Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Penl podcast. I'm Paul swing you,
Speaker 1: along with my co host Lisa Brahma wits. Each day
Speaker 1: we bring you the most noteworthy and useful interviews for
Speaker 1: you and your money, whether at the grocery store or
Speaker 1: the trading floor. Find a Bloomberg Penl podcast on Apple
Speaker 1: podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com. We got some news coming out
Speaker 1: of Europe this morning. Germany lines up six hundred billion
Speaker 1: dollars for virus aid and also the European Union is
Speaker 1: backing stimulus. We're starting to get some movement coming out
Speaker 1: of the Western Europe. We had, of course, the US
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve immediately expanded the repo offering this week by
Speaker 1: one and a half trillion dollars. So starting to get
Speaker 1: some movement there. To get a sense of what this means,
Speaker 1: will ask Steve Blitz, chief US economists for T. S. Lombard.
Speaker 1: He joins us on the phone. Steve, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Give us a sense of kind of
Speaker 1: how you feel the response has been from the Fed.
Speaker 1: We had that emergency rate cut, we had them coming
Speaker 1: in injecting some liquidity here this week. How do you
Speaker 1: think the FED is kind of handling this a crisis here? Well,
Speaker 1: I think they're doing the best they can obviously, um.
Speaker 1: I think the hard thing is that I think you
Speaker 1: have to go back to point one, which is that
Speaker 1: this is not a financially driven sell off, right, So
Speaker 1: this was a non financial event, uh that created the
Speaker 1: sell off, and as such, the Fed doesn't have a
Speaker 1: misguided policy to walk back right as they did kind
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about a year ago. So it is, um.
Speaker 1: So they don't have anything to unwind here that they
Speaker 1: did wrong. So that puts them a little at sea
Speaker 1: in terms of what's the right move. So one habit says,
Speaker 1: cut the funds right, Cut the funds right, cut the
Speaker 1: funds right, and that's the habit both of the market
Speaker 1: as well as the Fed, and they'll cut and will
Speaker 1: be basis points after the FOMC meeting on Wednesday. The
Speaker 1: I think the more interesting thing that's going on was
Speaker 1: their move yesterday because in this move you would expect
Speaker 1: treasury yields to go down, which they have a lot,
Speaker 1: but the selling that's occurred and the widening credit spread
Speaker 1: that we're seeing basically the old live woory three months,
Speaker 1: they'll spread. That's widening out. Tells you that there's stress
Speaker 1: in the system, which isn't that unusual if you think
Speaker 1: about this rapid and this much of a drop in
Speaker 1: the equity market. To create that, people have made bad bets.
Speaker 1: I mean at the very you know ABC part of it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And people make bad bets and now they have to
Speaker 1: they need cash to cover it. Uh. And so there's
Speaker 1: a scramble for cash, So you sell treasuries, you go
Speaker 1: to the banks, you try to draw calf from the banks.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what that's what's going on right now. Seven.
Speaker 1: This is a really important point because we have on
Speaker 1: one hand an economic shock and economic potentially crisis and
Speaker 1: developing as a result of the slowdown that's been forced
Speaker 1: on the whole world frankly because of the coronavirus. But
Speaker 1: then you have the financial shock that you're starting to
Speaker 1: see the stresses in this in the system. How much
Speaker 1: do you think the financial shock in the financial crisis
Speaker 1: was alleviated or prevented enough to just sort of focus
Speaker 1: on the economic at this point, Do we have more
Speaker 1: to go on the economical It's a great question, and
Speaker 1: I would say, we have more to go, because I
Speaker 1: think that what we we we can now begin I
Speaker 1: think looking at China coming back, and I think you
Speaker 1: can sort of now model out you know, probably in
Speaker 1: six weeks the NBA will be back playing. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just a guess obviously, um and things will come back.
Speaker 1: So there's this quick economic contraction that will then of
Speaker 1: that that that that's going to come back. But wait,
Speaker 1: see you before you continue, I just want to bring
Speaker 1: you some breaking news. The New York Federal Reserve announcing
Speaker 1: that today they will be buying treasury security is of
Speaker 1: up to thirty years a bona fide que four q
Speaker 1: E five, whatever number you want to put on this.
Speaker 1: But after the program that they opened up yesterday, the
Speaker 1: REPO operations, the expanded ones that they're operating that they're offering,
Speaker 1: which were really aimed at alleviating funding pressures and systematic issues.
Speaker 1: This is this is outright qui. It sounds like we
Speaker 1: will bring you more details as we get them, but
Speaker 1: carry on. Yeah, okay, so let's just pick up that. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what's happening here? And this is I've been a
Speaker 1: very important point to understand. They're not the old QUI was,
Speaker 1: Let's flatten the curve. Let's get ten uere yields even
Speaker 1: lower to stimulate you know, borrowing, you know, mortgages, things
Speaker 1: like that. What they're doing is they're saying, you know what,
Speaker 1: this financial pressure, there's a lot of people out there,
Speaker 1: invite people. I don't necessarily mean individuals, just people's institutions
Speaker 1: as well, uh, domestic and foreign that need to raise cash.
Speaker 1: And the thing you sell when you need to raise
Speaker 1: cash is treasuries. And what the and what the FETE
Speaker 1: is saying is we will be on the the other
Speaker 1: side of that trade to buy the treasuries to alleviate
Speaker 1: any funding pressures in the repo market. So we'll be
Speaker 1: there to buy it. So that institutions that need to
Speaker 1: raise cash because of financial stress from the collapse in
Speaker 1: equity prices as well as all the other bets that
Speaker 1: go wrong, credit bets, you know, you name it. You've
Speaker 1: got people on all the time talking about you know,
Speaker 1: hedge funds, trades and things like that. Um, they need
Speaker 1: to raise cash. And what they're with the FEDS stepping
Speaker 1: up from doing is saying, I'm here, We're here, We're
Speaker 1: buying the treasuries from you. You don't have to find
Speaker 1: private sector buyers will buy them from you to keep
Speaker 1: the markets functioning. Uh. And that's and that's step one,
Speaker 1: and that is the step to take, and all the
Speaker 1: other steps about you they get a steeper curve because
Speaker 1: this isn't a good steepening of the curve. So a
Speaker 1: steepening of the curve and all the other things I've
Speaker 1: talked about about things to try and get the economy
Speaker 1: going again and borrowing and to keep lending going really
Speaker 1: takes second place to this. Steeplitz, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for being with us. A good luck out there, Stay healthy. Steeplitz,
Speaker 1: chief US economist at TS Lombard uh joining us on
Speaker 1: the phone as we all isolate ourselves into our own
Speaker 1: little pods to prevent us all from giving each other's diseases.
Speaker 1: It is it is really interesting to see the federers
Speaker 1: are coming out with this step. And to Steve's point,
Speaker 1: which I think is a really important one, it does
Speaker 1: not the FED does not want to see the price
Speaker 1: action that it saw this week in treasuries, where yields
Speaker 1: rose simply because people were selling what they could and
Speaker 1: they wanted to sell longer dated treasuries because that is
Speaker 1: a haven asset, and this, to me is going to
Speaker 1: put a backstop on that kind of activity. At least, Paul,
Speaker 1: it is an intended immediate impact on the equity markets
Speaker 1: at Lisa, we had the doll up close to a
Speaker 1: thousand points here, so I had routed a couple hundred
Speaker 1: points here on this news of about four point six. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and taking a look at thirty year treasury yields, which
Speaker 1: had been higher on the day now not surprisingly lower
Speaker 1: on the day at one point for one percent. We
Speaker 1: got much more coming up, Lisa, Abramwods, Paul Sweeney, this
Speaker 1: is bloomberg. One of the things that we've clearly learned
Speaker 1: with this coronavirus, it is a global pandemic affecting all
Speaker 1: parts of the globe and that includes UH, the UK,
Speaker 1: and Western Europe. We have Marion Harkin, she's an independent
Speaker 1: member of Ireland's parliament joining with us. She's also a
Speaker 1: former European Union Parliament member representing Ireland. Marian, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. You know, as we deal with
Speaker 1: the effects here and the growing effects of the coronavirus
Speaker 1: here in the United States, give us a sense of
Speaker 1: kind of how it's been in Ireland. I know that
Speaker 1: Ireland partially shut down schools as a virus outbreak worsensia.
Speaker 1: Give us a sense of what's happening on the ground
Speaker 1: in Ireland. Well, good morning, Paul, and it's certainly we
Speaker 1: woke up to a different world, a different reality today.
Speaker 1: And I was in the Irish Parliament yesterday and our
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Artichia announced the new regulations actually from Washington,
Speaker 1: and we have completely closed down our schools, our colleges.
Speaker 1: People are being asked to maintain what they call social
Speaker 1: distance or social distancing, which is to remain about a
Speaker 1: meter apart from other people. Hand Washing is strongly encouraged
Speaker 1: on a very regular basis, and the purpose of an
Speaker 1: All large events have been canceled, anything over a hundred
Speaker 1: in an enclosed area or five hundreds outside. And I
Speaker 1: have no doubts that maybe even by this evening or tomorrow,
Speaker 1: that that will be changed again. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: look across the EU, for example UM, in Norway, UM
Speaker 1: they have closed all their pubs, and in Belgium there
Speaker 1: are significant restrictions on opening ours for pubs, for restaurants, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So there's a whole raft of measures being taken at
Speaker 1: a pace, shall we say, And the whole purpose, Paul,
Speaker 1: is to slow down the transmission of the virus, because
Speaker 1: we want our health care systems to be able to
Speaker 1: deal with what happens when somebody catches this virus. And
Speaker 1: that's the real issue. It's not that we can stop its.
Speaker 1: We we can't stop transmission of a virus unless we
Speaker 1: have immunity, and of course we have none. So it's
Speaker 1: it's to make sure or to try and make sure
Speaker 1: that we don't find ourselves in a position that our
Speaker 1: health care systems are completely overwhelmed, like, for example, as
Speaker 1: has happened in Italy, Marianne, there's sort of an irony
Speaker 1: baked into the concept of social distancing right now because
Speaker 1: we're being told to stay away from each other, and
Speaker 1: yet there seems to be a greater degree of cooperation
Speaker 1: among elected officials and central bankers when it comes to
Speaker 1: trying to formulate some sort of response. And I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: as an independent member of Ireland's Parliament, do you get
Speaker 1: the feeling as people are coming together, regardless of their
Speaker 1: political event or what country they're from. You do you
Speaker 1: get a sense of unity or not really. Oh absolutely,
Speaker 1: there is a real sense we're in it together. You know.
Speaker 1: It's not actually doctors and medicine, certainly in the short
Speaker 1: term that that will help us. It's the actions that
Speaker 1: we take as individuals. As I said, we we cannot
Speaker 1: stop the virus spreading. What we can do is slow
Speaker 1: down the transmission so that healthcare workers number one, don't
Speaker 1: have to make awful choices about who they treation who
Speaker 1: they don't, and secondly that they themselves don't get overwhelmed
Speaker 1: or come down with the disease. So I think people
Speaker 1: recognize that the only way we can get through this
Speaker 1: in any ship is that we must as individuals take responsibility,
Speaker 1: and then our governments and our health care systems take
Speaker 1: their responsibilities. But nobody is immune from this. And as
Speaker 1: I said, have woken up to a new reality. This
Speaker 1: is important and I think that it is true, and
Speaker 1: people are taking responsibility and schools are closing around the world.
Speaker 1: As a government official, though, there is a responsibility to
Speaker 1: act on the fiscal side, and we did get out
Speaker 1: of the European Union. Today a plan to to loosen
Speaker 1: the budgets of a number of different nations in order
Speaker 1: to allow them to provide the stimulus needed. German these
Speaker 1: government came out and said that it was going to
Speaker 1: provide unlimited credit. It appears to be ready to abandon
Speaker 1: its balanced budget credo that it's gone by for a
Speaker 1: long time in Ireland. What are you doing? How much
Speaker 1: is it going to cost? Well, at one level, we
Speaker 1: were lucky we had a certain amount of money put
Speaker 1: aside to deal with the fallout from breakxfit, and that
Speaker 1: of course is being completely used up now to start
Speaker 1: funding some of the measures that we have put in place.
Speaker 1: It probably won't be enough, but it's the start. So
Speaker 1: some of the measures that we will be putting in
Speaker 1: place and have put in place include next week, for example,
Speaker 1: we will have a sitting of Parliament where we will
Speaker 1: put through emergency legislation on those who have to self
Speaker 1: isolated or who have to leave work, both employed and
Speaker 1: self comployed, that they will get a certain race of
Speaker 1: payments that they can continue to live and feed their families.
Speaker 1: If you work in the public service, you're entitled to
Speaker 1: sick pay, but otherwise your employer may not be able
Speaker 1: to pay you. So we are putting in place those
Speaker 1: emergency measures that nobody will be outside the loop and
Speaker 1: that people will take the responsible decision to sell size
Speaker 1: place without fear of having to say I have no income,
Speaker 1: I have no money. And for example, other measures that
Speaker 1: have already been taken in the last twenty eight hours
Speaker 1: would include all of our police who are in training
Speaker 1: at the moment, even those who are only there for
Speaker 1: a couple of months, have all been given full guard
Speaker 1: the powers because we need more policemen available. The army
Speaker 1: is beginning to move in as certain buildings that have
Speaker 1: been you for other purposes will now be available if
Speaker 1: necessary for a medical use. So a lot of action
Speaker 1: in the last twenty four hours, some of it preparatory
Speaker 1: and some of us are pretty immediate. And the good
Speaker 1: news for workers here is that we will backdate any
Speaker 1: payments to the ninth of March for people who are
Speaker 1: sick or who have to sell isolates. Marian Harkin, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being with us. Marian Harkin, independent
Speaker 1: member of Ireland's Parliament and former European Union Parliament member
Speaker 1: representing Ireland, joining us to give us a sense of
Speaker 1: what they're doing to grapple with this. In the United States,
Speaker 1: the focus very much front and center in Washington, d
Speaker 1: c and what kind of plan is being drafted by
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi and Treasures diectory Stephen Manuchin. They have been
Speaker 1: discussing all of the details hashing that out. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve came out and basically announced around of quantitative easing.
Speaker 1: Basically they're going to be buying treasuries with maturity is
Speaker 1: ranging up to thirty years. We are seeing a rally,
Speaker 1: although it is off earlier highs and Nadack up three
Speaker 1: point two percent, the SMP three, the Dow two point
Speaker 1: seven percent. This is Bloomberk. I want to take a
Speaker 1: look at the medical side of coronavirus, in particular how
Speaker 1: we track it, how we test for it, and frankly,
Speaker 1: how close we are to actually crying it or solving
Speaker 1: it or a merely rating at least the effects. Luckily,
Speaker 1: we have Maxinis and Bloomberg opinion columnists covering all things
Speaker 1: healthcare with us today. Max I want to start with
Speaker 1: Anthony Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute
Speaker 1: for Allergy and Infectious Disease. Yesterday, he was testifying in
Speaker 1: front of Congress and he said he admitted that it
Speaker 1: was a failing of the U S healthcare system that
Speaker 1: we did not have sufficient testing at the outset. Can
Speaker 1: you just walk through why we did not have better
Speaker 1: testing available right away so that we could try and
Speaker 1: isolate people immediately. So there you know, any number of
Speaker 1: reasons or failures for this, UM. You know, a failure
Speaker 1: of cooperation between agencies like the CDC and the f D,
Speaker 1: a failure to bring in private companies and state labs
Speaker 1: rapidly enough. Decision at the outset. Instead of using w
Speaker 1: h O developed tests one that's been deployed all over
Speaker 1: the world, we decided to develop our own, which turned
Speaker 1: out to have problems. The introducing those problems obviously created
Speaker 1: difficulties and and slow the raw and beyond that, UM
Speaker 1: just an overall decision by the government for UM, you know,
Speaker 1: not necessarily the best reasons to restrict deliberately the number
Speaker 1: of tests that were deployed and developed and and like
Speaker 1: the number of people that were tested, limiting it only
Speaker 1: to people with the direct travel history to China in
Speaker 1: spite of the fact that there was you know, already
Speaker 1: evidence of spread in other parts of the world, and
Speaker 1: you know the reality that the earlier, you know better
Speaker 1: to overtest and under test and we really didn't even
Speaker 1: get to that that mindset until just a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: So failure of leadership, failure of science, failure, um on
Speaker 1: on many many levels has led to this this point, Max,
Speaker 1: where are we right now in terms of the number
Speaker 1: of kids we have in this country, how widely dispersed
Speaker 1: they are right now? How easy is it for somebody
Speaker 1: to get a test? And and just kind of where
Speaker 1: are we today? Do you think, unfortunately, all that we
Speaker 1: really have our sort of these ad hoc estimates. Um.
Speaker 1: I'll point people to former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who
Speaker 1: has been you know, talking to state labs of the CDC,
Speaker 1: private companies, trying to come up with a reasonable estimate. UM.
Speaker 1: So we we really don't have a confirmed number unfortunately.
Speaker 1: And UM it seems to be the case that you know,
Speaker 1: your ability to get tested really depends on where you are.
Speaker 1: Are you in a state that that took early steps
Speaker 1: to to you know, develop its own tests to stand
Speaker 1: up at more capacity than it needed any any given
Speaker 1: moment um, when we're still not at a point where
Speaker 1: everyone who needs to be tested can be unfortunately, and
Speaker 1: probably won't be for a little bit to come, although
Speaker 1: Anthony Fauci did say today that he expects the number
Speaker 1: of tests to increase dramatically over the upcoming weeks, and
Speaker 1: part because the US government is partnering with private companies.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about that. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: So this is basically, you know, looking to companies like
Speaker 1: lab corp and and quest Um, you know, these sort
Speaker 1: of brand name companies that have labs all over the
Speaker 1: country and um just basically making sure that they too,
Speaker 1: are are part of this effort that you know, if
Speaker 1: if a public lab is overwhelmed, if there isn't one available,
Speaker 1: send it to these companies and they're finally beginning to
Speaker 1: to stand up capacity to to get you know, validate
Speaker 1: these tests and begin to run them. That will be
Speaker 1: a huge help because they're they're more dispersed UM and
Speaker 1: and potentially you know, quite cape bill of running a
Speaker 1: lot of tests. You know, we're not at the stage
Speaker 1: where even they are are going to provide all the
Speaker 1: capacity we need, but they will certainly help a lot.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about cost, Max, I know you're out with
Speaker 1: account A really interesting coronavirus crisis makes a case for
Speaker 1: medicare for all. Talk to us about that does that
Speaker 1: actually have some legs? Yeah, so, you know, the it's
Speaker 1: a uniquely American um phenomenon that in addition to people
Speaker 1: worrying about getting coronavirus, if they're smart, they will also
Speaker 1: be worried about the cost of getting coronavirus UM. You know,
Speaker 1: the first step is obviously testing. There's been an effort
Speaker 1: from insurers and from individual states and the government to
Speaker 1: make sure that that that that people won't be faced
Speaker 1: with costs. But that's you know, you actually have to
Speaker 1: take really aggressive steps to make sure that even testing
Speaker 1: in a pandemic is not going to cost people thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars. And then you get to the stage of
Speaker 1: of whether when people actually have a hospital stay UM.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people that don't use their
Speaker 1: health insurance set off into assume that they're protected from
Speaker 1: unexpected bills. But if you end up with an inpatient
Speaker 1: hospital stay, you're gonna hit your deductible UM, You're gonna
Speaker 1: potentially face coinsurance, and that will get you to your
Speaker 1: plans out of pocket maximum, which in many cases is
Speaker 1: in the thousands of dollars. And that's a financial strain
Speaker 1: on many companies. And that's the best case scenario, there
Speaker 1: there are steps the government can take in an emergency
Speaker 1: to kind of prevent that from happening, to protect people
Speaker 1: from costs. Uh still in the works and and unclear
Speaker 1: whether it will be broad enough to help. I'd argue
Speaker 1: that you might want a system in this is what
Speaker 1: I argue might call them where you don't have to
Speaker 1: take emergency steps to protect people from those costs. Max Nis,
Speaker 1: and thanks so much for joining us. We always appreciate
Speaker 1: your perspective on all things healthcare. Max Neison is a
Speaker 1: biotech farm and healthcare condus for Bloomberg Opinion, joining us
Speaker 1: here in a Bloomberg eleven three oh studio. Thank you, Max.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, that's just to me. Highlights a lot
Speaker 1: of weak spots, and you know, there's there's a question
Speaker 1: of how much is going to be temporary and how
Speaker 1: much well this entire episode reshape the way some people
Speaker 1: think about a variety of different issues. This medicaid from
Speaker 1: medicare for all. I think it will be back on
Speaker 1: the table, certainly for the Democrats as they think about,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of how to position uh, the US
Speaker 1: against some of these pandemics. If you're looking to distract
Speaker 1: yourself by watching basketball game or a football game, or
Speaker 1: I mean even a golf tournament. Too bad forget about it.
Speaker 1: You're out of luck. They've all been canceled. American sports
Speaker 1: has been shut down. Scott Sashnik covering it all. Scott
Speaker 1: Sashnik is a Bloomberg Sports columnist joining us here in
Speaker 1: uh in New York. And I'm wondering, Scott, how big
Speaker 1: of it hits this going to be economically? Well, it
Speaker 1: depends on what you're all around. If you're a Madison
Speaker 1: Square Garden, you have two teams, it's the arena, it's
Speaker 1: the network, and you're getting hit on every single part
Speaker 1: of that business. Uh. You have other theaters as well.
Speaker 1: If you're Live Nation, you've got nothing, great company but
Speaker 1: no events, you're getting crushed. Um. If you're a e g.
Speaker 1: An arena operator, you're you're getting crushed. So, uh, it
Speaker 1: remains to be seen what the contracts with the networks
Speaker 1: will look like, what the contracts with the players union
Speaker 1: will look like, whether they get together and figure out
Speaker 1: how to help each other out. But they just don't
Speaker 1: know how long this is gonna last. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about the media rights. That's just the bread and butter
Speaker 1: of the economics of professional sports. And I'm thinking about ESPN,
Speaker 1: Fox Sports, CBS with you know, the March madness. How
Speaker 1: bad is it gonna be for these media companies. It's terrible.
Speaker 1: How bad is it going to be? It's it's terrible,
Speaker 1: but they have to put something on the air. And
Speaker 1: ESPN yesterday put out their statement like we're doing it
Speaker 1: one day at a time. This is what we've got
Speaker 1: on the air tonight. That's all. That's just I mean,
Speaker 1: nobody has done this before. So the bread and butter,
Speaker 1: as you know, why do they pay all these money.
Speaker 1: It's two words live right studio shows and what's called
Speaker 1: shoulder programming. All the things that surround those are just
Speaker 1: sort of the advertisers to the feast, which is the
Speaker 1: live event game. That thing that's been driving O T
Speaker 1: T and driving those rights fees. They're not there. It's
Speaker 1: just not there. I'm just thinking back to a Gary
Speaker 1: Larson cartoon that had a family all around, uh, and
Speaker 1: it was I'm describing cartoons on radio, the best the
Speaker 1: best kind of radio, looking at one spot on the
Speaker 1: wall with nothing there, and it said the world before television,
Speaker 1: and it sort of raises a sort of exesstential moment
Speaker 1: for people could do with their time. What do you
Speaker 1: fill the airwaves with if you don't have this? You know?
Speaker 1: The sports? Yeah, I mean well you know if you're Turner, yes,
Speaker 1: you have a a big portfolio of sport events you do.
Speaker 1: But Turner can show me myriad other things. It's not
Speaker 1: an all sports network like ESPN. Turner has a big
Speaker 1: it's a a t T. Of course, they have a
Speaker 1: big movie library. You want to show me Shawshank, you
Speaker 1: want to show me Rudy. People may still tune in
Speaker 1: for those things, but if you're missing that key component,
Speaker 1: that that ardent fan who wants the game, you're in trouble. Me.
Speaker 1: Just last night I went down the channel guide with
Speaker 1: my son. We're like just going like, nope, that one, Nope, nope, nope.
Speaker 1: But it's amazing how many channels are devoted to sports.
Speaker 1: You think about all the regional sports, all the RSN. Yes,
Speaker 1: Sinclair is exposed there absolutely what what? What are the
Speaker 1: transmission fees? What made? And everybody says the same thing.
Speaker 1: I've talked to all these folks. We don't know, we'll
Speaker 1: figure it out. Are the players do they get paid no. Uh. Specifically,
Speaker 1: the NBA, specifically, after nine eleven, a forced measure clause
Speaker 1: was inserted into the labor contract with the players that
Speaker 1: includes things like disasters, but also the word epidemic. I
Speaker 1: mean that's a specific term. The NHL has a forced
Speaker 1: maasure clause in the standard player contract, but the word
Speaker 1: epidemic that particularly does not appear. You know, I'm just
Speaker 1: struck by how big of a business the athletic leagues
Speaker 1: really are. I mean, it's not just the athletes, it's
Speaker 1: not just the networks, but it's also all of the
Speaker 1: gig employees who work around broadcasting all of these events.
Speaker 1: It's all the people who work on setting up the courts.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's a massive industry. You have
Speaker 1: seen some owners. Mark Cuban immediately addressed those hourly workers.
Speaker 1: Josh Harris and David Blitzer have also addressed they will
Speaker 1: figure out a plan to address compensation for these hourly
Speaker 1: workers who who just rely on this income. I don't
Speaker 1: know if every owner will do that, because I certainly
Speaker 1: don't have to, but at least it was nice to
Speaker 1: see Mark thinking about it at the outset that those
Speaker 1: folks who not are on the front lines. They're not
Speaker 1: the players, they're not the million dollar assets, but they
Speaker 1: are integral to putting on the whole thing and on
Speaker 1: the broader scale of pro sports that people don't think
Speaker 1: about it. These are real estate investments, their media investments.
Speaker 1: These teams are just the centerpiece of all these arms,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that disappears when the game's not there.
Speaker 1: So are the leagues? Are you getting a sense? It's
Speaker 1: seems like most of them are suspending their seasons some
Speaker 1: I guess, like the n C Double A, we're done
Speaker 1: with winter and spring sports and things like that. Are
Speaker 1: they suspending it hoping they can salvage something at some point?
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, it depends on which league you are,
Speaker 1: because the yeah, well almost all sports sports league and
Speaker 1: you know this better than most. What does everybody ramp
Speaker 1: up for the playoffs? Right? The NBA and the NHL.
Speaker 1: You want to see the playoffs, that's what matters most.
Speaker 1: In fact, the joke around NBA circles is the season
Speaker 1: doesn't even start until Christmas, so he's just washing a
Speaker 1: couple of months. Anyway, If big if if four weeks
Speaker 1: from now, six weeks from now, situation improves to a
Speaker 1: point where they can stage games with fans or without,
Speaker 1: because let's not forget the main driver here is always television.
Speaker 1: You'll give up the gate. If they can put those
Speaker 1: teams on the court, on the ice and stage of playoffs,
Speaker 1: they would be happy to do so. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: just having everyone wear masks? I don't exactly. I don't
Speaker 1: think so. But actually there was a picture from the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen World Series where the batter was actually they
Speaker 1: were wearing masks in the games. I saw that, So
Speaker 1: maybe maybe you're onto something that At Lisa's and there
Speaker 1: was no there was no Scots sports business reporter for
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Speaker 1: Paul Sweeney, I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. I'm Lisa
Speaker 1: abram Boy. It's I'm on Twitter at Lisa A. Bramloit's
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