it helped unleash the american economy. unemployment is at record lows and consumer confidence is up. factories are being built at

record pace and america's leading the world. in other words -- is that bad as 3g eats sleeps and dreams -- and after earning her ph.d. in economics from yale only a handful of women in her class she entered academia before answering the call to public service. this is a woman with a resume that is long. i'll highlight a few things but she was chair the of the council of economic advisers for president clinton, president they federal reserve bank of san francisco, vice chair and chair of the federal reserve board of governors and as of january 26, 2021 the treasury secretary of the united states. she has an incredible amount of responsibility on her shoulders, an incredible breadth of experience. just one word can change global markets pick sheet tsdb been more careful than i do but i'm

excited that secretary janet yellen is here with us today for a conversation about small business, workforce development all things money. she has decades of experience who has been instrumental empowering our world leading economic recovery and i'm excited to speak with her today so please join me in welcoming secretary janet yellen. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. >> madam secretary welcome to michigan. >> i'm delighted to be in michigan and thank you so much for having me. >> we are pleased to have you and there's a lot of excitement from folks here who have come to watch this conversation antic cited to hear from you.

>> i'd like to start by asking you a question. president biden and i are very proud of the inflation reduction act it's a piece of legislation the most historic legislation in our countries history to address climate change and clean energy. i think it has an especially important implication for michigan. my question to you is how is it going? how are you finding implementation and challenges and how is it going here in michigan? >> first i'll start by saying we are so grateful for the incredible investment at the federal level. between the administration and our great congressional delegation we are able to bring in resources for michigan as the

conduit. implementation is the name of the game and making sure we are moving quickly and able to distill all of the requirements. my direction to our team was about michigan to pull in more money than any other state for f.. move fast and let's do this. we don't -- we have been able to secure incredible resources when it comes to high-speed internet which we saw during the pandemic and how crucial that was. michigan is the 4th highest investment in the country for efforts on high-speed internet. we have won nevada's big battery projects recently and electric vehicle production and if you think about the future of manufacturing. we are really excited about this

opportunity and we are seeing these resources coming in. we are grateful at the federal level who helped us to try to navigate. >> now i'm going to ask you a question. let's talk about inflation. there's new economic data out today on inflation and i know that you look carefully at all the data and you've been on the road speaking with american workers and business leaders. just wondering what is your perspective on the state of the u.s. economy? >> overall my assessment is the state of the u.s. economy is very strong. >> we have a labor market that same day of the world. we have national unemployment ratings that are under 4%, the

longest string of time in 50 years. economic growth is also strong in spite of the fact that the economy has recovered in the job market was operating at something close to full employment and we recently enjoyed 3.1% growth last year. connectivity growth is improving as well and that's important over time if we can keep that up or living standards. inflation, there was a report yesterday on inflation. it was a tad higher than most people were expecting. the market responded to that but i think it is a tremendous mistake to focus on minor

fluctuations and to fail to see the longer-term and bigger trend and the trend here is that inflation is moving decisively down. we did have a burst of inflation. really you rose to levels we haven't seen since the late 70s or the early 80s. americans saw the cost of things whether it was new or used cars, gasoline, especially surged after russia's invasion of ukraine. a huge demand for housing and housing costs went up. inflation has now fallen almost to levels consistent with the

objective and we have had a two-thirds decline in inflation. i believe in the majority of gas stations across the country, the price of gasoline is down and averages under $3. it's down $1.90 off its high price for familiar goods. we were shocked to see eggs rise in price. eggs have fallen back to close to pre-pandemic levels. car prices and truck prices have declined as well. so some prices are falling. inflation overall is coming back down to normal levels where it's not an issue among people.

most importantly -- has gone up and they have gone up quite a lot and a lot and it going to especially in large amounts or lower income workers. the same report that showed higher inflation is expected and shows average hourly earnings adjusted for inflation for all private-sector workers went up over the last year by 1.3% and for blue-collar workers they were up 4.6% just over the last year. i think the statistics that i find useful to summarize how things have gone, the median worker in the united states if you compare today with 2019 you

can buy exactly the same basket of goods and services and they have $1400 left over on top of that to spend or save. while americans have been down on the economy, and i think the cause of inflation, when you ask americans in the survey week before last by axios people were asked about their personal financial situation and over 60% said they felt good. they felt very good about it and they think 2024 will be a better year than 2023. i would agree and as inflation has come down and wages have gone up we really are seeing in surveys in the course the

university of michigan survey was one of the most important measures of consumer sentiment that it's moved sharply higher in recent months. i think americans are beginning to feel better about the economy. importantly actually if you compare the performance of the united states with other countries that have gone through the same impact of a pandemic are economy has grown more. inflation has come down more and wages adjusted for inflation have risen more than in any other advance country. of course the pandemic was dramatic in so many different ways to american families and i think it still weighs on the abuse of the uncertainties of

life. middle-class families have had a lot of burdens and a lot of things they are worried about. they have seen over decades especially for people without a college education in many parts of the country. jobs have disappeared. childcare is expensive. education is expensive. they are worried about health care. it's not that there aren't serious problems that policymakers need to address to support middle-class families so that they can enjoy better lives. the biden administration is focused on that. i was in pittsburgh yesterday and visited the allegheny health care system and they are making remarkable at adjustments in

using federal funds to go towards medical care to bring down health care costs. just in the last couple of years president biden has managed to bring down premiums under the affordable care act. there are low rate health care costs for many americans. coverage has increased more americans are covered today than other countries in 2020. for the first time medicare is able now to negotiate drug prices. with major pharmaceutical companies and drug prices are not going to be allowed to rise more quickly than inflation. and it's not only going to bring

down costs for american families, it's also benefiting the u.s. government by controlling medicare costs. the course the seniors the cost of insulin has been capped. this coming year it will be an overall cap for medicare recipients on the total amount of out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs. we are making progress and i think the inflation reduction act is going to result in a boom in investment in clean energy. that's going to mean less exposure to what happens in russia are in the middle east with oil prices so greater independence, more and dependence on the sun and the

wind and less on geopolitics and that will bring down energy costs. there's more work to do. we now have important legislation that is investing in america and in the people of america and bringing manufacturing to sectors like; jars in clean energy, investing in research and development to allow america to flourish and importantly good jobs being created all over the country. in parts of the country that it seemed the dearth of economic opportunity. i felt good about the state of the economy now and i'm optimistic. everyone's happy to hear that.

>> we are seeing a surge in investment in manufacturing in many parts of the country and i guess my question for you would be do you think that the midwest is going to become the future of advanced manufacturing and if it is this requires partnerships between government and the private-sector. and does the state of michigan working to try to incentivize the private-sector and do you need help from the federal government? or hasn't done done enough? how can we help you? [laughter] >> now i will ask my question at you. it's great to see so much investment in manufacturing and doing a pandemic we saw very clearly it's an our national

security to make sure we are manufacturing in this country. some the things that i talked about with my budget that i've just introduced in sharpening michigan's toolkit to make sure we are incentivizing r&d and we are a place where you invest in your employees and you get the benefits. it's the innovation. these are all strategic ways we can ensure we are growing continually what i would argue and i think all my colleagues whether mike dewine in ohio or governor wallin minnesota recognized the strength is our focus and we are working together. certainly partnership with the federal government has been crucial. as we think about everything from semiconductors and hyperparabolic silicon which is a element and for semiconductors

we need semi-conductors to. it's not just the auto industry but all of these work together and our work is crucial. and it's a homeland security issue so continued resources and favorable interpretation of the federal government are great ways we could work together that would help michigan. i wanted to ask a quick question. does the president find historic legislation as part of its investing in america agenda and i know he's developed an informed a lot of the work they have done. the infrastructure job the chips and science ask the ira. as we in michigan are thinking about how we benefit from that are there things that we should be looking to work standing on as we think about the person's

investing in america planned? >> michigan is a state that is perfectly positioned to benefit from all of the legislation has been passed particularly inflation reduction act. you have the rich history and manufacturing and innovation and we are already scene it boomed that i think is triggered especially by the inflation reduction act. michigan is better than being -- benefiting from it so we are trying to keep track of this legislation and my staff told me according to their estimates there are $22 billion in commitments here in michigan to invest in 21st century industries including $18 billion

in electric vehicles and batteries, $2 billion in clean power, 1 billion in clean energy manufacturing, close to a billion and bio manufacturing semiconductors and electronics and the industry as well. i think michigan is very well positioned to benefit from these programs and to think over the last several years there were other ways i think in which the federal government agenda has benefited michigan. it starts with the american rescue plan and a first-aid package that was passed when president biden became president. we were very worried at the time about the impact of the pandemic on the budgets of state and local governments.

in a financial crisis states are hard hit if you revenue and unlike the federal government. we have expenditures and after that financial crisis took a very long time for state and local government employment to regain pre crisis levels. so $50 billion when at the state and local governments and tribal governments in michigan received $6.5 billion. there was a small business credit initiative that gave michigan close to $250 billion in money for high-speed internet. hopefully those funds have been useful. i know i've heard many examples of very good projects.

there will be roughly $11 billion in spending in michigan for bipartisan infrastructure law and a lot of the spending i believe is really creating good jobs and not just for people with college educations. for people with high school education that have seen a dearth of opportunities. so those are some of the ways. a lot of powerful tools that have been given to us through great partnership so we appreciate that. steve was or david is going to come out and join us? >> a round of applause please. [applause] u. are. the hook yet. there are a couple of questions from the audience. governor will start with you as relates to the budget.

let's dig deeper into your proposed budget. how do we expand health education housing sector without raising taxes? >> way -- we've been able to do it for the last five years we are going to keep doing it. one of the things i'm proud of in this budget and i mentioned rachel eubanks are state treasure our first woman state treasurer. [applause] i had the opportunity to introduce her. she was so excited to meet you. anyway we have i think really seen michigan economy come roaring back from the pandemic and certainly during the pandemic it was crucial to us meeting the needs of michigan people but also making the investments that were long overdue. because of that in conjunction

with the growing economy we are in a strong position. as i mentioned rachel and i went to new york until the great story of what's happening in michigan. our credit rating is strong and we have got these historic highs in terms of rainy day funds soar ability has been pragmatic and still to have the resources to invest in education of our people and still obtain now. and workforce development i think speaks to how strong this economy has come back. lots of people in this room are seeing it in lots of people in this room are driving it with investments here in michigan but it's incredible to be able to say when we have a strong economy we see all the boats are rising and we can make long overdue investments without across-the-board tax increases. i'm determined to make sure we can keep going in that

direction. >> thank you. we'll have time for one more and it will go to lightning round. >> the final question is how are companies scaling their workforces to meet the growing industries of the future. >> workforce development is critically important and with respect to the federal government and that during a $50 billion imagined we have distributed to state and local fiscal recovery funds, there's a lot of flexibility in how the money can be used but have particularly emphasized workforce development programs as being a very valuable along with housing, affordable housing is being a very good way to use those funds.

what we try to do is look at what is working and what's not working and pre -- three worked for strategies we see that are very effective are registered apprenticeships, community college programs and supportive services that lets people take advantage of these programs. i've been visiting in recent months quite a few workforce development programs that involve partnerships between local governments, community colleges bringing businesses and something else that is stimulating a lot of collaboration and workforce development is the inflation reduction act. the subsidies, the tax subsidies for firms from most of the tax

credits are five times as large if the standards with respect to apprenticeships are observed and so firms have to pay prevailing pay and the jobs that are being supported by these tax credits and it's really designed to make sure that what we are creating here create good jobs and an apprenticeship program needs to be brought into play as well. this is really stimulating a lot of additional workforce development and unions as well. >> governor. >> a lot of what secretary yellen just said are things we have been working on here in michigan as well. expanding access to community

college. the michigan will reconnect which we created last term with a republican legislature. we looked at with the business community at the table and helping drive a lot of this, look at what they were doing in tennessee and made it a michigan-based program. we improve, they were doing and made it our own. they didn't think they had the ability to afford it into now been a better paying job it's one of the coolest thing that i get to do as i travel the state and see the people that have benefited from our work. that's just one example. the michigan achievement scholarship is underway to bring down the cost of post high school endeavor and guaranteeing two years of community college for all is another way we can expand their workforce development programs.

>> madam secretary although the economy serious and we take it seriously we will do a couple of lightning round questions. just about 30 seconds to respond if you could from both of you. all start with you in the first question the person you would like to have lunch with dead or alive and they can be a -- number. >> i would choose john maynor keynes. [applause] he change the way all of us understand business cycles, public policy and financial markets and a long time ago richard nixon said we are all keynesians now. i think this is really a bipartisan understanding he had deep insights into how economies work. >> governor, same question. >> i was going to say ulysses s. grant but he had 10 minutes with

the secretary before we came out here and only 10 minutes i'm going to say janet yellen. [applause] >> that is great. the last one is most important and we have a little bit of time left. advice to your 25-year-old self madam secretary. >> in life it's important to figure out what you are really passionate about and what you are interested in what you want to devote your work life to and to try to do it. and to affiliate yourself with an organization whether to affirm or nonprofit or university whose mission it you deeply identify with that you are proud to say i work for this company or organization with people that you like, trust and admire.

you shouldn't be afraid to try new things. make changes in your life and learn new things along the way and deepen your knowledge and interests. >> governor, bring us home. two things to make it come to. sunscreen. [laughter] i grew up in the 70s, 80s and 90s. i love what you said. take risks and experience new things. the woman gave me some great advice when i was running for governor and it was to show up as you are. i'm grateful that there are so many women who have come before me that make it easier to do that. the first half to calculate how everyone else would be interpreted knowing when i unpacked all the others that would follow and i'm grateful for your leadership and for all the incredible things that you've done for our country and for me as a female leader.

i have personally benefited and i know my daughter has as well. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> our distinguished guest madam secretary governor whitmire thank you for your time and your energy and all that you do. [applause] >> thank you.