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One World with Zain Asher
CNN Speaks With Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; Majority Of Americans Oppose Tariffs On Trade Partners; President Says Tariffs Will Bring Drug Production Back To U.S.; President's Trade War Threats Still Rattling Global Markets; Death Toll In Nightclub Roof Collapse Rises Above 200; U.S. Criticized Over Response To Myanmar Earthquake; Women Are more Involved In Finances Than Ever Before; Black Pilots Respond To Trump's Anti-DEI Message; Aired 12:00-1:00p ET
Aired April 10, 2025 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:29]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: The worst self-inflicted wound. Former Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, gives the Trump administration a report card.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: ONE WORLD starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET YELLEN, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY: We had a very well-functioning economy. And President Trump has taken a wrecking ball to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Yellen not holding back on the record. It's her first interview since Donald Trump took office on television and you'll see it here on CNN.
ASHER: From rescue to recovery. We'll take you to the capital of the Dominican Republic where crews are working tirelessly at the scene of a
deadly nightclub roof collapse.
Also ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TEE FRISBY, STUDENT, LUKE WEATHERS FLIGHT ACADEMY: I called my dad, I was like, I'm in love. And he's like, who did you meet? I was like, no. With
flying. I got to fly plane now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Living the dream. The flight school combating the Trump era crush of diversity, equity and inclusion.
ASHER: And later LeBron James is used to making history, but this time.
GOLODRYGA: I really thought that was interesting.
ASHER: It is really like him actually. He's just Ken. We'll explain.
GOLODRYGA: Hello, everyone. Live from New York, I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. You are watching the second hour of ONE WORLD.
The world's two largest economies are engaged right now in a stare-down and it is unclear who is going to be blinking first and what the role the U.S.
will have going forward in a global financial system.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. In the last hour, we spoke exclusively with former treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, in her first interviews on television since Donald
Trump took office, while also simultaneously unveiling his tariff policy. She called the worldwide economic chaos created by the U.S. president, a
self-inflicted wound that will cause consumers dearly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YELLEN: President Trump inherited an economy where growth was very strong. The labor market was functioning very well with low unemployment and
outstanding record of job creation. The absolute opposite of the clips that you just played, and inflation while not yet at the Fed's a two percent
goal was coming meaningfully down.
And even this morning, we saw a CPI report that doesn't yet contain any evidence of a tariff effect and showed remarkably low inflation getting
closer and closer to the two percent goal.
So we had a very well-functioning economy. And President Trump has taken a wrecking ball to it.
GOLODRYGA: You're now back to being a professor. I have to ask you, how would you grade how the Trump administration has handled the economy thus
far?
YELLEN: I'm afraid I could not give it a passing grade. I'm sorry. I think policy has been -- this is the worst self-inflicted wound that I have ever
seen in an administration impose on a well-functioning economy.
It is, if you take the whole complex of Trump policies, tariffs that, as I just said, cost the average household up to around $4,000 a year. The DOGE
cuts in services, whether it's for our veterans, Social Security, the Internal Revenue Service, the agencies, the public interacts with a
spending plan that is likely to involve huge cuts in Medicaid and food stamps that poor income families particularly rely on, all in order to
support tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy.
You had an administration that said it's worker-focused. And I really can't think of an overall economic agenda that could be more devastating on every
front from tariffs to cuts in government services to leaving very large deficits, taking policies that will expand the deficit when we need to see
exactly the opposite. This is going to be devastating for American households and workers.
[12:05:28]
GOLODRYGA: And, quickly, the likelihood of a recession due to President Trump's economic policies, in your view?
YELLEN: Well, it's clearly risen. And in addition to the tariffs and the negative likely impact on consumer spending, we have a huge uncertainty
shock. No one knows where any of this is going.
We're now in a huge war with China. And the tariffs that have been imposed on China are what I would call prohibitive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Reality is now settling in on Wall Street. The U.S. stock market is down sharply one day after its third best day in modern history. Here's a
look at where things stand now. U.S. oil prices are also tumbling after the tariff fallout.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us live now at the Stock Exchange. Vanessa, I was talking to one analyst yesterday who said to me that we are in
desperate need of just a normal day on Wall Street. Just a normal day, one day, where things are completely standard.
You look at what's happening with the Dow right now, obviously, a dramatic sell-off, sharply contrasted to what we saw yesterday. Just walk us through
what is weighing the market down.
We've seen obviously, not just JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, talking about the likelihood of a recession increase, but also former Treasury Secretary,
Janet Yellen, was just on our air less than an hour ago saying the same thing.
Take us through what is weighing the market down right now.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Reality is weighing the market down right now. Yesterday was obviously this incredible
relief rally after President Trump announced that 90-day pause on those reciprocal tariffs. And that was a relief. Welcome news to investors and
traders here. You know, I walked away from the day talking to a couple guys on the floor and they said, you know, this is a good day because the Dow
ended up nearly 3,000 points.
But as you note, Zain, look at the Dow right now, down more than almost 1,700 points, really cutting those gains in half. And traders really are
understanding now that the reality of the situation is that we are still in a trade war. It is not what it could have been and not what it was for
several hours of the day, but we're still seeing, you know, historically high tariffs that 125 percent tariff on China. You have those 25 percent
tariffs on autos. And then you have those 10 percent universal tariffs across the board.
Especially worrying to traders here is what's going to happen with China. What is the off-ramp for the president to be willing to negotiate with
China and to what level?
Interestingly, one analyst, Ross Mayfield from Baird, told me that, there could be sort of non-tangible tariff discussions going on that may, you
know, allow the president to lower those tariff rates, maybe conversations around TikTok or even the Panama Canal. We know that the president has a
keen interest in U.S. investment in the Panama Canal.
But really looking forward, investors expect a bumpy road because they are waiting today to hear anything from the president or the administration
that might indicate a direction that this trade war may be going in.
The 90-day pause is certainly welcome, but there's a lot that has to be done in 90 days. And right now, we are essentially seeing the market still
pricing in this trade war. Still pricing in the event that this will continue to drag on.
Investors here paying very close attention to the news. Worth noting that a veteran investor, Peter Tuchman, told me earlier today that this is really
an event-driven market right now. This is a market that is paying close attention to the news. This is not structural. This is something where the
market is reacting to what is happening in real time and real time happening in Washington, guys.
GOLODRYGA: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.
Let's cross over to CNN's Harry Enten. Harry. Our dear friend. The one --
ASHER: Frowning.
GOLODRYGA: -- stable --
ASHER: Frowning.
GOLODRYGA: -- the one stable factor in our lives right now. Harry Enten, you've got some interesting research.
ASHER: Liming for us.
GOLODRYGA: -- on how Americans are feeling about all of this.
I dare say not so great.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Not so great. And I also have to say not so great for our audience. What a letdown from Secretary Yellen and
Harry Enten. I mean, my God, what a downgrade.
Anyway, we'll go get --
ASHER: Never. Never.
ENTEN: Never. Never.
GOLODRYGA: Come equals.
[12:10:00]
ASHER: Yes.
ENTEN: Thank you. Thank you. Let's get into it.
Look, the bottom line, as you know, as Vanessa was just saying, yes, you know, obviously those reciprocal tariffs went adios amigos, but it's not
like it's magically delicious out there in terms of tariffs right now because we still have that 10 percent universal tariff going on.
And what are we talking about here in terms of how the American public feels about this? Opposition leads the way, 57 percent opposed those 10
plus percent universal tariffs on our trading partners compared to just 39 percent who favor them.
And part of the reason that they're opposed to them is because if you talk with most economists, these universal tariffs will drive prices up, right
along with those tariffs against China.
And what is the top economic worry right now? It's not actually the stock market, although that comes in at 17 percent, that's historically strong.
It's actually the cost of goods at 47 percent or housing costs at 20 percent.
Remember, we're coming off of historic inflation, right, and then anything on top of that, that can make prices go up, is something that is frowned
upon by the American public. So just because the, obviously, those reciprocal tariffs go adios amigos, if there are tariffs remaining that
make prices go up, the American public simply put is not going to like it.
And I can promise you this, if prices go up, Donald Trump's approval rating will go down. And speaking of Donald Trump, right, there was that stock
market rally yesterday, but obviously, we're seeing the S&P 500, the NASDAQ, the Dow falling today.
And I just think it's so important to take a step back and look at it through a historical perspective and we'll talk about stock market drops,
right? The S&P 500 over Donald Trump's term, at this particular hour, is actually down now over 10% percent, not just down over five percent, it's
down over 10 percent over his term.
You go back since the S&P 500 was created back in 1957. The only president to ever inherit a bull market and then see a drop to the level that Donald
Trump has seen it, under his presidency, is Donald Trump himself. No bueno across the board. Yes, a little bit of good news yesterday in terms of the
stock market rally because Trump pulling back on some of the tariffs. But overall, this is a frowning picture for me.
And let me just say one thing, though, that does bring a smile to my face. I swear to God, I was watching domestic air like 20 minutes ago, and I
swear I saw Bianna on there. I don't know how she's in two places at once. Can you explain that to me?
ASHER: She actually has a twin sister who's actually on domestic. And this is -- yes, this is the real Bianna. That's a twin sister --
GOLODRYGA: AI. AI, our friend.
ENTEN: AI. It solves all of our problems.
GOLODRYGA: Get with it. Yes.
ENTEN: Perfect. Maybe they can make a double for me and then we can make everyone's ears just explode with my nasally New York Jewish accent.
GOLODRYGA: One of you is more than enough, Harry Enten.
ENTEN: I think so.
GOLODRYGA: Thank you for putting those numbers together.
ENTEN: Of course.
GOLODRYGA: Always great to see you.
ENTEN: Nice to see you.
ASHER: All right. One sector that has been spared Donald Trump's on-again, off-again tariff threats is the pharmaceutical industry.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. But the U.S. president has made clear that he has big plans for tariffs on foreign-made drugs. Currently, the U.S. drug market is
dominated by generics made in India and China, and Trump has said he plans to use tariffs to bring production back to the United States.
Our medical correspondent Meg Tirrell has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, pharmaceutical tariffs were left out of that original round of tariffs that President Trump announced
on what he called Liberation Day, April 2nd. But he didn't talk in that speech about why he has pharmaceutical tariffs in his sights. Take a
listen.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States can no longer produce enough antibiotics to treat our sick. We have a tremendous
problem. We have to go to foreign countries to treat our sick. If anything ever happened from a war standpoint, we wouldn't be able to do it.
TIRRELL: Now essentially, universally, experts agree that this is a problem that needs to be fixed, but they warn that tariffs are unfortunately likely
to make this problem worse before they bring any manufacturing back to the United States, if they do that at all.
And it really comes down to the fact that most antibiotics are generic medicines. These are older medicines that sell sometimes for pennies per
dose, which is really great for their accessibility, but it creates a very fragile ecosystem around creating them.
And in fact, 92 percent of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. are for generic drugs. Now, here's how experts say tariffs could cause more drug
shortages.
Generic medicines have very low profit margins, so they're sold for not much more than it costs to make them. But there are also limits on how much
generic drug makers can raise the price of generic drugs, both because of group purchasing organization contracts that typically are locked in for a
few years, also because of laws that exist that limit their ability to raise drug prices faster than the price of inflation.
So if the price of the inputs, the ingredients that go into these drugs, starts to rise, but you can't raise the price commensurately, that could
actually make it unprofitable to manufacture these generic medicines. And that could cause some of these manufacturers, experts tell us, to just
decide to stop making the drug or providing it for the U.S. market.
And already, we see a lot of drug shortages out there that are causing problems for patients and for hospitals and doctors. And antibiotics are
one of the top five categories where we see these shortages. But we also see them in things like cancer and chemotherapy drugs and many other drug
classes.
[12:15:12]
So this is a major problem. But unfortunately, tariffs, experts tell us, will likely make this problem worse in the short term. And they're not
convinced because it's so expensive to build manufacturing plants and takes a long time in the United States that this is actually going to bring
manufacturing back.
We should also note that on branded medicines, those pricier drugs, this could potentially raise those prices even further, making pricey drugs even
more expensive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Meg Tirrell.
We want to talk about all of this from tariffs on drugs to the trade war with China to the state of financial markets around the world. Joining us
now is Betsey Stevenson. She is a public policy and economics professor at the University of Michigan and was a member of Barack Obama's Council of
Economic Advisers during his second term.
Betsey, welcome back to the program. I'm not sure if you were able to catch some of our interview with former Treasury Secretary and Fed Chair, Janet
Yellen. Somebody you know quite well. Boy, did she not hold back?
A few of the headlines that she made was that in response to Trump's policies. She thinks the likelihood of a recession has increased. She
called it the worst self-inflicted wound by a president on an economy that was quite healthy when he came into office.
And she also believed that part of the reason for the pause, largely, was due to his worry about what was happening in the bond market. Give us a
sense of where things stand now, nearly 24 hours after the president put a pause on those reciprocal tariffs from your perspective.
BETSEY STEVENSON, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIST OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR: You know, I have heard from a lot of people, not just people in the
former administration, that it's really frustrating how hard everybody around the globe worked to keep the global economy stable through the
pandemic, only to see a U.S. president, through recklessness and frankly, a lack of hard work, not doing -- putting the effort in to figure out how to
accomplish a fixed set of goals responsibly, just destroy the economy in one fell swoop.
So it's not surprising she didn't hold back. I'm sure it's very frustrating. I'm sure she had many, many sleepless nights because what she
cared about was, how do we not crash the global economy? And it seems like the current administration is having no sleepless nights over that.
I agree that, you know, one of the reasons the 90-day pause probably came in was because things were getting -- you know, the president said it
himself. They're getting yippee out there. And he said, I had to do something. People were getting yippee. That's maybe the only time I've ever
agreed with President Trump. I was definitely feeling yippee.
ASHER: But they're still getting yippee because you look at the Dow right now, it's down. I wish I could see without my glasses, but it's down about
17 almost -- there we have it. Thank you, guys, 1,800 points. So the lack of yippeeness is actually just one day. They are still yippee today.
One analyst on Wall Street, Betsey, put it like this. Why would anyone think that the U.S. is a sound and safe place to invest your money when you
have a president that is turning tariffs on and off again like a light switch?
Just give us your take on, yes, of course, the president has temporarily paused most of these tariffs, but give us your take on what this means for
investment in the United States and business sentiment too.
STEVENSON: So first of all, I do think that it's true, there's a lot of uncertainty. And it's uncertainty, not just because there are, you know,
several very reasonable things that policymakers could do, but uncertainty because President Trump doesn't seem to make decisions that are easy to
predict by following like what a rational person thinking through a set of clearly delineated goals would do.
So that makes it really hard to predict. And so people aren't really sure what they should be investing in or what they should do. Look, I think
though what you said was, you know, he's paused most of the tariffs. And that -- and that was why we saw this huge jump yesterday. And I saw the
jump in the stock market yesterday, and I thought, whoa, they're over correcting because things are not good yet.
The China war between the United States and China, that's going to negatively affect the United States. It's going to negatively affect China
and, frankly, it's going to negatively affect the entire globe. So I think that -- we've still got that pressure there. And then no one's really sure
what's going to happen 90 days from now.
And then you put all that together with the fact that, you know, building a factory takes years and is a 30-year investment. So I don't think we're
going to see new factories springing up left, right and center.
[12:20:08]
And then just to comment on the story you did on drug production, anything you tariff, that's a tax. Anything you tax, you get less of. So everybody
needs to understand when we're putting tariffs on things, we're going to get less of those things. People want to buy them less. They're able to buy
them less. The production costs are higher. We're going to end up with lower quantities and higher prices. And there's still a lot of stuff out
there that Americans consume that are facing tariffs.
GOLODRYGA: And it's important to note that even if we go down to this baseline 10 percent tariff, when you consider and factor in the other
tariffs that are already in place, the United States would be the highest tariff country or one of the highest tariff countries in the world.
So you're right to point out that, yes, maybe it's not 60 percent or 70 percent, like some of these tariffs were, but they're still significantly
higher.
Betsey, the sloppiness, I don't know how else to describe it. The sloppiness of it all, the fact that some of it seems so ad hoc, like it
wasn't really thought out from the formulation to even the announcement yesterday and so much confusion, because I believe now Mexico and Canada
are being tariffed, or they are part of this 10 percent baseline tariff when they weren't, when they were first announced last week. What does that
tell investors and global finance heads?
STEVENSON: So, I mean, the investment community, the reason we're seeing so much volatility is as soon as you get news, you know that you need to act
on that news because somebody else is going to. So if you want to make money, you got to move quick.
The problem is the news is completely unclear. The administration says one thing and then they've got to issue a clarification.
Honestly, I'm still not sure if I understand exactly what's going on between Mexico and Canada. And I wouldn't count on that. Whatever you think
is happening right now might not be what's happening by an hour from now.
And it's that kind of uncertainty that means the prices will move because people will take the new news and they'll trade on that. And that's causing
a lot -- you know, there's no other way to say it. It causes volatility. That volatility is not good for anyone.
But I like to keep my eye on the main prize, which is, why do markets keep coming down? And that's because people are afraid that we're going to end
up with a recession, with a slower economy, and not just a slower economy over the next few months, but slower economic growth in the long run. And
then you also have people concerned about liquidity in the bond market and the safety of investments in the United States pushing up yields in the
bond market.
So this is a very, very difficult time for the United States. And it is particularly weird because it's literally chosen by our political leaders.
ASHER: You know what else is weird? Having Scott Bessent justify tariffs on Monday and Tuesday only to do an about-face on Wednesday and say, uh-oh,
that was the plan all along.
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
ASHER: That is like the most bizarre thing I've ever seen, just economically.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. NO. How about the trade advisor who was testifying in the moment defending these tariffs and then being given a sheet of paper --
ASHER: Jamieson Greer.
GOLODRYGA: -- saying, you know, no, no, they've paused them. And he says, oh, yes, of course, we paused them.
ASHER: They pulled the rug out from under you while you were testifying on Capitol Hill.
STEVENSON: You may have to add one more crazy --
GOLODRYGA: Quickly, quickly.
STEVENSON: Is the Secretary of Commerce saying, we're trying to bring back manufacturing to the United States, of course, we expect to use robots and
not create any jobs in those factories. And so I'm like, what?
GOLODRYGA: People will be tending to those robots, I think was the follow up to that as well.
Oh, Betsey Stevenson, to be continued, as they say.
ASHER: I needed a good laugh. Thank you, Betsy. Appreciate it.
All right. Still to come, women are more in control of day-to-day finances than ever before. A look at how and why that's happening.
Plus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: They couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume that
my husband and I are divorcing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Michelle Obama opens up about her absence from the inauguration of Donald Trump for the first time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:25:10]
GOLODRYGA: More than 200 people are now known to have died when the roof collapsed at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic.
ASHER: Yes. Search efforts are continuing at the Jet Set Club in Santo Domingo where the disaster happened early Tuesday morning. Authorities say,
it's no longer about looking for survivors but recovering bodies.
GOLODRYGA: Today, a funeral was held for merengue artist, Rubby Perez, who was performing when the roof caved in. Stefano Pozzebon has more on the
story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Here in the Dominican Republic, the search and rescue operations are sadly and very quickly moving into a
recovery scenario. The heavy machinery that has been used in the last few days to clear much of the area is still being used. You can probably see
the green crane just behind my back. They used to remove the largest of the debris from what used to be the rooftop of this Jet Set nightclub that
collapsed so tragically in the night between Monday and Tuesday at around 1:00 A.M. on Tuesday morning.
However, the aspect of the families, the friends who were here, and we have been here for the last two days, and all of this area was packed with
family, relatives that were here asking the question, trying to identify where their loved ones were, trying to understand whether they were still
trapped inside what used to be the nightclub and inside the scene of the tragedy.
Well, all of that is being removed. This area, it used to be almost like a field hospital where family and friends could receive medical and
psychological attention while also trying to investigate the fate of their loved ones, but it's almost been completely cleared out.
There is a very limited presence of Red Cross or other emergency services. There's limited presence of the civil protection services here in the
Dominican Republic. And this also means and suggests that many of the families that we are here waiting to understand what happened to their
loved ones have been notified that those loved ones are no longer with them.
Today, here in the Dominican Republic, the story is moving in time to turn the page to a new chapter. Today is the day of the funeral, the ceremony,
the pain expressed in public, but also it's the day of the tough questions with more and more voices raising to ask how could this be allowed to
happen.
How could it be that the rooftop of one of the most popular nightclubs in the Caribbean collapsed like that causing so many -- so much pain. It was
such a big tragedy.
Until now, the Dominican authorities have said that the focus was to try and save as many lives as possible, try to provide emergency services and
develop focus on the investigations. But the longer this time passes, the stronger and louder these voices are becoming.
[12:30:06]
With CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Santo Domingo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: It's a tragic story. Here's to another tragic story. Myanmar is still in desperate need of temporary shelters and medical supplies. Last
month's devastating earthquake was one of the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in a century.
ASHER: But as the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, its staffers on the ground were fired
as they helped the quake victims.
CNN's Will Ripley looks at what that means for Myanmar's recovery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What the earthquake didn't take, the fire did. This was Sein Pan, one of Mandalay's
poorest districts, built over an old garbage dump.
Survivors describe an inferno when the earth split open.
KYI THEIN, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR (through translator): The fireball emerged from the ground just after the earthquake. It wiped out all 400 houses.
Everybody ran. Now nothing remains.
RIPLEY (voice-over): More than 2,000 people homeless, a neighborhood vaporized in minutes.
I just want my home back, this survivor says. She sleeps outside. And like many here, praise for help.
Aid workers say help from the United States, at least, is nowhere to be found. No American rescue teams, no visible U.S. presence in Mandalay, no
American flags on the food trucks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States only send a paltry amount of assistance. It sent only three workers which then subsequently were fired.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Those three U.S. staffers arrived days after the quake. They were notified their jobs were would be eliminated while in the
disaster zone. The U.S. initially pledged just $2 million, later increasing it to $9 million.
Compare that to 2023. The U.S. pledged $185 million and full search and rescue teams to the Turkey earthquake, deploying more than 200 U.S. staff.
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not the government of the world. We are willing to continue to help in the humanitarian crisis. Other
countries need to do so as well.
RIPLEY (voice-over): And others are, China, Russia, India, Japan. More than 15 countries have boots on the ground. Search and rescue units, field
hospitals, mobile clinics, heavy machinery. Chinese teams were pulling survivors from the rubble just 48 hours after the quake.
Beijing also pledged nearly $5 million more than the U.S.
TOM FLETCHER RELIEF COORDINATOR, UN OFFICE FOR COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: So the fact that the U.S. is cutting back heavily hits us here. As
you know, it hits us everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an embarrassment, but beyond that, it's deadly.
RIPLEY (voice-over): The U.S. used to be a leader in global disaster response, sending elite rescue teams, dogs, cranes, food and water. All
that feels like a distant memory now.
EI MON KHINE, MYANMAR RECOVERY WORKER (through translator): We need proper machines to dig through collapsed buildings. Without them, people die. We
can't save lives without real support.
RIPLEY (voice-over): This is the first major natural disaster since the Trump administration dismantled most of USAID, firing thousands, freezing
funding, and ending contracts.
In Myanmar, almost 20 million people were already in need, displaced by four years of civil war. Then came the earthquake.
The suffering is immense.
The United States, once a lifeline, now missing in action.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:35:08]
GOLODRYGA: Well, keeping track of your spending as inflation and tariffs dominate the headlines can feel like a roller coaster. And more often than
not, it's women who make the majority of household budget decisions. From groceries to clothes to the big purchases, women play a key role in
financial decisions. And increasingly, that goes for investments, too.
According to Fidelity Investments, more women are taking control of their finances and investing than ever before.
ASHER: Yes. Here are some stats for you. Seven in 10 women had investments in the stock market in 2024. That was up 18 percent from the previous year.
Research also found the leading factors motivating women to invest are ensuring a certain quality of life for their children, making as much money
as possible and building up funds for goals like retirement and large purchases.
Time now for the exchange. Joining us live now is our dear friend, Alison Kosik. She just wrote a new book called "What's Up with Women and Money:
How to Do All The Financial Stuff That You've Been Avoiding."
I have to say, Alison, we've known each other for a long time. I mean, you were here when I joined CNN 10 years ago. And I remember you being such a
great mentor to me. So, so good to have you on the program and so good to see you doing so well.
One question that I have, just based on everything that's going on right now. You've got a lot of banks talking about the fact that there is the
likelihood of a recession this year. And you've got to wonder, when there's a recession, what that does to industries like restaurants, retail
establishment, hospitality, healthcare. These are industries that employ a lot of women.
I'm also wondering how that's going to affect not just women, but also single mothers as well. I grew up with a single mother.
Just explain to us why you wrote this book. Let's start there.
ALISON KOSIK, AUTHOR "WHAT'S UP WITH WOMEN AND MONEY": OK. So, yes. I mean, there's the economy and then there's the stuff that we can control. And the
stats that you just showed, it's great that we're seeing women get more involved, but I found actually just the opposite, that there are a lot of
women who aren't involved.
And as a reporter, my job is to synthesize a lot of information and find the human element in the story. And this is a story where I became the
human element.
As CNN's business correspondent, I reported from the New York stock exchange. Yet, at the beginning of my time there, I wasn't involved in
managing my own financial life. I let my husband handle all things financial. And that was one of the biggest mistakes of my life because when
the marriage went bad, because I let him handle all the financial stuff, I was stuck in the marriage years longer than I wanted to be.
I had two kids under the age of 10 years old. What if I made a mistake? You know, what if I lost all of our money? And fast forward, you know, getting
through all of that, I realized that there's a real urgency among the socioeconomic and age spectrums among women.
What does that mean? It means women who are high earners, six figures, you know, five figure earners, ages 18 through 65, you know, women who are
single, married, widowed, divorced, who are not fully involved in their finances as they should be.
[12:40:06]
And it's not something that women readily talk about because it's embarrassing. There's a lot of shame around it. People think that you're
not intelligent, but it's not that we're incapable or, you know, incompetent. It's just that we're not confident in doing and making these
financial decisions because we didn't have the experience of making those decisions.
So I wrote this book to try to help women not make the same mistakes I did and to help them cut through all the overwhelming information that's coming
at you about how to figure out how to get invested, how to figure out how much life insurance you should -- you should carry, you know, how to go
about negotiating for that higher salary.
GOLODRYGA: Alison, first of all, it is so brave of you to --
ASHER: Yes.
GOLODRYGA: -- speak out publicly about your own family life dynamics because you're probably speaking to a number of women's personal issues as
well and given your platform that you speak for them has likely really helped them in changing course for their own personal financial security,
but also in setting an example for their kids.
So hats off to you for --
KOSIK: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: -- choosing to use your own personal struggles to your advantage by trying to help other women with theirs.
It's notable that, generationally, you do see changes, women in the workforce, more women graduating from college, more women graduating from
graduate school.
But when it comes to the issue of finances for women, it's -- it is an overall concern for women no matter what age demographic.
KOSIK: Yes. I was -- I went ahead and in my book, I went ahead and interviewed a lot of women as well. I interviewed celebrity women. I
interviewed women whose names you won't recognize, probably because they're anonymous, because they're ashamed of admitting that they weren't involved
in their financial lives.
One woman in the venture capital space really doing well in her business, 53 years old, was sobbing to me on the phone that she didn't even know what
a retirement account was until she turned 50 and had yet to even open a retirement account, that she felt overwhelmed by money and felt like it
wasn't her domain.
This is from a woman in the venture capital space who's in charge of raising money for companies and growing companies.
Another woman I interviewed who's in charge of helping CEOs make billion- dollar decisions had no idea her financial house was collapsing. And now she owes -- she found out she owes over a million dollars in back taxes
because she let her husband handle all the finances.
And this is -- this is the message here is that women, you've got to be involved in your financial life. You've got to have full visibility over
what's happening in your household. And the idea is, is to get involved before there's a crisis, because if you try to get involved when there is a
crisis, oftentimes it's too late.
ASHER: I mean, Alison, just to sort of reiterate what Bianna was just saying there, I mean, I just -- I can't even imagine what it must have been
like for you to be essentially trapped, trapped in a marriage that you were not happy in at all, you wanted to get out of for financial reasons.
Well, I'm glad that you made it out and --
GOLODRYGA: Yes. A success story.
ASHER: Congratulations to you.
KOSIK: Thank you.
ASHER: You are such an inspiration. Such an inspiration. And as Bianna was saying, I'm sure that there are a lot of women around the world watching
this who can -- who can relate. So I'm definitely going to be buying your book and I'll message you --
KOSIK: Thank you.
ASHER: -- as soon as I read it.
GOLODRYGA: Best of luck with the book. And I -- and I bet you're relieved that you're not covering this erratic market at the Stock Exchange. You've
had your share.
KOSIK: I actually miss it a little bit, but I'm definitely keeping track of it.
GOLODRYGA: I'm sure your friends down there miss you as well.
Alison, congratulations on the book. Thank you.
ASHER: Thank you.
KOSIK: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: Well, former U.S. First Lady, Michelle Obama, is addressing her recent absence from the spotlight and the divorce rumors that came along
with it.
ASHER: Yes. On the Work in Progress podcast, she said she's giving herself the freedom to do what's best for her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: It was a real big example of me, myself looking at something that I was supposed to do, you know, without naming names. And I chose to do what
was best for me. Not what I had to do, not what I thought other people wanted me to do.
We, as women, I think we struggle with like disappointing people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
OBAMA: You know, I mean, so much so that this year people were, you know, they couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they
had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.
You know, that -- this couldn't -- this couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
OBAMA: But that's what -- that's what society does to us.
ASHER: I'm glad that she addressed those rumors. Mrs. Obama skipped President Donald Trump's second inauguration and the state funeral for
former president Jimmy Carter.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:45:28]
ASHER: One Mississippi flight school founded by the organization of Black Aerospace Professionals could be key to fixing a pilot shortage in the
United States.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. CNN's Pete Muntean went to find out how students and their teachers feel amid the escalating federal campaign against diversity,
equity, and inclusion initiatives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You're witnessing something pretty special here. The pilot of that airplane makes up a very small
sliver of aviation. But here at this flight school, outside of Memphis, they're on the cutting edge of changing that.
They're training black pilot after black pilot. It is so critical to fixing a shortage of pilots nationwide.
Hey, that looked pretty good. How'd that feel?
FRISBY: It felt great. It always feels great. I love flying.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): T. Frisbee is a flight attendant, now training at Luke Weathers Flight Academy to become a commercial pilot.
FRISBY: I had to go out there and find my community. You have to get a support system and meet people and have mentors and that's made all the
difference.
MUNTEAN: Did you know anybody coming up who was a pilot already but beyond like meeting people at the airline? Like did you -- did you see anybody
like you?
FRISBY: Nope. No. Didn't see anyone like me. Had never seen a black female pilot for, you know, well into my adulthood.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Nationwide, less than five percent of professional pilots are black in a workforce that's dominated by white men.
This flight school was created by the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals founded nearly 50 years ago to promote diversity in aviation.
Yet, DEI has been under attack by the second Trump administration from day one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To be clear, are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy?
TRUMP: It may have. I don't know.
MUNTEAN: What went through your head when President Trump said after the midair collision near National Airport that that was the direct result of
diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts of the FAA? How did that make you feel?
TENNESSEE GARVEY, CHAIR, OBAP BOARD OF DIRECTORS: It gives people the perception that DEI initiatives or DEI programs are compromising aviation
safety, when the reality is they're not. Because that's not what DEI is. DEI is all about allowing people access to certain opportunities. And right
now, DEI has been weaponized.
And, you know, anything that, you know, looks or feels or even smells like a diversity, equity, inclusion it's under attack.
[12:50:03]
MUNTEAN: Do diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and hiring at the airlines? Does that change anything when it comes to qualifications?
GARVEY: There is no changing of the standard. The training program for anyone, irrespective of your skin color, your background complexion, your
creed, everyone has to go through the same training process.
MUNTEAN: And the airplane doesn't know the difference?
GARVEY: And the airplane definitely does not know the difference.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Sixty-three people are enrolled in this flight school that's churning out pilots. Since it opened six years ago, students have
earned a total of 170 pilot certificates. All new workers bound for an industry facing a critical shortage of pilots.
ALBERT GLENN, CO-DIRECTOR, LUKE WEATHERS FLIGHT ACADEMY: The business community needs it. Whether they say it out loud or not, they need a
diverse workforce because that's where the market's going to come from. It can't be just left to, I hope they show up.
They've decided they want to be airline pilots or military pilots or air traffic controllers. You don't want them to lose it because they hear that
people aren't wanting to work with them, that DEI is an issue, that under- qualified and poor performance and all these things.
They just want a fair opportunity to be able to get a job and live their life. And that's the way we teach them.
FRISBY: I took that first discovery flight. I felt that feeling in my gut. Like I was in tears. I called my dad. I was like, I'm in love. And he's
like, who did you meet? I was like, no, we're flying. I got to fly planes now.
And, yes, I didn't really think about it. But it's -- I'm noticing how impactful my journey is because, yes, there's not a lot of representation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Thanks to Pete Muntean for that.
Still to come for us, another first for LeBron James. The NBA star nicknamed the King gets his very own Ken doll. But does he think life in
plastic is fantastic?
ASHER: Life in plastic.
GOLODRYGA: His reaction, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. Donald Trump is holding his first cabinet meeting since launching a global trade war. We're going to listen to some sound from a
few minutes ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I want to be transparent and we'll do that by starting with Pete. Go ahead, Pete.
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Yes, Mr. President. We just got back from Panama last night. We were at the Panama Canal with our SOUTHCOM
commander ships, F-18s, troops, and signed a couple of historic deals. One which is with Panama Canal Authority, a framework for U.S. vessels, first
and free through the Panama Canal.
[12:55:12]
TRUMP: All right.
HEGSETH: And then also a memorandum of understanding with their security minister for the presence of U.S. troops. Fort Sherman is an old U.S. base
there, as well as a naval station and air station jointly with Panama to secure the Panama Canal from Chinese influence.
That's something you said, we're taking back the canal. China said too much influence. Obama and others let them creep in. We, along with Panama, are
pushing them out, sir. And so we had a very successful trip.
Their president, President Mulino sends his regards, very complimentary of the U.S. as -- he's a great ally. And I think they want the communist
Chinese out. And with our troops, they're partnering with their forces. We've got a chance to push them all the way out, sir.
TRUMP: We've moved a lot of --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: All right. Donald Trump there speaking alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth essentially talking about securing the Panama Canal from
Chinese influence listing some of the historic deals that they had signed there.
GOLODRYGA: Yes, Zain. The two countries are working closely together, to quote the defense secretary, he said, we, along with Panama, are pushing
China out. Of course, we'll keep a close eye on that cabinet meeting and keep you posted on any news that comes out of it.
But in the meantime, that does it for ONE WORLD. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. Appreciate you watching. "AMANPOUR" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
