DC's Homeless Chaos: Trump's Federal Takeover and the Fed's Untouchable Grip
In this current events kickoff, Jerremy Newsome and Dave Conley dissect Trump's push to federalize DC police, deploy the National Guard, and relocate homeless encampments far from the Capitol—linking to broader homelessness fixes like workforce integration in depopulated cities. They expose the Federal Reserve's shadowy independence fueling unchecked money printing and national debt, urging reforms like public audits for voter power, while noting tariff truces as hidden consumer pressures.
Timestamps:
- (00:00) Introduction and Current Events Overview
- (00:01:23) Homelessness and DC Cleanup
- (00:02:08) Trump's Federal Control and Homeless Relocation
- (00:03:14) Small Cities as Solutions for Homeless Integration
- (00:14:08) U.S.–China Tariff Truce: Impact on Consumer Prices
- (00:15:55) Federal Reserve's Private Power and Debt Crisis
- (00:17:43) Reforming the Fed: Voter Accountability and Audits
- (00:18:23) Deep Dive Proposal on Fed Evolution
📢 Solving America’s Problems Podcast – Real Solutions For Real Issues
Transcript
Welcome to another great episode of Solving America's Problems.
2
:I am your co-host, Dave Conley, and I'm
here with the esteemed, the brilliant.
3
:The amazing Jerremy Alexander
Newsom, and we are taking a little
4
:bit of a break from our series on
immigration, which we are loving.
5
:We still have a couple of
episodes coming up on that.
6
:And we decided to take a
look at current events.
7
:We've done this a couple of
times and we've liked it and
8
:we've gotten good feedback on it.
9
:And the idea behind this really isn't
to be a we're, we're not in information.
10
:We're not a news podcast.
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:There's plenty of those and
people are hearing plenty of that.
12
:This is about us learning and looking at
our biases and where we are today, because
13
:someday we are going to be, Jeremy's going
to be in a position where, he's making
14
:big decisions and this is about okay,
at did we think about this in:
15
:How did our.
16
:Ideas around this evolve.
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:Now that he's in a position
where he's making big decisions,
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:it's what did he get right?
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:What did he get wrong?
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:And what do we need to know more about?
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:So that's why we are doing this.
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:It's a little bit selfish, and it's
really for our, also our listeners
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:to generate some more ideas because
this is about solving America's
24
:problems and that is about you.
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:And that's why we talk to all
sorts of different people, and
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:that's why we're doing this.
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:Mr.
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:Newsom welcome.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
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:you.
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:Thank you.
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:In fact, one of the recent
topics is pretty closely to one
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:of the discussions that we had.
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:We were discussing at
length about homelessness,
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:Dave Conley: Right.
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:Jerremy Newsome: and there
was a headline, DC cleanup,
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:control and homeless relocation.
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:It's almost like they were
listening, they took notes, but
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:Dave Conley: Let's see what.
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:Which one is this?
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:What is he saying?
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:I, like I've been, for our listeners out
there, I've been dealing with some, to go
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:back to our whole series on healthcare.
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:I've been dealing with some wild
stuff and fortunately I've been,
45
:on top of it, but I've also been
a little bit out of the loop.
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:So what's, what is this?
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:What's going on?
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:What did Trump say?
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:What's going on?
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:Is this DC
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, exactly.
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:DC to summarize, Trump said he's placing
DC police under federal control, deploying
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:the guard and relocating encampments of
homeless individuals far from the capitol.
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:Dave Conley: Oh, wow.
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:Jerremy Newsome: I don't
know what that means.
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:He didn't give any, in true Trump
fashion, he just said giant statements
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:without any actual information and just
used the word billions a couple times.
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:then you have a Trump speech.
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:That's what he is working on right now.
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:Apparently he is moving some things and
some people out, getting 'em somewhere
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:different, which, not entirely sure
what that means exactly right now.
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:But that is again, just to tie
it back to what we are chatting
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:about about homelessness.
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:We do understand that there is a capacity
for something to that point and the fact
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:that the relocation, the placing potential
individuals, maybe not the ones like
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:everyone, but those who want or need or
would love a really beautiful, exciting
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:second chance, place them in, a spot
in the US that needs more workers, more
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:labor, more population, more people.
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: And there's tons and
tons of small cities where that is a need.
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:Dave Conley: On the other side of this,
is this just outta sight, outta mind, like
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:when we were doing this, I think we came
around to her, like I heard pretty loudly
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:from some of our guests, which is we
allow people to like, sleep on the street.
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:And that's just like the most inhumane
thing that we could possibly do.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
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:Dave Conley: And is this
just like scooping people up
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:and sending them someplace?
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:Or is this like scooping people
up and being like, okay, let's
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:get their mental health evaluated.
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:Let's get their regular held evaluated.
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:Let's get them, like in a process?
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:Or is it just oh let's ship
'em to the eastern shore,
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:Jerremy Newsome: don't think
he's doing the first part.
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:Dave Conley: Oh.
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:Jerremy Newsome: I don't wanna see
homeless people when I walk into my big
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:white house, get 'em off my golf course.
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:I think that's what
Trump's doing right now.
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:Dave Conley: The, what's
the upside to this?
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:I don't like, I, okay, so I
get it on one sense of okay.
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:Yeah, you're right.
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:You don't wanna just have a bunch of
homeless people hanging out and we don't
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:want people hanging out on the streets.
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:But on the other hand, you just didn't
wanna make it somebody else's problem.
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:Or you just want to, oh,
let's send them to the woods.
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:That's even more inhumane,
let's send them to the camps.
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:I'm like, oh.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
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:There's that again, I don't think he
is, obviously you have the left and
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:right bias of what's going on there.
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:Obviously some of the federal
muscle versus local sovereignty
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:with a different police, a little
bit of an authoritarian overreach,
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:potentially criminalizing poverty.
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:And then you have, the far right's
probably gonna be like, Hey, get him out.
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:He's taking decisive action.
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:After some type of local failure, local
not doing what he wanted them to do.
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:I don't know, ma'am, that
one's an interesting one.
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:Obviously you have the really
unique one from a stock market
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:perspective potentially is the US
China tariff truce runs out tomorrow.
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:90 day pause expires August 12th.
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:So today, as of this
recording is August 11th.
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:are racing around the clock as
broader tariff regimes already
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:strained prices and supply chains.
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:Markets will read the call as leverage
or consumers tax, which is probably
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:what a lot of us are feeling right now.
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:So we're looking around and we're just
seeing that pretty much everything
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:is becoming more expensive and it
definitely feels more expensive.
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:So that's happening at
this exact moment in time.
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:Dave Conley: So here's the,
there's a little bit of a
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:deep dive in this briefing.
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:It's okay, Trump's historic tariff bomb,
10% to 41% on 70 different countries.
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:I love this headline, this
is like total bias and crash.
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:The market 542 points.
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:You live this, 542 points
is like a rounding error.
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:If you just zoom back like, I don't
know, six months a year, 542 points is
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:like a necessary slight correction that
probably bounced back the next day.
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:I can't stand those kind of headlines.
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:China 90 Day Pause expires
this Tuesday, so it's tomorrow.
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:So this is gonna be actually launching on
Tuesday with the China Tariffs ex, going,
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:and then India's getting hammered too.
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:So everybody who was Hey.
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:Get outta China.
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:A lot of 'em went to India.
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:And so then they get this.
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:So like these companies are like
racing around the world, being
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:like, okay, where do we go next?
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
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:Dave Conley: I don't know.
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:We had an entire thing the last
time we did this was on tariffs.
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:I'm still scratching my head.
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:This seems like total chaos and we're
trying to drive international relations
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:through this one lens of tariffs.
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:And you're like, Hey, actually there's
some good thing I like, there's some
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:good stuff that's coming outta this.
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:And like the other half
of this is I don't get it.
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:So I don't know.
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:What's your you are more of an
expert on this than I've heard.
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:Like 99%.
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:What is this?
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:Jerremy Newsome: really,
again, it's gonna be a, it is a
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:posturing play presently as well.
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:Gotta think about it this way.
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:If Trump says, Hey, we're gonna tariff you
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:Now, it's a negotiation.
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:Dave Conley: yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: It's a chip, right?
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:It's a bargaining chip, and it
doesn't mean that he ever has to.
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: just having the ability
to do so opens up that negotiation,
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:because then if he removes said tariff,
which he never actually put into place
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:in the first place, then he's nicer.
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:And it's really probably like this
leverage that he doesn't actually have
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:to implement unless he really wants to.
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:And he did with Switzerland.
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:He called him and was like, Hey, we're
putting a, I'm putting a 30% terra all
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:goods, all Switzerland effective now.
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:And they're like, no.
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:And they didn't have to, they
didn't have any time to negotiate.
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:And so it, it did bring that
conversation to a forefront.
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:And I think ultimately that's really what
Trump's doing right now is just picking
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:and choosing who he wants to come to the
negotiation table so that he can attempt
171
:to get his way with whatever he wants his
way with this ultimate negotiation of.
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:If you want to work with me and you
wanna do something with me, you have
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:to bring something to the table.
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:And that's kinda what happened with
the China Nvidia Apple chips play
175
:with, Tim Cook and Trump is, Tim Cook
said, Hey, we're gonna, I'm gonna
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:put in almost a trillion dollars into
this American infrastructure play.
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:And I'm quite confident that the way he
got that, this being Trump, the way he got
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:that conversation to happen was because.
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:was going to tariff the absolute crap
out of Apple and everything that was
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:getting produced and manufactured
in China, all the chips, all the
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:companies that were gonna be using
China for the manufacturing, it
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:was gonna cost so much more money.
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:He said, Hey, bring some
of that infrastructure.
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:Bring some of that dollars that you're
gonna spend, of spending it now on
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:increased prices, bring some of your
profits here to the US and start
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:building out more US infrastructure
for this particular sector or industry.
187
:Which, did pull that off correctly.
188
:That did actually happen.
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:And then Apple had a really beautiful
runup two or three days after they
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:earnings, which they came in $5 billion
over what they were estimating, which is
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:Dave Conley: Wow.
192
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, after that,
they increased 13% in the next week,
193
:which was also on the tail of the
news of them, spending more money to.
194
:Build out the systematic infrastructure
of the us So that's what's happening, man.
195
:It's posturing, right?
196
:He's throwing around this word.
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:He's throwing around a defensive mechanism
where if I say the word tariff to a
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:country, they're now on the defensive.
199
:I'm in the offensive and they have
to come and play in my golf course.
200
:They gotta come to me and have a
conversation being on the defensive,
201
:and I really think that's just
what he's gonna continue doing.
202
:Dave Conley: And this was also India this
week, like he slapped these giant tariffs
203
:Jerremy Newsome: Giant.
204
:Dave Conley: to drive Russian oil.
205
:Right.
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:You know, because, I mean, I went
to grad school with a lot of Indian
207
:nationals, so like a couple of things
that I, I know from these awesome
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:people that I went to school with.
209
:One they're very proud of India.
210
:So like, I can imagine, and
they're also quite conservative,
211
:meaning, you know, just socially.
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:Um, and so like you're gonna find some
Trump supporters in there, or you're
213
:gonna find some libertarians in there.
214
:Like they're quite conservative
and extremely smart, right?
215
:This kind of posturing of we're just
gonna slap these giant tariffs on India.
216
:I gotta light some of 'em up and ask them,
I know they're not gonna take this well,
217
:and these are, they're living in America,
but they're quite tied to the old country.
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:I don't know.
219
:That's gonna drive like a lot of
and certainly the brilliance around
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:this is, the Indians were basically
taking, what do they call it?
221
:Sort of the difference between the
discount price and being able to
222
:repackage it and sell it to the
people who need oil in the area, so
223
:they were able to work that margin.
224
:Ah, I would do that too.
225
:That's some brilliant
business right there.
226
:Jerremy Newsome: yeah.
227
:Dave Conley: I,
228
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
229
:Dave Conley: so in a sense, like he's
driving foreign policy through tariffs.
230
:Is the consumer actually feeling this?
231
:Part of this is also tied up with
the Fed and Chairman Powell, right?
232
:Who's holding steady and being
called like a big moron by Trump.
233
:And he's saying look, the tariffs
are gonna cause some inflation.
234
:So we're keeping like this rate,
this big dial, where it is.
235
:And then, like our consumers actually
seeing this, anecdotally, like I was
236
:actually looking at some electronics
for my boo and it turned out that it
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:was, the price had gone like really
high for this piece of electronics that
238
:she was interested in because she often
comes to the United States and she'll
239
:buy something here and then take it
back home because it's a lot cheaper.
240
:But it turned out to be the exact
same price as what she was paying,
241
:Jerremy Newsome: yep.
242
:Dave Conley: I don't know if
people are actually feeling
243
:this isn't the CPI tomorrow?
244
:I dunno, I'm rambling, but part of this
is I'm also listening to Peter Zion,
245
:like we've read his books and he's
saying, look, they're doing all these
246
:tariffs, but there's nobody on the other
end actually negotiating these things.
247
:There's nobody in the commerce department
that's like picking up the phone and all
248
:these countries are like, yeah, we're
here to do it, but who do we talk to?
249
:Do we just ring the president?
250
:Like, how does this work?
251
:So I'm seeing it as chaos and is
it actually affecting anything?
252
:Is it affecting the economy?
253
:I don't know.
254
:Jerremy Newsome: I think it is, yes.
255
:Affecting the economy.
256
:I mean it is being felt, I think
prices across the country on
257
:almost everything have increased
258
:Dave Conley: Okay.
259
:Jerremy Newsome: insurance, eggs, gas.
260
:Car payments.
261
:Other than probably variable
interest rate loans, which haven't
262
:increased recently, everything else
is probably going up or has gone up.
263
:At least I'm noticing that.
264
:Firsthand and I've gone
across the entire country,
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:Dave Conley: Right
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:Jerremy Newsome: over the
last three or four weeks.
267
:I've gone everywhere from Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, North Carolina, California,
268
:Dave Conley: Alaska
269
:Jerremy Newsome: Alaska, Cal.
270
:Yeah.
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:Nevada.
272
:But everywhere are going up, man on
273
:Yep.
274
:Every single thing all over.
275
:So it is very noticeable.
276
:And again, it could be an interesting
trickle down effect, but that's
277
:also why Jerome hasn't lowered the
interest rates, which is the number
278
:one thing I mentioned that Trump wants.
279
:'cause that's gonna increase the price of
real estate dramatically immediately, but.
280
:Inflation is going up, right?
281
:Inflation is the cost of
goods and services higher?
282
:And the answer is yes.
283
:So not gonna lower interest
rates right now because
284
:everything is so expensive still.
285
:Dave Conley: All right.
286
:Do you, I want to do a deep dive on
the whole and the Fed folks, like
287
:the libertarians and like the history
and as soon as, and then I'll, I'm
288
:sure I'll hear like Rothchild and
I'll just like completely tune out
289
:because I'm like, ah, soon as I hear
those names I'm like, ah, forget it.
290
:You guys are, you're
just not, I can't do it.
291
:Now I did hear, like somebody interviewed
recently, I think it was on Tucker
292
:Carlson, which I've been, surprisingly
listening to a lot more who was
293
:actually an economist who actually,
gave a lot more information on the
294
:Fed, but I didn't quite understand it.
295
:So this has been, your world is money
and finance and stocks in the world.
296
:What do you know about can you
give me like a little bit of like a
297
:thumbnail sketch of and the fed and
the, like this fight that Trump's
298
:having and lowering the interest rate.
299
:Raising the interest rate, like it's
just a big dial that they have in order
300
:to try and keep inflation under check.
301
:But if we lower that and
inflation is going up, aren't we
302
:just gonna see more inflation?
303
:Like why is, what is this what is this
weirdness te teach me something on this.
304
:Jerremy Newsome: I'll try.
305
:'Cause ultimately the Federal Reserve.
306
:The Fed, right?
307
:That's the long name for it isn't federal,
308
:Dave Conley: Cool.
309
:Jerremy Newsome: nor is it a reserve.
310
:So it's really fascinating as you dive
more and more into it because it really
311
:was created by JD Rockefeller, right?
312
:Dave Conley: Oh, great.
313
:Rothchild and Rockefellers and who else?
314
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
315
:That's the problem is though,
that's the historical fact.
316
:Like it's all their money.
317
:Dave Conley: Yeah.
318
:Jerremy Newsome: And so there is
some very uniqueness to that because
319
:the reason, and this is the evidence
though, Dave is like the reason that the
320
:president can't just go, yo, do this.
321
:Dave Conley: Yeah.
322
:Jerremy Newsome: 'cause he
doesn't have control over it,
323
:Dave Conley: Okay.
324
:Jerremy Newsome: right?
325
:He has none.
326
:He has no control.
327
:It's a private organization.
328
:It's
329
:Dave Conley: Huh?
330
:Huh.
331
:Jerremy Newsome: So no one, we can't
vote it like he can choose a fed chair.
332
:Like he can he, he actually was upset.
333
:This is a fun, I haven't fact checked
this, but he was upset that Jerome
334
:Powell was doing such a terrible job.
335
:He is whoever appointed you is
awful, he appointed him in 20.
336
:Dave Conley: He's a Trump appointee.
337
:That's hilarious.
338
:Whoever, what's, who's the moron?
339
:Who appointed?
340
:Oops.
341
:Jerremy Newsome: yeah.
342
:Oh boy.
343
:So I didn't, I haven't fact checked
that if that's entirely true.
344
:I just thought on Twitter, but it sounds
345
:Dave Conley: Sounds right.
346
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, but I mean that,
the interesting thing is about the Federal
347
:Reserve, like it's really the central
banking system that's not under government
348
:control and it's not under people control.
349
:And so it is I would say
98% a private institution.
350
:Very interesting.
351
:There's a fascinating book
the Creature of Jeal Island.
352
:Is goes a lot more into that.
353
:Like when Rockefeller set it up in
the twenties and like how he donated
354
:to it and the reason he was doing
that and the point and the purpose
355
:of all of it, and how he was getting
paid and how he was structuring the
356
:debt and the loans and the notes.
357
:It really was interesting.
358
:Now the downside to that, or the
interesting thought that I have is
359
:right now if the Federal Reserve,
let's actually pretend, became federal
360
:and then became an actual reserve if
that happened under whatever regime
361
:made it occur, it would probably
impact the US dollar pretty greatly.
362
:Negatively because I think in a
very unique way, that's probably a
363
:large reason for our debt, a large
reason for our debt is borrowing
364
:from the Federal Reserve to then.
365
:stimulus.
366
:That's one of our, that's our
check writing process, right?
367
:Is the fed prints all the cash.
368
:So if we start fighting the Fed
too aggressively, we're gonna
369
:need to pay them back somehow.
370
:Somewhere.
371
:Dave Conley: Geez.
372
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
373
:And I don't know if we even have
the capacity or the capability
374
:of doing that in the short term.
375
:Yeah, man, when it's fight the fed that,
that's the thing is like people are
376
:just starting to wake up to just their
overall importance and also incompetence.
377
:And at the same time non-government
appointed individuals
378
:like you and I can't vote
379
:Dave Conley: Yeah.
380
:Jerremy Newsome: anything
that the Fed does
381
:Anywhere.
382
:It's quite fascinating.
383
:So
384
:That's why people are trying to take it.
385
:Like the libertarians are
like, take it down and
386
:Dave Conley: right,
387
:Jerremy Newsome: right?
388
:Make it something we can vote on.
389
:Make it people that we can appoint
390
:Dave Conley: Oh, I see.
391
:Jerremy Newsome: we can go, Hey,
lower interest rate or raise it.
392
:Let's all vote.
393
:Dave Conley: Yeah.
394
:Jerremy Newsome: figure it out.
395
:Dave Conley: I feel, yeah, I wanna do
a deep dive in, we need to do like a
396
:mini series on the Fed and all that.
397
:We did, I think we did a test broadcast
actually on the debt, didn't we?
398
:Yeah.
399
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah,
we did test podcast.
400
:It was beta.
401
:Probably like a year ago.
402
:When we were testing all this stuff out.
403
:Dave Conley: Because I'm like, ah, I'm a
little bit fuzzy, like it's a lender of
404
:last resort, but then it's sets all these
things and it buys all these things and I
405
:dunno, man, seems like shenanigans to me.
406
:And then didn't Hamilton not want it, or
Hamilton did want it and we don't need it.
407
:Let the market do it.
408
:I'm like, oh God, this is what is this?
409
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
410
:Dave Conley: And ultimately I think, I
want to know from that discussion it's
411
:okay, you are in a position of power.
412
:Would you reform the Fed?
413
:Change the Fed, evolve the Fed,
knowing it's an independent agency.
414
:Or an independent entity, what
does need to happen, if anything?
415
:Or is it like, yeah, let it
keep doing what it's doing.
416
:I don't know
417
:Jerremy Newsome: I think reform
is probably the better word.
418
:In that regard I definitely would it up
to some scrutiny, to some accounting.
419
:Dave Conley: Tell us what you're doing.
420
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
421
:Maybe you have some records have
a balance sheet per Yeah, exactly.
422
:Create some actual public
information people can review.
423
:Alex: “From hidden games on Wall
Street to the raw realities on
424
:DC’s streets, we’ve mapped the
economic moves shaping America now.
425
:And that’s just the opening act—next,
climate clashes, a summit that could
426
:reshape global power, and the hard
truths tying energy to conflict.”
