market >> right >> jeffrey, it's always a pleasure i always enjoy our conversations. it's nice to see you again i hope we do it again soon you take care. >> take care, scott. good to be with you. >> jeffrey gundlach joining us in a "halftime" exclusive interview. that's it for us "the exchange" is now. and thank you very much, scott. hi, everybody. this is "the exchange. here is what's ahead the child tax credit payments are going out to families of 60 million children getting more than $400 a month on average is this a major step toward a universal basic income and controversy growing around biogen's alzheimer's drug just days after the center for medicare and medicaid began its review, two major hospital systems are saying they won't use it does it have a future? plus, quitting crypto, souring on oat milk, and don't charge in

your garage. those stories coming up in "rapid fire. dom chu is here with the numbers. kelly, what we have here is a market that has turned around a little bit we were in the red in negative territory and were going to see modest losses, but here we are seeing the dow industrials get back to flat the s&p 500 is down but the nasdaq has now turned around to be the big laggard of the day, 14,536 the last trade there. the dow had been underperforming, had been out and now we're flipped so at this hour the nasdaq is certainly the index to watch one place we are seeing positivity that has been a turnaround are in the banks, morgan stanley okay, i spoke too soon it's now flat on the day these two regional banks posted better than expected profits and

revenues for their most recent quarter. morgan stanley did as well the setup, u.s. bank and truist weaker perhaps a reversal there and then gamestop. it is now back to being one of the most popular ticker searches on cnbc.com and the roll yefr on the right-hand side of the screen is the result of a five-day losing streak that netflix news from yesterday did have reverberations and gamestop was one of them. if netflix does have, kelly, broader aspirations for a future in video gaming, what does that mean for a company like netflix? well, the shares are down about 4.25% today. five-day losing streak >> still hanging on to 160 the flood of etf inflows since january. this year is on track to outpace last year's record and the management style of the funds is also start to go evolve. bob pisani is down at the nyse

with more today. bob? >> reporter: hello, kelly. good to see you. the etf tidal wave continues and it's accelerating. year to date u.s. etfs have taken in $488 billion and that will easily outpace the roughly $500 billion outflows in 2020. that was a record year so you see this is going to be huge this year why are etfs so popular in general? what's causing the record in flows? they have many advantages over mutual funds they can trade intraday, number one. number two, they have lower fees, much lower fees. number three, they're more tax efficient. but several trends are accelerate that go are benefiting etfs. first, inflows into passive or index funds continue as passive investing continues to win out over active investing. second, even those active managers are starting to adopt the etf trade. and many mutual funds are starting to convert itself to an etf structure. finally, while there are 200 etf

providers there's only a small group of winners, and i can count them on one hand the top five etf providers 81% of the assets under management look at the numbers. black rock, vanguard, state street, charles schwab this has led to concern about too much concentration the big three, blackrock, vanguard and state street own 22% of the typical s&p 500 company. i'm not sure if i think that's a bad thing. vanguard provides great service and low fees to get into their funds. people have flocked to those low fees very interesting debate about that concentration >> the active management style for black rock the future planet equity etf ticker gsfp just began trading and providing solutions, water

and more my next guest helped launch the fund and says it could be. katie, welcome >> first of all, thanks for having us on one of the major differences of this etf is, first of all, that it's active. many are not it's only 30 to 60 holdings. and it's not just about, for example, clean energy. we're also investing in sectors like sustainable consumer and water, investing in less than $10 billion of market cap. we're really excited about bringing this to the market.

as you note in your opening comments is something we think is a great opportunity over the next ten years, gives clients the opportunity to invest in companies that are going to create the planet that we want our children to inherit and creating wealth. >> a lot of people see the kinds of companies, the esg funds, and say they're not that different and are thought of as dirty companies that buy clean power credits to offset whatever they're doing. they come with higher fees than people in the etf world, the passive index options might be used to. what's the fee structure here? >> this is 75 basis point fee structure and you're getting the transparency, the tax efficiency and the ease of trading of an etf and the 75 basis points is in the range of where a lot of these active etfs are being

priced because we're offering something very differentiated for market cap weight. taking a step back because we talked about providers, world is changing rapidly and clients that have a lot of the market cap are missing out on a lot of the trends and equity markets. so this is one etf we brought to the market today we've managed equity for over six years. we managed $20 million we think u.s. clients need more options for future portfolio and this is one of them. we think the fee is quite well priced for the type of innovation and exposure this will provide >> i actually want your general take on the market one more question which goes back to the issue of who qualifies is just thinking

through these companies, what would you say to people who say, okay, what happens if a company is high in environmental which of the inputs dominate or how are they weighted? >> just to be clear, we're going to invest to this transition and the companies will be very strong across all characteristics. but just to add one thing, just to give you an example of the type of company because this is, again, not just clean energy and not just good characteristics, the companies that will help us in this transition we need to make, sustainable consumption. so this is something that might not be on people's radar but the fashion industry is a very large leader they are 8% to 10%

or will be available in this etf. recycling paper. so here is an innovative company to scale it and a more sustainable planet >> i just learned about the local company that does rental children's clothing with an eye towards why pile it up but, by the way, the old school version was called hand me downs. we've had the fed chair weighing in suggesting the areas he thinks are frothy. >> bonds are obviously pushing the lower bounds and equities at the upper bounds we are above where we've been on the ten year by 33%. whether earnings are going to come through, only 10% of the

s&p 500 reported early signs are strong and to justify these high valuations, and for the rest of the year watching those inflation data points is real and coming through for some of these companies and i would say a year ago all we cared about was do they have the balance sheet to get to the other side of the crisis now we need to switch our focus do they have the pricing power i think a really good setup for the long term. >> a pleasure having thanks so much katie koch with goldman sachs. coming up, did you get the notice millions are seeing deposits in their bank account as one of the largest anti-poverty measures since lbj. the numbers, the implications

and whether this is the start of basic income next. and shares of biogen are sliding after two health systems say they won't use the controversialals heimers drug.

welcome back to "the exchange." more than 35 million american families are receiving the first of six advanced child tax credit payments today white house is pushing to extend it through 2025. ylan mui with the latest the white house is calling these the largest tax cut. parents will get $3,600 for children under the age 6 and can get half that in monthly in installments the rest will be available once they file their taxes. for older kids up to age 17 it's $3,000 total or $250 a month all told, $15 billion is going out the door today covering nearly 60 million children democrats want to extend the credit for years to come and maybe even permanently >> the people who say we can't afford to give the middle class a break, i say we can afford it

by making people at the top and the big corporations, over 50 of which paid no taxes last year at all, to just start paying their fair share >> republicans, though, are criticizing the proposal as anti-work. senator marco rubio warned that the flood of cash could exacerbate the existing labor shortage but democrats point to the potential for these payments to alleviate childhood poverty. the white house compared had to social security and said that bills are due every month. kelly, the help should come monthly as well. >> ylan, thank you very much a major experiment is kicking off in the u.s. today and that got me thinking this isn't so much about covid, per se, quite simply it's an anti-poverty effort on a grand scale and one that's never been tried before this is cash for kids, and the administration thinks it could cut child poverty in half. you get up to $300 a month for each little kid. $250 a month for each older one.

it phases out at $150,000 of joint income and ends at $170,000 worth that will cover 90% of america's children some are calling this a major experiment in universal basic income ubi schemes replace existing entitlesments with cash. this doesn't replace anything. it's just a monthly stimulus, a prepayment, sort of. it will be extended to at least 2025 is this a precurser to a broader ubi? my next guest says not so fast let's bring in melissa kearney, a nonresident senior fellow at the brookings institute. melissa, it's great to have you. tell us what you think the child tax credit is really all about >> what i think makes this policy expansion both politically and economically feasible and generally very good policy is the fact that it's targeted on families with children so it's not universal in the sense at that every adult, every able-bodied adult, gets this payment.

we're giving this money to families with children and, frankly, this is one of the best ways the federal government can and should be spending money from the perspective of social returns. we have tons of evidence showing that helping families with kids pay their bills, supplementing their income, this leads to beneficial effects for kids at that last into adulthood improving their education and economic outcomes. the fact this is targeted on families with kids is precisely why i think this is good economic policy. >> well, and it doesn't, frankly, compared with the trillions in stimulus over the past year and a half, it's not that expensive we're talking $150 billion over a 12-month period of time. my question, though, what kind of infusion it could engender. a lot of families who don't even pay any tax get it, no strings attached that's why we call it refundable once we start moving into the middle income areas, it offsets,

sort of, the tax refund, doesn't it you have people -- tax advisors who say they think parents should opt out because it could mess with the refunds they might get next spring. so, in other words, those cases, apparently a million families have already opted out of $35 million or so. why do you think that is >> this is a good point. if we want to help families with children doing it through the tax code is a complicated, cumbersome way to do it. our tax corrode is extremely complicated and the lowest income families, families who most need it, generally don't file taxes so i think this expansion that happened quickly in the covid pandemic policy era, this sets up a child allowance idea. but ideally going forward we would pull this out of the tax code and just have a child allowance, a child benefit program. it could be run through the social security agency, which is already in the business of

sending out checks every month to retirees. we could have a streamline spending program and then families wouldn't have to do this complicated dance of figuring out how this affects their overall tax credit, wondering if they're going to get this check just to have to pay it back. >> again, i think it's going to be a long, long time before we see the results of it. we know about the efficacy it can change how to better target it or what have you but is this all meant to be sort of an entry point no a universal basic income for all americans and we should add the idea of ubi would replace existing entitlements we know that would never be the case social security is not going anywhere medicare is not going anywhere this would be additional payments to the population that doesn't yet qualify for those ent entitlements, don't you think? >> let's be claire

>> if it paid $8,000 a year, that would swamp the federal budget so you couldn't do that and maintain social security, medicare, disability insurance, housing assistance, the earned income tax credit. now something like this universal child allowance, and in this sense maybe we would call it universal because it's going to 90% of families so this could be reasonably considered a precursor to a child allowance which we could afford without cutting all of our other spending entitlements and social insurance programs. it's $100 billion a year, $120 billion a year that is comparable to other spending programs and, frankly, it's something that if we committed to this type of a child allowance, we could have -- we could raise taxes in ways that could cover that without up-ending all of our

existing social insurance programs which essentially would be required for an actual universal basic income not targeted on children >> universal child income is your term, the way you're describing it, melissa thanks so much a pretty historic day here in the u.s. for these mapayments t go out netflix is moving beyond as it fights to keep the crown as the king of content. its shares are flat on the year lagging its faang peers. how this new effort to play out. plus, america's labor shortage is taking a toll on businesses of every size and every industry we'll speak with one entrepreneur who has had to close stores due to the labor shortage

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welcome back let's get a check of the markets. the dow is down 170 points lower the low point. still the dow is the underperformer, barely lower the s&p half a percent lower and the nasdaq 1% lower. this is the one to watch here as we continue through to check on the sectors. consumer discretionary and tech are laggards in terms of the movers, the arkk one of the most popular is now on pace for its tenth day of declines in the past 11 sessions it's down 7% this week alone tracking for its worst week since may as its difficult year since, down 6% what makes the latest slide

interesting it's come amid a period of declining interest rates not rising ones. two companies making their debut, fitness chain f45 is making a bet on people returning to gyms post pandemic. shares are fractionally higher about $16.06 for fxlv. members only clubs going public moving lower after pricing at $14 trading at $13.10. over to rahel solomon. hello, everyone. here is what's happening this hour residents of a belgian village are climbing on top of rooftops to escape raging floodwaters the unprecedented flooding has killed at least 30 people. the unrest in south africa continues after the former leader jacob zuma turned himself in to serve a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. protesters raided and burned several warehouses

at least 72 people have been killed as a result of the weeklong violence there. a group of black church officials and activists gathered outside the texas state capitol to show support for those who left the stock to block new voter restrictions for more on the fight for voter rights, tune in to "the news with shepard smith" tonight. and the nation's top doctor is warning americans about a growing covid-related threat misinformation he's calling on tech platforms to do more saying that false covid information puts american lives at risk. kelly, back to you >> rahel, thank you very much. in just about half an hour's time the national urban league is hosting a virtual forum on the state of black america, looking at the racial inequities and what the path forward for black americans looks like as the nation recovers. joining me now is the president and ceo the national urban league, the former mayor of new orleans. it's great to have you back. what's your focus going to be?

>> thanks, kelly i'm sorry? >> what's your focus of the event largely going to be here >> yes, thanks, kelly. we have to look at 2021 in the context of what 2020 taught us 2020 taught us that racial disparities in health, in economics, and in law enforcement and the justice system were pervasive, systemic and deep so in 2021 we issue a call to action and that call to action is to create a new normal, more at this verse, more equitable, more just it's a call to action about the kind of nation we need to create so we look at health, we look at economics. we look at police issues and criminal justice issues. and sort of outline not only analysis but both micro and macro steps we should take as a nation to create this new more diverse and equitable normal,

and that's our focus and that's what the discussion in the virtual event will be about. >> sure. for those of us kind of curious what we should be watching on the political front here coming out of this, what would you say are the one or two major efforts you're throwing your weight behind >> i think right now -- i saw your previous segment on the child tax credit, which i think is an example of the kind of policy that can create a new normal underlying that child tax credit idea is the long-standing increase in the gap between rich and poor americans when it comes to income. many americans, not just poor americans, but working and middle-class americans, have fallen behind. and this child tax credit is one way to, if you will, try to close that gap and create some relief for americans, an increase in the minimum wage would be a further step, a

comprehensive approach to making housing more affordable would be a third way. there are a number of things in the economic arena what i would say to many of cnbc listeners who are investors, why does this matter to me and it matters because a black and brown americans are a growing part of the consumer marketplace in the united states combine black, brown and asian-americans spend almost $5 trillion a year. and as such what they spend and what they spend on and how much they spend and what they invest in is going to be crucial to the success of the overall american economy. so when we think of black america it's important for people not to decouple it from a commentary on the overall state of the economy or overall state of the nation. closing these inequalities, focusing on equity, we think helps us as a nation at large. >> all right mayor morial, thank you. we appreciate it

>> thanks, kelly >> i would say best of luck with the event but i don't think you need it. marc morial. the original doge father is giving up on crypto all coming up in "rapid fire. first, a look at the ten-year treasury yield which just dipped below 1.3% you can see it's been sliding the last couple of hours straight again, 1.301 we'll keep an eye on it for you. only 6% of us retail businesses have a black owner. that needs to change. so, i did something. i created a black business accelerator at amazon. and now we have a program that's dedicated to making tomorrow a better day for black businesses. ♪ ♪ i am tiffany. and this is just the beginning. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back, everybody. let's catch you up on a few stories that should be on your radar now. it's time for "rapid fire. today michael santoli, kristina partsinevelos, and todd gordon, managing director at tradinganalysis.com and a cnbc contributor. great to have you here let's start with netflix big news they're get into gaming they hired a former vice president of game evelopment they're planning to offer games right on the interface within the next year at no additional cost to subscribers. shares were initially higher they're down 1.5% now. it's the worst performing faang stock this year, still seemingly searching for the next catalyst.

kristina, what do you make of these efforts? >> well, i think it's something they need to do given the market is incredibly saturated here in the united states and it could give them an opportunity to increase their price point right now it's about $14 you look at disney plus. that's coming in just around $7. hulu $12 peacock $10. hbo about $15. this is an opportunity to increase the price i even saw on their website looking for a director of product innovation and within that description they're hiring. it's game life experiences this is all about keeping your eyes glued to netflix's apps. >> do they have to do this because video games are so popular or are they veering outside of what they do best here >> i think the former more than anything else. just the amount of screen hours that are now tdedicated to gaming probably with a younger demographic the way to keep them looking at your own app as

opposed to another one also, so easy to switch. microsoft has just a massive gaming portal within it. it's not clear to me investors really think about that first, second or third with microsoft but it's massive amazon that bought twitch, everybody is participating you could see what netflix does, go out and find individual creators, give them money to create stuff for you and that's probably whether it's a movie, a series or a video game, pretty similar >> todd, are you a buyer or seller of netflix on this decision >> i own the stock, kelly. it's been dead money for a year. i'm looking to cut it. i think this is a fruitless endeavor if you think about it there have been disney and google who have shut down their video game operations apple is in with video games they're using the hardware with apple tv to power -- and i know my kids. the games these kids are playing require a lot of computing power. so what netflix is doing is relying on your tv's processing power to keep kids engaged

i just don't see it. i think it's fruitless i do like on the other side that the former facebook exec was an oculus guy as soon as we can put form fitting goggles, something that fits i think that will be the future. i think that will be very key. >> watch for any developments, the var front rather than traditional games. let's talk about general motors not parking volt cars inside two of them caught fire after being repaired as part after recall in november and another troubling development in the ev space for a company that's pledged to be 100% electric. they're still up 26% this year mike, how serious a recall do you think this is? >> i don't know long term how serious it is. it's not going to help in terms of any consumer hesitancy, going

all battery electric i guarantee you when gasoline powered cars came out people said are you crazy i'm going to be driving around with a firebomb right next to me >> that's true >> it was always considered to be risky we hear a lot more about the incidents where they seem dangerous than when they operate as usual my sense is the industry figures this out >> i saw an old political cartoon about the danger of electric wires where people were getting tangled. they were wrong and right because every time a storm comes through, we just had a fire around the corner as a result. the point being, should we just expect these kind of growing pains or is it a reminder we need to be extra, extra careful with these new technologies? >> i wish you could see where i'm at now and there's tons of wires all by my feet it could result in death

it could result in injury. it's not just gm, though you have bmw, hyundai and ford not necessarily fires but the lithium ion batteries had issues gm on the one hand, though, did say they will invest roughly $35 billion just by 2025 to really focus on the electric vehicles they're going to create 5,000 new jobs so maybe this is something they can work out but it's not something we should get used to. >> that's one of the things i find frustrating when we decide ev is our goal and we will throw money at it, and the technology in many of these places is new, it needs to be worked out. that often takes time. you don't want to force the stuff down everybody's throat before it's ready. >> yeah, kristina and mike make good points. i'm in my basement and have wires everywhere here. and then mike makes a great point as well. a little bit of detail that's very unfortunate, the nfpa,

estimated 200,000 vehicle fires in 2018. two batteries catching fire, as far as i understand, nobody injured. there's going to be a breaking in period with new technology. as a trader and investor i need to step back, divorce myself from this emotion and this is probably not a reason to sell the stock. i own the stock. ford is 10 1/2 i think expecting to make $6.5 next year. could be back to a $65 stock i think it broke out $47 or anywhere down there. i still like it. >> and it's a $56 today. you make a good point, phil lebeau we don't cover every fire that happens with the traditional burning engine with anything near like the same concern. next, a scathing short report is accusing oatly of misrepresenting its financial data green washing its strategy and overstating revenues to

investors. here is what a short seller at spruce point capital had to say earlier. >> let me be crystal clear on this point i believe they are misleading the public about their gross margins. their gross margins are not in conformance with industry practices. you asked me what i think the stock is worth, less than $10. >> and oatly shares are down about 8% on that today under $19. and they're down about 5% from their ipo in may in a statement to cnbc they called the report false and misleading and they stand to financially benefit from a decline caused by the false reports. oatly rejects the claims all of these false claims by the short seller and stands behind all activities and financial reporting. todd, what's your take >> you know, look, where there's smoke, there's fire. one part of that spruce point report that caught my eye, they went through three auditors. three auditors in six years. i think we've broken below the ipo price.

there are so many opportunities in the stock market right now, so many beautiful investment opportunities. i say why put yourself at risk they're riding this plant-based food and fad there's debate between whether there's $12 million in revenue reported in the u.s. or $6 million. there's too much confusion in here for me. >> kristina? >> yeah, it's actually what in 2018 they said they made $12 million but back in a swedish magazine they told them $6 million. there's a lot of discrepancies including from some of their employees. oatly does have a brand that's well known it seems to be used by a lot of baristas around the country, but the one point i want to focus on is the green washing argument that was made there, too, that they exaggerate in terms of how much water waste they have and this is a problem that we are seeing across the board that we're not necessarily addressing because there's no standard. we don't know how to determine whether a company is actually

going green, if they're reducing emissions, or if they're just buying carbon offsets. this is, i guess, it raises to a larger issue we need to pay attention as investors going forward if you're focusing on these esg-remt esg-related fund. >> do you want to talk oatly or dogecoin i know both are your burning passions >> what's more likely to lose faster no, with oatly one of the reasons this short report, a mixed record on how they actually pan out but the reason i think it got traction nobody thought financially this company was worth $12 billion. it was all about just a foothold in the brand and a large expanding end market and nothing to do with it's a well-run business >> we have to go todd, you be the voice for the dogecoin discussion today. we've covered this well on cnbc. the creator of the dogecoin is saying he's over the crypto space. he thinks it's just not good for society basically. what are your thoughts on this

>> yeah, that was -- it was very interesting. the point of cryptocurrency is to decentralize finance, make it an equal opportunity store value, but now the very ones who have trying to protect against are circling and they're the ones who are benefiting. i personally hold bitcoin sort of like netflix. i wouldn't mind cutting it we do cover the crypto space in our area i know my analyst is looking for around $20,000 can i throw one more sure thing for you, kelly, if we have time. >> sure. >> saratoga springs, this is the opening of the racetrack we're done my buddy chad brown, he's got a horse in check him out, what's he called? clever fellow. >> okay. i love how you're saying forget crypto but bet on this horse my friend has. >> no insider trading in horse racing either, kelly >> exactly thank you all today.

todd gordon, kristina partsinevelos, and mike santoli. coming up, another headwind for biogen's alzheimer's drug. two major american hospital systems are refuse to ing to administer it to patients. the stock down 6%. broker, i've . that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on track. like schwab intelligent income. schwab! introducing schwab intelligent income. a simple, modern way to pay yourself from your portfolio. oh, that's cool... i mean, we don't have that. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. icy hot. ice works fast. heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy, so you can rise from pain.

shares of biogen are dropping after the cleveland clinic and mt. sinai say they won't administer its controversial alzheimer's drug biogen shares are down more than 7% and have been sliding throughout the session out to meg tirrell who has the latest >> reporter: both mt. sinai and the cleveland clinic will not administer the drug right now, both seeming to look for potentially more information, more data and more clarity on paying for the drug as well. mt. sinai telling us the fda's approval of aduhelm has raised

serious concerns by clinicians, patients and caregivers and a cautious approach is required. they will not administer aduhelm until the outcome of the fda inspector general's investigation of biogen is complete back to march of 2019 when biogen stopped the trials of this drug because it looked like they weren't going to work then they said we see positive data and are going to file for fda approval in november of 2020 fda's panel of outside advisers voted almost unanimously against approving the drug then in june, of course, we know this drug was approved by the fda. we then saw the fallout start to happen three of those advisers stepped down from the advisory panel congress started to look into the issue. the fda said we're going to ask the office of the inspector general to look into the process by which we approved this drug and so now you're starting to see the providers of the drug

try to figure out whether they should make this available biogen giving us a statement this afternoon, too, medical decisions should be made based on science and data so it's disappointing patients living with alzheimer's disease may not be able to access aduhelm at some facilities f. any patients are denied access to care they should contact the company for help kelly? >> meg, we've talked about this. it was said to be for people with earlier on set alzheimer's. it's almost like watching the investment world, whatever they do the same thing with cleveland clinic they are standard setters. to say they won't even administer it, doesn't that feel extreme to you >> reporter: well, this is a unique situation with this drug where the controversy over it is almost greater than anything we've seen before. people disagree about whether the drug has been proven to work and then comes the price tag and

uncertainties about reimbursement for the drug and so administrators of the drug are in a very difficult decision about whether to say, yes, we're going to provide it here when there is such controversy around it. and now highlighting, i think, mt. sinai saying they're going to wait for the outcome of this office of inspector general investigation. that really shows they're a little bit nervous about what happened with the process of approving this drug. analysts hope that will be resolved quickly and the company. >> they are in a difficult position with uncertainty how they'll be reimbursed if they administer it's very complex. meg, thank you biogen shares are down more than 7% on all of this. up next, running out of workers. i'll speak to the owner of an independent athletic retailer about how he's coping with the ongoing labor shortage and what it means for the future of his expansion plans. and you can catch "the exchange" anytime, anywhere. listen to us on e chge dct day.thexan

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welcome back companies continue to get creative with hiring as the labor crunch continues target, shopify and chipotle are

attracteding workers mcdonald's is offering tuition payments how are small businesses supposed to compete? joining me is the founder and ceo of new jersey-based footwear and apparent brand race faster it's good to have you. the labor shortage has been so difficult for you, you have had to close stores, right >> yeah. it's really been a challenge we, unfortunately, were forced to close our connecticut location we set up interviews and scheduled people to come in. people are just not showing up to the interviews. it's not just us even more management up in connecticut toll us the same story. they scheduled 47 interviews and one person showed up so it seems to be an ongoing think. >> i think one of the challenges is you're scheduling interviews. it seems like people say they're going to show up but then

they're not. in other words, you almost don't know week to week whether you're able to recruit workers or not what other options do you have is raising pay the only recourse and if so, by how much >> you see, i really -- you're in a catch 22. if you raise pay, how much can you afford look at us as a small retailer if somebody is getting a premium of $300 a week over what you were paying them for a small retailer to make of that 20%, 30%, 40% raise in what you were paying it's not sustainable and even in the short term if you can do it you're going to be forced to raise your prices or you're going to after a time bring the rate of your pay down which isn't going to work either >> and you mentioned inflation i am curious what you are

experiencing on that front in terms of price hikes and shortages of things in general it's a two-pronged challenge where staffing the store is one issue and because you manufacture your own product you're on the front lines of that as well >> i've been ringing this bell for months we manufacture overseas. we're vertically integrated. right as we were coming out of the pandemic we were hearing from our distribution channel, hey, prices are going up on shipping prices are going up on raw materials. prices are going up across the board. so we saw this inflation issue coming down the pipeline it's one thing when you say inflation is commodity driven and that will go back down, but when the inflation is now being driven by the price of your staff it's very difficult for that to come back down it's very difficult to tell somebody i know i have paying you x, y and z, but that has to

come back to reality they're not going to want to hear it. >> speaking about the child tax credit earlier on and analysts think could be a big beneficiary for things like foot locker, walmart, target, a lot of retailers you've been describing you potentially have more people with money in their wallets because of the stimulus in general. are you seeing decent demand do you have concerns with having to close one of your locations that you're now not going to be able to make those financial targets you might have previously had >> i think across the board prices are going to go up. it's a catch 22. prices go up, people have mormony but the cost of having more money is significant inflation. and so where does it end for us, yes, of course you have to, in order to be a viable

business and even in order to compete with your peers, the prices are going to go up. so there's no way around that. with regard to the child tax credit, i would say that's going to benefit more than lower income customer who doesn't have disposable income. there's a certain segment who are living week to week. they're getting these financial incentives and it's great and it gives them the ability to do a little more. for us, our customer is more the mid to high end. i don't see it's moving the needle for us. i don't. that customer, the money goes into the bank. i don't think it moves the needle for us. >> you're right in a pinch, as you describe it. it must be a tough spot. thank you for joining us to talk about it aidan walsh of racefaster. "power lunch" is aft ts icbrk.erhi

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hi, everybody, and welcome to "power lunch. tyler mathison is out, and t