Episode 4717: Tony Katz Today Hour 3 - 09/04/26

0:00. Why from the heartland and the crossroads of America. It's Tony Katz today and we're hitting pulled on your seats folks. Non-farm payrolls for the month of August up 162K. 162,000. That's basically three times what expectations are. Yeah, the expectation was in the 50,000 range like 50,000 jobs and we hit 162,000. Yeah, that's incredible. We're saying again, yeah, they got it really wrong. It's hard to trust anybody. Any of the so-called experts, Tony Katz, Tony Katz today good to be with you. The numbers are massive. Now at CNBC telling the story there about the jobs numbers and one could expect that CNBC would tell a story about wow, take a look at these jobs numbers.

1:01This was CNN. Breaking this morning, new data out just out showing the labor market surge last month. The number of jobs reported more than double expectations at 162,000. Despite growing headwinds like rising energy prices due to the ongoing worth of the money that was being sold out. And that's what we're seeing now. And CNN is joining me now to break down what you're seeing in this report. All in all, this for job seekers is good news. Yeah, absolutely Sarah. Look, it's nice to be here on this Friday morning with some good news on the economy. Because yeah, this report, it did crush expectations. So the forecast from economists was for a gain of just 65,000 jobs in August. And it ticked a 4.2. It didn't. It stayed at a low level of just 4.1%. And there were significant revisions in the positive direction for both June and July. In particular, July was originally reported as a small loss of jobs.

2:01But now as this chart shows, there's been a small gain in jobs. Stop right there. CNN did two things here. First, yes, it crushed. They got the number. The situation was in the 50,000 range. So it's really a tripling. They called it a more than doubling. They can choose a different number. You'd argue they didn't get it right. Totally, totally fine. Admitting that the jobs numbers in the other months got revised upward, which usually doesn't happen. We saw this in the Biden administration repeatedly. The jobs numbers got revised downward every time they were lying frontend. Revised up a little bit. This is where, by the way, as I've been discussing, people get nutty. Because I agree that the conflict is real. The conflict is here are the gas prices, here are the beef prices, here are the energy prices, here are the insurance prices.

3:04We have more jobs. People have more income because you got to mention the fact that income has been going up. These two things are in crazy levels of conflict. They boggle the mind in the, how do these two things happen at the same moment? It's all just nutty. But I was impressed that they're showing this on the past labor market. Let's see an uncook in July. This shows how volatile the trend has been. Month to month. There's been a few months of job loss over the last year, year and a half or so. But again, it's nice to see an increase. In fact, this was the most jobs the economy has added in a single month since March. So where are the jobs? Well, that was another positive here is that the job growth has been more widespread than in the past. Leisure and hospitality, adding 62,000 jobs that was mostly bars and restaurants. And that's a big improvement from July when there was this roll cup hangover and a significant amount of jobs that were lost.

4:04Government, 35,000. All schools, public schools, local government education significantly increased in jobs in August. And that likely reflects a bounce back because in July, there was job loss there, probably related to some shifts in school calendars and struggles to try to capture all of that in the BLS models. Healthcare only added 13,000. That's kind of a low number for that sector. That could reflect some changes on the immigration front. We should keep an eye on that. Information and finance. Notably, those two sectors losing a combined more than 30,000. And sorry, those are sectors that are adopting jobs. They are high paying jobs and their jobs. These are industries that are adopting AI aggressively. So you got to wonder if that is in part reflecting some of the pressure on jobs because of AI. One last point for you. Wages. Wages. They were up 3.1%. Not a terrible number. However, that's actually a five year low. This is a continued slowdown in wage growth. And that is well shy of the projected August inflation rate of 3.4.

5:05So sad that means that for many workers, their paychecks are not going up as fast as prices. But the paychecks have gone up overall. So I will accept the point there. Also interesting points regarding AI. That when you see the job loss in finance and in technology, that's replacement. So the argument is, my gosh, it's costing jobs. You know what? Let's say yes. It is costing jobs. Some people would refer to that as the concept of creative destruction. This is the horse and buggy versus the automobile. Things go, things come, new jobs get created. Opportunities happen. That's where we're at right now. We're in this phase of it. And it's going to be here for quite a few years. But the overarching is that people look at this and say, this is amazing. I look at this and say, first of all, the miss is remarkable.

6:05But this is okay. I know, I know, I'm going to get yelled at. Why aren't you more positive? Oh, I'm positive. This is going to be used. There's absolutely great news. And there's a lot of great stuff to take from it. The only thing I would state, and I want people to keep in mind, is that if it's teachers going back into the workforce, it doesn't stay at these numbers. Don't be surprised when next month kind of mellows out a little bit. But I also think that we need to be looking at some of the other numbers, like where we are with manufacturing, and where we are with other inflation indicators. But overall, does this make people feel like you know what? Things are moving. I'm going to create, as I said, this kind of back and forth. It's just mental. Here we see the price of beef. Here we see what's going on with, I said, insurance costs, other things, and then we see this.

7:06How do you make any sense of this? Well, Kevin Haset is the director of the National Economic Council. And he met up with the press corps. He was out there on Pebble Beach, Superhot Day in DC. Of course, he's cheering these numbers. Let's hear from him and the questions asked of him. It's a Labor Day weekend, President of the American people that President's economic policies are working. Not only are people getting jobs, but if you look at average weekly earnings, which is because people not only want to have a high wage, but they also want to have the hours that they want, average weekly out there for earnings or soaring. And inflation is even under control. If you look at the last three months, the CPI, the Corkins Superprice Index at an annual rate is only at 1.6%. So we think that while there's a strong growth effect going on, it's not inflation there. So why are people not feeling it? Why does everyone that we speak to say prices are higher, life's a bit harder, and cost is more to do the basic things?

8:08If the economy is so good, why don't we feel the benefit? I just don't accept that fact. I don't know what's feeling the benefit. The 90,000 people that have jobs now, building factories, they're feeling the benefit. The people that are seeing their salaries go up so far that she's about 4% they're feeling the benefit. And surveys sometimes don't catch up with the settlement of the American people and tend very often to favor Democrats. So I'd write down, if you look at, for example, the Michigan survey, they actually tell you the party affiliation of the people who are going to be surveyed. And for Democrats, they say the economy is like worse than it's been. It's a great depression, which is just crazy. And Republicans say it's great. And so would you take the average of that that it looks like consumer-seventous bad, but it's just that Democrats are very angry as a party about President Trump's success? Now, he's right about that. He's certainly right to say that, you know, I reject the premise of the question. Not everybody is in mystery.

9:08Not everybody says everything is terrible. He's right about that. He should not discount that there are prices up and people feeling it. And gas prices, beef prices, insurance, those ones. I usually talk about you have your own. If the more the White House discounts that, the more ridiculous they look. The more the White House doesn't share the good things, the more the left is able to run away with a narrative falsely. We will get into more on narrative coming up in a little bit. It is absolutely false to say that everything is awful. Absolutely false to say that. It is absolutely insane to say that everything is fine and terrific. The problem is just those angry Democrats. No, no, no. So recognize the issues people are having, push back on falsehoods and share the other side of the story, which is legitimate.

10:11It's just not getting shared enough. What do you think? I mean, 62,000 jobs added. Does the Fed still have a reason to cut it? It's those rates. Or the rate rates is what people think is on the table. The odds of that right now, about 60%. We respect the independence of the Fed. But I think that it's been under reported something that Chairman Worsh has been saying and emphasizing and just did so again at Jackson Hole. That growth doesn't require the Fed to raise rates. It's inflation that needs to really keep their eye on. And so you need to know where the growth comes from. If the growth comes from a big positive supply-shighted side effect like we're building factories, we've got AI making everybody more productive, then that growth could happen without creating inflation. And again, right now, the latest read we have on growth is almost 5% growth. The latest read we have on jobs is one of the best jobs days ever right before Labor Day. And the last three months over inflation, our estimate is that it's running at a rate below the Fed's target. It's running at a rate about 1.6%.

11:13That's, um... Wait a second. Did he say 5%? There I am. And so you need to know where the growth comes from. If the growth comes from a big positive supply-shighted side effect like we're building factories, we've got AI making everybody more productive, then that growth could happen without creating inflation. And again, right now, the latest read we have on growth is almost 5% growth. The latest... My gosh. That's... That is huge. 5% is huge. Now show me the numbers. Absolutely. They can have a ball with this data. And I think that this is good going into Labor Day weekend. And there's a lot of positives. It's just this is going to settle. That's where I just want to make sure everybody is kind of normal. It's going to settle. And that's, that's okay. Right? You still have these other issues which the White House shouldn't ignore. We do have plus side things that we also should not ignore.

12:13Things are happening good. And yes, market things are happening good. How does the Dow respond? Well, the Dow is going to respond as it responds. Like kind of midday, mid-morning, it was down. It was down over 200. I don't know what's going to end. They're going to digest it in all the ways they do. Maybe they were expecting that this would mean the jobs before could be in rate cut. It could be that and they're disappointed by something. It's the market. They're always disappointed by something. It's like they're Buffalo Bill's fans. Eventually, they're going to end up being disappointed or jets fans or basically anything that exists in the AFC East outside the Patriots. It's just very, very disappointing in general. But no, it's a pretty strong report. It will mellow out. Nobody should get over their skis. And no one should forget that people are still dealing with economic issues that need to get fixed. This is Tony Katz today. Most of the time, Laplaya sounds like this.

13:17For some, Laplaya also sounds like this. But no matter what, this is our playa. Laplaya awaits. Relax responsibly. Corona extrobeer imported by Crown import Chicago, Illinois. So there's a story out of where I live, which very much aligns with stories where Democrats are in charge. Now, I don't live in a city that has a Democrat mayor. I live next to a city that has a Democrat mayor and a Democrat city council and a Democrat member of Congress. And what you get is the same old, same old, the thing that you get everywhere. An absolute repudiation of the truth and honesty and a complete and total narrative as to what's happening. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, good to meet with you. We'll get more into narrative in just a little bit.

14:18This is a story out of Indianapolis where ICE has been doing its work. ICE has been out and engaged in arrests. Now Indianapolis, Indiana doesn't get the headlines that some other places get, but you'll note that after Minneapolis, no place got headlines. You haven't heard anything. ICE has still been doing their job, but you haven't heard anything. There have been no large-scale rallies. Of course, there's been screaming about a center there in New Jersey where members of Congress are morons. But you haven't heard where's been the writing? Where's been the list? Where is it? It's very interesting. And some people have noted, well, you stopped the funding of USAID. Maybe that did it. Some people noted, here came the Secretary of State Marco Rubio headstrong into, here's what Cuba has been funding and the damage they've been doing to the nation. And we've cut that off at all of a sudden. Well, where is it all? Very interesting correlation pieces there that need a little more study.

15:20But you've had ICE working in Indianapolis. And you've had the mayor say, we're very concerned about what's happening in our city. Why are you concerned? ICE is doing its job. You should be helping them do the job. They don't plan on doing that. There have been other municipalities saying we won't help ICE. And he puts out a statement that says, and I'm quoting, in recent days, this is the mayor of Indianapolis. His name is Joe Hogset. In recent days, Indianapolis has seen an increase in ICE activity carried out without any advanced notice to my office and without transparency about procedures or intent. What are they supposed to tell you? What transparency is necessary? They're following the law and they're removing people who are in the country illegally. Since these operations began, my office has contacted federal authorities who declined to provide us with any information specific to this increased enforcement activity. I don't know what the rules are, what the laws would be about what they would have to tell you, but I will bet you anything.

16:22The reason they don't tell you is because you are the kind of person you run the kind of office that would share this information with people here illegally. I know this because in the same exact post you put on social media, you put, know your rights according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. You have the rights to remain silent. Remain calm and do not run away. If immigrant agents approach you on the street, do not run away as this could be a reason to arrest you. You have the right to demand a judicial warrant before letting immigration agents into your home. You have the right under the US Constitution to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. You have the right to speak with the lawyer if you are arrested. If you are in ICE custody, do not sign anything without speaking with an attorney first as it could eliminate your right to speak with the lawyer or have a hearing in front of an immigration judge. They're talking about people who are here legally, right? Not here illegally. This is part of the story and you see this from the left everywhere.

17:25The purposeful conflating with legal and illegal immigration as if somehow it is the same thing when it is not and that's what the mayor of Indianapolis is doing here. Putting these things out. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has made no changes to its policies or directives as it relates to immigration matters. IMPD is not participating in federal immigration enforcement nor do they plan to. This has been a question ever since the governor here, Mike Braun, did an executive order saying that you have to when asked to assist, you assist. So now if the IMPD, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is called, if they're asked to assist, will they? Or is the mayor saying we won't assist? Even if asked, we will not assist on any level or in any way. My responsibility is to protect the safety and stability of the city and we will continue pressing for the federal practices that respect due process, community trust and the dignity

18:30of all who call Indianapolis home. Community trust means you'll get rid of the law breakers. That's community trust. That trust was broken when here like so many places where you live, we've seen this of course in LA and Philadelphia, the prosecutors don't prosecute. They don't go after those in the country illegally. They don't care. They don't go after the law breakers who loot the stores. And yet they want to talk about community trust, the dignity of all who call Indianapolis home. You mean the citizens? Because the indignity is having to share the space. The indignity is the violent crime. The indignity is the other crimes. The indignity is all of it. That somehow law breakers are protected, but other law breakers are not protected. I don't want to pay my taxes. Do I get protected by the city? That's fine. Something else isn't. If it's against the law, it's against the law and your job is to ensure that. Isn't that part of the elected official creed, if you will?

19:34It's just another example. It's just another, so happens to be local to me, but it doesn't mean it's the only example. Another example of where these progressives are at. They don't believe in honesty. They don't make the differentiation between legal and illegal immigration. They believe that somehow these people are deserving of all these constitutional rights, but your rights are absolutely up for debate. And then they say things like dignity. Never once concerning themselves with yours. And this is happening in the Midwest. We got problems too. This is Tony Katz today. Have you all heard about this shooting at a gay bar in Tucson, Arizona? No? Yeah. There are reasons as there always are because in any other situation, you would have heard about a shooting at a gay bar in Tucson, Arizona where two people were killed.

20:36This certainly would have heard of it if it was dubbed a hate crime. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, guys, good to be with you. This story is days old. The story goes that police there in Tucson say a shooting at this bar that was known as a gay bar left three people dead, including the shooter. So two people were killed shot in the parking lot. And then there's a suspect. The suspect's name is Usman CSA. Now normally, I never bring up names. I don't bring up names because I don't believe that we should be taking these people and giving them any type of prestige. I say to you, in 99% of cases, I don't use the name. I did today. It might be the only time I do because this is someone we should know everything about.

21:42This should be front page at CNN, front page at MS now, front page everywhere. They've got the Lindsey Clancy trial, of course. They don't have this. They don't have this story. There's a story at CNN about how Jeff Reapstein used celebrity hairstyles to make his victims look younger. All right, super creepy. Not saying it shouldn't be a story. I'm saying it's the only. They can talk about that still, which is fine. But no mention of this. Maria Bartiromo being fired at Fox, which is a certainly a fascinating story. It's going to become a massive story. Two gay men were killed. There's the coverage. Why is it that we don't know anything about this? We know from local reports that this was being viewed as a hate crime. This guy was new to the Tucson area, did not know the victims.

22:48That's according to the latest reporting. And we know that in a search of this dude's home, they found a note that, quote, indicated the act it alone and that this shooting was a target attack motivated by hate toward the LGBTQIA plus community. What else do we know about this dude? What else do we know? How is it possible in today's America to gay men can be killed for being gay? And it is not a national story that demands attention from the press corps and from the Democratic Party. I would say that it should demand attention from everybody when two people are killed walking into any bar. Why did it happen? Certainly is it a question that the follow up is who did this and why? And we barely have a story. We barely have a story. We know this guy was carrying a note listing other LGBTQIA pluses, the way ABC News wrote

23:53it. A business is in the region. He was targeting people who were gay. Now we should stop for a moment. So you understand me that I do not believe in the concept of hate crimes. That is not to say that people don't do things because they hate a person, a characteristic, etc. But a crime is not more of a crime because of the hate. If someone hates me because of my religion or you because of the color of your skin, etc. Because they shoot you and kill you. Or me doesn't make it more of a crime because they shoot somebody else and kill them. So it's very important, I think, to eliminate this concept of hate crimes. The crime is the crime. The hate is the hate regardless of some statement or manifesto. But certainly it is acceptable to note a motivation and say they were targeting. And this guy seems to have been from the initial reporting targeting.

24:55And there's no national story here. Why not? I've been looking for a photo of this guy. Can't find it. Why can't I find a photo of this guy? We've got pictures of everybody. We've got every bit of information. This guy we don't have anything. It took real searching to find that he was born in Gambia. Been living in Oklahoma City and recently moved to Tucson. No prior connection to the victims. No criminal record. A speeding ticket in Oklahoma in 2012 and some small claims debt complaints. Briefly employed by Uber and Lyft. He was married briefly. They filed for bankruptcy. That's what we know.

25:57This is what we know about the guy. I ask the question that you're asking. Why don't I have a picture? Why I took me a while to find this information that they got evicted. They didn't pay rent. They had accumulated $76,000 in debt. Unpaid state taxes, medical bills, various loan obligations. I found out through the reporting that he was a registered Democrat. Why isn't this story on the front of every single news outlet in America? This is a story about narrative. Isn't that horrible? Two people are dead who did absolutely nothing wrong. I don't know them. I don't know their politics. I don't know their family. I don't know a single thing about them.

26:58They went to a bar. Their gay, the bar catered to gay customers. Fine by me. They went to a bar. They didn't do anything wrong at all. They got killed. No, sorry. I apologize. They were murdered in cold blood. Where's the press? Narrative is about, is not about journalism. You understand. Narrative is never actually about journalism. Narrative is about stories that are told to move ideals, to move ideology, not to engage. That means the murder of two gay Americans, as I know them, to be Americans, the murder of two gay Americans somehow no longer fits the narrative need.

27:58Isn't anybody else going to say, huh, that's interesting? I will bet you cash that I am amongst 5% of radio talk show hosts in the country that have brought up this story. I can't guarantee that I'm the only one. I can guarantee that I would be in very small company. Yet to search for this, yet to want this, now I happen to have done what you did, and fall it into it. That's how I found the story. I do a lot of research. I do a lot of study to make sure I'm ready for things that are going on, especially with stories like this, where you have, I do have some reporting from ABC News. This is a story that was put out in the afternoon, that it was confirmed to hate crime.

28:59But I still have no photo of the suspect. Why don't I have a photo of the suspect? It would be right there, easy to see. Easy to see, no question, but I don't have it. You can argue, they didn't have the information. You can argue that they didn't have all the facts yet before they got to the story, but they knew the basics of the story based on police reports and they got it out there. Or you can argue what I would argue, that I do not believe at all that any of these things done by the mainstream media are done just because they have earned our suspicion of them as the kids would say, the news media be sus. Now, I don't know if they would say be sus, but I said it that way and people can mock me later. This didn't make front pages, this didn't make massive headlines. This isn't being talked about in the ether.

29:59You know how much of this I saw on social media? Zero. I pay attention to a lot of stuff. I follow a lot of people. Zero. Because it didn't fit the narrative. It did not provide what was needed because if someone is going to kill gay Americans at a gay bar, they better be a white Christian nationalist. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? Because we can ask the question this way, if it had been a white Christian nationalist, would you have heard about the story, the day that had happened, would the cameras have descended, would they have had the live shots from the gay bar for three days, talking about how traumatized the community is? They would have added a trans angle. Nothing.

31:01Nothing. Zero. Zero. And there has to be a reason. I'm giving you mine, which I will bet you all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pocket is your reason too. You know, it should be a story about, dear Lord, how terrible and how awful and it is terrible and it is awful and these people didn't deserve it. I don't, again, we know nothing about them but as human beings, what did they deserve? They didn't do anything wrong. As a story about where our media is and why they cannot be trusted. Well there it is. We trust these people at your own peril because it is so obvious that they will not share a story that they believe impedes their ability to attack, denigrate and destroy home, you. Anybody that I might disagree with, anybody who doesn't fit their desires, they are not about news, they are about narrative and not covering a story is the equivalent

32:06in the narrative game of covering the stories they choose. This is Tony Katz today. Find everything at TonyCats.com. So what's next in Iran? Well according to JD Vance and the presser yesterday, everything is on the table to force Iran to stop firing at ships. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, an absolute pleasure guys. Glad you're here. There are a lot of things that we're doing, a lot of things that we're doing. Of course, to try to apply pressure on the Iranians to get them to stop shooting at commercial shipping, accepting that they're still going to try to shoot at commercial shipping. Obviously, we're protecting a lot of ships, which is why we have not had a worldwide energy crisis. He continued, I can't repeat this enough, but for the leadership of President Trump and the hard work of our troops, we would have had an energy crisis because the Iranians refused to stop acting like terrorists in the straight of our moves. If we're going to call them terrorists, it's okay to call it a war, but yet he wanted to not call it a war. That's technicality stuff.

33:07It's a war. If we're now admitting that they're terrorists, then what is the thing as a matter of policy that we do regarding terrorists? Now, if someone engages in terrorizing in another nation against another group of people, we can condemn it. It doesn't mean we actually have to go in boots on the ground or planes above, etc. But when we're the ones and our interests are being attacked, we are being attacked. What do you do with terrorists? There's only one answer, and it is destroy them. This is part of the reason why I want to see the President and the Vice President and the Secretary of State and others, changing the conversation on the PR. Not only did we stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, they simply can't have a nuclear weapon, we showed the world that these Islamists can never win. We're simply too big for them. They're weak, they're small. They're small-minded caveman mentality, they're treatment of women, they're treatment of

34:09gay people, they're treatment of the citizenry, they're subjugation of free will. None of that works compared to freedom and liberty. Freedom and liberty win. The Constitution beats the Quran once again. Oh, now that's a line. That is a line that might get some people in trouble. I don't know if they can take that line. But the objective, I believe, the opportunity is, and the objective should be a diminishment of the Islamist, a shaming and a mocking of the Islamist, to which one would argue that everyday Muslims would be thrilled by, because why would they ever want to be associated with the Islamist? You failed your desires for caliphate, your desires to tax us with the Jizya, your desire to subjugate the women, your desire for conquest all failed. Once we decided we had enough of you, we took you right out.

35:09You'll never be able to defeat us. We are the bright light. And you, you are the darkness. You're backwards mentality, the way you treat people, the societies you ruin. I mean, you can, but not at the expense of us will always win and you will always lose because you lost and we will refer to you as the Islamist losers from here on out. History will record the Islamist lost. Losers, let it, let it ring forth. We'll make t-shirts. I think that's where they've got to be. I think that's the argument that has to be made. But I'm almost impressed to hear him discussing them as terrorists and then saying, but everything that could happen is on the table. Economic pressure, military pressure, diplomatic pressure, covert pressure. Ooh, covert pressure. Explains why people were asking if CIA is doing any work in the area.

36:11Of course these are things, these are tools in the president's toolkit. But part of the reason they're tools in the toolkit is because the vice president, hopefully he's not dumb enough to stand up before you know all of you in a million Americans watching at home and say exactly what it is we plan on doing. Correct. You get it? You keep your powder dry, sir. Find everything at tonicats.com Monday, everyone. Take care. If you're running a small business, the last thing you need is enterprise-sized software costs. That's why Autodesk builds solutions for the way small teams actually work. With Autodesk for small business, it's easier to find the right Autodesk tools without adding extra complexity. And now Autodesk Flex starts at just $99, giving you access to more than 100 Autodesk products on a pay-as-you-go basis. So whether you need design tools for one busy week or one big project, you can scale usage

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