Bidenomics: Maybe it will all work out?

Yahoo Finance senior political columnist Rick Newman joins the Live show to break down the Fed's inflation outlook, in addition to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's sentiments on recession risks, and President Biden's remarks on gun violence legislation.

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BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, for this week's Bidenomics, maybe it will all work out. With promising jobs numbers out this morning and a number of other metrics turning positive, perhaps, the future is looking bright for a change-- perhaps. Here with more is Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman. Rick, your thoughts on the numbers this morning, kind of how it affects the big, over-looming issue of inflation, which is a political conundrum for the White House.

RICK NEWMAN: I hate to be an optimist, Brian, but I think there are a few encouraging signs in this job report for President Biden. Obviously, it's a good job report, but we are seeing slowing job growth and also slowing wage growth. And while ordinary people might think, well, that's not good, it actually is good. As we've been discussing on our shows, this is what the Fed-- and you know this better than anybody, Brian. This is exactly what the Fed wants to see because that would be a signal that demand might be easing up for products. And that is one of the ways the Fed works to get inflation under control.

So, look, inflation is still at 8.3%. I just looked up gas prices. $4.76 is now the average. That's up, like, $0.15 just in the last week. That's going the wrong direction. But look, we're not going to get inflation under control in a month or two months. It's going to take six, 12, or 18 months. But we are starting to see signs that what the Fed is trying to do is actually working. And that would eventually be good for President Biden.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, Rick, you don't need to tell me anything about the Fed, but I actually want to talk about something that's not the Fed. I want to talk about Elon Musk. He was citing a super bad feeling, and that might be a perhaps euphemism for the r-word, recession, and wanting to cut about 10% of the jobs.

And in fact, President Biden, apparently, just a few minutes ago, making remarks and saying, look, Ford and other types of companies are investing in EV manufacturing right now, and said, quote, "lots of luck on his trip to the moon," referring to Elon Musk. I mean, what do you see as the administration's efforts now in deflecting concerns about recession from the average person watching the pump to billionaire Elon Musk?

RICK NEWMAN: Elon Musk's feelings are not a leading economic indicator, let's be honest. And let's think about Tesla for a second. Tesla relies heavily on the economy, not just in the United States, but China's economy. We know China's got all kinds of problems with near shutdowns and all the lockdowns. They seem to be coming out of that, but that has really slowed what's going on in China. Europe is also very important to Tesla.

And there are many-- many economists-- economists don't think the US economy is going into a recession, but many economists think the European economy is going into a recession because it's much closer to the war in Ukraine. The effects are more severe. And we could see a recession in the global economy. That does not mean we're going to have a recession here in the United States.

But Musk is looking at the economy all around the world. And that might be what he's talking about. Look, let's reassure people, most economists here in the United States just do not see a recession. You cannot be adding nearly 400,000 jobs a month with unemployment at 3.6% and be heading into a recession.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Now, and lastly here, I want to ask, I mean, inflation is a political issue for midterms coming up in November. But it seems like also, with the recent amount of shootings out there, that gun control is also going to be an issue. The president addressing the nation yesterday, saying this is a serious issue. Take a listen.

JOE BIDEN: But my God, the fact that the majority of the Senate Republicans don't want any of these proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable. We can't fail the American people again.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Buffalo, Texas, Tulsa, all in the news headlines as of the last few weeks. How important do you think this is for the Biden administration as they get closer to November? It seems like he wants to take action. But Rick, we've seen time and time before, in previous administrations, getting something done through Congress is much harder of a poll than perhaps as originally messaged.

RICK NEWMAN: And Biden knows that. I think what he's trying to do is he's trying to give voice to the fury that so many of us feel at this appalling situation. But even in that address, he did acknowledge that it's going to be hard to get anything done. And this gets back to the old familiar situation in the Senate regarding the filibuster. It would take-- the House could pass some kind of gun control law. In fact, it already has. But it takes 60 votes in the Senate. There will not be 10 Republicans to vote for this.

And just so people understand, that reconciliation process, which is a shortcut where you can pass laws with only 50 or 51 votes, that only applies to laws that are principally budgetary in nature. And this is not. So we're back to, you can't get 60 votes in the Senate because there are not enough Republicans to go along with it. That's where this has been bogged down for a long time. Nothing's new.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman, thanks so much.