Event. We are fortune to have the second here. The 77th secretary of treasury and ive worked directly for four treasury secretaries. I counseled four count four eye ones deer friends so i know what takes to be a good secretary. And having spent time withing this secretary and the president s vision and his team i am confident this gentleman has the right ideas and the right team in place to advance a very progrowth agenda. So with that like to introduce and thank you or or 77th 77th secretary of the treasury, steve mnuchin, and mark wineburger. [applause] well, put a lot of pressure on you there, mr. Secretary. Very kind introduction. Well, thank you. Let me add my thanks for being here. Start on the permanent side, mr. Secretary. Obviously you had an incredibly distinguished private career. Im not sure that prepared you necessarily for going into government, and my first question is, what is the biggest surprise, the biggest change you feel going into being the secretary of the tress
North american infrastructure debt at black rock, susan gray and david nassan. [applause] thank you, kevin we have hard act to follow. The administration has really prioritized a big boost to Infrastructure Spending on the order of a trillion dollars, clearly thats a very big sum but also very much warranted. Public construction in this country has been declining for years and is now 1. 5 of gdp annually. Just to put that into context, western europe on average spends 2. 5 of gdp annually and china, closer to 8 of gdp. Any of you who have spent time on the roads and airports wont be surprised the u. S. Infrastructure report card from the American Society of civil engineerings and i think they gave them a great of a dplus. Over the past your years with over 4. 5 trillion. So we have two big questions. First, funding a trillion dollars in spending is a daunting task. So even if direct federal spending is only a fraction of that. Some suggest it could be on the order of 150 billion to 250
Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images "Zombie" companies are facing a year of pain ahead, according to think tank expert Sonya Gibbs. Gibbs pointed to higher interest…