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American Morning

'Minding Your Business' with Andy Serwer

Aired December 09, 2002 - 07:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A black Monday of sorts anyway for United Airlines.
Andy Serwer is checking in, "Minding Your Business."

Good morning to you, Andy -- nice to see you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill. Yes, a lot of business news here this morning.

Wire services reporting just about a half-an-hour ago that UAL, the parent of United Airlines, filing for bankruptcy in Chicago. It would be the largest bankruptcy by an airline in the history of the business, $24 billion of assets.

What everyone wants to know is: Will your flights keep flying? Yes, your flights will keep flying. Will my frequent flyer miles still be good? Yes, your frequent flyer miles will be still be good. That's for while things spin out into next year, anything goes, but for now, everything is OK.

You know, they do about 1,700 flights a day...

HEMMER: Wow!

SERWER: ... United does. That's about 20 percent of all flights in the United States.

It is a huge business. UAL CEO Glen Tilton expected to address his troops at O'Hare within the next half-hour or so.

HEMMER: Essentially, buying themselves some time right now, some time that may prove in the end very...

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Right. Well, you're supposed to be reorganizing during bankruptcy.

HEMMER: That's right.

SERWER: So, we all hope that they can come out of it OK.

HEMMER: The Bush economic team, we talked about this on Friday of who the names might be to succeed.

SERWER: Right, right. HEMMER: We were kind of stumped on Friday, but apparently not now.

SERWER: Well, it looks like the president is going to tap John Snow, the CEO of CSX, the giant railroad, to be the new Treasury secretary. It's kind of a surprise, like you said, not really on anyone's radar screen.

Interesting, he's a lot like Paul O'Neill, though, in some respects. He worked in the Ford administration, the CEO of an industrial company, also an economist. But unlike O'Neill, the guy is supposed to be mellow and not cantankerous. So, we really are looking for him to be a team player. The president wants to sell new tax cuts; also really try to help get the economy going.

The other new member of the team...

HEMMER: Let me just stop you right there.

SERWER: Sure.

HEMMER: Just so you know, I'm being told in my ear the folks at the White House are now telling us John Snow is a done deal. Is that right? So again, all of this argument...

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: More breaking news.

HEMMER: Yes, there you go.

SERWER: OK, he is the new Treasury secretary.

HEMMER: So, John Snow is your man.

SERWER: Right, OK, he will be.

HEMMER: Quickly, the markets then today...

SERWER: Right.

HEMMER: ... tell us what?

SERWER: Well, the markets are looking like they're going to pull back a little bit. We were down last week fairly significantly. The Dow was down 250 points. There you see there the Nazzy (ph) down about 56 as well -- 3 percent on the Dow, 4 percent on the Nasdaq. We ended that eight-week winning streak on the Dow.

A lot of stuff for the markets to digest this morning, so we'll have to see, OK, Bill.

HEMMER: You called it the Nazzy (ph)?

SERWER: Yes.

HEMMER: The jazzy Nazzy (ph).

SERWER: Well, not so jazzy. You never heard that one?

HEMMER: It's so true.

SERWER: The Naz (ph).

HEMMER: I have not, but now I have. Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: OK.

HEMMER: See you next hour.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired December 9, 2002 - 07:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A black Monday of sorts anyway for United Airlines.
Andy Serwer is checking in, "Minding Your Business."

Good morning to you, Andy -- nice to see you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill. Yes, a lot of business news here this morning.

Wire services reporting just about a half-an-hour ago that UAL, the parent of United Airlines, filing for bankruptcy in Chicago. It would be the largest bankruptcy by an airline in the history of the business, $24 billion of assets.

What everyone wants to know is: Will your flights keep flying? Yes, your flights will keep flying. Will my frequent flyer miles still be good? Yes, your frequent flyer miles will be still be good. That's for while things spin out into next year, anything goes, but for now, everything is OK.

You know, they do about 1,700 flights a day...

HEMMER: Wow!

SERWER: ... United does. That's about 20 percent of all flights in the United States.

It is a huge business. UAL CEO Glen Tilton expected to address his troops at O'Hare within the next half-hour or so.

HEMMER: Essentially, buying themselves some time right now, some time that may prove in the end very...

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Right. Well, you're supposed to be reorganizing during bankruptcy.

HEMMER: That's right.

SERWER: So, we all hope that they can come out of it OK.

HEMMER: The Bush economic team, we talked about this on Friday of who the names might be to succeed.

SERWER: Right, right. HEMMER: We were kind of stumped on Friday, but apparently not now.

SERWER: Well, it looks like the president is going to tap John Snow, the CEO of CSX, the giant railroad, to be the new Treasury secretary. It's kind of a surprise, like you said, not really on anyone's radar screen.

Interesting, he's a lot like Paul O'Neill, though, in some respects. He worked in the Ford administration, the CEO of an industrial company, also an economist. But unlike O'Neill, the guy is supposed to be mellow and not cantankerous. So, we really are looking for him to be a team player. The president wants to sell new tax cuts; also really try to help get the economy going.

The other new member of the team...

HEMMER: Let me just stop you right there.

SERWER: Sure.

HEMMER: Just so you know, I'm being told in my ear the folks at the White House are now telling us John Snow is a done deal. Is that right? So again, all of this argument...

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: More breaking news.

HEMMER: Yes, there you go.

SERWER: OK, he is the new Treasury secretary.

HEMMER: So, John Snow is your man.

SERWER: Right, OK, he will be.

HEMMER: Quickly, the markets then today...

SERWER: Right.

HEMMER: ... tell us what?

SERWER: Well, the markets are looking like they're going to pull back a little bit. We were down last week fairly significantly. The Dow was down 250 points. There you see there the Nazzy (ph) down about 56 as well -- 3 percent on the Dow, 4 percent on the Nasdaq. We ended that eight-week winning streak on the Dow.

A lot of stuff for the markets to digest this morning, so we'll have to see, OK, Bill.

HEMMER: You called it the Nazzy (ph)?

SERWER: Yes.

HEMMER: The jazzy Nazzy (ph).

SERWER: Well, not so jazzy. You never heard that one?

HEMMER: It's so true.

SERWER: The Naz (ph).

HEMMER: I have not, but now I have. Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: OK.

HEMMER: See you next hour.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.