the average person out there does not understand the ramifications of a.i., i certainly do not. but we need the people that do to to figure this out, otherwise it's been fun, everybody. cheryl: i think the good with the bad. >> yeah. cheryl: is what i say. but i don't want china to lead on this. >> right. and just the fact check kamala very quickly, she blamed trump for selling chips to china. nobody was even talking a.i. until november 30th of 2022, that's when chatgpt came out, and that is when this a.i. race began, not prior that. cheryl: so that means todd piro and i have been talking about this since then. it's been a long time. guys, thank you so much. mark they were it'd pyro, appreciate your time -- todd piro. i will see all of you tomorrow. ashley webster this morning is in for stuart varney. if hey, ashley, good morning. ashley: good morning, cheryl. tell todd to to stop watching those robot movies. they're freaking him out, clearly. [laughter]

yeah. all right, thank you very much, guys. good morning, i'm ashley webster, yes, in today for stuart varney. let's start with the latest read on inflation. producer prices coming in slightly higher than expected in august, 0.2 month over month, but annual increase came in slightly less than anticipated at is 1.7. so what did the market think about this ho-hum, at least in the premarket? we can see that the dow jones and s&p ever so slightly hire, the nasdaq ever is slightly lower. -- higher. let's take a look at the interest rates, beginning with the 10-year which has been moving slightly lower, and it still is, down just .if 3 basis points to the 3.65. the 2-year also has been moving slightly lower, 3.64%, unchanged. what is bitcoin doing today? it has been just below $58,000, and there it is. it's up $311 at $57,644.

gold also sticking around $250000 at 25 the 54, up nearly $12 per troy ounce. oil conning the move -- continuing to move, below $70 a barrel, up 84 cents at $68.15. gas prices also edging lower again. regular averaging $3.24 a gallon. that's down one cent. diesel down one cent. we'll take fit at $3.63. take it. the latest fox news power rankingings showing kamala harris now holding an overall lead for the very first time with 241 electoral college votes, donald trump has 219. you need 270 to win, so plenty of electoral college votes in play. toss-up, as they say. we'll get into it. in aurora, colorado, ten members of the venezuelan gang have now been arrested, we'll get into

that. and an historic moment as space item x's polaris storm crew conduct the first ever commercial space walk. very, very cool, indeed. we'll be talk about that. it is september 212th, 2024 -- 12th, 2024, "varney & company" about to begin. muck pluck. ♪ ♪ hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out ♪ ashley: this ain't no easy way out but, you know what? i won't back down. the late, the great tom petty. that one's for stu as you look down sixth avenue in midtown manhattan. stuck at a red light there. good morning, everyone. finish let's begin with that latest read on inflation, the producer price index. good morning, lauren. take us through it. lauren: good morning. look, on a monthly level, prices

are hotter rising. .2% from july and rising .23% -- 3% at the core level when you strip the out the food and energy components. so the monthly numbers are moving in the wrong direction, up instead of down. but annually, right-hand side of your screen, that 2.4% number, yeah, it's an increase, but it's less hand expected, and that's the good news. ashley: yes, it is, indeed. i guess no nasty surprises. thank you, lauren. adam johnson in the studio with me for the next hour. >> hi, ashley. ashley: certainly, for this segment. hey, adam a, how are you? everyone's talking about the fed next week with. i think quarter percent, i don't think a half a percent is realistic. what say you. >> yeah, i think you're right. and as a lauren just pointed out, there was enough sort sort of how should we say, nebulousness in some of the data today that the fed is able to just sit back and say, you know, we're very, very measured in how

we have dealt with the economy whether it was raising rates and now whether it's lowering rates. so, yes, the year-over-year data is coming down, inflation is almost back to 2. in fact, if -- 2%. if you average the four indicators, today we got ppi, yesterday was are cpi, ten there's gdp price index and the pce. if you average all four of them, the average is 2.5%. well, the target is 2%. so we're practically there. and remember, ashley, at one point cpi was above 99, ppi was above 11 -- cpi was above 1. as lauren mentioned, some of the month over month data wasn't quite as quiet as we'd like, but the point is, yes, as you suggest, the fed's going to cut 25 basis points. they are gradualists, it's there's no reason to change their tune and cut by 50. ashley: yeah. i think that's already baked into the market. adam, stay there. as i said earlier, you are with

us for the hour, so we're very privileged. we've got the new fox power rankings out this morning, makes for interesting reading. kamala harris gaining ground in some key battleground states. lauren, take us through it. lau lauren lauren yeah, she moved into the lead for the very first time, but the election is likely coming down the those six battleground states in yellow, arizona, georgia, nevada, north carolina, pennsylvania and wisconsin. all in, that's 78 electoral votes. if you focus on north carolina and georgia specifically, they're moving from lean republican, now to toss-up. georgia, mostly blue. however, they do have those rural areas, and they're red. north carolina has seen a lot of urban american from surrounding states move in, particularly during covid. it's no longer a sure win for republicans. so with both of those states out of trump's column, harris leads with 2411 electoral -- 241

electoral college votes, trump has 29219 votes -- 32 the 19 votes. -- 219 votes. so those six swing statements are likely the determining votes here. ashley: network indeed. lauren, thank you very much. james freeman joins me now. great to see you, james. >> you too, ash. ashley: based on what lauren just said, which battleground states are must-wins for trump? >> well, i think north carolina in that list, and i would think he needs georgia as well. ashley: yeah. >> depends a bit on the midwest states that are also fairly close. but i think you're looking at a coin flip election right now. ashley: wow. >> and you look across the midwest, and and you mentioned pennsylvania. i think there is still probably some regret in the democratic camp that kamala harris did not pick the popular governor there. this is going to be a difficult, must-win state for her and probably would be a lot easier if she had gone the moderate

route. ashley: yeah. james, we need to take a look at some of the headlines that came out after the debate on tuesday. it doesn't seem like voters were too convinced of hearst' -- of harris' performance. look, and in particular the undecided voters who were not convinced according to those headlines. how does trump convince undecided voters? >> i think it was kind of a strange debate. i think kamala harris really outperformed in the sense that i don't think people expected her to be that aggressive a debater. but when you look at the content, i also don't think there are many independent voters who were saying i'm looking for someone who can be just as rude or even more insulting than trump. [laughter] typically, these are people who think the trump years were pretty good, economy was good, we had relative price stability, but they don't like his tone,

they don't like a lot of the chaos that comes with him. i don't think harris made a case on policy. you go through those questions from the moderator, she didn't answer one of them whether the first four questions put to her, whether it was about why did you not get rid of trump's tariffs if they're so bad or why did you wait until six months before the election to enforce the border? there were no answers. so i think she's still got to the make the case on how she can govern this country as to opposed to trolling trump. ashley: yeah. she got a free pass on a lot of very key issues. with that if in mind, james, should trump agree to a second debate? >> i would say, yes. i would say they both should. this is a coin flip, so they -- in one has closed the deal with voters. that's obviously when you look at these polls in swing states. i'd say it's might be's game

right now, and anybody who the doesn't want a debate, i would think that would say something to the electorate, and it wouldn't be good. ashley: yeah. i mean, the critical points for trump, would you not agree, the economy, inflation for sure and immigration. he should be able to really hammer away at the biden-harris and in particular harris now and their policies, failed policies, right? >> and that's where i would agree those are key issues. i think that's also where harris needs to make a better case. she basically has adopted or continued to embrace the biden myth which is that they inherited a mess from trump. and it's just not true. the economy was growing much faster that quarter when they took office than it is now. obviously, inflation much lower. so they -- she needs an acknowledgment of mistakes, i would guess, and a path forward before voters would have any reason to think that the next

four years will be any different than the last three. that -- three and a half. ashley: and maybe some fact checks from moderators who apparently were only going to do that for the other candidate. james, thank you so much. >> thanks, ash. ashley: james freeman, good to see you. by the way, we have the numbers on how many people watched tuesday night's debate. i would imagine it was a lot. how many, lauren? lauren: 67.1 million. that's 16 million more than tuned in in june to watch trump debate joe biden. where did the increase come from? mostly younger and early middle-age voters and viewers. roughly 50% more in that demo, 18 to the about 35 years old, watch watched hearst over biden. sos this is the -- harris over biden, so this is the most-watched political event of this campaign season. presidential debates pull in viewers because i think a lot of people are saying, oh, we have a new candidate. what is she about? ashley: right.

lauren: you can answer that question if you learn more after the debate. it's debatable. ashley: that's true. how much did the 67.1 million learn? interesting stuff. lauren, thank you very much. let's take a quick look at the. futures, essentially flat after the latest inflation data that shows same as you are, basically. and in the premarket we're going to open up, the bell will ring in, what, 19 minutes from now. my math is terrible. dow is up 53 points, s&p and nasdaq essentially flat. all right, coming up, the mainstream media was quick to fawn over kamala harris' debate performance, declaring her the winner, but one reporter warned many voters in one key state that they are still undecided. watch. >> i talked to 20 voter, not one of them was undecided. support for former president trump is real and resilient. i encountered that everywhere i went. ashley: everywhere he went. michigan, of course, is a major swing state in the november election. and we've been talking about the haitian migrant surge in

springfield, ohio. well, now ohio's governor is deploying state troopers and committing $2.5 million to the city to help with the flood of migrants. we'll have a live report from if springfield coming up next. ♪ ♪

[♪] can a personal loan unlock your ambitions? oh yeah. consolidate bad debt and save money for your next goal. sofi personal loans. low, fixed rates. borrow up to $100k. no fees required.

ashley: let's take a look at these futures about 15 minutes away from the opening bell. the dow up just ever so slightly, the s&p just the same story, now the nasdaq slightly negative, it's now exactly flat. we'll see how it all works out when we get the session under way. meanwhile, an influx of haitian migrants putting a big strain on

resources in the town of springfield, ohio. christina coleman is there right now and, christina, what's going on and what are local residents saying? >> reporter: hi, good morning. well, you know what? over the past four years at least 15,000 haitians have come to this small city rapidly, increasing the population here and dramatically spreading resources thin. now, many haitians came here under the temporary protective status the program after escaping gang violence and arrest in their country. they heard there was cheap housing and lots of jobs. now springfield needs translation services, more school resources and even driver's education classes. ohio's governor says many haitians have arrived here many need of medical care after a shortage of medical care in their home country. >> what that also means is that the number of these individuals, we don't know, but the number of these individuals who are not

vaccinated from things that we take for granted in this country are very -- is a high number and very, very significant. these facts have a great potential for community health challenges. >> reporter: area residents packed a city commission meeting tuesday night to voice frustration over longer hospital wait times and the immediate for bigger classroom sizes. yesterday with ohio state patrol was dispatched to this area to help with traffic problems because some haitians are unfamiliar with traffic laws. that issue got a lot of attention after an unlicensed driver hit a school buses in august of 2023, injuring about who two dozen children and killing a young boy, 1511-year-old -- 11-year-old aidan clark. aidan's father is begging the public to not use his son's death as a talking point over immigration. >> the last thing we need is to have the worst day of our lives

violently and constantly shoved in our faces. >> reporter: state and city leaders are scrambling to figure out how to meet these challenges. ohio's governor says he's going to earmark about $2.5 million the provide more medical care and other critical resources to this area. back to you. ashley: what a challenge. christina, thank you very much. meantime, police officers in aurora, colorado, have arrested 10 members of venezuelan gang tren de aragua in connection to those recent apartment takeovers. we've seen that video. if meanwhile in el paso, border patrol arrested three venezuelan migrants who took over the local gateway hotel. texas congressman pat fallon joins us this morning. great of to have you along, congressman. i guess my question is, why is it taking so long to the take action when we have apartment buildings being taken over? >> well, ashley, this administration has done nothing in the last three and a half years other than open the gates,

you know, wide for illegal migrants. you see it with the numbers, over 11 million people, number's probably much hire than that, have crossed illegally, and and we don't know who they are. at this point in president trump's administration, it was ant 2 million. it's five and a half times worse by that measure, and they simply will not acknowledge that they have an issue. ashley: you know, it's -- and venezuela in particular, that country says we're not going to take them back. so does that mean that the united states is obligated to care for them? what do we do with this -- with them? >> that's why it's so important to secure your border in the first place. i would still send them back. venezuela isn't even a function functioning government, it's just a dick today orship that rules by the barrel of a gun. but kamala harris was put in charge of the border, whether or not she was called the border czar is irrelevant. joe biden said she will mitigate these issues, mexico and the northern triangle. there were 1.9 million who

crossed the border from these countries under president trump's administration, and then kamala harris took over, ashley, and it was 4.3 million. 226% increase. ashley: yeah. i mean, to me it's pretty obvious. all right, go to this next issue. listen to an immigrant slam kamala harris for her role in the border crisis. listen to this. >> i'm also a black manage i'm also an immigrant, but there are certain things that you've got to think that the kamala are wasn't asking these questions, man. i watched the debate. when they spoke about immigrants, she's half the reason all these immigrants are in the state of new york. or my state. listen, i don't know why we put the blame on one person as if the border hasn't been an issue -- >> you can get all the border patrol you want, but9 if the administration is allowing these immigrants to come in, giving hem free flights to go anywhere across america, border patrol can't do anything. if. ashley: yeah, that's exactly right. you know,man, we've seen, as you

point out, this record surge -- congressman. but kamala harris at the debate on tuesday was very happy to blame republicans and donald trump in particular for, you know, coming out against a bill that she said would have cured it. a little too late -- too little, too late, and there was a lot more attached to that bill that republicans didn't like, right? >> well, yeah. why did it take them three years to offer any solution to the border crisis? they didn't do a lick. and, by the way, that that bill said you could have 2500 toillegals come in every day and then we'd get serious about enforcing the border. that's 912,000 that'll come in floodgates wide open and then we might take it seriously. that is absolutely ridiculous. we don't want the normalize that. even under obama's administration it was only about 22 million illegals -- 2 million illegals crossing the border, urn trump 2 million as well and then 11 million. we never had a month many our

history of over 200,000 illegal border crossings can be. ashley: very definition of out of control. congressman pat fallon, thank you so much, sir, for joining us this morning. we really appreciate on a frustrating topic. [laughter] thank you, sir. let's check futures, essentially flat. the opening bell will be coming up in, what, less than seven minutes from now, so don't go away. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ i didn't ain't like i can make this kind of mess all by myself. ♪ don't act like you ain't helped me pull that bottle off the shelf ♪

everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients.

ashley: the opening bell just minutes away. the markets in the premarket at least essentially flat. let's bring in d.r. barton who joins me now. d.r., good morning to you. producer prices up 1.7% over the last year. what does that mean for the markets and rate cuts? >> well, i think we've seen the market vote, ashley, and it voted almost a ho-hum, down just a touch since the announcement came out. but i think the markets are saying exactly what we expected. so full steam ahead with that 25 the basis point cut.

ashley: let's get to your stock picks, two well known names. let's begin with amazon. what do you like about amazon that we haven't already talked about? >> i think there are several things that i really think could take this stock even higher. when i wrote up my notes yesterday morning for you, ashley, they were amazon was a pick, and i liked it there even much lower than the big pop, 2% pop it got yesterday. i still like it here because it's broken through a key technical level. but what i really like is the infrastructure of the largest cloud services provide iser on the globe -- provider on the globe. i think people will be flocking the amazon for services to run a.i. for smaller companies, not the biggest ones that are building out their own data centers, but people that need that processing power and that cloud service power, aws, their services sector will keep growing. and that's where all their profit margins are anyway.

ashley: right. all right. i hear you. let's get to ibm. you used to call it big blue. you like ibm. [laughter] [laughter] >> yes, deep blue is the reason i like them now. ibm has been at the forefront of a.i., ash, since -- for decades in the top of people's mind was their watson app and their watson team. they don't do a lot of technical things now on the hardware side, but they do with the consulting services. that's why it's growing, that's why it's banging through an all-time high as we speak. ashley: all right. we'll have to leave it there. good to talk about system classic stocks. t.r. baron. -- d.r. barton, thank you very much. we appreciate that. we're getting ready to start thursday's session. futures expected to be, well, perhaps a little, slightly higher. we'll wait and see, and there we have it. we are off and running. the confetti falls, people clap, they smile, it's a good time.

let's take a a look at the big board. the dow, as you can see right out of the gate, ho-mum, up 0.1%. there's the board as you can see, salesforce.com, home depot at the top, boeing and intel down at the bottom. overall, the dow off now just about 8 points. let's take a look at the s&p 500. again, up marginally at 55, 54 -- 5554 on the s&p. let's take a look at the nasdaq, the big tech the index, if you like, and the nasdaq up just 12 the points at 17,408. and talking of tech, let's take a look at those big tech names often so influential in how these markets perform. most of them moving higher, alphabet, meta, amazon and microsoft. no, microsoft -- there you go, essentially flat. the only stock down on that board, apple down about half a percent p. all right, let's take a look at system of the

individual stocks. eli lilly expanding drug manufacturing. is this the just a weight loss drug, lauren, or what else? lauren: alzheimer's, the old investment is $1.8 billion to increase production of the inagreed yets for the recently-approved treatment for alzheimer's, and another factory in ireland for the weight loss drug. so all in, another $1.8 billion investment. stock relatively flat on that, but it's had a nice gain this year. ashley: what to do you say, or adam, while you're with us? eli lilly, it's $932 the 2. you like it here -- 9222. >> you know, i don't buy big pharma, and elle tell you why, ashley, it's so hard to get an edge. i try to the find companies where i think i can help my subscribers double, maybe triple their money over two, three, four years, but it's like buying exxon. big, chunky, high cash flow company, but it's hard to get an

edge. ashley: yep, very good. let's talk about some changes, big changes at moderna, lauren. what are they up to? lauren: they're slashing their r&d spending over the next four years by 20%. they're also going to pause if not end some drug development entirely. the stock is cratering 15. they need to safe money $15%. -- 15%. they've lost a fifth of their value this year. they had so much of their portfolio locked in on the covid vaccine. that's just not as popular anymore, so they started investing in other drugs and vaccines, and now they're kitting baa investment in -- cutting that investment to save money. ashley: all right. we know what adam feels about these stock. [laughter] let's move on to mcdonald's. are they extending the $5 value meal? we all love that. lauren: yeah, it works. so their now extending it into december meaning for sick months the $-- for sick six months the $5 deal is driving traffic.

the customer keeps saying, hey, we want cheap food. we can't afford food these days x. if you pay for your $5 value deal, ashley, you can now if order it from a kiosk and give them a $5 bill as in cash. the kiosk that you typically see at mcdonnell's, you have to to o use your credit card. they're starting to change that where the machine can take your bill and give you change which means what happens to the human cashier, right? if. ashley: yeah, good question. lauren: i care about people's jobs, but who actually uses cash these days? ashley: yeah, that's a good point. they're lauren is cash a participant of the future? -- part of the future? ashley: adam, i don't think you've ordered too many value meals many your life, but having said that, do you think mcdonald's strategy is a sound one? >> i'm a longtime fan of the big mac just for the record, ashley, think their french fries are absolutely awesome, and i would rather go to mcdonald's than

to burger king. but i think, ashley, they're adapting, and i've got to hand it to the them, there was a time a few years ago when they introduced salad. i thought that was weird, and yet they realized they needed to pivot because people wanted healthier food, fine. i appreciate the add aptivity of mcdonald's. ashley: yes, indeed. i'll take it all back, adam. who doesn't love a big mac or a quarter pounder? if let's move on. kroger reported before the bell. how did they do, lauren? lauren: that they loweredded grocery prices because that works, right, to help push through their merger with albertson's saying, hey, p ptc, look, we sell -- ftc, look, we sell cheaper prices too. we do want the salad at mcdonald's, we do want to eat healthy also. hay did raise the lower end of their annual sales forecast. ashley: i say uh-huh on the salad.

i don't think i've ordered too many, but that's another story. all right, lauren, thank you. jpmorgan is going to the put a limit, apparently, on how many hours junior bankers can work. all right or, lauren, what's that limit? lauren: pencils down at 8 tohours a week -- 80hours a week. let's often this. it's basically working 8:30 in the morning to, what, 10:00 at night six days a week, and it matches the cap on medical residents in new york state. what that the means to me is that there is such a thing as a breaking down and being overworked and making mistakes and having bufferinout -- burnout. also a bank of america reportedly asking their junior bankers to when they log their hours tell management how they're spending their time. do you remember just a few months ago a 35-year-old associate at bofa divided of heart attack. he had been -- died of a heart attack. he had been working multiple 1000-hour weeks -- 100-weeks.

that's what you do, the a payout is at the end. but now there's a dangerous culture of overwork on wall street. i think the adam wants to get in here. ashley: yeah. i think so and, adam, look, there's always an element if you have to pay your dues, but when it gets to the that point, it's just simple abuse, isn't it? >> yeah. you know, i actually grew up in that program. i worked at merle merrill lynch right out of college, and, boy, did i work hard. isn't i -- it amazing that we're still putting these kids -- and they're kids, 21, 22, 23, 24 years old, and we think we're doing them a favor when we say, no, we're going to cap you at a 800 hours a week? that's crazy. i know, i did it, and i eventually told my bosses this is ridiculous, it's t not for me. i left, i went to the trading desk, and i worked much more reasonable hours, and i'm glad i made that move. it's not fair. it's in the human. ashley: good for you. yeah, no kidding. all right, adam, while you're

hearing some stock picks you brought along, let's begin with boog google. >> yeah, it's certainly been in the news. they're facing antitrust probes both in the e.i. and here, in fact, executivetives were many front of senators yesterday. i think this is just election year politics, right? you know, just -- it's noise. they're going after big tech because they can't buy it. it's cheap, it's growing, only 18 times earnings, that's cheaper than the market, ashley. ashley: very good. we'll have to leave it there. adam, thank you very much. >> you bet. ashley: still ahead, a new survey found that 23% of gen-z americans say they're not planning to have children because of finances. we're going to break it all down the for you. it's a trend not just in the u.s. have you ever wondered just how much more you're spending on goods under the biden administration? a lot more, i would say. the heritage foundation just launched a personal inflation calculator so every person can see how their expenses have been affected. 9 pretty cool.

e.j. antoni will tell us how it all works, and he joins me next. ♪ did you steal my money? if. ♪ did you feel my money? ♪ -- feel my money? ♪ are you out there -- [city noise] investment opportunities are everywhere you turn. do you charge forward? freeze in your tracks? (♪) or, let curiosity light the way. at t. rowe price, we're asking smart questions about opportunities like clean water. and how clean water advances can help transform our tomorrows. better questions. better outcomes. t. rowe price

it's pods biggest sale of the summer. save up to 25% on moving and storage for a limited time. and see why pods has been trusted with over 6 million moves. but don't wait, use promo code big25 to save. visit pods.com today. ♪ (alarm sound) ♪ amelia, turn off alarm. amelia, weather. 70 degrees and sunny today. amelia, unlock the door. i'm afraid i can't do that, jen. ♪ (suspenseful music) ♪ why not? did you forget something? ♪ (suspenseful music) ♪ my protein shake. the future isn't scary. not investing in it is. you're so dramatic amelia. bye jen. nasdaq-100 innovators. one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com. power outages can be unpredictable, inconvenient, and disruptive to your life, posing a real threat to your family's comfort and safety. when the power goes out, you have no lights, no refrigeration, no heating or air conditioning.

the winds are not letting up at all here. we're going to see some power outages. number one thing to prepare for is extended power outages. are you prepared? you can be with a generac home standby generator. when a power outage occurs, your generac home standby generator automatically powers up, using your home's existing natural gas or propane, so your life goes on without disruption. you and your family are comfortable, safe, and secure. stay tuned, to get over a $500 value free on the most popular home standby generator in the world. with the generac, we don't have to worry about whether we lose power or not. if the utility company does not come through, our generac does. having a generac takes a lot of the anxiety out of, there's going to be a storm. after the hurricane happened, we just want to be prepared for anything. generac generators are designed, engineered and built in the usa. 8 out of 10 home generators are generac,

and have thousands of satisfied customers. how many times have you heard people say, i never want to go through that again? well, the next time you go through it, don't make it so hard on yourself. have a generac home standby generator. call or go online now to request your free quote with one of generac's nationwide dealers. special financing and low monthly payment options are available, and if you call now, you will also receive a free 5 year warranty valued at over $500. the call is free, the quote is free, and there's no obligation to buy. call or go online now, so the next time there's a power outage, your home powers up. power your life with generac. call or go online to request your free quote today. can i have another pancake? from full house... ...to empty nest... ...to free birds. vanguard personal advisor can help you prepare for every chapter. we got this. that's the value of ownership.

ashley: well, we got the latest inflation report this morning. producer prices up 1.7% over the last 12 months. edward lawrence is at the white house this morning and, edward, what's the administration saying about inflation? >> reporter: yeah, they're saying that they've turned a corner on inflation, but here's the thing, the first question in the debate that was asked vice president kamala harris, are you were the off -- better off than you were four years ago. now, the vice president the did not answer that question directly and here's maybe why. overall, cpi inflation is up about 0 since the biden-harris -- 20% since the

biden harris administration if came into power. rent costs up about 23%, auto insurance up more than 55.5%. and all energy is up 332%. these are -- 32%. these are costs that the everyone feels. >> biden-harris caused inflation. the excessive, wildly excessive spending, the assault on our energy. and as powell tried to, the fed tried to deal with it by keep raising interest rates, they were pushing against the ocean as well. >> reporter: you couple the higher prices with the fact that real wages accounting for inflation are down 1.4% from the month president biden came into office, another example of how people feel based on new census data about lackluster wealth growth under the biden-harris administration compared to the trump administration, "the wall street journal" editorial board in an op-ed said federal spending as a share of gdp averaged 20. 5% during the first three years under many trump

compared to 25. 8% under mr. biden. never has the government spent so much money only to leave americans poorer. vice president harris wants people to take a leap to of faith on her or or even though she has been part of this administration for the past three and a half years. >> we're not going back. and i do believe that the american people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us, and we can chart a new way forward. >> reporter: so i was in philadelphia yesterday, i can tell you a lot of people are very concerned about the price they're paying for everything under this administration. back to you, ashley. ashley: and people across the country. all right, edward, thank you very much. if e.j. antoni for the heritage foundation joins me now. good morning to you, e.j. are we starting the see the light at the end of the tunnel of inflation, if you like? >> well, ashley, only in the sense that things are not as bad as they were, but they're feel getting worse. in other words, inflation is a

tax. it's a hidden tax, but it is still taking money, at least purchasing power, out of your wallet. it's like getting robbed except that this week the robber takes less out of your wallet than he did last week. things are still heading in the wrong direction, again, just not assed bad as they used to. -- as bad as they used to. 3% inflation is certainly not as a horrific as a 9.1. ashley: yeah. let me move on to this one, e.j., with regards to inflation. er -- heritage foundation has just launched a personal inflation calculator online. could be interesting. explain to us how it works. >> well, ashley, i absolutely love this tool. all the viewers can check it out by going to my inflation.org. the reason i love it is because it is both a really powerful tool and easy to use. people are select not only -- can select not only the average for the whole united states which is what we get with inflation indexes hike the cpi, but they can select different

options. maybe they're a retiree, maybe they're the typical family of four in suburban america or they can customize the tool by just plugging in a new numbers from their budget like how much do you spend on energy, on your rent or to your monthly more if gang payment, whatever the case may be -- mortgage payment. and on top of that, it doesn't just give you percent increases like, again, when we get cpi and we see 3% inflation. hoch -- okay, how does that affect my monthly budget? this will tell you a number of dollars, it is costing you this many more dollars to live today compared to the a time in the past. and it lets you select that the time. so if you want to see how have i been affected by biden-harris administration policies, just select january of 2021, and it it will show you how much more expensive your life is today. ashley: yeah. very quickly, e.j., we're expecting a rate cut from the fed next week. have we avoided a recession, or is there still that risk out there? is. >> oh, no, that risk is still certainly out there,

unfortunately. look, you know, the -- a lot of the indicators for recession, i think, have been papered over by massive government deficit spending which is helping to keep supposed growth going. but that can only last so long. it's much like a family that continues to maintain a standard of living by putting everything on a credit card even though they don't have the income to the make -- excuse me, to the meet all those expenses. ashley: yeah. all right. well, or we'll have to leave it there on that happy note. e.j., fascinating stuff, as always. thanks for joining us this morning. now this, a new survey shows fewer young people are plan being on having children -- planning on having children. why is that, lauren? lauren: kids are expensive. [laughter] mass if mutual finds 23% of millennials and gen-zers say they're not planning to have children because of finances. it means they're prioritizing financial stability, dare do i say financial freedom, ashley, over parenthood. sign of the times.

i love when i talk the my friends and say when we were growing up, we had so many brothers and sisters, it was easy. life got complicated. we have so many expenses. ashley: yes. lauren: do i think that's not a reason to have children? no. but i guess for one in four young peopling it is. ashley: very quickly, lauren, that's a good point. adam, what do you think of young people not having children? >> life is expensive. kids are expensive, dating's expensive, i'm expensive, you know? [laughter] it is what it is, that's why we work. [laughter] it's hard. i mean, it's hard. ashley: yeah. it's a fact of life. all right, adam, thank you very much. coming up, the group students for justice in palestine is calling for a national day of action across college campuses today. the group says the intifada will continue until their demands are met. okay. spacex polaris dawn crew members just performed their first ever commercial space

walk. watch this. >> back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here earth sure looks like a perfect world. ashley: such a cool shot. jonathan serrie will have the latest on the space walk, and he joins me next. ♪ ♪ dad: i'm gonna clean the fence. daughter: it's a lot of fence. dad: you wanna help me? dad: aim at the wall, but get closer. daughter: (gasps) what the?! daughter: alright. dad: side to side. when you work with someone who knows a lot and cares even more... you can do this. ...you're unstoppable. (♪) wow... are you kidding me? you can do this. at truist, we believe the same is true for banking.

♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. presentation looks great. thanks! thanks! voya provides tools that help you make the right investment and benefit choices so you can reach today's financial goals. that one! and look forward, to a more confident future. that is one dynamic duo. voya, well planned, well invested, well protected. think scaling your ai pilots is hard? think again. with watsonx, you can deploy ai across any environment. above the clouds

and on lots of clouds. with your secured data on prem, in real time on center court and assisting bank tellers on the edge. watsonx helps you deploy ai wherever you need it. so you can take your business wherever it needs to go. ibm. let's create.

ashley: earlier this morning spacex conducted the first ever commercial space walk. jonathan serrie joins us now to talk about it and, jonathan, no doubt this was a historic moment, right? >> reporter: yeah, historic, indeed, ashley. jared isaacman, the billion mare entrepreneur, became the the first private individual to the step outside an orbiting spacecraft. and as he did, his helmet cam gave us dramatic views of our home planet. >> back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here earth sure looks like a perfect world. >> reporter: i.c.e.king aman paid space job x an undisclosed amount of men to -- money to send him and three other astronauts into space and. the crew are conducting real science and testing spacex's new

eva suits for the very first time in the vacuum of space. sarah gillis also stepped outside, the spacex engineer overseas astronaut training, but this is her first tripp into space. at a prelaunch news conference, she expressed confidence in spacex's crew dragon spacecraft. >> my husband is actually also a spacex engineer, and he helped build the propulsion system on or our spacecraft. so i know exactly what goes into the testing and the design and the rigor behind absolutely everything in the space spacecraft. so v very excited to the supply on my favorite dragon spacecraft. >> reporter: because there's no air lock on thing dragon, the interior of the spacecraft had to be completely depressurized for the spacecraft, so all four private astronauts were wearing those institutes both -- suits both inside and outside the capsule. ashley, it appears those suits performed beautifully, and space, and really hopes to use them for long-term human

habitation on the moon and even mars. back to you. ashley: terrific stuff. jonathan, thank you so much, appreciate. that i also want to thank happened am johnson -- adam johnson who was kind enough the to stick around for the hour. adam a, thank you very much. still ahead, congressman jim jordan on republicans launching an investigation into the biden administration over a new initiative designed to improve legal representation for illegal immigrants. clay travis on the possibility of nfl star travis kelce endorsing kamala harris. congressman michael waltz will also be here on the white house reportedly finalizing plans to expand where ukraine can hit inside russia, and leo terrell on schools lowering the standards for students. what? he was once a teacher, he'll take that on, you know that. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney & company" is next. ♪ -- things could change, things could go your way -- ♪ if you hold on for one more

day. ♪ can you held on for one more day -- hold on for one more day? ♪ things will go your way. ♪ hold on for one more day ♪ .. ok limu! you set it, and as i spike it, i'll tell them how liberty mutual customizes car insurance, so they only pay for what they need. got it? [squawks] did you get that? only pay for what you need.

♪liberty, liberty,♪ ♪liberty, liberty.♪