like, you know, family and community and -- because that is what is, i do a lot of work in tata part of the world, that is, they're all about family. maria: yeah. maybe freedom is another one that would make us happy. >> freedom, they also -- people are apparently very upset about the political leadership and corruption, living conditions. i mean, you look at the average income is 75 grand. how are you supposed to afford an average mortgage payment of $3400? maria: unbelievable. >> i think's a huge part of it, young people can't afford to buy homes, part of the american dream which, unfortunately, is now dead can, and it's showing in these numbers. maria: thank you so much for joining us this morning. i wish you a happy day. thank you so much for joining us. tomorrow do it again. join us. ashley webster's in for stuart now, and "varney & company" takes it away. ashley. ashley: hey, good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. i'm ashley webster, yes, in today for stu. well, the fed sparking a big rally on wall street.

the central bank reiterating three rate cuts still on the table for the year, and that sent stocks to new record highs across the board, and the party on wall street apparently continuing this morning as you can see. the dow, s&p and nasdaq all moving much higher. the nasdaq up nearly 1%. as for the treasury yield, just talk a look at the 10-year, they've been moving down very slightly, down 2 basis points on the 10-year to 4.22. the 2-year, let's take a look at that as a well, up slightly at 4.6%. let's take a look at bitcoin. has that joined the part on fed if speak? let's have a look. not really, down $595 at a $67,272. meanwhile, make room for reddit. the 19-year-old web site that that hosts millions of online forums will begin trading this morning. it's the very first social period e ya company to ipo since 2019, almost 5 years ago. the ipo priced at $34 a share

and, of course, we'll be watching reddit as it makes its public day i buy. on the border front, a new report says more than 200,000 migrant deportation cases being tossed out since president biden took office it's all because homeland security failed to file if the proper paperwork on time. you can't make it up. meanwhile on capitol hill, al act tez the claims -- al -- al alexandria ocasio-cortez the claims rio, not a crime. this happened --ly coe. as always, we've got a packed show for you. congressman cory mills, brandon judd, clay travis, ricky. >> lot plus many, many more. it is thursday, march 21st, 2024. "varney & company" about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪

ashley: it's going to be a good day. yes, it is, indeed. you look down sixth avenue towards central park in midtown the manhattan, the sun's out. it's a day -- it's friday eve, is what i like to call it. we've got a rally on our hands as we said right at the top of the show. the fed signaling they expect tree rate cuts -- three rate cuts this year, and the markets have responded to that. adam johnson joins us this morning. adam, great to see you. are we in a bubble? the fed is not going to get in the way of the market momentum, apparently. >> no, we are absolutely not in a bubble, ashley. and i'll tell you why, there are a couple of reasons. number one, the s&p 500 is trading at 21 times earnings. that may be at the higher end of the range, but that's certainly not bubble territory. back many 2009 the s&p traded up to about 45 times earnings, and actually if you go back to the tech bubble of 2000, it was 70 times earnings. in fact, back then the nasdaq

was trading at 6000 times earnings. -- 600 times. the s&p right now is at 21 times earnings, so from a valuation standpoint, absolutely not. and one other reason i think it's very important for us to understand, ashley, and that is there's still $can 6 trillion of cash -- $6 trillion of cash sitting on the sidelines in money market funds because people last year and the year before were concerned about markets and recession is, and so they just hid in cash. and, of course, you can also earn a 5.25%, so that's where people went. when you're in a bubble, you don't see $6 trillion in cash on the sidelines, you have all the money in, and the money's not in yet. so for all those reasons are, ashley, i think we can keep going, and i'm very can comfortable being fully invested right now nor my clients. ashley: very good, adam. thank you very much. you're going to be with us for the hour, so we do appreciate. that i want to get to this, the popular social media platform reddit set to start trading today on the new york stock exchange. good morning, lauren.

what are the shares price at right now? lauren: at the high end of expectations, that's $34. it values reddit at $6.5 billion. look, their core business is online advertising so, yes, they compete with meta and google. but everybody knows reddit for their candid online forums. why is that important? if because that's a lot of data. and it can be used to train artificial intelligence models. so this valuation, upwards of $6 billion, is expected to increase. but i've got to tell you, the fact of the matter is, you know, reddit is an old unicorn. 19 years of no profitment. profitability. so now its tapping of the public markets could encourage these other start-ups to do the same in a year of very few ipos. there have been 26 ipos priced this year, so this is the first major social media offering since pinterest backing in 2019. ashley: and we'll be following it e every step of the way. lauren, thank you very much. let's switch gears, of course, to politics.

the trump campaign is slamming joe biden's new regulations on gas-powered cars. trump calls the ev policy anti-jobs, indiana-consumer just plain anti-american. the campaign promising a day one reversal. jason chaffetz joins me now. good morning to you, jason. the is trump right about a bind's regulations on this issun this issue. >> oh, yeah. despite what joe biden said in the campaign when he originally ranker he's wanted to get are rid of gas-powered engines. that's their policy. and they're trying all these different ways, now they've come up with the latest scheme. i happen to be all of the above energy, let's pursue all of them. not joe biden. he really does want to get rid of the engine. that's going to be devastating to places like michigan and wisconsin. he's walking a fine line here during a political campaign, but that's the reality. that's what joe biden wants to do, get rid of the engine. ashley: and what's interesting

is up to now, jason, people really haven't bought into it. hertz put all of these evs in their fleet then decided, whoo, that was a bad move. it's just not catching on, is it? if. >> well, look, i have an ev, i have a tesla. i love it. it's a great car. i really do like it. but i also have a ford f-150. [laughter] i like driving that when i've got to make sure i can get from point a to point b. they're both great cars, and they make financial sense least for us in our family. ashley: i love it. one, extreme to the other. all right, jason, going to move on. former hunter biden associate is tony bobulinski said that he saw president biden commit crimes. want you to watch this testy exchange with aoc during yesterday's testimony. listen to this. >> did you witness the president commit a crime? if is it your testimony today -- >> yes. >> and what crime? do you, have you --

>> corruption statutes,ly coe -- >> what is the crime, sir? specifically. >> i answered the question -- >> no -- >> rico, you're obviously not familiar with. >> rico is not a crime. it is a category. >> it's a category of crimes that you're then charged finish. >> you have -- i reclaim my time. ashley: that's hilarious. of it's like saying robbery isn't a crime. you want to tell me was it a store robbery, robbing a person, robbing a house? jason what do you -- what is aoc not understanding here? >> basic common sense, basic law, or basic -- [laughter] fundamental facts. she she came in, she thought she was going to take him down, and bobulinski's a great witness. he's a bit of a pit bull, and he's been stew thing on this for years. i think he took her to task, and the internet certainly lit her up saying, oh, rico's not a crime. ashley: well, and also let's are not forget what donald trump's

being accused of, racketeering in georgia. that should be i thrown out too, right? [laughter] >> it certainly should. certainly should. ashley: yeah. it's just ridiculous. the biden impeachment investigation, is this going anywhere, jason? >> look, they need to continue to pursue the facts. they still need more information, more documents. the administration if has been thwarting every effort, but i think when you see james comer really lay out the millions of dollars that ends up in the biden pockets, one of the basic fundamental questions still hasn't been asked and answered. why is it that joe biden's grandkids got $100,000, you know? where did that come from and why? i mean,ing that's a basic question, right? they need to bring the proper people up there to explain why the grandkids got $100,000. ashley: very generous tooth

fairy, is what i'm being told, but we'll get into that later. jason chaffetz, as always, sir, thank you so much for joining us today. we appreciate it. >> thanks, a ashley. ashley: house oversight chair -- thank you. james comer planning to invite president biden to testify on capitol hill. is this about those foreign payments his family reportedly received and jason just referred to, lauren? lauren: sure thing. they want more information on the millions of dollars that hunter's foreign business partners allegedly paid to the biden family including joe. so comer says in the coming days i will invite president joe biden to the house oversight committee to provide his own testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies with his assistance. to be clear, biden has not been subpoena pd and is not required to attend any hearing. this is the republicans' investigation. it has been going on for over a year where, and they say the bidens worked not as consultantses or lawyers, but sales people.

they sold their father's influence around the world. it's been difficult for them to prove, however. ashley: yes. lauren: the smoking gun. ashley: and getting access to all the relevant documents and evidence. all right, lauren, thank you very much. coming up, many young people really not happy about the tiktok crackdown. listen to what senator thom tillis said happened to him. take a listen. >> i had a kid just is recently say i'm going to hunt you down and shoot you and cut you into little pieces. he sounds like e she was about 16 years old or younger. to have tiktok tell these kids to do that doesn't actually help their case, it hurts their case. ashley: quite remarkable. the tiktok bill is passed in the senate, will it hold up against lawsuits? we'll get into that. to then there's this, florida congressman cory mills helping 13 americans evacuate haiti. he says u.s. citizens deserve support from their government, not the pattern of abandonment the biden administration has shown so far.

the congressman will be here next. this -- ♪ ♪ (fisher investments) it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same, but at fisher investments we're clearly different. (other money manager) different how? you sell high commission investment products, right? (fisher investments) nope. fisher avoids them. (other money manager) well, you must earn commissions on trades. (fisher investments) never at fisher investments. (other money manager) ok, then you probably sneak in some hidden and layered fees. (fisher investments) no. we structure our fees so we do better when clients do better. that might be why most of our clients come from other money managers. at fisher investments, we're clearly different.

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ashley: all right, let's take a look at these futures for you ahead of the opening which is coming up in under 15 minutes now. it's all green across the screen. the dow up 109 points, the s&p up half a percent, the nasdaq too up close to, well, 1%. so picking up on the record close for all three major exchanges at the end of business yesterday. all because of a dovish fed it's amazing. let's take a look at the 10-year yield which has been heading in the opposite direction. not by much though, the 10-year at 4.25%.

take a look at the 2-year. we like to look at the difference between the two. the 2-year was moving slightly higher earlier with. that is the case, up to 4.6% on the 2-year treasury yield. all right, now this, florida's governor, ron desantis, has deployed 250 members of the florida state guard in preparation for haitian migrants. florida congressman cory mills joins me now. congressman, your team recently rescued 13 more americans from the gang violence and anarchy in haiti. you've criticized president biden for abandoning, you say is, u.s. citizens there. so the question is, how should we handle that a situation this if haiti? how much should we be involved? >> well, i think that that we can look at the clear pattern of behavior, ashley. i mean, if you go back to afghanistan in 2021 where thousands were left behind, if you go towards israel where it took me rescuing 255 americans before the state department sent

their first aircraft or now where we've done twoing successful rescues in the capital which is controlled 80% by the g-9 and the other family gangs, now they're starting to talk about -- last week, remember, just last week miller, the spokesman for the state department, said we have no intent is, no plans to rescue americans. now that the political pressure and the optics are not good for them, they want to start sending aircraft. so we have to shame this administration into doing their job which is unfortunate. but if biden's not willing to do his job, i'll step up and do it for him as will the privacy citizens who actually define american exceptionalism. ashley: it's amazing. congressman, how bad is the situation is on the ground there? we know the gangs are running the island right now for all intents and purposes. it's anarchy. who's in control? >> well, it's absolute anarchy. you have a haitian national police officer who was very close e to the former president

who was assassinated who's essentially been filling these power gaps. the violence and the terroristic behaviors that has been just rampant throughout haiti is getting worse and worse by the day. the deterioration of what's happening, the fact that they're cooking and burning people in the middle of the streets, they're utilizing machetes to murder and leave bodies as a way to terrorize people, the pact that they're starving out and stealing resources from orphanages and just recently even from one of the locations that had mentally and physically disabled children, they were stealing the resources to starve them out. this is the worst of the worst that the you can see, is and i think we need to be working with local partners in other areas, the latin and caribbean area so that we can try and put together a diplomatic international solution, because throwing money at at the e -- the problem is not the solution. that's what the clinton foundation claims that it had done. we need to really get real solutions trying to get an

interim government because we know the prime minister who resides in pert rio has -- pertly coe has already resigned, and it's going to create a gap. ashley: what a dreadful situation, but i've got to move on to this subject, congressman. a top u.s. admiral is warning that china will be ready for an invasion of taiwan, he says, by 2027. you're on the house foreign affairs committee. is china preparing to invade taiwan? >> well, i'm also on the house armed services committee, and i was fortunate enough to do a congressional a delegation with the the admiral of the seventh fleet going out to guam, going out to the fell peens, going out to -- philippines, to okinawa and into taiwan where i met with former president tsai, and if you look at china's ramp up, we've not seen a military buildup of this escalation since america in world war ii. so they're certainly looking at the china unification. you hear the dangerous rhetoric. we know they're continuing to operate many a way that would be

kind of a forecasting or pore shadowing of how they would do a blockade or launch. their operations, but there is a finite window that is there, and there are sill against, you know, the strength of our trilateral and bilateral agreements. looking at our allies within the actual region which is strengthening, the sanctions that would be imposed against china which would be damaging. i think there's a lot of ways we can deal with in that doesn't lead to kinetics because at the end of the day, this is an economic resource and cyber warfare that china is launching. i think there's solution here that doesn't involve more continuation of kinetic battles. ashley: one final topic e for you, congressman. senate majority leader chuck schumer rejecting benjamin netanyahu's request to speak to senate democrats. what do you make of that? >> well, it's not surprising. look, you've got the left who are pandering further and further to the extremism of their party. of you've got people who are literally hamas many sympathizers who are trying to force a sovereign nation, and i would ask chuck schumer this is since he is the state of new

york and he is of jewish faith, why is it and how is it would you have responded if after 9/11 we had another nation trying to tell us how we should actually carry out our operations in afghanistan a when we were going after those responsible for the attacks that took 2700 lives? go to october 7th, and you've got benjamin netanyahu's in the very same situation who also deserved to be -- deserves to be able to respond to the terrorist a act that cost 1200 lives. i think it's shameful that chuck schumer continues to try and force a sovereign nation to do something that's against the people's will. ashley: very quickly, speaker johnson considering inviting netanyahu to address the house. is that something you would support? >> i would absolutely support that because we need to be looking at what not only what benjamin if netanyahu, but also his war cabinet with benny ganz has to say with how success of they are in eliminating the iranian-backed terrorist organization of hamas. i want to do one thing more a little bit off cuff, yesterday

was my son's birthday, and so i wanted to get him on here to wish him a happy birthday today. of. ashley: oh. happy -- what's your son's name? >> noah. he's 9 years old. ashley: noah. happy birthday, noah, and welcome to fox business. congressman and noah, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you, arleigh. ashley: all right. -- ashley. dozens of artists, by the way, left south by southwest in austin in protest of the army's sponsorship. now one veterans' group is responding. lauren, what did they say? lauren: i just want the highlight that. actually, 80 bands and artists say they can't perform by a festival because it's sponsored by the army. they make weapons of war. arming israel against palestine, and they called the sponsors including the army genocide is profiteers. i mean, that's the context of what we're talking about, and one of those groups is responding. here you go. the vfw fully supports free speech but seems the artists who

pulled out of in this or year's south by southwest festival seem to have forgotten it's the good men and women of the u.s. army who fought and died for their opportunity to perform in the u.s. or not. i mean, that was just so beautifully said. ashley: yeah. lauren: some of the protesters are saying they're not going to be returning until they cut ties with its defense sponsors, and i hope they don't, ashley. ashley: right. wow, that says it all. lauren, thank you very much. quickly, check the futures. the opening bell is coming up next, and we're expecting another strong opening after yesterday's record closing. don't go away, or we'll be right back. ♪ he's a wild one with -- she's a wild with one with a an angel's face of. ♪ ♪

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this rally definitely has legs. i've had people all over the place ask me if we're in some sort of equities if bubble, and i just don't see it. ashley: yeah. >> i understand the question, we're at all-time highs. but, look, since the october lows we had 20 weeks where the markets went up 20% in that short period of time. that's happened 22 times since 1950, and 21 of 22 times the market was higher one year later. ashley: wow. >> so i think we've still got a lot going on here. ashley: right. let's talk about some stock picks. you like amd. why? >> i do. i think they are one of the a.i. participants that has a much broader product line that can help them during the ups and downs.

we saw micron had blowout earnings. stuart and i talked thed about them two weeks ago. they're up double digits overnight. and i think amd has had a nice pullback that we can buy right here, but they're into processers, desktops, they do a lot of things other than graphics and a.i -- ashley: got it. >> so i think they have some more legs from here, ashley. ashley: very good. ten seconds. do you like visa? >> yes. let's balance out that portfolio. we've got mastercard when it was 20% lower than it is now, visa's going to help balance out our portfolio for the longer run. ashley: very good. you did it in ten seconds, d.r., great to have you along. i know it was short, but you made it count. the opening bell has rung, and we are off and running. let's take a look at the big board. the dow 30 stocks, we are up 135 points or thereabouts.

we're kind of -- it's an all-time high. we're also flirting with 40,000. we got spell, home depot, amazon at the top. the only laggards down there, coca-cola, unitedhealth, apple at the bottom of the dow 30. let's take a look at the s&p, see where we are there. of course, yesterday finishing with a record high. and i guess we're record territory now, up 27 points at 5252 on the s&p. up half a percent. and and let's take a look at the nasdaq. it was up close to 1 president in the pre-- 1% in the futures, in the premarket hawaii's where we are. we're up 151 points on the nasdaq, good for a .9% gain. taking a look also at the big tech stock, we like to do that. amazon, metaal that bet, microsoft all moving higher, and apple lagging behind, down 1% at around $176.97. talking of which, let's take a look at apple. the department of justice prepping an antitrust lawsuit

against them. lauren, what can you tell me about this? lauren: they will officially announce their lawsuit a bit later this morning. it's for alleged antitrust violations. it's five years in the making, and it covers alleges -- allegations that apple prevented rivals from accessing hardware and software on the iphone. it didn't specify which according to several reports, but think payments. it's broad. this would be the first case to accuse apple of illegally maintaining its dominant posmtion it would be the thursday chute from the -- suit from the doj really in 14 years, ash. ashley: with that said, apple is one of your stock picks, adam. what do you make of this? >> yeah. i think it's kind of laughable, to be honest with you. i think's why the stock's only down a dollar. yes, of course apple's a closed system by definition, and everyone wants in. it's like the united states. in theorying, we're a closed system and everyone wants in. you know, apple is a are exciting company for a number of

reasons, not the least of which is that closed system, the technology that's unique to them. but also, ashley, you just look at the valuation, trading at 25 times earnings, and they're growing their india business. in fact, if they make india as successful as they've made china, they're going to see their earnings rise 30%. lauren: yeah. >> that's like a bolt on they're in the process of building. the stock's barely down on the news of this doj lawsuit. i think that's all you need to know. lauren: quickly, ashley, speaking of china, tim cook is there. they opened the new store in shanghai today, there was lines out the door, and they gathered overnight. so apple's an interesting product even in china. >> and thank you, lauren. i agree. [laughter] ashley: yeah. how about that? let's move on. micron reporting after the bell yesterday. i think they're up bigged today. they are. up more than 14%. i'm assuming it was a good report. lauren: well, you mention a.i., and your stock spikes. then you mention, hey, recovery in the pc and smartphone market, and your stock spikes even more,

up 15%. micron shares hit a record 1 is 13 moments ago. -- 13 -- 113. they're the largest maker of memory chips in the united states, memory storage systems that power a.i. they said their high bandwidth chips are sold out for all of this year and much of next year. and then they said pricing is improving too. that helps their bottom line because demand has returned for pcs and phones which were in a slump. ashley: wow. good news all around. lauren: yeah. ashley: up more than 14%. now let's change gear withs in a minutely. we're going to look at chewy, the pet supplies online retailer. are they worried about a recession? is that what's going on? lauren: they say their pet business is recession-resilient, but the stock is down and pretty sharply. the reason is they do expect the industry to grow this year, but much more slowly. they say it'll return to normal next year. so the guidance is what

disa30eu7bed -- disa appointed wall street. ashley: down a little more than 3%. we did have a couple earning reports before the bell. darden restaurants moving lower. lauren: giving up 5% today. they own olive garden, longhorn steakhouse. they have the entire market, low end and high end, and they say customers are cutting back at both. overall, same-store sales fell almost 2% just in the previous quarter they had risen by over 4%. so it was a big contraction. the consumer is under pressure. they're eating more at home to save money. it's not just darden that is saying this. we've heard it from mcdonald's, from yum, from starbucks. the list goes on. the good story is expensive, but it's cheaper in the end end. go ahead. ashley: before we go on, lauren, are let me bring in adam. is this a statement on the consumer, just things are expensive and they're eating at a home in. >> yeah. and, you know, it's -- as you know, ashley, i tend to be the

optimist in the room, and i'm also very bullish, and i'm also fully invested. but i do have to admit that, yes, you know, stuff is expensive. that is true for all of us. the good news is, however, that of the four inflation measures, cpi, ppi, the gdp price index and the pce, three of the four are already at or or below the fed's 2% target. it's just consumer prices that are still stubbornly above 3. so the good news is, again, i'm the optimist, flakes is going down. but in the -- inflation is going down. but people are trying to save where they can. ashley: yes, they are. you're with ever the optimist. that's what we love about you with, adam. while you're here, you brought another stock pick. what do you like about toast? i love toast with butter and jam especially, but why do you like toast? >> well, toast is a wonderful company. maybe you've seen them, ashley, if you've gone into a restaurant. they're in 1 10e ,000 restaurants, ashley -- 110,000. it's that thing that that looks like an overgrown phone that the

waiter will bring to your table to put in your order and ultimately print out your bill. even the high-end restaurants are doing it. ashley: right. >> what makes it so interesting is it completely unites every aspect of a restaurant. so as a the waiter, receiver everybody is taking your -- server is taking your order, it goes simultaneously to the kitchen and to the bar if you order a drink. even at the end of the night or afternoon, it'll tabulate all the ingredients and place an order to the wholesaler so the chef no longer has to take inventory. [laughter] it does reservations. i mean, it's amazing. if you are a restaurant operator and and you need a loan because it knows your finances, it will fill out a loan application at your local bank and help you get a loan. it's a wonderful back office solution for restaurants, and i think they've only just begun to grow. and i should also point out they are just now turning earnings positive. they're finally making money after having been in business for a few years, and that's important. so, yeah, i like toast for a lot of reasons. i could see it actually tripling over the next couple of years.

ashley: wow. fascinating stuff, adam. the only thing it doesn't do is make the food. everything else is done, apparently. thank you very much, adam, for letting us know about a it. all right, coming up, cohosts of "the view," we're always loving to get some comments from there, they were quite excited about the possibility of trump not being able to pay his $454 million bond. watch this. >> do you need a tissue? >> i can't wait to see the chains on trump tower, actually, on fifth avenue. [applause] ashley: e oh, yeah, health care a-ha. is this what it's come to? -- to? when it comes to the view, yes. the fed left rates unchanged, as with we know. three cuts still planned. peter morici says this is the new normal. so what does this mean for your money? if i'm going to ask mr. morici next. ♪ it's the same old, same old situation. ♪ it's the same old, same old ball and chain.

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ashley: treasury secretary janet yellen and biden's economic adviser jared is bernstein on capitol hill today. they will face questions from lawmakers on the state of the economy. edward lawrence joins us this morning. 'd ward, what can we expect to hear today? >> ashley, we can expect them both to say that the president doesn't get enough credit for the economy that he's in charge of, although some would say the president gets all the credit as we struggle to pay for the same things we had three years ago. treasury secretary janet yellen will be in front to have the senate finance committee talking about the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget. it calls for tax increases and increased spending from this year. non-defense discretionary spending would be with increased by $28 billion. the defense spending would increase by $16 billion.

no cuts to any of the president's domestic programs, and the tax increases still leave the deficit $1.8 trillion. can you tax your way into prosperity? >> well, look, i think deficits, we need to be on a fiscally sustainable path, and it's important to bring down deficits. it's also critically important to invest in the economy in ways that will be felt all through america, all throughout america. and that's exactly what the president is doing and proposes to continue doing. >> reporter: many economists believe the government spending puts upward pressure on inflation. both inflation measures are showing other the last three months inflation accelerating when you look at a it month by month. the fed chairman echoing what the treasury secretary told me last week, that the ride to 2 inflation will be bumpy. >> we've had two months of kind of bumpy inflation. we were saying that, well, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

we've consistently said that. now here are some bumps, and the question is, are they more than bumps? we just don't, we can't know that. jr. so that -- >> reporter: so, the fed paused rate hikes, left it where it was, and they're going to push the first rate cut possibly off of to the summer maybe even more depending on whether inflation goes up or down, and the fed will continue to watch that data. ashley? ashley: thank you very much. economist peter morici joins me now peter, you say high rates are the new normal, stocks will be just fine. explain. >> if well, the period between the financial crisis and covid was really unusual. very low inflation, terribly low interest rates. if we look at the period of the 40 years prior to the financial crisis, the average 10-year treasury was 7.4%, the average inflation rate was 4. so the real rate was 3.4% on long-term capital. the s&p averaged 10.5% a year, a

real return on capital of 6.5% a year. higher interest rates are not necessarily bad for the economy or the market. they have to be appropriate to the circumstances. and right now we have very capital-hungry innovations, things like electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and so forth. those require a lot of capital, so the price of capital has to be higher. but once we make the adjustment, we'll do very, very well. ashley: all right. i want to get to this one. it's interesting, peter, bill maher says there's no reason for biden's approval rating to be as bad as it is. listen to this, i'll get your comment. >> why are bind's approval ratings -- biden's approval ratings so low when things are generally pretty good? unemployment is negative if liberal, the tock start is soaring. we somehow brushed off both the presidency and the pan dem immaterial. stop acting like life in america

is unbearable. biden's ratings are in the toilet because a lot of americans like to live with their head in the toilet. [laughter] ashley: okay. what do you make of those comments, petersome because i hear a lot of people complaining about the cost of things these days. >> well, if you look at where the switch in the voters is happening, it's among working class people. both white and people of color. "the new york times" had an interesting article about this this morning. of it's across the board. they are struggling with higher prices. mr. maher probably sends his au pair to get a quarter of milk. he's living in a different world. the people that go to the grocery store feel it. the reality is with donald trump we had lore taxes, and the economy was -- lower taxes, and the economy was growing. and working class people and people of color were making genuine progress. with joe biden they're not. they feel the difference. his industrial policies help the few. if you're with the united

autoworkers, you're better off. if you're working at the café across the street, the waitress across the street, you're worse off. where is joe biden doing the worst right now in swing states? michigan where he should be doing the best because he's been so friendly to the autoworkers. ashley: right. well, we'll have to leave are it there, peter. the polls don't always lie, and when enough people say, hey, i'm not happy with how it's going, that should be respectedded. peter morici, as always, appreciate it. >> you take care. ashley: meanwhile -- thank you, you too -- shows how much credit card fees have surged under president biden. all right, lauren, by how much? law lauren so americans socked with $157 billion in late fees last year because interest rates are high and, yeah, they're swiping their credit cards more often because things cost so much money. guess what? delinquencies are up. we're falling behind on our payments. the number of americans one month behind is at a 13-year high. obviously, the president knows this is the a problem, that's

why he's doing -- going after junk fee, capping all late fees at $8. that doesn't solve the problem. there is a problem, right? not a solution. ashley: right. , and adam a, 30 seconds. quickly. again, i know you're always optimistic, but it does speak to the state of the consumer, especially those late payments. >> well, if president biden wants to actually do something to help the consumer, he should stop regulating the businesses that are forced to operate less efficiently than they should be, and it should start, by the way, with no longer mandating evs and letting us drill oil. bring the price of oil down. ashley: amen. we'll have to leave it right there. adam, thank you. lauren, thank you. and i also want to tell our viewers don't forget to send your friday feedback in. we want to know, are you drowning over the cost of living right now? e-mail us at varneyviewersfox.com. let us know what's going on with you. and do you remember when mre

went through i a mid-life crisis because he couldn't be a superhero anymore? >> i'm calling to celebrate a momentous occasion. we are now officially moved in. >> yeah, well, the that's great, honey. and the last three years don't count because? >> because i finally unpacked the last box. now it's official. [laughter] ashley: mid-life crises are apparently happening at a younger age. the u.s. surgeon general is blaming social media for that. rikki schlott takes it on coming up next. ♪ you can be my bonnie, i can be your clyde ♪

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ashley: let's get back to reddit. the popular social media a platform set to make its stock market debut today after pricing its stock at around $34 per share. kelly o'grady here with we now if. all right, kelly, why does reddit want to go public now? >> reporter: well, ashley, because it needs to raise money, right? there's some unique growth opportunities on the horizon for reddit, but it really needs the cash to invest in all of that. so the company is 19 years old,

it's never turned a profit. but the user base has jumped 40% since 2021. it also has the chance to capitalize on this a.i. craze, and reddit actually outlined a plan to license user content to help train large language a a.i. models. but that's going to present a number of challenges. for one, it's frustrated some users. not everyone likes the idea of community content being monetized. further, there are regulatory hurdles. the ftc is investigating whether this data licensing plan violates consumer protection law. but that scrutiny comes being a public company. wall street wants to see those profits quickly, but it also puts you in the crosshairs of regulator, and not everyone's sold on reddit being best positioned to do that. >> you're seeing companies like google that can weather that storm the because they create billions of dollars of cash flow. but if i'm an investor, i'm just saying gold, there's -- god, there's so many exciting investments to make, is is this an opportunity for investors to

get out or do they really see a path to sudden and, you know, meaningfuller the material profitability? >> reporter: today it's not just important for reddit, but the broader ipo market. we saw a record high of $339 billion in 2021 but just an anemic 26 billion last year. whether there's appetite for the next big thing or investors want to stick more with company that have clear paths to profitability. ashley: very good, kelly. very quickly, adam, how do you think reddit's going to perform today? >> oh, there are so few ipos, i think people are excited, and it'll probably go up. i'm certainly not going to buy it. as kelly said, they don't make any money, and they've been around for 19 years. ashley: that's very true. adaming thank you so much -- thank you so much for being with us for the hour. still ahead, ben domenech, clay travis, sean duffy. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney & company" is next. ♪ sweet loving, sweet loving, sweet loving. ♪ you're giving me such sweet loving ♪ if

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