mr. powell: absolutely. our view at the fed is to be very much intend to complete the basel iii endgame. the basel accords are important to set minimal standards for international banking around the world. we expect that we will be at we are kind of on hold until the u.s. banking agencies are back up and running with new leadership. but once they are, we fully expect you get back to that work and complete the basel iii endg ame. i have good reason to think we will be able to do that. that's good -- anil: that's good news. a little bit of inside baseball, there has been a lot of discussion the last few weeks about changing some of these statistics emphasized about the economy, and the commerce department recently disbanded the federal economic statistics advisory committee. and i know during covid you felt like there were many indicators in the economy that were kind of broken or not so helpful. do we need to worry about whether the fed's ability to do its job might come into question because of deficiencies

mr. powell: yes. sen. van hollen: and at the same time, the trump administration has restricted federal agencies from providing the public with information about the bird flu, avian flu, which is part of the cost of egg increases. what we are really facing here is an administration that campaigned on bringing down prices and is not doing that. did not campaign on project 2025, and that is what they are doing. when it comes to prices, mr. chairman, the president is also talking about significant increases in tariffs. our republican colleagues are also talking about passing a tax bill that gives disproportionately to the super wealthy and which will add trillions to the deficit by their own account. talking about playing with the baseline. my question is simple. all things being equal, do big increases in tariffs and increasing the deficit and debt put upward pressure on inflation? this is that simple math? mr. powell: you know, it really does remain to be seen what terra policies will be implement to a

mr. secretary, let me ask you about what the fed chair jerome powell had to say on friday. he said, quote, we're still very uncertain about what will be tariffs, for how long, and at what level. can you provide some clarity, mr. secretary? are these tariffs going to be temporary or permanent? >> so, the tariffs that we've started with mexico, canada and china, that was the month of march. these are fentanyl-related border-related. china makes the ingredients for fentanyl. it's got to stop. president xi offered president trump in 2019, he put the death penalty on anybody who made the ingredients for fentanyl. instead, we've gotten in 2025, china is subsidizing the production of fentanyl. maximum subsidy available in china to make the ingredients to kill americans. i mean, this is -- president trump is honest, and he is powerful on it and he's not going to step off the gas. if you are talking about the drug war, let's focus on the drug war and when you want to talk about april 2nd, that's going to be reciprocal tariffs, and i'm happy to talk about that. let's keep those two di

mr. trump's policies and the resulting uncertainty. less than an hour ago, the fed chairman, jerome powell, joined economists, u.s. allies and everyday americans in seeking a better understanding of trump's policies and their impact. >> as we parse the incoming information, we are focused on separating the signal from the noise. as the outlook. >> evolves. >> we do not need to be in a hurry, and we are well. positioned to wait for greater clarity. >> i want to bring in nbc's garrett hake, who's in toronto. ron insana is cnbc's senior analyst and ceo of ify ify i. charlie sykes is an msnbc contributor and columnist, and nbc's christine romans is here with me on set. okay, ron, you heard what chairman powell just said. what are business leaders telling you about this level of uncertainty? >> well. >> i mean, i think that's the key. >> word, chris. >> and neither. >> markets nor business. >> leaders like uncertainty. >> they would. >> prefer clarity. >> in and around. >> any changes in policy as, as jason. >> furman was saying in the. >> last hour, whether it's around business policy, fiscal policy, trade policy, a r

and the combination of joe biden and jay powell at the fed led to what we are dealing with now. >> because the wall street journal also said mr. trump is whacking friends, not adversaries. >> well, when we trade with the rest of the world, we don't have allies. we have competitors. let's take germany. germany sells us eight times more cars than we sell them. it's not about our product quality or craftsmanship. it's about the fact that german tariffs on autos are four times higher, 10% versus two and a half. plus, when you add the vat tax, the value added tax, it serves both as an export subsidy and a 19% additional tariff. now here's what happens. a cadillac starts in michigan at $50,000. by the time it gets to german markets, it's in the mid 60,000. because of the tariffs and the vat tax. a bmw comes from bavaria. here, $50,000. they sell it to us because of the way the vat tax works is an export subsidy or low tariffs. and the low 40,000. okay. do you see that's a $22,000 differential because germany, our ally, which also refuses to pay for nato and buys a bunch of gas from. >> russia, right. those are our allies. and i can