Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod, President Trump saying that he has picked Kevin Warsh.
Finally, the president's pick for new Federal Reserve chair. CNBC's Steve Liesman helps break down the news.
Warsh has criticized staff. He's criticized the PhD. He's criticized the elite running policy. And he also has said that policy has been favoring the wealthy rather than people. And I think rightly so when it comes to criticizing, by the way, the Fed's actions during the pandemic.
And ExxonMobil posting a strong financial quarter even though oil prices are low and supply is high. Exxon chief Darren Woods joins us.
The markets are well supplied. So, you've got a comfortable supply of oil, which is why we haven't seen a lot of volatility in oil with all the geopolitical dynamics.
Plus, the future of the Democratic Party with Maryland's Governor Wes Moore. Why he's focused on what works rather than what's partisan.
Baby bonds and these type of structures are things that I have advocated for for years. I think it's one of the more effective things that you can do to actually impact the issue of childhood poverty, which is the reason why I ran for governor in the first place.
It's Friday, January 30th, the last trading day of the longest month ever. Squawk Pod begins right now.
Stand back by in three, two, one. Cue, please.
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We're live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernen. Andrew is out today. Welcome back.
Thank you. Can we go back to... Yeah, it's windburn.
Back to Davos. It's warmer there.
I can read your mind. We've been doing this for so long.
Yeah. No, this is windburn. Played golf at a place where, you know, there's a course out in California where every hole is uphill. Spyglass. At this course, a beautiful, fantastic course down in Florida. Wind in my face every hole.
May the wind be always at the back.
No, it wasn't. No, that and you know my swing is in general just smooth as silk and you know with a 30 mph wind in my face it's really something to behold.
So you got a really low score is what you're trying to tell me.
No. Scary. Makes me worry about Pebble Beach and people watching what's coming up and people watching and everything.
Joining us right now on set to talk about affordability, the energy grid, and much more is Maryland Governor Wes Moore. Governor, it is great to see you this morning.
Great to be back with you. Thank you.
I guess front and center affordability issues. That's been something we've spoken with you about in the past. It seems to be resonating through both political parties because it is something that hits so close to home for so many Americans right now. Where do we stand on the affordability issue? Do you think things are going to be better or worse in 2026?
Well, and it's also important to remember that this is not a new issue. I mean, when I ran in 2022, the issue that we talked about, it's about creating pathways for work, wages, wealth, right? That's essentially affordability, right? It's making sure that people can find good jobs that can pay them fair wages and people have a chance to own more than they owe. That's essentially all people are asking for. And so even if you look at the policies that we have laid out and the things that we are really prioritizing for this year, it's things like going after price manipulation where you have large corporations when people walk into grocery stores and their data is being used against them to adjust prices. That we're going after things like housing where I am probably one of the most bullish governors in this country on increasing housing inventory because if you increase inventory, you're going to by in essence help to drop costs. That we are focusing on things like energy where I want to have more energy options. I want to invest in nuclear and solar and additional nuclear options where I believe in an all of the above approach when it comes to energy because that will help to drive down cost. And so I do think this is an issue now, but also I don't think this is a new issue for many people in our community.
It's not a new issue and let's be honest, this came from the huge increase in inflation that we saw during COVID and then post-COVID. Started in the Biden administration. It was really strong and that inflation has tamped down but prices haven't come down and so Americans are still feeling this pinch.
But they are and I think what we're also seeing is you have that combination of inflation and now rising unemployment so you're having those stagflation pressures.
But wages are rising at least finally.
We are finally watching wages rise but we're not watching wages rise to the same extent as prices, right? And that's the thing I think people feel.
Their real wages have been rising.
Correct. But the challenge also becomes this is that if we're watching unemployment also rise. You can raise wages and for people who have work that's great but we're watching more and more people who now no longer have work or at least a steady type.
Fed, you know, and then most recently said the risk of a real weakness in the labor market has subsided and we're still at basically full employment. We are 4.5, 4.6.
About that, that's exactly right and honestly listen if you look at the state of Maryland when I was first inaugurated as governor we were ranked 43rd in the country in unemployment. We have taken a greater hit of federal employees being fired than anyone else. I mean, we've now had over 25,000 federal employees fired who are Marylanders, just in Maryland alone, more than any other state in this country. But because we've seen private sector employment kick up, and because we've been really creative about ways to support our federal workers, we've actually had an unemployment rate that's still significantly lower than the national average.
Look, this is an issue that both political parties are trying to capitalize on. They say the word affordability. They say the words trying to make it easier for Americans, but they both have pretty different ideas. At least if you're looking at the national level of these politicians who are talking about how to bring some of those ideas down here in New York City, Zohran Mamdani has made a lot of headlines this week talking about how he thinks the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations are going to have to understand that their relationship with the city is going to have to change that they will be paying more to offer more services to those who are at the bottom end of that. I don't think that's necessarily the same school of thought that you come at with some of these issues.
Yeah. I mean, I just introduced my most recent budget last week, and for the fourth year in a row, I did something that no one in Washington can do, which is actually present a balanced budget.
Yeah. No, no, it's fair. But we printed a balanced budget that does not raise taxes or fees on the people of the state of Maryland that still keeps a very healthy 8% within our rainy day fund that actually significantly cuts the structural deficit that Maryland had that I inherited when I first became the governor. And if you look at what we did last year, we actually did tax reforms where the tax reforms we did was actually giving the middle class a tax cut, military veterans a tax cut. And we asked those who were doing well to invest a little bit more. But when I'm talking a little bit more, for a person who's making over $750,000 a year, their increase was about $1,400. And so we think that was a smart way of being able to say, we are going to make investments in our public schools. We're going to make investments in law enforcement and we've seen the results of those type of investments already.
Wes, do you wish Democrats had listened when these Trump accounts were proposed because that was proposed in the Biden administration. They had this idea to do it and why do you think that went nowhere? And why isn't it getting more bipartisan praise for the potential to have every child participating in what we do so well here in this country and that's create wealth and capitalism.
The truth is is that baby bonds and these type of structures are things that I have advocated for for years. I think it's one of the more effective things that you can do to actually impact the issue of childhood poverty which is the reason why I ran for governor in the first place. But then you get some billionaires that step up and match things and maybe they're not all headed straight to hell when they die. Maybe some of them are.
Yeah. Well, no. And listen, I believe in public private partnerships.
If you look at the work that we're doing in Maryland, we actually have the most aggressive push towards ending child poverty through our ENOUGH Act. And it is actually an acronym that stands for Engaging Neighborhoods, Organizations, Unions, Governments, and Households. Where it's actually focusing on how do we come up with a public private type of partnership to be able to use data to understand what were the areas in our communities, urban, rural, and suburban that have been most inflicted by this issue of concentrated and generational childhood poverty. That's the kind of smart initiative that I think can work but I do think that these accounts are something that can actually work and people should be honest about that.
Right. What are you, a moderate? Where do you come down? Do you want more government? Do you think that's where the solutions are? You think that less government, the private sector is where it is? Are you ever watching some of your co-Democrats, whatever that they're called? Chris Murphy, someone like that. You ever watching them where you go, I don't know, that someone in the Squad or you're just like, you know, you're at a loss for words on how to react to where the geographic center of that party is right now.
Well, you know, it's funny, Joe, because again, I had never run for office in my life.
I remember when you ran for governor.
It doesn't mean you weren't on our show because we...
It's true. You were on for years.
For 15 years of being when I was running Robin Hood.
Correct. That's exactly right. But I remember people were asking me, they'd say like, 'So, where are you?' And they're like...
I ask you again because I'm still, I want to hear, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful you're going to give me an answer that I would like.
So, you know where I am. So, like, for example, when people said, 'Well, you have to deal with the issue of violence.' And they said, 'Well, are you pro-police or are you pro-community?' And I said, 'I'm not choosing.' And so, what we've done in Maryland, I've made the largest investments in law enforcement and local law enforcement in our state's history. But, you know what? What I've also done is made investments in community groups and community violence intervention groups. And I've worked with both the mayor, the state's attorney, and the public defender that we invested in technology and said if someone commits a violent crime, particularly with a firearm, I want him in handcuffs in 24 hours. And we've also invested and said making sure that Maryland is one of the only states that actually invests in the US attorney out of balance sheet. And what have been the results? Maryland has had the fastest drop in violent crime anywhere in the United States of America over the past 2 years. Violent crime is down nearly 50% since I put my hand on the Bible and was inaugurated.
You could stake out a whole new territory in the Democratic Party.
I don't do the 'are you this or are you that.' I'm like, what makes sense?
Help us pigeonhole you. Because you're part of... I just am thinking about, let's talk. I can help you. I'll give you some friendly advice on how to approach things because, man, I think the country is looking for, there will be a post-Trump United States. Obviously. And I just don't think it's going to be quite as polarized as it is. But, you know, it's hard to find a candidate that appeals to anyone on both. It's like there's the, what is it? The Venn diagram is like this right now. It's nice to find some overlap.
Right. It doesn't have to be. But honestly, I think that's why I love being a governor because as a governor, you don't get a chance to just rail. As a governor, my job is not just to push back, right? My job is to push forward and my job is actually to show what an alternative actually looks like. And so when we say things like I believe in economic growth and economic development, if you look at the state of Maryland, just in these past months, we've seen how AstraZeneca has made the largest private sector investment in the history of the state of Maryland. It's going to support about 2,600 jobs. You've seen how Samsung Biologics is making their first investment in the United States. And where are they making it? In the state of Maryland.
Are these all things that you have done to CEOs basically one-on-one to see?
I have been very clear when I go to other cities. I'm bringing three jobs back. I'm bringing three businesses back with me. I am very aggressive and very competitive. And people know that we believe in economic growth, particularly when we're trying to diversify our economy off of Washington DC. But I can say that I'm very pro-business. But you know what I also did? I made sure we raised the minimum wage. You know, I made sure that we're protecting our workers. We did procurement reform to actually support more minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses and veteran-owned businesses. And we also did things like regulatory and permitting reform and making it easier for businesses to grow. So I guess you know, so the answer is where do you fall is I just like getting things done and I don't like falling into the ideological boxes.
Governor Moore, thank you. I have the feeling we'll see you again soon, Wes.
I could have said if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? That was a famous Barbara Walters question. So I just said what would you be?
I want to be like an oak or something like that. Tall, firm, steady, right? Yeah. But I don't know that's what I want to be. I'm sure I am.
Coming up on Squawk Pod, the winning Kevin. Kevin Warsh, officially President Trump's pick for next Federal Reserve chair. Steve Liesman joins the team with his analysis.
Can't we just say for Fed watchers that had hair that was on fire that the worst did not come to pass? Were you making an anti-baldite comment there, Joe?
You're listening to Squawk Pod from CNBC. And we had breaking news this morning in our TV broadcast. Check it out.
