Tony Katz and the Morning News 3rd Hr 5-29-26

What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on Tacoma, Tundra, and Forerunner with the space and features for any adventure. It means driving for less, with available hybrid options, delivering great MPGs without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your truck will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota. Let's go places. So we've got a ceasefire extension with Iran. That is if President Trump signs off on it. Tony Katz. 93 WIBC, good morning. Good to be here. Good to be with you. It'll be a 60-day ceasefire so they can negotiate what they're going to do regarding the nuclear material. What's to negotiate? Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. Iran can't have the nuclear material. Iran can't have the ability to create a nuclear weapon. So I'll ask again for the people in the cheap seats. What possibly are we negotiating here? And the answer, of course, is nothing. There is nothing to negotiate. So I don't know what 60 days is supposed to do here. What is the points? What is the argument? What actually is happening? Can't answer it for you. What I know is that the president says, I want a few days to think about this. I want a few days to check in on this, which is classic Trump. I want to have control of the situation. I want this done on my timeline. I'm the one who gets to say whether or not this happens or doesn't happen. I won't be pressured into anything. I won't allow the Iranian regime to even think that they have any power, any sway. And I'll take my time. He sent the deal over to some allies. He sent it over to Israel and another ally and said, hey, what do you think? But between you mean the lamppost, I don't care what any of those countries think. I care about what we think. What is it that we want here? What's our plan? What are we trying to get accomplished? I want the end of the regime. The president is okay with behavior change. I am not. I don't think right now I'm going to get what I want. But what other nations want is a wholly inconsequential thing. It doesn't matter what they want. It doesn't matter at all. That's just one of the things that is happening. There was another story that I did want to share with you. And we're going to get into what's going on with the economy if you missed my conversation with Dr. Matt Will. Can we discuss the $250 bill quite quickly?

This story has taken on a life of its own, and Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, addressed this as he was doing the White House press briefing yesterday, filling in for Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave. And this was the question from Caitlin Susan Collins of CNN. Yeah, you know. You said that it's up to Congress. The president's face is on a $250 bill, but it is actually the Washington Post that's reporting two political appointees from the Treasury Department who have asked agencies to be ready to do that. Do you think politically it's a good idea to put his face on a $250 bill when people are struggling to afford gas. You know, I don't really understand this Washington Post article that who hears from the Post? Yeah. Terribly written, terribly edited. So basically what it says is that Treasury is following the law and that we've created the bill and that it's up to Congress, but that we follow the bill and it's up to, I didn't really understand what the story was. So anyway. Aren't involved in that two of your political appointees? Yeah, of course, but we prepare for everything if it gets passed. Just like we were ready six months in advance. This is about for America 250, creating a $250 bill. which I'm fine with because someone is going to use that and think they use the 20 and somebody is going to be doing very well. That's going to happen. But they want to put Trump's face on it and we have laws in the United States going back to 1866 that you can't use somebody who's alive. Also, the idea of putting President Trump's, putting President Trump's face on it is ridiculous. It's weird. It's third world strong man crap. Not interested. No thanks. The USS Constitution? Solid. James Madison, solid. The father of the Constitution? Yeah. That makes sense. Putting Trump on it is ridiculous. It is, it is, it is, it is, it is maga madness. Stop it. Lots of things you're right on. This is just dumb. I don't want his face on it. He will get his due. He will get his place in history. He's got to force it. It's weird. Stop it. You're making it more difficult. Well, everyone's overreacting because it's Trump. No, no, no. It's just dumb. It's why people hate him. Do they all hate him? Absolutely not. Do they tolerate him? Yes. Put someone else's face on it. You'll be better off. Madison, yes. The USS Constitution? Absolutely. For America 250? Fine. Audie Murphy. Harriet Tubman. Frederick Douglas. Ronald Reagan. Don't put your own face on the bill. Weird. Super weird. Tony Katz 93 WIBC. Good morning. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on Tacoma, Tundra, and Forerunner with the space and features for any adventure. It means driving for less, with available hybrid options, delivering great MPGs without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your truck will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota.

Let's go places. So we take a look at this economic data. What we saw yesterday. And we ask ourselves, what do we make of this? Is this economy in a good place? Is this economy in a problematic place? Because what we saw was that inflation is still there? Tony Katz, 93, WIBC. Good morning. Good to be with you. The inflation is still there. The inflation is higher. The tariff costs has moved on to the end consumer. What do we do with this? Dr. Matt Will is the economist at the University of Indianapolis. I spoke with him yesterday. And his response was, look, there are issues. But there's a story within the story. And it requires a little bit of discussion. And that discussion is, It's not absolutely not as bad as you think. Well, let me start off by saying that this report is part of a bigger picture. Everything that you and I have been saying is correct. The private economy is very strong. It's stronger than the headline GDP. Let's not forget, we're going to talk about the revised GDP number that also came out today. Inflation is still a problem. And the real drags on the economy are the war. tariffs are still there to a degree, but not as much. And government-driven inflationary pressures, these are the things that are causing the problem. But it's a big picture. So let's first dive into the inflation issue. You're right. The headline, you know, 0.4, below expectations. But if you dig in, there's two core numbers. The core for the month was 0.2. Now you're thinking, oh, 0.2. That's not bad. That's 2.4%. But... There's another thing called market-based core. And I know this is getting nerdy, but there's core and there's market-based core. The market-based core is what you pay. It's households. And this is the number that the Fed actually looks at. What are you paying when you drive out of your card to the store to pick something up? That number was 0.3. That is still a hot number. And we are now seeing the flow through from the tariffs and from the war on oil prices. So it is now a pass through. We talked about that last time we spoke. So inflation is still there. If you look at the market-based core, it is the highest it's been in the last 12 months. And this is what matters because this is what households are paying. So the headline, it's too hot. Okay. Point four is too hot. Let's all admit that. But you got to look under the hood, and it's the household-based core that makes me the most nervous about the inflation report. So we have the highest in 12 months, the base of what we're paying because the tariffs are making their way to the consumer, which is different than oil prices making their way to the consumer. But one would assume if we're paying more per gallon, certainly now you're at $7 a gallon for diesel. That's what these trucks are utilizing to bring your goods to market. That cost is getting baked in as well.

Yes, but I'm going to go back and be the broken record that I've been for many, many months now. And that is, it's government spending. The inflation is caused mostly by government spending. The tariffs are baked in. They've been in the system. They're not now causing new inflation. Oil is causing new inflation, but we remove that and we look at the core only. So, and what's causing the core inflation right now is government spending. And I just wish I could get to the president and say, Mr. President, stop spending all this money. Where are they spending? Whoa, whoa. Where are they spending? Because all I see is when we take a look at BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Jobs numbers, we've been shedding government jobs. We've been applauding the thing. I don't know where we're spending the money. Well, I do know. I didn't have that report with me right now. But if you look at the deficit this year, the deficit is going to be one of the highest we've had in history other than COVID. And next year's is projected to go up another 50%. Now, some of it's military spending. I'm a fan of that. But there's still a lot of this fraud going on. And, you know, you've seen estimates from JD Vance yesterday about how much fraud is out there. And now there's a law that's been passed in California to ban you, you, Tony, you, a person in the news media from going out and identifying fraud. There's now a law in California banning you from disclosing. Government fraud. Pay no attention to that law. And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Gavin Newsom talking to Dr. Matt Will, economist at the University of Indianapolis. Do economists take a look at fraud spend, as we've seen in Minneapolis, as we've seen in California, and agreed all 50 states, Republican states, Democrat states, it's happening everywhere. There's a lot of grift going on in the system. Do economists have a way of labeling that and attributing that to government spend and therefore attributing that to higher inflation rates? No, it has nothing to do with inflation. It does have to do with government spending, which indirectly impacts inflation because too much government spending. But this is now where you're going to get into the politics of economics, because the people on the left, you know, the pro-Kainsey and the pro-big government people, those folks who think it's good for government to spend money because it increases GDP, they don't care about this fraud. They think it's insignificant. And in fact, they think it's good. Not the fraud, okay? They don't think fraud is good, but they think the government spending is good. They don't care where it happens. I care where it happens. I don't want fraud because I don't want wasted money. I would rather spend that money on military defense or give it back to you. Give it back to the person who, you know, paid the taxes to begin with. They think it impacts GDP. And we should get into the GDP because there was a revision today. And this whole fraud and spending of government money has actually...

reducing the GDP. That's a good thing. So there's a lot of things that impact GDP. Do you want to get into the GDP? I think is a very interesting story today. We're here. If we're not going to get into it, I don't even understand what we're doing. Talk to Dr. Matt Will, economists at the university. Of Indianapolis. First, we take a look at these inflation numbers and we realize that inflation is still here. There's a big question about what the new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, is going to do. Are we going to see a rate cut that President Trump desperately wants? That would certainly be a help to the housing market as mortgage rates got back because the 10-year treasury was at 4.6 plus getting back to 7% on the 30-year fixed. He wants to see the rate cut. He wants to see more money changing hands and more investment taking place. The inflation doesn't say. that that should happen. But you're discussing a GDP number, and this is where it does get interesting, because your argument is the GDP number proves that if President Trump would get out of his own way, it's the greatest economy of the world has ever seen in the history of the world. By the way, history of the world, modern history. And I do, I will stand by that statement because if you look at the headline GDP, it actually was revised down today from 2% to 1.6. So everybody's going to think, oh, downward revision, that's bad. Well, okay, let's look under the hood. If you look at what caused the GDP to go down, one of it was government spending is lower than it has been in the past. Remember, the bad model of Keynes is that more government spending as to GDP. So the government portion of GDP is down. That's good. And the president and I don't agree on the next one, but imports are up. Just like we said what happened, the tariffs didn't make imports go down. Imports are actually up. And imports are a drag on GDP. In fact, how much they drag it? 2.6%. Now, If you want to know why imports are a drag on GDP, catch the full interview. We have it posted at WIBC.com. That's Dr. Matt Will economist at the University of Indianapolis. We went much deeper. into the conversation. You should listen to it every time the man talks. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on RAV4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places.

We have got Dow futures up 148, NASDAQ futures up 12. Tony Katz. 93 WIBC, good morning. Oil prices down. $87.67 a barrel on the West Texas crude, $92.28 cents on the Brent crude. And let us hope it continues to move down. U.S. crude exports are at an all-time high, but a lot of that is because of a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We shouldn't be doing that. You can't say there we're an all-time high and then also say, but we're released from the reserve. Let us sell what we have. Let us make sure our reserves are always in great shape for real emergencies, not just, hey, costs are higher because of taking out the Iranian terrorist threat and we just don't want to deal with the political fallout. Share with Americans why it's happening and there is no political fallout. 10-year treasury is down to 4.45. It was in the 4-6 plus, bringing the 30-year fixed mortgage to around 7%. Refinancing came to a halt. And gold back up just a touch, $4,515 an ounce on the gold spot price. Silver at $75.22. Bitcoin at $73,123. That is where we are. What comes next? Great question. We still have massive AI investment going on. That is still driving a lot of these things. And we talk about, as you heard, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent say, look at the 401ks. They're doing so great. Everything is going fantastic. Follow up. Personal savings rate for Americans is 2.6%. It was 5.8% last year. Americans are saving at their lowest level since 2022. Now, it's interesting because that was the middle of COVID and we actually heard about more savings going on. But there was also more spending that was happening because people had more discretionary income. You weren't driving. You weren't paying for cash. You weren't doing this. You weren't doing that. People did home remodels and all sorts of stuff. They did swimming pools. Well, we're going to be locked at home. We might as well be able to enjoy ourselves. I don't have a pool. I know I want one. And, you know, I don't have a stereotypical marriage at all in any way, shape, or form. My wife is pretty spectacular. But it is one of those things where she just looks at me and goes, no, and then walks away. I'm like, who do you think you are to say no and walk away? But she doesn't hear me because she walked away. Only when I bring up a pool. I could look at a car and be like, I'm going to buy this. And she's like, I can't stop you. You're just nuts. I'm like, that is correct. Thank you. But the pool, she's like, no, and walks away. Like somehow that's the answer. And yet somehow I still have not put in a pool. I don't know if I need a pool or just a rather large hot tub. Some people are hot tub fanatics, and I have talked about getting a hot tub, but I haven't done it yet. I haven't done it because I'm like, I don't know. Am I really going to do it every day? Can I do the show from the hot tub? You can do the hot tub in the winter. That's the plus. Right?

But I'm also a believer that if you have the pool, the pool is the hot tub. Just turn on the heater. Tony, the heater's going to cost you $10,000 a month. I don't care. I don't have the $10,000 a month to spend on heat. But that's what I would do. And maybe that's why, maybe she's right. Maybe I don't want to get the pool. But I think I would like the hot tub. I think I would. I just don't know if I would use it on the regular. Right? Because to have one of these things, you've got to use it on the regular. You got to be someone who's utilizing it. And the moral of the story is, is that people spent their money on pools. They did a lot of those kinds of things. And now they're not saving? They're not saving because they'd rather buy a pool? Or are they not saving because the other costs have caught up? I'm telling you things are not great on Midwest Main Street. The numbers show, people show, and yet... And yet people are just out there spending and doing. And I'm back to that moment where I cannot connect the two things that are happening. Right? It's like consumer confidence is down. That may be true, but watch people at a mall, watch people out there shopping, watch restaurants. They're still out there. Something's got to give. And my fear is that something is about to. This savings thing added to end and then you take a story about where we are with credit card debt. Neither one of those things leads to something good. Neither one. Tony Katz 93 WIBC, good morning. Oh, come on. Prepare the pelvic thrust!

Kick, kick. Oh, we got to play the whole thing now. Tony Katz, 93 WIBC. Sing it loud. Embarrass your children. Just to jump to the left. I told you. That's a step to the rye high height. But what is it? There we go. There we go. Tony Katz, 93 WIBC. Keep playing it. It's time to America's favorite game. What the heck is that television theme song? where producer carl picks television theme song from yesterday year i have to guess what it is but on fridays we do film friday and producer carl picks a piece of music from a famous film and we have to guess what that film is and nothing there it is so this is simple this is rocky horror picture show

And now we have a word from Columbia. Thank you, Columbia. It's a classic. It's solid. And if you haven't seen it, you should. Great, Scott. All right, you turn off now. Yeah, I know my Rocky Horror. I know my Rocky Horror and I know it well. I know my Rocky Horror better than I know my Headwig and the Angry Inch, which is a very weird show. Headwig is a very odd peculiar show. I'm not saying don't see it. I am saying it's messed up stuff. On Tony Katz today. We'll take a look at this alleged ceasefire that's going on and how that will play out, whether or not it's going to hold. Zohran Mamdani and Zohran Mamdani is like, I'm not going to go to the Israeli Day parade there in New York. Let's see how security does. It's a Sunday. It's a parade. They have a permit. No one should be attacked at any parade. Watch for it. These leftists, these virulent anti-Semites, supported by Zohran Mamdani, supported by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, supported by Omar and Talib, supported by communists, supported by the so-called socialists, even though they're communists, supported by the democratic socialists, so-called, even though they're communists. All of them violent. All of them violent. It's going to be a bad, bad scene. And everybody knows it. One of the things that happened at the presser yesterday with the secretary, Scott Bessent, was a conversation about Antifa and investigations into Antifa. And you still have the left saying there is no Antifa. It's not a thing. What kind of silliness is this? Of course it's a thing. In the red? Thank you. Reagan rings with the daily caller. I want to ask you about Antifa. In October, the Treasury Department started working with the FBI to investigate. who's funding at tifa can you give us update on that investigation how close are you guys finding out who's funding it it is ongoing we made substantial progress and i think in the weeks and months ahead we're going to have a lot to report one thing that did go the underreported that i would point out to all of you is the irs is now giving guidance on the form 990 which nonprofits they have to file and we are going to encourage or demand that nonprofits know their grant recipients. So if a grant recipient is violent, if they are suppressing people's rights, then you are responsible for that. Well, that's going to be interesting. By the way, that is an argument, by the way, for abolishing the IRS, to which Scott Bessent is the acting commissioner.

But these people, of course, are funding these violent groups, and we should know it. We should see who it is. They're violent groups. They're anti-American zealots who want to burn it all down. They're not people who engaged in their First Amendment rights. They're not people who want a better America. They're people who want no America. If you believe them, all you have to do is watch them to know that what they say is a lie and what they do is the story. Oh, you don't have to like the country. You have all the rights to protest in the world. These people are violent zealots. The left believes that violence is worthwhile, and that's my fear for what's going to happen at this parade in New York on Sunday. And Zohran Mamdani's just going to go, oh, whatever. Communist, Islamists, whatever you want to call them, it doesn't matter. The result is the same. This red-green alliance is about Western civilization. And I want it known for the record you heard it here first. We were talking about this stuff before anybody. Of course we are correct. It's never been about Jews. It's always been about Christians and it's always been about Western civilization. It's been about society writ large. Do you want it to survive or not? So for all those woke, right, and ridiculous left following Candace Owens or Hasan Piker, it has never been about Israel. It's never been about Jews. Those people are schmucks engaged in radical stupidity. It is about whether or not you have a country tomorrow. Do you want it? Yes or no? It's a simple question. If it's yes, well, then these people are the problem. If it's no, you are those people. It is that simple. I didn't say you had to like Jews and to tell you the truth. I don't give a good holy damn if you do or you don't. I just don't care. You like me because of my religion. You don't like me because of my religion. Whatever. You're not interested in my thoughts. You're interested in the blood that goes through my veins next to color of someone's skin. Don't give a damn. Do you want the country to survive? Yes or no. Because the issue is the communist and the issue is the Islamist and the issue ain't me. And Christians better figure this out quick because it's only your kid's future at stake. That's where we're at. If anybody wants to debate me on this, pick the time, pick the place. We have got the proof. It has been laid out clear. And the people denying that are so full of it as to be believed. Things that I would say that one cannot say on radio. I am going to be helping my kid have a pretty kickbutt graduation party today. So I am not here at noon. My Coolidge is in for me, but these are the conversations. Go enjoy them. Find everything at Tonycats.com. Appreciate everybody in the live stream there at YouTube, WIBC, and part of the chat. You're pretty fantastic. I... We'll catch you guys on Monday. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on Tacoma, Tundra, and Forerunner with the space and features for any adventure. It means driving for less, with available hybrid options, delivering great MPGs without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your truck will hold its value for years to come.

Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places.