This is real money. You are the most important part of the show. Join the life conversations on twitter ajrealmoney. This was a huge week on capitol hill where decisions and discussions that affect the economy and your money again took center stage. Congress voted to increase the debt limit and extend the Borrowing Authority of the United States government to march 2015. Lawmakers pushed through the legislation ahead of a nasty winter storm that ended up shutting down washington, d. C. Failure to act, though, would have brought our economy to a grinding halt if the United States started to default on its debt obligations. So this may be the donothing congress at least on raising the debt seal, washington dysfunction did not get in the way. Americas economy and your prosperity are better for it. Americas economy was very much on the mind this week of janet yellen, the president s nominee to be the chair of the federal reserve. She was plain spoken and easier to follow than past fed chairs. For homeowners and buyers out there worried about rising mortgage rates, she said the fed would keep Interest Rates low for now to help boost the economy. For investors out there she said dont worry too much about the voluatility in the rock market stockmarket. Helped fuel a rally in stocks. On jobs, yellen acknowledged the difficulties Many Americans still face. She told lawmakers, quote, the recovery in the labor market is far from complete. Ali velshi spoke with Austin Goolsbee under president obama. He asked what the key message was from the new fed chair, particularly about jobs. Take a listen. You know, i think she was pretty clear, i should say at the outset, i am an old friend of janets. I think she is a fabulous pick. I come from a point of by as in some sense. But i thought she was very clear of what her world view is, and in most ways, that really wasnt a surprise. Everybody she said basically what everybody thought she was going to say which is she views the rise of the longterm unemployed, of people dropping out of the labor force, the issues associated with the labor market as the most important problem facing the economy and that the fed is going to keep that in mind and that they are basically not going to be monkeying with things while thats still a problem. I think that was expected but she made that explicit. She didnt break too far from what bernanke says except she was easier to understand. Right. I think thats true. Thats what i was about to say is the other main mention that she conveyed was, i have been sitting at that same fomc table for many many years. The San Francisco fed, vice chair of the fed. Dont be surprised i am telling you we are going to have continuity with whats been going on. Austin, the federal reserve, it has shown in the last five years the ability to step up and be the adult in the room when congress wouldnt be. But in the end, when you look at our problems of income inequality, of people struggling to get into the middle class and in many indications, slipping back out of the middle class, this is this is policy that is more specific and granular than the fed can actually direct. I agree with that. And to your credit, ali, you have been saying that long now, everybody is saying that, but you awere say that years ag before that ever became a major issue. I think you are absolutely right. The fed is doing what it should be doing. Its acting as an adult. Its trying to keep the economy going, but its tools are limited and crude and fiscal policy and just the private sector recovering on its own are far more influential, far more important than anything the fed is going to do. You spent time in the white house. Obviously, these are intractable issues. The jobs issue is the intractable issue of our time. You looked at this. You looked at the number of tun employed among youth. You looked at the number of people who had adequate education, where you cant argue that there is a skills gap, who werent getting jobs. What is it that we can expect the government, if everybody were on their best behavior, to do that can actually stop this chasm growing between the rich and the poor in this country . You know, there are questions about what could it do right now in the short run and what could it do over the longer term . I think we all recognize that the things it can do over the longer term are far more influential and far more important than the things it can do in the next two weeks, could do in the next two weeks. In my view, the number 1 most important thing you could do is invest in the skills of the u. S. Work force helping facilitate them getting more schooling, getting more training, investing in early education. And yet what we have seen come out of washington is the kind of problem washington cannot deal with, is one in which the costs are in the here and now and recognizable and the benefits, even though they are really big, are to come in the future when somebody else is in. They bail just have not been able to confront those issues. I know you spent time in government but you are a thinker, and you must have given time to thinking years out, 10 or 15 or 20 years out that if we stay in this situation with middle and low income workers are not making advances in what they earn but those who have the ability to invest in the stockmarket or the Housing Market or other investments are able to multiply their income, draw me a picture of what this looks like in 10 or 15 years if we dont as a society take this seriously. Well, i think my own pet theory is that the more unequal is the growth, the more likely you are to develop bubbles because when you have a small number of people getting a lions share of assets, you tend to see things like, i guess the museum s are noting that contemporary art prices are up 50 in one year because the kinds of people who are bidding on supersized houses and super priced art and things like that, that sort of thing thats conducive to bubbles is not really a sustainable growth. In my view, broadbased growth is the only kind of growth thats sustainable. So, i worry about it. Now, you can you can support expansions that are very unequal. We have had them in this country. You can have expansions that are more broadbased. I think the american mindset of how the economy works has for many, many years been that the median family, for the family right in the middle, does as well as the economy does. To go through expansions like we did in the 2000s where we are in a boom, whats supposed to be a boom, but the average familys income is falling by 2,000, i kind of think thats just not the American Economy that anybody is comfortable with. Yeah. The picture looking forward would be one in which a very small number of people just become super, super rich and accumulate the assets and that it kind of morphs us into the bizarreo world of trickle down economics in which we say, the only hope we have to grow is that those 10 people who have all of the assets, lets hope they decide to spend it this year. Yeah. Or decide to expand. Otherwise, weve got nothing. I think thats a dangerous way. They are not always force to spend it. The richer you are, the left prerequisite there is that you spend your money. Austin goolsbee . Thank you for having me back. America producing crude oil at levels not see since disko was king. The cost of heating your home gives. How much is too much for your boss to know about your medical history . We will tell you coming up. Story and more as real money continues. Join us for excusive. Revealing. And surprising talks, with the most interesting people of our time. Hip hop pioneer Russell Simmons talks with Soledad Obrien i make mistakes everyday, i dont try to count them. About his music. The artist should say whats on peoples minds. His cause. Dominion over the animals does not mean abuse. And his future. I wanna make movies and tv shows that reflect the new america. Russell simmons up close and personal. Talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera on techknow, our scientists bring you a sneakpeak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. Techknow ideas, invention, life. On Al Jazeera America crude oil closed out above the 100 mark. 100 and 0. 30 is where light sweet crude settled on friday. You can see from this chart, oil prices have been backing up to the 100 mark after dipping to 85 a barrel last year. A 6 weekshowed inventories pushing fell by nearly 3 Million Barrels. Thats where oil contents are delivered. When supplies drop, you can expect to pay more for whats left. We may see more of that in the future. Patricia sabka has this report. United states Oil Production is racing toward volumes not seen since the 1970s. Yet the price of benchmark u. S. Crude is ceiling creeping up. Could spell pain for consumers. One factor at play, persistent cold weather driving up demand for heating oil. Frigid temperatures arent the only thing squeezing supplies. We are seeing oil in storage down about four Percentage Points down from where it was a year ago and a big jump in exports. All of these factors are driving the price upward. The opening of the southern half of the Keystone Pipeline last month is drawing down the glut of oil in the middle of the country. Sending it down to the gulf coast where it can be refined and exported to other countries. Oil is a global commodity regardless of where its produced. Means u. S. Consumers have to compete for u. S. Oil and Refined Products like gasoline with consumers from other countries. In november, the u. S. Exported 4 Million Barrels of oil per day, Refined Products. Twice as high as the level we recorded in 2009. Venzuela is a Major Oil Producer but its crumbling Energy Infrastructure cant keep pace with regional demands, leaving u. S. Refineries to pick up slack. With tougher refinery standards kicking in this spring and europe exporting less to the northeast United States. Oil inventories may look slim as the key summer driving season approaches. All are conspiring to likely cause the green market to be very tight in the United States this summer. I strongly suspect prices will exceed 4 a gallon at some point this year. Al jazeera new york. The price of energy and the impact of Winter Weather and drought are all pieces of the puzzle for anyone trying to figure out where the economy is heading. There are a few People Better at putting those pieces together than mark zandi at moodyss analystics. Ali velshi asked if the weather has a Significant Impact on the economy. A Significant Impact. Its been brutally cold since early december. We have had a series of storms gone through the south and northeast. As you mentioned, we have drought in california. So, i think all of those things have conspired to make this a very difficult for the economy and a significant weight on growth. Its not the only thing weighing on growth. Its a big factor at least the last couple of months. The part where it starts to get alarming, we saw Natural Gas Prices which many people in this country use to heat their homes and natural gas is used to create energy, electricity. Now we have seen Oil Prices Spike in the northeast people use oil in many indications to heat their homes and, of course, for gas. Whats the impact of the increase in Energy Demand and Energy Prices on the economy . Excellent point. You know, i think because of the runup in Natural Gas Prices, propane prices, i lost electricity for five days. I have a generator. I had to use propane. I can tell you its incredibly expensive. If i have to pay a propane bill, it means i have less to spend on everything else. And now, oil prices are up. Thats going to have an impact as well. So this runup in Energy Prices, again, related to the weather, is suck something wind out of the economy. These things will be temporary. I dont think they will last long. I think we will get back on track once the weather returns to something more typical normal. For the meantime, its a weight on growth. 2013 for job creation. Heavily weighted toward the back half of the year. Thats not bad. 194 ,000. December with 75,000, january with 113,000. Any sense about whether had an impact on those or not . A lot of debate, not much about december. That was pretty clear there was weather. More debate about january. It had arrest impact because it affected businesses more broadly. Sales and revenues are down and Retail Retail you can see clearly. Its again so disruptive basic Human Resource functions have been disrupted, interview process, hiring start dates, those kind of things. Affects the data as well. So in my view, both december and january, the weak numbers were largely related to weather. Nothing fundamental has changed. We were creating jobs last year. I think there will be this year. No change fundamentally. Its temporarily due to weather. I have seen some estimates that say this weather is costing the economy 5,000,000,000 overall. And i dont know if thats a lot or a little. But when you think about the planes cancelled or construction isnt getting done. How much of that is made up for later . I am asking you in the context of when there is a hurricane or tornado, you make that up because you rebuild stuff. After weather, is it same sort of thing . You get most of it back. People dont go out and shop like they normally would. They dont buy the clothes, the car, they stop looking for a home. They dont buy a home. They will do that once the weather returns to something more typical and normal. I think we will get most of it back. We wont get the airplane flights that got cancelled. You cant make that up. Hotels that have people that arent showing up, some restaurants will never make it back. In general, i think, you know, we will get most of this economic activity. It actually will probably make the spring months, you know, once we get into april, may, june look stronger than the reality of things because a lot of that will be bounce back from the depressed conditions existing now. Mark pleased to have your analysis mark starchedi is the chizandi analyst. Chocolate is popular. If you think the price is steep, wait. Demand is surging, especially in emer emerging markets where customers are getting we thinkier. The international coco Organization Says formers around the world are struggling to deep up. As a result, the price of cocoa has gone up 9 . Analysts predict chocolate prices will rise for years to come. Remember, you can always buy less. After all, its the thought that counts. Most of us find a doctor through the Insurance Company, but now, there is a new way to look for one, and it could turn the entire Healthcare System on its ear. Determine exactly how much money i was going to spend on this visit, and how much i would have left if i needed to go further for the testing done. We will show you how this new system is saving money and empowering patients coming up. You are watching real money. Aspass. A crew violation, how one mother described aols Conference Call gaffe where he said two cosley premature votes. Jawdropping incensetiveness, his disclosure of his employees Health Matters raised serious concerns. What is your employer entitled to know about the state of your health. Pat trisha sabka. This remark by aol Tim Armstrong has employees paver where asking exactly how much of my private medical information is my employer allowed to see . There is a very thin vail between what an employer knows about its employees health and right to medical. Under the portability and accountability act. Companies can see your information but there are limits. Only a handful of trained staff such as hr are allowed to see your details. There must be a firewall to keep the rest of the firm like your boss from seeing your personal information. If information is shared outside the firewall, data that could identify individual employees must be deleted. Is it good in theory . But challenging to implement. Companies are not supposed to use your personal medical information for jobrelated purposes such as firing you. But if youre determined to keep your personal Health Information private, you had better have deep pockets. Where we can demand that the Healthcare Provider not send any information about us on to the health plan or the insurer or the employer. But the trick is, you have to pay in full at the time of treatment. Patricia sabka, al jazeera new york. Pam dixon told us many of the complaints they receive at the world primes Privacy ForumConcern Health and wellness plan. Under the Affordable Care act its legal for employers to tell workers to take place in a Wellness Program including those that help them quit smoking. If they dont participate, they may face higher premiums. Employers with monitor whether goals are met of the Wellness Programs from price line to ebay, everybody is transformed the way americans buy. Up next, healthcare, now we are not talking about obamacare insurance ex changes. We are talking about websites where you can comparison shop for doctors and procedures. In some cases, doctors even bid to provide you with medical care. While the arrangement is in its early s