the september jobs report continues america's economic winning streak under president whyp evidence budget -- strong job creation, soaring consumer confidence and increased manufacturing activities. to go into greater detail why this americanto go into greatery

this american economy is booming, i would like to welcome chairman of the council of economic advisers to the podium to take your questions on this topic. i will be back to answer questions on news of the day. for hisize in advance really bad jokes. >> it's a great pleasure to be back here and thank you for the kind introduction. the hypotheses that has been floating around about the it is thetely is that continuation of recent trends. we decided this is a testable hypothesis. trends,stimate recent trends that ran in the economy up to the point of the last election. and compared with the latest data with recent trends. a the estimates of the trends are significant. as i always show you a flu slides, can i have the slides? slide is small

business optimism. this is basically for parallel construction. the dotted blue line is a trend. i think if you look at this chart, you can see the first thing a small business optimism. now is a good time to expand. i think if you look at any of those -- the next slide, please. .he next chart is something it's business investment.

again if you look at the blue line on the left, the first chart is nonresidential fixed investment and the dotted line is the trend on the growth rate of that. structures.hart is you can see the dotted line is heading straight down. that went straight down the four president trump was elected. to assert anyone were the capital spending boom we are seeing right now was the continuation of the trend that president trump inherited, then they wouldn't get a high grade of graduate school. the next chart, please. capitals goods orders, a key part of the economy. it is one of the factors we look at most closely. the jobs that affect normal americans. lou koller americans.

the first chart is capital goods orders and the second chart's core capital goods shipments. if you look at it, the blue shows a clear downward trajectory. and then that trajectory reversed itself completely. if you are going to assert that the current good news is just the extension of recent trends, then you simply would be factually incorrect. the next slide, please. smare looking at the i managing index, which is a survey of people purchasing managers for manufacturing. they are the folks that manage the purchases. it's a great indicator of the economy. the index shows what their responses look like.

the trend was pretty much flat when president trump took office. redline shows what happened since. break of trends. let's turn to the next one. one of the things i can remember the american enterprise institute talking a lot about was the fact that entrepreneurship in america was falling off. if you start a new business you have to apply for an id number, a tax id number. we plotted the applications for new businesses. there is a clear upward trajectory. like john roberts, it is a calculus geek.

looks like a very strong second derivative to me. she said i like calculus better than talking to these guys. reentering the labor force, if you look at the trend, one of the things people said when we -- out our growth for cast growth forecast is president trump's policies are going to bring factories back in the u.s.. going to bring people back in the labor force at precisely the right time. there is a clear break of the trend. if you see a break of the trend in the capital, go to the next slide. we see a break in a trend and blue-collar workers as well. for peopleloyment and goods producing industries. you can see there is a clear downward trend going on in the

growth -- and the growth rate for that for president obama. and a clear inflection. and the notion that he might of stents of the attempt to assert the continuation of the trends is almost laughable if you look at the start. summary might say if you are showing a bunch of charts, maybe it depends on when you estimate the trend and i'm sure if you , it's a civil war and you thought about what trend we get then. maybe you get a different answer from what we see. another way to test whether the data i showed you as a fair representation of what it looks like when president trump was elected, just to compare it to nonpartisan bodies, we are -- a sigh of relief when i said my final chart. when you look at the final chart, you will see that the black line is in june of 2017.

a nonpartisan agency has the job of looking at recent trends and projecting it. what they said would happen to capital spending back in 2017. the blue line is what they said in april 2018. i would assert if you look at the collective body of evidence, the notion we are seeing right now is the continuation of recent trends. it's not super defensible. actions are high. one of the things we have to do is what historians will think with a look back at this time. economic historians will 100% accept this fact, that there was an inflection at the election of donald trump. for a long time about why that happened.

is this thought for you . you should watch out for ex post theorizing. one of the things i look -- i care about is -- that's how you test the theory. you might recall that i came ifk here and i told you that we have the tax cuts that -- there would be a boom in capital spending. this had the capital spending this year, would go up about 11 or 11%. capital spending is up 10%. of you don't have to reach far for a theory of what happened. have been what exactly was particularly economy.

greeting jobs for ordinary americans. with that i look forward to taking a few questions. go first. mr. robert >> where the revenue derived from all these increasing trends . >> it's a great christian -- great question. let's have a whole other briefing. after we do the countless briefing let's do a briefing on the deficit. one of the ways to think about it is there has been a big change in tax law and big change in spending policy. side you can read the that dynamic score for the corporate taxes was -- you have a very low cost.

i think that the cost estimates are not dynamically sorted. clearly the growth and the investment boom that was projected by cbo was on a significant underestimate. i think that the corporate tax side has paid for itself. on the individual side there was a trillion dollar cost. about 7 billion of that was a refundable child credit they got expanded at the last minute with the votes they needed to pass a. a very sound policy for people who care about equality of opportunity families with children. but not at the size that it came out. it's not something you would expect to pay for itself. increased theave deficit but not the tax cuts that the democrats are attacking.

but rather the tax cuts the democrats supported. >> there's another chart not included. that's the cost of goods and inflation. americans are playing -- are .aying more can you explain what they should be concerned about? price of good is increasing. >> american should be concerned prices are going up. if you look at the consumer price index, than over the most recent year it is shorter than 3%. thatw that is something affects americans when they go to the grocery store and the gas station. the best defense against increased inflation is an increase in wages. measuredt correctly real after-tax wages growing at 1.4% this year.

that means the wage growth that president trump helps create with his policies is overpowering the inflation numbers right now. >> i think treating blame or credit to individuals to identify policies and talk about what effect of this policy and that policy has. obamak the president sometimes on the partisan trail gets criticized with numbers that are clearly incorrect. people blame him for the great recession, which was there when he started. obama'sk at president policies, there are a lot of policies i think were very negative for growth. i think the a formal care act lifted marginal tax rate. the ceo said it would have a negative effect on growth. he increased marginal tax rates

on small businesses. i can look at a lot of policies and we can talk one by one. i think he also advocated policies that he said would help growth. i kind of wondered what was going on in the heads of the economists. it really didn't have that much affect at all. he destroyed the economy, that's not what they should be doing. >> office question here. you are talking about the economic numbers. it would be timed to president obama's speech in which he talks up his various issues. -- think you've raskin that. i have been pushing her to show me the slides for quite a while. we have updated them for recent data.

i don't know about the three-week leg. even the white house takes a break. we were prepared to do this briefing a few weeks ago. and i promise you. >> the president also -- i'm told privatead companies how to run their business. do you believe that stimulus economic growth? >> the president has strong opinions about everything. allink we wouldn't have had the policy success if he hadn't been such a strong advocate for the things we have seen. i think some area stretch outside.

and i don't counsel. i once said i don't run the council of twitter advisors. may that be true for all of my state here. -- my stay here. i will come forward. >> the gdp rate is higher than the unemployment rate. >> and the history of thought -- the history of how heirs happen is not something -- , ie from the initial fact don't know the whole chain of command. years,e highest in 10 and at some point somebody probably conveyed it to him.

say the numbers in the white house are grateful. mistakes,ike making but we are grateful when pointing out. i gave sarah a bad number a few weeks ago, 100 percent my fault. i apologize. the correct number is 10 years. saidrmer president obama trump would need a magic wand to get the 4% gdp. the president obama say that? >> i'm not the chairman of the council of twitter advisors. on wage growth the white house put out a number that uses a difference. it seems unfortunate because you get apples and oranges. that? it important to do

things that are not cash benefits like vacation time. why do that midstream? and analysis on wage growth. >> thanks for the question. of news stories that i thought were very well done and thoughtful. i think the question for americans, what they want to know is how are president trump's policies affecting our lives. the statistics are not a very statistics france or the question. we talk about how to better measure that. it was not a criticism of the bureau of labor statistics. we used their data to come up with a better measure. a better measure will account for the fact that people get benefits. people had just had tax cuts. they will account for the fact that the labor force is changing because so many people are coming in.

and the people who are out for a while tend to be lower skilled. just as consistent with our 4% gdp growth, you're seeing a massive amount of wage growth. should i keep going? i will go back there. that's really terrible. >> how important is it for you to have a new north american free trade agreement including canada? the first thing before i turned to the trade part, some people have also said -- that's not a sugar high. boom wetal spending promise would happen if we pass the tax cuts is underway. the cool thing about capital spending is people build factories.

the firsto that in half of the year. 10% at the beginning of the year. then those factory start producing outputs, so the idea is the trend may not continue. is just inconsistent with the form that the growth is taking. the whole team has been in negotiations with canada. we continue to be hopeful they will sign onto 20 for century deal with mexico. they should sign on to that. i will come over here and go back to you. i have a question about income inequality. are you all concerned whether or not people are -- not just people in the economy but poor people living beyond the poverty line, below the poverty line. it, allinly think about the new entrance that get a job, they go from having zero wage to

having a wage, but they won't show up in the wage statistics. there are a number of other ways people were off to because of the growth in the economy. also because of policies that had given resources to families. we put out a different report over the summer of what is going on. there is some important eta coming out this week, which will look at how income inequality has changed, not in this year but in the previous year. my expectation is that data will start to turn and we are going to see a decline in income inequality because blue-collar wages are starting to grow. it's a really important point that you bring up. fact is we are at a historic moment because we are deep into a recovery and the unemployment rate is really low. we have created a capital spending boom. what normally happens is people start to bid up the wages for

folks, but there is a shortage of labor. people have better machines to work with and their productivity is going up. that means the recovery can last longer, and that's good for workers, especially on the low end. income inequality has declined. if we were to have a recession because of bad policy right now, we will lose and a norm is opportunity on income inequality. >> this is the last question? do you like this bag? ok. your -- how do you decide when to start that? lucas, from the

university of chicago, got the nobel prize for answering your question back in the early 70's. the point is america's businesses, essentially, their activity is forward-looking. model theirto investment today, you need to understand the fact that they are forming expectations, not just about this month but the next 10 years. people started to ratchet up their expectations for what would happen to the economy. perhaps clinton supporters were starting to do that right after the election. those expectations turned out to be rational. let me handed back to sarah. anyone who wants to follow up and talk about the data, you can tell i like to do that. feel free to reach out to me at the press office.

>> thank you, kevin. a couple of announcements and updates. judiciarythe senate committee under chairman grassley conducted a thorough and transparent week of hearings . unfortunately many committee democrats and protesters attempted to turn the hearing into a circus. judge kavanaugh demonstrated why president trump nominated him. an extra very temperament. judge kavanaugh reinforced the bedrock principles in the rule of law. another matter later today and by tomorrow in person at the iste house, president trump reaching -- the latest briefing as part of the presidents monitoring or multiple storms.

the white house has been in contact with governors offices. islands, hawaii, north carolina, west virginia, delaware, pennsylvania. lines of communication remain open. these tropical storms and hurricanes should be very dangerous to heed the warnings of the state and local officials. we expect our seek death express our condolences to the family. our deepest's offices -- we express our deepest condolences to the family. he was a great friend, father, husband, and member of the united states secret service. the men and women in the secret service are among the most

honorable and dedicated public service you can find anywhere in the world, and colin was among the best of them. -- although he was assigned to chief of staff john kelly, he was always there when we needed it. our prayers are with his entire family. i'll take your questions. >> the anonymous op-ed in the new york times, the president said on friday that he thought it would be a good idea for jeff sessions to look into this. that wouldything warrant an investigation by the department of justice? >> there is an individual, whether or not -- we don't know who they are. if that individual is in meetings that national security is being discussed or other and they areics attempting to undermine the executive branch, that would certainly be problematic and something the department of justice should look into. >> with that be a suggestion of misuse of classified information and what realm with that fall

under? >> that's for him to make that determination. >> is the white house trying to actively find out who this person is? >> we focus on things that actually matter. not to undermine the great work that this president and administration was done. a gutless anonymous source could receive so much attention from the media. i think american people will be better served if we actually spent some time talking about some of the really important things facing our country. >> the president received the kim jong-un letter from the state department.

>> the president has received the letter from kim jong-un. it was a very warm, very positive letter. we won't release the full letter , unless the north korean leader agrees we should. was tomary purpose request and to schedule another meeting. we are in the process of coordinating that. the president has achieved tremendous success from his policy so far. the remains have come back. of course the historic summit between the two leaders. this just furthers indication of the progress.

certainly, something that we want to take place. remains,ntioned the the hostages, the lack of testing. this all happened when the president cited a lack of congress. other than these nice words -- what is this new sense of optimism? demo the most recent parades, one of the first times, we have had a parade similar. certainly showing a commitment to continuing conversations, continuing to work on the progress since their meeting

just a few months ago. and also a continued commitment to focus on denuclearization of the peninsula. >> president trump continues to call him a liar and it is a completely work of fiction. he mentioned libel laws. is president trump considering a lawsuit? >> we will keep you posted, but we have been extremely clear from the beginning. many of the book sources have spoken out to refute. john kelly aggressively pushed back. john matus aggressively pushed back. john pushing back. and a number of people came out and said woodward never reached out to corroborate statements that were attributed to them, which seemed incredibly reckless

for a book to make such outrageous claims, to not even take the time to get a $10 fact checker to call around and verify some of these were happening. when no effort was made it seemed like a careless and reckless way to write a book. >> the president said he was looking whether or not to take action. does the president's not think that op-ed is protected by the first amendment? does he really think the federal government should contemplate action against a newspaper for publishing an article? >> i think it is less about that part of it and weather summary is actively trying to undermine the executive branch of the government. they don't want to be part of that process. , we won a chance to talk to you, this goes back a little while. he tweeted the justice

department should not be investigating, should not be prosecuting the republican congressman because it may hurt republican chances in november. is the president trying to suggest or outright saying they shouldn't prosecute allies of the president. >> certainly the president thinks no one is above the law. we would like to see it fair playing field. there have been a number of concerns raised about the there have been a number of concerns raised about the individuals in the fbi and the department of justice that have been ignored. >> he doesn't want to go forward? >> i can't weigh in on an active investigation. but i can tell you the president doesn't think anyone is above the law. concernould because of over a number of things that happened, both in the department of justice and the fbi.

>> how soon would you like to have this second meeting? dam i don't have any specifics on the exact timing. these conversations are taking place. i will let you know. we continue to have ongoing conversations with the comedians that with the canadians. -- conversations with the canadians. >> does he believe that someone from within? believe a lie detector test should be issued like the vice president volunteered to do on sunday? >> volunteers -- lie detectors are being looked at as a possibility. frankly the white house and the staff here are focused on doing our jobs and trying to show up here every day and do what we help the american people not deal with cowards who put

their names in anonymous letter. days for $44 million. no pollution. what to talking about? >> i would have to go back and check and look at that. russia investigation, highly inflated. sanders: that is a question i refer you to, david? >> what does he hope to accomplish with this address? be theders: this will focus, remembering that horrific day and the lives that were lost and honoring individuals who are not only lost that day but also put their lives on the line to help in the process. he will be there and the vice president will be in washington dc at the pentagon. >> thank you.

i'm sure you read the book. a lot of us have. denials frompeated general mattis and general kelly, do we expect the white house to give up a list of all the things in the book that are wrong? ms. sanders: i think that would be a complete and utter waste of our time. >> hold on a second. that goes back to this today, 55% of americans believe the op-ed writer in the times is right and the president is .etting a 60% negative raining does the president think he can win a credibility battle with bob woodward, a member of the press corps who helped take nixon down, how can he win that credibility battle? thesanders: i would take actual on record account from people who are here working in the building interacting day in and day out like general mattis and kelly and myself, not disgruntled former employees

refused to put their name on things when they come out and attack the president. those are farmer credible sources and far more ride -- reliable voices within the administration that can accurately tell what is taking place in the building -- >> the president is a more credible voice? ms. sanders: absolutely. >> used that a lot of the president said a lot about the publication of the op-ed you and the president have called it betrayal. act of disloyalty. the president mentioned quite a calling on the department of justice to investigate the publication of the op-ed. and there is no violation of the criminal code that goes along with the publication of the .p-ed what it is that the president believes may have been violated in the law as it relates to the publication of the piece. ms. sanders: we would consider

someone actively trying to undermine the executive branch of our government and it is something that would cause concern and they should take a look at it. once again, we are just saying this gives a great level of concern and they should look into it. >> he said violation of the law. i am not a: determine -- an attorney. the department of justice would make that determination and we're asking them to look in and make that determination. they are fully capable of doing that. someone actively trying to undermine the duly elected president and the executive branch of government seems quite problematic to me and summing they should look at. john? >> thank you p or just to try to specify a bit, is the white house treating the anonymous op-ed writer as a full-fledged breach of security matter and is the fbi investigating both staff and the means of communication's ? cell phones and computers and the like?

ms. sanders: i'm not aware of that level. it is not somehow would be a part of. we think there is a concern here and it should be looked into. go ahead. worldiously, the whole wants the front running brazilian president candidate who is stepped last week, as the president called or send any statement to his family at all? ms. sanders: i am not aware if the president has it i believe members of the ministration have. >> what does the president make of this talk with my fifth amendment and some of what he hears on media outlets regarding the word "crazy talk. thes like a lot of talk in mainstream media about that. ms. sanders: it is as ridiculous as most of bob woodward's book. the idea that that is being honestly discussed is ridiculous

and insulting to the nearly 62 million people that came out and overwhelmingly supported the president, voted for him, supported his agenda, and are watching and cheering on as he successfully informants that every single day. >> what documents is the president considering some time the next two weeks? when exactly do we expect those? ms. sanders: we will let you know when we have specifics. i cannot get into it now. >> they will close the mission here in washington. the ambassador to the u.s. in accused of murdering the peace process undermining his role in the peace process. the state department says it is not retreating. the -- the united states still an honest broker in the process? honestders: we have been

that we want to see peace and have those conversations and help rocher the deal. we will continue to push forward p or beyond that, i do not have anything specific on it today. the palestinians are saying the u.s. can no longer be in on it. another example, the fact of the u.s. is aligned with israel. is that not the case? we have a great deal of support with our friend and ally in israel and we are as committed today as we have ever been to the peace process. on friday, a new deal he is creating. ms. sanders: i know that a number of administration officials recently came back from india and expressed a negotiate new and better trade deals and those conversations are at the beginning states it -- stages and we will keep you posted as we get further into the process.

i want to follow-up on the question of the peace process. you say the door continues to be open and you are still working on it. it really worth it if he can achieve peace in the middle east in his first term in office as he promised, when the ministration is taking steps and the palestinians themselves do not help question mark ms. sanders: we are committed to the process and hopeful we can get there. >> and move seems to be an aversion to -- this administration is now shifting to a more hard-line stance then why is the u.s. so concerned? ms. sanders: the president is committed to defending our national sovereignty and all security interests which would include any means necessary to protect citizens. and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by the icc.

if they proceed with that, the united states would consider as -- thatater today ambassador bolton laid out today. what is if in fact -- ms. sanders: they told us they are on the verge of making that decision and we are letting them know our position ahead of them making the decision. >> the editor of global times, beijing's premier policy that foreign policy outlet said the president lane northwest china on north korea quite a bit. to be someeems improvement on north korea'stance. does china deserve some credit? what do you think about that? i think the president deserves credit in this process. he has been the lead voice and the one that put the initial pressure on north korea, certainly the president has very

publicly expressed his gratitude for the role they played. he would have liked to have seen them continue to step up and do more. we would still like to see them step up and do more. the credit in the process at this point in where we are, i would say belongs to president trump. we will continue to work with address. she and make >> like a second meeting it sounded like, with kim jong-un, does the president believe he has to negotiate more personally with kim given that once the two leaders have left, things go poorly and they have to reschedule another meeting? i wouldn't say it has gone poorly considering steps taken by north koreans to faith --s of good right, but other steps have been taken. so i would not say it has gone poorly. at the end of the day, it will always be best when you have two leaders sit down, particularly

from the north korean side as we know, most decisions will have to be run through kim jong-un. he will want to talk to his counterpart in president trump. we are glad we are making progress. have a great day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] >> tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of the september 11 terrorist attacks. on c-span, we will have live coverage of president trump as he marks the occasion in pennsylvania and that is expected to start at 9:45 a.m. eastern. c-span two,ning on we will be live from new york city for the annual reading of the names of those killed due to start at it -- 8:10 eastern. on c-span3, we will take you live to the memorial service at the pentagon beginning at 9:10

a.m. eastern and we will re-air all of the 9/11 memorial services tomorrow night on the c-span that. -- networks. the u.s. house will come in for a brief session this afternoon with no legislative is the scheduled. until then, we will hear from for ac chair who set down conversation with jesse blumenthal of the coke institute about innovation, technology, and government regulation. he should be applauded by everyone here for helping to make the -- as a radio guy who depends on fcc regulations and not coming after me to