00:00 Speaker A
On August 4th, during an interview on CNBC’s Squawkbox, you said the following quote, I got sick of hearing about this K-shaped economy.
00:07 Speaker A
I can say here definitively the K-shaped economy is over.
00:12 Speaker A
Then on August 6th, you wrote on X quote, earnings growth for mainstream workers at the 25th earnings percentile was 5.5% year over year in the latest data this quarter.
00:23 Speaker A
You site wage growth of 5.5%. Is that inflation adjusted?
00:28 Speaker B
That’s nominal.
00:29 Speaker A
It’s nominal. Okay. So the average CPI inflation rate in the second quarter of 2026 was 3.9%.
00:36 Speaker A
So when you once you adjust the 5.5% nominal wage growth for 3.9% inflation, you’re left with a real wage growth of only about 1.5%.
00:49 Speaker A
a fact that you neglected to mention in your post.
00:52 Speaker A
Also left unmentioned is the fact that lower-income households depend disproportionately on wages, while higher-income households own a disproportionate share of financial assets.
01:03 Speaker A
From mid-January 2025 to mid-September 2026, real wages rose cumulatively by 0.5%. Over the same period of time, the S&P 500 rose cumulatively by over 20% in real terms.
01:16 Speaker A
So, Mr. Secretary, how can you possibly declare that the K-shaped economy is over when during President Trump’s second term, the assets of Wall Street are booming while the real wages of Main Street have barely gone up?
01:29 Speaker B
Well, it’s the opposite of President Biden’s term because there was Look,
01:34 Speaker A
I there was a
01:36 Speaker B
No, no, let me finish.
01:37 Speaker A
When do when does when Can I ask, what’s the statute of limitations on the Joe Biden Blame Game?
01:41 Speaker B
The what’s what’s the statute?
01:43 Speaker A
because we’re approaching the two-year mark of the Trump administration.
01:45 Speaker B
I I was in a car accident as a teenager and my back still hurts.
01:47 Speaker A
Did Did did Joe Biden wage the war in Iran? Did he disrupt the straight of Hormuz? Did he shut down 1/5th of the world’s oil supply and LNG exports? Like when in doubt, blame Joe Biden, is that the modus operandi of this administration?