start smart every weekday morning from 6-9 a.m. eastern for "mornings with maria" on fox business. i hope you will join us every weekday. that'll do it for us. thank you so much for being with us this weekend. have a fabulous rest of the weekend, and i'll see you again next ♪ ♪ ♪ gerry: hello and welcome to the "wall street journal at large." two weeks into the joe biden presidency, the political dynamic of our times seems to be clear. we have a democratic administration that's intent on ramming through its radical progressive agenda on the slimmest of majorities while the republican party descends into conflict about its everyone direction. joe biden promised to work for unity. he told people that in his five decades in washington, he'd learned the value of working with the opposing party. but this week we got the clearest indication that he

leads a democratic party that really plans to govern alone. on monday a group of ten republican senators held out an olive branch to the new president. they offered a counterproposal to his $3.9 trillion covid -- 1.9 trillion covid relief bill. now, the offer seemed to present the potential for a classic example of washington bipartisanship, a serious basis for a deal that would pass the senate without the need for reconciliation, that's the process that allows the body to avoid the filibuster. but instead of seizing it, the white house promptly shoved it back in the republicans' faces, essentially said they plan to press ahead with their own bill, and indeed they did in the senate. with the senate split 50-50, the democrats have just enough votes with the tie vote of vice president kamala harris, and on friday they kicked out the minimum wage increase in the covid relief bill but left the rest of the $1.9 trillion package essentially intact. president biden insisted that there would be no compromise. >> if i have to choose between

getting help right now to americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation or compromising on a bill that's, that's up to the crisis, that's an easy choice. i'm going to help the american people who are hurting now. gerry: this despite real fears even among the some prominent democrats such as former obama top economic policymaker larry summers that the scale of the package may just be too large. now, all of this fits with the clear signals that biden has sent that he mans govern as though he has a mandate for a significantly hard-left turn for the country. how is this happening? well, the answer lies in part with the condition of the republican party. in the wake of president donald trump's electoral defeat and the loss of senate control, the gop's in a state of civil war. the divisions were on full disthrough play this -- display this week. on wednesday the caucus voted to

keep liz cheney as the party's number three official in the white house despite an effort to oust her after she had supported the president's impeachment. the next day 31 republicans -- 11 republicans joined all the democrats in voting to oust managerially taylor greene -- marjorie taylor greene for delusional conspiracy theories including the idea, for example, that the u.s. is run by a cabal of satanist pedophiles. now, the congresswoman herself told colleagues shah that she had changed her mind about some of the beliefs. >> these were words of the past, and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values. gerry: but the divisions in the party were underscored by a poll this week for ax quotes that show -- axios that shows far more republicans support ms. taylor greene than ms. cheney. and on thursday, ben sasse, or

who faces censure for what he said in the runup to the january 6th capitol riots, senator sasse summed up the problem that now divides the party. it's east a party -- either a party built around president trump or a party committed to principles and parties. >> the anger in the party has never been about me violating principle or abandoning conservative policy. i'm one of the most conservative voters in the senate. the anger has always been simply about me not bending the knee to one guy. gerry: later we'll discuss the challenge for the gop with a big republican backer and a political commentator, ceo of canary, dan eberhardt. but let's start with the biden administration's strategy. here to take it up, senior national political columnist, josh, thanks very much for joining me. >> good to be here. gerry: so, josh, we did have an example this week where, again,

what i said, what looked like an opportunity for president biden to show what many of us thought he stood for, which is a kind of bipartisan approach. he's a longstand ising member of the -- longstanding member of the senate, he'sed had good relationships across the aisle. republicans go to him for negotiation, and the white house simply rejects it, and those democrats give every impression they intend to press on because they've got 50 votes plus 1 in the senate. what's going on here in we all thought president biden was, you know, was someone who was about building consensus, and he talked all about unity. what's he doing? >> yeah. this is an administration whose actions are belying the bipartisan rhetoric that president biden campaigns on and the very rhetoric he talked about in his very unifying inauguration speech. that was why a lot of moderate voters supported joe biden in the last election, the notion that there would be some return to normalcy or at least a return

to a time when republicans and democrats can at least talk about compromise and reaching across the aisle. and you've got this opportunity, and, you know, republicans and democrat, even if they may disagree on the ways to get there, there is a common view there needs to be more money to help disadvantaged americans that have taken a hit because of the pandemic. so there is room for compromise on a non-ideological issue like this. and what we've seen in the last couple weeks though, gerry, is that the biden -- biden himself has essentially rejected any efforts at compromise. he did have a meeting with ten republican senators that offered their own proposal but didn't offer any counterproposal, didn't start any negotiation. pretty much said it's just my way or the highway. and, look, if you can't win over mitt romney, if you can't win over susan collins and you've logged a moderate democrat like joe manchin, maybe they get this through with 50 votes, but that shows how partisan these initial efforts have been. gerry: why do you think he's

doing this? some people detect the hand of ron klain, his chief of staff, the prime minister inside the white house and, you know, he's in favor of a pretty progressive agenda, maybe kamala harris. why is biden apparently turning his back on the moderates and on the people who want a bipartisan approach? >> there is a lot to be said about democratic staff often being more progressive than the actual principal himself. but i also think this is party that's been, number one, burn in the past by -- burned in the past by relationships and negotiations with republicans. these are a lot of obama administration alums who looked at the first year of the obama administration and felt that they could have gotten a bigger stimulus, but they backed down at the last minute, concern they don't want to relive that lesson. but, gerry, the biggest difference now from 2009 to currently in 2021 is that joe biden has a 50-democratic seat majority, the narrowest of majorities. obama had nearly 60 seats in the

senate. so, you know, joe biden talks a lot about building back better. you know, it's in his political interest to get more political capital the as he governs, as he tries to, you know, advance his agenda on other issues. instead he's burning a whole lot of bridges that didn't have to be burned, and he risks incleesing the degree -- increasing the degree of partisanship. and if you overheat the economy too much, everything's on his shoulders. he owns the economy now, and it could cause hum some political backlash if he's not careful in the future. gerry: we've got to take a short break, but we'll talk more about that, more about the stimulus plan and also impeachment and the other political issues when we come back. stay with us. at t-mobile, we have a plan built just for customers 55 and up. saving 50% vs. other carriers with 2 unlimited lines for less than $30 each. call 1-800-t-mobile or go to t-mobile.com/55. ♪♪

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t the wer foror tout replica, didn'tn'etetny results.lt keical how serioer e,, bs the s s terestregly, this wee w there was an oed by larry summers in "the washington post" who actually gave a warning to president biden and his team that this was maybe, you know, this plan, this $1.9 trillion plan is risky both in terms that it might stoke inflation. the economy's had a huge amount of stimulus. the government's taken on a lot of debt in the past year, but it might threaten their own big plans for an even larger project later in the year when they want to do their build back better, big infrastructure plan. how much do you think there is going to be internal debate within the democratic party about the merits of this plan, of what it might -- how it might impact their ability to do stuff in the future? >> gerry, i don't think there's a whole lot of divisions because they want to help joe biden pass his first big initiative. but i think there's concern,

private worry that if biden doesn't reach out to republicans, doesn't get any republican support and then the economy, you do see some long-term inflation or you do see, you know, the eshoo of not being able to spend on priorities that biden has been talking about in the future, that's going to be a big problem for the democratic party heading into a midterm election where they're already exposed, and they already face the prospect of losing seats in the house, losing perhaps the senate. so this is a political issue as much as an economic one. it's good politics to want to get the other side to buy into your agenda because it shows not only you're looking to get bipartisanship, but it gives some ownership on the other side of the aisle. if biden goes through with it, it shows a certain level of cocky hns. it's -- cockiness. you have those like summers who are saying there's a real risk that there could be inflation, there could be less money for real spending on top democratic priorities that could come back

to bite democrats in the long run. gerry: for the next two weeks, we're going to be treated to the big theater of impeachment. some democrats are concerned and think it's maybe not the way to go in terms of establishing bipartisanship in terms of trying to convict the former president, especially a trial that we know is almost certain to end in his acquittal. how to you expect, just briefly, how do you think this trial that we're going to see in the senate the next couple of weeks, how is that going to impact the way in which our political scene is going to operate over the next few? >> one name you don't hear a whole lott from the biden administration is the name of the former president, donald trump. they don't want to be involved. they want to be engaged in what's going to be a big partisan fight in the trial coming up this month. so, you know, i think it's sort of a wash politically. we know where most senators stand. it's going to be very anti-climactic. maybe you get five republican senators, at most, who vote for

conviction, but, you know, it's not good politically when you put all your eggs in a basket to try to get the president convicted, and you can't get to that 67-vote threshold. so i think you're going to see schumer and pelosi and the democratic managers, you know, be talking a lot about impeachment and conviction, but it's not one that the white house wants to own and really be distracted by. gerry: josh, thank you so much, indeed, for joining me. coming up, it seems to be civil war at the gop. how bad could it get? stay with

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polls suggest gop if voters back donald trump and figures like marjorie taylor greene. with me now to take it all up is political commentator, and canary chief executive officer, dan eberhart. thanks for joining me. >> thank you for having me. gerry: we've seen the beginnings of a full-scale civil war this week in the gop party, some republicans unhappy with marjorie taylor greene and some of the extreme things she said, but more seem to be unhappy with those like liz cheney and ben sasse, critical, indeed, of a post-president trump. ben sasse said this week, you know, the choice of the party is it led by a cult figure like donald trump, or is it a party of principles and policies. where do you think the party's going here? >> well, i think right now what's going on with the party, and i think the kind of pre-civil war was what happened in georgia between trump trying to pour a lot of cold water on

these senate races and distract everyone in the georgia gop. that was the start of the civil war in the republican party. but, you know, we've got a situation right now where the idea is the ice cube of donald trump, is that going to melt or not? so far it seems to have not melted. i was really surprised with the capitol riot and this announcement of a second impeachment. support has only fallen from 85% to 79% based on the polls. it's really holding pretty strong. a lot of people that thought trump was going to fade rather quickly given what happened with the capitol hill riots, they're sorely mistaken. right now we've got a lot of serious issues. ininstead of focusing on being loyal opposition to joe biden and pushing back on democratic overreach and an administration that seems to be lurching to the left, we have a bunch of circular firing squads going on with donald trump jr. and matt gaetz attacking liz cheney. then you've got leader

mccarthy going to kiss the ring at mar-a-lago with donald trump while at the same time a lot of republicans are really furious with what marjorie taylor greene is espousing and saying and even her mea culpa yesterday, a lot of people think she's just extremely divisive. to me, the path back to the majority, the path out of the wilderness for the republican party is to win in the suburbs. those are the voters we ultimately need to be focused on. we focus too much on rural voters and too much on, you know, the kind of rhetoric that feeds them and their causes at the expense of voters in the suburbs, and we're basically choosing to be the party of barry goldwater, not the party of ronald reagan in terms of are we going to be a big tent approach to winning elections, or are we going to be more purist minority party. gerry: it is worrying, as you say, exactly as you say at the time when you have a democratic administration with a razor thin majority in congress is nonetheless with that razor thin majority pushing through a really radical set of policies.

but let me ask you, dan, because i think one of the concerns is, you know, this is going to go on, right? we're going to see primary channels, presumably, to some of those -- possibly all of those house members. how does the party get -- we could see, this could consume the party for at least the next couple of years, couldn't it? >> well, absolutely. i think we need to figure out how to keep president trump and his pop lists onboard and energized, but we also need to take a step back. and, again, we need to look a little more ronald reagan, a little bit less donald trump in terms of focus on being lessties vicive, more big picture. what we really need to do to change policy is we need to be able to win in 2022. we need to get kevin mccarthy the speaker's gavel, mitch mcconnell back in the senate majority leader position. i think we need to be, you know, more -- we need to be less divisive, and we need to be a little bit more open.

gerry: but, dan, this is what's so challenging, because this doesn't really seem to be about policies. i think most people in the republican party would probably agree that what donald trump introduced to the party, populist policies on things like trade and inch gration and -- and immigration and foreign policy, getting america out of wars and all those things, and standing up people who feel understandably rejected and disdained by the establishment, trump did all of those things very, very well. republicans are ready to unite around that. so it's not even as though there's a big constituency in the party wanting to push the party back to the bush and romney and mccain days. it just seems to be about the perralties. >> yeah, no, look, i think we look at a world of performative politics. look at aoc and the drama around the capitol hill riots, look at marjorie taylor greene. they're both on opposite ends of the spectrum, reality tv show

politics, and to me, i would rather focus on the policy, the conservative policy that, you know, how are we going to win rex -- elections, how are we going to be more effective. i want us to win, we have to win to govern, and we came up a little bit shy last time. and donald trump, look, you know, was an awful, awful, awful lot of our success. we can't run for that. he brought a lot of energy to the party. the small donor database is the vast majority his. we can't run from that, but at the same time we've got to figure out why we lost, have have a little bit of soul searching. we've got to tone down the rhetoric and the divisiveness. gerry: dan eberhart, thank you so much for joining us. how do you like the sound bites from the reality czar telling us what's true and what's false in what's true and what's false in i'

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♪ ♪ gerry: the promotion of conspiracy theories has long been an unfortunate feature of american politics on both the left and the right. fears of domination by religious groups, foreign powers or business owners, stories are among the most absurd theories out there, the qanon conspiracy, the idea that the space race is financed by -- [inaudible] now, conspiracies well abond i in an finish abound in an open society.

truth-seeking media, simply debunking is not enough. an opinion writer in "the new york times" called on the biden administration to appoint something called a reality or czar to enforce the truth in public decision, the media and on social media platforms and elsewhere. we do know many of the progressives in and around the administration think something needs to be done to stop the spread of what they call misinformation. now, we can guess exactly what kind of reality will be enforced by these people. it would no doubt be directed at people like congressman greene and other republicans. but what are the chances do you think who spread the story that president trump was a russian agent? or that police forces are committing general side against black people? -- genocide? the truth is it would be exactly what the left and the media tells the. anything that dissents from that will be a candidate for truth enforcement. history has demonstrated the best way to deal with falsehood is to expose it to reason and

ridicule. but for our new masters of reality, it seems that won't be enough. for the latest show updates, be sure to follow me on twitter, facebook and instagram, and i'll be back next week for more in-depth interviews right here on "the wall street journal at large." thank you very much for joining us. ♪ ♪ jack: welcome to "barron's roundtable" where we get behind the headlines and prepare you for the week ahead. i'm jack otter. congress is one step closer to passing president biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief plan. jared bernstein on the economic impact of the stimulus, the jobs report and more. and later, new cdc data shows a rise in covid-19 deaths among alzheimer's patients. the outlook for medical treatments and which companies are on the cutting edge. but we begin with what we think are the three most important things investors ought to be

thinking about right now. stocks shot higher and so did oil prices as investors reacting reacting -- reacted to solid economic progress. jeff bezos passing the reins to andy jassy as the head of amazon's cloud business. why cloud computing is the biggest story in the tech industry. and the fever broke this week for gamestop and the other mem e-trade stocks. we've got the winners and losers from the short-selling frenzy. my colleagues, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. ben, i've got to give you credit. about two weeks ago you warned that the market was in the mood to take a breather, but, boy, was that a fast breather. >> it really was. last week the market dropped about 3%, a little more than that, and it felt like there was going to be more now. but we had the hedge funds, they really derisked last week. the short selling really caught them off guard, they pulled back, and i think they came into this week, and they were like, wait, what just happened? we don't own anything anymore. we started getting decent

economic data. we had good news on covid, the cases are falling, we're getting an emergency use authorization for a johnson & johnson vaccine, novavax had some good news, and it was like everything was back to normal. people were reloading on risk. we saw oil shoot up, we saw bond yields rise, and it was just an incredible rigging-on -- risk-on week, almost as though last week never really happened. jack: oil and bond yields going up is indicative of good news. how do you see it? >> for right now i think things are fine, but i the higher rates go, the more the market's going to worry about inflation, about overheating and whether the fed needs to step in and do something. and also higher rates make that argument of there is no alternative, makes that go away. at some point there is an alternative. but we're where neither that -- nowhere near that yet. jack: i really want to pivot to jeff bezos, carlton. amazon is such a part of our

everyday life. you've got to step back for a second and think what this guy did. he completely transformed retail, he changed logistics from something boring to something half exciting but also we expect, you know, to order a ginger ale now and get it in an hour. we created the cloud computing revolution. talk to me about what's going on with amazon in the future and the rest of that industry. >> well, i have something else he did. he is the only ceo who has launched a company and who is still ceo when it did a $1 is trillion valuation. definitely hats off to him on that. what's really interesting is with him stepping down as ceo and naming andy jassy -- and andy jassy was leading amazon's cloud service. as much as we like talking about e plaintiff commerce and getting that -- e-commerce, that amazon web service business is the driver of profits for amazon. and cloud computing really, i think, is going to be the next tech story in the next few years. we did talk about amazon hitting that $1 trillion valuation a

little while ago. if you look at aws, it's supposed to get about $50 billion in sales next year. if that -- if you took that and looked at it as trading at 20 times sales like a lot of traditional cloud businesses do, already you have a $3 trillion business -- 1 trillion business. so really with amazon, microsoft and alphabet which is admittedly a bit of a distant third right now in the cloud business, we are still seeing a lot of strain. jack: yeah. jassy was the head of that cloud business, and that $1 trillion valuation would make just that part of amazon about the fifth largest company in the s&p 500. so, jack, let's talk the gamestop revolution, the meme trade. that was the only thing on wall street last week with, but this week we looked at the little guys trying to stick it to the man. i think the man won. [laughter] >> it was mem if -- meme stock murder this past week. gamestop killed, amc

entertainment killed even quality merchandise like blockbuster liquidating got hit, jack. [laughter] we learned it wasn't all about the little guys on reddit sticking it to the wall street establishment. there's a hedge fund that's a $3.1 billion fund, they made almost 10% in january on a position in amc and some trading in gamestop. we saw that the treasury secretary, janet yellen, met on thursday with securities regulators. they had a statement saying, you know, regulators are, you know, looking into some of this trading, but it's consistent with investor protection and fair and efficient markets. we herald maxine waters -- heard maxine waters, she's seeking answers from robinhood and reddit and hedge funds. something tells me we will see future flare-ups of viral trading and chat room garbage. i just want to tell you there was one player in this that is not apparently seeing a lower

profile right now, and that's elon musk. on tuesday he tweeted to his 45 million followers, he said off twitter for a while. by thursday he was tweeting obsessively about the cryptocurrency doge coin. he said it's the people's currency. no highs, no lows, only doge. you're welcome. and then he said i am become meme, destroyer of shorts. elon, if you're out there, you are become weird, destroyer of yourself if you keep poking financial regulators with doge coin trash posts. jack: i think that's a reference to robert oppenheimer and the nuclear bomb test. i don't eat want to go there. we're going to take a break and move on. the house is expected to pass the senate budget resolution including a $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief package. white house economic adviser jared bernstein on how the stimulus

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♪ jack: as lawmakers wrestle over president biden's $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief package, let's look at what's in it and how the administration hopes it'll affect businesses and the economic recovery. joining me now, a member of president biden's council of economic advisers, jared bernstein. i know you have got a bit of a to-do list, so i really appreciate you coming on the show. let us jump right in. [laughter] friday morning we learned that only 6,000 private sector jobs were added in january. how does this affect your thinking on economic policy? >> it's a great question. in terms of job creation, the labor market is in a stall, and here's how this informs our thinking. this stalker you know, we had a big negative last month -- i mean, in december and january, as you point out, 6,000 in the private sector. if you look over the past three

months, overall payrolls have added only 29,000 jobs a month. that's way too close to zero for anyone's comfort, and it's a huge down shift from a few months before that. that down shift occurred because we allowed there to develop an economic air pocket in the economy, and that's because there was too much of a wait and see attitude about the latest installment of relief. what the president is doing with the american rescue plan is looking a around the corner and thinking about how we can actually finally get control of this virus, produce, distribute the vaccine which means helping states and localities do so, reopen the schools, help moms and other folks taking care of kids get back to work and, finally, launch a robust and racially-equitable recovery x. that's how this plan is calibrated. jack: it's tough to argue with any of those priorities. as you well know, there have been some criticisms recently

that the $1.9 trillion is forward above the actual economic output gap. there's also the issue of the deficit, not a word we've heard much in the past four years, but at some point that's going to come up again. and there's other priorities, right in universal broadband access, how do you pay for all of this, and could we risk overheating into inflation in. >> the danger is doing too little, it's not doing too much. and, again, i think the wait and see air pocket problem, the risks of inaction, the costs of inaction are so steep. one that comes to mind, for every year that a kid misses a year of education, their lifetime earnings over the course of many decades to come are reduced by 5-10%. we learned this morning that over the past year 2.5 million women are out of the labor market. they're not even counted in the unemployment rate. now, in terms of the magnitude of the package, it's time to go big, to go strong, to finally

deal this virus and its partner in crime, the economic damage that the pandemic has caused, a knockout blow. so so the risk is doing too little, not doing too much. on the overheating point, look, i mean, inflation has been significantly below the federal reserve's 2% target for numerous years now, something like a decade. we know unemployment is about three percentage points above where it was before the crisis. if you look at african-american or hispanic unemployment, it's 9%. that means there's a great deal of capacity in what looks to me like much more of a deflationary economy, not one that's at risk of overheating. now, heat, sure. overheating? i think the risk of that is low. jack: that said, obviously, there is a political fight coming. another word we haven't heard much recently is compromise. is there room for dealing here?

i know you're not going to show us all your cards, but could there be some dealing? >> i think there is some dealing. there's been ongoing discussions and compromise. one area is in discussion around the checks, direct impact payments. you have many members of congress saying they didn't want those checks to go too high up the scale. some thought it would be better to have a lower number. president biden has been very solid, he wants people to have $2 the ,000, and i've looked at the numbers, and they need it. not just low income families, but middle income families as well. however, when they start to get up to 250, 300,000, i think there's a cogent argument there for compromise, and that is the ongoing discussion as we speak. jack: we could keep on talking about this, but i really want to ask you about the so-called reddit can revolution and the idea about could we -- do we need government regulation to clamp down on some of this stuff we saw last week in the market? one idea is a minuscule transaction tax that would

affect speculators but really wouldn't have much of an impact on investors. jack vogel was a big proponent of that when he was alive. what are your thoughts? >> i've written about that, but it's certainly not anything the administration is currently talking about. if you listen to president biden's tax agenda that he talked about during the campaign, that wasn't part of it. as far as gamestop and the volatility and the speculation therein, you know, you mentioned government regulation. well, of course we have a regulator for that, and that's the securities and exchange commission, the sec, and they have been monitoring this, continue to do so, have been putting out information on it. and from where i sit, have been doing a good job therein. i think one thing to keep in mind is that we get -- we've been talking about the rescue package, the american rescue plan. when we didn't get to the recovery plan, that is a plan, that is a plan that the president has said for permanent

measures he believes there should be pay-fors. so some of his very progressive taxation ideas,they will be part of the recovery plan, not part of the rescue plan. jack: we're going to have to have you back. real quickly, can you make a comment on the $15 minimum wage? there's one argument that productivity has so outgrown the cost of living, to you need a federal minimum wage in. >> well, not only do we need a federal minimum wage, but we've had one since, i believe, the 1930s. jack: a higher one. >> yes. when you ignore the minimum wage, it loses ground to inflation because it's not indexed. so $7.25, which is the minimum wage in the some of the states you were mentioning, is just woefully low, and in the view of the president, completely unfair wage floor for essential workers, people who are helping to keep this economy going, fulfillment workers in

warehouses, sanitation workers, retail trade workers. so that's why he's proposing that low-wage workers earn a living wage, and he's pinned that at $15 an hour. jack: jared bernstein, thank you so much. i do want to get you back in here in a few months. we'll see how things go. >> thank you. jack: coming up, the rising number of baby boomers have some saying alzheimer's is to

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♪ jack: new cdc data shows a dramatic increase in the number of covid-19 deaths among alzheimer's patients. barron's associate you would editor joins the round table to discuss this week's cover story. reshma, you write that alzheimer's is on track to become the next pandemic in the

u.s. give us a sense of the scope here. >> yeah. i mean, the numbers are quite large. we have almost 6 million people today in the u.s. living with alzheimer's, millions more cheering for them x that's expected to more than double by 2015. this past year's been devastating for these families. about half of the residents in nursing homes have alzheimer's or dementia, and nursing homes accounted for a third of covid deaths, and we're still dealing with the covid crisis, but we could have this other economic and health crisis ahead. 80% of those with the disease are 75 or older, and the age group that the older boomers are now entering is just that. jack: economic implications, tell us more about that. >> so the cost of this disease is about to surge. one estimate puts the total cost at about a trillion dollars by 2050. that's a drain, of course, on medicare and medicaid budgets but also a bigger drag on the economy. much of that cost is due to care giving, much of that is borne by women who have to cut back hours

or take time out of the work force to care for folks. that, of course, hurts their own retirement security, their family's finances, but it has broad or ramifications on the economy curtailing consumption and also lower female labor participation rates can really dampen economic growth. >> hey, it's jack howe. for people out there with loved ones with this disease, do you have any good news for them? >> you know, i do. there's bipartisan recognition that alzheimer's a problem, and the biden agenda, for example, included calls for additional support for home and community-based care that could keep people in their homes, which is what they want, also reduces cost. we could see tax credits for family are caregivers and tax benefits for long-term care insurance or use your hsa, for example, to pay for home-based care. really most of the optimism comes from the science, and we're finally seeing progress in things like biomarkers or even blood tests, early dedetection.

and also a diversityification in the types of treatments that are in the earliest stages of development. and, of course, the biggest buzz is around biogen and its treatment which could be the first drug in 18 years that the fda approves for alzheimer's. >> hi, reshma, it's ben. haven't there been some issues with the approval of that drug, and what does that mean for biogen? >> sure. it has been a bumpy ride. last month the fda said they needed more data, and they delayed their decision from march to june. there was an fda panel of outside experts that wanted evidence for the treatments, but the investors are still holding out hope in part a because of the unusual way that the company and regulators collaborated and also the fact that, you know, treatment has been elusive, so everyone wants to find something that could work. analysts think an approval could help push biogen's stock up as much as 70%. the drug could bring in the $10

billion in sales a year. of course, the risk is to the downside as well. if there is no approval, especially because biogen's other drugs are facing competition from some rifles. jack: erik shah, very important story. thank you for doing that, and thank you for doing that, and i'm glass at -- glad ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for every trip you've been dreaming of, expedia has millions of flexible booking options. because the best trip is wherever we go together. ♪ a migraine hope from aimovig. to show up... ...for the sweet. the hectic. the tender.

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♪ ♪ jack: jack, peloton created a whole new category, and this week you write that others are rushing into that space. >> yeah. of i'm an old school fitness guy, i use the 7-pound aerobic dumbbells that my wife lets me borrow. there is a big connected fitness boom, peloton said thursday its number of paying scrub scribers more than -- subscribers morn

doubled. the stock actually slipped about 6%. there was an issue with higher calls for expedited shipping, but one of the issues is the revenue surprises, those surprises are getting smaller and smaller. and the stock's pricey, right in they point out that the company recently had a market value of 22% of the value of netflix. they're only 3% of the paying -- 1% of the paying subscribers of netflix. i spoke recently with the ceo and cofounder of a company called icon health and fitness, and he said they're up to a million paying subscribers on their i-fit connected platforms. they are rumored to be, you know, going public at some point in the future. he didn't want to comment on that, but you have to consider if and when that happens, it becomes competition for peloton for the affection of growth stock investors. you can hear that conversation on my podcast. jack: i always get a little

nervous when a sector looks so exciting everybody wants to rush in and take their companies public. by the way, jack, i have heard you actually flip tractor trials, so don't give us the 7-pound stuff. real quick, actionable ideas, i'll start with you, carlton. >> you guys are talking about fitness, and i'm talking about the fifth largest pizza chain in the country, and that would actually be a convenience store, casey's general store. basically, it works as a reopening play. they're in about 16 states in the country and popular for picking up food and things like that. as people start going out again, as they return to work, definitely expect them to see sales increase by almost 20%. jack: thanks. ben, what's your idea? >> mine is called aes. it's a stock that's really gone nowhere for probably more than a decade. but it has a lot of solar, and with biden focusing on climate, it finally broke out of a range, and it looks like it could be heading higher. it's a very interesting idea

right now. jack: and the marginal cost of sun to power those devices is nothing. thanks very much, carlton. thanks, jack and ben. to read more, check out this week's edition at barron's.com. don't forget to follow us on twitter@barron's online. >> the people's house -- a family's legend. >> i can remember being a little kid and asking my father what it was. >> a century-old mystery. >> he said, "it's from the white house." and i go, "talking about d.c. white house?" i was just stunned. >> the white house neither confirms nor denies... >> what do you see? >> gold! [ laughs ] >> let's investigate! >> i scrape the paint layers down to the wood. >> and when you heard what it was worth? >> and sold! [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]