The Young Turks - Unlikely Allies

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Episode summary: Carlson’s text that alarmed Fox leaders: "It’s not how white men fight." Catalytic converter theft ring that made hundreds of millions is busted, feds say. As fears of a banking crisis surged, members of Congress sold bank shares. Why is inflation so sticky? It could be corporate profits. HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.comEpisode summary: Carlson’s text that alarmed Fox leaders: "It’s not how white men fight." Catalytic converter theft ring that made hundreds of millions is busted, feds say. As fears of a banking crisis surged, members of Congress sold bank shares. Why is inflation so sticky? It could be corporate profits. HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! It's up! Welcome to TYT. I'm your host Anna Kasparian. I'm really looking forward to the show today. As you guys know, we do things a little bit differently on Wednesday in the first hour, rather than focusing on on headline news, I do deep dives on some of the stories that I've been wanting to do deep

dives on. One of the topics I've been meaning to talk to you all about is how the issue of theft, petty theft, impacts working people, and honestly, most Americans who are currently living paycheck to paycheck. So we'll talk a little bit about that with the context of the ongoing increase in catalytic converter thefts. Later in the first hour, we'll also talk a a little bit about how the Wall Street Journal, they're a little late to the game. But in a new piece, they have finally conceded that corporate profits, meaning corporations patting their pockets by price gouging us, is actually significantly contributing to inflation. So I'm looking forward to sharing the details on that with you.

The shooter in Texas who killed a family of five has been captured. We'll give you the details of that in the second hour of the show when John Iderola joins me. And one of my favorite fun light topics has to do with more Photoshop imagery of Donald Trump. He just can't help himself. It's incredible. So we'll have some laughs and have a good time there. As always, you can help support the show by liking and sharing our stream. It costs you nothing, but it does help to get more eyeballs on the programming that we do here.

And you can become a member and get members-only programming by going to t-y-t.com slash join or just click on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. All right, with that said, there is one big breaking news story from today that we are going to cover, and unfortunately it has to do with Tucker Carlson. Fox News is firing of Tucker Carlson might have been the result of a text message that he sent to one of his producers soon after the January 6th Capitol riots. In it, Tucker claimed to have recently watched a video of right wingers violently beating and attacking an Antifa kid, as he described it, in Washington.

He wrote that, quote, a group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living crap out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable, obviously. It's not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid, I could taste it. Pretty gross.

I mean, that lust for someone getting hurt, possibly killed is just fascinating and terrifying. Now, this part of his message not only alarmed the board over at Fox, it also reinforced something that we already knew about him. He sincerely believes in white superiority. And honestly, the phrase, it's not how white men fight, is pretty insane when Trump's one and only term was riddled with stories like these. The tension building during that weekend, the violence only escalating chaos in the streets as demonstrators clashed with counter protesters. Turning the streets of Charlottesville into a full. fledged battle tone. And then panic and chaos, a car flowing through a crowd of people,

leaving bystanders searching for their loved ones. No, I need my sister. One person, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed. The man who police say just moments earlier murdered 22 people at a nearby Walmart calmly told police, I'm the shooter. In a newly released arrest affidavit, he spells out his racist motive telling officers, in his words, he was told. targeting Mexicans. Three more victims will be laid to rest. 56-year-old Maribel Hernandez-Loya, who leaves behind four children, and Jordan Chando. The couple died shielding their two-month-old son Paul from the gunman's bullets. The white supremacists who pleaded guilty to killing 10 black people at a Buffalo grocery store,

grocery store rather, was sentenced to life in prison after a very emotional and heated court hearing. Maybe Tucker didn't know about those stories. Just kidding, he did. And we really shouldn't be surprised that Tucker would say such racist and horrific things in private. It's not like he suppressed his hate and racism while he was on air. In the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso at the hands of a gunman who cited anti-immigrant and white supremacist beliefs in his manifesto, Carlson declared on his show that white supremacy was, quote, not a real problem, end quote, likening it to a conspiracy theory.

But as we all know, that wasn't an exception. Tucker relished his brand of paranoid weirdo who's endlessly scared of immigrants and people of color. White supremacy, that's the problem. This is a hoax. I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term replacement. If you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots with new people, more obedient voters from the third

world. We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided. Thanks to illegal immigration, huge swathes of the region are covered with garbage and waste that degrade the soil and kill wildlife. The race riots of 2020, of course, were never about George Floyd, obviously. That's where there were no statues of him in American cities. They were about changing the country forever. The first step, of course, was defunding police departments across the country and forcing them to lower their standards to attract unqualified applicants, hiring officers based on skin color rather than integrity or skill or self-control, all in the name of equity. If you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who live there. So every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised.

Poor, poor Tucker, the guy who was, you know, awarded a silver spoon in his mouth because he's a Swanson airs. He feels so disenfranchised. And by the way, can we just, can we just note how crazy it is that he deduced that the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 had nothing to do with George Floyd because there were no George Floyd statues? How stupid is that point? Anyway, I'll continue. Tucker engaged in some self-reflection, shockingly, in the second half of his text. He wrote, then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off. This isn't good for me. I'm becoming something I don't want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I'm sure I'd hate him personally if I knew

him, I shouldn't gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid and would be crushed if he was killed. If he was killed, if If I don't care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is? Well, you're definitely not. But nonetheless, Tucker did not disclose the race of the individual being attacked. He just described it as an Antifa kid. Fox's board, though, saw the text Sunday night before the cable news network was set to defend itself against the Dominion voting system's defamation lawsuit.

The jury was apparently diverse, which very likely would not bode well for Tucker and Fox. And despite Tucker's observation in the second half of the text, Fox was worried that the message could become public while Tucker testified on the stand. And you know what, they were right in being concerned. Because Tucker was asked about the text message during a sworn deposition. Now, after reading the text, the board told Fox executives it was bringing in a law. firm to conduct an independent investigation into Tucker and his behavior at Fox. In other messages, Tucker had referred to women, including a senior Fox executive, in crude and misogynistic terms. The message about the fight also played a role in the company's

decision to settle with Dominion for $787.5 million, the highest known payout in a defamation case. Tucker might be out at Fox News. But I doubt he's But I doubt he's willing to stay out of the limelight for long. While I don't know what his next venture will entail, I do know Tucker isn't the only one in media who dehumanizes political opponents. In fact, dehumanizing the other side has become the dominant business model for much of the country's for-profit media. With the expansion of digital media, Americans have way more options to choose from.

But that also translates to more competition in the news industry. In order to lure in and maintain viewers, most networks try to cater to audiences by telling them exactly what they want to hear. Increasingly, Americans found themselves in comfortable media bubbles where critical thinking isn't allowed and preconceived notions are never challenged. That, in my opinion, has led to so many toxic trends in the country. The left and the right live in alternative realities, alternate realities. And that polarization and division is bad enough. But as outlets on the same political side compete with one another over who's more ideologically pure, the rhetoric gets more extreme.

Dehumanizing and demonizing the other side isn't just expected from audiences. Some demand it. The right wing paints the left as censorious pink-haired communists who have casual abortions regularly just for fun. The left paints a picture too, though. Let's just be honest. Every conservative is allegedly an inbred fascist, and if you can have or find any common ground with them, it must mean that you're a fascist too. This climate is exhausting, and it's garbage. It makes all of us more hateful, ignorant, and yes, divided. But it seems like Americans might be waking up to what's happening and how our media landscape is training us.

to act in toxic ways. Nine out of ten Americans don't trust the media to inform them accurately, and that's according to a new survey done by the Associated Press and N-O-R-C Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll indicates that misinformation is a bipartisan concern for Americans, with nine out of ten U.S. adults agreeing to the premise. The AP found that a majority of respondents blame the news media, social media platforms, politicians for fueling the spread of misinformation.

That same poll found that nearly three quarters of adults accused the media of contributing to the polarization and toxic divisions currently tearing the country apart. And guess what? They're right. All right. Now I want to move on to the deep dive of the day, having to do with petty crime, petty theft, and how it's impacting ordinary working people in some of these big cities. This surveillance video showing thieves stealing nine catalytic converters from school buses in New Jersey. At this RV storage facility near Dallas, they moved with breathtaking efficiency. I guess they look at it as a shopping mall of catalytic converters.

The converters are embedded in the exhaust systems of most cars and trucks, making auto emissions less harmful. They contain precious metals, including rhodium, palladium, and platinum, whose value has skyrocketed in recent years. As property crimes and theft continue to plague major cities across the United States, poverty and economic conditions get cited frequently as the causal force behind why it's happening. But how do crimes like catalytic converter thefts impact Americans who are already teetering on a financial cliff? Unfortunately, there isn't enough focus or even study on that angle. And I think it's a shame because there are some misconceptions that should be challenged. And to be sure, a lot of Americans are struggling financially. An April report by CNBC, for instance, found that close to 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

A major unexpected expense could ruin them. And even more, roughly 70% said they feel stressed about their finances mostly due to inflation, economic uncertainty, and rising interest rates. These statistics are the result of a broken system, and there is no doubt about that. Wealth has been redistributed to the top through deregulation, corporate tax loopholes, taxpayer funded government contracts to private businesses, and yes, corporate subsidies as well. To make matters worse, our elected officials are aiding and abetting the robbery as we speak. What compounds the economic stress is how a growing number of Americans are becoming victims of

costly catalytic converter thefts, and the trend has exploded since the start of the pandemic. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the number of reported catalytic converter thefts increased from roughly 1,300 in 2018 to more than 14,400 in 2020. This is a crime most people can relate to. Catalytic converter thefts are up 12-fold since 2019. They really exploded during the pandemic as the value of the rare earth minerals inside them, including palladium and platinum, has gone way up. So these things go for $1,000 on the black market.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau says 12 times as many catalytic converters were stolen in 2021 compared to 2019. The crime wave turning tragic last April. Houston deputy sheriff Darren Almondares was shot and killed when he tried to stop thieves from stealing his convert. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, more than 52,000 catalytic converters are stolen in the United States in 2021 or were stolen. Replacing them ain't cheap. The cost depends on the make and model of the car. But if you're already living paycheck to paycheck, even the lower end of the,

the price spectrum is a disaster. Consumer Affairs reports that quotes for our sample vehicles average from $900 to a whopping $4,500. And guess what? Take a look at this chart, which shows you the total average replacement costs for specific vehicles. If your 2017 Honda Civics catalytic converter is stolen, it'll cost you $4,414 on average to replace it. It costs around $2,309 for owners of the 2019 BMW 740I. Insurance might cover these costs depending on the type of plan you have and what your deductible is, but one thing I know for sure is that we're all paying the price for this. State Farm, which of course provides auto insurance, put out some data recently that

noted how they were getting slammed with stolen catalytic converter claims. They wrote claims data from State Farm shows that between July of 2021 and June of 2022, catalytic converter theft has grown 109% nationally in terms of the number of claims filed compared to the previous 12 months. During this recent period, more than 43,219 of these parts were stolen and reported by State Farm customers compared to just 20,600 in the previous 12 months. from July of 2020 to June of 2021. If insurance companies are paying out claims

for catalytic converter thefts, you better believe all of our premiums are going up. In fact, when mine recently did, I called and asked the insurance company why. I have a clean driving record, me and my husband do not drive fancy cars that are expensive to insure. In fact, we both have used cars.

I was told the rise in car related thefts in my area are to blame. Fantastic. Perhaps no two cities have suffered the consequences of catalytic converter thefts more than San Francisco and Los Angeles. In fact, there's been a 728% increase in stolen catalytic converters over the last five years in L.A. alone. According to city council members in the city of Los Angeles, about 8,000 reported catalytic converter thefts happened last year, up from 9,000. 172 reported in 2018, but that could very likely be an underestimate. You gotta keep in mind that not everyone reports the theft to the authorities.

State Farm though makes some pretty interesting claims. In the first half, just the first half of 2022, State Farm has received over 23,000 catalytic converter theft claims. The data from the most recent 12 month period indicates that the ranking of the top five states in catalytic converter theft is currently led by California, with more than two out of 10, close to 25% of claims being filed in the Golden State. What makes matters worse is that the dramatic increase in these thefts, in addition to supply chain issues, has led to a shortage of available catalytic converters, making it a lot harder for

people to replace the stolen part. Catalytic converters have one of the longer lead times in the industry, taking four to nine months to make. And it's not just a couple of months either. I mean, it really depends on what kind of car you have. But one of the top targets of catalytic converter thefts happens to be the Toyota Prius. The Los Angeles Times called the parts department of a dozen Toyota dealerships in Southern California and asked the wait time for a catalytic converter for the 2011 Prius. Every service center said the part was back ordered and wasn't immediately available.

Most said the weight would be more than three months. And get this, in some cases, as long as eight or nine months. So not only is it expensive to replace the part, doing so leaves workers without a car for as long as nine months. That's devastating for Americans who are already grappling with economically precarious circumstances. And in sprawling cities like LA, workers who need to commute to work, as many do, don't even have the option of public transportation since it's notoriously fragmented, slow, unavailable, and terrible. After years of these thefts increasing and prevailing, the Los Angeles City Council finally decided to act by voting on an ordinance that makes it unlawful to possess

catalytic converters without proof of ownership. On April 11th, the city council Council passed an ordinance allowing police to arrest anyone in possession of a catalytic converter for which they can't prove ownership. It would also carry a one-year jail sentence and a $1,000 fine. I think this makes sense. If you get caught in possession of stolen property, there should be consequences for it. The City Council voted 8 to 4 to approve the ordinance that requires a bill of sale from the original owner with photographs, documentation from an auto body shop, or a verifiable electronic communication from the previous owner that shows ownership has been relinquished.

One of the four city council members who voted against the ordinance was Nithia Rahman, who I voted for and currently represents my district. I found her reason for voting no, inadequate, nonsensical, and ignorant. The things that really infuriates me is that we have a company, you know, the pre, whatever Toyota, who makes the Prius, that essentially has a device on their cars, which is super easy to remove. It's basically the value of a Macbook, right? That is put in a place that is incredibly easy to access in your car. And then the thefts related to this issue have essentially all of the costs of that are given to us to bear instead

of them having to manufacture a car that actually is not so easy to be stolen. Yeah, that logic makes zero sense. Nithia fashions herself as a democratic socialist, which means she should know that a corporation is not going to pay higher cost to make harder to steal catalytic converters unless they're regulated and forced to, you know, by elected lawmakers, by politicians. They're not going to do it out of the kindness of their own hearts. their goal is to maximize profit. She knows that. She also knows the likelihood that Congress even considers these regulations is laughable. I'd be surprised if it's even on their radar.

Besides which, it's not that easy to steal the part. It usually involves two people. One has to lift the car and then someone else slides under the vehicle to remove the sought after part with an electric saw. Some car owners decided to install additional protection. like a metal cage or shield, but with the right tools, thieves have found a way to get through those two. By the way, it's not really easy to, by the way, it's really easy to commit other crimes, like let's say break into a house, you could just break the window and enter that way, and then you can go ahead and steal whatever you'd like. But that would mean that Nithia Rahman would place the blame on the property owner, right? Because the windows were just so easy to break.

The onus is on the property owner to what, fortify their windows, like pay out extra costs for, I don't know, like stronger glass? It's just such a ridiculous line of thinking. And what about the tens of thousands of street lights in Los Angeles? Can we talk about that for a second? So there are thousands of street lights in Los Angeles right now that do not work because thieves have been stealing their copper wiring to sell on the black market. If you're driving in L.A. and you're wondering why streets and neighborhoods are so dark, this is why. So that's a picture I took just this morning in my neighborhood.

And you will see street lights all throughout Los Angeles looking exactly like that. 15 years ago, there would be around 1 to 10 incidents of copper theft a year. And that's according to Miguel Sangalang, who has a lot. a great last name and heads the Bureau of Street Lighting. He said 2022 saw the highest amount the BSL has ever seen with 4,500 incidents of copper wiring theft. A local NBC affiliate reported that there are at least 7,000 of these street lights that don't work as a result of copper wire thefts.

Sangalang has the job of keeping the lights on. He told NBC 4 News that his job. job isn't as easy as it used to be. A few years ago, a street light outage entailed replacing a burned out light bulb. But now outages blanket entire streets. That's because people are breaking into the access boxes in the sidewalk and stealing and later selling the copper wire that's used to keep the lights on. Sengelang also said that what's happening now is more akin to having to rewire your house, it's a large capital expense, and it will very likely take years to fix as more lights go out. So Nithia, since the city made it so easy to access the copper

wiring, who's responsible for this? I mean, it couldn't possibly be the thieves. So is it the city? Is it the taxpayer? And of course, we all know that taxpayers will foot the bill. Just like they foot the bill for everything else. I guess it's another way of, you know, privatizing gains in this case for criminals and socializing the losses for the taxpayers. Rahman could put her money where her mouth is and have every elected lawmaker in the city personally provide the money for the repairs, you know, since under her logic, the city is to blame. They made it so easy to access that wiring. What's even more laughable is how residents in LA are told to prevent catalytic converter thefts by parking their cars on

brightly lit streets, since lights act as a deterrent to crime. Hilarious. Other Los Angeles City Council members who voted on the ordinance included Eunice Hernandez. She is brand new to the city council, just got voted in, and she argued that the motion would not make our city safe. Yeah, this isn't about safety, this is about a crime that is costing ordinary people a lot of grief and a lot of money. But the no, this isn't going to make a safer talking point is a favorite that gets regurgitated by politicians who just don't want to do anything at all. She doesn't want to prosecute thieves because even though Angelinos pay some of the highest taxes in the country, those resources apparently can't be used to improve the lives of members of the community.

She said that, quote, this ordinance is a costly one for the city. It will lead to more cases for the city attorney. It will lead to more money spent on courts and more money spent on public defenders. How is that a good argument? Great, please, spend our resources on courts and public defenders. Speedy trials are another problem we have, or the lack of speedy trials. And courthouse related shortages have a lot to do with that. Finally, if you're a good and kind person, as many of you are,

and your heart goes out to those who may have committed these catalytic converter thefts out of economic desperation, please don't let politicians take advantage of your empathy. Fact of the matter is, the people behind these thefts are not down on their luck. Here's who they really are. Justice Department says they've taken down a nationwide crime ring involving the theft of catalytic converters. This is a national takedown involving the FBI, the IRS, Homeland Security, raids and arrests in eight states. 21 arrests all told, as you said, forfeitures in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars. And this is really, this is a distribution ring. These people are accused of reselling catalytic converters they knew or

stolen and they made a lot of money. So the feds have seized luxury cars. One of these defendants actually has an Instagram account with a picture wearing a necklace with a catalytic converter on it. The defendant's charge today are accused of buying the stolen converters where they go for $1,000 on the black market. One of the accused, Navine Kana, posted a photo of a catalytic converter necklace with a winking face emoji on social media. Authorities rated his $1.7 million New Jersey Authorities rated his $1.7 million New Jersey home. Oh, the poor people who have no choice but to steal our catalytic converters. Come on. Another crime ring also sold tens of millions of dollars in stolen catalytic

converters. The Vang family allegedly sold over 38 million dollars in stolen catalytic converters to DG Auto and thank God that the DOJ and the FBI happen to be investigating and catching these crime rings. One thing that I've noticed, one commonality among the crime rings is that they're doing real well for themselves. They're living in nice houses, driving luxury cars. And in the meantime, city council members like Nithia Rahman are basically telling us to kick rocks because it's actually Toyota's fault that thieves are stealing. these costly catalytic converters, it's pathetic. And if progressives think that this kind of messaging and this kind of ideology is going

to be appealing, if you think that this is what's going to get us to a place where we could actually pass something as important as single payer health care, you would be mistaken because this is the kind of stuff that makes people really reconsider their political affiliations. Think about that. We've got to take a break. We'll be back. We'll be right back with more news, including an incredible piece by the Wall Street Journal, where they finally realize that, you know, maybe price gouging by these corporations is a bit of an issue. That and more coming up. Welcome back to the show. I'm Anna Casparian, you're watching TYT, and you're about to hear from our lovely Twitch viewer Felicia 808, who wanted to comment about her personal experience with catalytic converters.

Catalytic converter was stolen off my daughter's car at a public parking lot. She couldn't replace it and had to surrender the car as abandoned. Insurance did not cover the loss. Devastating. And it is devastating, guys, for a lot of people. And again, I think it's really, really important to not minimize that. All right, with that said, let's move on to some other criminals, members of Congress, who engage in insider trading. But apparently there are some politicians who want to do something about it. Tell me the significance of you joining with AOC to get something like this done. AOC is wrong a lot. She'd probably say the same thing about me, but she's not corrupt.

and I will work with anyone and everyone to ensure that Congress is not so compromised. We should disallow congressional stock trading for the same reason we don't allow the referee to bet on the game. That's right. Representatives Matt Gates and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have teamed up to at least try to put an end to stock trading by members of Congress that oftentimes looks like insider trading. While the two have disagreed on nearly every issue, they were able to find common ground on topics related to congressional corruption. Unfortunately, that has put them at odds with pretty much everyone else because everyone else in Congress is trading individual stocks

and possibly engaging in insider trading. And it's such a widespread phenomenon. Well, you know what? We'll get to how widespread that is a little later. Stay tuned for that. But first, Let's get to what AOC and Gates are proposing. The bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act would forbid any member of Congress from owning stocks or making trades. It would also prevent the spouses and dependents of politicians from doing the same. In what Matt Gates jokingly referred to as the Pelosi provision. Now look, my guess is this is because Pelosi consistently beats the stock market.

Her trades are so successful that retail investors literally track her financial disclosures and copy her investments. Pelosi even gave this shameless defense of her corruption just back in 2021. Let's watch. Should members of Congress have their spouses be banned from trading into the world stocks while serving in Congress? No, I don't know to this second one. We have a responsibility to report on the stock, but I don't, I'm not familiar with that five-month review, but if people aren't reporting, they should be. Because this is a free market and people, we are a free market economy, they should be able to participate in that.

Yeah, but your so-called participation in the free market is a conflict. of interest, how are you going to regulate on businesses that you are personally invested in? Then their profit motive becomes your profit motive. You get what I'm saying? It's a problem. It's a bit of a problem. And then there are some closed door briefings that members of Congress are, you know, part of course, and they're privy to information. We're not privy to. And they get to trade on that information. If we were to trade on insider information, we'd go to prison. Why don't they go to prison? Look, if the latest legislative effort to ban congressional stock trading by AOC and Gates were to pass, members of Congress who currently owns stock would be forced to transfer it to a blind

trust within 90 days. Apparently, there are some consequences for those who would fail to comply. Any violations of the law would result in a fine at the court's discretion, of course, up to $50,000. Exceptions to the proposal should, exceptions to the proposal, should it be voted into law, include treasury bonds, widely held investment funds, and contributions to the government's retirement plan. According to Gates and AOC, those are all acceptable forms of investment, and I agree with that. Now, this isn't the first time that AOC and Matt Gates have teamed up for legislation like this. Just last year, they both supported the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, which would have banned trading and forbidden members of Congress from serving on corporate boards.

Now, unfortunately, the provision that bans congressional lawmakers from serving on such boards is not included in this year's legislation. It's also unfortunately hard to believe that this latest effort will pass. I'm just keeping it real with you all. There have been plenty of other attempts to stop members of Congress from trading, but they've always failed because many politicians are making a killing in the stock market. Check out this headline from a New York Times article written just last year, which reads, stock trades reported by nearly a fifth of Congress show possible conflicts,

meaning conflicts of interest. A New York Times analysis found that 97 lawmakers or their family members bought or sold financial assets over a three-year span in industries that could be affected by their legislative committee work. Wow, what a shocker. Looks pretty bad, right? Now, this issue is not only extremely widespread, but very much. bipartisan. This is a bipartisan issue. And here is a visual that will help you understand it.

These 97 politicians and their family members were prolific traders. From 2019 to 2021, more than 3,700 trades reported by lawmakers from both parties posed potential conflicts between their public responsibilities and their finances. Because of their insider information, members of Congress can get filthy rich with their trades and consistently beat the market. Breaking 2004 study by a group of professors and researchers examined the records of U.S. senators between 1993 and 1998. The study found that a portfolio tracking the stocks that the U.S. senators bought during the same time period outperform the market by 85 basis points each month. In a portfolio that tracked the stocks that the senators sold during the period,

lagged behind the market by 12 basis points. The study concluded that the senators knew appropriate times to both buy and sell their common stocks. So why is insider trading so rampant? Because there are no real consequences if members of Congress get caught. Now there's the Stock Act of 2012, which is currently the only regulation against insider trading. And it's woefully inadequate. While lawmakers who violate the Stock Act face a fine, the penalty is usually small. $200 is the standard amount or waived by House or Senate ethics officials.

Like they have their colleagues waive it on their behalf. Like the $200, oh, steep, steep. Do you have many millionaires we have in Congress right now? While it's encouraging to see bipartisan efforts to end corruption, it's hard to get excited about it when so many prior attempts to end insider trading or just trading individual stocks have failed. Furthermore, Gates and AOC's bill should have even steeper penalties than just $50,000. I'm just keeping it real.

Even a penalty that high could be chump change for a politician like Nancy Pelosi who has two very fancy refrigerators, lots of expensive ice cream, and millions and millions of dollars that she has made through trading individual stocks while she was a member of Congress. So something to keep in mind. With that said, though, I do want to commend Gates and AOC for working together even though they couldn't be more different politically speaking. If you can find common ground with your political opponents, you should work together to accomplish the policies that you want to accomplish. I don't think it makes you a bad person to do that. It just makes you a thinker, someone who's strategic, someone who actually cares about winning through policy

rather than, you know, posturing to your voters to make it seem like you're the purest, leftist or member of the right wing in Congress. So I love that they're trying. Every time they do, they draw attention to this issue. And even if the legislation doesn't pass, drawing attention to it and increasing pressure on members of Congress to change their behavior is something. It's better than nothing. I certainly would not be happy if this issue was on no one's radar. And the fact that they're proposing legislation about this is something that I think they deserve kudos for. We got to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about that Wall Street Journal piece that I've been teasing you all about throughout the show.

What's up, everyone back to the show. Little Mac McGee writes in and has a comment about the segment I just did on catalytic converter thefts. Great segment, Anna, and I'm glad for your excellent piece, I have grown very frustrated by a number of people on Twitter celebrating thievery. I am no fan of giant, I don't know if they're celebrating thievery. I've seen a lot of people kind of downplate and minimize the impact that it's having on communities and ordinary people. And that definitely annoys me, but I'll continue. I am no fan of giant corporations, but as you said, celebrating anarchy is not the way to convince Americans of universal health care as one great example. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I mean, if

The left brands itself as permitting, allowing for this kind of stuff to happen. And if they're known to downplay it and just kind of brush off the impacts it's having on people, working people are not going to believe that you're working for them, that you actually care about their issues. They're going to think that you're just going to abandon them and that you're only seeking political power. And I do think that's an issue. So if you want to win, you have to actually feel connected to the genuine concerns that people have in these communities. And I just don't think that's happening right now. And Nithia Rahman, she's married to a very successful television writer.

They're very wealthy. She lives in a different world. And so she has co-opted some of the left-wing discourse as it pertains to economic issues. But based on what she said about like, oh, it's Toyota's fault, they should, they should make it harder for catalytic converters to steal. Like that to me communicated that she doesn't really, either she doesn't really understand how the system works or she's, I don't know, just trying to find an excuse so she doesn't have to vote yes on the ordinance. It just makes no sense to me. Anyway, we got to move on though because there is some good news that I wanted to share with you. And that good news has to do with a major legacy paper finally realizing that price gouging by corporations is a thing. It happens. So let's talk about it. Well, well, well, look at the Wall Street Journal, waking up to the notion that corporate greed exists.

In a new piece addressing the horrific inflationary pressures cash-strapped Americans have been struggling with, writer Paul Hannan addresses the reality of price gouging. He writes, inflation has proved more stubborn than central banks bargained for when prices started surging two years ago. Now some economists think they know why. Businesses are using a rare opportunity to boost their profit margins. Now they know why? Now?

Like, you think this is new? Now this is apparently a new concept for corporate media and legacy outlets. Hannon even says, there are signs that companies are doing more than covering their costs. According to economists at the ECB, businesses have have been patting their profits. That, they said, was a bigger factor in fueling inflation during the second half of last year than rising wages were. I mean, all it takes is a quick listen to corporate earnings calls.

The admissions by corporate executives are pretty candid because they have to be frank with their shareholders. They have to explain how they plan to provide a higher return on investment. After all, that's their fiduciary responsibility. Now Jan Phillip, Jenish, who is the chief executive of construction materials maker Holson, said on a recent earnings call, quote, we are in that inflationary environment already for almost two years now. We have done the pricing in a very proactive way, so that our results aren't suffering.

On the contrary, they are improving the margins. That's a fancy way of saying, we're price gouging the customers, and we're increasing our profits by doing so. In fact, other companies have made similar admissions and they're even more frank. Last month, Procter & Gamble said it had boosted its profit margins in the first three months of the year, thanks in large part to higher prices. Food industry oligopolis also play a role, while Hannan writes that much of the surge in food prices stems from higher energy costs, thanks to the war in Ukraine, he also concedes that corporations are exploiting the lack of competition to price gouge and pad their pockets. But economists at insurance company Allianz, I love the name of that company,

I just love saying it, have calculated that about 10% of the rise reflects the search for higher profits. They suggest that they suggest that is possible because key parts of food supply chain are dominated by a small number of firms. Now companies also believe that they can get away with the price gouging, probably because they already have. They've blamed higher prices on a whole host of other things like supply chain shortages or bottlenecks. Paul Donovan, chief economist at USB, global wealth management, confirm this. He says, quote, they're confident that they can convince consumers that it isn't their fault, meaning the company's fault, and it won't damage their brand.

But the media's role in covering up these corporate scams is also a problem. That's how they get away with it. Until this piece was published, the Wall Street Journal aided the effort to obscure what's really going on. Here are just a few examples. Fiscal stimulus is turning into a fiscal drag in a big headwind for growth, drop in federal relief could help cure or curb, I should say, inflation, while elevated savings should blunt impact on consumers. That was published February of 2022.

And this was a way of essentially telling everyone, the government needs to stop. financially assisting Americans during the pandemic because we believe that's causing the inflation. Complete and utter nonsense. Another Wall Street Journal headline reads, Stimulus might cause higher inflation, but for how long? Combination of another round of COVID-19 relief and easing of pandemic's grip could push prices higher. That was published in 2021. Okay, okay, one more though, just one more. Third COVID-19 stimulus package could jolt U.S. growth, revive inflation in 2021. I mean, so look, when it comes to the Wall Street Journal, finally publishing a reality-based

piece on this topic, I guess we should celebrate because it's better late than never. But for a while now, we've just been hearing over and over again that it's our fault. It's the workers' fault. their wages. Their wages are too high, even though our wages haven't kept up with inflation since the 1970s. We've heard economists and people like Larry Summers urge the Biden administration to cut Americans off from the financial assistance that they so desperately needed and probably continue to need during a pandemic. And let's also be honest, after the pandemic, when inflation hurt ordinary workers the most.

I mean, the fact that the Wall Street Journal is also reporting this, as if it's a brand new finding, is pretty infuriating. But it is known as the paper with a super conservative editorial board, and I would venture to say that some of the editors are probably leaning toward the right as well. God forbid workers make a little bit more money. God forbid the taxes we pay should go back to us, the American people, when we are dealing with financial uncertainty and a terrible economic situation. I mean, shouldn't we know better?

That money is supposed to be funneled to defense contractors, to private companies in the form of government contracts. God forbid that money goes to us. It's just so sick. But hey, they at least saw the light in this one piece, and I guess they. They deserve a little bit of credit for that. All right, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, John Ida Rollo will be joining me for the second hour of the show.

Don't miss it. by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.