The U.S. stock market had incredible gains after Donald Trump was declared the president-elect. Is this as good of a sign as it looks for small and medium-sized businesses? Financial expert Carol Roth joins Glenn to explain. She also gives her take on whether Trump can stop the World Economic Forum’s plans for transforming the West and why she isn’t confident that Trump’s tariff plan could replace the Income Tax. But she has another solution that might be better …
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. We're glad you're here. So it's very exciting. I'm just writing my dear Santa Trump list. Take care of the border justice reform. Elon cuts.
MAHA tax cuts. I'll take a 15 percent corporate. But can we start with zero with tariffs?
Deep cuts in regulations. The Department of Ed, close it down.
Pentagon.
Stop the madness. That's all I've got so far.
But I'm going to -- it's going to be a long list. I will send this to Trump.
Do you have any suggestions? I would love to hear it.
One of the things I know he is going to do is -- is probably give, you know, the -- a great gift to anybody who has Bitcoin. Or anybody who is in the Bitcoin industry.
Because I -- he has said, he's against the Fed coin and he in his administration, will stop that from ever becoming a reality. I hope he can pull that one off.
But gold is up, still. It's down, what? Thirty dollars from Election Day.
But it's still doing well. I think 2700. Just coming off of all-time high. Yesterday, all-time high for Bitcoin. That's come down just a little bit.
But the economy could roar. And we have Carol Roth with us. Now.
Hi, Carol.
CAROL: Hi, Glenn. We promised people that we would get together, and would have something good to talk about at some point in time. So we manifested this discussion. And we have optimism.
And I think actually my most exciting point is the optimism. It could be four and a half years, since we've had real optimism in this country, from the time of the COVID mess through the Biden/Harris administration.
And sentiment is such a self-fulfilling prophecy, you know, particularly for the economy, but in all aspects of life. So the fact that it at that we have this huge sense of relief, has lifted off our shoulders -- not to say that there is an easy road ahead, but just to have the optimism, that, yes. We can go out and do this. Such a blessed, blessed day and week.
GLENN: Amen, on that.
So the stock market. You sent me, oh, something maybe 6 o'clock on Tuesday night. And you said, Glenn, stock market is up 200 points. That bodes well for Trump. And then it just kept going up.
You know, the after hours stock market just kept going up all throughout the night.
And it's doing well. They didn't usually they will bake in, what they think is coming.
They really thought a Kamala administration was coming. Didn't they?
CAROL: No. They actually had baked in a Trump win. So that's why this was so staggering.
I think what they didn't have baked in, is what a resounding mandate that he would have. That the Senate, the fact that he would win the popular vote. Obviously, we're still waiting.
Hopefully, the House. The fact that this is the country saying, we want this mandate.
And CNBC said this morning, that we are on track for the best week in the stock market in a year.
And what is most exciting about what's happened in the market is that it has been a very broad race.
You know, we've been through a time over the past several of years, where just a handful of tech companies, yeah, they're the ones that have been lifting the market.
The Russell 2000, which is the smaller cap, publicly traded companies. They were up 5 percent the day after the election. 5 percent in one day. Which means small companies and medium-sized companies think they will get access to capital, and have the optimism to grow their business.
And we know we need that broad-based growth. Not just a handful of companies. So that is one of my really big takeaways.
GLENN: I mean, if I were somebody that wanted to start my own business, I would be planning on it right now.
I mean, I -- I -- I think America has a chance to have another golden era here.
And, you know, maybe they put a stop to it, in four years.
But if it is -- if he can turn this around, quickly.
And actually make the kinds of moves that he's talking about.
Massive fundamental change in the -- just the garbage of the bureaucracy.
That could -- that could affect us for a very long time.
And you could also see with that kind of success, 12 years.
Not just him. But then two -- two terms of J.D. Vance.
CAROL: Absolutely.
And I think for small businesses, in particular, the people who are looking to start them, or grow an existing business. There were three key areas, that the Biden/Harris administration really tamped down on that, sort of optimism from the back bone of the economy.
The first one being the ability to work for flexibly.
You know, the Trump administration had put this very pro-independent contractor. Pro gig work framework in place.
And they reversed that in its entirety. So the fact that that goes away, is huge.
From a regulatory standpoint. 1.7 trillion dollars in regulatory burden, is the estimate of the Biden/Harris administration. On small business loan.
Small businesses don't have time for this.
And they don't have the staff or the money for this.
So on the fact that we know, that we will get more of that regulation cleaned out, is absolutely huge.
And then the tax uncertainty. You know, the tax cuts and jobs act is set to expire next year in large part.
And the fact that we know Trump is going to be, you know, more open, to, you know, extending some of those cuts.
And maybe even further cutting and hopefully, helping small businesses have that certainty. Because, again, you can't make those investments if you're not sure what will happen.
Plus, we know we will not get the crazy capital gains taxes. And wealth taxes. And all the other things that are proposed. So this is really a three-legged stool. That will help to unleash growth.
And it is such a blessing.
GLENN: So let's go over some of the things that he has to do.
He obviously has to fix the border.
And deport people. I can't take it anymore. Just deportation in US history. Well, I never -- I didn't even know that the largest deportation happened under Bill Clinton.
With 11 million people deported from our country.
11 million.
Nobody said anything about that. Our population is bigger. And what is he talking about?
Maybe ten to 15 million?
Maybe 20!
The -- this is ridiculous, that everybody is freaking out. When Bill Clinton was the guy who did it the first time.
And it didn't hurt anything.
CAROL: Yeah. I mean, we've had a mass invasion.
And while something like mass deportation may sound just like just a security policy or social policy.
It's obviously very much an economic policy. The estimate from Fare, just in 2023 alone -- forget about this year -- was $150 billion that was spent on these illegals.
And that doesn't include things like what it does to the demoralization, of communities. What it does to keep wages suppressed.
And people on the sidelines.
Back in 2022.
GLENN: And services.
CAROL: Yeah. The 2022 -- the number of illegals in the workforce was 8.3 million. You could imagine that that's up at least 50 percent, if not more.
So those are jobs that are having artificially suppressed wages and being taken away and demoralizing, you know, working age individuals. Particularly men, from getting into the workforce.
So this is a huge pharmaceutical issue for us.
And whatever the cost is, to get them out of the country, will be worth. Because the return on investment for doing that, in all facets will far exceed it.
It absolutely has to be the first thing that he does.
GLENN: We know that he's also going to.
One of the first things he's going to do on the first day is restore our energy policy. Drill, baby, drill. And open all of that stuff up again, thank God.
The -- the ESG -- I just got a note from somebody that said be with one investment bank is advising ESG fund managers to keep their lawyers very close.
Anti-trust risk remains high for asset managers. And ESG. There haven't been any cases yet.
Thus, there's no legal precedent. Further, legal risks regarding fiduciary duty, in order to stay relevant, is states enforce antistate ESG laws.
ESG, do you see the -- the stake going through its heart?
CAROL: I mean, we certainly hope so.
The challenge with something like ESG. They always repackage it.
And it always comes back to life to something else.
It's like the vampire who shape shifts into something different.
So my guess is, that ESG goes away, and then they come back, and they can come up with something else. And now it has a new name.
So it's a bit of a whack-a-mole. We will have to continue to be on it. But I absolutely think, there is going to be -- there's already a huge push to get away from it.
In part, because everybody has seen these promises. Oh, ESG will do wonderful things for investments.
That hasn't materialized. And it really has been this green washing.
I feel like, it's already on that trend.
It could be the final nail in the vampire's coffin, until he rises again.
GLENN: So the cop 25 is coming up.
And the last time he attended. I don't know if he attended. He might have just said a note, we're out. Of the Paris accords. And everything else.
That too, is going to shake the global community.
And -- and really put -- I mean, it could take it down.
If he's really strong on this World Economic Forum garbage that has been shoveled. If he's really strong on that, he could put the stake in its heart.
CAROL: You get the right government efficiency commission, and we should be out of everything. We should stop funding the WEF. We should stop funding the UN.
We should stop funding all of this insanity.
And take that money and make that available to pay down our debt. To shrink our deficits. And to stop with these NGOs who are getting massive funding from us, and then coming in and trying to ruin our lives. When you add to your list, to Trump Santa, please include getting rid of all of the funding to these ridiculous organizations.
GLENN: Yeah. Well, I think that goes under the border thing.
Because that's where we've really enriched these NGOs here in the country.
I mean, some of them should go to jail.
They brought these people in, over the border.
With our tax money. They flew them around the country.
With our tax money.
I mean, I think there should be at least an investigation on that.
CAROL: I'm with you. I second you on that one.
GLENN: When it comes to taxes. What do you think about the idea.
You would need to actually do both of them together.
I'm not a tariff guy.
But if your goal is to rebuild America, and to rebuild our manufacturing. And bring money back on to shore.
And jobs back on to shore.
If you cut. Like he was talking about, no it can tax.
If you cut the income tax. And reimpose stiff tariffs, what happens?
CAROL: So I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings in math here. But math really doesn't work out. Because you have to remember, 70 percent of our economy is service-based.
Even if you boost up manufacturing on a big level, the amount that it would take to replace what we have, in terms of an income tax, it just today is not mathematically possible.
We also have the scenario where we're trying to make sure that the GDP increases.
And that our revenue stays, you know, pretty stable, at the same time. That we're trying to get rid of the additional spending.
And that is going to be a very delicate dance. So I think this is something that needs to be -- should be managed strategically.
GLENN: But could you come up with a flat tax, or a 15 percent tax?
That just makes the economy roar.
CAROL: Sure. Yeah. I absolutely do think that you could do that. And something that is simple, also takes away a lot of the administration, and the burden, that comes along with that. That makes, you know -- just takes away productive time from people.
Spending it on paperwork. Instead of spending it on the economy.
So I do think, there could be something that is streamlined. But, again, the tax code is so insane, that I would imagine that would take some time.
But would completely welcome it. And there are so many entrepreneurial people, who are around Trump, this time around.
You know, the Elon Musk's and the Viveks and what not.
I think this is the time, there's an opportunity to actually get something like this done. And we need that, Glenn. We need to have the growth. Because if we don't have the massive growth, we're not going to be able to shrink the government.
We're not going to be able to shrink massive inflation. So that's the dance that we have.