Charles Schwab’s Liz Ann Sonders On Why There Is So Much Market Volatility

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Today SiriusXM aired a live “Election Day 2020 Special” on Business Radio’s Wharton Business Daily (ch. 132), and host Dan Loney spoke with the following guests:

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  • Austan Goolsbee – Former Chair of the Economic Council of Advisers to President Obama, Current U of Chicago Professor of Economics said “Whether the president is reelected or Joe Biden becomes the president, in the first minute of their next iteration that they are in office, they've got to get control of that virus..and the second is until we get control of the virus, they will have to pass some more relief, otherwise we are going to ram into a whole second speed bump.”
  • Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media spoke about Biden’s tax plan which he says would be “a disaster to the economy.”
  • Kevin O’Leary – ABC’s Shark Tank & Head of O’Leary Funds Daily discussed how the government should provide stimulus for people instead of PPP for businesses.
  • Mercedes Schlapp – Senior Advisor, Trump Pence Campaign / Former White House Director of Strategic Communications for President Trump (2017-2019) spoke about the Trump campaign’s confidence in winning Pennsylvania: We saw the endorsement of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They have not endorsed a Republican since 1972. We feel we've got millions of voters out there in Pennsylvania. We know that they're going to come out and vote on election day, and we project an election day votes where the cast margin will be over a million for President Trump..we know that this is a moment in time where we feel confident that we're going to win Pennsylvania.”
  • Tom Perez – Chairman of the DNC / Former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (2009–2013) and United States Secretary of Labor (2013–2017) in the Obama Administration discussed the Biden campaign, road to Election Day, and feels confident about down-ballot races: “ In the House, I'm confident.. I was just in Texas, we're going to pick up probably four or five seats in Texas alone and again, that's really helpful for Speaker Pelosi. Having all three branches of government is going to enable us to break the McConnell gridlock. In the States, this is what I call a ripple cycle..we at the DNC have helped, in States across the country, we have flipped 10 legislative chambers from red to blue. And this evening, if we flip 48 seats in 10 legislative chambers, we've flipped those chambers. We are poised to win, not only the Presidential in Arizona and flip the Senate seat there, but if we win two seats in the statehouse of representatives and three seats in the state Senate there, we flipped both those chambers. Arizona is turning purple and we've got real opportunities.”
  • Liz Ann Sonders – Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab explains why thinks there is so much market volatility.
  • Dr. Tom Frieden – Former Director of the CDC (2009-2017), President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives (On COVID-19 and health safety while voting) says he’s although he’s “guardedly optimistic that we'll have a safe and effective vaccine..we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves.. A vaccine is not going to usher in a fairy tale ending to this pandemic. A vaccine will be a very important, potentially the most important tool we have to fight the pandemic, but it's just one tool.”
  • Ian Bremmer – President and Founder of Eurasia Group said how Americans do not want to feel like the U.S. “is acting as the global police, acting as the architect of global trade and acting as the cheerleader for global values, hasn't helped them, and so they oppose it…I think the United States remains the most powerful country in the world, but the idea that the Americans will have an exceptionalist foreign policy that really tries to provide global leadership, I think that's going to be much more structurally constrained, irrespective of who's elected today.”

Via SiriusXM Business Radio’s “Wharton Business Daily”.

Election Day 2020 Updates

Chairman Of The Council Of Economic Advisers For Obama, Austan Goolsbee: The First Thing Next Term's POTUS Needs To Address Is COVID

”Whether the president is reelected or Joe Biden becomes the president, in the first minute of their next iteration that they are in office, they've got to get control of that virus. I think then the second is until we get control of the virus, they will have to pass some more relief, otherwise we are going to ram into a whole second speed bump of millions of smaller businesses, just liquidating. Some of them will go through bankruptcy. Some will just shut the door, they don't even have the money to go through bankruptcy. They'll just never be there again. And that will entail millions, more people losing their jobs. And we'll have a whole second wave of this, what we just went through. And we can't do that. I mean, we cannot afford to go through another wave of what we just went through.”

Steve Forbes, Chair & Editor-In-Chief Of Forbes Media, Explains Why He Believes That Biden's Tax Plan Would Be Detrimental To The Economy

“The idea that you can raise taxes, raising the capital gains tax to almost 44% levels we haven't seen since the 1970s. Raising the business tax by a third, raising a personal tax rates, and some of the other ideas that are floating out there will be a real drain on the economy. Without investment you don't have economic growth. And, when you raise business taxes, that means less money for investment and less money to pay employees more and less money to pay dividends.. the idea that government spending can overcome that is preposterous. Where does government get the resources from the private sector? Government doesn't create resources. It can create an environment for the creation of resources, but, ultimately it gets it from the private sector. There's not one period in American history where you've had a sustained economic boom from government spending. The 30s should have showed us that lesson. So the key thing is you create a benign environment, and the Democrats, some of them just don't seem to understand is when you have that kind of benign environment, John Kennedy understood it. Revenues come in, you have more money to play with, more prosperity, more revenues.”

Shark Tank Star/Head Of O'Leary Funds, Kevin O'Leary: The U.S. Government Should Provide Stimulus For People Instead Of PPP For Businesses

“Let's focus on the people, the 11 million people that have been displaced by the change in the economy... for all of those people that are displaced, I would like to put in place a stimulus package of unemployment for 14 months while they re-engage in the sectors of the economy are going to work. I have no problem in supporting people through this massive transition that is occurring., so all of these changes in the economy, we should support people that are displaced, but not the shareholders of those businesses. I don't care if a shareholder of an airline gets zero for their stock. They made that risk decision when they invested in it or in a shopping mall or a movie theater and all these things that are going through change. That is the essence of risk-taking. You need diversity. So I don't cry any tears for shareholders that get nothing. I care about the employees.”

Sr. Advisor, Trump Campaign/Fmr. White House Dir. Of Strategic Comms, Mercedes Schlapp, Explains Why The Trump Campaign Is Confident That It'll Win PA

“The President has spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania this past weekend. I think he had about four of the rallies there. We saw the endorsement of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They have not endorsed a Republican since 1972. I think that Joe Biden's message on abolishing fossil fuels, attacking the oil industry, going back and forth on banning fracking, which we know where he really stands on that issue, has really been a problem. And I think Pennsylvania voters know that they want to make sure they keep their jobs. They want to build a strong economy in their state, and at the end of the day, they know that we need to stay energy independent, which is exactly what President Trump has accomplished. We feel we've got millions of voters out there in Pennsylvania. We know that they're going to come out and vote on election day, and we project an election day votes where the cast margin will be over a million for President Trump. This is based on our internal data. So we know that this is a moment in time where we feel confident that we're going to win Pennsylvania.”

Chair Of The DNC/Fmr. Assistant Attorney General For Civil Rights & U.S. Sec. Of Labor, Tom Perez, Explains Why He's Confident About Down-Ballot Races

“In the Senate, we have a similar dynamic, as in the race for the White House where we have multiple pathways to a Senate Majority.. In the House, I'm confident and again, I was just in Texas, we're going to pick up probably four or five seats in Texas alone and again, that's really helpful for Speaker Pelosi. Having all three branches of government is going to enable us to break the McConnell gridlock. In the States, this is what I call a ripple cycle. And what I mean by that is whoever controls state houses in 2021 is controlling redistricting. And you have a ten-year ripple effect when you are drawing these lines and over the past three years, we at the DNC have helped, in States across the country, we have flipped 10 legislative chambers from red to blue. And this evening, if we flip 48 seats in 10 legislative chambers, we've flipped those chambers. We are poised to win, not only the Presidential in Arizona and flip the Senate seat there, but if we win two seats in the statehouse of representatives and three seats in the state Senate there, we flipped both those chambers. Arizona is turning purple and we've got real opportunities.”

Chief Investment Strategist At Charles Schwab, Liz Ann Sonders, Explains Why She Thinks There Is So Much Market Volatility

“Really what we've seen since the market bottom on March 23rd are three fairly distinct periods where we had a pullback phase. None of them quite reached correction territory, meaning a drop of at least 10%, if we're going to use the traditional definitions, but you have close to that in June over a very short-lived period of time, only a couple of days. Then you had about a three week pull back in September, and then most recently until last week with last week being the worst week since March. And I think, election uncertainty has been a factor in that. Certainly the September pullback, and the October pullback, but I think it's more than just that if you want to think of catalysts and I'm purposely using catalysts and not causes, obviously the resurgence in virus cases, and now the realization that there is no fiscal relief coming pre-election. And what I mean by catalyst, I think the real underlying problem, especially leading into the September pullback and into this most recent pullback was sediment that had gotten pretty speculative, by certain cohorts, particularly the, what I've been calling the newly-minted day traders in certain pockets of the market, some of the high momentum stocks in the options market. And I think that speculative fervor kind of needed to go through a corrective phase and you could easily point to the aforementioned issues as catalyst. So I really think that that's what happened the most recent two times was just sentiment got stretched, catalyst kicked in, it was an excuse to take profits, and you had this rotation until things settled down and then you kind of go back into rally mode.”

Former Head Of CDC, Tom Frieden: A Vaccine Is Important, But It Will Not Be The Only Factor In Eradicating COVID-19

“I’m guardedly optimistic that we'll have a safe and effective vaccine..we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves.. A vaccine is not going to usher in a fairy tale ending to this pandemic. A vaccine will be a very important, potentially the most important tool we have to fight the pandemic, but it's just one tool. We're still going to need for the indefinite future to not shake hands, to wear masks indoors, to test strategically, there'll be the risk of outbreaks and clusters. And with a vaccine it's really important we build trust. Immunity is not just around the corner. No more than prosperity was just around the corner in 1930 and a vaccine needs to be trusted. That means the information is public and clear and engagement with community groups. This is a public health program..a vaccination program will be very challenging, but very important, and it can succeed if we have a good vaccine and we have really careful, empathetic and honest communication about what that vaccine offers.”

President & Founder Of Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer: American's Do Not Want The U.S. To Be The Global Police

“I think so many Americans feel like the United States acting as the global policemen and acting as the architect of global trade and acting as the cheerleader for global values, hasn't helped them, and so they oppose it. And we see that with Trump, trying to pull these troops out of Afghanistan and end the war and deal with the Taliban. Hillary Clinton didn't support that, she liked the surge, but Joe Biden did. He was trying to end the war in Afghanistan. I don't think you'll see a lot of differentiation there. I think a lot of Americans don't like this idea that the U.S. should be promoting democracy all over the world. Biden will talk a lot more about human rights, but the idea is the Americans try to facilitate regime change or taking the lead on this. I think the United States remains the most powerful country in the world, but the idea that the Americans will have an exceptionalist foreign policy that really tries to provide global leadership, I think that's going to be much more structurally constrained, irrespective of who's elected today.”