let s talk to steve more about this. steve, the problem is inflation is at decades high. recession around the corner. it s a heck of a one-two punch. you better believe it. the good news is that the inflation rate has come down a little bit the last two or three months, charles. that s good news. we went from almost 9% inflation this past summer to now we re down to about 7.1%. as you just said, that is still the highest inflation rate we ve had in 35, 40 years. so americans are feeling the punch. their wages and salaries have only gone up by 5 or 6%. that s one of the reasons that you reported that credit card debt is going up. people are trying to maintain their standard of living but paychecks are not keeping pace. i m nervous. i think inflation will come down in 2023 from the high rates of 2022. but i also think that the economy shows real signs of slowing down. i pray we don t crash into a recession. but we sure could. charles: steve, that s what i m concerned about.
housing. i m worried i don t know about you about a potential recession in the housing market, which some people say we re already in. because people can t afford to buy the houses on the market. you asked me what could be done about this. what could be done to save the money. two things right off of the bat. number 1, let s get producing american energy. we have a cold winter ahead. let s produce our and gas and nuclear power, everything we have here at home instead of importing it. the second thing we need to do, which to the republicans are off to a terrible start, charles, is controlling government spending. i mean, i believe we need to cut a trillion dollars out of all of this flab in the budget. but as you know based on this debate on this massive $2 trillion omnibus bill, they re not off to a good start at all. 4,155 pages. nobody knows what is in that except a loss of spending. the federal reserve will fight