As an economist, it's extremely important to look at the data rather than just on a theoretical basis,

we should be in a recession. Well, we're not in a recession. It looks like we're coming out of slow growth, which is really important.

In this episode, I sit down with economist and professor Mark Skowson to talk about taxes, tariffs, trade, and energy.

The other thing that's really positive is President Trump's support for nuclear power.

The small nuclear power plants, which don't cost as much and can be done much more efficiently,

this is a breakthrough.

We also discussed Skousen's latest book,

The Greatest American, Benjamin Franklin,

the world's most versatile genius.

There were many critics of Franklin,

but he had a very interesting point of view.

He said, enemies will teach you a lot about yourself.

So you should be grateful for the enemies you have because they

tell you what you need to know that you haven't thought of. This is American Thought Leaders. And I'm

Janja Kellick. Mark Skousen, so good to have you back on American Thought Leaders.

My pleasure, Jan. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be fun.

It is. And we've just got some new data. We've got an Epic Times headline.

The U.S. economy surges 3% in the second quarter. Topping market estimates. What's your reaction?

Well, I've been a reluctant bull. I'm fully invested in the stock market.

Stock market is also suggesting that the economy is doing really well despite the efforts

by the Fed to keep interest rates high.

And the whole issue on the trade and how that's going to affect production and productivity

...