Weighing in on the GOP candidates’ economic plans, with Wilbur Ross, WL Ross chairman/CEO.
Transcript:
we’re going to talk the election with wilbur ross. jobless claims are coming up at 8:30. that’s a key number for markets. there’s expectation this number will rise because in the last week we got 350,000. if we get that number — there’s a seasonal component. some people think that number is too low. if we do wind up with numbers that are that low, it’s probably just the continuing trend that it’s showing — one of the things that hankpaulson said yesterday was that — designee didn’t say theywould be revised. it was an anomaly. the election is coming in in the last month or so. i mean you look at between the, i don’t know whether i would call it the ineptitude of the republican candidates it’s in greater flux. santorum won three. now michigan has come in to the fore. romney it’s possible michigan could go against him even though his father has been well-known. he hasn’t been there for a while. it’s completely in flux. at the same time you got the president back at 50% forapproval rating and the handling of the economy as we get better gdp numbers and better job numbers. are you a romney guy at this point? i am. i think that the good news is we’re running out of pop up candidates. you know, there’s no one left on the republican side. it could be a two man race now. well that’s probably the way it should have been from beginning.nobody ev gingrich told him to quit. who would have ever thought it was herman cain. remember when he told santorum to quit. gingrich seems like an angry old man. if there’s no pop up candidates that’s great news, romney as come out and said i’m a son of detroit, he grew up there. if he loses michigan, what does that tell you about the candidacy? i think that would be a real complication. is it? is it all about the economy nomatter what? my question is referencing could it be that a whole majority of americans would look and say either i want more government and more services or i want less government and more individual — would they ever base an election on that or isit always the trend in the economy that dictates an incumbent getting re-elected. if you look at the polls people say yes we want lower tax, yes we want less government but yes we also want all these benefits. so they want everything. on in trade we’re 60% now on the president and it was below 50 for a while. that’s the employment numbers. well, it’s starting to go up when gingrich started to get traction. romney came back. it stayed at 53 or 54 then the employment numbers obviously andthen gdp and just the notion. i forget how many people threemonths ago it was 3-1 said the economy is going or pessimistic about the economy. over 50% are optimistic aboutthe economy. a lot has changed. will they vote that way? the economy is a little bit better but you still have hugeunemployment. eight something is still a very, very scary number and particularly the long term unemployed. can we have wilbur speak to the michigan issue that we spoke about in the 6:00 hour. just explain to the viewers what the conversation was? the conversation was around whether gm would have failed, whether the auto industry would have died was the phrase had someone not stepped in. it’s a very political issue.you’re an auto parts genius. we’re an auto parts suppliers so we’re very concerned about the gm and about the chrysler.when romney says that it should have gone through a regular bankruptcy, is he, is that a euphemism. who would have made a $8 or $10 billion financing. is he suggesting that or isn’t.didn’t see a lot of people lining up to do it. maybe bain would have come in and bailed out general motors. a lot of people that will take that side of the argument. take which side of theargument? let them fail. and purists with that you side of the argument. i don’t think romney was saying let them fail. what he was saying there would have been another way to do the bankruptcy. that didn’t give so much to the unions. the people on the front line as we said, like wilbur and steve radnor suggested if you were there there was no other opportunity. up see where gm is with europe and the push back it got with its unions. gm and chrysler have been remarkable turn arounds and much better than anybody could possibly think. and ford.probably wouldn’t have disappeared even though the supply issue would have been. but he wanted that bailout. ford obviously wouldn’t have — people in general, you heard paulson yesterday, people in general don’t want the government to have to do this because it throws the whole capitalistic system intodisarray and flux. it goes back to what wilbur said. people want certain things because they think they need them. it goes back to that article we talked about in sunday in the new york times about the safety net. people say they don’t want the safety net.but when it comes to the individual issues that impacts them they want it. remember too, the big number of employees is not at gm and chrysler and ford. it’s at the suppliers. the suppliers have seven times as many employees as the big carcompanies themselves. without somebody providing theliquidity to the car companies they wouldn’t have been able topay their bills to the suppliers, and the supply chain would have failed. that’s the part that would have gone down. the bailout itself, the t.a.r.p. all the way to the auditorium it was bipartisan.started with the republican administration, started with bush, he did all t.a.r.p. he had paulson there. that was all bush for t.a.r.p.also gave the bridge loans to the autos. if you hate bailouts you can’t blame either party or if you love them you got to givecredit.we’re going to talk the election with wilbur ross. jobless claims are coming up at 8:30. that’s a key number for markets. there’s expectation this number will rise because in the last week we got 350,000. if we get that number — there’s a seasonal component. some people think that number is too low. if we do wind up with numbers that are that low, it’s probably just the continuing trend that it’s showing — one of the things that hankpaulson said yesterday was that — designee didn’t say theywould be revised. it was an anomaly. the election is coming in in the last month or so. i mean you look at between the, i don’t know whether i would call it the ineptitude of the republican candidates it’s in greater flux. santorum won three. now michigan has come in to the fore. romney it’s possible michigan could go against him even though his father has been well-known. he hasn’t been there for a while. it’s completely in flux. at the same time you got the president back at 50% forapproval rating and the handling of the economy as we get better gdp numbers and better job numbers. are you a romney guy at this point? i am. i think that the good news is we’re running out of pop up candidates. you know, there’s no one left on the republican side. it could be a two man race now. well that’s probably the way it should have been from beginning.nobody ev gingrich told him to quit. who would have ever thought it was herman cain. remember when he told santorum to quit. gingrich seems like an angry old man. if there’s no pop up candidates that’s great news, romney as come out and said i’m a son of detroit, he grew up there. if he loses michigan, what does that tell you about the candidacy? i think that would be a real complication. is it? is it all about the economy nomatter what? my question is referencing could it be that a whole majority of americans would look and say either i want more government and more services or i want less government and more individual — would they ever base an election on that or isit always the trend in the economy that dictates an incumbent getting re-elected. if you look at the polls people say yes we want lower tax, yes we want less government but yes we also want all these benefits. so they want everything. on in trade we’re 60% now on the president and it was below 50 for a while. that’s the employment numbers. well, it’s starting to go up when gingrich started to get traction. romney came back. it stayed at 53 or 54 then the employment numbers obviously andthen gdp and just the notion. i forget how many people threemonths ago it was 3-1 said the economy is going or pessimistic about the economy. over 50% are optimistic aboutthe economy. a lot has changed. will they vote that way? the economy is a little bit better but you still have hugeunemployment. eight something is still a very, very scary number and particularly the long term unemployed. can we have wilbur speak to the michigan issue that we spoke about in the 6:00 hour. just explain to the viewers what the conversation was? the conversation was around whether gm would have failed, whether the auto industry would have died was the phrase had someone not stepped in. it’s a very political issue.you’re an auto parts genius. we’re an auto parts suppliers so we’re very concerned about the gm and about the chrysler.when romney says that it should have gone through a regular bankruptcy, is he, is that a euphemism. who would have made a $8 or $10 billion financing. is he suggesting that or isn’t.didn’t see a lot of people lining up to do it. maybe bain would have come in and bailed out general motors. a lot of people that will take that side of the argument. take which side of theargument? let them fail. and purists with that you side of the argument. i don’t think romney was saying let them fail. what he was saying there would have been another way to do the bankruptcy. that didn’t give so much to the unions. the people on the front line as we said, like wilbur and steve radnor suggested if you were there there was no other opportunity. up see where gm is with europe and the push back it got with its unions. gm and chrysler have been remarkable turn arounds and much better than anybody could possibly think. and ford.probably wouldn’t have disappeared even though the supply issue would have been. but he wanted that bailout. ford obviously wouldn’t have — people in general, you heard paulson yesterday, people in general don’t want the government to have to do this because it throws the whole capitalistic system intodisarray and flux. it goes back to what wilbur said. people want certain things because they think they need them. it goes back to that article we talked about in sunday in the new york times about the safety net. people say they don’t want the safety net.but when it comes to the individual issues that impacts them they want it. remember too, the big number of employees is not at gm and chrysler and ford. it’s at the suppliers. the suppliers have seven times as many employees as the big carcompanies themselves. without somebody providing theliquidity to the car companies they wouldn’t have been able topay their bills to the suppliers, and the supply chain would have failed. that’s the part that would have gone down. the bailout itself, the t.a.r.p. all the way to the auditorium it was bipartisan.started with the republican administration, started with bush, he did all t.a.r.p. he had paulson there. that was all bush for t.a.r.p.also gave the bridge loans to the autos. if you hate bailouts you can’t blame either party or if you love them you got to givecredit.
