lael brainard, we appreciate director lael brainard. thank you. we appreciate the time.hank you. >> thank you all right. >> happening now, defense secretary lloyd austin is meeting with his ukrainian counterpart at the pentagon. ukrainian officials in washington are there to meet with administration officials from the biden administration to present them with a list of targets inside russia in an attempt to push the us to lift restrictions on the use of american weapons against the russians. earlier this week, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy once again called for allowing ukraine to carry out strikes deeper inside russia two arguing it would end the war on ukraine sooner good news for anyone hitting the road this labor day weekend, lower prices at the gas pump from, leading roles leading remodels. i did stars, makeup renovation to give back in a big way celebrity iou, all new monday night at nine hdtv your shipping manager left to find themselves leaving you lost unique to hire. >> i need indeed, indeed you do indeed instant match, instantly delivers quality he c

director of the national economic council, lael brainard, thank you for your time.all picture that could lead to the rate cut coming up shortly. how are markets? how is wall street? and we should mention a record high in the dow the other day. how is wall street looking at this american economy as we sit here on the eve of the election. >> remember the beginning of the month, we had the freakout on wall street. here we go, stocks can go down, and there's something dangerous afloat. markets are higher for the month. they have clawed back. they have come back for that. for consumers and voters, the interesting thing is they know that inflation has improved but affordability is the problem. affordability for college, affordability for a home, for car insurance, homeowners insurance. there are parts of the economy that there has been progress on drug prices. there are other nonnegotiable parts of the economy that are not affordable, and that's what's bothering voters. >> it's lower, but not low enough. christine romans, thanks as always. we appreciate it. and we'll be r

here with the first reaction from the white house is national economic council director lael brainardus this morning. give me your reaction. i guess let's start off there in terms of the number itself. as i said it was at least in line with what had been anticipated by the economists who follow this very closely. >> yes. i think we've now seen a string of monthly inflation reports that should give us confidence. inflation is running at 2.5%, and that is the lowest level since the spring of 2021 when you started to see that supply-related pandemic inflation surge, and that should give us confidence that the economy cancontinue expanding. we saw good numbers yesterday, and good numbers on consumers this morning. the economy can continue expanding. the labor market can continue -- it's solid, with inflation moving back to normal levels. so that is a very reassuring print this morning and consistent with what we're seeing in the markets, which is that mortgage rates have come down. they've still got some distance to go, but mortgage rates have come down. market rates have come down. that'