Oil is suffering a ‘disruption problem,’ economist explains

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:04]As conflict in the Middle East royals energy markets, America's emergency oil stockpile is shrinking and fast.

[00:00:12]>> Our strategic petroleum reserve is now nearing a four decade low, approaching levels not seen since the early 1980s.

[00:00:20]This is the US has become the world's emergency energy supplier. But are these concerns overblown? Joining us now, Fox News contributor Liz Peak and Unleash Prosperity co-founder and America First Policy Institute senior fellow Steve Moore. Steve, I'm going to rephrase that. We're just getting back with the SPR to where Joe Biden took it for political reasons, trying to lower gasoline prices when there wasn't an actual global supply disruption. Go.

[00:00:51]Yeah, look the the the reduction in the reserves of oil uh in the US and around the world is a concern. It's one of the reasons once we get the straight of Hormuz open and we get those oil flowing again, it is going to take maybe a a couple months to get the supplies uh and those and those um reserves replenished.

[00:01:10]So that means it'll take a little while to get that gas price back down to, you know, the $3 a gallon that we want. But it is going to come down like the oil, the world is a wash in oil. It's just been a disruption problem and that's going to end soon and we're going to see. Don't forget before this all happened, we were paying two bucks a gallon for gas.

[00:01:29]>> Liz, are you concerned about the SPR getting low? Are you okay with that?

[00:01:33]>> Well, again, we're not down to the level uh that Joe Biden took it down to.

[00:01:38]Obviously, this kind of makes everybody aware of why there is such urgency to end this war. I mean, if indeed we get down to 50 million barrels, 100 million barrels in the SPR, that would be a serious issue. I don't think it's a serious issue now. And to Steve's point, it will ramp back up again as soon as the straight is open. And I think the administration is laser focused on making that happen. But this is a pretty good signal about why there is such urgency.

[00:02:09]>> Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon spilling the tea on his meeting with Kami Mandani. Listen to this.

[00:02:16]>> One of the things I'm disappointed about, you know, Goldman Sachs has been in New York for 157 years. We employ almost 10,000 people here in New York.

[00:02:24]Finance and Securities businesses are growing more around the country than they are in New York at this point in time. And I've got to tell you, as I travel around to these cities, these cities would do do anything to get what we have and get it to their cities. And I'm hopeful as the mayor, you know, goes from campaigning to governing that he'll talk about and communicate around and support, you know, the business community broadly. It's great to talk about lofty ideas, but at the end of the day, you've got to be an executive.

[00:02:54]Liz, I'm not sure, but I think that might be CEO speak for you better fix your dumb policies or we're getting out of town. What do you think?

[00:03:02]>> And by the way, they already have one foot out the door. They've often opened offices in Florida. They have definitely shipping jobs outside the state.

[00:03:10]Everybody is doing this, Brian, and for good reason uh quality of life reasons, but also everybody sees a tax tsunami coming. There is no indication. Let me just say this again. There is no indication that Manny is governing any different than he campaigned. In fact, it conceivably is worse. He still doesn't have a head of the economic development committee or council, which is the job in this ad in every mayor's administration that is supposed to coordinate with the business community, oversee real estate development and other kinds of development. There they don't even have one. What they have is a new position, a deputy mayor for economic justice. And I think that kind of tells you everything you need to know.

[00:03:55]>> Yeah. Um, well, Bernie Sanders is trying to do Comey Mandani one better. Bernie Sanders is saying AI is a public resource. You, meaning the American people, should own half of it. But he's not saying that. He's saying that the government should confiscate half of the ownership of every major AI company. Do we have sound, Steve?

[00:04:22]Well, first of all, who would want to invest in an AI company if the government was going to own half of it?

[00:04:26]I mean, that's the dumbest idea that I've ever heard. I mean, can you imagine if uh Bernie Sanders was effectively the the CEO of Anthropic or or any of these other firms like Open AI? I mean, it's a laughable proposition, but I want to make another important point that, you know, the government already does own 30 to 40% of America's corporations.

[00:04:47]Remember, we have a 21% corporate tax rate. States add 5% on that. That makes them basically 36% share of the profits.

[00:04:56]Then you add to that the co capital gains tax that people have to pay, the dividend tax, the payroll tax, all these. So guess what? The government practically already does own half of our companies.

[00:05:06]>> Well, I just before Brian gets in, I just want Bernie to take his hammer and pound his sickle with it.

[00:05:15]How am I supposed to follow that with a question, Liz? I I mean, I think the thing is >> Bernie doesn't really want the money ultimately. Maybe he does. He wants the power. He wants to He wants his hand on the lever of AI in America. That's the thing that's so dangerous to me, Liz, because if you got the power, eventually you'll get the money and everything else.

[00:05:34]>> What do you say?

[00:05:35]>> Well, look, this is just another wealth grab uh by Bernie Sanders. He is really appalled that AI is making money for so many people. He hates the billionaires that run these companies and he just basically wants to take half of their companies. I think there's a big constitutional issue here no matter what kind of legislations he he's drafting.

[00:05:56]Uh but this isn't going to happen. It is just another way for Bernie to go after AI. And I got to tell you, Brian, having heard in the last several weeks presentations by a lot of companies in this field, we are inches ahead of China. We have got to keep going. This is the biggest thing possibly that has happened in half a dec half a century in terms of powering industry forward. Some numbers on this are incredible. Uh and if Bernie Sanders wants to stand in the way of it, shame on him. He needs to know more about how this is working. By the way, the White House has already taken initial steps on regulating the business, which I think is actually a good thing. Uh because, you know, there's some issues here, right, with safety, >> but it's a big deal.

[00:06:41]>> But I think what Bernie Sanders is doing is intentionally handing the torch to China and crushing our industry.

[00:06:48]>> Could well be.

[00:06:48]>> Thanks, guys. Sim.