are affecting traffic. they are not affectly greatly. they are increasing traffic, the place where they increase the most in san francisco where the companies were found 9 and started, where the services took off. you can look at the tax revenue, but what are the negative effects on my residents how i try to ameliorate that and hopefully split the difference. david: i have another one, jeremy.

listen to what president trump said about huawei. listen. >> we're not going to doing business with huawei. we're not doing business with them. i really made the decision. it is much simpler not to do any business with huawei. so we're not doing business with huawei. david: i know he was talking about the federal government doing business with huawei, are chip-makers, intel and such, are they concerned maybe they could lose huawei as a customer? >> very much so. in fact we'll find out in about a week. basically the trump and u.s. government gave 90 day cool off period before they couldn't sell to huawei that ended a week from today. when qualcomm admitted we don't know what this looks like with huawei, we'll have to give you a forecast or figuring out. they have no idea what to expect moving forward. if that 90-day period ends next monday without an extension, looks like it will, they can't sell into huawei anymore, that will be a big problem.

david: jeremy owens, great to see you. thank you very much. >> thanks. david: david solomon says the economy is doing fine despite the company saying earlier that the trade war raises a risk of recession. sounds like he is walking back the recession talk, right? >> the headlines we went with this morning. goldman sachs is worried the trade war could lead to recession. doesn't see a china trade deal before 2020. cutting their forecast for u.s. fourth quarter growth. now we have the ceo, david solomon, telling cnn the economy is just fine. that china trade impact is not significant, at least not yet. so they're walking it back a little bit, with that, we do see somewhat of an improvement in the market. we were down over 200. david: that's true. nobody knows how to hedge their bets, better than folks at goldman sachs. that is what they specialize in. overstock.com, they tell discount furniture, did you also

know they're big into cryptocurrency? as of today, you can buy, sell, and trade digital currency with overstock's app. we have the ceo and founder coming up. we'll also ask him about an extraordinary story, his affair with a russian spy. he is going public on this. the role that the fbi played in this. you got to hear this story coming up. ♪ -driverless cars... -all ground personnel...

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byrne, founder and ceo of overstock who is getting into cryptocurrency in a big way for the company. i have to ask you, patrick about a story i never expected to see, one that sara carter wrote about, a journalist, familiar to our viewers. it is called a billion dollar ceo, that would be you. a convicted russian agent and the fbi. now the convicted russian agent is a woman named maria butina. she is serving her sentence after she pled guilty in 2018. what is the story about this, what does it say about the our fbi? that is the interesting thing for me? >> i thought we were talking about blockchain. i'm happy to discuss this. i have gone public limited way to couple journalists. i don't work for the fbi. i helped them twice in my life. once when my friend brian williams got murdered, famous nba player.

i helped them with there. helped them with a big fight with wall street years ago. as bob marley, rasta don't work for no cia. i'm a grateful dead loving, flag waving, pot-smoking guy. you when you walk through an airport, you see some kids, going off to, in uniform, young soldiers, wish americans felt the same way about, men in black, all i'm going to say. david: do i. i do. >> the great young men and women trying to protect the country. they are not the problem. david: i think most people distinguish between the folks that put their life on the line every day like brave fbi agents do, and folk that got politicized. >> isn't even the brass versus the front line. the brass got there politically that is the problem. let me give it to you in a nutshell. very strange way, by a weird fluke of history, i ended up in

the center of the russian and the clinton investigations. i have all the answers. i've been sitting on them, waiting for america to get there. last summer i figured out, i have all the answers to both of those. what they all are, it is all about political espionage. had nothing to do with law enforcement. i thought i was helping them in some law enforcement. it was all political espionage. here is the bottom line, there is a deep state, like a submarine lurking just beneath the waves at periscope death, watching our shipping leans. a nuclear icebreaker, bill barr, is snuck up about them, about to ram them in mid ships. i think we're about to see the biggest scandal in american history. everything you think you know about russia and clinton investigations is a lie. it is all a cover-up. it was all political espionage. david: you think bill barr will get to the bottom of it?

>> i think he has gotten to the bottom of it. believe it or not there was political espionage conducted against hillary clinton. i can tell you two of the names involved were john brennan and james comey. but there was political espionage conducted against hillary clinton, against ted cruz, marco rubio and donald trump. and everything you think you know about the russian collusion investigation is a lie. it all will be exposed. david: it is a fascinating story. there are so many weeds. i don't want to get too pulled down into it. read sara carter's piece, google, patrick byrne, sara carter. fascinating story how you got dragged into the whole thing. the conclusion is the most important part you explained to us. now, let me talk if i can about cryptocurrency. you jumpedded into today. go ahead. >> for five years i've been involved in blockchain. not cryptocurrency or bitcoin.

this is the technology under it, which is called blockchain, we are reimagining the world based in blockchain, everything from land governments, identification and medical records to, to supply chain, but key part of any society is a capital market, this is a t-zero, i think today as i'm speaking. they're putting out a release that the security tokens we issued last year have now reached point, urn accredited investors as of today. there is whole knew wall street coming to light based in blockchain that will make on sew heat the wall street you're sitting in the middle of. t-zero is a leading player with -- david: i would hope it also made obsolete central banks. the side public policy person, greatest interest to me, whether i think the great damage that

central banks sometimes do to an economy, that might be undermined by your efforts in the private sector. >> hallelujah, brother. hallelujah. we have a company doing blockchain central banking. it is in barbados. first contract with central banks in the world, to create blockchain central banking. that will be great for the world's poor. 50 years, economists have been talking about financial inclusion, the poor are not even snatched to the system. we'll be able to do that through the blockchain and mobile apps, bomb metrics. we'll do everything that these institutions like the big banks are supposed to do in those countries, we will get done on mobile apps and block chains. david: millions of people working in the private sector. together the amalgam is much more informed than a couple of old folks sitting in a room somewhere. >> mandarins. i call them the mandarins. people who think the mandarins

should organize society from above. it should be peer-to-peer agreements. david: i wish i could talk you out of marijuana. that is the only problem i have with you. >> it is not, it is not a drug. it is a pot. what if you do if god comes back? are you going to arrest her. you created this plant. david: i'm not for arresting folks. it is drug itself that i have problems with. always great to see you, patrick. i don't want to end on a sour note. great to see you. your extraordinary ones, doj. >> doj or heroes. going to have law enforcement again. david: good to see you, patrick byrne, overstock.com. a movie about the rich elite murdering deplorables sparking out raid. nbc universal pulled the plug, no longer hitting theaters. even president trump chimed in. wait until you hear what he had to say.

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david: now the dow is down 215 points. hasn't popped above that today. downward, the worst we've been in about where we are right now, down about 215 points, had recovered, lost most of that recovery. switch over to uber, shares falling for a second straight session, it is now down just today alone, 6.25%. down to $37 and 55 cents for a share of the stock. meanwhile universal announcing they are pulling their controversial movie, "the hunt" over the backlash of depictions of wealthy elite killing deplorables. president trump slammed hollywood and the movie last friday. roll tape. >> hollywood i don't call them the eye lietz. elites are people they go after in many cases. hollywood is really terrible, you talk about racist, hollywood

is racist. what they're doing with the kind of movies they're putting out is very dangerous for our country, what hollywood is doing is tremendous disservice to our country. david: let's bring in brent bozell, president of media research center. so before we talk about the president's, are you happy that universal dropped the movie? >> well, not necessarily because i don't think it means anything, david. i think there are bigger issues to look at here. why was this movie made to begin with? it points to two things. one is the degree hollywood despises conservatives and more importantly, despises trump himself. secondly, because they like violence. so all this talk about you know, beating of breasts, gnashing of teeth about awful violence in el paso, they are loving it because it makes their movie plots. let's be very clear about this they pulled it friday but tomorrow they will make another

one. david: what happens with the one they have in the can? i suspect there is some point, some way they will get this movie out? >> they always do. they will find a way to do it. someone else will make a movie like this. just imagine what would happen if i was thinking about, what if you had a movie, storyline about texas rednecks picking off mexicans crossing the border for fun? imagine what would reaction there? david: i can imagine. twitter revealing their decision to lock senate majority leaders campaign account. i would say another victory for oppose their hypocrisy on this, what do you think? >> i think, people at twitter are acting like 2-year-olds. they have got 2-year-old rules. it took over and over and over again for senator mcconnell to get them to understand he was the victim of it. at same time by the way, you now have senator warren and senator

harris over this last weekend, have been making statements on twitter accusing michael brown of ferguson, missouri, of having been murdered which is absolutely not true. the officer who shot him was vindicated as a, as self-against by the obama justice department. so they are accusing a man, incorrectly and unfairly and horrifically of being a murderer, that is okay. but mitch mcconnell defending himself from people who want to kill him, he is wrong. david: what kills me, they're essentially accusing the obama administration of racism, right? i mean if you take, if you take their way of looking at it, which is just extraordinary. but don't you see the tide turning? i saw last week, a pretty seminal moment where it seemed that the crazy hypocrisy, whether hollywood hypocrisy, twitter, pc hp hypocrisy writ large really lost big time last

week? >> absolutely. they keep blaming on algorithms. liberals never complain about this stuff. it is not happening to them. it is happening to republicans and conservatives on a daily basis our side is being censored. the public is seeing the game absolutely being played. david: brent brozell. thank you very much. good news from krispy kreme and chik-fil-a. lauren, start with krispy kreme. lauren: like a friday stare but we're doing it on a monday. you can have krispy kreme delivered to your door. david: my goodness. lauren: right here in new york city, excited about that. don't think about getting one doughnut, david, you have to get the whole dozen, get 8-dollar minimum delivery, the extra -- david: super piping hot, by the time it gets delivered won't be as piping hot. lauren: that is issue with everything you get delivered. don't rain on doughnut parade. david: chik-fil-a.

ashley: mac and cheese, for chik-fil-a to add a permanent menu item. first item added since 2016. david: we wish them luck. kimberly strassel says they're going to extremes and it won't work. she makes her case next hour. plus if interest rates are at historic loans, why are we not seeing a boom in home sales? we'll ask our south florida realtor coming up. stocks are near the lows of the morning, big hour straight ahead. don't miss it. 2,000 fence posts. 900 acres. 48 bales. all before lunch, which we caught last saturday. we earn our scars. we wear our work ethic. we work until the work's done.

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david: it's 11:00 a.m. on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. out west. i'm david asman in for stuart on this monday morning. let's get right to it. the story of the day is china. that's really what's weighing on the market. trade tensions driving the market down.

goldman sachs says the trade war's having a greater impact on the economy than expected, raising the risk of a recession before the 2020 election. now, they pulled back a little bit since then. the ceo of goldman sachs tried to but it's out there. remember, president trump says he's not ready to make a deal with china yet and there's questions about whether china will make a deal before the election. i want to bring in founder and ceo of farvahar partners. what about this, the weight that china is having on american consumers? we keep hearing this talk about how american consumers are going to be hurt badly by our tariffs and so forth but you don't see it in the price of commodity, you don't see it in terms of consumer spending. when is it going to hit? >> it's all prospective, all potential. i think we are having the wrong conversation. we haven't seen any inflation whatsoever in consumer goods for almost a decade in this country. that's for a variety of reasons including globalization, outsourcing our manufacturing to

china and technology. so this is hypothetical in nature and it's really doing damage to consumer confidence. we talk about it a lot but that's not where the real danger is. it's not going to be consumer prices. david: let's talk about what the real danger is. i think you consider household debt to be among the top, right? >> absolutely. we haven't had inflation, the president is right and i applaud his position with china, taking them on. we are in a position of strength right now to do so. we shouldn't back down just because consumer prices may go up. but what we should be talking about is that household debt has exploded during the same period of time. there has been inflation, but it's been in health care and education, and we aren't talking about that enough. david: what about that can be dealt with, and how? because you have all kinds of theories about health care. you have from the bernie sanders extreme of it costing $40 trillion, which would essentially double our federal budget, to more modest proposals coming from republicans. what do you think is the best answer? >> let's talk about student

loans for a moment. this is great analogy to the housing crisis. the government was very involved in housing because we wanted everyone to have home ownership. we made it very easy to own a home. david: then we had 2008-2009. >> precisely. since the crisis we made it easier for people to go to school. sounds like a good idea. however, now we have a lot of debt these people take on now and they aren't able to do other life goals they want because of this crippling debt. david: frankly, the kind of jobs they get pay less very often with a college degree than if you went to trade school. >> that's exactly the point i want to make which is we need to double down on vocational training as opposed to think a four-year liberal arts college degree is a right, not a privilege. actually, the government has had a role in perpetuating this because we make it so easy for people to take out debt to go to college, but we aren't actually pushing it the right way. i don't think we should forgive student debt. okay? that's a moral hazard, absolutely. we saw that with the housing crisis. but what i do think we need to do is talk about the bankruptcy law of 2005. know what it did? it said you couldn't discharge

student debt. that's a big problem. lauren: it's interesting, i'm sort of looking at this and have been following it very closely. it's been a tit for tat with china. everybody is worried it's going to impact the consumer. i have been following the earnings. that one company said that it has so far, no one really warned that it would be in the future, and they didn't express any fear about china as they had in the first quarter as well. i think this is sort of just a fear of projection of, you know, the apocalypse that's out there that really isn't out there. >> i couldn't agree more. we will see what walmart says in their earnings coming up. at the end of the day there's a lot of ways for companies to address this. some of the companies i speak to have vealready moved their manufacturing out of china to lower cost areas. a lot of these companies have great profit margins as they are, so prices go up just a bit because of tariffs, they can eat that also. david: but is it long term? i keep thinking that there's got to be more displacement, eventually it's going to come home to roost if the consumer, the roost is going to be the

american consumer. you don't see -- this could go on indefinitely for another, say, two years beyond the election and still the consumer wouldn't feel the pain? >> i don't think they will, because we also break down what consumer products we are talking about. we don't get everything from that country. to the extent they do, this is the time to do it. i want to keep saying that. we are in such a position of strength with consumer prices having been flat for this long, unemployment low, gdp good. this is the time for president trump to pick the fight. he should not be deterred because of a small amount of consumer prices going up. jackie: to your point on the supply chains, we had this conversation before. it's all about the practice of actually moving those manufacturing centers. if that's really happening, do you need this paper deal with china that they may not follow anyway? because you actually implemented the result that you want and gotten the companies to go along with it. so at the end of the day, a piece of paper doesn't really mean anything. i think the market's going to start to realize that. david: know when we can do in the interim? pass usmca. it would help a lot of the

remain farmers. uch unfortunately, with nancy pelosi not wanting to give anything that could be a win for the president, that's not going to happen. with the china thing, i'm wondering to what extent they isolate themselves, pull away so much from world trade, because it's not only the united states that's involved in this, it's going to affect the relationship as the supply chains move, as jackie was saying to other countries in asia and outside of asia, not only are we going to take advantage of that but so will europe. >> it's a dangerous game, because we haven't even talked about rates and what they're doing with that. the more they devalue the currency, we aren't talking about the net impact on them. we are only looking at the effect on exports. they are the bigger importer of the world in commodities. if they reduce their purchasing power, that will hit them in order to buy commodities and oil that they need. david: hong kong protests continue. we have been showing video all morning. the airport there is closed. we were talking about this before about how one of the

problems for china about hong kong, one of the reasons they are so insistent on snapping hong kong into doing what they want hong kong to do is because they see the financial institutions as giving relief to all of their rich people in china who want to get their money out of china, when they have devaluations. if they controlled the banks in hong kong, they think that that wouldn't happen. >> i think that's spot-on. this is very interesting to have a -- david: we are finding out -- >> pseudo, this kind of behavior demonstrates that. you have also, we talked about the reducing of rates, the issue with tariffs, now we have unrest in hong kong that we wait to see what they will do with the crackdown there. we haven't even mentioned the weaker issue with interment camps. they have an aging population. they are in a position of weakness. we are in a position of strength to pick this fight. david: good to see you. thank you very much. appreciate it. let's get a check on

bitcoin, if we can. let's see what's happening with that. we have it down about $512. interesting to note, by the way, gold is up as bitcoin is down. that does happen frequently. they don't track all the time but this is one of the days when they don't. it's now $11,353 for one bitcoin. and let's check the price of gold. it's up almost $8 an ounce, up to $1516 for one ounce of gold. we have been watching streaming names. check netflix today. they are up almost a percentage point on a down day for the market. ro roku, the hugely popular streaming box, they are soaring this morning, up more than 7% as we speak. we have been talking about interest rates falling to historic lows. will they go even lower and is now a good time to buy a home when the interest rates are so low? and those protests in hong kong showing no sign of ending any time soon.

all remaining flights today out of hong kong have been canceled, as demonstrators occupy the airport. so what is the end game? will china's military intervene? first, we are talking to kim strossel from the "wall street journal." she is calling out democrats for threatening to take away guns. this isn't gun control. this is gun confiscation. stay with us. the third hour of "varney & company" just getting started. ♪ this was me before liberty mutucustomized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and this is me now! any physical changes to this man's appearance are purely coincidental. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

you're smart,eat you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar. david: we have some news from the white house this morning. the trump administration has strengthened a rule that allows federal officials to deny immigrants a green card. what's the fine print on this? jackie: this is something that has been in practice, if you will, but not really used formally. this is going to be part of a statute now. it's called the public charge rule. it's basically to ensure that those who have green cards who

are granted citizenship here are basically not going to become a burden to society, that they are not using the system and basically what the taxpayers here are providing. an old notion of immigration was to come here, work hard, get a better life. it wasn't necessarily to come to drain the system. that's been a lot of the conversation at the border, you know, as well. so the trump administration is trying to make this more formal and say there's a process, we are going to stick to it. david: trying to make immigration match up with our hugely expanded welfare system. that's hard to do. our next guest has a new piece out in the "wall street journal" called going to extremes against guns. it's all about the 2020 democrats and their very hard left proposals for gun confiscation, i call it. it's more than just gun control. come in, kim strossel. "wall street journal" editorial board member. kim, again, this is beyond gun control, what a lot of these democrats are calling for. they are literally talking about going into homes and taking away guns.

>> yeah, this is like so many things that have happened in this democratic presidential race, they are going to extremes, so you now have, for instance, both cory booker and elizabeth warren calling for federal licensing of guns, meaning law-abiding americans would have to go in and get finger printed and sit for interviews to basically beg for the right to approve to get a gun. you have folks like -- well, most of the field, calling for complete bans on what they call assault weapons which are categories of semiautomatic weapons. you have beto o'rourke doing exactly as you said, actually saying he is open to mandatory gun buy-backs which is a polite way of saying confiscation of entire types of firearms. this is unlike anything we have ever seen. most of the democratic party ever publicly announced was their opinion. david: then we have what's called the red flag laws that if there are enough red flags in a person's character or home life

or whatever, that would restrict them or disallow them from buying guns completely. the question here is who decides what a red flag is? you and i were talking before, you know, wearing a maga hat might be considered a red flag for some. >> well, there are serious due process concerns about most of the red flag laws that are already on the books. yes, those range from who is allowed to claim that you are potentially a problem to society, when does the judge actually hear your case, are you allowed to present your own defense, how quickly are you allowed to do so, how long does this last in terms of being on your record. we have not really sorted these things out and it's a big concern because now, of course, the federal government is debating giving grant money to states to fund more of these. i don't think we really thought through all the implications of what it can mean. i think it's an interesting way, at least we are talking about

the real problem here which are people, not firearms, but there's still a long way to go in terms of getting this right. david: what will the president do? what will he get behind? because if he gets behind some kind of gun control, he could probably get the support of mitch mcconnell to push it through the senate, right? >> we don't know. look, here's the problem, i think, for the president but more importantly for these democratic candidates. you look at the latest research from pew which does pretty extensive demographic detailing of gun owners, okay. 42% of americans live in a household with a gun. all right. almost 60% of rural americans live in a household with a gun. 48% of independents. 41% of people who live in suburban areas, okay. now, these are the folks, law-abiding americans who these democrats are suggesting are going to take away their guns, make it harder for them to have them, and if you ask the attitudes of these people, these are folks, the vast majority of

them view the right to own a gun as something equivalent to freedom of speech or the right to vote or the freedom of religion. this is not a small thing. when democrats are out there talking so much in 2017 about how they lost all those white working class voters who helped trump win the election, these are the folks they are talking about. these are dangerous political proposals, not to mention potentially bad policy proposals, and both the president and democrats have to think about that as they feel pushed into going down policy prescriptions that might not make a difference in the end. david: kim, great to see you. thank you very much. >> see you, david. david: check cbs and viacom. charlie gasparino reporting a deal is likely to be announced after the bell today. they are working on final details and have pretty much settled on a price. any more developments from charlie, we will bring them to you. but there's a big development with the markets. they took another leg down. they were trading between about 150 down to about 200 down.

now it's down almost 300 points. a full percentage point. that's a significant turn to the downside on the dow. nasdaq, not quite as bad percentage-wise. same with the s&p. again, it looks like there is some pessimism moving into the traders. jackie, what do you think about this? jackie: i think this is the point in the session where some of those fears start to become a reality. you look at the yield on the ten-year today, going down again. the china situation has not been resolved, especially with respect to currency. i think the guest was correct in saying they can't weaken it too much but that doesn't mean they can't keep it at this level that makes the market really nervous. we talked about the consumer getting hit here. the consumer may not get hit but at the end of the day, having trade tensions with china is going to be a problem for growth. that's what the market is really concerned about here. so knowing that, the conversations aren't going to pick up again until september, you know, i keep saying this and for fear of being a broken record, it's going to be a

bumpy, choppy august. that's what we're seeing reflected. david: by the way, we focus a lot on china because of the china deal, et cetera, but europe is in terrible shape. the united kingdom just reported first quarter down, that is, they have another quarter down, that's one of the definitions of a recession. so if uk is down, you can bet it's very tough times for places like france, like italy, germany is slowing down significantly. so europe is pulling the markets down as well. there's another story we're watching. anheuser busch thinks it has a solution to falling beer sales. can you imagine? the company rolling out a new line of drinks in order to attract millenials who apparently it says have ditched, i think they are ditching because i do know plenty of millenials who drink beer, but seltzer is the answer. that's next. ♪

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there is human ingenuity. ♪ ♪ every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. david: all right. you got to check this out. simone biles becoming the first gymnast ever to accomplish the triple-double, three twists and two flips. we just had to show you that one. she's pretty happy about it.

she won on the floor exercise, balance beam and vault. wow. unbelievable moves. meanwhile, anheuser busch are buying into the hard seltzer craze. jackie: that spiked seltzer is all the rage right now. they are trying to roll out a more low-cost version of it. i think it said the name is natural light seltzer, maybe it would have more calories. it's not. they are selling it in bulk. they will sell them in packs of 24 and it's supposed to be about 20% less than the other brands. they are very popular. regular seltzer water has become very popular. this is definitely an interesting trend. black cherry lime, mango and peach. but they are launching in a few weeks. i'm surprised they missed the summer season. i would have thought they would have tried to get it out now. david: i just hope millenials learn to like beer. it's an acquired taste. but there's something about beer that is so american.

seltzer light doesn't quite make it. thank you, jackie. protests in hong kong showing no signs of ending any time soon. what is the end game in hong kong? will china's military intervene? meanwhile, russia is also seeing protests, just as president vladimir putin celebrated his 20th year in power. we are talking to christian whiton in just a moment. the markets right now are trading down. they were much better earlier in the session, even though they have been down all day long. now the dow is down 256 points. we'll be right back. more "varney" in just a moment. ♪

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undoubtedly, bad optics for china's president xi. come in, christian whiton, former state department official. christian, what do you think china's next move is going to be? >> you know, china has really painted itself in a corner. xi jinping, the leader there, frankly looking weak but not having many options. intimidation, threatening these protesters, clearly hasn't worked. the protesters are very broad-based and persistent. you know, if he were to invade, if xi jinping ordered an invasion by the peoples liberation army or a hybrid invasion by civilian police which is probably more likely, the consequences would be dire. china's foreign investment is off double digits already year on year and it would be a huge exodus of foreign investment, not just in hong kong on the mainland, so not a lot they can do. not a lot of easy steps. david: let's switch to our own trade deal or talks about a trade deal with china. they have shown themselves in the past couple months to be so duplicitous. president trump focused on that

in a way other presidents haven't. pulling out of buying up our agricultural products, they bought a little but nothing of significance, their commitment to, then their pullback from signing on to intellectual property components of the deal, how could we ever nail them down on the basics if they are so duplicitous? >> in osaka at the g20 president trump reportedly said why don't we just go back to the deal that was on the table and was met with stone-cold silence. frankly, you could fill an ocean with soybeans, if china were to purchase them, that wouldn't solve the trade deficit, it would just be an effort by beijing to develop a domestic constituency more favorable towards beijing. would never happen, if you know midwestern farmers but that's what the effort was to do. i think there's an amount of duplicity. there is also an inclination they can wait out donald trump, not realizing there's been a sea change not just in the white house, in the executive branch, with the legislative branch against china. the white house is wise to this and i think we are going to see

those higher tariffs come september and it will keep going. david: chuck schumer supports the president on china so they're not going to get a better deal from him. peter thiel, i want to ask because he wrote this op-ed which was very critical of google, suggesting that google probably knowingly, though he didn't say that explicitly, is essentially servicing the military of china by its sharing of a.i. technology with the chinese companies that have relationships with the government. what do you think of that? >> you know, it's very alarming. all of silicon valley has been way too soft, way too eager to please beijing, hoping to get this market of 1.3 billion consumers that they will never be able to access. they will always be prevented from china. if you look back, i remember thinking president roosevelt reached out to scientists on the eve of world war ii and said we need your help and don't just sort of be blase about this fight, come down on the side of

good. that's what silicon valley should do. google would win tremendous good will if they said you know what, we are going to come down on the side of freedom. david: maybe they will be listening to you. good to see you. thank you very much for being here. appreciate it. well, protests also kicked up in moscow over the weekend as president vladimir putin celebrated his 20th year in power. jackie, it's kind of similar. protesters are asking for the same thing, freedom, basically. jackie: it's not as violent and as widespread as it seems to be in hong kong but this is interesting, because what started out as a protest over municipal elections has now become this platform for people to sort of air larger grievances, and they are worried about the sluggish economy, they are worried about their standard of living, and actually, a study shows that consumer lending has gone up 46% since last year. people need to actually borrow money just to survive. as we know, when that happens, is when you have, you know, problems potentially with the system. but 50,000 protesters came out about a mile away from the

kremlin. this isn't really something that you typically see in russia but it's starting to be a little bit more of an open dialogue and we will see where it goes. david: jackie, thank you very much. next case, attorney general william barr just commented on the death of jeffrey epstein. he says he is quote, appalled at the failure of the detention facility. he's demanding a full investigation. he says co-conspirators in the epstein sex trafficking case should not rest easy. let's bring in david avela. david, i'm wondering, we saw a tweet from the president on this and everything. is it better for republicans just to kind of sit back and let this play out rather than opine on it? >> well, certainly what we need is a good thorough investigation. so it was confirming that the attorney general's saying they need to do an investigation, look at their processes. certainly folks have a right to their opinions and can express them, but what we really want is

justice, and while this is no longer a criminal case, the civil case can continue to be pursued and needs to be pursued. there are too many questions out there and too many people that have potentially been wronged that the only way we close this is an investigation that leaves no stone unturned and all documents are put out there, which judges are going to have to decide what gets sealed and what doesn't get sealed. david: by the way, the timing of the release of these documents and suggestions that some big deal democrat leaders like george mitchell, like bill richardson, former governor, former cabinet official, et cetera, are now being investigated with regard to some of this. those investigations i think are going to continue, correct? >> that is my understanding through the civil process. the criminal process is over and certainly i'm not a lawyer, but the only way americans feel good

about this horrific situation, never feel good, but at least feel justice is done, is for the investigation to continue and we get some answers. david: as chairman of go pac you have more than a little bit of significance in terms of deciding how the campaign is run. do you think this will be or should be a part of the campaign at all? >> well, what should be part of the campaign is the resources that go into the justice department, and go into detention centers, having the resources to hire the proper number of employees -- david: should mention, by the way, one of the biggest problems with this whole situation in the federal facility is most of the guards were working overtime and so much so that they weren't checking in on the prisoners as often as they should have. >> that's right. to your question, a good discussion to have, are we putting enough resources into keeping people safe which there's a clear contrast between

where republican positions are and democratic positions are. as far as the epstein case, unlikely to be a 2020 issue. david: let's move to what will become one, the amount of money democrats are willing to spend to enlarge the size of government. bernie just over the weekend said look, $30 trillion to $40 trillion, yeah, that's how much the health care will cost. lord knows you add in education to that and the tuition, the free income that everybody's going to be entitled to, et cetera, you are talking over $100 trillion, not to mention the green plan. that would essentially displace entirely the private sector of the united states and turn it into a country where the government was much larger than the private sector. >> under bernie sanders, tax day would move from april 15th to december 31st. we would work all year to pay for government programs that he is putting up. interestingly, this continues to put into a box is vice president biden, because during his term -- time as vice president,

he and president obama were far less progressive than this current crop of democratic candidates, so he has to decide do i defend the eight years that were the obama administration, or do i jump on board and say yeah, president obama wasn't progressive enough and that's why you need to elect me, because i will be more progressive. david: kamala harris kind of gave him a way out. she said president obama said that obamacare was just a starter house, that the real mansion was going to be universal health care, socialized medicine. she didn't use the socialized word but that's what she means. he could probably play -- do you think he will go that route and say yeah, we were all for obamacare, it was great, but we need something more expansive? in other words, is he going to do what liz warren has done, what kamala harris, and accept the sort of universal health care? >> if joe biden goes that route it puts him at odds with voters

who don't want to see a government-run health care system. remember, it cannot be said enough, this is the party that said if you like your doctor, or you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. we know their plan ultimately didn't pan out to be that way. david: absolutely. good to see you. thank you very much. appreciate it. let's check uber shares. they are taking a tumble this morning, the second day in a row. they are down about 7% right now. lyft is also down big-time, if you can switch over to lyft. let's see what that is right now. there we go. down about 4.33%. not quite as much as uber but they are both taking a big drop. take a look at the big board. jackie, looks bad. jackie: yeah. 278 points to the downside today. again, that choppiness is really continuing. there's been a lot of conversation about the yield on the ten-year which is down again today, and negative interest rates. we have seen other central banks use them as a stimulus tool, and there is some conversation about

does that end up happening here, it's never been the case in the united states. but that worries people. it makes them start to question whether the fundamentals are strong or not. i happen to be in the camp that believes that they are strong. and that even lowering interest rates might not be the way to go. but it's a conversation that gets people concerned and it has them think about the future and think they are missing something, maybe. that's part of what we are seeing in this selloff, too. david: thank you, jackie. disney reportedly cutting workers' hours at disneyland as california crowds for the new "star wars" theme park fall far short of expectations. we will bring you that story coming next. and universal canceling the release of its controversial movie "the hunt" after dealing with a massive backlash. remember the film is all about elites killing deplorables. they use that word. we are talking to the director of the creepy line. did they cross over that creepy line? we will ask him, next. ♪

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david: take a look at disney's stock, if you can. now you're taking a look at disney itself. there's the stock, down a little bit. the "lion king" remake is now the highest grossing animated movie of all time, edging out "frozen." imagine that. hasn't been out very long. disney owns lucas films which is "star wars" and now fox, so it controls some of the largest film franchises in the world. looking like the king of content these days. more on disney, apparently their hotly anticipated galaxy's edge park, their "star wars" themed attraction, is not getting the attention that they had banked on. jackie? jackie: there were high hopes for this. we had deirdre bolton out there for the opening of this park and i remember seeing it, you know, it was very exciting, but

apparently, you know, people are not showing up at the park. the lines were supposed to be two hours long for some of the most popular rides. some of the employees that work there are saying maybe half or even less that. so the foot traffic just isn't there. and the employees that work there, their hours are being cut. they are paid roughly around $15 an hour but if your hours get cut from 40 to, you know, 30 or 35, it takes your paycheck from $600 to about $450. that's a steep cut for those people that are certainly experiencing it. iger on the call said that he thinks people stayed away because they didn't think it would be a great guest experience because it would be too crowded, so it's had this reverse effect. maybe it needs time to balance out. david: we wish them luck. comcast nbc universal pulling its controversial movie "the hunt" from a theatrical release. it's all about hunting deplorables. let's bring in the director of the creepy line, about the

encroachment of big tech into our personal lives. matthew, i'm just curious, hollywood doesn't throw stuff away. they just don't do that. in what way are they likely to get this out? >> look, they will probably release it eventually. i mean, all the outrage is probably helping the film, to be honest with you, because now everybody wants to see -- david: good advertising. >> absolutely. look, it may be in poor taste but you shouldn't get in trouble for poor taste. lot of people have poor taste. look, the timing for "the hunt" is poor because the shootings, but a movie like this goes into production a year or two years ago, and there's no way for them to know. david: i'm wondering if there's some way they can slip it into like one of the streaming services around. >> oh, sure. netflix loves to pick up orphaned films. it could be netflix's film. david: pulling back and just looking at hollywood and violence and of course, the horrible massacres a week ago, where all this came into sharp focus, is hollywood showing any kind of remorse at all about

their role in fostering violence? >> i don't think so. i mean, violence in movies has been around since movies have been around. david: talking about that "white heat" from the early '50s. >> obviously quentin tarentino is a violent film maker. you have "texas chainsaw massacre" and "hunger games" where children were hunting children. that's a huge thing. we should vote with our tickets as opposed to not releasing the film at all. david: do you think that because americans are so sensitive now to not just the violence which is obvious, which we report on all the time, but the connection between the people who live their lives in the internet and watching these horrible movies and so forth, horrible in terms of violently horrible, that people may pull back now because yes, violent films have been part of hollywood for decades but it has its ups and downs. >> absolutely. again, a lot of things are moving to streaming services where you also have less limitations. you take a show like "the boys"

on amazon which is full of violence, much more so than most movies. i think this film has gotten caught in a political quagmire and again, i think it's important that the viewers get to vote with their tickets. if you don't like the movie, you don't like the message, don't go on opening night. tank the film with your ticket. entertainment is where we can -- movies, in particular, we can say no, i don't like this because if you don't buy a ticket, they don't make more of these movies. david: what about "the creepy line"? to what extent is it continuing the degree to which these companies are getting into poirour personal lives and how do we combat that? >> it talks about privacy and censorship and i think it directly talks about this. you know, censorship is an issue that people on the right have been having to take up because the big tech companies, so, you know, again, you vote with your dollars. we are being censored or people on the right being censored, the left should be able to have their message out there. david: is that enough when

people are so addicted to social media? i don't know if just voting, whether that's going to be enough to dislodge some of the influence of these companies. >> they have to stop using g-mail and stop using these products. i think when it comes to big tech, you are going to have to have some intervention from the government at some point. which i know the "r" word regulation is bad but we are reaching a culmination point with privacy and censorship in your daily life where it may be too big not to use these platforms. you can't not use the platforms. david: the problem with politicians is they can't do it in a responsible slow way. they usually do it in a ham-fisted way and make a mess of things. >> especially if you are being donated to by the same companies you are supposed to be regulating. david: right. right. great to see you. thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. david: we have been talking about interest rates falling to historic lows. d question is, how low can they go? they haven't been this low in decades.

is now a good time to buy a home? we will be asking our south florida real estate agent who knows all the details about real estate. don't miss that coming next. ♪ from the couldn't be prouders

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david: let's get to mortgage

rates. the 30-year fixed sinking to 3.6%. i can't imagine. it was at 3.75% just the week before. come in, samantha debianchi. i got to editorialize a little here, sam. the fact is, i can remember when interest rates, when a mortgage was like 14%, 15%. is it ever going to get lower than this? can you hear us? jackie, what do you think? this has got to be -- i can't see it getting any lower than this. jackie: i disagree with you. i think it could go a little bit lower from here. what's so interesting is that while, you know, you're not going to really get anything, return, if you have a certificate of deposit, it does make it more attractive to buy a home. actually, there are a few markets right now in the heartland that are really picking up. people are moving here because affordable homes, there's inventory and the quality of life. we were talking about boise, idaho, south bend --

david: boise, idaho. last place in the world i would think would have real estate boom, but that's what's happening right now. jackie: yeah, columbia, missouri. south bend, indiana. the job market is strong. wages are increasing. and these rates are the lowest that they are in three years. you may not necessarily consider or these were not one of the top ten places you wanted to live. it's not a large metropolitan area but you could go there and own the american dream. it's interesting because millenials are starting to do this. and they were complaining that they couldn't have a piece of it in the large metro areas. david: i'm wondering with talk of recession, of course, goldman sachs today said there may be a recession coming, whether or not that is of concern. i think we have sam back with us. samantha, can you hear us? >> yes, i can. david: all right. let's start with that, sam. what do you think about the talk of recession? is that discouraging home buyers at all? >> you know, we have been hearing that for awhile, but on a positive note, rates right now for a 30-year fixed are 3.6%.

last week, they were at 3.75%. a year ago, they were at about 4.6%. so if there's any time to be buying and taking advantage of mortgage rates, it is right now. right now, people are a little bit of fear of trade wars with china, the stock market's up and down, and when we are talking about people buying in that middle market, it's first time home buyers so they're not as motivated to be spending their money, making these big purchases. what we are seeing a boom with is refinancing. refinancing activity has been up by 12% from a week ago and get this, 116%, 116% from a year ago. what that means is people are staying put. they're not putting their homes on the market, they're not necessarily motivated to be buying, and that's leading to an inventory problem as well. david: and i'm -- you are usually the most optimistic person on real estate i have ever seen, for good reason, but it does seem like you are seeing a little slowdown now,

particularly of new home buyers than there used to be, no? >> you know, we are seeing a slowdown but it's a positive thing because like i said in past segments, home prices have been sky-high for years. so it's about time that these sellers get realistic, they drop their prices slightly. if they bought at the right time, you will still make money. i currently own nine homes. i own nine single family homes and every time i sell one of them i make money. why? because i only sell at the right time. i only buy at the right time. so if you do those two things you will always make money in this market. if you can buy right now, if you have the money, if you have the job, if you have great credit, you take advantage of 3.6% for a 30-year fixed all day long. david: did you leave those homes just without anything in it or were you renting them out? what were you doing while you were waiting for the buyers to come in? >> i airbnb them. i make a whole lot of money for

airbnb. that's a whole other segment we need to get into. that is the other market and investors are really taking over the first time home buyers' homes as well. because 300,000, 200,000, 400,000, that's the price point that people want to be buying, whether you are a first-time homeowner or an investor. david: great stuff. thank you. glad we got you back. good to see you. appreciate it. more "varney" after this. ♪

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david: another look at the big board t has come down. jackie, this is not a good day. i wonder whether the fact we have problems in the market, there are trade worries, whether that gives the fed a little more room to cut rates? >> absolutely. the fed told us they would watch trade tensions, progress of deal or no deal with china. they are watching. jerome powell took a little more conservative approach. quarter point was the first cut.

he leaves himself a little more room should this intensify. market dropped the 900 points. david: i rather that. as long as we don't get into negative interest rates. that is place i don't want to be. i don't know about neil cavuto. neil: that is a good opinion to have. we're following latest developments on china interest rates. what is going on now has nothing to do with china interest rates but tensions in hong kong. this is the 8th busiest airport on the planet. it handles 72 million customers a year. right now there is growing fear, that it is not going to handle anything approaching that volume in the days, and weeks going forward. xi xinping is indicating he might, might step in here. now the bigger question is, he is talking about trade or hong kong or both? and then all the questions after jeffrey epstein's death leading to more questions than answers.