The vice president laid out some of her economic policies this week. Among other things, she's proposing a ban on price gouging. Here is what Obama administration economist Jason Furman had to say. He said, quote, this is not sensible policy. [00:00:15] And I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and not reality. There's no upside here and there is some downside. He warned, effectively that price controls could ultimately stifle economic growth. So do you think that's the best way to bring down prices in Michigan? [00:00:34] Well, I think people are reading too much into what has been put out there. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer really tried to avoid answering questions during this conversation. We're going to get back to her in just a moment. [00:00:49] But first, Jake, I want to talk about the framing of the question, because the framing of the question has to do with what Obama's former economic advisor Jason Furman, has to say about economic populist proposals. [00:01:04] And I just want to remind you all that Obama's response to the housing collapse and the economic meltdown of 2008, I believe, got us Donald Trump. Okay. The fact that Americans lost their homes. [00:01:20] Okay. Had foreclosure after foreclosure with very little help from the federal government. The response by the Obama administration to that was a complete and utter disaster of epic proportions. And I'm really not interested in hearing what Obama's economic advisor has to say [00:01:37] about Kamala Harris's economic policies. In fact, I would like the Democratic Party to move as far away from the ferments of the world as humanly possible. - So let me just get that off my chest. - Hey, don't scroll away. Come back, come back. Because before the video continues, we just want to urge you to lend your support [00:01:55] to TYT, you power hour honest reporting. You do it at t.com/team and we love you for it. So I want to come back to Gretchen Whitmer, too, because she didn't support Kamala Harris's policies. And I think that's relevant. But we're going to come back to that. [00:02:10] So to your point, Anna, Jason Furman, Timothy Geithner, and Larry Summers, these were that's the axis of evil. That was Obama's economic advisors. And they said, hey, give everything to the banks. Yep. Give them trillions of dollars in bailouts and have the Federal Reserve [00:02:30] pump endless money into the economy. That all goes to the big corporations, and eventually it'll trickle down on the American people, just like Reagan and all the Republicans. Right. And guess what happened? 93% of the gains in 2010, when the economy started to recover, went to the top 1%. 93% of the gains. [00:02:47] Economic inequality exploded under Obama. It exploded under Obama. Yeah. I don't care what Furman has to say about a goddamn thing. No, but it's so. That's right. But I but the reason that it's relevant is because as we tell you on The Young Turks [00:03:02] all the time, when its culture war issues, mainstream media and right wing media will fight all the time, right? MSNBC and Fox News, etc. Will fight the minute its economic issues, and a Democrat does anything slightly populist. All of a sudden there'll be massive agreement with mainstream media [00:03:19] and right wing media. And here it is. So now NBC going, I don't know about this Kamala Harris plans, right. Oh what happened? MSNBC and NBC. Right. And then you go to The Washington Post. They wrote this scathing op ed. I'm just going to give you two really quick notes from it. [00:03:36] One, they said, I can't believe that she's turned against big business. This is a bad idea. And they said, oh, her economic positions. This is all how they always arrogantly put it. This it's not a serious proposal. Anything serious would be telling you how great big business is [00:03:52] and how we should give all of our money to them from corporate media. And then the Washington Post said, that this she's oh, this, you know, idea of fixing price gouging is totally unrealistic from quote supposed corporate perpetrators. [00:04:08] There are no corporate perpetrators who are trying to maximize profit. That's in the imagination of Kamala Harris and progressives and so supposed corporate perpetrators. Jumping on the. Okay, so look, my views on Kamala Harris's proposals are far more [00:04:25] nuanced because, look, in terms of the I'm going to tackle price gouging, she put out a vague statement like there isn't a specific policy and everyone is reading into that vague statement whatever they want to read into it, right? [00:04:40] So I have a problem with that caveat. There were some policies she proposed that I think were fantastic, especially as it pertains to housing. Now, look, simply subsidizing Americans who want to buy homes is not going to solve the housing crisis. [00:04:55] We need to build more housing. Giving Americans money to afford housing is going to drive up the cost of homes, because there is limited supply. So I was worried when I heard at first that that was what she proposed. We're going to give $25,000 to first time homebuyers because again, that is [00:05:13] not going to solve the housing crisis. But then she talked about cutting the red tape in various states to increase and also give, you know, tax benefits to builders so we can build more housing. That's excellent. So that is good. She also proposed doing something about the corporations [00:05:31] and the private equity firms that are buying up single family homes. I think that's fantastic as well. But when it comes to the price gouging issue, she made a vague statement. There is no specific policy and everyone is reading into it what they want to read into it. Yeah. You want to do something about, you know, price gouging? [00:05:48] Honestly, some of her wealthiest donors have their sights set on destroying Lina Khan, who is currently the head of the Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan is trying to increase competition, [00:06:04] which drives down prices, especially when it comes to groceries. Right now there are all sorts of mega-mergers being proposed in the, you know, grocery store sector of the economy, which would cut down competition [00:06:20] and increase prices for groceries. Yeah. So I'm worried about that. So no, no, no. Listen, you don't have to worry about anything. She's not going to do anything about price gouging. So let me explain why the policy is much ado about nothing, and why the politics of it is still really, really good. [00:06:35] So from a policy perspective, number one, it's vague. She definitely did not say price controls, nor would I be in favor of price controls. I would be very much against price controls. Okay. But she definitely didn't say that. Okay. Number two, there are already rules on price gouging. You can't price gouge in the middle of a natural disaster. [00:06:51] You can't charge $200 for water after a hurricane and there's no water left. All she has to do is apply those laws and she can say, hey, this is a different kind of disaster. ET cetera. Or a different kind of emergency, and we need to take action But it doesn't matter because she's not going to do any of that. [00:07:08] Her proposal was vague. That price gouging that we showed you was happening earlier has abated already. Right. That doesn't mean inflation is gone, and it doesn't mean they're not trying to maximize profits. They always try to maximize profits. But the period where they were gouging and bragging about it [00:07:24] to their shareholders has actually passed, and the prices are beginning to come down. So that's why again, it's just optics. She's not actually going to do anything about it. And lastly she said it's about grocery stores. She has to know it's not actually about grocery stores. Grocery stores have the lowest margins. [00:07:39] It's actually about consumer good companies like Procter and Gamble etc., that were driving up the price of consumer goods, Coke, etc. But there's a lot of those companies. There's only a few amount of grocery stores. So she picked a corporate donor that she thought wouldn't piss off [00:07:55] that many other corporate donors. Okay. But it's it's it's just it's just not going to happen. And her proposal shows you that it's not going to happen based on the specifics that she if you pay attention to the issues. Right. But the reason the optics are good is because it gets all of right wing media, [00:08:14] corporate media, and Republicans to go. Can you believe she's against big business? I can't believe she's hurting our beloved corporations. And now Fox News is doing a 24 over seven Brian Kilmeade the other day he's like, we have to defend big business. Yes, good, good defend big business. Because then you'll definitely lose. [00:08:31] Yeah, I mean that that is true. I mean, even though the vague statements is mostly meant for optics. Unfortunately, unfortunately for the Republican Party, they're taking the bait. And now you see Donald Trump speaking out against the same economic populist [00:08:48] messaging that got him elected in 2016. So whether Kamala Harris did that purposely as part of a strategy or not, I don't know. But I mean, it is incredible how Trump has taken the bait. Now, with that in mind, I do want to just give you a reason [00:09:04] for why Jake and I agree that, you know, setting prices or price fixing is a bad idea by the federal government. This is actually something that was done previously and it led to bad results. So during the last spike of inflation in the 1970s, both Democratic and Republican [00:09:22] presidential administrations at times imposed price controls, which specifically limited what companies could charge for goods and services. They were widely blamed for creating shortages and long lines for gas, like there were bad consequences to it. There are other ways to lower prices, and competition is one [00:09:41] of the best ways to do that. Avoiding or preventing these mega mergers from happening is a great way of doing that. And by the way, something that never gets talked about. The current war in Ukraine has also led to inflation as it pertains to, you know, what you're paying at grocery stores. [00:09:58] Russia's invasion of Ukraine lifted the cost of wheat and other grains on the global markets. So that caused a problem with the price at grocery prices at grocery stores. Now, what did Harris say? Because we keep saying she made a vague statement and it was vague. [00:10:15] There is no specific policy. There's no detailed plan when it comes to, price gouging. So Harris is promising to, during her first 100 days in office, send Congress proposed federal limits on price increases for food producers, [00:10:30] for food producers and grocers. That measure would include authorizing the FTC to impose large fines on grocery stores that impose excessive price hikes on customers. Her campaign said yes. So she's not saying, I'm going to say a carrot is worth this [00:10:45] and a tomato is worth that. She's saying the FTC will find you if you do something excessive. Right. So the FTC ain't going to do that. It's just not. And and to be fair, by the way, like I said, told you earlier, actually prices have started to come down. [00:11:01] And right now they are not doing price gouging. But they were. They definitely were. But they're not anymore. So there is nothing to regulate. So it's just for optics and and I don't want them to get freaked out by it. Their beloved mainstream media attacking them. [00:11:17] Because when that happens, they usually panic and go, well, I didn't mean it. I love big business. And that's kind of what Gretchen Whitmer was doing in that appearance. Okay, so I'm of two minds with Gretchen Whitmer. I think that there is merit to the point you're making. But also, I mean, look, as a politician who clearly has her sights set on running [00:11:36] for president in the future and. - Needing a lot of corporate donors. - A lot of corporate donors, yes. But do you want to cosign to a vague policy that you might not actually agree with at all? Right. No, no, she's doing it 100% for the donors. They all their policies are vague, right? [00:11:53] No, that's not to be fair. That's not true. As Anna pointed out, some of our housing policies was not vague. Yeah, it was not vague. And it was clear and it was positive. Right. And her other economic proposals are also good. Right. So Whitmer is trying to save donor money here. That's that's my read of it. So let's go to the next clip and watch as Whitmer continues to dodge the question. [00:12:13] Well, I think people are reading too much into what has been put out there. We know that Kamala Harris is going to be focused on building up more affordable housing. We know that Kamala Harris has already delivered on making sure that health care is more accessible and affordable for Americans, and will protect Obamacare. [00:12:31] That's a million people who have health care in Michigan right now that Donald Trump's been trying to rip away, that only adds costs on to people's backs. And so that's why I think this opportunity economy that Vice President Harris is talking about and laying the broad strokes for I think is shows we really do. [00:12:49] She sees every American. She understands what people are struggling with. Well, governor, I hear you saying that folks are reading too much into it. And yet it is what the vice president is proposing. You have former President Trump calling the policies communist. The Washington Post editorial board called it a gimmick. [00:13:05] Is this plan to ban price gouging anything more than a gimmick? Governor So, she continued, dodging it two more times in that same conversation. But look, to Whitmer's credit, she did give Kamala Harris kudos for the housing policies, which is good. [00:13:23] Okay, so I agree with that. I will allow it. Yeah, but she did not want to answer any questions when it came to inflation at grocery stores. Yeah. And they might be trying to get away from the topic because they might already be panicking. Oh my god. Big corporate media criticized us. Yeah Washington Post is their editorial board is conservative. [00:13:42] I don't know if you know that it's not just Wall Street Journal. Washington Post editorial board is also conservative and it's run by Jeff Bezos. So you think he wants Kamala Harris to attack big business? No, no. They love big business. So that's why they called it gimmicky. [00:13:58] And they didn't just call this gimmicky. Oh, they're beloved, beloved private equity guys buying up all of our homes. They're like, oh no, protect private equity. Big business is so great. That's Washington Post and Mainstream Media 101. That's NBC ABC, CNN, all of them. They'll all go and kiss big business ass and go, yeah, of course they should [00:14:16] price gouge you whatever they like. They should buy up all your homes, make you all into renters, and then charge you extra. And if you ever dare defy it as a Democrat, we'll say you're communist. Look at the Kristen Welker, framing there. Well, the Republicans are calling her communist. So what are the Republicans? [00:14:31] They call every Democrat policy, and they call every Democrat a communist. You don't know that, Kristen Welker. Were you born yesterday? Do you know anything about news? So when she says they're calling her a communist, what she's saying is I'm calling her a communist. Okay, but pause for a second, because what is this, the 1980s? [00:14:50] Like we're recycling the communist attack line? Yeah, they. Called Obama a communist, and then he gave everything to the banks. Right. Okay. Come on, get out. Like you don't as a I'm sorry, but as a reporter and an anchor of Meet the Press, if you don't know that every Republican has called every Democratic [00:15:07] presidential candidate a communist, and you just, like, just repeat that talking point as if it's legitimate, then. Yeah, I guess you don't know anything about nukes, right? Or your only other choice is. Yeah, I like that framing because I'm corporate media and I love corporations. [00:15:23] So I want to help Donald Trump frame you as a communist when you've all she's doing is the price gouging proposals. They're already on the books. You could already go after people for price gouging in different situations, but they're acting like, no, [00:15:38] our beloved big business good cry more because every time you see media crying about how she's trying to help the average guy too much is a couple of thousand more votes she picks up. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. [00:15:55] You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows and specials right after they air. 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