war ticked up and the stock market went down. households lost a net collective $3.7 trillion. that s the biggest drop in household wealth since the recession really. what do you make of these things? the market has come back since then. yes, but i do think it underscores the importance of calming trade fears right now for the administration. that was a very turbulent fourth quarter in the stock market. and if you look at things ways in which policy might misfire in ways that could cause this ten year expansion to come to an end and slip into recession, economists that i talk to say that a extended trade conflict could be that mistake. so you see the administration trying to head toward a soft landing of these talks with china, to agree to keep talking, get some soybean purchases, get tariffs off, but the fact that the ambassador to china, terry
full employment but the wage growth is ticking up by 3.4% over the last year. i m going to take that as a big win. meanwhile, u.s. households are now seeing the biggest decline in their net worth since the financial crisis. in the fourth quarter of 2018, net worth fell by $3.7 trillion. that is huge. that is the money we have to run our lives. it is the biggest net worth drop since the crisis. i want you to think about that and what that means for the average american. joining me now financial times managing editor julian jet and contributor maria teresa kumar and my dear friend peggy noonan and former senator claire mccaskill is still with me. gillian, we ve seen steady jobs growth. the jobs number came in low. but that is okay.
if you go to an economics class in college you will learn that there s no such thing as a free lunch. you know that with your economic background. and the fact is even if we pass a medicare for all plan it would cost $3.2 trillion per year if everything went running smoothly and the federal government right now takes in about 3.4 or $3.7 trillion per year and it would completely eat up every single taxpayer dollar we have in this country, including if you are going to confiscate even more of the wealth that is earned through success in this country. sandra: which is why i was so interested to hear how ocasio-cortez would answer the question how do you pay for free health care for all to make here is how she responded. if people pay their fair share. for example, as warren buffett likes to say, if he paid as much as his secretary paid, 15%. if you paid a 15% tax rate, if corporations paid if we reverse the tax bill, but raised
meanwhile, on day 500, the trump presidency, let s see, we ve seen so many great developments at home, we don t even have the time to list them. look at the side of your screen. 3 million plus jobs have been created, 300,000 in manufacturing along. the unemployment rate, almost unprecedented 3.8%. the lowest in 50 years. american african-americans, all time low unemployment rate, same with hispanic americans, same for women in the workplace, 14 state record lows, as it relates to unemployment. consumer confidence, 17 year high. this, after passing a historic $3.7 trillion tax cut, and cutting 22 regulations for every new one enacted. even the new york times, of all places, writing, we ran out of words to describe how good these job numbers are. fake news cnn even had to report that the unemployment rate matches its lowest point in half aa century. other accomplishments include i the president keeping his promise, the u.s. embassy has
a sign of his commitment to serious reform. we have seen so many great developments. we don t have time to list. look at the side of your screen. the unemployment rate and unprecedented 3.8%. the lowest in 50 years. america, we have african-americans all time low unemployment rate. the same with hispanic americans and women in the workplace. 14 state record lows in unemployment. consumer confidence. 17 year high. after passing a historic 3.7-trillion dollars tax cuts and cutting 22 regulations for every new one enacted. even the new york times writing we ran out of words to describe how good these job members are. fake news cnn had to report that the unemployment rate matched its lowest point in half a century. the president kept his programs.