Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: With fewer than one hundred days until voters head to
Speaker 2: the polls. If re elected, former President Donald Trump is
Speaker 2: widely expected to appoint a so called Capitol Hill cabinet
Speaker 2: full of Congress made. A potential shortlist includes Republican Senator
Speaker 2: Bill Hagersey, who is being floated as a pick for
Speaker 2: Treasury Secretary. The senator joins us right now, Senator, it's
Speaker 2: great to catch up me, sir. We tried to do
Speaker 2: this last week, so this is our second attempt. I
Speaker 2: think this one's going to work.
Speaker 3: Good to be back with you, Jonathan Lisa, thank you.
Speaker 2: Let's start with foreign exchange, if we can, sir. We
Speaker 2: caught up with the former president here at Bloomberg just
Speaker 2: a number of weeks ago, and in Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 2: he told us that he believes we have a bit
Speaker 2: of a currency problem in the United States for America. Senator,
Speaker 2: I would love your perspective on that, whether you agree
Speaker 2: with a former president on that issue, and what kind
Speaker 2: of policy tools do you think the government has to
Speaker 2: address it.
Speaker 3: We have a number of problems with the economy. I
Speaker 3: think the biggest one, however, and is related is inflation
Speaker 3: is driving higher interest rates. Of course that has a
Speaker 3: direct impact on our currency. But President Trump's policies will
Speaker 3: have an immediate impact to bring inflation down because he's
Speaker 3: going to end this administration's war on fossil fuels, bring
Speaker 3: energy costs down, go back to a deregulatory construct as
Speaker 3: he did in the prior administration, taking down regulatory and
Speaker 3: compliance barriers. All of these will have a lowering impact
Speaker 3: on cost here in America. It'll have a lower impact
Speaker 3: on inflation. Those will be directly beneficiary and basically help
Speaker 3: make the case then to bring reachs down and therefore
Speaker 3: bring our currency into a different position.
Speaker 2: Senator, there are two other proposals as well, which I'm
Speaker 2: sure you're familiar with, much higher tariffs, a much tougher
Speaker 2: stance on immigration. I'm not going to sit here and
Speaker 2: say whether that's the right or wrong thing to do.
Speaker 2: I just want to talk about outcomes and consequences. Deutsche Bank,
Speaker 2: like others on Wall Street, Senators you know, have pointed
Speaker 2: out the tariffs and their associated stronger implications for the
Speaker 2: dollar are significantly more likely to be the dominant market
Speaker 2: outcome than policies to pursue a week of dollar. Senator,
Speaker 2: my question to you would be, why wouldn't higher tariff
Speaker 2: and a toughest stance and immigration ultimately just lead to stagflation.
Speaker 3: I'm fully aware of the concerns surrounding tariffs, but let
Speaker 3: me make this point. The United States of America has
Speaker 3: the lowest tariff barriers of any major economy in the world.
Speaker 3: The converse of that statement is that our major trading
Speaker 3: partners do not have the similar tarifsy have much higher tariffs. Therefore,
Speaker 3: we have a real lack of reciprocity. That's not fair.
Speaker 3: That's something that needs to be addressed. Many of these
Speaker 3: issues date back all the way to World War Two,
Speaker 3: but there's come a time and a place to step
Speaker 3: up and address that. President Trump wants to see them addressed.
Speaker 3: We want to see more reciprocal and fair trading terms.
Speaker 3: The time has come to get that accomplished, Senator.
Speaker 1: From a market perspective, people are struggling with these two
Speaker 1: goals sort of national security fairness on one hand, and
Speaker 1: on the other hand, the idea of the advantage of
Speaker 1: a weaker currency for trade purposes, which takes prominence pre eminence.
Speaker 3: Well, I think It's something that always has to be balanced, Lisa,
Speaker 3: and I think you'll see any administration do their best
Speaker 3: to do it. I think President Trump did an excellent
Speaker 3: of that during his first administration. The playbook is laid
Speaker 3: out there. We were strong, we were tough with China.
Speaker 3: At the same time, we brought economic growth that was
Speaker 3: twice the rate of any of the major economy at
Speaker 3: the same time here in America. So we can do both.
Speaker 3: We can walk and shoo them at the same time.
Speaker 3: I think that's the challenge. The most important thing, though,
Speaker 3: is that President Trump will come in and in these
Speaker 3: reckless policies domestically that have created inflation that has caused
Speaker 3: so many knock on effects. Again, back to energy independence,
Speaker 3: we need to get there. Not only will it be
Speaker 3: important for lowering inflation here, but it'll be an important
Speaker 3: geostrategic tool as we become much stronger allies who were
Speaker 3: able to export our energy to places like Europe and Asia.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go there. You've mentioned it a couple times,
Speaker 1: this idea of war on fossil fuels, as well as
Speaker 1: the idea of not really achieving the goal of energy
Speaker 1: and dependence. We're pumping more oil in the United States.
Speaker 1: We're producing more oil than ever before, more than thirteen
Speaker 1: million barrels a day. This is something unseen before in
Speaker 1: terms of production from any other nation. How can you
Speaker 1: say that it's a war on fossil fuels time where
Speaker 1: it is record production.
Speaker 3: Lisia clearly is a war on fossil fuels. Because Joe
Speaker 3: Biden came in and took federal lands off the map
Speaker 3: immediately upon taking office. That's a quarter of our capacity
Speaker 3: right there. What you're not saying is that there was
Speaker 3: a trajectory that was much more rapid, much higher. We
Speaker 3: took ourselves off of that growth trajectory and we flattened it.
Speaker 3: We continued to produce, but demand is outstripping it. Think
Speaker 3: about the demand for electricity here in America. If you
Speaker 3: think about what we're going to need for artificial intelligence,
Speaker 3: the electrification of the grid, We've got to get back
Speaker 3: into the energy production business full blast. We have the
Speaker 3: technology to do it. This administration has done everything they
Speaker 3: can to slow that down. We need to get back
Speaker 3: on a rapid growth path that'll put us on a
Speaker 3: trajectory to be not only stronger here domestically in lower inflation,
Speaker 3: but also stronger partners with our allies.
Speaker 2: So senas right now, we're producing thirteen point three million
Speaker 2: powers of crude every single day, As Lisa points it out,
Speaker 2: that's a record, is more than anyone on the planet.
Speaker 2: How much crude do you think America should be and
Speaker 2: can be produce?
Speaker 3: Sick We should be producing more than anybody else in
Speaker 3: the world as we are. We need to produce more
Speaker 3: LNG to become the strongest energy partner there is. You
Speaker 3: think about pipeline capacity and the difficulty of getting permits
Speaker 3: of this administration. You think about the difficulty beginning or
Speaker 3: refinery started here in America. All of these log jams
Speaker 3: and difficulties make it less possible for us, make it
Speaker 3: more difficult for us to be the best possible ally
Speaker 3: that we could. We need to expand it. We need
Speaker 3: to realize that this is a true source of competitive
Speaker 3: advantage for the United States of America. Let's exploit it.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about who is an ally and who isn't
Speaker 2: an ally. There's lots of conversations about what's going to
Speaker 2: happen we trade policy and China. I think we've sort
Speaker 2: of exhausted that conversation many times over the last few weeks, Senator,
Speaker 2: I want to talk about Mexico. I want your view
Speaker 2: on Mexico. We saw from Elon Musk of Tesla that
Speaker 2: he's holding back investment decisions in the country because he
Speaker 2: thinks there might be a change in the next year
Speaker 2: that makes it difficult to produce automobiles over in Mexico.
Speaker 2: We've heard similar thoughts from all the manufacturers elsewhere worldwide.
Speaker 2: What is happening in Mexico and what kind of changes
Speaker 2: would you like to see?
Speaker 3: Well, in twenty twenty six, the USMCA is up for renegotiation,
Speaker 3: and I think one of the greatest concerns is the
Speaker 3: fact that Chinese ev makers are looking to end run
Speaker 3: the USMC in run tariffs and use the USMCA and
Speaker 3: Mexico market in particular as it means to get into
Speaker 3: the US market, and they're using their subsidized product destroy
Speaker 3: the US market. That's going to have to take a
Speaker 3: very solid look. I think. Also with respect to Mexico itself,
Speaker 3: we've seen some very concerning behavior there the prior administration
Speaker 3: there n ra Amlow actually nationalizing American company's assets. We've
Speaker 3: got to address that. I intend to speak with the
Speaker 3: new administration there very soon about what we can do
Speaker 3: to make certain we have much better and much stronger
Speaker 3: relationship there with Mexico and fairer terms.
Speaker 1: Senator. The last time we tried to talk, you were
Speaker 1: at a bitcoin conference, and this was our cryptocurrency conference,
Speaker 1: and that was where the former President Trump was speaking
Speaker 1: and fundraising. And we've been asking this question on the show,
Speaker 1: Why Bitcoin? Why now? Why crypto assets? What's sort of
Speaker 1: the motivation to really embrace a network of crypto assets
Speaker 1: and become the preeminent network on the plan And from
Speaker 1: a Republican sort of stance, is this something that is
Speaker 1: concrete and why?
Speaker 3: At least I think this is something that has evolved
Speaker 3: over time. I first began looking into crypto and the
Speaker 3: previous administration in twenty eighteen. That was my first engagement.
Speaker 3: I initially started at a point of skepticism, as I
Speaker 3: think many of my colleagues do. But when I begin
Speaker 3: to understand the underlying technology and realizing the potential for
Speaker 3: dramatic productivity gains, what I thought to myself is we
Speaker 3: need to make certain that it happens here in America.
Speaker 3: The last thing we want is to see what happened
Speaker 3: with the semiconductor industry where it got pushed off shore
Speaker 3: and weakened us from a geopolitical standpoint, we need to
Speaker 3: see this innovation happening here. I've been in many conversations
Speaker 3: with President Trump. His thinking is likewise involved, and he's
Speaker 3: embracing the fact that this has tremendous potential for America.
Speaker 3: We want it to evolve here. We want to create
Speaker 3: the ecosystem for it to thrive here, and the last
Speaker 3: thing we need to do is push it off shore. However,
Speaker 3: the current administration has done everything they can to attack
Speaker 3: this industry, to push it offshore again, to use the SEC,
Speaker 3: the CFTC, every tool at their disposal to come in
Speaker 3: and attack this industry and refuse to provide it with
Speaker 3: any time for regulatory framework. President Trump made the statement
Speaker 3: at the Bitcoin conference that one of the first things
Speaker 3: he'll do is change out the administration's leadership. Gerry Ginselari said,
Speaker 3: will be fired. That brought people to their feet and applause.
Speaker 3: He's going to end operation chokepoint that's been taking place
Speaker 3: in the crypto industry here in America, and he's going
Speaker 3: to try to create the environment here where the industry
Speaker 3: can thrive and we'll see the next wave of innovation
Speaker 3: happening right here in America.
Speaker 2: Senator, we've got to dance around the issue about your future.
Speaker 2: So this is how a frame mat. I've got twenty
Speaker 2: seconds left on the clock. Your favorite city to live
Speaker 2: in Nashville, Tokyo or Washington, DC?
Speaker 3: Which one, No, it has to be Nashville, Tennessee. And
Speaker 3: if you've been there at the Crypto conference, you've seen
Speaker 3: the energy there. It is absolutely wonderful what's happening broadly
Speaker 3: across my state. That's why so many people are moving there.
Speaker 2: Senator, Thank you, sir. Senator Ville haggartsy there on the
Speaker 2: latest with Crypto the economy,