caroline: from bloomberg's world headquarters in new york, from right here in london, i am caroline hyde. romaine: let's look at where we stand in u.s. markets. the s&p 500, nasdaq, and russell all higher on the day. caroline: all about yellen nothing that janet yellen actually said today affected the direction of those equities, but

maybe more on the dollar the treasury secretary nominee reiterated her support for a large stimulus package, calling it vital for the recovery. she encountered some republican resistance to the plan for yellen, who could be confirmed as soon as thursday, urged lawmakers to act big. she mentioned restoring ev incentives, something that gm and microsoft i'm sure were happy to see. before that, how do you grade yellen today? joe: i do not grade officials and would be treasury secretary's. let's listen to some key moments. >> we are going to need more aid , with interest rates at historic lows. what we need to do is act big.

in the long run, the benefits i think will far outweigh the costs. the united states does not seek a weaker currency to gain competitive advantage. china is undercutting american companies. these practices, including china's low labor and environmental standards are practices that we are paired to use the full array of tools to address. we have to rebuild our economy so that it creates more prosperity for more people and ensures that american workers can compete in an increasingly competitive global economy. romaine: that was janet yellen. caroline, i will ask you a little bit later to rate her room. i do think her comments on the dollar were interesting. we have had this mealymouthed communication with regards to u.s. dollar policy for the past few years. this seemed to articulate it, at

least what she things. joe: let's welcome bloomberg news senior treasury and economic policy reporter. what, to you, was the big take away from the hearing? was it the clarification of the biden administration's dollar stands? >> the dollar policy stance was interesting. she did not use the word strong. she just said that they do not want a weak dollar. to me, the most interesting comments were on china. we have not heard her speak as a central banker on china or traded directly. it was the first moment she really appeared as a politician rather than a central banker. she talked quite strongly about taking on china' -- taking on china's quote abusive practices.

she seems to not be afraid to call on foreign countries for gaming their currencies. caroline: she started it all about how she wants to be a voice for fiscal sanity and that is what she pledges in her role. how much did she really get pushback on the fiscal stance? >> we heard from two republican senators, john theo and rob portman, asking about her concerns about where the u.s. federal deficit is heading. while she said that overall, she wants to be a voice of fiscal sanity she told rob portman, she still thinks that the best thing to do for the overall fiscal outlook for the u.s. is to bend now. she said she is very concerned about scarring in the economy from the pandemic induced slowdown.

romaine: i thought this was interesting. when you think about her former job as fed chair, it seems like she would have been before congress, warning about the dangers of inflation and other things that this fiscal spending would do. she now has to go on to capitol hill and sell biden's policies. what has been the response by some of the senators and congress people on the hill? >> so far, we have heard from several lawmakers. chuck grassley said during his opening remarks that he sees a lot of the social safety net measures in biden's plan as a liberal wish list that he has said has just been tacked on hundred the guys of meeting fiscal spending to cope with the pandemic. also, we have heard about

concerned that they have just passed a $900 billion bill last month, all of that money is not made it into the economy yet and already we are talking about more. yellen appears to be echoing what a lot of her -- joe: talk to us about known for a moment. was there any clues, especially questions from the republican side of the committee, and terms of working with the administration, in terms of their inclination to vote for her for this position? what did we learn if anything about the relationship she will have with the opposition party? >> chuck grassley and a lot of top republican lawmakers voiced a lot of support saying, yes, we have differences but you come to the job with integrity and

immediate credibility so ultimately she will be supported when it comes to confirmation. i think only senator holly spoke out against her when she was nominated. she came to the table wanted to work on a bipartisan level. chuck grassley said he hopes that will continue. at the same time, we have to think of biden's stimulus plan, a lot of nonstarter's for republicans. maybe this is just an opening bid. but, raising minimum wage, additional checks to american families of these are all things that republicans have said for ages that they will not support. caroline: what about the climate focus? >> janet yellen said that she wants to have a "hub of climate policy makers" to address that

and she said that climate change risks are a dark cloud for the u.s. economy. romaine: of course, her confirmation expected to happen in a matter of days here. coming up on the show, we will dig deeper into the incoming administration. president-elect joe biden and his plans to get the economic recovery back on track. this is bloomberg. ♪

romaine: in a little less than

24 hours, we will have a new president. we're just talking of course about the confirmation hearings earlier today for janet yellen to be treasury secretary. a lot of people want to know, not only what biden will propose, but how it will be implemented. joe: making clear that in her view, there is a lot more capacity for government spending. $15 minimum wage, $2000 checks, actually $1400 checks. eviction and foreclosure moratorium, paid sick leave. several things in this proposal. you see more money for vaccines. state and local aid, transit systems, schools. this is the goal. we will see what gets done. caroline: her focus is once again labor markets but also a

quality, something that in a way the biden administration -- romaine: can i just say, all three of us look great today. joe: i agree, thank you. i am glad you made that point. liz, when you look at what the biden administration has sort of spelled out in terms of its goal for stimulus and economic policy, are you thinking of this as an opening bid, or are you thinking of this as, they really want to get all of this done, and how much leeway or give do you think they will have in terms of the final package? >> i think it is both. i think it is an opening bid from the biden administration. in terms of opening bids, it is a high one. they planned to go over $1 trillion for the economy and

their recovery. throughout the last several months, i guess we are almost at a year, there has not really been the reluctance to go over $1 trillion 50 package at the end of the year. i will say that passing the $1 trillion markets notable and kind of meaningful for the biden administration to come in and say, we are not going to stick to those numbers. biden himself has said, now is not the time to worry about the deficit and hold back. janet yellen said in her confirmation hearing, now is really the time to spend. interest rates are low. i think it is an opening bid. i think there are things in the bill that senators or house leaders would prefer they go bigger on. i think the two-step approach in tandem will be more expensive than $1.9 trillion. i will note that we have a very detailed plan from the president, but his administration will have to work with the senate to come up with

bill text. romaine: a lot of focus is on the stimulus part of this. yellen talked about the scarring to the economy. there is an element about, how do you make a whole what we lost in the pandemic, getting all those people who lost their jobs back employed, fully employed and up to speed with regards to their former wages. >> notably, the focus is on two things. i think that the second half will focus on bringing back jobs. the economic policy institute estimates that extending on employment insurance, which the plan does, through the end of the year. epi suggests that extending those programs will save or create 5 million jobs. we know that since february we are down 10 million that we have not recovered.

moody's suggests the entire plan could create 18 million jobs. if they could get those net 10, 15 million jobs, that would be great and obviously promote even tighter labor markets than we had before this pandemic. spending now and sort of the framework they have outlined is a great way to grow and focus on tighter labor markets. caroline: in terms of the paying for the buck, the unemployment insurance, do you agree that it is the extension of food stamps that should come swiftly after getting the vaccine in people's arms? >> i think those are both very important. focusing on school reopening safely, on small business aid. i would also say that direct cash relief is a great way to reinvigorate the economy. we know that worked in the last round. the $600 checks when out, we don't have data on them yet.

we know that $1400 top off would stimulate consumer spending one in five renters are behind on their rent or mortgages, so getting money back into those markets is really important. that direct cash relief is a real bang for your buck as well. joe: going back to the obama administration, the recovery act was much smaller in dollar terms. there was an inclination early on to worry about the deficit. what do you think explains the lack of fear that this administration has, and the policy advisors surrounding biden? their lack of deficit fears. >> i think a, one, learning from our mistakes. one of the reasons the economy was so slow and dragged on for so long. the black unemployment rate was still quite high going into this

crisis and those folks took the longest to recover. so i think it is learning from our mistakes and a real focus on equity and recovery, making sure that those who are the last to rebound are supported by this entire bill. in addition to keeping it below $1 trillion in the great recession, there was this thought that you only had one shot. there were some short-term extensions of unemployment insurance in the following years but there was no real big economic invigorating package. there is no fear of a double to four prolonged recovery. romaine: do you worry about some of the structural changes you have seen in covid-19, that those might be permitted? >> i think the hospitality industry, service industry, those jobs will be the least likely to recover. so i think focusing stimulus on

those industries as we can will be important. amazon was able to whether this business. your favorite restaurant on main street and downtown probably was not. luckily, the biden administration and secretary to be yellen, and other administration officials are focused on targeted relief, consumers, workers, but also to businesses and sectors that have been the hardest hit, to robustly respond. caroline: the focus she had on china in particular in the fact that she will play tough, how much does that impact from a global perspective help a manufacturing focus the u.s. will have in terms of rebuilding its workforce. what sort of implications does that have in your mind in terms of getting back to work? >> i think the second half of the president-elect's plan, the

build back better plan is really important, and it will certainly play into global competition and our domestic labor market. caroline: we thank you so much, taking us through all of a with said over three hours. employee america senior advisor. way to get some expertise on this. coming up, something you may have missed, the economic and political news out of janet yellen. we also will be focusing a bit more on the climate change part of it. this could even with general motors, getting some new funding with other big tech names. we dig into that and some of the other funding going on. how that all fits into biden's plan. this is bloomberg. ♪

kailey: -- caroline: today, we have been focusing on the incoming biden administration that is certain to have a more friendly approach to clean energy. today, we saw a massive push into ev's. joe: we know there is a lot of excitement about auto tech. general motors, it must be one of these, based on the chart. this company, general motors, getting very excited about tech and investments with things like autonomous driving it electric vehicles. romaine: gm has a market valuation of around 78, $80 billion. along with this new investment value, 30 billion.

you see why some investors are thinking, gm, tech stock, right? joe: let's bring in ed ludlow. people are waking up to this fact that gm has some investments that are fairly far along in some of the hottest areas of the market. >> it has kind of condition did for a world where cars are basically computers on wheels. autonomous vehicles. the market potential for autonomous vehicles being potentially an $8 trillion market globally. that is not just carrying people around. it is also things like delivery. gm without this investment budget and, today, the market is paying attention. microsoft helped gm do something that its rivals have.

think about waymo, which is partnered with alphabet and google if the car is a computer on wheels, it is generating data all the time think of it as the robo taxi version of uber, having to manage a fleet in different cities, different jurisdictions. that is really the chatter from wall street today about what this deal represents. caroline: they got in pretty early and made a pretty good bet. not all bets have been good for gm and the nikola backtrack has tarnished their brand to some extent. x on cruze in particular, they said they would have a robo taxi fleet in the real world by 2019. i don't see them anywhere in the world. you have to take context that this is still some way off from happening. but, cruze is seen as a market

leader based on the testing data they have put forward. one big unknown is regulation. how soon will california, for example, allow robotaxis into the real world? gm has been working on this, playing catch-up for some time. it is not necessarily about first mover advantage or the amount of money you put into something, it is about the technology you have at your disposal. 's r.o.e. i want to get your thoughts here on another company, valuations approaching $25 billion. amazon involved in that, for as well. where they stand in their development process? >> they plan to start actual deliveries in june and an suv in august. almost 80% of new car sales in

the u.s. are in the light truck category. i always wondered, why is no one building an ev that reflects the type of car class people are buying today. they are taking their time over this product. it was delayed because of covid. but they have a good team there. a lot of experienced automotive heads, and the ceo is taking his time. sources tell me that they don't want to get this wrong. they are happy to take their time in terms of quality control, valuation, and things like that. caroline: thank you very much. meanwhile, that is kind of it from "what'd you miss?" joe: bloomberg technology is back. romaine: caroline's new

background is fabulous. caroline: it is amazing what a weekend will do. romaine: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: i'm emily chang in san francisco and this is "bloomberg technology." in the next hour, netflix still on fire. paid subscribers increasing 23% year-over-year in the last quarter of the year. global demand, the big driver. we will speak to someone who thinks that netflix needs to keep digging in.