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Paris Garbage Strike Paused As Protesters Rage Over Retirement Age; Today: House Committee Holds Hearings On Bank Failures; Vice President Harris Faces Painful Black History In Slave Outpost Visit. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired March 29, 2023 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:33:12]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Trash collectors in Paris suspending their strike starting today. While the garbage may soon be gone from the streets the anger over pension reform isn't going away anywhere soon.
Here is CNN's Sam Kiley.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ten days of demonstrations and the latest march through Paris begins to feel almost routine. Within a few hours this, though, was the scene.
KILEY (on camera): Concern over the rising level of violence has led the unions to ask for a dialogue with the government. This is what a senior union official said.
MAHER TEKAYA, SENIOR UNION OFFICIAL, CFDT: The only solution is to sit around the table and to have a constructive dialogue on how to find a way out of this situation.
KILEY (on camera): The government's response has been this.
LAURENCE BOONE, FRANCE MINISTER OF STATE FOR EUROPE: Now, there has been a democratic process. We've had hundreds of hours of debate at the Parliament. The bill has been passed and I think we need to move on.
KILEY (on camera): The government said that they were expecting about a thousand extremists to join these demonstrations. And clearly, they're hell-bent on trying to make sure that they don't gain the upper hand in what is beginning to turn into, albeit relatively small- scale, but pitch battles here on the streets of Paris.
KILEY (voice-over): Interior Ministry numbers put today's demonstration in Paris at 93,000. That's a 27,000 drop on the union- organized protests last Thursday. And across France, the numbers demonstrating were also down from a peak of about 1.28 million to only 740,000 today. [05:35:10]
Opponents of the plan to raise the pensionable age in France from 62 to 64 must not pin their hopes on forcing a U-turn on the French government through street protests. But after two months of frequent strikes the austerity of protests in terms of lost earnings is beginning to bite.
Garbage collection will return for the first time in weeks, to Paris, on Wednesday -- a sign perhaps that the fire is slowly going out on the opposition to pension reforms but not opposition to President Emmanuel Macron himself.
Sam Kiley, CNN, in Paris.
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ROMANS: All right, Sam. Thank you for that.
All right, quick hits around the globe right now.
A Russian man whose young daughter drew an anti-war picture at school is sentenced to two years in prison. Her artwork led to authorities finding his own social media posts against the war.
Taiwan's president defiant in the face of China's threats it will retaliate if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets with her during her planned transit through the U.S. in April. She says Taiwan will not bend to external pressure.
A historic moment as politicians of South Asian descent become the leaders of Scotland, Britain, and Ireland after Humza Yousaf is elected as Scotland's first Muslim leader.
All right, just hours from now former Starbucks boss Howard Schultz will be grilled about unions on Capitol Hill. And a show of support for Nashville at the Bruins-Predators game in Boston.
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[05:40:43]
ROMANS: Here is today's fast-forward lookahead.
Later this morning the House Financial Services Committee hears from witnesses on the collapse of two U.S. banks. A Fed official told a Senate committee yesterday SVB's failure is a textbook case of mismanagement.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will testify before a Senate committee today. He'll face questioning from Sen. Bernie Sanders who accuses Schultz of union-busting when he was the boss.
President Biden meets Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez at the White House this afternoon. The two will talk about human rights, climate change, and technology. All right, Bruins and Predators show their support for the victims and families affected by Monday's tragic school shooting in Nashville.
Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Good morning, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Christine.
So the Nashville Predators -- they played on the road in Boston last night for their first game since the deadly shootings and the Bruins paid tribute to the six victims.
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ANNOUNCER: In the wake of this unthinkable tragedy the Boston Bruins stand alongside the Nashville Predators in solidarity against gun violence and in support of the national community.
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SCHOLES: Yes, a moment of silence was also held before the game, and both teams wore helmet stickers with The Covenant School insignia to remember the victims. The Bruins -- they're also donating $10,000 to Nashville's fund to help support the families.
And Vanderbilt's baseball team also used its proceeds from last night's game against Lipscomb to benefit the Caring for Covenant fund.
All right, in the NBA, meanwhile, Warriors and Pelicans squaring off. New Orleans controlling this game early, leading by as many as 20 in the first three quarters.
But Draymond Green just kept firing up his team. In the second, he gets into it with Brandon Ingram and they both technical fouls, which Draymond wasn't really thrilled about. Then moments later, Draymond explaining it all to Coach Steve Kerr.
In the fourth quarter, Steph Curry and company turning it on. Here, the three. It put the Warriors up by 10. A big comeback. They outscored the Pelicans by 15 in the fourth to win 120-109. Curry, a game-high 39 points.
And here was Coach Kerr on Draymond afterwards.
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STEVE KERR, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS HEAD COACH: Draymond willed us to victory tonight. I mean, just his intensity, his frustration early with the way we were playing -- mad at the world and yelling at everybody -- their bench, our bench, me. And frankly, we all deserved it.
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SCHOLES: All right. Kevin Durant, meanwhile, is expected to finally make his long-awaited home debut for the Phoenix Suns tonight when they host the Timberwolves. The 13-time All-Star missed the last 10 games after suffering a sprained ankle during pre-game warmups three weeks ago. K.D. has played just three games for the Suns since he was traded to Phoenix last month.
All right. And finally, a Commanders sale could be happening very soon. Two different groups have bid $6 billion for the team. One of the groups is led by Josh Harris and D.C. billionaire Mitchell Rales. Harris is also a part of a group that owns the 76ers and Devils. Magic Johnson is also a part of that group now. The other $6 billion bid coming from Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos.
The previous record for a team was just set in August when the Broncos were sold to Walmart heir Rob Walton for $4.5 billion.
So, Christine, it looks like Daniel Snyder might not be the owner of the Commanders for much longer. With those kind of bids coming in --
ROMANS: Yes.
SCHOLES: -- it looks like a sale could happen before the NFL draft.
ROMANS: All right, we'll keep post -- keep us posted. Thank you. Nice to see you, Andy.
SCHOLES: All right.
ROMANS: Coming up on "CNN THIS MORNING" the other target the Nashville school attacker was considering.
And next right here, the $100 billion revelation from the bank collapse hearings on Capitol Hill.
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[05:48:44]
ROMANS: All right, your Romans' Numeral this morning, $100 billion. Here is what the Fed revealed about the day Silicon Valley Bank was shut down.
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MICHAEL BARR, VICE CHAIR FOR SUPERVISION, FEDERAL RESERVE: A total of $100 billion was scheduled to go out the door that day. The bank did not have enough collateral to meet that and therefore, they were not able to actually meet their obligations to pay their depositors over the course of that day and they were shut down.
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ROMANS: And that's not all. Panicked customers wasn't all we learned about. More as the hearings continue today in a moment.
But first, a look at markets around the world right now. European markets are higher this morning -- a nice gain there in Paris. Also, Asian markets finishing mixed. But a big gain in the Hang Seng jumping two percent on a restructuring of e-commerce giant Alibaba. On Wall Street, stock index futures right now also leaning higher here. It looks like the Nasdaq is going to have a pretty firm morning.
All three indexes ended the day lower. The Nasdaq fell for a second- straight day. Rising yields weighed on tech stocks.
U.S. home prices fell for the seventh month in a row in January despite lower mortgage rates. Consumer confidence in the U.S. economy also ticked up in March. On inflation watch, gas prices rose two pennies overnight to $3.46 a gallon.
More housing data on tap. Pending home sales figures due out later this morning.
[05:50:04]
All right, but banking still in the spotlight. Today, banking regulators face round two of questioning on what led to the sudden collapse of two major banks. This time it will be the House Financial Services Committee.
Yesterday on Capitol Hill, top officials from the Treasury, the Fed, and the FDIC testified before the Senate Banking Committee.
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BARR: This is a textbook case of bank mismanagement. They were quite vulnerable to risk, to shocks and they didn't take the actions necessary.
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ROMANS: Let's bring in former chief innovation officer at the FDIC, Sultan Meghji. Nice to see you. Thank you for joining us again.
SULTAN MEGHJI, PROFESSOR, DUKE UNIVERSITY'S PRATT SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, FORMER CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER, FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (via Skype): Hey, thanks for having me.
ROMANS: OK, so what's your biggest takeaway from yesterday's hearing?
MEGHJI: Well, the biggest one was that over the course of two days over $140 billion was expected to leave Silicon Valley Bank, and that's what directly led to the closure. I think we all knew it was a lot of money. I don't think we realized it was quite that much.
ROMANS: Yes. We also heard from officials there about how quickly it spread, right? I mean, you're talking about venture capitalists on social media asking the companies that they were funding to move their money out. I mean, that was something we haven't seen in a bank run before.
MEGHJI: We haven't. The power of technology cuts both ways. And certainly, the power of social media, and slack and discord, and all the other technologies allowed the ripple effects of this to happen far faster than the bank or the regulators were prepared. ROMANS: Here's what the vice chair of the Fed said when asked if there will be more regulation on the banks -- listen.
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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Will you be reaching banks with assets of at least $100 million -- $100 billion dollars?
BARR: Senator, we, of course, would need to go through a notice and comment rulemaking --
WARREN: I understand.
BARR: -- in this process but I anticipate the need to strengthen capital and liquidity standards for firms over $100 billion.
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ROMANS: So what do you think, Sultan, stronger regulations would look like?
MEGHJI: Well, they're probably going to look at two different things. The first is undoing some of the rollbacks from a few years ago under the Trump administration that loosened a degree of regulatory compliance on banks in this size range. The second is probably looking at new regulations if they can get it through Congress. Looking at everything from the bank balance sheet to growth, to customer type, and a few other mechanical issues so that the banks can be controlled in terms of their growth or contraction.
ROMANS: Regulators also suggested they're open to forcing SVB executives to return their bonuses. You know, this is really important, especially since there's still, honestly, post-banking crisis 2008 anti-bailout drama. Would that actually happen, and is that important for the public to know?
MEGHJI: You know, that's a great question and one that I think there is a lot of ambiguity in terms of the authorities of the various agencies to do something like that in terms of clawing back those kinds of bonuses or compensation.
I do think that the federal regulators do need to do as much as they possibly can to shore up support in the banking system.
ROMANS: Yes.
MEGHJI: The deposit insurance fund went from $130 billion to about $15 billion over the last two weeks.
ROMANS: Yes.
MEGHJI: And I think a lot of us are wanting to see the regulators not only kind of shore up confidence but also shore up confidence in themselves so that we know that they are not going to let something like this happen again. ROMANS: Just -- oh, yes. Just quickly -- and I just want to make the point, too, that the big banks we were concerned about in 2008 being too big to fail are even bigger today because people are concerned about the smaller banks. So there's a lot happening in the banking sector right now.
Sultan Meghji, thank you so much for joining us. Nice to see you.
MEGHJI: All right. Good to see you.
ROMANS: All right, the tragic Nashville school shooting calling attention to this. Why Tennessee does not have red flag laws, next.
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[05:58:21]
ROMANS: Our top of the morning, the top T.V. shows of the moment.
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Clip from Netflix's "The Night Agent."
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ROMANS: "The Night Agent" is number one. The conspiracy thriller tops Rotten Tomatoes most popular list.
Here's number two.
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Clip from Showtime's "Yellowjackets."
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ROMANS: The highly anticipated second season of "Yellowjackets" just out.
And number three.
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Clip from AMC's "Lucky Hank."
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ROMANS: That's Bob Odenkirk as "Lucky Hank."
OK, a moving moment for Vice President Kamala Harris. She is in Ghana right now where she saw firsthand the female slave dungeon at Cape Coast Castle. It's a place where enslaved Africans were once loaded onto ships to be sold in the Americas. She emerged visibly shaken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So being here was immensely powerful and moving. When we think about how human beings were treated by the hundreds of thousands in this very place that we now stand, the crimes that happened here, the blood that was shed here.
[06:00:00]
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ROMANS: The vice president also said the horror of what happened there must always be remembered.
All right. Thanks for joining me this morning. I'm Christine Romans. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
