Morning Wire XX
[0] Gas prices have spiked again, hitting an all -time high of $4 .37 a gallon.
[1] President Biden addressed the nation Tuesday, admitting that inflation is his biggest challenge right now.
[2] I want every American to know that I'm taking inflation very seriously, and it's my top for domestic priority.
[3] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Wednesday, May 11th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] Rising gas prices and plumbing 401k value.
[6] have Americans worried about the future.
[7] We speak to an economist about what we can expect in the coming weeks and months.
[8] And researchers from Australia and Israel say they have irrefutable evidence that China has been involved in forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners.
[9] We discuss the findings and the political consequences.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
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[19] Already struggling with skyrocketing inflation and supply chain backups, the U .S. economy was dealt another blow on Tuesday as gasoline prices hit a new all -time high.
[20] Here with the latest numbers and how President Biden has responded is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[21] So Cabot, this seems like a bit of a recurring theme.
[22] What can you tell us about the latest spike?
[23] Yeah, it seems that way because this is now the second time in just two months that we've seen record breaking gas prices.
[24] The national average for a gallon of gas has now hit $4 .37 cents.
[25] That breaks the record set back in March.
[26] Since then, we had seen prices starting to decline a bit.
[27] They fell to $4 .7 in early April after a record -setting release from the U .S. emergency oil reserves.
[28] But once that wore off, prices started to rise steadily again before shooting up 17 cents in the last week alone.
[29] For context, this time last year, prices were at $2 .89, and this time two years ago, they were at $1 .79.
[30] So prices do typically go up during summer months due to traveling more, but increases like this are just unprecedented.
[31] Now, President Biden spoke about the economy yesterday.
[32] How is he responding to this price uptick?
[33] So there are two parts to that, the policy side and the messaging side.
[34] As far as policy goes, the president has done a few things to try and alleviate this price spike.
[35] First, he announced last month that the U .S. would be releasing a million barrels a day from our oil reserves to try and increase supply.
[36] But that, again, hasn't really made much of an impact, mainly because the U .S. currently uses is about 20 million barrels a day.
[37] So that extra million is just not enough to make much of a dent.
[38] Then Biden announced that the EPA would begin allowing the sale of E15 gasoline, which is just gas with extra ethanol, but that won't kick in until later this summer.
[39] Biden is also now calling on Congress to enact new taxes on oil companies with unused wells or land and hopes of incentivizing those companies to ramp up production.
[40] But again, that will take time.
[41] And some experts actually say could have the opposite of the intended effect.
[42] So a few things going on here, but nothing.
[43] really so far fixing the problem.
[44] Now, what's the president's messaging been on this?
[45] Yeah, he's definitely eager to offset some of the blame here, because as we've talked about on the show, polling shows that the majority of Americans say that he and Democrats are responsible for high gas prices.
[46] Now, in the past, the president blamed supply chain issues for high gas prices, and then when the war in Ukraine began, he started using the phrase Putin price hike.
[47] But in his most recent speech, he shifted the discussion to Republicans.
[48] Republicans that offered plenty of blame, but not a single solution.
[49] to actually bring down the energy prices.
[50] You know, we have no plan.
[51] They have no plan to bring down energy prices today.
[52] Now, the president's address on Tuesday focused largely on inflation.
[53] So what did he have to say there?
[54] Yeah, Biden definitely signaled that he is aware of how important inflation has become in the minds of voters by announcing that inflation would now be his number one domestic priority.
[55] But when asked whether he thought he bore any responsibility, here's what you had to say.
[56] Do you take any responsibility of your policies?
[57] I think our policies have helped not hurt.
[58] Think about what they say.
[59] The vast majority of the economists think that this is going to be a real tough problem to solve, but it's not because of spending.
[60] It's also worth pointing out that in one poll this month, just 8 % of Americans said they felt the president's policies were making inflation better.
[61] So he's got a lot of work to do on that front in convincing Americans.
[62] that he's actually helping and not hurting the problem.
[63] Right.
[64] Definitely seems that way.
[65] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[66] Anytime.
[67] That's Daily Wires, Cabot Phillips.
[68] Coming up, some straight talk from an economist on record gas prices, the stock market, and what the administration should do about it.
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[79] With all the economic uncertainty, what should Americans expect in the coming weeks and months?
[80] And is there anything the Biden administration can do about rising gas prices and a struggling stock market.
[81] Joining us to discuss is Joe Livorna, chief economist at Natixis and former chief economist for the National Economic Council.
[82] All right, Joe, let's start with the stock market.
[83] It's been plummeting pretty dramatically in recent days.
[84] What's behind this downturn?
[85] The stock market decline is basically a function of the Federal Reserve.
[86] The Federal Reserve is raising rates, and the Federal Reserve is pledging to raise rates more.
[87] They're pledging to raise rates significantly more.
[88] and they're also telling investors that they plan on reducing their balance sheet, meaning they're no longer going to be buying treasuries and mortgage -backed securities.
[89] And what that's doing is it's taking liquidity or effectively cash out of the system.
[90] And this is a very big negative for stock prices.
[91] And why is the Fed doing that?
[92] We've seen record inflation.
[93] Is that in direct response to that problem?
[94] The Fed is trying to raise interest rates much further from here because they, meaning policymakers, believe the economy is healthy, which I don't believe it is, but they believe it.
[95] And it is also largely to fight the inflation that you talk about.
[96] But again, this inflation is relatively new.
[97] It's a function, I would argue, of poor administrative policy.
[98] But there's no question that the Fed is trying to fight inflation.
[99] And the way they do that is to slow the economy.
[100] And in their mind, or I should say in their approach, the stock market suffers accordingly.
[101] Now, obviously, the whole world dealt with the pandemic and a lot of lockdowns and restrictions were imposed in various economies.
[102] But U .S. inflation is worse than other countries in Europe and Asia.
[103] Is that a reflection of these policies that you're talking about that were mistaken?
[104] That's exactly right.
[105] I mean, give you an example.
[106] The U .S. spent roughly $6 trillion, $6 trillion or almost a third of GDP, on COVID -related relief.
[107] And we got a third of it in March of 2021.
[108] And at that point, the economy already had been rebounding.
[109] We already had a V -shaped recovery.
[110] inflation was already quite low.
[111] The economy was improving, yet we overdid what we had been doing, and it was unnecessary.
[112] Do you think Americans need to worry about their retirement accounts going forward?
[113] Are we going to continue to see a slide in the stock market?
[114] The slide will be partly a function of what the Fed does.
[115] So eventually the market will stabilize and it will rebound.
[116] The question is how much damage is done between now and then.
[117] If inflation stays higher than people expect or the Fed expects, then stock prices are going to go lower.
[118] If, however, inflation does moderate, and I believe it will, then the Fed doesn't have to raise rates as much, and we might be much closer to a bottom in the stock market today than we might be in the future, assuming, of course, the Fed does not go on this path of what I'd argue is excessive interest rate policy.
[119] Another economy -related question.
[120] We're seeing gas prices spike again in recent weeks.
[121] What do you see there?
[122] The summer driving season generally starts now, and prices tend to rise pretty dramatically into Memorial Day.
[123] So, yes, it's likely that we will see gas prices move higher.
[124] We've got a very, I would argue, convoluted energy policy, which has penalized the fossil fuel industry and hurt capital exploration, which that industry needs to give us clean fuel and also dependable sources of energy.
[125] Okay, final question.
[126] what could the administration and Fed do right now to help Americans?
[127] One would be layoff on the regulation.
[128] The Keystone Pipeline is already done.
[129] Make the Tax Act of 2017, the Trump tax cuts permanent.
[130] And don't rush to raise interest rates.
[131] The market has already done a lot of tightening for the Fed. I would take a more holistic, more nuanced approach.
[132] Don't commit to further future action.
[133] Wait and see how things already have progressed.
[134] For example, we have seen in the last few weeks, weeks, the largest 52 -week change in mortgage rates since the mid -90s.
[135] That is going to hurt housing and hurt housing significantly.
[136] Why would the Fed want to continue to raise interest rates into a slowing housing market?
[137] We haven't even yet felt the effects of this recent backup in rates.
[138] I would be very cautious.
[139] That would be my words to the Fed. Well, as somebody who's currently in the market for a house, I hope they take your advice.
[140] Thank you so much for joining us.
[141] Sure thing.
[142] Good luck.
[143] Thank you.
[144] That was Joe Lovorna, former chief economist.
[145] of the National Economic Council.
[146] For years, credible reports have circulated that China forcibly harvests organs from prisoners while they're still alive.
[147] Researchers from Australia and Israel say they have found irrefutable evidence that proves it, and they can quantify the number of such transplants.
[148] Here to tell us more as Daily Wire reporter, Ben Johnson.
[149] Hey, Ben.
[150] Good morning, John.
[151] All right, Ben, so Chinese officials have been accused of organ harvesting from political prisoners for decades.
[152] Tell us about that.
[153] What's new about this report?
[154] Sure.
[155] You're right that allegations about Chinese organ harvesting have a long history.
[156] U .S. lawmakers alone have held congressional hearings on the issue since 1998.
[157] Whistleblowers have been coming forward even longer, and some of their tales are really heart -rending.
[158] For example, Dr. Enver Tote, a former physician in China, said that his chief surgeon walked up to him one day and asked him, quote, do you want to do something wild?
[159] Then he took Totti to a government execution site, pointed at a wounded prisoner and gave him an order.
[160] As quick as possible, remove the liver and took kidneys.
[161] Then I thought he's alive.
[162] My chief surgeon was standing to my left.
[163] Said, okay, cut here, throw that way, go quickly.
[164] Because that kind of oppression, that thing in China is legal.
[165] It is encouraged by the state.
[166] One of the things that's different now is that there's a peer -reviewed study in the American Journal of Transplantation.
[167] Researchers combed through thousands of papers in Chinese medical journals dealing with heart transplants because they're performed only after someone's been diagnosed as quote -unquote brain dead.
[168] They found 71 reports where the transplant procedures that doctors used proved that the subjects were alive when their hearts were removed.
[169] In one case, the doctors described how they cut their patient's chest open and only then intubated him to improve the health of the heart, which they then removed.
[170] Now, Chinese officials publicly announced a series of reforms to the organ donation system in 2015, do the authors believe that these kinds of forced donations continued after that date?
[171] Yes, Robertson said the most recent case of live organ harvesting they found took place in 2015, but the most likely explanation, they said, is that China simply ordered medical journals to stop publishing the details of those cases.
[172] So which groups are most likely to be targeted for organ harvesting?
[173] Everyone agrees the Chinese Communist Party targets minorities, such as members of the fallen gong, Christians who attend unauthorized house churches, and ethnic Tibetans.
[174] Members of these communities are likely to be political prisoners, and the fact that they don't drink or smoke makes their unsullied organs worth even more on the black market.
[175] How is the West reacted to these reports?
[176] Aside from occasional committee hearings, the West has actually made things worse.
[177] There are allegations of people from around the world traveling to China for illicit organ transplants, but perhaps most consequentially, the U .S. sold China medical technology known as ECMO machines.
[178] They preserve organs for a longer period of time, allowing Chinese officials to remove more organs.
[179] One expert said that the ECMO machines tripled the dollar value of each prisoner's organs.
[180] On the other hand, a bipartisan coalition of legislatures has tried to impose sanctions on those who are responsible.
[181] Senator Tom Cotton and Chris Coons introduced the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act last March.
[182] that would identify and sanction anyone complicit in illegal involuntary organ harvesting.
[183] So far, though, the West has responded with little more than talk and technology transfers.
[184] Well, let's hope there's actually some action taken here.
[185] Thanks for reporting, Ben.
[186] Thanks so much, John.
[187] That's a Daily Wire reporter, Ben Johnson.
[188] Another story we're tracking this week.
[189] Elon Musk says he would reverse Twitter's ban on Donald Trump, stating that Twitter is the public square and permanent bans undermine trust in the platform.
[190] He also said, former CEO Jack Dorsey agrees with his opinion.
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