manufacturing jobs. on the other hand, if you're a highly skilled person, then you have a global market. and you can earn the higher return from your skills. likewise, we've seen technical change exhibiting what labor economists call skill bias, which means that the returns from the technical change accrue mostly to participate with higher skills. people can use computers. people can use robots and the like. and in that respect, even for a given distribution of educational outcomes, income distribution will widen, as the higher returns accrue to people who have the appropriate skill. so, it's hard to say entirely how to solve it. it's not a problem that can be solved quickly, but clearly trying to break down barriers to social mobility, trying to increase opportunities for training acquisition of skills, education, from a very young age, all the way through

post-high school, junior college, and the like, is the basic approach. but it is a very, very difficult problem. to bring the federal reserve into it for a moment, as i said there's not much the federal reserve can do about very long-term trends like this that don't really have much to do with monetary policy. but over the shorter period, our efforts to put people back to work, and we are making extraordinary efforts to try to increase the number of jobs in our economy, that's going to be important factor reducing inequality, because obviously the unemployed will be much better off if they have work, and labor income. >> now we will in sequence have the most loaded and least loaded two questions in the pack. from ed wyler, how would you respond to criticism that quantitative easing has provi d provided, quote, trivial relief for main street, unquote, and then absolute coup for wall

street. >> i don't want to shock you -- i hate to shock you but i don't agree with that. >> who'd have guessed? >> it's simply not true. what is the fed trying to accomplish? we're using the tools we have to meet our dual mandate. maximum employment and price stability. jobs and low inflation. i can't think of anything that's more main street than that. we're using the tools we have to try and achieve those objectives. if you look and see what we actually have achieved, first, since the trough of the recession there've been about 8 million jobs created. not as many ooze we would like, but certainly the economy has been growing, jobs have been coming back, and the fed is certainly been an important factor in maintaining that momentum in job creation. in addition, to the extent that we affect asset prices, more than 60% of the population owns their own home. the number of people who are

underwater in their mortgage has gone down considerably as house prices have gone up. that has increased household wealth. low interest rates have also allowed people to buy cars and other durable goods, the u.s. auto industry is -- is humming at prerecession levels at this point. and just broadly speaking, i think our financial -- the effects of our policies of financial markets, including low interest rates, have helped american households improve their balance sheets and get themselves in much better financial condition. so broadly, i think that, first of all, our objectives are aimed squarely at, and our objectives are squarely tied to main street, and i think that while it would be better to have even a broader-based effort in washington, to attack these problems, the fed is making an important contribution to middle class, and lower income folks,

welfare. >> thanks. and thank you for the non-loaded question that we'll conclude this with from elliot feldman and robert lightan. we will see you at more washington nationals baseball games next year? and, it's a two partner -- yes, go ahead. and, what research topics and books are in your future plans? >> well, first i'd just like to say, i mean it's well-known that i'm a washington nationals fan and general baseball fan. but i'd just like to say i'm no johnny come lately to this. that i've been there since 2005, when they lost 100 games every year, you know. so, thank you. so we're, you know, cautiously optimistic. so it would be my -- would describe my views. i look forward -- before i

became a policymaker, i was, of course, an academic and i worked on a lot of issues which are related to the things i've been doing for the last 11 or so years. such as the role of the financial markets and financial stability in the economy, the links of financial stability and monetary policy. economic growth. so there are lots of things, lots of interesting things to work on and i look forward to writing and speaking and having a little more time to contemplate some interesting issues. thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> and just -- in just in one final word, again, the chairman was here at the beginning of his

tenure with the fed, the end of his tenure at cea and now toward the end of his tenure at the fed, and we hope we will see you at some future life event in your career. you'll always be welcome. >> thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] in a few moments a hearing on the u.s. response to the typhoon in the philippines. in an hour, members of the senate banking committee look at the future of digital currency. and then ms. magazine founder gloria steinem on the significance of women voters and how elections influence women's issues. today marks the 150th anniversary of president

lincoln's gettysburg address. look for our coverage from soldier's national cemetery, including the keynote address from civil war historian james mcpherson, next week, thanksgiving day at 4:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3's american history tv. >> the senate foreign relations committee on east asia and the pacific affairs heard today about the u.s. response to the typhoon in the philippines, a storm that killed thousands and displaced 4 million people. this is an hour. good morning. let me welcome you all to the m subcommittee on east asia and h the pacific for the senate subcm foreign relations committee.

let me thank chairman menendez m for allowing us to conduct this subcommittee hearing on such short notice. senator rubio, thank you very much for your help and your hel staff's help in arranging this hearing in record time. when they say the senate can'tt act quickly, we did act quickly on putting this hearing together.d acthis h and i very much appreciate that, all the people who worked to ope make this possible. to the ambassador, it's nice tot see you again. we were together yesterday, andr billy, i'll refer to that a little bit but the filipino he ambassador to the united states is a friend, and has been mb extremely helpful to us.en shortly after the typhoon, we e had a chance to talk, and at that time i expressed our deep condolence on the loss of life as a result of the typhoon, and america's interest to exercise leadership internationally in oe assisting the filipinos in the recovery, saving lives, and

dealing with the restorations that are going to be necessary for the people of the philippines. tragi the tragic typhoon, yolanda, was horrible, tragic. the numbers that we have from yesterday, as of yesterday, from from usaid indicates that over 10348 people were affected, erel close to 4,000 confirmed deaths to date. that number will certainly umber change, unfortunately. 4 million people have been displaced. 571,000-plus homes were damaged. or destroyed by the typhoon, and the u.n. humanitarian action puts the emergency response humanitarian dollar need at over $300 million. and i know that that is just ann estimate, it could very well exceed those numbers, and, obviously, it presents a real ou

challenge. i want to also acknowledge ch senator schatz who's with us today representing the state of hawaii. he's not a member of our committee but he has been deeply concerned about this issue. t many filipino-americans live in. hawaii, and i know he has been e very actively engaged and we welcome you to this hearing.hean the philippines is a close ally of the united states. i need not tell that to thei ma people in this room, we know tht sacrifices they endured during world war ii, the incredible ics strategic partnership with the united states, it is a incr very important partner of the t united states, and obviously, we are concerned about humanitarian needs anywhere. but when it hits one of our friends, it's a particular concern to the united states.frd the response has been led by the philippine government, as it should, and they recognized immediately that they needed coz help, and the united states

responded even before the en typhoon struck by positioning resources, knowing that it may well have been needed. and, in fact, it was needed. i am proud of u.s. leadership committing $20 million in aid. the usiad disaster asis tans response team is on the ground we appreciate that very much. the department of defense is mobilized in the region, and ths state department has been on, engaged, so there has been a u.s. response with the n international community to assist the philippine nal co government. the immediate needs have been in the area of food, water, and medicine, and logistics, long-term needs are going to be the rebuilding of the affected l areas, and clearly that will become a challenge for the ge philippine islands, and for the help of the international community.help o it's personal to many people in america. we have 4 million americans of f filipino descent that live in america. and in the state of maryland, we

have 26,000. we and yesterday, with the ambassador's assistance, and jeremy, with your help, we met with representatives of the hel filipino community in maryland,e and they are, obviously, very anxious because they have relatives and friends that werea directly impacted and they are worried about their well being.h they also are frustrated becaush they want to help, and how can they help? que and that's a question we're try going to try to focus on during this hearing, is how can individuals help in the responss effort, what is the best way to deal with it?deal w i thought the meeting with billy was particularly helpful, but it was clear to me that we have to keep a focus on what is happening, and that brings me ts this hearing, the purpose, of course, to get an update where the circumstances exist today ie the philippines, what is the government doing, what is the w international response, and wha role america is playing on thise latest humanitarian need. with that, let me turn it over

to senator rubio for his comments. >> mr. chairman, thank you for a holding this timely hearing. over the past week, our hearts t have been broken by the news ans the images that have been comina out of the philippines, entire towns and villages, and, of course, the lives of real people have been ruined, thousands of human beings are dead.peop the toll continues to rise every day. it's times like these, by the way, we're reminded how important and engaged america ig for the world, especially for d, allies like the philippines, we, as a nation, pledge to provide the filipino people with humanitarian assistance and ilio deployed some of our brave men and women in uniform to assist with these efforts, and as yesterday's front page of "florida today," which is a ont newspaper in florida, in my "fli state, "space coast," ran a story that sums up what impact " we're having and the goodwill that it engenders. in addition to being the right thing to do morally, this has a foreign policy implication for our country. the article briefly says, u.s. military, a god send for typhoon victims. they are saving us, says one

grateful victim. as americans, this is what we o have always done as a people, this is who we still are. a contrast that, by the way, with beijing, whose initial pledge was $100,000.se initi $100,000. just a fraction of what was committed by other countries, a fraction of their size. they've, of course, increased that pledge now to $1.6 million in u.s. dollars, again, still dwarfed by what china can and cannot do. it's a separate conversation to be had, but a point that's so important the u.s. remain engaged. by the way, our assistance is rh not just limited to what our no governments can do. our american civil society, not for profits like the american red cross and faith-based organizations like samaritan purse and the tim tebow foundation have stepped up to help americans turn their desire to help into action.e this includes, by the way, manyy floridians of filipino descent who have expressed a number of a concerns i will address in my questions later on, and as the chairman's already pointed out, americans of filipino descent are a significant part of our af

country, involved in my own sigc office, my chief of staff who'sd here today, has family in the philippines, so this is an issue that reaches all of us. as a nation, we all know too sue well the tragedies natural disasters can cause, how to savw lives and help ensure many needed food, water, and supplies reach people who need it worse.f we know about the resilience of the human spirit and how to wo. rebuild our communities better and stronger than ever. our example, our assistance, and our prayers are needed today more than ever.ur by our allies in the han ev philippines, because this is who we are as a people, who we have been and continue to be as le, o americans, but in return, the american people as taxpayers, charitable donors, expect to ye, assure this assistance does what it's intended to do and reaches whom it is intended to reach. we recognize that nothing does more to undermine americans' willingness to help other ines nations in time of need than seeing unscrupulous actors filling the void left in the wake of natural disasters and

exploiting the moment. wa it's important to ensure that doesn't happen, as well.hat i look forward to learning more. about the administration's plank to ensure that the response to the calamity in the philippines is swift, transparent and is swi effective and i thank you, mr. chairman, for making this a priority. senator >> also recognize senator flake who is on the subcommittee. nice to have you here. thank you for being here. i'm going to turn to our two urn witnesses, first, honorable scot marciel, department of state bureau of east asia and pacifict affairs. and scot marciel began his term as p principal deputy distant is secretary in august 2013 after serving three years as a u.s. ambassador to the republic of indonesia.indo he has previously served as the assistant secretary east asia pacific bureau, responsible for, relationships with southeast asia and the ambassador for the asean affairs, career member of

the senior foreign service and n joined the state department in 1985.nior f we thank you very much for your long, distinguished career in we public service. tng, second witness will be jeremy konyndyk, the director of u.s. aid's foreign disaster assistance, who has delayed his trip to the philippines to be here today. ph we thank you very much and i y. very much appreciate the fact i that you traveled all the way to bowie, maryland, yesterday to be with me and the filipino community in maryland.nd yes i thought that was very helpfule and i was very impressed by the, coordinated efforts that you have undertaken on behalf of usaid. we'll start with mr. marciel. >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator rubio, senator flake, senator schatz, for giving me this opportunity to testify on i the u.s. government's response y to super typhoon yolanda which o struck the philippines on november 8th. the typhoon, which was, as you

know, one of the largest and inf strongest in history, struck the central philippines from the east and carved a swath of destruction across the middle ot the country.the hardest hit were leyte, site of general macarthur's return to the philippines in 1944, sam ars and a series of other islands.ph the typhoon's winds, major storm surge, killed an estimated 4,00e people, left hundreds of thousands of others homeless, pe and devastated cities, towns, e, and villages. even before the storm hit, the u.s. government agencies began n preparing to respond. usaid prepositioned a team in manila. our embassy in manila issued a a message warning american sued a citizens of the storm and urging that they seek shelter. and many of us in washington began to communicateo and coordinate to prepare for n the storm. then once the storm hit, the state department, usaid's office of u.s. disaster, foreign fice o disaster fassistance, the pentagon, pacific command, all

working closely with the u.s. embassy in manila began b intensive communication and coordination to ensure a swift,r effective, and transparent response. so u.s.aid and paycom disaster assistment teams went almost we immediately to tacloban, which you've all seen in the press, to coordinate our response, workine closely with philippine authorities, who as you said, mr. chairman, have the lead on this.is. there was an immediate agreement throughout the administration at all levels on the need for a at rapid, effective response, both, because of the scale of the disaster and because, as you nd said, mr. chairman, because the filipinos are long-time friends and allies of the united statesn so jeremy's going to describe in detail the efforts on the ground. what i'd like to do is highlighi that the u.s. government's ht response has been, i think, nt' extremely well coordinated and substantial. within a few days of the ays disaster, usaid had announced $20 million in humanitarian

assistance, and just a few dayse ago, announced an additional $10 million in assistance, so as of yesterday, combined u.s. government assistance in to th response to the disaster totalled $37 million. that includes $7 million from defense department funds. our military, as you know, has i deployed substantial assets to assist, and with the help of usaid colleagues and u.s. mi military on the ground, our as assistance is reaching people ii the affected areas and is making a difference. and, of course, u.s. companies, foundations, and private citizens are also contributing. president obama and secretary of state kerry have called the philippine counterparts to offer condolences and assistance and p stress our commitment to helping the philippines respond to and recover from this disaster. at the state department, we sets up a crisis response task forcec to monitor developments and try to identify obstacles to effecto relief supply and make sure we

were well coordinated, as well as deal with calls, a lot of yue calls from concerned american citizens. am our embassy in manila continues to play a very crucial role.y it's kind of serving as a platform for coordination, where all the agencies are working ale through that to coordinate withw philippine authorities and private organizations, as well.t the state department and the t embassy have a special sponsibi responsibility for helping american citizens caught up in h the disaster.there there are now five confirmed american deaths caused by the c typhoon.rtment a the state department and the ng embassy have been working prett much around the clock to assisti the families of those victims, but also have received nearly 1,000 requests for information n from u.s. citizens or on u.s. fr citizens in the disaster area, h and we've located almost 500, about 475 american citizens through our efforts. c our counselor officers are visiting tacloban and the area s around it pretty regularly to try to help out with those american citizens services, and

we continue, of course, to work very closely with philippine authoritiesic making sure to address any security concerns.ad again, identify any obstacles t relief, and asking them constantly, what more they needm so that our response is effective and targeted. president obama told president p aquino during a november 12th phone call that the united ke states was fully committed to a swift and coordinated response y to help the people of the philippines recover, and that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the philippines, our treaty ally. mr. chairman, senator rubio, ta other members, thank you again for allowing me to appear. a i would be delighted to answer any questions. thank you.estion >> thank you very much. mr. konyndyk? >> thank you, chairman cardin, thank you, ranking member rubio, and thank you also for joining us, senator flake and senator schatz, and thank you for the invitation to testify on the ongoing u.s. government response to typhoon haiyan, known locally in the philippines as typhoon l

yolanda. and thank you also very much for your continued support of u.s. humanitarian programs around tht world, which every day, as ams r they're doing currently inou th philippines, are saving many, many lives. chairman cardin, i want to thank you, as well, for the invitation rm participate in the event in bowie.an it was enjoyable. and it was good to see the energy that exists in the filipino-american community and their deep, deep committee to helping with the response to this. s super typhoon haiyan was one of the most powerful storms ever tl make landfall.to and the government of the philippines estimates that around 10 million people have 0 been affected, of whom 4 million have been displaced from their homes and roughly 4,000 deaths have so far been confirmed. the devastation and the loss oft life is absolutely staggering.io and i want to express my deepess condolences, and of course on behalf of usaid our deep es condolences to the people of the file peens.

and for these horrific losses. in the face of this disaster, in the u.s. government has mobilized the full range of our humanitarian response capabilities. the office of foreign disaster r assistance at usaid is mandated to direct and coordinate that ht overall humanitarian effort in close partnership with our pa military, state department and a range of our interagency colleagues. and i have to say that the ot collaboration and cooperation we've seenhe across the u.s. assistance has been exemplary and we've seen tremendous exempl collaboration and coordination both here in washington and in the philippines. before the storm hit, the u.s. . response was already beginning. our hydro meteorological efforts identified the severity of the storm and we the office of ts foreign disaster assistance st predeployed a disaster assistance advance team in manila.ance t that team was on the ground d in leyte province almost immediately after the storm sto passed through and was beginning to assess damage and send back a reports on assistance priorities.

we rapidly stood up a response management team in d.c. and a started sending people out. to the philippines to lead that response. we have been working hand in glove with the department of defense's pacific command which has proved absolutely critical. there were enormous logistical a constraints that we faced inl. e first days after the storm and the dod involvement has been vital to getting those -- to vi getting someta of those obstacl cleared and enailing the initial aid effort to gain momentum. as scot said, we have mobilized now across the u.s. government b more than $37 million in assistance to help typhoon-affected populations. uo and while much still remains to be done, we are beginning to see some notable progress. several days ago usaid partnership with unicef and the government of the philippines go with support from dod got the p water turned back on in the city of tacloban, restoring clean water to roughly 200,000 people in that town. that was a major accomplishment. dod transported more than 1,000

metric tons of relief commodities to communities throughout the affected areas.s and yousaid's food for peace eae program in partnership with thei governmentp and the world food program has provided really the backbone of support to a joint food response that so far has fed 1.9 million people. going forward, we are seeing a range of different needs.pl i'll go through those quickly and turn it over for questions.y on logistics, that will remain t challenge. that's been a majoric challenges i think everyone's aware. be we've seen real progress clearing blocked roads, we restoration of airport services and notably in the past few n days, restoration of ferry stort services to enable much greater scale of aid to reach affected h areas. we are seeing improvements here. but it still will remain a majoo focus. food will remain a major focus. we anticipate 2.5 million people will require emergency food aid over the next six months.over te usaid has so far provided $10 million in food support that is0

working with the world food program. in particular, i want to emphasize the importance of rtao flexible cash programming for food aid in this instance., we were able, using some of the flexibility that congress anted granted us, to procure 2,500 , metric tons of rice on local markets in the philippines for immediate distribution.. this is much faster than would n have been possible using possibe traditional food aid tools. that flexibility has really enc helped enhanced the response. we are also focusing a lot on water.on as i mentioned earlier, we helped get the water turned baca on in tacloban city. looking ahead, we are continuing to source generators for water pumping stations to provide ter chlorine tablets for household level treatment of water and or bulk chlorine for large-scale ta treatment as well astm providin family water containers for transport of clean water.ent an shelter remains an urgent priority as well. i know senator cardin you've seen the emergency shelter kitse

we are currently distributing. that is, we will have . distributed enough for 30,000 e families in need. i want to just conclude quickly and i see i'm over time.r we are looking ahead to the early recovery process. we are starting to plan on that. i want to call specific attention to the important t contributions of the filipino o american community in the unitec states.no we are looking for ways to partner with them.ed we are setting up some se mechanisms for that and they tt will be ame critical piece of tt response going forward. thank you. >> thank both of you for your testimony.th thank you for updating the dollar amount from the original $20 million.nt now we are close to double that as far as the direct support t given.ar i very much appreciate your testimony. i think senator rubio pointed out pretty clearly, u.s. ip a leadership, and what that's all about, and the fact that, but an for u.s. leadership, the internationalr partnership coul not be as strong with the government of the philippine islands. we are proud of what we've been able to do. b

our technology in dealing with these crisis we know. i was impressed by the temporary shelters.e they're pretty simple but they do protect people from the elements and allow for international assistance, or thh local assistance to provide a more permanent type of housing for individuals who are left homeless. these high energy bars are home interesting. i don't know whether i would -- they are not on my diet, i see t that, the number of calories e n that are included in these higha energy bars, but they are efficient. they keep people alive.are people were desperate immediately after the typhoon.a they didn't have food. there was no place to get food. to be able to distribute these type of high-energy bars so that they can get through the day with enough calories to survivet was critical, and we have the expertise here, who -- this, by

the way, nine bars included in this. so that's -- we know how to get this type of sustenance out. and i applaud the u.s. this leadership. and then on the logistics, i one really do thank our department of defense. i they understand how to get to people who have been isolated e and to get a better assessment. let me point out one obvious ano point here. p most of the damage was done on s the coast. and that's what we saw.tha we could reach the coast.t' we could not reach communities isolated from the coast. therefore, initially, there wasn't a good understanding as to the severity of the damage inland. do we now have some indication as to whether there is going to be additional significant losses as a result of reaching people that we weren't able to reach originally?cant los >> thank you, senator.