This is one of those interviews where you don’t have to take my word for what is being said, Gary Cohn and Margaret Brennan are gleeful about the January jobs report and the overall return of the U.S. economy to a service driven system with low wages. Seriously, this is them celebrating out loud.
In order to calm the Wall Street apoplexy about his election victory, President Trump selected Gary Cohn to be an economic advisor early in the administration. However, it was also no surprise that President Trump did not follow Cohn’s advice, and quickly dispatched him after Cohn protested. In this interview the worldview of Cohn is typically globalist, multinational and Wall St centric.
Talking about the January jobs report, Cohn literally gets everything wrong from the position of Main Street USA. Cohn also celebrates what he calls the “renormalization of the new economy.” Continuing with his thought process Cohn states, “A lot of the jobs that we saw were jobs in the service industry, the service, the industries coming back very strong because we’re starting to see the economy go back to what we historically think of the economy,” he said. This is exactly how Wall Street, and the multinationals look at the U.S. economy.
The next part that both Cohn and Margaret Brennan celebrate is even more sunlight. “The interesting thing about last month’s unemployment numbers is we brought people back to work, but we did not have to entice them with pay,” Cohn stated. “So, the monthly, the month over month number in wage gains was 30 basis points. The prior month was 40 basis points. So, we’re seeing we’re getting people back into the labor force for a lower wage than we were prior to this,” he said. With higher prices (inflation) crushing the middle-class and service workers, the multinationals Cohn represents are celebrating that they don’t have to pay workers higher wages. WATCH:
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: So 517,000 new jobs, but a lot of companies, particularly in tech, are announcing layoffs. So exactly where’s the economy headed?
GARY COHN: So, it’s interesting. We did see the 500,000 plus new jobs, which was quite surprising, I think, to many of us. But I think what we’re actually seeing here is a renormalization of the new economy. A lot of the jobs that we saw were jobs in the service industry, the service, the industries coming back very strong because we’re starting to see the economy go back to what we historically think of the economy. For the first time, we’ve seen occupancy rates in offices in major cities over 50%. When you see occupancy rates go up, you need the service sector to work. Think about people going back into the office. They need parking attendants. They need people to work in the buildings. They need security. They need people to clean the buildings. People stop for coffee when they go into the buildings. They go out to lunch. They go to bars. For the- for that to happen, you need the service sectors to come back to work. So the 120,000 service sector employees that came back to work, that 100% correlates with people going back to what is the new normal. It may not be five days a week in the office, but it’s enough days in the week in the office where you need the service sector to come back to work. The interesting thing about last month’s unemployment numbers is we brought people back to work, but we did not have to entice them with pay. So the monthly, the month over month number in wage gains was 30 basis points. The prior month was 40 basis points. So we’re seeing we’re getting people back into the labor force for a lower wage than we were prior to this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that’s a little bit hopeful for you on the inflation front.
GARY COHN: Yeah, and I think this is natural. I think what we’ve seen is, after all the stimulus that was put in the system over the last three months, people are running out of the stimulus money. We saw that in the fourth quarter of last year. We saw consumer spending slow down. We saw debit balances on credit cards go up. We started to see delinquencies go up. And you know what happened? People actually did the right thing and they went back to work. They’re engaged and they reenter the workforce. And I think we saw a lot of that in the January numbers.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So these more positive signs have led Bank of America, for example, to say recession still in the cards, but not until after March. I wonder what your thoughts are on that. And as CEOs warned about borrowing costs going up as a result of the Fed hiking. They are tightening belts. So how far off is this recession?
GARY COHN: Well, we’ve got a couple of phenomena going on. Interest rates have been going up, so borrowing costs have been going up for companies. On the flip side, the dollar has been weakening. So the multinational corporations in the United States who repatriate earnings from offshore, those repatriated earnings have become more valuable. I think the people that have been really worried about a recession in the first and second quarter of this year, I think after what we’ve seen this week with both Chairman Powell’s announcements and the data in unemployment, I think that recession is off the table for Q and one in Q2 of this year. You know, we’re going to get another employment report before the next Fed meeting and we’ll see where the economy’s going. But it does feel like we’re in relatively good shape here. The question is going to be how does the Federal Reserve handle what’s going on in the economy? Are we going to continue to have to increase wages to draw people back in the labor force, or are people coming back in the labor force because they need to? And we’re not going to have wage inflation if that happens. The Federal Reserve is actually in a very good place.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you about something the Fed chair said this week. He said Congress has to lift this debt ceiling. I’m throwing one of the things that could screw up your- your rosy prediction at you. He said no one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy from the consequences of failing to act in a timely manner. He’s warning he’s not making plans for a default. You’re on your own if it happens.
GARY COHN: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Should there be a plan for the Fed to step in? I mean, I know legally it’s in question here, but I talk to people on Capitol Hill who say Wall Street is not taking this seriously enough. The politics are really bad around the debt ceiling.
GARY COHN: The politics are very bad. You know, the one thing is every American, every American is holding the US government to raise the debt ceiling. The full faith and credit of the US dollar and the US dollar being the reserve currency is imperative to our economic well-being as a country. We ultimately have to get the debt ceiling raised. That said, what’s going on here is not something out of the ordinary. If you look at debt ceiling raises over the last 40 or 50 years, no matter which party is in the minority, about 50% of the time, debt ceiling raises come with some amendments attached- attached to them from the other party. So this is quite an. Normal, the process that we’re going through.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You don’t sound overly concerned.
GARY COHN: Like I’m always concerned when we’re dealing with debt ceiling, but I have a feeling that we will get there in the end when we have no other choice. You had this- you had the speaker here last week and he felt confident that we would get there when we had no other choice. The speaker met with the president of the United States this week. The two of them came out of the meeting relatively confident. I feel they both understand there is no choice. In the end of the day, we have to raise the debt ceiling. The question is, can the Republicans get something in the legislation, attach the debt ceiling legislation that they want that they feel like is a win and the Democrats are willing to give it to? Historically, that is what’s happened numerous times.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah. And the risk there is real. I want to ask you as well about China. Mark Warner was here with us last week and he said technology competition with China is the biggest issue of our time. He’s worried about things that- like your company does IBM, in terms of quantum computing. Is enough being done to keep America competitive on that front?
GARY COHN: Well, we’re starting you know, if you look at where we’ve been this year, you know, we passed the CHIPS Act in the United States, which, you know, is- is- is something that’s not a normal motion for us in the United States for the federal government to pick and choose–
MARGARET BRENNAN: To subsidize.
GARY COHN: –an industry, and and to subsidize. It really is not a normal action- is an action that, you know, historically I probably not would have been have supportive. I was extremely supportive of the CHIPS Act, we at IBM was extremely supportive of the CHIPS Act. If we learned nothing else from the pandemic, we learned that there are certain goods that are necessity goods for this country to have, and we are overly reliant on places like China. And if we don’t find ways to change the manufacturing system in the supply chain and move it back to the United States where we can take care of ourselves, we have made a catastrophic miscalculation. Chips are one of those areas where we cannot depend on the rest of the world and run our manufacturing business and continue to grow our economy. Pharmaceuticals is another area where we really have to move that industry and that manufacturing back to the United States. So I think we really have to evaluate what are the most crucial and sensitive businesses or industries that we cannot live within the United States. And we’re going to have to make real investments in those here in this country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’ll keep talking about it with legislators. Have to figure out how to pass some of those laws. We’re going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we’ll be talking with four members of the freshman class and the 118th Congress.
And Cohn being pleased with this, is a surprise to who?? He is with Goldman Sachs. One of the primary cogs in the global banking cabal.
I hate to be so blunt, but those two need a kick in the teeth.
Maybe they are just trying to compete with SNL for the worst comedy on TV. I don’t promote violence towards anyone, but just wish they would go away, maybe to Venezuela or some other paradise.
They are so out of touch saying what great news that people are taking jobs at lower wages than expected like that’s good news.
Many are struggling getting two jobs and they see no light at the end of the tunnel unless inflation is addressed ASAP.
That crap the two are peddling is reprehensible! So transparent they are sell outs that want this Country to die.
and one of the companies funding Ukraine along with Blackrock and JP Morgan
Didn’t Goldman Sachs receive a $10 BILLION bailout in 2008??? IMESHO, the “interview” between a maroon in the MSM and a GS spokesperson would be considered to be a complete waste of time and electrons, and could potentially cause a loss of IQ points. SeeBS should be embarrASSed by the “programming” that they broadcast, but fortunately the viewing audience appears to be relatively small.
https://bettermarkets.org/newsroom/goldman-sachs-failed-10-years-ago-today/
Thanks to Sundance for preventing me from having to watch the clown show to hear the drivel.
There is a British aphorism for people like Cohen and his fellow wealthy travellers who are sitting pretty when they look down their noses at people who need rising wages just to survive. It is a remark indicating smug and complacent selfishness.
“I’m alright, Jack.”
I can just hear him saying it. I can hear them all saying it.
He’s the sort who would tell someone, “People say I’m condescending. That means I talk down to others.”
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I am so honoured, WORDMAN! You have no idea.😁
Cohn’s the sort of twit who uses the term “lexicon” and claims we may need one to fully grasp the brilliance of his bloviations.
Lol!
we need wage increases to pay for the cost of high inflation?
I suggest we have this half ass backwards – we need lower
utility, fuel and food costs, etc.
They are doing their dead level best to keep from blurting the truth out.
And yes, it is back to front.
It will be an icy day in you know where before they admit it therefore owning what they’ve done or do a complete 180 to address their poverty inducing policies… neither of which is going to happen.
The supercilious glee, as Sundance rightly calls the attitude, is repugnant.
These people are cold.
Taxes (welfare, etc.) and regulations (more taxes) are what is causing inflation. Until We stop the theft of taxpayers money inflation will never subside.
Cohn doesn’t run in the circles of someone picking up a six pack of Natty on the way home…
strictly the finest whines (pun intended) for him. What a disgusting piece of work
No, he won’t stop. He’ll have it delivered.
USA can MAKE THINGS, provide ENERGY to the world,
and be self-sufficient while trading in mutually beneficial ways with other SOVEREIGN nations.
MAGA
Trump is, will be and must be back at the regns, starting a movement with historic LEGS !
Message to the talkinig heads of Lame Media:
We are NOT a nation of service serfs , wotking for you !
You were working for US, and you Leftists DC CCP media complex,
you wise guys are FIRED !
Pure scum. Both of them.
This piece of human trash should have “globalist” tattooed on his forehead. Of course he’s all giddy, him & his globalist pals are seeing their success in destroying America’s middle class.
I hope and pray our President is spending a lot of time thinking about personnel. His economic team was stellar. Where he made mistakes, they seem to be fixed fairly quickly. Cohn never really had a chance to drag on the administration
I wonder how many of those jobs we have are just supporting all those illegal aliens that have been flooding in in the last two years?
It’s an enormous industry. I’m surrounded by it here in Fort Lauderdale
And how many of those jobs represent government expansion rather than private sector growth?
“…….the overall return of the U.S. economy to a service driven system with low wages.”
Great. In other words we’re tuning into France, where most of the economy revolves around people in low wage part time jobs take turns, half of the employed serving coffee at the sidewalk cafe to the other half. Next week their roles will be reversed. But everybody’s employed! Great………
Yet they claim to support at least a $15/hr minimum wage. Another example of smoke and mirrors. If an entry level job with minimal requirements warrants $15/hr, what would a professional degree earn? His answer, $15/hr!!
Correct, because the bearer of that advanced degree can only find employment as a Uber gig driver or a barrista.
Omg 😳 that sentence “the overall return of the U.S. economy to a service driven system with low wages.” Says it all!
That has been the goal since Obama lamented what was he supposed to do wave a magic wand and create jobs that were just not there.
Obama and every economist private and public were stating USAs future job market was in the service industry.
The conversation is pandering to their base audience which is basically a list of WEF and all their comrades. It is not meant for anyone else and given their ratings 🙃🤣 Cohn and Brennan know it!
President Trump exposed very quickly it was an engineered service industry and did so by flipping the switch on all these greedy, treasonous scoundrels!
He is happy, happy, happy that he and his ilk have gotten their servants back
The only memory that I want to keep of Cohn is that video of him and Trump during a cabinet meeting where Trump called him a globalist — but he still likes him (not really, but you know how Trump talks).
I don’t know how people can be excited with this over reliance on a service based economy. It’s already proved its vulnerability during C19, but yet they still push on. It’s insanity. Manufacturing and small business are the (or at least should be) the bedrock of this country.
But the office workers need someone to refill the toilet paper and soap and stuff and clean the bathrooms. Oh, and make coffee. He really said that! Ok, maybe not in those exact words, but you know.
We used to make cars where I’m from. And electrical stuff, wiring, lightbulbs, that sort of thing.
Oh, let me not leave out steel. We were steel city here.
This place was booming. And they paid good wages too.
And we still managed to mow our own lawns.
Thanks to Coh(e)n and his pals, manufacturing is now the bedrock of China.
Every day, I look forward to being a productive member of the labor force, working for lower wages.
And THAT is why we NEVER see fixed the obvious, gaping flaws so easily and clearly pointed out in this 2 minute, 38 second, 10 year old video:
If I were able, both of those individuals would be filled with cyanide.
“We haven’t run out of other peoples’ money to loot so long as we can still borrow against them. We must have credit!”
An entire economy built on fiat, usury, and debt financing in the land of illusion works only for those issuing the fiat and collecting interest on borrowed money, and their middlemen buddies who gorge and prosper on processing fees.
And we the (working) people are the collateral.
Rather than having your kids “learn to code,” push them in the direction of the finance business, where the real money is.
“So I think we really have to evaluate what are the most crucial and sensitive businesses or industries that we cannot live within the United States.”
That’s right, genius. Because we never realized before 2020 that pharmaceuticals and computer chips are crucial and sensitive.
Un-American crooks shipped our strategic manufacturing to Asia.
Go to the huge resorts as an example of service jobs not filled by citizens of the USA.
On top of Cohn and Brennan’s inappropriate glee, ignorance on display.
Ah, let them eat crumbs. No cake but the crumbs from the floor will be sufficient.
This guy represents the worst of the global cabal. He, like the 1600 Penn Ave occupant, are content with keeping the little man in his place. Then again, they both learned from the(ir) master!!
See! There’s a real reason why the Leftists relish filling our kids heads with garbage in public schools! They can get on TV and rejoice in their faces how badly they’ve been screwed, but they’re too dumb to realize it! Next up is central bank digital currency, tied behind the curtain, to the little “phones” they carry everywhere and will use to “purchase” things; maybe!
”Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light….”
“The interesting thing about last month’s unemployment numbers is we brought people back to work, but we did not have to entice them with pay,”
We didn’t have to entice them with pay. We just starved them back into the work force.
People returned to work because they couldn’t afford to live off the retirement they could only 12 months ago.
MAGGIE BRENNAN. MODERN DAY ETHEL ROSENBERG. SHOULD GET THE CHAIR.
Just one leg kicked out would suffice.
I learn more from the comments on CTH than anything from the propaganists in sinister corporate media. Brennan is a member of Council on Foreign Relations and Cohn is globalist scum. I look forward to the day these two entitled parasites shine my shoes on Broadway Nassau St because that’s what they’re celebrating for the rest of us
Me too and Amen.
I do believe Gary was one of Jared’s buds when he was in the Trump administration. Makes sense; both were equally disconnected from average Americans.
If a return to a part-time-service-jobs economy is “renormalization”, I prefer to remain abnormal. Don’t need no thug in a three-piece suit impoverishing me; I can do that to myself should I so choose. Which I don’t.
My dad told me to never trust anyone in a suit and tie! Still don’t.
Few will acknowledge it for fear of being attacked and smeared, but if one is an objective observer of history, it’s not difficult to see the pattern of how these rotten bastards like Cohen have precipitated wars, lining their pockets and blaming others. There is always a tipping point, but this vermin seems to find a way to avoid the consequences. Whenever their carcasses are being gored, it will stop. Their father is the prince of this world. God is sovereign and ultimately they will face His wrath.
Why do they never talk about how Amazon and all the other tech companies and others that have shed thousands and thousands and thousands of jobs ?
But we are supposed to believe 517.000 jobs were added last month ?
Amazon is not only shedding them by the thousands but the companies that are making shelving and racks etc etc for all their new gigantic warehouses are now shedding them now too.
Furthermore, we will always be a debtor nation as long as we put ourselves at the mercy of Shylock money changers. The same ones chased from The Temple.
When our industrial base began moving to Mexico and China, my brother in law commented to me years ago that eventually we would be just selling hamburgers to each other.
So this clown is a high-level executive at IBM? No wonder this once innovative and profitable company is tanking. They have discontinued all manufacturing of consumer products and most of their business is unneeded consulting. What makes them think any other company wants to buy the crap this guy is selling today?
In a feudal culture the serf is dependent on his lord and master: if the serf is ejected from his allotment of ground, he dies.
The vassal is slightly better off, but still at the mercy of the lord.
The exception is the skilled artisan: even the rich need them. And they resent it.
The modern equivalent is the skilled middle class worker – the electrician, the plumber, the computer programmer. People like Cohn are desperate to drive down the wages of the skilled worker.
While journalism jobs dry up and blow away, the skilled tradesman grows ever more affluent, and Brennan hates that.
America is the place the hard working and ambitious middle class person thrives, and all elitists hate this, and therefore hate America.
Yes. Send your kids to trade school, not college. I encourage high school kids to at least put college off and learn a trade first, but so far, I’ve had no success. I think their parents would be embarrassed to have kids who are plumbers, welders and electricians earning comfortably livings. You can get a law degree later. And you’ll be able to pay for it.
A year ago I was working for a small non profit in the medical industry(behavioral health). After surviving covid we were $5M in debt and struggling. We merged (were acquired) by a bigger dog in the industry and when the new CEO introduced himself to us he told us our money woes were over. He boasted that his primary skill was in acquiring federal money. He literally described his job duties as “pushing wheelbarrows under federal chutes to collect money”. He immediately gave everyone a substantial raise and began implementing a bunch of flashy, mostly aesthetic, capital projects. In the last yearthe spending and wasting has been breathtaking. Absolutely no accountability for purchasing and buying. If mistakes are made, never mind there’s plenty more money where that comes from. The executive team is absolutely drunk on money. The illusory power that comes from OPM is astonishing and embarrassing. Its easy to be powerful, suave and debonair when you can just enjoy spending and let the little people worry about the P and L. In fact there is no P&L – there’s only unlimited spending
Cohn is a vice-chairman of IBM and misses the point entirely on the latest jobs report. No wonder companies are not buying IBM’s consulting, the only business remaining of a once highly profitable and innovative manufacturing company. IBM will soon join Kodak, RCA, Polaroid, and other footnotes in American business, but he will get his golden parachute and rich, but undeserved retirement
What is this “we brought people back”? Do they think that they deserve the credit?
It’s like “we feed them”.Nancy Pelosi
Lucifers Children will pay a high price for all this. They dont think they will but they will. They cant do anything for themselves.
Absolutely Mike! The wrath they face is devastating beyond human imagination and eternal
When to leave the meeting. When the economic advisor starts saying, “it does feel like“. A single person does not need to work two and three part-time jobs in order to support their family [Sundance].
Pulled in from Winston’s posting
How they rejoice in low wage jobs. Low skill workers claiming labor markets while the skilled occupations are offshore. I read about this new economy in News Week in Vietnam in 69. Even then I saw their plans to hollow out the manufacturing industry. The industry that produced everything from cars to shoes. The factories that brought millions into the Middle class have been closed for 30-40 years now and I doubt they will ever return. The education system doesn’t produce graduates that possess maths and science degrees so our labor market can’t compete. The plan has become increasingly intolerable, but Americans are happy with government programs that provide them with gubment cheese.
TRUMP WON
TRUMP WON
TRUMP WON
CUT THE CORD!!!
Clearly more of the lunacy supporting demand side interest rate hikes. What’s astonishing to me is the fact that he absolutely knows better but can poker faced blatantly lie about it.
‘Service Driven Economy’ is doublespeak for ‘Serfdom’.
Absolutely. Economic evolution TOWARD services is absurd at this point. I would assume our betters have learned that the strategic value, ignoring economic value, is simply more than can be by any other consideration.
Exactly. And they think that this is ordained by God. The hubris of these people is off the charts.
Slave driven economy
I remain optimistic.
Meme needs a neat, half inch round hole where each green name is.
Cohn hasn’t aged well.
“They” never do.
Service sector jobs = illegal immigrants getting hired.
“I do not like green eggs and ham,”
-Gary Cohn
… cause you know, all those bartenders and Chick-fil-a workers will be sure to fix broken public infrastructure when called upon.
/sarc
No wage growth? Tell that to WalMart and Home Depot, who both significantly goosed hourly wages. They can’t be anomalies.
No middle income folks, no country, it’s that simple. Service driven economies are a house of straw. Let’s not forget these creeps want the economy to collapse, the wealth shifts into their cofers. They can laud it over everyone and reek of superiority. It appears they desperately need to do this. Clueless and evil, dangerous combination.
ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and NPR don’t have news programs, they have propaganda programs designed to attract dim-witted, unquestioning CONSUMERS who will be exposed to their advertising clients. Reporting on their programs is a waste of your and our time.
We have bursatilized our National economy… According to these nimrods quarterly profitscate all… Not being industrially autonomous. There are jobs, and there are jobs. Ask a military commander if he’d take on an enemy force with a platoon of compsny clerks or a lower number of eleven-bang-bangs?
Our shit economy doesn’t produce much other than low-paid clerks who churn their meager income back onto the economy.
The mainstream media cheered the news that the U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs last month. Sadly, that just isn’t true. According to reports and the St. Louis Federal Reserve, the US economy actually lost 2.5 million jobsin January.
Via Rich Dvorak: “The Not Seasonally Adjusted print for monthly change in Nonfarm Payrolls was -2.5 million jobs. That means the headline +517K employment gain reported in January was driven entirely by a +3 million seasonal adjustment.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/us-economy-actually-lost-2-5-million-jobs-january-reported-gain-517000/
WWII Europe was a waste of ammo and allied lives. The mid century european leader should have been allowed to carry on uninterrupted.
Hard as it might be to accept the words of this man there’s only two options here. 1-Trump was wrong to have selected him which falls squarely on number one. 2-Cohn is/was/will always be, a decepticon and all this other stuff in terms of rhetoric. Me? I say eliminate hypocrisy and admit partaking in it when the shoe fits. Yes Cohn could’ve taken a pause to praise Trump. But that’s really just doing nothing beyond patronizing if he does. I’ll somewhat close with this sitch and I don’t care what anyone thinks of him personally because just like Beck and even Jones he’s right once in a while. So here it is. Don’t shoot the messenger. Link to reference included below with no affiliation to it.
1-“Look you have to understand that Trump is an imperfect weapon. But he’s an armor piercing bullet.”
~Steve Bannon to PBS Frontline
2-“I’d eat the corn outta her p**p just to see where it came from.”
~Uncle Joe
Okay so number 2 might’ve been BSR talking crap to someone but that’s okay.