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Quest Means Business

Harris Outlines Economic Agenda In Major Policy Speech; CNN Gains Access To Ukrainian-Held Russia; Mediators: Ceasefire Talks Serious And Constructive; Kamala Harris Proposes Ban On Price Gouging In Economic Speech; Athletic Brewing Sold Over 258,000 Barrels In 2023. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 16, 2024 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:10]

ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: All right, that does it for a week on Wall Street. Let's take a look and see where the markets are, up about a

hundred points or so, you have Comerica there, Comerica Bank closing out the week in terms of ringing the closing bell.

US markets are closing out a week in the green. S&P 500 just closed out its best week of 2024. Those are the markets and these are the main events.

Kamala Harris promises to lower housing costs and wage war on price gouging in the first major economic speech of her presidential campaign.

As Russia struggles to contain the incursion inside its borders, CNN gets a firsthand look at life inside Ukrainian-held Russia.

And OpenAI says, it has discovered an Iranian plot to use ChatGPT to influence the US election.

All right, coming to you live from New York. It is Friday, August 16th. I am Zain Asher, in for Richard Quest, and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Good evening.

Tonight, Kamala Harris says, bringing down the cost of living will be her priority if she becomes the next American president. The Democrat outlined

her economic plan during a half hour speech in the swing state of North Carolina. Her proposals are aimed squarely at middle class and lower-income

Americans. They include tax credits and better access to housing.

Harris also said she would go after companies that she accuses of price gouging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the

rules, and we will support smaller food businesses that are trying to play by the rules and get ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Julia Chatterley is with me now.

So Julia, how -- I mean, it is interesting, isn't it? The focus on price gouging because how much of these sort of significant price hikes we saw

during and after the pandemic were due to corporations playing foul? Because it is a lot more complicated than that, isn't it?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR, "FIRST MOVE": It absolutely is.

I'll tell you what, Zain, just at the top level, this was a masterclass in sticking to the script, keeping the details light and very popular, I think

with voters and the price gouging point was foremost, I think among those.

It is very difficult. Remember, price gouging is when corporates collude in some way to try and keep prices high, or when prices are rising, they try

and strip of their ounce and fatten up their profits.

She was light on details over how this would work. Right now, the Federal Trade Commission deals with it and it can tackle what is going on in terms

of what corporates are doing. But it doesn't have the right to go into a grocery store, for example, and say, hey, your egg prices or something

else, a loaf of bread is too expensive and you need to reduce those.

Finding to your point, what part of this might be corporate greed versus supply chain issues coming out of the pandemic, the cost of wages for

agricultural workers not being able to find agricultural workers.

The impact of the war in Ukraine on grain prices, another great example its incredibly difficult, Zain. So just on a top level, the idea sounds good,

the execution complicated.

ASHER: And just in terms of some of the other sort of specific points she made. She talked about the housing market and the key aspect of some of the

policy she announced. This idea of giving $25,000.00 to first-time buyers, homebuyers, just walk us through what sort of impact some of her policies,

especially when it comes to the housing market, what sort of impact those would have on inflation in America.

CHATTERLEY: Understand the problem first, I think. We have a total lack of supply of available homes. We are not producing enough homes. Housing

stocks today showed that sort of four-year low; also mortgage rates are incredibly high. So people who have locked in low mortgage rates as a

result, struggle to move because they are waiting for mortgage rates to come down.

We've also got incredibly high prices, they are up 20 percent over the last three years, the average house price I am talking about. What she is doing

and saying she will do is construct three million new housing units by the end of her term. First question is, how are you going to pay for that?

You mentioned that $25,000.00 down payment for first-time buyers, which is interesting, but a whole load of critics have come in and said all of that

is going to do is mean that they offer either the $25,000.00 more than they should have done or the people that are selling, just add that $25,000.00

on. So in the end, it will actually contribute to higher prices.

[16:05:00]

She is cutting to the core of an issue that we know exists which is, as I say, we simply don't have enough houses. The other problem you've got to do

is trying to encourage the homes' builders to keep building. If they need to borrow money, they're going to wait for interest rates to come down.

This is a years' long problems, Zain. It is not something you can fix overnight.

ASHER: I think what is also interesting is this idea that, I mean obviously, Biden took a lot of the heat for rising prices in this country

just in terms of people not being able to benefit and sort of feel the economic resilience in this country that has existed over the past few

years.

But just in terms of how things have turned a corner. We know that in July, just based on data that we got this week, we know that in July inflation

fell to below three percent. I mean, obviously the economy is going to be a big issue for voters come November. Is Kamala going to sort of take credit

for the fact that things have improved over the past few months?

CHATTERLEY: You raise such an important point, which is the average where we are in terms of unemployment, in terms of growth, in terms of prices

coming down, or at least the price rises slowing is okay, but it you are a lower or middle-income average family in the United States, the 20 to 25

percent price rises on groceries that we've seen over the past few years, the 20 percent rise that I mentioned in home prices for example over the

past three years mean its prohibitive for you. You want to live an ordinary reasonable life and to ever hope or dream of getting on the housing ladder.

She can, I think cherry pick in terms of accepting some of the benefits like the restrictions on drug prices that have come from the Biden

administration and try and promote and take credit for that. What she very cleverly did, I think in this speech is, distance herself from some of the

challenges and talk with a big smile and optimism about how we are going to tackle some of the issues that have been a problem for the last three-and-

a-half years, certainly, under this administration.

The question is, you can promote, you can talk about what you hope to do. The question is, and one of the big questions walking away from this is,

one, how do you pay for it? And how much do you need Congress to back you up and allow you to execute? And that requires you taking the House, of

course, and the Senate as the Democratic Party.

There are a lot of unknowns here, and there was a little bit of, I think of Harry Potter or Hermione Granger financing here, because at the end, she

said she plans to reduce the deficit. I am like, hang on a second, you can't give all this stuff and reduce the deficit. I mean --

ASHER: Well, this speech was, I mean, let's be honest, a lot more about --

CHATTERLEY: It's politics.

ASHER: -- winning votes. Exactly.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, it is politics.

ASHER: There is an election coming up.

CHATTERLEY: Yes.

ASHER: That's the priority.

Julia Chatterley, always good to see you, my friend. Have a great weekend, girl.

CHATTERLEY: I will. You, too.

CHATTERLEY: All right, Kamala Harris has already changed how some people feel about the economy just by becoming the Democratic candidate.

The University of Michigan released its latest Consumer Sentiment Survey today, Democrats and Independents are both feeling more optimistic about

the economy compared to just last month. Sentiment among Republicans moved in the opposite direction.

The same survey found that more people believe Harris is better for the economy than Trump. She is ahead on that question by a very slight margin,

actually within the margin of error, to be honest, but 41 to 38 percent, but Trump had been holding a five-point advantage over Joe Biden.

Ben Harris was an assistant Treasury Secretary for the Biden administration. He helped craft Biden's economic platform during his 2020

campaign.

Ben, thank you so much for being with us. I am going to talk about the polls in just a moment. But first of all, I want to get your take on

speech. Did she do a good job of not just distinguishing herself from Trump, but also actually distinguishing herself from Biden as well. That is

key here.

BEN HARRIS, ASSISTANT TREASURY SECRETARY FOR THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: Yes, I think she did a three -- several important things in that speech. The

first thing that she did was she was very forward-looking, so you'd ask, is she going to basically defend her record as vice president or is she going

to try to distinguish yourself from the current administration?

I mean, she made very clear that she wants to be forward-looking if she wants to talk about the future. Also, there was decided focus on the middle

class as part of that speech. And my guess is there will be a central theme in her campaign going forward.

Also, when this was less than the speech and more in some of the written materials, there is a real through line in terms of competition. She is

looking to level the playing field for American families and businesses and when she comes to -- when it comes to markets, it is obvious that she is a

capitalist, but you'll hear her talking more about being a pro-competition president, that will obviously be a through line moving forward.

ASHER: There are some who question, what sort of impact some of her policies will have on inflation. You know, this idea of sort of giving

first-time homebuyers $25,000.00 to put towards a down payment. I mean, that -- let me tell you, that well win you votes for sure. But is it sort

of good economic policy?

A lot of people are saying, look, if you do that then demand of houses increase and then you have --

[16:10:10]

You sort of fuel the problem you're trying to solve in terms of raising house prices.

So yes, very sort of popular policies here, but are they good economic -- goods sort of sound economic policies, Ben.

HARRIS: Yes, great question.

So on the first time homebuyer tax credit, which by the way, it was in President Biden's 2020 platform as well. I think that has to be looked at

in conjunction with the supply expansion. I mean, the number one problem with the housing market in the United States that we have about four or

five million too few homes, so it is critical that we first build a lot more homes and that was central to her proposal.

On the first time homebuyer tax credit. It is probably true that some of that will get capitalized on the price of the home. But if you're a first-

time home buyer and you're receiving that $25,000.00, there is no way you're not coming out ahead.

And one of the drawbacks of the US housing market is that it is increasingly getting to the point where young people just can't afford the

down payment on a home. So I think that that proposal was laser-focused at families that haven't yet accumulated the cash, to put a down payment on a

home. People shouldn't have to wait until their late 40s or 50s to buy a house.

So I think it needs to be looked at in conjunction with the supply expansion and it needs to be looked at in conjunction with the realities of

the US housing market.

ASHER: One of the challenges I think for her going into the speech is this idea of winning back voters who still at this point in time blame Biden for

some of the economic challenges in this country.

I mean, obviously, you know, I've talked about this on the show a few times now. Just this idea that the economy in the US is robust, it is resilient,

but for a long time, people just simply weren't feeling that and they blamed Biden for rising prices.

She has to now, even though she is obviously attached to Biden for obvious reasons, she now has to win those voters back.

Did she do a good job on that front?

HARRIS: Yes, I mean, I think that by being forward-looking, she can she can sidestep that conversation a little bit. But also as you probably know,

voters in the US do not do a great job of accurately characterizing the macro economy.

So for example, there was a Morning Consult poll in 2022 that asked US voters, are we in the middle of recession? We hadn't been in a recession

for a year-and-a-half and we wouldn't be in recession for at least another two years. But half of respondents said we were in recession.

You see similar responses when we ask people what is the current inflation rate, so we've done research here at Brookings and you see 25 percent of

people saying the inflation rate is 10 percent or higher at a time when it was 3.1 percent.

So part of her challenge will be defending the record, but part of the challenge will also be setting the record straight and just reminding

people how terrific the US economy currently is.

ASHER: All right, Ben Harris, live for us there. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right, still to come, as Ukrainian troops continue their advance into Russian territory, CNN obtained some of the first access to the towns that

they've captured. We will give you that firsthand look, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:51]

ASHER: All right, Ukraine is hoping its incursion into Russia's Kursk Region will convince the Kremlin to enter fair negotiation. That's

according to an aid to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

The aide says that Ukraine is not interested in occupying Russian territory and that the incursion is intended to inflict tactical defeat.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh gained some of the first access to Ukrainian-held Russia, Friday. He was accompanied by the Ukrainian military who reviewed

the video without sound prior to release for operational security reasons yet had no editorial control.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: All around us, the signs of the intense fight that has been raging inside here.

It is very surreal to be inside Russia again with Ukrainian forces leading the way.

Well, not even the statue of Lenin is unscathed here. This Ukrainian assault, so persistent and Russia, despite its center its of history, and

sort of passed as being something impregnable, completely unable to push the Ukrainians out here.

The sound of small arms fire, we can still hear, so clearly there is a bid for the Russians to push back, but simply isn't working and a humiliation

for Putin endures.

You can see the damage that has been done to the street here from the intense fight that raged and still clearly active fighting happening here.

And still, the question is, where are the drones? Where are the Russian drones that have made Ukraine's life hell on the frontlines for months?

Simply nowhere to be seen.

Well, there is constant artillery as well. Clearly, a fight is still underway for this, which has become deeply symbolic for Ukraine's totally

surprise assault into Russia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: Nick Paton Walsh reporting there.

All right, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel on Saturday. It comes as President Biden says, he is optimistic about the

state of ceasefire talks.

He addressed the negotiations at an event earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are closer than we've ever been. I don't want to jinx anything, but as my grandfather said, with the

grace of God, the goodwill of the neighbors, and a lot of luck, we may have something.

But we're not there yet. But it is much, much closer than it was three days ago. So keep your fingers crossed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Discussions in Doha wrapped up earlier today. Mediators said in a joint statement that talks were serious and that they were constructive.

Officials are hoping to reach an agreement and avoid a broader conflict, as Iran threatens to retaliate after the killing of a Hamas official on its

soil.

Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran for us.

So speaking of that assassination of that Hamas official, Haniyeh, it has been more than two weeks, Fred. The fact that Iran has not retaliated yet,

the fact that it is really taking its time, what should we be reading into that, do you think?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think possibly there are several things to that. On the one hand, I think the

Iranians are also closely calibrating and watching out exactly what they do.

One of the things that they don't want to do is kick off a wider conflict here in the Middle East that could possibly of course, also involve the

United States as well. At the same time, the Iranians have vowed that there will be retaliation for that assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on July 31st.

But at the same time, of course, the Iranians are also looking very closely at those ceasefire talks that are going on in Qatar. And I think the

Iranians also don't want to necessarily derail those talks or negatively influence those talks as well.

And I think one of the interesting things that we've seen since those talks kicked off, is that while the Iranians are not at the table, while the

Iranians are not party to those negotiations, Iran looms over those negotiations and it is certainly a big factor in those negotiations because

a lot of the countries that are part of them, they are hoping to stop retaliation against Israel if a deal is at least in sight or a deal could

possibly even happen.

And one of the things that we've been looking very closely at, Zain, is the fact that over the past two days, each day, the prime minister of Qatar has

actually called the Iranian foreign minister to inform him about the details of what was going on in those talks.

[16:20:00]

Obviously, the Qataris believe that it is very important for the Iranians to be at least in the loop to know what is going on to then possibly make a

case to the Iranians to say, look, maybe hold off on this retaliation for a while because there could possibly be a ceasefire in sight.

The Iranians have said that that is not necessarily going to be the case. They are obviously extremely the angry after this assassination that took

place of Ismail Haniyeh and they do still say that they reserve the right to retaliate and to hit the Israelis very hard. At the same time, of

course, they have also seen that the US now has a very large force here in the region. The Israelis, of course themselves have also been preparing for

something as well.

So the Iranians definitely thinking through this very carefully, but the Iranians also making clear that they believe that they have the firepower

to inflict a critical blow to the Israelis.

They were saying that the last time that they attacked Israeli territory, which of course was after that bombing of Iran's embassy compound in

Damascus, that they have used only their older drones and missiles and that they have much more firepower at their disposal -- Zain.

ASHER: All right, Fred Pleitgen, live for us there. Thank you.

OpenAI says it disrupted an Iranian operation that was generating content on the US election. The ChatGPT maker says they identified and banned a

cluster of Iranian-linked accounts. It says they were posting content related to US politics, Israel and more.

The company says the post do not seem to have reached a meaningful audience.

Sean Lyngaas is with me now.

So Sean, what more do we know at this point?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Zain, this is the latest evidence that were seeing that Iran is trying to influence the US election in

November pretty aggressively in fact.

These accounts, OpenAI says were being used basically to generate fake news articles. And now we know how they were doing that, they are using ChatGPT.

Last week, Microsoft laid out some examples of these websites that mimicked conservative news outlet and a liberal one, one focusing on LGBT issues,

the other one attacking Donald Trump. And I was reading those articles and I was wondering myself why they sounded so fluid and sort of glib almost

and very much like a native speaker, and it turns out its because it was ChatGPT that was writing these articles.

So this is the latest evidence, like I said, that the Iranians are really interested in trying to shape voters' perceptions. We saw this a bit in

2020, the 2020 election as well where Iran sent intimidating e-mails to voters posing as a far-right group, according to US intelligence.

So we are bracing here for a few more months of this where we are going to see people trying to sow havoc and personally at Americans, further amplify

what is already a very divided electoral landscape -- Zain.

ASHER: So is the last line of defense then the private sector? I mean, can we rely on companies to ensure that Iran or other groups don't manage to

create these widespread influence campaigns?

LYNGAAS: I don't think we should rely on them. Can we rely on them? Sometimes they are stepping up and removing some of this content and

detecting it. Should we rely on them? No.

In an ideal world, we have a lot of media literacy where people are able to discern this sort of thing and tell what is authentic and what is not, and

they are not amplifying it on their own, but as I said, it is a very divided society right now when it comes to election issues and polarizing

figures, and so I think that were in for a very interesting few months in terms of trying to digest information as voters and as readers. And that's

why we are covering this sort of thing to point out to people that it is fake, it is inauthentic and to go to trusted news sites for further

information -- Zain.

ASHER: And what has changed since 2016? I mean, obviously, it has been eight years since we first saw this type of thing in America. What has

changed since then? What sort of protections are in place?

LYNGAAS: I think there are less protections -- and well, from 2020 to 2024, there are probably less guardrails on social media, less moderation of what

appears to be propaganda and inauthentic behavior. We've seen Elon Musk's takeover of X and the slashing of jobs there to protect against this sort

of thing and other social media companies have done similar step backs from trying to moderate this sort of inauthentic content. So a lot has changed

in terms of more of a free for all in this information space.

In 2016, this was sort of unheard of and people were totally caught off guard. Now, it is more noisy and chaotic; however, there are less

guardrails, I think on social media platforms then.

ASHER: All right, Sean Lyngaas live for us there. Thank you.

All right, Thailand's Parliament has elected its youngest prime minister ever.

Well, Paetongtarn Shinawatra is just 37-years-old. She has been around Thai politics are pretty much her entire life. Her father was prime minister in

the early 2000s.

[16:25:09]

Marc Stewart has more on the latest chapter in a divisive political dynasty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Surrounded by her supporters in Bangkok, Paetongtarn Shinawatra is following in her family's footsteps,

elected by Parliament as Thailand's new prime minister, a role once filled by her father and aunt.

PAETONGTARN SHINAWATRA, NOMINEE FOR PRIME MINISTER OF THAILAND: I decided that it is about time to do something for the country and for the party as

well and I just -- I hope that I can do my best to, you know, make the country go forward.

STEWART (voice over): The 37-year-old already understands Thailand's turbulent political landscape. Her family is a powerful, yet at times,

divisive political dynasty that has had a presence for the past two decades.

Her father, Thaxin Shinawatra was prime minister before he was ousted in a 2006 military coup, a billionaire and the former owner of the Manchester

City Football Club, he returned to Thailand from exile last august.

Her aunt Yingluck was the nation's first female prime minister. She was removed before a coup in 2014. Yet despite the family history, Shinawatra

pledges to do her best for the country.

SHINAWATRA: I really hope that I can make the people feel confident to build the opportunities and to improve the quality of life and to empower

to all Thais.

STEWART (voice over): Having attended top schools in Thailand and the UK, the 37-year-old will be Thailand's youngest prime minister.

While her Instagram pictures of her family are a source of attention, she has been part of her family's political presence for years, spending time

with her father at political events when she was growing up.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra's rise comes amid this week's ouster of former Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin after a court found he breached ethics rules

after appointing a Cabinet member who served prison time.

As Thailand's next generation leader, she inherits a host of challenges, including fixing Thailand's sluggish economy, and managing an uneasy

coalition.

As long as the country of 70 million people can't stay far from the Shinawatra family, the shadow of military influence over Thai politics

remains.

Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: Well, after the break, I am going to be speaking to Robert Reich, the US Labor secretary during the Clinton administration.

We will discuss Kamala Harris' economic proposals including a federal ban on price gouging. That's next after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:30]

ASHER: Hello everyone. I'm Zain Asher. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment when we'll explore Kamala's plan to stop price gouging. Former

U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich will join us, and the CEO of Athletic Brewing tells me how he turned his non-alcoholic beer into an $800 million

company.

Before that though, the headlines this hour. All right, Hurricane Ernesto is growing in size as it bears down on Bermuda. It's expected to impact the

island Saturday as a Category 2 storm, tropical storm force winds extend 445 kilometers from its center. Those winds will cause swells, rip currents

and high surf along the U.S. East Coast.

Typhoon Ampil is currently moving away from Japan after its center passed near the coast of Chiba prefecture on Friday evening. That will put an end

to the heavy winds and rains that have been impacting parts of the country. Ampil is now equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.

And the World Health Organization warns that Europe will soon see more cases of a severe type of mpox. It comes as Sweden confirmed the first case

of the strain outside Africa.

On Wednesday, the WHO declared a global health emergency amid ongoing outbreaks in African countries, the mpox virus mimics flu like symptoms

followed by a really painful rash.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a sports streaming venture between Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN Venu

Sports, was due to launch this fall, arrival service Fubo claimed the partnership anti-competitive and sued to block it. Three companies say that

they will appeal the ruling.

A 19-year-old giant panda has given birth to twin cubs in Hong Kong. Ying Ying is the oldest known first time panda mother. One of the cubs is a boy,

the other is a girl. The first giant pandas born in Hong Kong, Ying Ying and her mate arrived there in 2007.

All right, back now to our top story, Kamala Harris has outlined her plan to build what she calls opportunity economy. The Democrat pitched her

economic vision at an event in North Carolina. She vowed to ban price gouging, which she says is partly responsible for inflation.

Corporate profits have indeed risen substantially since the pandemic. Economists disagree over whether price gouging has contributed to

inflation. Many blame supply chain issues and consumer behavior.

Robert Reich was the U.S. Labor Secretary under President Clinton. Robert, thank you so much for being with us.

So, give us your take on this focus on price gouging and how much of the rising prices we saw during and after the pandemic was due to sort of

corporations behaving badly and sort of cashing in, versus other factors, including supply chain issues, as well.

ROBERT REICH, FORMER U.S. LABOR SECRETARY: Zain, there are many issues in terms of supply chains, obviously, and supply and demand play a very large

role in terms of -- in terms of inflation, but undoubtedly, the increasing concentration of corporate power in fewer and fewer corporations who don't

have to compete very much with each other, has been responsible for keeping prices very high, particularly in sectors like food and grocery in the

United States.

[16:35:09]

And so, when Kamala Harris talks about price gouging, I believe what she's talking about is monopoly power.

ASHER: Right. Because price gouging sort of means different things to different people. Some people will hear that term and think that maybe

corporations are artificially trying to limit supply in order to raise prices. Just give us your definition in terms of what you think Kamala

Harris is talking about here.

REICH: Well, let me put it a slightly different way. I think that she is justifiably concerned that there is not enough competition in many sectors

that of the economy that consumers depend on.

I mean, for example, only four competitors, four major competitors, are involved in groceries, in beef or corn or in grocery sales. 70 percent of

grocery sales really are dependent on four companies.

Now, when you have only four companies, they can easily coordinate their prices and easily avoid cutting their costs and cutting their prices.

And so, when consumers are frustrated because prices stay very high, even though overall inflation is coming down, I think one of the biggest

problems is this kind of tacit, subtle but nevertheless very, very clear price coordination.

ASHER: Obviously the main focus, I shouldn't say the main, but maybe one of the main focuses of Kamala Harris's speech was to keep or to sort of ensure

that the middle class, or everyone in this country had access to low consumer prices. So, that is her focus, lowering inflation, making sure

that prices for consumers were as low as possible.

But walk us through how other aspects of her speech, other aspects of her policies, what sort of impact would they have on inflation? For example,

some of her housing policies that she was rolling out there, this idea of offering Americans $25,000 to contribute towards a down payment. What sort

of impact do you think that will have on inflation?

REICH: Well, it could have a positive influence if it led to more housing. One of the biggest problems in the United States is we just don't have

enough housing. We just don't have enough building of housing. This is particularly true with regard to single family housing, and one of the

culprits here, quite frankly, after the 2008 housing bubble burst, is that you have private equity and big hedge funds from Wall Street coming in and

grabbing a lot of the single family homes, particularly in working class areas of this country, and that reduced the supply of rental housing.

This is a huge problem, and it's growing problem. Kamala Harris can very easily and should, in my view, do several things and providing some

additional help for down payments is one, obviously, one, very important step she can take.

ASHER: Right. Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary and author of the system, who rigged it and how we fix it. Robert, thank you so much for

being with us. We appreciate it.

All right, now for a look at the global economy, Africa and the Caribbean have the potential to tap into $1.8 billion worth of trade by 2028, that's

according to a new report by the International Trade Center.

In this week's connecting Africa, we visit a medicine research center in Ghana to see how it's working to expand exports to the Caribbean.

(CONNECTING AFRICA)

ASHER: All right, still to come, CNN journeys into the heart of the Peruvian Amazon to learn how an indigenous community is using digital

technology to protect the ecosystem they rely on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:44:13]

ASHER: All right, today on Call to Earth, we journey into the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Peru, one indigenous community there is embracing

technology to protect their way of life and the region's biodiversity.

(CALL TO EARTH)

ASHER: All right, let us know what you're doing to answer the call with the #CalltoEarth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:57]

ASHER: English Premier League kicks off this weekend, and for the first time ever, the football club Arsenal has entered into an official

partnership with a non-alcoholic beer. The Athletic Brewing company is based in the U.S. It is now said to be valued at $800 million that's up

from 400 million just two years ago, investors have been signing up as drinking habits changed, particularly among younger adults.

Bill Shufelt is the CEO of Athletic Brewing. He joins us live now from Connecticut. So, just walk us through what it means for Athletic Brewing to

have this kind of partnership with a sporting giant like Arsenal.

BILL SHUFELT, CEO, ATHLETIC BREWING: Thank you so much, Zain. I'm so excited to be on, I should have worn my kit with the season started.

ASHER: You should have.

SHUFELT: But we're really excited. It's -- you know, it's a stage that non- alcoholic beer would have never had five to 10 years ago, there were barely options in any stadiums. And we're really excited to take non-alcoholic

beer forward to this next level of marketing and availability and de- stigmatization, where it's really exploding on the global landscape.

ASHER: Because previously non-alcoholic beer was targeted to those who are in recovery and also to pregnant women as well. But now we're seeing it

really be targeted towards the masses, especially given that people sort of drinking habits have changed.

Walk us through how important taste was for you because a non-alcoholic beer has had a reputation of not necessarily tasting that good in the past.

How much of a priority was taste for you?

SHUFELT: For sure, and so, it's both product quality and marketing in many ways. It was -- it was a total reinvention of both. Common logic,

historically and non-alcoholic beer had barely had any overall since prohibition, in innovation or marketing.

And logic had it that non-alcoholic beer was something for one percent of the population, one percent of the time, these very specific life times and

occasions where really people are not consuming alcohol, 95 plus percent of the time they're awake, and a huge amount of the population is decreasing

their alcohol consumption.

So, there's actually an enormous occasion base for this category just needed to be remarketed and reformulated in an exciting, modern way.

And that's where John Walker, our co-founder, and brew master, came in. He brought a very talented brewing background to non-alcoholic beer for the

first time, and we've won well over 100 globally recognized taste awards in our life at Athletic Brewing, over 27 this year alone, globally. So, really

standing out on a global stage of taste.

But then, equally as important is the marketing of the category, people needed the confidence to hold these beers in their hand and say they were

great. And I think from everything from U.K. football footballers with the Arsenal team to American footballers with J. J. Watt and different

celebrities and chefs and everything, we've tried to make the marketing really easy and aspirational also.

ASHER: Yes, because you have captured so much of the market share, because every major brewer now has a non-alcoholic option, but it almost seems as

you really managed to sort of sneak up on them and capture this huge market share. How do you think you did that?

SHUFELT: I think there's -- well, thank you. Yes, Athletic is the number one non-alcoholic beer brand in the United States, and climbing up the

ranks globally in a few key markets. And it is exciting to see the innovation around us in the category also.

10 years ago, you couldn't get any major brands in non-alcoholic form. And now almost every major global brewer has their flagship beer in the

category. In the U.S., Athletic Brewing is about 20 percent of market share. We have three of the top 10 non-alcoholic beers in the market, and

we're actually about two percent share of the overall U.S. craft beer market now.

And then, as we go international, that has quickly been climbing up the ranks, also in Canada and the U.K., as we expand globally.

ASHER: Who's your typical consumer?

Obviously, we know that Gen Z is drinking less than previous generations. People love mocktails. They've started trends like this idea of being sober

curious, are they the biggest part of your audience? I mean, what is your sort of target consumer profile?

[16:55:12]

SHUFELT: Well, so, one thing that I think is an interesting potential misconception is Gen Z still loves to drink. I think we're just kind of

decoupling drinking from drinking alcohol, and this is the first generation that's turning legal drinking age and having the option to drink exciting

offerings and alcohol and non-alcoholic offerings.

Every other generation when they went to a bar or restaurant or a party, there really wasn't any way to socialize if you weren't drinking alcohol.

ASHER: Right.

SHUFELT: So, I think just by availability is a really exciting change happening in the market. But to put some numbers behind that, in a recent

Gallup poll data, 45 percent of adults believe that moderate drinking, as defined by one or two drinks a day, is unhealthy. That's increased 17

points in just the last 10 years.

ASHER: Yes. I mean, you have so much going for you just in terms of you've got the name recognition, you've got funding, you've got, obviously, not

just Gen Z, but even beyond Gen Z, so many people who love your products, I think really is just about keeping the momentum going, I'm guessing, but we

have to leave it there.

Bill Shufelt live for us there. Thank you so much.

All right, coming up --

SHUFELT: Thank you so much.

ASHER: You're very welcome.

Coming up, we'll have the final numbers from Wall Street right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: Wall Street just had its best week of the year. All indices finished in the green. The Dow closed up nearly a hundred points on Friday. It's

more than 3 percent higher on the week. S&P rose slightly today, it finished more than four percent higher this week as well, and the NASDAQ

roaring back from recent struggles, finished well over five percent higher over the week. Investors definitely breathing a sigh of relief given some

of the swings that we've seen after reassuring inflation and retail reports.

Let's look at the Dow components. More specifically, you've got Boeing, which gained about two percent, its new chief says he's committed to reset

the company's relationship with its employees. Walmart, rather, edged into the green. Axios reports the retail giant will be halting a drone

deliveries with partner drone up in three U.S.

That is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, I'm Zain Asher. "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer starts right now.

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