The Biden Presidency: The first 100 days

this is a yahoo finance special the biden presidency the first 100 days the new white house moving quickly to reverse trump policies biden signing a slew of executive orders and pushing ambitious plans in congress we'll examine the key issues from climate change to taxes the challenges for the new administration and the country are as urgent as they are great the top priorities covid jobs and the economy biden and harris also under pressure to deliver on a long list of election promises including health care education immigration foreign policy climate change and police reform an effective majority in congress may speed the plow but the way forward isn't certain join us now for this yahoo finance special the biden presidency the first 100 days welcome to yahoo finance's special presentation the biden presidency the first 100 days i'm shauna smith and i'm adam shapiro president joe biden has laid out four crises on his plate climate change the economy racial inequality and of course the covet 19 pandemic we're going to look at each in turn over the next hour but first what has actually happened what has the president accomplished since his first day in the oval office we're going to go to jessica smith to take a look at that right now jess yeah adam it's been a busy first few weeks of the biden presidency there has been a lot going on on capitol hill from party infighting to the impeachment trial but president biden is trying to show that he's not focused on that he's focused on the crises at hand president joe biden's first 25 days in office have been dominated by the kovit 19 pandemic from his very first executive action requiring masks on federal property the new president has tried to show defeating the virus is his top priority and i'm going to start today the compounding crisis of covid the white house says it's on track to meet its target of 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days but some critics say the administration's goals for reopening schools are too low his goal that he set is to have the majority of schools so more than 50 percent open by day 100 of his presidency and that means some teaching in classrooms so at least one day a week so far the new president has signed more than 40 executive actions from rejoining the paris climate accord and pausing student loan payments to revoking the permit for the keystone xl pipeline the rush of executive orders prompted questions about how the former senator plans to reach across the aisle and work with congress as he promised in the campaign but he's the first to tell you as he said many times publicly he's not going to take executive action alone biden's cabinet is taking shape several historic nominees have been confirmed with bipartisan support but former president trump's impeachment trial loomed over the first weeks of biden's presidency though seven republicans joined democrats to vote against trump it wasn't enough to convict him this was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in the history of the united states now congress will focus on passing the president's coveted relief plan american people are hurt a lot of people are in real real trouble biden's first oval office meeting with lawmakers featured senate republicans who tried and failed to sell him on a stimulus package much smaller than his 1.9 trillion dollar plan the president says he wants to work across the aisle on a relief deal but he's not waiting around what republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough democrats are gearing up to pass a stimulus package with no republican support and a tie-breaking vote from vice president kamala harris they'll likely use the same mechanism the gop used to pass tax cuts in 2017 but republicans now argue the move is at odds with biden's promise of unity it's not enough to talk about unity it has to be mashed with action if they really wanted to govern for all americans they would work with republicans to pass yet another bipartisan coveted bill the 50-50 split in the senate means any one senator can derail the bill putting moderates in the spotlight we ought to try to do what we can do in a bipartisan way in the president's first major legislative test lawmakers are racing to get the relief package to his desk before mid-march when more than 11 million people are set to lose unemployment aid the house is expected to vote on the stimulus bill as soon as next week they're trying to get it to the senate before the end of the month and president biden is set to be in wisconsin for a town hall later this evening and he'll try to sell the importance of the relief package to the american people shauna and adam just stick around we want to stay on the subject of economic relief democrats like you were saying laying out a timeline for getting a deal done here's speaker nancy pelosi last week let's listen we hope to have this all done by the end of february certainly on the president's desk and time to offset the march 14th deadline where some unemployment benefits will expire for more on this we want to bring in chris liu who serves as the white house cabinet secretary and deputy secretary of labor during the obama administration and chris it's great to have you on the program we just heard we played that sound bite from nancy pelosi's speaker saying that she wants this done by the end of february i know you were part of the obama administration's efforts back in 2009 when you were facing the great recession curious about the lessons that you learned in dealing with that crisis and what you think needs to be included in this relief bill well the lesson that we all learned from the great recession in 2009 is that unless you provide sustained economic stimulus and relief and right now we're simply just doing relief what it means is that any recovery takes longer to take hold and the pain to people in this country particularly those people out of work uh is worse and we know right now that we're already facing the highest number of long-term unemployed people in this country that we have seen up since the great recession we've seen millions of other people drop out of the workforce and as you just said about 11 million people are going to lose their enhanced unemployment benefits uh in mid-march so yes bipartisan action is important but action period is important and so that is why president biden is moving forward with his 1.9 trillion dollar proposal obviously if there's room for compromise with republicans i know that's what he would prefer but we can't afford to wait right now because it's not about the politics in washington it's about the people who have to come up with money to to pay their rent to buy groceries to buy gas and right now that lifeline that economic lifeline is so desperately needed secretary lew i think a great many of us agree that a lifeline is needed but then what because the world has changed the world of work has changed so what happens to these people in a post-pandemic world because a lot of these jobs are not going to be the same or perhaps even come back right first we need to provide this lifeline because we know that the economy doesn't fully recover uh until we get the pandemic under control that's probably at this point not until second third maybe even fourth quarter of this year but beyond that it's one of the reasons why joe biden talked a lot about buildback better he didn't just want to bring the us economy back to where we were a year ago he really wanted to deal with so many of the systemic economic inequalities whether it is wages that have been flat for the last 20 years whether it's the large number of manufacturing jobs that have left the country the fact that in so many jobs right now in the 21st century you need more than a high school diploma we need to figure out a way to provide that advanced education advanced training to people because frankly so many of the jobs that were the backbone of this country over the last 10 20 30 years aren't going to exist anymore because of globalization because of automation now you can bring some of those jobs back but ultimately we need a massive retraining effort to get americans the good jobs they need so they can live middle class lives in the past relief packages there have been a lot of expansions of the unemployment insurance programs do you think any of those should be made permanent going forward well i think what we need to do is get out of this posture we're in right now that when unemployment goes up we provide these benefits and we're always sort of lagging behind where they should be or as happened in december there was a lapse of benefits for people because congress couldn't uh get get its act together to to pass this uh to to pass the extension so what i would propose and what a lot of economists think is that we need more automatic triggers that when the unemployment rate goes up the amount of enhanced benefits goes up when the unemployment rate goes down we bring that down i'm especially concerned about the not just the unemployment rate which is about six percent right now but as i said the number of people who are long-term unemployed that's people who have been out of work more than six months or all of the people that have dropped out of the labor force because what we know is that the longer you're on unemployment the harder it is to get back employed the harder it is to regain the wages that you've lost along the way so even if we get this unemployment rate down there's gonna still going to be a lot of work done to get americans back working again chris just to get your thoughts and you briefly mentioned it but the minimum wage we have president biden pushing that 15 as a new minimum wage what do you think will be the effect that we could potentially see on the labor market if something like that does get passed well look i know there's a lot of debate on this but the truth of the matter is that when you look across not only economic studies but again real world studies of cities and states that have raised the minimum wage a modest increase in the minimum wage does not lead to any kind of job loss uh and what's notable is that the the minimum wage right now the federal minimum wage is 7.25 that hasn't gone up uh since july of 2009 that's the longest period of time that we've gone in our nation's history without a minimum wage increase in fact it is so low right now that about 29 states actually have minimum wages higher than what the federal wages and yes there's always concerns about adverse economic impacts but frankly we've had a minimum wage in this country for almost 80 90 years every time it's raised people say it's going to lead to job loss it hasn't what we need to do is get to a place where people can work on minimum wage and actually be able to sustain some kind of life and that's just not possible right now uh secretary lou we had leon panetta on the show last week and he laid out for us what he thought would be the priorities for the first 100 days want to get your reaction to what he said when he told us this i think it's it's it's kind of refreshing frankly uh for at least for me to be able to wake up in the morning and not know that there's a tweet out there from a president that threatens the security of our country uh and and uh is likely to produce chaos uh it was uh it's been a disturbing four years very frankly and to have a president uh who is experienced and qualified cares about the country cares about the rule of law uh that's kind of refreshing and i think i think joe biden understands that his primary responsibility right now is to deal with covet and the threat from covet and the fact that uh people are dying uh that we have to get this vaccine out and that we have to provide assistance to uh to the unemployed and to the businesses that have been impacted by this terrible disaster that's the first priority that the president has and i think he sees it he understands it that's why he's working on this aid package what do you think secretary luke uh 100 agree and i and i applaud president biden for setting out a big goal 100 million vaccinations in 100 days and he even said well that might not be even be enough now he's suggesting it could be 150 million vaccinations but whatever the number it is he's put a big number out there he's challenged his team to try to meet the goal because as we said we're never going to have an economy that's really running at full speed until we get covered under control until we get kids back in school until people start we can start to travel again we can start good to go to restaurants again but i will also agree with secretary panetta one of the things that i find so refreshing is how normal this administration is we are having disagreements as we always do in washington but they're policy disagreements we're not insulting people you showed a clip of the president meeting with republican lawmakers it was by all accounts a civil conversation a constructive conversation nobody insulted anyone afterwards and that's how things should work in washington and i think we've forgotten a lot of that over the last four years and i think this sense of normalcy of competence of expertise i think is what we need right now chris slew was a deputy secretary of labor during the obama administration thank you for joining us jessica smith is our invaluable source in washington d.c and she will be joining us a little bit later on so stick around jessica but up next how president biden is planning to tackle climate change our interview with white house national climate advisor gina mccarthy right after this [Music] [Music] [Music] president biden continues to focus on climate change as one of his top priorities what will his early slew of executive actions do in the face of the crisis and how will the white house manage the disruptions to the economy ahead we want to bring in rick newman for a little bit more on this and rick i know you've been covering this very closely for us here at yahoo finance you actually spoke recently to uh white house national climate advisor gina mccarthy what did she have to say just about biden's policies and also the steps that he has taken within the first 25 days of his presidency yeah she has actually said it's her job to make sure all those uh new green energy jobs president biden is talking about that those jobs materialize socially along with president biden has done so far rejoined the paris climate agreement uh he cancelled the keystone xl pipeline uh he paused uh federal permits for drilling on public land and some other things so i asked her to be more specific about where these jobs are going to come from and what is going to happen to people who might lose their jobs in the carbon energy oil and gas sector let's hear what you had to say about that what he's planning to do is some investment strategies the thing you do to get us out of the problems that we're in right now economically and start building a future and his future is built on clean energy his future is built on recognizing where the jobs of today and the future are and how do we use that leverage to actually restore our economic growth but also address the challenge of climate change so it's a wonderful moment for us when when we have a president that he has climate and thinks jobs because that means he gets it he understands the future we need to deliver and that goes with tomorrow not just the future for our kids you have said that it's your job to make sure those jobs materialize so let me ask you about this transition i'm sure you've thought about this as we go as we move away from carbon energy toward clean energy that kind of necessitates a loss of jobs in the carbon sector and a gain of jobs in green energy sectors what do you do about the people whose livelihoods are affected in the carbon sector who may not live in regions that are going to benefit where the new green energy jobs come online well i mean that has been uh one of the fundamental concerns that we have put on our plate since before day one and so what this president understands is that clean energy was the fastest growing sector before covet 19 hit and it is going to be the fastest growing sector look and that's not just because we regulated it it's because clean energy is cheaper clean energy is cleaner clean energy delivers better benefits to some of the communities that have been marginalized and left behind and so it's an opportunity for growth but it's also a recognition that there is a transition and we have to start protecting every community and every worker so they're not left behind we now have a transition task force that's starting up to make sure that we are eyes wide open not just about how we grow jobs but be we protect the communities that otherwise would be left behind and there are opportunities that we've already identified in the second executive order if the president signaled that he was going to start opening up opportunities in communities that otherwise are dependent on energy right now those energy those coal communities and others we're going to provide opportunities for them to actually work in the oil and gas sector to close up some of the thousands of abandoned wells that are spewing methane now and their expertise will help in their own communities we are not going to think that sending somebody from their own community halfway across the country is going to be a welcome idea for their families we want them to stay with their families and we want them to have the same kind of economic opportunity that we see growing in the clean energy sector is it easy no but hey there's another opportunity that the president created it was the civilian climate corps which is not for the sort of the old guard but it's for the new it's basically an opportunity to put a lot of young people to work who can't find an opportunity today and it may even attract some of the older dudes like me who actually want to get out and do things once again and so i'm excited about the opportunities we're creating right out of the gate but also recognize that this is a long-term challenge and we have to support that which is what this task force is all about just so everybody's clear i didn't call you an older dude you called yourself an older dude i saw you looking at me i i i got it so is can you is there a way to do this in real time so you can anticipate where job losses in carbon energy are likely to happen or are actually happening and get there and say we got an opportunity for you do not despair yeah i think that's why we want it out of the gate to identify some real-life opportunities but you're right we don't want to wait till after the jobs are gone we want to anticipate where the shift in energy is and how we get ahead of that because it's really important now look rick this isn't the time to ask any human being to sacrifice we have all sacrificed loved ones we've all sacrificed our jobs our opportunity to feel secure in feeding our families this president gets it he gets that we have to keep people working while we recognize that we need a shift that addresses really two things one is that clean energy really is the future that climate change is real we have to pay attention to science we've certainly learned the dangers of not paying attention to science over the past few years but even more importantly we have to recognize that that there are opportunities we can can have available to us today to actually address those that are hottest hit by covid those that are hottest hit by pollution and those that are in the cross ears of climate change which is the black brown indigenous communities that don't have the wherewithal to defend themselves that come in to these communities needing assistance and we have to address that issue and the only way we're going to do that is to is to recognize that climate change is real to recognize that we have opportunities and this president has committed 40 percent of his investments in clean energy to be targeted to those very communities that have been left behind so the political problem here guys is if you have uh regulatory policies that kill existing jobs good paying jobs today and the jobs that will replace them don't come for a year or two or they come today but they're four states away i mean obviously you've created winners and losers so the question is does gina mccarthy get it she sounds like she does she sounds like she's saying president biden gets that but of course the proof is in actually coming up with these green jobs and and rick some of the jobs they're talking about uh the plan to cap methane gas leaks at millions millions of leaks at wells across the country how many people would that employ and would it pay the same amount as the high-paying oil and gas jobs that might get lost in part of these policies yeah i think the reason she highlighted that and by the way i think we could see an executive order on this coming at some point in the next couple weeks or months but i think the reason she highlighted that is the people who could do that work have the skills so these are these would be oil and gas workers who actually know how to do that work and these oil wells tend to be in the same communities as the oil workers might be working now so they're going to be in texas they're going to be in north dakota so it's kind of putting it's finding jobs uh that would be useful today for people who actually have the skills to get those jobs i think that's why she's talking about it by the way methane is a major source of carbon pollution so that would be that'd be kind of a win-win if the blight administration can pull that off eric you didn't specifically talk about this with gina obviously but i'm curious just to get your take just about uh former president trump's denial about climate change the fact that he ignored it for so long any idea just how significantly this set back the country's ability to address some of these issues that gina mccarthy was just talking about yeah i'm going to flip that around shauna and talk about what is changing in the private sector now that president biden is clearly signaling look we need to get moving here it's time to address this problem so just look at the auto companies and everything we've been talking about on our shows for the last couple of months general motors now saying they aim to have all their cars electric by 2035 and of course by the way they pulled out of that trump administration lawsuit against california meant to actually get california to lower its fuel economy standards so now that biden is saying we're going uh you know full clean energy you're actually seeing private industry saying okay we can get behind this as long as we're getting clear signals from the government uh gm and other automakers have been investing in batteries uh and other green technology but it's been a stutter step process because president trump didn't support it politically and they did not feel they had uh the government uh in step with them so now biden administration saying uh we're on board i think you're going to see an intensified effort in the private sector to get into these technologies look what's happening with all the electric companies startups we're talking about battery companies there's going to be a lot of focus and investment i think in the private sector on these new technologies that are going to be necessary to get to joe biden's goals certainly right and we've got and like you're saying we've seen a number of those announcements over the last several weeks all right rick newman thanks so much for taking the time to hop on here with us coming up next the president of the national urban league joins us on the fight for racial equality we're back with that in two minutes [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back well another key area of focus for the biden administration is addressing concerns over long-time racial inequality here in america we want to bring yahoo finances kristin myers who of course has been closely following this for us and kristen it's been uh but just over 25 days but the biden administration has already made this a top priority clearly just walk us through some of the actions and what has been done on this front so far yeah so when president biden was elected he essentially made a promise to the black community that he would have their back since it was essentially the black vote that really helped biden clinch victory during the presidential election so he's already signed some executive orders and made some other moves to promote racial justice so one of the first orders was for the administration to advance racial racial equity and in that executive order biden said quote that federal resources would be allocated to advance fairness and opportunity but he's got a couple of other executive actions that he's already signed in just this first month that he's been in office so i want to start first on the use of private prisons he's ending the department of justice's use of private prisons and and research does show that minorities are over represented in the private prison population that they face worse conditions than inmates in public prison so a slight victory there he's also decided to reaffirm the federal government's quote commitment to tribal sovereignty and they've also essentially ordered all federal agencies to really strengthen and re-uh commit to having tribal consultations uh and then as we've seen lately uh this rise of anti-asian sentiment uh dividend administration did sign a memo to essentially address xenophobia against asian americans and pacific islanders and then just one last executive action that the biden harris administration already signed essentially aimed to undo rules from the trump administration that essentially made it harder for people plaintiffs people who were suing uh to prove unintentional discrimination in the housing process they've also in that executive order uh said that they're going to be making moves to address uh discriminatory federal housing policies uh but guys like a lot of these moves some say do not go far enough for example when it comes to those private prisons executive actions uh other federal agencies are still allowed to contract with private prisons this is just a move for the department of justice to really phase private prisons out and i think it's really interesting that we're talking about this because a huge test is going to be coming for the biden administration tomorrow when we have the second hearing of h.r 40 and now that is a bill to essentially create and fund a commission to study reparations for black americans so that will be a very good test for the administration to see if they are going to advance and throw their weight and their support behind reparations this is something that we heard a lot of democrats talking democratic candidates talking about on the debate stages in the run-up to the presidential election so it'll be interesting to see how the biden-harris administration tackles this one piece of legislation that is incredibly controversial okay kristin don't go anywhere we want you to stay here and let's bring in mark morial he is the president of the national urban league and former mayor of new orleans thank you for joining us let's keep this simple because we heard at the beginning of kristen's report the statement that joe biden the president did say which is i've got your back in the united states are we hearing from people who represent the uh the black community and does he have their back are they saying yes so far so good so i am always reluctant to judge after only 30 days 30 days in the course of a four-year administration is an important period of time but right now key cabinet officers who will be essential to executing the agenda we'd like to see at justice at hud and labor have not yet been confirmed and so the early steps that have been taken in a 30-day period on uh if you will racial justice i think are as important as any steps taken by any president in modern history to try to reverse at least begin to reverse the substantial damage that the trump administration has done one executive order that hasn't gotten as much attention is executive order that requires every single department uh within the next 200 days to identify disparities and policies procedures and programs and report back if you will to the white house and i think that's important because it will create a more detailed road map on how you purge the bureaucracy of the united states government from the long standing after effects of uh of slavery and segregation and how you really began to make progress when it comes to racial justice so i think there have been some important steps i've paid close attention to the appointments because i think uh in administration long term i think personnel decisions are very important to what the policies ultimately are and how they are followed through on uh and marcia fudge i give high marks to susan rice of course i give high marks to uh cedric richmond high marks two right lloyd austin high mark stu for example and there are many many others but i uh i can't to be candid offer a meaningful assessment 30 days in except to say that the early moves i think are decisive right so mark i want to broaden this out just a little bit because the president uh the executive branch is is not the law making branch that's really left up to congress uh i'm wondering what moves you think that bidet or what policy moves uh should the biden administration be supporting that you would like to see coming out of congress so initially we want to see this covet bill pass this covic bill is important to black and brown people enhanced unemployment uh checks uh that will go to probably two-thirds of all black families uh in the united states support for cities many cities are run by black and brown democratic elected officials today in america uh we want to see covet pass we want to see a broad economic infrastructure pass we want to see the george floyd justice and policing bill passed not only through the house but to the senate and get the president's uh if you will signature those are to name a few we want to see a voting rights act advancement bill h.r

4 be adopted because we've got to take aggressive steps to end this mass if you will movement to suppress the vote and repress people's right to participate in democracy so there are a number of things we want to see through a closely divided congress in the united states but i think you're going to hear the voices of activists civil rights leaders of people across the board embrace the agenda that i just outlined that's the legislative agenda that i think is so important for this year mark you mentioned uh marcia fudge uh earlier i want to play a recent comment that we've gotten from her the hud nominee marcia fudge let's listen to what she had to say when she was defining equality versus equity where most people who are not that don't look like me have options that i do not have so just to say you treat us all the same it's not the same equity means making the the playing field level sometimes it's not level if you just say let's just treat everybody mark i'd love just to get your comments on that and then also just what we've heard from the biden administration taking it a step further from from kristen's question we got the news out today that the biden administration is extending the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums until at least june is that enough or does more need to be done on that front i think more may need to be done but in extension through june i think these extensions tend to take place in increments uh and uh an extension through june i think we get a further extension if it was needed and necessary and in all likelihood it will here's the most important thing about equity equity is is talks equity equity refers to systematic change change in the systems the systems of government the systems of institution the baked in a racial uh if you will exclusion and discrimination uh and and equity is is sometimes a difficult concept for people to embrace or get their get their collective arms around but it is an essential element as we understand that now 50 years after the civil rights act of 1964 where we had a broad commitment to equality and equal treatment it has not necessarily yielded in america which is indeed equal because we've got to deal with systematic change and that systematic change i think can take place with presidential leadership and presidential leadership can begin that change at the departments of government and and this is perhaps the best analogy i would use if uh you and i both each had a glass of water mine was half full and yours was a third full and we each were given a cup of water i could say i just gave each of you an equal cup of water but my glass has more water than your glass and it will always have more water than your glass unless i figure out a way to give your glass additional water to make up for the long-standing differences that's what equity means mark morial it's always great to have you on yahoo finance we really appreciate you taking the time we have so much more that we would like to talk to you about so we're looking forward to having you back soon again mark mouriel the president of the national urban league and also former mayor of new orleans thanks to you and our thanks to kristen myers as well well coming up a shot in the arm of the u.s economy can the federal reserve continue its spending spree we're going to talk to former fed governor randall krosner he joins us next we'll be right back [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back to yahoo finances special presentation of the biden presidency the first 100 days as our country struggles to face tough economic conditions and record unemployment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic the federal reserve says it plans to keep interest rates near zero while continuing to expand its balance sheet but at what point perhaps would the central bank run out of ammunition the quivers that are the arrows in its quiver to help us answer that question we're joined now by randall krosner who is a former governor of the federal reserve and a member of president bush's council of economic advisers thank you for joining us and very simply it's not just the federal reserve it's also congress and in both cases something you said it was about fiscal spending but would also apply to monetary policy you said quote it's not just about spending more it's about where is the best bang for your buck so with the fed where's the best bang for the buck i think it's really important to consider that people keep just talking about a number they want 1.9 or just some particular number and it really have to think about where are you training that that that fire power and what is going to be the return to it you have to worry about the return because at some point debts have to be repaid we think about the burdens that we're putting on our future generations so for the fed i think they are providing a lot of liquidity to the system which is extremely important to make sure that the markets function appropriately that they continue to to be liquid and and function well and i think right now uh they're in a good position to continue to do that i don't think they need to do anything any radical changes in the short run randall you mentioned the debt and i want to get your thoughts a little bit more about that because that's the big debate right whether or not the debt that we are racking up matters how should we be looking at this and i guess at what point should we start to worry about the debt well i think we've we have seen the longer term interest rates start to move up it was below 1 and now it's about uh 1.3 that's still low by historical standards for sure but we do have to take into account the markets are starting to become a little bit concerned about uh more borrowing and that's understandable because we spent 50 percent of gdp back in march and april of of last year we spent almost another five percent of gdp at the end of last year or legislated for that that has been spent over the next the last month or so and so there's a question of well what is another um 10 of gdp going to bias right now when you asked where should we be focusing this i think it really should be focused on uh health issues i think that's really the key making sure that children can safely get back into school that's a very important long-term investment that has very good very good payoff i think making sure that we have enough vaccines and the vaccines are rolled out as quickly as possible to people really focusing on those which at the moment are not that expensive there's nothing close to two trillion dollars but i think would have an enormous bank per buck in saving lives and saving livelihoods you've also said and it was just january there was a conference through the university of chicago where you are an associate dean um that the fed will need to continue to provide support because it's more than there's that mandate about employment but it's more than just creating jobs or moving people from one sector to another can you help us understand what that looks like in reality sure and so as i said before they're providing liquidity to the system to make sure that basically the plumbing is working it's stuff that's really in the background and it's just like in your house you know you normally don't really think much about your plumbing but if it backs up it's a problem and the house it it becomes uninhabitable and it's that's the same thing for the economy if the uh if the basic plumbing of the financial system doesn't work that's problematic so i think it's really important for the fed to continue to provide that support for the uh for uh smooth functioning of the financial system to make sure that resources can be uh be allocated around to where they're uh they're needed not needed most and but the challenge is that the fed in and of itself can't create the jobs or create the spending if there is lockdown if people are afraid to go out uh if the the virus is causing all sorts of tragic challenges for for individual households regardless of how much liquidity they provide regardless how low interest rates are that is not going to allow us to recover we really have to get into the fundamentals of make sure that we can get the virus under control that we can rebuild confidence and then the liquidity support that the fed is providing the low interest rates the pre feder is providing can then provide the foundation for investment for growth uh for consumption we also have president biden he's pushing a 15 minimum wage lots of talk about the impact of this what do you think the economic impact of this would potentially be well it really depends where you are in the country because in some areas effectively the minimum wage is not very far from 15 an hour in some so large cities let's say like new york and los angeles it probably wouldn't have an enormous impact because wages are close to that but in other areas the country where wages tend to be lower um it's likely to have much more of an impact it's likely to uh to make it more difficult to create as many jobs um also it tends to raise prices in the uh in the areas that use a lot of minimum wage labor so that's in the fast food industry surprises tend to to move up a little so i think it really depends where you are in the country and i think the key thing now is to get people back to work um and then we can think about um whether the the minimum wage um uh should be should be moved up over time but i think right now we really want to get people back back to work and uh and requiring a very high minimum wage at least in some parts of the country may make that more difficult certainly makes sense with just around 10 million americans unemployed at this point randall krosner thanks so much for taking the time to join us today straight ahead the white house's strategy to defeat the pandemic how the federal government's approach has changed under president biden we'll be right back [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back the white house says it will distribute more than 13 million doses of coronavirus vaccine each week many of those uh vaccines will go to directly to retail pharmacies like cvs and walgreens now according to the cdc the us has administered more than 50 million doses of the vaccine so far but that's still a long way to go in a country with 330 million people let's bring in yahoo finances anjali kamlani and so where do we stand on the vaccine roll out how soon will the rest of us be able to get one well adam it looks like we're still going to have to wait just a little bit longer we know that uh these states are going uh independently through the priority groups that were set by the cdc uh we also know you know for example in some states uh k through 12 teachers still aren't allowed to get that vaccination but to your point yes we have seen that increase of those doses being rolled out we also know that from the companies themselves moderna and pfizer they have said that they're ramping up production moderna specifically out with an update today saying that it's going to be able to reach that 100 million dose mark a month ahead of time in may instead of june and then the additional rollout of 100 million doses by july instead of september so really seeing that pickup in pace uh from the rollout from the production line itself as well as we know that uh the biden administration has been focusing on a new a number of things such as uh making sure that fema is now involved they've earmarked three billion dollars for sending up sites and hiring vaccine administrators the department of defense is involved having sent out about a thousand active military officers military members out to get those uh vaccinations done also looking at a vacuum vaccine equity i tried to squeeze those two words together there vaccine equity and including federal health qualified centers and that is a community health centers that are going to be roped in to also get those vaccines directly and get those uh doses out to communities that are hard to reach including for retail pharmacy so really a lot of effort going into this and we know that part of that 1.9 trillion package that vine is going after it also includes uh increase in testing which is something that we also need in order to help reopen the economy angela you mentioned that vaccine a timeline just just a few moments ago i want to play a quick sound break from president biden what he had to say just in terms of what we can expect over the next couple of weeks and months we're now on track to have enough supply for 300 million americans by the end of july it may not sound like the urgent progress we need but let's be clear when i took office just three weeks ago this country did not have a plan or enough vaccines or people to vaccinate americans andre we also heard from dr fauci today saying that the delay of the timeline for widespread vaccine availability will now be may i'm curious you talk to health experts you talk to doctors all the time what are the biggest logistical challenges and the potential headwinds here that stand that stand between now and what we could be seeing in july i think it is one of the things that actually the administration is hoping to address and that is the the people that are needed in order to help make this more widespread so they're working on the supply issue right uh which we know it includes uh you know many raw materials or things like that that the companies need access to and through leveraging um or leveraging the the federal sort of weight and also through the defense production act they're able to get that done and make sure that these companies get priority but also looking to hire more public health individuals to work in the various states within the federal government as well and make sure that the rollouts can in fact reach your everyday individual we also know that there's talk about bringing in major tech companies like amazon it has confirmed that they're working with the administration facebook google and airbnb have also been in conversation uh so it seems to be a multi sort of multi-layer issue where it's a technology issue or just making sure that each person that has a role to play is in fact given the resources that they need to be able to make this happen hey anjali kamlani thanks so much well president biden certainly has a lot on his plate in the weeks and the months to come we want to bring back in yahoo finances jessica smith because she is here with a preview of what we can expect and just when we talk about the next 25 days for president biden what do you think that's going to look like well we're clearly going to be talking about the pandemic in the next 25 days so how is that vaccine rollout going are schools opening up the biden administration has set benchmarks for those areas so we'll see if they are able to to make those goals we'll also be looking at the coveted relief bill are democrats able to get this through with probably just democratic support and what measures are actually going to end up in the final bill the minimum wage proposal that president biden has wanted to see is going to be a tough sell he's admitted that it is probably unlikely so we'll see what provisions they are able to actually get into the final piece of legislation and now that the impeachment trial is wrapped up congress can really focus on president biden's legislative agenda we also know that the president wants a recovery package so that would be focused on infrastructure and clean energy jobs biden is already starting conversations with lawmakers about infrastructure this has been an area where for so many years people have said there needs to be bipartisan support that it should be something that republicans and democrats can easily work on together we'll see if president biden is able to actually make that happen and then another area i'll be watching is immigration president biden is planning on unveiling an immigration bill sometime soon maybe as soon as this week that is another thing that past administrations just have not been able to get done so we'll be watching to see if he can find any common ground on that issue as well jessica smith thank you very much and we will keep watching what happens as the biden administration moves forward towards its uh final 100 days of this first beginning thank you all for joining us we're going to see you back here on march 11th for what will be the midpoint of the first 100 days and we're going to be covering all the twists and turns right here on yahoo finance live every day have a great evening [Music] foreign

2021-02-20 10:23

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