>> the author explains why so few people understand the language or inner workings of how american money is managed by a severed -- seven-member board in washington, d.c.. christopher leonard on this week's episode of book notes plus available on the c-span now abhor wherever you get your podcasts. -- now or wherever you get your podcasts. c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with today's biggest events with live floor proceedings and hearing from congress, the white house, the court, and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span tv networks and c-span radio and a variety of

compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store or google play. download it today. c-span now. your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. >> washington journal continues. good morning, and welcome back to "washington journal." it is time for open forum, so anything you would like to talk about public policy wise, anything you heard on the program. give us a call. i want to show you first what is happening in russia-ukraine war. this is from "the washington post" about -- the headline says russians shall kyiv after loss of worship. the article says this, the russian warship that sank this week and the black sea was hit by two ukrainian antiship missiles, and a senior u.s.

defense official confirmed that yesterday, as relentless russian attacks continued in the east. the southern port city of mariupol, which has held out against weeks of bombardment, a."'s to fall into russian ground forces. says that ukrainian satisfaction of a guided missile cruiser was tempered by the situation in mariupol and by the russians morning it would step up strikes on ukraine's capital. that is the latest coming out of russia. i would like to know what you think about that, what you think about the situation with twitter. on "the washington journal" front page this money, it says twitter makes a move to stop musk. as you know, elon musk, the billionaire, has wanted to buy twitter. it says twitter moved to prevent elon musk from significantly increasing his estate -- stake a

day after he unveiled an unsolicited takeover bid for the social media company. it says the company on friday, yesterday, adopted a so-called poison pill that makes it difficult for mr. musk to increase his stake beyond 15%. he currently owns more than 9% in the company. so tyrone, what do you think, from illinois? caller: great to be on your show. i am calling more about retail, i am a retailer myself, and when you talk about inflation, i am looking at the container prices that are coming off the ports. so i wish you could have gotten into that a little bit. container prices used to be around $30,000 just about a year ago, where two years ago, for a 40 foot high container for goods

of about $3500, so that is a substantial increase. when you consider the average container we get from overseas only has about $40,000 to $50,000 of goods in it. so you're looking at an area where our government really needs to step in and take a look at the container prices, because that is price gouging, i think, at its finest. the other problem i have is some of our ports, the infrastructure of our ports, like in california, i believe the last time we updated our port in the california was back in the 1960's. so it does not have the room, does not have the newer technology to move the goods. we have backed off in the u.s. on rail, which is one of the most affordable ways to go. i think that is an area for inflation we need to look at. host: you know, tyrone, there is

funding in the infrastructure bill that got past, to update the ports. caller: which is great, but how long is that going to take? as a retailer, we are looking at -- we are buying goods eight months out, so we are buying our christmas stuff eight months before we get the goods. so when somebody comes to the store and they say, ah, this is a new, hot item, well, it was ordered eight months ago. we need to look at manufacturing more in the united states. you brought up the covid thing about prescription drugs and stuff, the drugs we get from china, but i heard nothing about building factories to produce more of our drugs and stuff here in the united states. it has kind of been dropped as a subject. i think we need to take a look

at what we can manufacture here and start doing more stuff in the united states. as a retailer, i would rather buy in america than from china, but we are given not much choice. thank you. host: mike is next in montgomery, alabama, on the independents line. caller: good morning. your previous guests stated at the onset that she -- that when she was young, said we were experiencing the highest inflation since 1981 with president reagan. but in 1979 and 1980, president carter really put us into a tailspin with inflation, with 18% interest rates on credit cards and 14% mortgage rates. mr. reagan's cabinet member,

during his term, really went to supply-side economics and bolstered defense spending and really stabilized the economy. so i feel at this point mr. powell does not have the tenacity of a bulldog, as we need, to get our economy stabilized. i think he is taking a page out of ben bernanke's economic philosophy, printing more money, hence inflation rises. that is my comment, and thank you for taking my call. host: speaking of the fed chairman, here is the headline from the hill. it says, recession fears rise, as set by inflation. now tulare -- to larry in minnesota, democrats line. caller: good morning. there is only one thing causing

inflation, and that is demand for product. [inaudible] just because you have money does not mean you should just spend it. you have got demand, there is no inflation. you are upset about inflation, then stop spending your money on -- [inaudible] host: next to scott in tampa, florida, republican line. hey, scott. caller: i would like to make a comment about the politicians and rest of the world commenting about fossil fuel. fossil fuel, hydrocarbons not

only go into your petrol tanks of your cars and your trucks and fuel all the machinery, they have been turned into polymers, and polymers are in everything. oil plays a direct and and direct part in the production of everything that is man-made. that is something that no one talks about. they think that the oil that comes out of the ground just goes into your car, but it goes into everything that is man-made , literally everything. when they took the polymers and moved molecules around and created different products, everybody was just happy plastics were made. and now we as a society, older

generation just never taught the younger generation how to properly dispose of plastics. that is all i got to say. thank you. host: take a look at this from "the new york times," on a separate subject. it talks about the border crossings in texas, says, amid backlash, texas governor repeals border clocking immigration order. it says that governor greg abbott said he would reissue the policy under which all commercial vehicles arriving at the border would be inspected if illegal crossings into texas increase. it says facing an intensifying backlash from political parties and business groups, governor greg abbott of texas yesterday ended a policy of inspecting all commercial vehicles crossing into the state from mexico. it is a time-consuming process that caused traffic jams of 14

hours or more at the border. michael is calling us from texarkana, arkansas, on the independents line. caller: good morning, and thank you for being there. congratulations. i am a disabled veteran and live in texarkana, live 70 miles from the va hospital in freeport louisiana. i watched hearings, and the price of gas is so high. no one asked, how many are sitting idle and how many are pumping? i go down i to shreveport, dry 52 miles, i counted 22 oil wells that i could see from the interstate. interstate has been there about four years. not one of those wells was pumping, not one. it is like the oil embargo, with

oil will triple in price because they were off the gulf of galveston, and they would not be unloaded to bring the price of oil up. we're doing the same thing again. oil companies, big banks, wall street found the politicians and lobbyists to make laws. politicians do not pen their own laws. they are written by lobbyists. obamacare was written by the insurance lobby. that is what is ruining our nation in this country, greed, the worship of the almighty dollar. i've fought in vietnam for two years. i am disgusted with my country. i am disgusted with my country. it has turned into nothing but honoring the god almighty dollar, which that will be the fall of this country, you watch and see. thank you. host: all right.

take a look at this article from foxnews.com. ken line, a warrant -- headline says -- the article says an advisor to the mariupol city mayor warned saturday, today, that russian troops are preparing to shut down the city by april 18 and will "pilfer all men for forced service, labor, isolation." occupiers report that on monday, they will not only finally close all entries and exist to the city for everyone but will institute a ban on movement across the neighborhoods for a week. during this time, 100% of the city's remaining male population will be filtered. that is from a ukrainian news outlet. gerald next in north carolina, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, and thank

you for having me. you are doing a great job. i just want to say that we are at an inflection point. i love our country. constitution calls it a republic even though we are basically a democracy. we cannot let anything go in the country anymore. we are now controlled by special interest groups. the federal reserve is a private entity, not a public, as well as the post office. we have to come together as a people and make decisions and not be afraid to make decisions. i believe we are at a point similar to rome, and i do not want to disrespect anybody, but rome before it failed went to a homosexual society, and i do not want to disrespect homosexuals, but we need to come together and realize we are more alike as a people, black and white, whatever, and i do believe what the man said, we have become a worshiper of the almighty dollar per thank you so much.

happy easter. in god we trust. thank you. host: susan is calling from fort myers, florida, on the independents line. caller: thank you for taking my call, and happy easter to everyone. i am not at the computer, i don't trust the internet, so i do not want to be involved. but apparently, twitter, my girlfriend told me twitter had some kind of a comment by somebody that putin has thyroid cancer. and i watch as much news as i can, both sides, and i have not seen a report on that. the other thing i would like to point out is i have forgotten more history than i have read. three things that always seem to be present in any kind of war or

disagreement, whatever, is power, money, and religion. those three things are always in the -- always there, and i have not been against religion. there's about 4000 different religions on our planet, and only a couple of them are always in the forefront. so where's the fairness on that? i think we're also having our own humanitarian crisis. people, especially old people, i am 79, they're kind of nervous about going out alone. i woke with a cane, i hobble. you are kind of nervous that

somebody's going to attack you. i think we all have the civil right to walk your dog or do lawn work or go to the grocery store, ride your bicycle, without getting attacked and shot. that is just the way i feel. thank you so much for your time. i really appreciate it. have a good day. host: have a good day, susan. i cannot comment on putin's health. i have not heard anything about that. here is an article on cnn, acn and exclusive. here is the headline, we need ammo, need fraud examples, need it this weekend, what the meadows text reveal about how two trump's allies lobbied the white house to overturn the election. cnn.com.

the next call is from fort myers, florida, on the independents line -- i think we need to go to beverly next. beverly in casper, wyoming, democrats line. caller: hello, and good morning. and god bless us all. and i wish the people would get together and be nicer to each other. and i understand about that ladies fear about going out and being around the public. it is all the rhetoric of the republican base. i wish they would not be so mean . just tell people such things -- but one thing i wanted to say is the children really need us. every man and woman and grandma, please help them children, because we are in a spot that we

need them, so we have to teach them. and i just had a hard time because i have grandchildren and love them very dearly, and i left my family, but we are torn apart with all these people fighting. do you know what to do about that? host: all right, jeff is next in the act, new york -- nyack, new york. caller: i appreciate the open forum. with the oil being released from the strategic reserve by president biden, one million barrels a day is not going to stop the increase in gas prices

in this country. we have got to get back to having fuel created. i understand you should go to better electric cars and cleaner energy, there has to be a transition period. it is not being done that way. it is just being stopped. there will be no more fossil fuels. you cannot expect oil companies to jump back in and create more energy when they have a sword over their head. besides that, oil, it is a national security situation. it is for the protection of this country. the southern border, that is another problem. crime. so many things happening in this country that we have to address. and you have the squad and the moderate democrats and republicans, you need them to get together and congress and

passed laws instead of biden sent executive border. he has signed 60 of them. that is not how it is done. it has to be by the people, all the representatives. i do appreciate the open forum, and god bless america. thank you. host: there was an editorial in "the washington post" about inflation. it says what goes up is not coming down, inflation is likely to stay high. there are smart and dumb ways to respond. it says inflation remains the biggest threat to the u.s. economy, the data this week only adds to the angst. consumer prices are rising at the fastest pace since 1981, and producer prices are experiencing the biggest surge since the government started tracking them in 2010. it says the best approach is to let the federal reserve lead. we have been urging a long-overdue half-point increase in interest rates for months. the fed finally seems ready to take this advice at its may meeting.

one step that mr. biden can take is to increase legal immigration. it also mentions tariffs and releasing nearly one third of the oil from the u.s. strategic trillium reserve was also the right call. it says that there are also some bad proposals out there. democratic accusations that companies arthritis -- driving inflation by price coaching do not pass the logic test. but there have been calls for price controls on certain essential items, such as energy and food. but price controls would backfire by making this products more scarce because companies would have less incentive to produce them. let's talk to rick in west hope, north dakota, independents line. hi. caller: hi, how are you?

a quick comment, the pump checks not cycling up and down, a lot of times those wells, there should down because they are on a timer. there are so many people out there with misconceptions about that, it is amazing. that is just one of them, just because they are not going up and down does not mean that well is not in production. host: that will be our last call for open forum. coming up next is our spotlight on podcasts every saturday, and this time you'll meet the arizona state university's joshua sellers and henry thomson, host of "keeping it civil," a forum about potentially divisive issues and discussing those emma is --

discussing those in a respectful way. we will be right back. ♪ >> next week on c-span, congress is in recess, and on monday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, government officials and scholars testify on insider trading and stock trading reforms for congress before the house administration committee. tuesday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, executives for home appraisal firms and equal housing organizations testify about the undervaluing of homes for people of color compared to similar homes in white communities. wednesday at 7:00 p.m., conversation on the modern presidency with cedric richmond and a member of the biden administration, kellyanne conway from the trump white house, and from the obama administration, jay carney. watch next week on c-span or on c-span now.

also head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to stream video live or on-demand any time. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office. hear many of those on c-span's new podcast, presidential recordings. >> season one focusing on lyndon johnson. you will hear about the civil rights act come at the presidential campaign, the gulf of tonkin incident, the march on selma, and the war in vietnam. not everyone knew they were being recorded. >> certainly johnson's secretaries new because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. in fact, they were the ones who made sure that the conversations were taped, as johnson would signal to them through an open door between his office and

theirs. >> you will also hear some blunt talk. >> i want a report of the number of people assigned to kennedy the day he died, the number assigned to me now. if i can't ever go to the bathroom, i won't go. i promise i won't go anywhere, i will stay right behind these gates. >> presidential reporting, on the c-span now mobile app. >> >> now available is the congressional directory, order a copy of the directory. this book is regard to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress, including committee assignments. also contact information for state governors and the. order your copy today at c-spanshop.org.

every purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit operation. 's nonprofit operation. >> all this month, watch the >> watch the top 21 winning videos of our student documentary competition. one of our studentcam winners whose documentary told us how the federal government impacted their lives, can watch all of the winning documentaries anytime online at studentcam.o rg. " washington journal" continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." it is our weekly spotlight on podcasts. today's is called "keeping it civil." i have the two cohosts on zoom with us. joshua sellers is the first cohost from arizona state university, also henry thomson

frri