biggest thing is being at full strength when you have to be, and that's where we're aiming towards. >> so that's a football question, but for the orange bowl and the cotton bowl, the real question is going to be what happens when the fans begin gathering. as i said, they're already in the parking lots in dallas and they'll be here shortly for a game that kicks off later this evening. >> sold out stadiums during a covid outbreak. really disconcerting to say the least. kerry sanders, happy early new years to you. thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. that wraps up this hour for me and the year, i should say. good riddance 2021. alison morris picks up the coverage right now. good morning. happy new year's eve to you.

i'm alison morris in for craig melvin. we prepare to ring in the new year, and the number of covid cases raging across the country. for the second day in a row the u.s. is shattering its own record with more than 584,000 cases on thursday. plus in colorado fast-moving wildfires have destroyed nearly 600 homes. look at that. and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. the governor declaring a state of emergency and president biden warning russian president vladimir putin to deescalate tensions with ukraine during a phone call on thursday, saying if moscow takes military action yrks the u.s. and its allies will respond decisively. we begin this hour with the coronavirus. the number of cases skyrocketing. over 54 million covid cases in the u.s. since the pandemic started. that's according to the latest nbc news tally. the faa is warning of more airline delays today because of the omicron variant and the weather. saying that an increased number

of faa employees have tested positive for covid-19. according to flight aware, more than 1,000 flights in the u.s. already cancelled today. meanwhile new york city is putting the final touches on the nation's biggest new year's eve celebration. joining us to talk about it all, nbc's priscilla thompson who is in times square. von hillyard, and also a doctor from the university of minnesota. priscilla is in times square where they're getting ready for a scaled back celebration. what will tonight look like and how is the city planning to keep people safe? >> yeah. well, we've been talking to the folk who is are planning to come out tonight, and the majority of them say they are going to feel safe. the city is having -- making masks a requirement and also vaccinations and they're also going to be letting in a much smaller group of people. only around 15,000 people this year. and i spoke to a couple from holland. come all the way from holland to

be here to celebrate. and they've been under very tight restrictions in holland and say they're excited to have the opportunity to celebrate in new york city. take a listen to what they had to say. >> it's good that the party is still going on. you know? because if everybody is vaccinated and they wear their masks, what else do you need to do? if everybody is vaccinated, then i think that's the thing you need to do. so then you can just celebrate. >> and i want to give you a live look here. just a little behind that police car, you can probably see the nypd is gathering. it appears they're doing a big meeting before things really get going here. and that, of course, is going to happen in just a little while. this celebration starts at 6:00 p.m. folks are going to be allowed in starting at 3 p.m. that's much later than normal. another one of those changes this year in order to cut down on some of the gathering as covid cases here continue to surge, continue to spike. new york city setting a new daily record just yesterday.

>> all right. priscilla in times square. thank you so much. von, let's head to you in queens. what do the flight delays look like across the country from your vantage point there at la guardia? >> yeah. well, priscilla and the folks in times square are dropping the ball. the airlines are trying to pick up their own. this has been a tough week. when you look at the last several days, you're talking about multiple days the in a row of more than 1,000 flights being cancelled. today is no different. now 1300 flights already cancelled this morning across the united states. several of these airlines are preemptively days ahead cancelling the flights, but there is an additional just this morning 300 flights that were not initially cancelled that were cancelled in the last hours. you look over to denver, international airport, just miles from where those brush fires were taking place, nearly 300 flights there cancelled. another 300 cancelled in

seattle. this is across the country in the not only because of staffing shortages caused by covid outbreaks within the airlines, but also within tsa. just in the last week the number of tsa agents with positive covid has tripled. that's triple the number of tsa agents that are no longer working in the airports. the faa also saying today they are dealing with an increase in the number of covid patients and that passengers should expect delays here in the days ahead, but you've also got to take a look at the weather here. ahead of new year's eef, you are looking at winter storm free a hitting the west today, making its way through the midwest overnight. slamming into iowa, nebraska before making its way to michigan, ohio, western new york tomorrow. only complicating. chicago, expecting the heaviest snowfall yet for the entire year. this is a really tough time as the airline industry works to try to move passengers along, but the reality is there are going to be thousands of folks stuck away from home here this weekend. >> with all that said, i love

seeing you outside la guardia in a light jacket like that on new year's eve in new york. it's so rare. it is so warm here. i got to ask you about cruises. >> it is nice. >> the cdc issuing a warning to anyone considering a cruise. give us the details. >> like a 50 degree day in new york, wanting to get out and about, the cruiseliners in the winter here are also tempting. but right now the cdc is saying that they are investigating and monitoring more than 80% of the current krusliners in u.s. waters were expected to enter u.s. waters because of potential covid outbreaks. there is such the number of positive covid cases on now 91 ships that it's led the cdc to investigate and monitor the ships. more than 80% of them in u.s. waters. the cdc put out a warning to americans saying, do not travel on cruise liners. it was even if you're fully

vaccinated. that is how frank they are, because of the covid outbreak here and the numbers we're seeing of the omicron variant sweeping across the country. >> all right. von, thank you so much. doctor, to you. you wrote in an op ed in washington post, quote, the current omicron surge represents one of the greatest public health challenges not only of the pandemic, but also of our lifetime to deal with the surge over the next six to eight weeks. policy makers need to plan for the impact of what could be 1 million cases a day of new infections in the united states. 1 million cases a day. it is hard to wrap your brain around that number. how do we plan for something like that? >> well, right now planning is everything about immediacy. it's about the next few weeks. you're hearing about it right now with regard to the airline industry, tsa, faa, i mean, think of all the kind of perfect storm elements that are coming together. well, the one we worry about the most at this point is in the

health care setting. we know that we're seeing increased hospitalizations. fortunately patients on a whole are less severely ill with omicron than with delta. but the number of the patients makes up for that and imagine that now overlayed on absentee of 10% to 20% of health care workers in an industry that is already hanging on by the skin of its teeth to provide care. that's what we're up against. it's going to last four to six weeks. we have to acknowledge we're going to be in very difficult territory. >> let's talk about the nurses and doctors on the frontlines and how they're holding up right now. i mean, not only their physical safety, but also their mental well being after a really tough couple of years. >> well, i think one of the things we have to understand is that this is the end of running their almost 100th marathon in 100 days.

this isn't just this surge that's happening right now. and so this is an even greater challenge. the post-traumatic stress, the fatigue, the inability basically to get any time off has really put these people at a major disadvantage. and now we're overlaying this. we have to understand that. and that's part of the reason why the cdc made the decision they did to alter the requirements for people being off of work after being infected, because we were really sitting here with the possibility of actually seeing so few health care workers that patients would actually go without a health care worker to help them. and so i think this is a great challenge right now. we will get through it. but it's going to be difficult for the next four to six weeks. >> let's talk about testing. you write that we can't rely on over the counter tests for omicron, but it's not that easy to get a pcr test, and if you are able to get one, you have to wait days for the results. are at-home tests better than

nothing? >> well, let's be really clear here. we are not going to have nearly enough testing. we have to understand that. what we need to do is figure out how to best use the testing we have. the challenge that we have with the over-the-counter test, which will be in short supply, is how often are they right? and what i mean by that is we have many, many reports right now of people who are two and three days into their illness who continue to test negative by the over-the-counter test. at the same time they test positive by pcr. the question that comes up is so i'm going to go tonight to my mom and dad's or grandpa and grandma's house, and i worry about exposing them because of the fact they are at greater risk for having a serious outcome if they get infected. well, now if i take this test, what faith do i have in it? is it better than a 50/50 chance? i just as well flip a coin? and we don't have the data, the fda itself this week said they lack sensitivity or less

sensitivity. i think we need the data so you can inform yourself and say if i get a test where i can't find it to be reliable, then how do i make decisions about going to see grandpa and grandma? >> quick question for you before we go about kids. the fda expected to authorize a pfizer booster shot for kids 12 to 15. covid cases among kids are up 50%. how much of an impact could booster expansion have? would that make enough of a difference? >> well, first and foremost, we just have to get kids vaccinated in many of the age groups we have less than half the kids vaccinated with their first dose. the boosters are not going to be an issue if we can't even get first doses in. the second thing, remember the surge is unfolding in the next four to six weeks. it takes at least two weeks for the immune response to actually mount after you've been vaccinated even the first time. so for many of the kids who are going to get vaccinated, which we still want them to get vaccinated, this surge, however, is going to be a challenge for

them. >> doctor, thanks for being with us and a happy new year to you. >> thank you. happy new year to you. thank you. still ahead, eye popping omicron case counts could throw a wrench into next week's back to school plans. around 30 0 u.s. schools planning to stay closed after winter break. i'll talk to an administrator about concerns he's hearing. first the state of emergency in colorado. hundreds of homes burned by wildfires. tens of thousands of people evacuated. we are on the ground in boulder county with a look at all that devastation. that's next. that devastation. that's next. as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. they customize my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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breaking news this morning. catastrophic wildfires whipped up by powerful winds burning through boulder county. the flames consuming nearly 6 00 homes and forcing the towns of superior and louisville to evacuate. the governor declaring a state of emergency and at the top of the next hour we're expecting a briefing from officials there. look at this video. shot by a man yesterday in superior, colorado. he captured the terrifying moment flames swept across the road while he was driving. that's rough to watch. we have the latest from superior colorado. what are you hearing from people on the ground? what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, first, i have to point out this weather whiplash we're experiencing. yesterday those historic fires. today i don't know if you can make it out, but it has started

to snow and is expected to continue to do so through the weekend. mother nature just a day late. instead, yesterday the fires were fuelled by this dangerous combination of incredibly parched dry grounds. we're in a severe drought paired with the whipping winds. as you mentioned, some topping 100 miles per hour. and that allowed the flames to grow at an incredible pace. and countless videos we've seen specifically from the town of superior here. you can see how quickly the flames moved. i talked to a resident a short time ago who was evacuating and as he was driving down the road, he saw just these stores that he passed on a regular basis up in flames just finding it difficult to put into words what's going through his mind, and i think that so many residents are feeling that way. i think we can all empathize with people. it's the holiday season. they're supposed to be at home enjoying time with family and friends and now they have been forced from their homes and we're talking about thousands of people. nearly 600 homes, the latest

estimate suggests have been incinerated. making this fire the most devastating in terms of property loss in colorado history. and one of the reasons why it was so devastating was the pace that it moved at. really consuming the length of a football field in just a matter of seconds. so just really some staggering visuals we're seeing out of here. but one thing i will say that i've heard time and time again from a lot of the residents, including some who lost everything, they say they will persevere and the community will come together again. >> emily, how are things looking as we go forward? i mean, i know you've been talking about the whiplash, the weather. concerns for how much worse this could get in the days to come? >> i think that because mainly the winds have at least eased up a little bit, that certainly is helping the fire situation. i think there's a winter storm advisory now that's going to introduce a whole other set of troubles, especially for the

roads. but it does appear that the fire fight has at least become a little bit easier because firefighters don't have to deal with those 100 miles per hour wind gusts. >> certainly a relief there. we know we'll get an update at 12 p.m. eastern on the latest there. thank you for your reporting. we have an update on a story we've been following. on thursday colorado east governor commuted the prison term for a driver shaving 100 years off his prison sentence. he killed four people back in april of 2019 after he says his brakes failed. he was driving on interstate 70 outside of denver. the governor said in a letter while the man was not blameless, the original sentence was inappropriate for a tragic but unintentional act. the man will now serve just ten years. coming up, 15 minutes, how long biden and vladimir putin

spoke in a phone call, but was it enough to calm the tensions over ukraine? what we've learned about that call next. that call next. one up whatever theye doing? for sure. seriously? one up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. any further questions? uh uh! one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi.

deescalate or expect a decisive response.

the response for vladimir putin yesterday during their second call in less than a month. this is a white house photo of that call. the two nations scheduled to hold security talks coming up january 10th. the conversation centered on the 100,000 russian troops on the border with ukraine prompting fears of an invasion. i'm joined by "l.a. times" white house reporter eli stokels, david ignatius, and in a moment, we will be joined from london. eli, the kremlin requesting this call. do you think president biden achieved what he wanted yesterday, and what do they hope to accomplish on january 10th? >> well, the white house achieved the fact that they're continuing to talk. they want to maintain this diplomacy and arrive at a diplomatic solution. officials are saying even though they're not clear why putin wanted the second phone call that was repetitive of the

december 7th call where they first had the same conversation. they were happy to put the president on the phone and continue to sort of lay out russia's options which the white house says either deescalate and turn toward diplomacy or face severe economic sanctions, far worse than what they received after annexing crimea from the u.s. and nato allies. those are the options the president reiterated to putin yesterday. you get the sense perhaps that after the readout from the russian side, putin saying if the u.s. does impose sanctions that that could rupture the relationship. those are putin's words. perhaps that was more meant for domestic audience in russia that putin sought this meeting, basically to show that he is standing firm even as he could be looking for an off ramp. what the officials told us after the call was they're not listening to putin's words or spokesperson's words.

they're waiting to see what happens on the ground. that will determine which way this goes. they're hoping to continue this dialogue, keep tensions as low as possible, given the situation on the border, and hopefully make more progress in a couple of weeks when officials meet for bilateral talks in geneva. >> i want to bring ali in. what kind of reaction are you hearing to yesterday's call, and can you help set the stage for us for next month's security talks? >> well, i mean, the turn from both sides is similar. they are saying the talks were polite and serious. it also laid the groundwork for talks coming up in january setting the tone and the tenor for what they're going to does and the whole outline of that talk. but it's also kind of serious. look, a lot of threats and ultimatums were issued by both sides. president biden laid out his two-track approach, and if they were to impose sanctions on russia as eli mentioned, there

were going to be catastrophic effects on their relationship. the tone coming out of moscow isn't particularly encouraging right now either. the foreign minister just spoke to state media, and he said if something constructive doesn't come out of these meet investigation a pretty short time, then russia is going to have to take matters into its own hands and figure out ways of protecting its own security. so there are some veiled threats coming out of russia after the talks even though they were polite and even though both sides said they were constructive. there's a lot at play in january. if they can't figure things out in january, the situation could go out of control fairly quickly. >> david, we heard from a senior administration official after yesterday's call that biden laid out two paths for putin. one diplomacy leading to deescalation in ukraine, or two, punitive measures like economic sanctions, even beefed up military assistance to u.s. allies in the region. which of those scenarios do you

think is most likely at this point? >> well, we have a diplomatic process that's set to begin january 10th. and i don't think any of us know which path president putin is going to choose. i was struck yesterday by the sharp difference in the public messaging from the kremlin and the white house. after the phone call between putin and biden, the kremlin quickly put out a very sharp statement warning of a complete rupture if the u.s. imposed sanctions, warning that the u.s. could make a grave mistake, clos sol error. pretty heavy duty language, and in addition, the kremlin spokesman made reference to biden having talked about nuclear war. and no one wins in a nuclear war. even to put out that there was discussion of nuclear war issues

was striking. the white house response by contrast? very muted. we're not going to talk about specifics. we're not going to negotiate in public. a very brief call. it was really only from the russian version that journalists got a sense that this had been quite a sharp exchange. so heading into the diplomacy of january, i think the question is is there a formula that speaks to russia's concern about security, repeated over and over again by every official, that doesn't violate fundamental u.s. commitments to the nato allies and to ukraine? is there a formula that in a sense, lets both sides say, we've accomplished our fundamentals, and we have deescalation, a more stable formula for that, but note the significant difference in yesterday's public language about what's ahead. >> eli, i want to bring you in and get your take on that. >> well, i think david is exactly right. i think the officials inside the

white house, they're waiting to find it. they don't know what putin is thinking either. but it is clear from the comments and the disparity in how both sides are presenting this publicly for domestic audiences that putin wants russia to see him as drawing a very clear red line and making his own threats and ultimatums to the united states. that doesn't mean he's not looking for some sort of off ramp, some sort of way out of military escalation. but the white house is not going to just sort of assume that. they're consulting with allies, preparing for sort of worst case situation where there is an escalation there. and this is not something that the white house is eager to see get inflamed. because this is a president who wanted to deal with russia early in his term. he sought out the summit in geneva back in june. they met for about three and a half hours there. they talked and the president was trying to sort of lay down rules of the road. deal with russia, you know, end the cyber attacks and hopefully in the view of a lot of people around him, be able to pivot and

focus his foreign policy not on russia, but on asia, on combatting and containing china. and so putin is aware of that. he knows the u.s. doesn't want to get bogged down here. he knows the u.s. ultimately is not really interested in guaranteeing ukraine's defense by inviting them into nato, but the u.s. has made commitments to ukraine. they believe very much in the sovereignty of democratic countries. and so putin believes he may have some leverage here, and it is a very precarious geopolitical situation, and it is one that is the white house is having to spend a lot of time on here at year's end. >> david, i want to read something written in "the atlantic". it was written russia's aggression against ukraine is backfiring. and that, quote, putin's military moves are rallying ukrainians and unifying nato. do you agree or is that too optimistic? >> i think it's too optimistic

to say it's backfiring that we know the outcome, but it is certainly true that the russian rhetoric has unified ukrainians. it's striking. if you look at polling in ukraine, people in the east next to the russian border are almost as sharply against russian actions as those in the capitol of kiev. there's some question about what the russian public thinks about this. and finally, it becomes clearer with every statement that the cost for russia of an invasion would be enormous. the severity of the economic sanctions could cripple the russian economy. maybe that's why yesterday the russians were so eager to say if you put these sanctions in place, there will be a rupture. what there will be is a shutdown of the russian economy, and that must worry them. >> thanks to the three of you and a happy new year. coming up.

with omicron spreading, could remote learning be in force. i'll talk to the director of the superintendent's association about how schools plan to keep kids safe and in the classroom in 2022. in 2022.

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we'll see ya. ah, they're getting so smart. choose the app that fits your investing style. ♪♪ as covid cases climb across the country, there are concerns about kids going back to school next week. already nearly 300 schools have announced plans to keep children remote for the first few weeks after winter break. educators and parents alike questioning how best to keep children safe and whether they should return to the classroom or stay home. joining me now, nbc news correspondent heidi przybyla, the executive director of the superintendent school association, and the associate dean at brown university school of public health. thank you all for being here. heidi, first to you. you looked at how this pandemic is impacting our children's education. what did you find? >> all kids fell behind during

this pandemic. we've known this, but now we're getting a better look at how far and who fell the furthest. in north carolina twice as many students are being held back to repeat the ninth grade as before the pandemic. and according to new national data, the gap between black and white students is widening in critical areas like reading and math. for instance, while black children are about five months behind in reading, that's about 2.3 months for white kids. it's a similar story with math. with minority and underserved students falling further behind. we're seeing this in states with the greatest number of closures. in addition to north carolina, this includes maryland and georgia. >> all right. sorry. keep going. >> it's basically a widening of the prepandemic achievement gap. covid just exacerbated the gaps. the important thing is understand is this is an ongoing challenge here. >> yeah. it sure looks like one.

making a difficult situation even more difficult. heidi, thank you so much for that. sorry, didn't mean to interrupt you there. dan, to you. how do schools decide whether to go to remote learning or to keep students in the classroom? i know it is not an easy decision for educators to make. >> no. it's not. and we start up from the fact that we want the children in school. we want them to be in person. you just heard the metrics on the loss of learning that's taking place. that expanding by the day. so we need to have the children in school. at the same time, we need to make sure that when the children are in school, that they are safe. that the staff is safe. and that's the problem right now that we're having. when you consider the fact that barely 13%, 14% of elementary age students have been vaccinated, and only slightly over 53% of secondary students have been vaccinated, that's a large number of students that

have still not been vaccinated, and are at risk. so the problem that superintendents are facing are children coming and then getting infected in the school from other children that got into school, and then spreading throughout the classroom, spreading throughout the school, and then having to make the decision at that point to shut down when they really don't want to. so that's a major problem that's being faced around the country right now. and they're doing everything they can to make sure they're safe. and by the way, the statistics will show you where the best chances are for them being in school and in person and safe. and that's in areas where infection rates are low and vaccination rates are high. so let's talk about what happens if students do test positive. what's the policy on quarantining? how do you decide how many days they should stay away from school, when kids can go back? that's no easy decision to make either. >> there isn't, no.

and right now it tends to be ten days, and they hope to get them back, but here again, here's another logistical nightmare. there are so many children in school, and so many children to track in terms of when they're infected, how long they've been home, when they come back to school. it's a major logistic issue for districts. particularly the larger schools. the high school with thousands of students and middle schoolers. even a small elementary school will have hundreds of students. after that the staffing shortages, the school districts are facing right now where teachers are not showing up, cafeteria workers, bus drivers. there's a lot of personnel missing. in a lot of cases, the closing of school has more to do with the staffing shortage than necessarily the pandemic. >> so doctor, i'd like to bring you in. your medical advice. what's the best way to keep our kids safe in school? and i know that can be different based on their age, whether

they're vaccinated, but overall, how can we be protecting our kids and also get in the back in the classroom? >> the first and best way to keep our kids in in-person learning is to get them vaccinated. there was a big study published by the cdc yesterday that looked at kids who were hospitalized for covid across the country over the summer. only one of those kids was fully vaccinated. vaccines are absolutely the best way to keep our kids in the classroom. after that, it's about having universal masking for kids and staff alike. and having testing available that test to stay program that the cdc has now rolled out nationwide is huge. in terms of keeping those close contacts able to stay in person. but the last thing that we have to do as the superintendent acknowledged is to keep community cases down. just like in hospitals, when we have no staff, we can't take care of patients. when teachers and other support

staff are sick themselves, there's no one there to watch the kids. and that unfortunately does lead to school closures even when schools are trying to do the right thing and stay in person. >> dan, how are schools handling those staff shortages? what are you doing when you do want to bring the kids back but you simply don't have enough people to teach them, watch them, look out for them? >> exactly. and what's happening right now is that a lot of teachers, their classes are being doubled up. they had a 20 students in a class before, they maybe now are dealing with 40. we have principals going into the classroom to teach and superintendents going into the classroom to teach because there aren't enough teachers to deal with the number of students in the school. and we have the issue with bus drivers. we can't transport kids to school because of the lack of bus drivers. and another issue in terms of calf tier ra. when the cafeteria workers don't show up, we can't feed the kids.

these are all the factors that are a part of the problem, and we're trying to do the best that we can. and thank god that we were -- schools were able to receive the american rescue plan dollars that have allowed them to use the dollars to go out and hire additional staff or in some cases, to pay staff more to keep them in school. so these are all the things that they're doing, but for sure, we want the kids in school. they need to be in school. but we want them to be safe. doctor, one more question for you. the fda is expected to authorize the pfizer booster for kids 12 to 15. will this help, or is it too late by the time it's authorized the kids get the booster, are we going to be past the biggest part of this problem? >> so omicron is moving differently across the country. so certainly for those kids who are going to be eligible for the booster later this week, it is not too late. i recommend to parents of that 12 to 15-year-old age group when

the booster becomes available, go out and sign your kid up. but equally important, all those kids in the five to 18-year-old age group who have not gotten their first series of vaccines yet, that is the thing that will make the biggest difference. the last thing i'm going to say here is that the support for the school nurses who both test to stay and often run vaccine clinics is critical to getting us through the pandemic. many schools have faced huge shortages of nursing staff. we know of districts have share one nurse across multiple schools. that's an impediment to keeping kids safely in schools. >> thank you for being with us. happy new year. >> happy new year. >> you too. inflation, labor shortages, major economic pressure points in 2021. so what will our economy look like in the new year? and whose financial future is omicron threatening the most? that's all next. e stmo that's all next.

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2021 has been filled with record highs and devastating lows. weekly jobless claims going from nearly 800,000 in january to

198,000 just this week. the lowest level in more than 50 years. that's great news. but at the same time, inflation is accelerated at the fastest pace since the early 80s. now at 6.8%. and as we look toward 2022, experts 2022, with the new covid variant, we could be in for another challenging year. i want to bring in ron. it is great to see you this last day of the year. >> happy new year, almost. >> and you. start with inflation. everyone is feeling higher prices, fed looking at two to three rate hikes to get things under control. what are we looking at. when should the average person reasonably expect to stop feeling so much pain every time they open their wallet to pay for something. >> it is interesting. they feel pain and there has been inflation that was higher than anticipated this year in particular. i'm going to stick my neck out at the end of the year and say

2022 will be a return to the old normal as far as main street is concerned. i think prices will come down. i think supply chain kinks will be unwound. with the variant, as we're told more transmissible, less lethal, i think we go back to a relatively normal life. there could be some risk in the stock market for meaningful correction, but i don't think we are talking labor markets, inflation, all of that, we'll move more towards trend line activity we've seen the last couple of years, x the pandemic. >> this is why we have you on. you're a breath of fresh air, some good news for once. i am going to stick with the optimism. maybe if the markets come down, it is buying opportunity. everything has been so expensive, there aren't a lot of deals, maybe frame it that way.

>> hopefully. go ahead, i'm sorry. >> no, you. >> i would say look, we had phenomenal rebound. stock market doubled in 18 months off lows. highly unusual. and of course we saw a flood of cash come from the federal government and federal reserve that propped up markets, in many ways more than the real economy. but the real economy, people are for getting, is quite strong. growing better than 5% this year, probably growing faster in the fourth quarter when we get numbers. holiday sales strongest in 17 years. the absence of product is the only thing holding the economy back. saving rate still around 6%. going into 2022, race of economic growth may slow, but as i said before, inflation comes down a lot. that's barring any big political or geopolitical surprises where i think all the risk might reside this coming year opposed to recent years.

>> can go about gender. women had a rough go. omicron is raging. >> i wondered where you were going with that. >> didn't mean to scare you. it is an economic question. omicron presented problems for schools and businesses. politico says as of november, women account for more than 62% of pandemic related unemployment gap. on average, women make less than men. we're often ones to dip out, if someone needs to leave work to care for the family, what does it mean for the family in 2022 and beyond? >> prior segment was important in that regard. until we have kids fully back in school or preschool wherever they happen to reside while both parents are at work, that problem may take longer to work off. we have seen that. women in some ways dominate the teaching world, health care world. so in those businesses where they have been sidelined for more than one reason, i think that will take longer to work

out. jobless claims lowest since 1969. i think we'll see women start to re-enter the work force in greater numbers this year, again, if we achieve some sort of normality and things feel more normal. things in many ways are remarkably normal with the exception of the pandemic. the economy is strong enough to absorb more women into the labor force. >> you know what will bring women back, pay us more. happy new year to you. coming up. a somber anniversary. how congress plans to remember the january 6th insurrection. those details next. nuary 6th inn osthe details next

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we are less than a week away from the first anniversary of the january 6th attack on the capitol. house speaker nancy pelosi is laying out plans for the day. what events are they planning in congress, what are the expectations ahead of january 6th? >> the house is not going to be in session, that doesn't mean we are not going to see them commemorate the tragedy that happened just under a year ago on the capitol. in places where rioters themselves were able to infiltrate january 6th. we'll hear from lawmakers giving testimonials and memories of that day and from historians. the speaker laid out in a letter to colleagues, it is important for her to reestablish the narrative here. it has always been a day lawmakers tried to put above

politics in arguing it should never happen again. that's not to say it has been apolitical, but certainly in the commemorations, that's likely what we're going to see. on the other piece of this, the january 6th committee continued doing its work. one of the key things we look to in 2022 is what actually happens to the tranches of documents from national archives currently tied up in court. former president donald trump says they're protected by executive privilege, despite that biden waived executive privilege on that. the committee argues they need to see documents. this could go to the supreme court, and the january 6th select committee responding to the former president, trying to elevate it to the supreme court, telling the court they don't think it should be litigated there, but they want that decision to come as soon as possible, reminding in a filing to the court, the select committee authorization will expire january 3rd, 2023, each passing day handicaps the

committee's investigation, forcing it to proceed without the benefit of documents which it needs to do its work. >> happy new year to you my hard working friend. thank you so much. >> thank you. that does it for me on this busy last day of 2021. catch me on nbc news now, weekdays, 3:00 p.m. eastern. coming up now. an update from officials on wildfires. my colleague picks up coverage. hi, everybody. let's go right to officials briefing on the wildfire near denver. >> we certainly did not lose 2,000 homes. we did see entire subdivisions as i talked about last night, west side of superior, that are totally gone. that accounts for easily 500 homes. west of superior out towards marshall, colorado springs area, we saw