Owner of LA Clippers, LA Clippers
USA Facts founder Steve Ballmer says the amount of misinformation is nothing short of 'insane'
Steve Ballmer, USA Facts founder and former Microsoft CEO, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss misinformation, the coronavirus pandemic, inflation and the state of the markets.
About Steve Ballmer
On May 16, 2026, Steve Ballmer released an episode of his series "Just the Facts" explaining the role and function of the Federal Reserve. Ballmer described the Fed as the central bank of the United States, created after the panic of 1907, and noted that its decisions on interest rates can affect car payments, mortgages, and employment. He explained that the Federal Open Market Committee sets the federal funds rate target range and that the Fed is designed to be independent of political influence, with governors serving long terms that span multiple administrations. Ballmer stated that the Fed can "run the economy hot" by lowering interest rates to make borrowing less expensive, which may fuel inflation, or "run the economy cold" by raising rates to slow growth, which can lead to higher unemployment. He cited the example of 2022, when inflation reached about 7%, leading the Fed to raise rates multiple times, causing short-term interest rates, car loans, and mortgage rates to increase and economic growth to slow.
Transcript (10 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Host0:00
Join us right now first here on Squawk Box. USA Facts founder and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, of course he's also the chairman of the Los Angeles Clippers. Good morning to you, sir. Nice to see you.
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Steve Ballmer0:12
Good morning, Ed. How you doing?
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Host0:14
I'm great. Let's talk about these numbers. And before we even talk about these numbers, let's talk about the importance of these numbers. Because one of the things that's been fascinating to me, and I don't know if many of our viewers have noticed, but you go on places like Facebook and others, and even topics now around inflation and things that seem to be very fact specific are getting labeled as misinformation in the same way that they were labeling things in the world of politics and the world of COVID. What do you make of that?
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Steve Ballmer0:45
Well, it's nothing short of insane in my view. I think we have such really good people in our government, state, federal, and local, who work on assembling and collecting data. They're statistical experts. Sometimes the data is a little slow coming out, sometimes it's a little bit hard for government to appropriately integrate because we have such a fractured government. But I believe strongly in the professionalism of those folks. And if you want to go to a definitive source of data, where better to turn? So it really drives me a little nuts what you're saying.
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Host1:26
What in terms of the numbers this year, in terms of the annual report, what was the thing that stuck out for you that surprised you?
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Steve Ballmer1:33
Well, I would say a couple things surprised me. The public health spending went up and it went down. It surprised me to see that while Medicaid spending was up versus, and I'm going to do everything versus 2019, Andrew, it's the only same year to take a look at unless I tell you specifically. Like public health, Medicaid spending was up from 2019 but not that dramatically in the grand scheme of things. That surprised me. The employment numbers, everybody's really trying to understand where we are, how many people are unemployed, what is it about all these job openings, where have we seen job losses? We've seen job losses actually the biggest job losses are in education and local government. You stop and think about that, particularly since while local and state tax revenues went down 1.1% the year before, 2019 to 2020, they're up 19% this year plus all of the transfers they get from the federal government. It is super surprising to me.
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Host2:45
When you think about inflation that you're actually seeing in your role as the owner of the Clippers and in your role as an investor, what are you seeing? I mean, how prominent is it? Do you think there's a way to get a handle on it?
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Steve Ballmer2:58
Yeah, I mean, obviously we're seeing inflation. We are building a stadium for the Clippers as we speak, if you will. We're early in the project and yet we see, as everybody else does, an increase in commodity prices. Do I expect that to abate? Well, we don't forecast and prognosticate at USA Facts, but in my role as an executive, I think we have to plan for further inflation. Now the good news, the good news which is surprising, real wages have actually gone up from 2019 to today. They've only grown up about 1.6%, but you add in inflation and total wages are up over 10%, which, thank goodness, wages are keeping up with inflation. But when you look at demand, by the way, demand for tickets, you know, to sit courtside, people are paying up in crazy ways.
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Host3:57
What do you think that's a function of?
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Steve Ballmer4:00
That's true. That's true for courtside seats. We still have what I'll call a little bit of a COVID hangover, at least at the Clippers, where people are not coming to the games the way they did two years ago. As people get more comfortable with where we are COVID-wise, I would expect to see a reversal there relatively quickly. We still have indoor mask mandates in Los Angeles County that makes things a little bit more difficult for our fans.