thumb on the scale. lydia: doug, from the west coast to the east coast, i want to ask you about the baltimore orioles, david rubenstein buying them for $1.75 billion. fans are really excited about this. why? what's your take? >> well, lydia, i tell you what, irrespective of economic uncertainty, there are three things that the you can bank on these days, oil fields, minnal deposits and professional sports franchises. the anglos family bought this happy in '993 for $1.75 -- yeah, $175 million. thirty years later they 10x'd their -- lydia: sounds like a good investment to me, doug. taylor: wish we had more time. really appreciate it. jeff, great to have you. happy good friday. you too, lydia. lauren simonetti, you're taking over. lauren: ladies, jeff. happy good friday, i am lauren simonetti in for charles payne, and this is "making money.

" breaking right now, new read on the economy. it's the fed's preferred inflation gauge, it's rising. people are spending more, earning less. the economist's daniel -- is on deck to respond as jay powell hints at the fed's next if move. today marks one year that "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich has been detained in russia with no trial date in site. his loved ones and colleagues respond to his fight for freedom. and president biden relying on the firepower of former president obama and clinton for a big dollar, star-studded fundraiser while the other former president, donald trump, reaches out to a mourning family and community. he's bringing in small donors. which approach is working? all that and much more on "making money." ♪ ♪ lauren: all right. we got big inflation numbers today, but they show no progress on getting inflation back down to 2%. you're looking at it, that's e the fed's preferred gauge.

the pce ticking up to 2.5% in february, and guess what? january was revised higher. the fed chair, jerome powell, says close but no cigar. >> february is lower, but it's not as low as most of the good readings we got in the second half of last year. but it's definitely more along the lines of what we want to see. the economy is strong. we don't need to be in a hurry to cut. it means we can wait and become more confident that, in fact, inflation is coming down to 2%. lauren: it feels like it's taking forever. joining me now, chief economist daniel he chi yea. you recently wrote a piece called easing in the middle of persistent inflation may worsen stagflation risk. daniel, you just heard from jay powell. do you think he might agree? >> well, thank you very much, lauren. i think that's the big mistake that we are seeing, is that the inflation reduction act has become the inflation perpetuating mistake. the decision of the government

to massively increase spending and massively increase deficit which is, ultimately, printing money has made inflation worse. i am particularly concerned about the fact of the genuine reading has been revised up. the january reading. and the february reading when we rook at the tree months' trend and the six months' trend is actually very negative if because with it's accelerating. so what it's showing, basically, is that the government is unnecessarily hitting up the economy and -- heating up the economy and making americans poorer at the same time. the reality is that disposable income has fall opinion yet again. so i think it's a very dangerous situation for the fed to call the success of having beaten the inflation problem because it's not beating anywhere. remember that inflation is

cumulative. so we're talking here about more than 23% increasing inflation in the past four years in a period in which real wages have barely increased. lauren: yeah, i know. it e has been an extended period of prices going up. it seemed for a little bit that they were starting to come down, and then we get the report today. we also got other numbers, and they show really strong consumer spend without a corresponding increase in incomes. doesn't that tell the whole story? things cost more, so we're spending more, but we're not bringing it in, in terms of our paycheck, our wages. >> you're absolutely right. what is happening is that americans are having to spend more because prices are higher. but they're not spending more in the number of goods that they're purchasing. it's simply the prices are higher. and at the same time, they're having to use their credit card must have more than in the past.

so excess savings have been almost depleted, and the situation for americans is obviously one of barely making ends meet at the end of the month. so the number that appears of allegedly robust consumption is, in fact, or bloated by credit card debt which is, again, reaching an all-time high. all of these things are negative. lauren: yeah. and that's why, daniel, it feels to many americans that we're being gas lit when it comes to the economy. oh, it's so strong. well, look at this. these are fox polls. they're the latest on the economy. six in ten of us say the economy is extremely important to them, but 52% say we're worse off financially now than we were four years ago. and 61% did approve of president biden's -- didn't approve of piped opinion's performance on the economy. does that kind of explain the disconnect? i mean, the president's underwater on the economy which

is one of the most important issues for voters. >> absolutely. what you have shown is the disparity between the headline figures that look row was -- robust, absolutely, they do, but with when you look and disago regate those figures, you're seeing that americans are suffering. in the past four years, we have to remember that the biden administration picked the entire recovery, didn't get any of the negatives of covid. okay in so in -- okay? so in a period of recovery with massive fiscal and monetary stimulus, real wages have barely grown. citizens have to deplete their savings and take more credit card debt. and and small businesses are suffering in their a margins because at the same time we have seen higher taxes. lauren: yeah. but those small businesses ask and and some of the bigger businesses are those big, bad corporations that are gouging us, right, daniel?

don't respond. we'll leave it there. thank you so much for the time. have a beautiful weekend and a good holiday. >> same to you. thank you very much. lauren: thank you. let's bring in main street asset management cio erin gibbs. erin, i know you were listening to all of that. yet we have this, i know main street and wall street are different -- >> right. lauren: but for wall street, i mean, it's so bullish out there. there's an rbc indicator out now, and they say they see the s&p 500 ending this year at 5300 which, honestly, erin, isn't far from where we are now. but they increased that from 5150. they're not the only ones. i mean, if everybody's so bullish e, is that time to be cautious? >> so i think so. and in part, a lot of the bullishness comments are belief9 that the fed will cut rates three times this year. lauren: do you believe that? >> i don't think so. i think looking historically we already are seeing, just as you mentioned, core going up. we've also seen two months of ppi and basically the producer side, the wholesale, the commodities going up.

and when you have a tight labor market plus inflation and we're seeing early signs of reinflation, you often have a second spike if s. and we saw that in the '60s,the '70s, the early '80s. rarely do we just get one spike in inflation, we frequently get two. so the fact that the fed says they're going to be cutting rates consistently over the next three years really ignores the likelihood of a potential second spike. and so i think that's where the disconnect is. wall street really thinks it's over, we're done, inflation is a one-spike time, we're just going to see rate cuts go down. and if that's a mistake, wall street's going to be pulling back. lauren: are we in that second spike right now? >> right now we're basically flat. we're sort of hovering between -- depending on which index you're looking at, we're very flat. but, what is concerning is that we're seeing starts of spikes on the producer side. lauren: okay. >> so your commodity side.

lauren that was my question, what exactly is costing more money? i want to say everything, because that's how it feels when you want to go shopping, book a flight if or whatever we're doing but what a exactly is staying high? >> for the past two months, half of all commodities out there have really spiked. and i know we like to talk about cocoa -- lauren: and we will later. >> -- especially for easter, but other things, i hear industrial metals -- lauren: your raw materials. >> and those are sort of, like, your early warning signs because it takes a little while longer to get into it and also, look, actual goods are only one-third of our economy. the other part of it is the stickiness of inflation within the services tide -- side, and that's the other two-thirds of our economy. and that we're also seeing is something companies aren't able to be able to -- are transferring higher prices because they have to pay employees more. lauren: there's a lot of euphoria out there. if you're an investor and you're watching now and we're listening to you and you're saying potentially this second wave of inflation is here, how do you

trade it? >> so one of the ways is stick to your safety stocks, so your large caps or your small, your small and mids are the ones that are going to get hit the hardest if the fed does change their tune -- lauren: meaning if they don't cut? >> they might say, oh, it's only going to be two cuts in concern -- instead of three, the small and mid caps are going to be the hardest hit. lauren: is that a possibility in '24? >> not in 24, because i think to really get that spike, a, it takes them nine months to do anything. we'll have nine months of inflation before they raise rates, so this is definitely a 2025 issue. but i'd be prepared to be defensive. have those backup plans ready to go, and energy right now is just an easy play. that's just continuing to go up. lauren: is energy performing better than technology? >> it is. it is the best performing sector year to date. lauren: is there averment u. in -- a.i. in energy? [laughter] i'm sure there is.

erin glibs, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. lauren: and tale -- a tale of two presidents. biden and trump both in new york, but that's where the similarities end. madison desoto on the dueling visits and what they mean for november. ♪ it was the heat of the moment -- ♪ telling me what my heart meant. ♪ the heat of the moment shone in your eye withs ♪

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lauren: new york played host to four presidents yesterday, but the purpose of these visit es could not be more different. edward lawrence is live9 from the white house with the latest. edward? >> reporter: yeah, lauren, and all those presidents within about a 40-minute drive of each other, 20 minutes by helicopter. one of them there for a court case and to go to the wake of an officer that was killed in the line of duty can, the other one raking in $26 million for campaign re-election fund with two other presidents. fox news polling showing that by 11 points or. maria: people trust former president donald trump more on foreign policy, immigration and the economy. in an exclusive interview on "fox & friends" this morning, the former president addressed the importance of this election. >> we're a nation in decline. we are a nation --

>> what's fixable? >> but totally fixable. we have to do it fast. tell you what, the most important day in the history of our country is going to be november 5th. that's election day. it's going to be november if 5th. that is the most important period of time. >> reporter: so president biden also talked about saving democracy last night as the latest inflation report shows people are spending more and making less, but president biden set a record for the amount of campaign contributions collected in one night. celebrities flocking to his fundraiser using the clout of former presidents bill clinton and barack obama. >> we're at a real inflection point in history. [applause] things are changing. this guy denies there is global warming. this guy wants to get rid of not only roe v. wade, but all the things he's doing are so old. speaking of old -- [laughter] and, you know, a little old and

out of shape. but anyway -- >> reporter: yesterday e former president trump at the wake with of that officer, he was killed in the line of duty from a traffic stop from a violent repeat offender who constantly kept getting released from jail. back to you, lauren. lauren: career criminal, indeed. edward, thank you for all of that. and it really is all about the money. i mean, edward just told us president biden setting a record by raking in more than $26 million in one night. but former president trump is trying to one-up him with a reported $33 million if fundraiser in florida next week. let's bring in the republican strategist and attorney madison desoto. madison, thanks for for coming on. ing. >> good to be with you. lauren: good to see you. i want to pull up some numbers now. when we talk about big dollar donations like the ones that we saw coming in last night, tata $26 million plus haul,you look at biden from 20220 to 2024, his big dollar donations have increased by 10 points, but if grow look at the right side of

the screen, trump's big dollar donations declined by 10 points because trump is fund raising from small dollar donors. if you ask me, the parties have changed. >> yeah. i think it's a very difficult time right now in fund raising especially when you look at those small dollar donations considering the inflation and the way people are being forced to live as a result of these bad economic conditions over the past couple of years. you look back to 2020, a truly unprecedented fund raising year with biden raking in over a billion dollars to his campaign as a whole, and i don't even think the campaign fund raising numbers tell the full story for the republican party. i do think there are concerns because you rook at those super pac if numbers, and biden's super pac has over four times more than trump's. you rook at the rnc versus the dnc with the dnc having close to $50 million more than cash on hand than the rny, and, of course, the campaign numbers where they've almost doubled the trump campaign with cash on hand. however, this doesn't mean that

biden's going to run away with the win, because you look at polling, and it's not really lining up with the fund raising numbers. about a six points historically would be how polls a -- are off, so a lot can happen, and trump takes the lead in many polls in important swing states like arizona, or georgia, michigan, nevada. these are the states that are very important when we talk about that potential electoral college victory for president trump. i think these fund raising numbers are something that shouldn't be pushed under the rugby republicans. lauren: but would the fund raising numbers, would they tell the story right now that the elite are propping up president biden because they can, and you have small donations coming in from a lot of small dollar donors for president trump signaling that they want a different direction and they're giving what they can afford which isn't adding up to what we're seeing from the biden side? >> yeah, i definitely think that argument can be made to a certain extent. but again, you still see a dig

can -- big disparity in the numbers. that's not just with the campaign, you're seeing that a with the party as well as the super pac, and those are concerns that are going to have to be overcome. in 2016 hillary clinton outspent president trump, and he still went on to victory. lauren: good point. >> it doesn't mean that president biden will win, but it is something to take a look at a because money is still important in this political game. lauren: yeah, absolutely. good point. we have to talk about ronn amc daniel. -- ronna mcdaniel. the rnc is now considering limiting nbc's access at the major republican convention this summer because the network ousted ronna mcdaniel, the former rnc chair. in a sense, the rnc is defending their former chair. do you think that that is the right response? and whey do you think they're doing that -- why do you think they're doing that? >> you know, i'm not sure whether it's the right response or not. we'll see what they end up doing, you know, it remains to

be seen whether they actually do that. when it comes to what nbc did, it seems like the inmates are running the asylum over will. obviously, nothing happened from the day that she was hired to the day that they decided to take her off air. executives were well aware of who she is, where she is -- she came from. it was very surprising that the talent at nbc had more power than the executives, and i think that was interesting for me to watch in that case. lauren: technically, she did one interview, and it cost them $600,000, potentially, since she's no longer with them. i just wonder9 if the rnc's response is somewhat hypocritical because they're limiting another network or another viewpoint, if you will, which is essentially what happened -- >> yeah. if i was running the rnc, i wouldn't be making that decision. lauren: you wouldn't? if okay. >> i would not. lauren: madison, good to see you. thank you very much. >> good to see you, thank you. lauren: march madness is height up and so is sports betting, but my next guest believes americans are taking the wrong us ekings. we'll explain.

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gets the upset over arizona. fans are certainly enjoying this year's sweet sixteen matchups. a growing number of americans are participating in sports wetting -- betting. my next guest says americans are taking the wrong kinds of risks in gambling on sports. let's bring in manhattan institute senior fellow allison schrager. welcome. >> thanks for having me -- having me. lauren: what is the unnecessary risks americans are taking as they gamble on sports? because it's allowed in half the country. >> i wouldn't say unnecessary, just the wrong kind. i find it remarkable how much it's take off. we're make it a lot more accessible, but at the same time we're making healthy, productive are risks like moving or starting a business much harder. so why are we encouraging sports gambling while discouragementing more productive, healthy risk taking? lauren: i'm assuming it's because the average sports bettor is just becamerring a small amount -- wagering a small amount, or am i completely

wrong? >> the average person is, but there are statistics that hoe there's a big big with in problem gamblers particularly among young people. it's kind of shocking that universities themselves are advertising sports gambling -- lauren: are they really? >> to their students. lauren: well, they have to picker like, those $90,000 tuitions -- >> exactly. [laughter] lauren: they're hoping to get lucky e. >> and states want the tax revenue. but the question is, you know, i'm not saying we should outlaw sports gambling. i'm too much of a libertarian to say that, but do we have to make it so easy where it's an app on our phone? lauren: right. and then stories like this, the mlb superstar, shohei ohtani, and the nba player both wrapped up in controversies concerning betting on their own sports. so we'll pull up the full screen, you can see just how much revenue is being brought, and this was just last year, if we have those numbers, i think about $a 1500 billion. they'll pull it up -- $saw -- 150 billion. there it is, about $150 billion.

>> yeah. i mean, not that either of them have been found guilty of throwing a match, but in the countries where there's more per if vasive sports gambling, match fixing is a big concern. so i think that's the other big concern, not problem gamblers, but that match fixing could become an issue, and that makes the game less interesting for everyone. lauren: but kind of fun too, isn't it? >> it is. it's kind of fun. we still talk about the baseball fixing in, what, 1990? lauren: pete rose? i know. let's switch gears and talk about the state of social security. we're going to play sound. it's what treasury secretary janet yellen has said about it and what president joe biden has said about a it recently. watch here. >> the president doesn't have a plan. he has principles. he wants to work with congress to find a way to protect social security and extend its solvency beyond -- >> if the president wishes --

>> i have a better idea. i'll protect social security and medicare. instead of giving the very wealthy another $2 trillion tax cut, i'm going to make sure the wealthy begin to pay their fair share of taxes to sustain -- [applause] lauren: i mean, the wealthy are just shouldering everything in this country under president biden. >> also a just like the numbers don't add a up. i mean, suppose that tomorrow we got rid of the cap on payroll, so everyone who makes more than $168,000 pays the full 12.4% on all of their income now. that would be an enormous tax increase, like a 12 percentage point marginal tax increase which would make most people pae class people would be paying, like, 60% plus tax rates. that would still not make social security whole. so even -- so let alone saying, oh, just people who make $400,000 or more are going to pay for all social security? that's absurd. that's not going to happen. lauren: well, but 400,000 or

more isn't the very rich. >> no. lauren: or is it? what's his cutoff? >> that is his cutoff. they used to say $250,000 was the cuts -- cutoff, now it's gone up to 40,000. but you would have to tax these people, like -- 400,000 -- 90% to pay for social security. it's just completely not feasible, a plus pause they have a million other things they want to pay for. you would effectively be blowing it all on social security when we could just do thing like -- i mean, you have to do a lot of different things. encouraging people to work longer, why is that off the table? lauren: yeah. we're staring down a problem, and there needs to be other solutions. allison, thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> it directly impacts the small businesses. and for people that think it doesn't, it's crazy. we have massive layoffs that's going to happen. i actually have a friend, his friend has seven mcdonald's, she's a franchisee-owner, she's going to be closing four of them. so we're going to have massive layoffs, massive job losses. and when it comes to being a mom and pop shop, if you can get $20

an hour dropping price at mcdonald a's, what do you expect you want me to pay to make a nice feel? lauren: that was a california business other than on the ripple effect of a higher minimum wage for fast food workers in california. and guess what? it all a starts on monday. their wages will jump from $16 an hour to $20 an hour. that is a big increase. let's bring in fhn financial chief economist chris lowe r. i mean, look, great for the workers, right? but not really for the customers because there are fears that that's who will be eating up this difference. >> oh, of course. and it's not necessarily great for the workers either, as you saw. people are losing jobs over this. lauren: yeah, good point. >> because there's only so far you can squeeze margins before you've bot to find ways to make -- got to find ways to make cuts. so especially we're seeing restaurants cutting delivery workers. lauren: delivery workers? >> absolutely. so you still need that essential staff in the kitchen, in the restaurant, but now instead of

getting your pizza delivered in california, more often than not you're going to have to come in and get it yourself. lauren: you know, this is just another consequence of high prices squeezing everybody. and it's the cumulative effect from years of inflation that's taking a toll. i feel bad for the business other than, whether big or small, and i -- business owner, and i feel bad for the worker who can't get by. especially in california where how do you live? housing is so expensive there. we got some inflation numbers today, the fed's preferred measure of inflation, core pce up 2.8% on an annual basis. it's not moving in the right direction anymore. >> no, it's sort of going sideways. and the issue is that goods prices were tumbling last year, and that was supply chain healing -- lauren: yep. >> and they're now or sort of stuck, going sideways at about zero. and mean while, service prices are stuck the at about 4%. lauren: well, services really haven't come down in price. >> no. they're still really elevated.

and that's why inflation is still higher than it was when it was running at about 1.7-2% before the pandemic. lauren: do you see a potential rate hike maybe not this year because with we have an election, but in 2025? >> i don't think we get a hike. lauren: so it won't get that bad where they're going to have to really tamp orer down again. >> they're backing away from the cuts. lauren: define backing away from the if cuts. >> well, there were three cuts fully priced in -- lauren: well, first there were six. i thought there were six -- >> yes. absolutely, absolutely. the fed promising three and now it's barely. they're split almost 50-50 between two and three. and it's march. you know, or let's see what that looks like when the fed is polled again in june. lauren: yeah. 61% chance, i checked right before i came in, of a cut of a quarter point in june. but we'll see. >> right. lauren: there's this narrative that the consumer and the job market are strong, hope for a soft landing. we've thus far avoided

recession. but what is the disconnect? why doesn't main street feel like that? >> i think there's two reasons. one is that interest costs are super high. if you're going to get a car or buy a house, you're paying through the nodes for interest. of -- the nose for interest. the other is immigration because if you have 3 million if people come into the economy which is what the cbo estimated in their new numbers, if they came into the work force, then you have to grow the economy faster to absorb them. so even though gdp growth might be 2.5 which under normal circumstances would be really good, if you are growing it with that many more people, the per capita share of gdping is not growing that fast. they're a lauren i thought you were going to tell me that they work for less and they're going to drive down wages. >> well, that's happening too. according to bureau of labor statistics numbers last year,

foreign-born workers were all of the job gains. lauren: so you're saying that the immigration problem is an economic problem. >> it's -- partly. i mean, the fed loves it, right, because it's holding wages down and, therefore, limiting inflation growth. lauren: but they're expensive, the migrant crisis, for all these cities bearing the cost. >> let me tell you too, i mean, it falls directly on the shoulders of the americans least able to pay for if it. lauren: and the services that those americans get -- >> that's right. lauren: chris lowe, thank you for the time. >> thank you. lauren: coming up, some bittersweet news a heading into easter weekend as chocolate prices hit record levels. i'm going to ask scott mart ifen if he is d martin is searching for alternatives, and i gave him a heads up, so he's come prepared. be right back. ♪ ♪

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i move so much better because of cosentyx. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. i suffer with psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. i was on a journey for a really long time to find some relief. cosentyx works for me. cosentyx helps real people get real relief from the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis. serious allergic reactions, severe skin reactions that look like eczema, and an increased risk of infections, some fatal, have occurred. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to or if ibd symptoms develop or worsen. i move so much better because of cosentyx. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. lauren: this east orer weekend might be more bittersweet than usual as the rising cost of cocoa is hitting farmers as well as small businessesment madison alworth joins us live from a chocolate shop in new jersey. madison, how much has that store where you are increased the price of chocolate in.

>> reporter: lauren, over the past year when we've seen cocoa prices go up, it's resulted in the cost of chocolate going up as a well. they've increased anywhere from 10-20% over the past year. the problem or the challenge is, is that we've really seen it skyrocket since january is. so from january to today, the price of cocoa, that's up 133%. which is up avoidable at a sop like this one where -- shop like this one where everything they sell, essentially, has some as aspect. i want to bring in mark, the co-owner. it's the busiest day here, mark, it's easter weekend. thed good news is any of the easter chocolate you purchased ahead of time, because it's featured. >> right. >> reporter: what are you hearing there from your suppliers now? >> they're going to be rationing how much we're allowed to purchase at a time, which has never happened in the history of our business. and, obviously, the fear is there that ration be so much that we can't actually make everything that we normally do. >> reporter: okay. and so why is that rationing happening?

what's happening in africa that's costing and causing the price of your easter basket to go up? >> what you have is heavy rains over the last couple of growing seasons have created a situation in which you have fungus growing on certain cocoa pods which has resulted in a roughly one-third reduction in the crop yield. and that, of course, supply and demand means that you're going to be to have an increase in the cost. and it just became a chain reaction. >> reporter: so when it comes the cocoa and then chocolate, you're seeing that it's $10,000 per metric ton. so you look at other modties like bitcoin and things like that, and cocoa, this is the highest it's ever been. which is not good news for chocolate lovers. what are we looking at for the rest of the year when it come to prices? >> so the fortunate part is it's the cocoa that's going up and not chocolate specifically, and chocolate is made of more than just cocoa, but there's still going to be significant cost increases to us which, obviously, you can only absorb

so much and still want to make sure that your business is around. i'm guessing 10-202% in the nexx months. >> reporter: mark, thank you so much. lauren are, obviously, the takeaway is if there's another price hike in the coming months, this chocolate is the. cheapest you're going to get -- lauren: how much is that, madison? >> reporter: more chocolate in your easter baskets -- lauren: how much is that bunny that you'red holding? do you know offhand? $24.95, his smaller brother is just $9. back to you, lauren, you let me know. lauren: so mark's increased prices in the last year 10-20%, and in the next six months, another 10- 20%. unbelievable. i'll take the big guy. i'll take the mama bunny there. happy easter, madison. [laughter] let's bring in scott martin. scott, i know that you would pick the mama ma bunny too. >> the grandpa bunny, which is the biggest on the shelf which,

i think, it's like $250. i'll share it with you, lauren, and madison, if she's still living -- listening. lauren: it's hollow inside, just so you know. >> it's a fun funny thing about where the prices are going and where they've been. the market tends to fix itself, they talk about the supply issues. i tell you what, if you go to some of these customer stores disturb stores, customers are very discerning. demand will fall and, therefore, the production will get back in line with actual demand if the prices go up too much. lauren: i feel like it's already are happening. i mean, literally, i would say half of the time i'm at any sort of cash register, i question, like, wait, what did that cost? it's like you can't even believe these prices anymore. >> yes. feel that same way when i went to taco belk i don't know, some years ago. and thank goodness taco bell doesn't use chocolate in their tacos. [laughter] i trade down too, lauren. you're right. when you go to a chocolate store like that which look very nice,

awesome, so many things i want to put in my mouth right now, i'd trade down and go to 7/eleven and buy any favorite -- my favorite candy right now which is chocolate rolos, which is a lot cheaper than a cock -- chocolate bunny. that. lauren: a lot of people are trying to lose weight, and now senator bernie sanders wants to meet with the ceo of ozempic next week, and he says you need to lower the price of semipeck. i'm going to let you respond to that, but i also a want you to answer this question: in germany if you get ozempic, it costs you $59 a month. for an american in the united states, it costs, like, $1300 a month. can you explain that? >> yes. well, first of all, if bernie sanders all calls you -- lauren: hang up! >> -- hang up the phone. go to voicemail. you've got to return the prices lower, it's bernie sanders here. he doesn't even know what price it should cost because he thinks the government should control

everything and that individual businesses should make their own decision. with regards to germany though, lauren, maybe they're just a little bit thinner than the average american and, therefore, the drug doesn't need to do as big of a job, and maybe it's less than in america and, therefore, shouldn't cost as much. other reasons besides that are not reasons i want to move to europe. lauren: giving you 20 seconds, what are your picks? >> my picks going forward, i really like bank here, and i hike industrials, and i like defeint. i think cyclical names are -- defense. the market sectors as far as tech and some of those leaders are overdone, so things that are a little bit more traditional a, a little more on the consumer staples side, i think you can weather a downturn in the market. lauren: that's exactly what a citi says, this tech rally's a bit overdone, cu cutting their exposure, broadening out. scott martin, thank you. good to see you. >> see ya. lauren:ed today marks one year of evan gersh covisits' wrongful detente in russia. where do things stand with getting the american journalisty home c?

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lauren: today marks one year of "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich being detained while reporting in russia. his detention has been extended for another three more months. president biden saying just moments ago that he is not giving up bringing evan home. alec hogan joins us now -- alex hogan joins us now with more from london. >> reporter: hi, lauren. this very grim milestone that we are mark today since the detalk aboutment of evan gershkovich, this american journalist, and his family today telling fox that they are continuing to monitor the situation and what his mood and his e character seems to be like after 12 months behind bars saying that they are continuing to push forward hoping for a deal to free him. >> i still go to work. i write evan letters. i and i just know whatever i'm

experiences concern experiencing, it's tougher for evan. >> reporter: the 32-year-old is accused of being a spy despite the fact that no evidence has been provided. the white house completely denies these claims calling him wrongfully detained. today "the wall street journal" posted an article describing everything that he's missed and this year with, like the weddings of friends from high school and college, watching his favorite teams play, the jets and arsenal football club. instead, all he's had over the last year is one hour per day to walk around. the reporter spends the other 23 hours a day locked in a a jail cell. he is allowed to meet with his lawyers once a week to hopefully discuss potentials of trying to be released. and as far as what that looks like, we know it was earlier this week that a moscow court extended his sentence, he will spend at least three more months behind bars, and there is still no date set, lauren, when he will even face trial.

lauren? lauren: it's sod sad, alex. but the good news is, i was talking to up one of his friends earlier, and he said evan has not been broken. >> reporter: he has not. lauren: we hope it stays that a way. alex, thank you. let's bring in research president and fox news contributor rebecca crans. evan represents everything vladimir putin opposes; america, journalism, truth. is there a way where we can bring him back home, is there a certain prisoner swap that willen able this? >> that's such a good point. i mean, he is incident and he's all that's best about america. the prisoner swap's very relevant because gershkovich was picked up about four months after a brittney griner was returned in a prisoner swap for a russian arms dealer, viktor bout. i am a hopeful that the state department is working this very hard but behind the scenes and that moscow court's extense of his sentence tell me that putin is using him as a pawn in this

vicious game and holding out for something big in terms of a prisoner swap. we don't have any insight into that, but given putin's history, most likely that's what's going on. lauren: okay. turning to russia's relations with iran, u.s. central command says that iran is giving russia more than 100 of its sophisticated attack drones per week, and, rebecca, they're building them -- building them at a factory in russia so they can continually supply putin's war in ukraine. >> yeah. shocking news from the general there in centcom. and this is something we just didn't see happening, this nexus of iran and russia. and, you know with, really iran is now moscow's arms supplier. and these iran-made drones are in use from the skies over ukraine right down to the red sea. this particular drone pollution 100 a week, very nasty because it's long range, it can carly

shrapnel type and other warheads, so it can do a lot of damage. and although it's vulnerable, you can shoot it down with guns if you can find it. they are tricky to pick up. and so it is playing the role in overwhelming some of the air defenses. really nasty drone. lauren: rebecca, how quickly can they produce them? >> well, that's just a matter of the ramp rate. and if they can do 100 a week now, if the money is there, they can do more. what worries me more is that they will continue long term production of these not only for the ukraine battlefield, but we may start seeing them around the world. and so russia building iranian drones and the business between those two country, that is just a terrible -- two country, that is just a terrible development. lauren: and as a you say, drones that can carry shrapnel and warheads that are hard to defect. isis-k, the recent attack in moscow is a making americans very nervous because you look at our wide open southern border,

we don't know who's coming in. what is the possibility in your estimation and with your sources of a potential terror attack happening right here in the u.s. because it came in through our texas or california border? >> isis-k focuses on that area around afghanistan and the middle east, but they have tried to pull off an attack in france that failed. we know they pose a threat to our u.s. military forces deployed in the middle east. but, yes, can an isis-k operative walk across the southern border? well, as far as i know there's nothing to stop them paying the cartels to bring them up to that southern border. are they going to do it? we don't know. but we have to watch very carefully for what isis-k is up to, and again, it's central command if saying that they can attack u.s. and western targets with very little notice and really at a very short time. so the southern border open is a vulnerability to isis-k.

lauren: i was reading that the warning said they can attack the u.s. in six months. is that accurate? >> they always try to give an estimate of that because they're not real sure what the planning framework is. they don't want to be too precise. and so that's a signal to our intelligence community and our allies to really watch this carefully. and, you know, we have somehow got to watch more carefully for terrorists at the southern border given the range of different nationalities we see coming across every day. lauren: the world is a mess no matter where you look as our segment just covered. it's, it's really troubling. rebecca grant, thank you so much for the time. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. rawrp a lauren and thank you, everybody, for joining us. with that, i'm going to send it over to kelly o'grady. she is in for liz claman. kelly? kelly: lauren, you have been working all day today, so happy easter. go enjoy your friday. good to see you. [laughter] thanks, everyone, i'm kelly o'grady in