we appreciated your comments and insight this morning. that does it for us. "varney & co." is coming up next and i will hand it over to steward to take away. stuart: here i am. a good morning, jackie and good morning, everyone. europe has a vaccine problem and it's called astra seneca, 14 european countries have suspended use of the vaccine because blood clots have been found in more than 30 recipients. when it comes to vaccination, america is way out in front of europe, thank you, president trump look at astra seneca stock pick you may be surprised to see it going up, this is because astra seneca will supply and contracted to supply 500,000 antibody tests to the us, up it goes.

overall stocks are not that much change with the dow industrials down maybe 20, s&p little change, but the nasdaq has a 70-point gain at the opening bell. the fed meeting starts today. of there will be a press conference tomorrow afternoon from jay powell. investors want to know if he will do anything about rising long-term astra-- interest rates. treasury 10 year treasury yielding right now 1.6 and 0% exactly. through the other major indicators, bitcoin down again today $55000 per point. gamestop, national gaming, tesla has been moving a lot recently, not much today with the gamestop down 26, tesla up $2. next case, tax hikes probably on the way, a

top democrat threatens to push them through using reconciliation. watch out investors, taxing the rich and rich corporations may be politically popular. at the border, more covid positive migrants are coming through. we will get a report from a conversation with cnet, president biden will not be going. just wait till you see the restrictions new york will impose on wedding receptions. florida and texas it is not. "varney & co." is about to begin. ♪♪ stuart: looking pretty good right there, although that weather is coming to new york city. but it to the tax increases on the way.

caught on a hot mike telling cents per tape-- transportation secretary how a plan to push through the big tax increases as part of the infrastructure plan. roll the tape. ultimately it can be put together similarly. most likely it will have to be reconciliation. stuart: let's get out of here and away from the hot microphone. more on this ahead tax increase let's likely to come our way. i will have that the top of the 10:00 o'clock hour. futures, where we going on the market this morning? of for the nasdaq, slightly higher for s&p not much change for the dow. mike murphy with us this morning. the market doesn't seem to be responding to the

likely tax hikes coming down the pike. do you think the market will eventually respond to tax hikes? >> good morning. the market will respond if we get big tax hikes on only the wealthy but on corporations and i think right now with the market is telling you is hot microphone won't really make the taxes come through, so let's see what happens. if taxes come then people have to start looking at companies, remember this is what president trump talked about, bringing large corporations back to the us at a lower tax rate so we the american people are getting some of that. now if we raise taxes on corporations, they will move and start to set up the missiles and other nations and pay the taxes they are and we will get left holding the bag so it's not a good policy, but it's not here yet so the market is fine. stuart: it is march, 2021.

back in march, 2008, the dow jones hit 6500. now, we are at 32000. that's almost an unbroken 13 year run. do you see anything on the horizon that will really and it anytime soon? >> no, i don't. a major tax hike could be the culprit, but remember also along the way like over the last 13 or 14 years you and i have had a lot to talk about from the pandemic to some interest rate hikes, a lot of things that have stooped to the market, caused your typical 30% correction, but long-term companies figured out and get their earnings pictures is traded away and then ernie's are larger so that's what leads to higher market so i would love to tell investors, don't get shaken out by day today headlines and stick with your plans.

long-term the market is fine. stuart: i seem to remember march 16, last year exactly one year ago the dow jones plummeted because the pandemic was closing everything down and people realize maybe that economy is coming to a stop, but we bounced significantly. did you buy heavily back in march, last year? i think the dow jones was down 13% back a year ago? >> as i would say let's go to the videotape. we bought aggressively like not before since 2009. they were large cat names like home depot, nike, starbucks, fedex so yes, we bought that dip. that to me is that once in a decade type holdback in the market. you don't get down 30 or 35% in large cat names that often, so that part when you have to know when that comes to back

the truck up and move, but because it doesn't happen-- happen that often you have to realize putting money to work in the market would return dividends over time meaning your portfolio will increase over time as long as you don't make silly mistakes chasing things like bitcoin or cannabis they don't understand or selling on potential headlines. stuart: don't go chasing bitcoin and stuff like that, all rights. we hear you. you have done very well with big tech. think you. next, vivendi with this, 15 european countries are suspending that astra seneca vaccine, but the stock is up 2%. tell me more about this antibody test they are selling as. susan: think about the antibiotic cocktail, it will be supplied to the us probably insulating the stock but the bad news is more than a dozen countries. using the astra seneca

vaccine at least temporarily in order were to investigate. meantime canada, the uk and australia are still using the vaccine for now. in the us of the fda has not authorized it yet, but we were expecting asked her seneca to apply for fda approval in the coming months and probably this month and in the coming weeks. this complicates that approval process and may delay an extra vaccine option. susan: you got it, that's right. stuart: it could be a fourth of vaccine, possibly. let's see if they are getting the approval. next we have the governor of mississippi and he is starting today every resident of mississippi will be eligible to get a covid of vaccine. he tweeted this: mississippi's recovery from covid is a

significantly ahead of most of the nation. according to the "new york times" am a 20% of the people in mississippi have received at least one shot, 11% fall in vaccinated mississippi now joins alaska opening up vaccinations to every adult. next, new york governor andrew cuomo says wedding receptions and catered events can resume. he's putting some really strict restrictions in place. susan: 50% capacity, no more than 150 people and you have to have a recent negative test to attend. venues have to get approval had a time. masks are required except when eating and drinking, social distance. dancing only in designated areas-- that sounds like fun. you get to celebrate big life events now with more your family and friends which i know a lot of people were able to do over the past year

so at least there is some celebration we can go-- enjoy going forward. stuart: it's not much though, if you have to get written proof of a negative test him a written proof you have a vaccine and you have to socially distance dance, whatever that is. only in designated areas wherever that may be, i mean, come on. i mean, why don't they get with the program cracks we are making real progress here, the vaccinations work, not exactly universal, but they still want to control us. susan: let's hope with more vaccines and everyone gets to have one by may 1, it could change when the real wedding season comes around in the summertime. stuart: i am with you on that one, when the real wedding season comes around.

the view joy behar does not think antifa is a real thing. >> he is scared of this fictitious side-- idea of antifa, anything that doesn't even exist. stuart: fictitious? not real? have you explain the real violence we are going to put on your screen one more time as we will do shortly. than we have spring break back in full force in the sunshine state things to commonsense health guidelines set. ashley webster has a tough assignment reporting from the beach may be that to beach. ♪♪ our retirement plan with voya, keeps us moving forward. hey, kevin! hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future...

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stuart: as you look at futures, this is how the market will open , got his industrial production dropped 2.2% with the latest reporting and it's had no impact on futures act at this point. retail sales, we have numbers on that area today. headline number is down 3% in february compared to january. let's bring in our own retail guy, gerald storch, when i look at the numbers i'm looking year-over-year and what i see is in february, retail sales were up 6.3% from february of last year. that's very good news, isn't it? >> these are actually great numbers and i hear this talk this morning sales are down, that's only because january looked so good. talking about how

february did compared to january, the number i look at is retail sales and look at what really happened in the stores. it was up 9.5% of february compared to a whopping 13% in january. down three because it was 13 in january and approximate 10 in february, so it's huge. what we see is a continuation of pandemic spending-- pattern. not a lot of change. people are spending a lot of money on their homes, on the internet and food. what is down his department stores have the worst numbers on the page. still a pandemic level of spending. might be some distraction from the storms in february in effect we are starting to loosen. we are seeing interesting numbers as we go forward. stuart: look, we are comparing february of this year to february of last year, february

was the last month before we locked it down with the pandemic , so we are actually spending more money now than we were before the pandemic hit us. >> the actual numbers, if you look at those in february of this year consumer spent $562 million. february of last year it was $528 million. of course it's up. i don't know what down means. stuart: i'm with you on that. lesko for word. we have just got the checks going out, consumers are flush with cash, a lot of people are at least. i have to believe we will be recording significant gains in spending as we go forward; right? >> we had to see some whopping numbers as we go forward. keep in mind two weeks to stop the spread was march of last year, so starting in march we will start to see open

stores competing with closed stores last year. there will be a shift to more normal pattern of spending. i think it will be high all around as you look out to the rest of the year. we will get a bounce in the areas that have been down like apparel meanwhile you will see continued to strengthen with people spending on their homes, spending on food and discount chains and of course amazon will be a winner. people are suspending that if they are so confused. you have pandemic versus nonpandemic opening verses) in its wild, but the consumer is flush with money despite relatively sticky unemployment rate, the people that have jobs have a lot of money and they are suspending it-- spending it. wait till restaurants are open. yes .-dot-- restaurants were down 17% in january we will see consumer spending blossom. stuart: i don't know if you can

comment, but toys "r" us was just sold. you are laughing. you used to run at. can they make a real comeback, toys "r" us when i toys "r" us is one of the greatest consumer brands in the world. it stays that way to this day. the head of wh p group is a smart guy. i would never sell him short so he may find a way to make money out of what he has bought, but that's a far cry from building this into that big business it used to be. the point of market share has gone to target, walmart and amazon and they won't give it up easily. toy sales are up 16% during the pandemic because kids were home. they were playing with toys. i don't think it will happen again this year. hopefully they go back to school. meanwhile, the birth rate has crashed.

it was coming down, but people are deferring having kids because they are worried about the pandemic so there won't be as many kids for a long time to come so i think the market will be a challenge. of the brand is wonderful and i wish him all the best in the world. we have to distinguish him making money on what he bought and licensing the edge and building it out from toys "r" us being what it used it to be. stuart: two points, baby bust is a good subject for conversation later and a number two i bet you would like to get back into retelling. on amount of time so you can't take offers on the air. we will see you again soon. thank you. next we will talk about dick's sporting goods as they launch their own men's at leisure line today, that's got to be attempted arrival to lululemon. susan: love to have heard his view on more spandex.

think about that, more lululemon. the brand, i'm going to take a guess launching tuesday on dick's website and also stand a line-- standalone. you can find the line out 400 dick's stores over the weeks. starts from $30 to $120 and getting on that men's leisure trend, lululemon on pace to double its business for men in the next decade so dick's has rallied 40% this year. we are only in march and the stock is up 40%. it's a reopening value play right here. stuart: this brand area space of you want to call it, that's only about five, six, seven years old

susan: what you think about the high end like rowand spandex? are you going to get yourself a pair? do we want to know? stuart: i ask you a question and would like it a response saying will you ever wear spandex. the answer is no. is the athletically user -- user section six or seven years old? susan: about six years old. stuart: thank you. let's look at the market as we open up in about six and a half minutes. dow jones will be down. look at that aspect of 81 points. good-- could be that big tech has a nice day. we will see after this. ♪♪

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stuart: just joining us, look at that nasdaq, and nice game up about 90 odd points in opening bell rings. deutsche bank, the survey said young investors could spend up to half of their

stimulus money on stocks. david nicholas welp management guy joins us now. david, i'm skeptical about that. how about your clients? do you see your own people putting up to happen their emergency money in the stock market? >> probably not my clients, but i pulled my employees to see-- might in turn absolutely his money is going into the stock market. marketing director is buying a luxury purse, so for younger investors 18 to 24 i think the majority of their money is going into the market i asked a lot of young guys and they can't wait to get the check and it's going into the market. stuart: but, we should see quite a surge because you got $400 billion worth of checks going out starting over this past weekend. lease should see a surge

, shouldn't we? >> i think we will. i think you will see it in bitcoin, it will show up in the retail names. i like a name like nike. i don't like their politics, but i like their stock. you just received $1400 i think you would be willing to spend $100 on a pair of shoes. we will see it so i think investors should be prepared and well positioned for the rally i think is coming. stuart: okay. you were on videotape, young man. the rally is coming in the next couple of weeks. the dow jones is 30 to 800. we will see about this rally. thank you for joining us come back and see as soon. i went to see if we get the surge you are talking about. the opening bell is about to be wrong and after that we will start trading.

plink-- pay close attention to the nasdaq as futures suggest a game. was looking at some big tech free market and there's a nice bounce we will see if it works out when they ring the bell and we start trading but i'm looking for strength and technology. let's see what happens at. it's 9:30 a.m., tuesday morning, march 16, and we're off and running. the dow jones 32930. down about 20 points. that's the dow jones. s&p 500 probably a narrow-- although, it did hit an all-time high another new high this morning and the nasdaq up a half percentage point, 13520. let's look at big tech. i looked at premarket in the representative. they are all up, microsoft, apple, off of

that on the upside. the frenzy stocks, gamestop and amc down. the gamestop is down 9% at $200 a share. let's look at apple. it's up 1.1%, and dollar 47, $125 a share. susan, who says they are on their way to reaching a $3 trillion valuation? susan: several brokerage houses. says the capital is on pace to become the worlds first 3 trillion-dollar company after crossing 2 trillion and the first to cross 1 trillion before that. they say it's due to higher sales and more people buying iphones and accessories that comes with it and also the possibility of an apple car in the future. we have fox: looking at wisconsin or mexico to build their future electric car plan to.

also in car news by the way if you can check in on forward they say they will take a tuneup billion-dollar charge if the global chip shortage continues. everyone is being hurt by the lack of ships including tesla and electric vehicles. stuart: did you do the math? coming do you know what stock price apple has to hit to get a valuation of $3 trillion? susan: you can't really do it that way, it's not apples to apples. stuart: 3 trillion-- okay, we will see. its electric carmaker, i can see a demo 5%. i know they are trying to raise money with a

stock offering. that would dilute existing stockholders. susan: they are selling $100 million worth of new stock to shore up the balance seat-- sheet. by the way, it is down 50% over the past six months after he did admit its founder did mislead investors, but the world is going electric. lordstown is also facing the same issue of misleading investors. stuart: it's like the early days of combustible engine cars. you had about a hundred all trying to make headway and now you have a lot of electric carmakers trying to make their impression against tesla took it's going to wash out at some point. susan: reminds me like a hundred years ago with the model t and forward-- forward.

stuart: there's can be a shakeout. i don't know who the winners are but tesla looks good. alibaba, are they down? yes. the financial times of london says alibaba was pulled from a chinese apple stores, what's china's problem with their own big tech? susan: i think there's too much influence from the big tech names. they are trying to stipple-- strip away alibaba 10 sent back, the two largest chinese tech companies in the world really, both in the top five or six in the world reporting alibaba's browser has been removed from several app stores and also the journal reported forcing them to sell off some of their media assets. also their stake in a china twitter service of the stock has come down a lot, alibaba has. they are below 230 this

morning. stuart: in. thank you. show me moderna, they have begun tests the coven vaccine on youngsters from six -month-old to 11 months. they will start by giving the vaccine to the older children first and if it is shown to be safe they will be the two younger kids. the stock is up over 2%. we have a new survey out from bank of america, investor survey. tell me, susan, our investor's feeling about the record markets? susan: tech apparently still the most crowded trade despite the correction in recent weeks and value outperforming growth by 10 percentage points, the second most crowded trade not surprising anyone, bitcoin which hit record highs over the weekend above 61000. when we look at these record markets we ask investors are we in a bubble, 15% say yes, 25%

say in the early stage of a bull market many more upside whereas more than half says we are in the late stages cycle of a bull market so that means you have to find a chair when the music ends which could be soon. stuart: what is that expression, dance of you must, dance if you will, but keep an eye on the exit door because it's going to slam shut soon. i can't remember who said that. pot to stocks, lets us see them they rallied in the last hour of trading monday. it came after near governor cuomo said new york close to legalizing recreational marijuana. , said the move-- it's chair-- it's just there to raise a revenue. they want more money. by the way 14 states and the district of columbia have legalized recreational marijuana.

you are watching some of the other big movers. starbucks on the screen. susan: up about 1%. call day by this morning by an investment bank, recovery raining steam in the stimulus checks will provide a boost as people will be willing to buy their 5-dollar lattes again. also the cosmetic seller downgrading meaning they won't make as much of items is sold and yes things are moving to online in a digital e-commerce world. stuart: thank you. next, while public schools across new york remain closed coming as they do, the city's catholic schools have safely reopened. this is a short soundbite from the cardinal. listen to this. >> we listened it to people. we listen to healthcare experts that say you can do this. stuart: that was brian kiilmeade

one-on-one with cardinal dolan. more on that when brian joins in the next hour. president biden is working on a huge tax hike, all kinds of tax hikes and larry kudlow is fired up about that turkey joins me at the top of the 10:00 o'clock hour. ♪♪ ♪♪

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floundering around $1700 an ounce. bitcoin, it hit 62000 weekend. it's a $55000 now. listen to this, literally listen to this elon musk selling this song. ♪♪ ♪♪ stuart: that sounds like a techno track, susan. i don't know if it is him singing, but how much is it going for? susan: he's been a techno king now. by the way can you show me more of your techno moves later? stuart: no. susan: he says to him this techno song is worth $69 million that comes with that this video as well.

the non- fundable token crypto arts, a bit of tong and chic since $69 million was i think the price a investors paid for crypto art last week, the highest ever and elon musk came back with shall we say a counter offer of 420 million in dogecoin, get it for, 20, a reference to marijuana days. would you think? not only is the key the head of one of the sixth largest companies in the world, he said he's launching satellites into space and rockets and now he's a techno music artists. stuart: he's the entertainer in chief at this moment in time and whether we grow tired of him is another story. i have a report here that says disney will overtake netflix as the streaming leader by 2024.

m pear analytics put that out. that is the source of this forecast. netflix cofounder and former ceo marc randolph joins us now. do you agree with that in three years disney overtakes netflix? >> well, stuart, first of all who knows, but i have to say i'm impressed with what disney has done so far. 16 months in and they have exceeded 100 million subscribers, extremely impressive and even more impressive is the velocity, investigator was not too long ago and they had 86 million so 14 million subscribers took it to tick netflix 10 years for their first 14 million and disney has done in an over two months. the thing i'm really impressed with-- go ahead. stuart: i just want to know, if netflix has this number of subscribers and a disney plus has this number, what's the

difference between the two? >> well, one big difference is that approximately a third of disney subscribers are in a single country, it's the hot star in india and even if you look at the forecast three years from now, they show that disney is going to be larger than netflix in one country, india. netflix will still be large in india and that and another 195 countries, so it's not quite the way it sounds in the report and of course, fundamentally the most important thing disney has to do is demonstrate they can make money from their subscribers. right now about a 4-dollar average revenue per user and netflix is about $10 so it will take a while to bring the numbers up. sincerely, it's not netflix but necessarily should be scared by these disney, it's the other streaming companies, i mean, right now with paramount plus coming in a few weeks

ago and now every single major media company is in the streaming business and right now, we are sampling, but i promise there will be a musical chairs moment and there's not going to be chairs for everyone and i think what consumers will do is have their monthly condo moment where they ask themselves is this service bringing me joy and if it's not they will dump it. i think amazon-- party me netflix and disney will be left us standing and i wonder who else will join them. stuart: fascinating question. marc randolph, thank you for joining us. we will talk to you soon >> it's a pleasure, stuart. stuart: i want to stick on streaming. two providers dominated the 2021 oscar nominations and susan has details. susan: netflix the runaway winner with 35 nominations, more than last year's 24 nominations. amazon has 12, while

disney including disney plus 15 and apple tv plus with their first-ever oscar nomination so the academy award holding the most diverse list of nominees. look at the best actor category and yes that includes the first-ever muslim actor nominated and also the first-ever asian american nominated in this category along with posthumous nomination for chadwick boseman took best picture of the front runner took the golden globes, and have you seen any of these? joint venture to ask? stuart: no, no, i have not. i have not been to a movie in a long time. susan: they are all streaming. stuart: i just-- what i watch on television is limited to news and a soccer and business, fox business and that's what watch on tv.

susan: wf, you taught me that. stuart: i just got the wrap. i had to go. looks like president biden is not planning to visit the border anytime soon. here's jen psaki. >> does president biden plan to visit the border >> i have many trips to preview and it we do we will preview them for you. i don't have anything to preview for you. stuart: that's not all, the white house is still blaming the border crisis on president trump florida is open for business and look at those spring break people. ashley webster joins us next from the beach. ♪♪ ♪ ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪

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stuart: florida is open. we have shown you these images before. people want their freedom especially youngsters and they are taking it back. spring break in florida in full force took a look who is here, actually webster is in clearwater, florida.

i know you are having a good time, but what is the mood in florida? ashley: it is great, we have seen the economy reopen it, no more so than florida. it's kind of early. they are on island time i'm told that by midafternoon it will pick up. it was a year ago that the beach was closed and now look at it, not back to normal, but they are open and people are coming. at they are operating by safety rules. they are not stringent. you don't have to wear a mask on the beach. you have to wear a mask if you coincide a business. you have to stay 6 feet apart. you can wash your hands as often as possible. no alcohol or booze on the speech, but to say that the business community is raring to go, there is a desperate call for workers down here. they say if you want a

job, come on down with lots of jobs at clearwater beach. restaurants and bars are open, nightclubs until 3:00 a.m. but i'm told there's no dancing, but at least you can do it. no curfew like in miami beach. we have seen the problems trying to marshall people off, not successfully. if you behave you can get a 25-dollar gift certificate with teams roving around saying you are doing a great job, here's a $25 gift car. i went to bring in angela, general manager of sunset pierce 60. from the business point of view as we said completely shut down this time last year. how are we doing this year, are they surviving? >> so much better. it's encouraging to see things opening up and families of visiting again into had that little slice of normalcy in life, we love to have visitors. everyone's doing really well with distancing.

about cabanas are separated and they are working hard to keep it that way. it's great to see. we are all hiring. ashley: jobs to be had and quickly occupancy rate, 70 to 80%, not quite pre-pandemic, but pretty close. meanwhile i'm going to grab one of the cabanas because they are in no short supply. stuart: it will be a long day. actually webster on the beach and had today on this program, larry kudlow, brian kilmeade ric grenell and senator marsha blackburn on-- blackburn. second hour of "varney & co." on the way. ♪♪ ♪♪ you can spend your life in boxing or any other business, but one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming.

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♪♪ you should be dancing, yeah, dancing, yeah ♪♪ stuart: all right, everybody. a little bee gees right there. it is 10:00 eastern time. let's get straight to your money. dow industrials down, but look at the nasdaq, it is up 113 points. and this is why, show to me big tech. leading the way today. not necessarily again, but this morning they are leading the way. apple's up 2%. facebook, alphabet, microsoft, amazon nicely on the upside. and the 10-year treasury, last time we checked was 1.6%, now it's dropped to 1.59 president.

the frenzy stocks, especially gamestop, look at it, down 13% this morning. 189 is your gamestop quote. all right, make it 190. just in, the latest read on home builder sentiment. what have you got for me, susan? susan: slightly less in the month of march from february. we dropped two points here in this builder sentiment, and they're saying despite the fact that there is higher buyer traffic and strong demand, it looks like because of rising lumber and other material prices, we know demand is still there. that means the housing boom continues. however, how long does it continue with rising interest rates, i think that's the question right now. stuart: and we will ask that question throughout the show. susan, thank you very much, indeed. and now, everyone, this. i'm going to put this bluntly. tax increases are coming, and they are going to be politically popular. that's a difficult message for

anyone who believes in small government, low taxes and free markets, but here comes tax the rich. the media will play it as a wonderful thing. [laughter] they can afford it. you'll hear that. after all, give it to the poor through covid relief got voter approval, bigtime. the checks are in the mail. everybody's asking where's mine and how much do i get. taxing the rich to pay for it will get the same voter approval. the left tells us that tax hikes on income, stock profits, estates and businesses will only hit rich individuals and profit rich corporations. the democrats will have a grand old time pointing out all the new billionaires that wall street is creating. you know, jealousy and envy, they are powerful political tools. inequality will play really big. the billionaires make a very easy target. we will not hear about the job losses as tax hikes slow the economy. you will never know about the innovation that doesn't happen

because of taxes on capital. you won't hear about small businesses not started because it's just not worth it. you will hear the rich should pay their fair share, or however you want to pronounce it. the rich should pay their fair share, you'll hear it. this is a real problem for republican. the democrats run the government, and they're using that power to transform our society. how will republicans respond? they can talk about the success of president trump's tax-cutting policies all day long, but the media will never show it. it's a real dilemma. we want to address this with larry kudlow as the second hour of "varney & co." continues. ♪ ♪ stuart: here he is on the screen, larry, you're on. that is -- [laughter] that is larry kudlow. just getting his notes ready. i think you heard what i had to

say there. tax increases are coming, and i think they're politically popular. taxing the rich will be popular. i want to know how republicans are going to counter that. larry: well, yeah, i don't know how popular this is going to be. i mean, look, let's go back to the trump tax cuts. what the numbers show from the census bureau and from the federal reserve survey of consumer finances, these are real numbers, okay? if actually, the greatest benefit of trump's tax cuts, in particular, stu, his corporate and small business tax cuts, actually went to the middle class, to blue collar workers and, actually, middle class and below the lowest examine quintiles got the biggest benefits. or you could say those who needed the most got the most out of this. it did not go to the rich people and, in fact, if they keep the

s.a.l.t. cap, the state and local deductions, the s.a.l.t. was a direct hit on wealthy people who probably should not have gotten a break from higher state taxes. so i think this case could be made, remember too you had 50-year lows in unemployment, the highest median income for a typical family of four, you had $6500 increase in family income just after two years, and the bottom, i think the bottom 20% got something like 15% raise, the top 1% or 5% got, like, a 2 or 3 or 4% raise. stuart you're right, larry. [inaudible conversations] >> tax fairness, it's always been a fact-free discussion. i want to make it a factoid discussion. stuart: nobody's listening. you show me in "the new york times" or "the washington post," show me an editorial which says

trump created a boom for the economy by cutting taxes. show me anywhere on cbs, nbc, abc, the nightly news, show me anywhere where they will give any credit to tax cuts for creating this prosperity which we used to enjoy. you won't see it. your voice is completely lost. i'm sorry about that, but it is. larry: it's not lost. i don't believe my voice is lost. stu, i don't even believe your voice is lost. [laughter] i think people are listening -- stuart: you take my point, larry. you take i my point. larry: "the new york times" and washington post don't often sway elections, to be perfectly candid. people have so many news sources, including new news sources, including this news source upon which we both work. i'm not so surprised. i do think the key point is going to be this: the republicans in the house and senate need to make strong cases. that is true it's not the

newspapers. they've got to make very, very strong cases on all of this. and, look, you're talking about this massive -- i hear some people say, well, this'll be the biggest tax hike since the clinton years. actually, president clinton did raise the income tax rate are, the top rate, but a couple of years later he cut the capital gains tax. this is much bigger. this is corporations large and small. by the way, they're going to raise are taxes on small businesses which is going to be very unpopular. trust me on this, very unpopular. capital gains, well, okay. people on their own 401(k)s, blue collar workers own their own 401(k)s. they're not going to like the stock market impact of jacking up taxes on that. i think the case needs to be made, why do we need a $3-4 trillion infrastructure package? here's my last thought on this. inside this so-called infrastructure package, it's really a trojan horse for the green new deal. the green new deal which will

end fracking, which will end fossil fuels, which will cause prices of gasoline and all electricity to go sky high, which will help our, shall we say, competitors like russia and china. see, i don't think we need a green new deal. biden himself argued against it in the campaign, although the progressive, far left is now trying to put it back in the senate. there is a bill being cooked up in the house, 9 a 50 some odd pages so far. and lastly on financing it, you know, these taxes won't finance anything. you want to have the upper end pay more tax revenues, then lower their tax rates. stuart: exactly. larry: instead of blocking recovery, up stead of blocking recovery, let's have a boom. we're going to have a great 2021, but if they pass this stuff toward the back end of this year, then 2022 and '23 will be decimated. the entire energy industry is going to be decimated. jobs are going to be decimated.

these are prosperity-killing and job-killing matters, and we don't need to do this. it could be done by bonding, by public and private partnerships, and it could be done by user fees at the state and local level. so there's a lot of pushback on this as long as the gop makes the case. stuart: you know, larry, i misspoke. your voice will not be lost. in fact, you can cash in on it and listen to it again this afternoon on fox business. [laughter] 4:00 eastern time on the fox business network with mr. kudlow. always a pleasure, larry. thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. appreciate it. stuart: see you again soon. let's get back to the markets and have a look what's going on there. in particular, pay attention to the nasdaq. big tech is rallying very nicely, and susan's watching facebook. what's the story? susan: yeah. the photo-sharing app instagram just announced you have to be 13 years old to use the photo-sharing site, first time they set an age limit. i thought that was interesting and making headlines.

facebook driving big tech higher. apple, by the way, the world's first $3 trillion company in the future according to a few analysts, and you see it's up close to 2%. that is quite a rally for a company of this size which takes along the rest of the broader markets with it. foxconn might be building its electric car plant in mexico right now. norwegian cruise lines suspending sailing through june the 30th. jpmorgan raising their price targets on all three cruise lines, and then the amazon of south korea after a successful ipo, still trading above its $35 offer price, but bill ackman if says he's donated all of his $1 billion stake to charity. he was an early investor in the instacart, amazon and doordash of south korea a.

he says i don't need the mentioner i've got enough. stuart: okay. [laughter] susan: no comment. stuart: there's never enough. no, there's never enough. that's an interesting gesture by mr. ackman. and also when a stock like coupang pulls back, a lot of people will see it as an opportunity to get in. they go to the moon, they pull back, and then the more savvy investor tends to jump in -- susan: after the hype is done. stuart: yeah. what about facts? what's the update on spacs? susan: so shorts against spacs are at all of four times regular market. we're talking about $2.7 billion here in total short positions. that's higher than the roughly $750 million on regular equity and stocks for the rest of the broader market. and the reason is that spacs, first of all, there's been a ton of money raised in these blank check vehicles. almost from what i see you're at

almost half the rate last year in the first three months of this year. and don't forget you had six times the amount of money raised in 2020 compared to 2019. so this is the big trend right now on the stock market. also, by the way, spacs are very expensive in that you have very high compensation schemes for the owners. they take 20% off the top in some cases, especially if you're dealing with the celebrities and these famous hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, and those are the names that people are trying to short right now, the ones led by the names of the a-rods and the jay-zs and the patrick mahomes. do they really know where to put the money successfully? aren't they just bringing in investor dollars with their money and their influence? stuart: it's a good question. and are are people prepared to give, say, $100 to a spac knowing that $20 of that does not go to the investment the

spac if's going to make, but to a sponsor, maybe a celebrity. susan: yeah. they take 20% off the a top already. stuart: yeah. i mean, that's not a very good deal, i don't think. in my personal opinion. susan: egregious in that case. stuart: big word. [laughter] tech billionaire peter thiel, he's putting big bucks behind a potential senate candidate. who is it? we'll tell you in a moment. president biden begins his nationwide tour in pennsylvania today promoting the trillion -- multitrillion dollar relief package, but he still has no plans to visit the ongoing crisis at the border. jen psaki again. >> does president biden plan to visit the border? >> i don't have any trips to preview for you at this point in time. if we do, we will certainly preview them. >> is it something he's talking about? >> i don't have anything to preview for you. stuart: texas congressman,

republican, ought pfluger, he's going to son off on what is -- sound off on what is clearly a crisis, after this. ♪ ♪ my, my, baby blue ♪♪

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♪♪ stuart: mixed picture on the markets this morning. the dow is down, but the nasdaq showing a very strong gain with. by the way, the fed meeting stars today, press conference tomorrow amp. i want to show you the winners, the best winning stocks in the s&p 500. micron, applied materials, fox corporation, land research on the upside in percentage terms. nice gains on the s&p right

there. all right, let's get to the border crisis, and crisis it is. finish some illegals caught crossing the border are now being sent back to mexico, and they are saying -- susan, correct me if i'm wrong here, those people sent back to mexico, they're saying the president, our president biden, lied? susan: well, these illegal immigrants being deported back to mexico under this trump era policy, and they are saying they thought president biden and the administration had said that they would let them is stay in mesh. not the case -- in america. not the case, as you see on this video, they're being sent back across the border blaming that covid policy from under trump, they say. that's the finger pointing from the biden administration. they're saying it's not our fault. meantime, unaccompanied minors are being allowed to stay, but detain knees and their families are being dropped off on a bridge and being told to walk back to mexico. stuart: but the white house still says there's no plan for

president biden to visit the border. susan: yeah. despite spending a significant amount of resources, time and money to travel to pennsylvania and georgia, no plans yet for president biden to visit the southern border. finish. >> does president biden plan to visit the border? >> i don't have any trips to preview for you at this point in time. if we do, we will certainly preview them. >> something he is considering or talking about? >> i don't have anything to preview for you. susan: white house press secretary jen psaki also said the administration was still working on allowing cameras inside these border detention centers where thousands of children are being kept. that has been a controversy and a question asked in several of these press briefing, but she still refuses to call it a crisis. she says she doesn't like to put labels on things. stuart: fair enough, but they're protecting the president from going to see what his policies have produced. that is my opinion.

thanks, susan. i want to bring in congressman august pfluger, republican from texas, who is a frequent guest on this program. sir, you were at the border, just at the border. what did you see? >> well, stu, the narrative that you just mentioned is that it is a crisis. we went to the central processing facility in el paso. it reached maximum capacity as of yesterday, that's 1,040 mostly unaccompanied children. it's incredibly sad, but it's because of the rhetoric and the reversal on policy. you know, the fact is that the border patrol agents have had to pull 120 agents off of the front lines, out of the field to the processing center because of this crisis. i talked with some of the assistant secretaries in health and human services, and i said would you characterize this as a refugee crisis, and they said, yes. yet president biden refuses to call it a crisis, refuses to visit it. finish --

stuart: i'm astonished that nobody is really giving a hoot about those children. i'm told there are, what, 3,000 -- they're making a space for 3,000 teens, male teens. they're letting them in without checking their ids, they're supposed to be 17 to get in, but they've got no id, so they just let 'em in. they're being mixed up with men in their 20s, for heaven sake, who are lying about their age. nobody seems to care about the kids here, nobody. >> this is the worst part about it. and overnight we found out sunday morning that in my district, in midland, texas, without any coordination, with no notification, they brought 250 children, mostly males 14-16 years old to our district. and gave us no heads up that that was going to happen. now, listen, the real losers in this situation are the children. they're being exploited along their route which can take 22-30

days. the trafficking is incredibly dangerous. the coyotes that are out there that are bringing these folks in and the drug traffickers, the human traffickers, these are the winners because of biden's rhetoric. we are calling on president biden to sound off and to say that it is not okay to come into this country illegally. stuart: okay. one last one. just give me 30 seconds because the democrats are unified now in i saying this is president trump's fault. answer that, please, congressman. >> it's just incredible. president trump did everything he could to secure the border. and, in fact, in february of 2020 we had 35,000 contacts with, on the border. in 2021, february 2021, 70,000. now, answer me this, when the policies are reversed at midnight on inauguration day and now we see the surge, and it's going to continue to increase -- and it is children coming across unaccompanied, that very, very

sad situation. if president biden cares about the health and welfare of children around the world, he will sound off and call for a stop to illegal immigrants coming across our border. stuart: congressman pfluger, republican, texas, thanks for joining us. we appreciate your report. now, let's get to the $1.9 trillion covid relief package. there was no bipart sapship in that whatsoever. well, now we've got one democrat senator caught on a hot mic planning to do infrastructure and taxes again without the republicans. listen to this. stuart: senator marsha blackburn will sound off on this lack of unity in the next hour. she's on the show. one state has a new offer to home buyers. buy here, and we'll pay off your student debt. we'll tell you where after this.

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stuart: all right. the markets show a downside move for the dow, 93 points lower. butting look at this, boeing and goldman, they are both dow stocks. both of them are down, and together they're shaving 95 points off the dow. in other words, without those two stocks the dow would be positive. the s&p and the nasdaq are positive at this point. and then there's illinois. implementing a new plan, they hope, to help sell homes. the program will forgive student loan debt for someone buying a moment in that statement grady trimble's in chicago. grady, how much forgiveness can someone get? >> reporter: well, the state will pay up to $40,000 of student loan debt through its housing development authority. you know, there are a lot of people who say this program is a good idea, especially in a state like illinois where people are leaving in droves, because it'll keep people here, keep them paying property taxes and state income taxes.

but there are those who say, you know what? free money is never a good idea. this is just a small program right now, up to $25 million of the state's budget although candidated for it, but it could get out of hand. listen. >> to give money away, it sure might make people want to come to your state. i'm not sure that's the best way to get people to stay. and the people needs to -- the state needs to get its fiscal house in order. >> reporter: the argument there is this is just not a sustainable way to get rid of student loan debt over a long period of time. but student loan debt is a big problem. $1.7 trillion of it across the country. of course, a state like illinois, like that gentleman mentioned, has to get its budget in check first with an almost $4 billion shortfall this fiscal year. stu? stuart: thank, grady. we'll be back to you later in the show for more on this particular subject. all right. the nahb, national association of home builders, their confidence up dex announced this

morning, and it shows a small drop this month. rising interest rates and rising material costs are apparently to claim blame. the ceo of the nahb is jerry howard, and he joins us again today. all right, jerry, let's get the big picture here. we're still in a housing boom in my opinion, and i think you'll agree with me. but is this boom different from the boom that we saw saw in 2006 and 2007 right before the bubble burst? is there a difference this time around? >> oh, i think this boom is being driven by demand. there is actually a supply shortage, and that's why housing prices are rising so highly. then you add to that the increase in material costs, an increase in interest rates, and you've got a boom that you've got to watch very, very carefully here. there are some dark clouds on the horizon, stu. stuart: lumber costs and material costs, are they really

rising that much so it makes a real difference to your home building plans? >> lumber costs have risen over 170% from where they were a little over a year ago. 170%. that adds $24,000 to the cost of a house. and when you're talking about the average american first-time home buyer, $24,000 is enough money to put them right out of the market. and, of course, first-time home buyers are the ones that really drive the housing markets in general. so, yeah, it's a big problem. and we can't understand why. stuart: well, what other material costsesome i mean, i've seen lumber prices go up, as you've told us. what other materials are going way up in price? >> we're starting to see increases in the cost of concrete, of some of the metal products that go into housing and then some of the appliances and other finished products. the supply chain was very badly

disrupted during the covid shutdowns, and it still hasn't gotten back up to speed. stuart: but you're not looking for any kind of real estate crash, are you? like we saw in '07, '08, 09? >> i don't think we're going to see anything of that magnitude again hopefully in our lifetime, stuart. but if you want to keep the economy going, you've got to keep the housing sector going forward. and right now i am concerned about a slowdown. stuart: okay. is it still true that a large chunk, a large percentage of homes that are on the market have not yet been built? last time you and i talked i think it was 26% of homes on the market haven't even been built yet. is that still true and will that continue? >> yes. and that's another factor in this potential problem. a lot of builders have sold homes and signed contracts, and now they're getting increases in

their lumber prices, their other material prices. they have to go back to the buyer and say, i'm sorryies this is what's going on. and we could actually see some of those contracts canceled. in fact, we are seeing them canceled. stuart: okay, jerry, thanks for bringing us up to speed on this. you're in the middle of a housing boom, i'd expect you to be smiling all over your face, but i understand you've got problems. i got it. [laughter] >> [inaudible] st. patrick's day, stuart. stuart: of course. i'd forgotten. see you soon. now, that's the real estate market. that's houses, that's homes. what about new york city offices? are they still going to -- are they going to stay empty even when the pandemic is over? if susan joins us now. tell me the story, go. susan: we're looking at more than half, more than 50% will stay home, so less than 50% of the city's one million office workers will come back into the buildings this fall. i can't believe this.

i was actually a little bit shocked by these statistics. that's actually better than the current stats right now, 90% currently working from home. sure, okay. but according to a survey of employers by the partnership for new york city going forward, only 22% of bosses will demand their workers come back in the fall when the vaccines are doled out and there's this reopening. future hybrid remote work models, they say, and what does that mean for commercial real estate, stu, in the city. also what about state tax coffers, where are they going to get the extra money for if that's the case? stuart: i have no answer for that. if 50% of the office workers in manhattan do not come back to work, then obviously the city takes a gigantic hit whether it's tax revenues or anything else. like you though, susan, i question that. susan: yeah. i thought it'd be the reverse. i agree. i thought it would be at least closer to 60% that will come back, not the reverse in this

case. stuart: yeah, i agree. susan: it depends on when the survey was taken, i think. stuart: that's true. and as we're not supposed to say, only time will tell. this you go. [laughter] "the view"'s joy behar, she says antifa does not exist. it's a short sound bite but listen to it. roll tape. >> he's scared of this fictitioused idea of antifa, a thing that doesn't even existment. stuart: ric grenell is here. he used to run intelligence. he's going to comment on that coming up on the show. plus, consumer costs are about to go up. shipping delays are to blame. live report on higher prices you could see next. ♪ ♪ -- back in boulder, we ain't ever getting older ♪♪

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♪ stuart: all right. the dow is down 85, but that entire loss is accounted for by boeing and goldman. both dow stocks, both down. without those two stocks, the dow would be up. solid gain for the nasdaq, up better than 1%, and here's why: big tech is doing very well this morning. google is up 2.3%. facebook, 2.2%. microsoft, 2%. and so on down the line. big tech is doing very well. the tech investor, he's now a billionaire, peter thiel, he's making a major political investment. who is he backing? susan: he's been a billionaire for a while, he's backing j.d. vance, the author of "hillbilly elegy", and he donated roughly $10 million to a superpac that's supporting vance's bill to fill rob portman's seat.

another billionaire, robert mercer, of the renaissance hedge fund fame. no details though on how much mercer is giving to j.d. vance and his campaign. but both were early backers and donators to former president trump's successful campaign in 2016. and with a tight 50-50 race in the senate, stu, vance will be one of many, including a lot of democrats, looking to fill that ohio senate seat in 2022. stuart: what's attractive about j.d. vance? susan: his name recognition, for one, after that best seller, now it's a movie and that famous interview with megyn kelly in 2016, and he's trying to help revive rural and suburban parts of the economy in america. stuart: okay, got it. president biden is going back to georgia this week. he's going there to promote the

$1.99 trillion stimulus program and those $1400 checks. but i -- susan, this is you. i remember him going to georgia and campaigning there. maybe not joe biden, but certainly the democrats, and they promised a lot more than $1400 checks. and they won those two senate seats in georgia because they promised so much money. susan: right. yeah. stuart: what do you say? susan: biden himself was campaigning in those two a senate runoffs that the democrats eventually won. he was promising $2,000 checks, not $1400. >> if you send jon and the reverend to washington, those $2,000 checks will go out the door restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now. susan: so some might feel shortchanged here, stu. even georgia democrats have raised questions about these previous promises because the white house says, look, you do get $2,000 if you combine the

current $1400 checks with the $of 00 one -- 600 ones you got during the or december relief package. also, by the way, fewer people are eligible this time around for these $1400 checks. so some say we actually didn't get everything you promised us. stuart: but the democrats still won those two senate seats, and buying votes works. whether it's $2,000 or $1400, money is money. they love it. thank you, susan. susan: your opinion. [laughter] stuart: it is my opinion, very much so. now this: consumer costs and wait times are about to go up, we hear. the shipping industry scrambling, they really can't keep up with demand. let's go to our own lydia hu, she's at the port of new jersey. how much of a delay are we talking about here? >> reporter: hey there, stuart. if you want to order something from asia right now, it would probably take around two and a half months to get to your doorstep instead of that usual

five weeks sor so. the supply chain is upside down. a lot of it has to do with these, containers that are loaded onto vessels around the world. now, when the world's economy came roaring back in mid 2020, online shipping and online orders surged. shipping companies, just about effervesce el and port were jammed. -- vessel and port were jammed. they've been run on all cylinders here. vessels are bringing larger containers than typically seen, they've seen about a 15-20% increase in volume. but what they're not seeing is the same increase in trucking that takes those containers away from the ports. so while they're busy and they're jammed, they're not seeing how to get the packages out of the port. now, some companies are trying to avoid this bottleneck, companies like peloton are investing tense tens of millions of dollars into more expensive air transport but, of course, that's going to add to the

bottom line. consumers are being told to expect increases in cost. for now it's not clear how or when this supply chain backlog is going to be over or resolved. usually there's a slowdown in retail sales, but this year with stimulus checks, national retail federation is predicting more backlogs to continue. stuart. stuart: that's lydia hu at the port of new jersey right there. lydia, thank you very much, indeed. all right, everyone, did you see this? a small business california defying the lockdown order. so the state turned off the electricity. the owner of that establishment joins me shortly. and while new york city public schools stay the closed, catholic schools stayed open. cardinal timothy dolan told brian kilmeade he's seeing great success just by keeping kids in the classroom. here we go, short sound bite. >> we listen to people, we listen to the health care experts. and our parents said, please,

let the kids come back. stuart: let the kids come back. that's a novel idea. brian kilmeade e is here with more from his exclusive interview with the cardinal, and that's next. ♪ we'll be going back for you one day ♪♪ lately, it's been hard to think about the future. but thinking about the future, is human nature. at edward jones, our 19,000 financial advisors create personalized investment strategies to help you get back to your future. edward jones.

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♪ stuart: brian kilmeade will join us shortly, i just want to show you gamestop. yeah, that's one of the frenzy stocks, and there's some volatility this morning. down 14%. 188 is your quote. it is 10:51, that means brian kilmeade will join us on camera. brian, you sat down with cardinal timothy dolan. i want our viewers to see a brief sound bite of what you had to say. >> 488 new york city schools are finally going to open at the end of march. you opened in september. >> we listened to the health care experts and said you can cothis. our teachers said we want to be back, we want to be in person, and our parents said, please, let the kids come back. and you know what? did you ever think you'd see the day when the kids say we want to

get back to school? we listened to that and stayed open. stuart: brian, great interview. my question is did cardial coland have a problem with the -- dolan have a problem with the teachers union? >> no. and the catholics, they might have some type of union. i don't think they do. that's a good question. but they got back to school, and they talked to the teachers individually, and they all came back. and you're talking about every catholic school in the new york tristate area went back. and i think around the country they went back. and get this, you'll love this, every catholic school that opened up with a public school within close proximity opened up quicker. because, competition. they were seeing the kids go to school across the street and others in hybrid learning or fractured learning. they said we've got to do that, and they started transferring out. now, immediately when the pandemic hit people said, oh, i lost my job, i'm not going to to pay that $5,000 or the $10,000 for high school. well, they found a way to help

people with the admission, with the tuition to get in there, and then they opened up. and then when they found a way to do that, then you have a situation where all the students went back, and they went from a 6% loss, they've already added another 5-6% in their, in their enrollees. and this looks each better for next year. why? because the parents are invested. number two, the kids seem to like the discipline. they have the religious aspect and they have history where they're not mocking american history, and they're not doing that thing don't call your mom, mom and dad. that whole woke culture is scaring the heck out of new york residents. and maybe people watching from around the country. stuart: i, i'll be intrigued to see maybe one year from now how many kids are actually back in the classroom five days a week in the public schools. my guess is that there's going to be a shrinkage of those students in the public schools,

and they're going to go to private, they're going to go to religious schools, parochial schools. competition is going to not need the public schools dry, but take a lot of their students away. you with me? >> stuart, i'm speaking to the choir when i say this, but, you know, cardinal dolan are said, look, there's a certain amount of money that goes to your kids because you're paying taxes, and that money follows the public schools, and that goes there. and if you go to a catholic school, you need more money. he's saying, no, let me decide what to do with that money, and if you do that, catholic schools go back to the 1970s level. but the fact is when you're already paying school taxes, then you have go to write another check to the private school or parochial school, that's too much for working class families. cardinal dolan's saying let them have control of their money, and then you watch these teachers unions get into line -- stuart: that'll never happen, brian. it'll never happen. the teachers union will never

allow that kind of shrinkage of the public school system, and neither will bill de blasio. >> well, i mean, in new york, but i'm talking this nation. and if it's going to happen in a place like texas, why not? maybe it's going to happen in a place like florida. why not? maybe it's going to happen in a place like tennessee. why couldn't it? where they're going to say we're going to, you elect me governor, and i'm going to control these funds, i'm going to give you control of that $7,000 a year you're putting into school systems. and i think in my -- on long island i think it's up to maybe in the 20,000 i'm putting in to school taxes a year. of it's through the roof. but to long island's credit, and just so everybody knows, it's a part of new york. it's upstate. they're back in school. and they have a hybrid option, but they're back in school. it's new york city that's been tortured. stuart: yeah. and the parochial schools returned to school in september of last year, i believe. >> yeah. stuart: public schools have not. in the city. in the city, that's where we are. what a situationment brian, thanks for joining us.

alls a pleasure. see you again real soon. >> go get 'em, stuart, thank you. stuart: i will. now this, tiger woods will be back on golf fans' screens soon, but this time in video form. tiger agreed to an exclusive partnership with the video game company 2k. he issued a short statement. quote: i am looking forward to making my return to the video game landscape and with 2k and hb studios i found the right partners to make it happen. on the video screen, not necessarily on the golf course. another big hour for you coming up. look at this, ric grenell and senator marsha blackburn and much more in our 11:00 hour coming up. ♪ ♪ just over a year ago, i was drowning in credit card debt. sofi helped me pay off twenty-three thousand dollars of credit card debt.

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>> reporter: investors need to be welcomed in the next couple weeks. starting in march we will start seeing them competing with closed stores. it will be high all around but the consumers flush with money. >> this is what donald trump talked about, bringing large corporations back to the us at a lower tax rate but we the american people get some of that. we raise taxes on those corporations. they will move.

>> they won't finance anything. they lower their tax rates. if they pass this towards the back of this year, 2022-23 will be decimated. stuart: i don't know the music or the song but it is 11:00 eastern time in new york city. it is tuesday march 16th. here's what is happening to your money. dow is down 140. the nasdaq is up 138, taylor two markets. a big deal today is big tech, look at it go. microsoft is up 2%. the with apple. that was google. amazon lagged up 2% but facebook is up nearly 3%.

the 10 year treasury yield one.6% and now this. if you want to hold your wedding reception in new york state here are the new regulations. no sarcasm please. new rules allow 150 people but they must all show proof of a negative virus test proof of vaccination. everyone must wear a mask except when seated, eating or drinking. socially distanced dancing is allowed but only in designated areas and with members of your own family and the venue must notify the local health department before the event takes place. doesn't sound like much fun but that is new york. never met a tax they didn't like, never met a restriction

he didn't want to impose. new york like other big democrat states is stuck with a policy created a year ago which doesn't match today's reality. as we constantly report the difference with florida and texas is like day and night. they rollback most if not all their restrictions and suffered no catastrophic consequences. cases, hospitalizations, death down. the sky has not fallen but business is booming and there is a can do mentality and attitude. let's get to the heart of this. florida, texas and other open states let us make our own chances. eat where you like a mingle with whom you like. it is the opposite in democrat run states. do what the government tells you to do or else. it sponsor more division, positive versus negative, versus oppression or repression. it comes to a end because we the people are tired of

incompetent state authorities clinking to the failed policies of the past. the third hour of "varney and company" is about to begin. well, well, well, tuesday all day, 11:00 eastern time and that is scott shelley appeared on our screens. you heard what i got to say. what do you make of new york's wedding reception restrictions. any comment? >> somehow they made it easier to vote than to crash a wedding. don't how you do that but they did. absolutely outrageous. the left is turned into the party of condescension and obfuscation. they look down on you because you don't know how to take care of yourself. they know how to make you

healthier than you do, how to spend your money better than you do and on the flipside they obviously, they want to confuse you all the time. ask them a question what is your fair share of taxes. i don't know, we will see when we get there. what is the number of illegal immigrants you would allow into the country. i don't know, we will see when we get there. there were had a metric, the mask mandate. what is the metric to have the masks off? we will see it when we get there. computation and condescension is what they are you about. stuart: you becoming more popular on this program for your political views than your market coverage, did you know that? i bet you get emails and tweets. >> a political commentator, i like the markets too but they affect each other.

stuart: tell me about inflation, this wall of money coming up the economy. and do you think inflation is inevitable. >> i'm going to say no. there are any number of things that could ruin that party. the tenure shoot up, 2 and a quarter way too fast. what if we see all your run up to 85, $90 a barrel too fast. those types of things but the brakes on the economy and that is what the fed is worried about. i colored bowling ball going through a boa constrictor. everyone says we are growing 8% to 10%, we will reopen, then go down the other side of the bowling ball and grow at 2% to 3%. you have to be careful about getting too far ahead of yourself and i would say this.

very careful about getting excited about this gdp, and that is why you might see inflation more muted and everybody you have on your show says you will see inflation. i will go the other way because too many people agree with one thing. stuart: we like your politics and your market analysis as well. see you again soon. the exodus from high tax states. breaking down some of the numbers on how much people actually get to keep you faithfully new york or go to florida. how much do they keep? >> this is specifically for you, we have been debating this, do i keep more of my money if i move to florida. do i get as many great

restaurants or broadway shows. here are the results. you are right, this is rare that i will say this to you. in florida if you make $1.3 million you get to keep more of it, you keep close to $1 million. this is surprising to me. new york and california, you get to keep more of your money, california than in new york. you keep a little bit more in california, the gas taxes and other exorbitant, in the sunshine or the californian states. when your individual income goes up, the government takes a lot away so in florida you would have to give $1 million to the government but if you live in new york and california you have to give almost 50% of the government.

you are right, i say it very rarely but if you work in those high tax states, you are working for the government if you give 50% of your income away. stuart: i did not understand the graphic, social security obligations, don't have a clue what that means but glad to hear fleeing new york puts more money into your pocket. >> were you surprised that california you get to keep more of your money, not much but more of your money slightly than new york state? stuart: depends how much you are earning and that graphic i cannot work out what that graphic was telling me. couldn't make heads or tales of it. the reopening of america, a tweet from rick grenell, quote,

at this point any politician who continues to keep our businesses closed should go without a paycheck too. they aren't feeling the pain. rick grenell joins us now. that is interesting. you are telling them you stay closed and we will take your money off you you politicians. is there any politician your tweet was directed to specifically? >> all of them. we have a problem in washington dc where they make these decisions in a bubble. or in sacramento or east lansing, name the n you will find a bunch of politicians who continue to get paid and have never felt the pain of what their decisions mean and this is now we have gone a year closing down businesses, churches being closed, this is unprecedented. i'm surprised americans are

putting up with this. i'm surprised in a place like washington dc where joe biden can say we are hoping you can have a barbecue on july 4th of this year, he's totally living in a bubble because we have been having barbecues since last july 4th. we've been going about our businesses, the ap did a story showing florida and california with drastically different shutdown strategies and policies had almost identical covid numbers. what does that mean? it means the shutdowns in california gavin newsom is pushing are clearly political, not based on science. he's also not thinking about the mental health or financial health of our economy and so i think it is time we hold politicians to a standard that if they are going to make a decision that somehow we need to hold them to that same philosophy. if you're going to tell

business owners to shutdown then you shouldn't get a paycheck. >> i can't believe americans are sitting back and taking this but so far they are. let me change the subject for a second. i want to show you love you, the cohost joy behar calling antifa, you know something about this, a fictitious idea. role tape for a second. roll it. >> he is scared of this fictitious idea of antifa, a thing that doesn't even exist. >> christopher ray, the fbi director says that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, antifa doesn't exist. it is an idea, not a real thing. >> you handled intelligence for this country. what is your reaction? >> what joy is saying is not based on intelligence and i don't mean just us government

documents, this is a statement that is totally irresponsible. i watched that whole melt down on the view later. i didn't watch it live. only because the controversy was coming forward, talking about ron johnson from wisconsin and what they did to ron johnson was incredibly shameful. every single one of those women went after ron johnson and said things that were so terrible and accused him of the same old thing the left does, racism, sexism, homophobia and this time it was all about racism. it is shameful. wisconsin need to speak up. an amazing senator was brave and trying to do the humans work of trying to solve problems and to be mocked and

called names like this and to turn around and say antifa doesn't exist, look at portland, look at seattle, look at minnesota. the evidence is there and joy needs to get out of the new york city bubble. >> never got you down is a view watcher on a regular basis, you just look at the highlights later. i'm with you on this. thanks very much, see you soon. now this. remember president biden warning about china. role tape. >> if we don't get moving they are going to eat our lunch. stuart: if we don't get moving they will eat our lunch. that was weeks ago. what has he done since and what is next? i will ask senator marsha blackburn. ♪♪ oard. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position.

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when you put it together it has got to be. >> that was senator ben cardin, democrat, telling transportation secretary pete buttigieg how they plan, the democrats, to push through the infrastructure plan which would include big tax increases. hillary on is with us. what are republicans saying to this? >> reporter: republicans are concerned because after the covid bill was passed through reconciliation which republicans say isis them out completely, senator joe manchin

said he would push for infrastructure, it could really be a bipartisan process, the filibuster rules democrats would have to work for at least ten republican votes to support that package because there is expected to be massive tax increases included in the package and some of those president biden campaigned on but there are concerns among republicans other things he didn't support during the campaign that could be added into it now. some of the tax increases on the table as part of the infrastructure packaging glued taxing capital gains and hire estate tax, higher income taxes, raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28% but also something biden did not campaign on was a wealth tax and there is already we are seeing some moderates on

capitol hill be more open to the idea of a wealth tax. there will be a hearing on that this week in the senate. the bottom line is with these massive tax increases on the table, there's more concern the republicans would not have input into the process if it passed reconciliation. stuart: thanks very much, i want to bring in senator marsha blackburn, they are going to use reconciliation just like they did with $1.9 trillion covid package. if the democrats retain party unity, it will pass tax increases and all. your only hope of stopping it is to prize free one democrat. >> that is why we are keeping pressure on democrats we think might come our way. here is what we do know.

democrats have decided their ideas are so unpopular with the american people that the only way they can get them through and get signed into law is to just run off god -- roughshod over the process, do away with the filibuster, do away with the senate rules, do away with comedy. what they are trying to do is just get their way. they said if they took the house, the senate, the white house, this is what they are going to do. reconciliation is not intended to be used for changing federal law. this is something that is therefore appropriations process but you see and senator cardin got caught on an open mic and laid out what the game plan is. anything they want to do they are going to try to force

through the budget reconciliation process. stuart: i hate to say this but they are going to get some tax increases and those tax increases will be popular. handing out the free money made the covid package popular. now you are taxing the rich. make the rich pay. they've got it we, want it. they can pay. in today's america i hate to say it that is popular. >> the more people are learning about the so-called covid relief plan, american rescue act, they are beginning to have questions about it. i just finished doing a virtual townhall meeting with one of my counties in tennessee and it is amazing what they are learning about this legislation that the mainstream media tried to block out, the more people know the less they like it. when it comes to tax increases,

people will begin to remember that during the obama years what happened? taxes got raised and they didn't get a raise. they didn't get to keep a job. they didn't get over time. they didn't get extra hours. what you will see is people say wait a minute. you are affecting my bottom line while you are trying to tax my employer. those are things that bring it home to people. stuart: tough message to get across. i want to save 40 seconds. what would you do against china right now? >> against china right now we have to look at sanctions, make certain we are tough on companies like huawei. we have to make certain when you have the us china envoy meeting in alaska that they understand we fully know what they are doing with the debt trap. that we fully understand what

they are trying to execute with the sister city program, the confucius institute and we know what they are doing in conducting a genocide against the leaguers. stuart: senator marsha blackburn, thanks for joining us, see you again soon. it is hard to forget this. it is basically a zoom called disaster. watch it again please. >> i believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings. >> i'm here live. i'm not a cat. stuart: remember that? the cat zoom thing. there is now an apps that will sabotage your resume call on purpose. if that is what you want, the apps will sabotage it for you. we show it to you coming up. california restaurants have

electricity shut off because it refused to comply with lockdown rules. the owner is on the show after this.

stuart: there is a rival to robin hood. it is called eporro and it just announced a plan to go public. it will be in a merger, the listing will give it a valuation of $1.4 billion. last year they added 5 million users. it is a platform of retail stock traders. they are going public. to the markets and a mixed picture, the dow is way down, the nasdaq is way up. you are watching apple for us. >> you buried it, a $10 billion spec deal, allowing us customers to trade securities so that will be interesting and they don't make payment like robin hood does.

you know how they make money? stuart: i missed the lead. tell me how they do that. >> they provide 0 commission trading but how they make money is they provided difference in how much they buy the security for and how much you buy the security for. some say must be a better model. >> apple, getting higher after a price target hike, 175, and google trading, cutting commissions, down to 15%, the developers make on the apps store, and cutting commissions down to 15 for the smaller developers but it is up vaccine files from children, netflix. had a record 35 oscar

nominations and roblocks, people calling it a by this morning. stuart: nice to see that. i love the unicorns. we've got this restaurant, an unusual name for a restaurant in burbank, california called tinhorn flats. there it is in burbank. they defied lockdown orders and the city shut down their juice, shutdown the electricity. let's go through this. did you openly defied the authorities? >> i did, yes. stuart: then what happened? >> on a second round of the lockdowns after they permitted us to open outside and all of a sudden decided it is not okay

to open inside or outside, and they are making things up as they are going along. i am opening up. i have a staff, the rent doesn't go away, the cable bill doesn't go away, no bill goes away. had a tremendous amount of support from people. stuart: they cut the electricity, stopped you from operating. a lot of other people who defied the rules have been essentially ruined. have you been ruined? >> is that we are asking? there is tremendous support.

backup generators helped, donated them or lent it to us. now they are getting ready to chain the doors, day today i have to make these ridiculous decisions based on battling the government and i am a guy who paid all my taxes and done all the right things. i worked my butt off my whole life. now i am battling to keep my business. it is literally a very surreal dreamlike experience. stuart: you are going to continue with borrowed generators but they will chain up your doors. how will you come out of this? >> when you are in a situation like i am in, take it day by day, can't force people to work if they don't want to.

i've got the support, people who believe in me, it is so outrageous what is happening. i am going to stay open and in california and los angeles they are opening all the restaurants even indoor. this is a punishment. that is what this is about. we have burbank city council. stuart: i think we may have lost audio. i think we just did lose audio. we lost the audio. very sorry about that, just warming up and getting to it. if you can still hear me i want to thank you for being on the show. very best of luck to you. i hope you can keep going, hope you stay open, hope you win in the end, you deserve to. moving on. show me crocs, the stock price down 3.8%, they teamed up with a major popstar.

>> the second collaboration, launching 90 minutes ago, they come in lander -- lavender, teddy bear, rabbits and so much more. starts at $69.99. it is available online and pulled up quickly. and the retail outlets as well in person if you want to go. stuart: i shall remember that one. let me move on to las vegas, they are back 50% capacity. what about real money makers for vegas, what about the convention? when will they come back full force. that is a vital question for vegas. republican lawmakers calling for investigation into school closures, devastating for kids with special needs especially.

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stuart: failing our children, republican lawmakers demanding an investigation into school closures, edward lawrence, spoke to a parent who testified about her daughter's special needs. >> he testified in the division front of maryland state legislatures but she was saying students, her child has cerebral atrophy of unknown origin, 13 cannot walk and has trouble talking and they live in maryland, the school closure has severely affected her child's ability to be self-sufficient in public.

listen. >> the learning loss for her and ability to adapt to the adult world is a complete year loss. it is not that she lost every skill she has. that is not true because she did do some in the virtual environment but as far as moving forward to the adult world for people with disabilities that is an entire year loss. >> reporter: the parents is all kids need to be back in school. her daughter cassidy got vaccinated, she's 19, she will go back in person not until last week. the vaccination of school-age kids, showing very low infection rates. the last cdc numbers from last saturday show on that day there was 87 cases per 100,000 among school-age kids. in the same age group on the same day, 0.0 one per 100,000. the first lady will go to new

hampshire to promote how the american rescue plan will help kids get back into school. also the white house is the education secretary will hold an education summit next week. some parents like lori say this is two month too late. the administration trying to show it is changing the narrative and pushing public events, that it wants kids back in the classroom to get parents frustrated. stuart: i would like to see those parents represented whenever the president speaks about education. i don't think it will happen but it should happen. you are all right, thanks for joining us. let's get back to the markets and money, big gain for the nasdaq, significant loss for the dow. these work from home stocks, i want to talk about this apps, purposely sabotages your resume call. how does it work and why does anybody wanted? >> it is called zoom escape are.

it lets you add fake audio effects to your next zoom call so you can come up with a reason to end quickly, think of barking dogs, construction, crying babies, crying people, even urination. there is another one called zoom the leader which continually basically tracks what is happening on your computer so it deletes zoom very quickly that find it somewhere on your hard drive but it begs the question if you have to come up with these sounds to end the call why take it in the first place? stuart: maybe because you have to. you need an excuse to get out of it. maybe that is it. not all zoom calls are voluntary. >> you wouldn't use this to get rid of me? stuart: certainly not. how do i get that apps? it let's move on. let's move on.

las vegas convention attendance plunged 74% last year. how long will it take to get back to pre-covid levels? that is vital for vegas. look at this. empathy new york city on one side of your screen, the left-hand side, a packed beach in florida on the other. it is like day and night. we will go back to that beach and hold on, i will show you ashley, there he is just focused, there he is, just got a drink for the day under the umbrella. that is our ashley on the beach. we will join him shortly. ♪♪

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some big crowds? a couple hours ago, what is it like now? ashley: it was early and spring breakers don't get up early. i am by myself. pull back to show you how this beach has filled in since we arrived before the sun rose. it is packed, the city is moving. it is not back to where it was but you get a sense of it. earlier i said the occupancy is 70% to 80%. not quite what it was free pandemic but pretty good. the beach actually shutdown so certainly the economy is reopening. they are doing it safely, if you go inside a business wash your hands, today 6 feet apart when you condense those pictures but people are playing by the rules, they are handing

out $25 gift cards to say well done, playing by the rules, take a gift from us. we did chat with the head of the st. peter chamber of commerce, saying it is a tough year, take a listen. >> we are not just contingent on spring breakers, and big government leadership and business leadership. ashley: you are talking about airlines, the local tampa airport on the peak days in march and april they expect 60,000 passengers to come through and double what it was in january and february. and they are enjoying spring

break and as you can see know lockdown here, i was fascinated with the story of the california businessman who had his electricity cut off, he dared to open his business. take a look at florida, not bad. stuart: good one, very true, that looks like back to normal, business is booming. now get back to work. speaking of almost back to normal this is not back to normal, conventions in las vegas, over 6 million in 2019, one and a half million in 2020. that is a big drop. is it not? they got to bring that trade back. let's bring in steve hill with the las vegas convention and visitors authority. it is the lifeblood of las vegas. tell me now what bookings you have for the rest of the year for conventions in las vegas.

>> thanks for having me. we have a full slate of shows at the convention center, 30 shows booked starting in may through the rest of this calendar year. las vegas, thousands of shows a year, and now we are seeing that pick up as vaccines get in arms and the health situation gets better and business travelers do this safely in vegas and meaning planners making those plans. stuart: you've got 30 conventions coming to vegas this year, and that is a pretty good booking. the big time for conventions was always september and october. i used to make speeches to conventions year ago. didn't do it anymore. it was a big deal.

can you get back this fall to the level of conventions you had two years ago? >> from a booking standpoint, by the fall we will be back. the attendance will take some time to recover but if you asked me this six weeks ago i would have given you a different answer but the confidences even higher. we see this recovery starting in the summer but by the fall we see the strength bring back to las vegas. stuart: i wish you the best of luck. i know vegas very well, i want to see you get back to what we call normal. see you again soon.

show me apple up nearly 2%. i am told, they teamed up with fox anyway but teaming up again for something else. >> looking to build its electric car plant in wisconsin or mexico which might be ready to build an apple car in north america pretty soon assembling apple's iphone, they are the leading contenders to put the applecart to gather, already putting electric cars together. remember, and flatscreen factory, that came to be, in the trump era never happened despite some incentives.

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♪ stuart: all right. main point of today's market is this: the fed meeting has already started. tomorrow afternoon there's going to be a fed press conference. we'll find out what jay powell intends to do about interest rates. so to some degree, parts of the market are on hold.

the dow's down 100. that's not a really big move, but look at the nasdaq, way up, and big tech way up. big tech very sensitive to interest rates. maybe they know something more than we do at this moment, but that is a very solid gain for the moths of this world -- microsofts of this world, up 2. and look who's here, david asman in today for neil. david, it's yours. david: good to see you, my friend. welcome to "coast to coast," i'm david asman in for neil cavuto. we've got a busy two hours straight ahead. newly-confirmed dhs chief saying the u.s. is on track to have the highest level of border crossings many 20 years. this as the white house and congress argue about a solution. and lightening the lockdown, wyoming easing up on restrictions for restaurants and other businesses. more states are doing it. we've got the governor of wyoming right here. plus, bracing for a tax hike. new details on