>> you are going to see rates move higher. the economy is about to accelerate. >> whether there is an uptick in inflation, to be determined, but the debate has changed, and that matters. >> there are certain forces at work slowing down the recovery in the world economy. >> you have started to see volatility climb again. that is not typically a good sign. >> there's a catch up happening and correcting for the covid stock. -- the covid shock. >> this is "bloomberg surveillance" with tom keene, jonathan ferro, and lisa abramowicz. jonathan: all-time highs. for our audience worldwide, good morning. this is "bloomberg surveillance ," live on bloomberg tv and radio. alongside tom keene, i'm jonathan ferro.

lisa abramowicz back with us on monday. tom: no hope right now. when we speak with richard clarida to, it is going to be about the reality of the boom economy. the coffee is good this morning. jonathan: i was with you. we are on the same page. tom: there's another exclusive. how where is that? -- how rare is that? i'm looking at levels, and they tell me boom economy. jonathan: that rotation flipped to the other way. i think that is interesting, too . is that just a pause from what we have seen in the last six months, or are we snapping back the other way? tom: i am going to wait until earnings and those expectations out. how brave are corporate officers going to be to get out to q3, q4? i think they will really say we

don't know, and then you get an idea of margin sustainability, but critically, what is the revenue line doing in a boom economy? jonathan: jp morgan kicking things off next week with earnings. we get in inflation print, then the debate really picks up. on the equity market, a little bit of a lift on the s&p 500. futures had a sneak peak of 4100. what a turnaround. do you remember when 4100 felt ridiculous? tom: david kostin was out of his mind. he was not when he called -- he was nuts when he called. and there's others as well. jonathan: in the bond market, yields are higher by about five basis points on tends to 1.66 74%. we are getting some sad news out of the united kingdom that prince philip has died. that headline just crossing the bloomberg right now.

so if you're just tuning in worldwide on tv and radio, we are getting that sad news out of the united kingdom. prince philip, the duke of edinboro, has died -- the duke of edinburgh, has died. tom: i'm honored to be here with you to speak about this. we will get to enter slimming -- to andrew slimmon in a moment. how would you suggest the united kingdom will greet this news so widely anticipated? jonathan: with great sadness because he's been a permanent fixture for so many generations. this gentleman would have turned 100 i believe in june come on june 10. he's been at the side of the queen going back to the days of her being a teenager when they first met, and they carried on corresponding with each other when prince philip went to war, and then came back i think in 1947 are you the two of them got married, and he has been a permanent feature of the royal

family for so many of us. tom: not to put you on the spot, but i do think it is an important question for our global audience. we have seen two esteemed actors attempt prince philip within the acclaim show "the crown." from where you sit and all of your contacts in britain, did they even come a fair bit close to capturing this gentleman of the greek royalty? jonathan: unfortunately i can't say i have watched "the crown" as much as you. i think it would be hard to match the personality of prince philip, which has been so different for 70 people. this is a man that had kept -- for so many people. this is a man that had character in a way many and the royal family did not, and i think many would like to see more character from the oral family in times of stress like the ash the royal family in times of stress -- from the royal family in times of stress like this one. i think this is a time to come together and thick about the

work this particular man has done for this country, for the commonwealth, and all around the world. tom: there we are, with news that had been widely suspected in the hospital a number of weeks ago, and of course, queen elizabeth a few years behind and very vital at this moment. why don't we try to migrate the program forward? we will have much more on the death of prince philip through the morning. jonathan: let's pick it up on the markets and we will turn back to that news as we progress through the show. we've got the vice chairman of the federal reserve, richard clarida, joining us in around 50 minutes. things are stabilized in treasuries. over the last month, at least. on the session, yields higher by about five basis points. what's happened in the equity market is really important. the nasdaq has snapped back. can you extrapolate that out a couple more months? let's talk to in drew -- to andrew slimmon, morgan stanley

head of applied equity advisors. what is your reaction? andrew: i think it was oversold. some of the speculative tech stocks had sustained down 30%, so a little relief on the 10 year, and that gave the elixir for these stocks to snapback. but at the end, i think rates are going up, and i think this is still a dangerous area for investing given the evaluations that still exist. not the mecca cap -- the mega cap tech stocks, but some of the others that exist. jonathan: it is not just hope, it's real. we've seen it in retail sales. is there something different about how you anticipate the data and how you position a portfolio for that, and how you

position once you start to realize it? andrew: absolutely. stocks are forward predictors, so now the data is validating what the stock market has been telling you for the last nine months. i think many of these reopening stocks, we are beginning to trim back because the economy is reopening, and the stock market is going to pivot to the next story. it is not the reopening story. maybe in europe. europe is still a little bit behind us, but i think the real issue is what is the next thing around the corner, and with the vix down to the midteens, i am a little bit more cautious than i have been. tom: what is your experience of the phrase go to cash? because if you go to cash, there's a point where you've got to get back in. are we had a 4%, 5% tasteful

cash, or are you 40% or 50% cash? andrew: that's a great question. first of all, i run equity mutual funds. i have to stay relatively invested. but we adjust the beta and our portfolios, and what has so worked here until recently is high beta, especially high beta reopening value stocks. at this juncture, what we are starting to see is that value stocks continue to work, but not high risk value stocks. it is the safer value stocks. some of the high quality financials, industrials, even some of the energy. i think you want to adjust the risk down. in terms of going to cash, i do think quarterly earnings will be good, but i think having cash on hand so you can capture if we do have a 10%, 15% correction, which i think is coming at some point this summer, you want to

be a buyer into that, so you've got to have some cash available to capture that. tom: i think this is so important, the definition of a correction, 10% 15%, and the oops of a -35 percent. we try to correction a number of months ago and didn't get there. jonathan: i find it really interesting we are talking to people like you, i've had the same conversation with blackrock that may be had cash allocation as we start to have this big debate over inflation and the data comes in, yet volatility keeps declining. what you think that is? andrew: because the economy is reopening. [laughter] because the vix has remain elevated versus pre-pandemic , it was in the midteens. it has remained above 20 for a year. it only finally has broken back to pre-pandemic levels, and i think that is consistent with.

consumer confidence is now coming on. the economy is getting back to normal. you want to be invested in be optimistic when people are cautious. i'm sure people have been coming on this show for a year saying i expect more volatility in the future. that's because they are looking in the rearview mirror. now you don't hear people talk about more volatility because there hasn't been a lot of volatility lately. you want to be more cautious when the coast is clear. that's what the vix is telling you now. that means the market can't withstand bad news. when the vix is elevated, people are expecting bad news, bad news like a outbreak last fall that it's not -- that did not cause a big correction. i think this is a really important concept. yes, we had a big correction

last year, but 20% more corrections are very rare. so if you can have cash on hand, the odds are you are going to be well rewarded over time by investing into weakness in the market. so i'm a big believer in a very algorithmic way of unemotional, when you get pullbacks, you automatically put more money into the market because the odds are they're going to stop down at that level, and i think that is what is going to happen this summer. jonathan: andrew, good to catch up with you, as always. andrew slimmon, morgan stanley investment management head of applied equity. we hear from the royal family in

the united kingdom on twitter. from the palace, "it is with deep sorrow that her majesty the queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, his royal highness prince philip, the duke of edinburgh." at age 99, prince philip has died. ritika: with the first word news, i'm ritika gupta. most coronavirus vaccines are going to the wealthiest countries. 40% of the covid vaccines administered globally have gone to people in 27 wealthy nations that represent 11% of the population, according to the bloomberg vaccine tracker. countries making up the least wealthy 11% have gotten just 1.6% of the vaccines. in other words, countries with higher incomes are vaccinating 25 times faster than those with the lowest. fed chair jerome powell is

pledging to get the u.s. back to a great economy. speaking to a virtual panel, powell said that he drives by a tent city for the homeless on his commute, and that reminds him that millions of americans are still trying to find jobs. powell also downplayed the prospect of inflation. dozens of u.s. and european banks may throw their weight behind the white house's earth day summit, part of plans being drawn up by former bank of england governor mark carney. carney is expected to unveil the plan for net zero. banks will pledge net zero emissions by the year 2050. another problem for the boeing 737 max. the company has it in the fight a potential electrical issue on some of the planes. it has alerted 15 customers they should ground the jet until the issue is resolved. it is not related to the nearly two-year grounding of the 77 max after those two fatal crashes --

the 737 max after those two fatal crashes. global news 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm ritika gupta. this is bloomberg. ♪ mberg. ♪ ♪ tom: good morning, everyone. "bloomberg surveillance." jonathan ferro and tom keene. lisa abramowicz is off today. in 50 minutes, richard clarida will be with us. prince philip is dead at 99. our kevin cirilli joins us now from washington. i want you to reaffirm president biden's approach with the united kingdom as he reaches out to our allies. prince philip was someone who walked one step behind the

queen, even as president trump tried to walk one step before on one of the visits to london. what will be this relationship with a new united kingdom? kevin: it is a special relationship, but this is an opportunity for president biden, as well as his administration and the u.s. congress collectively, to really underscore just how special that relationship is. for a host of different reasons, and i would anticipate that some top, high-profile members of the administration, potentially even the president himself on the first lady, would be attending some of the services, although i don't want to get ahead of ourselves because we don't have any confirmation of that. secondly, this comes at a crucial point not just for the u.k. relationship, before the eu/u.k., and u.s. relationship as a whole, at a time in which

trade deals are on the table, as well as a reorganization on how to confront authoritarianism, including the rise of the communist party in china. tom: are we seeing a reaffirmation of the washington consensus of the -- consensus on the 100th anniversary of the convention? kevin: i think that report issued by the national intelligence council, the global trends by 2040 report, tacking in at about 100 50 pages, really outlined the national security and geopolitical concerns of the future that are really underway already, especially from the vantage point of countering china, for example, from a technological space, from a future technology space, and from an outer space perspective as technology continues to outpace itself. jonathan: i found the messaging from this administration on infrastructure much more complex

than the messaging around the relief plan they delivered a couple of months back. in your mind, do they need to address that? kevin: yes, they have to be able to juxtapose that a green job means a working-class job, that a green job means a middle-class job, and transform industries that are candidly trending into a new shift in global economics. they have to be able to communicate that. i think e-commerce secretary is really at the forefront of that, given her gubernatorial experience. but april 22, the alliance of democracies that the biden adminstration is going to be rally in, it is going to be crucial that places like youngstown, ohio believe that their auto plants are still going to be up and running in 2040, but maybe they are going to be making solar panels instead of car parts. jonathan: is the real outreach

to the republican party on this front? i don't think we can characterize the last effort is real outreach. kevin: candidly, i think the real outreach remains to try to get democrats on board. senator manchin and chris coons our world apart from the left flank of their party. when they say they are against raising the corporate tax rate, that is a chief opportunity for how secretary yellen as well as president biden have suggested they would be able to pay for their 2.2 $5 trillion infrastructure package -- their to put two $5 trillion -- their $2.25 trillion infrastructure package. tom: is that a marginal debate? kevin: yesterday, the administration opposing a military budget that is lower than the previous administration , but it comes at a time when the u.s. has already spent $4.1

trillion on stimulus, and biden adminstration is proposing $2.25 trillion more for infrastructure. so it is him a lot of money -- so it is a lot of money either way you look at it. kevin: kevin, -- jonathan: kevin, thank you, sir. catch kevin on "sound on" on bloomberg radio weekdays. worldwide, news out of the united kingdom right now. "it is with deep sorrow that her majesty the queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, his royal highness prince philip, the duke of edinburgh." prince philip has died, aged 99. let's head out to london and catch up with guy johnson, bloomberg anchor joining us from queen victoria street. guy, is there a response in london right now? guy: to a

certain extent, this is something that was anticipated. he was 99. he had been married to the queen for seven decades. there will be no state funeral, though. that was his wish. there will not be the foreman on a national holiday -- the formal national holiday, the formal state funeral. that was the decision he made. he has been at the center of the british establishment ever since he married the queen as she was to become, in 1952, back in 1947 he was a successful naval officer. he has been at her side ever since, and as a result of which, this is a day of deep sorrow for this country. the royal family, despite its recent problems, remains at the center of the british establishment, at the center of the nation and also the commonwealth. so a day of deep sadness i think for so many people. tom: queen elizabeth will be 95

on april 21. i believe that is in 13 days, if my british math is correct. it is a generational change, a long time coming. how does prince charles wake up this morning? how does life change for the prince of wales? guy: i think prince charles wakes up with a heavy heart. his father has just died. i think he is probably remembering his life with his father. it was a relationship that obviously defined both of them, but what happens next to the queen i thick is probably a story for another day. as you say, she is a few steps behind in age of prince philip, but nevertheless, i think this is something the nation is not really ready to accept at this point. she has stabilized the royal

family in a way over many generations that i think has had a huge impact not only on the family, but also on the nation. she is the longest serving monarch this country has ever had, tom. tom: when did he become british? we all watch "the crown," and i am a rank amateur at this. i think what you are doing is phenomenal, the authenticity of this you have lived. when did he become british? he was from the balkans. guy: he was born to the danish and greek royal families. he was born in greece. it wasn't an easy transition. but he became the husband of the then to be queen. it was a period of huge turbulence because of the abdication, and we had been through that. her father obviously became

king, and then she in 1952, 1953 coronation was, became queen. she provided huge amount of stability. he became part of that establishment. he became part of that firm, as it is known here in the united kingdom, and provided the queen with somebody to be a confidant. i think that was a huge part of his role in this whole process, and he has been with her ever since. you look at the stabilizing force that she has provided, he has been part and parcel of that mixture. he was, as you can see in all of these pictures, right there with her at all of those critical events, and i think the country and the commonwealth in the world will look back with great fondness at what he achieved. it wasn't without difficulties along the way, but i think most

marriages probably experience that, and i think certainly, he provided the stability she was looking for. tom: for those joining us on bloomberg television and bloomberg radio, the death of prince philip at 99 years old. jonathan: he retired from royal duties back in 2017. in many ways anticipated, but i don't think that diminishes or removes the sadness from the moment. it is an important moment more broadly for the royal family, which is found itself in the news for the wrong reasons particularly over the last 12 months. this is a man who has been a permanent feature of this family for much of the last 60, 70 years. now we need to talk about the future and the royal family's position not only in the united kingdom, but also in the commonwealth. what's that look like over the next decade, the next 20 years? you and i don't have the answers to that come but that is the conversation now. guy: i think there is a discussion that has been increasing over the last 12 months as a result of what has

gone on within the royal family about a slimmed down royal family which is something you see in many other nations that have royal famil -- royal families. as a result of which, it provides more focus and more clarity on what their role is because i think if you have this extended family occupying an undefined role, i think things get more difficult. i think there is certainly an active discussion about what will happen next, who will make that decision, and exactly how tight a group we are talking about. what i think that discussion -- but i think that discussion is going to be with us for quite some time. jonathan: thank you, guy johnson over in london. no doubt we will hear from heads of state around the world with

response to the death of prince philip. just 30 minutes ago, we heard from the royal family on twitter come up and is with deep sorrow the queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, prince philip, duke of edinburgh." at 99, prince philip has died.

♪ jonathan: for our audience worldwide, this is "bloomberg surveillance." had a look at 4100 on the s&p 500. unreal, this move since late october, since 12 months ago. right now we advanced 0.2%. nasdaq underperforming on the session so far, unchanged. your russell advances about 0.5%. coming into friday, it was down on the week a similar amount. they nasdaq 100 on the week up about 3%. in the bond market, your 10-year treasury yield a little bit higher, up four basis points to 1.66%. in about 30 minutes, we will

catch up with the vice chair of the federal reserve, richard clarida. if you sing about where we have come from in the last six months, it is about the anticipation of better data, and now we are starting to see it. what does it mean for the fx market? on euro-dollar, it is always about relative data to expectations. where is the data relative to expectations? where is the outlook relative to expectations, and how does it change? we need to think about the vaccination effort in america. let's talk about the vaccination effort in europe. we talked about how bad it is. the last couple of days, record daily vaccinations in germany. i think euro and euro-dollar in the fx market were broadly can smell it. euro-dollar with a $1.19 handle. take a look at euro sterling. you and i talked about the taxing trader earlier in the year. it is starting to go the other way -- that vaccine trade earlier in the year. it is starting to go the other way. tom: the nasdaq story to me is

the story of the week. but i do take your point. the euro to me has just been thursday and friday, and all of a sudden, here we are looking for a $1.19 print. jonathan: earlier this morning, i think we've got to talk about surprises. where are the positive surprises going to come from? are they going to come from america, or from elsewhere? do using we are already starting to see people start to gravitate toward those stories a little bit more in the fx market? tom: on a macro basis, yes, that is true. but i think where they are really going to come from is yields to cash. jim suga at citigroup saying this is the time of the year where apple moves up the dividend and announces share buybacks, and he thinks they will be bigger than large. jonathan: earnings season kicking off next week with j.p. morgan. in about 20 minutes, vice chair of the federal reserve, richard clarida. romaine dropping into the studio.

hello, romaine. romaine: another quiet day. a lot of investors gravitating towards those names where they know they are going to peel off some cash over the next few months. you have seen amazon in the premarket hours. the other catalyst is that union vote going on down in alabama. right now, based on bloomberg reporting, the count seems to be doing more in amazon's favor, but they have about half of the votes left to go there. they don't really into spate a huge loss to amazon should they lose this vote, saying the additional cost there would easily be absorbed. boeing having some electrical issues with that 77 max jet, completely unrelated to the previous issues -- that 737 max jet, completely unrelated to the previous issues.

levi straus came in above estimates. taiwan semi out with earnings that were pretty decent. you are seeing some activity here in the u.s. names like kla. carnival corp. getting ms bid on the potential resumption of cruises. nike settling that suit with rapper low nonsex -- with rapper lil nas x. tom: right now, tom porcelli with us, rbc capital markets, on the american economy, looking at the labor economy and our wage dynamics. let me digress here. what is the question you would ask the vice chairman? tom p: what does substantial further progress mean? in fairness, maybe that is a question he can't answer, but i would rather him say that then just this colorful, you know, we want to see the labor backdrop. want more guideposts.

i wouldn't let him get away with just giving a response that didn't really answer the question. [laughter] tom k: jon ferro, that's why i'm the nice guy with clarida and jon is not. jonathan: i think tom knows what is coming in about 30 minutes. tom k: i am going to ask sweetheart questions to my good friend richard clarida to. then ferro in between. [laughter] tom p: jonathan, give him heck. i wouldn't let him get away with just saying we want further progress on labor without finding that. in fairness, maybe it is a little bit too early. maybe they do want to talk about it in broad strokes. but i think pressing him a bit on that, maybe that is the answer. if that is what you are so used to telling us, that you are not ready to define it yet, just give us something. but my sense is that the way

that powell has been talking about this, how many times has he said there's 10 million people on the sidelines? well, now it is 9 million people. my sense is that is probably one of the guideposts, one of the lines in the sand. i think they want some, if not all of those folks back. but i just want some clarity on that, and i think that is totally reasonable. but i am some pathetic if they think it is a little too early to define it. but just say that. say it is too early to define it. jonathan: i think they think it is working right now. the question is whether they think it is necessary to even define any of those things. is it working from your perspective? just look at the price action. tom p: i totally get it. i don't know that they necessarily need to say that today because the reality is companies still have to cover virus cases on the rise in some cases.

you still have that as sort of a good reason to not worry so much about what is going to happen in the second half of the year. but when things evolve, it is going to evolve fast. you are going to see the second half -- and sorry, things are already coming back now. you have 10% in q1. but in the second half of the year, i think you're going to see things really ramp up. they are going to find themselves sort of behind the curve. in fairness, they are almost always behind the curve. i don't know if there's been any instance where they are not behind the curve. and again, and fairness, that is probably where we want them. i don't want them crafting monetary policy based on their forecasts. i don't think anybody should. i think we want them to respond to what is on the ground. but that doesn't mean it is not helpful for us to have some framework for thinking about what they are thinking. jonathan: i just wonder, is it a feature or is it a bug. i guess it is a feature and not a bug. tom p: it is a feature.

but once we get into the point where it is going to be obvious to my seven-year-old that the economy is ripping, i think it is going to be important to define it. the fed has not been great about defining exactly what they are looking for, whether it is many months away or when we are in the thick of it. tom k: the nexus of this debate is something you are expert at. that is studying the waste dynamics of this country. it is the inflation worry, wage inflation comes in, and it is a statement on the labor that the fed demands we have. give us a sense of how you will study it later this year ended in the year -- and into next year. tom p: one of the things i think is totally underappreciated is think about how we come out of recession, almost any recession. after just about any recession,

what you tend to see is the wage dynamic has just been decimated. there's no wage pressure. wages have gotten clobbered over the course of a downturn. think of how we are coming out of this recession. if you can even call this a recession. it is wildly different. you are looking at, we read about this the other day and have been writing about this for weeks, if you look at aggregate wages, which i think is a much more complete way of looking at the wage dynamic embedded in the payrolls report as opposed to average hourly earnings, which i think is incomplete, if you look at aggregate wages, they are now exactly where they were in february of 2020. think about that. that is nothing short of impressive. so we are coming out of this recession in a very different way than any other recession we have come out of, and i think this really lends itself to this idea of having incredibly strong growth at least for the coming year, and maybe beyond.

when i think about that, where we are now come already back to where we were pre-recession, which typically takes years to happen post recession, i think we have to keep in mind what people are saying, what companies are saying. you see this in the ism's, small-business surveys. they are all talking about tight labor markets. right now, today is april 9. they are talking about it right now, tight labor markets. so how do you think that is going to evolve over the coming few months i think wage pressure is going to be -- next few months? i think wage pressure is going to be a part of the next few months. jonathan: we are applying the lessons from the last cycle to the recovery in this one. just quickly, and 30 seconds, is that a mistake? tom p: i think you just hit the nail on the head. how many people do you know that are comparing this to the gse? -- the gfc?

you've got to throw all of that out the window. this is a wildly different set up then we have seen maybe ever post recession. jonathan: tom, good to catch up. tom porcelli fired up for an interview with richard clarida. we should maybe have a third interviewer on the program. maybe tom porcelli wants to join. tom k: what i notice is you are always hitting the nail on the head. i never hit the nail on the head. i don't know what that is on the -- that is all about. jonathan: you've talked about it, too, so give yourself some credit. we are applying the lessons of the previous cycle. the people in power right now, chairman powell, secretary yellen, have been conditioned by the previous cycle and are taking those lessons and applying them to this moment, and this moment is so different to anything we saw in the previous cycle. tom: i am so glad you bring this up. the only equivalency is 47. it is a false -- his 1947. it is a false equivalency.

and the fed was in crisis three years later. the independence that clarida and powell have came from the last time we had this kind of boom economy and then what to do about it. jonathan: building up to an important conversation with the vice chair of the federal reserve, richard clarida, joining us in 20 minutes. this is bloomberg. ♪ ritika: with the first word news, i'm ritika gupta. he was known for his rough public persona and for helping modernize the british monarchy. prince philip come of husband of queen elizabeth, died today at windsor castle. he was 99. philip married elizabeth in 1947. he became viewed as one of the most influential members of the royal family. philip always walked a step behind the queen at the thousands of public events they attended. on their 50th wedding

anniversary, she said philip has been her strength. -- reported more than 8000 infections and 30 deaths wednesday, now on pace to surpass its december record. on a per capita basis, michigan has the most coronavirus hospital patients in the nation. the u.k. will decide by early next month whether britons can resume taking international holidays. countries will be rated according to the coronavirus risk for the traffic light system. it is too early to say which countries will get the green light. amazon has taken a commanding lead in a historic election to determine whether workers at an amazon warehouse in alabama will become the first in the u.s. to join a retail union. with about half the votes counted, amazon is ahead by a two to one margin. the retail, wholesale, and department store union calls the system broke in and says it will

appeal. global news 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm ritika gupta. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> populism, if it keeps going

on for too long, just blows up. if you get a lot of stimulus, you say that works great, let's do it again. let's keep doing it. that is how you get into trouble. jonathan: the words of the harvard university professor of economics and public policy, catching up with us right here on "bloomberg surveillance" just moments ago. good morning. alongside tom keene, i'm jonathan ferro. lisa abramowicz back with us on monday. let's look at the price action to get you set up for this friday morning. equity futures breaching 4100 briefly on the s&p 500. right now, 4095, up around 0.1%. record highs at the close yesterday. we look to add a little bit more weight to that. in the bond market, yields up to 1.6674%. just teeing this up for a really important conversation 12 minutes away, when we catch up with the vice chair of the federal reserve and an old friend of this program, richard clarida. tom: lots to talk about.

i was joking yesterday we would make it a 35 minute conversation. i don't think we will get there. [laughter] but we've got a lot to talk about with the vice chairman, and what he knows is labor is a huge part of the study of the federal reserve system, the study of the atomized asian of the american labor economy. joining us right now is the number two most important person in detroit, michigan, of the detroit tigers. as well, and 11, the democrat -- as well, andrew levin, the democrat from michigan. the path of labor economics in michigan that spans his term in public service, and now you at the ninth district of the strike -- now you in the ninth district

of detroit. this amazon vote, is there any sense that resident biden could get a rekindled union movement? rep. levin: absolutely. this plant in alabama, young workers, african-american workers represent labor organizing this country. it looks like they will not win this one, not surprising to me given the oppression amazon has rained down on them through the entire process, but it just shows how broken our system is. i have been listening to your conversation about stimulus. the real thing we need to do to transform this economy is to simply allow workers the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively again. that has been gone for decades. we are down to 6% of private-sector workers have a union in this country. they've got no leverage, and that is why all benefits go to

the very wealthiest people. tom: what is the topic that is under argument? amazon says they do wages $15 an hour, whatever it is. i assume there is a fit package commensurate with the job skill. what is the criticism that you was irv as a labor pro? -- you observe as a labor pro? rep. levin: for one, this is a warehouse. warehouses are not fast food or grocery store wages. secondly, this isn't just about money. yes, this company is owned by the richest person in the world, who got $68 billion richer during this pandemic for doing nothing, and these workers are scraping by. money matters. but the key thing is basic

dignity, being a human being. did you see twitter blow up, and all other social media, when the company said nobody pisan bottles -- nobody pees in bottles? people reacted with stories about their pee bottles in their truck and at their workstation. working for amazon, you feel more like a piece of machine or a robot than a human being, and the only way to change that is for workers to get a seat at the table and negotiate a dignified workday. jonathan: just to jump in, people really appreciate amazon from a consumer's perspective, yet we all acknowledge there are issues within the company. if this has become part and parcel of the modern-day economy. i wonder whether you think there is a broader issue here, some thing toxic about the way we interact with these companies now, whereby we want everything cheap, convenient, and a lot of

people really appreciate the company. you said that jeff bezos didn't do a lot last year. i think you could argue that amazon did a lot for everybody's lives through the lockdown last year. but do you think there is something toxic about our relationship with these companies, yet at the same time, the abuse you allege is happening behind the scenes? rep. levin: but jonathan, this has been going on forever. first of all, he personally did not do a lot. no one can defend the idea of getting $68 billion richer. what does that even mean? that is a sickness right there that we have to address. to answer your question, this is an old story. we loved model peas -- model t's. we loved walmart. walmart is the biggest private-sector employer in this country, was something like 1.3 million workers. not one person has a benefit of a collective bargaining contract to give them the idea that they would only be fired for just

cause. tom: why don't they have the power to do that? what is precluding the workers of walmart from unionizing? rep. levin: the labor laws. if vesper, alabama was a foreign country and jimmy carter flew in to monitor the election, they would have flown out weeks ago, held a press conference to say that the oppression these voters are facing, the unevenness of the playing field, the idea that this could be a free and fair election is absurd. we are going back to georgia because we are proclaiming today that there is no fair election possible. if you want to go down the list, i am really happy to do it. the company is allowed to force workers, on pain of termination, to attend antiunion propaganda meetings all day long, and if a union representative steps foot on their property, they arrest them.

the election come where what is even held? -- the election, where was it even held? under the project the right of workers act, the workers would decide. not under this law. 40% of the time, employers in these elections illegally fire people, the penalties are basically nothing. if you are fired because of your race or religion, there's all kinds of damages. here, there's basically none. our labor laws basically incentivize employers like amazon and walmart, and small ones, to break the law to prevent their workers from forming unions. that is what happened. jonathan: this is a subject worthy of a much longer conversation, so please come back soon because we are up against the clock on this program, so forgive me.

congressman andy levin there, the democrat from michigan. we will continue the conversation on the labor market, the broader economy with federal reserve vice chair richard clarida. live on tv and radio, this is "bloomberg surveillance." ♪

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