NTD News Today Full Broadcast (March 30)

Welcome to NTD News Today. Here are today's top stories. Sixty percent of chief financial officers at various companies anticipate a recession by late this year. We discuss the chances of a potential economic downturn with a guest panel. President Trump is calling this coming Wednesday Liberation Day. It's when his reciprocal tariffs, as he calls them, will take effect, impacting all imports from around the world. We take a deep dive. Trade patterns changing, policies shifting. How can we add some certainty to our financial lives in these uncertain times? An expert breaks down the first step. How do organizations build strong and high-efficiency workplace relationships? We talk to an expert. This is NTD News Today, live from our global headquarters in New York City. And thank you very much for joining us today. The International Monetary Fund is still evaluating the impact of President Trump's tariff plans, including his 25 percent auto tariffs. But for now, it does not see a U.S. recession in its forecast. However, a CNBC survey tells a different story. Sixty percent of chief financial officers expect a recession by late 2025, and their biggest concern is trade disruptions, with 30 percent of CFOs calling it their highest risk. And joining us now to discuss the potential of a recession in the U.S. is Christian Briggs, economist and CEO at Hart Asset Management. Also joining us, Daniel LaCaille, chief economist at Tresses. So first and foremost, thank you both for coming on this Sunday. And I'd like to start off to get a sense of where you both stand on this topic, the likelihood here. Perhaps let's start with Daniel. What do you think? Well, if what we are worried is about a global recession or a significant decline in the economic activity, then I don't think we should be worried. What the U.S. administration is implementing are essential measures that are important to level the playing field in terms of trade, and additionally, important measures also to stop the bleeding of the federal budget. So all those elements may spook markets shortly, but have very little long-term negative impact. And certainly, you may have a reduction in GDP because of a reduction in government spending, but that is not going to derail the trend of economic growth. Okay, Christian, where do you put the chances of a recession in the U.S.? Well, I think this recession has already started in the bottom half of America. Wages did not keep up at the same level the higher end income brackets did with inflation. So inflation was a really, I'd say a big issue. So there might be some recessionary pressures already on that lower end, lower middle income. But as my colleague over there said, I think that the short term, we're going to have a little bit of pain, but I believe over the next 12 months could actually work to be a huge win for manufacturing, and we will gain. Okay, so you're saying we might feel some pain. If we do see a recession, officially speaking, Christian, what's the severity going to be like? Talk to us about job losses, maybe potential stagflation. Okay, that's a great question, because most people don't understand stagflation. And I think that once you understand that we could still have inflationary pressures, which is the cost of goods and services going up, but wages won't keep up to that kind of level of growth. I mean, look at the core, PPI and the CPI. The core just came in last week at a 2.9%, which was four-tenths over what was expected. And so we're seeing a hotter core. Now, the question is, will that core pricing pressure push to the distributors, the wholesalers at the PPI level, and then could that get to the CPI, or will they be able to absorb those costs? Because remember, you're going to compound those costs with the tariffs, at least in the short term. But as my colleague said earlier here a second ago, I believe that the long-term benefits of the tariffs put us on a good quality understanding that the made-in-America products, when competitively priced, will outperform overseas manufacturing. And made-in-America is what we're all about again, that made-in-America baby, as they say it. So I'm very excited about what Trump's doing because he's doing it surgically. But there's going to be some definitive transitory inflationary numbers coming out. And I think the core showed that last Friday that we're going to be in a little bit of a hotter market, and this could lead to a larger expansion of recession. Okay, Daniel, your thoughts on what Christian said? Well, I agree with a few things. I just want to add a couple. The inflationary pressures and negative real wage growth that the United States is suffering comes from the negative impact of the policies implemented, particularly in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, the level of government spending was the highest in a growth period, 10%. And money supply growth was a 27-month high at the end of the year. Therefore, inflationary pressures that we're seeing today have little to do with the announcement of tariffs and a lot to do with the monstrosity of money supply growth and money velocity increase. So that's on the one hand. And that obviously, if it had continued, that would have led not only to a recession, but probably to a depression and a debt crisis in the United States. That's on the one hand. On the other, I think that obviously tariffs in the short term may have a short-term impact on individual prices. But remember that inflation measures aggregate prices. And when you look at the entire body of goods that are being subject to tariffs, the number of them that are produced 100% abroad and with almost inelastic demand are zero. That means that what Christian said very rightly is that immediately productive capacity in the United States is going to come back and is going to compete and provide better prices for goods and services. So you might have a small bump, but it has very little to do with the inflationary pressures that we are reading from the IMF or from the OECD that can only come from higher velocity of money and higher money supply growth, which was, according to the MIT as well, it directly caused by a completely abnormal and inexcusable increase in government spending in the middle of a recovery. Okay, Christian, I want your thoughts on what he said, but let me pose this question to you as well. You know, we were hearing that a recession may be coming even during the Biden administration. I'm sure you remember that. It seems like everyone was expecting one officially, but it never happened, right? So now there's also talk of a recession because of what Trump is doing. So I want to ask you, it didn't come last time, officially speaking, what's different this time? Well, again, good questions. And as my colleague just said, he's absolutely right. Their government spending was so out of control during the administration, it was kind of like, it was like a non-recourse. We'll just spend as much as we want, and there's no recourse to having to pay it back. And that was the mentality. When you start to look at how much money was put into, like, through the M2 money, I can tell you this, that if you look at statistics, the recession, remember, by administration, there was a contraction in that first year and a half. So there was a little bit of contraction. Some of that was with a purge, I call it, of getting rid of some of the spending. Then they were spending in other areas like climate change. So there was a little bit of, I would say, data that was skewed. But the short-term value of tariffs is to create a level playing field so the U.S. manufacturing industry can be competitive. I'll give you an example. If I was going to make a t-shirt in China for $20, and it now is $20 here at the same, you can probably get to that same made in America. That is going to be a big deal, plus quality control. You're not 8,000 miles away from the manufacturer. You can go to the place where it's being made, and you'll be able to see the quality, the deliverables, the timetables. This is really good. When Trump did those initial tariffs in 1980, the markets, I would say, for lack of a better word, freaked out. They did. They were not ready for some of that hardcore understanding of what the level playing field has to be. But at the end of the day, Trump did bring back 462,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs that were not present before he took that first turn. So they do work, but they got to be surgically done. And I agree, it's not across the board. This is going to be on specific items that create a competitive landscape that we're going to be able to made in America is coming back and it's coming back strong. Okay, Daniel, I want to bring in another angle here. And that is sentiment, right? A measure of consumer confidence recently actually fell seven points from February to March and its fourth straight decline and reaching its lowest level since January 2021. So I'm referring to the conference board's latest consumer confidence index. So doesn't a lack of optimism about the state of the economy from the consumer and one's personal finances as well, doesn't that translate into lower consumer spending? It's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy ending in a recession. Well, actually not really, because if we look at consumer confidence includes a lot of different variables and it's fine. And I completely agree that there may be obviously, as you've said it very well, the fourth consecutive decline is that what we are seeing right now is literally the effect of the negatives that have been building for at least 18 months is the decline in real wages, the decline in ability of families to make ends meet because inflation was too high, taxes were rising and the economy was slowing down because 2024, let's remember, was the worst year since 1930 in terms of GDP growth adjusted for the increase in debt. The situation was completely unsustainable. So yes, consumer confidence is declining, but it's massively higher than in what the previous periods of real downturns we have seen, which were 26.2 and 87. So we're still very, very far away from the consumer confidence levels of a recession. However, I come back to the point, the United States had a recession, 2022, and because the narrative was to tell everybody that there was no recession, they changed, it's almost it's almost farcical, they changed the definition of a recession to a completely different thing so that it would fit the narrative that there could be no recession in 2022 and there was two quarters of GDP decline. So the point that I'm trying to make is, yes, the point that Christian was just making is essential. The new administration needs to make surgical measures and make them very, very quick because they know that everything that will happen in the next four years, if you don't do it in the first 100 days, you will not do it. And it's been very obvious in Argentina, it's been very obvious in El Salvador, it's been very obvious in many economies, it was very obvious in the 80s in the United States. So the point is, can there be a decline in consumer confidence? Absolutely. But look at other leading indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index is in expansion, composite PMI is in expansion, job creation, we're going to have job figures this week, we're going to likely see another good figure of job creation. All those elements are showing that the real economy, the productive economy is actually adjusting much better, and that once tax cuts, government spending reductions, and the reduction in prices as well, because we need to see a reduction in prices, we're going to see, we already have egg prices not falling, plummeting. And remember that they said that egg prices could not fall because it was due to climate change, and I don't know what else, all these things that we hear all the time. The reality is that once you cut government spending, and with it money supply growth, and with it money velocity, inflation is going to be reduced and consumer confidence is going to come back. Okay, Christian, we just have about 30 seconds, so you get the final thoughts here. Talk to us about what Daniel just said just now, but also mention the fact that the Federal Reserve is potentially cutting rates now. Well, okay, let's talk about that really quick. The bottom 25% of America is in a recession. They did not want to keep the level that incorporates all the view of really what the top is having. Now the top 1% are doing great. That little portion is not enough to stay on me, but we will have some slowdown. It's bad, but I'll say this. If you take a look at what the tariffs are going to do at the end of the day, they are going to bring manufacturing jobs back, but we've got to weaken the dollar. You've got to make the widgets more competitive here, so you're going to see that. On the Federal Reserve, I fully expect them in May to start the QE program again. It's going to be easy. I do expect them not to do any more QT. They're going to go QE, which will be where they start to buy bonds and lower those rates. The only way to lower rates right now is to either weaken the dollar, which could create a cut, but the Fed's going to incur fine. My estimates are about $50 to $60 billion a month worth of Treasuries to lower those rates. Okay, well, thank you very much to you both for joining us this Sunday. Thank you very much. And going to break coming up after trade patterns changing, policies shifting, how can we add some certainty to our financial lives in these uncertain times? An expert breaks down the first step. And eating at home, but feeling like you're in a restaurant, not just the food, but the ambience and experience, all without spending extra. How can you make it happen? More in just a moment here on NTD News Today. Thanks for staying with us. Uncertainty in this world is rising with shifts in trade patterns and policies. All of that impacts businesses and consumers directly. So how can we add some certainty to our financial lives in these uncertain times? To discuss this, NTD's Stefania Cox spoke with Larry Sprung. He's the founder of Midland Financial and author of Financial Planning Made Personal. In a recent survey by Capital One and the Decision Lab, 77% of Americans said they're anxious about their financial situation. That was just a little earlier this year. What's the first step to taking control? Taking control is really having a budget, right? Especially if you're entering uncertain times, you need to have a really good handle on how much money is coming into your household and how much money is going out and where it's actually going. So if you don't have one, I would say that would be a great first place to start in putting that budget together and it will help add some certainty in some uncertain times. On that point, 72% of households reportedly do not have any kind of written financial plan. Why is that? Where do people start and what's the benefit? Having a plan is so important. I mean, think about it in this day and age where we have ways just to go to the supermarket, right? We rely on it so heavily. Imagine going cross-country without any kind of roadmap. Well, it's very similar from a financial perspective. If you don't have any kind of roadmap, you're not going to know where you're going and what the best path is to get there. So there are some very easy tips. Number one is putting that budget together. Number two is figuring out what your why is. What are your financial goals? Why are you working towards these goals? What are you looking for? And then thirdly, make sure that as your life changes that you're adjusting this financial plan over time because that's key. Just because your plan was set up today doesn't mean that it's going to work the same way five years from now. You want to be able to adjust it along the way and simply having that plan in place like that map on your road trip or ways that you use along your way, you're going to feel a lot more comfortable and confident along those bumps in a road or those detours that come along. Now, with global markets in flux, is there a surefire and stress-free way to approach investing? Yeah, be calm. Volatility is the toll that we pay as investors. And just because there's volatility, there will always be volatility doesn't mean that everything is coming to a halt. You have to stay calm and put that plan together. If you don't have it, follow it. And if you have a plan, make sure you're following that plan and that you're still on track. And it's times like these that, you know, you look back at the plan, make sure that you're still on track to reaching your goals. And by all means, do not panic, because typically what you'll see is 10 days, 10 days out of the course of the year, usually account for the vast majority of the returns that we see from investments. You miss those 10 days and your returns significantly go down. So take a deep breath, stay calm, make sure your plan is on track and adjust when needed. And with restaurant prices rising for many, eating out has become an occasional splurge rather than an everyday treat. NTD's Stefania Cox spoke to someone who says, you don't need to suffer though. There are ways to make it work. Kelly Jaggers is the author of the Everything Restaurant Copycat Recipes Cookbook. And she shares some of her best tips for bringing the restaurant experience to your dinner table. And what are some of the recipes that are easy to appropriate? So when we're thinking about recipes for the home cook, we're thinking about how to make that restaurant experience at homework for them. So what ingredients can you get at the grocery store? How can you utilize those to make those appropriate for restaurant recipes? So thinking about breakfast, things like pancakes from IHOP, those are a really easy recipe to make, really fluffy and delicious. You can make California Pizza Kitchen pizza using pizza dough that's pre-prepared at the grocery store, and then and then things like the pink drink from Starbucks. Those are ingredients that you can easily find at your grocery store, hibiscus tea, coconut milk. So those are things that are easy to do and save you a lot of money because those ingredients are a lot less expensive at the grocery store if you put them together yourself. Well, we know love is the secret ingredient, but what is your trick to making it taste like the real thing? So part of it is love, obviously, but then a lot of it is just being conscious of using really good fresh ingredients, picking things that have a lot of flavor, and then looking at recipes that are things that you really love. You're going to love the recipes you make at home more if it's really recipes that you enjoy. So if you love a cinnamon roll, then that's a recipe you're going to enjoy a lot. You're going to put together, you're going to have the fun of making that recipe at home, and then you're going to get to enjoy the results when you're Not to mention the fun of knowing that you're not paying nearly as much as you now need to in the stores. But there's also another aspect to this that you talk about in your cookbook, which is being able to tailor the recipes to any specific dietary needs you might have at any given moment, any choices you might be making to just get healthier and such. What have you got for us on that front? Of course. So if you're gluten-free or if you're someone who is avoiding gluten products, obviously making a swap of gluten-free doughs, gluten-free mixes. If you're someone who's looking to be a little bit more healthy, swapping things like butter for olive oil, using leaner cuts of meat, and then, of course, a little bit less cheese. You're able to tailor these to your tastes and preferences, just like you could at the restaurant. But in this case, you're also able to tailor things down like fats, carbs, whatever it is that you're looking to exclude from your diet to have a healthier you. And if you're really going for savings in this approach of just making everything at home, what do you suggest in terms of that approach? So shopping your weekly circular, looking for items that are on sale, things that you can build your favorite restaurant recipes around, and then taking a look at other grocery stores in the area, shopping the best prices. Not every grocery store is going to have a sale on the same items every week. So, you know, you may need to go to a couple of different stores to find the best prices. But in this economy, to save a few dollars, it's a smart idea. Yeah, for sure. You can never lose out on just cutting down a few dollars here and there. But you've got quite a few recipes in this new cookbook. I'm wondering, what's the fanciest recipe that you've got in there? I think it's the steak salad from O'Charley's Restaurant. It has steak and sliced tomato, blue cheese crumbles, all in a bed of mixed greens. It's really delicious. Gorgeous. And what's your favorite recipe? I'd have to say the Cracker Barrel mac and cheese. I am a Southern girl and I do love a good mac and cheese. Cracker Barrel is one of my favorites. And so when I had an opportunity to create a dupe for that one that people could make at home, I was thrilled to take on that challenge. For sure. It does sound like a lot of fun. And I do want to bring up this issue of eating out is actually its own experience, right? So you can make the food, but how do you make the experience at home? Of course. So taking the time to plate your food beautifully, arranging it on the plate, take a look at the restaurant menus and see the photos and try to duplicate that plating at home. But then using special plates, using table cloths, nicer napkins, nicer glassware, maybe put a few candles on the table and turn the overhead light off. There are ways that you can really make the dining experience feel as special at home as you do in the restaurant. And do you have any advice for people who maybe want to include their kids and their family in on this experience and get them excited to be perhaps eating out a little less and having more family time at home in this new cost-saving approach? Of course, of course. Let your kids go through the books with you. Pick recipes that you would like to make together. There are plenty of recipes that you can put together at different age levels. There are cookie doughs that kids can mix. There are ingredients kids can put into blenders and help press the puree button. Not everything is going to require a big sharp chef's knife. For example, the crumble cookie recipe. That would be a great recipe for kids and parents to make together. And then at the end, if you make the pink sugar cookie, you can all frost those cookies together with the pink frosting, which is always a lot of fun. How do you make these recipes? You obviously get the actual item from the store, and then how do you pick that apart? I have been developing recipes for 15 years, so I have developed quite a palette. I'm able to taste a recipe and determine pretty quickly what's in it. But one of the things that helped me with this project was a lot of recipes put their ingredient lists online. Now, they don't put the portions of the ingredients, and so it was kind of up to me to decipher how much of each ingredient goes into which thing. But that did help me a lot in case I was ever stumped on like, what is that flavor? It was often like celery seed or something off the wall that I never would have picked out with my own palette. All right, hot tip there for obviously there are many excellent recipes already ready-made in your cookbook. But for anything that's outside of that, there's another way that people can perhaps do some sleuthing and find their path to the recipe. Thank you so much for your time today, Kelly Jaggers, author of The Everything Restaurant Copycat Recipes Cookbook. Good to speak with you. Thank you. When we come back, we look under the hood of Trump's 25% tariffs on auto imports and explore a $20 billion investment by Hyundai in the US. Stay tuned. Thanks for staying with us. President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs on products worldwide go into effect Wednesday. Trump is calling April 2nd Liberation Day. While some economists say this could impact prices in the short term, President Trump is undeterred. Trump is suggesting he'll be flexible with the countries on which he places additional tariffs. He says he'll treat other nations better than they treated the United States. It's possible some of the tariffs that go into effect this week will be short-lived. They're meant to match existing tariffs, and Trump has said he would remove them if other countries remove their levies on US products or make other concessions. America currently imports more goods than it exports, and on average, other countries' tariffs the US more than the US tariffs them. Trump said, quote, we're going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking a lot of things that they've been taking over the years. Prospective auto buyers might not feel liberated by President Trump's 25% tariffs on imported autos. The price of such vehicles could increase notably. But that doesn't seem to bother the president who says, quote, I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. Trump says the tariffs are a necessary step and that they'll protect the American industry and improve national security. Thatai reporter Kevin Hogan has more on the story. That's 25% tariffs that President Trump is imposing on imported vehicles. It's not all of them, because they're still working out the details, and it doesn't apply so much to those made with American parts. However, that is a lot of tariff action going on, and that could affect your bottom line. Let's look at the data. So for example, according to CNBC, different experts and analysts have different takes on how much this is going to cause import auto prices to rise. So for example, Bernstein, Guggenheim, Goldman, they put it at about $5,000 to $6,000, just added right on top of that sticker price. However, for Goldman, for locally made cars, those could go up to $8,000 more expensive because, think about it, they're made with parts. Some of those parts are foreign parts. Bank of America is putting that additional cost at just under $5,000, right? But there's a range to this. So that max comes all the way out, look at this, to $15,000 that could be added for some of those imports, right? Now, there's more to this because, again, you have other countries that are looking on that might not be too happy because they export a lot of autos to the United States. So for example, Canadian Prime Minister, he says that the United States is no longer a reliable trade partner. So that's very serious. These two countries are very nestled in together in terms of trade. And not only that, but the southern neighbor of the United States, Mexico, their economy minister says that since they're moving to a system with such high tariffs, then they have to look for a preferential treatment for Mexico. So they're trying to work all this out as it's unfolding. And when you look at the data for the countries, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, that import cars into the United States, that value could be up to $40 billion or more. For example, for Mexico, Japan, South Korea, those are the top three countries that would be affected the most by this. Canada is a pretty close fourth. Again, remember, Mexico and Canada, they're part of the USMCA. So there's still more details that need to be worked out. Maybe not all of these tariffs would apply. But what about the tariffs, the actual auto production in terms of how much that is made up of a share of their GDP? Well, Mexico, that's over 4% of their GDP comes from importing cars to the United States. So that's a huge share. Japan, South Korea is 1%, 2%, not quite as much. But look at this, Slovakia, that comes out to over 4% for their GDP. So that's a massive amount of their whole economy that's made up just from importing cars to the United States. They call Slovakia the Detroit of Europe. It makes more cars per capita than any other country in the world. Think Land Rover, think Volkswagen, they both have auto manufacturing plants in Slovakia's capital. So that's a very serious move that Trump's making, and it's really impacting a lot of these countries. So you got to look out, there could be reciprocal tariffs on the way. Back to you. Okay, Kevin, thank you for that. Next, how does the American auto industry feel about these 25% tariffs on auto imports? We hear from an American auto parts distributor who gets the vast majority of his products from Taiwan. Watch. Ernie Simmons owns an Atlanta store selling auto parts, one of the targets of President Donald Trump's latest tariff plans. His business, Aftermarket Auto Parts, relies heavily on imports from Taiwan. But Simmons says he's not worried. As far as the tariffs go, I really don't have a problem with them. And the reason is, number one, I think that they're going to be temporary because all that Trump is trying to do is make things equal. Whatever they charge us, we're going to charge them. 90% of Aftermarket's inventory is from Taiwan, according to Simmons, but he's optimistic that the tariffs will lead to a wider change. I think there's going to be some pressure on us for a little while, but I also believe that these countries will come to the realization that they're not going to get a free ride anymore. And they're going to have to treat us when we export something to them the same way that we treat them when they import to us. On Wednesday, Trump announced he'd make good on threats of new tariffs aimed at cars. He's planning a 25% import tax on vehicles not built in the U.S. to kick in next week. Then duties on parts will roll out by May 3rd. Engines, transmissions, and electrical components are all identified as targets in a Trump proclamation. Vehicles and parts made in the U.S. will be exempt. While Simmons is brushing off the impact he'll feel, some experts say these tariffs could shake up the whole industry. Tibor Beceres, a professor of economics at Georgia Tech, says they create uncertainty across the supply chain. Will there be a different administration four years down the road that might do away with them? In which case, they have to evaluate whether it makes sense to build a factory in the United States and then bring it online. And that might take anywhere up to two years. And then what happens if tariffs go away? The tariffs, jumping from a current 2.5% to 25% rate on imported cars, take effect a minute after midnight on April 3rd on the U.S. East Coast. Meanwhile, President Trump says his tariffs are part of the reason companies like Apple and countries like Japan are making major investments in the United States. We take a deep dive into Hyundai's $20 billion investment in the U.S., which includes a steel manufacturing plant in Louisiana. NTD's Kevin Hogan spoke with Curt Hopkins, CEO of MCQ Markets, about what this investment means for America. Around $20 billion, of which $5 billion plus of that is related to this steel plant. So, it is a very interesting announcement. I think it's very good for American manufacturing. It should be good for American jobs as these plants get built. And so, I'm really excited to have this news recently. Well, yes, absolutely. And do these investments, I mean, we've seen some from open AI, Apple and others. Do they stem from President Trump's tariff program? I would think, and from what I've been reading and people have been speaking with, that a lot of these announcements have been based upon a multi-year planning process by Hyundai. And I think maybe the tariff pressure has brought forward the announcement of these investments. But I believe these investments have been in the hopper for some time. And I think it's a welcome effort on behalf of both the Democratic and Republican administrations that this investment has happened. So, I don't think Trump can claim complete credit for it, but certainly the timing of the announcement has probably been driven by a lot of the tariff debate that is happening in the public space. Understood, Curt. So, what's the underlying cause of their long-term plans to reinvest in the United States? Well, I think it's generally caused by the fact that they want to have a local presence. They know that there are tariffs and there are restrictions and there are regulatory restrictions on cars that you import into the U.S. And so, by obviously building your plants there and producing more things locally, you can have shorter supply chains, you can get to market quicker, you can probably have less cost. And if you have a massive market in the U.S., why not invest there? So, the U.S. is obviously one of the biggest market or the biggest market in the world and it's a huge economy. So, it makes all the sense in the world for major manufacturers to invest in the U.S. So, I think it's great news. What does this mean for Americans in terms of car prices, jobs, and so on? I think, again, this is a long-term plan. I think as far as car prices go, we'll see what happens. Obviously, the big concern right now is the unresolved tariff situation, especially for North American manufacturing. So, this is the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and trying to see what's going to happen with respect to tariffs. So, if many tariffs do come on, then you will definitely see a rise in prices, right? Because tariffs are effectively a tax on imports. And so, you'll see some one-time price rises and, of course, domestic producers take advantage of that and raise their prices as well. So, I think that's the big concern. I'm hoping that the Trump administration's approach here is basically to be using tariffs as a negotiating stick, as leverage, in order to get better deals for the American consumer so we can keep the cost of living down. Well, it's great having you on our show. Kurt Hopkins, CEO of MCQ Markets. Thank you very much. Another major investment in the United States recently is Vietnamese airline Vietjet's investment of $64 billion. That's in partnership with Aloe Ventures. NTD's Fiona Ge spoke with managing partner of Aloe Ventures, Alyson Huynh, about the reasons behind Vietjet's investment. They bought $50 billion worth of Boeing jets. That's creating tens of thousands of jobs, in addition to $14 billion in services, contracts, training of the pilots, the mechanics. So, a total of $64 billion of US-based investment from Vietnam. That's because President Trump is showing real leadership. Since he's been in office, there's been this domino trumped effect, more than $2 trillion to $3 trillion of investments coming into the US. Usually, it's trillions of dollars going out of the US, going to Europe, going to Asia. And for the first time in my lifetime, and I'm really excited to see this, is that it's actually coming into the US, creating thousands, if not millions of jobs for hardworking Americans. And you have to remember, America was always there for Asia, for Europe, bailing them out. And you see this with the Ukraine-Russian war. We're paying for most of the war in Ukraine and Russia. And why are we funding these endless wars? We need to make business deals. We need to do joint ventures. That's a very Stanford-Silicon Valley-type idea. Instead of war, instead of doing these endless kinetic wars that previous administrations are doing, we have a president that is looking at the business side of things. Obama, Clinton, they are great orators, but they had very interesting ideas and theses, and it was a failed social experiment. President Trump is using tried and true business measures and tactics, joint ventures, align people, just like with Russia and Ukraine. You can see him do this, right? Why not, instead of putting in $200-300 billion, and even Zelensky doesn't even know where that goes, why not put that in a joint venture and drill for rare earth minerals, oil, and gas, and then we split the profit three ways? It's not really revolutionary, but it is when it comes to politics. Before, we're investing billions, trillions of dollars into endless wars, causing these enemies, regime change. In Asia, where I'm from, in South America, and rigging these types of elections, why not put money into productive, creative ways? I just love how this president is reimagining world affairs and really using trade to create peace in the world. Right, and it certainly is a very interesting economic environment for investors out there right now. Alison Huynh, thank you so much for joining us. And coming up after the break, how do organizations build strong and high efficiency workplace relationships? We talked to an expert, don't go away. Work relationships matter. Strong relationships of work can increase productivity and job satisfaction, which helps keep those happy employees longer, and research showing that solid workplace relationships can even decrease healthcare costs. And let's be honest here, if you have a good relationship with your employer, it's less likely they'll let you go. So it's even more imperative to reinforce those bonds. Joining us now to give us insight on how to build strong relationships within a company is Brad Engelert, an author, advisor, and technologist. So first and foremost, good afternoon, Brad. I think it's really important here to start with the basics. So if you wouldn't mind, can you explain to us some of the biggest benefits to having good relationships in a company? Well, the first is trust. If you have a trusting relationship with your boss, with your direct reports, with your customers, you're going to be more profitable in the future. And it's reciprocal. If you help others, they'll help you. And then how do you have a good relationship with a colleague or a boss? That's a great question. There are really three principles that apply to all business relationships. One is to understand their goals and aspirations. So you just ask, what are you trying to achieve? Second, set and manage expectations, something that you should do, but we don't always do. And third, genuinely care about their success. If you do that with your boss, with your direct reports, customers, and vendors, you will be very successful. But let me ask you this, Brad, is it okay to ask your boss point blank, what are your goals? Is that something you can do? Yeah. And it's a simple thing to do. When I was the boss, I would encourage my direct reports to ask me, what are the goals for the year? And I welcome their support. It's a team sport. And if they don't know what your goals are, they can't help you get there. Okay. So within an organization, whether it's company or something else, there's inevitably going to be conflicts, right? So how do you address conflicts while maintaining a positive relationship? Well, you have to be honest and you have to not let things fester. And it takes courage to be honest. And I had someone who worked for me who, you know, was concerned about, you know, was I giving them the right challenges and such? And I welcome that discussion because, you know, if you don't have the courage to ask, then you fall into suffering in silence and you might leave the company and that would be a waste for everybody. Is forgiving also as much as a factor in terms of maintaining positive relationships when there's conflicts? Absolutely. And I would also add apologizing. When you are in a big organization, things will go wrong. And it's not if they'll go wrong, but how we deal with it when they do. And often I would apologize. And there's an art to apology. One is acknowledging what happened. Two, hold yourself accountable for that. And three, outline what you'll do to keep it from happening again. If you do that consistently, you will build trust over time. So how do relationships in a workplace, how do they impact employee efficiency? Well, if you have happy employees, you will have happy customers. And so I made sure that when I was leading a large organization that I would articulate the values of the organization. And the number one value in my organization was family first. So if you had to go to the doctor's office or go to a school play, we had 330 people in the organization who could backfill for you. And we set those expectations, those values. I would model those behaviors. So I would go to the doctor, I would take vacation, I would go to training, and I would expect my direct reports and their teams to do the same. All right. So in this day and age, there's actually a number of factors, which potentially is an obstacle to building strong relationships. And one of them, I believe, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, is remote employees. How do you build strong relationships with remote employees? So for a couple of years, I was with a global consulting firm for 22 years. For two of those years, I had a team of 90 professionals all across North America. And we would go to different projects in different parts of the country. But once a week, I would have a call with all my leaders, and we would talk about what's going well, what could be doing differently, what are some of the opportunities ahead, and make sure we were giving our people stretch positions in all the opportunities ahead of us. In addition, twice a year, we would get together in person to build those personal relationships. And then I, as the leader, would go visit each of the projects, whether it's in Atlanta or Michigan or California, and I called it my Winnebago trips. And I would go meet with the clients. I would meet with my people, all levels of the people, and take them to dinner. And they really enjoyed that. When we did a 360 review, the feedback was they loved those Winnebago trips. Okay, just a final question real quick. What are your thoughts on breaking down barriers between teams, right, or between departments? How do you do that? Well, you set the expectation that they are responsible for understanding what other teams are working on. And they can't just focus on what they're working on. And oftentimes, there are synergies between the teams. So I would just set the expectation that I would expect them to work together as a team. Okay, well, again, thank you very much for coming on today, Brad. It was a pleasure speaking to you. Thank you. And that is it for today's news. Thanks for tuning in for Round the Clock original news coverage. Visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. And be sure to stick around for NTD evening news today as well.