September 25, 2025 • 13 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
From Obamacare to Trump’s steel deals, Washington has steadily blurred the line between referee and player. When government takes stakes in private companies, shields them from failure, or dictates how industries operate, capitalism’s core principle—creative destruction—dies. Like Dorian Gray hiding his rot behind a flawless portrait, corporations propped up by public-private partnerships live on unnaturally, while the free market withers. This episode unpacks how both parties have undermined true capitalism in the name of power, politics, and control.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
From Obamacare to Trump’s steel deals, Washington has steadily blurred the line between referee and player. When government takes stakes in private companies, shields them from failure, or dictates how industries operate, capitalism’s core principle—creative destruction—dies. Like Dorian Gray hiding his rot behind a flawless portrait, corporations propped up by public-private partnerships live on unnaturally, while the free market withers. This episode unpacks how both parties have undermined true capitalism in the name of power, politics, and control.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Public private partnership and the death of capitalism over several
stories today. But you know what I really thought of
when I was looking into all of this, and we've
talked about this before, the old Oscar Wild novel I
think came out eighteen ninety eighteen ninety one, Picture of
(00:37):
Dorian Gray. I reread that book this weekend because there's
some other themes in that that are quite pertinent to
society today. But KEN can't get that book, that story
out of my head when it comes to what has
been taking place under both Donkey and Elephant administrations. Obama, Obama,
(01:03):
without a doubt, really worked very, very hard to remake
capitalism in business in this country in his image, in
what he wanted, first and foremost obviously destroying healthcare as
we know it. It's destroyed, it's wrecked in this country.
It's fricking awful. Obamacare has been an adjunct disaster on
(01:29):
every metric level. Shape, matter form, you name it. Okay,
nobody wants to go to bloody medical school anymore. We
got to be importing doctors from all over the globe
because guess what, they can't even afford to stay in
business based upon his crapt I speak again my clients,
none of that. I speak to doctors in my community,
(01:53):
not can you afford to be in business in cities?
Can't afford to do it anymore. They got to go
far away, hey, because guess what, the costs are just
too damn high, and they're not making their money because
we've got a million middlemen. But we'll take that. That's
a conversation for another day. And of course we had
his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, where he decided to
remake capitalism in terms of his green vision. Yeah, cylinder
(02:18):
comes to mind, Fisker and countless others getting in bed
the death of government public private partnerships. And we conservatives, rightfully,
we're outraged, outrage by what he has done and what
he did again under Biden New Green Deal. AOC try
(02:45):
to do the same damn thing, and they did what
Trump's any different? No to see, you know, I know,
I get my you know Trump Trump derangement syndrome. No,
I don't have Trump derangement syndrome. The difference between you
and I is, I'm consistent in my belief system. Okay,
(03:08):
I don't care who the hell's in office. I don't
care what the hell fly they fly, what bullshit they're
telling you. Okay, I'm consistent in my beliefs. I don't
believe the government and the private sector should mix. I
never have what you get many times, and what we're
(03:31):
getting right now under Trump, it's obviously a different flare.
Is this idea that oh, g whiz, you get in
bed with government, Well, you can't die, you can't die again.
This is what I was thinking of the picture of
(03:51):
Dorian Gray. I was thinking of the logo of JP
Morgan or Bank of America and Goldman Sacks and these
firms is doing whatever the hell they want because they
can't die. Kind of like Dorian Gray. Right again, you'd
have to read the novel. It's fantastic. By the way,
(04:15):
I look at this now, Lithium America's it's stock doubled, doubled.
This is because the White House wants to take an
equity stake in the company as it's renegotiating the terms
(04:35):
of a two point two billion dollar loan from the
Department of Energy for its thacker past Mind in Nevada
stock up Wow, up more than one hundred percent over
Tuesday's close of three dollars and seven cents, went up
(04:56):
over six. I don't even know where it's at right now.
Company has a market capital one pint five billion dollars.
Now again, i'll people out there, Oh, it's right. You know,
we're giving them a loan, you know, take an equity
stake in that company. Well, let me explain to you
again why this is a problem when that happens. Okay,
(05:22):
And this is the reason why the stock is up.
It's not because of the two billion dollar loan. It's
because all of a sudden, that company can't die. That
company can't die. Now, the difference between what Donald Trump
(05:43):
is doing and what Barack Obama did. Barack Obama was
like Oprah or give it away cash or like an
FM radio station in the nineteen eighties, We're going away cash,
and that's what they did. Trump was saying, yeah, we're
going to give away cash, but we're going to own
you too. Now I'll sub reference another movie, A Naked Gun,
(06:12):
Naked Gun, the original Leslie Nielsen. Remember when he was
the umpire at the baseball game and he's putting on
this show at home plate and he's making the umpire
making him the entire center of attention. Remember, wasn't Reggie
Jackson was going to kill the Queen of England at
(06:33):
the baseball game anyway? Neither here nor there? Okay, the
United States, the government is supposed to be an overseer,
someone that makes sure that the rules are followed. And
we're all, as Jefferson would like it, we're all equal
under the law. That's most certainly not where we're at now.
(06:59):
Government is taking Steakes own stock in Intel owned stock.
Now you don't be looking on a deal of Lithium America.
That's why the stock's up again. They can do whatever
they want. They can do what have hell again, Yeah,
we're partners with the government. For crying out loud again,
(07:22):
it's interesting as well. You know, they may get hit
with some things when you are partnering with the United
States government as yeah. Yeah, Nipon Steel just realized. Howard Lutnick,
Howard uh Lutnik blocked Nipon Steele because again, we've got
(07:43):
golden shares in that deal as well from closing a
facility in Illinois. Now, what the hell does Howard Lutnick
know about the steel business? Nothing? Howard Lutnik will made
me remind everybody he's like a like again, those things
eat me out, you know, the Ventriloquist dummies. He's like,
(08:04):
he's like one of those little dummies that sits on
Trump's lap and like Trump's got his hand up his
button making him talk and say thing Trump is. Yeah,
that's he completely reminds me of a ventures dummy. Most things. Again,
they're creepy as all hell. But anyway, neither here nor there. Yeah.
On Friday, US Steel said it will continue some operations
(08:26):
out of plant in Granite City, Illinois, reversing its decision
UH to all but close the facility. Howard Lutnik picked
up the phone and called the guy and said, you're
not going to do that. We have authority under our
golden share arrangement to block the plant closure. Hmm. Yeah,
(08:53):
I don't know if you're aware of this. With Trump
and his little foray and to steal, demand for US
steel is dropping because of the tariffs and it harms
American manufacturing. Our steel prices are twice as high as
the worldwide average, fifty percent higher than in Europe. This
(09:22):
is not any special steel. Okay, it's steel. It's not
reared in metal from Atlas shrug. How is that competitive?
It's not. But again, you know what, can you know
Nippon Steel do they agreed to the deal? They agreed
to this. When they sign on, they sold their soul.
(09:47):
They sold their soul again. Yeah, to take a look
at the you know, the logo in a picture, you
know of Nippon Steel as it gets a little bit
uglier because of the things that it has to do.
Again this from last week, President Trump seems weighing a
plan to spur the construction of factories and other infrastructure
(10:10):
in a bid to jump start the American manufacturing sector.
Unto the planned the administration would use money from a
five hundred and fifty billion dollar investment fund as part
of training negotiations of Japan to invest in the development
of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, energy ships, and quantum computing.
(10:31):
Some of the projects would be granted preferential treatment from
the government, including expedited regulatory review administrations considering granting leases
to companies that would give them access to federal land
and water. Again, this is Trump's efforts to exert influence
over the private sector, not capitalism. Not capitalist. Again, I
(11:00):
go back in time. I wrote a column many many
moons ago entitled, even blue chips die because they're supposed
to The companies are supposed to be able to die.
(11:22):
But you know, we've gone from too big to fail
to bailing out automakers, to handing out cash to favored
industries using taxpayer money, to handing out money and taking
stakes in these companies. It's not how, not how we're
(11:47):
supposed to work, not how we're supposed to operate. If
you think, you argue that this is going to make
us more competitive with China, yeah, you're sorely mistaken. You
obviously don't understand how the free market works. You don't
understand on how the free market is supposed to cut
(12:08):
and how it's supposed to destroy, because that's what the
free market is, creative destruction. And this will put us,
quite frankly, at a disadvantage. You know, it's interesting, there
was a story. See what happens when you know you
get the government gets involved in business and pointing things out.
(12:28):
It was the story, Uh was it accurate? Accurate, slated
to start building some ridiculous crossover evy here in the
United States? Well, yep, wrong, Wrong guys in office at
this point in time, they thought that they were making
good on you know, geez, look at these handouts, look
(12:49):
at these tax right also these benefits we're getting from Biden. Yeah,
that's gone now. And now you know all those investments
that they made, that's not happen. They're going to stop making.
The car need to get back to a point in
time where the government stays out of the private sector.
(13:12):
Watch dog on Wall Street dot Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Public private partnership and the death of capitalism over several
stories today. But you know what I really thought of
when I was looking into all of this, and we've
talked about this before, the old Oscar Wild novel I
think came out eighteen ninety eighteen ninety one, Picture of
(00:37):
Dorian Gray. I reread that book this weekend because there's
some other themes in that that are quite pertinent to
society today. But KEN can't get that book, that story
out of my head when it comes to what has
been taking place under both Donkey and Elephant administrations. Obama, Obama,
(01:03):
without a doubt, really worked very, very hard to remake
capitalism in business in this country in his image, in
what he wanted, first and foremost obviously destroying healthcare as
we know it. It's destroyed, it's wrecked in this country.
It's fricking awful. Obamacare has been an adjunct disaster on
(01:29):
every metric level. Shape, matter form, you name it. Okay,
nobody wants to go to bloody medical school anymore. We
got to be importing doctors from all over the globe
because guess what, they can't even afford to stay in
business based upon his crapt I speak again my clients,
none of that. I speak to doctors in my community,
(01:53):
not can you afford to be in business in cities?
Can't afford to do it anymore. They got to go
far away, hey, because guess what, the costs are just
too damn high, and they're not making their money because
we've got a million middlemen. But we'll take that. That's
a conversation for another day. And of course we had
his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, where he decided to
remake capitalism in terms of his green vision. Yeah, cylinder
(02:18):
comes to mind, Fisker and countless others getting in bed
the death of government public private partnerships. And we conservatives, rightfully,
we're outraged, outrage by what he has done and what
he did again under Biden New Green Deal. AOC try
(02:45):
to do the same damn thing, and they did what
Trump's any different? No to see, you know, I know,
I get my you know Trump Trump derangement syndrome. No,
I don't have Trump derangement syndrome. The difference between you
and I is, I'm consistent in my belief system. Okay,
(03:08):
I don't care who the hell's in office. I don't
care what the hell fly they fly, what bullshit they're
telling you. Okay, I'm consistent in my beliefs. I don't
believe the government and the private sector should mix. I
never have what you get many times, and what we're
(03:31):
getting right now under Trump, it's obviously a different flare.
Is this idea that oh, g whiz, you get in
bed with government, Well, you can't die, you can't die again.
This is what I was thinking of the picture of
(03:51):
Dorian Gray. I was thinking of the logo of JP
Morgan or Bank of America and Goldman Sacks and these
firms is doing whatever the hell they want because they
can't die. Kind of like Dorian Gray. Right again, you'd
have to read the novel. It's fantastic. By the way,
(04:15):
I look at this now, Lithium America's it's stock doubled, doubled.
This is because the White House wants to take an
equity stake in the company as it's renegotiating the terms
(04:35):
of a two point two billion dollar loan from the
Department of Energy for its thacker past Mind in Nevada
stock up Wow, up more than one hundred percent over
Tuesday's close of three dollars and seven cents, went up
(04:56):
over six. I don't even know where it's at right now.
Company has a market capital one pint five billion dollars.
Now again, i'll people out there, Oh, it's right. You know,
we're giving them a loan, you know, take an equity
stake in that company. Well, let me explain to you
again why this is a problem when that happens. Okay,
(05:22):
And this is the reason why the stock is up.
It's not because of the two billion dollar loan. It's
because all of a sudden, that company can't die. That
company can't die. Now, the difference between what Donald Trump
(05:43):
is doing and what Barack Obama did. Barack Obama was
like Oprah or give it away cash or like an
FM radio station in the nineteen eighties, We're going away cash,
and that's what they did. Trump was saying, yeah, we're
going to give away cash, but we're going to own
you too. Now I'll sub reference another movie, A Naked Gun,
(06:12):
Naked Gun, the original Leslie Nielsen. Remember when he was
the umpire at the baseball game and he's putting on
this show at home plate and he's making the umpire
making him the entire center of attention. Remember, wasn't Reggie
Jackson was going to kill the Queen of England at
(06:33):
the baseball game anyway? Neither here nor there? Okay, the
United States, the government is supposed to be an overseer,
someone that makes sure that the rules are followed. And
we're all, as Jefferson would like it, we're all equal
under the law. That's most certainly not where we're at now.
(06:59):
Government is taking Steakes own stock in Intel owned stock.
Now you don't be looking on a deal of Lithium America.
That's why the stock's up again. They can do whatever
they want. They can do what have hell again, Yeah,
we're partners with the government. For crying out loud again,
(07:22):
it's interesting as well. You know, they may get hit
with some things when you are partnering with the United
States government as yeah. Yeah, Nipon Steel just realized. Howard Lutnick,
Howard uh Lutnik blocked Nipon Steele because again, we've got
(07:43):
golden shares in that deal as well from closing a
facility in Illinois. Now, what the hell does Howard Lutnick
know about the steel business? Nothing? Howard Lutnik will made
me remind everybody he's like a like again, those things
eat me out, you know, the Ventriloquist dummies. He's like,
(08:04):
he's like one of those little dummies that sits on
Trump's lap and like Trump's got his hand up his
button making him talk and say thing Trump is. Yeah,
that's he completely reminds me of a ventures dummy. Most things. Again,
they're creepy as all hell. But anyway, neither here nor there. Yeah.
On Friday, US Steel said it will continue some operations
(08:26):
out of plant in Granite City, Illinois, reversing its decision
UH to all but close the facility. Howard Lutnik picked
up the phone and called the guy and said, you're
not going to do that. We have authority under our
golden share arrangement to block the plant closure. Hmm. Yeah,
(08:53):
I don't know if you're aware of this. With Trump
and his little foray and to steal, demand for US
steel is dropping because of the tariffs and it harms
American manufacturing. Our steel prices are twice as high as
the worldwide average, fifty percent higher than in Europe. This
(09:22):
is not any special steel. Okay, it's steel. It's not
reared in metal from Atlas shrug. How is that competitive?
It's not. But again, you know what, can you know
Nippon Steel do they agreed to the deal? They agreed
to this. When they sign on, they sold their soul.
(09:47):
They sold their soul again. Yeah, to take a look
at the you know, the logo in a picture, you
know of Nippon Steel as it gets a little bit
uglier because of the things that it has to do.
Again this from last week, President Trump seems weighing a
plan to spur the construction of factories and other infrastructure
(10:10):
in a bid to jump start the American manufacturing sector.
Unto the planned the administration would use money from a
five hundred and fifty billion dollar investment fund as part
of training negotiations of Japan to invest in the development
of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, energy ships, and quantum computing.
(10:31):
Some of the projects would be granted preferential treatment from
the government, including expedited regulatory review administrations considering granting leases
to companies that would give them access to federal land
and water. Again, this is Trump's efforts to exert influence
over the private sector, not capitalism. Not capitalist. Again, I
(11:00):
go back in time. I wrote a column many many
moons ago entitled, even blue chips die because they're supposed
to The companies are supposed to be able to die.
(11:22):
But you know, we've gone from too big to fail
to bailing out automakers, to handing out cash to favored
industries using taxpayer money, to handing out money and taking
stakes in these companies. It's not how, not how we're
(11:47):
supposed to work, not how we're supposed to operate. If
you think, you argue that this is going to make
us more competitive with China, yeah, you're sorely mistaken. You
obviously don't understand how the free market works. You don't
understand on how the free market is supposed to cut
(12:08):
and how it's supposed to destroy, because that's what the
free market is, creative destruction. And this will put us,
quite frankly, at a disadvantage. You know, it's interesting, there
was a story. See what happens when you know you
get the government gets involved in business and pointing things out.
(12:28):
It was the story, Uh was it accurate? Accurate, slated
to start building some ridiculous crossover evy here in the
United States? Well, yep, wrong, Wrong guys in office at
this point in time, they thought that they were making
good on you know, geez, look at these handouts, look
(12:49):
at these tax right also these benefits we're getting from Biden. Yeah,
that's gone now. And now you know all those investments
that they made, that's not happen. They're going to stop making.
The car need to get back to a point in
time where the government stays out of the private sector.
(13:12):
Watch dog on Wall Street dot Com
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