Tariffs, Lies, and Eat-Cake Economics

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In this fiery takedown, the host unleashes on the political and economic elite—left, right, and MAGA alike—for policies that are crushing small businesses under the weight of tariffs and blind loyalty. Using Apple, Ford, and everyday American households as case studies, the episode exposes the hidden cost of trade wars, the silent complicity of influencers, and the ever-widening wealth gap fueled by private equity's stranglehold on housing. From $800 million in Apple tariffs to a staggering $1.1 trillion in credit card debt, this episode isn't about party lines—it's about hard truths.

Episode Transcript

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 that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tariffs put you out of business. Oh eat cake, Let
them eat cake. I try to keep my cool. I
try to keep my cool here on these podcasts. But
I watched another I'm sorry, lightweight beyond lightweight. Steve Miron
he works for Trump, one of his trade guys there.

(00:38):
Take a look at his CV. Never thought a damn
thing in his entire life. No different. Okay, gets the
same crap Democrat administration, same thing. Okay, you got a
little sickophants that do you put people in place that
are going to just echo, echo whatever you want to do.
And Steve Myhren's being interviewed today and he's asked he's
to you know, people being put at small businesses going

(01:00):
under around the country. He was asked about a auto
parts supplier outside of I think it was outside of Detroit, Chicago,
I don't know, said that tariffs, tariffs put him out
of business. He can no longer afford to do business.
And his response was, well, you know, it's real easy
to blame politics for this. No, no, it's real easy

(01:21):
to blame your stupid policies. Quite frankly, a lot of
a lot of super Trumpers out there got pretty pissed
off at me for telling people the truth. It's pretty sad, pretty,
you know. But again, it's nothing new under the sun.
You know, you tell the truth to people, they're going
to get angry. They're going to again it doesn't fit

(01:44):
their little worldview. There's slighted worldview. They're going to get angry,
and my anger. When liberation came down in post liberation days,
I knew what was going to happen a small business.
I knew how they were going to be affected. I
knew how they were going to be hurt by this,
and we're seeing it now, seeing it out here. One
of the big economic big wigs in the Trump administration,

(02:08):
Steve Miran, basically saying, eat cake, buddy, eat cake. We
told you that you're going to pay. I paid yesterday.
Apple came out with earnings yesterday. Oh it were great,
they were great. But as a shareholder, I paid. You

(02:29):
know that they paid over eight hundred million dollars in
tariffs or eight hundred million dollars in tariffs. And that's
also they they rented out jumbo jets shipping the supplies
in and prior to prior to Liberation Day, they said
that next quarter it's going to be about one point

(02:50):
one billion. Oh okay, it's going to hit me as shareholder,
but it's going to also hit you because they're gonna
raise prices, raise prices on their products of self. It's
not a matter of if, it's a matter of when
Ford Ford had their entire all their profits wiped out.
Ford makes more cars here in America than anybody else does.

(03:13):
Anybody else does, But due to these nonsensical tariffs on
metals and input costs, they reported a net loss of
twenty nine million last quarter. They got hit with more
than eight hundred million dollars in tariffs. Again, you take

(03:36):
a look at the numbers. Machinery and electronics paying the
most vehicles, second, metals and articles of metals, clothing and textiles,
everything is getting hit. Did you vote for this? Yeah,
you get a lot again for some reason, you get

(03:57):
a lot of the paid off influencers there. You know,
the real smart people like Laura Luhmer and the rest
of them all. They they're brilliant minds. Brilliant minds out there,
the ones that are paid to basically back people quiet,
not saying much right now. We told you this was

(04:18):
going to be the case, told you exactly what's going
to happen. I'm also telling you right now all of
those promises that are being made about handing money. Get
Lutnik on TV. I got Trump and all this money
that there's going to be just given to them by

(04:39):
these by the European Union in Japan. It's gonna be awesome.
You really think that that's going to happen. Yeah, they're
just gonna they're gonna cut a check to Trump and
allow him to just start spending their money, and they're
going to keep ten percent of the profit. You really
believe that, right? Sure? Okay, you believe whatever you want.

(05:02):
If that's going to make you happy, fine, you keep
believing what you want to believe. Okay, look at the
jobs numbers. You know what, while we're at it, Well
we're at it, why don't we go through because again,
right the old economy's booming right now? Yeah, US spending
on services, hotels, airfare dining down for three straight months.

(05:26):
That's the first time since two thousand and eight. Oh gee,
what happened in two thousand and eight? What was going
on at that point in time? Shocker? Oh yeah, and
it gets better. Okay. You know, you get both the
donkeys and the elephants unwilling, unwilling to smack private equity

(05:50):
around with the carried interest loophole. You know, you know
what private equity is doing right now. You had Brookfield
Asset Management. They owned sixty five thousand Ameria and homes
single family manufactured housing communities. The guy came out yestually
many say, hey, you know, Americans can't afford houses right now,
so you know what, We're just going to continue to

(06:11):
buy We're just going to continue to buy them up
and make people basically even say this, but make people
pay ridiculous amounts in rent. Yeah. Oh, you look at
look at the charts right here. Like I said, don't
doubt me, don't doubt me. We told you you look
at the number. Seventy percent. We got medium price homes

(06:33):
about four hundred fifty five thousand here in this country.
Seventy percent, seventy percent of households Okay, that's ninety four
million people can't afford a four hundred thousand dollars home.
Now eighty percent of the remaining households, it's eighty percent
of the thirty percent that's left. Who can afford a

(06:54):
four hundred thousand dollars home already have one? Hmm, yeah,
maybe maybe we should continue to focus on bullshit tariffs,
bullshit tariffs, another crap or building ballrooms at the White House.
I don't know when we talk about doing something about
the nonsense and how the housing market is propped up

(07:16):
and people can't afford it. Oh yeah, Oh, should I
throw this one into Oh whoa, but wait there's more? Yeah,
Or like Steve Jobs, just do one more thing? Yeah.
Credit card debt one point one trillion, one point one trillion.

(07:39):
I'm gonna mention this again, going back, going back to
twenty twenty, twenty twenty to today, you have lost twenty
eight point two percent of your buying power. We're gonna
fix that. Make it a suggestion, I mean, listen, I

(08:01):
vote for the guy. I make a suggestion you might
want to rearrange your priorities a little bit and actually
help Americans out do the Americans is solid here because
what you're doing ain't working. Bub ain't working. Wax Dog
on Wall street dot com