The BOOMING US Economy Keeps Proving "The Experts" Wrong

0:00Hello everyone, we recently got a blockbuster jobs report income tax refunds are now coming in larger than ever, and someone just spent$16 million on a Pokemon card. We're live today from the desk of Anthony Pompliano.

0:23Before we get into today's episode, I need your help. My goal is to get to 1 million subscribers on YouTube, but we're not there yet, which means the job's not finished yet. Hit the subscribe button and let's get into today's episode. All right, ladies and gentlemen, the jobs report came in and it was a blockbuster. Peter St. Onge says that the experts were all wrong again in the jobs report. It beat on every single metric. Take a listen to Peter talking about how private payrolls were up, wages were up, U.S. jobless claims were down. The unemployment rate was back down to 4.3 percent. Here's Peter in his own words.

0:57The experts were wrong again with a blockbuster job report that beat every metric. Private sector payrolls were up 172 ,000, which is more than twice what the economy needs. Government jobs actually fell by 40k to the lowest federal payroll since 1966. The unemployment rate dropped. Hours worked rose, which predicts future hiring. The number of people saying they're employed jumped by half a million. 400 ,000 got off the couch and started looking for work, which is a good sign for the economy, but normally raises the unemployment rate. We got a 450 ,000 person drop in part-timers who could not find full-time work.

1:42Dreaded U6 underemployment, so people who want a job but are not looking, crashed by 600 ,000. Even manufacturing rose, breaking a 22-month trend that started deep in Biden. The biggest was the average hourly earnings, which grew 5 % annualized. That's close to twice inflation. It's actually six times inflation, according to Truflation's current tally. Now, last week, I had a pair of videos talking about the so-called weak job market, how it was driven by paper factors like federal layoffs, deportations, Biden's zombie green energy going bust, and slower federal spending compared to the Biden orgy.

2:22All while job boosters, meaning Fed rate cuts in trillions building new factories, all take time. Well, this job report says we are going from the pain to the gain. Now, it's not all rosy, starting with a massive 900 ,000 downward job revision by the notorious Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost all of it fake jobs under Biden. The culprit is the BLS's so-called birth-death model of company formation that uses data from the COVID-era explosion of millions of fake businesses set up to steal federal money they were handing out like candy during COVID from Somali leering centers on down. The other concern is AI.

3:04For a year, I've been predicting a two-speed job market where blue collars grow from deportations in new factories, but white collars get slammed as AI starts to replace cubicle jobs in finance, consulting, and IT. In fact, last month, finance jobs lost 22 ,000, down almost 50 ,000 since last May. IT was flat this month, but down 90 ,000 since its post-COVID peak. journalists are down 300 ,000 since post-COVID peak. Meanwhile, construction was up 33 ,000 last month, driven by factory construction. Manufacturing tacked on another five. This Robin Hood job market is a welcome change from 40 years of blue-collar slaughter.

3:48Still, considering most American jobs are white-collar, there are millions at risk. So what's next brought to you by I Trust Capital, the job market is picking up and should accelerate with new factories and Fed rate cuts, the same time AI job losses should start showing up in the numbers later this year. Not catastrophically, prediction market cal sheet projects just 1 in 11 odds of getting over 7 on unemployment, but AI will go from hypothetical to real. The question being, can the factories and rate cuts soak up the cubicle refugees, or do we need more from Congress, specifically cutting tax and red tape for small business that employs 62 million Americans, roughly half population, and could employ tens of millions more if bureaucrats get off their back.

4:36Now, I tend to agree with Peter is we have economic policies that are getting put in place and we have technology innovation that is accelerating in the economy. And that means that the job market is actually in a pretty decent spot. Yeah, you're going to hear plenty of people yelling and screaming about the cooling labor market. That's just an excuse the Federal Reserve used to actually cut interest rates because they knew that they were behind the curve. And now as we see inflation continue to plummet and we see the job market actually start to steady, the question becomes, will the Fed do what they need to do?

5:05Or are they going to wait till Jerome Powell's out of there and Kevin Warsh is in? We're going to find out. But remember, that jobs report, just expect some big revision a couple of weeks from now. Everyone likes a little extra money in their pocket, and it seems like that is what we are going to get. Income tax refunds are coming in larger than ever. Kate Doerr writes for CNBC that the average tax refund is 10 % higher so far this season. You can compare that back to the same point in 2025, according to all the early filing data from the IRS. Now, the 2026 tax season opened up in January 26th, and the average refund amount was$2 ,290 as of February 6th.

5:46That is up from just about$2 ,000 one year ago. So as of February 6th, the total amount refunded was more than$16.9 billion. That is a crazy, crazy number. But this all means that consumers are gonna have more money in their pocket. It means that there's tax cuts and deregulation and all of the economic policies are actually working to help people have more moolah in their bank account. And if they got more cash in their bank account, that means they're gonna go spend it or invest it. They're investing it, that means asset prices go up. If they're spending it, it means that the economy and GDP starts to grow.

6:19Both of those are good for anyone who's holding investment assets. Over the weekend, we had a mind-blowing development in the world of collectibles. We saw a Pokemon card that Logan Paul owned go for a record-breaking$16.49 million. Now, I know nothing about Pokemon, but Logan Paul owns this Pikachu Illustrator card. And frankly, a card selling for almost$16.5 million is insane. But here's the thing is that the guy buying it, AJ Scaramucci, he's a son of Anthony Scaramucci. You know, the famous investor who went to the White House for 11 days, a friend of mine. Well, his son says that he's starting a planetary treasure hunt and he just spent 16 and a half million dollars on the Pikachu Illustrator card.

7:04And this is why he's doing it in his own words. Take a listen to AJ. My ambitions for the card is just a small story here. The real story is I'm on a planetary treasure hunt right now. And I'm on a quest. What? To buy a T-Rex dinosaur fossil that's on my list. What? I'm going to buy the Declaration of Independence, maybe from you. Yep. We'll find out. Bro, this is crazy. And I'm not stopping there. This was only the beginning. Yep. This is my brother, Tony Moochie. He's a film director. And we have been fans of Pokemon since we were kids. Oh, my God. This was the right way to start the treasure hunt.

7:40You're just starting? I just started it. Bro, that is so epic. Now, I thought that this tweet here had a really great point. It says that this is a masterclass in today's attention economy and the value breaking through the algorithm, frankly, at any cost. And I do think that that's a big part of this. There's a lot of people who are going to say$16.5 million for a Pokemon card. You're insane. But you know what? I don't agree. I actually think that these cards are going to be worth way more in the future. And it's because they have scarcity. They have story. They have value to them. And once something takes on a life of its own, it just keeps getting richer and richer and richer.

8:19And so naturally, if art can continue to appreciate in price, Pokemon cards, that's the new art for a modern digital type collector. And I think$16.5 million, that thing's only going one way, up and to the right. And I think AJ Scaramucci is going to end up making quite a bit of money on this purchase. That's it for today's show. Thank you guys so much for watching. please remember to subscribe on YouTube, and I will see you guys live tomorrow from the desk of Anthony Pompliano.