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CHINA TAKING AIM AT AMERICAN COMPANIES AS TENSIONS FLARE
Charles Payne: We are having a little bit of a tit-for-tat here. On our side, we've gone to war with China over wind mills and solar panels, which a lot of Americans don't realize. What they have already done though is put a 100 percent tariff on chicken feet. I don't know if you're aware of that. Apparently there's nothing better than fried chicken feet and a beer. They said we were pumping the price up. This is how these trade wars begin. We have to understand where we pick our wars. We don't have the guts to call them a currency manipulator. We don't have the guts to go after all the intellectual property that they steal. So, it boils down to chicken feet and McDonald's and solar panels.
Charlie Gasparino: They finance our government. They're going to call the shots on a lot of these things. There was once a time when mortgage-backed securities were triple-A and they were considered money good. I'm not saying the U.S. is where the mortgage-backed security is now, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out in five years from now maybe the currency of choice and the bond of choice is German and not the United States.
Dagen McDowell: I'm a big believer that they need us as much as we need them. With the debt-they are the largest foreign creditor to the U.S.-but they're not going to do anything that will drive down the price of that investment. They might make waves, just like what they're doing with McDonalds and what they did with Walmart, on the peripheral because going after one McDonald's restaurant isn't like going after the more than one thousand restaurants in the nation.
Adam Lashinsky: This calls to mind the days when the Japanese would hold up American cars at the tariff station and say the bumper is 17 inches, but it can only be 16.7 inches so you can't bring this in. That's the kind of stuff the Chinese are doing right now. They need us as much as we need them. If our companies stop using China to manufacture our products the Chinese economy would collapse and they would have an insurrection in the cities and in the countryside. By the way, we have called them out as currency-manipulators. I think our bipartisan government over at least two administrations has been doing their best on this.
WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS TO PROMOTE PRIVATE SECTOR AMID NEW REGULATIONS
Charles Payne: The private sector is taking an economic flogging. They are taking a verbal flogging and it's going to get worse. We haven't added in Dodd-Frank yet, Obamacare, the EPA or the NLRB. It's amazing that the only reason they're keeping the private sector afloat is so they can loot the private sector, but for Biden to say [‘we're about the private sector'] is completely outrageous.
Charlie Gasparino: We should say that Joe Biden is the guy that plagiarized a speech from a socialist in England. This is the guy telling us about how they're so in favor of the private sector. It's almost unspeakable. It's a joke.
Dagen McDowell: What is astonishing is, when he talks about private sector he's talking to a group of workers that would not have jobs without the government. It's very clear with this administration that they aim to punish real private sector success and they believe in the power and the good of government. These are businesses in the auto industry that got bailed out by the government instead of truly supporting private business that succeeds or fails on its own merits.
Adam Lashinsky: I don't think we add to the civil discourse in this country when we talk about looting private companies or when we bring up references to 25-year old speeches. I will point out that these union employees-I assume they were at a United Auto Workers plant-are people who work in the private sector. Yes, they were bailed out. That's a longer story. However, they are not working for the government. They are not government agencies.
CRITICS: DRILL MORE OIL HERE INSTEAD OF RELYING ON THE SAUDIS
Charles Payne: The same week the white house website says we can't drill our way out of this we beg Saudi Arabia to drill our way out of this. Go figure.
Charlie Gasparino: I can't imagine he [Senator Schumer] has much stroke with the Saudis. There's not exactly a huge constituency here in New York. It just shows that democrats will do anything to talk down the price of gas. They really do believe this is a huge election issue for the Republicans.
Dagen McDowell: What is Senator Schumer doing? He's applauding Saudi Arabia, imported oil. Then he has proposed his own legislation in the past to remove tax breaks for oil companies in this country that would then use the money to drill and explore for more oil. He's championing Saudi Arabia, but attacking our own oil companies. It is lunacy. I can't even make heads or tails of it.
Adam Lashinsky: In fact, oil production is up 20 percent since 2008 in this country. We are drilling more and we should drill more. We should encourage the Saudis to drill more. That will bring down gas prices.
STOCKS THE PANEL IS BUYING WITH THEIR OWN CASH
Charles Payne: Silicon Laboratories (SLAB)
Adam Lashinsky: iShares MSCI Canada Index (EWC)
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