White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss inflation, Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, Fed policy, and the outlook for imports.

Video Transcript

BRIAN CHEUNG: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. Just after the noon hour here on the East Coast, let's take a look at where markets are trading. The S&P 500 down 3/10 of a percent. The Dow also seeing some red, down a quarter of a percent, as is the NASDAQ, so red across the board after that big inflationary print that we had gotten on the consumer price index this morning.

Again, as a recap, the numbers at 8:30 this morning showed that there were price changes on a month over month basis between December and January of 0.6%. That was above the Street's estimates. And on a year over year basis, inflation clocking in 7.5% higher between January of this year and January of last year.

So let's get a little bit more color on the inflationary picture with Jared Bernstein, White House Council of Economic Advisors member down in DC. Jared, it's great to have you on the program this afternoon. A simple question here, I guess-- was the number that we got this morning above your expectations?

JARED BERNSTEIN: Well, it was slightly above market expectations, but we are in a climate where we know American households are facing significant price pressures. And that is something that we knew well before this print. And for us, it just means we have to continue to do everything we can to hit the president's top two economic priorities. The first is to create and continue to maintain a strong, growing economy with lots of job offers.

And the second is to lower prices that households are facing from this global problem of inflation related to the pandemic. That takes us right to our agenda to help unsnarl supply chains, increase competition, make sure that we're doing what we can to lower costs-- prescription drugs, health care premiums, education, child and elder care. All of that are key parts of our agenda, underscored by these results.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Jared, one challenge here is that the inflation is broad-based across all the categories. And I know that there have been some proposals for what the White House can do, for example, suspending the federal gas tax. But gasoline actually went down by 0.8% on a month over month basis. How will things like that address the fact that inflation has spread into nearly everything?

JARED BERNSTEIN: Well, I think when it comes to the broad inflation mandate, first and foremost, we're really talking about the Federal Reserve. And this president has consistently underscored his faith, not just in the institution of the Fed and the critical importance of their independence from the White House, but also that of the five nominees he has slated to be on the board. And again, he has deep faith in their ability to achieve full employment and stable prices.