 But this isn't going to get solved overnight. This is something that's been in the works for probably 20 or 30 years. This is just the, you know, COVID was just a catalyst to get where we are right now. So he's weighing over his head. Third CEO of Saatchuk wealth, Terry Saatchuk, saying yesterday on this show that the current supply chain breakdown has actually been going on in his opinion for 20 to 30 years. Meanwhile, a top White House official getting criticized today for calling inflation and the supply chain issues that we're seeing a high class problem. This as a billionaire supermarket owner now warning that higher prices for things like food are going to stick around at least well until mid 2022. Also Delta Airlines biggest concern for the fourth quarter isn't the variant. Instead, its fuel costs, the CEO of Delta now warning those costs could dig into profits. So could that mean that you're going to spend more? And a new red flag showing up in this week's consumer price index, the amount that you pay for rent. Well, that rose quite sharply last month. Joining us now to discuss these stories and more is radio host and Democratic strategist Robert Petillo and CEO and founder of Stock Swoosh, Melissa Armo. Thank you both for joining us here on News On. Good to see your faces. Thank you. Thanks more though. All right, Melissa, I want to start with you. You're the money woman here. So you just heard earlier, we aired a clip of the CEO of a huge supermarket chain actually in New York saying that he expects prices for food to remain high well until 2022. And again, Delta saying that that rising fuel costs gonna cut into profits. What is your economic forecast when it comes to our wallets? Well, I believe that this will continue the high inflation, the high cost into 2022. We're already at the point that it is no longer temporary. I really didn't believe the administration at the beginning of the year when they said it was temporary and even chairman, the Fed chairman, Jay Powell, he said at the beginning of the year it was temporary. We're past temporary now. We're in October, we're getting into November. It's the holiday season. Gas prices have gone up. There will continue to stay high. There's $5 a gallon in New York City. That is really, really high. And because we're getting into the winter months, of course, with the gasoline and oil prices high, they're calling for, at least here in the Northeast, it's a very, very cold winter. More than normal, more than the last two years, which means, again, people are going to have the heat on and they're gonna be using oil and prices are up. And that's a concern going into the winter and going into the holiday season. Unless we get these supply chain problems fixed, I don't see any issues being fixed with the higher prices of goods and services because we don't have enough trekkers in the road. We don't have enough employees in the road. We still have the backups at the ports where there's plenty of things on these ships and they're not being delivered. I ordered items just from regular stores. Like I ordered winter gloves actually on sale in August from Bloomingdale's. I haven't gotten them. I don't even know when I'm gonna get them. I don't even know if I'll get them before spring. I mean, at this point now, when you order something online, you have no idea when you're gonna get it. You gotta feel bad for the retailers. They don't even know what to tell customers. Yeah, so obviously some big concerns. Yesterday, the White House addressing the supply and chain breakdown. You mentioned the ports in California. They receive about 40% of all the goods that come here into the United States. They've talked to several different companies including major retailers like Walmart, but they've also talked to UPS and FedEx and asking for their help trying to work basically 24 seven to try to get these cargoes that we're seeing just littered in the sea staying out for weeks, if not months on ground in trucks going to your place, right? Melissa, but this is creating some issues for the Biden administration. This sounds like a huge problem. As I mentioned, Robert, I mean, do you see this ending anytime soon? I mean, Melissa says she didn't think that inflation was temporary. What do you think? Well, two things. One, I've never agreed with Melissa more on a subject matter than this one, but I do think people need to understand the different supply chain disruptions and inflation and it's a very different equation. Dealing with the velocity of money versus what we're looking at right now, which is the supply chain not being able to actually handle it. Now, on the consumer end, they will appear to be the same, but if we clear up the supply chain issues, then we will see these aggregate prices fall. And the point is that this is the reason we have to pass the infrastructure deal. This is why we have to pass the human infrastructure deal. That we were investing the money, the way that we need to into a green power grid. We wouldn't have to worry about those gas prices. That we were investing the money the way we should and expanding our ports and expanding operations so we can have a real 21st century transportation system. Then we wouldn't see these roadblocks taking place. Think about the national security issue that is created by the fact that we are not inspecting these shipping containers. We're just trying to get them off the ship as fast as possible onto the road. Think about what does for human trafficking, for terrorism and those sorts of things. So I think Congress needs to act on this, getting these bills passed so we can actually start ameliorating these things going forward. But in the short term, just as Melissa said, these prices will be with us into 2022. Melissa. Well, I think that the issue is though that even if Congress passes the 3.5 trillion stimulus plan, which I personally think is too expensive, that's my personal opinion. But even if they pass that, I think inflation is going to continue. Why? Because the Fed is tapering starting in November. They stated that, which means what? They bought securities in the market. They actually bought securities in the market. And so they're going to start to sell those. And so what's going to happen is consequently interest rates are going to continue to rise. So with interest rates rising, I don't think that that's going to mean that the cost of goods and services go down. Also, this is not an immediate solution. Once, even if they work 24 seven with UPS FedEx, getting everything off the boards, it's going to take months and months and months for things to get back to normal. Look at where we are. We're adding COVID. There was a backup and oversupply where people wanted so many things. And now we're seeing this into one year into it, two years into it. This could go into 2023, 2024. So we're going to continue to see inflation even if we get the supply chain back to normal for various different reasons, mainly because interest rates are going to go up. And also if we pass the stimulus plan, if Robert gets his wish, his dream wish, then I think that all Americans are going to see higher taxes. I don't see how they just put it on people that earn over $400,000 a year. It's just too costly, it's too expensive. They're talking now about turning it from a 10-year plan to a five-year plan to try to take it down in cost. I think the cost of it is enormous. And I think that's a problem for every American. Well, just to my list, I was going to say to Melissa's point, and there's a 10-year plan. So we're talking about 3.5 trillion dollars over the course of 10 years, which is about, the US GDP is 21 trillion dollars per year. So this plan, if you pay for it in one year, would be about 17% of GDP. Well, if you've stretched that out over 10 years as the plan is, that's 1.7% of GDP per year, which is for under 2%, I think the American people will take the expansion of electric charging stations, credit for green energy, the ability to not have to pay $5 for gas because we'll have actual charging stations, healthcare being covered, dental, visual, two years of public health. Those are things that are worth 1.7% of the GDP. And I think that's what the American people have to think about this. Go ahead, Melissa. I don't think it's going to be paid for in the way that you think, Robert, that's my personal opinion. They always say these things are going to be paid for. If that was true, we wouldn't have the enormous debt that we have. And so the problem is that while it sounds great to have all these subsidies, all these extra programs, what happens is that the population grows, more people get on these subsidy programs. They end up not being temporary. They end up lasting. And that's of course then why we continue being in debt. If we were bringing in as much money as we were putting out, we wouldn't be in the debt. All we're doing is paying the interest on the debt. And the problem is when interest rates rise, which I believe happens into 2022, that's where it comes to a problem. They have to increase the debt ceiling. They temporarily moved it to December just in order to pass that. But why don't we try to get out of debt? Why are we constantly, constantly, constantly taking on these programs like the childcare program, which a lot of people are benefiting from right now into the end of 2021. I'm sure that people are gonna think that that's gonna continue. I'm sure people want that to continue. Some people are getting as much as $1,000, $1,250 a month from that, who have several children. I think these programs become very, very, very expensive. And who ends up paying for it? We all end up paying for it. Even though wages of rise have risen, they have not risen as fast as the cost of inflation. And if our taxes go up and we have a period of inflation, despite rising wages, people are still gonna be feeling the pain in their wallets where they actually have less money in their bank account. And that's a problem. This is not just a problem for wealthy people. This is a problem across the board from America. All right, we're gonna have to leave it there, panel. As always, you can weigh in on viewers that are watching this right now, weigh in with your thoughts and opinions by finding me at RealMorandCon, hashtag share your voice. Our panel returns speaking of money, Republicans breaking a record when it comes to house campaigns, but could that spell trouble for Democrats? We'll discuss that next.