Thousand this year alone. I promised you a little cloak and dagger but let me set it up for you last year u. S. President donald trump famously said and i quote nobody knew health care was so complex well a lot of people that health care is complex and that may be one of the reasons why print the president has not repealed and replaced the Affordable Care act obamacare as he had sought but in fairness we live in an increasingly complex world for example the law that established our us Banking System in eight hundred sixty four was only twenty nine pages ill be speaking about the Federal Reserve in a few minutes and the Federal Reserve act of one nine hundred thirteen the entire thing was only thirty two pages but the wall street reform and Consumer Protection act of two thousand and ten commonly known as dodd frank a law i worked on in the wake of the financial collapse is eight hundred forty eight pages long and there are close to four hundred regulations related to that various agencies like the one where i served as commissioner were required to be promulgated a fancy word for right or draft. I worked on sixty five such rules and they were every one of them fairly complex but there is one rule in the Financial Sector that is about as straightforward as you can get its called the fiduciary rule and it is probably gated that word again by the Labor Department and it simply says that Money Managers who advise on plans like for a one case the Pension Plans put their clients interests their clients interests ahead of their own financial interests when recommending various Investment Products it simply directs Investment Advisors to put their clients interest first Pretty Simple right manage their money in a way that benefits them not the investor investment manager got it well now it gets really interesting so lets bring in the best person in the entire world to explain the cloak and dagger angle to this story bartlett nailer of Public Citizen who actually penned an opinion editorial in the New York Times on the fiduciary rule bartlet welcome back and the fiduciary rule as previously slated was to go into effect like now right january of twenty eighteen but that didnt happen when the Trump Administration came in they took some actions last year when you bring us up to speed from that point forward thats right this this rule was drafted over the course of a number of years and hundreds of if you will thousands of comments from from consumer groups from investor groups from from industry and in the final years of the Obama Administration it was to take effect basically beginning now or even before but through a series of executive orders by the Trump White House this rule has been delayed split into two parts one part actually did take effect beginning last spring but the essentially the enforcement of it has been delayed indefinitely really until another couple of years to come and. One of the things that they did when they blocked this was they also wanted to see comments right on what was going to happen and we have seen in the past on i know you follow this its not one of your key issues but you follow this like anybody Net Neutrality rule where they had all of these fakes i mean hundreds of thousands of fake comments by people that were either not alive or that they were their identities were actually hijacked and used to comment and its really unclear what was going on except for that it was nefarious but now it looks like thats happening with this Pretty Simple rule that says dont screw your customers so explain that and i think its worthwhile putting just slightly more color on what the fiduciary rule does if you will or so when an Investment Advisor gives you advice regarding your tax benefit plan ira for a one k. He might recommend something that pays him a Better Commission but at your expense and that drains Something Like seventeen billion dollars away from consumers when teen billion is not going to come year this is an estimate from the Obama Administrations Labor Department as they as they promulgated as they rolled this rule out now seventeen billion is a lot of money and im not sure thats the right figure but i know its a big figure because the lobbying on this was intense and it has apparently even spilled a little money as apparently even spilled into what were about to talk about with these fake comments. All kinds of lobbyists were hired all kinds of fake campaigns we can talk about the one that we uncovered at the chamber of commerce fabricating Small Businesses that that really werent commenting at all. When Congress Passes a law it leaves it to the regulatory agencies to change the basic principle of the law such as drive make the highways safe into specifics such as the speed limit around this curve is going to be forty miles an hour but to do that they invite comment from the public and arguably it informs commissioners such as yours that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to understand well industry really needs to go as fast as they can around this corner but you know this is also near a school and so the parents are saying my kids are crossing the street and so the regulators are supposed to come up with something thats Cost Effective for industry while also maximizing the benefits sort of this need on the bones of the law and theres always going to be a tension between between those two but arguably commissioners appointed by president s confirmed by the senate are going to responsibly come up with what they think is the right answer that Comment Period is what were talking about now and unfortunately through the internet people have begun to pollute this by filing in the case of the fiduciary rules Something Like four hundred thousand fake comments most of the one hundred thousand something holy cow that are against their will its pretty easy to file a comment its more comment bartlet than most rules would even get more comments and there are fake grounds and theyre there theyre generated i mean i dont know who did this you can obviously begin with who has motive but its possibly that its pranksters it may not be wall street it may not be some hackers for hire perhaps hackers for hire and those who are and who are the groups in the interest. I know youre not making an allegation that any particular group or interest did this but who are the folks that really didnt like this proposed rule that said dont go ahead and take advantage of your customers the ones that were the most vocal arguing the loudest included the Insurance Industry that were selling a new woodies and the brokerage industry and. They have their trade associations but because as you say this rule is so obviously desirable again it says that the broker has to put the clients interests first that they also hired. If you will proxies and one of those was the chamber of commerce the chamber of commerce bills itself as the voice of Small Business when they testified before congress their very first line is on behalf of three and a half million Small Businesses across america in fact if you look at the funding for the chamber of commerce it comes from big business in fact if you look at what they chant p. N. Its what big business wants coal and Climate Change against health care and its not because the Small Businesses want that its because the big businesses want that but are afraid to lobby themselves incomes the chamber of commerce that does that for them and so these people have motive whether they would stoop to in effect mail fraud filing a comment thats from a person that either doesnt exist or he didnt agree to it im not saying that that i dont know who told wed all we know is four hundred thousand fake comments were received and they were on the same side as those who oppose those or that those are the facts we dont know any more than a fraud was committed we dont know who press the send button on the computer that is cloak and dagger if you know what about these fake campaigns that you at Public Citizen of uncovered well at Public Citizen we noted that the chamber of commerce had a website saying Small Business across america is up in arms about the fiduciary role the argument was you will take away our trusted broker who can no longer service us we found that difficult to believe for a couple of reasons not to trust their broker yeah while street isnt the first guy you you have a trusted broker with i mean you have them because you in gauging transactions but we also found it curious that somebody who ran susies cupcakes at the local paint store would be familiar with fiduciary rules at all. All let alone among the many hundred page rule that talks about this so i had the to me and the chamber of commerce had prominently these people are speaking out so i said if theyre speaking out ill call them up and theyll speak out to me there were about three dozen of them and basically i found that they did not want to speak out to me they hung up they didnt know what i was talking about in one case the guy said i didnt write that in one case this woman her printed comment is that because of my ability to offer retirement account ive been able to grow this and if you take away my trusted advisor through this rule she doesnt explain how but you take away my trust advisor it will be difficult to grow so i said so youve been in business for you say ten years how much have you grown well weve added one employee oh you have one employee yes thats my son so this this retirement benefit which hinges on her ability to retain a trusted advisor has grown her anough that she can hire her son part time i found out its not thats not a super economic boon congratulations on that investigative work you could probably go to work for one of the large papers but thank you so much for being here bartlett thank you for your good work on behalf of consumers investors in this case with the fiduciary rule with regard to really elderly folks who are relying on their Retirement Savings thank you for the work that you do thank you mr. Time now for a quick break but stick around because when we return rent prices are on the rise our cheese correspondent ashley banks joins us to explain plus Winter Weather continues to slam the east coast well examine the impact it has had on your wallet will have on your wallet and the jell jones closed over twenty five thousand for the First Time Ever with that here are the numbers at the closing bell. A plate for many clubs over the years so i know the guy even saw you guys. The ball isnt only about what happens on the pitch to the final school its about the passion from the fans its the age of the super money kill you know new spend spend be true to the twenty million and one player. Its an experience like nothing else going to be true so i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful guy great so what chance with. The base its going to. Hello my names peter and ive been living in bushnell for about seven years and this is a film about just some of the crazy things ive got to look through in the time. When youre going to get. Hurt. I mean because it is then theres the what you describe because the guy is such a gutsy. Stands in the house if it. Was. Through the press because. The. Man. I dont want. To. Record cold weather across the United States is putting a chill on the economy it gets cold out there schools and even airports across the American South and carolinas as winter storm is expected to develop into what is being called a bomb cyclonic bomb cycle. Sounds super scary doesnt it its moving up the east Coast Airlines and their customers also felt the impact as nearly twenty five hundred flights were canceled between wednesday and thursday according to online trackers carriers including southwest delta american and united all relaxed booking restrictions and fees to ease the storms inconvenience for travelers the latest round of mass cancellations follows a power outage at atlantas International Airport in december that caused over a thousand cancellations the weather is also moving Energy Markets demand for heating oil and natural gas spiked dramatically and next day Energy Prices for new england spiked ninety percent from tuesday to wednesday according to platts acting for prevent or mitigate possible shortages the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration declared a regional emergency for many parts of the country to officially allow truckers to work over time to complete urgently needed fuel deliveries. For several reserves open markets committee the f o m c met for two days in december and the internal meeting notes have now been released are fed watcher danielle de martino booth the founder of money strong and financial columnist joins us to read the tea leaves of the feds notes ahead of what the bank action will be in two thousand and eighteen danielle thanks for being with us the f o m c meeting took place on december twelfth and thirteenth so this was before the new tax law was approved with the one point five trillion dollars price tag i imagine that might have animated this question among fed governors what do you think. Oh absolutely it did and whats interesting is that in december of two thousand and eight. The minutes could be used as as an actual tool in the Monetary Policy tool box after the fact that you could change the minutes if need be if they want it for the markets to react differently from the original statement and i think we saw exactly that happen with the minutes because there was so much talk about the tax reform it wouldnt have been in the minutes had it not passed the way that it was very interesting very interesting a little suspect in my view the to me that it should all be transparent and you shouldnt be going back and either redacting something or taking it out but i guess that the discussion for another time so let me let me go into the fed funds rate in general and i know you know what this is of course and maybe you can help explain any mistakes i make but the fed funds rate is the rate at which banks can borrow money overnight big banks and large Financial Institutions and the Interest Rates that we pay for just about everything are impacted by those rates that the fed had kept to around zero following the financial collapse however all that started change at the end of twenty fifteen with the feds first Interest Rate increase in the fed funds rate so what do you thinks going to happen Going Forward regarding these rates down you know. Well you know its interesting the minutes were were fairly hawkish and weve certainly seen Interest Rates react to that hawkishness i was really surprised to see how much back and forth debate there was revealed in the minutes about inflation and that tells me that even though the market would like to price in two rate hikes in two thousand and eighteen chances are we get to three and possibly four based on what Federal Reserve policymakers are thinking today. So explain that a little bit for our viewers again youre the expert here but explain for our viewers how the inflation rates actually impact what the fed governors at the f. O. And see do with regard to rates i know they have this two percent target rate for inflation but whats the it quotient theyre doing you know. Well look at it this way there are people who are the most devenish on the federal open Market Committee if you will they really do want to stick to that two percent target the the rate that they follow is currently at about one point five percent the problem is other inflation indicators like the Producer Price index like the most recently related recently released information on manufacturing that showed seventeen out of eighteen industries are experiencing pricing pressures the more hawkish members of the federal open Market Committee those who would be inclined to more rate hikes if you will theyre beginning to follow other inflation metrics that show things are heating up so if inflation proves to be weaker than the two percent might they act quicker on rate increases or no. Well in theory that would that would have to put the brakes on no growth and raising rates while while inflation has been beneath the two percent target as you just said since december two thousand and fifteen clearly there are members on the committee who are ready to keep going and one of those new members will not new members of the committee but the new Federal Reserve chair jay powell will preside over his first meeting at the end of the month i think the thirtieth and thirty first any insight as to what he might do that could be different from the previous chair janet yellen well listen jay powell has deep experience in the Financial Markets and he understands the Banking System as well and he is going to be very aware more aware than pure academics the pure academics who preceded him that there is a lot of froth in the Financial Markets and i think that well see the financial person in jay powell come out much more in twenty eighteen and again this is going to be the first non ph d. In economics the first non academic to run the fed for thirty years i think people who say that powell is a yellen clone are in for a surprise because i dont buy that about him you know hes an attorney right. Hes an attorney yes but his because davis background has been in private equity yeah right ok and before we let you go one other area i want to talk about it its about the world around us so lets talk about the other Central Banks around the world the big ones bank of England European Central Bank bank of japan what are they doing now on rates and quantitative easing and actually could you explain quantitative easing or q. E. As we call it for those that might not know and then give us a little mini tour of the key Central Banks around the world. To quantitative easing is basically buying securities in the open markets trying to push Interest Rates down further than they would otherwise be in a zero Interest Rate world because zero is theoretically a bound. And banks banks engage in Central Banks in gauging q. E. Again hoping to spur borrowing and lending and consumption in their countries i would look for more of the same from the bank of england we saw one rate hike last year we might see one possibly two but when it comes to the bank of englands q. E. Program i would expect for that to continue for the rest of the year the bank of japan is has also been very adamant about its own two Percent Inflation target it is it is had to ratchet back its quantitative easing from from mechanical reasons but i would expect for them to keep the pedal to the metal for all of two thousand and eighteen as well now thats and thats in sharp contrast to the Federal Reserve where we were unwinding the Balance Sheet here thats a form of quantitative tightening and the european Central Banks state it commitment to taper its purchases starting the First Business day of the year when you combine those two and this is a very important point when you combine those two types of tightening youre talking about a trillion dollars less one trillion dollars less in quantitative easing than what we saw in two thousand and seventeen which was a record two trillion dollars in global q. E. So investors need to be paying attention at. As you allude to to what is happening in other Central Banks because they will all matter to Interest Rates on the global stage shoop are interesting and insightful as always danielle de martino booth founder of money strong and author of fed up thank you so much for your time appreciate it thank you. Rent is on the rise across the nation with american spending billions of dollars on rent and twenty seventeen costing the average american a good portion of their paycheck with more people renting and less people buying experts say the Homeless Population is expected to increase by a cup of coffee and a donut so they could be someplace warm in these chilly times guys heres our t. Correspondent ashley banks with more according to a new report by zillow forty three million American Renters spend four hundred eighty five billion dollars on rent checks and twenty seventeen now thats up by four point nine billion dollars from twenty sixteen went to households spent close to Twelve Thousand dollars last year was the highest paying renters living in new york city and los angeles now according to zillow San Francisco rents are so high that renters collectively paid six hundred sixteen Million Dollars and more and rent than chicago renters dead despite there being four hundred sixty seven thousand fewer renters in San Francisco than in chicago residents living in San Francisco typically paid three thousand four hundred dollars per month for a one of a bedroom apartment and the average one bed apartment in new york city cost three thousand six hundred and eighty dollars on take a look at how other cities in america stack up as it pertains to renting a one bedroom apartment and san Jose California it cost the average resident two thousand four hundred and sixty dollars to rent a one bedroom apartment that figure is up by thirteen point four percent from twenty six team now washington d. C. It cost the average. Renter two thousand three hundred forty dollars that figure is up by fifteen point three percent from two thousand and sixteen and los angeles it costs twenty three hundred dollars that number is up by fifteen point six percent from two thousand and sixteen as well now in boston massachusetts it costs just under twenty three hundred dollars that number is up by point nine percent from two thousand and fifteen and in Oakland California costs a little over twenty one hundred dollars thats three point three percent higher than it was and twenty sixteen studies show the number of americans choosing to rent rather than rather than buy their own home has increased in the past decade according to a recent report from Harvard Joint Center for housing studies one million new renters join the market each year according to harvard study Housing Affordability across the nation is still a major issue and twenty sixteen twenty eight Million People had to devote thirty percent of their paychecks to rent the Federal Reserve state at fifty eight percent of low income families have less than five hundred dollars left over after paying rent on top of that zillow senior economist the air into rod says adds changes and the recent tax bill will cause a young people to continue renting and ng as the Housing Market has recovered from the recession home values are higher than theyve ever been but its pushed home prices out of reach for those looking to buy their first home secretary of housing and urban Development Ben carson said quote and many high cost areas of our country especially along the west coast the severe shortage of Affordable Housing is manifesting itself on our streets some cities are trying to create affordable options for residents for example in San Francisco its been retrofitting apartment buildings and converting them into new dwelling units and in los angeles officials have started constructing residential buildings. Residents however they are building these facilities are highly polluted free weights experts say as a rate continues to climb in cities across the u. S. It will continue to leave a number of people homeless reporting for boom bust actually banks start. Great reporting actually thanks for watching be sure to catch boom bust on you tube you tube dot com slash boom bap boom bust arctic catch a next time. Its the cradle of jazz. The america is the america we have. To know as disc jazz feel the. City of climatic catastrophe alligators on the loose. And crime are used by the at least twelve members of my family close my. Love street racing in that piece of the night this is new orleans. The best place in the world. But a war zone you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the Chicken Hawks forcing you to fight the battles theyre going. To do sought to try to tell you that because of the public myself one day. Off the bad guys who tell me you are not cool enough to buy their product. Are the hawks that we along the border will want. The city of luxury and fame but also an Alarming Number of People Living in the streets. The simple fact in l. A. Is theres just not enough shelter even if people on the streets right now decided to come in theres nowhere to come in and its been a struggle. To get this man found his own response to the problem and constructed dozens of tiny homes for people in need of shelter when you have nothing in order to go. You know having Something Like this may as well be a castle but do the authorities accept such solution tiny house on a city parking space is not a solution your craft or someone wanted touring the site otherwise it will be a free for all there are a better alternative to end the homelessness crisis. Extreme hardship in from stalins of migrants continue to sleep rough despite president promise to find them all shelter before the end of twenty seventeen we hear some of their stories a minute new through people through food music three thirty the story is this the life he thought she would have. Also ahead this hour to news hour the president of turkey lashes out america arent they threatening to drop Bilateral Agreements turkish banker is convicted in the u. S. On food on medical leave is still not getting into yemen despite saudi arabia easing its blockade on the country last month we hear from the red cross on Human Rights Watch about the dire humanitarian