Episode 424, The Andrew Parker Show - Markets, Politics, and Middle-Class America: A Conversation with Steven Kantor, S2K Financial Founder & CEO

What do political polarization, tariffs, interest rates and global conflicts have in common?

They all have direct and lasting impacts on your wallet, your job and your family’s future.

This week, Andrew Parker sits down with Steven Kantor, Founder and CEO of S2K Financial and former Global Head of Investment Banking at Cantor Fitzgerald. With 35+ years on Wall Street, Kantor brings a rare perspective on how domestic policy, global markets, and everyday economics intersect.

Together, Andrew and Steven discuss:

• The impact of U.S. political polarization on financial markets.
• Why middle-class America is too often left behind in policy decisions.
• How tariffs, interest rates, and the Fed affect daily life.
• Small business, entrepreneurship, and the backbone of America’s economy.
• Global uncertainty—from the Middle East to China—and its effect on markets.
• Why financial literacy and “empowering America” is more critical than ever.

A powerful conversation that connects Wall Street to Main Street, this episode is a must-listen for anyone concerned about the economy, politics, and the future of American opportunity.

Transcript

Episode 424 The Andrew Parker Show Transcript

Andrew Parker (00:00)

Welcome to another episode of the Andrew Parker show. Thank you once again for joining us as we talk politics, Israel and the law every episode. And sometimes we have to reach to bring the episode into one of those umbrellas, but ⁓ we never have a problem doing it.

And today will be no exception as we are thrilled to be joined by founder and CEO of S2K Financial, Steve Cantor. Steve was executive managing director and global head of investment banking at Cantor Fitzgerald. Yes, that Cantor Fitzgerald.

Steven (00:37)

Thank you. ⁓

Andrew Parker (00:55)

And he was chairman and co-founder of CCRE, Canter Fitzgerald's affiliated commercial real estate lending platform. He was managing director at Credit Credit Suisse, global

head of securities, global head of alternative investments, global head of leveraged finance, global head of real estate. The point that I am making, you see, is that he knows a lot about financial markets. And I think steeped.

Steven (01:07)

. . ⁓

Andrew Parker (01:25)

in REITs and real estate investments, et cetera. And what we're going to talk about today with Steve, in large part, not exclusively, ⁓

is the impact that politics and policy on more of the macro level has for global and domestic markets and how we navigate.

through all of this craziness because the last many years, as we all know, have been crazy. Crazy on the domestic front, crazy on the global. How do you get through it all and have such a success as for over 35 years, Stephen Cantor has had? Steve, thank you so much for joining us on the Andrew Parker Show.

Steven (02:16)

You know, was thank you. was just trying to figure out how we're gonna put this all together as you were talking, but I think we can. think we can.

Andrew Parker (02:23)

Yeah, I know it. I know it for sure. It's probably more macro economy. I'm going to confess. I have a bachelor's degree in economics, which makes me one of the most dangerous people around to talk finance with someone like you. I know the term macroeconomics and I know the term microeconomics. We're going to talk more macroeconomics today. However, it has a big impact on

microeconomics. Well, it certainly can write to the kitchen table issues. Steve, tell us ⁓ first a little bit more about your background. And I had asked you before ⁓ we came on the air for this episode, whether you were at Cantor Fitzgerald on 9 11, as we all know, what a horrific day that was for the company for the entire nation, of course.

But certainly, Canter Fitzgerald right there at ground zero.

Steven (03:27)

Yeah, so I spent 35 years on Wall Street. I go way back to the old Drexel Burnham days, working with Mike Milken. So I was around a long time, so many cycles, so many events in our lifetime that occur, you just never planned for.

Andrew Parker (03:34)

Wow.

Steven (03:44)

Right? ⁓ And ⁓ I spent a lot of time in the Middle East, believe it or not, all over the Middle East as a banker. ⁓ I used to carry multiple passports because I was in and out of both Arab and Israel, and you couldn't come in with the same passport. ⁓ So, ⁓ you know, I've watched it. I've watched this story over and over. It's just with a different

It's something different, but it's there. It always exists. ⁓ And I probably had dinner with the last eight presidents, so both Republicans and Democrats, ⁓ because one thing you learn is, being in the finance world, is you need to figure out how to deal with either side, Republicans and Democrats, because whatever the rules are gonna be, you just need to learn how to play with those rules. ⁓ And that's just reality.

Andrew Parker (04:40)

And one side or the other is not going to be in power forever. You know that, ⁓ even though people, people are calling the death knell for the democratic party today. That's ridiculous. They were calling it, ⁓ what 10 years ago or so, ⁓ for the Republican party. And, know, it certainly isn't the case. ⁓ yeah.

Steven (04:44)

You sure do.

I mean, go back to Johnson, right? mean, go back to Johnson. Johnson

said when he made the decision on the South, they forever changed the Democratic Party. Right? I mean, so we've watched this in history. by the way, I've gone back and I've listened to presidential speeches when they won the nomination or when they were elected. If you go back to Richard Nixon in 1968 and listen to those speeches and you close your eyes, you think it was today.

Andrew Parker (05:05)

Yes.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And Ronald Reagan's speech in 1976, when he lost the Republican nomination to Jerry Ford, ⁓ he was called down to give this impromptu speech at the Republican convention. He gave a speech of three minutes, brought the House down, and that speech could have been given yet today, even with Donald Trump and his policies. So let's turn for a minute to

Steven (05:39)

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Andrew Parker (05:51)

your thoughts as it relates. I'm going to ask you a number of different questions and how they impact markets basically. And then we'll get into a little bit more detail. But we have seen over the last several years since 2016, the last 10 years, a polarization that we have never seen before. I would say that it comes out of the Obama years ⁓ where he put

Steven (05:55)

Hmm. ⁓

Andrew Parker (06:20)

polarization on steroids. It started with the impeachment maybe of Bill Clinton, although it could well have been before that that it all started. But when the political parties when the body politic doesn't talk to one another, or because of policy because of politics, doesn't that have an impact on the markets because of uncertainty?

Steven (06:47)

Well, I'll take that a step further. I think it does. It absolutely does, right? The reality is that if Republicans and Democrats could actually talk to each other, and actually, you know, I believe if we're going to step back and really kind of go through my political views, my political views is middle class America, the heroes of this country.

at the end of the day, And both parties are forgetting about middle-class America every day when it comes to finance, both parties, right? And we need to refocus our attention back to that, back to the center, right? Because what's happening today is you got 10 % that are far right and 10 % are far left and 80 % sit in the middle. But because they're evenly split 40-40, the far right and far left determine our country today, right?

Most people, if they really could sit and have a conversation with each other, would realize, than a few issues, they probably agree on most issues today, which is, how do I feed my family? How do I make sure that I have shelter in my head? How do I get my kids a good education? How do I feel safe every day? We all probably agree to those topics. We might not all get there the same way, but we probably all agree. We need to refocus our attention back to that.

in order to make this country work again and make sure that we worry about the most important people in the world, and that is middle-class America.

Andrew Parker (08:04)

Is it true to say that Wall Street is controlled by the elite few and those who invest in companies out there really have little impact on the market?

Steven (08:19)

I don't know about that. ⁓ That's taking it pretty far. I would tell you that, you I've had this conversation with a friend of mine. He's like, well, the president's a great president. Look at the stock market. Well, the stock market's for the rich. How many people in middle-class America invest in the stock market every day, right? What they care about is how do I put food on my table? So that's the game that we talk about. We love to hear about what's the Dow doing, right?

But at the end of the day, most Americans either don't invest or don't understand. The real crime in this country is that the lack of knowledge for middle-class America to understand the financial products that they're buying and are being sold to them. And we need to work that out. We need to empower America to understand that that is important and that we need to teach them because they want to learn. They want to ask the right questions. They want to understand when they buy a life insurance policy, what does that mean? Right?

When I get a mortgage, what does that mean? What is a variable rate mortgage? How does that work? How many years? How's it reset? All those things are important to everyday people that have more effect on them than most of the things that we deal with, including the stock market. And that's where we reach any focus.

Andrew Parker (09:29)

And, and if you have an interest, you're a middle-class American and you have an interest in learning, in elevating your understanding, uh, so that you can get money to work for you. Who do you call? How do you get a whole, you know, what do you look up in the yellow pages? Do they even have the yellow pages anymore?

Steven (09:49)

They don't. And by the way, I think everything's done by ChatGPT, so you could just call Chat, my good friend Chat.

Andrew Parker (09:54)

Yeah. Yeah. Let,

let chat invest your money. boy. ⁓

Steven (09:59)

Right? No, but you know, look,

hopefully you get good financial advisors, right? At the end of the day, right? They're very important to people, right? They're the person that that is. But but even with great financial advisors and everybody's entitled to have a great financial advisor, right? Even with that, you need to learn yourself at the end of the day. At the end of the day, you have to take the time. know, we're creating something called empowering you, and we're going to create almost things like this to actually try to teach America about issues that every day.

that they just don't know and they don't know they don't know, right? Because they haven't been taught. We teach social studies in school about what happened in the 1500s, but we don't teach economics, know, all the things that you have to live everyday economics, everyday finance to get through life. You know what the greatest invention of all time is? Compounded interest. Greatest invention of all time, right? How many people understand that if I get a dollar, a dollar 10 in one year, a dollar 21, no one really understands that, right?

Andrew Parker (10:58)

And without

doing anything, that dollar is working for you.

Steven (11:01)

It's working for you. It's where you wake up in seven years, you might have doubled your money if you're lucky. Think of nothing. You just got to go to sleep and wake up. Right. So, I mean, those are the simple things that we need to teach Americans about because they want to know. We cannot keep them in the dark. Middle class America doesn't want to be kept in the dark and we shouldn't keep them in the dark.

Andrew Parker (11:06)

For doing nothing. ⁓

Talking to Steve Cantor, CEO and founder of S2K Financial. We're talking, let's get back to talking a little macro economics. There was a time period where I thought, you know, I was just a genius. Now I feel like I'm a dunce. But when I thought I was a genius, I thought that the president and economic macro economic

fiscal policy out of Washington DC controlled the economy. And you could whoever the president was that we elected could control the economy. And I kind of thought at one time that Keynesian economics and you apply liberal financial power, fiscal policy, it's going to drive the economy to great ends. But then I realized, maybe Milton Friedman was right. So my question to you, Steve is

Is there a Trump effect? I mean, does Donald Trump really, really affect the markets?

Steven (12:27)

Well, can. Look, I tariffs do. You know, my daughter just went to get a wedding dress and they told her there's a tariff on her wedding dress. You know? I mean, you tell me. So, I mean, that's crazy, right? But it has an effect on somebody who's just trying to get by at the end of the day, right?

Andrew Parker (12:36)

Wow. Wow.

Steven (12:46)

That tariff makes a difference. Tariffs do make a difference, right? Interest rates do make a difference. Go get a mortgage, right? Now, we lived in a zero interest rate environment. That was great to get a mortgage, but for old people that were living on fixed income, that was awful. So I think you got to wake up every day and say, given what's been out there, how do I deal with it? How do I deal with what it is, whether it's a low interest rate environment, a high interest My first mortgage years ago was at 14%.

Right? So when you tell me it's now five, I feel good. It was, you know, two before, but it depends what you're, you know, we had a whole generation of people that only know a zero interest rate environment. Right? So, you know, some deals don't work. There's less, there's less housing, there's less building, there's less moving. Right? And like it or not, and here's the crazy part about this world. The crazy part about this world is given AI and chat GPT jobs are going away. What really, what really keeps people employed is the real estate market.

Building homes. We lack housing in America by a big number. If you have high interest rates, people don't buy homes because they can't afford to take a mortgage. So does it have an effect? It absolutely has an effect. And the effect is the pocketbook every day. How do I live and where do I spend my money?

Andrew Parker (14:03)

So what are your comments or thoughts as it relates to the Fed? There's big debate, disagreement ⁓ on it, both in terms of should we have a Federal Reserve? And secondly, how are their policies currently?

Steven (14:15)

You know, it's so complicated, right? I think the world is not so simple anymore, right? You look at these numbers and depending how you want to look at the numbers, you could be right or wrong. ⁓ You know, should we drop interest rates? Are we worried about inflation? you know, what is the biggest question I ask myself every month is what is the real employment rate in this country? I can't tell. I hear numbers. the employment's gone up.

How is it possible? Jobs are going to be taken away and continue to be taken away. I mean, we have that issue in this country that we have to deal with. We have a workforce that a lot of those jobs will be history in the next five years. How are we going to retrain these people? What happens to the people going to college? Do we really need college anymore? Do we not need college anymore? What are we teaching kids in college today? Should we go back to the day when I grew up when you went to shop and you learned how to woodwork? We still try to get an electrician, try to get a plumber, right?

Andrew Parker (15:13)

Yeah.

Steven (15:13)

Are there enough

jobs if Trump gets his way and throws every illegal out of the country, who's gonna take the jobs of doing all the other things that they're doing today? You can give a guy $15 an hour, he's still not taking that job. So there's so many, it is impossible to be the president, it's impossible. I would never take that job nor ever want that job. It is not a simple answer, some of it's just timing.

But do we have problems in this country? Yes. Do we have any less problems anywhere in the world? Probably the same or less, right? They have far bigger problems in Europe and Asia than we have. every day you learn and every day is different from the day before. And I think if you want to be in finance or you want to think about it, you just got to adjust consistently. You can't worry about why you got there. I don't know if you remember years ago.

In real estate, they changed the tax law and destroyed real estate for like three years. Now the guy who woke up and owned that piece of real estate who played by the rules, did he do anything wrong? He didn't. But they changed the rules on him. I used to say the best day in life is when Congress is out of session. Because you don't know what's gonna happen. You just gotta try to adjust and try to adjust as you go forward and understand that there's so many factors. What are you playing for?

Andrew Parker (16:11)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well, and right off of that ⁓ answer, important answer, ⁓ I want to have, I just have to have your opinion on the government shutdown. Does it matter? I mean, maybe it's a good thing that the government takes a break.

Steven (16:49)

It matters to the people who aren't working and are probably going to get fired. That's what matters, Look, I went to law school in D.C. and worked for the government, right? Look, the question is what happens to those jobs? Do need all those jobs? And if you don't need all those jobs, what happens to those people, right? It's so easy to sit there and make comments about we don't need X and we don't need Y, but we're dealing with real people and real families, right? And so if you have any kind of heart,

Andrew Parker (16:53)

⁓ No paycheck.

Steven (17:19)

You have to worry about these people that have spent their whole life doing stuff, and at 55 years old, you're gonna fire them with no chance of getting another job.

Andrew Parker (17:27)

Let me throw a few few comments at your heart. ⁓ So we got we got heart for these people, but we also understand the economic impacts of having twice as many people as you need in a fiscal market. And when you have that, it creates inefficiencies and inefficiencies drive up costs.

And, ⁓ you know, it creates a big lag between supply and demand. So isn't it appropriate for there to be winners and losers, efficient operators, those who aren't, if you're making a product, people want you stay in business. If you aren't, you go out of business and people lose jobs. That's what capitalism is. That's what free markets.

Steven (17:55)

you

you

It is, it is,

it is, but there's something called unemployment, right? And as a society, we have decided, correctly or incorrectly, that we will help support people when they are unemployed. So it's not free that you have a workforce that's not working, right? Now, you brought up an... Well, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, but let's talk about another issue which could help the situation, right?

Andrew Parker (18:34)

But if they're unemployed, they'll get jobs in a new market that is needed.

Steven (18:45)

I am now, I went from working at a large corporation to a small business owner. It is impossible in this country to be a small business owner. It is so hard, right? And so if you really wanna create, you really wanna, what made America a great country is the ability to create businesses and let people be entrepreneurs, right? That's what made this country great. We need to bring that back. We need to make it so people can take a chance. Correct.

Andrew Parker (18:52)

It ain't easy. It ain't easy.

Yes, yes, yes.

Small business, the backbone of America.

Steven (19:12)

Correct, we need to bring it

Andrew Parker (19:13)

No doubt.

Steven (19:13)

back for them that these people, they might fail, but they gotta be given a chance, because we don't give them a chance. They're going to be unemployed because big businesses, they have to be efficient also. They can't hire all these people. So we need to bring back the help. Try to go get a loan that you don't have to put your house at risk if you have a small business. You can't, right? That's crazy. We're supposed to help people be, we have the most creative country in the world. We have the most creative people in the world.

Andrew Parker (19:33)

Yeah. Yeah.

Steven (19:42)

Let's take a shot at these people. Let's give them a chance. Let's help them build businesses.

Andrew Parker (19:45)

Yeah.

Yeah. No, I hear you. And it is it is it is small business. Those people who get fired by the federal government can go get a job ⁓ at a 10 person law firm after they graduate law school. I love it. All right. Let me ask you about pull back a little bit and ask you about some of the global markets and the impacts.

Steven (19:49)

And that's capitalism. That's capitalism.

Correct. Correct.

I get very emotional about

this, as you can tell. It's very... ⁓

Andrew Parker (20:14)

Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's what

the show is about. So listen, ⁓ I read earlier this week that with a byproduct with Trump's quote unquote peace plan, I put it in quotes, because it may be a plan. I don't know if it's a plan for peace. You know, there's a lot of illusory peace in the Middle East. In any event, ⁓ his peace plan brought with it ⁓ the highest

Market in stock market in Israel in its short history and ⁓ you know do Conflicts ⁓ wars in different areas around the world affect markets so directly certainly in Israel it does

Steven (20:44)

it.

uncertainty does right I mean what affects markets more than uncertainty right the market can adjust to things that it knows about it can't adjust when it doesn't know and so you know the threat of war wherever it is in the world that can affect things affects markets like it or not

Right? Ukraine. Go to Ukraine as well, right? I mean, these things in Russia and when China says they're going to go after Taiwan, whatever it is, they affect markets because that uncertainty kills people. No one likes uncertainty.

Andrew Parker (21:33)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And the, and the, ⁓ you know, oil prices, ⁓ the bombing of Iran and, and the impact, ⁓ that that might have, did you do any work in your, know you were a head of global markets, ⁓ et cetera. You had to be looking at some of these issues, ⁓ and some of your previous jobs with corporate America.

Steven (22:02)

Every day, every day. Look, whether you like it or not, we're a global world today, right? We like to live in our little bubble, but we can't, right? And, you know, I used to say every day I went to sleep and I had the ability, I'd get a call somewhere in the world, whatever time it was, I'd wake up, have the conversation, go back to bed and remember the conversation when I woke up in the morning, right? But the reality was the markers are 24 seven and something goes on somewhere everywhere, right? And so

It is a very tough business being a global bank or even trying to figure out not as a global bank what happens globally. Because like it or not, whether it's an asset, a deal or your client, someone's associated somewhere overseas. Always is, right? And so, how they adjust to things. Is money going to come out of those countries to the US because it's a safe harbor? Is the US a safe harbor anymore?

Is gold going to be that or is it crypto? All these questions every day are complicated questions that people take bets on them every day. And I always say, I can't answer those questions for you, but if I had to give one recommendation, diversify whatever you're doing, because you're going to be right a lot and you're to be wrong. And I don't care who you are, you'd never write 100 % of the time.

Andrew Parker (23:24)

Yeah, for sure. And as in uncertainty ⁓ increases, even more reason to ⁓ to diversify. Steve, ⁓ great discussion. Very, very interesting. I wanted to ask, though, ⁓ what you're doing now and tell us a little bit about S2K Financial.

Steven (23:30)

Mm-hmm.

So we are in the business of either for ourselves or third party that we think are great third parties raising capital for them and for ourselves in things that we think fit macro trends. And I'm a big macro trend guy. a while, ⁓ kind of semi left the business and my macro trend was brand content and talent. And so I was one of the founders and tried to start Avio and Tequila. ⁓

⁓ I work with a guy named Simon Fuller from American Idol, ⁓ and I still believe that brand content and talent has real value. You wouldn't be doing this if you didn't believe the same thing, right? Right? I mean, that's just the reality, right? It is. People, brand and content and talent are everything, right? That's what you got. Today, I'm a big fan of, I said earlier, I worry every day about AI, and I worry about it because it's an unknown, right? We know it's going to have an effect.

Andrew Parker (24:14)

Cool.

Yeah, baby.

Steven (24:43)

Chad has become my best friend, right? The reality is it's very good and getting better, right? And so you have to add value or find something that adds value going forward. Here's what I know. I'm looking, you got a very big computer in front of you. I don't know if you camp, but how many nights can you sleep under that computer? Camping to me is I open the window at a four season, so I don't camp, right? The reality is you can't, but here's what I know. Every night when you go to bed, you need shelter.

Andrew Parker (25:01)

Uh-uh.

Yeah.

Steven (25:13)

You need shelter, and America lacks shelter. So my macro trend that I'm wound up about these days is how do you create housing in the proper markets for people that need housing?

Andrew Parker (25:25)

Wow, very interesting. And what are you what are you doing to ⁓ touch that interest?

Steven (25:32)

⁓ Well, we've been buying land in what we believe have been some good markets. We're in Charlotte, North Carolina. We're in Bozeman, Montana, ⁓ looking at a project now ⁓ in ⁓ Paradise Valley. ⁓ And so we're finding what we believe where people want to be. I'm a New Yorker. I moved to Florida. If you ask any one of my friends, would have been a lie. Listen to me. I'm a New Yorker, right? Like, I live in Florida now.

Andrew Parker (25:55)

Yeah, yeah.

Steven (25:58)

I came with my friends from Georgia that I'm from, I live in the South now. They're not in the South, I'm in the South. We're South of Georgia, right? Right? And so, but you know, people have realized after the pandemic, and I think the pandemic changed everything, right? It made people realize that you don't have to be in one place. You can move your business and you can move yourself to places that have a better work-play environment. And that's what people are looking for. They want to raise their families where they can go out every day, do their stuff. You live in Minnesota.

Andrew Parker (26:04)

You're darn right.

Steven (26:28)

Like, I, I, that's, it's too cold for me, right?

Andrew Parker (26:31)

Yeah, eight, four

seasons though. Love the four seasons.

Steven (26:35)

So look, if I had my way, if I had my way, I'd live in three or four different places to get the seasons, but I don't. But I travel enough that when I want the cold, I can get the cold. But every day I wake up, it is so nice to wake up, even in the winter, at 65, 70 degrees, with a jacket on. Now I'm cold at 70 degrees, it's cold. So yeah. But you get a choice. Everybody gets a choice. Minnesota's beautiful, beautiful, right?

Andrew Parker (26:53)

Yeah.

Yeah. Listen.

Steven (27:03)

But everybody gets a choice where they want to live now. And you can work and live in places that fit what you want for your life. It's called choice.

Andrew Parker (27:10)

Well, I'm a little bit crazy.

lived I am a little crazy. live downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, ground zero to the hellhole billions of dollars of property damage. And we're still digging out of it.

Steven (27:16)

Yeah.

But they have a nice stadium.

They have a nice stadium. The stadium's a beautiful stadium. It's a beautiful stadium. Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Parker (27:27)

it's beautiful stadium. got a few beautiful stadiums, in fact,

up here. Steve Cantor, founder and CEO of S2K Financial. Steve, thanks so much for joining us on the Andrew Parker show. It has been a treat. I hope I can have you back. Things are going to continue to happen in global markets, domestic, from domestic policy as well as foreign policy.

And we'd love to have you back on the show as they do.

Steven (27:59)

Thank you. Appreciate that. You have a great day ⁓ and a good holiday.

Andrew Parker (28:05)

Yeah, good. You're on to you as well. Steve Lashonatova. And until next time, this was episode what? Four to four or something like that. And text us nine five to five to two to eight one eight nine five to five to two to eight one eight. Text us if you disagree. Text us if you agree. If you've got an idea for a guest, I mean, I can't imagine.

that it can trump what we have done on this show over the last 420 plus episodes, all the way from Rudy Giuliani to Ben Shapiro to Amy Klobuchar and in between, we've had him on the show and will continue to for you. So ⁓ keep pulling us down. Yeah, subscribe, go to theandrewparkershow.com.

Steven (28:35)

you you

All right.

Andrew Parker (29:00)

One word the Andrew Parker show dot com start with the the Andrew Parker show dot com and subscribe Follow us go to YouTube channel pull us down Until next time be kind to your neighbor