monday. radio host larry elder, attorney, former federal prosecutor robert wray, just the news founder john solomon returns with a document released from the white house. >> from the fox studioings in new york city, this is maria bartiromo's "wall street. identities. maria: and happy weekend, everybody. thanks so much for joining us. welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo. we've got a jam-packed program for you this weekend. in just a few moments, u.s. trade representative robert lighthizer is my special guest. he is urging joe biden to keep u.s. tariffs on china in place. he will make the case coming up. and later, from baseball star to businessman, alex rodriguez on his latest entrepreneurial ventures. but first, president-elect joe

biden now proposing a nearly $2 trillion rescue plan including direct payments of $1400 a person. it also has funding for testing and vaccine distribution and more money for unemployment. joining me right now to talk about that and the inpact on the economy and investing today cornerstone macro's co-founder nancy lazar and ed car againny. nancy, we did not see a rally in the market after that biden announcement on stimulus. i know markets had been riding higher on the expectation recently that we would get a lot of stimulus thrown at the economy. what do you think the impact is and why the muted response, do you think? >> well, there was a muted importance yesterday, but as you said, we have had one impressive run in the stock, in the stock the market. stock market for the past almost year has been discounting getting out of the covid,

getting out of the covid crisis. and so now the combination of the vaccine being rolled out and additional stimulus now likely, that further increases the odds that, indeed, economic activity ends up being even stronger than was previously suggested. i've been using 6% for 2021. depending upon the size of the panel, and we don't think it's going to be $1.9 trillion, we think it's going to be closer to a trillion. with hard to get some of the stuff through there congress right now, at the end of the day a trillion is still significant, and we could be talking about gdp growth of -- for 2021. obviously, it gives a real booster shot to the economy. you need a more efficient rollout of the vaccine which will make it more comfortable for people to go out and about and create a v rebound in the travel and leisure space. that's already starting to sniff it out. and so the key is to look ahead,

not where we are. maria: yeah, let's look ahead, nancy. your most recent report, this huge debate about strong growth with low inflation, this has been really some worrying signals on the inflation front. you look at things like soybeans up in the double digits, corn. food prices in general have been moving up. what is your take on inflation for 2021 and whether or not the federal reserve sees inflation on the horizon and takes its foot off the pedal in terms of stimulus. that would likely send stocks lower. >> so we have to remember we have a very dramatic hit to the economy last year. commodity prices collapsed around the world across the board. what the fed has done and fiscal stimulus has done is really prevent that deflation from gaining hold. so that's a positive. in addition, food at home, obviously, has been in high command, and as a result -- demand, and as a result, the demand for food has been pretty

high and there's been some sort of limitation on supply. you have had some covid-represented supply shocks, demand -- related supply shocks. but that's not inflation. those are temporary supply shocks. we think the key drivers of inflation are going to be two things. one, productivity growth and, two, labor supply. maria: ed yardeni, the biden package of $1.9 trillion is being looked at skeptically in terms of whether or not it will pass. now, the democrats are controlling both houses, so maybe it does. but your thoughts on the impact of that, and also talk about interest rates. while still at very low levels, we've seen a move upwards in the price in terms of the level of interest rates, ed. does that make it more competitive to put your money i in fixed income versus stocks? >> at this point i wouldn't bet against the blue wave. the democrats now have control

of the house and the senate and the white house. i think there's a good chance they're going to get most of this package through once they take their seats. and it's very stimulative, it's certainly very supportive to people who really need the that kind of support until we get this vaccine widely distributed. as we saw last year, when you throw a lot of money at people, it does help a lot to avoid a severe recession. as a matter of fact, last year we had a unprecedented two month recession, that was it. it was basically march and april. and ever since then, we've had a v-shaped recovery. and even fed chair powell just recently said, just yesterday said that he was floored by how strong the recovery has been. and pointed out that we could be back to where we had been right before the pandemic by sometime early next year, which really is quite incredible considering that most people thought we wouldn't get back to that full

recovery level until the end of this year. and those were the optimists. with regards to interest rate, the fed clearly is committed to keeping the fed funds rate, the short-term rate, at zero, near zero for the foreseeabling future, at least through the end of this year, maybe through sometime next year. the issue really is on the bond side, as you pointed out. it's been quite a remarkable increase in the bond yield. but as nancy pointed out, everything is relative. the reason the increase has been remarkable is because the fall was also remarkable. we felt a record low on the bond yield in august of last year to about 0.5%. and now we're up a little bit over 1%. i think the fed has been doing its best to intervene in the bond market by buying bonds and notes to keep the bond yield below 1 percent %. now we're above 3%, and i -- 1%, and i see they're still doing

their best to keep it around 1%. and that being the case, i think that continues to be a very positive backdrop for the stock market. maria: nancy, you've talked a lot about a powerful consumer spending cycle, and certainly the purchasing managers index is forging, and we continue to see that. we'll talk more about that when when i see you both soon on "mornings with maria" on fox business. have a wonderful weekend. thank you, nancy lazar and ed yardeni. coming up, u.s. trade representative robert lighthizer is here. he is urging joe biden not to remove tariffs on china when he takes office. he's here to talk about china and why he wants to keep those tariffs in place. and then i'm asking former new york yankees' great and businessman alex rodriguez where he's looking to invest his money right now. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ maria: welcome back. keeping china in check, u.s. trade representative robert lighthizer urging incoming president joe biden not to remove the tariffs that president trump has put in place. he joins me right now to talk more about that. robert, it's great to see you this weekend. thank you so much for being here. your overall strategy as it relates to china was probably among the most aggressive of and tough as we've seen in many yearsment overall, the trade -- years. overall, the trade policies of the trump administration put america first. do you expect a reversal for -- from that, or do you expect we will see this tough stance with joe biden coming in this next week? >> that's a really good question. first of all, it's nice to be with you, maria, and to see you. i guess i'd answer it in a couple ways. number one, joe bide,

president-elect biden, did not run against our trade policy, right? he did not. and had he done it, it would have been unpopular, and i think he knew that. so, and a lot of the people who he's wringing in understand that the our trade policy was a good trade policy, was the right thing. so if i could just put it in context, if you look at trade policy in the last 70 years, it's basically -- i'll do this very quickly. post-world war ii the u.s. gave a lot away in order to rebuild europe, japan and other parts of the world. that transitioned into really kind of a globalist, corporatist, big business kind of a trade policy, and that's what people did for years and years and years. big business called the shots. and the people that suffered were american working people. and what president trump did is two things, and i think they've just fundamentally different, and i don't think that they'll be backed away from or changed by president-elect biden, and that is, number one, he put working people first.

every decision we made he's tried to bring manufacturing and jobs back to the united states to raise wages rath ethan just listen to -- rather than just listen to the big corporations and have them get slightly richer by rout outsourcing -- outsourcing. and then the second thing he did which is so, so fundamental is he raised the alarm, he made people realize that our relationship with china was an unbalanced relationship that was not helping us, that was disproportionately helping them. and we had technology transfer, we had technology theft which you've talked about probably more than anyone on the air, and i really salute you for that. but also industrial policy that kept their own market closed except when it was convenient. they did massive subsidies, they own enterprises and the like. and they grew from a relatively

modest economy to the second biggest economy in the world and probably, you know, if we're 22 trillion, they're at $13 or 14 trillion all in the last 25 or so years, and they did it at the wto and using basically because the united states was worried more about globalism and corporatism and less about workers and what's going on here. maria: you've got american companies now gearing up to operate in china. jpmorgan got a license are, goldman sachs, going to own and operate its own asset management company. you know, what do they need to understand about china? because if you look at what just happened9 with the ant group, i keep asking the question where is jack ma. jack ma, the billionaire founder of alibaba, made a mistake by apparently criticizing the chinese communist party's financial services regulations. they pulled his ant $30 plus

billion, and now he hasn't been seen for two months. is this, you know, a message that, you know, u.s. companies need to understand when you go operate in china, the chinese are in charge? you know, the chinese communist party, it's their way or the highway. what do you want to say to american business who's watching right now about operating in china, and you're saying keep the trade tariffs in place. that's one of many issues as the ccp has said it wants to overtake the united states and become the number one superpower in the world. >> we have educated people in the united states about what we're facing here. we've educated business people, and i think they understand it in a way they didn't. it's hard for us to think back four years, and there were people four years ago that thought this great relationship with china was going to be wonderful for the united states. that has changed. and we've also changed it around the world. i think people are more aware of this, of this problem. and that kind of education is the beginning, i think, of new

actions. now, u.s. businesses are far more informed about what their risks are and what, what they're facing when they operate in china. no, i'm not against u.s. companies operating over there. i'm against transferring technology, i'm against forced technology transfer. with but u.s. financial services companies operating over there, i don't think that's bad for the united states. i think that's probably good for the united states. maria: any thoughts on the alliances that biden still needs to do or the most important trade deals that need to be done at this point. >> well, i would say, first of all, alliances are important. i specifically had a group, as you know very well, trilateral group we call it with japan and the european union, and we got together on a regular basis and tried to write rules that would help us correct some of these wrongs in the relationship between our system -- remember,

this is a systemic challenge. they have a system of state capitalism, we have a system of free markets. so it's really, it's a systemic problem. it's two systems fighting. so we ended up working closely with our allies many that. but i would -- in that. but i would caution the incoming administration, and i believe they will do this, you can't let the allies veto what you do that you think is in the vital interest of the united states. and it's, it is troubling if you sit back and say, okay, fine, we need a consensus before we'll do something that will help american workers and american companies. and then we have to work with our allies to reform the wto. the wto, it really is -- it really has been a failure, and we ought to just admit that and rye to change the nature of it. -- try to change the nature of it. it's done nothing to rein in bad practices. it's got a settlement process

which is largely a failure and has been unhelpful to the united states. and we haven't had a serious negotiation in 25 years. so i think we need to focus on that. i think they will. what i, i'll end where i started, and that is they're going to be graded just like we're going to be graded by history by how they got the china relationship. that's what history's going to grade us on and them on. i wish them well. i want to do everything i can to help them, and i feel that many of them understand this. maria: wonderful. representative, it's great to see you this weekend. thanks for your service to this great country, and we'll see you soon. thanks very much. u.s. trade representative, robert lighthizer. i'll see you soon, robert, thank you. up next, my interview with alex rodriguez. is he in the market to buy a major sports team? i'll be asking the question. don't go anywhere, back in a don't go anywhere, back in a mo

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lose weight, look great, and be healthy. go to aerotrainer.com. that's a-e-r-o trainer.com. ♪ ♪ maria: welcome back. major league baseball all-star alex rodriguez now a major league investor. his latest venture in health and beauty, he's what he -- here's what he said about that and a lot more. >> telemedicine is something that's right in the dna of what jennifer and i like to invest in. we usually say it's about the future. telemedicine is for the masses, it's here now, and his and hers, they're getting a fantastic job getting into many millions of homes. maria: so you think what we've been doing during this pandemic in terms of telehealth, teleeducation, we're going to be doing that on the other side of it, we're going to still be utilizing companies like this when we're out of this pandemic.

>> absolutely. and the pandemic has given us a crystal ball of what life is going to be after the pandemic, right? with technology and internet coming first because of necessity, we've done in a year what should have been done probably 3-5 years. his and hers -- hims and hers provides an incredible answer to a huge need all for under $50 a month. and from the comfort of your couch at home, which is great. maria: so, alex, you and jennifer lopez have, what, just under 5% of this company. how will this play out? already the idea that you would invest in this company set the stock up at oak tree, but it will change to hims and hers and its own symbol when the deal takes place, right? are you looking to get a bigger stake, or how will your investments play out in hims and hers? >> we always look to double or triple down on our winners, and

is we they hims and hers is in the very early stagings of what could be a lot of white space out there. maria: you've been astute at allocating your own capital, you're invested in real estate and hospitality, you've got a new space in miami working with a number of high profile companies. tell me about real estate in miami and what you're seeing in real estate overall as people are really moving to low-tax states. there's an exodus out of new york. what can you tell us about real estate right now, alex? >> well, i mean, miami and austin are the two places that have benefit fitted the -- benefited the most. miami's absolutely on fire. i've become a broker on the side. there's so many great things going on from the investment and infrastructure, the school system's getting better, a new highway's connecting, basically coral gables and miami beach, and it's on fire, both the commercial and residential side.

barry and i are building 144,000 square feet across the one hotel, a beautiful office building. the demand has been off the charts. i wish we had 400,000 square feet. and you can't say these metrics are the same in every state, but here in south florida across the board it's on fire. maria: you still in the market for looking for another team, alex? >> i wouldn't say we were looking. we weren't looking at the mets process, but sometimes the an opportunity comes up, and the mets was a team that i came up as a young lad out of new york and miami growing up watching them. the '86 meants was an awesome story -- mets. but now we're doing exciting things, and if something comes up that's in our wheelhouse, we'll take a look. maria: i know she's going to perform at the inauguration, you've postponed your wedding due to the pandemic. any updates on when you guys are walking down the aisle? >> i love it, maria, you always

ask the tough questions. [laughter] you know what? we're thrilled about her performance in d.c. next week. and you never know, you never know. but i'll tell you this, we had two canceled because of this pandemic. hopefully, third time is the charm. maria: my thanks to alex rodriguez. more "wall street broken windshield... take 1... hey guys, my windshield just got broken, i feel like i need to blow off some steam. let's go... 1, 2, 3, 4... mr. blanks? there's no need to be stressed. geico makes it easy to file a claim online, on the app, or over the phone. yeah, but what if i never hear back? that's gonna make me want to go jab...jab! nope! your geico claims team is always there for you. that makes me want to celebrate with some fireworks. 5,6,7 go... boom, boom, boom, boom boom boom boom boom boom, yeah! geico. great service without all the drama.

maria: welcome back. be sure to tune in to fox business every friday night,9 p.m. eastern -- 9 p.m. eastern. this weekend over on the fox news channel for "sunday morning futures." 10 a.m. eastern for my exclusive interviews with glenn greenwald and former intelligence director ric grenell. catch the show live 10 a.m. eastern on fox news on "sunday morning futures." plus start smart right here every weekday on fox business from 6-9 a.m. eastern for

"mornings with maria" on fox business. we hope you will join us and set the tone for the day every weekday. that'll do it for us this weekend. thank you so much for joining me. i hope you have a great rest of the weekend. i'll see you again next time. ♪ ♪ gerry: welcome to the "wall street journal at large." the trump presidency ends next week in much the same way it began, against the backdrop of an angry, divided american public, many of whom refuse to accept the legitimacy of the election results and amid mounting fears that freedoms are under existential threat. four years ago it was the democrats and the vast majority of media outlets who denied the legitimacy of president trump, insisting he'd been elected with help from a foreign power.

it was