Liz Peek & Steve Moore | 03-07-26

0:00This episode is brought to you by Collegard. Do you know what's really scary, not screening for colon cancer when you turn 45? The Collegard test is non-invasive, requires no special proper time off work, and ships right to your door. In just three simple steps, Collegard takes the scare out of colon cancer screening. If you're 45 or older and at average risk, ask your healthcare provider about the Collegard test. Collegard is available by prescription only. Learn more or request a prescription today at collegard.com slash screen. The Larry Cudlow Show, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network. So we're talking money and politics that we're going to mention stuff out there on oil and wealth creation and re-insurance. It's all very interesting. We're staying with our palsy Forbes. The great Forbes is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media. We have, I think, Liz Peak, Fox News contributor and weekly columnist. My buddy Steve Moore on

1:04Lee's Prosperity Hotline and W-A-B-C radio host of More Money, which comes right up after this show on most of these same radio stations. I think we're all here. Steve Moore in the mail this war is a couple of things. I really, the hotline, the Prosperity Hotline is knocking out some great stuff and I want to refer to it because point number one, the rise in all prices has more to do with Lloyd's London pulling back and ending all their contracts for insurance. Then it does about a shortage of supply, okay? And your points here, we're a record-high 13.6 million barrels per day. We are 24 million barrels per day in oils and liquid fuels more than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined and then finally we're doing 110 billion cubic feet per day for natural gas,

2:05which is just about the same as Russia Iran and Communist China combined. In other words, we don't have a supply problem at all. In fact, I would just add to this, we are a net exporter now of oil and fossil fuels. Okay, you can clear up the insurance, re-insurance issue, which will probably do with this government agency, the DFC, and stabilize. But that will get us through the Straits of Hormuz and that's going to bring oil price down. But America is drill baby drill was pure genius, Steve. Going back to 2015, he knew all about this. Yep, thank God. Imagine if we had not elected Donald Trump and we had the left's war on fossil fuels, we'd be paying $150 for that. And so all those figures you just recited are true. And by the way, something that Trump did that a lot of listeners don't know is that inside the

3:10energy department, my good friend Chris Wright, I don't know if you've gotten to get know him, but he's absolutely fantastic. He's the new energy department cabinet officer. And they've created an office of energy dominance, an energy dominance. It's a multi-agency. It has the interior department, defense department and others. And of course, the energy department is all about how do we produce as much energy as we can. And that's basically, I think the energy of the future is oil, natural gas, nuclear power and clean coal. We've got a lot of that. Yep. So I'm reading this article by a distinguished columnist named Liz Peek. Here's the title. Trump has been right about oil all along. Really Liz? Well, you know, you've got to think back to Jimmy Carter telling us, telling Americans that we are running out of oil. And of course, that was the mindset amongst people who really hated the oil

4:12industry. But it really was very formative in terms of spurring on the great climate obsession that took hold of Europe. I mean, nothing irritates me more than looking at Europe and how they became so dependent on Russia for natural gas. And then also continue to be very dependent on everybody in the world, including the straight of hormones for oil. I mean, it's really kind of ridiculous, right? For example, the United Kingdom, allowing their North Sea oil fields to deplete, yes, of course, production has headed down. But guess what? It's not down in Norway. They continue to invest. And do you know the conservative government put on, I think it was a 78% windfall profits tax when oil and gas prices went up when the Ukraine war started. And so England, the Tories, the Tories put on a 78% tax. Oh, God, I love that. I love that.

5:15And by the way, it was meant to be temporary. And there has never been a tax in the history of the world that was temporary. So it's still in place. And then the labor department banned oil and gas development. So, you know, I mean, to the extent that they're struggling, their economies are struggling and they don't have self-sufficiency like the U.S., etc., they deserve it. They have this coming. They for decades now, they have basically made it impossible to access oil and gas from reasonable sources, dependable sources, geopolitically safe sources, and it's come home to risk. You know, Steve Forbes, Geo politically, we've been held hostage by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. By Ben as well, perhaps to a lesser extent, but still, you know, two big bad actors. That's all going to change now, isn't it? It is already beginning to change and it's going to take a while for it to sink in around the world.

6:16One of the amazing things is, one in terms of Iran, the fact that they're still fighting today, even though it's much depleted, shows how much armament they've been doing, re-arming, they've been doing for the last 30 years. And that wasn't just to defend Iran. They are planning to take over the whole Middle East. And the fact they're lobbing bombs on their neighbors shows of what their true imperial intentions were. And they never really made it a secret. They wanted the Iranian V, the Empire of the Middle East, and indeed, it crazily sounds the world. So that stopping them and cleaning them out thoroughly as you've been discussing in the show is absolutely essential. One of the things that we must not overlook is Ukraine. And we must not shortchange them in terms of armaments because of the war in the Middle East. Putin still remains a threat. And if he starts to lose ground in Ukraine, doesn't have to lose much, I think you're going to see a real change there. And with China, hopefully with the meeting

7:17coming up the next month, the first of several with the Xi Jinping that we make clear, we've made it with the Strait of Hurt Moose as international waters. And the South China sea is international waters. And we're going to send naval forces to make sure you don't get any ideas you're going to make this your private lake. You know, that's such an instant point, important point. On the TV show the other night, Robert O'Brien, former national security advisor said, once this Iranian things over, and it's going to be over in a couple of weeks, whatever, we can move all kinds of troops, navy carriers, other resources, air force away from all these, you know, we have so many bases in the Middle East, we can move that into the Indo-Pacific area, which will be a signal to China that, you know, their merry-making is going to have a high price.

8:20And really, when they look at our mighty might in the military in Iran, that's another deterrent to China. And we're pushing them out of the Western hemisphere, or at least we're pushing them out of South America. China's a net loser in the Middle East, China's a net loser in the Western hemisphere, and China's going to be a net loser in the Indo-Pacific. We, you know, Steve, we've got this very strong woman in Japan, who's very, you know, very pro-Trump, very pro-America, and she doesn't like China one bit. No, and the fact that she called a snap election and won it because of the way that Chinese are trying to bully her around, and trying to have the Japanese community where they have a lot of trade with China as does the other Asian countries to pressure her to step down or reduce her rhetoric and her pro-defense policies. She beat them back. And by the way, one of the things we need to do is send you and perhaps Art Laffer and Steve to Japan to educate her on supply-side economic. They still believe in

9:24spending. They still have these crazy monetary policies. So we've got to get them on the right track, and then she'll have the economic strength to be an effective counter to the bullying by China. I'm going to send Liz Peak. I mean, women to women. Liz Peak is a... No, you're right. I mean, she wants growth, but they always do it the wrong way. It's Keynesian top-down spending, and they don't reform the tax code ever. One, one quick thing on that, Larry, you know, in our country, our FICA tax payroll tax is 15.3 percent, you know, half employer employee. In Japan, it's over 30 percent, 31 to 32 percent, and no limit, no cap as we have in this country. No wonder they're in the doldrums. So Steve, more... You must have been pretty happy, though. The New York trade court says you got to pay back the tariff revenues that the Supreme Court ruled out. You must be a really happy camper. Well, listen, I mean, I think that the... $135 billion. It's a lot of money. Yeah. This is... The court even said when they made their

10:28decision that this is going to be a mess, and that was one of the last Jewish statements they've ever made. It is a mess. It looks to me, I'm not a lawyer, but it's pretty clear from the law that now that these tariffs have been deemed unconstitutional, the money has to be repaid, and then the question of to whom, and probably what's going to happen is the money is going to go back to Walmart and Costco and other retailers and so on. But the big question then, Larry, is what about consumers? Because consumers didn't pay some of the cost of these, and so I don't know how to untangle that, not, but it's going to be a lot of lawsuits coming up in the months ahead. Yeah, they can... Look, the customs bureau... They have the good. They have all the information. The receipts, yeah. They know who paid the tax. And then the Treasury Department has something called the Bureau of Fiscal Services. They can get the money out, but your last point is in point. I don't see how consumers get the money. I just don't... Let me just say one thing about that.

11:30Can I just say one question? Yeah. I think he's big, the big backstores and the super, you know, the huge retailers like the Wal-Mart's. They would be smart, I think, to provide rebates or, you know, cut prices or something like that. Cut prices. Exactly, yeah. I mean, I think cutting prices would be smart for them on several fronts. It would show the world that they would have had lower prices all along, but for the tariffs. In other words, it would be a very strong political argument against tariffs, which they don't like, particularly a country like, a company like Wal-Mart. And right now, it would also endear them to the administration. So I mean, it would be sort of an odd political one, too, but I think it would be very effective. Yeah, I'm all for it. Let's take a break. Okay. We're going to come back to some other interesting stuff from the committee to unleash prosperity. And I want to talk about the long run economy, because I think we are going to defeat Iran. We are going to destroy the regime.

12:37Something good is going to come out of this, and there's going to be a lot of prosperity in the Middle East and elsewhere, because of what President Trump is doing. We're talking freedom and prosperity with Steve Moore. It's got more money coming up at WBC right after the show, and most of the same radio stations. The great Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, Liz Peak Fox News contributor. Steve Moore just want to pick up one thing. I really love this thing from the hotline, unleash prosperity outline. Since 1989, it's a long time, everybody, everybody has gotten wealthier in this country. And you have a great chart here, but I'll just walk through it quickly. The top one percent, yep, they're the leaders, over 800 percent increase for the top. But the next 9 percent, about 600 increased. Then you go into the middle class, roughly 40 percent of people, they have nearly a 600 percent increase in their wealth. And then

13:42here's the one I like the best. The bottom 50 percent, since 1989, have increased their wealth by a little over 400 percent. So every arising tide is lifting all boats. And that's the way a free market enterprise, free market capitalism, free enterprise should work Steve Moore. It's a very important chart. Is he not there? That's a pity. Sorry, the irony of that chart by the way, Larry, is that that was a part of a Wall Street Journal article talking about the inequality in wealth. Very deleted. And so just to be clear, though, those numbers are not adjusted for inflation, but even adjusting for inflation. You're seeing enormous gains in wealth over the last 35 years. This was, as I always say, this is basically the economy that's been bookended by Reagan and Trump. And so these are amazing numbers with respect to wealth. And every income group

14:48got richer. And all these people got richer faster than these people. That's their complaint. And everybody's doing better. And if you looked at the tax cuts, Steve, so Steve Moore is saying their book ended essentially by Reagan tax cuts and Trump tax cuts, OK, middle income people and lower middle income people have benefited enormously. In fact, I know in Trump 1.0, we did these numbers with Kevin Hasen and so forth. People at the middle and the lower the actually the lower income people actually had the highest percentage gain of after tax income. And what what what what that underscores is as you say about the rising tide lifts all boat. And a couple of things on that one is in terms of getting that point across the people. Liz has a good point about Walmart and Costco. But also he should index. I know he doesn't want to do it index capital gains, especially on health care costs. And on health care costs,

15:55push HR departments to have people have more H more 401k like plans in their health care plans where they control the money, not the employer. And 20 the average family cost Larry is about $28,000 a year, which is why take home pay hasn't risen as much as it should. It's gone up. But if you if you gave people a kind of choice of a catastrophic plan that they'd have to pay out of pocket 8,000 but could keep the other 20,000, you know what people would take. So as we get more free markets in health care, I think you're going to see an even more prosperous middle class and lower income people moving up the ladder. And their quality of life improves. There's not a big quality of life gap anymore between the middle class and the upper class and the lower class. So that's a great tribute to free enterprise. Imagine. Wonderful. Wonderful. Let's peak. I just going to be a triumph in Iran. And the regime's going to be removed.

17:00I don't know who's going to replace it or what, but it's going to be better than the one now. All's I'm saying is I just want that you get rid of these demolars in this regime. Whoever takes over is going to be better. They have potentially a good economy. I'm thinking, when you put freedom back into the calculation, you're going to get a lot more prosperity. You're going to get a lot more investment. You're going to get a lot more trade. The whole premise of the Abraham Accords in Trump won, which accompanied five or six countries with Israel. The whole premise was investment in trade. And the likelihood is once the Iranian regime is destroyed, you're going to see an expansion of the Abraham Saudi Arabia is going to come, they're all going to come in. And you'll see the potential in the Middle East for phenomenal prosperity list. That's just that's just my vision here. I think that's totally right, Larry.

18:02And I don't even think that's wildly optimistic. If you have a neutral Iran, think of the money that has been going towards terrorism and and basically defending against terror plots from Iran. In all of those countries and historically, a lot of people don't understand that the Arab countries didn't want to deal with each other much less with Iran or with Israel. I mean, it has been an area of constant bickering and feuding. If you just get a neutral Iran, imagine the progress that could be made. By the way, nothing can go forward in Gaza while Hamas is still in control funded by Iran. So that is another enormous opportunity. I mean, everybody would like to see the Palestinians have a Gaza homeland that is actually rebuilt and is okay to live in. But I mean, the opportunities are endless. We've let's look. The Middle East is already booming in terms of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia and Dubai because they have so many unbelievably good

19:05assets, including obviously energy. But that's where data centers are going. That's where commerce, they have become the Dubai as the banking center that Singapore was briefly. I don't know why they've lost so much ground to Dubai, but they have. So the potential is there without a doubt. And I think we're moving Iran as a constant threat to all those countries is it would be an unbelievably gigantic achievement. Steve Moore, the Middle East, the Middle East will be overtaking Europe. Europe, at least Western Europe is going completely wrong direction. I don't, you know, maybe a little bit in Italy, but I just don't see anything. Any big changes in Europe. Kind of lost them there. Yeah, but I know you're right. Europe is just can't get out of its own way. Europe is historic. They're just the Europe. It is. It is from Poland, which has been a great economic success story. So I think there's good good things to come. I got to jump