to see it. there will be a couple hundred apparently but police trying to keep people away. gloria gaynor who we had on yesterday, the great singer, will sing will survive. we'll watch that. the "countdown" to 2021. we're almost there. good-bye to 2020. good riddance. but it is not good riddance to fox business. jackie dee dee has couple hours for you right here. happy new year to you. jackie: happy new year to you as well and to everybody out there. welcome to "coast to coast." i'm jackie deangelis in for neil cavuto. a jam-packed two hours ahead as we close out 2020. we'll be coast to coast starting today in washington, d.c., where the battle about boosted checks is far to over as the end of the congressional session nears. we ask could that sway voters as he they had to the polls in the peach state. to california the recall campaign to call california governor gavin newsom is getting a major boost.

we're talking to the woman behind that mission to remove the state's governor. back here to new york about buffalo bills fans, now they have a chance to attend the deal's playoff game in person. why governor cuomo is allowing them to attend while still banning indoor dining. that is coming up this hour. first to our top story. it's a stimulus standoff and it is turning into a race against time. members of congress are set to ring in the new year amidst a whole lot of fingerpointing as senate majority leader mitch mcconnell insists there is no realistic path forward passing a stand-alone bill to increase stimulus payments to $2000. fox news correspondent david spunt has the latest from washington. david? reporter: jackie, any moment senators are going to take to the senate floor debating overriding the president's veto of the president's defense authorization act, that is the annual bill that funds military

every year. that is a funding bill. you have many covid relief checks and many republicans want to up the ante to give americans struggling with covid. that is another funding bill. time is running out. let me explain how these bills are related together and why time is running out. vermont independent senator bernie sanders says that he will hold up overriding the veto of president trump's mdaa. he wants to do it and override and install until the senate, jackie takes up a stand-alone vote on the 2000-dollar direct payments to the american people. five republican senators including senator lindsey graham, a close ally of the president are in favor of a stand-alone vote on the 2000-dollar direct payments. >> to my fiscal conservative friends i understand your argument but i think the facts on the ground throughout the country would require us to do more than 600. 600 is not enough. 2000 is about right in my

opinion. reporter: senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said he will only consider the 2,000-dollar direct payment proposal if democrats agree to a bipartisan study looking at the integrity of the 2020 election. he wants democrats to repeal section 230 of the communications decency act which protects big tech companies that censor speech online. president trump, these are a wish-list of president trump. he says companies like facebook and twitter unfairly censor republican perspectives. >> the senate is not going to split apart that the three issues president trump linked together because democrats are afraid to address two of them. reporter: four days ago the house voted to override the president's veto, also to provide $2000 stimulus checks to suffering americans. the ball is in the senate's court. time heavily running out. the house will not come back in. if mcconnell's proposal is introduced, it will not go anywhere. it has to be voted on the news

house. the new senate and house sworn in sunday afternoon. a few more days. the senate clearly rushing. jackie: time does not appear to be on their side. reporter: never is. jackie: david, great to see you, happy new year. great to see you. >> happy new year. jackie: let's bring in republican brad wenstrup of ohio, member of the house ways and means committee. you voted against increasing the stimulus checks to $2000. let's start with there. >> okay. i planned to start with that. i thought it was rushed. i thought, how many months nancy pelosi was holding any up any type of aid going to the american people further. all of sudden after a well-negotiated deal it was really between the white house and senate and the house of representatives and nancy pelosi we need to have some change. it was more about political. i'm sympathetic to the american people. i would like to get more money

to them but at the same time going back to phase two, phase three of the covid package, how will we pay for this? we need to start talking about it. we have the entity of foreign aid, people concerned about foreign aid which should not have been tied to the relief package anyway. we can take a look to make cuts to pay for some of this. those are the conversations on the table that i think we need to address and it was important that we to the the deal done that we had negotiated in a bipartisan, bicameral way and move on from there and with this by itself i think that the senate majority leader makes a very good point, he says, look there are other issues there involved here that we can take a look at, section 230 and the credibility of our elections are important issues. again, let me go back to what i said at the beginning, nancy pelosi put off any of this stuff for a long time. the package together has far

more benefits decides $600 cash. people need to take that into consideration how they get relief, nutrition, child care, relief for students, et cetera. jackie: seems like two sides have different priorities. democrats want to override the defense policy bill and have the stand alone vote on 2000-dollar checks. mcconnell seems to be standing official. what happens next? >> i also voted to override the president's veto because especially as a soldier i can tell you, it is too important. it is our number one constitutional duty to provide for the defense of our country and that should not be held hostage in any way, shape or form. typically it is not. i do want to see that proceed. i this bernie sanders is inappropriate to use that as a tool in this negotiation proses is. jackie: we're looking forward

towards georgia as well. we have very contentious runoff races on january 5th. we'll watch closely. essentially split government depends on those two races. the question is, when it comes to $2000 checks are voters in georgia going to be less apt to vote for republicans even though those senators support the $2000 checks but in general they didn't see action or movement there on behalf of the gop in general? >> well i think voters in georgia need to keep in mind, democrats, nancy pelosi, held up getting anything done for how long? 40 times we put a bill on the floor in the house of representatives to try to get aid to the american people. as republicans we did that. they should take a look who is actually trying to make a difference. you know i think when it comes to this independent voters a lot of time really like there to be a mixed balance of power. i think they will be very

concerned about democrats creeling the senate, the house and the white house. jackie: well the idea there wouldn't be a split ticket, right? if you're going to vote republican you will vote down the line, if you vote democrat you go down the line but the issue with covid-19, the pandemic, we saw it in the general election as well early voting, mail-in voting changed the game. it brought more people out and it sort of set things off in a different direction. about 2 1/2 million people voted early in georgia. that will stop today. then the rest will come out on january 5th. your thoughts about the split with respect to the voters and who we're going to see on election day and which way it h they are going to vote? >> well, i'm not going to predict the out comes of these things but i will say if you look at it, ohio, for example, when it comes to the voting process there was not a problem. we have absentee ballots. you had to identify yourself. had to give last four, number on

drivers license, signature, it had to match up. that is the concern people have about the elections because in states where your identification does not have to be verified, that is a big problem. so we'll see how it plays out in georgia. i know both sides of the aisle are watching things very closely as this plays out. jackie: to your point the voter irregularities, issues of checking identification these are all things mcconnell is pushing for, president trump pushed for. things should be part of the entire package we should look at. that is part of the problem. congressman, great to see you, thanks for your time today. we wish you and yours a very happy new year. >> thank you, jackie. jackie: president trump cutting short his holiday trip to florida as he makes his way back to the white house at this hour. fox news correspondent rich edson live in west palm beach, florida, with the details. rich? reporter: good afternoon, jackie and president trump is on his way back to the white house. he is cutting his trip to

florida short though he is returning back down south in a few days. early next week he will be in georgia holding campaign rallies for the two republicans that are running for reheck shun there in the -- re election there in special election tuesday. if democrats win both seat they will assume control of senate. if democrats win both seats it would be a significant boost to the incoming biden administration, quicker confirmations for administration and judicial nominees. while here in florida president trump ripped into republican congressional leadership. he wants the covid relief checks increased from 600 to $2,000. a repeal of a law that gives republicans. half trillion cost of 2000-dollar payments is too much. senate moving forward on a vote in the coming days to override the president's veto of a defense policy bill that authorizes spending some

$740 billion on national security. that voight is expected next couple days. if successful would be the first override of congress of president trump. jackie, back to you. jackie: rich, so many issues still on the table as the clock is ticking. thank you for laying out that in your report there. georgia coming down to a fight as more americans could see stimulus checks arrive in the mail, direct deposit. maybe even today. how much will the boosted stimulus battle affect georgia voters heading to the polls next week? to "axios" reporter hans nichols. great to see you that is the question of the day. it all comes down to georgia. we've been saying that for a couple of months. we have to watch it very closely but with so many issues still in play right now do you think it changes how voters on the ground are going to vote on january 5th? >> potentially but when you look at the way the two republican candidates that are there, kelly loeffler and david perdue

they're both for it. so there is not a lot of daylight between their position and their democratic challengers. what democrats are trying to do put pressure on them to put pressure on mitch mcconnell that seems more derivative and tertiary when candidates down there are for it, you ask voters one issue they care about whether we go from 600 to 2000, to completely nationalize the entire election on this one issue. there is not a lot of evidence jackie that ever happened in the past. it could. sometimes single issues dough affect elections. there is not evidence that is a single issue you're trying to federalize this late in the game will really affects the election when there is not a difference between all four candidates on the ballot. jackie: i will push back a little bit there and say after the general election this sort of became a ref return dumb about president trump and the way he does things and gop

leadership and some of the pushing and pull that we've seen there. and so even if loeffler and perdue are for the $2000 checks as the president are, wouldn't it be more georgia voters sitting back this is really more about the gop and now they're trying to do things? mitch mcconnell, for example really walking a tight line here, not giving any leeway to pass that or do a single vote for just checks alone? is that sort of the bigger issue? >> look i will answer your question with one word, maybe. right, there, they are fair to push back. when we all see this race after the sometime in january, later in february, you never get total visibility on why voters behaved a certain way because there is never really controlled experiments. we're all becoming armchair epidemiologists trying to figure out how to do controlled trials. you don't have that politics because it is political science.

that is potentially. i will correct myself here, there are issues, single issues have been important and decisive in some elections. in 2002 it was the terrorism issue that was important to the republicans advantage. in the past issue, guns. you have seen pro-life abortion issue be a important single issue. the challenge in this case, what makes it difficult to cleave off one single issue is that loeffler and perdue are on the same page as warnock and ossoff. so yes, i take your point, there could be general frustration. if the republican lose this race i suspect most stories written about it, general voter frustration with the trump era. how donald trump sort of muddled things at the very end. if both republican end up winning donald trump fairly confident saying will claim credit for their victory.

what strategists on both sides are telling me this is just exceedingly tight. it will come down to turnout. i know that is a cliche. it will come down to turnout. we'll wake up, maybe sometime later in january and know the winner. jackie: president trump and president-elect biden they both know that they will be making visits to georgia in advance as well to try to rally their base and you know, it is important for the president-elect. he wants to have runway to pass his policies. there is a lot riding on this. of course we'll be watching. we appreciate your time today, hans. >> you bet. jackie: tune into our live special coverage on the georgia senate runoff elections. neil cavuto will begin the coverage at 7:00 p.m. eastern time this tuesday. do not miss it. another case of the new highly contagious strain of the coronavirus first detected in the uk. it is discovered in california. people should worry about it. we'll speak with a doctor after

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move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. jackie: california governor gavin newsom announcing that the more contagious strain of covid-19 first detected in the uk has been found?

the southern part of the state. this comes after health officials in colorado confirmed the first case there. jeff paul live in california. what can you tell us? reporter: yeah, jackie, doctors say they found new reportedly more contagious strain of the coronavirus from a man in his 30s who lives in san diego county. because they don't believe he traveled, they don't think he is an isolated case. meaning quite possibly there are more region walking around with that new variant. >> we detected this lineage, but we knew because of travel patterns and how prevalent across parts of the world but we know there would be something we'll find here in san diego. there is only a question of when. reporter: the discovery of the new strain comes as southern california finds itself particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. doctors in l.a. county say

10,000 died calling it a terrible milestone. hospitals are struggling to keep up with growing number of patients. some have zero capacity for icu space. they are forced to turn away ambulances. surgeon general jerome adams says despite cases they're on track to get millions and millions of doses on the ground into the country by next week. so far they believe it should be just as effective fighting this new strain. >> you should take any worry that you have and understand the vaccines still look like they're going to work. a more contagious variant means it is critical we follow basic public health measures especially this new year's. reporter: with a growing number of people having to come to the hospital and the lack of icu bed space doctors especially here in southern california are hoping people do just that, stay home

this new year's. jackie: jeff paul, thanks so much for that. let's bring in dr. roger klein on how big of a threat the new strain is. dr. klein, good to see you. we are seeing 125,000 hospitalizations for first time. we have the new variant here. we assumed it started in the uk but we assumed it was on the ground here to some extent. you look at southern california specifically, the icu bed capacity is so low. that is why governor newsom is continuing with the lockdowns. it just seems like every day as we move forward we want to be positive about the vaccines, we want to be positive about the light at the end of the tunnel but we keep getting more bad news? >> so i mean, this is obviously a development that is concerning in the sense that it makes the virus more contagious, especially in an area in which the hospital system is becoming overwhelmed. you will see more cases

potentially because of this. competing the other alternative strain in england and southeast england i believe, it was 60% of the cases. so it looks like it is more transmissible and there is a strain that enters into the cells make it more easy letter, more tightly binding and therefore more transmissible. jackie: more transmissible but not necessarily more deadly, correct? >> yeah. we don't have data that shows it's worse. i think we still need to put this into perspective. most people, we've always known with a vaccine most people would get this and most of them would not get seriously ill. so that paradigm hasn't appeared to change but it may spread more even more rapidly now. it is already very contagious. jackie: officials are telling us when it comes to the vaccine we can trust the vaccine, that we

have on the market right now, the pfizer and moderna ones and potentially astrazeneca, a few others will come as well. they will be able to fight this variant. can we have confidence in that? >> at this point, yes. so it is, the vaccines reproduce what are called the spike protein. that is the protein virus refuses to enter. one source probably not change the immune logic response people have to the virus. what we know the vaccines, already what we know is that they prevent serious infection. we don't know they absolutely prevent infection. that is important to understand and we have no reason to believe they won't continue to prevent serious infection. jackie: they're being rolled out right now. we're looking to mid point of next year where they will be available to the general population but you see a variant like this coming out, you see it in southern california as i mentioned before that has a

problem with icu capacity already and you ask yourself as this plays out over the next 30 days or so, how much trouble are we in? >> well you know, v. mains to be seen. i think what we need to do, this is contrary, by the way, or a somewhat against what the cdc absolutely is recommending but which some governors are adhering, that is vaccinate the elderly and vulnerable first. take care of those folks in addition to the health workers and don't worry about young healthy people who may in fact probably, or may in fact already have antibodies. i think what when he need to do is prevent deaths from this. the way to do that is target those populations that are most likely to get seriously ill. for most people this is going to be a, you know, flu-like you willness or less, especially younger people. i myself have it right now.

you can see i'm around. i'm here. jackie: wow. >> it is not as bad as i had last year in terms of upper respiratory infections. jackie: thank you, you look great. hope you have a speedy recovery. thanks for coming on today and breaking down that for us. >> happy new year. jackie: happy new year. recall of california governor gavin newsom picking up major steam. one of the leading members of that movement is here next. ♪. ♪ ♪ still warm. ♪ thanks, maggie. oh, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate.

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♪. >> a lot of our mom-and-pop shops have spent thousands and thousands of dollars to move their inside outside and have three walls or four walls and a tent, have people outside in a tent.

as you can tell in this wind it lost it all. they're losing around every turn. jackie: welcome back to "coast to coast." a campaign aimed at recalling democratic california governor gavin newsom gaining serious momentum after receiving six figure donations from a consulting firm and a venture capital company. joining me now the rescue california 2021 campaign manager and finance director. great to see you. there are those who are saying don't pay any attention to this. two big donations don't really matter. this isn't going anywhere. your rebuttal to that? >> i love that kind of theory because that is the kind of strategy that allowed us to sneak in on him to get this job done. i love to see them not worry about this effort until we replace him. jackie: it is interesting because we're watching gavin newsom very closely with respect to how he handles the pandemic and that is probably the largest

issue here. there was the issue of locking down southern california and going to a restaurant maskless himself which was very sort of visual and sort of out there but a lot of people are saying look, he is not really looking at the data. the sound bite we had of the restaurant owner saying we retrofitted and done all the things to take our business outside. he is not allowing us to operate. there is no evidence that is where the spread is occurring. >> i will not speak to the scientific value right here but i will speak to the quality of life of californians that have been trying to survive this instead of fleeing the state. you're looking at a last stand here. people have invested, even in the final days of doing business and then he shuts down again. i mean in san diego they're going to start fining people including the customers, not just the restaurant owners. i think the other thing too though not to ignore the fact that the massive loss of funds

with the covid jobless benefits that went to prison inmates. i think that number is fast approaching $8 billion. if it gets to 10, that is 10% of our annual budget here in california. that is criminal right there. the governor is elected because they have the ability to plan. you can plan for forest management. we have known we have a surge capacity issue in california, particularly in southern california for years, years. and that is before we knew about covid that was a problem when we were having massive, we'll continue to have earthquakes. they are not going to disappear. and you know forest fires and things like that. we're not prepared to have people hospitalized at all and haven't been for a long time. jackie: that preparation is really important. the numbers you mentioned are really staggering there. tell me how this works procedurally. last time we saw this happen in 2003 with governor gray davis,

what happens next? a judge gave you time. you have to get a certain amount of signatures and move from there. >> okay, jackie, 1.5 million valid signatures. right now we have 950,000 signatures that have been collected with a little better than 80% validity. duplicate signatures, people who are not really registered to vote. so what we're going for is two million signatures to make absolutely certain that every single game that can be played in challenging signatures, we're all sick and tired of that. but we're, we're planning. we're planning. we're going to get two million signatures. we submit those. we hope that they will certify this. there is a lot of room on timing for them to really game the whole program but we're hoping that they will, secretary of state will be certifying this by the end of june and that we have an election sometime late august, mid-september at the

latest and we have a new governor, preferably before bills are signed. jackie: we'll watch very closely. thank you for your time. wishing you and your family happy new year. >> happy new year to you and thanks so much for having me on, jackie. jackie: sure. walmart is apologizing after an unauthorized tweet against senator josh hawley goes viral. we have details after the break. ♪. welcome to silversneakers, are you ready to get moving?

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explain that to millions of people who shop there. jackie: republican senator from missouri josh hawley speaking out after annual mart employee sent out this unauthorized tweet. go ahead get your two hour debate. sore loser hashtag. former mcdonald's ceo ed rensi joins me now. should companies insert opinions like this? i say for the record that a social media employee posted this. they thought they were postings on their own account. this has nothing to do with walmart but certainly bringings up a dialogue and conversation here. >> i think corporations have a responsibility to their shareholders to develop the brand, sell product, make a profit and get a good return on investment. they have no business being involved in condemning, criticizing, labeling a united states senator or any public official. that is the responsibility much the voter my first question if i was on the board who is getting

fired? the lamebrain social media excuse it was accident. this is no accident. somebody ought to be terminated for bad behavior. jackie: these young people, we had conversations when you go on twitter, facebook as well, when you are an employee, a company, you represent that organization should you post that kind of thing to your personal account? >>, ought absolutely not. we do have free speech in this country. i think it is appropriate to opine things you are an expert on, have knowledge about, even express frustration but when you get into name-calling, that is nothing but cyberbullying. that is unacceptable. we need a lot of new leaders in the country to think about the future, how we'll be heroic and growing in this country. china will eat our lunch economically. their war machine is getting more aggressive. we need strong leaders and our

society needs to come behind those leaders to take us to the new frontier. we just can't have this kind of dialogue in the future. jackie: absolutely, ed. look, there is more bad news for restaurants in los angeles as well. this issue of it door dining doesn't seem to be coming back anytime soon. an appeals court now ruling that the county's ban can move forward, stay in place until early february where they will be a hearing about this. but we hear so many stories from the restaurant owners who spent money to make sure that they can be open safely. they have the weather to seat their visitors outside. yet they can't do business. ed, my theory on this, is that what is happening folks are gathering at home because they're is nowhere to go. when they're at home, they're actually more lax with the rules and that is how the spread is increasing? >> well i'm looking at about 160,000 small businesses and restaurants going bankrupt in the next five months.

restaurants are being brutalized and i did a little back of the napkin research if you will and i tried to find a state and a country -- i looked at sweden, i looked at michigan. about the same population. sweden is pretty much wide open. don't get in groups bigger than eight. wear face masks, et cetera. michigan is totally locked down but michigan has 132,000 more cases and seven thousand more deaths than sweden does. they say follow the science. i doubt that. i'm a skeptic. i don't see it. i look at florida which is pretty much wide open with caution, with common sense. we seem to be doing just fine down here. our numbers are not through the roof. i don't understand why michigan and california are being so brutal. new york city, my goodness gracious, they're putting people out of business left and right. i don't see the advantage because numbers keep going up, the death rate keeps going up. there is something very, very wrong in this strategy.

we ought to take a deep look at this, ask ourselves a question, who is this thing, these lockdowns really benefiting? jackie: ed, it is interesting because that is what is happening on this side of the world. you mentioned china, you look on that side of the world. it is where the virus originated. that is all i will say on that specific issue. they have did not lock down the borders and let virus come out and infect everybody else. but you're looking at china poised to benefit from the recovery post pandemic. the imf forecasting in october that gdp in china is likely to jump 8.2%, which is almost two percentage points higher than it was in 2020. you have to ask yourself here, you know, is that a coincidence? >> well you know as well as i do china is extremely highly controlled society. we don't know what the true facts are relative to the overall health of the population. we do know that china is growing exponentially. they're investing around the

world. their one belt, one road strategy is what caused the pandemic in northern italy with the railroad they're building and infrastructure they're building. they're into africa. they're into south america. china is going to grow despite what the rest of us do. we better pay attention to it, they will dominate in this world in ways we do not like. jackie: we know that is their goal. that is what they want to do. it is interesting to see how it is all playing out. ed rensi, great to see you, happy new year. see you in 2021. >> you as well. jackie: fitness goals looking a little different this year due to the pandemic. grady trimble has the details. ♪. robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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♪. >> what's up? i'm excited to let you guys know we'll be alluded fans in the first playoff game. super excited for it. thanks all the parties involved. governor cuomo, everybody else involved. thank you very much. follow good lines. so we can have your fans in the stands. go bills. jackie: that is quarterback josh allen as 6700 fans will be

allowed into the orchard park stadium to cheer them on. the plan announced by governor andrew cuomo requires that fans wear masks, test negative for covid-19 prior to the game and there will be contact tracing afterwards as well. here to weigh in, former nfl star tiki barber is with us. your thoughts how covid impacted the nfl and also on getting fans back in the stadium? you know what it is like first-hand to have that energy, right? >> yeah. without the energy somehow they have managed to have emotional and exciting games for most of this 2020 season but, jackie, you're right, this is awesome for bills fans and bills mafia. it is 25 years since they hosted the playoff game. they have been to the playoffs a few times. they haven't hosted one in 25 years. to get fans back in the stadium, after the state is locked down because of the coronavirus. that is not just sports, it is broadway, everything else. it is exciting and awesome they

got it done at the right time. jackie: what is interesting about this, you mentioned broadway, right? these are indoor spaces to harder to make any rules to be able to do that in the right way but the stadium is outside and as you know, buffalo is very cold. next month is will be very cold there. i always think that fans that go and stand in these games are really, they must be very loyal, very die-hard to do it. now you add these restrictions, covid, contact tracing and testing, i'll tell you, tiki, this is, please don't be insulted here, the only person i would do that for would be tom brady but he moved to warmer state. >> well, jackie, wouldn't you? you get a little bit older. blood gets thinner. you can't stand the cold as much anymore. you head down to tampa. the bucs are going to i playoffs as well. it is for a die-hard. when it gets to this point in the season as your team is very good as the buffalo bills are,

they have already 12 wins, top five defense and top five offense you're excited about this moment. the guys, fans available and able to come, they are going to come even if they do freeze their butts off. jackie: how do you players, anybody you spoken to with the virus going around and focus on games and had to do my job amidst the pandemic. they're trying to do theirs. it has been challenging. >> it has been challenging, jackie. i'm heading out for cbs to cover the denver broncos and las vegas raiders this weekend. we did some zoom conference calls with the guys. it they haven't been able to interact with each other. they build comradery and joking aren't with your teammates, they do everything via zoom. they finish a practice, shower at home and do zoom recaps of practice at home. it has got to be very odd. sometimes it is excuse for why there has been bad play but other teams like the bills,

kansas city chiefs, steelers done well in spite of it. it is testament to the management and leadership on those teams. it has been odd year both for players also for us. also we don't get to go and experience it real time but at least in buffalo 6700 see it in real team. jackie: it is a team sport yet you're sort of isolated in a way too. that is very, it is contradictory just right there. tiki barber, great to see you. you're one of my favorites also. we'll talk to you in 2021. >> happy new year, be safe. jackie: 2020 forcing many gyms to recreate and rethink their brands to get customers back indoors. grady trimble at one gym making changes to help people meet their fitness goals. grady, when it comes to the new year, i'm always like the first one back at the gym on the treadmill. i can't do that this year so how is it going to work.

reporter: this will be the year, right, jackie? 2020 has been anything but normal. gyms are still seeing people interested in that fitness resolution we see every single year around this time. they're trying to meet people where they are which right now is at home. so we're seeing an at-home workout take place in front of us here with lita, with the instructor, using a household object a book, on zoom with dozens of people. kathleen, you're the mastermind behind this. you were going to open a brick-and-mortar gym but for now with the no gym open you are doing online classes. >> all we can do is online classes and doing things where people are and trying to do it with a home workout a interactive experience. reporter: with peloton which owns the mirror, all the fitness devices are taking off. this is a different from that. you are a local business, you

have live instructors critiquing people on their form, what not as they go but we've seen fitness change essentially whereas before you might have only focused on the brick-and-mortar, you might carry this over, right even after the pandemic is gone? >> right. we would before not thought about having classes online but now that is something we might have to add into our repertoire of our class offerings down the road. reporter: i can see you as a local business doing live classes once you renovate the police and broadcast at home for people that may not be able to make it here. is that where you're leaning? >> right. i think we'll have a bridge time if not an ongoing experience of doing both at the same time. reporter: it has been a tough year obviously for gyms, jackie. this is an interesting scenario where you see a gym opening during the pandemic. they just opened in november. so they launched with these online classes because group classes in illinois right now

noll allowed. they're having to figure things out on the fly. it is an interesting thing to watch. jackie: it has been such an incredible year of innovation and businesses responding to the challenges that they have, grady. their hands tied behind their backs trying to make it work. keep the employees on the payroll. it is a testament to the american spirit. thank you so much for doing that story. all right. it is the final trading day of 2020. so the big question is, what should you be doing with your money in the new year? our panel of financial pros will break it down for you coming up next. ♪ research shows people remember commercials with nostalgia. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's one that'll really take you back. wow! what'd you get, ryan? it's customized home insurance from liberty mutual! what does it do bud? it customizes our home insurance

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we got too many professional politicians who are so focused on the next election, they are not thinking about the next generation. >> i'm calling on everybody to get out and vote like we have never voted before to send a message across the country about what georgia stands for. >> everything's on the line here. georgia is the battlefield for our entire country. we are the firewall that's stopping socialism. >> it's as simple as this. kelly and i are asking you to stand with us, stand in the breach against socialism.

jackie: welcome to the second hour of "coast to coast." i'm jackie deangelis in for neil cavuto. as you just heard, the epicenter for the battle for power is not in washington, but in georgia, as one of the first big stories in the new year will be the two key senate races where issues like stimulus and especially the trump tax cuts could hang in the balance. hillary vaughn is in wilmington, delaware, with president-elect biden and he aims to roll back the trump tax cuts. hillary? reporter: hi, jackie. well, this special runoff election in georgia has huge implications for people even outside of georgia, because president-elect biden needs a democratic-controlled senate in order to undo president trump's tax cuts. reverend raphael warnock and jon ossoff, the two democrats vying for these seats, have talked taxes on the trail in the leadup to the special election, making it clear they want more money out of taxpayers' pockets to pay

for a progressive agenda. >> when the congress passed a $2 trillion tax giveaway to the richest of the rich, i began to say to the elected officials that a budget is not just a fiscal document, it's a moral document. >> have you noticed that there's always money for tax giveaways for wealthy donors but then when you start talking about making college affordable for young black people in this country, suddenly the country has no resources? it's about priorities. reporter: president-elect biden does have a few options to raise taxes even if democrats don't win both runoff elections in georgia, but it's nothing that can happen overnight. if he can't rewrite the law, using congress, he could use his treasury department to reinterpret the law so that corporations have to pay more in taxes. they could also wait out the clock and let some of the tax-saving provisions in the law just expire off the books. >> there are a variety of business and individual tax

provisions in that law that will start expiring over the coming years, so that will force a biden administration and congress to make decisions about whether or not to let those tax provisions go and see a tax increase in the next two years. reporter: there are a few tax cuts with limited life spans that businesses and taxpayers need to keep an eye on. in 2021, businesses will no longer get to automatically deduct research and development costs, and in 2025, the expanded earned income tax credit and child tax credit will also go away. jackie? jackie: thank you so much for that. look, the stakes in georgia couldn't be higher, folks. the senate balance of power hangs on georgia's shoulders and the fate of key issues like the stimulus checks, like health care could lie in the hands of these candidates. fox news contributor liz peek joins me now. liz, great to see you. when it comes to the issue of taxes and joe biden, he's going

to have a lot more leeway if the democrats win georgia, as hillary laid out there, but the bottom line really is that he is going to have to raise taxes to pay for all the spending that's the result of the pandemic, correct? >> that's probably true, jackie. certainly he's going to want to do that, but i think honestly, taxes is the least of our problems here. there is so much on the line in georgia. yes, it probably will be the case that if democrats win those two seats, they will be able to pass huge tax increases which biden has called for, $4 trillion in higher taxes, but let's consider what else is on the agenda. bills that have actually passed the house and that are stacked up, ready to go if there's a democrat-controlled senate. they include incredibly onerous gun control laws which could, in fact, put gun makers in the united states out of business, open borders, taking away

criminal penalties for coming into the country illegally, moving towards reparations, a very, very unpopular measure. also, just the kind of measures that chuck schumer has talked about, not only stacking the courts, changing the electoral college, changing the judiciary system, basically remember, schumer's comment, take georgia, change the world. we don't want the world changed. he's talking about -- and democrats are talking about really seriously changing the sort of infrastructure political body of the united states of america and i think georgia voters really need to wake up and smell the roses and understand the importance of this election. jackie: yeah. a lot is hanging on them to basically essentially decide the fate of the country, if you will, in the coming few years and you lay out so many important issues, liz, but you know, liz, democrat candidates, they go around and they talk about taking the tax cuts back, the tax cuts that they say benefit the wealthy and the

corporations, although the argument can be made that those are stimulative when it comes to the economy and when it comes to the stock market, and they're saying we want to do things like free education and we want to continue to reform health care, but the truth of the matter is the country just doesn't have the money for that right now. >> yes, and jackie, i don't mean to minimize the importance of the tax issue, but my view is if they don't take the senate, if the democrats don't control the senate, blue cities and states across the country probably 40% of our states and cities, are going to be raising taxes anyway. new york city has a fiscal crisis on its hands. so does california. so does illinois. whether or not we have big federal increases, i'm looking at the cities and states and thinking that americans are going to be paying more in 2021 and beyond no matter what. so yes, i do think the federal tax outlook is bleak. i think it is across an awful lot of cities and states.

so you know, frankly, whether they come after you locally or federally, all of that is going to happen, unfortunately. jackie: and here in new york city, so many people have left because of the quality of life here, and they're talking about imposing even higher taxes on the top earners. i'm not sure how many top earners are still left in this city at the moment. there's basically nobody walking on the streets. but liz, i want to switch gears for a moment because we got republican senator from missouri josh hawley speaking out after a walmart employee sent out a tweet calling him a sore loser, and they did it through the company's account. listen to this. >> i look forward to them explaining that to the millions of people who shop there, by the way, including me and my family so you know, i mean, it's certainly an interesting choice on their part and i imagine their customers will have something to say about it. jackie: walmart is saying it was a mistake, that employee was supposed to post it to their own social media account but having said that, the damage is kind of done here. i know there are a lot of people out across the country that shop at walmart and listen, they

don't want to hear either way with respect to politics. they just want to hear about business and getting the things they need and deliveries on time, right? >> yes. and look, walmart is a great american company. i don't know how they allowed this to happen. but by the way, the sentiment sore loser is really inappropriate. it is completely appropriate to question whether there was voter fraud, to investigate whether there was voter fraud. it is also appropriate at the right time to say okay, we have gone down all these channels, we decided there is nothing further we can do to change the outcome of this election, joe biden is the president-elect, and i think most republicans and most -- obviously most democrats are at that point. but it isn't a question of sore loser. it's a question of making sure our elections are safe and by the way, going back to this buildup of democrat wish lists, both in the heroes act and a

bill passed in congress already, they want to change forever the ability to take people off the voter rolls such as just happened in georgia. so there's all these sort of issues swirling around. they are all important and they need to be addressed, because voters cannot lose confidence in our elections and that seems to be what's happening in some sectors of the republican party right now. jackie: it is a serious issue. liz peek, thank you for laying that out so clearly. great conversation. really appreciate having you today. >> thanks, jackie. happy new year. jackie: same to you. markets, we are watching them. look at the indices there for the year. the dow jones, up 6.5%. the s&p 500 a 15% gain. that nasdaq composite, my goodness, 43%, tech-heavy of course, those stocks leading the way. so with the last trading day of 2020 in the books for us, it's been a wild year. the question is, what do you do with your money next year? let's bring in our market pro, jared levy and gary b. smith.

jared, let's go ahead and start with you. i mentioned the nasdaq, the move that we saw this year, it was remarkable. do you think that tech is going to hold up in 2021? >> yeah, i do, 100%. great to see you, jackie. i think people need to realize that this, what i'm calling the digital revolution 2.0, when i say that i mean like ai, robotics, automation, big data, you know, those sorts of things, the stuff that when you're walking around, alexa's talking to you, all this stuff that's sort of running our lives, again in the automotive world, i think those areas are going to continue to blossom. a lot of it's going to come from names we don't know. as an individual investor, i think the place to focus might be find an etf where you've got a bunch of portfolio managers working hard to sort of target maybe an emerging markets company or maybe an aluminum company in india or china or somewhere that's doing great things or the potential merger and acquisition target. digital i think will continue to do good. tech will do good. i also like sustainability and we can get to that in just a

second. but yeah, tech, tech should be strong in 2021, at least in general. jackie: gary, what do you think? there were so many new entrants to the market here. companies like zoom that, you know, we might have heard of but we didn't necessarily know a lot about, and they just dominated as a result of the opening that the pandemic created. >> i agree with jared on the macro level, but let me tell you a short anecdote of why i would start the year in cash. i am starting the year in cash. i was with my father-in-law over the holidays and i asked him about, you know, what his thoughts about the market. he goes i'm killing it. i said in what? he goes i have a lot of shares of blocchain which is up 1800%. i asked what does riot bloc chain do? he goes i have no idea. so i wish i was up 1800% in any of my holdings, but it just tells me you mentioned zoom,

there's companies like door dash, they all seem like, jackie, it reminds me of 1999 again. there's a lot of bubble stuff in the market, stuff up like 800%. again, i agree with jared on the macro. i think there's going to be a pullback. there's almost bound to be a pullback early in the year. jackie: i mean, i got to go with gary here and just ask you the question. you look at the dow sitting at 30,413 points there on the last day of the year, when we have been through a crisis, a massive proportion. but the market did come back. have investors overdone it here a little bit, especially i keep pointing to this, we do have a new administration coming in. they are going to try to shake things up and they are going to make it more difficult for businesses to operate. >> let me just say, when i say tech, tech is going to be hot, don't go out and buy everything. right now, jackie, everybody is

a genius. every one of my friends that are individual investors on their robinhood or e-trade accounts, they are all geniuses, all making tons of money. i get texts and e-mails every day from people who are trading things like bitcoin and zoom and whatever and doing great. but yeah, there is a lot of froth out there. that's why you have to again, moving all into cash, that's another side of the extreme. i don't know if that's the solution. but yeah, take some of those big winners, maybe start winding them down, start looking at the stuff that maybe isn't getting talked about. i do think there's going to be a pullback. like you said politically, let's not forget we don't know first of all, you know, what the makeup of congress and the senate's going to look like. we don't know the results of this georgia runoff. we don't know what the first hundred days of biden's presidency is going to look like. again, that could mean i don't think meteoric changes because we should have a good balance there and pretty tight house and senate regardless, but there will be changes.

that will force the hand of certain companies in certain sectors to either, you know, to make dramatic changes or it could hurt them. energy is one thing we've got to really be careful with, if you are an investor in energy. remember, that landscape could look a lot different as well in 2021. yes, there's frothiness out there. i'm not saying go all in. but there will be opportunities. let's just not get afraid of those. jackie: final word to you, gary. if you are in cash as you start the year, how long would you give it? jared mentions the first hundred days, kind of see where this is going. see how investors are reacting to everything that's happening. you know, is that when you would start to think about trying to make some new moves in the market? >> well, look, i'm going to -- look, you can always be wrong when you try to forecast the future. i think there's going to be a 10%, 15% pullback. i think when it starts to get 10% for me is the level, what is that, down, what, 3,000, i suppose? 27,000 on the dow?

then i would certainly start to look. i agree with jared again on undervalued areas. what's undervalued right now? you going to go out and buy exxonmobil? they're having a crisis. jackie: 27,000, gary, you are giving me chills. >> what's that? jackie: i said 27,000, you're giving me chills but i hear you. that is certainly something to think about. >> that would be 10%, right? jackie: yeah. gentlemen, thank you so much. great to see you. happy new year. >> thanks, jackie. you, too. >> happy new year to you. jackie: californians on high alert after officials there confirm a case of the new covid strain. how quickly it could potentially spread to the rest of the country, after this.

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jackie: california is now the second state in the united states confirming a new case of the more infectious covid-19 strain. this comes after health officials in colorado confirmed the first u.s. case of the new strain there. joining us now, dr. matt mccarthy. doctor, you know, we have been talking about this new strain for several days now and there is some worry and some concern out there because it's more contagious, but not necessarily more deadly. how worried should we be?

>> that's exactly right. we think this, when you cough up this new variant you are more likely to expel more of the virus so it may be more contagious but we have known this was here for months. it's likely about 1% of the cases in the united states right now, probably going to be the majority of the cases by march or april. there's no evidence that it's more deadly. there's no evidence that it's resistant to our vaccine, no evidence that it's resistant to the treatments that i use as a front line clinician every day, dexamethasone and remdesivir. there's a lot of interest in there but not a lot of fear, not a lot of concern on my part. it's something we have known was going to happen. mutations are always happening and now that we're looking and we're looking very closely, we are going to find more and more of this. nothing to be alarmed about. jackie: that's what i was going to ask you. don't be shocked if this isn't the first mutation we see. >> well, this is the big point here. when most people get diagnosed with coronavirus, we don't take the virus and send it to a

laboratory and sequence it to see what mutations it has. as of christmas, we had only sequenced 51,000 of the viruses. that's not very many for a country that has 17 million cases. as we look more and we are now aggressively sequencing, you will hear about more and more variants, more and more lineages in mutations. nothing to be alarmed about. it still goes down to social distancing, wearing a mask, washing your hands. none of that changes just because we found a mutation that was expected anyway. jackie: we know that the guidelines you just laid out for us, recommended by the cdc, we know we're not supposed to stand too close to people, we should stay outdoors if we possibly can, but i have been curious with respect to wearing the masks. we know they are helpful but say i'm in an elevator with somebody, i'm wearing the mask, that person is wearing the mask and they are covid-19 positive, and they cough. is the mask enough? a lot of people are not wearing medical grade masks. is it enough to contain the distribution of those particles if we are both wearing masks, would i be safe? >> that's a great question.

i advise a lot of companies on this very question. what do we do about elevators. we know that masks are helpful but they're not perfect. if you are within six feet of somebody, which you often are in an elevator, and somebody coughs, you could still contract the virus. so what we are recommending to people is don't go put yourself in harm's way. if you can take the stairs, do that instead of the elevator. but you are highlighting a very important point that's not always easy to talk about which is that masks are important, but they're not perfect. jackie: i also believe in strengthening the immune system as well. it's something i do. i have been taking all the vitamins from the beginning that the doctors have recommended, vitamin d, i have been taking zinc, i have been taking vitamin c, i have been washing my hands. i mean, we can't stress the importance of just the easy precautions we can take here, right? >> absolutely. it's great to take those vitamins. some other things i would recommend, getting a good night's sleep, avoiding excess alcohol, all the things that we

do that wear our bodies down, those can be detrimental if you contract this virus. so it's really hard to do the right things, to eat right and exercise and get a good night's sleep, but those kind of things can really be important, if you contract this virus. so keep doing what you're doing and stay six feet away from people. jackie: i do do that and i will also add, i don't drink on school nights and i do try to get seven hours. doctor, great to see you. happy new year. >> great to see you. thank you. jackie: in the uk, which reported 981 deaths on wednesday amid a surge related to that new covid strain, people are planning to celebrate new year's eve, but they have been warned they must leave the parties for later in 2021 as covid loves a crowd. that's what we have been talking about. benjamin hall has the latest from london, where those lockdowns are strict. reporter: yeah, hi, jackie. not just here in the uk but across the world, as we do every year we watch as hour by hour, city by city, the new year comes in. as we have been saying all day,

this is a very different new year. the celebrations have been very different. as you say, the one message coming from many governments is that covid loves a crowd and you should try and stay at home and not celebrate in gatherings. we started off in australia. that was the first big fireworks where we see that happening every year. the coronavirus outbreak there has been growing daily. people asked to stay at home, avoid those famous harborside fireworks which usually attract about a million people. well, this year, only those with bookings could attend. we move into europe, where france has canceled everything. in fact, they deployed 100,000 police to enforce an 8:00 p.m. curfew and clamp down on any parties or gatherings. half of the subway lines into paris have been shut to prevent people from seeing each other and across the rest of europe, which remains in significant lockdown, celebrations have also been muted and canceled. only in new zealand, which has managed to eliminate coronavirus, after a draconian lockdown, new year's eve plans proceeded as usual. the only place that was able to do so and frankly strange to see all those crowds, in tokyo, hong

kong, beijing, delhi, celebrations were canceled. but in pyongyang, north korea, they continued to hold their big annual celebration. they continue to insist in that country that they have no covid cases. but reports do suggest otherwise. state television there showing people wearing face masks but standing side by side so yes, a very different new year's eve today across the world. you will remember it was just a year ago on new year's eve last year when the world health organization announced this mysterious pneumonia coming from china. we now know a year on that that is covid. many people would have hoped we were past it at this point. we're not but we have that hope, that ambition that the vaccine's going to change that and 2021 will put 2020 in the shade. jackie? jackie: what a difference a year makes. benjamin hall, thank you for that. stay safe. coming up, what's china hiding? beijing clamping down on research into the pandemic's origins. what exactly is going on here? we've got it after the break.

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jackie: most vaccines take ten years to create, but according to operation warp speed, leaders, there could be at least four covid vaccines by the spring. to edward lawrence on when we can expect more vaccines to roll out and for the operation to be complete. reporter: you know what, today moderna officially published its results of the vaccine trials in the new england journal of medicine, making it, you know, this is -- proving that it's 94.1% effective rate against this virus. now, all of this is possible because of the $12.2 billion spent through operation warp speed. in the agreement, the administration wanted to get 20 million doses pushed out by today. they are very close to that. >> we still need to be extremely grateful for the fact that we're in this position to be able to deliver this.

it's a very difficult task, particularly with ones that have to be delivered in really low temperature conditions, but let's work together on this and acknowledge that this was a great achievement. reporter: a spokesperson for the health and human services telling me right now, more than 14 million doses have been delivered but it's up to states to vaccinate and some states have reported using more shots than others. president-elect biden vows that 100 million vaccinations in the first hundred days, he's promising what the trump administration has already lined up through contracts with pfizer and moderna. they guarantee 100 million doses by march of 2021. now, here's the breakdown. you are seeing on your screen here. by march 30th, 100 million doses of the vaccine shot from johnson & johnson were secured. april, that's what you're looking at there, 16th, the administration buys 100 million doses of the moderna vaccine. may 21st, astrazeneca agrees to 300 million doses, supplied in

2021. july 7th, novavax signs a deal for 100 million doses. also in july, followed by the same amount of pfizer. that month, the infrastructure support also started for moderna. helping with late stage development. in august, giving money to johnson & johnson for manufacturing and distribution, the same help given to moderna in that month. still, all of this money allowed the companies to take on risk of early development. that risk paid off as the vaccines are now starting to become viable. we have two that have been approved for emergency use already. back to you. jackie: that has been incredible to watch, to just recap with respect to what the timeline was for operation warp speed and we do highlight the fact that it could take a decade to come up with a virus -- a vaccine like this, pardon me, and we have done it in this country in less than a year. it's pretty remarkable. reporter: very fast. now we've got more coming online, as you talked about.

johnson & johnson looks like it could be end of january, february they may get emergency approval there, and you've got novavax coming at some point in the first quarter of next year. so that's four, four of six vaccines, a good return on the investment possibly if you are looking at it that way. jackie: i would say so. edward lawrence, great to see you. happy new year. okay. it's been nearly a year to the day when the first covid-19 cases were reported in china. now beijing is clamping down on research into the pandemic's origins while actively promoting theories it could have originated outside the country. let's go to dan joseph. dan, from what we understand, the virus originated in wuhan. we're not speculating as to why chinese people were allowed to leave the borders with the virus, infecting the rest of the world, but now to say that it originated somewhere else, it sounds preposterous. >> yeah.

i'm not sure it's going to be easy to connect the dots on that theory. the fact that china didn't jump on this extremely early on, the fact that it may have misdiagnosed the problem and the fact there wasn't complete transparency, frankly, none of that is a surprise for a country like china at its stage of development with its political system. so some of that could be understood. i think the extent to which china is trying to control the narrative at this time while simultaneously denying access to information and not being transparent, in the long run i think it's a hit to trust in china among the global community although in the short term, they think it plays well for them. i would disagree. jackie: in a communist country, you can control the narrative with state tv and the other, you know, things that you have at your disposal as well. but when it comes to either people looking at this across the world, in the united states, in europe, for example, it doesn't seem like anybody is going to buy that theory if, in fact, i think people are going to start to dig into the origins in wuhan, what exactly lapphapp

and we know that journalist that started to document some of it has been jailed. >> at the end of the day it's going to come down to access and transparency. if china is promoting certain theories while simultaneously not allowing outside doctors, w.h.o. and otherwise, to have access to information and sites and do their own investigation, you're right, the credibility is going to be very low. you can sell that internally. sometimes it seems like all countries, they pin foreign policy actions to satisfy the internal audience. this won't play well, this type of approach, lack of transparency, lack of access, not just in the united states but the entire developed world, where we are used to that kind of, we are used to giving people access and being transparent, looking for the truth, not just trying to dress things up, if you will. i don't think it will play well internationally. jackie: president trump said he would hold china accountable for what has happened over the course of the last year. president-elect biden has said he would be tough on china but hasn't really said how and he hasn't really talked about china with respect to the pandemic at

all. >> yeah. i think holding accountable sounds good in theory but it's very difficult in practice. listen, all less developed poor countries have weakness in the rule of law, lack of transparency. unfortunately, china has been moving in the wrong direction over the last decade, so we can't excuse that type of behavior. at the same time, covid's been a challenge for everybody and just because china might have been more transparent early on doesn't mean they would have necessarily got in front of it more. i don't think we can say definitively if china just would have been honest from day one, none of this would have happened. would it have been better, absolutely. i'm not sure we will be able to say it's 100% the fault of the chinese political system. this virus has been a challenge for everyone. but i do think in the long run, this is a big hit to trust in china and we will handle these things differently in the future. i don't think there's any question about that. jackie: on the last day of the year, i'm looking at what our indices have done. we know we have seen very

volatile markets here in the united states and the dow is finishing 6.5% higher, you know, thanks to the comeback we have seen. so that's great. "wall street journal" reporting today the benchmark index in china is up 27% this year. that is drastically different and much bigger gains there. they really seem like they stand ready to profit from the stoortf global comeback as a result of this as well. >> they are bouncing back earlier because they went into it earlier. also, they have, you know, much of their comeback so far is predicated upon huge increases in government spending which again, great in the short term but in the long term, just adds to their already significant debt load above 300% of gdp. i wouldn't put too much stock in the short-term actions and even their market frankly is liquidity-driven, not exactly as closely tied to the real economy as it would be over here. so they are in a better position than we are because they got into it quicker but that's not to say that this will create some sort of sustained momentum over the next five or ten years.

the whole world has to climb out of this economically and then get on equal footing, then china has to address a lot of the problems with its economy that it's been ignoring the last five or ten years. jackie: certainly has. great to see you. thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you. jackie: okay. forget stocks in the new year. it's bitcoin that's really the big investment that you should be making, or some people think it is. we've got more after this.

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jackie: bitcoin, booming in 2020. the cryptocurrency started the year around $7,000. it's poised to end about four times that amount. look at that chart. but is bitcoin really a safe bet? joining me now, price futures group senior analyst, phil flynn. phil, always great to see you. you look at that chart as an investor and you wonder, you know, if you haven't gotten into bitcoin and it's something that you're considering for next year, if you missed the big move.

>> i think it's very risky, no doubt about it. it's the type of investment, it's definitely a speculative investment and as fast as it went up, it could go down just as quickly. really, you have to look at the story behind the currency. it isn't just about the currency. it's what drives the currency. that is the block chain technology. that's the biggest issue. for the first time in history, they have a currency that is not controlled by any governments or by any people, but by a peer-to-peer software platform, okay, so this is actually revolutionary and everybody thinks this is the greatest thing. but the concept is wonderful, but the reality, when you look at bitcoin and how it works, there are some negative sides of that. number one, its energy usage which right now, to mine from mes b these bitcoins, it's the energy equivalent consumption per year of a country of 21 million and

that's going to be unsustainable over the long run. jackie: i look at this and not to be old school here, but when i hold a dollar bill, i remember that it says in god we trust and that it's backed by the full faith and credit of the u.s. government. when you talk about the blockchain technology that's backing bitcoin, i worry about cybersecurity. i worry about hacking. what happens if all of a sudden, there's a problem? who is backing this currency? could you just get wiped out? >> it's backed by the full faith and credit of the internet, right? jackie: wow. i feel so much better now. >> it's the same thing. you're right, it's not backed by anybody or anything. so that is a concern. you know what, on the other side of that, the people that are proponents of this are saying whether it's controlled by a government, they are allowed to manipulate their own currency. they are allowed to produce m e more. they can devalue the currency, we have seen that, and that has been the reason for the attraction. and just because you have a country backing the currency, it

doesn't mean that the currency's going to be stable by any sense of the imagination. listen, i'm not saying this investment is for the faint of heart, but it is an advancement in technology that you're not going to be able to ignore, and that's why we are seeing billionaires, money managers throw a lot of money into it. jackie: something to watch as we go into 2021. phil flynn, great to see you. happy new year. >> happy new year to you, too. jackie: a quick programming note. making money host charles payne is going to host a special town hall next week called the future of capitalism on january 13th at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. if you have questions about what capitalism might look like in the new year, and in a new administration, you can write in, message fox business on facebook or on instagram or e-mail your questions to investedinyou@foxbusiness.com. you are looking at a live image of times square. coming up, what tonight's festivities are going to look like. we are going to speak with the

creator of the new year's eve times square ball, coming up next. ♪ ♪ you can go your own way

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jackie: this is a live look at times square on what will be a very different scene than what we're normally used to seeing on new year's eve, and speaking of parties, well, restrictions across the country and in parts of the world hurting the party rental industry. jeff flock joins us from illinois with more. jeff? reporter: indeed, jackie. i'm standing in front of what is the only thing that's separating the party industry from total disaster. that's tig rentals for restaurants. typically this time of year they would be renting for holiday parties, people's, you know, new year's eve, going to get a little dark as we come inside this tent but this is what's saving them. this is the famous capri restaurant in burr ridge, illinois. that's gigi there. everybody knows him. he runs the restaurant. the folks who put this tent up are in the party industry and richard, that's you. you have had a terrible year. >> we have had a bad year. the pandemic's really hit us and

our industry very hard. reporter: you got some ppp help, but you know, your reserves are just tapped out. you didn't have a summer. >> yeah. the regional companies, us included, going into the summer usually gain a reserve for the wintertime and we don't have that this year at all. reporter: you're up against it. take a look around as mike maybe gives you a picture, this is a tent that your company, richard, set up. now, the problem is these restaurants haven't had money to dish out, i mean, you guys are hurting. so are the restaurants. in comes the mayor of burr ridge, illinois, gary grasso -- good to see you. >> good to see you. reporter: you came up with money from the city to help people pay for their tents? >> i did, with the majority of the board of trustees, of course. we had a pool of money, we had a motel/hotel fund and other funds to use which we would normally use for advertising. wasn't going to happen during the pandemic. what better way than to spend that money on our restaurants and fund the program.

reporter: jackie, maybe people have some difficulty getting help from the federal government but some local communities trying to do their best to try and help business owners like gigi who runs a great restaurant. i suspect you do like italian food. this is the place for it. jackie: it's my favorite. it's amazing to see the different ways that they're using tents right now in the pandemic to stay alive and we were talking about earlier the innovation that just has happened across the country that things people have thought of. grady trimble was showing us dining in rvs yesterday. who would have thought. reporter: that's amazing, isn't it? yankee ingenuity, american ingenuity, we love it. jackie: jeff flock, great to see you, thank you. reporter: good to see you. happy new year. jackie: all right. it is new year's eve tonight. waterford crystal has constructed the new year's eve times square ball for more than two decades. this year's design is called a gift of happiness. master artisan tom brennan is here. tom, welcome.

i was able to go see the ball in person last year, which was such a wonderful experience to see all the crystals and all the l.e.d.s. it's obviously going to be very different this year with nobody in times square. >> oh, for sure. you know what, this is unprecedented but we at waterford find enormous comfort in enduring traditions. this is a tradition. the celebrations in new york, that ball drop is dating back, the original ball, in 1907. 2020 has taken so much from us, ball games, concerts so we at waterford, the times square alliance, the city of new york, we decided you know what, 2020, you're not having this one. the ball is dropping tonight. jackie: yeah, no, and we will be watching closely because that's such an iconic image whether you live in new york city or the surrounding areas, or in other parts of the country, and you are used to watching it on tv. i mean, there are certain things we needed in the pandemic to stay stable and i think the ball drop is one of those. >> yes. thank you for that. you know, waterford crystal and

the times square ball drop, we are associated with tradition. we are honored to be part of this. you know, it's a focal point for the entire world, in excess of 1.2 billion people will be watching that ball drop tonight. so it doesn't matter whether you are in new york city, across the country, across the world, it's almost like a great equalizer as we look forward to 2021 and the production of the waterford crystal ball, it involves teams from around the world, from artisans to engineers and of course, the craftsmen in our irish factories and over in the european facility. so this is a global spectacle. we are just happy that waterford crystal is holding court once again in times square. jackie: tell me about the theme and also, when i was at the ball last year, every year some of the crystals are changed out to match the theme. so what exactly are we looking at, if you could get up close and personal with the ball? >> sure. i can get up close. the panel is right there. this is actually one of the panels, the triangles, if you will, from the ball. 2688 of these clad the 12-foot

geodesic sphere. this year's theme is the gift of happiness. part of the greatest gift series. it is like a universal communication, a universal message that everybody can understand and i think we got it absolutely right in waterford that happiness is the theme for this year but let's face it, we need happiness. we need that generosity. quite frankly, we need each other going into 2021. jackie: yeah, we definitely need our baskets full of happiness, as we head into the new year. hopefully watching the ball drop, that traditional ceremony will put everybody in the right mood and to start the new year off on the right foot. great to see you, tom. thank you. >> thanks so much, guys. happy new year. jackie: happy new year. u.s. markets ending a year of wild swings on a flat day today. we'll be right back. ♪

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they will tick down. look at unemployment report on january 8th. thank you for watching. wish you happiest of new year's day eve. lauren simonetti, in for charles payne. toss it to you. thank you, lauren. lauren: great wait to see you in the new year, jackie. enjoy tonight. i'm lauren simonetti in for charles payne. this is "making money". meandering yes, the final day of 2020 but all three major averages are down just a bit. right near record highs. we're diving into the massive market gains came despite the pandemic. how to get the 2021 portfolio ready. businesses are struggling under the covid restrictions they're facing. is this the right time to enact minimum wage hikes? half of the states across the country about to do so as early as tomorrow. while some folks may have the 600-dollar stimulus