are testifying on capitol hill. jamie dimon, top banker at jpmorgan. he expects inflation to go considerably higher than 1.6%. the fireworks came when he argued with senator elizabeth warren of overdraft fees amongst other things i'm sure. perhaps the good banker was trying to defend capitalism from the socialist elizabeth warren. that is my point of view. neil, it is yours. neil: stuart, thank you very much. we're monitoring the hearings. day one today. they will be back on the house side tomorrow. they were getting a royal beating from republican sharp questions. we'll tell you about that later. this hour we got the industrials are up. financial issues are up. in this type of environment where inflation picks up, those ironically some of the stocks making investors richer, if not bank customers might not appreciate some of the paltry returns they're seeing in their own savings accounts here. all these banking ceos are

doing fine when it comes to making money. blake burman following all the developments on capitol hill. he joins us right now. reporter: neil, good afternoon. i've been listening to the hearing two hours or so. senate banking committee this is the who's who of the ceos of top banks across the country, includes jamie dimon, brian brian moynihan and david solomon. a pretty interesting question put to jamie dimon on his outlook of inflation. what the government spent beginning of the covid crisis was warranted. he believed it stop ad possible depression but as it relates to the possibility of more spending trillions, and trillions of dollars potentially on down the line this was jamie dimon's read on that possibility just a little while ago. watch. >> continue to fiscal monetary policy on autopilot. the good news we'll have a very

strong economy. we'll have it this year, maybe go into next year, maybe into 2023 as all the spending takes place but yes, it will raise inflation. i think there is nothing wrong with 1.6%. i would expect it to go considerably higher than that. hopefully it won't be out of whack and the federal reserve will be able to tamp it down. reporter: neil, we don't know what will play it here in washington as relates to spending down the line. president biden wants to spend the american jobs plan. he wants to spend the american families plan. talking about potentially $4 trillion. dimon says if there is continued government spending it should not be wasteful. as he put it, more inflation, less productivity and slower growth. the testimony continues. you're right, neil. this is day one of this. tomorrow the bank ceos will be appearing virtually before the house financial services committee. neil? neil: these virtual hearings are

still the rogodeu are, right? they're not getting away from that or having hearings in person, right? reporter: some witnesses have been testifying here in washington, d.c., in person. some have been in person, and some virtual as well. that is the nature as we feel our way out upcoming months. the senate the whole thing is virtual. interesting dynamic when you have a virtual hearing. five questions virtual. not necessarily the best format per se. we mare from the bank ceos. there has been a lot back and forth. neil: blake, thank you very much for that. elizabeth warren as blake touched on, stuart getting into this in the last hour had her sights set on jamie dimon. this is the same elizabeth warren wants to beef up the irs budget to the tune 31 triple what it is now to go after rich people. request and demand of the banks that they report account flows

among wealthy clients. some people interpreting that starting with the wealthy but extending to everyone. so that is a read of what is coming out of elizabeth warren these days. let's go to shana sissell on this, spotlight asset group chief investment officer. we have scott shellady with us, the guy we friendly call the cow guy. let me ask you, cow guy, scott. what do you make of the approach that elizabeth warren is taking? we shouldn't be surprised she is at some of the stronger comments against these honchos including jamie dimon but even going after their overdraft fees, boeing after the lend being practices whether they weren't generous enough during the pandemic. now this plan of hers to beef up the irs to the tune of another 31 billion-dollar budget, triple what it is right now. to aggressively police of hose who might not be paying what

should be paying uncle sam. what do you make of it all? >> first the irs has the ability to look into your home to see what you buy, and they can freeze the bank accounts. i don't know what she needs extra 31 billion for. when the government is raining cash she will stand in line to take them. this is basically socialism on parade. think about this. i can't help but laugh. she is going after jamie dimon about treating customers better during the pandemic and by the way if we have full baseball fields, parks when are we out of pandemic, i want to know when we get rid of the word. we have a guy on trial, capitalism on trial basically. she is railing him against overdraft fees in 2020 how that might have been hurting their customers. i know what would hurt your customers, elizabeth. you shut down the country, right? if you don't shut down the country we don't have to worry about overdrafts as much, right. she is yelling. this is what government does. they shut you down. lock you in the trunk of your car. eight days later open you up and

expect you toe lick them on the face like the dog you locked in the car. instead you get punched in the mouth. this is ridiculous. government is the reason why we were in the position we were last year because i still stand by this we should never have locked down. by the way if you didn't want to get sick stay home. if you don't want to get sick, don't see anybody else outside. i understand we didn't want to overrun the hospitals. after a point we punished american businesses enough. it was because of the government. now they will come ride to the rescue and get mad at jamie dimon over overdraft fees they caused because they shut the country down? it doesn't make sense! neil: i'm going to put you down as a maybe on senator warren. shana, let me get your take on this. you know where there goes because it seems very clear to me whether you like what elizabeth warren is proposing or not, or the beefed up budget that even the president wants to see, nothing to the degree that

senator warren does the rich are a target and by extension the big bank ceos. we'll see that no doubt play out tomorrow in the house. i'm wondering where all of this is going? >> it is just continued focus on class division. continuing to focus on us against them and it is not actually making any progress moving anyone forward. it causes more problems than it solves. you know, if you want to fix issues with the tax code, people not paying their quote, unquote, fair share, simplify the tax code, make loopholes less available for people to do that. the irs has a significant budget as it is. it is not particularly efficient but as scott pointed out, they can shut down your bank account it, can do a lot to make your life very difficult. so i'm not sure why we need greater, greater budget to do that.

it does that very well already and it just, again, it is targeting this us against them, rich against the not rich and it just continues to foster this divide that is happening in the country, division of politics, i think it is unfair to the banks. you know the banks, if anything, were extraordinarily accommodative to their customers during the pandemic. many banks allowed people to skip mortgage payments, car payments, very accommodative throughout this entire process and i think it is disingenuous because of overdraft fees because banks were extremely accommodative throughout the process and worked with the customers to make sure they were not being unfairly harmed through the pandemic. it seems unfair. the banks are not getting enough credit for all of the things they did do through the pandemic to help their customers

financially through the process. neil: we'll see. i know i will have you guys back a little bit to talk about bitcoin and gold and what some of these trading instruments that these ceo's got into today but you're quite right, they're a big ol' target namely because they make a whole lot of money. forget about the stockholders and these guys themselves. collectively we're talking about 100 billion, 100 million combined you know, salaries among all of them on capitol hill today, virtually or otherwise. guys, thank you very much. you might want to go in, talk about spending on capitol hill and pointing fingers only in this environment with this infrastructure package we're talking about are republicans deemed cheap with, only and only one trillion dollar plan that apparently is going nowhere because it is only one trillion dollars. jacqui heinrich with more on that from capitol hill. hey, jackie. reporter: neil, senate republicans will counter the

white house's latest offer with a one trillion dollar proposal tomorrow morning. sources tell me that reflects the number president biden agreed to in the oval office meeting, a trillion dollars over eight years. republicans want to pay for this with unspent covid relief funds, citing $700 billion left over. there is some signal that the white house might be willing to do this. senator shelley moore capito, they didn't out right reject the idea. the administration used some of that funding to care for migrant children at the border in hhs custody. that might be an option. but the two sides are really far apart. the white house countered friday with a $1.7 trillion plan moving more than $55 billion from the original package to another bill racked up this week and likely won't change. republicans complain biden's staff are less willing to negotiate than the president and there is broad suspicion that progressives are threatening to pull support from schumer and

pelosi unless they get everything they want and move towards reconciliation to get as much as possible without compromising with republicans. if the president gets the make the decision he will accept this. the white house though says president biden is very much involved. >> i can promise you he did not take a hands off approach to legislating, negotiating and determining what kind of counterproposals we should put forward. reporter: smaller group of eight, bipartisan, bicameral lawmakers costing a backup plan and pitching to the respective kahn discusses. the thinking if negotiations between the white house and senate republicans fall apart, president biden would not emerge with anything from congress. both side would rather see a bipartisan deal get done. we'll watch for that tomorrow, neil. neil: great reporting, jackie. thank you very much. jacqui heinrich on capitol hill with all of those developments. want to go to congressman dan newser, pennsylvania what he

makes of all this. congressman doesn't sounds to me like a infrastructure package is going to come to pass, even if the president had to rely on only democrats as things stand now. he has trouble with the numbers. forget about the senate, talking about the house where you are. what is your sense where things stand on? >> i'm more than just hopeful, neil. i think it actually can get done. just the idea that president biden now is even speaking, that he doesn't want to take a go it alone approach that has been done in the past, the term reconciliation has not been coming up. they're at this 1.7, we need a t&i plan we have something to show for it in the end and truly makes economic sense. no question in my mind, great commonwealth of pennsylvania received $20 billion which prorated equate to 563 billion-dollar package for all the other states. we're the fifth largest gdp state it, would be a game-changer for pennsylvania.

we can leverage that with bonds. we can create nearly $50 billion in investment opportunity and we finally have something to show for all the wild spending taking place as opposed to the other proposals that the biden administration has. neil: all right, now, they went down i think to 1.7 trillion, or thereabouts. you guys, most generous plan is trillion. we shouldn't just look at the overall aggregate figures where the money goes but that is closer than where it was. where do you see this settling out? >> we got to focus again on not just traditional t&i. look, broadband, there is many other factors that we can take into consideration. we're going to be willing to look at but 100,000 employee, civilian climate corps, $175 billion for electric car charging stations that the government, let's face it, you and i both know would get

completely wrong. $400 billion for expansion of obamacare. you know that doesn't belong in this bill. we need to be focused and it's time. we wanted to do this during the trump administration but there was no negotiation taking place because speaker pelosi didn't want to give the president trump a win. we're going to let bygones be bygones. republicans we would like to see something get done. it needs to be reasonable. we need to have something to show for it. you know, we can do it. we cannot only force safety and repairs all those good things but modernization. we should be able to accomplish this. neil: if you don't, given the fact that there has been trouble getting this police reform bill, whatever they want to call it out of white house, congressman, is it your guess right now that the covid relief measures might be the principle achievements of this administration and this

congress and that is going to decide where we go in the midterms next year, short of that there is not much else? >> well we actually could get a lot done. like you're mentioning the justice act. the idea of qualified immunity being, not included. that is unacceptable. back to this for a moment. the plan that the republicans are laying out on tni is being paid for through funds that have already been allocated for the most part. we can bring in smart planning. i know the white house is interested in this and i know many democrats are, something called the infrastructure bank of america. some tax deduction initiatives for revitalization. we're presenting all of that. this can get done at a minimal extra cost and we have to avoid all this taxation that is talked about. i was just on the small business

committee hearing with administrator guzman, they don't seem to understand, you can't raise taxes on small business while they're endeavoring to recover. that tax plan is an assault on small business. the idea, it is only over $200,000 is going, to have their income tax raised, most small businesses do make over an annual period over $200,000. over 50%. it's a tax increase. we've got to be careful. we have got some serious issues here. we can actually get it right. neil: all right. we'll watch it closely. congressman meuser, great catching up with you. keep us posted on the latest developments. our optimism might be contagious. we'll see. i don't know if you had a super blood moon, my tech operator is all over this stuff, you were saying three lunar phenomenon. supermoon, total lunar eclipse and a blood moon appears 14%

bigger, 13% brighter in the sky but here's the thing. you essentially missed it. it has come and gone. we were hoping to show you in hawaii how it would look there in the waning moments. hawaii just said aloha which unfortunately means hello and good-bye. more in a moment. ♪ “cracked windshield” take 1. ♪ you say ♪ ♪ i got a crack in my windshield... ♪ uh - uh, lisa, maybe less heartbroken? geico lets you file a claim online, over the phone or with their app. ♪ that makes me wanna say... ♪

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♪. >> president biden will be meeting with president putin in geneva as the leaders discuss the full range of pressing issues as we seek toe restore predictability and stability to the u.s.-russia relationship. neil: there you have it president biden and president vladmir putin will meet next month in switzerland. we have no idea what that will happen. any high hopes for this? >> you too. you know, it definitely plays to putin's desire for a summit. it enhances putin's stature both

at home and overseas. we have a dizzying array of issues, bilateral issues with russia that are very much more confrontational than based on collaboration but i think precisely why we do need a summit as the former prime minister of the uk winston churchhill used to say, meeting jaw to jaw is better than war. neil: you know i just wonder about this relationship versus the one that donald trump had with vladmir putin, what do you think? >> well i think it's a little bit too early to tell but the one thing we know is that vladmir putin, whose formative experience was serving in the kgb, director of russia's ruthless federal security service, their internal police, russia's aggressive foreign policy hasn't stopped. they mounted the solarwinds cyber hack attack against us. at the very least they have given sanctuary to the rogue cyber hacking group dark side

which conducted a massive attack on our critical infrastructure couple weeks ago. they continue a plethora of other confrontational issues with the united states going back to invading you crain and annexing crimea and interfering in our election in 2016. that has been the constant and i think the biden administration's desire for a more stable, predictable relationship is kind of amorphous frankly. i think they need to be more specific. i would like to see the president outline where we think we can find common ground, maybe on arms control with russia, counterterrorism operations. delineate the red lines, that russia will face u.s. counteraction if they cross the red lines. neil: wondering where russia fits into our greatest global threats? you could argue china has moved to the top of that list. you could argue that china, russia, together dominate that list, and how they work together in concert, whether in the

belarus situation, with iran these days. so how do we differentiate between those two or handle together? >> yeah. i think, you know, that, at least at the present both russia and china are revisionist powers. they are seeking to overthrow the international so-called rules based order so that it is shaped in their autocratic and in russia's case, i think china's as well, kleptocracy and there is no question that china and russia find value in countering the united states together certainly for the short term. over the longer term, i think there are areas of confrontation between those nations, certainly in the arctic, potentially in eastern russia. even in the middle east where china has developed a relationship within iran and also china's efforts to encroach upon russia's historical sphere of influence in central eurasia.

we have to deal with the fact that those two countries are presenting together a major threat to us and certainly china by itself, by flooding the zone with economic espionage, militarizing the south china sea and a host of other things. neil: dan, i hope you will indulge me here, if i'm being rude please say so, i was touched by a beautiful column you wrote on the fox news website, remembering your wife on what would have been your wedding anniversary. she passed from cancer. you're a soledad now taking care of, looks like two beautiful children. how are you doing? >> it's, you know, for sure the greatest challenge i have ever faced but my wife prepared me for it. we had four years together when she was fighting with everything she sad to i have gus the time we needed, you know, to process what was going on and adapt together as a family and to prepare for a future without

her. my two sons and i miss her very much. we talk about her all the time. we look at old pictures and videos. we're trying to honor her memory by ensuring that my kids live their lives to the fullest while simultaneouslily carrying along with us the grief that we all share for her loss. neil: you know what i didn't realize, dan, is that you met at the cia, right? >> that's right. my wife was a disguise technician, if anybody seen the americans, you have an idea about what goes on at the cia though frankly i think we do it a lot better than "mission: impossible" or "the americans." my wife was talented in that regard. halloween was a special holiday. the best thing i did at cia was not some cloak and dagger operation but was meet being my wife kim. neil: dan that is beautiful story. i'm sorry for that. i read that when i was away, it

is so beautiful. >> i appreciate that. thank you very much. neil: yeah. we looked at each other through the prism of your expertise. you have plenty ever that and then some but that piece revealed another side to you, i feel for you my friend. i'm always here. thank you very, very much. dan hoffman. a little more after this.

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♪. neil: all right. i'm going to try to do my best impression here, bond, james bond, meet bezos, jeff bezos. the amazon titan buying the mgm movie library to the tune right now of about $8.45 billion. you know when you take out the debt, more like 6 1/2 billion dollars, it is princely sum but again not quite the stature of the company that it used to be but all of this at a time when this whole push for having as many movies that you can scream

by as many players who can offer that stream something very, very much in vogue. let's get to all of that with other redevelopments with sort of the reopening of america. sometimes you wonder about the timing of this particular purchase, whether after the fact, after we're huddled in our homes, leaving our homes not inclined to do much streaming. we're already buying. i see that in cruise line bookings, air travel, hotels, airbnb, we're reaching the point where half of all american adults have been fully vaccinated. 3/4 of them partially vaccinated. lydia hu is following all the developments including the great reopening that is pretty widespread. reporter: neil, it seems like people are ready to get out of their houses and back to traveling especially ahead of the holiday weekend. the white house covid advisor is heralding this moment a major milestone. as you said about half of all adults, americans are now fully

vaccinated against the coronavirus. they are seeing covid cases and hospitalizations and deaths to continue to decline. the seven day average of cases per day fell to about 23,000 as of monday and the president says his next milestone he wants to hit is seeing 70% of american adults having received a least one dose by july 4th. currently most, more than 61% have gotten at least one shot. and as we see those vaccinations increase united airlines says that customers are getting back to air travel faster than expected. domestic leisure travel showed yields from ticket purchases since the beginning of may reached levels similar to 2019. tsa checkpoint numbers have been inching up as we approach the holiday weekend. sunday showed the agency screening 10% fewer travelers than did it on the same day in 2019. united lost over $7 billion last year but expects to report

positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation in the third quarter. we look at the hot board, it shows united up 1.3%. from the air to the sea, royal caribbean is the first cruise line to receive approval from the cdc for mock cruises with volunteer passengers in the u.s. waters. the practice will run tests, it will test the cruise lines covid-19 protocols. now when the freedom of the seas ship sets sale in june it, will be the first cruise ship to sail from a u.s. port since march of 2020, when the coronavirus brought the industry to a halt. the move brings them one step closer to being back in business. all volunteer passengers must be at least 18. if they're not vaccinated they have to have written documentation from a doctor or verify they're not at heightened risk for covid. anyone interested in volunteering the test cruises, visit the volunteers of the seas

facebook page. when regular cruising resumes, royal caribbean does plan to require all passengers 16 and older to have proof of vaccination. they plan to reduce that age for proof of vaccination to 12 years ol' starting august 1st. neil, i took a look at the facebook page. 10 of thousands of followers willing to volunteer for this cruise. this test cruise, they say they have over 250,000 people willing to step forward right now, eager about to get pack back on the open seas. neil: where do they go, lydia, how long do they go? that could be pretty fun. are they circling the sea or where they are going? >> they will be departing from florida. i think the exact departure date is june 20th. the cruise will last three to five days. the whole point to kind of test out what happens when you have a group of people vaccinated, not vaccinated, seeing what the spread could be. if they reach covid rate of exceeding 1% i think it was, on

passengers and staff they have to immediately end and return to port. but the whole reason this is developing is because there are certain ports that are prohibiting the cruise line from mandating proof of vaccination before they depart, in particular in florida where there is a state law banning cruise ships from requiring that type of proof. there is a test to see what will happen when the cruise ships are just accepting passengers without seeing that vaccination status ahead of their departure. neil: got it. i'm worried about the buffets. they will not do buffets traditionally, at least what we're used to. i don't know how they will handle that. we'll see. lydia, thank you very, very much. by the way what is on the buffets if they do have them, variation, a lot of food is expensive. chicken prices are soaring. so is corn. beef and corn related prices are soaring.

we have stew leonard ceo. hip, wouldn't call eight grocery store, much more than that very popular in the new york tri-state area, connecticut, new york, new jersey. stew leonard, jr. with us right now. how are you doing? >> we're doing fine. how are you doing? that free cruise sounds like a great deal right there. neil: i know. i know, they all say they're doing away with the buffet. i understand it, maybe they serve you and all that but, man that was half the reason why i hopped on these cruises. i don't know. we'll see. >> you know, neil, that is an interesting, buffet is a very interesting question because we've had big open buffets here at stew leonards. we had all the hot foods and salads and so forth. we've taken them all out of the store now, went to packaged salads and packaged proteins, grab-n-go dinners. what we found right now is we

don't feel customers are accepting yet of going and taking a ladle and filling up their food and having exposed food in the store. so we're actually, we just talked about it with our management team and we're probably going to wait at least a month or two before we even consider bringing the buffets back to stew leonard's. neil: it is interesting, people have changed their buy be habits in this environment. maybe that stick as while. speaking of buying habits, stew, i want to know, how are you dealing or customers dealing with some of the food inflation we've seen apparently with chicken in short supply and basic foodstuffs, i'm hearing yogurt and corn all that, bacon? what is going on there and how are your customers dealing with it? where are you shifts them, where are they shifting? >> it is an interesting, neil, you don't know how much of this is actually price driven and how much it is just supply and demand driven.

like i just heard your reporting on earlier was the airlines found there is a bigger lift to the number of passengers right now than they expected. i'm sure cruise lines will feel the same thing. we're feeling it in the food industry right now. people are euphoric it seems. our customers are coming, yeah, you know, i can, life's getting back to normal. you see all the -- rich increasing and covid cases decreasing. so people feel right now, i will get out and celebrate. things are little, maybe doesn't show up on the big financial indicators, we're selling 10 times more balloons this memorial day than we did last memorial day. people are starting to rejoice a little bit. i think what it has done, it has put pressure on the supply chain. we've talked to our farmers down, dairy farmers, you know,

and they're talking about just getting, you know, product to us because there is such a demand right now. cows can only produce so much milk a day. there is not much storage in the food, the frozen food warehouses right now. they used to be packed, you could draw on them right now. almost just in time demand to get shrimp and lobster tails and so forth so there is pressure on the supply chain for sure. neil: all right. we'll watch it closely. stew, i'm glad things are back, people are back, but i think you're right, they just want to get back. they want some good food. >> by the way also. neil: yeah. >> this mask policy right now, we're in connecticut, new york, and new jersey, well, governor murphy is going town load the masks at the end of this week in jersey but connecticut, new york, already said you don't

have to wear masks shopping here. look it, here is one customer. check it out. what did you just say about no mask? >> you don't have to wear one if you're vaccined you don't have to wear one. i'm good with that. >> that is about 10% of our customers right now coming in. but most customers coming in at stew leonard's are wearing masks. we require our team members to do it. we're respectful of somebody else. we're not fully vaccinated yet. neil: we're getting there my friend. we're getting there. great catching up with you, thank you. >> i got this waiting for you by the way at the store how's that? neil: oh, man, that is to die for there. i will be there right by the second hour. thank you, stew, very much. i don't know how you stay so thin and fit where you work but you do. i hate that about you. but continued success.

stew leonard, jr. of stew leonard's they're an iconic institution. as he and i were wrapping up my colleague and friend blake burman is giving me an update how this banker ceo is going on capitol hill. all the big honchos from the big financial institutions and the thoughts whether we're in a housing bubble. to a man you have to look market by market. anyway when it comes to jamie dimon, a little bit of a bubble in housing prices not as much leverage we saw in '09 at the height of the meltdown. brian moynihan, bank of america, underwriting has been done frankly last five to 15 years since the last crisis seemingly hinting we're not looking at another one or so they hope. stay with us. you're watching fox business.

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♪. reporter: welcome back to "coast to coast." i'm jennifer griffin reporting from the pentagon. the state department is pushing back that it shot down the small state department team looking into origins of the covid-19. privately i'm told the new biden team and state department undersecretary who worked for the trump administration had concerns about the team's methodology, they were too intent fitting facts to prove that the virus leaked from the wuhan lab. we received the following statement from the state department press secretary ned price. quote, there has been incorrecting reporting that the biden-harris administration shut down an investigation by the state department bureau of arms control and verification into the origins of the covid-19 pandemic. that reporting is incorrect. in february and march of 2021 the team's findings were briefed to abc and policy planning and policy staff in the new

administration which the report delivered the work was ended. he went on to say the contract continues but is focused on other arms control work. the national security council is taking the lead in the investigation but members of the disbanded team who i have spoken to suggest otherwise. in a statement to fox news david asher defended the investigation and said that at the time some state department colleagues were quote, deliberately playing down possible links to china's biological weapons program. quote, it is u.s. law to engage in an effective arms control and non-proliferation not facilitated via scientific cooperation in the name of threat reduction or refusal to engage in effective compliance with communist countries that openly aim to incorporate synthetic biology into the future of warfare apparently with our naive material and and scientific assistance that is the statement from david asher. we don't know for certain what happened in wuhan he writes, but

we have every reason to investigate and ask questions. among those at state hop asher says blocked their chris ford the acting undersecretary for non-proliferation who i also spoke to. he tells me the team's findings were based on junk sighens. he was trying to protect secretary of state mike pompeo and the trump administration. he was not opposed looking into the wuhan lab but was concerned about. of the team's analysis and its desire to operate in secrecy and circumvent the intel community. more of "coast to coast" coming up. ll, - you should ten-x it. - ten-x it? ten-x is the world's largest online commercial real estate exchange. you can close with more certainty. and twice as fast. if i could, i'd ten-x everything. like a coffee run... or fedora shopping.

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♪. neil: all right. i've always looked as little bit of alternative investment going on i guess between bitcoin and gold. we wanted to put this in perspective for you here with the yellow ban representing bitcoin and the blue gold. gold has more of a steady, not as jerky wild ride as bitcoin but they're both ending up in the same area here when all said and done about where their prices started the year and where they are now respectively but what to make of this

alternative strategy here? is bitcoin your bet, gold your bet? ray dalio famed investor would rather own bitcoin than a u.s. bond. shana sissell and scott shellady are back with us. shana, what do you make of that. ray dalio, and bonds, he made his choice bitcoin but a greater struggle going on and between bitcoin and maybe gold here, what do you think? >> i think dalio can say that because he has a greater risk tolerance than most people. bitcoin is a highly speculative asset. they call it digital gold. the suggestion is because there is a limited supply of bitcoin just like a limited supply of gold they should be somehow correlated because they haven't been. ultimately when it comes to cryptocurrency the value is in the technology of the blockchain it sits on. you can look at bitcoin or

ethereum or pick your crypto, the fact of the matter is they're not all going to exist 20 years from now. so you're sort of making a bit who the survivors will be. bitcoin obviously has been around the longest, is the most well-known, has the most rabid fan base if you will but most investors don't understand that it's a highly volatile asset. gold has a much longer history. gold has, you know, clearer, practical applications outside of just being a store of value and an inflation hedge. and gold has a track record that goes back decades of being a hedge on inflation and not theoretically a hedge on inflation which is always kind of been the thing with the crip to currencies. that is not to say that i'm not, anti-crypto. i believe very much in crypto. i think it is the wave of the future. i think the blockchain has a lot of merit and i'm curious to see how it plays out but you're

talking about speculative risk asset versus store of value with an inflation hedge with a very long track record of being able to provide protection for investors when inflation is moving high. that is why i think you are starting to see the shift towards gold. but i don't think they're necessarily comparable assets. neil: all right. just curious what you thought about it. anyway, scott, i wonder longer-term, if you could stomach the volatile swings is bitcoin worth putting up with that? >> not, no not yet i don't think so. i've got too many licenses. i have too much responsibility of my customer base to put them in something they might not have the stomach for, frankly a lot of americans don't have the stomach for. here is my issue with the whole thing i echoed those sentiments as well. it's a little too early to be a pioneer in this one. i understand its powers. i understand why it could be good going forward, right now

the general investment community is not really embracing bitcoin. it is tolerating bitcoin. neil: all right. >> right? so my thoughts are if i could get 10 people together that are investing in bitcoin and five of them know what bitcoin actually is we're on to something. i don't think it is five right now. we're not there yet. neil: we're not there yet. we'll have a lot more on this. bitcoin holding its own.er gold as well. at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com. nicorette knows, quittin ... kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette you packed a record 1.1 trillion transistors into this chip i invested in invesco qqq

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neil: all right, we are watching the markets very closely the dow is up about 70 points technology stocks by and large are putting in a good day, gold and bitcoin are dialing it out for the investment vote, right now i'd call that one pretty much a draw today we're showing a year-to-date performance, bitcoin vs. gold, you know, there's a camp that says they both benefit in volatile times over inflationary pickup, we shall see but inflation is definitely a worry right now and it's even intruding in the world of washington on whether we should keep spending more money, to make it potentially worse. republicans are very concerned about that and say that's one of the many many reasons they aren't very keen on all of the president's spending plans including infrastructure that they want to cap at no more than $1 trillion. that's the most generous of the republican plan, and not the 1.7 to $2 trillion that the administration is willing to go down to.

chad pergram following all of these developments right now on capitol hill. chad, how are we looking on this front? reporter: good afternoon, neil. republicans are making the case that so much spending could trip up an economic recovery. there are inflationary fears after the big covid bills last year and the democrats partisan $1.9 trillion coronavirus package over the winter. >> this is a kitchen table issue going on all across the country right now. people are worried about inflation, so milk being up, bread being up, gas being up, who does it impact? it doesn't change the life of the rich. it's the poor. reporter: economists are happy about increased consumer spending as the pandemic eases, the white house recently put out a paper saying there was only mild concern about inflation in the mid-term, but inflation is an issue which worries some in the administration. >> reviewing the policies of the last administration, but i would reiterate that monitoring inflation is obviously the

perview of the federal reserve, our economists conveyed they feel the impact of our proposals will be transitory, the economy is getting going again but in terms of any actions that be taken we would defer to the federal reserve. reporter: the consumer price index jumped up .8% in april, more than 4% over the past year, that's the biggest spike in 13 years, and this comes as the gop is about to make a counter offer on infrastructure, of around $1 trillion that should come tomorrow. neil? neil: is it going to come to pass, chad? you've got a good gut when it comes to these things and always remind me it's about the math and the numbers. are the numbers here, as democrats have to go it alone reporter: not right now, and this is why roy blunt the republican senator from missouri said yesterday, he thought it be easier for the administration to work with republicans than get those last four or five democratic senators and this is why this is probably going to take a couple months even chuck schumer the democratic leader said yesterday he was looking at july and you know when they say

july in washington, it really means august and that's why we're already hearing talk about them canceling the august recess , because they have to try to finish this some time before fall. neil: got it. all right, chad, thank you very very much, chad pergram, on all of those developments. well you know the thing with higher prices as chad touched on in those cpi numbers, the retail inflation numbers moving at a stubborn up-tick right now is it can only happen if people pay at those higher prices, and they are. it's supply and demand and demand is lifting, dwarfing available supply for a whole host of goods. that could explain why airbnb rentals, car auto rentals, grocery prices, you name it the prices of just everyday living are jumping up as people jump out of their homes and out of the pandemic. how far will we go with this , and is it deterring any of this activity? so far it is not. let's go to the fox news headlines 24/7 reporter, we've

got kat timpf with us, on fox nation, much more both of them great reads of things, and getting a good plain english view of what's happening and how this is affecting them, so kat, we do know that demand is up yesterday, when we were all chat ting about concerts coming back and you be willing to pay to get back to what we were doing and enjoying before, and apparently, we'll have to pay, a lot more for a lot of that stuff , but you're up for it. >> well, yeah, certainly i'm up for it but it's pretty much everything is more expensive now and people do notice. actually, this past week, i've heard about three people talking to me about how they've gone to mcdonald's and a meal at mcdonald's has cost them anywhere from $12 to $15 which look, i like mcdonald's. it's pretty good, but it's not $ 15. part of the reason you go there is because it's cheap, you know, it is delicious, but people are noticing these things because it

really is everywhere. everything is more expensive, and it's becoming, it is more expensive at a time when many many americans have less money to spare because of, you know, job losses or time without a job during the pandemic. neil: you know, you talk about $15 i assume you're saying that you're surprised it's that high. i'm surprised it's that low because when i go there, i just order for myself, but that's just me. gunz, what do you make of this , you talk about getting back into baseball stadiums and they are going to pack those puppies up and all the rest. what do you plan to do? anything that you're reigning into compensate for the higher costs for traveling and getting to the fun places? >> well, i'll tell you one thing that i am starting to pay a lot more attention to is the cost of things like uber rides and also like the surged pricing and just how much things are coming across more expensive all across-the-board. i'm actually here in new york city started taking more yellow cabs because the uber prices are

just so expensive, so what we're kind of seeing though is and i guarantee, neil, for this coming memorial day weekend it's almost like the perfect storm of everything coming together. the weather is finally nice. covid cases are down, vaccinations up etc., for the first time we're going to get groups of people together that maybe it's the last testimony months might not have been able to do this or are willing to do this so i guarantee everybody is going to be talking about how much more expensive the food was that they're all bringing to gas prices to how about discussions about oh, i want to take a flight later on in the summer, air prices are that much more expensive as well, so it is going to be important to kind of reign in when you want, but it's always going to go so far, because we haven't done anything for the last year, so yeah, we'll complain about how expensive things are but we're still going to go out and pay for it, and experience our lives neil: kat, what would you not pay for? you've seen all these prices we're seeing in the grocery stores a lot of people were shocked to see chicken wings

used to be super cheap are now super, well, not so cheap and i'm just wondering, does it change your buying behavior? >> well i'm going to, toilet paper is going up i see i'm going to continue to buy that. look, the issue is it's not just things like concerts or like things that might be entertainment or you know luxuries that are going up. it's food and people obviously need food in order to survive so there's some instances where there are choices and i agree with my friend there that a lot of the demand is so high people will pay more because we've been locked inside our apartments especially if you're in new york city or california you haven't been doing much of anything for very long time but at a certain point people are upset and they're talking about it. i haven't seen them not spending , especially when it comes to necessities, but that's the reality is that demand is so

high, despite the fact that for a lot of people they have less money than they've had before. neil: you know, we're still a significant number, they are actually doing pretty well through covid, they were able to save some money, pay off some debt. i don't know if that applies to you, but are you, you know, more in a position to spend and go crazy than you were a year ago? >> to an extent, yes, because you know, i haven't been able to really do anything; however, i did, you know, i haven't been able to do anything but i did still buy things throughout the past year, a lot that i didn't need, for example, a peloton bike that i've used three times and literally was the biggest waste of money or other things like i'll scroll instagram and be like oh, i need this piece of clothing i won't wear for months now but i think people are just willing to spend for just having fun, to get together with people, and cases are down, vaccinations are up, restrictions are, you know, falling all across-the-board.

it's about going out and i think also, it's a mental thing, neil. no longer people are going to feel shamed for experiencing their lives. nobody is telling anybody else that they have to go out and experience things, but don't you dare yell at us anymore, if we want to live our lives so there's no more shame factor involved right now. things are going to open up and things are back and let's go, you know? neil: all right, i will never shame you. i'll let you do that on your own , so great job, seriously guys, thank you both very very much we'll see how that works out and as they both accurately pointed out inflation can only stick if people look at those higher prices and say all right, we're willing to pay for that because we think it's worth it and right now that's the story of the economy and the big mac rosenstein sense and they think it's worth it and they are going to pay a little bit more in some cases a lot more. that's how inflation grows. all right, we'll see. all right, in the meantime, and inflation is a bad thing, in fact when you see things opening up people are encouraged by that

that it dwarfs whatever they are feeling about the up-tick in prices including when institutions reopen when theaters reopen and when i dare say a presidential museum like the reagan presidential library in california reopens, connell mcshane is there in simi valley with how that is going after better than one year closure. connell? connell: man its been a long wait, neil. they have been waiting for i was just talking to one of the workers and they opened 10 minutes ago and says they haven't been to work in 438 days this place has been closed because of covid but the visitor s back in today as you know, it's a great library you can enjoy the exhibits like marine 1 right behind me. we're in the air force one pavilion and there's the big boy , the boeing 707 president reagan used back in the 80s and this is the most visited presidential library in the country but the executive director was telling me they probably left something like 10 to $12 million in lost revenue on the table over the last 14 months or so, by being closed. he says they managed their finances well, it's privately- funded managed their

endowment well and he figures president reagan be proud of this fiscal responsibility but he wouldn't be proud of the way washington has been handling itself in recent times. take a listen. >> oh, boy. i think he's probably turning in his grave right now over the incredibly ridiculous amount of federal spending that's occurred. i think ronald regan be hugely frustrated with washington and i think with some of his own party he'd be concerned were not minding the size of the federal government. connell: as for comparisons to the current president, john hi bush was saying president reagan and president biden couldn't be more opposite in terms of their approach one for small government, one for big government. a number of small government advocates are lined up to speak here now that they are reopened and mike pence is coming, mike pompeo, nikki haley, paul ryan is going to kick it off so that's all happening as this place finally reopens. i leave you, neil, i've always

wanted to do this at marine one, you got to salute the marinas you get on and up the stairs you go and i always thought the key to being president first of all not tripping up the steps but the wave. you've got to have the wave and when you get into this , man, this is cool even the marine one from back in the 80s, maybe you could see me as i get into the big chair. i'll see you when we get back to new york. neil: um, connell, you're not the president of the united states. so i just want to bring you right back to reality here. but great stuff. that is great stuff. very cool stuff. it's a beautiful library, so i'm just glad, you have the political spectrum connell great reporting my friend in sim i valley, california. connell mcshane. we talk a little bit about the different styles of presidents and of course, as connell was touching on, a very different approach to government spending under ronald regan versus joe biden. this might ring a bell. >> in this present crisis,

government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. >> [applause] neil: all right, now, government is the solution, that's the approach that joe biden is taking. now both presidents, of course, beefed up a good deal of spending. remember the deficits for whatever you think of the boom that we had and we had a very big boom under ronald regan the deficits really ballooned during that period. it wasn't that a lot of revenue wasn't coming in, but washington of course they spent that extra revenue and then some, and the deficits ensued as they did almost non-stop say maybe the last couple of years of bill clinton but bottom line, that's been sort of like the way things go in washington. joe lieberman joins us now. the former democratic vice presidential candidate 2000. i'm just curious when we look at all of these developments, senator and we'd see all of the spending that's been going on, you could argue over, you

know, who spent more and what, but the fact is, the approach that joe biden is taking is that government is not the enemy. it is not the source of the problem. it is the solution. it is the cure for a lot of problems. that is pretty accurate. >> yeah, well, this is a really important debate, and we've had it in our country for decades, and there's no question that president reagan was transformational and really represented change when he said government is not the solution. i think a really important in between step between you might say, reagan on one hand and then obama/biden on another, trump somewhere in his own unconventional in between was president clinton, whose signature line, on domestic policy before congress one evening was the era of the big government is over. in other words, the era of government is not over.

the american people need some government but the government can't be too big, and that's a real message i think now for president biden to listen to he's come in as president in a real tough time and obviously, the pandemic and the collapse of the economy during the pandemic, which was much more severe than what president reagan faced when he came in, but i think president biden really should focus on those two big challenge s and overcome them. the virus which we're overcoming and the economy, which is bouncing back, and don't go back to government that suggests they can answer all of the problems, and pay for and when you don't pay for it the debt rises and it's now, neil, hard to believe over $28 million and our kids and their kids and their kids and their kids are going to be paying for it. i think we got to put the brakes

on a little bit here and focus on the essentials. neil: you know, you gotta wonder though whether you mentioned bill clinton, when he said that they are a big government of course he was humbled by the mid-term elections that year that brought newt gingrich and republicans to power in the house, but he worked with them and there's no sign here that the two parties are going to be working on pretty much anything as things stand, so i can't imagine getting this under control, or at least attempting is going to happen here. >> well it's a real challenge. your reference to the mid-term or the election actually in 94 that won the republican majority in the house and newt gingrich is the new speaker, people thought that nothing would get done, but president clinton and speaker gingrich one on the

center left and the other on the center right or further right figured out how to come to the center and negotiate and compromise. they got welfare reform done, criminal reform, and the biggest of all, they passed the balanced budget act of 1997 which as you said earlier, neil, actually balanced the budget for the last three years of the clinton administration. that's what really will be best for america. now i'm really encouraged that the senate republican is now raising the infrastructure bill cost to about $1 trillion. i hope they pay for it, and i hope president biden and the democrats accept it, because it's not only a lot of money, a trillion dollars, way beyond any single bill i voted for appropriations in my 24 years in the senate, but it would really be good for our country if we saw both parties,

the white house and congress, working together to do something good for the country. neil: well, on paper that sounds great. we'll see. we're nowhere near that right now i know. i hear you. >> yeah, no. i think this is a real opportunity and i hope president biden sees this and we have an agreement on infrastructure. it be good for all of us and for the country, the economy. neil: joe lieberman great catching up with you my friend, be well and have a wonderful summer. >> thank you. good day. neil: all right, you too. we're learning that some of these james bond movies that have been scooped up as part of that amazon purchase of mgm, the great movie giant, will stay in the movie theaters despite all of that. that would include the new one coming out the daniel craig, i think that was made about 48 years ago, so he's 98 now, but

of course it's a couple years old already, but because of covid it was delayed delayed delayed still planning on coming out in the fall, you won't have to stream it you could find it in theaters despite the amazon acquisition of mgm. stay with us.

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>> has there ever been a pandemic that we know of that started in a laboratory somewhere? >> to our knowledge, no. >> if it did come out of a lab that be a first for the world, is that right? >> i believe so. >> who should look, what should we be doing to make sure we find out how it started and finally, what should be the consequences to any country, china included, that allowed this to happen? >> well first of all when you said who should, you know, the w. h. o. did what they're referring to now as phase i of an investigation, which they felt was not completely adequate neil: all right, so finding out how this whole covid thing started 14-15 months ago, some new indications that it might very well have started in the

lab, so much we don't know but the chinese certainly aren't helping in these investigation efforts. jackie deangelis has a lot more for us on how social media is dealing with this as well. jackie? reporter: that's right, good afternoon to you, neil and this debate is heating up. there is a school of thought and it is backed by science, that suggests that covid-19 was such a potent coronavirus it couldn't have developed in nature or in a wet market, like the chinese are suggesting. now we've got the former cdc director robert redfield, he said that covid-19 was most likely leaked from a lab, dr. anthony fauci saying he's not convinced that covid-19 occurred in nature and alternative origins are possible , but today's big tech and social media platforms are policing content and clamping down on this debate. it seems to be another step in this growing censorship on these platforms. new report indicating that facebook's fact checkers banned posts that suggested that covid-19 may have come from a laboratory. the facebook placed a false

information notification over these posts, even as growing evidence surfaced that maybe these claims have merit. now, there also is an italian journalist that wrote a book on this issue and he claims he's been blacklisted from advertising his book on google. remember, neil, almost 600,000 people have died from this virus in the u.s. alone, almost 3.5 million worldwide. that's the latest figures from the cdc. people want answers, they want accountability, they want to make sure that something like this never would happen again, and of course, if big tech stifles these conversations, getting to those answers is only going to be harder, neil? neil: yeah, it does when china doesn't cooperate for whatever reason, jackie, thank you very very much. back with my friend bob lahita, from st. joseph health, professor of medicine at rutgers , medical college genius. so, doctor, a lot of people want to sort of go back in how this started because they are

afraid it could happen again. first of all, do you give much weight to this fear that indeed did start in a lab in this wuhan lab? >> yeah, i do, neil. i really believe that it could have started in a laboratory in wuhan and i'll tell you why. because there are wet markets all over southern china, and we haven't seen these kinds of things develop. coronavirus is fairly common in bats and everything else, but this very very virulent form of coronavirus, i believe, could only have come from a laboratory , and i think that's the source and wuhan was the source, technicians and we now have intelligence to suggest that. neil: let's say that was the case, doctor. you got a pretty good gut with these things. that raises a serious issue about the lack of chinese cooperation to either ascertain that, finalize that, move on, and learn from that, because

then it could most certainly happen again. >> i think it's going to happen again, and many scientists predict that we will have another pandemic, largely because the world is so small now. you can travel within a day to virtually anywhere in the world, and we know that these viruses are around. i really, though, have never seen a virus as virulent from this one from nature and it makes it likely that its been manufactured in a laboratory where you can play with the genes and make things a lot more virulent than in nature. neil: doctor if i could switch gears a little bit to reports now that malaysia has become a new global hotspot, the indicates per 1 million people now eclipsed those of india. that seems to be stabilizing i don't want to be jumping the gun on that. what do you make of the rolling nature of this and that's maybe going too far as if it's happening in lots and lots of countries but it does have a

sort of some weird quirks to it. >> yeah, it does, neil. this virus mutates very very quickly and most of the vaccines , the good news is the vaccines protect us against the variants, but these variants are very infected and cause very severe disease, so those people who are not vaccinated are at particular risk. if their variant, for example, from india takes hold in our country, we could see another spike in infections in those who are not vaccinated. neil: do you see that happening? >> i could see that happening in certain pockets of the country. there are certain pockets of the country such as the midwest, the rural areas of the southwest , where the vaccine percentages are extremely low. vaccine hesitancy, right now, is probably at its peak. we vaccinated 50% of the country , and 50% of the

country is now protected. we've given almost 275 million doses of the vaccine, that includes the first and second doses, to a lot of people, who are now protected. i'm not concerned about them. i am concerned about the non- urban areas where people are not sufficiently vaccinated in large percentages. neil: all right, fingers crossed , we'll get through this without some of these bumps that scare people, but we're not out of the woods yet. doctor, thank you very much, good catching up with you. >> thanks, neil. neil: all right, no, i apologize there. i just want to bring you up-to-date a couple of other developments here we talk about food shortages, we talk about sometimes some gas shortages at least spikes in prices, but what about lifeguard shortages? there's a shortage of workers there too, and it's coming at the height of what will be the kickoff to the summer swimming season. then what?

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neil: well, you heard about how difficult it is for businesses to find any workers. imagine the problem with finding lifeguards. they are in short supply too, and all of this , ahead of the unofficial kickoff of summer , this weekend, with memorial day, the very latest on that front with grady trimble who joins us out of chicago. hey, grady. reporter: hey, neil, beaches in chicago officially reopened this friday, and people are already out here soaking up the sun, but in some parts of the country, pools and beaches, they won't open at all this

memorial day weekend, because you said it. there are not enough lifeguards in the country right now, so what is causing this lifeguard shortage? well there's a few things. some of it might be teenagers or their parents weary about entering the workforce during the pandemic, some of the certification and training courses they were canceled or delayed because of covid and on top of that a lot of lifeguards are typically foreign exchange students, and they're not in the united states right now, so we talked to the american lifeguard association and they tell us they're having to get creative to try to recruit people to become lifeguards, listen. >> going to the swim teams, getting the word out, word of mouth has always been a big one, we're targeting some of the senior citizens at the pools , we're finding less and less people available, if you will, as well as less and less are interested. reporter: and some of the park districts across the country that are seeing this shortage, they're trying to lure lifeguard

s by increasing wages, hoping that might get people interested in sitting atop the lifeguard stands. by the way, neil, 55 degrees today on lake michigan, in the water. a lot warmer on the beach itself , my photographer, he's a chicago native and he says the water is pleasant but my feet feel pretty numb right now, i'm a florida boy, gulf coast, warm water. neil: [laughter] yeah you're used to something a little warmer. all right, thank you very much for that grady trimble. so not only lifeguard shortages as we told you earlier in the show we're having all sorts of shortages particularly when it comes to stuff you eat like chicken it's in quite the short supply don't know how long this lasts or the impact it'll have but when you consider my next guest it's a big part and pretty much exclusively the part of their business, and zach mc law enforcement roy runs zach 's pizza, if you're not familiar with this place it's an institution, wonderful food. i hope my cardiology isn't listening but i'm telling you, they have a spicy chicken

sandwich to die for , and every time i see that in clemson in south carolina on tiger boulevard that's where i go, so, zach, it's very good to have you you have outstanding food -- >> good to be here. neil: it's good to have you. is it getting to be difficult to deal with this chicken shortage, has it hit you, how are you dealing with it? what are you looking at? >> well, here just in the last few weeks it has become a challenge. you know, all of the suppliers are facing the same challenge as we are. they just can't find people to work in the production facilit ies, and it also, with the increased demand in the chicken segment. every brand is focusing on chicken. every brand new has a chicken sandwich so this is much more increased demand, and there's just the numbers are just rising in chicken. a lot of demand for our type of product and so with the extra demand and the lack of people to work in the factories is really hurting the chicken production.

neil: now, have you had to raise prices as a result? can you hear me? go ahead. all right, i apologize for that. that happens sometimes, but hopefully we'll get the chicken guy back and they do have other things besides chicken i say it's a large part of their operation, but again, a lot of people are looking at this as something that it's only temporary because it is a shortage of workers that some of the chicken processing plants that as soon as they get back, then this is less of an issue but it's too early to say, i believe we have lost him for good here. i apologize for that, but we'll have an update on that and how things are going and no, i wasn't looking for free food from zaxby's but i be open to it is the boss watching? no i didn't say i'd be open to it. i was just winging it. okay we're going to take a break before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new?

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neil: you know the very latest mortgage applications fell about 4.2%, and it was a little bit more than thought, and the annual pressure, of course is building on a 7.2% slide, but what's going on here is something that we've been talking about a good deal that the price of homes is going up, so obviously, that might limit the number of people who can purchase homes to say nothing of an environment where rates were at least when this was recorded backing up a tad bit has since come back down but it's the conned um rum of housing, it's in demand, but because of the demand, we're seeing with the zaxby's ceo the price of the product goes up and people will still eat their chicken but buying a house is a different story. we'll have more after this.

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neil: all right, they run the biggest banks in the world if you think about it and they are all on capitol hill today. a lot of it being done virtually but it has been sometimes pretty

agitated. blake burman following their testimony first to the senate side, and then to the house side , elizabeth warren getting in jamie dimon's face among others about how much they've been helping out through the pandemic, i guess in her view, not much, but blake, how's it going right now? reporter: a lot of topics, i'll tell you neil one of the more fascinating things was something that you just talked about which was the state of housing and housing prices in this country, whether you are buying a house or selling a house or maybe thinking about one of the two or should i buy, should i rent at this point. i suspect there's a lot of americans across the country who are wondering are we in a housing bubble, or might we be approaching a housing bubble? that was the very question that was brought forth to the ceo's of six of the largest banks of this country, senator john tester of montana asked are we in a housing bubble right now and two, if we are, or if that bubble at some point pops, down

the line, how well capitalized are the banks now to avoid what happened back in 2,008 dear crash 2009-2010 and here were the answers to some of the ceo's from the first part of that question. >> i don't see it as a bubble but there's a lot going on that is inflating asset prices and i think we have to continue to watch asset prices, watch inflation, watch monetary and fiscal policy and hopefully the fed will get the right balance. >> it is a little bit of a bubble in housing prices stuff like that unlike 08 and 09 there there was tremendous leverage and bad mortgage underwriting. >> not a bubble nationally. reporter: neil, the basic consensus from listening to all six ceo's answer that question was it is something that they believe needs to be watched, needs to be followed closely, especially here in the upcoming months, they don't believe necessarily although you heard jamie dimon sort of elude to it that we're necessarily in a full

-blown nationwide bubble right now, but they also made the point that relates to now versus 08/09 that at least you know brian moinahan bank of america brought this up that the underwriting process over the last 5, 10, 15 years is certainly different now than what it was a dozen years or so ago. neil? neil: so it did sound, blake, a lot of them were saying it won't be a repeat of the housing melt down, but certainly not as much of the giddiness around that or people using their home as giant cash dispensers and i get that, but you are getting at anecdotal evidence of some hot markets where people are bidding properties, site unseen and i'm just wondering if they get worried about it. reporter: well yeah and one of the answers was from, i believe the head of i want to say morgan stanley who you might have heard from there, saying nationwide, not a bubble but in some markets it is certainly frothy, was how it was put. you know, we see it in the case-

schiller, 20 markets a l across the country but clearly there's more than 20 housing markets all across the country, depending on where you go, the process is just nuts, and it's why a lot of people are asking the question, and, you know, why it was put before the ceo's today who basically said, let's keep an eye on it, not a nationwide bubble but certainly the anecdotal evidence is there in a lot of markets across the country. neil: all right, we'll watch it closely blake burman at the white house, thank you very much , my friend. let's get a read on all of this , this inflation theme is something that really if you think about it, as evidence itself in the purchasing of bitcoin and gold of late, certainly this year. they've been stories and as we said in our last hour, these have been sort of deemed alternative investment strateg ies to deal with, you know, government spending run amuck and all of this , and do you pick gold as that hedge, do you pick bitcoin as a hedge, do you do both as a hedge? phil flynn with us the price

futures group senior analyst fox news contributor. what do you think, i mean, when you talk to people, and you were way ahead of this energy curve and the up-tick in prices of the colonial pipeline situation with just sort of like the icing on that cake, but leaving that part aside, i think the inflation thing is real. i'm not saying it's 70s real but it's real, and its got a grip. i guess the question is, how much of one. >> i think it's definitely real , and it's part in parcel of what we've been saying for some time is that we've under -invested in the commodities sector for some time and you know, we have central banks around the globe printing money like crazy, and that creates inflation. that's how you make inflation. you know, we've had the federal reserve, neil, as you know, trying to create inflation for the last couple of years, and they didn't have a lot of success, but behind the scenes, what we've been seeing is that we've created a lot of demand for commodities but we haven't seen the same type of investment

go into that. that's why we're seeing supply squeezes right now. that's why everybody wants to buy gold, and bitcoin, and you know, get their hands-on on it because they want to protect themselves against their declining wealth. neil: you know, i know and i've chatted about this many times, phil, that perspective is everything. i don't know if i ever told you what my wife and i spent for our first mortgage back in the 80s. oh, i did. >> i'd like to hear. neil: well what's happening though is i think we live in our own heads though. so you're a young person and you could remember what mortgages were two something and they get to be three-something, four- something, that's a big adjustment and now to older farts like myself looking back at 13.5-14% it's a very different style and a different approach but i'm wondering if that's scaring off potential home buying activity even in this latest mortgage application activity that slid 4% or so. what do you think? >> yeah, i think it is.

neil, i'm the guy, my first new car was an 85 cougar, i think my interest rate was like 22%, but i loved the car, right? i think i paid for that car 15 times over, but anyway, no you're absolutely right. listen, the housing issue, i agree with most of the bankers up on capitol hill today. i don't think it's 2008 all over again, but i think we're seeing a situation where prices have gone up so much, we have to level off a little bit. you know, when you get the price of lumber going up 300%, you get the cost of precious metals and industrial metals going through the roof you've got to have an adjustment and let's face it. we saw record home sales coming into the market, and it drove those prices even higher because of the supply chain issues and made it even worse, so it's going to take sometime to level off so i think the housing market will cool off a little bit, but it's just over time. when you get back to bitcoin and gold, what's the best hedge? they're both a good hedge. the problem right now is a lot

of the smart money is spreading the two, right? and when bitcoin is outperformed the gold, they use that as a hedge so when we get a crazy tweet from elon musk, to go back in the gold for a safe haven but that's a spread and i think it's going to continue. neil: all right, and they can all rise together for a while, nothing outlaws that but we'll keep an eye on it. phil flynn you're the best my friend, i appreciate it. phil flynn, following these developments and again right now the market more than holding its own here. again, just sort of coasting as these days ensue until of course the memorial weekend when everybody seems to leave town and you could see it day by day, we'll have more after this. in business, it's never just another day. it's the big sale, or the big presentation.

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your passions, and the way you help others. so you can live your life. that's life well planned. neil: amazon buying mgm. it is up 15 bucks. there is little concern whether it can afford it i guess. charles payne. hey, charles. charles: hey, neil. by the grey great interview with dan hoffman. very touching. straight to have you back, neil. good afternoon, everyone. i'm charles payne. this is "making money." breaking knew, suits and financial media are in meltdown mode as short squeeze names remind them that the independent retail investor is here to stay. gamestop and amc surging and squeezing the shorts dry. we have potential short candidates on the show.