this is where the criminal illegal aliens in that. final worden on that. >> that's where they end up driving in their criminal element we need to make sure we have laws that do not create a magnet to bring more crime into the united states. elizabeth: it's great to see you, thank you for joining us i'm elizabeth macdonald have a great evening. larry: welcome, folks, the debut of "kudlow." i am larry kudlow, and i am delighted to be here with you. i plan to put forward my vision of the american economy, one of optimism and faith. i believe supply-side economics and free markets all always they to a prosperous america. and, by the way, i believe that leads the way to a happier america. and as the white house economic adviser during the can reagan and trump presidencies, i've also learned that a prosperous

country at home is a strong country abroad. one of my jobs here, going to try to help hard working men and women everywhere in the country -- not just wall street, but sweeping through the entire country. i want to help them make sense on how to keep america the greatest country in the history of history. show me a problem, and i'm going to try to show you a way out of it. let's not make in any harder than it needs to be. sometimes on this show we're going to have some disagreement, and that's okay. and i promise, it will all be done with fact-based civility and respect. so with all that, let's begin our journey together. thank you. we're going to start with the markets today. dow's posting a record close, up around $62. s&p 500 relatively flat. nasdaq down 48 points. so markets are doing okay, not fabulous at the moment. now, more headlines. mother nature spelling trouble

for president biden and the democrats' progressive climate agenda. from 4 million people in -- some 4 million people in texas alone are without power, and that after a massive winter storm froze the state's wind terminals, okay? hold that thought. we're going to have more throughout the hour on the failure of solar and wind power in sub-freezing weather. and if we want to get rid of all fossil fuels by 2035 or whatever, you can't do it. this is just a taste of the problems of what happens down in texas and the middle of the country. now, president biden today heads to wisconsin. he's going to drum up support for his massive $2 trillion stimulus plan. and the father of supply-side economics, art laffer, and former treasury secretary steven mnuchin are going to join us with much more on that. t not just progressive policies being pushed by president biden and his administration, it is also falsehoods and being protected by the media kind of

burns me up. vice president kamala harris falsely telling axios that the biden administration is, quote, starting from scratch on the vaccine rollout. >> there was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations. we were leaving it to the states and local leaders to try and figure it out. and so in many ways, we are starting from scratch on manager that's been raging for almost an -- on something that's been raging for almost an entire year. larry: earlier on fox news channel i made some comments about that. i may have said a bad word. i'm not usually a guy who swears. what the vice president said just burned me up, and it is simply not true, okay? it is somewheres between cognitive dissonance and an outright falsehood, lie. and we generated -- we, the trump administration, not everything went perfectly. i sat on the task force.

operation warp speed was one of our greatest triumphs. and by the time of the inauguration, january 20th, the trump efforts were generating 1.3 million vaccines per day. and as i may have mentioned earlier, right now the total volume of vaccines exceeds the total volume of cases. and don't tell me they started from scratch. that is simply wrong. i'll have some more say on her comments in just a few moments with my friend stuart varney who's going to come in with me. we begin, though, with the deep freeze impacting much of the country today. a chilling blast of act tick air has left millions of people without power and energy prices soaring. fox news senior meteorologist janice dean joins us now with details. janice. janice: good afternoon, mr. kudlow. it's an honor to be your first guest on your program. welcome to fox business. and i'm glad you're leading with

weather, because this is a huge story. the worst storm in decades, millions across texas remaining without power right now. temperatures plunging well below freezing, we have temperatures well below 0 in dallas, action. a blast of wintry weather that dumped snow and ice across the middle of the country has crippled the lone star state. many texans rightfully asking today what is happening, and many are pointing to the state's wind turbines that were unusable on account of the freezing temperatures. this results in reduced oil and gas production, impacting electricity generators that rely on fossil fuels. here is the former u.s. secretary -- energy secretary telling fox business that this technology is not ready for this kind of drain. >> what we're seeing today is an avoidable tragedy. the weather is not the cause of tragedy, it's the policies that we've decided to follow. and what i mean by that is we've

moved away from what is known as base load electricity and moved to intermittent and sometimes unreliable renewable energy, and that technology is not yet ready for prime time. janice: texas governor greg abbott is now blasting the electric reliability council of texas. they manage the power flow to the rest of the state. he's demanding an investigation and says in a statement, quote: far too many texans are without power and heat for their homes as our state faces freezing temperatures and severe winter weather. this is unacceptable. and this is a huge weather story. i just want to show you what the temperatures are right now across the country, larry. i mean, in decades we have not seen wind chills like this in texas where we're at single digits, 9, 8 in and around the dallas air, 25 in and around the houston area. and the slow rebound is going to happen over the next couple of days. we have another storm system impacting texas right now, going

across louisiana, mississippi, arkansas. and so the temperatures are going to rise, but it's going to take time for that snow and ice to melt, unfortunately. we're not going to be in the 60s and 70s for some time. this storm system, this is the one that impacted texas over the last couple of days, moving across the northeast and the mid-atlantic. the one behind it, though, is going to bring more winter weather to these areas that are not used to winter weather for days, texas, mississippi, louisiana, arkansas, oklahoma, and then this is going to travel up towards the mid-atlantic and the northeast. so here's your forecast temperatures as we go through time. i mean, really frigid air here, larry, unfortunately. and the freezing rain and ice, which is going to impact the roads and the power lines, and that's going to move up to the mid-atlantic and the northeast. so, again, i'm grad you're covering the story -- i'm glad you're covering the story. of it's a big one, especially across the heartland and our friends in texas. larry: so it's coming our way here in the northeast, that's one point.

and how long do you reckon this thing's going to last? any early estimates? jack -- janice: as we go into the next two weeks, things look better, and that's all i can say for that. larry: i like that, on the mihm. thank you, janice keane -- janice dean, appreciate it. >> joining us now, steve malloy, former pen of the trump -- member of the trump epa transition team. he's founder of junkscience.com. i guess i'll get that right. thank you, steve, it's good to see you again. look, you know, i was watching this in the committee to unleash prosperity hotline first got my anticipation. then today's "wall street journal" editorial and my very good friend, former secretary of energy rick perriment you get -- perry. you get sub-freezing temperatures and wind and solar just don't work for power. now, i ask you, is that fair? is that true?

>> well, larry, thanks for having me. yes, it's absolutely true. you can have wind and solar when the wind is fair and the sun is shining, but in extreme conditions you can't have wind and solar. they're just not reliable. you know, and the thing -- and the reason that's a problem is because we need to have electricity all the time. it's a fundamental part of our lives. our whole society depends on electricity. you can't have electricity most of the time or almost all the time, it's all the time. and the problem in texas is that texas was relying on wind, and they were relying on wind in the middle of an ice storm. and, of course, you know, that was a disaster. larry: so i want to piece this together. i mean, we'll visit many times in the future, and we appreciate you coming on here, the debut show. but, look, you've got the biden administration's high, high priorities on climate change, okay? there's a lot of dissent. it's not necessarily clear science yet. we'll pursue that on the show.

but let me just toss this out. right now, today, 80% of our power to drive america forward, create jobs and family living standards, 80% is fossil fuels. coal, oil, natural gas. if you take that out, how in the world are you going to power this economy? we don't have that infrastructure nearly built. those jobs aren't ready. and this texas story today illustrates the inadequacy of a total renewable power grilled in these time -- grid in these times of crisis. it isn't global warming, it's global sub-freezing. >> well, larry, point is that you can't centrally plan your energy system. you have to use the energy technology that is available, reliable and makes economic sense. now, maybe there's a point in the future when wind, solar and some technology we haven't yet imagine ifed will make sense -- imagined will make sense.

but right now, as you pointed out, we rely on coal, oil and nuclear power for the vast, vast majority of our energy. and just to, for politicians to say, oh, we're going to switch out to wind and solar and, you know, whatever, tidal power, it's just nonsensical. it's what you would expect from central planners, disaster. hr. march yeah. well, i'm not against, by the way, renewables. i used to have this conversation with my late dear, dear friend, boone pickens. i'm an all of the above guy. but all of the above means all of the above. it doesn't mean take out 80% of your energy. anyway, steve malloy, appreciate it. climate and issues like green energy and killing the keystone pipeline aren't the only progressive policies being pushed by president biden. he's also supporting minimum wage hikes, wants to put an end to fracking, and his immigration orders are causing chaos again at the southern border just to name a few. i'll just say this, i've read it

a few times, i've talked to some friends of mine. i think it's very possible that president biden -- i say this respectfully to the man but not the policy -- he may be the most far-left, progressive president we have ever had in the oval office. more than fdr, for example, more than lyndon baines johnson, for example. so we're going to have some great fun here. my pal stuart varney -- [laughter] on set with me. we haven't done this probably in three decades. stuart: yeah. larry: he's been so great to me in my prior job being a fair, square interviewer. now we're going to get to ask him all the great stuff. stu, let's start with this first. i just want to get you on -- i want to go back to vice president harris, because she burned me up. i did use cuss words, and i apologize. i won't to that again. is president biden the most far-left, progressive president we've ever had? stuart: i've been in america for 40 years, and my answer is, yes.

on energy, kill fossil fuels, the green new deal, i call it the stealth vehicle for socialism. i don't think that's an exaggeration. immigration, open borders. far-left policy. the economy, tax wealth, tax business more, tax capital gains more, tax estates more, straight out of the playbook of bernie sanders. on covid, lock down joe, that -- lockdown joe, that's his nickname. it's deserved. i think they want to keep control. they want to control the population. i see it the other way around. i want to see people exercise their freedom. if you don't like that restaurant, if you think it's unsafe, don't go in it. if you don't want to mix in that crowd, don't go into that crowd. confer individual liberty on us. isn't that what america's all about? that's the direct opposite of so much of what we're seeing from president biden. larry: how does this stack up? i just thought of this listening to you, and you're right --

[laughter] stuart: british accent. larry: well, i know. so let's compare this to prime ministers in britain or maybe australiament we have had some lefties down through the years. you know, boris johnson beat a far lefty, and then he got replaced. was mr. biden that bad, or is he going to evolve into that bad? if because i confess, i didn't think he would go so far so left so quickly, and there is no unity agenda there. stuart: the socialism that you find in britain or that you certainly found in the 1970s -- which made me an exile -- that form of socialism is different from the kind of socialism that's rearing its head in america today. back in the day in the '70s, british socialists stood for the ownership of the means of production. larry: oh, yes. >> it was straight out of the marx playbook. and that was extreme in itself. the socialism in america today is of a different kind. nobody is suggesting we buy out the steel industry --

larry: but it will be massive government regulations, essentially controlling it just through different levers, not actual -- stuart: yes. you could maybe call it socialism light in that respect. but in other respects, they're going gung ho down that road. larry: i've got to get you on another topic, and again, for the third time on this program, i apologize for using a swear word on another show. i want to get your take on kamala harris saying the biden administration, quote, starting from scratch on the vaccine rollout. when axios originally tweeted that clip, they debunked the claim with the words of dr. anthony fauci who said, quote, we certainly are not starting from scratch on vaccine distribution. they did since delete the harris tweet. and, of course, i know i'm colorfully on record what i think about what vice president harris said. i said a bad word. i didn't mean to. i'm not going to do it again. but, look, fauci is a friend of

mine. nobody's always right. i served on the task force with him. he was our leader with deborah birx for a year. now, again, the trump approach was not error-free. you know, you've got armchair generals. this kind of pandemic, unseen, unforeseen, nothing's going to be perfect. but you come down to the vaccine, operation warp speed, every critic -- i was reading in the "wall street journal" two articles, professor graham allison who is not a trump supporter, writing honestly that you simply had to give credit to trump. we financed it, we actually covered losses in many cases like with pfizer, we offered $2 billion. by the time of the inauguration, 1.3 vaccines per day were out there. now, this kind of harris falsehood or, i guess no one in washington lies, it's just cognitive dissonance on a daily basis.

[laughter] but it bothers me, so i did have a swear word. but, i mean, somebody's got to say this. i'm not saying we were perfect, but we did a good job on this. honestly? really? stuart: you did. you flat out did. president trump did a lot of things right. warp speed was just one of them. he gave control to the states fairly early on in the pandemic, and that was a good idea because the states have a better idea what's going on in their localities. but throughout i always got the feeling that president trump wanted to open up. come on, let's get back to business. larry: always. stuart: he was one of the few who pointed out the social costs of lockdowns, which are enormous. stuart: -- larry: yes. stuart: the president was right, open up. that's the way you get the economy to grow right now. not by a ton of government spending, but by opening up. come on, let's go back to work. let's get on with it. let's bees positive about this. larry: you know, we're going to cover later in the show one of the great things president trump

did as a former businessman, successful former businessman, he made great use of the free enterprise private sector. i don't know how many meetings i sat in on with pharmaceuticals and biotechs and walmarts and retailers and box stores and the great pharmacies asking them to help us in all of the areas, the masking and the ppe and, of course, coming down after the equipment to the vaccine itself. this is something the biden crowd has got to understand. the brilliance -- stuart: they never will. larry, get real. mr. kudlow, get real. [laughter] the biden crowd is dominated by the left wing of the democrat party. they are all government all the time. they have no time whatsoever for private enterprise and the vigor and dynamism we can bring to the markets. larry: stu varney, great stuff. we have known each other a while, and it's been fabulous.

stuart: 40 years. larry: as you all know, stu is on weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on fox business. thanks again. up next here, president biden's been promising a massive coronavirus relief package. >> we can't do too much here. we can do too little. we can do too little and sputter. larry: well, the question i have is to we really need one that big? the founder of supply-side economics, arthur laffer, is going to give his take. spoiler alert, he's not really a fan of the biden plan. you're watching the debut of "kudlow," and i am delighted and grateful to be here. ♪ i'm a performer. always have been. and always will be. never letting anything get in my way. not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis.

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hour, making his first official road trip as president to sell this plan. he'll be heading to wisconsin where he will be having a town hall later this evening. congressional democratsr believe that they can get this package to president biden's desk within the next month, and part of the strategy from the white house is trying to put pressure on republicans by pointing out public polling. listen. >> if you look at the polls, they are very consistent. the vast majority of the american people like what they seee in this package. and that should be an indication or should be noted by members of congress as they consider whether they're going to vote for it or not. >> reporter: one hang-up, though, for democrats could be the issue of potentially increasing the minimum wage. two democratic senators many are keeping an eye on, joe manchin, west virginia, krysten sinema, arizona, have signaled they are uneasy with that potential plan. jen psaki was asked today

whether or not president biden would support lengthening out the runway maybe out to 2030 when the $15 minimum wage could hit, she would not commit to that at that that point. the white house is still keeping their options very much open as it relatesla to the minimum wag. larry: so, blake, lightning fast, they will go with all democrats, no republicans if they have to. is that what you're hearing? is that the sense of it right now, today? >> reporter: that is clearly the plan at this moment. there's a slim margin in the house, but democrats believe they can get this through, and the question is can they hold all 50 democrats in the senate. if a minimum wage increase is included, the answer to that is probably not which is why, larry, that is viewed as the and whether or not democrats at the end of the day put it in or not. and then, of course, there's the issue of the senate parliamentarian rules it can be in the package. larry: thank you, blake burman.

appreciate it. joining usk now, art laffer, medal of freedom recipient for his contributions in the economics field. i have no objectivity here, he's one of my dearest friends and my mentor. arthur, first of all, thank you for this debut. you helped us on the radio, and now it's on tv. that's the way it has to be with me.and do we need this stimulus package, first of all? let us assume -- 2 trillion in spending, forget all the minimum wage stuff. if you had pure $2 trillion of spending in the next year, do we rineed this? is this going to help? >> first, congratulations, larry, on the show. i just am very, very proud of you and what you've done, it's just amazing. congratulations. larry: thank you. >> when you look at 2 trillion, you just ask yourself how many zeros are there in a trillion, to go 12 the zeros to get a trillion. it's a huge amount of money. talks about the polls are in favor of it. frankly, i'm looking at the

polls after it's been in place and you've had a crash in the market or something like that, then see how many people like the huge indebtedness that the u.s. is going to be in. what a good administration should do is balance things out. i think we still have a trillion left over, larry, from the stimulus package before? something on the order of that level. $2 trillionf is just way too much. we've gone from a debt level of 84% of gdp now to 115% of gdp, and it's continuing to rise. i think this does not make sense. anything on health care, that makes a lot of sense. it does to me. anything for job creation, that would be good, but that's a lot less than even a trillion dollars. that would be a small amount compared to the 3 the trillion. i think -- 2 trillion. i think it's a killer of the economy of the u.s. larry: can i ask you this off the chart question, off the edge of a cliff? look, i don't understand why nobody in the republican party, actually with the possible exception of president trump and you and i, we wanted a payroll tax cut, if you recall.

but right now i know it's not going to pass, why is, why aren't republicans saying, long run, this is a moment we should haveve lower taxes, not more spending? >> yes. larry: that would have a permanent positive effect. we can have incentives. let people keep their own money, thank you very much, or more of their own money. the gop seems to have lost that. we're arguing over $2 trillion in spending or $1 trillion in spending. i don't think that's where the party should be. more importantly, that's not where economic policy should be. >> yeah, i think you're completely right. a payroll tax waiver would be wonderful to jump-start this economy, although it's already jump-started, and once you stop this lockdown, larry, you're going to see a lot of increase in gdp just by getting those states back up and getting people out of the lockdown. that'll be really powerful. but aa payroll tax cut would be wonderful. it really helps workers all across the board. e it helps employers, brings the

economy back. and thehe same thing with global warming, larry. they talk about global warming by shutting things down. why don't they propose to have carbon tax offset 100% by an income tax rate reduction? larry: yes. >> so it doesn't do damage to the economy. if theyto want to nurse people f carbon, that would be a way to do it through prices where you have a tax on carbon and then you have a tax cut on personal income -- march march right. >> but that's not what they do. larry: right. that's what the late george shultz, that's what james baker wanted, that's what you and i have talked about. that's exactly where it ought to go. i justt think we've got to get off this miracle cure of keynesian spending which never works. >> it's not going to be a miracle. larry: i get it. >> and larry summers is very much against this as well, as you can read. the thinks it's way too large. it's not just us, it's other people that are looking at this thing as being potentially damaging in the wrong run.

larry: thank you, art. art laffer -- >> congratulations again. larry: folks, arthur, presidential medal of freedom designate, which is america's highest honor. now, just how far is joe biden going to go on a coronavirus stimulus package? is it going to be big and broad and expensive, or night he actually moderate it and narrow it down, targeting it better? we'll have former treasury secretary steven mnuchin give us the right answers. he was a terrific treasury secretary in his own right, a good friend with me exclusively next up on

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this. i appreciate it d very, very mu. and i'll just begin, you know, you got this behemoth stimulus package. you negotiated -- i always thought i the first one that we all did last march and april was the best of the lot. just give us a quick sense of your thinking on this current stimulus. >> well, larry, first, let me say it's great to be here with you on your show, and congratulations on the show. larry: thank you. >> one of the things i'm most proud of is that we passed four different bills with huge bipartisan support. two off the bills were 96-0 and 100-0, as you know, and it's a good thing we did that because i think if we had not, we would have had a great depression, not a great recession. and in absolute double-digit, big unemployment numbers. so, clearly, it was a time when democrats and republicans came together. i worked very closely with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer and mitch and kevin on those.

and they worked. the last one we just did was a little over $900 billion. again, it was led by a group of senators on both sides and members of the house. and i think it's worked. my preference would be that the president continues to do something on a bipartisan basis as opposed to using reck selluation. larry: -- reconciliation. arkansas march does it trouble you on these numbers, and, of course, you're right, it would be much better to have a bipartisan w message. but about $1 trillion of the prior relief packages hasn't even been spent yet. and so now we're jumping into $2 trillion which is going to be a one-shot for the year. i just don't get that. i think the public has trouble taking that in, realizing that. does it look sloppy or does nobody care, anymore in. >> well, larry, as you know, this isn't the same as other financial recessions that were economically driven.

this was driven by a health issue where we had to shut down the government, and as you said, the good news is as a result of project warp speed and having vaccines out, there is an end in sight. so i think traditional economic models don't really work here, and that's why we've done this in stages. so i felt all along we need to spend whatt we need to spend i, but on the other hand, at some point all this government debt does t become problematic. so my preference would be to see a fifth and bill and then a sixth bill if needed. larry: are you concerned at all if it's too much, that it could create overheating, rising inflation -- of which there are some signs right now -- and ultimately, rising interest rates? in fact, as you know, loan rates have been creeping up. are you concerned about that this.ng >> well, i think it's definitely a risk. i have a lot of confidence in chair powell and what the federal reserve has done. i think, as you know, prior to

covid since they've underhit inflation for a long period of time, they said they'd be willing to go over the 2% and then come back down. but, again, with all this stimulus, we have a lot of, a lot of reserves, a lot of money in the economy, and inflation is definitely something that couldi be a risk and something we haven't seen for a long period of time, and that's something9 that the fed is going to have to manage very carefully. larry: so with that in mind if, there's a risk there, as you noted, is the stock market irrationally exuberant right now in. >> well, i'm always a fan of the market is the market, so let me just say if i were looking at this over the next five years, i'd continue to say that u.s. equities are probably the one of the most attractive places to be. but that investors should expect lower returns over the next four or five years than they've had in the last four or five years. i also think whereas in the last four years it was easy to just buy market indexes, i think

you're going to see more winners and losers as the economy changes and areas rebound. so the market's clearly priced at very high multiples. and in the short term, you know, those are risks that investors are going to need to get comfortable with. larry: well, i think people are learning that stock prices can go up and down. we've had some episodes of that recently. secretary mnuchin, let me just ask you, this talk about reconciliation, democrats are going to use reconciliation so you only need 51 votes to insert a budget resolution inside the reconciliation parameters. we used this in the reagan years, dave stockman and i and others, for the first time. you used it for the tax cut bill in 2017. now, i don't want to get too far inan the weeds, but, look, reconciliation is supposed to be a tool to reduce spending and deficits and debt.

now, i'm looking at this stimulus package, and i don't see any effort to do that. i see no offset whatsoever to the gigantic leaps in spending. now, nobody's pure in this game. but i wanted to get your thought on that. is this reconciliation tool being used unwisely? >> well, i believe reconciliation has been done about 20 times since 1974 when it was put into place. and as you've said, in many of the those days both in the bush administration and the trump administration it was used for tax t cuts. in that scenario it's priced over a 10-year period of time. i till think had we not had covid, larry, we were on track with an additional amount of growth that would have made what was our trillion and a half static potentially be positive, ifnt not at least neutral. being used for things like cutting expenses, balanceed budgets, i think we've got to be

very careful this using this as a spending tool. again, my view is i believe in the congressional process. i'd prefer to see general spending be done on a normal basis. larry: got it. last question. secretary yellen is appointing a so-called climate czar at the treasury department. you didn't have one. i'm not questioning her right to do that, and i'm not questioning her appointee, sarah bloom raskin, who was a deputy treasury secretary, very qualified. but this is, this theme of, you know, climate change policy seems to be affecting the entire biden administration. and i just wondered what you thought about that. are we getting ready for carbon tax increases? for big bank regulatory issues, stress test on climate, no loans to energy companies? how do you see this? this is a novelty for the treasury. >> well, larry, as you said, this is a priority for the biden

administration, and in that sense i do think it makes sense tto have treasury included. i do believe that climate is a real issue, but it's an issue we need to look at over a 10, 20 the, 30-year basisment and it's a transition. i've studied a lot of the work that bill w gates has done on breakthrough energy, and i we will have breakthroughs in technology whether it's some of the carbon recapture work. "the wall street journal" just ran a piece last week on a small nuclear reactor the size of a garbage can. so i think to get to carbon neutral -- and, again, the bill gates study has it in 2050 -- we need to invest in breakthrough technology, and that's something that the u.s. has done and the u.s. has led. and if you look at the u.s., we've.s had tremendous, tremends progress on this. i think that the world priority has to be to get china and india off of dirty coal. if we could do that and put them

on lng, this would push this issue out considerably. and as youd said earlier in the show, renewables alone are not the answer. but i have great, i have great faith in the american economy and in innovation and in clean energy, and that's something that we can get to. but we can't do it overnight. larry: now, i think that's well said. last question. this is a moment, a crucial moment for truth-telling. treasury secretary steve mnuchin, can you imagine having a better working relationship with the director of the national economic council than the one we had in the past three years? [laughter]of >> that's an easy question. [laughter] you were the best, larry. [laughter] larry: i couldn't resist. it is a great pleasure to have worked with you, sir. thanks for coming on, steven. really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. larry: all right, folks, more coming. orthe biden administration is hampering the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. they say they won't partner with

the folks who know how to do it right. that is the private sector. we're going to have much more on that after the break. please stay with us. ♪ ♪ here's aj! when are you going back into the office? i don't know dad... ♪ well we have a safety net. we'll be ok right? ♪ sarah, did you know geico could save you hundreds on car insurance and a whole lot more? we'll be ok right? hmm. so what are you waiting for? captain ahab to help you find a parking spot? thar she blows! whoops! loading zone. darn it. pull hard to starboard! too small! seriously? because it...ugh. oh! follow him! steady...

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♪ ♪ larry: so big business is offering up their resources to help with the coronavirus vaccine rollout. there'st still one major proble. as axios reports today, there is no coordinated effort within the biden administration to tap the full potential of the private sector's muscling and creativity -- muscle and creativity.in joining us now is brian brenberg, professor of business and economics at the kings college in manhattan. now, brian, i guess this seems like an obvious point, but it's not because i will just relate, having served on the task force for the pandemic, president trump -- former successful businessman -- used constantly,

he h would invite all the ceos,i can't tell you how many meetings in the oval or the cabinet room or wherever, east room, east dining room, pharmas, biotechs, you know, big retailers, big box retailers, everyone imaginable to talk to them and give them the responsibility, and they came up with some fabulous ideas. we funded a lot of it in operation warp speed. now, we had a lot of cabinet members who came from the private sector. i don't see that in the biden cabinet, and i'm wondering if you think they can create better reliance on these smart folks in the private sector who, frankly, brian, always do things better and more efficiently. >> well, you've got a situation where the private sector is calling out and saying let us help. it is what we are good at. that last mile of delivery, that's the key factor when it comes to vaccine distribution, and that's what america's

companies can do so well. the private sector was at the heart of the development, they should be at the heart of distribution. but the problem is the biden administration has spent so much time actually coming after companies. the first moves should have been partnership, but the first moves were killing energy infrastructure, talking about raising the minimum wage. youm don't want an adversarial relationship with the power of america's capitalism, you want a partnership relationship. i don't know if the biden administration can do it. they haven't shown that it's a priorityor for them, and if they don't -- mlarry: producers are yelling t me, we've got to go, brian, but look, you're doing a great job. [laughter] the vaccine -- operation warp speed got these vaccines passed through the fda. but on distribution and actually putting it through your arm, you've got to have private sector people. there's no other wayed to do this.t. governments are just not set up to do this. last word, you got it. 20 seconds. >> the private sector has the

capabilities, larry, it's got to have it, but it takes a tone shift from the biden administration. they have to start viewing american business as a treasure, not as an adversary. we're not there yet. larry: all right. you got it. thank you the, brian, appreciate it very much. now, folks, we're going to switch gears. bitcoin surpassed $50,000 for the first time today. somebody said it would get up to 54,000. well, why is that? we're going to take a look at it. it might surprise you, on" did you know you can go to libertymutual.com to customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ to support a strong immune system, your body needs routine. centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc. season, after season. ace your immune support, with centrum. (naj) at fisher investments, we do things differently

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larry: welcome back, folks. ♪ larry: welcome back, folks. we've got some breaking news. the price ofre bitcoin briefly rising above $50,000 today, the first time in its history. its has since backed off that price a bit, but momentum has been spurred on by recent interest from wall street andal elon missingus and who knows where. i believe this is here to stay. here now with n us to talk about bitcoin's rally is fox business' jackie deangelis. >> reporter: hi, larry. i want to welcome you. congratulations on the show and thank you, thank you for your service to the country. larry: thank you. >> reporter: we couldn't appreciate it more, but we are here to talk about bitcoin, so we'll do that, hitting 50,000 a coin for the first time today. that was a landmark move. this last move higher seemed different from what we saw in 2017. first, bitcoin is becoming more

practical. no one wanted to invest in a digital currency they didn't understand, and bitcoin was even associated with potential illegal activities which made people even more nervous. but now the city of miami is looking into how bitcoin could be used as a currency to pay municipal employee salaries or an option to pay for city services and fees. the commissioners just voted on thist study and how it could work, but the mayor of miami is excited about it, and he's calling it being crypto-forward. even large firms like tesla saying itor had bought $1.5 billion in coins and it would take the digital currency as a form of payment for its cars. you've also got mastercard saying it's going to start working with crypto and its network and paypal and bny mellon showing support any way. it feels like it's being legitimized now. n in a low interest rate environment with the stock market at record highs, investors are looking for diversification, and bitcoin is one way -- volatile way, but

it's made people a lot of money. if you own owned a bitcoin a year ago, you'd be up roughly 390% today. regulation, that's something that we could be seeing sooner rather thann later, it could change the landscape. it's been volatile, it bears risk, but this regulation piece of it could be interesting as the yearul progresses forward. larry: yes. actually, in y the later days of our administration, treasury, nec and others were looking at the regulation of the issue here. the bitcoin people and the cryptocurrency people tonight want that, i get it. i think bitcoin and this whole movement is here to stay. but question: not much out there in terms of transactions, now, you mentioned banks and credit cards are going to accept this as currency. a friend of mine who knows a lot about it says outside the crypto world -- which is really the investment part -- there's only about $10 billion circulating for purchase of goods and services and so forth.

so the technology for the block chain which is the ledger and the actual transactions and then the wire transfer has a long way to go, doesn't it? this. >> reporter: it absolutely does. and before it sort of becomes pervasive and widespread and more usable, the transactions that you're talking about, i've done a lot of research, a lot of them are international as well. and that's why there's this speculation that people are using bitcoin for shady transactions, for example. so regulation actually could potentially help andnd make it more legitimate in that way, but it also can sort of put a damper on some of the flexibility that you'rexi given with bitcoin as well. i think that's the issue here. but you see tesla, you see banks getting behind it, and all of a suddennd people can understand . you could never touch a bitcoin, you're still not going to be -- larry: elon musk, he's maybe the smartest guy on the planet, a good marketing guy, he's out there with this move and driving

it up. look, this is a question we will discuss over a period of time, is bitcoin going to really be a useful, utilitarian money, what art laffer would say, does it have the moneyness of money? >> reporter: right. larry: ass well as or just as an investment store of value. is it currency or is it investment? >> reporter: i thinkr you make a great point, and that's really the issue here. when we talk about currency, specifically to pay for things, they're backed by central banks, controlled by central banks. this isn't. larry: hard break. we're out. folks, we will be here again. tomorrow evening our special guest is going to be the outstanding former u.s. trade rep, robert lighthizer, very dearea friend. does he think president biden stands with china so far or help orar hurt america's interest or the american worker? don't forget, if you miss any of the show, we have an end core presentation every night at 7 p.m. it'lll even be better the second time, so tune in.

thanks for watching. i'm kudlow, i'm most grateful for this, and it is an absolute delight, to coin teddy roosevelt's phrase,to be here at fox business. thanky you. ♪ ♪ kennedy: that from the beautiful state of california still very locked down, welcome to it. speaking of which california and florida, two states it could not of done things were definitely to tackle the coronavirus, the left praise want to mock the other bright new data shows the covid results, basically the same. so why on earth the california push its economy and its people off a cliff when they could've just stayed open for business? on one side, democrat governor gavin newsom with a slick hair, on the other, republican ron desantis. newsom is lord of the most restrictive policies in