♪. stuart, owe asked category 1 hurricane sustained winds of how many miles an hour. >> here in florida i should know this. go with number two, 74. stuart: i would go with number three, 82. look. ash, you're right. you live in florida. you should get this right. category 5 hurricane. that is sustained winds of 157 miles an hour. cat-1, a mere 74. that is just about it for "varney & company." i have to tell you, we got a lot of emails on the goat snuggling story. i didn't think it would be that popular but it is. time's up for me. to kos starts now. -- "coast to coast" starts now.

♪. neil: we certainly hearing investors roar. you see what we did there? hit song, investors. kids of today. things are looking good for stocks on this hump day, over the hump day, a little bit eye of the tiger going on there. that is the way investors seem to be feeling about the whole regional bank crisis that we are indeed over the hump, maybe over the worse or hope to be longer term. true to form the better banks the better stocks look in general. that you've been seeing a good deal. we'll talk to former new york stock exchange chairman dick grasso whether we're through the worst of it. oklahoma senator markwayne mullin that those with food intentions don't make a mess of

it. which have a rare hat trick, dow, s&p 500 nasdaq up. haven't seen that for a while. that is boosted by the fact we're seeing interest rates coming down, market interest rates. that has been a gift to the federal reserve to do a lot of its work by driving those rates down or at least the sentiment in the markets building maybe things will cool down. also saw that in mortgage rates which now are hovering in and out around 6.45%. that is the lowest we've seen for 30-year fixed mortgage in i believe about six weeks. we're following all of that. as is dick grasso aforementioned big board big boss. kind enough to join us. always great to see you. we don't like to pounce on a day, a moment, you often reminded me of that over the decades we've been talking, that the hope we're through the worst of this, this is not contagion, the markets acting like it is

come and gone, what do you think? >> always great to be with you, neil. thanks for inviting me. i think markets paused. i think there is a bit of a calm. i'm hopeful, politicians, regulators, private sector all take this as a learning experience. most importantly that we quit the fingerpointing with, we quit if you will catcalls and public confidence will rise there is going to be a look backward learning lesson, in the future we don't suffer the types of runs we saw at svb, silicon valley bank and at signature bank. i discount the credit suisse. i think that is completely different. that is a geopolitical issue. i think what we learned in svb and signature is that the mobility of banking, neil, is simply a click on your i phone

away. and are the regulators matching if you will in oversight examination long versus the short? it has never been a good practice, no matter what time frame you look at, helped short, borrow long. the lesson recently depositor money is borrowed short. if you have got duration of investment on the flipside of that you're going to run the risk as we saw in svb of $40 billion leaving within a day. it took, it took more than a week in washington as usual to move four billion. mobility of banking, technology, suggests the regulators are behind the curve. the good news for the public is that the regulators and the policymakers have reached out to the private sector.

we saw jamie dimon lead a group of bankers, the best and brightest, to sit down and create a shared public/private solution. i think that is why the markets are pausing. they recognize that is going to be some adult discussion, not just political posturing. neil: all right. we'll watch closely. always good seeing you, dick grasso touched on that. dick touched on idea the regulators whether they can be instrumental working with the private sector here. it is not that quite plaque and white according to my next guest. he is very concerned that the some regulators can overdo it more harm than good. mike lawler, house financial services committee, talk about a crucial committees he joins us now. >> neil, thanks for having me. neil: let me ask about what the former big board chairman was talking about, cooler, calmer heads might have prevailed here,

working in concert with jamie dimons, everyone wells, regulators, some bigger banks got us through, or that is at least the appearance right now. you're just concerned that regulators might go further, right? >> well i think, what is clear, and what we're learning today in our hearing frankly the regulators had the tools, and they were aware of some of the challenges but frankly seems the fed in particular did not act with the speed that they should have in advance of the collapse. they gave numerous notices, specifically on the impact that the interest rates might have but didn't seem to follow up on it. i think that is obviously disconcerting when you look at what happened and the impact that the collapse of svb had on say signature bank potentially. so, you know, i will be asking my questions a little later this afternoon of our panelists and certainly will want to examine

the impact of the svb collapse on signature bank. i agree. the market is calming. i think cooler heads are certainly prevailing a bit and what we need to get to is the facts about what led to this, what the fed knew, when it knew it and whether or not they had all the tools available. i believe they did. i don't think this is an issue of deregulation some of my colleagues on the left want to say, elizabeth warren, maxine waters. this was not an issue. they saw it happening. they didn't enforce it. that is the problem here. neil: we have wondered whether they my seen a lot of this happeninger this flat-footed enough to respond or didn't respond at all. i always remember back in the bernie madoff scandal, that ponzi scheme of his wasn't being

seen for years by the securities & exchange commission despite a number of people warning the sec, hey, do you see what is going on here? we've seen variations, congressman, with the last meltdown. the concern is we don't need more cops, we need better cops. what do you think of that? >> look i think at the end of the day we need to make sure regulators are doing their job. i think the san francisco fed here failed in its duties based on the regulations that were on the books and failed to follow up on the notices that were being sent to silicon valley bank. i think the fdic, the treasury and the fed once it was clear that svb was going to collapse, i think they acted appropriately to you know, stave off contagion here, avoid a bigger calamity. i would also agree with mr. grasso about jamie dimon and

others in the private sector working together to help prop up first republic and make sure that we don't have further contagion. i really do believe the tools were there. it was a failure on the part of the regulatory agencies to act quicker. neil: yeah. >> but once they were obviously in the situation with svb collapsing you know they moved expeditiously to stave off contagion. neil: of course we're talking about silicon valley bank. real quickly, where are you, congressman, this idea making depositors whole beyond 250,000 individual, half a million for a couple? in other words, no ceiling at all for all depositors? >> i don't think there should be 100% guarranty on deposits. i just don't think our system is able to do that but obviously i think when you look at the numbers, you know, 250,000,

maybe a little low, when you start looking at the volume of deposits that people have. and so i am looking potentially at legislation that would lift that on an individual, maybe it is around million dollars. maybe it is $500,000, certainly also our small businesses. look at the fact they have a lot of liquidity flowing in, flowing out of the banking system. you know in just one week as they're operating their businesses. so we need to look at you know, whether or not the 250,000-dollar number is sufficient. probably it could go higher just based on obviously where our economy has grown over the last 20 years. neil: things have changed. times have as well. congressman, great catching up with you, mike lawler of new york. meantime kelly o'grady is in

los angeles at a time where we're looking at the influence of all these earth investments particularly what is happening right now with bitcoin and a lot of cryptocurrencies back up, a lot of that sphere moving up but there is a backdrop to all of that. kelly. >> reporter: that's right, neil and the backdrop is of course ftx and sam bankman-fried. new charges being brought against the crypto king and the list just keeps growing. yesterday a third superseding indictment dropping. we're still over six months away from the planned october trial. we could still see more. if you're counting now sbf faces 13 counts that could land him a max of 160 years behind charge. accusing bank fran mead violating anti-bribery provision of the foreign corrupt practices act. he direct ad 40 million-dollar bribe of one or more chinese officials to unfreeze cryptocurrency in trading accounts held by ftx's sister

company alameda research. we're learning china froze those accounts two of the largest crypto exchanges amidst its own investigation before sbf resorted to a bribe, the bribe likely made with the stolen customer funds. we reached out to chinese authorities yet to receive a response. sbf legal time declined to comment as well. china banned exchanges in 2017 and actually banned crypto out right in 2021 so this all comes as new bail conditions are in place after a tense fight over the defendant's use of technology. sbf will be precluded from using all electronic devices save a computer and phone with preset very limited internet access. a security guard is posted at his parents home where he is residing to screen any visitors for electronic devices. there is a hearing on this new indictment. we expect sbf to appear in person. you saw the crypto numbers on the screen. they're up. doesn't see to be affected by the new news.

neil: sell off, come back a little higher than where they were before they were falling down. wild. we'll keep an eye on it. kelly in los angeles. meantime when a lot of people start questioning this idea we're headed toward a "2001 space odyssey" open the pod bay door for artificial intelligence along comes elon musk to say it might be a good idea to pause on some of this technology, particularly this one bit of technology for six months because he says there are risks to society. yikes! ♪. you'll always remember buying your first car. and buying your starter home.

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>> i can't do that. >> what is the problem? >> i think you know what the problem is as well as i do. >> what do you mean, hal? >> this mission is too important to jeopardize it. >> i don't know what you're talking about hall r hal i.

>> i know you and frank were planning to disconnect me. i'm afraid that is something i cannot allow to happen. neil: iconic early preview attraction what artificial intelligence would look like? probably not. i love that movie so much, that particular clip so much, i pass it along. along comes the world's richest man we should have a pause in this entire chatgpt thing. we have don't know what it means, risk to society, so far to have a six-month pause to figure out what is going on? that is the world's richest man saying that, who got that rich because of technology, because he saw the ample benefits of technology. should we be worried? carl szabo, vice president net choice, professor of internet law george mason university, scalia law school, so he knows what he speaks. carl, it is interesting there, people of my generation that kind of crystallizes the fear

then, maybe it is more pronounced now that the technology we create can turn around and undo us. i think that is kind of what elon musk is saying here. what do you make of it? >> yeah. i always call it the time determinator dilemma. fun fact about hal, ibm turned backwards. elon musk is saying one thing but we're seeing a government ban on innovation for six months. that is just a bridge too far. that is the united states of america. we have always operated on the notion of permissionless innovation. government permission is what we see out of europe. if you look at their technology sector, it is a empeople i can, it doesn't exist. here in the of the u.s. we're allowed to innovate. of course does a.i. have incredible power? absolutely. here's the thing.

we need to identify what are the problems we're trying to stop, to address those instead of outright banning a tool. a.i. today is being used to identify cancer in people. it does a better job identifying cancer than doctors do because it is looking at thousands if not millions of different x-rays. i don't know a single doctor who can do that. that is a good. is there a potential downside? absolutely. i think a outright ban will leave america behind especially in our race against china to develop, innovate, continue to be the world leader, that is a dangerous step backwards. neil: to your point, carl, they will not slow down that technology and research. it behalf hooves us to keep going. people fear for their own jobs when they talk about the threats of this technology, how quickly it can eliminate potentially some jobs because it is pretty

good what it wants to do, expanded a lot more things to do. i think that is what unnerves people. we see that at the dawn of the industrial revolution. we see the move from horse and buggies and automobiles what have you. so i know our past is bumpy transitioning to these, i don't know in this case what we're transitioning too, whether we should be a little bit cautious. i'm not saying stop it, stop the research and stop everything but look at these other side issues. they could be big issues, right? >> yeah, absolutely. we should proceed cautiously, 100%. completely agree with that, but i want us to be in control of our decisions, not turning to the government and asking them for the right to innovate. the right to look to new futures. use the example of the industrial revolution. imagine if henry ford had to get permission from the u.s.

government to create the assembly line? he might not have gotten it. simultaneously, we push a button we on elevator we go the floor we need to. one time that didn't exist. we had elevator operators. when there is innovation, there will always be change. that will cause stress on the system, but that doesn't mean we don't innovate. that doesn't mean we continue forward abuse if we don't somebody else will and at a time when the u.s. needs to maintain global dominance, this is one of the last areas that we can easily be out maneuvered by a foreign adversary. neil: i think musk is also saying, you also disagree we could be outmaneuvered by the technology itself, it will make us the worker bees, not the other way around? >> oh, i know. that is something we need to put in guardrails to make sure that doesn't happen but we can do that as we continue to innovate, as we continue to develop the

technology. once we see stuff going off the rails, that is when we begin to rein it back in? neil: we learned from hal that he didn't, you know didn't open up the door and it was, it was not nice. >> yeah, but then he got to go on the big adventure through space see the baby at the end. you're absolutely right. we need to make sure we don't end up being the servants but simultaneously we can't ignore and bury our head in the sand because if we don't lead and set up the guardrails, somebody else will and we don't know what they will unleash. so the u.s. needs to be in a position to be taking leadership. proceed cautiously but not at the behest of the government. neil: remember, carl, soil lent green is people. that is whole another issue. we can get into. your comfort with all the science fiction movie stuff is

remarkable. we'll chat more about such movies in the future. i have a feeling we'll keep entertaining this big issue. if you know anything about howard schultz, for decades it was praised as a company especially generous to its worker, highest paid, college educations, benefits galore. now bernie sanders is trashing the guy not doing enough, being closed to unions and workers rights. the world is upside down and hal was right. everybody open the pod bay door. ♪. the new chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam who make...? ...everyday products... ...designed smarter. like a smart coffee grinder - that orders fresh beans for you. oh, genius! for more breakthroughs like that... ...i need a breakthrough card... like ours!

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100 times during the past 18 months, far more than any other corporation in america? >> sir, starbucks cove fee company unequivocally, let me set the tone for this very early on, has not broken the law. neil: all right. howard schultz, the former ceo of starbucks, make it very clear there is no union busting going on, denying any allegations that is what is happening here even though he of course as we watched this live committee hearing going on in the senate questioning whether howard schultz is telling the truth about that. the irony in this particular case is that mr. schultz was responsible for something that a lot of liberals, a lot of those on the left a lot of union enthusiasts, even though unions were not part of that, like the fact he was generous to his workers, offered college education plans to good many of those workers, so-called barristas, he is being grabbed before this committee. you're watching live images on

that. bernie sanders loaded for bear on that. is it justified? go to oklahoma senator markwayne mullin on all of this. senator, i do notice a lot of questioners here have no business as all, know nothing about meeting a payroll, know nothing about running a business, arguably whether you want to pay that much for coffee or not, one of the most successful in human history. so i do find it a little rich, them kind of criticizing or offering advice, sort of be like me someone to eat a salad, you wouldn't go there. i wouldn't go there. what do you make of this? >> i just came from the committee hearing and it is, irony of this hearing is almost laughable. here you have probably one of the most liberal corporate ceos out this that people were praising for his liberal woke stance and then you have bernie sanders who is a opensocialist, who is the chair, chairs the health, education,

labor and pension committee for the democrat party. he chairs it. and yet you cannot go far enough if you're a socialist. if you're, if you're a bernie sanders, if you're an aoc, if you're talib, if you're a bennett, no such thing as far enough. you have dance in fire you get burnt. that what happened to mr. schultz. bernie sanders is a socialist, demonized him because he wants to fight for his employees rights. he wants to still have a relationship with his employees. this is what i brought up in the hearing it is funny to me that these unions are anti-ceo, they're anti-corporation, but yet they're the one hires their members. if you are a member you can never be a manager. you can never be an executive. you can never be a ceo to i am my meant the changes that the union want to be implemented. it is, it is like never ending circus. neil: sometimes you hear it in the context, we're so used it,

senator, we want good june jobs. i think priority should be on good jobs period whether union or not. >> that's right. neil: starbucks, whether you're in to 5 or 6-dollar coffee, the lemon tart is well worth the five bucks. but i digress. >> i'm on board for that one. neil: all kidding aside, senator, these are still well-compensated workers, much more so than anyone else in that industry. >> right. neil: and you know, call an have the differences whether shop is unionized or not, but if the workers are benefited mightily, it speaks for itself. if this was a nationwide movement going on we would have seen it. it was really only tried in a few stores. and with mixed success. >> right. neil: i'm not saying workers are the best to judge this if they want that, but not politicians to enforce this? >> no. i agree. bernie keeps calling mr. schultz a union buster. i would beg to differ.

he have calls every ceo place being unionized they push back on it but as a ceo of several companies and went through the process of trying to be unionized the unions can be very aggressive and have extreme bully tactics as they go through but also, it makes it a division between the employee and the ceo. you don't hear union bosses praising the owners and executives of the company. what you hear they constantly are stirring the pot. they constantly keeping tension between the employees and ceo. in order for a company to be successful the employees have to be in a good spot and executives have to be in a good spot. they all need to be working together rolling in the same drinks. why in the world would you invite contention in your workforce? why wouldn't you fight against your employees unionizing if you were able to provide better benefits like we were, if you were able to pay higher wages like we were? we were able to prevent it. if you've not for unions you're

a criminal. you are for some reason you're corrupt. i pointed out with bernie sanders, the hypocrisy behind what he is saying is ridiculous. what is wrong with having employees having a choice. >> i'm not anti-union but i think you should have a choice if you want to be. why unions thrive in oklahoma we're a right-to-work state. it's good environment. employees when they work at some mace, they can choose to be part of union or choose not to be part of the union. it's good fit for us. neil: it is well-put. i want to end on that note. there have been not a lot of government contracts that have been prevented from non-union individuals from participating even though it might come at a time when jobs are desperately needed. >> right. neil: if they're not union jobs they don't count. that is what seems to be a little bit unfair. >> absolutely, neil. neil: well-put. do try the lemon tart. always good seeing you, senator. you have a good sense of humor. appreciate that. oklahoma senator mark markwayne mullin on all of that.

we'll monitor hearings. sake of consistency, you ask for wish for ironically, a hero of yours little more than a few years ago. meantime keeping track of irs agents who now apparently do house calls. not just a angry letter, come to your house, how are you doing, on a very same day a journalist like matt taibbi was getting to testify before congress. odd? they're looking into that now. grady trimble with more on capitol hill. hey, grady. >> reporter: neil, odd and lawmakers here say ironic that this house call by the irs happened on the same day that journalist matt taibbi was testifying not before any congressional committee but the subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government. so they're pointing out the irony but they're also seriously concerned. we have reached out to the irs multiple times ourselves and haven't heard back. they also haven't yet responded to congressman jim jordan who sent a letter asking for more

info. what we do know right now matt taibbi allege ledly was told his 2018, 2021 tax returns were rejected because of concerned over identity theft. republicans say this feels like history repeating. >> this is almost like the irs under obama with lois lerner and all that happened. looks like they're back. >> it goes back to the mccarthy era of perhaps, certainly goes back to the nix on era. we have to make sure it stops. this is the reason taibbi was testifying. >> reporter: gop lawmakers are also concerned that this happened at a time when the biden administration wants to grow the internal revenue service. the inflation reduction act provided $80 billion to hire 87,000 new irs employees over the next decade. i spoke to an attorney for the irs, former attorney for the irs. he is now a whistle-blower. and he tells me a house call like this is highly unusual,

neil. normally they would make an appointment before showing up to your house. he never saw anybody make initial contact in the 30 years he worked for the irs by just showing up like this. so a lot more to uncover with this story. we'll stay on it. neil: the timing is odd. grady, thank you very much, grady trimble following those developments in washington. meantime news out of the magic kingdom. disney just fired marvel ceo isaac perlmutter. iger critical of marvel propensity more movies and sequels. he was afraid disney was risky, or marvel diminishing the brand with so many movies. whether that was the reason behind perlmutter's sudden departure is anyone's guest. he announced 7,000 new layoffs next few weeks. this is probably the biggest among them. marvel ceo isaac perlmutter is

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♪ neil: no budgets, no talks that is the gist of joe biden east position on another chat with kevin mccarthy to deal with the whole debt limit impasse but jacqui heinrich woe know far more than i. she is the at white house with more. >> reporter: you are correct in your summary, neil. speaker kevin mccarthy sort of opened this dialogue yesterday with the president writing to him in a letter that noted the recent uncertainty in the u.s. banking system over continuing rate hikes, excuse me, and then said look, you have to enact cuts talking about raising the debt ceiling. says this to the president with each passing day i'm incredibly concerned putting already fragile economy in jeopardy by refusing to negotiate any meaningful changes to out of control government spending.

mcscatter think offered up options in the letter from trims to non-defense spending recouping covid funds, means testing for welfare programs. republicans are not optimistic this is going anywhere anytime soon. >> we're at a standstill. the only path for agreement with this administration with the house of representatives and the speaker. there has been no return conversation. >> reporter: last night the president responded, again telling mccarthy the debt ceiling must be raised without conditions and saying he would have a separate conversation about possible spending cuts only after republicans release their own budget proposals. biden said his own proposes would cut the deficit through tax hikes on corporations and the rich but republican proposals would raise them. he is imposing a deadline on the gop, biden writing my hope house republicans can present american public with the budget plan before congress leaves for the

easter recess so we can have a in depth conversation when we return. republicans are accusing the president to wait out the clock on this to force this but democrats are seeing the gop is playing games. >> republicans are engage something not responsible. they need to put their budget out. they need to tell us what they value. that needs to be confined but the full faith and credit of the united states government should not be in question. >> reporter: overall we sort of remain in the same position we were in before either of these two letters came out. both sides remaining dug in and wanting to see mccarthy's budget before there is any discussion about spending and then mccarthy's side basically saying that we're not going to raise the debt limit without some help from you guys. almost like watching crabs fighting. go side to side, sometimes in a circle but they really don't go forward. neil: i have relatives like that. jackie, thank you very, very much. jacqui heinrich following that

at the white house. ed conner former bain capital manager, up side of equality, always good to see you. talking past each other on the whole debt limit thing. no one knows for sure when you hit the point, you have a break got to settle something before you have a default. what do you think? >> i think it always has to be negotiations around the debt limit. we ought to expect this. we ought to expect a lot of brinksmanship before we get there. i think if you step back to look at the bigger picture taxes are running 18% 1/2 of the economy. that is a full point above the historical average of 17 1/2%. spending is running at 24% of gdp of our economy. that is an astonishing four points higher than the historical average. so i think if we want to reduce inflation, not damage banks in the process, raise wages in the long run, we have to cut

spending, not raise taxes. inflation we're seeing is caused by the blow wrought blowout in spending increasing taxes inflation, interest rates will all shrink the private sector and reduce wages. neil: the administration could turn that around, ed, if he is worried about inflation, you raise taxes, traditional republican argument has been you raise taxes you slow the economy, voila, there goes the inflation problem away what do you say? >> i think you can slow the economy by raising taxes but that slows the private sector which generates the wages for our workers. neil: right. >> so in the process you will reduce wages. the way to reduce inflation without reducing wages is to reduce spending. then you don't put any stress on the banks. you don't put any stress on the private sector. you accelerate growth. it is a logical answer here. of course the democrats don't want to hear that answer because their bread is buttered by increasing spending. neil: ed, curious, big backer

not too long ago of mitt romney, running for president, where are you this year? i mean, any thoughts to the 24 crowd because it could be a bigger crowd? >> sure. having lost the last presidential election i think we would be wise to nominate the most electable candidate. if you look at online betting right now that is ron desantis at 65% probability being the president if he is nominated. i think president trump, president biden, vice president harris running at a pretty low 45%. i don't think, at least online betters are not confident any of the last three can win the votes of the independents but ron desantis is kind of an unknown quantity. he has a long way to go. his electability could fall. his electability could fall as the process unfolds. i also you know, i believe in

the reagan, 11th commandment, thou shall not speak badly, poorly of fellow republicans. any strategy a candidate tries to damage president trump is the front runner is really damaging the probability that the republicans can win the presidency. so i don't support a strategy like that because i think it reduces the chances of republicans winning. neil: i know about people who bet on these things, where they're coming from, but the fact of the matter is, despite polls look good for governor desantis in states like iowa, new hampshire, he is even, if not in the lead nationally, looks like donald trump has built a substantial lead, that is changing all the time as you have reminded me in the past but are you concerned about that? >> only am concerned because his electability is quite low. it is as low as vice president harris's elect act. that is not a good for republicans. i always think if he tempered

his words he could improve chances of being elected. so i'm going to support whoever the nominee is. i agree, online betting for example, president trump is at 50%. ron desantis is about 30, 35%. seems like high probability president trump will be our nominee. i think if we want to beat the democrats it is important to rally behind him to support him to do that. i believe the democrats have done a lot of damage to the future of america through running spending up to, much higher than 24% but running at a run rate close to 24% which is just astonishingly high. that will do damage to our workers and our wages. neil: we'll see how that battle is waged and whose argument wins out. ed con ard, good to see you again. brian brenberg getting ready for "the big money show" right after this show. what have you got, my friend?

brian: gas stoves were just the beginning. appliance crackdown expanding to air conditioners. drug shortages threatening national security. that is more at the top of hour. more "coast to coast" after this and i remember kind of thinking like, "oh my gosh, i think we could be sisters." because i think we looked... yes. right. yeah. and i don't think at that time- i think you're the one to tell me that we had the same birthday. yes. it's really unbelievable when you think about it, because it's been, like, really over 20 years that you were my mother and father's banker, you became my banker and now

fran is in her third year of college and you're her banker. it's so unbelievable because i'm just 20 years old. [laughing] at st. jude, the mission is something that everyone can truly get behind. i would love to be able to end childhood cancer. i learned that no patient ever has a bill from st. jude, not for travel, for medical expenses. our little st. jude pin there on the fridge. we're just regular people donating. yeah, and i think it's cool to be able to make a difference in someone's life in a way that is meaningful.

♪. neil: all right, the fed continues to raise interest rates but in this environment

market rates over which the fed has no control have actually come down. for example, we see the 30-year fixed rate now at a six week low thanks to decline in the 10-year which a lot of these are pegged around 6.45%. that could explain mortgage demand jumping 2.9% from the prior week. what to make of it all? jerry howard, national association of homebuilders. he is the ceo. jerry, good binned to have at your back, but so far your members are not seeing it, right? >> it represents a flight to safety to investors minds bringing down market rates a little bit. because the banking issues right now, we're not seeing a whole lot of uptick in demand that we hope to see in the spring. neil: spell it out. what are we looking at? if you can give me a sense what regions look good, what might not?

>> well, the regions that look good are the same as you would expect, neil, to be honest with you. it is the southeast, the two carolinas, florida, look really strong. texas is still good. those are, those are the ones that are really, really the strongest. some other ones had been strong are cooling off. boise, idaho, for example has cooled down quite a bit. what we're really shing right now i think is a very cautious housing market because no one knows what's going on in the banking sector and until that gets clarified i think you're going to see builders being a little bit leery about going forward. neil: you know, those builders need the banking sector themselves, right? they're the, they're a life-support line as well. has behavior changed toward builders? >> you know it is funny in the last two weeks, first of all you have to remember that the vast majority of our builders borrow from small regional banks. neil: interesting.

>> and the problem with the bank out in california, silicon valley bank, if that expands, goes to other regional banks it's a problem. even if it doesn't to forward, if the banks start getting more cautious with their lending which is unfortunately i'm starting to hear, that becomes a problem too. neil: what about those who are applying for mortgages, are the banks, regionals, some applied are they being tight on their standards? >> haven't seen it so far in mortgage end but acquisition of, construction, the front end of the pipeline. neil: thank you very much. good catching up. jerry howard, national association of home bidders. he is the big cheese, the boss. the dow up 233 points. we'll have more after this. ♪. this man needs updated covid protection.

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neil: road investments like bitcoin, advancing is the stock market does the same. all in unison here, kind of remarkable. it is breaking a rule. brian, we will take you to that. brian: i don't think there i