Source on cspan, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are. The opinion that matters most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. National Economic Council chair Lael Brainard discusses the Biden Administrations economic policies and their impact on growth in the economy. He also touched on workforce participation, supply chain challenges and china. This event was hosted by the peterson interest Peterson Institute for economics. We are due to start in a few seconds. Given the importance of dr. Brainard today we are here for the presentation by dr. Lael brainard director of the Economic Council assessing the recovery. This is a great opportunity for us, not just to welcome lael back but to seriously engage with the Top Biden Administration official on what could only be described as a surprising and superb performance of the u. S. Economy in the last 1. 5 years, two years. As a former central banker and strong economist of note, Lael Brainard has grappled with these issues analytically as well as politically, as a policymaker. We are fortunate that she has agreed or offered to have an on the discussion following remarks. My admiration for Lael Brainard is sincere. She is now the fourth member of counsel serving as President Bidens top Economic Council. She previously served as vice chair of the federal reserve. Working on international, domestic, operational issues. In between all that, she was Vice President at the brookings institute. This all came after she received her phd from harvard and was on track to a stellar academic career including teaching at the sloan school of management before deciding to throw herself to public service. We are genuinely honored and looking forward to the remarks of dr. Lael brainard. Thank you. [applause] dr. Brainard i think, probably i should just leave now. That was so nice. Thank you. It is always wonderful to be here. That was extremely kind. I am delighted to join you. After this institution has made so many contributions to thinking about the nature of the pandemic shocks and assessing the recovery. I know you will continue to make really important contributions that will inform our thinking. After the pandemic years brought an unprecedented amount of shock, it is disheartening it is incredibly heartening that the every process is so strong. It is a testament to the resilience of American Workers, consumers and businesses. It is also an indication that smart policy can make a positive difference. Every week that goes fight, we learn more about the recovery. Yesterdays return to grew by 4. 9 in the Third Quarter and today we learned that core pce inflation came down in september on and analyzed basis. That is the lowest level since day of. 21. Core pce inflation is running about 2. 5 percent at an annualized rate. There are of course risks associated with elevated Geopolitical Uncertainty and Financial Market volatility but it does appear inflation is going down while inflation remains robust. It was not too long ago that the economy experienced dramatic supply shocks in labor inputs and commodities. That and the elasticity was a sharp and shift was a sharp and sudden shift. Following that massive shock to supply, americas recovery under the president s economic plan stacks up well in comparison to previous forecasts, recoveries and other advanced economies and even to the last u. S. Covering. If we start by comparing u. S. Recovery with forecasts, we will back a year and we looked at the consensus forecast. It was that unemployment would need to go up in the economy would need to flatline to get inflation down to where it is today. In actuality, the u. S. Economy has grown over the last year. Unemployment has remained below 4 while inflation has physically fallen to the level in that forecast. Similarly, if we look across advanced economies, it tells a similar story. While many experts believe that the president s economic plan would lead to worst worse tradeoffs, we have seen the u. S. Bring inflation down faster than other advanced economies while growing more robustly. U. S. Gdp growth has been cumulatively 7. 4 since a quarter before the pandemic and that is the strongest among the g7. At the same time, the u. S. Currently has the lowest inflation both at a headline and core level of any g7 economy. Second, we have also seen faster postpandemic growth is estimated by output per worker. We have seen highgrowth physically in areas at the heart of the president s resting in america agenda. For example, real spending on manufacturing is actually up about 60 since the president signed the chip science inflation reduction act. The agenda and clean energy portions are catalyzing private sector investments. Hundred 14 million at last count. In infrastructure, clean energy and Semi Conductor manufacturing. We are also seeing some reallocation in the market that may be indicative of similar sets of markets. We have seen large employment gains during the sectors, manufacturing and construction, sectors that are at the heart of investing in america agenda. Do not see this we do not see these patterns in data of other economies suggesting that the president s plan may be contributing although it is too early to tell. Third, it was not so long ago that some experts claimed that economic policies would keep americans on the sidelines instead of the great resignation, we have seen the great rebound. Labor force participation has rebounded by comparison and prior recoveries, despite long expected them with credit demographic headwinds. Despite long expected demographic headwinds. In the u. S. Recovery, the prime age Participation Rate was 1. 7 Percentage Points below its precrisis level. Today, it is. 5 percentage point above the level. We saw a decline in prime age participation that stretched until 2015. Now, we are seen increase in labor force is at its highest level in over 20 years. The surge among prime page women and mothers with Young Children in particular to its highest level suggests that improved childcare availability and trauma or clicks abilities may, in combination, become to beating to the gains of labor supply. Unemployment officially fell below 4 years before protected. About eight faster and have remained there consistently. That faster labor Market Recovery potentially avoided much of the scarring we have seen in previous downturns. If you look at groups that traditionally recovery more slowly, they have record low unemployment rates. That is true for black americans, hispanic americans, workers with disabilities and workers without a high slit diploma. In short, we might conclude that sharp downturns need not lead to scarring and declined in participation if theyre met with targeted policies. Strong labor demand real demands and selfsatisfaction are drawing more americans to the labor force. American households emerge from this pandemic downturn with much Better Financial Health as compared with the gfd. Again, i think you can see the connection to certain policies. The latest survey of Consumer Finances recorded that real median Household Net Worth is 37 higher than before the pandemic. We have not seen that before. If you look at the distribution of households in the lower saw the largest gain. Flakka in Household Net Worth sought even larger gain compared with the plot compared with declines. That is true for hispanic heating household. The american households paying down debt and lower debt burdens. Especially for credit card and student loan debt. Median fell the lowest level in the history of the survey last year. An increase in Health Insurance rates to an alltime high may have also made a contribution. Business ownership increased by 9 with particularly large growth in black and hispanic households. We are seeing record high business formation applications and some academics have suggested after carefully studying the data that the increase may be curable and may make a contribution to the dynamics him to the dynamics. Verdure further investigation suggests caution. Light was highly elastic and they were only replying to demand shocks. The episode accompanied by a dramatic supply shock and significant distortions in demand. It is interesting to know that if you look at a picture of the new york feds Global Supply and index and you map it against any number of inflation, you will see the two moving closer together. Nominal wage Growth Continues to moderate despite what can be against strong payroll growth, at odds with earlier predictions that low unemployment would lead to steeper nominal wage increases. Overall, a quick look at comparison just as the president policies appear to help relative prior situations. We will continue learning more as experts in here as experts adhere closely. There is more work to do. There are risks we need to navigate utter. Progress is encouraging. Thank you. [applause] adam thank you very much dr. Brainard it is your concision to something we do not usually get to enjoy on this stage. That must make 4 myself included very efficient meetings. Let me, if i could, before we open to the audience, pose a few questions starting from where your speech was. You talked about scarring and the historic lows or highs in participation and lows in unemployment for various groups. As well as the high Household Net Worth. When you are at the fed and in the early years of the biting initiation, there was a lot of discussion on whether we should run the economy hot. Do you think there is a message here is that is because general likability for you think there should be caution is not everything could work every time . Dr. Brainard i do think every set of socks needs to be carefully studied and understood. Before being too confident. The set of policies that worked last time for this time, certainly that is not what happened. We saw a lot of policy innovation and i think tentatively we can conclude that the president policies, the policy innovation led to an earlier, stronger recovery and that recovery intern has brought people back into the labor market and led to selfsustaining and positive growth. In terms of what that set of policies led to, it really was to bring the recovery on track faster with broader participation by a broader set of households. We have seen that in the Labor Force Participation data that not only the labor market in terms of demand bring that about more rapidly but we also saw that what is normally a lag response actually moved relatively quickly this time. It was quite broadbased. That was underwritten by a set of policies that were designed specifically to enable parents to come back into the workforce. Especially in the wake of a childcare system that had been devastated. There were deliberate policies recognizing how important it is to get parents childcare so that they can participate. I think the prescription is that like taking a strong policy response can get a Higher Quality recovery that comes into play more rapidly and lets the private sector take it from there. Adam i think it is really interesting that you are emphasizing the structural aspects such as flexibility and Parental Caregivers rather than just the cyclical move of keeping a hot. This is the first time in some time that the u. S. Has undertaken such a strong labor market policies after lecturing people for years. What is on your agenda im going to ask you at times what you would do if you had a functional congress spent the majority, both of which could tear us apart but you have to assume. What do you think should be next for the u. S. Labor market . What would be your structural agenda from here . Dr. Brainard the administration has a set of policies that are designed to make sure that families with children have the resources that will enable them to make those key investments that we know have longterm benefits, allowing them to participate in daily reports. We just set up a request for emergency funding, for stabilization funds to continue. The president s budget continues to emphasize the tax credit which brought million out of poverty and appears to have led to investment in precisely those Early Childhood areas that experts have suggested our unofficial. There is some additional funding. The flipside is that we need to fund those commitments in the president has a robust set of revenue raisers, the biggest factor in the most recent numbers that we have seen on the u. S. Fiscal side are really a big reduction in revenues, tax cuts, under the previous president , those projections are now coming in. They are well and lined with projections we have seen before that text and we need to be able to find those important investments. Adam just to follow up on that one bit of lets call it bad news was how low tax revenues came in year after year given the state of the labor market and income. Is your point that we want the bundle of tax cuts to expire and that will fix it or is there some thing else that needs to be done . Dr. Brainard if you look at the deficit, sequeira sent of that is associated with decline in revenues and revenues has a share of gdp are below the historic average and in line with what critics were concerned about before this set of tax cuts was passed. The president has put on the table for host of revenue breakers, including boosting the Corporate Tax rate back halfway from 21 to 20 , which is in of itself and in numerous revenue raisers. Another set of policies that would bring the u. S. And raise important revenues. Those are revenue raisers that we would love to be able to talk about and get past today. There is no need to wake. There will be another opportunity when some of those business and tax cuts for wealthy individuals are slated to expire in 2025. Adam take us back a step into the macro picture. As you are aware, the question of less jargon, what would be the trend of the Interest Rate of the economy that we usually prophecy to some great . Abundantly think youve been on low turn market but the question is, how much of this you expect to persist and are the drivers of the longterm rate changing because of primary deficits or should we expect them to go back down . Dr. Brainard this is a very important debate. There are a number of factors and researchers and participants have discussed. I think it is early to tell exactly what the country are. Of course, we have full fundamental factors as well as technical. There are thing changes in demand that were on the technical side that Market Participants are pointing to is part of the story. In terms of some of the more researchbased explanation, there is an effort to distinguish between a potential rise and that librium rate and this term. I think a lot are pointing to the term premium although it is reasonable to expect there is a bit of there. For full played a part of that. A different rate of interest over a longer period of time. We are certainly studying that carefully. It does have nations that we want to hear we are taking on board. Is this something that you think is a good idea, worth considering . Dr. Brainard we just had a bipartisan decision for don in june. The majority of House Republicans voted for the right agreement. It was signed into law. This was after a very damaging threat from mostly republicans to default on the full faith government. We are barely four months later and, the House Republicans, out stood there speaker because he forward about to keep funding the government. I think we have some really serious challenges to address. Clearly, we are in a period where honoring the agreement is the first and most important thing. Until we see the will to do that , it is unfortunate that the American People have to continue to see this kind of drama really for no reason when we had an agreement that was just put into law with strong bipartisan majorities. Adam thank you. Going back to something you mentioned a couple times, if we take those first numbers on gdp, it looks like productivity surged again. As you mentioned in your opening remarks, some other things that the Biden Administration and congress have passed seem to be a good investment but you fairly and rightly have said that is too soon to say that that is what is causing. You have to be thinking about this, what do you think is going on with productivity and why it has been so strong relative to the recovery . Markets people and myself im not a margus morrison, are worried about the labor market and that productivity is not going up. Any comments on productivity . Dr. Brainard i am cautious on productivity. Data isnt torry sling volatile. We do need to see some increases and that kind of is i think, well grounded in some data areas. We have seen exceptionally strong Business Investment, certainly in the Second Quarter search in areas that you would contribute to productivity over time. We have seen interesting patterns and turns of allocation and that is consistent with some of those Business Investment areas that have been really important. The business, Small Business applications data and formation data has surprisingly doubled and stayed at that level for two years. Serious researchers are looking at that and saying, that is it going. There may be something going on. We do have a very strong competition agenda for this reason, to provide a level playing field. To stimulate more innovation and, there is also important developments in the private sector. You seen developments in Artificial Intelligence that i think investors are very excited about with potential gain. Here i am talking about ai as much as editors. There are a number of things going on. I think the u. S. Is a little stuck in terms of not having Consistent Energy policy. For the first time, we now have an alignment around the energy path for the future. That is leading to an opening of the floodgates now that there is more confidence that the demand will be there and supplyside incentives will be therefore enough time to make those investments worthwhile. The set up you are finally getting certainty about the long run returns on some of these investments. I think that is leading to the potential for some sustained increase in productivity. Adam some aspects of the industrial policy the administration is taking on are controversial, in particular the investments targeted towards Domestic Production by private companies and not consumers. Obviously, they were very aware of the blowback from some allies with the emergence. Policy, you believe the policies you are pursuing are worth it. Is there any thought about what the costs might have been or how to reduce some of these risks in the future . Dr. Brainard think we can recognize that the u. S. Was stuck on what to do as far as coordinating a plan to move to cleaner sources of energy or reducing emissions over time. The set of policies that have been put in place, including on infrastructure, in the inflation reduction act, and with chips and science, they have unstuck that process and you now have an investment environment that is supportive of an enormous amount of unleashing a lot of private sector ration in a coherent way. I think that of itself has the potential to increase technologies, if you look at the international projections, they say that 50 or over percent of the technologies have not been invented yet. The u. S. Has the potential to push that Technology Frontier in those innovations will be very important for countries around the world as they seek to achieve the same reductions. This is not a zerosum game. When we talk to some of our partners around the world, they are increasingly recognizing, we need to do some more of that. There are some countries that have been trying to get their mandates and have not been making progress. I think, increasingly, we are doing this in coordination and partnership with other countries and that is the best way to do it. Adam i feel the need to pushing slightly on that. The other countries, if one thinks about the eu, japan, korea, maybe. You have done a lot policy concerning with the developing world. In a world of big subsidies, even if it gets technological, that does not necessarily set it up for a win for the developed world. Developing world. Countries will be forced to decide who to go with. Is this a concernss or are you confident that we have that if we build the right criminology, the market will take care of it . Dr. Brainard two things. In a world where the u. S. Meets the president s emission goals base a much better for all countries then where we were five years ago. Think thing that is completely noncontroversial and this is the way to do that. Nobody else has put on the people a reasonable and achievable way to get that done. Secondly, do i have absolute confidence that as the frontier moves, it will diffuse . That is what we have seen in every Technology Cycle so far. In this particular domain, there is a huge amount of investment that is going towards helping developing countries. It is very much in our interest and we are about supporting funding to the world bank. That was part of our request as well as working towards bringing private sector actors together. Every song we go to we have American Private sector actors in partnership with local entrepreneurs in these countries , intending precisely these investments. Adam a couple more questions. Relating to that, we have coming up it seems a summit that we expect from. There has also been a lot of initiatives from different parts. A lot of moving parts. Is there an overall asia strategy and, if, for see taking along with, we do not like . We do not like china . Dr. Brainard they have had a very comprehensive strategy and you can see that with notably stronger alliances and partnerships throughout the region. We that. It is a very important piece that will be showcased. The secretary and Prime Minister have been working very hard with their counterparts and i think they have made some really important progress. A lot of interest in supply Chain Resilience. We all went to the pandemic together. I think all of us understand how important is to not take supply Chain Resilience for granted but to be actively invested in Early Warning systems and strengthening the kind of foundations, do so in cooperation because of the supply chains that are very much connecting us to that region of the world. There are other things, like the work we are doing together on trade facilitation, on corruption, both of which can save large amounts of money to the private sector. I think we will have a agenda there. I know everyone is working really hard. Adam thank you. On china, a lot of discussion, including a administration officials, the first couple of years of the Biden Administration was focused around the economic from china and that they would be dominant concern technologies and or abuse their dominant position. I believe the president itself when giving in august or september made a reference to this and the risks that come with that. That if china is weak, and may become more aggressive. There is a contradiction here. If china gets too rich too fast, he could be a threat from on their hands, if china gets in economic trouble, the preferences for conflict may go up. How do you see this . I realize this is creeping into Foreign Policy but how should we think about the risks coming from china and any economic weakening . Dr. Brainard i would say there are two things. First, the set of policies that they have undertaken that are in the economic arena but related to national security. We see a host of border policies , large amounts of subsidy is usually working with state of the lock up supply chain for vital parts of supply chain in really important areas, such as solar and critical minerals, rare earth in particular. There are a variety of areas where we have to counter those policies. That is the part of our agenda that is married that is very much focused on individual policies. Unfortunately, that is some intellectual property that is an economic and nationals 30 problem. They have undertaken a set of policies there that we think are very targeted. They are intended to address the areas that are within these objectives. We will continue to do that. More broadly, china is emerging from the pandemic somewhat differently. There sets of policies have tended to be on the investment side. Traditionally, less capacity or will to support consumers. That is different than a lot of other countries. I know that the support was an important part of recovery. We are seeing a different approach than what china has normally taken. While the strength of chinas recovery is important, it is a bit less relevant here in the u. S. A little less relevant here in the u. S. Than other regions. Adam thank you. Chair of the council of economic advisers a few weeks ago gave i thought, a very important speech saying that there are good things for the u. S. In trade. The currently front running public and candidate for cash former President Trump has gone out and said he wants to put a 10 general tariff on everything. How do economic advisers go out and meet it . It was not just a slip of the tongue. You are on the policy side, not the political side, but can you say a little more about the policy contrast here . Dr. Brainard i think there is a really important part of our agenda that is very much focused on our role in the globe. We recognize how much other countries depend on the u. S. , both in security and the economic arena. Have an open economy, we have very important Foreign Policy credibility and continuity in this administration which i think is a hallmark of President Biden to the world. It is also very important that this president recognizes that you need to invest in American Workers here in america to make sure that we have a strong domestic set of opportunities and pathways. That is why he is very focused on middle out, bottom of policies. As opposed to previous administrations that did not trickle down, and left a lot of people feeling like there opportunities for less. I think the president believes that by investing in American Workers and committing those pathways, you have a much more selfconfident america that is able to play that Important Role in the world. Adam i general 10 tariff would be a bad idea . Dr. Brainard the president has said he does not want to see taxes rising on people making less than 400,000. That is important to him to his economic plan. Adam let me open it up to the floor. We have a traveling mike and standing mike. Maybe the traveling mike can move towards the front and the people in the back can be go can be trusted to go to the standing mike. Please identify yourself when asking a question and please try to make a question and not a speech. First, standing mike and in the front. Thank you. Miss brainard you spoke initially about childcare and im thinking as that with you and your husband both working highpressure jobs, what have you learned about worklife management . Dr. Brainard select your spouse very carefully. [laughter] i do think that people all around this country struggle. They have the ability to contribute importantly to our economy but we are not where other economies are in terms of supporting in terms of providing support to parents to enable them to invest in their childrens education for them to have affordable and dependable childcare. I think there is really Good Research that suggests meaningful participation by parents in the workforce. We just ran a small experiment and it seems to have her. Those policies are important, not just from the perspective of visual household of the effective of the economy, oval. Economy overall. I would like to take book about, very impressive litany adding up to a big sis the story compared to other nations, compared to previous educations. Lily has put the United States economy in a good position. Yet, as you know, the American People are sour about the American Economy and President Bidens performance as the leader. I get asked about this all the time. I would like to know what you think is behind that juncture . Dr. Brainard i am just struck by how traumatic the pandemic years and they were years were four households here in america. I think it will take some time for people following that kind of really unprecedented set of dislocations to work, to school, to their ability to just carry on routines, it takes a while to feel more secure. I think it just takes a while. If you look at how people respond in surveys, i think it is 70 say that their personal finances are good and have proved but they do not connect the dots any of those, we cannot get strong numbers when it comes to the economy. When you pull the policies that the president has enacted, they are enormously popular policies. You get really good responses on them, including, by the way, americans really do support paying for things by raising taxes on wealthier people and on corporations that are not paying as much taxes as we expect. Those are things that are well supported. But, you are right. In terms of seeing the connections between those, it will take a while. Adam thank you. Back mic. That was a powerful, persuasive presentation. I would like to go back to adams first question which i think you answered well about the lessons you learned from a strong policy response that got us back to a good place faster which, i agree. You mentioned, it is important to take into consideration the underlying shocks and the one you mentioned the building was supply. The latest episode, we have some supply. I just want to ask if im interpreting this correctly let me know if i do not understand. The location of supply bottlenecks is and argue for less aggressive stimulus and that recent profession than in others. Nevertheless, we have gone to a good place, it is not an argument that what was done was not appropriate but just asking, if the right interpretation is, if we were in a different recession they did not have those supply bottlenecks, the case would be all but stronger for the type of policies that we took, is that correct . Dr. Brainard i was probably speaking by dose trying to be a little cautious by saying that i think you need to be kind of developing policy for this specific juncture instead of a set of shocks each time. There might be a general predisposition and that jenner in that direction, i was struck during this particular episode, how it was. There was tremendous intervention on the supply side to unstick bottlenecks, as you know. We just had ocean shipping and involvement directly and find of port blockages. Very specific things they need to be addressed on the supply side. Again, i want to be a little cautious about having a prescription for every case, but surely the dissection surely the distinction some of these. Dr. Brainard i will go to the back of my there is any money want to jump, please. You mentioned childcare and as a parent about twoyearold, ivory for theft. But i think bill back there was criticized partially but fairly. I think it was predicted to dramatically increase cost households while kicking a ton of demand into households by being as active with all kinds supply drinks. Then, all of that was set to expire after six years. Is there a new childcare plan that the initiation is developing . Dr. Brainard we recognize it is important to increase the supply side of the economy as well. That was part of the childcare provision as well. It was heavily disrupted during the pandemic. Apply site is very important as well as giving poor households the ability to afford health care. It has to be a careful combination of the two in order to get good outcomes in terms of availability of slots and the ability to afford those as well as making sure that people in that factor have the kind of pay will keep them in a sector. Keep them in that sector. Dr. Brainard thank you. Next. Dr. Brainard why would say during this administration, we have developed a more systematic approach to supply chains. Really did not have infrastructure in place to think about supply chain disruptions in a systematic way, and that has changed. At the department of transportation, you have now a whole logistical Data Infrastructure that allows the private sector to be monitoring along with the public sector. It is called flow, and it provides data, which allows you to see flashing yellow developments. There is no a lot of the supply chain issues that are sectors specific, so you have been most agencies where you saw important supply chain disruptions, you now have a standing Infrastructure Office that is connected to the private sector to help not just see those problems coming, but also to have a Rapid Response to bring all of the parties together to try to resolve them, and we are doing similar things with our partners in the Indo Pacific Region with ipath and in some cases bilaterally. Adam great, we are getting, i note dr. Brainard has a heart to stop in a few minutes. I will gather three or four questions and then she can choose which one she answered. You wrote up april wrote a paper. Reading that today, noticing the contrast between the Clinton Administration the Biden Administration, so i am wondering with the benefit of hindsight would you have done anything different with respect to trade policy in the 1990s . Adam before you respond, you will get your choice. I agree that these hundreds of billions of dollars in Green Technology and Semi Conductors the potential to be transformative. Do we have the labor force that will be necessary to make good on them, and if not what is being done or can be done to make sure that we do . Adam and finally, there please. David, International Economy magazine. A very impressive talk. To what extent was the dramatic weakening of the chinese economy , affecting prices around the world, did it contribute to the drop in inflation . The second question i have is the mystery of the 10 year bond, given the drop in inflation and given that we are no facing conditions where you would normally see a flight to safety in the bond market, why is the bond market behaving the way it is . Adam [indiscernible] dr. Brainard those are all excellent questions. I think i probably addressed the last one. Why dont i talk a little bit about work for, because that is so important. So, we do need to get people trained up to provide the kind of skills that are going to be necessary in the new Semi Conductor fabs and offshore wind, and there is a whole host of particular skills as that will be really important there. Right now, construction is an area that has a lot of workforce need, so we are systematically working with multisectoral partnerships, so really important. A lot of these jobs do not need college degrees, and a lot of the American Population does not want to get a college degree, so what we need to make sure is that they do have access at the High School Level to even knowing about these Career Pathways and that they do have access to whether it be Community College certifications, registered apprenticeships, which are very rigorous through unions, partnerships between businesses, Community Colleges, and unions which bring people to very specific skill sets and certifications that can then be moved between companies and give them a job at the end of their training period. We have done this both by identifying a few skill areas private employers tell us are particularly in short demand. Advancement factoring, we Just Launched what we call a sprint, and it is bringing together these partnerships and supporting them with a lot of Government Programs that they can access to help them create new certificates and get the students through those courses and into jobs, and then we have some that are regionally specific too, because we know some of these Big Investments will be regionally concentrated like semiconductors and arizona, for example. So bringing together local Community Colleges, high schools, unions, business is to be specific to that region as well. Adam with that, please join me in thanking dr. Brainard, director of the national Economic Council. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023]