it is great stuff. i will be in no mood, believe me, if england looses to germany. i will not be in a mood at all. england better win. or else, pyro, you will not eat lunch on this set again. neil cavuto, if i'm pitching to, if england doesn't win, you can do nine to 12 tomorrow, neil. you want to do that? neil: first of all you call it football. in europe they call it football. we have a different football, right. so yours is the bothering one. ours is the riveting one. yours goes on and on and on. ours can be violent. do i have it pretty much summed up. stuart: no. totally wrong neil, but who cares. neil: got it. very good. note to self, don't bother with soccer game. thank you, my friend.

[laughter]. i can see the whole european community, what did he say? welcome, everybody, i am neil cavuto. we continue ton fox business. looking at rally, s&p 500, nasdaq would be new records. i did the math in my head. s&p 500 still a couple percentage points to go. of course striving this is optimism about infrastructure package that could come. all of the charting spending plans. united airlines made the largest sweat order in like jed order history. 270 such jets as it plans to beef up or what it thinks will be and hopes will be a very travel demand society worldwide. it is also planning to hire about 25,000 folks over the next few years. this on the heels of southwest we're getting word, planning to put people on rotation, ships, here. so they can put up with the

july 4th weekend demand. that is sort of the wind at the markets back. we'll see how long that lasted. meantime we're paying close attention to that aforementioned infrastructure deal. the president is out in wisconsin pushing for it. owe might have an uphill battle here. it is not so of what he cobbled back together with republicans but heat he is facing for democrats, roughly, one trillion dollar plan. you start adding, taking away some of the existing spending, not as expensive certainly some progressives wanted. he is making a pitch today in wisconsin. edward lawrence at white house with a lot more. edward. reporter: we'll see if there are fireworks here. mt. expected to land any minute ininace,isinco.isin.isis bringi it baco gra amera.erica. seofe somropo plsominittl

o o whiteoute. in the tmecanri rescuenlann a pr bm,il 4m,il-dli rato gm eiveeoneyo tay tff mi frimeoans l aiv osblosacis rismne eteuati then thenhehe gotgohehens.. in cap gairlann h a a ele tathe theteppedtepppasis.as rodtetete fiofalls ouref daresiges with w w w w prote po that family-owned businesses and farms will not have to pay income taxes when given to their hairs who continue to run the business -- heirs. this will encourage family farms to stay in the family. still former wisconsin congressman sean duffy all farmers are seeing though is division. >> actual infrastructure is popular in wisconsin but there is a lot of frustration with wisconsin voters, number one, we had a rescue plan that favored farm bailouts those minoritys who are farmers as opposed to those who are white farmers a

lot of white farmers in wisconsin. a lot of people in wisconsin lost their jobs. they were working as union members on the keystone pipeline. reporter: white house press second said farmers will see progress to the president. she reports to the bipartisan infrastructure deal. >> safe to say leaders in congress, speaker pelosi, leader schumer, republicans supported infrastructure bill wants the president to play. how officials are working together to deliver for them. reporter: the president will also be making the case for the american families plan which does not have that bipartisan support. in fact in the past senator joni ernst said at president's words and actions don't match up when he says he supports farmers. back to you, neil. neil: edward, thank you very much for that. meantime want to take you to the house right now where they are looking at trying to get to the beginnings, the origins of the

covid. of course they're coming up zeros here getting bipartisan support for this effort. democrats are not part of it. let's go to rich edson with the latest. reporter: good afternoon, neil. this covid investigation in the house is just underway. it is made up of house republicans hosting a forum how this pandemic began. a number of folks testifying here are former trump administration officials who were tasked last year trying to figure out where and when this pandemic started. democrats have the majority in the house which means they control congressional committees, which means they figure out which hearings they put on. so this is not an official congressional hearing. this is republicans only. it is a forum. and republicans have no authority to compel witnesses here or to have them provide documents. >> mountains of evidence that continue to grow that show that it may have started in that lab in wuhan. house republicans decided that we're going to have our own hearing.

reporter: the biden administration has initiated a intelligence review into the origins of covid-19 to examine whether the virus escaped from the wuhan institute of virology or developed naturally. democrats say they need to allow that process to finish before having premature conclusions. china is spinning this back on the united states. a foreign ministry spokesperson said quote, we once again urge the u.s. side to immediately stop its political manipulation on the origin tracing issue and stop playing dirty tricks on the scientific community. it should adopt a scientific and transparent attitude to invite the world health organization experts for origin tracing into the u.s. china is pushing vision into american bio labs while reducing to provide information and data for early patients infected in wuhan the early part

of that last year. neil, back to you. neil: rich edson, thank you very, very much. to senator roger marshall right now, kansas republican and physician by training. we always get a interesting read what is happening with the virus given that twin background. so, senator, very good to see you. i did want to touch on the delta variant you and i were last discussing. it spread a little bit. it is all but shutting down much of asia, a good chunk of australia. should we worry about it? >> should be concerned about it, neil. delta variant spreads quicker, easier. they're arguing back and forth if it is more lethal or not. the best news i can tell you, if you had the covid virus, protection from you any serious sequelae from the delta variant. we think vaccinations have reasonable protection, not perfect protection but pretty

solid protection. neil: senator, mean time, you don't mind harkening back to physician side of you, world health organization and now l.a. county, are advising even those fully vaccinated to still wear masks. what do you think of that? >> well, i don't think there is any science to back that up. what i think, what i'm concerned about, why do people in certain sectors warrant to control americans? look, if you know i was elderly, and had diabetes, maybe i would but i think that otherwise it is way much, it is overreach. certainly i think that individuals, americans can make that decision if really given the proper information. i think the cdc is typically a month or three behind the information that i would like to have but i think that is a little bit of an overreaction unless you have a serious underlying health condition. neil: bottom line, vaccines out

there, senator, are enough to deal even with this stubborn variant, right? >> i think for the most part. there is always exceptions to the rule. and i think that the exception would some one let's say 75 years old, on chemotherapy, have diabetes. may not protect you from totally giving you the virus but usually keeps you out of the hospital. the emphasis we're so close to herd immunity. urge people to get vaccinations. we need something called a t-cell test. the t-cell test would tell you if you already have the virus. as i tell my grandchildren around my daughter what to do with my grandson i would love to know if they already had the virus but the fda is holding up the test. for what reasons i don't know. it is approved in great britain. they tell me they don't have enough oxygen in the room to see

if it is worthwhile or not but a t-cell test would be very helpful. neil: the president is starting in wisconsin, stumping if you will, on the infrastructure package looked like it was hanging on a vine when he abandoned republicans on the deal, he said linked to any further spending will not be linked anymore. republicans are leery. democrats are furious. how are you as well? >> i'm furious as well. fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on you and the president said three times. i've been in the senate for four years, if this happened in the private world, someone negotiating through the press, obviously trying to negotiate through the press now i would have called my lawyer, call those people cancel the deal i don't want to talk to them. we need a harder stance here. i understand he is herding a lot of cats over on his side but i think below the belt, right?

when he did, he made his comments, that he tied the two. that wasn't a mistake. i think it was purposeful or else it was dumb and stupid. so i'm furious. i would have loved to see an infrastructure plan. senators, democrats, republicans, work their tails off. they had a solid plan i think if we explain a little better how it would be paid for, i was trying to get to yes. i'm pretty skeptical. if you don't trust the person across the table negotiating with you, it is really hard to get to yes. neil: all right. we'll watch it closely. senator roger marshall, thank you, sir. very good seeing you again. we have the dow up 80 points right now. s&p is in and out of record territory. the nasdaq gave up a little bit. we monitored this the president's infrastructure remarks in wisconsin. even though capital gains adjustments are not part of that package, they're a big worry for some of the people that the president will be addressing today, particularly farmers who

feel that state issues, capital gains issues are a big issue for them since that is their legacy they pass on to their kids. don't be surprised if infrastructure veers here. it becomes basic money matters to folks who say the president pulled run out from under them. we're on it after this. ♪. they said it couldn't be done but you managed to pack a record 1.1 trillion transistors into this chip whoo! yeah! oh, hi i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq 100 like you you don't have to be circuit design engineer

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♪. neil: you know when i first heard about this united jet order, of course all the market averages were moving ahead right now. this might have had a big chunk doing it. i want to put into perspective, united airlines just ordered 270 jets. will get 200 boeing 737 max jets and 70 airbus. make it is like every third one you get the fourth one off. i don't know if that is the case. it is $30 billion, and it is built on optimism by united it sees boom times returning for air travel not in the next few months as we come out of the

pandemic but for years to come, so much so, it plans to hire 25,000 new workers in the next few years right through 2026. that is enormous faith you're putting in the economy and a rebound, plunging down money on the bet at that. that is a significant development. how significant and right will this proven to be? go to gary kaltbaum. george seay annandale capital founder. george begin with you, end with you. that is a big, big deal, right? we've seen other companies make commitments to do that and hire but of course this is a big structural commitment. what do you make of it? >> neil, i think we need to step back from the negativity in our country these days and celebrate how good times are. they are really, really good really well. we came out of the recession 10 years ago really well.

general electric making engines for boeing. it is boom times for workers, for companies, and for our country and it is something that really celebrates this 4th of july. neil: then we get news, as you know, gary, about what is going on in real estate, big in your neck of the woods, you're in the orlando area. up tick nationwide prices running 15% clip year-over-year. what do you make of that. still more evidence of a booming economy i would imagine? >> look, confidence begets confidence in the economy and you see big business, not just yapping away, putting their money where their mouth is, it speaks for itself. when it comes to housing it pretty much the consumer's biggest purchase. when they see prices going up, you have something called the positive wealth effect that tends to feed on itself. so you're in the area now. the big issue though will be going forward affordability. we had the same issue in in '06.

where affordability got too much. the lenders lowered the bar to the ground and handed money to anybody who could breathe. we hope we don't get into that situation. but i agree, you know, things are pretty darn good right here. still all this negativity, my only issue i would just wish d.c. would get the heck out of the way. if president biden just sat and did nothing right now i think the economy explodes to the upside but every day we're being hit with the potential for this tax and that tax. i don't think there is a tax that they haven't mentioned at this point and i'm hoping that the republicans yelling and screaming, make sure it is moderated. neil: you know, if you think about it, george, when you look at consumer confidence survey including one out today the highest since before the pandemic, it is little wonder then that all these other numbers are kind of jiving with that. when you're confident, you're

very positive about the future, more glad to buy things. less inclined to worry about some other things still out there, how long do you think this lasts, george? >> neil, i think we've got a couple of years. gary said the government stays out of the way for the most part, i'm praying for divided congress in the midterm elections, they can't really get anything done because they're split, they can't get anything to president biden's desk. i think we'll run for a while. i think this is very strong. the economy is heating up. i worry about inflation, higher interest rates slowing things down and federal government getting fiscal policy wrong. those are, the wind in our face so to speak going forward. for right now we need to celebrate because this is about as good as it gets,. neil: guys, thank you very much. we're finishing showing you the 10-year note. if the market is worried about inflation pressures building there, 10-year note is stable as

all get out. meantime we're looking how facebook dodged what could have been a really big bullet here on two fronts, not only all of these state ags, 46 of them, right now a judge dismissing their suit. separately dismissing a ftc suit until there is more evidence these guys are getting too big for their proverbial britches. hillary vaughn with the latest on the fallout certainly helping facebook shareholders. a little bit of a give-back today. but certainly technology stocks in general. hillary what is the latest? reporter: new fox follow shows out, 62% of people believe facebook has too much power. a court in d.c. told the ftc they need to come back and prove that. back up the claims that facebook is monopoly with more evidence. that is the basis they said they're dismissing this

antitrust lawsuit against facebook from the ftc. yesterday, facebook was cheering in the news, saying this in a statement, we're pleased today's decisions recognize we look fairly to give people's time and attention. the court dismiss ad lawsuit from attorney generals and challenging the happs. the court dismissed that, saying the state ags waist too long to challenge the the decisions. this is creating unlikely bedfellows on capitol hill. josh hawley said this is deeply disturbing from the court that facebook essentially has monopoly power an shrugged its shoulders around bad news for the american people. elizabeth warren said anybody on the internet knows facebook has monopoly power. they control 85% of traffic,

bulldoze competition and undermine our democracy. we need stronger aren't at this trust laws. that is what democratic lawmakers in the house are trying to do. it is clear that the courts will not act. there are six different focused bills targeting big tech companies like facebook that if passed, neil, could spell trouble again for facebook. neil? neil: all right. to your point you wouldn't know it today. the company in and out of a trillion dollar market valuation, one of the richest on the planet. we'll keep an eye on that. hillary, thank you very much. michael dukakis has a warning for fellow democrats on this crime issue. be careful what you're saying. it could boomerang on you big time. he is worried. he is also next. >> not only do we need to defund but we need to dismantle and start anew. >> truly talking about reintroduction of our nypd budget and defunding 6 billion-dollar nypd budget. >> i support the defund

movement. >> the president did mention the american rescue plan could help insure local cops were kept on the beat. didn't receive a single republican vote. ♪♪ ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪

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♪. neil: you know the defund police movement is not quite dead and it is a big worry for former presidential candidate michael dukakis. i will talk to him in just a second but it reared its ugly head in oakland. the latest from william la jeunesse from california. reporter: according to the police chief crime in oakland in his words, out of control. with shootings up 70%, carjackings, 88%, robbery, 11%. yesterday he warned the city

council not to defund his department by a proposed 17 million. >> that additional 17 million that was reduced from the police department's budget will have a impact. when you hear the statements from those that say nothing will change, that is not true. reporter: last year residents demanded the city defund police. since then according to the fbi, oakland has become the fifth most dangerous city in the u.s., yet the council wants to divert police money to social workers and violence prevention. the chief calls that a mistake, reducing by 50 cops means an increase in 911 response times. >> far too often in these meetings we are talking about numbers. we are talking about money and cost. i don't know what the cost of a life is but i know not having resources makes our city less safe. reporter: the council ignored

the chief and approved the cut to repurpose the money. across the bay a new poll found 70% of quality of life in san francisco has declined, pointing to homelessness and crime. car break-ins are up more than 700%. theft, 75%. neil to under score these rising crime points. just hours after the police chief spoke, in the same building two armed robbers held up a tv news crew at city hall. who were they interviewing? the city's director of violence prevention in oakland. neil. neil: that one is like a hollywood script. i didn't see that one coming. thank you very much, my friend. william la jeunesse. want to go to former presidential candidate michael dukakis, governor of massachusetts. in all years and decades i had the honor of covering the governor i never saw him lose his cool which would tell me would never be for example, an italian-american. one of the things i noticed got

his dander up the defund police movement which he told "the hill" was just plain nuts. the governor kind enough to join us now. why is it nuts, governor? >> well it is nuts, neil, we spent the last 20 years or so, certainly when i was governor, other governors as well, bill clinton was a huge advocate community policing and we've transformed policing in many, many parts of the country, maybe not all. what is community policing? it is not too complicated but you build a relationship between police and people of mutual respect. i want to repeat that. a relationship of mutual respect. community respects the police. the police respect the community. it has worked spectacularly well in those placeses where it was attempted. one i'm happy to say the city of boston which has the lowest homicide rate in america, neil.

i want to repeat that, neil. boston has the lowest homicide rate in america. what has it done? it strongly committed itself to a relationship between its police and the community that was positive, strong. that got police officers out of their pa control cars into the streets, into the community with their citizens. and has made a huge difference. it is not just boston. it is lots and lots of places. point in fact even with the pandemic and, all of the promises got along with it, violence in boston this year is down a little bit from last year. so, this works but you got to work at it. you have got to train your police. police themselves have got to be committed to this. and i'm happy to say that in many communities in the country they are. certainly has made a difference. it has here. neil: governor, i remember well

when this issue of crime became a big one in your 1988 quest for the white house, the whole willie horton ad, all of that, that the irony was, if i remember at the time, you had very, very low crime in boston as you just stated, remains the case now where your opponent at the time, in the austin area, texas, you know had a much higher crime levels. i'm not here to play politics with it, but i am curious, governor, about whether you are sending a signal to democrats, if you let this issue go or you start running on the defund the police movement, you're burned, is that what you're saying? you will repeat my sin? >> look, i think the defund the police movement is already in the process of dying. take a look at the new york elections but the fact of the matter is that we need police.

they have got to be good police. they have got to work closely and constructively with the communities. the communities themselves will have a lot of respect for police in their communities. if they do that, it makes a huge difference. i'm not just citing boston and massachusetts, but i'm proud of the fact that this state has the lowest homicide rate in the country. a lot involves university involvement, the university that i retired from 19 years, northeastern university. i'm one of the earliest criminal justice majors in the country. made a huge difference here. other communities, other colleges, universities followed suit. this is something where you put your finger and things happen. there has to be a real commitment to it. we've seen it work here. it works in other areas of the country. neil: governor, doesn't it also have to be the commitment on the part of progress serves in the

party to turn the rhetoric down a notch, that not all police are evil with all of this? this idea it is one or the other? it is not serving them well. you know, mentioned new york mayoral race where the law and order candidate, a guy with 20 years ever police department experience, appears to be early odds on favorite and ultimate winner? i wonder that race might have changed democrats view about how to handle this issue? >> well, first, remember you're talking about a lot of democrats. just a narrow slice of them. i'm a proud democrat, a progressive but i'm for excellent community policing and the same is true of democrats all over the country. i think the new york results will have an impact. neil: someone like a alexandria ocasio-cortez then, governor, someone who has made this a big cause in saying that you know, you can't equate the two. you still got to stand tough against the police. you still got to question how much money is committed to them.

what do you think of her and that strategy? >> well look, we educated her at boston university. something may have missed that. i think the new york results will have a real impact. i think it really will, but it is more than just new york. it's a commitment to this idea of community policing which is important, it is relevant, whether you're talking about small towns or big cities. we've seen it work. i think you're going to see significant change at least those folks that are arguing that defunding the police makes no sense to me at all. it has to be them policing. has to be policing that has a strong relationship with the community. but, i think you will see that. mean time, i have don't see anything on the other side. republicans talking about community policing? do they believe in it? do they understand what it is? i don't think so. neil: let's switch gears a little bit again on the infrastructure package and where things are going, governor.

the president tried to patch up any confusion with republicans over whether he had thrown them under the bus when he called for an ancillary spending bill joined at the hip, either both went through or neither went through. now he is looking at the have you can struck package, but ironically it is not republicans he has to worry about right now, those progressives who say he is not going far enough, he is not committing enough. he has got a battle on his hands, what do you think of this? >> i think he is going to win that battle because i think our infrastructure deficit in this country is so bad, got to get serious about it and that is one of the reason you have some republican support as well. -- a good infrastructure package. i hope it emphasize sighs, knowing me i hope you understand

why i say this a strong element for high-speed rail around transit and rail based transportation. and that is something that democrats, republicans, independent it matters. i think we'll get ourselves a pretty good package but we got to maintain it. we got to continue with it. can't be a one-time thing. we have to invest in our infrastructure on an on going basis. no question about it. neil: are you worried for your party? >> no, i'm not worried for my party because i don't see anything on the other side that offers anything constructive or impressive at all. i don't know what happened to the republican party but pretty sad. but meantime i don't have to tell you democrats have to make sense. they have to do important and good things and i hope, i expect we will do so. biden is doing a good job. i hope that people appreciated

that. i think they do if you believe the polls. but we have lots of work [inaudible] neil: all right, governor, very good seeing you. my best to your family. governor michael dukakis the 1988 standard-bearer. always good seeing you. meantime i want to bring your attention to the corner of wall and broad where stocks are racing along. there is another pipeline issue erupted. this is not about keystone. this is something called the line 3 pipeline and this time it is dividing democrats, not just conservatives and liberals. i will explain after this. ♪

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♪. neil: all right. remember when the president

killed off-key stone, the big pipeline there? now environmentalists are setting their sights on another pipeline, a big one, l3, the difference this time the president isn't interested in shutting that one down but it's a battle royale. jeff flock is in the middle of how it is playing out in minnesota. reporter: watching, neil, under construction as we speak. this maintenance building that will help maintain line 3, which is a replacement pipeline for an aging pipeline, one that is perhaps an environmental danger if it doesn't get replaced. still they're protesting against it. the conception from the outside that native americans oppose pipelines. i have got mike bass. it is your construction company helping build this. is that true? >> i don't believe it is true. i think it's a misconception or misnomer. very few people are educated. in our world we see probably

50/50. so you know, i don't think natives are more or against this than anyone else. reporter: they get a lot of attending. we have pictures of some protests out here. some people chaining yourselves to your equipment, destroying equipment. you're not opposed to people protesting but -- >> i'm real good with the protesters as long as they stay in their bounds we'll treat them with respect. we'll ask the same thing coming back that they treat us that way. reporter: neil, as you point out the biden administration is on record supporting this pipeline and you know, the thing, it created a lot of jobs. you have 500 native americans like willie working on this pipeline. you're working on the pipeline. some people would say you got a job because you are supporting it. do you support it because you have a jobs for other reasons? >> i support it out of all the modes of transportation feels like it is safest of all of them. reporter: as opposed to rails?

>> rails, tankers. as i said earlier i was talking about the response time is longer, harder to contain it on the other modes of transportation. everything with all the technology everything today, that it's a lot, they can get to it a lot quicker if there is a leak. they have also looked into it, studying into it with all the grade steel, low degree of angles that they use on the pipelines which will cut down on the amount of leaks too and everything, that is what impressed me. reporter: tell you what impressed me, neil, i was guilty perhaps some others thinking, native americans don't like this concept of you know, tearing up their native lands but, you just heard as i said, 500 people at work on this pipeline. you know, it is not all keystone where you have huge protests. there is protests here but there is also a lot of native americans who think this is not a bad idea, neil? neil: to your point, the

president doesn't have a problem with this one. so again, there is a battle going on within the party on that. jeff flock, thank you very much. jeff flock in the middle of all of that. we're in the middle of a rally going on at the corner of wall and broad. continuing, not as sharp as yesterday. bitcoin is in a world of its own there are bullish undercurrents here, including a famous investor, perhaps most successful all of last year who is now dabbling in this. we'll explore and explain next. ♪.

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♪. neil: all right. the president is in wisconsin. he will talk infrastructure but many in his audience are farmers, less inclined to talk about roads and bridges, but inflationary pressures building beyond the pale with them. lydia hu is seeing it first-hand in long valley, new jersey. reporter: neil, we're at the ort farm. it is a family-run business for

100 years. they're saying they feel the pressure of rising costs. they had to increase the price of costs on things like green beans. they used to cost 3.59 last year. but this year they're raising the price to 3.95. >> unfortunately it is something that we do have to reflect in our price structure what we're charging for things. so some of the prices are definitely being nudged up a little bit to make up for those changes. >> naturally in business you try to absorb some of that but it is harder and harder over the course of time. reporter: neil, not just the price of green beans going up. it is also lettuce, cabbage, and beef. a lot of produce here at the farm, they say the major drivers of the cost is fuel, that is up 40% for them. labor, really tough to hire amid a labor shortage. also contending with the rising minimum wage here in new jersey, up to $12 an hour this year. it is not happening here at this farm but happening across the

country. a lot of family staples we see in our kitchens, oranges, bananas, strawberries they're going up 2% to 20% across the country. we know from today's consumer confidence index that consumers are confident in spending which is good news for the farm but it's a challenging time because prices spiked really quickly for them this year. neil back to you. neil: thank you very much for that, lydia hu. meantime taking a look at cryptocurrencies and bitcoins, they're having a good day. this might be fueled by reports of cathie wood's ark fund, they made a killing among the most successful investors this year as a result. she is launching a crypto etf that can hopefully repeat the magic. she has quite a few in front of her. eight other etfs applied with the securities & exchange commission to get off the ground as of yet. not one will be able to until they get the approval.

ken daniel, the cryptocurrency investing for dummies author. good to have you. what do you make of this. obviously quite a few waiting on the runway to launch with etfs and that sort of thing to go ahead to pool this interest for cryptocurrencies. what do you make of that? >> neil, good to be back here and in my opinion, etfs are great for people who are lazy and don't want to learn about things they are investing in. it is also really good for the fund managers including cathie wood. she is a great investor, it will be good for to put her name on a etf tracking bitcoin prices. what do i make of this? this is good for the bitcoin price in the short term. i don't think longer term this will push the bitcoin price either higher or lower. bitcoin value will push the bitcoin prices higher in my

opinion. and, again, if you want to invest in bitcoin, don't want to invest in bitcoin because it is too risky you need to educate yourself. investing in etf tracking bitcoin's price wouldn't really help you with the risk. neil: so the fact she pooled this with other cryptocurrencies or technologies, ethereum comes to mind, dogecoin, some of the others, you think it is easier or direct to buy the underlying issues themselves if you're inclined? >> not only easier, not only easier but when it comes to bitcoin in particular it defeats the purpose of owning bitcoin. we, people will, like bitcoin because truly decentralized. you have no central authority can actually manipulate it or take it away from you. you can own it, put it in your own wallet to be the owner of it. investing in a etf attracting bitcoin's price will give authority back to the person managing the fund.

that will be great for them. you are paying them a commission. so what is the difference? if you're scared of making mistakes with crypto currencies, just go to crypto mistakes.com. i laid out all the biggest, dumbest mistakes people made with cryptocurrency. educate yourself. just select those assets for you on your own. why do you want to pay commissions to the likes of the incredible cathie wood? neil: well-put. very, with is did correction there. kiana, the crypto investing for dummies author. she was on the trend before it was a trend. all the crypto strategies are out there, all doing well today. it is not for the faint of heart. we'll have more after this. ...

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neil: all right, we are in day six right now of the rescue recovery operation that's going on in surfside, florida, after that condo collapse, and they are still calling it that because they are still confident and hopeful they will be able to find survivors, but it looks challenging with each and every passing day, ashley webster with the latest now from surfside. hey, ashley. ashley: yeah, hey, neil. listen, look as that search and rescue goes on, florida governor ron desantis said look, if they're missing they haven't

been found yet. in other words those people working 12 hour shifts, some 210 rescue workers right now, at a building two blocks down, we're not even close to where that building collapsed, but they are working around the clock, not wanting to give up any hope. the other issue, of course, one that a question everybody is asking, how on earth could something like this happen in the united states of america? well, there are some details coming to light about the building that collapse. for a start, engineers report was done on the building back in 2018, it was very scathing. he said that report showed some major problems with cracking, and we can just take a little excerpt from that report, that said visual observations revealed many of the previous garage concrete repairs are fail ing, resulting additional concrete cracking. new cracks are radiating from the originally-repaired cracks which is evidence of poor work manship performed by the previous contractor. so, you have that.

that was three years ago. president of the condo association for this particular building that collapsed just two months ago said look, this building is in much worse shape than it was back in 2018 when we had that really really frightening like structural report and the repair s costs were estimated at above $16 million, and that is a huge amount of money for the residents to pay. now having said that there is a huge effort, as you can imagine, neil, underway in miami, across south florida and elsewhere for that matter on these older buildings, 40 years and older. what kind of materials were used were they going to be checking in thoroughly bringing in a slew of experts to really get down and dig deep, in fact, the mayor of miami-dade county said she has to do it. take a listen to this. >> i will be leading with subject area experts from multiple relevant fields so that

i can develop a set of recommendations for changes that need to be made at all steps in the building process to ensure a tragedy like this will never ever happen again. ashley: and neil, the latest press conference just wrapped up about half an hour ago. they confirmed no new fatalities that number stands at 11, but the really frightening number of course is the number missing 150 still unaccounted for , and by the way, president joe biden said he will be visiting this site on thursday with the first lady. he wants to get a look at the building, the scene if you like first and then he's going to meet with family members whose loved ones are still missing. a dreadful situation, and certainly, out of this has come a very very strong focus on how these buildings are being maintained, and what is the city and the state as a whole doing to ensure they are safe. neil? neil: all right, ashley, thank you for that.

adam klotz our meteorologist right now, talking about the effect of weather has in this rescue effort to say nothing of the weather impact, really on the other side of the country. he's got you covered with both, hey, adam. >> adam: hey, good afternoon, neil. you talked about the weather forecast across portions of south florida. this is a very typical south florida forecast when you talk about the summer temperatures sitting at 86 degrees, but there's these winds sweeping up off the ocean that's a very humid air mass and you get a lot of pop-up thunderstorm, pop-up showers and this isn't something just popping up today. this is a very typical for that time of the year, so expect the next couple of days rescue cleaners are going to have to be dealing with again, humid conditions which are hard to work in and pop-up showers fairly consistent forecast from now taking you into thursday. as you mentioned this isn't the only big weather story across the country. it continues to be boiling on the west coast. these were yesterday's actual highs, you see 116 degrees in portland, typically this time of the year closer to 75-80

degrees so just really extreme heat has pooled up. there is a little bit of a good news that you've been battling this heat across that region and these temperatures beginning to fall just a little bit, still way above those seasonal averages i mentioned, it's still hot out there, but we're cooling the next several days, but today , still kind of hanging on at least to a little bit of that heat and with that heat, we've got heat watches and warnings across this entire region, neil. this is really indicating that folks who are really young, the elderly, anyone with respiratory issues shouldn't be outside during the peak heat of the day because that's really challenging. i talked about not being outside , but the problem is, there are rolling blackouts in this area, so even staying indoors you might not be able to escape some of this heat the next couple of days. neil? neil: yeah, i was hearing in the seattle area, more than half don't even have air conditioning , because generally you don't need it. well of course that's until now. adam, thank you very very much. adam klotz at the weather center on all of that. in the meantime back to some economic news to share with you here we talked about of the

surge in real estate, and last week, remember it was an all-time high for the average home north of $350,000, now confirmation of a trend that is picking up steam, year-over-year home prices are running at a 14.6% annual clip. in other words from april of this year looking back to april of last year, that is how much homes are appreciating, and in all 20 cities surveyed, beth fri edman joins us right now , beth very good to have you. this looks frenetic, but i guess in the scheme of things prior to the pandemic, these gains are still within normal bounds, but what do you make of it? >> you know, i think the pandemic inspired everybody to think about how they're living differently, looking at how they live and where they live and so and we have rates that are still historically so low and all indications from the fed are that they are going

to stay that way, and so i think that inspired a lot of people to go to different places and take advantage of that, and now, what we're seeing is that supply is shrinking in certain places, in connecticut, and certain parts of florida and all over the country, and the demand is at its peak, and so with low rates, what happens is that the prices rise, and that's what we're seeing right now, makes complete sense, and there's a lot i think people have felt like they have been deprived for a while, and now they are out there and they want to buy. consumers want to spend. neil: so i did notice that month over month, if you're looking at the april numbers versus the march numbers, the increase was about 1.6%, it's still a health it increase, but do you see signs of this slowing down? >> yeah, i do. it can't be perpetual, neil, it is slowing down at this point.

even though the prices are ticking up, transactions are now slowing, because some people first time home buyers will start to get priced out of the market, and there's nothing really to buy in certain areas so we are going to see a slow down of that. it's going to take some time before we start to get more of an ebb and flow with supply and demand moving more fluidly. new york city is a little different, as you know, because we are in very much a buyer's market before the pandemic. we're still in a buyer's market. we have very good supply, and a lot depends on what the president does with taxes, for us, because we don't want people fleeing new york to go to lower tax states, so we still have that threat here in new york city. neil: how about the super high and you referred to new york and a lot of people think of those , i think one on the market now $170 million, chic-owned penthouse on the market which be among the highest prices ever so i don't know whether you're buying that one or one of your clients but the fact of the matter is, that is a

different market than the rest of the market. how do you describe it? >> yeah, i mean that's discretionary spending. when you see those sorts of numbers they get all the news. that's not reality. i mean, every day people are not buying those sorts of homes, and those are people who have incredible wealth and are spending and they are buying homes that no one could ever even imagine purchasing. that gets all of sort of the media hits, but the reality is that those are few and far between and that market is actually doing incredibly well in this environment. people want to spend and we know during the pandemic, that a lot of people made a lot of money, although some people were challenged and suffered and didn't do as well and lost jobs, there was the other side of that coin was that so many people increased their wealth immensely , and so they are spending it. people are back, consumer confidence is up, half of the country has been vaccinated, people are feeling safe, and secure, and they want to spend,

and this new infrastructure deal is also something that would bode very well for our economic recovery. new jobs, it would reinforce industry, bridges, all of the things that are so important for america, and so we can compete which is very important. neil: well you've been on this trend in the middle of the pandemic lows and very confident. i thought you were crazy back then but i'll admit that i was wrong that you're not crazy. maybe you are but you weren't back then. all right, very good seeing you bess freedman, she really did see a lot of this was very confident about a turnaround that is now, well, proving itself to the world. we'll see how long it lasts hopefully a good while. let's go to steve moore, first on the home thing because i do want to get into other developments but steve, that's showing a lot of confidence and you're willing to plunk out this dough and pay more for chose real us estate

properties, 20 cities across the country what does that tell you about the strength of this recovery? >> well it does show that the economy is on an incredible rebound no question about it as these businesses reopen and workers get back on-the-job, and i agree, people want to spend. by the way totally disagree the infrastructure bill is good for the economy. i think it's a disaster, but the thing that i do worry about in the housing market is how short our memories are, neil. you know it was only 12-13 years ago that we had the housing bubble and i see a lot of the signs of a bubble emerging. you've got the fed with the zero rate interest policies, you've got the fed buying up, why are they buying up tens of billions of dollars of mortgage backed securities which is putting more money into the housing market. all of these things, i think, are putting us at risk, especially if interest rates start to go up, of another bubble bursting and let's not forget how painful that was. neil: you know, john, the only i would say the difference on this is that slowing, the fed isn't doing that as much on

unwinding a lot of these positions i don't have the latest numbers you probably do but what do you think of that >> well, you know, on the housing front, we can't lose sight of the fact that unit sales of housing have perhaps peaked for the cycle. they are still strong historical ly but i need to add that i look at a moving three- month average for existing home sales that peaked in the fourth quarter 2020 it's now down by 12%, an index of pending sales of existing homes is down 15% from its peak, so housing is cooling off a bit. of course not in response to higher interest rates, mortgage yields are still under 3%, but more so in response to higher prices, higher prices in housing , are slowly but surely taking their toll, and i think that's alarming for the overall economy once inflation becomes

well ingrained we're probably going to see slower than expected real economic growth. neil: we might get goosed a little bit, steve moore, if they do something about the salt tax, we're limited $10,000, even bernie sanders is open to the idea of addressing it but not for rich people like you, steve, that he wants to keep it for the under couple crowd as a way to remind folks that it still has uses as far as the revenue generator by going after the rich. what do you think of that? >> i hate the state and local tax deduction. i was one of the people on the trump team that insisted that we try to eliminate the state and local taxes actually it makes no sense whatsoever. it's basically just a re distribution of income from low tax states to high tax states, and i know that people like you, neil, in the northeast and states like new york, you know, love to write-off your

state income taxes, but florida doesn't have an income tax, so they don't have, people in florida don't write that off on their taxes. i favor a much lower, i think we're doing exactly the opposite of what we should be on tax. biden wants to raise the tax rates and add in all these loopholes, and what i want to do is lower the rates and get rid of the loopholes so i think we're moving in the wrong direction on tax reform. neil: you know, i do think it's a way to maybe buy some votes on this infrastructure measure though, john, even though it might be bifurcated somewhat, exclude the rich, but include many more, so those two dozen- plus congressmen who say they won't vote for infrastructure unless they address this whole salt thing, and this is a way of doing that. what do you think? >> yeah, that's the left wing of the democratic party that wants to keep these limits on salt deductions. on the other hand, you do have congressmen from high tax states

who very much want to lift the salt caps, and of course, the danger here is that if they do have these income tax hikes for upper income americans, and they leave the salt tax cap at $10,000, there's an even stronger incentive for higher income individuals to leave high tax states like new york, new jersey, illinois, and california >> yeah, that's for sure and by the way, neil, if they bring back the state and local tax deduction, it be the biggest tax cut for the top 1% in the history of the united states , because half of the benefit goes to millionaires and billionaires like you. >> i'll add too -- neil: you just added a last minute zinger. all right, it's fine guys thank you both very very much. we are keeping an eye on that and whether that does come to pass. we're also keeping an eye right

now on the president. he is in wisconsin. he's at this facility that he's talking up infrastructure but it could be a tough sell. a lot of people while they welcome it they don't know if this does everything they want to address it. after this.

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neil: he got republicans back with him now the president is trying to sell the infrastructure package to just average americans, he's in wisconsin doing that and matt finn in lacrosse, wisconsin with more. hey, matt. reporter: the president is on site at a public transportation facility in lacrosse along the beautiful mississippi river. the president is meeting with local officials. he's expected to tour that facility that deals with a lot of public buses and then give remarks within the hour. the president obviously expected to to the the $973 billion infrastructure deal that the president and the white house says will invest in public transportation here in wisconsin and all over the country. the president says that this is the largest infrastructure deal in u.s. history to invest in

public transit, clean energy, and clean drinking water. it aims to rebuild up to 10,000 bridges as 40% of the countries bridges right now are more than 50 years old. the president says the plan will create millions of jobs for everyday americans writing in an op-ed, "according to one study of my jobs plan, nearly 90 % of the jobs it will create won't require a college degree and 75% won't require an associates degree. it's a blue collar blueprint to rebuild america." a group of democratic and republican senators agree to this highly contentious infrastructure deal last thursday, but the process fell into disarray as president biden suggested the deal be held up unless democrats were guaranteed the passage of a second bill that would include controversial items that republicans do not support like climate change and proposals of medicare. senator bernie sanders even tweeted without that second reconciliation bill, there be no deal. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says so far republican s have not agreed to

the infrastructure and reconciliation bill under one package. >> i can assure you, who are in the discussion, there was no agreement that they be linked and so the president's promise to deal with it separately is nice, but unless the majority leader and the speaker agree. reporter: and white house spokesperson jen psaki told reporters aboard air force one that every senior member of the white house right now is working on outreach to get this infrastructure deal completed. neil? neil: all right, matt thank you. we are monitoring the president addressing workers at this bus facility, and maybe we'll get that along too, in the meantime my next guest welcomes the president's infrastructure push but he hopes

he can marry it with action on these current cost pressures that are building up across the country. jeff friedman is the consumer bands association president and ceo. jeff, you and your members have seen head-on what's happening with this spiral. it's not slowing down, for some it might be, but it's still pretty high. what do you want to hear from the president? >> well, neil i'm talking to ceo's across this industry every day and they've never seen a perfect storm like this , ingredient prices up, material prices up, freight up and we've all talked about labor which is up. this is an environment they've never seen before. i think what the industry is looking to see from the administration is some near term focus in addition to the long term focus on infrastructure which we certainly need, so near term focus, on letting some of the steam come out of this over heating engine. we need to look at our ports, we need to look at the freight issues there are things we can do right now with labor to reduce these inflationary pressures and we'd like to see more from the white house on

that front. neil: you know, jeff, you're a lot younger than i am, so let me play the old man here and recall a time that american president intervened with wage and price controls that was richard nixon in 1970s kind of boomeranged on, didn't work, but is that among some of the things you'd like to see , the president or the pore product out of these ports and get it into market. when it comes to the transportation system, hours of service for truck drivers, when we look at the weights that our trucks can carry there are things we can do in situations like this to create a more efficient system. that's where the administration could be helpful. we all know the labor issues. 25 states now have pulled back on the supplemental unemployment

benefits and we are seeing anecdotal reports in those markets of applications increasing in manufacturing facilities, and elsewhere. that's what we need to look at to incentivize people to get back to work, to ensure that we can move product around this country. that's where the administration, that's where congress can be helpful in making the most significant difference. neil: got it. jeff freeman, thank you very much consumer brands association president and ceo. we're monitoring that very very closely as we are the president 's remarks in wisconsin. this is part of a planned national tour to pitch infrastructure, but as jeff was just pointing out, it better include some relief for businesses that have really been hit hard by the rising prices, higher wage costs and the rest. that is not part of this package , i might add. follow-up package possibly. not this one. all right in the meantime here, banks are sexy again. you might not think that, but when the industry starts giving u2 billion dollars in dividends,

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neil: all right, here is how well the big banks are doing they're making so much money that they can afford to dole out another $2 billion in dividends with promises of more to come, but if you think it's only that wind at their back, think again. charlie gasparino on some worries the securities and exchange commission, charlie? charlie: yeah, and by the way, worries that they're going to be the target of elizabeth warren and some class warfare stuff like we got after the financial crisis, because they are making a ton of money right now, and the economic recovery is still

somewhat very uneven, but for this segment, neil, what i'm hearing from my wall street executives is they're trying to get there by sources among the wall street executive crowd, i should say, trying to get their arms around what exactly the top cop of wall street, gary gensler, the chairman of the sec, is looking to do, and they are setting up meetings with him, they are having calls with him. we should point out that apparently he's not fully in the office in washington, of the sec. he's doing a lot of his work from what i understand from his home in baltimore. be that as it may he's still moving forward with what people are saying and these are the executives interpreting the words of gary gensler, they are speaking with him, a transformational chairmanship, and agenda for the sec, so what does that mean? he's going to go into areas that the sec in the past really didn't go into before, and that's going to be in terms of disclosure. he's going to really ramp up those notion that companies should disclose environmental

stuff, social government stuff, and diversity issues. this is going to be a mandate and it's something that he's going to press either through enforcement actions or just he's going to start with rulemaking probably this fall towards the end of the year, but if you don't comply, there will be enforcement actions at least that's the feedback i'm getting from wall street executives. we should also point out that he's going to do some nuts and bolts stuff as well. he's very worried about spacs, the special purpose acquisition companies, that's a show company that buys other companies. that's a huge craze right now, he's worrying about disclosures on that, he's also worried that the celebrities that backup the spac, the football players, basketball stars, they have real , no real financial training , and it's kind of luring people into an investment maybe that's know the so good so he's worried about that, worrying about cryptocurrency. he is going to take a hard look at the game of wall street that means these apps like

potentially robinhood or other companies, discount brokerage that make wall street fun and don't disclose to investors the risks involved, so that's his agenda. they're saying it's going to be transformational. neil, i will tell you, on the disclosure stuff, he's going to get a lot of pushback from republicans in congress particularly senate and the republicans take the senate, it's going to be all out warfare between gensler and the republicans as you know the sec has regulated itself by the senate banking committee. back to you. neil: all right, great reporting charlie as always charlie gasparino following that. i wonder what steve moore and john lonsky think of all of this steve, there is a sort of an attack line that goes something like this. any business that's doing really really well is right for targeting. we seen it with technology, for a variety of other reasons i want to push the left or the right both have an agenda here, but on banks, it's that they come back from all of this

far far richer than almost anyone would have thought, and they are going to become a target now. what do you think of that, steve >> yes, it's almost as if, you know, when banks lose money, we run in and bail them out and then god forbid they should make too much money and then we have to go after them with these regulations. that analysis that, charlie, just did which i thought was excellent, i found to be heroing this is mission by the sec to any company that dares make too much money, they are going to go after them on environmental issue, gender issues, racial issues, things that never used to be under the perview of the sec and i think that will get companies off of their focus , their fundamental focus of making a profit and running an efficient business to becoming social welfare agencies i think it's terrible. neil: you know, john, the banks are doing this because they

survived this federal reserve test, right? but if everything hits the fan would they have enough funds to resuscitate themselves and effectively the fed said yes they did and they do and now they can go ahead and start re issuing dividends for those that weren't to increase for those that were, to the tune of $2 billion, so it's a lot of money. what do you make of that? >> it's a lot of money, we're looking at dividend growth, i think from banks of about 8% annually going forward, that's pretty good. let's not forget that we had a real-world stress test that took place during the worst of the covid-19 recession. i think one of the idea of the stress test is that a bank be able to survive and unemployment rate of almost 11% for the unemployment rate year ago got up to about 15%, no problem with banks, no problem with credit quality in general. that was kind of noteworthy. the latest recession was the

first recession since 1982 where the junk bond default rate never reached 10% so all of this improved capital at banks is paying dividends and why you want to go ahead and punish banks for doing the better job is, i simply don't really understand that. neil: you know, the one thing that's clear right now, and i'm not meaning, steve, to lump the banks in with technology companies and various reasons why politicians on both sides target them, but if the market is worried about them or investors are worried for them, they're not showing it. is that the markets way of saying your opinion here, that this isn't going anywhere, or that even if it does, it won't really have an impact. what do you think? >> it sure seems to me that wall street investors are shrugg ing this stuff off and they don't see it as a real risk

i'm more a creature of washington than i am wall street and i have to say to my friends that are investors i think you're underestimating the extent to which government is going to stick their finger in all of the operations of our successful businesses and you mentioned technology companies, my god, we have five technology companies that combined are worth what $7 trillion. they are amazing companies, i don't agree with their politics but my goodness since when in this country is it a crime to create a great growing business that makes profit. one last thing, neil. the stress test idea. i mean, when are we going to do a stress test for our federal government hat is now what, $28 trillion in debt, has un funded liabilities in the tens and tens of trillions of dollars , continues to spend. i mean, the institution that's really in financial trouble right now is uncle sam. neil: yeah, you think about it, you know, john lonsky, we all remember the financial meltdown and the period where we're getting ahead of themselves is

getting ahead again with real estate, with stocks. do you think we are in a frothy era here, or is this all rational reasonable? >> this is no time for complacency. you had the money supply recently growing at an annual rate faster than 20% and by the way, that's well-above the fastest rates of money supply growth from the inflationary 1970s which i believe was a much lower 13%, steve is talking about increased regulation of business. my goodness, you're combining a rapid growth of systemic liquidity, more fiscal stimulus with more regulation, companies are now in the business of worrying about social welfare and not focusing on providing the highest quality product at the lowest possible price. you maybe setting up a scene

where inflation is going to be surprisingly rapid for an unexpectedly long period of time. don't be complacent. keep your eyes wide open. neil: got it. final word, i want to thank you, john, steve, goes without saying appreciate it, gentlemen. all right in the meantime, we're also getting new numbers on the border and what's happening there. the surge continues, the records do as well. we're on it, after this.

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we're offering a 30-day risk-free trial. call 1-800-miracle today and experience the miracle-ear advantage. neil: all right, the president, i'm talking about the former one , donald trump, will be visit ing the board tomorrow and the back drop is a record number of the surges across the entire border. not where kamala harris the vice president went last week, but

where the president will be this week. we go to grady trimble in texas with more. hey, grady. reporter: hey, neil. just about an hour ago, we saw a woman run across these train tracks a block up from the road from where we are she ran into the brush and was eventually captured by a border patrol agent, as she told him that she came from el salvador and that's an instance we're seeing frequently in this small stretch of the border here in lajoya. we also saw this video from griff jenkins that he shot this morning where these men identified themselves as from mexico, and border patrol agents chased after them, eventually apprehended them as well, and then a little bit after that, also, this morning, we saw a group of roughly 24, two dozen maybe more people, women, children, looked like family units, who were apprehended, not far from where we are right now. they were loaded into buses and then presumably taken off to

processing facilities which is where the vice president visited last week. this is the back drop for former president trump's visit this week, and the law enforcement officials we talked to here say the federal government needs to send a stronger message at the border. listen. >> when you see these migrants that are coming across with no resistance and the smugglers rafting them across with no resistance because they know there's not any action taken upon them. reporter: that's lt. chris olive rez. he's with the texas department of public safety. governor greg abbott dispatched a thousand of their team members to the border here to assist with border patrol because they are so overwhelmed with migrants coming across the border right now. the rio grande valley is ground zero for crossings. 2,100 apprehensions in the last 24 hours in the rio grande valley alone. that operation lone star with the texas department of public safety, neil, is costing

$2.5 million every single day. or week i should say. neil: that's a lot. all right, grady thank you very very much, grady trimble in lajo ya, of course president trump will be there tomorrow, not specifically there but again a preview of coming attractions. in the meantime you think all restaurants are hurting, well one is gobbling up competitors right now, because the food and the menu is delicious. meet him, next. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪

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[ "me and you" by barry louis polisar ] to d ♪ me and you justogy singing on the train ♪ ♪ me and you listening to the rain ♪ ♪ me and you we are the same ♪ ♪ me and you have all the fame we need ♪ ♪ indeed, you and me are we ♪ ♪ me and you singing in the park ♪ ♪ me and you, we're waiting for the dark ♪

limu emu... and doug. so then i said to him,

you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. oh um, doug can we talk about something other than work, it's the weekend. yeah, yeah. [ squawk ] hot dog or... chicken? [ squawk ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ neil: all right, open for business and expanding business, that would probably nicely sum up fat brands which is a launch of sort of an all- out blitz for scooping up some other quick service restaurants including round table pizza, great american cookies, hot dog on a stick by the way personal favorite of yours truly, pretzel maker among many anothers, andrew leaderhorn is the ceo of that brand.

andrew very good to have you thanks for coming. >> hey, neil, how are you? neil: very good. so no rest for the site, i guess , you've been on this acquisition terror and obviously, expanding, beefing things up, no pun intended here, at a time when the restaurant industry is trying to deal with labor shortages and higher food prices. you're undeterred, how is that possible? >> well, you know, this is a time to do it, right? the restaurant industry is having a tough year. i thought it was a transformative acquisition for fat brands when we bought johnny rockets in the pandemic last year but here again with global franchise group, this triples the size of our company in terms of number of units, in terms of revenue, in terms of ebita, and it really moves the needle for us and we're excited to have these brands as part of our portfolio. neil: you know what i noticed too there's a theme to what you do, where it's a comfort food, fun food, you could even say in this day and age, summer food,

the timing is right, so why this target? >> well, we've tried for a long time to get out of the micro cap and small cap and that certainly makes sense, for brands we don't have a pizza brand, we don't have a dessert or snack brand group today so it really fills out the portfolio with our burgers and chicken wings and the casual dining so i think that's another strategic reason for us to have a more complete portfolio. neil: i was taking a look at at all of the restaurants under your perview. do you ever think of one that could combine them all? i like this , the cookies and we have a place there, in other words where you combine. this is our empire. >> yeah, you know, we do a lot of co-branding where for example , we have over 120 fat burgers, so we have two signs out front, two menu boards inside but it's one kitchen and one cash register. i think for example, hot dog on a stick could be sold at all of our burger restaurants as a branded hot dog product to make it available to everyone to roll

out, cookies across the different brands like round table pizza already sells the cookies under their own flag that's an option too so there's really a lot of cross-branding and cross-promotion here selling franchisees different brands so they can operate. that's always been part of our strategy to grow in ten alley letting our franchisees offer more brands so this is a big one for us in terms of opening up the opportunities. neil: now, the labor shortage i touched on at the outset here, it's a big issue for your industry. i'm sure in some areas it's a big issue for you, how do you deal with it? >> i've answered this question before, which is a total nightmare for now. this will go away over the summer people will go back to work, stimulus will end, life will get back to normal and these are invests we're making for the long term. neil: do you think that's what's getting in the way of these extended federal unemployment benefits are leaving people at home longer, rather than look for work? >> 100% that's what's getting in the way. it will end and that also, it also drives up prices because

there's a shortage of people in the manufacturing operation, for food, so i think it does have a big effect. neil: so when you hear like la county is looking at implement ing, again, a mask requirement, the world health organization says even if you're fully vaccinated, it might be a good idea to wear a mask. how do you think something like that would hit your restaurants? especially among the already- vaccinated. they might not think too kindly of that. >> it's certainly not a popular thing. we've seen that not just in la county but in the south throughout florida and texas, georgia where we have a lot of restaurants where people who are vaccinated do not want to wear masks and the workers in the restaurants they can wear masks and shields for their own protection if they want, but there's a little bit of a presumption now, i think, that no one is wearing a mask they either aren't vaccinated or they have been through the process already, so i think it's burdensome, today, i think the vaccines are out there and anyone who wants one can get one and we should move through this.

neil: could i ask this might be a dumb question on my part, but how do you keep the chains that you buy just the way they were? like i was in a johnny rockets not too long ago and it has not changed. what people love about it they still love about it. in other words you don't come in and change everything around. what is your strategy when you buy some of these iconic names? >> when we bought fat burger 20 years ago and had 40 restaurants , today it's 200 we haven't changed a single thing in terms of ingredients we may have added and taken away menu items like the impossible burger but these brands have their own identity and brand equity and you have to stick to that. you can always improve things here and there, in terms of a new ingredient that might be more popular it could be organic or grass fed or things like that in some of the brands but you really have to stick to what the brands are all about to make them be the quality brands that they've always been and that

reputation they have. neil: all right thank you, for that best of luck, the fat brands ceo. he's not remotely fat but the name still sticks regard law enforcement. we were telling you about in california some other states in areas that are thinking about requiring masks that will not be the case with google. google employees won't have to wear masks when they return to their california offices as soon as next month. again, la county can say one thing, but businesses operating on their own can do another. google is saying no mask, not necessary as long as you've been vaccinated. we'll have more after this.

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neil: all right the president in wisconsin pushing his bipartisan infrastructure deal. the problem he might be having, with democrats for that deal. anyway here is charles payne. hey, charles. charles: great to see you, my friend. good afternoon, everyone, i'm charles payne, this is "making money." breaking right now i hope you have room in your bank account. 2020 has given us the best first half the market has seen in a long sometime. history says the second half can boom. it's a big world. let it be your oyster. we will look at opportunities outside of the major indices. hit exchanges hitting a record.