is now 94 percent completed and it calls on the e.u. to review its relationship with moscow based all on of all knees case german chancellor angela merkel said the arrest of the activist which was highly anticipated after he was accused of violating his probation has not changed her support for the pipeline as for the ongoing threats of u.s. sanctions merkel said she is still waiting to talk it all out with the new biden ministration was given those who just recently of course we will talk about this with the new american administration because this is viewed as very critically across party lines in the united states of america and it's also viewed critically in parts of europe but we must talk about what economic relationships with russia in the gas sector are acceptable and what aren't. speaking of relations between europe and russia hungary just became the 1st nation in the e.u. to approve the sputnik 5 vaccine this comes after the developers filed for

registration with the entire union while the country's leaders are now being criticized for acting before the e.u. has given the green light the c.e.o. of the russian direct investment fund argue that hungary is simply the 1st to realize all of the advantages of the sputnik 5 and to give the emergency authorization to use it he said the decision is based on the vaccine safety and efficacy of higher than 90 percent proven in clinical trials. in what could be a major breakthrough for the populations most vulnerable pharmaceutical giant eli lilly is now saying that it's antibody based drug could be the answer to preventing the spread of covert 19 in nursing homes according to a study conducted by the company the preventive drugs reduce the risk of both staff and residents getting sick with coke at 19 by about 57 percent the effect was even more pronounced among elderly residents which sign 80 percent lower risk of getting

the virus. just 24 hours in the new by the administration is getting to work with more than a dozen new and executive orders in addition to taking action on the coronavirus pandemic the mission appears to be to unjam some of the hallmark policies of the trumpet ministration including those that affect the environment and some big ticket pipelines all of this as wall street remains on a high and then hopes that a new stimulus package is in the near future so joining me now to stretch it all our boom bust co-host christy i and sean hyman editor of the logical investor christie all start with you jobless claims today showed a modest decline as congress works on more stimulus jobless claims totaled around 900004 the week and being on january 16th which is slightly less than the estimate of 125000 so how did the markets react to these numbers and what was the latest.

well the markets didn't really react much to this as this kind of got overshadowed by the continued anticipation that it sort of biden and congress will soon deliver another large fiscal infusion into the economy so weekly claims have been trending lower since peaking in march and april of last year but that started to think higher once again in october when new business restrictions came down so it's really good news on that front that initial jobless claims are now trending down once more in the right direction but the overall number of americans on unemployment benefits still remain high above 15000000 so the hospitality industry has been hit the hardest as far as hotels restaurants and casinos have been closed or forced to limit capacity for guests so in january alone the industry lost more than i have 100000 workers retail sales have also fallen for 3 straight months as americans have now cut back on spending so revenue are restaurants and bars clench 21 percent and 20 connie so right now the focus is primarily on biden's $1.00

trillion dollars proposal which will require congressional approval and this plan would provide $1400.00 checks for most americans which is now on top of the $600.00 checks are already being distributed bring the total to $2000.00 per adult so this new plan would also make available 4 $100.00 a week and federal benefits for jobless americans and also extend a moratorium on the victims of foreclosures september ok so certainly everyone is waiting on that stimulus right now and looking at the nearby administration to see how quickly they can get it done now shaan president biden is also now making some swift decision that he gets into his presidency and he even moves to kill big keystone x.l. pipeline of course to deliver on his green energy platform is such a move why is right now i mean some argue it will lemonade good paying jobs and cripple one of the major backbones of the energy industries of america what say you on that one. yeah it is an unwise thing to do it will cost you know thousands of

jobs so that's not a smart decision to do and here's the thing is this is a green deal because canada's trudeau has said that hey we're going to run the pipeline off of renewable energies and so that's going to happen so that's green they've promised to work with unions up there in you know sort of things like that and they've even promised to give a little bit of the money to the indigenous people were the pipelines come across along the way so you would think about it in the democrats would be very happy about that but they're not and so it's going to hurt more in canada than in the u.s. it will hurt some here but i think you know if we're long exxon mobile i'm totally fine with it's got 8 percent dividend yield we're up like 20 percent on it and it's got more to go so i think we're fine here but it will cost some in the us and a lot in canada it was certainly interesting to see how the developers behind the keystone x.l. were sort of coming out all of a sudden saying hey we're going to make all of these changes to try to appease the

new buy in and ministrations so all see if he comes back around on that one i know that it was a major campaign promise for him now kristie when we're going back to the impact of the pandemic it's still posing serious risk to the eurozone economy so how are they combating this right now. well the 19 countries that make up the euro zone they've tightened up social restrictions and national lockdown so germany for example they extend their national lockdown until february 14th and the netherlands also announce that there will be curfews starting next week and france also is tests of their existing curfew hours this month so european leaders are hoping to excel or vaccinations in the coming months in order to contain the spread of the virus and its economic impact so that you know it's asking its member states to target at least 70 percent of their adult population by the summer and president christine legarde signaled thursday that the eurozone economy is headed for a double dip recession while also insisting that the current levels of monetary stimulus is enough for now so i'll put likely shrank at the end of 2020 and that

decline will now carry over into the 1st quarter so economists are increasingly predicting a contraction in the 1st 3 months of this year as lockdowns have now been extended so the e.c.b. announcement has kept its huge stimulus program unchanged its main refinancing operations marginal lending facility and deposit the syllabi will remain at 025 and negative 50 this respectively so it has massively stepped up the stimulus programs in december in order to assess the recovery as its p.p.p. was extended to march a 22.2 totaling 1.85 trillion euros and on purchases so this was a very bullish for the market however the e.c.b. also signaled on thursday that it will not necessarily use the whole entire package so analysts now expect that u.c.b. to remain dovish for a long time as the economy is about 7 percent smaller than a year ago so we also don't expect the e.c.b. to change that policy for the foreseeable future even if the lock outs were to

continue beyond march and legard also acknowledge that the uncertainty remains quite high over how that region will perform in the coming months and the ample monetary stimulus remains essential in order to not axe lied when certainly. the lock down seems to be the last word that anyone wants to hear right now and we know that the united states is always watching europe and exactly what they're doing now sean let's look at precious metals gold this week or today on some profit taking but what are the expectations for precious metals in 2021 are we going to see a flight to safety again or well all of the stimulus kick start a risk on cycle. yeah i think we're in the perfect storm in the favor of gold and precious metals in fact i'm even more bullish on silver and platinum even than gold but that certainly was you know with gold i mean you've got $1.00 trillion stimulus that's probably going to hit you've got you know yell and say and go big we've got high did it we've got you know low interest rates we've got

a falling dollar we've got an overvalued frothy bubble like stock market we've got oil rising which middles work as a good inflation hedge i mean and even right now metals or even pretty good value play because there's very few pockets of value for institutional money to flow into so there's there's all kinds of reasons why gold and metal should prosper and you know 2021 i think 222500 very easily obtainable maybe 3000 with silver doing even bigger percentage and platinum the same. and i know the more money the u.s. government prints the more speculation the more people start looking at those precious metals at gold and of course that crypto currencies now kristie what about bitcoin here we're seeing the price slip again falling closer 232000 is this just more consolidation or are we looking at a more serious downward trend. well not quite a downward trend yet as it has found really good support near the 30000 level where

we are seeing a lot of consolidation so this is a slight correction after it's nonstop monster rally to almost $42000.00 or earlier this month so this is a natural part of the cycle in the ecosystem so nothing really to worry about but the latest price movements team as yellen warned about the increase in crypto currency regulations so despite this big point is still gaining institutional support and 2021 because now finally joining the ranks of paper gemini greyscale square you now have asset manager blackrock which has $7.00 trillion dollars of assets under management now prospectus is for 2 funds that are made by big futures contracts so this is essentially the biggest sign in the industry that it's gaining mainstream institutional acceptance so i think in the near term we should see some good consolidation as leverage shares unwind their longs and this will kind of paint the way for institutional and traditionally long term holders to step in and accumulate at some very decent prices will certainly be interesting to see exactly

where it goes from there axel and information to consider kristie i shant hyman thank you both for your time thank you. on his way out the door former president trump revoked one of the 1st rules he put in place when he entered the white house barring political officials from lobbying now they are free to search for potentially lucrative jobs how did time when some washington d.c. based lobbying firms are making record revenue but president biden has his own plans to curb corporate influence in government so joining me now to discuss of journalism molly barrows contributor with america's lawyer so molly what made some of these lobbying firms so profitable and of course how much are they making. well they made record revenue as you said rachel in fact they made probably millions more when you look at it as a whole nearly every major lobbying firm on k. street which is where a lot of those african c. in law lobbying firms law firms as well that do advocacy work or they're located in

washington d.c. and over their last quarterly reports you know quite quite the uptick in the reason it's corona relief money at a time during an election year when usually lobbying firms or business is down because people are uncertain about who's going to be taking office what changes may come into play not the case this time between that and the fact that this coronavirus relief money was available businesses corporations people companies trade associations even local governments it was an unprecedented a year for advocacies with those folks seeking for help basically to access that money and make sure that they were able to get some especially during an intense presidential campaign and a lot of information comes from the lobbying disclosure act some of these reports that released and the top 2 firms their last advocacy firms a can go highest grossing firm that year reporting in the last quarter rachel almost 12 and a half 1000000 between september and december and around that same time period their main competitor brownstein hyatt farber and track made around the same little bit of just under 12 and a half to

a point $37.00 now their total for the year was almost $50000000.00 which is in keeping with a can dump as well so anyway a profitable year for lobbyists and expected to continue with such tight margins coming into the house and senate they say they're going to need those relationships for people to get things done and make deals while and i know when you're talking about a $1.00 trillion dollar relief plan moving forward of course i give space to just about every industry to come in and say hey we need a few 1000000000 here or there so i can definitely see how that trend has been happening and how it would even continue into the future now of course i have to ask why did trump revoke his own rule that was originally made as he said to quote unquote drain the swamp. i know it just it just never stops with him but it's reported that some trump administration staffers were having a tough time finding another job as they left so as he was leaving he basically revoked that rule which he said he put in place to drain the swamp because he felt like lobbying was having an ill effect if you will on government in washington so

his rule had rivetted staffers from lobbying federal agencies and former colleagues for 5 years and those strictures were lifted when biden was sworn into office yesterday. so kind of as a parting gift and at the same time he's also realizing he doesn't have to deal with those issues anymore so he's giving their right to them so what changes does then by then have in mind when it comes to reducing corporate influence in politics moving forward. well he sure was busy signing a lot of changes into place yesterday wasn't he and he is one of those is taking a tougher stance on corporate influence in the white house and he's got a number of things that he's doing to make that happen among the actions he banned a senior advisors from taking big bonuses from former employees he signed an executive order that stops administration appointees from lobbying senior white house staff for a time like 2 years after they leave and this is in addition to a current ban which is similar to influence former agency colleagues and there's also something called shadow lobbying and he's applying the same restrictions to that and that's where former officials advise their lobbyist colleagues how to

influence the government so basically walking out of the capitol and then going over to a lobbying firm and saying hey this is how you get your information this is how you connect this is how you get things done so he's put a ban on that as well and one thing that i thought was kind of interesting you know trump had made it where visitors names were not known who came to see him and biden lifted that as well so he's going to make sure that people can see who's visiting because that also implies you know who's got his ear what they're talking about ok interesting and we know that every new administration wants to start off with a running start of they come into office which seems to be exactly what we're seeing with biden right now now is there any hope that his reform efforts will make a difference here. you know in some of the reports that i read from advocacy groups and government legal experts if you will that watch these kinds of things they they like these changes that by this may they think it'll make some help somewhat but for the most part if you've got deep enough pockets you're going to find a way to get the money where it best suits you and what best suits your interest so

they think it's not going to certainly in my curb the problem but it's not going to halt corporate interest altogether well i guess that there's anything that we've learned about politics and lobbying alike it's always follow the money when you go journalist molly barrows thank you so much for bringing us the latest on that topic . thanks rachel. time now for a quick break but when we come back will the new york stock exchange a lot of china's top telecom companies to keep their listings now in the u.s. market with the by administration in office or will trump never ending battle with china have a lasting impact for the past it all next and as we go to break here are the numbers of the quote. where we said in 2008 right here on this show was that because there was no attempt

to reform what the banks had done and the global financial crisis was caused by the banks who were hoarding the cash they were sitting on the cash they were lending it here we are in 2021 exactly as they predicted they did down reform the banks in fact they just expanded their credit card they expanded their capacity to print and borrow and then give away the cash to their friends causing now this huge crisis. right now the. people who are overweight or obese it's profitable to sell food. and sugary and solti under the big it's not at the individual level it's not individual willpower and if you go on believing that never change this obesity epidemic that industry has been influencing very deeply the medical and scientific establishment. what's driving

the obesity epidemic it's. defenders of big picture often explain if you don't like the plot of holmes in build your room well on this edition of crossfire we talked with some interested individuals. it's. seemed wrong. just don't call. me. yet to see. this day comes after. and in detroit equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

one day into the new by administration and 3 chinese telecom companies are already asking the new york stock exchange to reconsider an executive order that would require them to be in do list it state owned companies china mobile china telecom and china unicom have individually requested the n.y.s.e. to begin their review with 3 nearly identical letters within hours of biden's inauguration so joining me now to discuss both and investigative journalist ben swan so ben where do these companies currently stand. yes right now there is essentially asking the new york stock exchange is it mentioned to reconsider this deal list and it goes back to an executive order that was signed by president trump back in november i believe it was november 11th of last year and the goal of that executive order was essentially this it was saying that any chinese company that

assists in any way the chinese military could not be on a stock exchange in the united states because u.s. investors were banned from being able to invest in those companies that was the idea so the n.y.s.e. essentially had to delist these companies and that took place apparently late last year and then as recently as january 11th of this year they stopped actually trading stocks so they're not allowed to do it right now what they're essentially doing is asking for clarification and investors in those companies are saying please list us on the stock exchange but it really comes down to whether or not the buy the administration allows that to happen they would have to obviously remove this executive order that's currently in place because it's not like the new york stock exchange has the ability to unilaterally make this decision it's not their decision to make and i know that's something we saw with the trumpet ministration where they would make these executive orders especially when it came to china and walk away but the rules with them were so vague that a lot of times they had these companies thing coming back and saying wait

a 2nd what exactly did you mean here so it is interesting that they're waiting until now and then going straight to the by an administration knowing that they can make those changes and let shifting gears here a little bit we're now learning the qualcomm the market share of china's smartphone chip market plunged in 2020 due to u.s. sanctions on wall way according to a new report what all do we know about this. yes pretty interesting because you know the you mentioned a minute ago about all the different kinds of orders of the trumpet ministration has signed in and those orders really kind of run the gamut everything from yes these these companies that which by the way you know the german ministration was a any company that works with the chinese military but that was pretty broad in terms of who works with the military because if you provide you know cell phone service and members of the chinese military have cell phones by extension is that mean that you're supporting the chinese military it wasn't just weapons right so that's important so this is what we're seeing also in this issue like with qualcomm that you just mentioned a minute ago this really comes down to smartphone chips so what essentially the

trove of ministration did was they were blocking the development of smartphone chips in order to slow down while way remember this war that's been going on while way now for several years and the goal of that was to really we can walk away by taking from them the ability to have an operating system that happened when enjoyed was essentially blocked from being able to provide an operating system to what we thought was well while way was able to overcome that by creating their own operating system but one thing they've not been able to do is manufacture these these smartphone chips and so the market for those chips has substantially fallen off especially for companies like qualcomm because while way is the number one phone in the world in terms of its reach at least it has been for the last few years and so you're significantly removing a portion of the market because u.s. makers of those chips were not allowed to settle while way so that's why while com is now facing out of this this ripple effect of having been frozen out of that market. so they then could also be calling on the biden administration to do

something or to even pull back and some of the way to the transition ministration report now meanwhile automakers around the world are now shutting down assembly lines because of a global shortage of semiconductors that in some cases has been exacerbated by the trump administration's actions against key chinese chip factories well mark can you tell us about that yes so are you are you sensing the theme here. i don't think we've got right back around on every single one right it always comes back to a couple different things and the main issue is the trauma ministration really took a hard line as we all know against china but there is a lot of detail that's worked into this so most of the public knows is trump was tough on china and trade with china but what the trouble ministration was doing was they were blocking key pieces of equipment and technology from being used by the chinese and private chinese companies as you mentioned you know qualcomm

a minute ago while way smart chips all that kind of thing well in this case this is specifically regarding this blacklist into t. that they've put together and these automakers include vokes wagon nissan and chrysler and essentially they're they were all affected to get by not being able to get the technology that they need for the computers in their cars so what the trucking ministration was able to successfully do was was go to war with china on trade by controlling a lot of the technology that they were sharing around the world and having an impact now the big question moving forward is how much is the by administration continue that war with china and certainly on the trade side of it or do they walk back of these executive orders and allow for for greater trade and technology to be shared my guess is rachel that by demonstration is going to do that because i think what's a much more normalized relationship with china and doesn't see china knesset. the earliest approach trumps all of this you know and it really will be interesting to

see exactly what he decided to do especially when you have these companies and these industries really hurting after a few years of all of those policies that we've seen carried out excellent insight as always to most co-host buns one thank you so much for your time. that's it for this time you can catch boom bust on demand on the portable t.v. which is available on smartphones and tablets through google play and the apple app store by searching for double t.v. or simply check it out horrible dr levy we'll see you here next time and as always don't forget to question more. nuclear become a battleground in the us in vermont people lived a month in the shutdown of a local plant for my yankee is right now my focus because it's

a very dangerous oh no care power plant the owner is attempting to run the reactor beyond its operational limit this case just sort of puts a magnifying glass on where's the power in this country where's it going is it moving more towards corporate interests or is it more in the idea of a traditional participatory democracy as are powerline with the people this case demonstrates that struggle in the very real ways a struggle. l look forward to talking to you all that technology should work for people. i robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the 1st law should your identification for should be very careful about official intelligence at the point over you see is to create a trance ever more than fear. of inflicting on theories chozen with

artificial intelligence will summon the demon. the robot must protect its own existence as a mixer for the. defenders of big tech often explain if you don't like their platforms think build your own well on this edition of crossfire we talk with some interested individuals do we just not against all odds they succeed. because we taste awful like absolutely unfair. coming now the virus is mutating and i walk 2 blocks away from the apartment and i would get confused. meanwhile patients who recovered from covert started to report some

unusual aftereffects the symptoms were different but. my hearing has been ok. one of the things i like research is all over the world are trying to determine the many pains and other problems and then turn it all into numbers showing my hair. the 1113 there this is throughout the day my hair just fell out various reports that didn't just leave for 35 percent of recovered patients. there have been many complaints of heroin vision loss joint pain and fatigue in the us these patients are referred to as post coded long holos i talk to multiple doctors and my doctor and they said the feeling that you're going to have a hard time in recovery you're going to be one of those people that they consider a long haul or.

some rumors are. you more. of those who just don't. care that oh. antarctica is a very international community. meaning to try to flee. you just because the slow slow slow you eat. through the prism. but the one who used to cook in brazil so they're nuclear. is everything because he was deluded live in front of t.v. with the above 30. 5 i have affected all day but i decided not to take his place.

with my gig and tell you that. riots broke out in several u.s. cities just dollars off the new president joe biden vows to overcome the deep rift between democrats and republicans. we must end this civil war. the pitch really gives blue. putting the ground running biden says he wants to extend to keep nuclear arms control to see with russia at the same time work to hold moscow to account. and the e.u. moves a step closer towards introducing coppa.