jared bernstein, maya macguineas, thank you both.reciate it. >> thank u. >> thank yu. >> woodruff: the opening ceremony is over, and the pyeongchang winter games are about to begin in earnest. but as john yang reports tsong the most closely watched early olympic even is global diplomacy. >> yang: fireworks opened the olympic games in pyegchang, but a diplomatic spectacle competed for attention: a historic handshake, between south korean president moonin jand north korea's nominal head of state, kim yong nam, at a welcoming reception. the greeting served to unrscore the apparent divisions between washington and seoul. vice president pence made a brief appearance, too, alongside moon and japanese prime minist shinzo abe, but he avoided the north korean delegation, and left early. the "wall street journal's" andrew jeong is covering the games. >> the conservative media here are interpreting this as a snub. other outlets are being careful because it still isn't really clear what message the vice president is trying to put out there.>> an

it was a rough day for jared bernstein. his teop a inside of the white house has announced he's going to be stepping away. he lost his top-secret clearance, the classified access inside of the white house to many omaterials he's currently had access to up to this pilot. and as you recall, just in the last few weeks, his clearans e en under the microscope. rod rosenstein has talked aboutw ongoing concerith kushner's status. this is all swirling around his job tonight. >> woodrf: and we heard the president say when he was asked about this the other day that he expected the white hse chief staff, who was supposed to be making this decision about security clearance, would do the right thing. we assume this decision came from john kelly, the chief of staff? c it did. it wasculated in a memo throughout the white house late uast week about how if currently have an interim security clearance and it's not moving toward a full security y clearanc will see a downgrade in your status. but this is a fragile momentfo the chief of staff.

which is something that jared bernstein did and sort of advocating academics ever since. i think opportunity zones increase the chance there is a race to zis stressed communities in america and that i think is an important component of this tax bill because as we go out and say it encourages capital formation and wage growth then the natural question somebody would have, is how do we know that won't happen in san francisco or some other place that's booming. den j denver is a booming labor market. how do we know you will help the distressed communities that everybody cares the most about that needs the turn around around right now and it i think it will create a positive equilibrium that everybody is creating because of the stress capital. >> very interesting. i will ask one more question then i will turn it to questions from the audience. and that's the impact on this bill of the deficit. round numbers joint committee staff scored this on a static basis is losing over ten years a trillion five, i think, then the dynamic score was took it to about a trillion. if you add i

about it a lot more is the creation of opportunity zones in the tax bill, which is something that jared bernstein and i wrote a paper about half a dozen years ago and have been advocating as academics ever since. the opportunity zones are going to increase the chance that there is a race to invest in communities in america. that is an important component of this tax bill because as we go out and say the tax bill is going to encourage capital formation and wage growth, then the natural question some of he would have would be how do we know it's not just want to happen in san francisco or some other place that's a really booming labor market right now? how do you know it will help distressed communities that everybody cares the most about and it needs to turn around right now? i think the opportunity zones are designed in a way that it's going to create a positive mast equilibrium where everybody goes because everyone else is going to distressed communities with capital. mr. samuels: very interesting. i will ask one more question and that i'm to turn it to questions from the audience. and that is t

finally and quickly, yamiche, the president's son-in-law, jared bernstein, a lot of discuss about the fact that he still has only an interim security clearce. she was asked about that. how does that affect the work he does in the white house? >> it does notffect it at all. he has top-secreur secy clearance that will continue. president trump can take that away from him, but there is no sign that he's going to do that. >> woodruff: well, again, an issue that keeps coming up. yamiche alcindor, thank you. s >> woodrufcial counsel robert mueller's recent indictment of 13 russian individuals again confirms russia's attempts to interfere in the 2016 u.s. election through the use of social media. but intelligence officials stress that russia's attempts did not end back then. toy, u.s. attorney general jeff sessions announced the creation of a cyber task force that will look into ways to fight this sort of activity by foreign governments and interests. to walk us through what we know about moscow's intere and cowhat we may expect in thng months, is nina jankowicz. she is a writer and analyst

what clearance does jared bernstein lose? >> he has been having abscess for over a year in the white juse to classified materials. now he wilt have a secret designation. at's a downgrade from h current designation. he's been going with this interim clearance for a year, but general john kelly, the chief of staff, has moved to try to tighten up this whole process inside of the west wing. >> amaka: donow what that means in terms of what he can still see and what he can no longer see? >> the white hoe maintains that kushner will be able to work on mexico relations with the united states, will ctinue to work on middle east peace, but this will be narrower scope his clearance inside of the white house. he will not have access to top-secret classified information in the same way that e president will in the coming months.f: >> woodro how do the folks you're talking to think that affects his job, the work j's able to do? >> it wasd bernstein. his top aide inside of the white house has announced he's goi be stepping away. he lost his

jared bernstein, economic adviser to joe biden, and steve, what does everybody want to hear do they want jay powell to say the most bland thing possible? >> i don't think he can. i think he has to answer some salient questions out there, including what he thinks about these tax cuts and the impact they're deg to have on monetary policy i think that's the key we want to hear about his inflation dynamic and what he thinks, does he think inflation is going back to 2%? is he okay, cool with the idea it may float a little above 2%, 2.5% what we're doing here is resetting, rediscovering, finding anew the reaction function of a new fed chairman to the economy glow know him. what can we expect from him? will he be -- what's he like what's he going to do? >> i think he's a very studious person but he's not an economist. he's going to be sort of learning a little bit on the job. he's had five years to learn some of the economic stuff, but he's not an economist by training i think the key is whether or not he's more of a supply-side guy. do we hear him say that the tax cuts are going to lead to pro

and our good friend, jared bernstein. a cnbc contributor good to have you here.ard so much talk about how wages were going to go up as a result of tax cuts to corpses. seeing all these buybacks, does that dishearten you? >> no. look, wages are going to go up a lot. the estimates -- i don't agree with some of these wall street estimates. kevin hassett has the story rig right. they're estimating $4,000 higher after-tax income for working people share buybacks, first of all, investment projects are roaring. we're on the front end of the biggest investment boom in 20 years. last point on share buybacks, i don't understand, why are they bad? here's the benefits. >> come on, you know why they're bad. they're not bad but isn't there something better they should use that money for than buying back their own shares >> they're not investments. >> rallied 40%. >> the shares go from the sort of corporate lockbox into hands of ordinary investors who will probably invest the money more wisely that money may go into new investments. share buybacks raise prices of stocks, if you

reaction let's hear more from our panelists on all of this richard bernstein, michael stray, jared bernsteinlli and steve liesman are with us. steve, quickly your thoughts on the numbers. >> my thoughts are you didn't put up my prediction of 190,000. >> it's on the board you don't get close like that. i this i they're going to put it up now this is a good number, a solid number i like the broad-based nature of job gains here construction may be a little flatter, perhaps by the better weather for that one week in january that happened. overall some funky seasonal stuff where essentially you lost 25,000 retail in december and you were up 15,000 in other words, you didn't hire as many seasonals as expected. there it is, liesman, 190, i don't know if that was the winner, thank you very much, verifying it in the back there not the most important thing as becky suggests temp help, not so good leisure up by 35,000 solid job market and i think we have to start thinking about this problem we're having, which is the good news being digested by the market as bad news. >> right let's get to rick santell

here's what carl bernstein had to say in our 8:00 hour about the possiberil jared kushner coe facing. in the crosshairs of special prosecutor mueller's investigation, which is focused in part on jared kushner like a laser. and there is every expectation in the white house and among lawyers who are representing other people in mueller's investigation that jared kushner has many, many strikes lining up against him in the mueller investigation. and the subtext here is part of the things that have led to the rejection of his being eligible for a security clearance are also part of mueller's investigation, particularly aspects that have to do with perhaps monetizing his position in the white house during the transition, trying to shore up his failing business enterprises while at the same time doing business on behalf of the trump administration. >> back now with our panel. this is i guess more of a hypothetical. but if something is discovered in a background check process, let's say on jared kushner, is that something that would be referred to the mueller team? >> well, the background che