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Speaker 2: Terminal and the Bloomberg Business App. George is with us
Speaker 2: now for more. So, George, let's talk about it. The
Speaker 2: data yesterday. Do you believe or not that that puts
Speaker 2: to bed the idea of where we're going to get
Speaker 2: a rake cut anytime soon?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it does push it off.
Speaker 5: And I think that's what we're seeing across you know,
Speaker 5: all the forecasters and the market's been doing this all along,
Speaker 5: ever since, and and this is really the challenge, I mean,
Speaker 5: because once you get to a point where the market
Speaker 5: now is actually underpricing what the Fed has and they're
Speaker 5: it does really kind of you know, call into question
Speaker 5: the timing and timing is critical we you know, the
Speaker 5: June July and if now that's really pushed off, you know,
Speaker 5: the election. Of course that doesn't really shouldn't play a
Speaker 5: role with the ifty data gets weaker and warrants an
Speaker 5: actual cut. But I do think that you know that
Speaker 5: they should cut in July. I have that that far.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to change up part of the view.
Speaker 5: I think that yesterday was an overreaction by the market.
Speaker 5: But we have a big challenge now here because we
Speaker 5: were banking on we collectively the global bomb market unsynchronized easing.
Speaker 5: And now if you have this challenge, we have this
Speaker 5: unsenchronized easing, and.
Speaker 4: The Fed's delayed.
Speaker 5: Other central banks are going to be worried as well,
Speaker 5: so that this does add to volatility. That where it
Speaker 5: adds to volatility is in the ten year more so
Speaker 5: than in the two year.
Speaker 2: Jeg's lots to unpacked. There the word over reaction, I
Speaker 2: want to get into that just a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Do you think an upside surprise of six basis points,
Speaker 2: because ultimately that's all it was. Do you think an
Speaker 2: upside surprise of six basis points was worth a twenty
Speaker 2: basis point move at the front end of the curve.
Speaker 5: That just goes to show you how lack of conviction
Speaker 5: there is in the marketplace and positioning and how flows
Speaker 5: can change very quickly.
Speaker 4: This is a very binary market.
Speaker 5: When you're on hold and your data dependent both the
Speaker 5: markets and the FED, you know it's going to cause
Speaker 5: you know, these sort of sort of reactions in my opinion,
Speaker 5: although Jim Read.
Speaker 1: Did put it well over from Deutsche Bank talking about
Speaker 1: how this really calls into the question about whether the
Speaker 1: bump is really a bump, and we'd been talking about
Speaker 1: this for a long time. At what point does it
Speaker 1: become a trend in something stickier? And really from all
Speaker 1: of the notes, it seems like people are saying this
Speaker 1: is sticky and if you discount that, that's going to
Speaker 1: be at your peril. Why are you discounting that?
Speaker 5: Well, because look, the sticky versus accelerating inflation is a
Speaker 5: critical point.
Speaker 4: And it's early in the year.
Speaker 5: We again this, if we're data dependent, we have a
Speaker 5: long road ahead of us with a lot of things
Speaker 5: that can change on both, you know, the growth side
Speaker 5: versus the inflation side. And to just to kind of
Speaker 5: only focus on this inflation fear, I think that you
Speaker 5: know could call it the question, and I think, you know,
Speaker 5: the op ed from Muhammad al Arian is a good one.
Speaker 5: I mean, this might be a world that we're going
Speaker 5: to be training between two and three percent on inflation
Speaker 5: and to jeopardize growth because of that's going to wait
Speaker 5: until they see the actual improvement as well as or
Speaker 5: weakness in the economy.
Speaker 4: At that point is always too late.
Speaker 1: Just to say on the over reaction concept and just
Speaker 1: what that says about positioning. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: the pretty dramatic moves in the treasure market. In the
Speaker 1: currency market, as John was talking about, we saw the
Speaker 1: biggest one day rally in the dollar going back to
Speaker 1: the height of the banking crisis in March twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: How much are you seeing this as really the difficulty
Speaker 1: and frankly the challenge to some sort of synchronized rate
Speaker 1: cutting cycle globally.
Speaker 4: It really comes down to the FX markets.
Speaker 5: I think that's clearly the case, and we look at
Speaker 5: what's going on with the dollar yen. This gets into
Speaker 5: a very potential vicious cycle where that that's why the
Speaker 5: ten year the dollar and oil are super critical. That
Speaker 5: macro trio is what's really going to dictate what happens
Speaker 5: going forward.
Speaker 4: And let's not forget that.
Speaker 5: We've had a very accommodative or I guess financial easy
Speaker 5: accommodative environment. If those three variables start moving in a
Speaker 5: way where it's detrimental to risk assets, then you'll get
Speaker 5: your tightening there too. So I think all this stuff
Speaker 5: is in play.
Speaker 2: Joeyce We's sit on foreign exchange, the euro one O seven,
Speaker 2: dolly N one fifty three, cable one twenty five, that
Speaker 2: print yesterday that moving yields in rates stayside. Who does
Speaker 2: that upset more? The Bank of England, the BOJ or
Speaker 2: the ECB.
Speaker 5: I think the bo J first, ECB second, BOE third.
Speaker 5: I think this is really coming down to like this
Speaker 5: this one fifty three one fifty five level.
Speaker 4: It's really important on.
Speaker 5: The dollar end and in a moving ECB. ME like
Speaker 5: I think like we've always looked at the ECB as
Speaker 5: making policy mistakes. I think they're trying to be proactive.
Speaker 5: I think they're trying to do the right thing. Uh,
Speaker 5: they probably will have to ease before the FED, and
Speaker 5: it's gonna be hard, and I think it's obviously a
Speaker 5: challenge for them, but they just kind of sit here,
Speaker 5: do nothing. It is not the right course of action either.
Speaker 2: Do you think it tempt their ability to go further
Speaker 2: beyond flagging a June raid cup at this meeting this morning?
Speaker 4: At a minimum, what could happen?
Speaker 5: I mean because if you'll I want to always backpedal,
Speaker 5: and I think this could then enter into an environment
Speaker 5: where such a bank's ease and then they skip meetings
Speaker 5: and they try to really calibrate the message in between.
Speaker 5: I think that's really what they can do, try to
Speaker 5: really slow down the process. And that changed the narrative
Speaker 5: every other inflation report.
Speaker 2: This is really difficult, George, because one fifty two Lisa's
Speaker 2: been talking about it was the line of the sand
Speaker 2: for intervention, and here we are at one fifty three.
Speaker 2: Steve England are a standard chant to put a note
Speaker 2: out ahead of this, So this is before the CPI
Speaker 2: print and this is what he said, a hot print
Speaker 2: would mean fighting market fundamentals. That's a difficult intervention proposition
Speaker 2: given where the fundamentals are and how strong the tide
Speaker 2: is right now against the BOJ Do you think they
Speaker 2: can intervene in the effects market anymore so?
Speaker 5: The challenge, of course, other other than just verbal intervention
Speaker 5: is that for the better part of the last eighteen months,
Speaker 5: as the FED was hiking and then concluding their hiking cycle,
Speaker 5: and then all these eases were priced in. I mean,
Speaker 5: in many ways Bank of Japan was hoping in banking
Speaker 5: on global central banks easing and that would take some
Speaker 5: pressure off the currency. And then now this really does
Speaker 5: call into question that. And therefore, you know, do you
Speaker 5: start raising rates faster and then you get into the
Speaker 5: whole yen carry trade and the concerns around that. So
Speaker 5: I think that, you know, the Japan story is super critical.
Speaker 5: Obviously it's important to us, and I think that it
Speaker 5: does at a minimum need to have some sort of intervention.
Speaker 5: I don't think that a move beyond with fifty five
Speaker 5: will be tolerated, and I think that that we'll probably
Speaker 5: see something there, but we don't know obviously you know,
Speaker 5: with clarity on what's going to happen there. But I
Speaker 5: do think that it's going to now move towards kenne
Speaker 5: buj actually raised rates even more than just ten bases
Speaker 5: points out of clip.
Speaker 1: Does yesterday's print George really challenge this thesis that we've
Speaker 1: been hearing from a lot of guests, which is go
Speaker 1: outside of the US. There's more value elsewhere, whether it's
Speaker 1: risk assets or whether it's currency that generally it seems
Speaker 1: like the US is sort of overpriced. Does that get
Speaker 1: challenged fundamentally based on the fact that the US is
Speaker 1: still the one printing inflation as well as strong growth.
Speaker 5: If you look across your world bond screen on your
Speaker 5: Bloomberg terminal, and as I'm sure you all do, the
Speaker 5: US is still one of the highest yielding for developed markets.
Speaker 5: I mean New Zealand, you know, and a few others maybe,
Speaker 5: but there's you know, the attractive yields in the US,
Speaker 5: and that's why I feel like it's gonna be hard
Speaker 5: for fixing.
Speaker 4: Income to go unhinged. And you know, this.
Speaker 5: Four to fifty level is critical psychologically, and we could
Speaker 5: go to four seventy five and a ten yeard wouldn't
Speaker 5: be surprised.
Speaker 4: But nonetheless, there's.
Speaker 5: You know, capital will come to the US because of
Speaker 5: our higher yields, and I think that's gonna benefit more
Speaker 5: fixed income than equities, considering where evaluations are.
Speaker 2: Now interesting George, thank you, sir jo Cancaves of MBFJ
Speaker 2: on the bomb market join, I guess is City's rubber
Speaker 2: suckin city. I know you've got a city. Great Rubbert
Speaker 2: that coal for June for a right cut, and I
Speaker 2: just wonder is it just about holding on by his
Speaker 2: fingernails after that pp I print, Thanks.
Speaker 6: So much for having me. Yeah, we're still holding on
Speaker 6: to that June call. I think it's a very close
Speaker 6: call at this point. As Michael McKee had said, you know,
Speaker 6: once you have three months of data, you start to
Speaker 6: think that might be a trend, and we've seen fairly
Speaker 6: hot inflation data throughout the first quarter of this year.
Speaker 6: We do think we have to see how it shakes
Speaker 6: out with PPI. If core PCE is coming in around
Speaker 6: point three is probably the limit or maybe somewhere below
Speaker 6: that would be okay if you're running that type of rate.
Speaker 6: We think Shairpal would feel comfortable at least starting to
Speaker 6: ease in June. But again, if it comes in something
Speaker 6: like point three, that's probably the borderline of where you'd
Speaker 6: feel comfortable. So I think the inflation numbers are going
Speaker 6: against the call, and certainly the probability of it have
Speaker 6: gone down. But that PPI will see how it shakes
Speaker 6: out with the core PCE estimates, But overall that's pretty
Speaker 6: good news, so we think. And also, this is a
Speaker 6: FED that seems to really want to get the easing
Speaker 6: cycle started at some point this year. So on balance,
Speaker 6: we're holding on to it. But again, you know, it's
Speaker 6: going to depend on those next few inflation prints and
Speaker 6: how the labor market evolves.
Speaker 2: Well, for a while, you in the team of City
Speaker 2: have said this Federal Reserve has shifted emphasis. It's putting
Speaker 2: a greater emphasis on the potential for labor market weakness.
Speaker 2: And in line with that, I think the perceived reaction
Speaker 2: function from the market of the Federal Reserve has shifted
Speaker 2: as well. Maybe up until yesterday, there was this belief
Speaker 2: that the Federal Reserve could respond to adverse shocks, maybe
Speaker 2: weakness pronounced weakness in the labor market because of these
Speaker 2: disinflationary trends. Robert, I'm trying to understand is whether that
Speaker 2: story is being damaged by the print of yesterday or not.
Speaker 3: Do you think it has Yeah, this is a.
Speaker 6: This is a tough question because that's certainly been part
Speaker 6: of the imputus for our calls. We do think there
Speaker 6: is enough signs of softness in the labor market, not
Speaker 6: so much in the overall aggregate numbers. So hiring is
Speaker 6: still strong. Jobs claim they are still low, but you
Speaker 6: are seeing things like hiring intentions fall significantly from small businesses.
Speaker 6: You seeing things like the hiring rate drop notably in
Speaker 6: recent quarters. So we think there was a softness, that
Speaker 6: the FED was getting worried that the labor market was
Speaker 6: weakening too much and that you could be heading into
Speaker 6: a recession. I still think that's a big backbone of
Speaker 6: the call, but now that has to be weighed, as
Speaker 6: you said, against these stronger inflation prints. I do think
Speaker 6: if we do see more signs of weakening, the FED
Speaker 6: would lean more on that element and still like to
Speaker 6: start this cutting cycle. But exactly as you said, it
Speaker 6: complicates the math because before we were getting inflation that
Speaker 6: was good enough and some signs of softening, but the
Speaker 6: last few months have been much stronger inflation than we
Speaker 6: were expecting.
Speaker 1: Rober you keip saying that this is a FED that
Speaker 1: wants to cart and a lot of people have been
Speaker 1: asking why, and there are a lot of conspiracy theories,
Speaker 1: and then there are questions around just somewhere of the weakness,
Speaker 1: of where the weakness is coming from. We heard from
Speaker 1: Jason Thomas of Carlisle earlier this morning that one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why is the deficit, and as it balloons,
Speaker 1: borrowing costs are getting more punitive for the United States.
Speaker 1: How much do you think that's factoring in the decision
Speaker 1: to try to cut rates at a time when a
Speaker 1: lot of that deficits financed through T bills.
Speaker 6: Yeah, great, it's a great question.
Speaker 3: Certainly.
Speaker 6: On the one hand, those deficit numbers are looking very large,
Speaker 6: and interest costs have been growing significantly as a share
Speaker 6: of the overall deficit.
Speaker 3: I don't think.
Speaker 6: Though, that that's the primary concern of the FED. I
Speaker 6: think in the fed's mind that they feel like they've
Speaker 6: done enough.
Speaker 3: They feel like.
Speaker 6: They're restrictive, and they do feel like they're seeing enough
Speaker 6: progress on inflation and enough signs of loosening in the
Speaker 6: labor market and softening in the economy that they're willing
Speaker 6: to start to start easing, especially if they are starting
Speaker 6: to get concerned about those downside risk activity. So I
Speaker 6: don't think that that concern is primary in their mind.
Speaker 6: But more broadly, I do think that is an issue
Speaker 6: that deficits are getting big, and that's something policy makers
Speaker 6: have to pay attention to as interest scars are high,
Speaker 6: but primarily the FED is focused on getting inflation back
Speaker 6: down the target and maintaining activity in the economy.
Speaker 1: Rob Have you changed your long term inflation forecast for
Speaker 1: the United States and the heels of some of these
Speaker 1: prints and your belief that the FED will still cut.
Speaker 6: No, we haven't changed the longer term outlook in terms
Speaker 6: of inflation will gradually go back down to target over
Speaker 6: the next few years. Have somewhat of a sticky path
Speaker 6: down because we think that services inflation is going to
Speaker 6: take longer than many people think to come back down
Speaker 6: to more stable levels, and as mentioned, still have the
Speaker 6: FED cutting in June. But I think the risks around
Speaker 6: that forecast have changed. The risks are looking more tilted
Speaker 6: towards inflation states even higher for longer than we've had,
Speaker 6: and the risks are looking that the FED starts that
Speaker 6: easing cycle a bit later. So we're holding onto those
Speaker 6: similar views, but I think the risks have definitely tilted
Speaker 6: in a different direction.
Speaker 2: Robin, this was great, fantastic hey from you have rubt
Speaker 2: Selkin there sit say just about holding on to this
Speaker 2: June right time. Let's tend to our next story. The
Speaker 2: NTSB said this investigation into last month's Baltimore bridge collapse
Speaker 2: is honing in on the vessel's electrical system. President Biden
Speaker 2: saying the federal government will pay for the bridge recovery
Speaker 2: and rebuild. I meanwhile, the Governor of Maryland saying he
Speaker 2: hopes to restore full service of the Port of Baltimore
Speaker 2: by the end of May. A police to say that
Speaker 2: with us is Governor Wesmore. Governor, thanks for giving us
Speaker 2: your time this morning. I know it's been a very
Speaker 2: difficult month for you and the people of your state,
Speaker 2: very very difficult. I want to start with this because
Speaker 2: the President of the United States, President Joe Biden, has
Speaker 2: committed to funding the cost of the rebuild. How confident
Speaker 2: are you that he can get that financing through Congress.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm confident that it's imperative that we can get
Speaker 7: it done. If you look at the economic impact of
Speaker 7: the Port of Baltimore, the Port of Baltimore is worthy
Speaker 7: and contributes about seventy billion dollars to the American economy.
Speaker 7: The Port of Baltimore is the largest port in this
Speaker 7: country for new cars, for heavy trucks, for agricultural equipment,
Speaker 7: for spices and sugars for coal. That a huge chunk
Speaker 7: of the American economy relies on the Port of Baltimore.
Speaker 7: And so I'm thankful that the President has led and
Speaker 7: rightfully acknowledged that what happened.
Speaker 3: Last week was not just a human catastrophe.
Speaker 7: I mean, we lost six Marylanders during this catastrophe, and
Speaker 7: it was not just an economic catastrophe for Maryland or
Speaker 7: for the region. This was an economic catastrophe for the country.
Speaker 4: And so our ability to.
Speaker 7: Be able to rally in a bipartisan fashion and to
Speaker 7: be able to get the poor reopened and reopen the
Speaker 7: brit and get the bridge rebuilt is going to be
Speaker 7: a national priority.
Speaker 2: So two issues that, so reopened the poor and reopened
Speaker 2: the bridge. Can we did with the first one? First,
Speaker 2: reopened the poor? How strikeful? But it is not going
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 3: This is a remarkably complex operation.
Speaker 7: We've never had at a maritime disaster like this, where
Speaker 7: you have not only a ship, a vessel that's the
Speaker 7: size of the Eiffel Tower and the weight of the
Speaker 7: Washington Monument that is now stuck in the middle.
Speaker 3: Of the Potapsco River.
Speaker 7: And part of the reason that it's stuck in the
Speaker 7: middle of the river is because it has a bridge,
Speaker 7: an iconic bridge that's sitting on top of it. Three
Speaker 7: to four thousand tons of steel are sitting on top
Speaker 7: of the bridge, and the remainder of the bridge is
Speaker 7: sitting at the bottom of the river.
Speaker 3: So this is still a remarkably complex operation.
Speaker 7: One where we have our divers who are in there
Speaker 7: every day and they literally cannot see anywhere between a
Speaker 7: foot or two in front of them because of the
Speaker 7: amount of wreckage that's in the water. And so the
Speaker 7: ability that we've now been able to open up two
Speaker 7: channels that can now have up to a fourteen foot
Speaker 7: depth so you can get certain commercial vehicles. We've had
Speaker 7: fifty nine commercial transfers that have already taken place, and
Speaker 7: hopefully by the end of May we'll have.
Speaker 3: Fully functioning operations for the port.
Speaker 7: Is a staggering accomplishment when you think about the speed
Speaker 7: in the coordination that was required in order to make
Speaker 7: that happen.
Speaker 8: So end of May for the port governor. But what
Speaker 8: about the rebuild of the bridge, What does this timeline
Speaker 8: look like?
Speaker 7: The rebuild of the bridge is going to be a
Speaker 7: longer timeline. The thing that we know is for that
Speaker 7: bridge that over thirty six thousand people went over that
Speaker 7: bridge every single day. That was the bridge that got
Speaker 7: people from where they lived to where they worked, from
Speaker 7: where they lived to where they worshiped for they lived
Speaker 7: to where they went to school.
Speaker 3: It was also a key and.
Speaker 7: A crucial part of port operations because for the Port
Speaker 7: of Baltimore, it's not just maritime operations. It's also rail
Speaker 7: and it's also truck operations that exists in the Port
Speaker 7: of Baltimore. And so in order to truly get the
Speaker 7: Port of Baltimore up and going in the same kind
Speaker 7: of fashion that it was before, getting that bridge rebuilt
Speaker 7: is going to be imperative, and we know that's going
Speaker 7: to be a longer timeline, but we are committed to
Speaker 7: making sure that we get the Key Bridge rebuilt.
Speaker 8: And I know that's why you're going to be in
Speaker 8: Washington today to be speaking to lawmakers about the funding
Speaker 8: to rebuild this. I was struck by what Senator said yesterday.
Speaker 8: He says that he wants to get this rebuilt as
Speaker 8: soon as possible, but he said it's bureaucratic gilding and
Speaker 8: lend the environmental reviews kind of blaming it on Democrats.
Speaker 8: For this bureaucracy environmental reviews that could potentially make this
Speaker 8: a long term process and not as quick as say
Speaker 8: you and residents of Maryland want to see. Do you
Speaker 8: agree with him that this should be really fast tracked.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm thankful that Senator Cruz is a yes on
Speaker 7: making sure that we can get one hundred percent funding
Speaker 7: for it. I'm thankful that Senator Cruz understands how imperative
Speaker 7: it is that we both get the port reopened and
Speaker 7: also get the bridge rebuilt.
Speaker 3: I also know that the White House.
Speaker 7: I mean, I have my first phone call from the
Speaker 7: White House at three o'clock in the morning, the morning
Speaker 7: of the tragedy, and the White House has been with
Speaker 7: us every single step of the way. The Secretary of
Speaker 7: Transportation was literally down there boots on ground before noon
Speaker 7: to be able to assess the damage and assess what
Speaker 7: they can do to help. Yet to receive a phone
Speaker 7: call from Senator Cruz, I've yet to receive a visit
Speaker 7: from Senator Cruz.
Speaker 3: I would welcome him to come to.
Speaker 7: Baltimore for him to see exactly the circumstances in the
Speaker 7: situation that we're dealing with. And I'm sure when he came,
Speaker 7: he would also see that there are members of the
Speaker 7: Biden administration who have been on the ground the entire time,
Speaker 7: and I'm sure he would spend time with them as
Speaker 7: well when he came to Baltimore.
Speaker 3: I know this needs to move quickly. This needs to
Speaker 3: move fast.
Speaker 7: We need to focus on safety and we've got to
Speaker 7: get this thing rebuilt. And I'm glad we are building
Speaker 7: a bipartisan support structure around what's going to take and
Speaker 7: around what that can look like.
Speaker 1: If you talk about how quickly it's important to rebuild
Speaker 1: the bridge, and I know a lot of people would
Speaker 1: agree from every facet of the region. How much are
Speaker 1: you exploring other types of financing if it doesn't come
Speaker 1: from the government, whether it's issuing medicipal bonds or getting
Speaker 1: public private partnerships.
Speaker 7: I think that all options should be on the table,
Speaker 7: and all options are on the table.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 7: I don't come from a political background. I'm frankly, I'm
Speaker 7: an army guy. I spend I was a paratroop with
Speaker 7: the eighty second Airborne Division, and then when I left
Speaker 7: the army, I started a business.
Speaker 3: So I understand the role that.
Speaker 7: The public sector, the private sector that philanthropy is also
Speaker 7: going to play in this and if you just look
Speaker 7: at the past week, you know we've used every lever
Speaker 7: at our disposal to be able to address this issue.
Speaker 7: I actually issued an executive order that released sixty million
Speaker 7: dollars of state funding.
Speaker 3: That went towards supporting our port workers.
Speaker 7: We actually signed legislation that focused on things like providing
Speaker 7: scholarships to the children of transportation workers who have died
Speaker 7: on the job, and also providing additional supports for businesses.
Speaker 7: We also helped launch something called the Maryland Tough Baltimore
Speaker 7: Strong Alliance, which is over eighty organizations, private sector businesses,
Speaker 7: and philanthropy. We've now raised over fifteen million dollars. It's
Speaker 7: going towards port workers and also have a commitment from
Speaker 7: businesses to do things like they're not laying off their workers.
Speaker 7: If they have to temporarily move operations from the Port
Speaker 7: of Baltimore, they're going to bring them. They've committed to
Speaker 7: bringing them back to the por Baltimore. So we know
Speaker 7: it's important to use every single lever at our disposal
Speaker 7: and that every sector, private sector, public sector philanthropy have
Speaker 7: all got to be involved in at the table in
Speaker 7: order for us to get to our.
Speaker 3: Long term conclusions.
Speaker 1: Well, as a Marylander, as a business owner, as a
Speaker 1: military man, you fully understand the importance of infrastructure and
Speaker 1: what the ramifications could be. The longer that this goes
Speaker 1: on is very drop dead time, where say it takes
Speaker 1: two years, and that's the maximum that it could take
Speaker 1: to rebuild this bridge and get operations to reopen the port,
Speaker 1: to get things back up and running. Were Maryland Baltimore
Speaker 1: can withstand that versus after that where it becomes a
Speaker 1: real financial weight that has much more punitive consequences.
Speaker 7: Well, it's a financial weight now, and it's the reason
Speaker 7: that we are moving as fast as humanly possible. It's
Speaker 7: the reason that we have twenty four to seven operations
Speaker 7: that are going right now, and that cadence, that speed,
Speaker 7: it's not going to stop. I'm committed to making sure
Speaker 7: that we are moving with speed on this because we
Speaker 7: have to remember there are ten of thousands of port
Speaker 7: workers that right now are being impacted by this, their
Speaker 7: entire communities that now have watched their way of life
Speaker 7: completely upended. They are industries that the country relies on
Speaker 7: that are now at either a stop or a stall
Speaker 7: because of what has happened with this port tragedy, and
Speaker 7: so how imperative it is that we move fast on this.
Speaker 7: It sits with me every single day, and I know
Speaker 7: we are going to and I'm going to demand twenty
Speaker 7: four to seven operations until we accomplish four goals.
Speaker 3: Bring closure to.
Speaker 7: These families, reopen these channels, make sure we're taking care
Speaker 7: of our people who've been impacted by this, and getting
Speaker 7: the bridge rebuilt.
Speaker 2: Governor, how much money do you need?
Speaker 7: Well, the truth is that we don't have an official
Speaker 7: price tag on that right now. That we know this
Speaker 7: is going to be a long journey. We know this
Speaker 7: is going to be something that is expensive.
Speaker 3: We also know though.
Speaker 7: Taking place thus far, if you would have asked me
Speaker 7: two weeks ago, seeing what I saw, and said that.
Speaker 3: Two weeks later we would have two.
Speaker 7: Commercial channels open, that by the end of this month
Speaker 7: we should have up to a thirty five foot depth
Speaker 7: and draft that should be able to get a lot
Speaker 7: of the new cars and roll on roll off that
Speaker 7: the Port of Baltimore relies on up and going, and
Speaker 7: by the end of May we should have the port
Speaker 7: fully functioning. I would have said, when you look at
Speaker 7: the damage and the devastation that we saw.
Speaker 3: I would have said that.
Speaker 7: Seems very ambitious, but that's where we are, and so
Speaker 7: we know this is going to be a long journey.
Speaker 7: We know this is not going to be inexpensive journey,
Speaker 7: but it's a journey that we all have got to
Speaker 7: be committed to because this means everything to not just
Speaker 7: our region and our state, but to the long term
Speaker 7: growth of maritime operations in the American economy.
Speaker 2: Governor, we appreciate your time, and I know this is
Speaker 2: going to be a long route ahead for you, and
Speaker 2: you'll stay and it's going to be an oncoming conversation
Speaker 2: and hopefully we can sold you again in the future,
Speaker 2: Governor Westmall, Thank you, sir, the governor that matter. That
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