Morning Wire - March Inflation Numbers & EPA Emission Regulations | 4.13.23

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Inflation eased in March to the lowest it’s been in almost two years despite prices remaining stubbornly high, The EPA announces new emissions regulations that would drastically shift the American auto industry, and a new drug is being called the King Kong of weight loss medications. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.  Genucel: Get 70% off the Most Popular Package, plus FREE SHIPPING & FREE SPA ESSENTIALS: https://genucel.com/WIRE Nugenix: Get a complimentary bottle of Nugenix Total T when you text ‘WIRE’ to 231-231. Black Rifle Coffee: Get 10% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inflation eased in March to the lowest it's been in almost two years, despite prices remaining stubbornly high. We discuss what's driving the rate down in another metric that economists say spells more struggles ahead. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, April 13th, and this is Morning Wire. EPA announced new emissions regulations that would drastically shift the American auto industry towards going electric. But most American drivers aren't ready to give up gas. Today's actions will accelerate our ongoing transition to a clean vehicle's future. We discuss the new rules and the challenges.

And a new drug is being called the King Kong of Weight Loss Medications. When we start you on a weight loss drug, you are on that weight loss drug for life. How does the drug work and what are the risks? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Reagan here, and right now, you can save over 70% off GenuCel's most popular package. Just in time for warmer weather, GenuCell is including both their ultra-retinol and Darkspot corrector in their most popular package. All orders are upgraded to free shipping,

and every subscription order includes a complimentary spring spa box with three free spa essentials. Visit genucel.com slash wire and use code wire at checkout to claim the special offer. That's genucel.com slash wire. According to a new report from the Labor Department, inflation fell last month to the lowest mark in almost two years, offering slight relief for consumers burdened by years of record cost increases. But a number of other figures showed inflation is still far from the rear view. Here are the latest economic news and how it's being received in Washington is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. Cabot every month we get these reports and every month it seems there's more bad news.

This month, though, shows some good and bad signs. Let's start with the good. Yeah, on Wednesday, we learned that last month, inflation eased to its lowest point since May of 2021. The all-important consumer price index, which tracks the cost of goods and services, came in at 5%. That's down from 6% in February and a good bit lower than the 8% rates we saw throughout last year. The main factor driving the cool down was a moderate price decrease on gasoline. While gas prices actually rose nationwide in the month of March,

the inflation rate is determined based on where prices are now compared to a year ago. Right. And in that case, they're down from $4.10 last March to $3.38 this March. We also saw moderate relief on airfare, groceries, and insurance costs compared to the year before. And that's a good point to remember about inflation rates. They track price increases over a 12-month span. Exactly. And that context is where some of the bad news comes in.

While 5% is the lowest rate we've seen since 2021, it still means the prices are 5% higher. than they were this time last year. And remember, at that point, prices were already 8.5% higher than the year before. So the good news is all relative because it means things are still considerably more expensive than they were before inflation took hold in 2020. Remember from 2018 to 2020,

the average inflation rate was 2.1%. As the New York Times put it, this month's report has some good news, but quote, there's still a long road back to normal. And there's more bad news when you look at the other important tracker known as the core index, which excludes products with more volatile pricing

like gas and groceries. That number was at 5.6% in March, which is actually an increase compared to February. So not all inflation rates are going in the right direction. That's also important because the core index is much more closely watched by central bankers and is often a better indicator of overall economic health. What sort of political response have we seen from the administration to this new report? Well, the White House was quick to tout the report as evidence that President Biden's economic policies are working. In a statement Wednesday morning, the president said, quote, While inflation is still too high, this progress means more breathing room for hardworking Americans. The Republican National Committee released a competing statement of their own saying,

quote, today's consumer price index marks the 23rd straight month inflation has been at or above 5% and the 24th straight month of negative real wages. So while Biden celebrated the news, the reality is he's in a tough spot politically when it comes to inflation. And fewer than 20% of Americans say they're better off now than they were just a year ago. So celebrating one month of partly good news could rub Americans the wrong way when, you know, they're still dealing with the impact of higher cost relative to when you took office. Yes, we're all reminded every time we go to the grocery store. Yep. Kappa, thanks for reporting.

Any time. That's Daily Wire's senior editor, Kappa Phillips. Coming up, new EPA rules aim to radically transform the American auto industry. Do you ever feel like you just can't get in shape? Nuggenics has you covered. Nuggenics is offering a complimentary bottle of Nuggenics total tea when you text, 231, 231, and enter the keyword, wire. Nugentics Total T, testosterone and booster with testifying will help you turn back the clock.

Re-energize your workouts and feel like the man you really want to be. Get your complimentary bottle of Nugentics Total T today. Text 231, 231, and enter the keyword, wire. Text now and you get a bottle of Nuggenics Thermo, their most powerful fat incinerator, absolutely free. Text 2.31, and enter the keyword, wire. Texting enrolls you in reoccurring automated text messages, consent and not required to purchase. message and data rates may apply. The Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency

has announced new emissions regulations that will radically alter the auto industry and the cars we drive. These rules will provide the regulatory foundation for years to come to continue to incentivize the significant investments being made by industry across the entire on-road sector. Here with the details is Daily Wire Researcher Michael Whitaker.

Hi, Michael, thanks for coming on. What can you tell us about the EPA's new rules? The EPA's proposal would put a cap on tailpipe emissions, the carbon dioxide and other gases produced by an internal combustion engine. Evs don't produce those kinds of emissions, so they'd be exempt, which would create more incentive to produce and sell them. One of the stated goals of the policy, according to official sources, is to make two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the United States electric powered by 2032. Last year, they were under 6%, so that's a tenfold increase in market share over the course of a decade. That's even more ambitious than the Biden administration's

previous target of making EVs 50% of all new sales by 2030. So a 10-fold increase sounds very ambitious. How realistic is that? Well, the major issue is that EVs haven't proven to be profitable for most auto companies, aside from Tesla, even after billions of dollars in government subsidies. The rest are offsetting their EV losses with revenue from their profitable and more popular gas-powered vehicles. Ford, for example, announced that it expects to lose about $3 billion dollars from this EV division in 2023, although it expects to turn a pre-tax profit of between $9 and $11 billion overall. As Axios put it, gas-powered vehicles are paying for their own funeral.

Automakers are willing to make the switch, especially since regulators at all levels have made it clear that EVs are the way of the future come hell or higher water. But even the most enthusiastic haven't committed to electrifying their fleets that quickly. There are supply chain concerns, but there are also significant worries that not enough people will buy these EVs, even if we can make them. A recent poll from the Associated Press found that only 19% of Americans say that they're very likely to choose an EV as their next car purchase, compared to 47% who said they were either not too likely or not at all likely to do so. Did the survey ask why people are hesitant about EVs? Well, according to the poll, the main drivers of consumer hesitants are high prices and a lack of

charging stations. The average price of a new electric vehicle in 2022 was about $61,000, compared to about $50,000 for traditional cars. That's according to Kelly Blue Book. Last year's inflation reduction act included the $7,500 tax credit for certain new EV purchases, and up to $4,000 for used EVs. So the government is obviously trying to close that gap. And advocates of EVs argue that the decreased cost of maintenance and fuel will make them cheaper in the long run. But as of now, the market's just not there. As far as charging goes, in early 2023, there are approximately 130,000 public charging

stations in the United States, but those are not evenly distributed. California, for example, has about 30% of those stations despite making up only 12% of the U.S. population. Rural states like Wyoming and Alaska have almost none. Even within California, high-income areas have more than four times as many charging stations per household as low-income areas. But if EVs are going to transition from a luxury item to the industry standard, then chargers need to be everywhere. In 2021, the Biden administration committed to building 500,000 charging stations by 2030. But experts say will need more than a million to satisfy consumers.

And since the average EV can only go about 250 miles on a single charge, they'll need to be spread out across the entire country. There's also the uncomfortable fact that as of now, China produces 80% of the world's lithium-ion batteries, a crucial component of EVs. Chinese dominance in this sector is especially problematic because of how much our relationship has deteriorated in recent years. All right. Well, Michael, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire researcher, Michael Whitaker. Newly approved diabetes and weight loss medications like Ozzympic and Wagovi have taken the weight loss industry by storm. But a new drug, Monjaro, is being called the King Kong.

of weight loss drugs. Here to discuss the drugs and their associated risks is Daily Wire Reporter Amanda Prestige-Acomo. So Amanda, tell us a little bit about these drugs when they hit the market and what the price tag looks like. So the two drugs really gaining attention are semaglutide and trezapitide. Semaglutide is sold as a type 2 diabetes medication under the brand name Ozempic. That same drug is also marketed for weight loss under the brand name Wagovi. Wagovi was first approved for adults in 2021, and in just December, the FDA approved the drug for some minors, starting at just age 12. Both OZembe and Wagovi can cost about $1,000 per month without insurance. Cresepatide is the newer drug causing a lot of buzz.

As you mentioned, it's been dubbed the King Kong of Weight Loss drugs for its apparent effectiveness. It's marketed right now as a type 2 diabetes medication under the brand name Mujaro. That was approved by the FDA last May, but we can expect that Trezepotide is going to be approved by the FDA in the coming months as a weight loss drug under a different brand name, though some people are already using Mujaro off label for weight loss. Same with Ozempic. Just like Wagovi and Ozempic, Mujaro is an injectable prescription medicine and costs around $1,000 per month. Okay, so how do these drugs work and how effective are they for weight loss? So basically the drugs work to mimic a hormone produced in the gut called GLP1 to make you feel full and regulate your blood glucose levels.

Trezepotide is a little different. It's the first ever GLP1 and GIP, another hormone secreted from the intestine. Studies on semi-glutide, which is in Ozempic and Wagovi, show that participants on average cut their weight by about 17%, which is a really big number. but tricepetide was even higher at 22.5%. That was on average about 52 pounds for participants in this clinical trial. Those people generally had a BMI at 30 or above. Okay, so they're very effective when used for weight loss, it sounds like, but I want to get to the risks associated with these drugs. What do we know about that? So the common side effects are generally nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, basically stomach issues. But there's also increased risk for more serious. things like pancreatitis and thyroid cancer. I'll add that critics are also concerned about the

lack of long-term studies on these drugs, specifically when it relates to trezepatide and the significantly higher dose of semaglutide. Dr. Sean Hashmi, a board-certified internist, nephrologists, and obesity medicine specialists discussed that thyroid cancer risks based off data from 2006 to 2018 on GLP-1s. The overall risk of thyroid cancer, with GLP-1s is very small. But the question is, how does it compare to the general population? Patients who are currently using GLP-1 receptors, they had a 46% higher risk of thyroid cancer than those who were not using it.

Now, if patients had used GLP-1 adding us for about one to three years, they had a 58% higher risk of thyroid cancer than patients who were not using it. And at three years, there was about a 36% higher risk. And here's Dr. Hashmi issuing a general warning about these trendy drugs. The bottom line here is the risk is not zero. Medications are not a magic bullet. Every day I have patients come to my office and they're not looking to eat better. They're not looking to exercise more.

They're just looking for a drug and hoping the drug would change their overall weight and magically fix everything. It doesn't. He also emphasized that if you want to use these drugs, you have to be able to. to commit to them for life. When you get off of them, your appetite will come back and so will the weight. One NIH study showed participants regained an average of 66% of the weight they lost when they discontinued the drug. The way to be successful in long-term weight loss is to change your lifestyle, to eat better, to exercise more, and to get enough sleep. All right. Well, Amanda, thanks so much for reporting. Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire reporter, Amanda Presta

Jacamo. Another story we're tracking this week. The second of two Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will return to the legislature after a Memphis commission voted to re-instatum on Wednesday. The move comes just one week after Representative Justin Pearson of Memphis and another lawmaker were expelled from the chamber for inciting gun control protesters on the House floor. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know. Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Everyone knows we love Black Rifle Coffee,

but you don't always have time to brew coffee the traditional way. That's why you need Black Rifle Coffee's ready to drink cans. Ready to drink coffee is perfect for when you're on the go, and each can contains at least 200 milligrams of caffeine and come in a variety of different flavors. Go to Black Rifle Coffee.com and use promo code Wire for 10% off your purchase and your first coffee club order. That's Black Rifle Coffee.com promo code wire.

Black Rifle Coffee, America's Coffee.