Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Wall Street Week. What's the state of
Speaker 1: corporate governance? The deficit is a real issue. The US
Speaker 1: economy continues to send mixed signals to the financial stories
Speaker 1: that keep our world fed, action to con concerns over
Speaker 1: dollar liquidity, and encouraging China data. The five hundred wealthiest
Speaker 1: people in the world. Through the eyes of the most
Speaker 1: influential voices Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary, star Ward, CEO,
Speaker 1: Kevin Johnson, sec Chairman j Clayton, Bloomberg wool Street Week
Speaker 1: with David Weston from Bloomberg Radio Global. Wall Street spent
Speaker 1: at least part of this week focused on the presidential election,
Speaker 1: with the nomination of Joe Biden for president and Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris for vice president. As we all try to come
Speaker 1: to terms with what a Biden administration would mean for
Speaker 1: the economy, for business, and for the markets. So this
Speaker 1: week we have a special edition of Wall Street Week,
Speaker 1: one given over to the basic question of how a
Speaker 1: President Biden would handle the key issues the economy, taxes,
Speaker 1: climate and energy, healthcare, and foreign relations. This is our
Speaker 1: moment to make hope and history rhyme with passion and purpose.
Speaker 1: Let us begin, You and I together, one nation under God.
Speaker 1: You nine our love for America, united in our love
Speaker 1: for each other. Democratic nominee Joe Biden has big plans,
Speaker 1: and he's not afraid of paying for them with taxes.
Speaker 1: He plans to raise the top tax rate on individual
Speaker 1: income to just under for those earning over four dollars
Speaker 1: a year, with the top one percent of households bearing
Speaker 1: three quarters of that burden. Capital gains taxes would also
Speaker 1: go up to thirty nine point six percent for those
Speaker 1: with an income of over one million dollars a year.
Speaker 1: President Trump, on the other hand, says he is considering
Speaker 1: cutting that rate. The Democratic nominees plans also mean big
Speaker 1: changes for some of the most profitable companies. Biden plans
Speaker 1: to raise the corporate tax rate to percent and impose
Speaker 1: a fifteen percent minimum tax on profits reported to shareholders.
Speaker 1: I asked Ever Corps co chairman and co CEO Rolph
Speaker 1: Schlastein what the Biden Harris proposals would mean for the
Speaker 1: investment banking business. Look, I think, uh, we've had a
Speaker 1: pretty irresponsible fiscal policy prior to uh, the beginning of
Speaker 1: the COVID pandemic. We had it literally a trillion dollar
Speaker 1: budget deficit at three and a half percent unemployment, which
Speaker 1: I think is a truly irresponsible policy. If you look
Speaker 1: at the share of GDP that has gone to federal taxes,
Speaker 1: it's the client steadily from about nineteen and a half
Speaker 1: percent to sixteen and a half percent, which in my
Speaker 1: view is inadequate to take care of the basic needs
Speaker 1: that we have in government, which is why we were
Speaker 1: running larger deficits. So I think what we'll find in
Speaker 1: the Biden administration is uh, perhaps a commitment to a
Speaker 1: little more of a commitment to things like health care
Speaker 1: and education and we've seen in the current administration, but
Speaker 1: very importantly UH and certainly a big commitment to infrastructure,
Speaker 1: but very importantly UH, a willingness to pay for those
Speaker 1: commitments so that we're not saddling our children and our
Speaker 1: grandchildren with unacceptable debts. So so well, I think everyone
Speaker 1: pretty much agrees we have needed to spend money, and
Speaker 1: that means borrow money. Given the real crisis in the
Speaker 1: economy right now, we're taking a look at a cliffhanger
Speaker 1: here with fiscal stimulus. As we thought we were going
Speaker 1: to get something by August one, we now are looking
Speaker 1: at September. What is it kindom gonna look like by
Speaker 1: of every third whoever wins the election. Well, the economy
Speaker 1: is uh, it's gonna be in recovery, but unemployment is
Speaker 1: still gonna be by far unacceptably high, UH, probably one
Speaker 1: side or the other of nine or ten. UH. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna need to have a continued stimulus. Think the
Speaker 1: plan that is hopefully at some point will be compromised
Speaker 1: between the the Democrats and the White House and the
Speaker 1: Republicans in the Congress is needed for sure. But once
Speaker 1: we get on the path of recovery, and that will
Speaker 1: not be really fully done until we have a widely
Speaker 1: available vaccine UH and widely available therapeutics because until then
Speaker 1: people will be fearful of returning a hundred percent to
Speaker 1: their lives prior to this. But once we have that,
Speaker 1: we need to UH provide more resources through the government.
Speaker 1: And I think Biden has a very intelligent UH tax plan,
Speaker 1: part of which is simply reversing some of but not
Speaker 1: all of and certainly the most irresponsible parts of the
Speaker 1: Trump tax cuts UH. And also and and paying for
Speaker 1: the investment that we so strongly need in this country.
Speaker 1: So we'll pick up on that road and go to
Speaker 1: your business quite specifically. I mean, you guys are the
Speaker 1: investment bankers, park salons. Did you see an uptick in
Speaker 1: business when the rate went down so far for corporations
Speaker 1: and then on the flip side if it went back
Speaker 1: up to which is what Vice President finals talking about,
Speaker 1: would that hurt your business? Uh? I think really neither
Speaker 1: an uptick nor a downtick. And let me explain why
Speaker 1: all the corporate rate does uh? Is it? Uh? Basically
Speaker 1: redraws a little bit the line between of the pre
Speaker 1: tax earnings what goes to shareholders and what goes to
Speaker 1: the government. We had a policy that thirty five percent
Speaker 1: went to the government and went to shareholders. Uh. That
Speaker 1: was quite honestly out of step and non competitive with
Speaker 1: the rest to the world. I think the generally the
Speaker 1: majority of the world, the developed world, is in the
Speaker 1: range uh. You know, so where percent of the pre
Speaker 1: tax profits go to the government and the rest go
Speaker 1: to shareholders. That's important because we don't want to lose
Speaker 1: businesses domiciling in the United States because they perceived, relative
Speaker 1: to other countries that too much of their pretax earnings
Speaker 1: are being taken by government. We're probably out of step
Speaker 1: a little bit with all but the tax havens. UH.
Speaker 1: In the other direction, that was Ralph Slawstein of ever Corps.
Speaker 1: Coming off the cost of clean energy. We talked to
Speaker 1: a former presidential candidate, Tom Stire about Joe Biden's climate plans.
Speaker 1: That's next on Wall Street Week on Blueboad. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Wall Street Week with David Weston from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Democratic nominee Joe Biden plans to spend two trillion dollars
Speaker 1: over four years on clean energy and rejoined in the
Speaker 1: Paris Climate Agreement is at the top of his list.
Speaker 1: We can and we will deal with climate change. It's
Speaker 1: not only a crisis, it's an enormous opportunity, an opportunity
Speaker 1: for America to lead the world and clean energy. His
Speaker 1: extensive plan calls for the eliminating of all carbon emissions
Speaker 1: in the production of electricity for the power grid, by
Speaker 1: then pressing on to reach net zero emissions overall by
Speaker 1: The biggest emitters of c O two today are China,
Speaker 1: the United States, and the European Union, and presidential candidate
Speaker 1: Biden says clean energy policies will create jobs, including ten
Speaker 1: million union jobs and one million new jobs in the
Speaker 1: auto industry. The Biden plan does not ban tracking or
Speaker 1: rule out nuclear power and other technologies that have divided
Speaker 1: environmental advocates. Tom star Are, founder of next Gen America
Speaker 1: and former Democratic presidential candidate, put climate change at the
Speaker 1: heart of his policies during his candidacy. I asked him
Speaker 1: whether Democrats can unite behind Biden's climate plans. You know,
Speaker 1: it is a plan that deals very aggressively with our
Speaker 1: need to change our climate affecting energy policies, but it
Speaker 1: is also an environmental justice program at its heart, putting
Speaker 1: the clean air and clean water in underserved black and
Speaker 1: brown communities at the very heart of the program. And
Speaker 1: it is also a huge union jobs program across America
Speaker 1: because we need to rebuild this country in a sustainable
Speaker 1: and resilient fashion. So I think what they're talking about
Speaker 1: in healthcare, I think what they're talking about in terms
Speaker 1: of climate is a broad based change, a transformative change
Speaker 1: in America to get us back on track in every
Speaker 1: way and to pull us together. And that's why I
Speaker 1: think that's what you're gonna see over four days. You're
Speaker 1: gonna see the party come together, and you're going to
Speaker 1: see excitement around the idea that we can change and
Speaker 1: be effective and move forward together. I'm very excited about
Speaker 1: it myself. So Tom, you've been on the subject of
Speaker 1: climate for a good long time. I mean, you really
Speaker 1: are an expert in this area. And I take your
Speaker 1: point about the plan. How's it gonna plan in Pennsylvania?
Speaker 1: Just to pick a state which is a key battleground state,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of concern, for example, about eliminating fracking.
Speaker 1: What this plan does is it's aggressive about a goal
Speaker 1: for creating clean energy, clean electricity generation by But what
Speaker 1: it's gonna do is it recognizes that's really aggressive and
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to get going on day one. But
Speaker 1: we're also look I said, Joe Biden leads with his heart.
Speaker 1: He leads with his heart. He cares about people, and
Speaker 1: he specifically has his heart and soul in the working
Speaker 1: people and working families of America. So he is going
Speaker 1: to make sure that he takes care of union members
Speaker 1: who are working in industries that can decline or are
Speaker 1: going to decline. And I think that's absolutely front and center.
Speaker 1: I've heard him talk about this numerous times, and he
Speaker 1: never doesn't say that and It's something that is absolutely
Speaker 1: front and center for him. And that's why the head
Speaker 1: of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Lonnie Stevenson, who
Speaker 1: heads the biggest energy union in the country, is strongly
Speaker 1: supporting the Biden Harris ticket because he knows that they
Speaker 1: are going to create millions of union jobs and are
Speaker 1: going to take care of union workers in declining industries.
Speaker 1: And that's not a promise, a you know, end of
Speaker 1: the story promise. Oh yeah, we'll do that too. That's
Speaker 1: front and center in who Joe Biden is and where
Speaker 1: his heart is, and people can believe it because it's true.
Speaker 1: Tom This election looks to be different from prior elections
Speaker 1: in all sorts of ways, but one of them just
Speaker 1: as the way we vote. And there's the dispute right
Speaker 1: now over the postal service. You've been very active at
Speaker 1: getting younger voters out with your Next Gen America project.
Speaker 1: At the same time, it's gonna be harder to do
Speaker 1: that on college campuses this time. How does it change
Speaker 1: your efforts? Well, David, next Gen America is the largest
Speaker 1: youth voter mobilization effort in American history. It's eight years old,
Speaker 1: and you're right in ten in the midterm elections. Next
Speaker 1: Gen was on over four hundred and twenty college campuses,
Speaker 1: including specifically community colleges and historically black colleges and universities.
Speaker 1: We're on zero today. We went a hundred percent virtual
Speaker 1: on March ten because of the coronavirus. We believe that
Speaker 1: our virtual organizing of people between eighteen and thirty five
Speaker 1: will be more effective than we've ever been. We believe
Speaker 1: and I personally believe, and that's why I started next Yet,
Speaker 1: young people voted at half the rate of other American citizens.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest generation in American history. It's the most
Speaker 1: diverse generation in American history. We believe they have the
Speaker 1: power to trans form this country with their voices and
Speaker 1: their votes, and we've been trying to give them the
Speaker 1: tools to do just that. And I believe is going
Speaker 1: to be the year when they show up in a
Speaker 1: way that nobody expects and absolutely we're gonna see a
Speaker 1: youth turnout that beats history, historical records, and absolutely transforms
Speaker 1: our politics. That's what I'm hoping for, That's what I
Speaker 1: believe in, That's what next Gen works for every single day,
Speaker 1: and I think that they're going to behind be behind
Speaker 1: the Biden Harris ticket in a huge way. And we're
Speaker 1: going to see something on November four that we've never
Speaker 1: seen before, which is a transformation of American society in
Speaker 1: a completely good way. Tom will those young voters are,
Speaker 1: for that matter, voters across the entire country. Will they
Speaker 1: turn out physically or will they mail on their ballots?
Speaker 1: And what does the Democratic Party do in a situation
Speaker 1: where apparently there's increased confusion not clarity over the way
Speaker 1: our votes will be counted. I think that's overwhelmingly it's
Speaker 1: going to be vote by mail, David. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's any question about that. I think that we're gonna
Speaker 1: people are gonna have to make sure they do it.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to be careful about it. A lot
Speaker 1: of this is going to be making sure that you
Speaker 1: put your vote in a position where it for sure
Speaker 1: is going to get counted. And I know the President
Speaker 1: is muddying the water and is trying to do things
Speaker 1: to suppress the vote, obviously, but I believe the American
Speaker 1: people are smart. I believe will be organized amongst ourselves.
Speaker 1: The Democratic Party, for sure, we'll be trying to make
Speaker 1: sure that we have a democracy. A democracy, the first
Speaker 1: right in a democracy is for every citizen's equal right
Speaker 1: to vote. To take that away is shameful and it's
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. The American people are going to be
Speaker 1: organized and we're gonna show up. We're going to take
Speaker 1: back the country, and our votes are going to get counted.
Speaker 1: That was Tom Steyer, former Democratic presidential candidate, coming up
Speaker 1: settling the healthcare debate within the Democratic Party. We talked
Speaker 1: to former HHS Secretary Kathleen Civilius about the evolution of
Speaker 1: Biden's healthcare plan. That's next on Wall Street Week on Blindoing.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Wall Street Week with David Weston from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Healthcare policy has long been a centerpiece for Democrats,
Speaker 1: even if they don't always agree on what to do
Speaker 1: about it. Joe Biden was central to former President Obama's
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Acts, signed into law on March. If elected
Speaker 1: Democratic nominee, Biden plans to build on the A c A.
Speaker 1: The assault on the Affordable Care Act will continue until
Speaker 1: it's destroyed, taking the insurance away from more than twenty
Speaker 1: million people, including more than fifteen million people on Medicaid.
Speaker 1: During the primary season, Progressive Democrats like Senator Bernie Sanders
Speaker 1: pushed for an alternative Medicare for all. Joe Biden's plan
Speaker 1: stopped short of that, while protecting those with pre existing
Speaker 1: conditions and providing a Medicare like public insurance option. In
Speaker 1: an effort to lower drug prices, Biden's plan would repeal
Speaker 1: the current law that bands met to Care from negotiating
Speaker 1: lower prices with drug manufacturers and would limit price increases
Speaker 1: for brand and generic drugs. Kathleen Sebelius served as the
Speaker 1: HHS Secretary under President Obama and implemented the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 1: I asked her about the approach the Democratic Party is
Speaker 1: taking toward health care policy. Well, David, it's good to
Speaker 1: be with you, and I think that what you're seeing
Speaker 1: is sort of an evolving approach that's likely to continue
Speaker 1: to evolve, which is good news. Um, there is a
Speaker 1: unifying principle of the Democratic Party that we saw in
Speaker 1: the last fifty years, which is a belief that all
Speaker 1: Americans deserve a right to healthcare. And so medicate and
Speaker 1: Medicare were passed, the Children's Health Insurance was passed, the
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act was pasted, all with Democratic presidents putting
Speaker 1: a stake in the ground to move further and further
Speaker 1: towards universal coverage. I think we're continuing that journey. The
Speaker 1: campaign basically the primaries halted with covid in in March,
Speaker 1: and the Biden campaign had staked out a improvement of
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act of solidifying a lot of the
Speaker 1: issues that the Trump administration has eroded in the last
Speaker 1: three years. Even though they couldn't uh managed to repeal
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act, which was one of Trump's promises,
Speaker 1: they have definitely cut it with a thousand knives um
Speaker 1: and he also I think staked out a very robust
Speaker 1: public option plan, lower priced, lower administrative cost option for
Speaker 1: people to choose in the marketplaces, and a lower age
Speaker 1: for Medicare recipients to be able to sign onto Medicare,
Speaker 1: moving the age from sixty five to sixty. So that
Speaker 1: was the position in March. Um As you say, for me,
Speaker 1: Sanders had a Medicare for All war and supported that.
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris was longer transition but eventually ending up with
Speaker 1: Medicare for All. Now what we have is a pretty
Speaker 1: robust Biden plan. On the website, you have a unity document,
Speaker 1: which is the Sanders delegates and representatives of Joe Biden's
Speaker 1: health policy team meeting over a series of times. I'm
Speaker 1: putting out some proposals that I would say move even
Speaker 1: further um down the road on a plan for universal
Speaker 1: coverage and particularly pay attention to the millions of people
Speaker 1: who have lost coverage because of COVID nineteen. People lose
Speaker 1: their jobs and they've lost health care. There are states
Speaker 1: that still have refused to expand Medicaid and they are
Speaker 1: still not in huddle to any benefits. So there are
Speaker 1: plans to again take their careful look at at where
Speaker 1: we are at the time that the new president has
Speaker 1: worn in and move as quickly as possible toward not
Speaker 1: only filling in those gaps, but I think having a
Speaker 1: robust public option and looking at ways that the individuals
Speaker 1: who live in states where the politics are preventing people
Speaker 1: from getting affordable healthcare, they would have a very affordable options.
Speaker 1: Do we know how much this will all cost to
Speaker 1: really buttress Obamacare and move towards make care for all?
Speaker 1: Are we putting any costs against that and how we're
Speaker 1: gonna pay for it? Well, I think there are a
Speaker 1: whole variety of proposals again that we're during the course
Speaker 1: of the primary that talk about closing some of the
Speaker 1: tax loopholes, moving UM some of the financial issues that
Speaker 1: are currently in the private sector into the public sector.
Speaker 1: But I think one of the things David, that I
Speaker 1: would love to see us do as a country, and
Speaker 1: certainly some of the actuaries do. We all we talk
Speaker 1: about cost as if it's a net zero game, that
Speaker 1: if we ensure more people in America, it will cost
Speaker 1: x amount. What we don't ever do is say how
Speaker 1: much it costs if we don't move in that direction,
Speaker 1: if we leave large portions of our population uninsured or underinsured,
Speaker 1: what is the cost of that. I think what we're
Speaker 1: seeing with COVID nineteen and the miserable way this administration
Speaker 1: has handled this response is there is an enormous cost
Speaker 1: UH in productivity of our communities in um the opportunity
Speaker 1: for our economy need to move forward if we don't
Speaker 1: get health care right. That was former HHS Secretary Kathleen
Speaker 1: Sibilius coming up dealing with an economy hit by COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: Former Treasury secretary and Wall Street. We contributed to Larry
Speaker 1: Summers talks about what the economy might look like under
Speaker 1: a Biden Harris administration. That's next on Wall Street Week
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Wall Street Week with David
Speaker 1: Weston from Bloomberg Radio. More than fifty million people of
Speaker 1: file for unemployment this year. More than ten million people
Speaker 1: are gonna lose their health insurance this year. Nearly one
Speaker 1: in six small businesses have closed this year. This election year,
Speaker 1: the economy is taking on new importance as the country
Speaker 1: struggles to return to work and reopen schools. Former Treasury
Speaker 1: secretary in Wall Street Week contributed Larry Summers has made
Speaker 1: no secret of his support for Joe Biden's proposals. We'd
Speaker 1: be competent again, and we'd care again. We'd have a
Speaker 1: government that could carry out basic functions based on expertise
Speaker 1: like all other countries do. We'd have tests that came
Speaker 1: back in less than two weeks. We'd have masks for
Speaker 1: everyone who needed them. We'd have federal government helping uh
Speaker 1: the States. We'd have um a system that worked. We
Speaker 1: wouldn't insult um and alienate our allies around the world.
Speaker 1: We'd be basically competent in the work of government. Whether
Speaker 1: you had a conservative or whether you had a progressive ideology,
Speaker 1: and we'd care. We would care about a country that
Speaker 1: was still divided by race. We would care about middle
Speaker 1: class people who literally weren't able to feed their kids
Speaker 1: because they lost their jobs because of pandemic. We would
Speaker 1: be fighting to protect people who were unemployed rather than
Speaker 1: to slash their benefits. We would be fighting to protect
Speaker 1: the ability of teachers to go a school in safe ways,
Speaker 1: rather than slashing the budget for UH schools. It's really
Speaker 1: not very complicated, and fundamentally it's about values that are
Speaker 1: pretty universal. Nobody's against being competent, nobody's against caring for
Speaker 1: all Americans, and those are the things we've lost, and
Speaker 1: those are the things that Joe Biden has been fighting
Speaker 1: for for forty some years in public life. Hilarious. Some
Speaker 1: people you know and I know who are investors, who
Speaker 1: are on Wall Street, who are in business, might say
Speaker 1: competence is great, caring is great. At the same time,
Speaker 1: we need real growth and the priorities are wrong for
Speaker 1: Joe Biden because at least Donald Trump put as a
Speaker 1: priorities growth of the economy. We need that growth. Can
Speaker 1: Joe Biden bring that back with his competence and his caring. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we should start with this. If you look
Speaker 1: consistently for fifty years, sixty years, actually, democratic administrations produced
Speaker 1: more rapid growth in media and family incomes. Democratic administrations
Speaker 1: produced more rapid growth in real wages. Democratic administrations produced
Speaker 1: lower unemployment. Now you might say that's because they don't
Speaker 1: care about business, But here's the thing, because building from
Speaker 1: the middle out is the economic strategy that works. Democratic
Speaker 1: administrations produced more rapid growth in corporate profits. Democratic administrations
Speaker 1: produced better returns for stock market investors. That pattern was
Speaker 1: first pointed out three decades ago, and it's continued to
Speaker 1: be true over the subsequent uh three decades, and that
Speaker 1: will be true with a Biden presidency. Certainly, we're not
Speaker 1: looking at a strong period for American business with the
Speaker 1: profit figures we're seeing right now, or a strong period
Speaker 1: for American labor with the unemployment figures that uh we're
Speaker 1: seeing uh right now. So we're gonna see an economic
Speaker 1: strategy that enables the United States to compete when we
Speaker 1: alienate every other country in the world. Talking about steel
Speaker 1: tariffs on Canada, for national security reasons, we are putting
Speaker 1: it to American exports and putting it to American business.
Speaker 1: And so the way to help the economy, the way
Speaker 1: to rescue from problems that have been made by the
Speaker 1: other administration is George Bill Clinton turned around the mass
Speaker 1: that he had inherited. Barack Obama turned around a mess
Speaker 1: that he inherited. Jimmy Carter inherited a recession. John Kennedy
Speaker 1: inherited a recession. A commitment to policies that expand the
Speaker 1: economy from the middle out, going back to f DR
Speaker 1: that has been uh the commitment of Democratic presidents, and
Speaker 1: Joe Biden will be in that tradition, and the historical
Speaker 1: evidence is that it works. And the historical evidence is
Speaker 1: that the trickle down short status short effort to reduce
Speaker 1: the taxes of big donors doesn't work. It produces stock
Speaker 1: market bubbles that ultimately implode and lead to grave recessions.
Speaker 1: And that's not the right econom strategy for our country. Larry,
Speaker 1: help us understand if you can one aspect about Joe
Speaker 1: Biden's plans. He has some very robust plans where it
Speaker 1: comes to the climate, infrastructure, education, which will cost the
Speaker 1: fair amount of money which he owns up to and
Speaker 1: he talks about taxes the Texas on corporations, Texas on
Speaker 1: some wealthy individuals to pay for that. At the same time,
Speaker 1: he says that we have to be careful at taxes
Speaker 1: depending on where the economy is. Give us a sense
Speaker 1: of the sequencing here. Is this gonna be borrowing money
Speaker 1: until we can afford actually to raise the taxes or
Speaker 1: will there be taxes from day one? That that's for
Speaker 1: a President Biden to declare and Congress to legislate, and
Speaker 1: the answers will depend on where we where the economy
Speaker 1: UH is at the time. I'll tell you, though, David,
Speaker 1: I don't think a sturdy economics is the answer in
Speaker 1: this moment. We're about to get a huge demonstration of
Speaker 1: that from the huge fiscal cliff the country is about
Speaker 1: to go over because the Republicans wouldn't negotiate with UH
Speaker 1: the Democrats. If we invest in our future, that is
Speaker 1: taking a burden off my children. It is taking a
Speaker 1: burden off your children. You know, the interest right after
Speaker 1: correcting for inflation, is negative. It's below zero in the
Speaker 1: United States right now. But when we defer maintenance on
Speaker 1: our nation's roads, when Leah allow our children to lose
Speaker 1: intelligence because they have to drink in the water when
Speaker 1: it takes longer to fly from Boston to Washington than
Speaker 1: it did fifty years ago because we've screwed up our
Speaker 1: air traffic control system. When we make those non investments,
Speaker 1: when we allow those infrastructure deficits, they compound to burden
Speaker 1: our children much more than some accumulation of paper debt.
Speaker 1: So yes, we've got to make the right choices about
Speaker 1: borrowing money and how much to borrow now, and what
Speaker 1: ways we should tax those with the highest income. But
Speaker 1: that's not the important deficit we have in our country.
Speaker 1: The important deficity we have in our country is that
Speaker 1: we somehow decided we couldn't afford to invest in having
Speaker 1: pandemic readiness, and we cut all those programs because people
Speaker 1: were fixated on the deficit. The important deficit in our
Speaker 1: country is we can't afford to buy tests, even though
Speaker 1: the benefit of each test that we give is probably
Speaker 1: over a thousand dollars in terms of the costs of UH,
Speaker 1: the pandemic and the disease UH that is UH that
Speaker 1: is prevented. Let's focus on the things that are most important,
Speaker 1: and they are not austerity economics. At a moment of
Speaker 1: zero interest rates. They are investing in UH the future,
Speaker 1: and that is what the Biden program is all about,
Speaker 1: along with making sure that everybody has a chance to
Speaker 1: share in that prosperity. Think about it. When it looks
Speaker 1: like the stock price of some companies might fail or
Speaker 1: they might not be able to issue debt at a
Speaker 1: low interest rate, we rush to the rescue with quantitative
Speaker 1: easy when unemployed people have hungry kids, Congress goes into
Speaker 1: recess with the enthusiasm of the President. It's not right,
Speaker 1: and it's not that hard UH to fix. The profoundly
Speaker 1: good news for a Biden administration amidst all the problems, David,
Speaker 1: is that there are huge amounts of low hanging fruit,
Speaker 1: whether it's in protecting the environment, whether it's in helping
Speaker 1: kids UH go to college, whether it's in fixing health insurance,
Speaker 1: whether it's in can you believe it, there were a
Speaker 1: hundred people with incomes of ten million dollars who didn't
Speaker 1: file any tax return and the I R S made
Speaker 1: no effort to go after them a few years ago.
Speaker 1: We as a country can do much better than that.
Speaker 1: All it takes is competency and caring. And that's what
Speaker 1: I think is uh the core of what this election
Speaker 1: is gonna be about. Do we want more government like
Speaker 1: the government we've had for the last four years, or
Speaker 1: do we want government is competent and cares. We had
Speaker 1: pandemics and epidemics four years ago, Ebola, it's one and one.
Speaker 1: They didn't change all our lives. That's what happens when
Speaker 1: you have competent government, and I think we can have
Speaker 1: it again. That was Larry Summers of Harvard. That does it.
Speaker 1: For this special edition of Wall Street Week, I'm David Weston.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. See you next week.