Morning Wire - UPenn’s President Resigns & Interest Rate Optimism | 12.11.23

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

UPenn’s President steps down after congressional testimony regarding anti-Jewish hate on campus, the signs point towards interest rate cuts due to a labor market cooldown, and Hunter Biden faces new charges. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. Balance of Nature: Get 35% off your first order as a preferred customer + free Fiber and Spice supplements. Use promo code WIRE at checkout: https://www.balanceofnature.com/ Shopify: "Get a $1 per month trial at https://www.shopify.com/morningwire" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After disastrous congressional testimony on anti-Jewish hate on college campuses, one Ivy League president resigns. How will the shakeup impact the landscape of higher ed? I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Monday December 11th, and this is Morning Wire. Is the labor market cooling down? New data suggests it is. If employment confidence is lost, you get less spending, which produces a drag on the economy. We break down what effect.

that could have on the average household. And in the wake of Hunter Biden being slapped with more federal charges, Republicans in the House are poised to bring forward an impeachment resolution against his father. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Liz McGill, the embattled president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned on Saturday. Miguel faced mounting criticism for her testimony before Congress, where she declined to say that

calls for genocide against Jews violated university. harassment policy. Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham is here now with more. So, Megan, what led to McGill's resignation? Well, you know, there's no question that pressure from donors was likely the biggest factor here. And that actually started well before Hamas's terrorist attacks on October 7th and those remarks that McGill made to Congress last week.

So back in late September, donors had written to McGill expressing concerns about Penn's plan to host the Palestine Rights Literature Festival. And they pointed to speakers like Mark Lamont Hill, who had previously called for Israel's eradication, and he used slogans like from the river to the sea, which of course refers to the annihilation of Israel. And then even more controversial, the event was sponsored by Islamic Relief Worldwide, which is a group suspected of funding Hamas that has been condemned by the State Department for anti-Semitism. Jewish students, meanwhile, reported an increase in verbal harassment in the lead-up to that festival, and someone spray painted a swastika on campus.

So McGill's reaction to all of this was to release a statement about concerns over the festival that did condemn anti-Semitism, but she allowed the event to go on. So that was when mega donors, like former Chinese ambassador John Huntsman and hedge fund billionaire Cliff Asniss, said that they were closing their checkbooks to pen

until it made meaningful changes in leadership. So this was already an issue on donor radar before October 7th. happened since then? Right. And at that point, Jewish students and faculty said that anti-Semitism on campus ramped up exponentially. Two students complained to the Department of Education about harassment. One of them said that as she was walking by a pro-Palestinian protest wearing a star of David, the protester started screaming at her. They called her a dirty little Jew. University staff began receiving emails with anti-Semitic threats. Those are currently being

investigated by the FBI. Meanwhile, a Jewish civil rights group filed complaints with the Department of Education. And so when Congresswoman Elise Stefonic then asked McGill if calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes harassment, and McGill responded that it's a context dependent decision, that was really the last draw for a lot of people. And not just on the right. So Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro publicly condemned her remarks. So did Doug Emhoff, husband. And he's of Vice President Kamala Harris, and then financier Ross Stevens announced that he was pulling his

$100 million grant to the school. At that point, McGill tried to do damage control. She recorded this video apology. I was not focused on, but I should have been. The irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It's evil, plain and simple.

But that didn't really move the needle. The board of the Wharton Business School, which is affiliated with Penn, called on McGill to resign, and on Saturday night she ultimately did so. Is there a good chance that we're going to see the presidents of Harvard and MIT resign as well? Well, there's certainly a lot of speculation that they will. And hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who is a Harvard alum, has been leading the charge against those two remaining presidents. He says he's meeting with Harvard's board this week.

Sunday morning, he posted this video of Dr. Phil calling on both presidents to resign. I grow increasingly appalled at the anti-Semitism permeating so much of our country, especially by so many students at our elite universities, which have become left liberal woke hotbeds fostering intellectual rot. How dare you sit there and play semantics with this congressional panel when you know what was done that day and what is being supported? against your Jewish students. Every single one of you must resign immediately.

So I think you can say that right now, Harvard's Claudine Gay is certainly under the most pressure, but MIT's Sally Cornbluth is certainly not out of the woods here. Well, this would be a huge shakeup if all three stepped down. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. New data from the federal government shows a cooling labor market with fewer job openings last month, spurring optimism that the Fed will soon lower interest rates for the first time since 2020. Here with more on the overall health of the economy and what rate cuts would mean for the

average family is Daily Wire's senior editor, Kevin. Phillips, hey Kevin. So let's start with the latest job numbers. What did we learn? Yeah, on Friday, the Labor Department released their November jobs report showing that the U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs last month, with health care and government jobs leading the way for new hires by a wide margin. While those numbers are fairly strong, historically speaking, they do represent another month of cooling. Remember, in 2021 and 2022, we saw one of the hottest job markets on record with around 446,000 jobs added monthly over that span. This year, that number has been cut nearly in half to around 232,000 jobs each month. So the report is simply more proof that the job market in America has slowed down considerably.

But when the latest report came out Friday, all three major stock indexes actually jump. to their highest points of the year. That is because the trend makes it more likely that the Fed will choose to cut interest rates in the near future. Right. Explain to us how the labor market plays into that decision. Well, remember, the Fed has raised rates at a record-setting pace in their attempt to slow inflation. It sounds counterintuitive, but they want to see fewer jobs being added, slower wage growth, and higher unemployment because it's a sign that rate hikes are having their intended purpose, and that is slowing down the economy as a whole and hopefully in turn the rise of inflation. For more on that relationship, I spoke with Carol Roth, former investment banker and

New York Times bestselling author. The narrative around rates coming down in 2024 is being driven by a few different expectations. Underlying most of that is headline inflation continuing to come down towards the Fed's 2% target, although it won't necessarily need to reach that level before cuts could begin. There are also expectations that the economy may weaken, so the Fed's policy path is trying to balance managing inflation, but not destroying the economy in the process, and higher rates puts more pressure on the economy. Now, zooming out, many of the things the Fed is looking to see before rate cuts have begun to happen. Not only has the rate of hiring cooled considerably, but the number of job openings

is dropping as well. The number of job openings last month fell by $617,000 to the lowest point since October of 2021, while the pace of wage growth also dipped to 5.2%. That's the number of It's about 15% slower than what we saw last summer at its peak. And finally, the number of people quitting their jobs has also been cut by almost a third from a record high back in the spring. And again, that's just yet more evidence that workers are less confident in this labor market strength, which means the Fed is more likely to begin lowering rates. But it's worth mentioning.

It's still not a given that they'll cut rates in the near future. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has signaled that he'd be more likely to cut rates when hiring, spending and investments show a, quote, steep decline. But to this point, it's been more of a gradual dip. So while economists are pretty confident the Fed will not keep raising rates, the question becomes if and when they will lower them. Right. So what sort of impact could lower rates have in the short term?

So put simply, it would just mean that borrowing money would become a lot cheaper. That is good news for small and large businesses who've really cut back on new investments as higher interest rates have cut into their profit margins. Falling rates are also likely to have a positive effect on your 401K. And then there's the housing market where the impact of rate hikes has been perhaps the most noticeable this year. The number of new sales and homes in the market have hovered around record lows this year, as millions of Americans have been reluctant to give up that 3% mortgage rate to take on a 7% or 8% rate. If those rates do come down even by just a point or two, it'll be a very welcome shot in the arm for the housing market

and likely cause a jump in new inventory. Well, obviously a lot on the line with these interest rates, especially going into 2024. Kappa, thanks for reporting. Anytime. President Biden's son Hunter has been indicted in California on a new round of tax evasion charges. The nine charges, including three felonies, could land Hunter in prison for up to 17 years and the indictment hints at the possibility of charges under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Here to discuss the development and what it means going forward is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.

Hey, Dave. First off, are these fresh charges breathing new life into the effort to bring a formal impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives? Morning, and yes, absolutely. These charges in California, which arguably came to be only because of the testimony of IRS whistleblowers, Joe Ziegler, and Gary Shapley, deal much more directly with money Hunter received from Burisma Energy in Ukraine, as well as Chinese communist-backed company. So it's much more connected to the allegations against Joe Biden of participating in influence peddling than the original Delaware suite of charges. House Republicans were, dare I say, pouncing over. the weekend and do seem prepared to vote in favor of a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday. Even some of the GOP representatives such as the New York moderates who have been skeptical about impeachment, they now seem to be on board. Yeah, there seems to be a shift in tone there. Now, the White House and Biden campaign reporting to the fact that Joe Biden is not mentioned in the indictment, but do these charges bring Hunter's alleged crimes kind of closer to the orbit

of the president? Yes, and again, that is because this case is much more directly top. to the foreign firms that Republicans under the leadership of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer claim paid for influence over Joe Biden. And though they haven't proven it yet, they allege that Joe Biden received some of this income. And special counsel David Weiss has said that the investigation is ongoing. Yes, still.

And that leaves open the possibility of those Farah charges, which would potentially mean not just more jail time for Hunter Biden, but also stand as evidence that he was engaged in lobbying, which makes the charge of influence peddling a significantly stronger. Yeah. Politically, how do these new charges change the dynamic in the 2024 presidential race, or do they change it at all? That's always hard to say, but as we've pointed out several times before on the show, John, the Biden campaign never wants Hunter to be the story. And it's remarkable. It was only back in July that the failed plea deal almost put this scandal completely to bed. The White House and the campaign both want to paint this as a story of a lot of.

loving father whose son was in the throes of addiction. But when you look at this indictment, showing that Hunter paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prostitutes while not paying his taxes, some voters may look at this all and ask, how much did Joe Biden know about it or question whether he enabled some of it? If the House does indeed pull the trigger on an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, then this is all set to become much more interesting. And it's already interesting enough. Get ready for more. Yeah. Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Another story we're tracking this week.

Deadly tornadoes ripped through Tennessee Saturday evening, leaving in their wake massive damage and at least six people dead. Nearly two dozen people were injured while multiple businesses and homes in Clarksville and Hendersonville suffered heavy damage. Officials say more than 80,000 electricity customers were without power in the wake of the storm. Some residents have been told the outages could last for days. We spoke to the owner of Hendersonville Barbers, which was impacted by the storm. He said he feared he lost everything until he saw the flood of support. A moment like this, you realize exactly what kind of people we are. And this will be a testament.

The success of this area of the country will be a testament to exactly what we are as a people. And in this tiny shop, it's exactly a testament to what we are. So I don't got fear of stress. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news. you need to know.