going from trading shells to now i guess we are using paper and maybe even bitcoin, to some extent and how social relationships played into how we came to understand money. jack: carlton, beverly, great book ideas. thank you so much for dream or check out this week's edition@barron's .com. to forget to follow us on twitter at barron's online and that is all for usss >> happy we can do all, welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo appeared we are seeing a strong new signs of economic growth and i will be asking mark where he is investing coming out. i will also be. mara: senator rand paul and his wife, kelly paul. they are speaking out against twitter after receiving a violent threat in the mail this past week. the role they say is a social

media giant and '80s pop singer richard marx played in inciting this threat. plus, small business struggling to recover after lockdowns and now they are facing it another big threat. head of the largest small business association in america is here to tell me why they are launching a survival campaign against president biden's policies but first let's take a look back at some of the top newsmakers on "mornings with maria" in this addition of the week's talkers, watch. ♪♪ >> we have seen reports of labor shortages, inflation so how do you characterize the economic backdrop today? >> the economy is very close fully employed and it's almost impossible to find skilled labor, which is a big problem. maria: we have a major crisis our border and i was just there three weeks ago and was able to witness firsthand. >> what is the message coming out of homeland security and coming out of the white house is hey, it's getting better, it's

getting better but what they mean by that when you asked them and i've had the opportunity to ask the secretary what he means by it's getting better and we are holding pure people at the border and were releasing them into the country. maria: you've already met with five of these six ceos ahead of today's testimony so what are you assessing? >> i expect that big banks are like big tech. both sides of the political aisle are mad at them for different reasons. maria: meanwhile, in economic data weekly jobless claims dropping to a new pandemic low this week and a second read on first gdp confirming the economy is growing at a rapid pace. joining me is janet montgomery scott chief investment strategist, mark, great to have you this weekend or thank you for being here. first, assess where we are in the macro story. we got a pretty good gdp number, better than 6% growth in the second read of the first quarter. your thoughts on that as well as the jobless claims. what does it tell us in terms of where we are?

>> it tells us, maria, were making tremendous progress on the recovery to reestablish the level of total economic output that country has had prior to the pandemic. we still need a lot of work to be done yet and closing the gap on the employment rate which is still well above where we were under pre- pandemic level but encouragingly and we will get another report here in the first week of june that will give us more evidence that the first of all, last month's report was an anomaly and then we will see much stronger economic activity and also it's a release of the gd report that its economy is sizzling at the moment and that was a look back on first-quarter gdp but the fact is the federal reserve own real-time calculation showing numbers north of 10% at the moment. it's indicative of strong economic growth right now that we think it's likely to persist. maria: so, do you want to be putting money where that economic strength is? do you want to be fine, for example, cyclical stocks and stick to those companies that are benefiting from the stronger

economy and do you want to buy companies that have pricing power given the worries of inflation? >> maria, you hit on all the talking points relative that you do want to lean into mo stuff only. yes, we seen a rotation into defensive areas or large-cap growth like technology, stocks on and off again but we've been underway since september of last year and has this rotation to cyclicality really stuck and we think it's likely to continue to be well supported by the fact that these companies but, particularly in sectors like materials, energy and industrials, thrive on an environment which has expansive economic activity, increasing price and powers and the emergence of some level of inflation and ultimately, too, because they tend to be disposed towards equity markets and economies outside the united states, given the acceleration we are seen in other parts of the world a compliment to the earnings growth are likely to

give domestically also coming from abroad. maria: what is your take on the riskier areas of this market? look for at crypto, massively volatile week of bitcoin wild ride this past week and does that tell you anything in terms of investor appetite for risk, where we are in that score or would you buy bitcoin? >> a couple of things on that level, maria. one, the movement in some of the crypto currencies is a video syncretic to that space and the embryonic stage and it is still in relative its evolution towards establishing either a method of exchange or considered to be more broadly than what it is currently which tends to have a much larger retail disposition that it does in institutional one. i think also it does speak a little bit to the speculation and in the areas of the market that investors are diving into almost in some cases blindly

because it simply going up in value, not necessarily because they're attributing any fundamental value to it. that's a big worrisome and does speak to some of the profit in the marketplace and i think it's volatility in its reaction in the market at large also suggests that valuations by the overall stock market today at about 22 times forward are quite full which makes the market at large vulnerable to anything that might come along but hearing or otherwise that could catalyze a pullback and as to whether we would make investments? as a firm, we are not necessarily breaking crypto currencies as an advocacy but i do have sympathy for those who do and their value and watching very closely, particularly as they involve not only as an asset class but how central banks around the world are adopting digital currencies or, at least, exploring them as options as way to coexist with these other crypto assets. maria: yeah, good point to make, particularly as we are all wondering what regular tory

backdrop we will get for these crypto currencies as well. mark, great to see you this weekend. thanks so much. senator rand paul holding doctor anthony fauci feet to the fire on the origins of covid-19 and getting death threats after it. speak with the senator and his speak with the senator and his wi did you know that geico's whole 15 minutes thing... that came from me. really. my first idea was “in one quarter of an hour, your savings will tower... over you. figuratively speaking." but that's not catchy, is it? that's not going to swim about in your brain. so i thought, what about... 15 minutes. 15 percent. serendipity. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. (vo) ideas exist inside you, electrify you. serendipity. they grow from our imagination, but they can't be held back. they want to be set free.

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and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. ♪♪ maria: welcome back. the biden administration now ordering u.s. intelligence to investigate the origins of covid in 19, including the details of what happened at that wuhan lab of herbology. after shutting down the probe into the origins which was led by former secretary of state mike pompeo and the lighthouse claiming it wants a report in 90 days on what happened and it says it's not taking any questions about it from the media. kentucky senator foreign relations committee rand paul has been pressing doctor anthony

fauci about funding from the nih to the wuhan lab. >> doctor fauci, do you still support funding of the nih funding of the lab in wuhan? >> senator paul, with all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect that the nih has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the wuhan institute. maria: entirely incorrect. actually, now fauci is walking that back in here is the senator's reaction. >> i think it's pretty extraordinary. doctor fauci for at least a year has been discounting the theory that this came from the lab but you have to ask is there a conflict of interest? he was in favor of it still is in favor of funding chinese scientists. the people that he gave the money to at eco- health he is self interested also and doesn't

want there to be any kind of truth that comes out that this came from the lab. do i know for certain it came from the lab? no but they have been downplaying and discounting this and not wanting to investigate because guess what, it boomerangs on them. all of their, you know, pretentiousness about taking care of us in the pandemic, what if it turns out that we were funding the lab where this pandemic originated? this is a huge blight on the career of doctor fauci but shows that he will do anything to tried to deflect blame. maria: well, what about the culpability of the chinese, and his party, senator? look, the walls are truly closing in here. he had a reporter out of australia two weeks ago report that she has records of conversations taking place among members where they discuss weapon amazing a sars coronavirus and using it as a weapon, five years before the pandemic showed up and then, of

course, you got this report from the house intelligence agencies talking about the potential of penalizing this. was this a bio weapon? >> perhaps. i don't think we will ever know and i don't even think we know if it was on purpose but even if it was accidental we should know and they should have tried to help the world with this but this is a bigger debate than just china. we have 11 labs in the united states doing this gain of function research where they take an animal virus and they make it more effective into humans. i'm not alone in worrying about this. there are scientists in this field, a few years ago 200, signed a letter saying we should stop gain of function research and stop temporarily but guess who started it up again? doctor fauci. doctor fauci started giving exemptions and doctor fauci hands and his finger prints are all over gain of function research and he said repeatedly in the past he favors this research but then comes to congress and says oh no, i'm not in favor of ever doing this but

on record with an interview with the washington post saying he's in favor of gain of function research. we should not be creating superbugs or super viruses. maria: you continue come out holding people's feet to the fire and begin sure that the audiences and the communities understand where the truth lies and you get attacked for it over and over again from your neighbor to the crowds in washington that you and your wife had to deal with to now suspicious package that arrived at your home in kentucky. i want to bring in your wife, kelly paul is with us as well this morning. senator paul and kelly paul, we appreciate you joining us to talk about what has become incredibly personal to you both. you saw a package, received a package at your home containing white powder that was later deemed harmless but there was a photo of a bruised and bandaged picture of you, senator, with a gun to your head threatening

violence. kelly, let me bring you in before i get the senator's comments here. how did you feel when you got this package? can you tell us what happened? >> hello, maria. well, i was scared, obviously. it's a terrible feeling and your heart just drops and it was a sunday, monday afternoon and i walked to my mailbox and headed big stack of mail and was standing in my front yard so thank goodness i wasn't in the house and never brought the letter into the house and standing sort of right up to my front steps and i started shuffling through the mail and i looked down and i see this horrible image of the wounded rand, doctor image with a gun against his head and i looked down and it says, you know, i will finish with the other guy started um eff er and i froze and was disgusted and i went to sort of throw the letter down and i did not open it but as i did i could feel something that

sounded like sand, like a weighty substance and i could feel it moving in the letter so i ran inside and washed my hands and of course i was terrified and you think of anthrax and you think of the you know, poisoning that happened years ago when people send poisons in the mail and immediately called rand and the fbi and the sheriff and you know, everyone is telling me take off all your clothes because i had been holding the mail up against my chest and get in the shower so i had, you know, several hours before i found out that it was non-toxic thinking that i might have been poisoned. you know, i had someone from the fbi saying are you having any shortness of breath and, you know, there are lethal poisons and it was very thin paper so i was thinking if i absorbed something to my hands it was a terrifying day and it is pure terrorism. people are just trying to terrorize us into silence for being a public servant.

maria: yeah, that's right. and senator, it is not the first time that you've gotten beaten up by your next-door neighbor at one point and then you both were crowded and smooshed together by crowds after the republican national convention. >> there wasn't an altercation or fight with the person that assaulted me. i was hit from behind with someone running full blast down a hill, never was aware of who hit me or what hit me and had six ribs broken and my lung damaged a part of my lung removed. the left is hilarious. they think it's hilarious what happened to me and they encourage people to do it and that's the whole name on the internet. people think it's hilarious, common finish the job. that's really funny but i almost died and they think it's funny and they want to do it again? twitter does not do a damn thing. i finally talked to them and they took this down but was the guy punished? no, the guy keep saying this and we've got a white powder the day after some has been songwriter, you know, encourage people to

come over and finish the job. he says he will buy drinks for anybody that will calm and assault me again. not one democrat came up to me since i've been back and said i'm sorry that you're having to deal with having white powder sent in an envelope. not one. maria: my thanks to senator rand paul and kelly paul for joining us. 60% more travel expected to hit the road and skies this holiday weekend. great news for small businesses who have been struggling to recover from the lockdowns but ahea not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a bit differently. wet teddy bears! wet teddy bears here! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ in business, it's never just another day. it's the big sale, or the big presentation.

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♪♪ maria: welcome back. more americans are out and about traveling this holiday week and a good news for small businesses across the country. they are trying to get back on their feet after a big pandemic

hit but the largest advocacy groups for u.s. small business is sounding the alarm about yet another big threat coming to the national federation of independent business is launching what it calls a survival campaign against bidens tax policies in mandates being negotiated this week with republican lawmakers. i'm joined right now by national federation of independent business president and ceo brad )-right-parenthesis brad, great to have you this weekend and thanks very much for joining us. we been talking a lot about the biden administration's spend and tax plan and tell me about the threat coming to small business and its impact. >> thanks, maria. we are really concerned. we are launching a survival campaign for small businesses because we want to protect them from the massive tax increases, new rules, mandates and revelations that are coming out of washington. it's amazing for small business owners to think that washington believes that these new proposals won't hurt small businesses but the effect of them will be to grind to a halt

the very fragile small business recovery. maria: you know, it's interesting because you've got the same rules for big medium and small. right? it is the same regulatory framework whether you are talking about, you know, a small business catering to a lot fewer customers then say, for example, a j.p. morgan or a bank of america or, you know, procter & gamble. when you look at the big companies they have the wherewithal to hire lawyers, higher accountants and get the wherewithal that they need to deal with these new regulations but small businesses don't so they will be faced with the same tax increases but a lot bigger finds an impact than a larger business, right? >> yet, washington tends to lose sight that when you're talking about taxes and regulations they impacted small business owners very differently and having a one-size-fits-all policy just does not work for the little

guys. most small businesses are typical member is five or ten employees and run by an owner and the spouse and family run business and they do all the right of the tree work themselves. they may have an accountant or a lawyer that they work with but they do all that stuff and it's impossible for them to keep track of all the rules and revelations that come out of washington and then if you want to throw on a bunch of new tax increases on their just when they tell us they are ready to hire and grow it's going to be awful and i think washington to lose sight of the impact of their proposals on the little guys. maria: so, tell me about your campaign and about the most onerous taxes and regulations that are coming down the pipe. >> when you look at the tax increases that are proposed right now basically they are proposing a whole new second estate tax, the death tax it will reach even more small businesses and more farms and more individuals than the current hit. if you look at the top marginal rates, the administrations proposing to increase the top rates and that will ensnare even more small businesses and then there are about a million that

are small businesses and they will see under this proposal about a 33% increase in their taxes and that will not help anyone and it's really going to harm the small business recovery. maria: so, when you harm the small business recovery you end up impacting the american population and what to small businesses typically do when they are faced with higher expenses from higher taxes and higher fees? >> yet, i think washington tends to think small business owners are like sitting on a pot of money like there's a closet in the back that has a pile of money that we will fund any new regulation in mandate but that is not true. create new jobs they have to have revenue coming in. when you have a new mandate and the new expense from washington put on them they have to make tough choices and that can be to raise prices and awfully hard to do right now and it can be to cut back hours of employees and not create new job board means that they have to let employees go in all things that harm and economic recovery really hurt

job growth and when you look at job growth and the impact on the economy the small business impact is huge and we create half the new jobs and half the economic growth in this country so this is something that washington tends to overlook and it really hurt small businesses as we go forward here. maria: you're right. the money has to come from somewhere. small business owners have to make a choice. should i take on more employees or cut employees? faced with higher costs, we know what typically happens. red, great to get your take on all of this. thanks so much. we will look at your campaign we will look at your campaign and follow it and it's not some magical number. and it's not something we just achieve at the end. it's a feeling... of freedom to live our lives the way we intended. though the ups... ...the downs ...all of it. this is financial security. and lincoln financial solutions will help you get there as you plan, protect and retire.

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secretary ted wolf and fox news senior strategic analyst retired general jack keane all coming up this weekend. every weekend you will start smart right here on foxbusiness six until 9:00 a.m. with "mornings with maria" on foxbusiness, start your day with us every weekday and i hope you will. that will do it for us for this weekend and thank you so much for being here, have a wonderful memorial weekend as we remember and honor our nation's heroes. ♪♪ >> welcome to "the wall street journal" at large. when prominent republicans alleged over one year ago the covid-19 pathogen might have leaked from a chinese government lab they got the usual treatment from the truth vigilantes in the media. tom cotton the arkansas senator was among the first question the official chinese version that the virus had passed from animals to humans from a so-called wet market in wuhan. instead he suggested the ftf