crisis moment in their lives we have a question for you from someone from our community this is caroline paul she's an academic librarian in derby and she has a question about steven pinker's book which you mention a few times in your book your letter asking. as several times in this book you mentioned steven pinker and his book the better angels of our nature in which he argues that sam violence has declined in human societies throughout history and i wonder having written this book that focuses exclusively on who or what you think about that argument are we listening to the better angels of our next year and becoming less violent or are we got staying the same or maybe even becoming more violent i wonder what you think about. steven pinker's book is enormously challenging and i think very important but i would make a distinction i've been thinking about it a lot since i've read it never read other books which which take i take issue with him and what i would say is that we may be becoming in some societies less prone to random violence or less prone to use violence in everyday lives but we

caroline: nobel laureate paul krugman, thanks so much for weighing in on all things future of the economy book "arguing with zombies." we hope he doesn't have to argue with too many of those photo fighting for the future of progressive music listening, and list.d the show 2020 was it progressive? joe: not at all, very regressive, very embarrassing. not the future at all. caroline: mine was all "frozen." [laughter] caroline: that is all for "what'd you miss." joe: "bloomberg technology" is next. this is bloomberg. ♪ are you frustrated with your weight and health? it's time for aerotrainer, a more effective total body fitness solution. (announcer) aerotrainer's ergodynamic design and four patented air chambers create maximum muscle activation for better results in less time, all while maintaining safe, correct form and allows for over 20 exercises. do the aerotrainer super crunch. the pre-stretch works your abs even harder, engaging the entire core. then it's the back extension, super rock, and lower back traction stretch to take the pressure off your spine and stretch muscles. planks are t

caroline, thank you. we will now turn to our witnesses. whichnly checking to see of you have the joy of going first. dr. paul lawrence, undersecretary for department of veterans affairs. stone, thank you for both be here today. we will provide five minutes for each of you to deliver your remarks for your testimony today. dr. lawrence, you are recognized for those five minutes. thank you. >> chairman moran, ranking member tester and other memos of the committee, i will focus on the benefits of demonstration. i will provide information about the three areas you requested in your invitation. first, compensation and pension claims. we have completed an average of 1.4 million claims per year. we complete these and 100 days. we monitor claims over 125 days. these are referred to as the backlog. in december 2019, due to the aggressive management and improve technology, we were reducing the backlog to the lowest in history. the effects of covid-19 became clear in april 2020. on april 2 the vha stopped in person exams. following their lead we ordered contract medical examiners to stop in person exams. recordsexisting

caroline, thank you. >>> we will now turn to our witnesses. i'm only checking to see which one of you have the joy of going first. dr. paul lawrence, undersecretary for benefits fi department of veterans affairs, dr. richard stone, executive in charge for the veterans health administration at the department of veterans affairs, thank you for both being here today. we will provide on the clock five minutes for each of you to deliver your remarks for your testimony today before our committee and so dr. lawrence you are now recognized for those five minutes. thank you. >> chairman moran, ranking member tester and other members of the committee, i will focus my remarks on the performance of the veterans benefits administration. i will provide information about the three areas you requested in your invitation. first, compensation and pension claims. since fy 18 we have completed an average of 1.4 million claims per year. we complete these in about 100 days. we carefully monitor claims over 125 days. these are referred to as the backlog. in december 2019 due to aggressive management and improved technology we reduced the backlo

caroline, thank you. >>> we will now turn to our witnesses. i'm only checking to see which one of you have the joy of going first. dr. paul lawrence, undersecretary for benefits fi department of veterans affairs, dr. richard stone, executive in charge for the veterans health administration at the department of veterans affairs, thank you for both being here today. we will provide on the clock five minutes for each of you to deliver your remarks for your testimony today before our committee and so dr. lawrence you are now recognized for those five minutes. thank you. >> chairman moran, ranking member tester and other members of the committee, i will focus my remarks on the performance of the veterans benefits administration. i will provide information about the three areas you requested in your invitation. first, compensation and pension claims. since fy 18 we have completed an average of 1.4 million claims per year. we complete these in about 100 days. we carefully monitor claims over 125 days. these are referred to as the backlog. in december 2019 due to aggressive management and improved technology we reduced the backlo