Anthony Scaramucci: Hedge Funds, Crypto, and What Wall Street Gets Wrong

Too bad I'm your friend. It's too bad. I'm a little bit like toe fungus for you, Gffer. You can't get rid of me. You've tried unsuccessfully to get rid of me, but here I still am in your life 30 years ago.

Okay. Well, I mean, I'm going to step back. First of all, thank you both. I adore you and John. It's a big honor to be on with you guys. And but I'm going to step back for a second because it's appalling and I don't like anti-semitism. You know, I'm a philosemite and I'm a big supporter of Israel and I don't like anti-semitism and it's sort of odd to me that 33% or some large number of the Jewish community did actually vote for Zohran Mamdani. So we have to unpack that as well. But I think we have failed these younger people, Ron. And so, hear me out for a second because John is a little bit younger than the two of us, but if you're born 1946 to 64, you're a little younger than me. That baby boomer generation, it undertaxed, it overspent, it overpromised, it underdelivered. Let me just set the scene. George Washington to George W. Bush, $7 trillion of deficit spending. Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, $31 trillion of deficit spending. So, I don't know what we're doing. Deficit spending. This is Unfiltered Finance. The late and very great Milton Friedman once said that deficit spending is unfunded tax liability. Somebody's paying it. And so we've decided that we're going to pay it through the most pernicious, most regressive form of tax. That's inflation. And so inflation hurts the people that don't have assets the most, the lower and middle income people. We've destroyed these people. They can't afford houses. They watch a pot roast go from $9 to $38 in four years at the local supermarket. And Mamdani is a very clever politician. He ran on one concept, affordability. So when they pegged him on anti-semitism or they pegged him on democratic socialism or they pegged him on no, it's too expensive. I'm running on affordability. It's very similar to Trump. Trump ran on immigration. You know, Trump had a simplistic message, lots of other bells and whistles, but immigration. So, this kid ran on affordability. And by the way, I'm going to stipulate to both of you, he is right. Now, he's absolutely wrong about the potential policies that he wants to put in place to handle affordability. He's actually going to make things worse and potentially impair the city and have rising crime rates and a lot of disorganization in the city due to his inexperience. But you can't argue with the statement of where we are for the younger people. And let me give one stat before I let you guys talk. Average age of a home buyer my generation 29. It's now 49. And it's because they can't afford it, guys. So if we keep this up, you're going to get hard right Republican populist nationalism or hard left democratic socialism version.

That's where we're at. That's where we're at, sir. So that's my two cents on it. But you can't say that the kid didn't run on a reason. By the way, when they pegged him, well, here's what you said about Jews two years ago. He got the gun back on the bird of affordability, affordability, affordability. And so even though he's a weak guy and he's got a lot of baggage, by the way, go look at the cross tabs. He didn't win in Staten Island, but he won in every other borough. I think he lost on the Upper East Side, but he almost won in every neighborhood. And if you added Siwa and Cuomo, he beat them. He beat the combined vote tally of Siwa and Cuomo. So those are the facts, guys. And so now the question is, can we work with him? And will he listen? And is he arrogant, inexperienced, or is he willing to be coachable and experienced? And sorry, John, just to follow up that one point. I understand how he got to office and it makes complete sense with regard to affordability. I have children in their 20s. My youngest highlights for me how they are the first generation to have it worse off than their prior generations. And I used to dismiss her thoughts to some degree. I'd listen, but I didn't see the world that same way. I just viewed it as like you got to wait your turn, so to speak. But it's resonating more and more with me. And it goes also, and we'll get to it later, the Lost Boys, which I know I've been receiving those emails from you, unemployment within the age range of 20 to 24 is higher than regular unemployment across America. But what do you see the fallout is from your conversations with people in the financial services industry? Is it more people are crying like some people saying if Trump was elected, they're going to leave the country and go to Canada? Obviously, I imagine very few, if any, did.

Well, I mean, listen, we lost 600,000 New Yorkers in the last 3 years. They've migrated to places like Nashville, Tennessee. Most of them went to Florida. Some went to Texas. They are seeking out lower tax states, lower tax havens. And unfortunately, what we all know on this call is that it's the very wealthy that have mobility. You know, some of the hard work laborers, they don't have the mobility. And so, they'll stay even though things have crippled them in terms of their affordability. But, you know, these statistics, but it's worth sharing. 1% of the New Yorkers pay 48% of the income taxes in the city. And so if you lose a couple hundred thousand people, you're really impairing the tax base. And no matter what tax increases he or Kathy Hochul tries to put in place, you're always better off searching like Mayor Bloomberg did for economic growth. Leave the tax rates the same, get economic growth, you get higher tax revenues.

Exactly. So we know throughout history these attempts they sound very good to the voter. It's like a cure all. It sounds costless. It sounds painless. But then, you know, the truth of the matter is as all of us know there's no free lunch. So to me, I would say to you that most New Yorkers are not going to leave. There's a lot of construction in New York, a lot of cranes up. Whatever you think of Eric Adams, Commissioner Tish alongside of Eric Adams have generally done a good job of containing and getting crime under control. The streets are marginally cleaner. I mean, de Blasio was a horrific mayor. We all know that. He crippled the city after a halcyon period of Mike Bloomberg. But the city's gotten better. And it's not Detroit. It's not San Francisco. It is a resilient city. And let's face it, the people that come to the city, it's an emerging, as Mike Bloomberg once described to me, I sat on his New York City financial services advisory board for four years, and Mike once said in one of these meetings, which I'll never forget, he says, 'This is an emerging nation. This is an emerging market. Go look at the complexity and the diversity of the different people that arrive in New York. They're coming from 160 different countries.' And a result of which there's an entrepreneurial hunger here. Those people are trying to get ahead here. They want their kids to do better than themselves. And so don't forget the culture of New York is different from these other cities. And so I think the city's resilient. I think the city will survive him if he turns towards a communist move or even he gets some taxes through that Hochul has to approve. He'll impair the city. He'll hurt the city. Some people will leave the city. But I think the city's very corrective. I think he'll get knocked out of office very quickly. Now, the flip side is, you know, he's met with some of these CEOs, Wall Street CEOs, and some people have come out of those meetings saying it's been constructive. He could, if he wants to, he could become a very successful politician, guys, and pivot to the middle. He could surprise everybody. He could have campaigned on the left and he could pivot to the middle. He's saying he's going to keep Commissioner Tish. I hope he does that. I think that would be very positive for the city. But we'll have to see if he decides to pivot to the middle, guys. You know, we'll be okay. If he stays hard left, we're going to lose people, but we're not going to lose everybody. I was at a Tiger 21 event last night. You know, it's a group of very wealthy, successful entrepreneurs. And I said, 'Okay, I got to have a show of hands here. How many people are leaving as a result of the mayor-elect's electoral success?' Very few people said they were. And by the way you know this Ron because you have a place in Florida. You travel to Florida.

Okay. All right. But I know Ron, I mean John may not travel to Florida. I don't know your personal circumstance.

Okay. That's what I say. I told that to Spike Lee. I'm turning the lights out with you, Spike. We're going to be here.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm never leaving. This is my city. I'm paying the taxes. I'm going to stay. I'm going to try to work on the problems.

100%. So you and I are the same that way. But I'll say something even further. I know guys like Terry who live in Miami, moved back to New Jersey. So the tri-state metropolitan area which makes up just under 10% of the GDP of the United States, I want you to remember that, okay? The tri-state metropolitan area, 19 million people, 10% of the GDP of the United States right here in this area. Most people like it here, they don't want to leave, they have their sports teams even though our sports teams suck, they have all this affinity to the area and I'm not leaving. You're not leaving. I don't know, Ron. Are you a taxpayer up here? New Jersey taxpayer? Where are you?