Clarity Act, LA Mayor Race, Mamdani the Commie, AI & Palantir - Michael Lee on Mornings with Maria

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]What is your reaction to this? I mean, you got you got Senator LMA saying it'll be 2030 if this doesn't get passed now, but Jamie Diamond saying they're going to fight it.

[00:00:09]>> You know, so so it's it's important to recognize how significant of a banking executive Jamie Diamond is. So the when he left city in 1998, the company has never recovered, right? The stock has never like you're the stock price is in a third now of what it was then. So, this is one of the best banking executives ever. Um, but he's not right 100% of the time. And I think this is one of these times, one of the rare occasions where he's wrong. All right.

[00:00:36]Uh, stable coins and the way that they could process payments instantaneously.

[00:00:40]Okay. Um, not being able to pay interest on them. They're not offering FDIC insurance. So, his push back is because it's a threat to his business and a threat to way things are done with him.

[00:00:50]uh because it's a lowcost source of funding for banks because your checking account, your savings account pays basically nothing at Chase and a lot of these money center banks where the smaller banks, yes, they have to play by the same rules. Um but they don't have the technology and they don't have the advantages of scale that the large banks do. So look, I I hope this passes.

[00:01:08]>> You want it to pass obviously, but you know, here's what what Jamie Diamond's push back is and he said this >> employment growth.

[00:01:15]>> Mike Lee, first to you on this one. What did you make of those comments? Yeah, look, I I think what we're um like it's unknown what's going to happen with AI and I think that the rate of change is going to cause some disruption, but you know, you look at job openings for programmers and software engineers and they've skyrocketed, which were supposed to be the the first jobs that are going to be taken out. So, look, I I I think the rate of change here makes this a huge unknown. I would be worried if you're in middle management in a white collar job that your job could become automated. Um but but I Kevin I want to ask you because it seems like software is having a revival at the moment.

[00:01:53]Service Now has exploded, Palunteer has bounced, Salesforce has bounced, and all the all the victims of the so-called SAS apocalypse seem like they're in a rip roaring rally right now. Are are you looking at any of those names? Do you own any of those names? Do you expect this to continue?

[00:02:09]>> Yeah, clearly Mike software was oversold, but I still contend that >> in Los Angeles is big. the quality of life. They want to be able to walk their dog and take their child out for a walk uh without worrying about needles and naked homeless people. And he says that and he makes such strong points about that.

[00:02:25]>> The how far how fast um Los Angeles has come over the last decade is mind-blowing. If it didn't actually happen and I told you about it, you wouldn't believe me, right? And so when he talks about like, "Hey, I just want to walk on the street without seeing a homeless person or they're not homeless people." as he points out, these are zombie methheads, okay, who uh aren't being forced to do anything. They don't enforce the basic laws, but you've got to watch these people either masturbating or defecating on the sidewalk in front of you with small children. Like enough is enough. And so for Cara Bass, like I don't even know how she became mayor. Um like you know, she's an awful campaigner. Um and then you've got this other communist Nthia.

[00:03:11]Uh she's out there too. So like like you got to ask yourself how stupid are the people in Los Angeles? Like you you know the results that you're living in are a direct result of the decisions you make at the ballot box. And so if these people aren't ready to get up and vote for a change, they're going to just going to get more of the same.

[00:03:26]>> Maybe as stupid as New York voters who voted in Mum Donnie.

[00:03:29]>> Yeah, we're going to talk about him in a few minutes.

[00:03:31]>> I mean, you know, that's a security issue.

[00:03:35]>> I agree that I my guess is he probably regrets that, but you got to ask him that.

[00:03:40]>> Mike Lee, your reaction. Yeah, look, um, he's a communist revolutionary, right?

[00:03:46]And so, like we were just talking about with Karen Bass in LA, like the destruction, like this is the feature, not the bug, right? They want to tear everything down in front of them. Uh, and they don't really care about the consequences. So, um, look, it, you know, the city hasn't gotten materially worse in the last 6 months or so. Um, but maybe I'm maybe I'm missing things.

[00:04:11]Um it is you know this guy is a disaster. We knew he was going to be but like you know after having eight years of Bill Delasio it's a low bar.

[00:04:20]>> So true. So and like you know I think that's what Jamie was intimating at is that like um if you're remotely competent it's still a step up from that idiot. So like it's how do we get stuck with these people here in what used to be the greatest city in the world. And so it it's, you know, you can get fired up at how bad this guy's politics are and how bad of a guy he is, but it's really just sad. Like for those of us that have spent the majority of their professional lives in and around the city, it's it's just a hard thing to watch.

[00:04:52]>> Yeah. Well, the New York Post is reporting that the mayor is, to your point, a sad state for the greatest city in the world.

[00:04:58]>> Yeah. Look, look, you know, um the issue is never the issue with these leftists, right? The issue is the revolution. And so he's he's, you know, he's fighting his communist revolution. And when you look through everything through that lens, it all makes sense.

[00:05:12]>> Doesn't matter if 18 people die, right?

[00:05:14]I have a narrative to maintain.

[00:05:15]>> Well, I'll tell you what the uh what the real estate community is saying uh here about his housing plans. Uh see you in court, mayor.

[00:05:22]>> And by the way, the this >> Yes. Um so the curve is in backwardation, which means the front month it's it's more expensive to buy it in the front month contracts than it is 6 months out. I think if the straits of hormous you see both of these drop as soon as that opens both of them drop substantially and that will take its way to work through the system. Um and I think the worst inflation prints are probably ahead of us even if the states open today. So just keep that in mind for investors but uh it doesn't seem to be affecting stocks in any way shape or form.

[00:05:54]>> Well Maria spoke with US Treasury Secretary Scott Pess central bank remaining independent. So he accepted the John F. Kennedy profile and courage award over the weekend. These were his first remarks since leaving the chairman role. Pal saying the bank cannot survive if a presidential administration finds a way to remove officials over policy disagreements, but did not mention anyone by name. He also said that President Trump is attempting a political stress test, which he says will ruin the public's confidence in the Fed's independence. Mike, what did you make of these reactions? he is to these comments, excuse me, in your reaction because, you know, he's staying on the federal board.

[00:06:31]>> Yeah, I'm trying not to laugh because, you know, guy cut rates three times so Camala Harris could get elected president. Um, he has uber politicized the office as if it wasn't politicized before. Most notably, when Janet Yellen said a week before the 2016 election, you know, we're going to keep expanding the balance sheet. I don't know if we'll ever raise rates again to when Trump gets elected and then three weeks later raising interest rates 25 basis points and start reducing the size of the balance sheet. Like this is an uber political office and to somehow argue that the Federal Reserve exists in its own branch of government. It's neither legislative, judicial, or executive. And so for it to have its own branch and to not be accountable even though there are political appointees is ludicrous. Okay, that's nowhere in the constitution. But, you know, it's not in the political interest of the president or the United States to fire officials over policy differences. But when you say have a $2 billion construction project that's $700 million over and you refuse to provide documentation, you know, that might be a reason for cause. Or if you commit mortgage fraud several times, you know, that might be another reason potentially uh to fire someone. So, um, Jerome Powell, like the the links that people in Washington will go to settle petty differences again never ceases to surprise me, yet here we are.

[00:07:46]>> Yeah. And to your point about mortgage fraud, President Trump's efforts to uh to to pursue uh allegations and charges against Lisa Cook. That's actually heading to the Supreme Court. So, we might get a resolution on that story soon as well. I want to take a look at yields this. You are a Florida resident, Mike Lee. Talk about what Florida is doing right right now.

[00:08:03]>> Yeah. So right now, if you homestead your home, meaning it's your primary residence, you get $50,000 off the appraised value. So in a $500,000 home, you're only going to be property taxed on $450,000. Okay? Governor DeSantis just called a special session to take that 50 to 250 and try to enact legisl like a ballot measure. So that will work its way up to uh 500,000, which would mean the majority of primary residents in the state of Florida have no property tax because a property tax in effect is a wealth tax, right? It's something you own. And given the growth in property tax value or property values over since 2019, uh the amount of tax ever collected is a little over 30 billion to close to 60 billion, right? And so for a lot of people that owned a $200 or $300,000 home, you know, eight or nine years ago, now that home price has doubled, their property taxes have doubled or more, right? And this this becomes a huge financial burden for a lot of full-time residents in Florida. I think this is something that's easy to make up in Florida because a lot of the um secondary residences for people, the vacation homes, the snowbirds, okay, they will be exempted. You know, the Blackstones of the world that own thousands of homes through their portfolio companies uh that are renting, you know, they will still pay property taxes. So, you can kind of increase the rate on the non-permanent residents while the people that actually live there and need the community uh will greatly benefit from this. But it's the opposite of what we're doing here in New York.

[00:09:26]>> Yeah.

[00:09:26]>> Right. less right. Well, I I think Dantis is exactly right. New York is in a doom loop. When you start uh spending too much, we don't have a revenue problem in New York. We have a spending problem in his you >> you know, the regulatory burden for the money center banks like JP Morgan is much greater than it is for a community or a regional bank. Um but look, with a stable coin, you have so much more optionality, right? The only drawback is it doesn't pay interest. So if it pays interest, you're now a real threat to hold stable coins because and like right now you're backed by the FDIC, right? So it's it's large depositors. So if you have five or 10 or $20 million in cash like we saw at uh Silicon Valley Bank, if those depositors were holding stable coins that would that would have been a non-issue, right? The problem is it doesn't pay interest. So as soon as it pays interest, why am I going to sit my large deposits and be the cheap funding for JP Morgan or Wells or Bank of America? So, of course, they're against this, but like, you know, they're talking about it's not the same regulatory framework. However, um there's no FDIC insurance. It's your you you own the risk of the stable coin, but those stable coins are 99% or 98% invested in US treasuries. So, yeah, you know, it's it's kind of an argument falling on deaf ears. I I you know, I said it, we talked about this previously that JB Jamie Diamond is one of the smartest bankers that's ever existed in this country. It is it is a national asset. Uh he's right almost every single time. I think this may be the one case out of a thousand where he might not be correct.

[00:10:53]>> Well, you know, and two, I was looking at these comments from Senator Lamas and basically she says, >> look, the content that he's put out to support his campaign have been unbelievable. So, if you go online and look at his campaign videos, just absolutely phenomenal breaking it down to the issues that I think ma matter to the average um average Los Angeles, I believe, is the term. U but but then I would also say and just kind of end on this is this AI trade is alive and well.

[00:11:18]We're going to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure next year. That's that number is going to grow to three trillion a year by 2030. There's nowhere near enough buildout. There's a log jam at every single corner you look, which means the pricing power of all these stocks is going to explode. And what we're seeing right now is the software names come back and vote, you know, in October when uh apparently Claude Cove was going to destroy all of them. Uh but rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated. Service Now is up huge this morning. Uh Palunteer is making a comeback. That's my number one stock is Palanteer. Uh I think they are the key to the future as it pertains to AI.

[00:11:52]>> Can I add to one thing? I I heard a presentation by a company in the AI business in in California and he talked about looking at thousands of companies which AI can help you do. and the the uh the faster uh enablers, the people who are adopting AI the most aggressively, the top 10%, their revenues are up 300% compared to 3% for the people that weren't doing it. So that's right or not. Um but I think this AI thing is everywhere and it's everything uh right now and it cannot be overestated.

[00:12:23]>> You could only get largecale enterprisewide adoption with a solution like Palanteer at the moment. It's why they're my number one stock.

[00:12:30]>> You also had big news on Nvidia this morning. Yes, >> we talked about earlier and that they're coming up with these new there's these