As the United Kingdom mourns the loss of its seven-decade monarch, King Charles III pledges to follow in her footsteps. But can he rise to the occasion to become a unifying figure for the U.K. and the Commonwealth? Plus, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen goes to Michigan to defend President Biden’s economic record.
This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Speaker 1: From the Opinion Pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.
Kyle Peterson: Britain mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth the Second as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen goes to Michigan to defend President Biden's economic record. Welcome. I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal. We're joined today by my colleagues, columnists Joe Sternberg and Kim Strassel. Welcome to you both. After seven decades on the throne, Queen Elizabeth the Second died peacefully on Thursday ending the reign of Britain's longest serving monarch. And, Joe, you're in London where you've lived for some years. What is the scene there as the country remembers Queen Elizabeth and transitions now to King Charles the Third?
Joseph Sternberg: I think that people are really still very much in shock about the news yesterday. I mean, certainly, she was 96 years old and clear for a while that her health was starting to deteriorate a bit and people had known on an intellectual level that she wouldn't be with the country forever. But I think still the event has come as a terrible surprise and that is because of the deep affection that the British people held for the Queen and still hold for her and will do for quite a long time to come. I think that part of that is consequence of her personal longevity and her long tenure on the throne. Tens of millions of people alive in Britain today have not been alive at a time when someone else was the monarch. So I think that she was very much a part of the public life here and also very much a part of the way that British people have thought about their country, what it means to be British, what Britishness is, and the loss of that is really palpable.
Kyle Peterson: As a historical figure, there were a couple of facts that stuck out to me in the coverage. Queen Elizabeth being the last head of state who served in World War Two. She had met 13 U.S. Presidents and was on the cover of Time Magazine in 1929. There were also a few lines of Boris Johnson's speech that stood out to me. He said, "I speak for other ex-PMs when I say that she helped to comfort and guide us as well as the nation because she had the patience and the sense of history to see that troubles come and go and that disasters are seldom as bad as they seem." And then he added this, he said, "One final quality, her humility, her single bar electric fire Tupperware using refusal to be grand. And unlike us politicians where there are out writers and her armor played at convoys, I can tell you as a direct eyewitness that she drove herself in her own car with no detectives and no bodyguard, bouncing at alarming speed over the Scottish landscape to the total amazement of the ramblers and tourists we encountered." And in that spirit, there's a story that's been going around, this is not a new clip, but it's a Royal aide, Richard Griffin, explaining an encounter that he had with some tourists. And this was in June during the Royal Jubilee he told to Sky News.
Richard Griffin: And, normally, on these picnic sites, you meet nobody, but there was two hikers coming towards us and the Queen would always stop and say hello. And it was two Americans on a walking holiday and it was clear from the moment that we first stopped, they hadn't recognized the Queen, which is fine. And the American gentleman was telling the Queen where he came from, where they were going to next, and where they'd been to in Britain, and I could see it coming. And sure enough, he said to Her Majesty, "And where do you live?" And she said, "Well, I live in London, but I've got a holiday home just the other side of the hills." And he said, "Well, how often have you been coming up here?" "Oh," she said, "I've been coming up here ever since I was a little girl, so over 80 years." And you could see the clog's thinking. He said, "Well, if you've been coming up for 80 years, you must have met the Queen." And as quick as a flash, she says, "Well, I haven't, but Dick here meets her regularly." So the guy said to me, "Oh, you've met the Queen. What's she like?" And because I was with her a long time and I knew I could pull her leg, I said, "Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she's got a lovely sense of humor." Anyway, the next thing I knew, this guy comes around, put his arm around my shoulder, and before I could see what was happening, he gets his camera, gives it to the Queen and says, "Can you take a picture of the two of us?" Anyway, we swap places and I took a picture of them with the Queen and we never let on and we waved goodbye. And then Her Majesty she said to me, "I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to the friends in America and hopefully someone tells him who I am."
Kyle Peterson: Kim, I love that story, and all I can say is, what a sovereign?
Kim Strassel: How amazing. I know, I have now heard that a couple of times today and it is one of my favorite things that I've heard since all of this happened on what is otherwise a very sad day. But there's so many stories like that, in fact, and the humility involved to go through a moment like that I think says a great deal about her. And I think that, that is the story of her life, because people talk a lot about her modesty for instance. But at the same time, when you really stop and think about it, that modesty was also paired with an incredible amount of strength and smarts because the fact that we're sitting here and talking about Queen Elizabeth, I just would like to step back, it didn't ever have to be this way. I mean, I was privileged to live for a few years in London and it took me a while to wrap my head around the central idea of the Monarchy in the British culture. And I mean, as a young girl, I like so many millions of young girls had seen Princess Diana's wedding, the fairytale version. Then you live there and you realize how central, and then you stop to think about how amazing that is because she essentially was there through the transition from what was an imperialistic country to a modern culture. And whereas so many other countries discarded or really relegated their monarchs along the way, she managed through just grit and intelligence and really playing this the right way pretty much all the time to maintain the Monarchy's central role in this otherwise functioning modern democracy where it wasn't just that she had some ceremonial duties here or there, but literally was a part of the fabric of the country and the nation looked up to her and felt the necessity of the Monarchy to still be there. Now, not every Britain feels that way, but obviously a huge number do. I'll be really, really fascinated to see how Charles now navigates that if he can manage to keep that incredible balance between remaining relevant but not being overbearing and not being an institution that the nation actively comes to view as a problem and one that needs to go.
Kyle Peterson: And, Joe, can you help also flesh out what role the Monarchy now plays for American listeners who are less than familiar with this? Because Queen Elizabeth did not exercise political or executive powers. So can you just give us a sense of what role she played? I mean, I've heard a lot of people say in recent days that she was a stabilizer for the British constitutional system.
Joseph Sternberg: Well, I think there are two dimensions to that question. One is the formal constitutional role, although keeping in mind that the United Kingdom unlike the U.S. does not have a formal written constitution, but the role that has evolved over time in that sense is that she is the head of state. So, formally, after there are parliamentary elections and a majority in Parliament coalesces behind a Prime Minister, technically it's still the Crown that appoints that Prime Minister and all of the other cabinet secretaries who then serve at the Crown's pleasure. And, of course, that constitutional role has been mediated by democratic principles over the centuries so that Britain is still very much a modern democracy now. And certainly that was always viewed as a stabilizing role and the sovereign would meet with the Prime Minister about once a week. And we have never really had any sense of what goes on in those conversations, but there has been perhaps a sense that the Queen would advise Prime Ministers, particularly if they sought her help, and was also keenly aware of her role in terms of lending legitimacy to the government, especially in the absence of a written constitution. But that all pales in comparison to the much harder to quantify role of holding the country together. And here I think that it does become this much more mysterious factor of the relationship that she had between herself and the people of the United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth and the mutual affection in which they've all held each other, which is the thing even when the formal political ties have sometimes become very complicated or strained, that affection was the thing that could knit together the country. I mean, even here in the British Isles and in the United Kingdom, you have the four entities, Northern Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland. They oftentimes have a contentious relationship. Scotland had an independence referendum as recently as eight years ago and yet the common affection that the people felt for the Queen, the respect they felt for the institution of the Monarchy they all shared played a crucial role in holding the country together.
Kyle Peterson: And that task will now fall to Queen Elizabeth's son, formerly Prince Charles, now King Charles the Third. And let's listen to a piece of his speech today.
King Charles the Third: As the Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledged myself throughout the remaining time God grants me to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation. And wherever you may live in the United Kingdom or in the realms and territories across the world and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavor to serve you with loyalty, respect, and love as I have throughout my life.
Kyle Peterson: So, Kim, as you mentioned a moment ago, one of the questions that people have been debating is whether the now King Charles will rise to this occasion. And one of the points people often made about Queen Elizabeth was that it was really hard to read her. She was not outspoken. You didn't know her personal views of these issues or of politics. And Prince Charles has been a little bit of the reverse. Here's a headline from April. Prince Charles says, "We have to stop poisoning ourselves and do something about climate change." And so, Kim, he's been a little bit of a more polarizing figure, at least in his former role.
Kim Strassel: Well, a lot more polarizing and not just because of his views. Either, obviously, his history with Diana and then Camilla, he's certainly been a problem that's brought more negative headlines to the Crown than positive ones. And I know having spoken to some Britons, they weren't actually waiting for this day. They were actually hoping Queen Elizabeth would go on longer and longer, and maybe there was even some hope that they hoped that maybe he would be skipped over and that this would go onto his son. But here he is. I thought it was notable that he began his address to the nation of repeating in essence or bringing back to mind Elizabeth's very famous address on her 21st birthday when in a speech broadcast from Cape Town she said, "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service." And that's obviously something that defined her. He said something similar about pledging himself to lifelong service. I did think it was interesting that little clip, and going to Joe's point, that even in today's day and age he also felt the need to re-pledge himself to the parliamentary government and the system of constitutional privileges just in case anybody out there thought he might start getting all King-y and taking over England. I don't think anyone thought that, but apparently this was something he felt the need to do. He also noted in his address that he is going to have to step back some from all of his charities and issues and leave them more in the hands of others given the new duties he will have. And I guess that will be the question is, how much is he willing to actually do this? This is what he has spent most of his adult life doing, becoming more outspoken about it as time went on, especially climate issues, environmental issues, occasionally jumping into the political fray. He may well think that that is not a polarizing issue, that maybe it's just something that all right thinking people should do, but not so. Environmentalism is an incredibly contentious subject. So will he be able to refrain from that? Will he be able to continue to unite or will he through his actions and statements feel as though people have to take sides over the Monarchy? And that's one thing Elizabeth did very, very well by being very careful and quiet about her politics herself. She allowed everyone to appreciate the Queen as the leader of all Britons, and if he starts making people take sides, there could be some real issues for the Monarchy.
Kyle Peterson: One final thought on this. If some of the ties within the United Kingdom and also within the greater Commonwealth were bound up in belief and devotion to Queen Elizabeth the Second then does the transition to King Charles potentially put them at risk? And that could mean emboldened belief in another Scottish independence referendum. It could mean referenda in some commonwealth countries to become republics and leave the Commonwealth. Joe, do you think those things are possible or likely, and if so, are they issues that Americans ought to care about from our standpoint here?
Joseph Sternberg: I think that this is something that we're going to have to think about. Certainly, not immediately. If you do start seeing this breaking up or breaking apart here, it's probably a project of years and not months. And I think that people probably also will be prepared to give King Charles an opportunity to settle into the role. I mean, it's interesting. With the clip of his address that we heard a few minutes ago, I thought that it was a very Elizabethan conception of Monarchy in the way in which he was trying to speak directly to the people both of the United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth countries and various of the realms to start immediately trying to establish for himself the kind of personal connection with people that she had. Because that is the key ingredient here and I think the key fact of Queen Elizabeth's reign was that she personally was often more popular in many of these places than the institution of the Monarchy itself was. So I think that what is really going to determine the outcome of a lot of these questions moving forward will be whether he can build the same kind of reservoir of affection for himself. If he can't, it will create a very complicated situation because certainly just if you want to talk in purely political or economic terms, America has developed a very close relationship with the United Kingdom and with many of the countries that are part of that orbit, including Canada and Australia. No one is going to suggest that, that is all going to fall apart if they decide that they want more separation from the Crown or from the United Kingdom. But I think that we do need to be aware of the possibility that some of those relationships within that alliance will change over time and not necessarily assume that things will always continue as they've done.
Kyle Peterson: Hang tight. We'll be right back. You're listening to Potomac Watch from the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 1: From the Opinion Pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.
Kyle Peterson: Welcome back. Also on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, was on the road in Michigan at a Ford Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn defending the Biden economic record. And let's start with a couple of her comments on inflation.
Janet Yellen: Americans are rightfully concerned that higher prices are squeezing their day to day budgets and their longer term savings. The causes of inflation are largely global, but the pain of inflation is personal. This administration's top priority is to combat inflation even as we know the Federal Reserve has the primary role to play in restoring price stability.
Kyle Peterson: Kim, I read that as no recognition yet from the Biden administration that mistakes might have been made and that some of the spending that they signed and pushed through Congress has helped to fuel this extraordinary inflation that we've now seen.
Kim Strassel: Yeah. There were so many things in those sentences that you could pick out starting with, as you said, what she did not get into. And quite the opposite, she said the causes of inflation are largely global. Well, yes, the Ukrainian invasion by Russia has certainly hurt energy prices and pushed them up. But this is her completely ignoring that inflation had almost hit about 8% annually before Putin launched his troops in February. It had been rising ever since Democrats put through that $2 trillion unnecessary COVID Rescue Plan. So the administration bears its own responsibility. The other thing I would pick out of that line is her need or what she felt was the need to say, "Well, it's primarily the responsibility of the Fed to deal with this and to get us out of this." Well, there's two sides of a coin. Yes, as we have said, often the Fed let the money spigots go freely for too long. But, as I just mentioned, a significant portion of this is also due to an administration that was throwing money out of the door for reasons that didn't really have to do with COVID but their own agenda spending like bandits. And that helped to pour a lot of gasoline on what was rapidly becoming an overheated economy.
Kyle Peterson: One of the studies that I keep going back to is from the San Francisco Federal Reserve. It's a March 2022 analysis, "Why is U.S. inflation higher than in other countries?" And here's part of the conclusion. "The sizeable fiscal support measures aimed at counteracting the economic collapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic could explain about three percentage points of the recent rise in inflation." And, on this topic, the other thing that really jumped out at me from this speech was Yellen's remarks on the Inflation Reduction Act. Let's play a little bit of that.
Janet Yellen: In markets where we couldn't help lower prices by expanding supply, we aimed to mitigate the pain directly through cost relief. The newly passed Inflation Reduction Act boldly reduces everyday costs for families around the country. Without the law, healthcare premiums would've spiked for millions of Americans in January. And, instead, 13 million Americans will continue to save an average of $800 a year.
Kyle Peterson: And what I find remarkable about this, Joe, is, first of all, remember the Inflation Reduction Act was originally the Build Back Better program. It was a reconciliation bill that Democrats wanted to pass through all sorts of different priorities and then when inflation became a problem, they decided that Inflation Reduction Act would be a better branding for that, and so that's what they retitled the bill. But even the things that Janet Yellen is talking about, I mean, she is smart enough to know, she's a respected economist, that whether we increase subsidies for healthcare plans or not, it may lower costs for some segment of Americans, but it's not really an inflation issue and it seems like a real stolen base to me.
Joseph Sternberg: Yeah, great. So congratulations to all of us who can save a few 100 bucks on our insurance premiums and then spend all of that money on gas instead when we go fill up our cars. I mean, this is the basic problem that they've got. And I think that because Janet Yellen is a very smart, seasoned economist and a former Federal Reserve Chairman in addition to being a Treasury Secretary, I think that we should actually give her the benefit of the doubt for being smart enough not to entirely believe much of what she said in this speech. But the problem the Biden administration has is that we are about two months away from a midterm election here. It seems to be going reasonably well for the Democrats at the moment because they are managing to persuade the public to talk about anything other than the economy. This speech reads to me like a desperate attempt to continue distracting people from the prices at the pump, which are still very high, even if they've come down a little bit. Prices at the supermarket still very high. Prices for everything else still very high. And so, again, it's reach for any little sliver of politically viable good news they think they can grasp at and hope that voters won't notice everything else that's going wrong.
Kyle Peterson: But that's what makes this so notable to me. Yellen is a respected economist. Now, she's in this political role doing what reads a lot like campaign work for the President. And, by the way, this is a President that does not seem to be listening to Janet Yellen on economic questions. There's some reporting that Yellen has been in favor of lifting some of President Trump's tariffs as a way to take a one time bite out of inflation. There's been some reporting also that she was against this student loan forgiveness plan that President Biden is rolling out. And so we have a President who is not thinking like an economist, is not listening to economic advisors. He's listening to his political advisors. And yet we have Janet Yellen, Kim, on the road putting her credibility on the line for this administration. And we'll give you the last word.
Kim Strassel: Yeah, look, anytime you sign up to be a cabinet official or work for an administration there's going to be a very high possibility at times that you're going to be sent out to give the message. But in times past what I think most people who sign up for those jobs also do when they usually have this frank conversation with a President is, "Will I be allowed to have some control over my own destiny? Will you actually listen to me when I give you advice?" And I think that this is unfortunate because Janet Yellen, it's not just about her credibility, but the credibility of the administration. When people, average Americans, hear those lines, they don't buy it. And what they really want more than anything, the American public will sometimes be patient and understand that weird things have happened. For instance, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and that, that might be raising gas prices for them or playing into that in some way. They're often willing to be patient and let the political system attempt to fix these or things to right themselves as long as they feel as though that people in charge actually know what the problem is, admit what the problem is, and then have a solution. When you have an administration and a Treasury Secretary who stand up there and essentially say, "It's not a problem," or they point to things that they're claiming is a problem which is not really the cause, it doesn't leave anybody with a lot of confidence. And as Republicans are heading in now that Labor Day is over, they are beginning to focus some attention back on these daily concerns of Americans and the administration is going to need a better answer than this going forward.
Kyle Peterson: Thank you, Kim and Joe. Thank you all for listening. You can email us at pwpodcast@wsj.com. If you like the show, please hit that subscribe button and we'll be back next week with another edition of Potomac Watch.
Paul Gigot is the editorial page editor and vice president of The Wall Street Journal, a position he has held since 2001. He is responsible for the newspaper’s editorials, op-ed articles and Leisure & Arts criticism and directs the editorial pages of the Journal’s Asian and European editions and the OpinionJournal.com Web site. He is also the host of the weekly half-hour news program, the Journal Editorial Report, on the Fox News Channel.
Mr. Gigot joined the Journal in 1980 as a reporter in Chicago, and in 1982 he became the Journal’s Asia correspondent, based in Hong Kong. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his reporting on the Philippines. In 1984, he was named the first editorial page editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong. In 1987, he was assigned to Washington, where he contributed editorials and a weekly column on politics, "Potomac Watch," which won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
Mr. Gigot is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, where he was chairman of the daily student newspaper.