- by golly, there's gold. - you're kidding me. - [narrator] gives the dales a new target. - holy cow. all of a sudden we've got a chunk of gold riding in these groves around here. oh boy. that's a rich chunk of rock. (ethereal music) maria: good thursday morning, everyone. thanks so much for joining us, i'm maria bartiromo. it its thursday, december 16th. your top stories right now 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. the federal reserve gets aggressive, sets to scale back easy money policies, making the decision to speed up the tapering back of bond purchases and raise interest rates three times in the year ahead. new fox business polls highlighting americans' inflation concerns, 75% of voters say government spending is to blame while 66% blame

president biden's leadership. 51% of people disapprove of biden's job performance. we break down the polls this morning. markets this morning are rallying, take a look. dow industrials up 215 right now, s&p 5 help higher by 32, nasdaq higher by 124. this on top of a rally yesterday following the federal reserve's decision, yesterday markets were higher across the board. dow industrials finishing up 383 points, the nasdaq up 328, better than 2%, and s&p 500 higher by 75, 1 and two thirds percent. european markets this morning also surging, the u.k.'s november manufacturing -- purchasing manager's index coming in at 58.1, better than expected. we're waiting on the bank of i think -- bank of england today. the nikkei average up better than 2% as you can see.

"mornings with maria" is live right now. ♪ i should have danced all night to this dj. ♪ oh, my, starry eyed surprise. ♪ dance all night. maria: your morning movers ' ae the electric car makers. new analysis shows investors are betting big on the electric vehicle market in 2022. the chip shortage forcing these companies to work around lean inventories, the stocks are up, all across the board, better than 2%. one analyst says this year's suppliers felt the pain. next year, they will see the biggest gain. markets this morning are up, pretty good rally underway this morning and after the federal reserve decision yesterday where we heard details that the fed will wind down asset purchases and raise rates three times in

2022. chairman jay powell announcing more aggressive policy moves will be put in place in response to the rising inflation with the first hike expected in may of 2022. joining me right now is stifle equity -- chief equity strategist, barry banister. joining the conversation all morning long is fox business' dagen mcdowell and strategic welt partners president and ceo, mark tepper many thank you for being here. barry, thanks for weighing in here. what was your reaction to the announcement yesterday from the federal reserve? >> well, the fed rate plans and their inflation view is in line with what the market had already expected so what you see is a relief rally. but, you know, the market's like an athlete. it's pumped up on steroids. the fed is four or five rate hikes behind the curve right now. the government spending's been out of control. we spent 25% of gdp on covid,

the other developed markets spent 13% of gdp. they're talking about a $4 trillion 10-year build back boonedoggle that's going to never ex spire. nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program. all of this is pumping up the market. we wrote a 2022 outlook that talked about the potential that after a correction, because we're over-extended, you could end up with a bubble. bubbles serve no interest. they always burst. maria: what do you want to do then in that regard, barry? we've got this inflation number causing issues across the board. a new fox business poll shows that 36% of registered voters see inflation and rising price as the economy's biggest issue right now. we've got new fox business polls, nearly half of americans say biden's actions are hurting chances of getting inflation under control. as you rightly mention, they are

continuing to try to push through this $5 trillion spending package even though we've got things like gasoline up 60% year over year, food prices up 40% year over year. >> yeah, they just created artificial demand with government debt encumbering few churr generations. when you think about it, you have to produce first and then consume in an economy. what they did was, they just stimulated the demand first and hoped that the production would catch up and clearly the prices rose. maria: so what do you want to do then in terms of allocating capital, given the macro story now? we're waiting on initial jobless claims out this morning, 8:30 a.m. eastern. we'll get november building permits and housing starts. barry, your thoughts on the macro story and how to allocate capital around it. >> the market is over extended on just about every measure we have. you've got excess liquidity that's very high.

the fed printed way longer than it should have. we wouldn't have $1.6 trillion in overnight reverse repo if the fed hadn't done qe13 months longer than they should have. we've got rates as i said four to five rate increases below where they would be at the current levels of the employment market, never mind the inflation. and china has tightened quite a bit and they have -- they're going to see a slowdown in the first half so i expect a pullback. i would be cautious in the defensive sectors like healthcare staples, utilities, real estate, telecoms. but then if we do have a bubble and a bubble like 1998- 99, this would be the third one in 100 years, if we have a bubble because of the over-the-the top policy, we would go parabolic and the fed wouldn't see it coming when they hike a little

too much in late '23 or '24 and they blow us up. maria: yeah. it's a good point. i'm with mark tepper this morning. go ahead, mark. >> hey, barry. look, obviously the fed's going to be wrapping up bond purchases faster than initially expected. rate hikes will likely come sooner than anticipated. but what's your take on the possibility of the fed actually reversing course and beginning to unwind its balance sheet by selling off a lot of the bonds it's been buying over the course of the last several years? >> yeah, we had hoped that they would say that and chairman powell just said they would look at that. i don't think they want to show their hand completely up front but if the yield curve begins to flatten, which means that your longer term yields like 10 years, those yields fall fast as they raise the short end, then it really would argue for pushing those yields back up to create a positive slope to the yield curve and that would be

partially accomplished by running down the balance sheet, perhaps, but inflation might also do that if it becomesen trenched. we'll just see. markets thrive on cheap money and lots of it and we've had lots of it and the real yield, the yield after inflation looking out 10 years, called the tips yield, that real after-inflation yield is minus 1. and that's what really pumps up risk assets. so we have to keep a closer eye not on the nominal yield but the real yield, the yield after inflation, because there is no alternative to stocks when you can get minus 1 from the treasury. maria: yeah. exactly. here's dagen. go ahead, dagen. dagen: just sitting here looking at a chart of the fed's balance sheet going back to 2007, august 2007 through december 8th of 2021. and there was virtually no he reduction in that balance sheet.

we went from i think it was less than $800 million of fed balance sheet before the financial crisis and now it's at close to, what, $9 trillion. so it's just absolutely insane at how big the fed's balance sheet has gotten and another thing that was going on yesterday is what jay powell said actually wasn't that aggressive. it was completely expected. maria had people on her show yesterday saying three rate hikes. they hike rates after they stop the bond buying program in march and that's what we heard. jay powell's got -- and lael brainard have to worry about confirmation hearings coming up. they're not going to do anything to irritate the democrats, the fed's been buying more than half the new treasury debt this year. again, sopping up all that debt issued by these free-spending liberals. so he just said what would make it easy for him and lael

brainard to go through an additional confirmation, quite frankly, because these individuals are political animals, if anything. i just -- that a was -- that was my a take on it, barry. maria: barry, your thoughts? >> i tend to agree. i'm a little troubled by the fact that to offset the trump tax cuts jay powell took rates in 2018 up to 2.5% and that was money that was returned to the private sector to do what it will. but then now to help fund an enormous expansion of government, the fed is willing to buy trillions of dollars of debt. i mean, where are the priorities here? i always thought of the fed as a capitalist institution but i'm not so sure now. maria: yeah. barry, it's great to see you. thanks so much for weighing in on all of that. >> thank you. maria: barry banister joining us this morning. we'll see you soon, barry. thank you. we are just getting started this

morning. coming up a spending stalemate, the democrats' $2 trillion in spending facing new uncertainty as senator joe manchin stays firm on holding off. it looks like this bill goes into 2022. the hottest stock picks from our top investor, we'll tell you about the sectors you should be watching in the word on wall street. i can see clearly now, the fda approves the first prescription eye drop to treat blurry vision. we'll show you how they work. don't miss a moment of it. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. (vo) t-mobile for business helps small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the largest and fastest 5g network.

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two million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. for more about the company's 2021 resource estimate and near-term expansion strategy visit grouptenmetals.com. maria: welcome back. now some of the top stories we're watching this morning. coming down to the wire on joe biden's tax and spend plan, fractured democrats running out of time to pass the nearly $2 trillion in spending before christmas. it will likely kick the boat until next year, this as efforts to sway senate holdouts like joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are

falling short. he wants the price to come down. democrats worry letting the bill sit until next year will only weaken the chances of passage. meanwhile, the senate did pass the $778 billion national defense authorization act yesterday, it establishes a commission to investigate the afghanistan war and makes changes to the military justice system. no word on why money was not allocated to the southern border. the january 6th house committee has now admitted to altering a text message between congressman jim jordan and then white house chief of staff mark meadows. the altered text message was shown during a hearing by congressman adam schiff. the committee cut off half of jordan's sentence with a period and excluded paragraphs of clarifying information, making it seem like meadows was ordering mike pence on how to handle electoral votes. the committee admitting, quote, in the graphic the period at the end of the sentence was added

inadvertently. the committee is responsible and regrets the error. lawmakers left off that the original message was written by an attorney and forwarded to meadows from jordan so it wasn't even a text from jordan. more americans would rather see president trump run for re-election over president joe biden, a new poll shows 58% of voters say they do not want to see biden on the ticket in 2024. nearly a third of democrats making up that number and a new fox business poll shows 51% of voters disapprove of the president's job performance. dagen mcdowell, obviously this is not good for his chances in 2024. and yet jen psaki yesterday said he intends to run for re-election, dagen. dagen: well, that's one of the many whoppers that this administration has told the american people all year. i think one thing that hurts his

approval rating is that when people are upset about something, whether it's the border crisis, the handling of afghanistan, the death of u.s. service members there, whether it's inflation, the size of this spending package they're trying to push through, at turn they look at the american people and go, well, you're just wrong. your eyes are lying to you. what you're seeing at the border isn't happening. what you're seeing in afghanistan right in front of you, that isn't happening. this package, it's $5 trillion. no, no, no, it's paid for. and it's going to lower inflation. this is good for you, trust us. and they just don't trust anything that this man, they don't trust anything that jen psaki has to say, they don't trust anything that the administration has to say or these left wingers over in congress. it's just -- and then you've got

people who are carrying water for them who are in the private sector and they're sick of this in-- these are crises that were created by this administration. if they had done nothing at the beginning of the year and left all of trump's policies in place, we would be at a really good position right now. maria: i know. it's unbelievable. and you're right, you've gone through a litany of lies. to say the border is closed, no it isn't. to say that the plan costs nothing. no, it doesn't. that it's paid for. well, actually it adds 3 trillion to the debt. a new op-ed in the new york times is asking if it's a good idea for biden to run again in 2024, making the case for announcing he should not and he should say he won't. this is brett stephens, used to be at the journal, now at the new york times. what do you think? ?>> i think someone needs to share the findings joe biden.

the latest whopper, he thinks democrats will put a whopping on the republicans next year. it takes me back to wondering, did people ever really vote for joe biden in the first place or did they vote against trump. to dagen's point, he's been mr. over-promise, under-deliver. he was supposed to be a foreign policy wizard. but his botched withdrawal from afghanistan, that's exactly what led to russia and china becoming more aggressive in their respective regions. we have run-away inflation. yet he wants to give trillions and trillions of dollars out in the form of new stimulus. he was supposed to be the covid savior. after the push to vaccinate everyone so we could live our normal lives, mask mandates are back. and we've been talking for months and months about the border crisis. i would say his performance so far is the exact reason we're expecting a tidal wave election

next year, his low approval ratings and combination with the virginia governor election, it looks like republicans are going to pick up about 40-ish house seats. that's pretty significant. maria: yeah. and the way he treats china is downright scary, laughing off china. the president ignores a question about pressing xi jinping on the origins of covid-19. wait until you see the video. we will have it for you when we come right back. stay with us. retirement income is complicated. as your broker, i've solved it. that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on track. like schwab intelligent income. schwab! introducing schwab intelligent income.

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800,000 coronavirus deaths, do you have a position on your responsibility and why haven't you asked china to do more to be transparent on the origins. maria: well, that was president biden laughing off a question, an important question, about why he is not pushing china to be more transparent about the origins of covid-19. it's a question i've been asking for several months. this as the u.s. intelligence community now says the coronavirus leaked from the wuhan lab of virology and that is plausible, something also we have reported for over a year. biden did not mention the pandemic at all during his virtual meeting with xi jinping last month. joining me now is the washington

free bacon staff writer, matthew foley. thanks very much for being here. why won't he raise this with xi jinping? >> good morning, maria. i think we see an administration here that is quicker to crack down on americans who want to watch baseball in georgia at an all a star game than china which is hosting the olympics next year. i think he can't crack down. china is incredibly invested in senior members in this administration and there's a complete weakness and unwillingness to confront china from president biden on down across the administration. we see the commerce department is incredibly weak on confronting china with the olympics. the commerce secretary said she doesn't support pressuring american businesses to boycott the chinese olympics. meanwhile, the president of the united states says that he opposed the all star game in georgia. so it's weakness on china from top down in the biden administration. maria: well, you make so many important points. and i will add to it that there's a ton of conflicts here. we know about all the money had

that hunter biden took from the ccp when he -- and he continues to have an interest, we believe in this private equity firm in china. your last article in the washington free bacon is about a -- beacon, pardon me, is about the potential conflict of interest for commerce secretary gina raymondo. you report her husband, andy move at the time, is a top executive at path ai, a technology company funded by the chinese government, one of the company's main financial backers was established and fund wed the help of the ccp to narrow the technology gap between china and the united states. this is not something that anybody is talking about. thankfully, you wrote about it. this is a major conflict. >> this is a massive conflict and it's the latest. we know john kerry's family is incredibly invested, has a ton of holdings in chinese government linked companies and you see the commerce secretary has been lenient towards huawei which is linked to china's

surveillance of its muslim uyghur population. so the administration from biden, hunter biden, to commerce secretary gina raymondo to the climate czar, john kerry whose job is in essence to cave to china on everything related to climate policy, it's completely ridden with conflicts when it comes to china and it's not a focus as much as it should be in my opinion. so path ai is invested in danwa a capital. a liberal think tank whose members staff the biden administration alerted congress in testimony about danwa capital. reuters covered its penetration of silicon valley. it's a conflict of interest for the secretary of commerce. the better china invests in it, the better her bottom line is. it's a conflict people should be concerned about and i'm glad you're covering it as well. maria: this is an issue i keep bringing up.

all these people making money personally on china, it's downright scary, the fact that the ccp has made no secret of the fact that it wants to overtake the united states as the number one super power and who do we have protecting the united states from this, people who are waking money on china. >> not only that, as you showed, biden laughed when he was asked about responsibility, china's responsibility for the origins of the coronavirus, which obviously has come from the wuhan virology lab, as people have been -- like tom cotton has been saying for well over a year, as have you. yeah, obviously, it's totally insane. this administration is quicker to punish american citizens for making he it harder to cheat in elections than it is to punish china for genocide, crimes against humanity, we're going to be doing a weak diplomatic boy t cot which is in essence nothing. we'll be sending our finest athletes to china where their genes will be collected by china when they do drug testing, they'll be spied on, they'll be blackmailed at the olympics and

the entire world is ready to glorify china on an international stage when they host these olympics and the administration has done in essence nothing other than mounting this incredibly weak boycott. they say no administration officials will atend. we know multiple administration officials are financially tied to china anyway. i'm not sure how strong a message of a diplomatic boycott of this country is, when we know someone like john kerry, secretary raymondo, they're making money from chinese investments in their family businesses. maria: this diplomatic boy t cot means nothing -- boycott needs nothing. luckily there are outlets like yours and this one that are telling the truth. >> and yours. maria: thank you so much. we will keep it up. all right, matthew. quick break and standing up to russia, florida congressman michael waltz is here to weigh in on the tensions with ukraine and what action he wants to see from the administration. that's next. then, a new way to treat blurry

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maria: welcome back. good thursday morning, everybody. thanks so much for joining us, i'm maria bartiromo. it is thursday, december 16th. a look at markets this half hour where we are watching a big rally underway. triple digit move for the dow industrials, up 267 right now, three quarters of 1%. the s&p 500 is up 40, and the nasdaq higher by 1%, right now higher by 161 on top of the big day yesterday, stocks climbed yesterday following the federal reserve meeting where the fed did say it is going to be starting to taper back the stimulus sooner rather than later and raise rates three times in 2022. the dow was up 383, better than 1%. the nasdaq was up better than 2%. higher by 327. back in the u.s., more severe weather slamming the midwest and plains overnight. cheryl casone with the details right now. cheryl. .cheryl: tornadoes striking ioa

and minnesota, with strong winds gusting up to 100 miles an hour in colorado, new mexico and kansas. parts of the midwest also experiencing power outages and dust storms. meanwhile, president biden pledging the government's full support to states devastated by an outbreak of tornadoes over the weekend. he visited kentucky yesterday where the death toll was lowered to 71 after officials realized three victims were counted twice. 59 people remain missing there. well, former police officer derek chauvin back in court to strike a plea deal with prosecutors, this is over federal civil rights charges related to the murder of george floyd and there's a separate case involving a 14-year-old boy. prosecution now seeking a maximum penalty of 25 years instead of life in prison for his guilty plea. shaw vin was already found guilty of killing floyd and sentenced to 22 and-a-half years in prison there. reddit is going public, social media company announcing in a blog post it filed with the securities and exchange commission for an ipo back in

august, reddit said it had a valuation of about $10 billion after fidelity investments added $400 million in new money. reddit saw a surge of interest this year after a forum on the site, wall street bets, maria, we've heard about it, jolted that meme stock craze. game stop is trying to recover from all that. those are some of your headlines. back to you. maria: all right, cheryl. thanks so much. a bipartisan group of lawmakers returning from a three day trip to ukraine. now sounding the alarm on russia's mill at this buildup on the border. they're urging the administration to act now and speed up aid to ukraine. joining us now is florida congressman michael waltz, a member of the armed services committee, the only green beret in congress. congressman, thanks very much for being here. welcome back. you were on that trip, one of the lawmakers who visited ukraine. what can you tell us? what did you see? >> well, maria, we wanted to go and show the ukrainians that congress supports them.

we take this russian military buildup intimidation and coercion very seriously. but i have to tell you, the sense of urgency and concern out in ukraine doesn't seem to match what's coming out of this white house. the ukrainians are incredibly concerned. this is an existential threat. not only do the russians have hundreds of thousands of troops massing on their border with more still pouring in, they are on the verge of being able to cut off all gas flowing through ukraine, cut off their electricity grid, cut off their coal supplies and potentially any imports or exports if they take their last port. yet, what we're seeing from the biden administration and from biden himself are promises of the tough action he'll take after russia invades. and what both sides of the aisle, republican and democrat, came away from this trip concerned that we need -- or

believing that we need sanctions now. we need to deter russia from taking this action. we need to get inside putin's calculus. we need to turn ukraine into a porcupine with lethal aid and that lethal aid needs to be moving right this minute because if it's not moving now, it's not going to get there in time and we need a lot more of it. maria: i mean, isn't it unbelievable that now putin decides to build up that troop, built up on the border as xi jinping in china is flying a record number of jets into the defense area in taiwan. your thoughts on why these adversaries are doing this now. >> well, they're doing now, maria, it's simple, because they know they can get away with it and they know they can get away with it with this white house, look, putin invaded ukraine last time in 2014, two months after the olympics and he knew there

would be very little repercussions and there weren't. he took crimea and parts of eastern ukraine. i think he's on the verge of doing it again because he can get away with it. look, this is no surprise that it's happening in the wake of afghanistan and it's happening in the wake of the nord stream 2 pipeline construction finishing. the germans haven't turned it on yet but they're going to and once they do that putin has western europe in checkmate. so any type of sanctions that go into place, you know this, has to encompass dollars and euros. putin has his hand around their neck from an energy supply standpoint, then it's not going to work and knows it. maria: what is the motivation here on joe biden's part to be so timid with these adversaries? he won't bring up the origins of covid-19 to xi jinping.

he allows russia to have the nord stream pipeline to transport gas to europe. what is the motivation? >> and in addition to that, right now, maria, the white house is sitting on a lethal aid package that ukrainians desperately need and want to defend themselves. i want to be clear. nobody is talking about hundreds of thousands of u.s. boots on the ground in ukraine. we're talking about helping an ally defend themselves against what could be the largest land invasion since world war ii, but underlying the entire biden foreign policy is the same thing that was under the obama foreign policy. it was don't antagonize, don't be too aggressive, don't -- if we're kind enough and nice enough, our adversaries will come to the table, put diplomacy first without military force to back it up, so our adverse sharelies take -- adversaries take our diplomats seriously and

we're seeing the mistakes playing out again and the reason the lethal aid isn't moving in right now is because biden doesn't want to antagonize putin. maria: unbelievable. >> in the hopes that putin will be a nice guy. we know that type of weakness invites aggression and that's what we're going to see happen again. maria: yeah. meanwhile, all they're doing is pushing through their massive spending bill. they want it done by christmas. he joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are standing in the way, manchin reportedly uneasy about the gimmicks in the bill, saying that the massive federal programs are temporary when in fact they're not. a new fox business poll finds 46% of registered voters think the build back better bill will push inflation higher. 21% said it would help. 42% said the bill will hurt the economy. and yet they're pushing it forward, congressman. your thoughts? >> well, it seems to be finally on life support if not dead in the senate.

and thank god for manchin and cinema, that called out these -- sinema that called out these gimmicks. it's not paid for. that's a lie. you can't have on the one hand programs that are only going to be in place for a year or two, when we all know the intent, the true intent is for permanent government programs but to say they're going to fall off a cliff in a year or two but then we're going to collect revenue for 10 years, that's a budget gimmick that's lying to the american people. maria, we should not be celebrating, because if they push through voting reform and there are many in the progressive left that want to forever make america vote the way california and new york does, where they have super majority, then they can come back around to that socialist spending program once they've locked down power and what this new push you're going of see is all about power, it's about harvesting, no voter id, all of those elements that california and new york have put in place that they now want to take

nationwide so we shouldn't be resting over the holidays for one minute because they're coming and they're coming big-time. maria: it's absolutely extraordinary, congressman. i mean, you know, i mean, mark levin calls it totalitarianism. that's what it feels like. it's just extraordinary and these mandates and the surveillance, the bank surveillance they want, all pages right out of the communist party of china. >> they're going to-a-the voting rights -- they're going to hide it under the cloak of voting rights and accessibility to polls and all of that language but make no mistake, if they get this through, republicans will not be in power for a very long time. they will tilt the playing field so greatly towards that area, towards their side and then once they get that in place, it's the supreme court and it's fundamentally changing the nature of this country. maria: this is all so unamerican.

it's just extraordinary to me. congressman, it's good to catch up. thanks so much. >> we'll fight this fight. thanks, maria. merry christmas. maria: and to you, congressman michael waltz, merry christmas, congressman. coming up, a little drop will do, the fda approves the first ever eye drops to treat implorely vision. we'll find out how it works. a new law allows parents to sue over critical race theory. we'll tell you all about it in the morning's hot topic buzz. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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maria: welcome back. reading glasses now in liquid form? vuity, the first and only fda approved eye drops to he treat blurry vision now hitting shelves. the prescription drops treat a progressive condition affecting nearly half of the u.s. adult population. when working right, it can enhance vision for up to 10 hours. joining me now is the principal study investigator for vuity and wearing vision institute medical director, dr. george wearing. it's great to have you this morning. thanks so much for being here. tell us about vuity and the candidates for these eye drops. who is the candidate for this eye drop? >> maria, we're thrilled to be with you this morning and thanks

for having us. you know, over 128 million americans have age related blurry near vision, like you said, or presbyopia. what is presbyopia first off? this is when as we age the eye loses its natural ability to focus for near tasks because the internal human lens stiffens and becomes less flexible. this will affect most of us over the age of 40. we find ourselves reaching for things like reading glasses, buy focals, contact lenses or pursuing lasix or lens replacement both of which i do for a living. we're thrilled to announce that the fda has recently approved the first and only eye drop in history for the treatment of age related blurry near vision or presbyopia in adults. this drop is called vuity and this was developed by allergan which is an abvie company. in the phase 3 clinical trials

of which i served as the principal investigator participants observed improvement in near vision while maintaining their distance vision for up to 6 hours with a single drop in the morning. so this is very, very exciting and the neat thing about this is the drop was found to be very well tolerated. there were no serious adverse events observed. there were about 5% of participants experienced maybe some eye redness or a headache. but overall, very, very well tolerated, efficacious, and safe. so we're absolutely thrilled to have this opportunity to help a lot of people. maria: absolutely. this is a big deal. so no side effects? what are the side effects, if any? >> well, there were side effects were observed in about 5% of participants and, again, some eye redness, headache, and this sort of thing. so -- but overall, this was found to be safe and

efficacious. and the neat thing about this is that there's so many people that we can help. this utilizes the eye's natural mechanism of reducing the pupil size and thereby it improves the near vision without reducing the distance vision and so this is why this becomes so exciting. if you think about wearing reading glasses, for example, we may start with wearing reading glasses and this is not necessarily meant to replace reading glasses. it's just another novel alternative to help us read up close when we lose that ability. maria: i love it. what is the cost of vuity? is this covered by insurance? >> this is not covered by insurance. and this does require a prescription. so we need to see our eye care provider, your optometrist or ophthalmologist to determine ifvuity is right for you.

we anticipate the cost to be $79 a bottle he depending on your insurer and the location. that would be about for a month's supply if you were to utilize it every day. maria: it looks good. where can we get it for those interested? >> again, this requires you to see your optometrist or ophthalmologist. you want to call your eye care provider, make sure you're a good candidate with a good eye example. and then -- eye exam. they will write a prescription. it's currently available country-wide in pharmacies everywhere. so very, very exciting. we're going to be able to help a lot of people with this. maria: yeah. big news. very exciting. dr. wearing, it's good to see you. thanks so much. we'll be watching, george wearing joining us this morning on vuity. >> maria, thanks for the opportunity and happy holidays. maria: we'll see you soon. and to you. thanks so much. quick break and then giving power back to the parents, the new legislation which allows lawsuits against schools that teach critical race theory.

we'll get into it in the morning's hot topic buzz. stay with us. ♪ i'm a sucker for you. ♪

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maria: welcome back. time for the hot topic buzz. florida governor ron de santis introducing a new bill called

the stop woke act which bans critical race theory teaching in florida schools and workplaces. watch. >> giving parents a private right of action to be able to enforce the prohibition on crt that this corporate crt, it's basically corporate sanctioned racism, and they're trying to shove it down these employees throats. maria: so parents can now sue over the teaching of this critical race theory, the vice chairman of the state's education committee is still denying that crt is being taught in our schools. dagen mcdowell, your thoughts? dagen: i do think that with all due respect to governor he de santis, the heart of this is political. it's an important platform for parents. it's an important platform certainly for republicans. so, again, this felt like a political you announcement. but it's very subtle.

again, you see people in the media kind of tsk, tsk, tsk, shaking their finger at parents saying critical race nearly is not being taught. well, it is. that's why glenn youngkin, it's one of the reasons he won the governor's race in virginia. it might be narrow. it might be subtle. but it is being taught. maria: that's right. dagen: i don't know what this legislation will actually do. it will probably be overturned in court but it is an important issue for parents from coast to coast. maria: yeah. it really is. and mark, because of the pandemic, parents got to see exactly what their kids were being taught on zoom. mark: yeah, full transparency right there. and maria, dagen, look, as a parent with three kids in school, i have a right to protect my kids from being brain-washed by some extremists. i'm allowed to have a voice. and if you poison my kid's mindset, absolutely i should have the opportunity to seek

damages. now, the thing is, if this happens in private school, the solution's pretty simple. i pull my kid and those division dollars go bye-bye. so the parents already have an influence on private school curriculum but in public schools you don't have that opportunity so the right to seek damages is even more important. i love what governor de santis is doing. i hope more states follow suit. maria: yeah. dagen and mark stay right there. the next hour of "mornings with maria" begins right now. ♪ maria: good thursday morning, everyone. thanks so much for joining us. i'm maria bartiromo. it is thursday, december 167th. your top stories right now, *u7 a.m. on the east coast. the federal reserve gets a aggressive and gets set to scale back easy money policy. the fed announcing its decision to speed up the tapering back of bond purchases and raise interest rates three times in the year ahead. >> the federal open market

committee kept interest rates near zero and a updated its assessment of the progress that the economy has made toward the criteria specified in the committee's forward guidance for interest rates. we don't find ourselves in a situation where we might have to raise rates while we're still purchasing assets. maria: we will tell you all about it and how it impacted markets but first this, the sinking ship. president biden's approval ratings are everything, they are ticking lower everywhere on every issue. new fox business polls this morning show 75% of voters say washington's run-away spending is responsible for the inflation that we are faced with. 66% say it's at the fault of the president and 51% disapprove of biden's performance. we will get into all these new polls this morning. markets are extending a big rally, we're looking at a triple digit move on the dow industrials and nasdaq, dow up 242, s&p 500 up 36, nasdaq

higher by 136, this on top of the big rally yesterday following the fed decision and the fed's press conference, that was the final meeting for the fed of 2021. the dow industrials were up 383 points, better than 1%. the nasdaq up 328, better than 2% and the s&p 500 higher by 75. european markets this morning are also strong. we had economic data out today, the u.k. november manufacturing purchasing manager's index coming in at 58.1, hotter than expected. the bank of england meeting today. the cac is up 111 in paris and dax higher by 289, that's almost 2% in germany. in asia overnight green across the board, japan was the best performer, the nikkei average up better than 2% on the session. as you can see. "mornings with maria" is live right now. and now some of the top stories we're watching this morning. more americans would rather see president trump run for re-election than president biden

run again. a new morning consult and political poll this morning shows 58% of voters say they do not want to see biden on the ticket in 2024. nearly a third of democrats making up that number. meanwhile, a new fox business poll shows 51% of voters disapprove of the president's job performance right now. dr. anthony fauci says covid boosters can help improve he protection against the omicron variant and there's no need for a variant specific shot right now. fauci pointing out that the effectiveness of the pfizer vaccine against omicron is significantly lower than against the delta variant. omicron has been detected in at least 36 states. time for the word on wall street, top investors watching your money, joining me rights now is strategic wealth partners president and ceo, mark tepper, portfolio wealth advisors president and chief investment officer, lee munson and morgan stanley vice president of

investments, jim mccann. mark, with the market that is rallying this morning after the federal reserve's decision to wind down asset purchases, explain this rally to us. the chairman, jay powell, said that more aggressive policy moves will be put in place in response to the rising inflation when the first rate hike comes in may. do you think investors are reacting to the fact that the fed is going to get its hands around inflation? i mean, higher interest rates typically wouldn't cause this kind of a rally, right? >> right, right. typically there's a knee jerk reaction and the market would pull back. i think more and more investors are beginning to realize that inflation is a huge problem. cpi's up 6.8% year over year. the ppi number from earlier this week came in at 9.6% and that's going to flow through to cpi. so both of those are accelerating and the fed needs to deal with this aggressively. when you've got your costs going up faster than your wages, inflation is a tax on lower income people and most of the

middle class as well and if you think about it, the fed has a dual mandate. full employment and price stability. we're at full employment. there's a 11 million job openings right now. if you want a job, you can get one. so the fed needs to put inflation in its crosshairs so we all have more money in our wallets. it's going to raise consumer confidence. it will lead to more consumer spending. and you heard jay powell say that yesterday. they're going to accelerate the taper, they're going to hike rates sooner and the biggest thing that surprised me yesterday, though, was when jay powell said he thinks inflation is going to be back around 2% in a year. however, median one year forward expectations on inflation are 6%, median three year expectations are 4%. so somebody's wrong here and i think it's jay powell. personally, i think the fed should have just stopped buying bonds completely right now, forget the tapering, accelerate it all the way to right now and they should start raising rates

sooner. the biggest question is whether or not they begin to unwind the balance sheet. overall, i think this is being looked at very positively as far as the stock market goes. maria: yeah, it sure is. we're getting a headline, bank of england is raising the bank rate from 1-tenth of a percent, they're lifting it a bit at the meeting this morning. a new fox business poll shows nearly half of americans say biden's actions are making inflation worse. what do you think about the impact on americans and the fact that we see inflation pretty much on everything. you've got the price of gasoline up 60% year over year, furniture, house goods, really hotels across the board. >> well, they pretty much created a perfect script for inflation here. i mean, look, for a long time we were paying people not to work and what that does is that takes people at that work in the supply chain back out of the

supply chain. and if you don't think that the supply chain has a lot to do with the inflation we're seeing right now, you just don't -- you know, you're not getting it. also, give those people a lot of money to go out and spend while they're not working. that's inflationary as well. and then finally, there was a report the icing on the cake, why don't we do this. why don't we hamper the energy industry and drive up you oil prices, shut down pipelines which drives up oil prices, cut off capital expenditures to the oil industry which drives up oil prices and limit federal leases which drives up oil prices. then let's blame everybody else in the world, opec and everybody else, for the higher oil prices. you have almost a perfect script for inflation and higher prices and it's not a good script for economic improvement. it's not a good script for people to build up their savings which is the kind of thing you

need for sustained consumer spending and you're hurting those people that you purport to really care about, the low income and the middle income class of people. maria: well, i mean, i think it's even scarier that that they don't understand the impact of their actions. i mean, you had jen psaki the other day say that the reason that meat prices are up us because of corporate greed, because of a conglomerate of meat companies. they don't understand. >> you can always use -- maria: that massive spending is triggering this. >> greed and billionaires. always blame wealthy people and greed for every single issue that we have and that's a really good recipe. the problem is, people aren't buying it. look at the polls. people are not buying this at all. and yet they are seeing the higher prices and it's all through the economy. maria: yeah. you're right. lee, how about those big, bad banks. you are hot on the bank stocks rights now. you say we'll see a steeper

yield curve, extended borrowing so the rate hikes are going to be good for the banks, right, lee? >> look what jim said. people are going to be off the government dole. we're going to have net interest margin. we always forget about net interest margins, right. it's such a basic thing. as rates rise, banks will make a bigger spread. but that's not really the whole story, right. that's how they sort of trade day-to-day when rates go down, banks sell off. next year we're going to have consumers that are going to start running out of this money because they have to go and start paying their rent again. the government assistance is going to start dwindling down. also for small businesses, if you've got a lot of ppp loans last year and you're sitting on cash why do you need to talk to your banker. i have a lot of clients that run small businesses, they're flush with cash right now. they don't need to borrow. that will change as inflation continues to pick up like the other guests are talking about and so that's going to be this tail wind of banks where not only is net interest going to rise, but then also in the retail sector we're going to get

more people who need to borrow money and that's been very low. i mean, look at the loan growth over the last year. i'm surprised banks are up so much this year even though i own them, i'm very happy about that. i think you're going to get a perfect storm of cheap valuations which nobody likes to talk about valuations especially in fang-land. you're going to have net interest margins start to rise which we can see, right. i mean, that's so odd of. even the fed is saying banks are going to make more money next year on net interest and then on the third thing which my thesis is people are going to have to start going back to banks and start borrowing money because the savings accounts -- and i mean from your burger flipper all the way up to small to mid-size businesses are going to have to say we're going to need some more cashier and that's going to -- cash here and that's going to be phenomenal for the banks. all the surprises for banks will be our loan book is expanding and everybody will say, my god,

look at the multiples, why aren't we bidding these things up. it's already happening. maria: yeah, you had a great performance with the banks this year as you said. fin tech trying to take market share but the banks keep on growing. lee, great analysis there. lee munson, jim, thank you so much. mark tepper, you're sticking around all morning long. gentlemen, have a great day. thanks for the word on wall street. quick break and then much more ahead. coming up, a spending stalemate. the democrats' $2 trillion in spending facing new uncertainty as senator joe manchin stays firm on holding a it will get kicked into 2022. shopping centers making a comeback as consumers feel the effects of inflation, everything you need to know in the retail round-up coming up. fresh vine wines making the wall street debut with star studded power behind it, owners julian hoff an nina dobreff join us

in the next hour. you're matching"mornings with maria." stay with us. ♪♪ care. it has the power to change the way we see things. ♪♪ it inspires us to go further. ♪♪ it has our back. and goes out of its way to help. ♪♪ when you start with care, you get a different kind of bank. (vo) t-mobile for business helps small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected

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maria: welcome back. president biden's massive spending and tax agenda at a standstill now as democrats are set to miss another self-imposed deadline due to senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema's pushback. manchin has met with president biden twice this week, standing firm in the main criticism of the bill that democrats are using budget gimmicks to disguise the legislation's true cost. he warns a broad spending package would be fiscally irresponsible. joining the conversation all morning long is dagen mcdowell and mark tepper. dagen, now we've heard from the cbo, we heard from the committee for a responsible budget, they say the plan is actually $4.9 trillion and a jen psaki called the cbo response fake. had they just -- i don't understand. dagen: none of this is helping get joe manchin on-board. and i don't think he will ever agree to anything of this size.

maybe they cobble together something in the new year. but, again, the lying about the it's paid for, the lying -- and just look at it in totality. if everything runs for 10 years, that's what it's going to cost and it's going to add $3 trillion to the deficit, period. stop fibbing and making up things, trying to push this through, number one. what did mark zande say yesterday, that this won't drive up inflation? okay, even if you -- i disagree. but even if you take that on its face, politically joe manchin is not going to get on-board with this. politically to the average person it's why are you spending $4 trillion more when inflation is running at nearly a 40-year high pace? so even if in the real world, if you buy what mark zande said, as

a politician you can't sell this to your constituents. maria: well, you're right. and you know what else, dagen? i mean, you have to ask the question why are we doing this now? i mean, look, the economy has slowed down certainly from the expectations earlier in the year but we're still talking about a growing economy, talking about a consumer that is real strong, money in the bank, money to spend, mark, so you have -- i know every president wants their own legislation legacy. president obama was obamacare. you know, but we don't need such a massive spending package right now that's adding $3 trillion to the debt, dagen. dagen: i'll let mark get in here but i want to add there's so many problems with the package and so many falsehoods that are peddled by the economists and the left. we need to get women back in the workforce? we didn't have a problem with that before the pandemic, number

one. number two, the labor participation among women actually improved in the month of november. and with this child care entitlement for people who choose to, say, use faith-based child care, it would drive up the cost. casey mull began did an entire study about it, 20 to $30,000 a year. so who is that helping? maria: senator kennedy, john kennedy from louisiana, mark, said the child care credit is a federal take-over of the child care area, the industry. mark: yeah. and not to mention the fact that if just that part of this bill is extended for 10 years, that's another 1.4 trillion by itself. so, look, i agree with everything that's been said so far. i personally don't think we need any of this right now. i mean, fiscal stimulus, this is the exact reason we're experiencing nearly 7% inflation

right now. we don't need to drop trillions of dollars in people's lapse. if you actually go through -- laps. if you go through line item by line item and you look at the bill, the part that i'm actually most okay with is the $555 billion for climate change. feel free to come back to me in three years and pitch that one when inflation is under control. but right now, the most important thing we need to he focus on is stamping out inflation and if all of a sudden you're giving people another trillion plus dollars, however much the social infrastructure ends up amounting to, up to over 4 trillion, all that's going to do is lead to a more permanently high inflation period and that's not good because we've talked about this already too. that is a tax on lower income people. it's a tax on the middle class and that's who biden is supposed to be fighting for but he's not doing a good job. maria: that's right. why does he tip-toe around the

chinese communist party. let's take a short break and we'll look at him laughing off china, the president ignores a question completely about pressing xi jinping about the origins of covid-19, a question i've been asking since the start of the pandemic. the video you have to see is next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ok, let's talk about those changes to your financial plan.

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>> 800,000 coronavirus deaths, do you have a statement on your responsibility and why haven't you asked china to do more to be transparent on the origin? maria: that's president biden laughing at a questioner, laughing off the question about why he is not pushing xi jinping and china to be more trans parent about the origins of covid-19. the u.s. intelligence community officially saying the coronavirus leaked from the wuhan lab of virology is plausible. i've been reporting this for over a year now. joining me now is the gatestone institute senior fellow, gordon chang, the author of the great u.s./china tech war. thank you very much for being here. the this is a question we've asked together many times, i've been asking for over a year, why won't joe biden ask xi jinping about the origins of covid-19. they have disrupted an investigation. they won't allow outside

investigators in to tell us what happened in wuhan. >> yeah, i don't know why biden won't but i do know one thing and that this is a dereliction of duty. 802,000 americans have died from this disease. we know that the chinese leadership deliberately spread this virus beyond china's borders. they lied about contagiousness and while locking down their own countries they were pressuring others not to impose travel restrictions and quarantines on you a rifles from china. -- arrivals from china. this is deliberate. that means joe biden has a constitutional responsibility to protect the united states and to press the chinese on this and if he doesn't want to do it, i don't know why. but if he doesn't want to do it, he should not be president. i think he has a constitutional responsibility to resign because he's not protecting us. maria: well, you're right, gordon. i mean, look, we know that the ccp has been very clear. had they want to overtake the united states as the number one super power. and yet the leader of this

country, the leader of the free world has yet to hold him to account on anything. in fact, enabling them to continue getting a foothold into america. look at all the conflicts. earlier we were talking about gina raymondo, the commerce secretary where her husband works for a company funded by the ccp. no wonder they want to tiptoe around xi jinping. they're all being paid by xi jinping. >> yes. and i know this sounds drastic but we do need to cut all these links with china because many americans now have incentive to promote china over the united states. in other words, to help china destroy our society. so until we can figure out how to deal with beijing, we cannot be trading. we cannot be investing. we cannot have these technical cooperation agreements because we can't have people in our government on wall street, in corporate boards, who are promoting chinese totalitarianism over of american freedom and that is exactly

what's happening, maria. maria: and the ccp made it very clear that taiwan is part of china. look what the nfl did. the nfl is raising eyebrows because they showed a map as part of a new announcement that labels taiwan as being part of mainland china. it comes as the white house is under fire for reportedly censoring taiwan during the recent summit for democracy, gordon. so here you have all of these institutions including the nfl rolling over for the ccp, even though taiwan continues to say it's independent and does not want to be acquired by china. >> yes. and the official american position on taiwan is that its status is unresolved. so what the nfl did with this map, it took china's position and it's promoting it over the official american one and that summit for democracy on friday when they cut the video of the taiwan minister, audrey tang, this is indescribeable.

this is tim mid. this is incompetent. whatever. but clearly biden took a good idea which is the summit for democracy and turned it into a debacle for democracy. maria: so what do you think the motivation is? what's going on here, gordon? >> you know, to me, i have such a different world view than the people who are running the government. it's difficult for me to understand. i mean, they believe that they need china's cooperation on climate change. they believe that they need to get along with china in the world. they don't understand that china is at war with us, china has this doctrine of unrestricted warfare. they declared a people's war, quote, unquote, on us in may 2019 and biden says they're just a, quote, unquote, competitor. he won't even say adversary. he won't say what he needs to say which is an enemy and until he says that, he's not going to defend us. he's not going to discharge his constitutional responsibility. maria: yeah. you're right, gordon.

you're spot-on this morning. thanks very much for being here, gordon. thank you, gordon chang joining us on the conflicts of interest between this government and the chinese communist party. quick break and then thousands of migrants flooding the arizona border now. new york congressman john katko is here with what he saw at the border firsthand. then forget the cheese cake this year, not going to happen. how you could get paid to eat a different desert. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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family all on board that aircraft. again, a real tragic crash to report from the dr. well, covid is hitting colleges. universities like princeton and cornell and nyu are urging students to head home and they're reinstating remote learning as covid-19 outbreaks surge on campus. this as the omicron variant continues to spread throughout the nation and the seven day average of daily cases surged 62% since the start of november. well, a hedge fund closing up shop, anchorage capital closing its $7.4 billion flagship fund and returning the money to clients. the fund holds positions in companies including mgm holdings and retailer j crew. wall street journal reports that anchorage telling clients cheap money policy is making the market for distressed debt difficult right now.

kraft has a solution to the cream cheese shortage. the maker of philadelphia cream cheese will reimburse 18,000 consumers $20 if they buy any other desert. >> there's not enough labor in the manufacturing plants which is the late onset of removing the unemployment benefits was certainly part of that. people just sort of coming out of covid in a different capacity, different feelings about how they want to work or of not work. and so that -- and increased demand. our own demand as you pointed out is up 43%. and we're over 4 million pounds already this year. cheryl: rosen adding that production in the famous cheesecake changes weekly, depends on supply. that was a great interview, maria. again, kraft, other deserts, chocolate, i'm thinking of things i'm going to start buying. such a sweet tooth which you

know. maria: ice cream. thank you, cheryl. border patrol has been overwhelmed by illegal migrants crossing yuma, arizona, the city seeing 1200% increase in crossings, the mayor declaring a local emergency last week. when i came back from the trip to the border the second time i told you about arizona. it has gotten worse since then. joining me now is new york congressman, john katko. thanks very much for being here. are you in yuma right now? >> i'm in the southern arizona, near the border, town called sierra vista and but what i've learned is absolutely stunning, maria. maria: tell us about it. >> well, in the texas border area where i've been many times and reported to you about, people come up across the border, they raise their hand and say i'm here, let me in and they come over in droves. here they're coming over, almost all you adults and they're

coming over one or two at a time. the cartels are using a different tactic here. the number of crossings in the arizona sector are up -- they're more than the last three years combined and they're being overwhelmed. for every person they catch here, they're documenting, there's electronic surveillance there's an equal number getting away and a getting into the interior of the country. you think about -- it's amazing. when i was standing here yesterday, talking to a border patrol agent, three people came across and the border patrol agent grabbed them. it's truly the wild west here. maria: this is exactly what i saw when i was in del-rio where a number of the border patrol agents told me they arrested 5,000 people in yuma just in a week's time. drugs are also coming over the border at rapid rates. fentanyl seizures up 131% from last year, congressman. cartels are even using social media to recruit teenager as the

get-away cars. we reported this many times. what have you learned about the fentanyl coming across? >> well, maria, this is going to stun you. in this sector, fentanyl seizures are up 2,000%. maria: oh, my god. >> 2,000%. what the cartels are doing over here, they're using a lot of the drone technology to carry the fentanyl across the border. at times, the fentanyl is literally bursting in the air and a it's dispersed in the air. imagine if that goes over a populated area, what that could do. it's tragic what's going on here. what i learned is the cartels are enriched to such an extent that they're kind of recalibrating. they're focusing on hard drugs, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl. they're getting sophisticated in production of the drugs. they're better at smuggling it across. it's leading to a de-- with mexico because cartels are

enriched so much by the crossing fees, up to a billion dollars a month they charge i'll lee aliens, -- illegal aliens. we'll have a country, mexico, that will be far less stable than it was. we want neighbors like canada. we don't want neighbors like what's going on in mexico. maria: has the administration reinstituted the remain in mexico plan. congressman, we know that a federal judge continues to tell the administration to reinstate it but last week we heard they sent back two people. there are 7,000 people that are coming across the border in mexico, texas, every day. and they send two people back. so obviously they're not really following the law and they're blowing off these rulings by federal judges. >> yeah, make no mistake about it. they tried repeatedly to get rid of the remain in mexico policy. they're only doing it now because the courts are telling them to and i had meetings in four different places in the last two days, didn't even hear

the mention of the remain in mexico policy and that is not even a factor here. what they've done is -- with their border policies is really destroying the security on the border and not only that, the number of border patrol agents in this sector, they're down about 25, 30% and that's a -- it's impossible to control the border when it's that bad. maria: of course. i don't understand. we've got 2 million apprehensions year-to-date in the texas, mexico border. we've got now 5,000 arrests a week in yuma. we've got enough fentanyl coming across to kill 200 million americans and the biden administration refuses to call this a crisis, refuses to acknowledge it in any way. why? >> well, i think that just fits their narrative. they want these people to come across. you know what? anybody that doesn't think this affects them in the interior of the country is not paying

attention. the drugs that are killing our kids are coming across the border. the people disbursed in the community without being vaccinated are coming from the border. you talk about close to 2 million people and very few if any have been vaccinated and by the way, the number of people that you said could be killed by fentanyl that's come across, every single american in this country could be killed seven times over with the fentanyl we've seized at the border. that's not the fentanyl that a got through. so the fentanyl is pouring across the border. it's mixed not just with hard drugs like heroin, it's even being mixed with marijuana and we're seeing overdose deaths. one day, we had 14 overdoses in one day in my hometown in syracuse, new york. so every city's a border city, every county, every town, and people have to understand this is going to have a long-term detrimental effect on our country. maria: well, that's very concerning about marijuana, given it is legal in certain states as well.

congressman, look, it's a great thing that you went all the way to the border, you're in yuma, you are seeing all of this stuff up close and personal and yet you still voted for the infrastructure package, congressman. do you regret it given the fact there's not a dime in the infrastructure package for the border wall or for any infrastructure at the border? >> no, listen, i made it clear since the beginning that there is not a dime for law enforcement, not a dime for the border in this package or counter terrorism efforts for that matter in the package. maria: so why vote for it? >> it's going to help our country be a better competitor with the likes of bad actors like china, help us with our water systems and roads. in the long term i think it will be a great investment. i think the infrastructure package to me is a good bottle of wine, it's going to age really well. i really think so. maria: well, we'll see about that. try getting joe biden to acknowledge that the origins of covid-19 are in wuhan. he won't bring it up to xi

jinping. so about this competition with china, i don't know. there must be a massive conflict. they must having on him that he won't bring this up. >> maria, unless we start standing up to china and realizing the bad maligned actor that they are, it's unbelievable to he me. think about this, they're going to be over there, having the olympics over there and at the same time one to three million uyghurs, an ethnic group within china, are in concentration camps being killed, sterilized and forced labor. what are we doing? we have to stand up to these guys. maria: that's right. two administrations told us that it's genocide. the trump administration and the biden administration, also antony blinken said it's genocide and yet diplomatic boycott, what is that going to do? congressman, thank you for your work and for going to yuma. we appreciate you coming on this morning. quick break and then shopping centers making a comeback but inflation is dampening the holiday spending. we have everything you need to know when we come back in the

retail roundup. forget the mask while flying? why some airline ceos say masking up is not necessary. we'll get into it. it's this morning's hot topic buzz. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ care. it has the power to change the way we see things. ♪♪ it inspires us to go further. ♪♪ it has our back. and goes out of its way to help.

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maria: welcome back. well, the year coming to a close, it has been a difficult one for the retail industry amid

the pandemic but open air malls are leading retail's recovery right now, despite lower customer counts across the industry, open air malls added 49% more retail space this year than in 2020, amounting to more than 170 million square feet. strategic resource group managing director burt flickinger joins me to discuss. tell me about open air malls, burt. why such an increase? >> an increase, because the leaders, kimco, brookfield, westfield, are all investing in their malls and they're becoming community centers. so food, fashion, fitness, everything from people to pets and medical and physical therapy, plus entertainment and home. so it's the perfect strategic solution, giving people what -- stores for what they want to spend on and also they're

waiving the restrictive covenants to let lowes, bj's, costco, amazon move in in the out-parcels of the mall to combine what would of historically be a retail power center with a retail mall with very good tax consequences to fund public education in schools and to fund jobs and economic growth. maria: you know, it's interesting, particularly with the pandemic, people want to be outside and they want to make sure that they have ventilation so that could be another one. but look, you're not seeing much holiday cheer when it comes to pricing. shoppers are reporting a lack of holiday discounts right now, that's dampening their spending. tell me where the discounts are today and are we looking at inflation on everything? >> maria, the discounts are bj's and costco wholesale club and aldi and the off-price retailers. maria, the big scandal across america is the big brand companies are price gouging consumers at unprecedented

proportions so in addition to what you and dagen and mark tepper and jim la camp reported so well on inflation approaching 7% producer price increases, close to 9%, you can add another nickel or a dime to those levels of inflation because the big brand companies are price gouging and eliminating or he reducing their he promotional spending which consumers count on to raise his or her standard of living. so with higher inflation and fewer promotions, consumers are saving more and spending less. maria: what are your picks? let's do flick's picks for you, burt, what do you have for us today? >> maria, bj's and lowes and the common denominator there is the leaders on a non-denominal basis are very spiritual based, constantly lowering prices and raising standards of living and

then fed ex will be a real powerhouse as is tractor supply, which has similar leadership principles. and the interesting common denominator on all of them, maria, they don't have a harvard mba hot shot. a lot of people who got his or her education in the military, in public service, maybe high school, maybe community college or state college or university but it's teamwork and it's taking care of the customer and people who know how to run a store, the tornadoes that fox weather reported so well, tractor supply, lowes and b j's will respond very well to that and that's why they're winners because they've got great leaders and they're not price gouging, they're lowering prices and they're raising standards of living for consumers and their team members promote -- get promoted to management, so best in the u.s., best worldwide as well. maria: yeah. i mean, look, it's hard to find any discounts these days. even the dollar store is now

charges $1.25 for everything, so there you go. sign of the times. burt, it's good to see you. merry christmas, happy holidays to you. >> same. maria: burt flickinger joining us this morning. quick break and questioning airplane mask mandates a, some airline ceos say they're not necessary. we'll tell you about it in this morning's hot topic buzz, next. ♪ i can't feel my face when i'm with you. ♪ but i love it. ♪ but i love it. ♪ oh, i can't feel my face when i'm with you. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey, tam-tam! i was thinking maybe... your mom's car? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ merry christmas, dad.

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maria: welcome back, time for hot topic buzz federal mask mandates on planes no i called into question, ceos stress of sky-high nutrition strong masks don't add much if anything in the air cabin environment. >> fueling frustration confusion among passengers daving daving nation sense masks work he wouldn't he work very no vent lakes jay why wearing masks if we don't need to wear them on airplane, this is part of the covid theatre

the thing that angers not jurist airline passengers, but people in new york who are walking around now forced again two vaccines and a booster, got to put mask back on ceo of airline scott kirby said air quality on planes safer than he intensive care unit equivalent 15 feet away from somebody in a typically building because of filtration system, that the hepa filtration on airplanes, but get ready of the masks you can go back to now telling me, that this tiny bag right here, is a third carry on? refusing to allow me to board because that i have around my neck? now the -- the flight attendants gate agents can go back to harassing us about

important stuff like that instead of mask positioning. maria: mark i think the peoplew people feel they are doing something wearing a mask i don't know that it works though. mark: maybe contribution to society in their mind maybe they think helping them, the thing that bothers me most about mask mandate is when the flight attendant gets on the intercom really enforces 2 and above has to have mask covering mouth and nose when two years old i barely talk barely know how to breathe on your own it is very, very difficult at that age, for me i am you know a lot older than that, i don't like wearing them i feel crappier wearing mask on flight the southwest united american all in agreement aircraft has some super duper air fill the

renovation system makes them extremely tariff, one said 99.97% airborne pathogens are affiliated out don't add extra value the science as you have it right now. but the party that bass all pro science a year ago doesn't want to take i can this -- dagen: insist on mask mandates on airplanes why get behind in it the first place what i want to mother if planes safe, again, just a show. like you said. >> theatre, stay right there next hour "mornings with maria" begins right now. . . good thursday morning, thanks for joining us. i'm maria bartiromo, thursday, december 16 top stories 8:00 a.m. on the button on the east coast, the feds get aggressive, scale back easy money policy announcing

decision to speed up the tapering back of bond purchases, and raise interest rates three times, in the year ahead. >> open market committee kept interest rates here in zero updated assessment of the progress of the economy has made, for the criteria, specified in the committee's forward guidance from interest rates you don't find yourselves in a situation we might have to raise rates while we are still -- assets. >> on all morning long sending a clear message to the white house, new fox business polls highlight americans inflation concerns, 75% voters say government spending is to blame, for the inflation we face, 66% blaming president biden leadership 51% disapprove of biden's job performance, markets this morning are rallying on top of yesterday's big numbers, dow industrials right now up 214 points that is two-thirds of 1% s&p 500 higher by 30 nasdaq

up 95 that is two-thirds of a percent higher there as well, this on top of the big rally yesterday, following federal reserve decision at the close markets chuck it up triple-digit moves dow up 383, one percent, the nasdaq up 328 that was better than 2%, the s&p was higher by 75 one and two-thirds percent european markets are also higher, take a look, eurozone gains across the board. we have economic data out uk november manufacturing purchasing managers next 58.1 hotter than expected. best performer in europe germany up one and two-thirds percent in asia overnight green cross there as well, japan the benevolent performer, nikkei average up better than 2%, on the session, "mornings with maria" is live right now. . morning movers, the firm on rise after first quarter beat updateing against 2022 up

better than 10% revenue in nearly 15 billion dollars, for the quarter, technology financial services public service industries all biggest moves 44% this year alone lennar home blurld sliding premarket poised for worse, day in seven months ago, yesterday the company missed expectations with quarterly profit report, due to supply chain driving lumber higher blurld could not get labor or raw materials to build new homes the november how muching starts buildingperts out 30 minutes' time lennar down 6 1/4% the market looks good up 200 on dow industrials, following the federal reserve decision to wind down asset purchases we are expecting fed talk about inflation exactly what we got jay powell commenting on direction of inflation, yesterday, watch. . >> these problems have been larger, and longer lasting than expected exacerbated by

virus overall nation well above 2% longer run goal will likely continue to do so well into next year. maria: well into next year. joining me right now ceo chairmen of strategicics jason trennet bear company jason good to see you. thanks for joining the conversation thoughts what you heard from jay powell yesterday? >> well, i think he is -- i think he is late. and i think this has been -- i have to say i can't say this he strikingly big surprise for a lot of us, in the markets. originally, realclearpolitics talked about how word "transitory" started as forecast turned out a whole largely a functional line, i think there are so many

mistakes that have been compounded here easy to criticize the arena the bottom too much chasing too few goods this is not -- i feel pretty strongly inflation is not has not been -- for a long time not transitory, i think you are creating structural very structural issues with inflation, that will make it a problem for sometime to come. so we will be i think somewhat luck if fed's forecasts maybe three tightenings next year two tightenings year after i think somewhat luck if that actually comes to pass, risk is that they have to do it sooner. rather than later. maria: so jason what is the impact to stock market as interest rates go higher, i mean we are looking at macro story slowed down quite a bit waiting on initial jobless claims out 25 minutes the november building permits housing starts this morning as well. give your sense of the macro

story what three hikes in 2022 the another three hicks 2023 mean for stock market? >> a well, maria, the biggest issue i have the biggest worry i have is not earnings forecasting earnings up 9% next year nominal not real but the question is what people pay for those earnings, so the multiple, and i think, our work shows that when you get inflation above 4% there is meaningful multiple compression earnings can go up people are willing to pay a lot less for those the earnings, i think also people largely forgotten impact on long-term interest rates on 10 years taking an article of faith 10-year treasury yieldss stay at 150 i think you have to test that by fed, actually stopping purchases of treasury, and then we will find out what the real market for long-term interest rates is, it just -- as you know

just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to lend the government money, at 1.50, 1.5% when nation is erupting at 6 to 7%, i have a feeling those he learning term interest rates have meaningful impact particularly on growth sectors particularly, very high-flying tech not nell quality tech provides cash flow earnings return to shareholders there is a lot of companies, in the market right now that are trading not as a multiple of earnings but trading as multiple of sales, so harder for money to shareholders when not much money is left over. maria: talking about inflation, 4% being a problem, let me bring in mark tepper because mark, we are right now, running at almost 7%, on inflation, jason talking about 4% an issue for stocks. mark: 4% an issue 6% even big issue i read jason's stuff

every day he h mules jeday j pow plie be arodd idayodod infl m gad yinoug i fromll t a r ahedo, riow media mn m o don i't don't peioctnspectelie bveieveve yrourake take on th wh ierhe theisconn betweeell sl s s >> you know, mark m such a grees questionesause i don't . an i i thinkhiha yw theeeli is ihaet as of inflatinfonlanf is s sighht now base effects can't give another 6% or 4%, all of these things are largely related to supply chain issues, and until resolved inflation will go back to something more

palatable, i feel this is much more structural i think our environmental policies, are baking in the cake, much higher rates of inflation on energy, and basic materials, i think a lot of the policyholders, with regards to labor markets are causing a labor shortage whether initially is where generous unemployment insurance the vaccine mandates personally i think contributing to a labor shortage, so there are other things that are going on, also, rents, we're not even talking about housing. but housing market, according to kaye, up 20%, for an economy as dwelled as united states to have however, up 20%, is not -- great if you own houses but not really stable not should be happening only happening because of excess liquidity in the system those numbers rent numbers are not even reflected in ppi right now that is why i think,

i am with you i heard that forecast i said that is -- the only way could happen if something really bad happens with the economy. and i don't think that is likely to happen, i am with you i think 2 1/2 another -- that is another hope, forecast but i also think a hope. maria: jason quick before you go are you changing the way you elate capital given rates moving higher in coming two years? >> well, maria, this -- the simple answer yes, we raised some cash, we are still above our equity allocation we raised cash think next xep months are going to be rockier than people are expecting we also have a we continue to have a -- a very strong bias towards value sectors as opposed to growth sectors i think high-flying tech stocks

most at risk here, going to be a little bit of a -- you know a ping-pong match might have a good couple weeks over next couple weeks after this is over but i think long-term interest rates if they rise changes really changes everything. maria: you make a lot of great points jason good to see you merry christmas to i happy i holidays we will talk soon. >> jason trennert, much more ahead nancy pelosi house speaker addressing the surge in crime, in her own san francisco district, there is one major thing she is refusing to admit. >> president biden making inflation worst? wisconsin senator ron johnson will weigh in julián and nina are here, they will talk about taking their wine company public, how they are keeping it, this morning's "mornings with maria" exclusive live on fox business. . .

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maria: welcome back. top stories that we are watching this morning, coming down to the wire on joe biden's tax-and-spend plan, democrats running off the time to pass two trillion dollars more spending tax dresses before christmas vote will likely kick in to next year, this as efforts to sway holdouts by joe manchin, kyrsten sinema falling short manchin mained not time to spend more money in face of sobering inflation wants to lower price tag as well, democrats worry until next year will weaken chances of passing, the senate did passion 778 billion dollars national defense authorization act establishes a commission to investigate the afghanistan war and make changes to the military justice system, no word why money was not allocated at all to southern border, january 6 house commission committee is now admitting that they alter order a text message between

jordan and white house chief of staff mark meadows the text message offered by congressman adam schiff committee cut off half of jordan' sentence with period concluded paragraphs of information making it seem he loose direct can go meadows to order mike pence, about the vote admitting to federalist in graphic period at the end of the sentence was added -- inadvertently select committee is responsible for this regrets the error. you lawmakers left out that the acreage message written by an attorney not jim jordan, forward to meadows from jim jordan. >> nancy pelosi final admitting there is a crime problem in her district, san francisco. watch this. >> -- definitely outrageous -- obviously, cannot continue but the fact is that there is -- an added to lawlessness in in

our country had a that springs from -- i know where may be do you. we cannot have that lawlessness become -- >> i know where it springs from white house and democrats no mention of city push to defend the police officer however things getting so bad car owners taking drastic measures leaving trunks doors wide open to avoid broken he windows incrediblenoons can say we don't know where lawlessness is coming from they altered a text message of jim jordan mark meadows joe biden blows off federal rulings left and right about reinstating mexico, they blowoff all the rulings they get and wonder why brazen lawlessness across the country it is coming from the -- >> i don't know where this attitude is coming from of lawlessness you know, if trump

were in white house president trump running country that is is where nancy pelosi would have he inserted and insult to president trump language was reason for all of this it is not words it is deed, deed of left wing liberals in cities, states, running country i go no further than number one people think there is lawlessness people think they can getaway with committing crimes when the mayor of london breed as soon as black lives matter came out demand that cities defund the police she had to step up, and beep sure she was the first person to do that. the first mayor, indeed she was a. now reversed hers because crime has gotten away from city criminals know ethic go to san francisco and not as many cops on the beat, this the cops might stand back,

second silly even worse, if it is possible, the left wing liberal district attorney, in the city, listen to this statistic from writer shell berger in 2019, 40% shoplifting reports resulted in -- arrests, 2021, 19% did. the district attorney charged 46% of theft arrests a 16 point deadline since took office in 2020 charging 35% petty theft arrests, if you get arrested for theft in san francisco, more than half the time, those criminals are not charged. so where are thieves robbers going if they want to shoplift and steal? they are heading right to san francisco. from all over the state, and, quite frankly, many parts of the country. maria: yeah, you are right, there is so much lawlessness in white house the fact mark

puts in a vaccine mandate, of course, it was unconstitutional, to tell businesses with 100 employeesor more, that they have to have a vaccine mandate, everybody knew it was unconstitutional, at the beginning he said let me throw it out there, while it gets lawlessness. >> totally unconstitutional. and, you know, obviously, that is not good for businesses with a hundred plus employees but who knows when it starts to affect other smaller businesses as well. as far as nancy pelosi goes, wasn't she person last year when riots broke out said people are going to do what they are going to do almost like encouraging, the lawlessness. now her take is i don't know where it is coming from, and then in a show condescending snotty manner maybe do you.

defund the police, proposition 47 dagen alluded to, enables people to essentially steel up to 950 dollars worth of goods don't get charging with felony get a traffic ticket even if they get prosecuted what is it 150 dollar than any one of many reasons people are leaving california. maria: you are right, we take a short break a lot more ahead right here stay with us. . . ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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julianne hough maria: welcome back president biden "build back better" stalling ahead of democrat self o imposed deadline gimmicks to disguise true cost we said true cost 4.9 trillion dollars as cbo committee for sfinl budget reported he talking about few of spending making inflation, worse, a new fox business poll shows majority of register voters share those concerns, 46% say bill will push inflation higher, 21% say will help lower, joining me wisconsin senator senate budget committee member ron johnson always a pleasure to see you. thanks so much for being here what are the chances this gets kicked into 2022, and tell me how it might look different.

>> well good morning, everyone. maria,merry christmas i hope chances are high i hope chances high we just kill this bill. because, this bill would fuel flames of inflation reports 6.8% annualized inflation, that is higher than 8 points last 39 years, index 9.75% a predictor what is going to happen with consumer price index this out of control deficit spending fueling inflation, two ways, creating more dollars chasing too few goods, creating principals encouraging people not to enter workforce, manufacturers can't fill shifts orders exacerbates supply shortage the inflation now i call it crisis two ways, i hope joe manchin, stands his ground i hope this "build back better" or build back broke whatever you call it i hope dies silent

quiet death if. >> i want to ask a couple issues you talking about crime all morning, senator you wrote a letter to department of justice, asking about its efforts to monitor the trend of pretrial release for accused felons you specifically mentioned the waukesha christmas parade attack said there is not sooner or later there are numerous reports vment crime by individuals on pretrial release what is going on request dangerous trends around crime, senator? >> that is what we want to find out thank you waukesha tragedy never should have happened accused never should have been free on bail, and we have fbi report saying violent crime up almost 0% nationwide last time, the justice department are reported on what is happening pretrial release, is 2007, last year under republican administration, we funded the national pretrial reporting

program, haven't heard a word out of department of justice in terms of what results of that finding was, it is a time american people understand, exactly what is happening with violent criminals, released on pretrial bail. maria: just extraordinary and for nancy pelosi to sit there yesterday at pommed say she doesn't understand where this lawlessness is coming from, brazen lawlessness going among democrats white house. >> leniency toward crime not only "catch and release" we have "catch and release" in criminal justice system 60 people injured waukesha, should be having a -- a brefd christmas with family they won't be. and that is the -- direct result of democrat policies and their leniency towards violent crimes. >> let me switch gears ask

about medical adjourns you are demanding from medical jrnlz retracking studying about covid-19 want to know about publication, the retraction two of covid-19 studies in 2020 that were based on questionable data set either what are you looking at? >> i think a fraudulent set lancelet new england journal of md retracted in two weeks, quietly but done damage pretty well poisoned well for hydroxychloroquine as early treatment drug cheap generic what i am finding from doctors that are having encourage compassion to treat covid patients it works in a multidrug protocol so trying to get to bottom corruption medical journals, health care agencies, the biggest blunder that is cost hundreds of thousands americans lives we

do not rebustly explorer complement early treatment. we still aren't. maria: you are right vaccine makers going o to make 90 plus billion dollars in coming year or two, on new vaccines what is going on is there some kind of a partnership with pfizer and fda? >> well, certainly know there is a huge bias toward new novel hill extensive drugs of vaccine at compensates of cheap drugs could do trick things like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine wonder drugs one nobel prize winner fda tracking ivermectin we have 15 deaths here year compared to to covid vaccine has over 19800 deaths in aier under their system, so when drug is fda attacking

ivermectin cheap generic drug successfully to treat covid early in covid symptoms. >> i know that, that was made by merck, merck out with much more expensive patented treatment now as well that will cost much more senator thanks so much for all your work on this big issue, senator ron johnson in d.c.,. >> building permits housing starts initial jobless claims to cheryl casone. cheryl: surprise on housing claims first we came in a little bit higher than expected, 206,000, for initial claims estimate was for 200,000, as for continuing claims, that actually better than expected 12.845 million looking for 1.936 million, that is better than last week better than expected, as well. business interesting -- this is interesting to start looking for 1.568 came in better than that on start, this is construction getting

underway, 1.679 million a jump month-over-month 11.8% surprised by that, permits now this is for construction later date 1.712 million, that is better than what analysts were look for 1.663 million that is a gain of about 3.6%, i will say i have been looking at mortgage rates about 3%, looks like sending back to you, philly fed december waning manufacturing, are east pennsylvania southern new jersey delaware looking for 30, had half that 15.4. there is a labor shortage story there rest of the numbers kind of in line maria. back to you. maria: yeah but cheryl with housing numbers you've got to look at housing market at one point was strongest area of this economy, and now we are seeing, this disruption in supply, cut into that strength

in building perts. >> start number surprised me most, it is construction begins you had a guest on talking about housing prices jumping 20% but about materials about labor, about -- transportation, all the things that are factoring into general inflation has been hitting housing market, so i think this is really interesting to see this data today. maria: all right, cheryl. thank you so much dow industrials up 223, not major move after this economic data initial jobless claims pouring in joining me to reactor former reagan economist thorough of trumponomics, art laffer so much to talk about with you, supply shortages, to the fed, where shall we start what is most important in terms of your standpoint give your reaction to this data. >> well, i think cheryl completely correct numbers reflect supply shortage of goods and services, coming in from abroad or here as well as

labor we have a very tight labor market, are primarily because people have left the labor force that is what i would like to really focus on because of all this government spending and because of all these resources, that have been transferred to people they don't feel imperative for them to go to work you can see participation rate labor force dropping sharply if that trend continues, and there is no sign it is not going to continue if that trend continues would bode very poorly for u.s. economy long run, very poorly. >> 4.4 million people dropped out of workforce in september. why? >> because they've got payments, they don't have to work maria, the incentive the push, the imperative of work no longer there they are getting government payments alleviating any need for income they leave labor force they don't like those jobs terribly even 20 bucks an hour much rather not work than work

going to lose skills, going to lose the experience, the ability to be good productive members 6 lane i force in the future longer they stay out works for u.s. economy long haul. maria: to you find it odd we had inflation in faces right now, stoke over and over again, 60% increase in gasoline, 25% increase in -- food, double digits democrats pushing through spending and tax plan you just talked about all people leaving workforce yet still you will wanting more checks to go to people this is extraordinary. >> it is extraordinary, bad, bad, bad economics, this plan this "build back better" or whatever build backwards better i like to call it, really will cause people to leave the labor force not join it the higher taxes will destroy the incentives for people to invest, and increase production base, and you will

find the supply of goods, declining and with with all this you new spending there will be more demand that will only increase the rate of inflation going forward, in my view. all of the signs here are there. everything they are doing maria is in the wrong direction, everything. >> exactly i want to bring in panel dagen we know now that the chairman of the fed has signaled as we expected, three interest rate hikes next year another three in 2023 we want to talk about that dagen take it away. dagen: art, just -- i will reference the "the wall street journal" editorial today on this very thing. it was a lot of talk no walk. in this was expected clearly, dovish for the markets the asset bubble will continue to inflate witnessed by market reaction yesterday, this is way too late. and -- after all of this unprecedented monetary stimulus is there any way, in

your mind, that they can jay powell and company can land this plane without being crashing it? i don't thinks so dagen i really don't once you've got this type of policy in place, you need ever and ever greater shocks of policy to keep the system going. it is like an addiction. and if you think about these rates that they are going to raise if you've got 7% rate of inflation, going on, which maybe too high or to a low the numbers, that means rate of 1% means you are actually losing value you are losing value if lending money because interest rates doesn't cover rate of inflation. so by holding that o down starts to lending market the capital market the banking system, dramatically, what paul should do get out of buying government bonds just stop. and let markets clear. i mean they are gob teeing rough patching if he does that longer it lasts the greater

will be adjustment not pleasant. maria: so, issue as rates go higher doesn't that slow down, the macro story economic he growth story doesn't that also create competition for stocks? >> well it does, it does do all of those things in short run. but long run what you've got by lending money you are losing, the return you have on lending money is negative now because you've got more inflation taking away your capital, and then interest covers it so it is completely distorted capital markets from free market the only ones borrowing i mean literally borrowing is the government, i mean, and i am they are doing it all the time, rand it is really a shocking phenomena that is happening, and i don't know how fed gets out of it without causing a destruction, of the capital -- interest rates today, maria should be in 5, 6% 10-year bond yield may be even higher with rate of inflation we have now. inflation leads to higher interest rates not lower

triple digits, so when you say high interest rates believe they triple digits won't be low in free market will be very, very high olden days countries that had devaluing currency high interest rates not world we want that is the world of powell and fed are taking us into, very, very rapidly. >> here we are sitting with yield on 10-year below 1.5% right now art, great to get your nams on all that. my advice -- >> thank you advice to everyone don't led money to the government! ! >> don't lend there you go give your advice art laffer good to see you. >> all right. we will see you soon, fresh vine wines wall street debut, owners julianne hough nina dobrev here with their female led business you are watching "mornings with maria" live

. ♪♪ ♪ . ♪ . thank you so

much thank you so much thank you so much maria: welcome back, cheers to this former danceing

with the stars process julianne hough and star of the vampire, nina dobrev a milestone with company fresh vooin wines, the company launching ipo tuesday today ringing closing bell at new york stock exchange fresh vine wine launched in march a unique collection of wine produced bottled in napa california joining me the ladies, fox business exclusive fresh vine wine ceo generalel anderson coowners julianne hough nina dobrev great to see you congrats to all of you, great news that you will be ringing the close of today julianne what made you want to launch fresh vine wines tell us about the company. >> my goodness thank you so much for having us here we are so excited, i think the idea that we can create something that was premium wine premium taste, also, really fine, low karlry low car b, active

lifestyle. >> i am glad you said low calorie low carb, the worry about wine too much sugar. >> exactly. >> were appointed ceo for fresh vine wine tell me about your priorities nina julianne have said it was important for them, to have a female led company. >> what is the strategy. >> first of all, thank you so much i am honored to be part of the amazing company efficient vine wine, all about growth, we -- to fuel our growth going to, increase distribution, precise

offerings, one we learned 6% that are listed new york stock exchange have family ceo honored to be part of that group we wish -- they were more. maria: me, too you are in my old stomping ground this morning at nyse definitely a minority, when it comes to women versus men nina there are a lot of options out there, for wines tell me ghouring to stay above competition, and stand out. >> well, the -- for everyone to grow we focus on our wine, our passion, we believe our wine is a premium experience, that also offers added benefits, we have --

[laughter] >>, we can attest to that, we are very excited to be here. maria: i love it, tell me about the wines what kinds of wines are this what are you launching give a sense what the product is. >> yeah, it is an premium experience balanced we have a lovely cabernet -- noir, are truly amazing reserve that is coming soon napa reserve from very -- very excited about that, again increase our product being offerings down pipeline we are funded to do that. we have been talking inflation all morning tell me about pricing what people should expect, everything is costing more these days. because of the inflationary story. you know i will jump in on that, of course we are not --

we wording hard to price right price point worked to mitigate inflationary costs supply chain continue to do mitigate going forward we believe a great price point for zmooerz is this costing you mother producer prices are up i guess costing more to produce the product as well; right? >> you know, we like i said we have this well mitigated looked forward as everybody else looking forward this is, try to understand what is coming we feel very confident in the overall growth strategies. >> what are plans in terms of expansion do you see this company some point offering more than what you've got as far as products right now? >> we do.

it is definitely pipeline, we are hopeful to bring offerings next year work on that diligently part of the growth strategy about awareness of a great product that truly has premier he this is their dream, the good thing it is a emerging, a lot of consumers this product. that is tough from being aing to running a business chairman of the business? how easy was it for you guys to transition? >> o you know i think transition is so fun at the end of the day we are creative by nature, and for our active lifestyles we like for holistic approach of life everything is about balance, and excitement, you know that

is our life when we travel and we have experiences create memories wine at forefront of that important to create something authentic genuine to us we could feel proud of especially when it comes to that premium taste we want to make sure, that we were not o compromising anything, when it came to that experience, of what it tastes like smells like the sensorial experience focusing on trendssetting ideas behind low calorie low carbs, so fun to counterintelligence at the end of the day we are creative by nature, and a natural fit for us. maria: all right great ladies you have a big gave congrats looking forward to hearing how it all went thank you so much for being with us good luck to you. we will see you soon ladies,

thank you. . coming up new way to look to post-pandemic life. >> ♪♪ somewhere past the pandemic, we will hug our friends ♪♪ ♪ . okay, outgoing nih director making a big buzz this morning stay with us. . . ♪♪ ♪ ♪ hey, tam-tam! i was thinking maybe... your mom's car? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

merry christmas, dad. this is your home. this is your family room slash gym. the guest bedroom slash music studio. the daybed slash dog bed. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash classroom. and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home.

find yours on the vrbo app. ♪♪

when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. yours on the vrbo app. finding understanding doesn't have to be. together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ..

maria: time for the big buzz of the morning. francis collins departing with a song. with about post pandemic life. ♪♪ somewhere past the pandemic. masks will come off, no more need for a knows swab every time we cough ♪♪ maria: >> i'm sure he thought there was going to speaks to

government, no one told him this is not a good idea. no one told him how it might come across. they just let him do it. maria: we are talking about gain of function research and nih for months in terms of origins of the pandemic. dagen: i made my mother and father a promise when i started working on television. one thing they told me never to do and it was sing. don't ever try to sing on television. i turned heads at church. >> how come no one told him that? dagen: exactly. >> the song was a bit brutal. i don't think there is any record deal coming his way soon.

i agree with the message. covid is going to be here for a long time, probably forever, time to stop living in fear, let's learn to live with it, let's move on. look at the nfl this coming weekend, don't know if you paid attention but 95% of nfl players are vaccinated but the rams and cleveland browns, struggle to field teams because their vaccinated players tested positive that are a symptomatic. it is time we take a look at all the policies that were implemented 6 months ago, 12 months ago, 18 months ago, nfl's policy, mask mandates, time to update them given what we know about the virus today. dagen: oral medications for mac and pfizer coming out shortly. antiviral medications which will eliminate for the most part almost all debt related to this virus. if you get sick, go home and

take this. this is over. >> time to move on. maria: omicron is more transmissible but not as serious in terms of getting sick. dagen: it is becoming the common cold. i said this on the air the other day but it is in the animal kingdom. anywhere from 30% to 80% of the year in different studies tested positive for covid, spitting out variants for years to come. we've got to move on. maria: a great point. let's check markets, the central banks telling us rates are going higher three times next year and three times after that in the year to follow. dow industrials showing a gain

of 192, half of one%. the s&p higher by 24 and the nasdaq higher by 58. we have a rip roaring rally after a pretty good performance yesterday. mark? >> great economic data this morning, jobless claims were okay, pretty good overall and the housing start data was fantastic, for too many years. maria: great to be with you. "varney and company" begins right now. stuart: look like a bathrobe, tepper, but i will ignore it right now. good morning, everyone. stocks continue their rebound. the fed will slow many printing and raise interest rates and there is an even bigger story that has everybody's attention. inflation. prices are rising rapidly. you can see it, feel