The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 879 What Happened to the Market Yesterday

Episode Date: December 25, 2018

In this episode I address the stock market dive and the top fake news stories of 2018.News Picks:Here are the top fake news stories for 2018. President Trump has a shutdown message. Why is Bob Corker going after the president, again? The Democrats are all in on radical leftism for 2019. An alternative view on interest rates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino. All right. Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas. Ho, ho. Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas. We love Christmas. I'm a Christmas guy. Are you a Christmas guy? Not particularly. Not particularly. I'm a Box guy Are you a Christmas guy? Not particularly I'm a Boxing Day guy That's right I'm a Boxing Day guy

How are you today, Producer Joe? I have to ask you that or I get a thousand emails from people We ain't got no snow Well, this is Florida so no one even knows what snow is down here They're like, what is that white stuff? If it happened, people would be all confused If it wasn't for the internet, they'd think there was like a volcanic eruption. They would think there was like ash coming out of the sky. The internet,

they'd figure it out pretty quickly. So yeah, it's nice and warm down here, 73 degrees today. So I love Florida weather. It's beautiful. That's why I moved down here. But welcome to the Dan Bongino Show on this Christmas day. I told you we'd give you a show. And I think I got some good stuff for you today. I got a lot of emails yesterday, Joe, after the disastrous day the stock market had. Dan, you got to explain what's going on. Is it panic time? No, it's not.

It's not. So I'm going to go through today what I think is going on with the economy. I'm going to also go through the best fake news stories of 2018. Half-tip Amber Athe over at the Daily Caller, who put together the definitive list of fake news for 2018. So it should be a fun show. I'm hoping you all are having a great Christmas morning. Hope you and your kids all got a good visit from Santa.

I know my kids had a blast. So they loved it. All right. Today's show brought to you by Zebra. Thezebra.com slash Dan. Or if you're Joe, the Zebra. Thezebra.com slash Dan. Don't they call them zebras over there in the UK?

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Yeah. What's going on in Stockport? A little bit bad day yesterday. Nothing like a Christmas Eve 650-point route. I'm not laughing. I just thought the emails were voluminous you know why my show

was pretty heavy on economics uh for a very long time we still cover it spygate tended to take over some of our attention for a while but uh this is a worthy time especially during christmas this wonderful day to tell everybody if you want my opinion i'm going to give it to you it's not good but i don't think it's panic time let Let me tell you first what is going on. A lot of you know this already. I got a lot of really bright financial people. So if you do and you agree, send me an email. If you don't, you disagree, send me an email. I'll read it. Folks, people are just chasing some yield right now. I mean, it's the history of humankind is to make money and make your money, make money on its own. If you can make money by taking the capital you've accumulated

and lending it out and getting an interest rate of return that surpasses inflation, you are making money based on your accumulated capital by not doing anything other than making investment decisions. You're not digging ditches anymore. That has been the story of humankind. It's a story of economic growth. If you have money and you have a big million dollar idea, what do you do, Joe? You take your money and you put it into your idea. If you don't have a million dollar idea,

but you think other companies in the stock market that are publicly traded companies, or if you want to be a venture capitalist or whatever, private financing, you can then take your money and invest it elsewhere. And you can chase yield on your money. You can chase return and you want to make more money. With a rising interest rate environment, we're in a rising interest rate environment. They just raised the rate. It's now 2.5. The Federal Reserve just raised rates to 2.5%. In a rising rate environment, Joe, there are going to be other investment

options outside of the stock market where you will be able to get yield on your money for less risk. Now, having stated the obvious there, 2.5% is not a historically high interest rate. I think while the interest rates are very low, money was flowing freely in the quantitative easing environment with extremely low interest rates over the last decade or so. Money was easy to find. The interest rate on money wasn't hard to pay back. They were historically low.

People were chasing money where they couldn't find yield elsewhere. They couldn't find a return because a lot of these interest rates are benchmarked to the federal funds rate. find a return because a lot of these interest rates are benchmarked to the federal funds rate. So if you can't find a return on anything else out there, bonds or anything, what do you do? You put your money in the stock market. Folks, again, I don't mean to oversimplify this, but sometimes my experience being fascinated with economics and economists in general is they never give you a definitive answer and they always want to talk down to you as if you're the stupid one when a lot of them not all of them are the ones

who always give you the wrong answer they're what what was the joke about economists i need a one arm economist because they're always telling you well on one hand but then on the other hand they always seem to have the wrong answer you know other jokes he has predicted you know 72 out of the last five recessions i mean when you're predicting a recession every six months too we seem to have the wrong answer. You know, other jokes, he has predicted, you know, 72 out of the last five recessions. I mean, when you're predicting a recession every six months, too, this is what a lot of economists do. I'm not knocking them. A lot of them are very bright. I have a lot of respect for Thomas Sowell, Russ Roberts, you know, Bob Barrow, who did some great work on government bonds being net worth or not. I mean, there are a lot of good people out there who are very smart.

But if they had the answers all the time, then we wouldn't constantly get this wrong. I could argue and make a pretty definitive case to you that the housing crisis we had was a function largely of a lot of loose money as well. So on the economist side, I know I'm going to get some emails back from people. I'm just asking, like, be civil about it and understand that people like myself, who my education's in finance, that's what I did my business degree in, but economics is my personal passion, that other people out there have alternative views based on history and common sense. We have flooded the money. We have flooded the market with cheap money for a long time.

That money wants to make money. Is this making sense, Joe? That money wasn't making money in other interest rate denominated vehicles because interest rates were historically low. Right. So if you're trying to make money on your money and you're not making money on interest rates and bonds and things like that in treasury denominated assets, where are you going to put it? You're going to put it in the stock market, which ran up stock market prices, you know, PE ratios. A lot of prices are, a lot of stock market, my humble opinion, a lot of stocks are overpriced right now because people were chasing yield, which are now simply making, you know, what I perceive to be a modest correction. Yeah, yesterday was bad. We're down quite a bit.

But considering the run-up, Joe, we've had over the past few years, if you invested your money just three, four years ago, when some stocks were still cheap, you're still doing okay. You'll be fine in the long run. So I think it's people chasing yield who are now reversing that trend because interest rates are going up and they don't have to worry about the risk of the market so they could take their money out in a rising interest rate environment put it in different vehicles where the risk isn't there i don't think it's time to panic now on the interest rate front because i'm getting a lot of feedback about this and i by the way so you know because I'm always open to alternative perspectives unlike some other shows out there challenge the host all you want I in today's show notes I have an article at the

end by Lewis Woodhill who I have tremendous respect for and Stephen Moore two very bright guys who completely disagree with me I have their article up in the Washington Times saying this is a catastrophic mistake the Fed raising interest rates. I want you to read both sides and hear me out. One of us is right and one of us is wrong. Either this is a good thing or it's a bad thing. I don't think the raising of interest rates right now, where they are, is as disastrous a decision as folks are letting on. It's one of the few areas I disagree with the president on. Here's why now. So first I explain why I think the market is correcting a bit.

People are chasing yield. Interest rates are going up. They're simply finding other vehicles, bonds and otherwise, that don't have the risk of equities and stocks that they can catch yield on and make money on their money. I don't think it's time to panic, folks. The markers there are good. Inflation is low. The other rest of the world markets are in a lot of trouble. The United States is productive. Productivity is going up. Wages are

going up. Growth rates are going up. Right now, there's only one big panic marker I see. And it's a big one. It's our debt situation. That's right. So it's not all peaches and cream, but on the growth metrics, the United States is doing fine. When the growth rates start dipping into the negative and we start hitting recession, God forbid, recessionary numbers,

then it's time to panic. The growth rates are doing just fine. Now, again, if you're retiring tomorrow and that money's invested in the stock market and it's your pension I'm not trying to minimize make no mistake the problems you're having right now I'm just saying and I'm not just saying because it's Christmas and I want you to be optimistic

and all I get that I do but I'm telling you that I don't believe we are in a slow growth no growth environment't believe we are in a slow growth, no growth environment. I believe stocks are correcting a bit. They'll find a floor. Once they find that floor, we'll see growth again. That growth may be, you may have bought in a little high.

That growth may be a little slower. We might not shoot up to 25,000 again in a month. It may take a year. It may take seven months. It may take eight months. It may take seven months. It may take eight months. It may take a little more than a year. But we'll get back there. Where stock values are more commensurate with the value of the companies they represent

long term. I wouldn't panic. People are simply taking money from one vehicle and putting them in another. Okay. Another reason not to worry. Folks, there's money to loan. There's money to loan out there. When you look at what's happening in financial institutions,

credit is not hard to find. It's just not. You know, one of the reasons you want to keep interest rates low during growth periods is because you want businesses with good business opportunities, Joe, to be able to find money to invest in those opportunities, produce productive business ventures, pay their employees well. I get that. But there is money to loan right now. There's really no disastrous signs. You can always find some hallmarks of, hey, this could be a little bit of trouble. But there's no disastrous

signs of short money, people not being able to find money to fund quality business ventures out there. Loans are available. Sorry, had to move the fan a little bit. It's getting a little hot in here. Loans are available. Money's available.

Credit's available. The economy's growing. Again, I don't see any really flashing red. Now, again, the debt situation's bad. I don't want to minimize that. One more reason not to panic here. Ladies and gentlemen, overseas is a mess right now. Who?

We have a global economy. We are not the only ones, U.S. citizens, looking for yield, searching for yield, and looking for ways to make money. I think that's obvious. It's not like some Dan Bongino is like, wow, really? Other people are looking to make money too? They are. The problem is, how do you make money on your money as I started the show? I mean, there's ways to make money.

You can work. You can develop income. What if you are at that point in your life where you developed a large stash of capital? You want that money to earn money for you. Where are those business opportunities happening? Ladies and gentlemen, newsflash, they're happening right here in the great old USA. Oh. That's it.

We are it right now. We are the hottest world economy. That's the reason money in the United States is not that hard to find right now to fund business ventures. Global capital is rushing into the United States to take advantage of the growing 3% and 4% U.S. economy. Overseas is a mess. We don't really have any competition right now. Chinese economy is not... One, a lot of it's a Potemkin village anyway.

A lot of the Chinese economy is a general fraud in and of itself. You know, state-funded companies that are just a mess. Balance sheets that are awful, horrible investments. Environmental policies are really wrecking the country's air quality. China is a mess right now. Japan's in a slow growth environment you have some some hot countries overseas some of the baltic states but in in in terms of an availability and a pool of healthy companies that are growing ladies and gentlemen listen put hold your head up high put your chin up man you're in the united

states of america whatever it's just like that joe joe looks like captain morgan right now all Listen, hold your head up high. Put your chin up, man. You're in the United States of America. Just like that, Joe. Joe looks like Captain Morgan right now. All he needs is a knee up in the air. That's great. I love that. We need this video, man. Coming soon.

Don't worry. Coming soon. Just working out the details to make it nice, nice for you. You're a United States citizen. You are in a powerhouse economy right now, growing at 4% and 3%. Money's flooding in. That's good news. That's good news.

Now, to give you some historical context for a moment on these interest rates going up, I'm getting a lot of emails, surprisingly a lot of negative ones. Dan, inflation's nowhere to be found. Why are you saying these interest rates are not so bad? Well, I don't get it. They shouldn't be raising interest. They're crushing the economy. They're not crushing the economy. Folks, we are going to have to, at some point, folks, we are going to have to at some point normalize our central bank policies here, our Federal Reserve policies and our interest rates. The Federal Reserve is holding trillions of dollars in assets,

trillions of dollars in assets through its quantitative easing program it is going it bought a lot of government bonds so in other words our government our only sanctioned federal bank essentially a quasi-government entity i don't care what they tell you if it's a central bank is never fully separate it's nonsense our the united states government essentially that's a good question remind me of that. Joe, Joe putting up questions here. I love this. The central bank, the United States essentially printed money to buy its own debt, which created more debt.

Why? Because we printed more money, which made your money worth less. It's called quantitative easing. We're holding U.S. government denominated assets in the Federal Reserve. They're unloading that at the same time they're upping interest rates, which is leading to kind of a double whammy effect.

Because when the Federal Reserve, think about it in reverse, it's easier to understand. When the Federal Reserve's printing money to buy U.S. denominated assets, it can drive interest rates down because it can buy those U.S. denominated assets in can drive interest rates down because it can buy those u.s denominated assets and debt at a lower interest rate right if if they can't sell it then they got to up the interest rate yeah to sell it you get what i'm saying the federal government but if the federal

reserve comes in goes you know what we'll buy it at whatever they can artificially lower interest rates by printing their own money all i'm trying to say say is it's kind of a double whammy at the same time. But the danger here is we're holding hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars in assets on the Federal Reserve sheet that we're going to have to get rid of, that when you reverse the process of lowering interest rates by printing money, it's by default going to raise interest rates by not printing money and, matter of fact having to

sell those bonds and absorb money out of the economy because the federal reserve is holding the bonds they're going to have to get rid of them right right right so it's a double whammy this double whammy could be very bad if we hold on to this for too long now is inflation it's some critical mass now no not even not even close. It's not. But I think I can make the substantive case to you that a lot of the inflation is being tamed by the fact that when you look at things like commoditized assets and productivity enhancements, and you look at our oil revolution and our shale revolution, that this is kind of tamed by inflation. In other words, it's being hidden by productivity.

Oil would be a lot more expensive right now if you compounded the inflation. If we weren't producing tons of it. Productivity enhancements and things like, you know, washing machines and stuff like that. And almost commoditized type items now. The competition and the enhancements in factory floor programming just in time production scales. These products would have been a lot cheaper if it weren't for the fact that inflation creeped up. Do you get what I'm saying, Joe?

That we've been so effective at producing oil, washing machines, and refrigerators that you can make a strong case that these items would have been even cheaper right now if it wasn't for inflation. But the fact that the prices are still going down a little bit makes people believe inflation is under control completely when in fact, I don't believe it really is. I believe it's being masked by productivity enhancements, really effective new production techniques, just in time production methods, just-in-time production

methods, oil production, energy prices being relatively contained. I don't believe that inflation is totally contained. And what we've seen with inflation in the past is when it creeps on you and it creeps on you fast, it's really hard to squash it. You think I'm making this up? When inflation creeped up on us, Joe, and Jimmy Carter here, I know you remember that. I do. Remember what a home mortgage was back there? 15% interest rates on a home mortgage? Everybody was raving about it.

Everybody was terrified. Crush inflation. Crush inflation. What? All the great economists didn't see it coming? The answer is no. They didn't. The conservative ones did. All the other economists, oh, don't worry about it. We'll be okay. No, they didn't. The conservative ones did. All the other economists, oh, don't worry about it. We'll be okay. No, we weren't okay. June 20th, 1981.

Inflation peaked, excuse me, the inflation rate peaked at the United States, 14.8%. 14.8%. Day over day, your money's worth less. You better spend your money today. Tomorrow's worth crap. So what did Volcker do? Volcker came in, bumped the interest rate dramatically, and pretty much crushed it. Crushed inflation.

He had interest rates and mortgages were between 12 and 15%, if not higher. If you're going to do it, do it now. This was 1981. The bump up in interest rates to dramatically higher. Dramatically higher. We're talking 10 points plus higher than we are now at 2.5%. Cause the brief recession, Joe. What did it also do? It again bumped up interest rates, made people save a bit again,

not get too consumption happy. Consumption can lead to inflation. If it's incentive, it's not backed by real growth. People start buying stuff on loaned money, driving up the price of items, which causes them to borrow more money. Volcker coming in and squashing that and bumping up interest rates made people say, hey, maybe if we save this money at these elevated interest rates, we can do pretty well. Slow down a little over exuberance. 1981, slight recession.

1982, eh. 83 by 84, we are rocking and rolling. Right for Reagan's reelection. 6% growth in 84. Twice what the rates are now under Trump. And what Trump's doing now is don't take that as a shot. It's not. 3% is good.

6% is amazing. Don't panic. We're not even close to where we were under Volcker. Where money almost completely dried up. How are you going to get a mortgage at 15%? That happened, folks.

Happened in my lifetime. I'm only 44. I remember it. I remember my Aunt Jane buying a house in, what is it, 62nd and Cooper Avenue or something in Glendale. And my mother telling me the mortgage was going to be like 13%. And I was always at the numbers as a kid. I was like, wow, that's a lot of interest.

Right? The rule of sevens. You know, at 7% interest, every 10 years, the debt doubles. Folks, this is, you understand we're not even close to that? Think about this. Putting this in perspective. And I'm trying to keep a smiley face off of it. Just don't panic.

Nobody likes interest rate hikes. Nobody. I understand the president's concern. They do typically lead to some short-term recessionary. Because what does it do? It disincentivizes consumption and buying for savers. Because the interest rate's more. You can make more.

But when you save that money, where do you think the money goes? They don't burn it. The money is saved. It goes back into the economy, into really super productive companies that can take advantage of that money. Why, Joe? Think about it. Folks, listen.

Walk through this with me. If interest rates were 10%, who is going to borrow money at 10% if the product they're putting out there isn't going to make them 10% or 15% of their money back? The answer is nobody. So what happens at high interest rates? Companies that are struggling and only have marginal investments wind up just treading water for a while. Companies that have really good, bold ideas will borrow that money. They'll pay back the savers a tremendous interest

rate. They'll put it into products they know will succeed. Those products will change our lives, computers and AI and all of this stuff and new medical technology. And the world's a better place in the long run. It's not all bad. Think about this. In 2007, Joe, in 2007, the interest rates were 5% right before we took another dive into another mini recession. We're only at 2.5 now. In other words, historically speaking, folks, we're not even close to really high elevated interest rates. We're not.

You have to squash inflation before it starts to permeate your economy, not after. One final point on this. Folks, God forbid there is a recession, even a short-lived one. You need room to cut, according to traditional Federal Reserve policy. I wish they wouldn't do this, but they do.

I wish we would stop doing this interest rate targeting and start keeping... Scott Sumner has some interesting theories on this stuff about the ability to keep the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar relatively stable instead of focusing exclusively on things like interest rates. I may be poorly summarizing his work. I'm sorry. He's very bright. But this room to cut in a recession has been a traditional staple of economic policy. In other words, when there's a recession, lower interest rates allow people to get their hands on money at a cheaper interest rate. Folks, how are we going to lower interest rates at 2.5%? There's almost nowhere to go.

We were at 5% right before the dip last time. If we raise rates now, when we can absorb a bit of it, it is a good thing. It gives us some leeway. Again, I don't mean to sound Pollyanna-ish, but I think we're in a good spot. If we can get our hands on government spending, Trump has been great on regulation. He has been great on tax cuts, on deregulation, I should say. He's been great on tax cuts.

He's been great on immigration policy. He's been fantastic on bringing a semblance of justice back to our court systems. All I ask is be patient. You're going to have some stock market corrections. You may have a mini dip, a mini recession. Remember what happened in 81 with Reagan. They were calling for Reagan's head. And by 84, he won 49 out of 50 states. He had tamed inflation. Successful businesses had got their hands on money and built out productive capabilities. New products came into the market. Your money bought more.

Remember that. Inflation's not a good thing, but deflation's not always an awful thing either. Inflation means your money buys less, right? Simple as that. Inflation's great for debtors. Deflation's great for savers. Why? Because deflation, your money buys more. I'm not saying there's deflation debt spirals and things like that where you rush to pay off debt quicker because the debt's worth more too, right? I get that. Think about it, right? If you owe a lot of money, inflation's your best friend because your money's worth less, but so is the debt. So is what you owe. If you make $100,000

a year in an inflationary environment, your $100,000 buys less. But if you owe $300,000 on your credit card, you owe a whole lot less too because that $300,000 is worth less. The opposite happens in deflation. That debt you have is worth more, less. The opposite happens in deflation. That debt you have is worth more, harder to pay off because the dollar's worth more, but your money's worth more too. It incentivizes saving, building up capital, saving, putting that money back into economy that can build out a productive capability. This is not all bad. Listen, I don't usually recommend books because they're, well, I do sometimes, but they're only if they're really good. There's a book out there by Hunter Lewis called Why Keynes Was Wrong. It's very readable. It's very real. You can get through it in a couple of days.

Why Keynes Was Wrong by Hunter Lewis. Read the book. It is a fantastic manifesto on everything I'm telling you now about how deflation isn't always bad, how inflation isn't always great, how this common knowledge out there, I use air quotes there, that inflation's a horrible thing all the time and in every circumstance, and deflation is an awful thing all the time in every circumstance. Read it for a perspective on what that means. It's really good. It explains a lot of what I just said. Very, very good book. Okay.

Oh, hey, put that question up. A listener writes in, Calvin Tilbury from Fish Hook, New Jersey. What he says, he really likes to listen to you when you're talking about the economy, but he wants to know what it would take to scare you about this economy. What it would take to scare me. That's a great, you know, I like this segment. Maybe we should do this once in a while, holiday specials, where you take questions.

You know, tweet them to producer Joe. He's at Joe Haas with a Z1. All right, I'm going to answer. Let me get to this read. I'm going to answer that. Hey, dog food companies claim to use natural ingredients, but what kind of beef or carrots can sit in a paper bag for a year?

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Although once in a while, baby boy, the Maltese Yorkie mix, once in a while, once in a while he pushes the peas aside. Once in a while. But I tell him, eat them veggies. Eat them veggies. Eat the veggies, baby. Baby boy.

The dog follows me around. So he's licking my feet, though. It's kind of weird. Always. He's always at my heel. Always. It's unbelievable. He never leaves my side.

When I do the show and they're here, he's right at my feet. Every time. Baby boy. Okay. So what would scare me? That's a good question. I think we should do this segment once in a while. That would be great, Joe. Here's what would scare me that's a good question i think we should do this segment once in a while that would be great joe um here's what would scare me at some point we are going to reach a catastrophic debt situation with our national debt that is we

are not going to be able to grow out of it um how far away we are from that from that point in our debt so hold on sorry defcon 8 did you hear that in the background yes let me change that i know sorry folks i have you don't have to cut that out just you know what usually joe cuts it out but in the interest of editing because it's christmas i have my pool hose in my pool and uh because it hasn't rained in florida in forever and i put the alarm on and i forgot that i was supposed to go i forgot i was uh doing the show so crazy what would scare me so sooner or later we're going to reach this catastrophic dead point now the best analogy i can give to you is an analogy with regard to your personal finances, because when it comes to macroeconomics, people sometimes have a tough

time making the transition. They think the micro and the macro are so unbelievably different that the spheres don't marry up at some point, but they do in many respects. So the best way I could say it is, let's say you're a 21-year-old Harvard computer scientist and you are a genius. You are a world class computer scientist, right? But you're 21. You have no assets. You have no job. You're a ninja, right? No income, no assets, no job. Say you have a credit card and in order you finance your education and your lifestyle, you're pouring onto that credit card,

150, $200,000 a year for all four years in college, two years of grad school. You're upwards of, by the time you're done close to a million dollars in debt, you have not made a dollar yet. Can we all agree that would be catastrophic? Yeah.

But is it? No, seriously, is seriously is it i mean think about it i wasn't a trick question you're right in in terms of me and you looking at it joe because neither you nor i are genius computer scientists that went to harvard right joe and i worked really hard and got to where we are now but uh it was a lot of you know people who helped us along the way if you really are the world's premier computer scientist with a graduate degree in AI, computers, quantum mechanics, and you are it, ladies and gentlemen, is that million dollars you've accumulated, whatever, in a bar tab, education, room, board, food, is it really that bad? And the answer is probably not, Joe. For you and I, it is.

And our listeners, many of us yeah would be terrible it would ruin your entire life but the chances are this kid is going to graduate harvard graduate school get his first job and he's going to be courted by every major tech company in the business he's probably going to have roughly five six hundred thousand dollars worth of salary if not more while he's producing patents he's going to leave after two years start his own company whatever uh diddlydoo.com whatever whatever it is. He's probably going to make another couple million dollars there. And the guy will be worth, I don't know, by his 30s, 10, 20 million. So on a good note, because you asked me what would scare me, on a good note,

debt isn't always a bad thing if it's somewhat productive in other words this guy was using his debt to get through school live a life granted not all of it was good he probably spent a lot of it on like bar stuff and hanging out and hotel vacations on the weekend to the maldives or whatever but most of it was his education the united states is in a similar scenario. We're wasting a ton of money. Entitlement programs that are out of control right now. When I say wasting a lot of money, I mean just completely entire.

The projection for future spending is not in any way commensurate with our ability to pay for it. Social programs we can't afford. But there's also some good spending, a military that can protect our economic vibrance, our borders, our law enforcement apparatus, a court system that can protect contract law. So some of that debt isn't bad. It's not all a catastrophe.

Now, what's the problem, Joe? What would scare me is if the third year into that Harvard kid's education, all of a sudden he comes back with a 2.2 GPA. He's not as smart as we thought he was. Ruh-roh. Jai! The analogy to the U.S. economy, folks, is what happens when big government policies start to take over again.

Tax hikes, which suck money out of the economy. The regulatory front. We elect another Democrat. The economy slows down. All of a sudden, our GPA goes down to 1, 1.5 and 2 again. All of a sudden, that $500,000 salary coming out of Harvard ain't there anymore. Now they're like, yeah, we'll give you $50,000.

You can start in a mailroom. But I have a million dollars in debt. Yeah, don't care. Too bad. So sad. The point is, we need eight more years of this. We need eight more years of deregulation. We need eight more years of strong tax reform. We need eight more years of vibrant growth to be able to make the debt we have manageable.

What terrifies me is the debt is accumulating so quickly and the interest rates so quickly on that debt that the debt is soon going to spiral way past our ability to grow out of it. And we're going to be, sadly, that kid in the mailroom soon if we don't stop this soon. That is the biggest alarm,

red siren going off, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, right now. Bell ringing after class, that is what terrifies me. If we could just put a lid on our spending and get a hold of this administrative state while simultaneously keeping these Trump tax cuts and deregulatory reform going, I think we're on a glide path to prosperity you've never seen before. regulatory reform going. I think we're on a glide path to prosperity you've never seen before. But it is entirely, entirely dependent on us getting a lid on spending, Joe, or growing the living crap out of this economy so fast that the debt doesn't even matter. But one of those things has to happen. Either he stops spending the million dollars because he's got a 2.2 GPA. He goes down to maybe 20,000 a year with a manageable debt,

or he gets his GPA back up to four and he's not worried about the million dollars. One of those things has to happen, folks. And right now we're only at the 4.0 GPA, but he's spending 55 million a year. He's blowing it out. Big time bad news. All right, cool. It's good. I like that segment there.

All right, the fake news stories. Amber Athe, The Daily Call. This is great. I love this piece. Before I get to that, let me do our last read for the day. On Christmas, folks, listen, we all, you know, around the holidays, I just had three cookies. By the way, I want to thank Lee out there. You know who you are. Lee sent the nice video. You know, I don't want to say what it is because I don't want to out him at all, but it was a really

cool video of Christmas. You know who you are. That was very nice of you to do that. So thanks a lot. But it's the holidays. And I should have said at the beginning of the show, I had a little note. We all tend to eat a little rough. I just, I got a gift from one of my agents. That sounds so not me. That sounds so lame. I never in my life thought I'd say that ever, ever, but I don't know how else to say I'd be lying. Otherwise I don't lie to my, I do. Unfortunately now with a lot of stuff taken off, I need to, other people have to help me out so one of my my agents I can't even say it with a straight face one of my let's call one of my friends because I can't do it one of my friends sent me a box of these cookies that were really good I ate like three or four of them which turned into seven

of them which turned into the whole box it was squatting day I hit a hard workout in the gym and you know it gets rough around the holidays. So what better way to work on your health, your immune system, your cognitive abilities, your general overall health, your looks, and you want to feel better than to commit now to eating more fruits and vegetables. Now, what's the problem with that? The problem with that is a lot of us, not all of us, but a lot of us are just terrible cooks.

Joe isn't. I am. If it wasn't for my beautiful, talented wife, I would be a disaster. She cooks great. I can't cook to save my life. So how do we prepare fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables we know will improve our health, make us feel better?

The answer is go to BrickHouseNutrition.com slash Dan. Pick up Field of Greens today. It is real, ground-up, fresh, wholesome fruits and vegetables ground up into a delicious tasting powder that will help you start off the new year the healthiest way possible with a good staple nutritious diet. This stuff is fantastic. You will look better. You will feel better. My mother-in-law always tells me, Danny, I love the way she says it. She's like, your skin looks good.

She watches me on TV sometimes. I'm telling you, it's thebrickhousenutrition.com slash Dan. Field of greens, baby. Field of greens. Remember Flava Flav? Yeah, boy. Remember?

I love Flava. Flava. Flava, I used to, back in the day, you know, New York, that was it. Everybody, you didn't listen to anything else. Joe grew up in a rock and roll era. I grew up in a rap era in New York. Everybody loved flavor.

You need the flavor. Whoa. What a segue. A field of greens in your life. Although it's an OR at the end of that flavor. Flavor's an A at the end. The other flavor. Go pick up Field of Greens today.

BrickHouseNutrition.com slash Dan. Pick up a jar of Field of Greens today. It is. It's great stuff. I'm not kidding. You'll feel awesome. Knock on wood. I haven't felt great forever.

I'm always afraid something's going to change. All right. Amber Atheum. Rarely do I include an article two days in a row in the show notes, but this one's so good. I put it in so nice. I'm going to put it in twice. Fake news stories of 2018. We go through some of the finer ones.

Fake news story number one. The Washington Post blames the tragic death of a seven-year-old migrant on the Border Patrol. I talked about this last week. on the border patrol. I talked about this last week. This was a grotesque story that should insult the intelligence of just about every rational human being out there. Ladies and gentlemen, that was a horrible story.

Everybody knows it. So Christmas, I'm not gonna, I just talked about it last week. But when the full timeline of events came out, as Amber indicates in her piece, it showed pretty clearly that our heroic border patrol agents, these good men

and women that do a good job of keeping our nation secure on our border did everything they could to chat to uh you know try to save that girl's life horrible fake news story washington post should have been ashamed of itself number two cnn and the hill spread retracted sexual assault claim against kavanaugh oh my gosh we all heard this one folks these claims against kavanaugh that got progressively ridiculous as the brett kavanaugh confirmation hearing went on they started out with christine blasey ford they turned into a bunch of one guy saying oh he i heard a story about a story he attacked a woman ladies and gentlemen these stories were nonsense. Many of them were retracted.

Unfortunately, a lot of them were reported by some of these outlets. You can see that in the link. She links to the story, Amber, about CNN and The Hill spreading these nonsensical claims against Brett Kavanaugh, which were absurd. We had the best week of ratings in a long time during Kavanaugh because people were furious. Remember that show? Oh, man.

Yeah. This one's funny. The Boston Globe had to correct their Elizabeth Warren story. As Amber says, making her less Native American. Remember this, Joe? The Boston Globe initially reported that Elizabeth Warren, fake Indian Elizabeth Warren, was somewhere between 132nd and 1512th Native American. However, the paper eventually issued two corrections that damaged Warren's ancestral claims even further,

admitting that she's likely between 164th and 11,024th Native American the globe admitted, which basically means Joe and I are about as much Native American as Elizabeth Warren. By the way, this story has absolutely decimated her presidential potential. She is in, then they know it. They know they screwed up big time. This was one of my favorites. And by favorites, I mean one of the more horrible stories of the year too. The New York Times accuses Nikki Haley of purchasing expensive curtains.

Remember this story? Oh, they're living high on the hog. Remember this show? The Nikki Haley's new york apartment there her curtains cost 52 701 dollars however new york times his own article later admitted that the curtains were approved in 2016 and nikki haley had no say in the matter when barack obama was the president don't let that little fact new New York Times, get in the way of a doozy of a story you had there and you wonder why we call it fake news.

Oh, this one's great. This one's actually still going on. Number five, the media is still blaming Republicans for the Steele dossier. Oh my gosh. Ladies and gentlemen, this is why, again, nobody trusts the media. These guys are dumpster divers for information.

It's all garbage. They're tabloids now. The Republicans had nothing to do with the Steele dossier. The Washington Free Beacon and other Republican campaigns did pay for opposition research on Donald Trump, some of which at the Free Beacon was a contract with Fusion GPS. The dossier was not part of that. That was exclusively a Democrat operation after Hillary Clinton's

team took over funding of the opposition research. This is not in dispute. This is a fact. F-A-C-T. In Joe Biden language, F-A-A-C-R-T-S-R-U-T. It is a fact. It is a fact. It's a fact.

We did not pay for the dossier. I'm not absolving Republicans of any responsibility. Read my book. I go into Republicans' role in the spreading of the dossier. The production and financing of the dossier was a Democrat operation. Man, the media will continue to parrot this nonsense it's embarrassing all right this one i'm gonna skip six oh this here is a great one i love this one cnn accuses ted this is one of my favorites cnn accuses ted cruz of being scared to come on their program in wake of the horrible Parkland, Florida shooting.

Ted Cruz, afraid to go on the program? Yeah, right. Ladies and gentlemen, what was the problem? He had done a 15-minute interview on the network literally the day prior. Ted Cruz had a debate with Bernie Sanders on the network. Listen, you don't have to like Ted Cruz, love him or hate him. I appreciate what Ted Cruz has done to advance the conservative cause greatly. One of these days, I'll tell a person, it's a good one.

I don't want to bore you now, but about Ted Cruz and why I think he's a lot better man and people give him credit for. Folks, he appeared on the network the day before. You're too scared to appear on the network. I just was there. I was just there. I was there yesterday for 15 minutes. Did you miss that?

Do you not pay attention to your own network? Oh, my gosh. Here's some more Kavanaugh stuff. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. one of my personal faves these two reporters at McClatchy who continue to claim in an April report that they have evidence that Michael Cohen was in Prague ladies and gentlemen with the Prague Michael Cohen thing I you know if you listen to the show, you're familiar with the story.

The dossier against Trump said Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, went to Prague to basically arrange this hacking thing. Michael Cohen did not go to Prague. Yet McClatchy, these two reporters in April, continue to say they have evidence of this. There is no evidence of this. I don't know if they're making this up, if a source is playing them for idiots. I'm not really sure. I'm just telling you Fetch isn't going to happen,

and either is Michael Cohen in Prague. And McClatchy won't let it go. Oh. Oh. This is a definitive list, so I'm trying to, I'm going to wrap it up a little early for Christmas for you all. But I want to be sure I get to the good ones. Andrea Mitchell or Rush Limbaugh.

The great Rush Limbaugh says, Andrea Mitchell. Joe listens to Limbaugh. Andrea Mitchell reports that Brenda Snipes, sneaky Snipes, the Broward County election official down here in Florida who can't get through an election without screwing things up. Andrea Mitchell reports that Brenda Snipes is a Republican. And that she's, quote, hardly a Democrat official or someone doing the bidding of Democratic candidates out there. Andrea, she's a Democrat. This is not it's not hard.

This isn't complicated. She's not. She's I don't know how else to debunk. She's not a Republican. She's just not. I don't know how else to debunk. She's not a Republican. She's just not. There's just no Republican. She's not a Republican. That's not what a registration says.

She's not a Republican. I didn't mean to say it. I was talking about it. That'd be rude. I'm not talking about Brenda Snipes. I'm not being like that. I was talking about a registration form. She rude. I'm not talking about Brenda Snipes. I'm not being like that. I was talking about a registration form. She's not.

It doesn't read that. She's a Democrat. A Democrat with a D. It doesn't even sound like Republican. She's a Democrat. It's not what a registration says. Oh, man. Oh, oh, oh.

This was a good one. You know what? This will be my last one. Sorry, because there's a lot on here. Lanny Davis. Remember Lanny Davis and the Trump tower meeting. Yeah. Lanny Davis went out and CNN reported in July that Michael Cohen,

Trump's lawyer, again, was prepared to tell Robert Mueller that the president had knowledge in advance of the infamous Trump tower meeting, which I still believe was a setup between Don jr. And the Russians, but Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis said in August that CNN's reporters got, quote, mixed up and Cohen had no information

related to the Trump Tower meeting. Kind of a screw up there, guys, don't you think? Oh, boy. Let's do one more here. All right. Looking for some good ones here. There's a lot in here. This is the

definitive guide i've read through the whole thing and i i'd have a list but you're there's a lot of kavanaugh stuff oh oh oh oh okay promise this is the last one this is a kavanaugh one but it's just it's so stupid remember zina bash she was the woman sitting behind brett kavanaugh and the brett kavanaugh hearings. And someone was communicating with her. You could see her on screen all the time. She was like, oh, I think she was over Kavanaugh's left shoulder. At one point, someone's communicating with her

and being at the Kavanaugh hearings were broadcast live. She gives the OK symbol. So, of course, CNN falls for a 4chan scam and believes the OK symbol, which I joked in my viral speech too because it's so stupid. There's a 4chan scam that believes the okay symbol which i joked in my viral speech too because it's so stupid there's a 4chan scam that the okay symbol is a symbol of white power it's a scam what happened networks fell for it people reported out there that yes listen she was flashing a white power symbol no no idiots she was saying okay to someone who had clearly texted her or something

who was watching the television you knuckleheads what is wrong with you people oh my gosh well listen i hope that was i get a lot more they're in the article but it could go on for a long time i figured we'd wrap up a little early today on christmas spend time with your family i hope you are enjoying your day for those of you listening to the show, cooking a Christmas dinner, enjoy it. Christmas is a very important holiday for me. I am a practicing Christian. I'm a sinner. Unfortunately, I wish I'd pray every night to be a better man for the strength to embrace the suffering I need to embrace to join the Lord Almighty in the second creation. But it is an important day for me outside of the gift giving. I've been saved by Jesus Christ a long time ago.

So I don't want to acknowledge that on Christmas day. And I want to thank you all for everything you've done for me. Joe and I have had an extraordinary year. This show has vaulted itself into the set number two position in conservative podcasts. Largely. Thank you. So Merry Christmas. I really, really deeply appreciate everything you've done for us. It means the world to me. Thanks for all your feedback on the show. And I will see you all tomorrow.

Yeah, boy! You just heard the Dan Bongino Show. Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com. You can also get Dan's podcasts on iTunes or SoundCloud. And follow Dan on Twitter 24-7 at DBongino.