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it is very well protected. >> what about bitcoin? are you comfortable with that currency and what do you think the u.s. government should -- do you own any? >> i don't. >> i just wanted to check. >> i don't even know what it is

really. is that something that could replace the dollar? >> we are very focused on cyber currenci currencies. we are working with all of the regulators. the biggest issue -- i have two issues that we are focused on. one is that we want to make sure that bad people cannot use these currencies to do bad things. in the united states under our laws if you have a wallet to own bitcoins that company has the same obligation as a bank to know your customer. in the united states we have rules that for money laundering,

for all different types of things we can track those activities. the rest of the world doesn't have that. one of the things we will be working with the g-20 on is making sure that this doesn't become the swiss numbered bank accounts. the other concern i have is there's a lot of speculation in this. i am concerned consumers could get hurt. >> maybe fake news, i don't know but russia thinking of coming up with its own crypto currencies to get around sanctions is that a concern at all? >> not at all. i don't think that's a concern. there's bit coin and instead of

dollars you have a different currency. there are central banks that are thinking of instead of issuing cash, physical cash issuing a digital currency. the feds have con templated and looked at it. you could issue digital dollars. we don't think there's any need for that at this point. tl >> there's a picture of you getting $1 bills. do you have to improve your handwriting? >> i did. i'll tell you, my signature, i'm sure like yours, was perfected from signing lots of documents in a nano second. now my signature is really neat and i have been criticized it is too neat on the bill.

i sent new documents to the banks and signed checks that way as well. >> and your predecessor said we would clang some parts of it but he left office before that could happen. do you have any plans to change what he proposed? what are you thinking about? >> as you mentioned, the previous administration looked at changing the currency. there have been changes over time. there are certain feefratures t

you can't see, that only machines can detect whether they are counterfeit or not. i ha i have meted with feds. we are working on the next kind of security features in the bill. this is years away. >> okay. but on the question of whether you would still have harriet tub it's ma tubman. >> we haven't made any determination if we will clang the bill or not change the bill. the money has been a certain way for a long period of time. we'll look at whether we change it or not. >> it was reported you recommended jay powell become the chairman. is that your recommendation? >> i was very involved in recommendation to the president. i'm not going to comment on who i did or didn't. i would say i'm very supportive

of jay in this job. >> do you ever say maybe interest rates should stay low? >> i respect the independence of the interest rate decisions. we talk about regulatory issues. it's interesting because when i started these meetings it's like what are we going to have to talk about every week? there has not been a week where we have not literally spent an hour talking about important things. a lot of times they are very differentish sh different issues.

what are you expecting? >> lower unemployment, higher growth. >> what is your biggest concern. at some point something will probably slow down. are you worried about it happening this year or next year? >> it is a good question. what i would say is people in my job, people in your job are not very good at predicting necessarily what the next problem is. a lot of reasons why the next problem turns out to be such a big problem is because some think that people haven't anticipated. i would say, you know, if there's something i am concerned

about from the financial system i would say cyber is something i'm very focused on. i do think it's a, you know, one of these areas we have to continue to invest a lot of money privately, the government, make sure the government is working with the private industry. that would be the one area where if there were an issue would be concerning. >> the number of secretaries are going next week. it is a place where the global elite gather. why is he going there? >> i got asked this question yesterday when i gave brief news conference at the white house. first of all i didn't realize it was the global elite, okay? you'll tell me a little more about it. i realize globalists like you do

atte attend. i have looked at the list. there's an awful lot of world leaders. there's an awful lot of finance chairs. there's an awful lot of business people. to me it is no more the global elite than the g-20 or the events i attended with you. this is an important economic agenda. >> when you meet finance ministers around the world do you wonder how they became a finance minister or do you think these people are really impressive? how do you get along with these finance ministers? >> generally very well. the person who i have been the most impressed with is wolf gang. i think he is the longest serving but i have had several private dinners with him.

his perspective is going back to the fall of berlin wall a. some are very interesting and some are not. >> and you have -- which ones are not? what is the most important advice they have given you? >> there's been a lot of good advice. probably the most important part and most important advice has been around the various different aspects of the job and, you know, different people have had different advice on different policies. one of the things the treasury is flown for known for is the c

staff. we have a very long professional career staff. the politics gets much more impacted through the career staff. i think treasury is really known for -- and again, because so many of the functions are operati operation operational. just great career staff. >> the goals this year, is that one of his highest goals? >> it is. >> do you see it being bipartisan sore republicor repu? >> it has to be bipartisan. >> health care legislation the president made an effort to change obamacare. it didn't quite work. some of the mandate has been taken out through the tax bill. are you done now on trying to make any legislative changes? >> i think it is something the president is interested this talking to congress about.

what we were able to accomplish was getting rid of the individual mandate. it is something that miakes sene to come oucht. we are working with others on regulations that will allow different businesses to get together and different associations to get together and pull across state lines their insurance buying. lots of companies that independently would be very expensive as opposed to having to go into the exchanges would be able to buy down their risk. >> are you still working to get them confirmed? >> we still have several people we are waiting to get confirmed.

>> getting them through the white house process has been good for us. getting them through the senate is very challenging. i think the statistic is at this rate we won't fill the government. is he happy with the job? is he happy being president? >> i think he loves being president. >> he came to the economic club of washington. do you think he should come back? >> i do. >> all right. you recommend that to him. >> absolutely. >> all right. >> so let me ask you. you have been treasury secretary for almost a year? >> yes. >> do you have plans to stay one year, two years, three years? >> i'll be here as long as the president is president.

>> so you're happy now? >> absolutely. >> some of yours have gone on to be secretary of state, do you aspire to do that? >> i do not. >> now where are the egos biggest? hollywood, washington or wall street? >> that is really a tough competition. >> okay. where are the people the nicest? >> washington. people are definitely the nicest here. >> okay. >> that's my story and i'm sticking with it. >> all right. i want to thank you very much for coming. i appreciate you taking your time. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. [ applause ]

this weekend saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history lebanon professor on the lead-up to the american revolution. >> we'll have on things the k colonists import. we'll collect it at the ports. nobody else has to be bothered. that's that. more outrage, more anger and more fear. >> sunday on real america the 1963 film assignment iran. >> to sustain himself in recent

of the jungle. above all he knows the alternative faced by the special forces man in action. adjust or die. >> and at 6:00 a preview of collections for the american artifacts museum set to open next year.

president trump gives his first state of the union address on tuesday january 30th at 8:00 p.m. after the speech we'll take your calls and get reaction from members of congress. the state of the union live on cspan and cspan.org on tuesday january 30th. the international energy agency is forecasting coal use will continue to decline. the head of the agency's coal and gas division recently spoke about strategic and international studies.