Cash peter is here. Gas prices are revving up. Whats behind the jump in prices . Will it continue . Our users guide to real estate. Well show you amazing and inexpensive backyard makeovers. We were looking to create more playing area and more flat space in the backyard. And that morphed into hey, why dont we put a bar in and a barbecue. Gerri all that and more coming up on the willis report, where consumers are our business. We got a better jobs report today, finally. But the labor market is nowhere near Strong Enough to allow anybody who wants a job to have them. Certainly not a goodpaying one. While most of americans struggle to make ends meet tax receipts are at a record. The federal treasury is doing great. Chief economist john lonski and dan. Welcome to you both. John i start with you. So one fan, certainly of todays job report the market the stock markets. Big gain. About 2 . Nearly 300 points on the dow industrials. Take a look at these numbers. 233,000 is the addition in april. March revised lower to 85,000. What do you make of these numbers . The equity market liked the same thing that the treasury bond market liked. That was the report indicated only a modest increase by wage and salary income. The average hourly wage was up by a measly one tenth of 1 from the prior month. Only 2. 2 year to year. That tells me that the broadest . total of wage and salary income in the month of april grew by just north of 4 . Inflation risks are wellcontained. Therefore youre only going to see a modest rise by Interest Rates at worst. And the equity market, of course. Okay. Lets break that down. You covered a lot of ground there john. Dan, i told you in the hallway before the show. Larry summers saying that were in secular stagnation. Certainly, youve got to say if gdp were to be anything like the Second Quarter like it was in the first ultimately, we could have one step in a recession here. Yeah, we could be close to it. Picked on what john was i think suggesting. Were in a very pa adocksical situation. If the economy showed it were getting strong again, then the Federal Reserve would obviously get to the point where theyll raise Interest Rates off the zero bound at which point the stock market will tank. As it always does when the fed suggests theyll raise rates. We have a funny situation where as long as things are sort of staggering around at 2 growth asset prices are great. That suggests theres a disconnect here between Monetary Policy and the structural underlying strength of the economy. So i think Larry Summers is right to be concerned that were in this kind of longterm problem, where were just grinding it out quarter after quarter. Gerri grinding it out quarter after quarter. John, to you. You know, i believe that its very possible that we have 1 foot in a recession and we dont even know it. Thats whats going on. Thats behind the disconnect that john is describing. Whats your view . Heres what i think will happen. Not too long ago economists strongly believed that the Second Quarter growth rate would be in excess of 3 . Very shortly sometime next week, were going to find out that those estimates have been revised down to about 2. 5 . If that high. So for the year, were going to be looking at Economic Growth of less than 3 , tenth straight year. The equity market might like this. The bond market might like this. But the sad story is that this weighs heavily on middle class america. Lower Income America that were supposed to be helped by this administration. Gerri and lets talk about what really weighs heavily on these middle Income Americans. Wage growth is still weak. Up a tenth of a percent in april. 2. 2 in the year. Can we get anywhere without wage growth in this country . It will be very hard. The one figure not emphasized in this report the Labor Participation rate rose a tenth of a percent. It remains at the level Labor Participation, when jimmy carter was president of the united states. In the late 90s. Thats before women got into the work force. Youre turning the clock back so far. So many people are stopped looking for jobs or have jobs paying them less than they think or is equivalent to the education they have. So theres no animal spirits in the economy right now. Wellput. Wellput. John, to you. What does this mean for Interest Rates . When will the fed bump those rates higher in your view . At last look, the federal funds future contract believes that fed funds will be no higher than one half of 1 at the end of this year however it believes so with less conviction. It would not be surprising if fed funds finishes the year at only one quarter of 1 . Adding to what dan just mentioned. Since payrolls last peaked back in early 2008, we added 3 million jobs. Great news. Unfortunately, at the same time, the working age population grew by more than 10 million people. So you know that Labor Force Drop out that drop in the labor rate Participation Rate is why the Unemployment Rate is so low and for no other reason. Dan, i want to change up the topic a little bit. The federal government collecting more taxes in april than at any other month of any history of tax collection. The government collected 472 billion. Now, i realize its april. But this is an alltime high. Whats more, they couldnt even spend all the money they got. There was a surplus that some even though there that month even though there will be a deficit this year. Whats causing this increase in Tax Collections . The fact there are higher tax rates. I mean, obamacare imposed a 3. 8 surtax on Investment Income up to a certain level. They also imposed a surtax on the medicare payroll tax. And barack obama in the fiscal clip negotiations raised the Capital Gains rate from 15 to 20 . These higher rates simply take money off these sort of increased stock market values that weve all seen here the last couple of years. And it pours into the us treasury. Its pretty simple. Pretty simple. John, last word. Quickly. John well its so sad when you think about all the monetary stimulus and fiscal stimulus we had. Of course, now we have tax hikes. Somewhat of a drag. You also have a regulatory drag to consider. The in the final analysis over the past ten years payrolls have grown at perhaps the slowest rate over a tenyear span seen since the end of world war ii. This is a labor market that very much still suffers from a dearth of attractive job opportunities. Gerri john and dan, thank you so much for coming on the show. Have a great weekend. Now we want to know what you think. Heres our question tonight. Are record high Tax Collections robbing from Economic Growth . Log on to gerriwillis. Com approximate andandvote. Ill share the results at the end of the show. Start your engines. Road trip season. Millions more hitting the road. Will a rise in gas prices cause drivers to put on the brakes . Andy, thank you for coming on the show. So good to have you. These prices for gas are coming way off the lows. 31 . Gas prices up 30 cents a gallon in a month. Is this a typical kind of price hike we see in the summer . We usually see this preseason rally. Its been exacerbated by the fact that crude oil dropped. As weve seen the rig oil count decline by 50 . Crude oil moved to 60 a barrel. But its still good news for the consumer. Still good news for the consumer. All right. Explain this to me, if you will. So far this year, oil prices are up about 11 . But gas is up 30 . Why do these things want go in lockstep . Well, they dont go in lockstep because the market is looking at the upcoming gasoline demand. And were expecting drivers to really hit the road. And when we get to the Summer Season and just before memorial day is where gasoline prices tend to peak out. And the market looks around and says, you know, we have plenty of supply out there and its going to start coming off and pressuring prices. I think in a lot of ways people have sort of come to expect lower prices. Do you see any evidence that this is percolating through the economy anywhere . Well its probably percolating in a negative way here in houston, with the Lower Oil Prices because our economy here depends so much on the production side of things. But i think that, you know, a lot of people are benefiting. Theyre going out to eat more. Theyre spending more. And retail sales and things like that. So there are benefits. It just takes a while to accumulate because the consumer is saving only say 20 or 30 a month. Before they buy that big ticket item, it will take them six or 12 months to save it. The industry is expecting the biggest travel holiday over memorial day over some time. What kind of savings are people seeing . Well, you know, clearly were seeing a dollar a gallon savings since this time last year. Because gasoline is so cheap, its much less expensive for a family of four to start driving rather than flying. They go and stay in a hotel for an extra night. When i talk to my friends theyre talking about driving instead of flying. Were expecting a lot of traffic this memorial day holiday. So memorial day, what does the rest of the summer look for gas prices . The fall . Can you see on out that far . Well, it looks to me that gasoline prices are tick on up about five to 10 cents a gallon. But inventory and supply is about 6 higher than this time last year. Refineries both here in the us and in europe will be running at historically high rates. And well get all that extra gasoline coming over europe impacting supply and tempering prices for the consumer. I like that story. Andy, thank you for coming on. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Gerri still a lot more to come this hour as we wrap up our week long users guide to real estate with a backyard makeover youll want to see. Its incredible. Next, all this week bill clinton has come out swinging against the hot new book clinton cash. Well talk to the author to get his reaction. The new book clinton cash is raising lots of questions over the financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation during hillarys tenure as secretary of state. And team hillary has been on an aggressive mission to debunk it. Its full of sloppy research and attacks pulled out of thin air with no actual evidence. Even the guy who wrote the book apparently had to admit under questioning that he didnt have a shred of evidence for this. He just sort of thought he would throw it out there and see if it would fly. And it wont fly. Joining me now the author of clinton cash. The untold story of how and why foreign businesses helped to make bill and hillary rich. Peter schweizer. So good to have you here peter. So you heard that sound. Sloppy research. Out of thin air. Not a shred of evidence. Obviously the clinton machine here trying to discredit you. But even you say you cannot connect all the dots. What are people to take away from your book . Peter i think what people are to take away from the book is theres lots of evidence in this book. Im not quite sure what interview bill clinton is saying when i admit to no shred of evidence. I show a pattern of money flowing to the clintons. And the people who sent the money to the clintons got favorable actions from Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. What i said is the evidence pattern here is far more compelling than in recent Corruption Cases in virginia, new jersey, out in oregon. My argument is that we need somebody with subpoena power with the capability to investigate this to do the due diligence. The facts are clear. They have not challenged the central facts in this book. Even some of the pushback theyve given is ludicrous. Its an attempt at misdirection and not focusing on the real hard facts here that are troubling and have been confirmed by a number of major media outlets. Gerri heres bill clinton talking about your book. Theres no doubt, in my mind, that weve never done anything knowingly inappropriate in terms of taking money to influence any kind of American Government policy. That just hasnt happened. What did you make of that statement . And particularly that phrase knowingly inappropriate. Yeah its interesting phraseology. Dare i say its clintonian. I would ask clinton when your wife the secretary of state was considering the xl Keystone Pipeline which she signed off on in 2011, why did you take 2 million from one of the largest shareholders in the keystone xl pipeline for speeches . They never paid you for a speech before. Suddenly now that she has this critical decision to make they decide to give you close to 2 million for speaking fees at the same time. And there are numerous examples like that in the book. Thats the thing i think thats so important. To get them to answer specific questions on the patterns that are in this book and explain why they were taking money and big paydays from people who needed Hillary Clinton to make decisions their favor. And, by the way, she did. We had dana on the show this week. She said the money that came from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation was essentially just stealing money from what are often third world countries. And that, you know, morally theres an issue. Theres a problem with that. Do you agree . Peter i do. And, you know, one of the miscontraceptions peoplemisconceptionspeople have about the Hillary Foundation is that you have germany Media Companies providing the money. One of the things i point out in the book. You have a problem with undisclosed donors which we showed that they violated the agreement. When you look at the disclosed donors. Guys are doing business deals with warlords in africa. People that have been convicted on major criminal charges in europe that operate in nigeria that have made huge commitments in bankrolled speeches for clinton. You have to wonder why theyre taking money from these people. Why are they putting it in their pocket. Why are they putting it in the Clinton Foundation . Whatwhat do these individuals and institutions want in exchange . Theres certain evidence that they got favorable action from Hillary Clinton. Why are you taking money from these people . They wont answer that question. Gerri we made a simple judgment of the Clinton Foundation. We look at charities and how well they spend their money. When we dug into that, we found theres a puny amount of money going to the actual good works that the former president likes to talk about. Helping people in third world countries. Keeping people from starving. Aids. Very little goes to help people in poverty of that money. Youre right, gerri. If you look at the organizations that evaluate charities Like Charity Navigator go online, they rate lots of charities. They wont rate the Clinton Foundation because they say it has a, quote, unquote unique business model. Or you look at the Better Business bureau which them substantially. They have all sorts of internal control problems at this foundation. Charities are not difficult to run if you stay focused on actually trying to help people. The problem is, the Clinton Foundation is this sprawling entity that does all these things but its really impossible to measure how effective it is. Thats why i call it kind of a politicians dream. Because theres no way to really measure what they do. And thats part of the problem. Gerri one final question here. Peggy out with a column on your book and describing sort of the clintons in detail and how they operate. She says essentially that voters have normalized the clinton behavior and they think this is the way the clintons operate. Would you have guessed that your book would have had a bigger impact on polls. Because hillary may have slipped a bit. But shes not down a ton. Well i think if you look at a poll that came out a couple of days ago. I think it was the wall street journal nbc, it showed there has been a substantial jump in the number of people who think she isnt honest or trustworthy. Its well north of a majority of people in the united states. The actual poll numbers the horse race of the election, i dont know what those numbers mean at this point. Clearly on the issue of lack of trustworthiness. Theres a huge jump expect i think thats attributed to the book. The clintons say the book is a dud. It has no impact. Theyre attacking me. They put a two and a half minute video thats highly deceptive. You have president clinton thats sort of going after me directly. So clearly theyre concerned. And if you look at book sales and Mainstream Media coverage of the book. The networks, the new york times, clearly everybody recognizes theres a problem and that the book has uncovered some really substantial problems that need to be addressed. Peter, thank you for coming on the show tonight. Great to have you here. Thank you. Still to come, jeff flock takes us up to a job fair in gary, indiana. And the punches keep coming for manny pacquiao. He could be in the courtroom. Our legal analysts debate the case coming up. All right. Believe it or not there are unhappy boxing fans out there. Manny pacquiao claiming shoulder injury before getting into the ring with Floyd Mayweather in last weekends boxing fight of the history. Medical lets and criminal defense attorney, and okay. Do they have a standing. Absolutely they do. I think it was 99. 95 thats a lot of money to spend millions of them did. And they bet a lot of money, and then they got it wasnt even the best fight of the night; right . Its not these guys fault. Oh, yes, it is. It is fraud because he knew going into that fight that his shoulder was all messed up. He was you k