What A Day - Interest Takes A Hike

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

As Donald Trump faces possible criminal charges in New York, the former president faces another, and potentially more serious, legal threat. An appeals court ruled Wednesday that one of his own attorneys must testify before the grand jury investigating his handling of classified documents.The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point. It’s the ninth rate hike in a row the central bank has made over the past year to fight inflation, despite concerns it could lead to more instability in the banking system.Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

it's thursday march 23rd i'm treyville anderson and i'm juanita toliver and this is what a day where we're hoping one day john wick will let himself retire fully from the assassin game is it time to let him hang it up treyville you know listen i don't need a fourth movie i was good at number three but you know we're gonna let Keanu collect his check. Collect the check, Keanu. You deserve it. Period. On today's show, Florida could expand its don't say gay law. Plus, the Supreme Court is hearing exactly one case this term that won't keep you up at night. But first, while the memes and photoshopped images of Trump being arrested

by Beyonce were hilarious, Trump is still not ACON locked up and the Manhattan grand jury did not convene as originally planned yesterday. But on a much brighter note, DOJ special counsel Jack Smith got a big win in his effort to compel Trump's attorney, Evan Corcoran, to testify in the investigation of Trump's mishandling of classified documents. Yesterday, a federal appeals court rejected a request from Trump to keep his lawyer from testifying before the federal grand jury. This comes after U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled last Friday that the crime fraud exception could be applied and ordered Corcoran to testify anyway. So this is some progress with, you know, those other indictments that may be coming Trump's way in the very near future.

Listen, okay, there's a collective effort. We're about to hold him accountable. I love that there is, you know, so many different, you know, cases happening at once. Right. But answer this for me. What exactly does this mean for attorney-client privilege in this situation? So ABC News had a great breakdown of all of this. Essentially, last week, special counsel Smith's team presented enough evidence in court that Trump, quote, knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials after leaving office. And based on that evidence and the potential crime committed, Judge Howell ruled that attorney-client privilege had been pierced, as they say,

in the legal community. And we all know how much Trump and his legal team loves to hide behind that shield of attorney-client privilege. As a result, Judge Howell ordered Corcoran to comply with the grand jury subpoena and hand over notes, transcripts of conversations, invoices, and anything related to what Judge Howell described as Trump's alleged, quote, criminal scheme. Naturally, Trump appealed Judge Howell's ruling, and the appeals process went down at the speed of sound, y'all, with filing deadlines at midnight on Tuesday and 6 a.m. on Wednesday.

And the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals wasted no time issuing a ruling Wednesday afternoon that Evan Corcoran would need to comply with Judge Howell's orders. Okay, I hate to ask, but I have to ask, how is Trump reacting to all of this? I mean, we have a job to keep an eye out for whatever Trump posts on his knockoff Twitter site, but we can guess it'll be the same response

that he's used with the Manhattan grand jury. You know, the playbook, part one, attempt to discredit the investigation, and part two, send some fundraising emails. This man is grifting harder than ever before, raking in more than $1.5 million since his fake arrest post last Saturday. Dig that. According to the New York Times, though, Trump is also fixated on putting on a show for his perp walk whenever it actually happens. He wants cameras, he wants cuffs, and more than anything, he wants protesters.

You know, to give it the full January 6 ambiance with a little bit of seasoning. It's like denial as a survival mechanism for this man at this point, and he's defaulting to his WWE days of putting on a highly choreographed show. Really hate that you brought back that memory for me. That was a moment in time. Let's put it that way.

A time. Okay. So what exactly comes next with the federal grand jury? Well, Trump's legal team is appealing this latest court ruling, but that process will continue without holding up Corcoran's testimony before the federal grand jury. And the DOJ is on the ball as they've already scheduled Corcoran's testimony for tomorrow. It's giving stay ready so you don't need to get ready. I know that's right. Of course, Judge Howell was clear that while special counsel Smith's team presented compelling evidence, there's still an even higher standard of evidence in order to seek charges and prove Trump's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So this is merely step 10 of unknown. But special counsel Smith isn't alone in this push for accountability for Trump.

As we know, prosecutors in Georgia are close to filing charges and we have a potential indictment coming out of Manhattan any day now. Listen, we've said on the show already, shout out to Josie, we don't really, you know, like, you know, prisons and jails and all of that too much. However, dot, dot, dot.

For some people. Listen, okay? We got to hold that man accountable somehow. All right. Thank you for that, Juanita. On to a quick update from the Federal Reserve, which has yet again raised interest rates. On Wednesday, the Fed approved another quarter percentage point increase to the interest rate, bringing the benchmark value to a range between 4.75 and 5%. That is the highest level it's been since September 2007.

Look, I know you're going to break down what all that means in a minute. But first, we've covered on the show at length the recent issues in the banking sector, especially the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Did any of that impact this decision by the Fed? Yeah, it actually did. So here's Fed Chair Jerome Powell explaining their decision making in a press conference yesterday. In the past two weeks, serious difficulties at a small number of banks have emerged. History has shown that isolated banking problems, if left unaddressed, can undermine confidence in healthy banks and threaten the ability of the banking system as a whole to play its vital role in supporting the savings and credit needs of households and businesses. That is why, in response to these events, the Federal Reserve, working with the Treasury Department and the FDIC, took decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy

and to strengthen public confidence in our banking system. He went on to say that our banking system, despite what the last couple weeks might make us believe, is, quote, sound and resilient with strong capital and liquidity, which, you know, if you've been reading the headlines I've been watching, you might think differently. So I guess the math ain't math. Listen, OK, but, you know, that's what he said. He said we're in a good shape there. But I should note here, right, that part of the reason Silicon Valley Bank went under is because of these interest rate hikes. Right. Let me see if I can explain this in a way that makes sense. This current rate hike is the ninth straight one. But before the hikes, Silicon Valley Bank invested some of the billions it had into U.S. government bonds. The concept being that U.S. bonds are the safest investing option possible and that the longer the bond term, the more money the bank would have once the bond is paid out. The problem is, in addition to the funds in those bonds being locked up for, say, 10 years in

some cases, as interest rates have been increasing, the market value of Silicon Valley Bank's bonds went down because the price you get from bonds is directly tied to interest rates. So what does all of this information, the interest rate hike, everything happening in the banking system right now, what does that mean or have to do with a regular gal like me? Yes. Well, you know, the answer is quite simple because, you know, you about to feel it in your pocketbook pretty soon if you're not already. We've spoken at length about the very real impact, right, of inflation on our daily lives. Gas is expensive. I'm still paying $30 a plate for oxtail. It's absurd. Not $30. Ooh, friends.

Listen, it's wild out here, okay? And now, you know, you got to sell a kidney for a carton of eggs, the regular white eggs, not even the brown ones that are supposed to be, you know, organic and free range. No free range. Okay. It's absurd out here. Now, while interest rate increases are meant to fight inflation like this, we also know that credit card debt is already at a higher annual percentage rates for people with credit card debt. So folks will end up having to pay more in interest in the long term. And mind you, right, this is something that we know is having an outsized impact on Black and brown folks. About half of Black and Latino adults say their household debt has increased compared with about three in 10 white adults. So with this in mind, the Fed is basically having to thread a needle to figure out the best and most appropriate response to both

combat inflation while also keeping the banking system in motion. The hope is that this will be the last rate hike for a little minute, but that of course remains to be seen. We will have to keep our eyes peeled on what they got going on there. More on all of this very soon, of course, but that is the latest for now. We are going to go pay some bills. So we'll be back right after this ad. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gave us all another reason to hate him yesterday after his administration announced a proposal to expand its already problematic don't say gay law. If approved, it would bar public school teachers at every grade level from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity, even in high schools.

The existing rule, which was signed a year ago, already bans such topics from kindergarten through third grade. The change doesn't require any approval from the state's legislature. Instead, it's up to Florida's Board of Education, which is, of course, led by DeSantis' appointees. The board is scheduled to vote on it next month. And picking up the anti-LGBTQ baton from DeSantis, Uganda's parliament passed a bill Tuesday that further criminalizes same-sex relationships and even makes it illegal to simply identify as LGBTQ. Technically speaking, homosexuality is already considered a

crime in the East African nation, though human rights groups say it's a colonial era holdover that was rarely enforced. This bill, however, would put people in prison for up to 10 years for just openly saying they're gay, trans, or quote, any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female. Anyone convicted of so-called aggravated homosexuality, vaguely defined as gay sex with someone underage or HIV positive, would receive the death penalty. Uganda's president has indicated he will sign it into law,

though many Western countries, including the United States, have condemned the measure. At least 30 other African nations have anti-gay or anti-trans laws on the books in some form, but the legislation in Uganda is considered one of the strictest so far. This is heartbreaking. It is. Looks like I need to take Uganda off of my travel list. Oh, child. It ain't safe. It ain't safe. At all. In a sign that we are now in the long-awaited corporate price-gouging phase of the pandemic,

Moderna's CEO said the company won't back down from its plan to quadruple the price of its life-saving COVID-19 vaccine. While COVID vaccines are still free, for now, to anyone who wants one, the U.S. government still needs to pay for its supply. Moderna has been charging the feds $26 a dose,

and the price tag is expected to jump up to $130 a shot this fall. Absurd. Wild. CEO Stefan Bonsal told a Senate health committee yesterday the price hike is necessary because the company expects demand for its vaccine to drop by as much as 90% later this year. But Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs that panel, told CNN he's not buying that story, considering that Moderna developed the vaccine with billions of dollars in emergency federal funding. If the taxpayers of this country put money through the NIH into developing a drug, and it's certainly not just the COVID vaccine, many cancer drugs as well. Should they then be forced to pay the highest prices of the world for a drug which they helped develop?

And I think the answer is obviously no. And by the way, Moderna has raked in over $21 billion in profits since it first released its COVID vaccine in late 2020. The greed knows no bounds. And it's like they learned nothing from the insulin push, right? Right. Like, come on. Exactly. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there's a nasty fungus among us.

Officials are sounding the alarm over a sharp rise in infections caused by a type of yeast known as Candida auris or C. auris. Because it can resist many antifungal medications and even dodge some cleaning products, cases of C. auris are spreading rapidly in hospitals and long-term medical facilities around the country. Though the CDC says it's not a threat for most healthy people, it's very dangerous for anyone who is very sick or has a compromised immune system. The fungus can kill between 30 to 60 percent of people who catch it. And it's not cool for the CDC to be dismissive of this when people living with disabilities are clearly going to be impacted by this. Absolutely.

Jake Paul, Lindsay Lohan, Soulja Boy and Lil Yachty finally have one thing in common. They've all been charged with illegally boosting cryptocurrencies. The SEC announced the charges yesterday, which included three other celebrities and crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Sun is accused of manipulating the value of two lesser-known tokens, while the celebs themselves were dinged for not disclosing they were paid to endorse them. We extend our deepest sympathies to any consumers out there who found Jake Paul's endorsement a compelling reason to invest in fake money. You might need to see somebody if that is you, okay? Ciao.

Paul and Lohan both agreed to pay tens of thousands of real dollars to settle the charges without admitting any wrongdoing. The Supreme Court has taken a break from raising our collective blood pressures to roll on something you could call a number two priority. Whiskey brand Jack Daniels is suing Arizona-based VIP products, which manufactures parodic dog toys that mimic known liquor, beer, and soda brands. The illicit product in question is a chew toy called Bad Spaniels, which mirrors the square-shaped Jack Daniels bottle. Except on its label, instead of old number seven Tennessee sour mash whiskey, it reads the old number two on your Tennessee carpet. Yikes! Furthermore, the toy claims to be, quote,

43% poo by volume and 100% smelly. Jack Daniels is claiming protection under the Lantham Act, which, in layman's terms, prohibits using a trademark in a way that might confuse consumers into thinking the brand has approved of its use. However, a lower court previously sided with VIP products. As a result, Jack Daniels is spending a lot of time and money in front of America's highest court to argue that they don't want their craft whiskey associated with dog poo. I mean, I wouldn't want to be associated with dog poo or dog shit, but it's really giving McDowell's from coming to America, I feel like.

This is the same vibe. It is, but also, I mean, maybe the people over at Jack Daniels need a bit of, you know, funny bone injected into them. You know, I'm just saying. This is like, it's funny. It's meant to be a parody. It's meant to be lighthearted. I don't even have a dog, okay? But this seems like something that would be, you know, fun for the little, you know, four-legged friends.

Well, I got two fur babies. I ain't bringing no jackdangas lookalike for them to play with or to pretend to shit on my carpet. Hard pass. Hard pass. Hard pass. I get that. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Get ready to be transported back to 1970s New York City with Stiffed, the new podcast from Crooked Media and iHeart Radio. This eight-part series takes you on a wild ride through the rise and fall of Viva,

the erotic magazine for women that rocked the publishing world. The series trailer is out right now and don't miss the first episode when it drops on March 30th. Listen to Stiffed wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review,

order a Bad Spaniels on the rocks, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just anything that doesn't have Jake Paul's name associated with it, like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I juanita tolliver i'm treyville anderson and keanu forever when i tell you i love this man oh my god you know i have a very um interesting spot for him in my life because of the matrix and my last name being Anderson so everyone was always like Mr. Anderson I fucking

hate it see my Keanu is Constantine Keanu like I fall asleep to that man fighting the devil yeah I love that what a day is a production of Crooked Media it's recorded and Love that. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Jazzy Marine and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is Jossie Kaufman, and our executive producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard andashaka.