but there s also the strong data coming out of the labor market. neil: jerome powell said this even after he and his fellow fed members unanimously hiked the interest interest rates .5%. so does jerome powell know something we don t know? the official number that might prove we re in a recession doesn t come out till tomorrow morning. here s powell sounding like the president showing no such concern today. so what to make of it? we re all over it with connell mcshane on how americans don t care what they re calling it, this recession is real and they re having a devil of a time dealing with it. edward lawrence on how the fed plans to handle it. and michael moore on how if a hard landing can be avoided. welcome. i m neil cavuto. first to lawrence on the move that a lot of people expected but the reaction that many did not. edward? it s very interesting that the federal chairman saying that we re not in a recession and we can avoid a recession and taking the same talking po
first, the reason it s getting better, the demand destruction. so the fact that people are not taking their driving vacation or otherwise limiting their life, they re buying cheaper groceries, that s not a good thing. yeah, you know, fewer people getting sick because more people have already died. so i m not quite sure i m accepting the rosy scenario being tossed out by mr. powell or the administration. neil: senator what do you think of this notion now that we will have a soft landing, we can avoid and outright recession. you wonder what the federal reserve chairman knows when he said we re not in a recession. the gdp data doesn t come out till tomorrow. he might have a behind of it, whether there as plus or minus in front of it. if it s not a negative number, technically it wouldn t be a recession. it s very different. you talk about people in your
in these thin markets. so things may not pick up like they often do next week. i want to focus on the last item of that graphic, the plunging oil prices. oil prices are down. they are way down. they re down below $40 a barrel. you re looking at the prices at the pump. a year ago, you could get a gallon of gas for $3.44. today it s $2.63. i just got back from a driving vacation and i loved it. gas prices for great for consumers. but they re starting to get to a level where it s having repercussions on energy countries and energy producing states and maybe the market and the economy as a whole. you do need a balance there. gas prices are great for consumers. auto sales, it s great for auto sales, as well. but when you talk about texas, oklahoma, the dakotas, california, there are a lot of people working in the oil and gas business in those states. and you start to see people lose jobs, particularly in the exploration areas where people get hired on a sort of temporary
the fees to travelers. another thing you may want to consider this summer in you want to get around the airline fees is a driving vacation. gasoline prices are actually going down. the government now says that the average price for gas this summer are should be between $6.50 and $3.60 a 3.50 adds $3.60 a gallon. europe this year about be very expensive. their currencies remained resilient. still expensive for americans. one way to get around that, though, is to put all your charges overseas on the card like the chas sapphire preferred card that does not charge foreign transaction fees. you save 3% off the top there. another thing you may want to think about this summer is timing your trip. the most expensive time of year this year is going to be between june 20 and august 10. basically the whole month of july is going to be the most