just really in the last two weeks dan that they are not shy about imposing import tariffs they did it on solar panels we discussed it here on the program in some detail and they also did our washing machines so what's the timeframe on the president making a decision on secretary ross's proposal or president trump has until april eleventh to accept or reject the recommendations so i think in that period until april eleventh we can expect to see a massive lobbying fight over this issue and it comes at a particularly interesting time in terms of foreign policy as u.s. and north korea trade barbs and threaten war there are elements within the trump administration that are pushing for a so-called bloody nose strike namely chief of staff h.r. mcmaster and japan hosts twenty three u.s. military bases so this would serve as a major point of attack for the u.s. if it were to actually happen but isolating japan pushing japan away like this

could have adverse effects on u.s. policy as japan may end up looking to regional partners trade partners like china and russia which the u.s. has kind of identified as adversaries you know i wonder you mentioned that this isn't just on these import quotas isn't just on japan but you mentioned china vietnam and venezuela maybe a another one but vietnam and venezuela are small potatoes in the steel manufacturing business but china and japan are big japan is so big my recollection is they're only like we're like five percent of our exports is this more about a precedent setting you know thing with regard to the trumpet ministration or is japan do you think really worried about their exports well i mean i think japan is worried about it about its exports it's not an enormous amount but. you know japan is i mean. world war two japan has really relied on the u.s. after the u.s.

restructured its economy. but i think you know the important thing domestically if we look at domestics is trump is going to rely on rust belt voters where basically he needs those voters to come out and vote in the midterm elections and then twenty twenty alexion and a lot of those voters came from traditionally blue states where he narrowly defeated hillary clinton and so he's going to really rely on these voters you know in the future and little primarily we're talking about ohio michigan indiana pennsylvania my guess is that for some of those republican senators that you're talking about of problems with this are coming from also then cohen r.t. correspondent thank you for being here we sure appreciate it. while u.s. markets are closed today global markets are open ashley banks has the latest on

global markets. global equity markets saw their best week and more than two years this comes as investors continue to focus on corporate earnings and improving economic growth but stocks europe six hundred index was marked at point seventeen percent and frankfurt and benchmarks in germany and france were also weaker falling point one percent and point fifteen percent even as financial stocks posted themes now the m. as c i world index woods tracks shares and forty seven countries was down point one percent it has recovered close to half of what it was between late january and last week's low just last week and posted again of four point three percent which was its best a weekly performance and system for two thousand and eleven here in the u.s. a few facilities were the biggest gainers in europe seeing gains between one and four percent the s. and p. five hundred index has remained below twenty for three days two weeks ago it spiked to a two and

a half year high of fifty point three the strength causing massive losses among investors who bet equity markets what stays stable on a combination of solid economic growth and moderate and place known david madden said that investors and knew there be a low probability the market would turn for the worse at the u.s. and canada celebration public holidays and that weighed on and susie as of and this part of the world dealers decided to lock in their profits from the week. over in asia stocks extended a six day winning streak m. as a see i report of the continent saw one point four percent gain heading into the closing bell and global oil prices were also on a rise today placing crude oil at a two week high as investors bet on stronger economic growth and worried about rising geopolitical tensions in the gulf region as it pertains to the u.s. a dollar it's edged up from three year lows against various currencies however it

still appear to be weak experts say it's being weighed down by various factors which include widening u.s. trade and budget deficits and to speculation washington might pursue a weak dollar strategy there is also speculation foreign central banks may be reallocating their reserves out of the dollar counts and reuters a lipper xpect fourth quarter earnings will grow fifteen percent from the same period and twenty six team reporting for boom bust actually banks art here. on this day in one nine hundred forty two another president franklin d. roosevelt issued an executive order which initiated the controversial world war two policy in the wake of the one nine hundred forty one japanese bombing of pearl harbor to round up certain americans primarily japanese americans many who had been in the united states for decades if not their entire lives and moved them in mass to what were called relocation camps for the duration of the war the japanese

americans were ordered to take no more than they could carry on their backs with them the grim civil rights record of that action was litigated sir for all times including during the war by the us supreme court which upheld roosevelt's executive order twice. it wasn't until another president gerald ford signed an order prohibiting the reinstitution of such an executive order that he found reprehensible twelve years later in one thousand nine hundred seventy six president ronald reagan issued a public apologies to the japanese americans and their descendants on behalf of the u.s. government and authorized reparations to the former japanese internist and their heirs. as we go to break here's a quiz question for you in rank order one to four who were the wealthiest us presidents in current dollars your choice is george washington thomas jefferson donald trump and john f.

kennedy will have the answer after the break. join me every thursday on the elec simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics school business i'm showbusiness i'll see that. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and you. also want to listen. to going to the press this is what before three of the people. i'm interested in there was a. question. we were american were smooth enough but what that's not us americans are crude

ruthless huckster playing sharks that's who we are and that's who john travolta is that's why i don't like america mama that's where the sun shone. welcome back here's the answer to our quiz question rank order who are the wealthiest u.s. presidents in history they are donald trump john f. kennedy george washington and thomas jefferson despite the fact that donald trump is the first modern president to not publicly release his taxes he is clearly the wealthiest us president ever he inherited a large sum from his father and invested much of it in real estate resorts and

casinos his total net worth is estimated to be three point one billion dollars and like donald trump j.f.k.'s wealth has a cause in that he died before he received his large inheritance from his father had he received the inheritance along with a wealth of his wife jacqueline it's estimated that j.f.k. had would have had a net worth of one billion dollars and coming in third is the birthday boy george washington who earned one of the largest u.s. salaries in fact he owned more than fifty thousand acres of land bringing his wealth to roughly five hundred twenty five million dollars and the fourth wealthiest president is one of the key authors of the declaration of independence and the third president of the united states thomas jefferson who made most of his money through an heritage from his father in which he gave me a state of monticello his net worth is estimated to have been two hundred twelve

million dollars that's your presidential fun fact for today hope you did well. professor montana welcome to the show to talk about presidents thank you so much for being here so when we talk about how much impact a president can have on the economy. they stopped work with congress so what is their power we see the president has just passed tax reform but how much power do they really have by themselves i think is story could the consensus among historians is that presidents don't have all that much power when it comes to the short term specially they have to act at the size that they have a vision of what they want to do with the economy and where they're going to actually take it but i guess the best indication as to see where presidents take the economy is seen long term we look back obviously the one nine hundred thirty s. the one nine hundred early part of the sixty's the eighty's the ninety's it's very

difficult to tell now if the president has a real impact unless he's a true visionary with a real plan you spent a lot of time. studying president nixon did he have an economic policy that was. proved by congress he did basically in and one of the three key things to talk about nixon is and everybody brings of watergate we make these associations with present there is that there is that the plan the nixon had people often say had watergate not occurred and had the boom boom of the one nine hundred eighty s. taken place in the seventy's maybe nixon would have been perceived differently by history. nixon's often given bad marks because of the over control with price controls and that sort of thing so he had to deal with quite a few other issues in addition the economy in addition to watergate the middle east what's happening with china detente etc so he's not usually perceived as a strong economic president given the circumstances of what would become known as stagflation inflation etc etc now i mean we associate president nixon with that

associated mean with opening up china where there are other economic policies that president nixon pushed forward. it really mattered to the economy in this sense not a heavy heavy footprint when it came to what was happening with opec in the early one nine hundred seventy s. it's a post vietnam war era so there is a bit of that funk and what the united states has had to deal with during that time there's not a not a had not a real heavy footprint he talked about the new federalism which was going to be under that whole mantra of a new nixon and being an active president that regard he everyone who reads read about nixon very specifically knows that his passion wasn't exactly there was more in foreign policy not to be said was he dormant no but were his policies. top of the line effect to remember for that sort of thing no not really let's go not fast forward to i only want to go up to president reagan but you know he was the last president to pass tax reform in one nine hundred eighty six and we all remember that phrase trickle trickle down economics and that phrases been read up

in the recent conversation with with tax reform what were the differences between how president reagan passed tax reform professor and how president trump helped get it passed i think definitely its relationship with congress one thing we look back on reagan for someone who affected change who really believed in the art of symbolism reagan stood out in that sense he reached out to his fellow democrats worked with his own party to try to get legislation passed people know the famous stories between him and tip o'neill speaker of the house back then where they were able to debate on the scene sometimes very aggressively but they everybody knew behind the scenes they both respected one another so it was a beloved figure in that sense obviously very controversial for some policies given what happened with the deficit and the debt and whatnot but really iran kannan iran contra as well but he knew how to reach out he was that symbolic president who knew that it mattered to reach across party lines and also from the press in some cases

he wasn't there wasn't as much antagonism between the press and the president back then as we had as we can. no by now i remember a great story that chris matthews told of his book. tip and the gipper i think it called a couple of years ago where she talks about president reagan being in the what was essentially a green room a holding room before he gave the state of the union and he said to the president chris matthews did was a staffer to tip o'neill said how does it feel to be in the room where we plot against you but the president said now chris it's after six o'clock or something like that we're all friends so if there really was a a different time and i was actually on the hill then a little bit was a pretty good time for working across the aisles and it seems controversial too controversial now let me ask you about that when you go back to the president's throughout history and you think about the divide with

a congress that did divide with the other party has there been a time that you think really has been more polarized with presidents in the past i think it's a matter of context is a big thing we do have to look at the civil war because that was a period of time when you had congressman who literally would pull their weapons out and put it on their desks in the senate floor obviously there was the caning of senator sumner and what not between say in south carolina massachusetts and i want to get a file and obviously with this animosity we see today's duffy different it seems that after the civil war obviously there was a bit of acrimony between both sides but people seem to be able to talk to one another now there's a certain sense of disrespect the fact that congressmen and senators have to focus more on raising funds and going back to their home districts between thursday monday and thursday of every week they're focused on legislation here the rest of time they're raising funds and that seems to have taken a bit away from from.