Bannon’s War Room: Steve Cortes Covers New PPI and CPI Scores. March 15, 2022.
The Economy. Guest Steve Cortes.
Transcripts from Bannon’s Room-Rumble: Steve Cortes Covers New PPI and CPI Scores Published March 15, 2022.
Steve Cortes:
Let's talk about something that actually matters to the lives of citizens of America because Ukraine becoming a neutral non-NATO country, is that consequential for the people of America? No, it is not. And if anything, it is preferable to the people of America, because Ukraine is a buffer zone will in all likelihood result in peace over there. However, what really matters, things like prices, the price that people are paying every single day at the gas pump, at the grocery store and everywhere else in their lives.
Today, just now we got our producer price index, the wholesale inflation, read matched the highest of all time at 10%. So, we are in double digit territory, the highest like all time read on PPI and Steve, this is crucial too because this is important. You know, we're talking about Joe Scarborough and Mika and their constant narrative pushing of fake news and propaganda.
Well, their sister network CNBC where I worked for many years, a business network that formerly did a great job of covering business, now too often delves into propaganda itself. This is how they framed this PPI news this morning. This is a quote from their article. Their headline, ‘Inflation comes in lighter than expected’. Now, the reason they get away with that and there's some technical truth in there. Okay, just a tiny tiny grain of truth is that if you look at it, yes, month-over-month Wall Street expectations officially were 0.9 the month. It came in at 0.8.
So can you say that it was in a minuscule fashion lighter than expected, perhaps. However, is that being honest? Is that an honest framing when you have double digit inflation that matches the highest read on record for producer prices? No, that is not honest framing. I would say this Steve, producer prices very soon become consumer prices. That's the way the economy works.
At this point, at this point, it's wholesale inflation, soon-to-be retail inflation what we are paying for everything we want and need. I pointed out yesterday, Steve and this is important for the audience to grasp. With the CPI Consumer Price Index at 7.9 percent. And I think that vastly under states were consumer inflation really is. But if we accept the official read, 7.9%, that’s almost precisely an entire month of wages because there are 12 months 8 times 12 almost equals 100. So that means that the month of March, this is exactly the wrong kind of March Madness.
This is the fun, kind of office pools and basketball. The March Madness is, you are working this entire month or halfway through the month is the Ides of March. You still have two more weeks to work only to try to offset inflation. You are not going to get ahead one iota, in the month of March. And very soon what Producers Prices tell us is that it's going to be April as well. You're going to be working a month for inflation.
Now, you're going to be working six weeks. Soon it's going to be eight weeks for just inflation. What this means is real wages, wages adjusted for cost, which is what matters. That's your real prosperity. Real wages have now declined for a full year straight every single month under Joe Biden and it had nothing to do with Putin. Inserting ourselves unnecessarily into this regional conflict is going to make it worse, but the crisis predated anything happening in Ukraine and this is a crisis that is his is horrific for all Americans, but especially working class.
Steve Bannon.
This is 100% on the uni-party of the apparatus. This is because of actions, they took. And let me tell you, these Republicans, if you think the 42 infantile, infantile decision to send that letter to Biden about putting the MiGs over there. And Tom Cotton, you should be ashamed of yourself, Okay. Mike Pence, “Champions for Freedom, right? All hollow words, all happy talk. All performative while people are getting killed.
Okay, just as bad on this inflation, is the Republican signing on to this $1.3 trillion dollar deficit spending plan the other night, right? Just another, this more kerosene on the fire while Biden's administration has done nothing. We still haven't had any tap by the Federal. Reserve. We're still quantitative easing, they haven’t started quantative tightening.
Steve Cortes:
Steve, let me connect the national security there to the economy because I think those stories are conjoined if we think about it holistically. So, notice that the Senate, as you talked about the Senate met all through the night into the wee hours of the morning to make sure that we could get $14 billion dollars to Ukraine, that we could escalate, and we are funding both sides of the struggle remember. We as well as much in Europe are literally funding both sides of this war, but that was an imperative, right? That had to be done immediately.
However, that same Congress was unable to deliver even four billion dollars, which is requested for our wall. Now, here's the connection to the economy, Steve and I talk about real wages declining. One of the reasons that real wages are crashing in this country in addition to Biden's inflation, is that Biden has also invited in, enticed in I would say, millions of new workers to compete unfairly and illegally in the labor market against American citizens. American wages would be higher if we were serious about protecting our own border instead of protecting the Eastern flank of Ukraine.
Steve Bannon:
If you're black or Hispanic, just understand something. If somehow, they talked you into, or spin you in the propaganda to vote for Democrats you're voting for your own economic destruction. Okay, 64 percent according to CNBC, 60, before the inflation 64 percent of folks live paycheck to paycheck.
Now, with the inflation, I don't know how they're going to make it March and half April, Steve Cortes? This is by the way, it's all the uni-party because they're making out like bandits. They're living high on the hog. They're drinking champagne and eating at the big dinners over here and Washington DC and New York in the Hamptons. They've had the best times ever. Good times are still rolling. They could care less. Go ahead sir.
Steve Cortes:
Steve Cortes, Steve, that's an important point because inflation can be great for people who own a lot of assets that are inflating? It's great for multinational, energy companies. It's great for folks who own a lot of commercial, real estate. So, inflation, doesn't harm everyone. It harms most most terribly of course, working class Americans. So, you're exactly right. By the way speaking of polling, I want to pull up this chart because I do think it's important though. To show that you know we are hardly in the minority on this view. Quite the opposite.
We are in the supermajority. If you look at the chart 1 and this is brand new poll out of ABC and Ipso. So, not from some right-wing organization and look at the approve disapprove on Joe, Biden on the topic of inflation, 29 versus 70, only 29 percent approve. I'm amazed numbers that high. That's probably because of the way ABC skews, its polling, but still my point is this is a winning issue politically. It's also obviously in policy prerequisite for the America First movement to solve. And we do have the answers to solve it, Steve. The two simplest ones by the way, our number one, stop spending, stop the borrowing and spending, hold the Line. We have 50 Senators; we can do it. Number 2, secure the border so that wages can rise because we restrict the flow of stop the flow of illegal workers in this country.
Done
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