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First Move with Julia Chatterley
President Trump Suspends Funding During A Global Pandemic, The White House Enlists Help From Hundreds Of Business Leaders, U.S. Carriers Given Cash, But Not Without Conditions. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired April 15, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:17]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need to know.
W.H.O. Dear. President Trump suspends funding during a global pandemic.
Economic wakeup. The White House enlists help from hundreds of business leaders.
And airline aid. U.S. carriers given cash, but not without conditions.
It's Wednesday. Let's make a move.
Welcome to Wednesday's FIRST MOVE. Great to have you with us as we continue to track global efforts to defeat the coronavirus outbreak and, sadly, the
economic fallout that is coming as a result.
We have cautiously good news on reopening efforts around the world to bring you, but also further evidence of why the conversations about economic
wakeup do need to be had.
Here in the United States retail sales reflecting I think the shutdown reality, falling some 8.7 percent in March. It's a record, and this only
reflects the first two weeks of the lockdown. The month of April is set to be far worse.
We should make clear, though, too that this number doesn't capture the growth in online sales that we've seen over the past few weeks, and there
are clear winners in this regard.
Amazon hitting fresh record highs yesterday, too. For now, let me give you a sense. Futures are lower. We've had Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of
America reporting weaker earnings premarket today.
All the details on what those players are saying, but for now major FinTech companies like PayPal, Square, and Intuit rallied on Tuesday after being
given the greenlight to lend money through the PPP -- remember, the Small Business Lending Program that is intended to save jobs here in the United
States.
But that money is running out. I'm hearing from lenders that the initial $350 billion earmarked for the program will run out as soon as today and
that means the loans stop until Congress can agree more cash.
That's my call this morning. Time is up. Leaders need to act.
To our drivers now, and speaking of action, President Trump temporarily suspending U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, he criticized its
handling of the pandemic and accused them of spreading disinformation from China.
Nic Robertson joins me now. Nic, there are those that might argue there's been plenty of disinformation spread throughout this crisis, but let's hone
in on what that means for the World Health Organization. How important is money from the United States?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, it is also the United States' message, I mean, the United States is the biggest
contributor. President Trump's message does erode, you know, the credibility, if you will and the certainty about the role that the W.H.O.
can play going forward.
I mean, look, it is a bit lost on the international community world leaders whether it is in the U.K., we've heard them say they're standing by the
W.H.O. They are a pretty large contributor, about half of what the United States contributes.
We've heard from the European Commission as well, saying -- or the Foreign Affairs Chief there saying, you know, absolutely we need to stand by the
W.H.O. This is not the time. It is a dangerous time to be doing this.
Everyone is aware that what President Trump is doing is for domestic political gain and that sits terribly as a reflection of President Trump
and as of the United States.
But what does it really mean? Well, what it means is that the message of the W.H.O. is critical in getting out to the world about the pandemic and
particularly Sub Saharan Africa for example where they lack the ventilators that even a sort of a couple of hospitals in New York lack across the whole
of that many countries there. They rely on the W.H.O. for guidance on what to do and how to do it.
So there is a huge role to be played there for what will ultimately become the world's problem again when Europe is back on its feet, the United
States back on its feet, and Africa is suffering badly -- that is everyone's problem.
Now, what the W.H.O. would say is that their contributions so far, albeit, while they were sort of parroting China's line that there was no human-to-
human transfer in January, when I think the world was fully aware that China was, you know, not giving a full accounting by any stretch of the
imagination, they did actually manage to get the --
The W.H.O., did manage to get the genome for the virus from China and then disseminate it to the world which provided that such valuable help to give
all countries around the world the information they needed to make test kits for the virus. So that's the value of the W.H.O. today in going
forward.
[09:05:15]
CHATTERLEY: And this is such a crucial point and you make so many of them, of value at this moment. We cannot at this stage in the crisis have a blame
game going on. This is not about national politics or about one nation state. This is about connecting the dots as we all try and reopen.
And I think the point you're making here is whether there is criticism and there should be criticism of how we got to this point -- we are here and we
still need to be communicating globally about where we are in order to not continue to see spread around the world.
ROBERTSON: China certainly had -- needs to get some of the blame for not providing informing adequately when it could. It didn't tell its public
what was going on, it didn't tell the world probably what is going on, undoubtedly, we've seen the W.H.O. be more robust with China in the past
over SARS a couple of decades ago and get better results.
So yes, there is blame to go around, but when you're fighting a global pandemic, everyone needs to stand together and what President Trump is
doing right now, world leaders are saying by their comments they have on where the W.H.O. is, what President Trump is doing right now fighting
political battles is not the real issue facing the world right now, and it belittles the United States to find itself in this position, certainly in
the eyes of the world.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and the whole world will suffer. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for joining us there, and I apologize to our viewers for the slight
jarring of the quality there. That is what working from home does.
All right. That announcement on the World Health Organization, too, over shadowing more positive news from that press conference. President Trump
also announcing a new advisory group to help craft a plan to re-open the U.S. economy.
The panel consists of dozens of industry leaders including Apple CEO, Tim Cook; billionaire Mark Cuban; and the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell.
The President plans to host a call to discuss the path forward today, too. John Harwood is in Washington for us. John, even from what I was hearing, I
was not expecting hundreds of representatives on this panel, but the idea that these discussions sector by sector of how we sequence a re-opening
feels positive.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a positive impulse, but I do think, Julia, anyone who has ever been on a committee knows that
the significance of the committee is inversely related to the size of the committee.
So when you start naming all of these people, some of these business people told our reporters afterward they didn't even know they were on the panel,
so I think what that tells you is this is more of a gesture on the President's part, an indication of where he is leading, and, really, the
decision on this is not going to be made by business people making a decision with political people to say we're going to open it up.
It is going to be made by the public health situation is on the ground, how Americans perceive that. Sixty percent of the American people in a CNN poll
last week said they would not be comfortable with resuming their regular routines, and consumers aren't going to consume, businesses aren't going to
invest as long as there is so much uncertainty out there.
So really, the power here still resides with the Coronavirus Taskforce, people like Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, who are going to make the
decisions in conjunction with their counterparts in the states as to what is safe and what is not safe.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, John, I'm just trying to imagine a Cisco or Zoom call with more than 200 individuals, just mind boggling quite frankly.
HARWOOD: Exactly.
CHATTERLEY: But to your exact point, and I agree with you, but I do believe that some of these business leaders will be very clear about the
need for testing. They're not going to bring their workers back and they will make the message very clear to the White House, more testing required.
HARWOOD: Well, and Julia, maybe some of those business people can participate in the scale up of the testing needed.
CHATTERLEY: Right.
HARWOOD: That is one of the striking things about the President's news conference yesterday. He was asked about testing, everyone knows that
testing and contact tracing is the key to opening up. The President said, not my job. That's for the governors. Maybe these business people can help.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, help force that because they know it themselves quite frankly from the conversations I've been having, too. John, great to have
you on the show. Thank you.
HARWOOD: Right.
CHATTERLEY: John Harwood there. Now, the urgency for re-opening the U.S. economy clearly illustrated, I think by the earnings reports from the Big
Banks.
Bank of America's first quarter profit fell more than 45 percent. They're setting aside billions of dollars, too, for potential bad loans. Goldman
Sachs' net income also dropped nearly 50 percent.
Clare Sebastian has the details for us. And Clare, we go back I think pulling out the same things we did from the bank earnings that we got
yesterday. There's a cautiousness about these banks, about the solvency of borrowers and their ability to pay their debts through this period.
[09:10:07]
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Julia. This is the key theme that's running through these earnings we got today from Bank of
America, from Goldman, from Citigroup as well. They are all seeing their profits drop by almost half, which frankly, I'd say, better than we saw
yesterday from JPMorgan and Wells Fargo.
But the reason is that they are building up reserves, they are bracing for more pain from consumers and from businesses. And they are starting to see
people need help at some scale.
So the numbers from Bank of America for example was 16 percent of small business loans and lines, those accounts, 16 percent of them have deferrals
on them, three percent of consumer small business card accounts. They are starting to see people request to defer payments as well.
They've seen a big rise in corporate lending as people draw down on their revolving credit lines. It is something we've heard from all the banks. So
they are starting to see people really need help and they are bracing for that and that is why, they are building up reserves.
But the other message that we've got from all of these banks again, Julia, is that they are in a position to help. They are well capitalized, Bank of
America saying that they ended the quarter with more liquidity than they started.
So the message is that they are available and want to be part of the solution as well.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, absolutely. How times have changed, I think. Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for that.
Now, the U.S. Treasury says major domestic airlines have accepted their terms to receive billions of dollars in state aid. The $58 billion bailout
which consists of grants and low interest loans and will keep hundreds of thousands of employees on the payroll. Richard Quest joins us now.
Richard, what do you make of this announcement? Because it is financial aid. It was a survival situation for most of these airlines given what
we've seen. But there are terms and conditions attached.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes, there are, and the reason was that initially the airlines wanted the whole amount to
be given as a grant. But the Treasury looked at it and said, no, that's not what we're going to do. Instead, we're going to look at how much the
airline itself, actually benefits by this.
If you allow for the fact that some of this money, there will be tax paid on it, there will be Social Security paid on it -- all sorts of things will
filter through the economy.
And what they came up with was 30 percent. So 70 percent of the money is a grant. Thirty percent is a loan. And you can see if you look at these
numbers from two carriers that have already reported their details.
The first, American Airlines. You can see the breakdown between the grant and the loan. Same with Southwest. The grant and the loan. And the
difference there, Julia, is what the Treasury believes is the actual benefit to the airline, not the employees and, therefore, that's how they
came up to it.
By the way, there is another large pot of money, $25 billion, which is sitting there waiting to be offered as loans to the airlines.
CHATTERLEY: So to your exact point, they basically broke down this money and said, if this is going to payrolls, in a similar way to the small
businesses, too, if this is going to protect workers and keep them in the roll, you get the money free. If not, at some point in the future, you have
to pay it back.
And Richard, at some point, these airlines will recover. They will be back in business. We will fly more. I think it makes sense that there should be
some restrictions ultimately on this money and no government six months out from a presidential election wants to look like they bailed out anyone at
this stage and perhaps there is a message in there for other corporates looking for loans?
QUEST: Yes, but don't be too harsh on the airlines because of the cyclical nature and the way they are so market sensitive in terms of travel. Now, to
give you an idea here, yes, they have done that and there are the usual strings.
They can't do share buybacks. There are executive compensation rules. There are all of those sorts of things. But there are also warrants. Any airline
taking more than a certain amount has to give warrants, which are convertible into airline stock at the Treasury's discretion in the future.
Now, the last thing anybody wants is the U.S. government to suddenly be owning large chunks of the U.S. airline network.
But bear in mind, Julia, 2,500 planes are on the ground. Those planes that are flying have less than 10 percent passengers onboard. The cost base and
the capital cost of maintaining an airline with fixed cost is somewhat extraordinary.
It will be months, if not two or three years before the airlines ever reach anything like potential and proper profitability. R.O.I., decent R.O.I.,
three percent, five percent, six percent again.
CHATTERLEY: What kind of stakes are we looking at though? Because, Richard, and I fully agree with you. This is an essential part of the
global economy today and moving around because my understanding is there are tiny little stakes that we're talking about and I do think that if you
get money, the U.S. taxpayer should benefit when these guys recover because they will recover. It might take time, but they will recover. I'm kind of
onboard with that.
[09:15:23]
QUEST: It's over a hundred million and they are not necessarily -- these warrants are not necessarily going to convert. It's up to 10 percent I
think is the number. But you're right. The U.S. taxpayer should benefit. They benefited in TARP in 2008 to the tune of billions from all the money
lent to banks and insurance companies.
So, yes, they should benefit. But I wonder whether the benefit isn't through the loan and the interest repayment component rather than in
warrants, which do act as a form of guarantee or collateral to some extent if converted.
CHATTERLEY: And that's such a great point. No one wants a government running an airline quite frankly at this moment, so as long as it is silent
partnership, we can allow it. Richard, great to have you with us. Thank you for that.
QUEST: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: All right. Coming up on FIRST MOVE, the E.U.'s efforts to reboot members' economies. We have tailor made plans. And later in the
show, Silicon Valley retools to make protective gear for those on the frontline. We will hear how it is being done. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE, live from New York where U.S. futures are pointing to a lower open for the U.S. market after a flurry of
weaker earnings from banks and a fresh batch of dismal economic numbers this morning.
U.S. retail sales falling almost nine percent in March. That's the biggest drop on record. As we've mentioned, it only reflects two weeks of shutdown,
so the unfortunate fact is the April number will probably be even worse.
In the meantime, New York State manufacturing activity plunged to a reading of negative 78 points in April. That is another record low and reflects the
reality of an economy in shutdown.
[15:20:06]
CHATTERLEY: A slump in crude oil prices also pressuring energy stocks. U.S. crude has fallen back below $20.00 a barrel -- that despite those OPEC
production cuts. Remember at the time, we said insufficient and we're seeing that playing out in the markets.
In the meantime, bank stocks are lower after weak results from Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Bank of America all raising their provisions against
future consumer and business losses.
The European Commission meanwhile unveiling its road map for how to reopen the economy, saying member states need a tailor made approach. This comes
as more European countries start to ease coronavirus restrictions.
Anna Stewart joins us live with the details. Anna, it's no surprise to me that individual nations need a tailor-made approach. They're all at
different stages of fighting this crisis, but connected thinking, a plan to come out of this together and work together, surely, is also very
important.
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: It is crucial, and this road map needed to be published. There are a few issues of course. Firstly, it comes a little
late. As you said some countries like Spain, Austria, and Italy have already started to ease some of their restrictions, and the proposals
haven't really changed that much to be honest, from the drafts we saw last week.
Plus with these E.U.'s recommendations, E.U. member states are of course sovereign and the advice seems to be fairly common sense. I'll just run you
through the top three principles that the E.U. are putting forward here saying that nations should consider when they talk about lockdown, first of
all, it needs to be guided by science, by data, with health concerns at the center.
Secondly and I think this is a really important one, action should be coordinated by member states. They need to talk to each other ahead of
time. They also need to notify the E.U. Commission before they go ahead with their plans.
And, thirdly, respect and solidarity between most states. The second one, the coordination is crucial. Yes, it seems common sense, but heading into
this pandemic what we saw with those E.U. member states, who of course experienced the virus at different rates and severity levels, but they put
up their internal borders within E.U. at different times and that meant some E.U. citizens got stranded. It meant some goods including medical
supplies and food couldn't get to certain countries.
So it is absolutely crucial that heading out of the pandemic that there is a coordinated response. So it comes a little late, but this road map is
very important indeed.
CHATTERLEY: We can just define some way that they were caught off guard to some degree fighting this pandemic and so we saw sporadic reactions, Anna,
but show me the money, because, now they've had time to think about this.
We are seeing what is happening in the southern member states, too. So show me the money. Tell me about that conversation and when it's happening.
STEWART: Well, there are plenty of conversations happening, but the question is how long is it going to take? So the E.U. Commission President
today spoke once again about the need for an E.U. Marshall Plan to really lead the economic recovery as they exit the crisis.
Now, this is for the next seven years. It is a long term E.U. budget plan. It needs to be a bigger budget.
Now, and the President said they will front load the investment. They need to not talk about a billion euros, they need to be talking about a trillion
euros, but these talks won't actually begin in earnest until April 23rd.
It will take a long time, I would imagine to get all 27 member states onboard, and as another example, the E.U. is leading talks to pool
government resources to try and find a vaccine for the coronavirus.
But you know when that meeting is? May 4th. So, today, plenty of people questioning whether the E.U. does enough, but really a crucial question is
also, are they moving swiftly enough, given the severity of the crisis that we are looking at -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, nothing more critical even with what is going on domestically than a coordinated response here and more money for individual
nations to fight it.
Anna Stewart, thank you so much for that. A call to action there, I think.
Now, as economies around the world look for ways to reopen, a new study by Harvard University says social distancing may need to be enforced until
2022. That's if a vaccine for the virus hasn't yet been found.
Speaking on "New Day" a short while ago, one of the authors of the study explained why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. YONATAN H. GRAD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Our study looked at how we can navigate both the goal of maintaining the healthcare
infrastructure, this whole idea of flattening the curve, is to help us keep hospitals intact and not overwhelm them.
But while we do that, the more successful we are, the more of the population remains susceptible, so that when we stop social distancing, we
will see a recrudescence or the resurgence of the virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. Elizabeth, great to have you with us as always. Two things for me there. I don't think anybody imagines
being in a situation where we're socially distancing or physically distancing for that length of time, but it is not even just about the path
or the bridge to a vaccine here. It's also about having the adequate testing and the tracing in place to be able to feel like we have the
situation under control.
Can you give us a timeline on these things? Where are we in the United States?
[09:25:26]
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Julia, you have it absolutely right. There are so many different systems that need to be in
place for us to finally get back to normal.
You need to have a good antibody test that is widely available. That's the test that tells people if they've developed antibodies and if they might be
immune. You need to have good contact tracing so when a case pops up, you can trace who they've been in contact with and quarantine those people.
You have to have so many other systems in place. A vaccine of course being the most important. And if those systems aren't in place, then we have to
continue doing to some degree what we're doing.
And Julia, the to-some-degree is the important part here. I don't think that Harvard or anyone else was saying we need to keep doing what we're
doing now until 2022, but some measure of social distancing or civic distancing, I like that term that you used, and so that could be anything
from, you know what, we're not going to have these huge concerts with tens of thousands of people or sporting events with tens of thousands of people
to you can't have dinner with your best friend because you'll be within six feet of each other.
So there are things in between those two events that I just mentioned. Having dinner with a friend versus a sporting event with tens of thousands
of people. To what degree we'll be able to go back to any of those? Only time will tell, but that is what experts are thinking about as we move
forward.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, we need more focus on ramping up testing, ramping up tracing, to be able to prevent that, but your point is so critical I think.
We have to get our minds around what physical distancing in the future looks like and it doesn't have to be as extreme as today. Thank you so much
for joining us with your context, as always senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHATTERLEY: Great to have you with us. All right. We're counting down to the market open this morning. A lot of earnings out this morning. A lot of
warnings I think, about consumer stresses going forward and of course that weaker than expected retail sales number - a reflection of life under
shutdown. Stay with us. We're back after this with the market open.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:30]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE, and we're just watching the opening bell this morning. U.S. markets open for trading, as expected, a
lower open for stocks.
Oil under pressure once again, and we have those weaker bank earnings this morning, too. That is the snapshot that you can see. The volatility it
seems in these markets continue.
Right now down more than two percent for the Dow Jones as you can see here just under that outperforming once again the NASDAQ there, the tech heavy
sector. Why? Well, fresh numbers show retail sales falling by almost nine percent in the United States last month.
This of course, a reflection of two weeks of economic shutdown across a whole swathe of the United States. We've also just learned that U.S.
industrial production fell almost 5.5 percent in March. That is the worst reading since 1946.
None of this of course is unexpected, given what we're experiencing. This is purely a reflection of that.
Now, we also get to the most up-to-date minutes of a gauge of economic distress when the United States releases its Weekly Jobless Claims
tomorrow, too. Estimates say we'll see an additional 5.5 million Americans filing claims. If we get that number, we are talking one in eight workers
in the United States out of a job in the last four weeks.
What we're seeing is a classic risk off day with the dollar rising by over one percent and Treasury yields falling, a reflection of some growth
concerns. Italian bond yields have risen meanwhile as much as 18 basis points today, as you can see just shy of two percent there.
That's the concern as we were talking about with Anna from last week's E.U. emergency rescue plans that they simply didn't go far enough for nations
that have struggled with the coronavirus like Italy, like Spain, and of course Portugal another one to keep in mind, too.
Now, G-20 Finance Ministers are expected to finalize a deal today to provide debt relief to some 76 poor companies most of them in Sub Saharan
Africa. The G-20 wants to free up cash so the most vulnerable nations can spend more on COVID-19 healthcare.
We've talked at length here on FIRST MOVE about the need for aggressive responses to help support nations fight this crisis. This feels like a key
moment.
John Defterios joins me now. John, talk to us about the G-20's plans and how significant is this step in terms of money and time to allow these
countries to tackle the virus?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Let's add to that the demand for the money, Julia. We know from the International Monetary
Fund when it put out its world economic outlook that a hundred countries are knocking on the door looking for money right now and that's grown 20
percent just in the last two weeks.
The G-20 Finance Ministers meeting which was chaired by Saudi Arabia still taking place. We are waiting for a formality and a statement on the subject
right now. What is on the table is to have a debt suspension for a period of eight months on $20 billion of bilateral loans to the G-20 countries.
We heard from Bruno Le Maire, the Finance Minister of France last night indicating that the G-7 did support this and they were going to extend it
to the G-20. I see that going through.
There is another $12 billion by multilateral lenders to the developing world where they're looking to suspend that as well.
Just like the global economy and the outlook, though, Julia, the I.M.F. said there is a downside risk here. What is it? We know that the
coronavirus has set in first to China, spread to Europe particularly in a country like Italy and into the United States.
This has not hit Africa and Latin America in a sizable way just yet. So the calls will grow louder as we go forward. And I started to think about this
in the context of what I'm seeing here in the wealthier side of the Middle East, or if you look at Europe and a country like Hong Kong, for example,
and territories like Singapore, the remittances for the developing world are going to drop like a stone here in the next six months.
Many people overlook it, but it represents 10 percent to 15 percent of GDP. So, I would say a debt suspension is not the answer, but it is actual
funding that is going to need to be ponied up in the next two or three months because of the crisis arriving here to the south.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I was just Googling the definition of debt relief. Debt relief is not just suspending payments for a certain period of time. I get
that lots of these nations in the G-20 have battles of their own at this moment and their own people to care for, but debt suspension, interest
payment suspension is not relief.
DEFTERIOS: It is not, Julia, and I'm glad you're underlining that point here. There has been $7 trillion from the entire industrialized world set
aside here for this crisis. The focus has been on their domestic economies, unemployment benefits, providing liquidity to the banking system, but this
is not something that's been a global response.
Perhaps it's the leadership in the United States that's taken this tone against multilateral institutions. The International Monetary Fund was
trying to be subtle yesterday suggesting we need a wider approach to this crisis like we saw during the Global Financial Crisis ten years ago.
We heard from the global alliance of past and present leaders, 160 of them, saying we need an emergency fund, a fund not the debt suspension of $8
billion. We heard from U.S. Union leaders and 80 faith leaders suggesting we don't need debt suspensions yet again. We need to have them forgiven on
the debt in a crisis like this.
So we have not seen any signals from the G-20 or the G-7 suggesting they will pony up the funds and I think this is something that surprises me this
far into the coronavirus. And knowing, Julia, just around the corner, we know what's going to happen in Africa, Latin America. Large economies like
India and Indonesia at the same time.
Let's see if the narrative changes from the statement from the G-20 as I said. The meeting has been extended. We are waiting to have a virtual press
conference at the same time.
CHATTERLEY: Do you think it is about leadership, John? Because you mentioned a great point there, this is not just about Sub Saharan Africa,
it is about countries like India, too. These nations need some fundamental support at unprecedented times dealing with something that we've literally
never seen before.
Does it come down to nation state leadership and the fact that people are so focused internally that they're not capable of coordinating on a broader
basis here and recognizing that others perhaps need support more?
DEFTERIOS: Well, if you go back and you were suggesting here, the figures that we're seeing for the United States are the worst since 1946, it was in
that crisis that the architecture that we live with today came to fore.
The United Nations, the World Trade Organization, out of that round, of course, International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Julia. If I can blunt
here, the streak of populism that we've seen in the U.K. with Brexit, the nationalism that we saw earlier in Germany although it didn't come to
power, the same thing in France, and, clearly, the best example of this or I'll say the worst example of this is in the United States.
The President is not a supporter of multilateral institutions, kind of the backbone of the United Nations has been eroded away here because of this
tone that we've seen so far, and when you do need it, and this is the time to act, I don't see it coming from the G-20.
During the Global Financial Crisis, I think Gordon Brown of the U.K. was very clever on pulling the money from emerging markets with the developed
world at the time because we needed it.
We are not seeing it this time around. I find it extremely disappointing. The G-20 keeps on saying we've put up $7 trillion. We've got the money in
the system. It is not getting transferred from north to south. This is that north/south divide that you and I have talked about from the emerging
markets here that really need to have this in the healthcare systems and the lending to come in at a quicker pace with debt forgiveness.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Populism doesn't pay and the whole world suffers, and to your point, it is not just one nation. It's many of them. Thank you, John.
Let down by leadership. John Defterios.
All right. Back when life was normal in Silicon Valley, technology from the 3D printing firm Carbon was used to crank out sneakers' soles and dentures
trainers, in my world among other things.
After coronavirus hit of course, everything changed. Carbon and its customers have retooled and now they churn out nasal swabs and face masks
by the tens of thousands.
Ellen Kullman is the CEO of Carbon. She is also former Chief Executive of DuPont and joins us now by phone. Ellen, fantastic to get you with us. I
know we were having technical difficulties. Thank you for bearing with us here. Just talk to me about the decision not only to retool your own
company, but also to go to your clients and say we can make a collective effort here.
ELLEN KULLMAN, CEO, CARBON (via phone): Well, you know, excuse, Julia and great to speak to you as well. You know, as a 3D technology company, I
mean, we deploy our technology in a wide variety of industries to help, whether it is to make dental materials and dental products, we make
consumer products, mid soles.
And as, you know, the Northern California the shelter-in-place came in and we were idling our labs. Our customers were idling their facilities. We had
some choices to make. What were we going to do?
And that's when our people, our designers, other companies, you know, came together organically and said, what can we make with our technology? With
our resins that can help?
[09:40:23]
KULLMAN: The medical shortages were clearly being spoken about very widely. And it came very quickly that we could make the frames for the face
masks and get the cuts to complete the product and we could make the nasal swabs which are in demand right now as the need for testing increases.
And things like medical products, though, have regulatory requirements. We had a resin that was F.D.A. approved in the dental area and could easily be
moved into a broader medical area.
So it seemed to us that with our technology and our production partners and customers that we could help out in this great time of need.
CHATTERLEY: It is fantastic. Just give me a sense of the scale, the volume of what you're collectively producing now, whether we are talking the masks
or the swabs which actually, I understand are a little more complicated than it sounds.
KULLMAN: Yes, so in the face shields, themselves, Carbon through our own laboratories can produce up to 18,000 per week, and additional capacity
with some of our customers who have converted their printers to produce these face shields can be more than 50,000 per week across our network. And
so that's been occurring for the last few weeks and is really supporting the need on a very local basis since our printers are located globally
around the world.
On the swabs themselves, that is much more complicated. It has to hit a clinical need. It has to collect the sample. It has to be readable in the
analytic equipment, and it has to be comfortable for the patients.
And so we've been working with assisting with Beth Israel Deaconess and Stanford University Medical Centers and others and really testing
clinically different designs of swabs. And then with our partner Resolution Medical, who is a medical device manufacturer, we have been able to create
a supply chain for swabs coming from our thermal forming dental customers to Resolution Medical out into the marketplace.
And through that network we can -- we are beginning to produce upwards of a million swabs per week in order to enable this additional testing to occur.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's fascinating. I think when this first began we couldn't really understand why we were seeing shortages of swabs, how
difficult was it, so it is very interesting to get your context here. But those kind of volumes sound fantastic.
Ellen, I want to ask you about the plan from here because as the conversation is evolving here in the United States about what returning to
work looks like, when and how will you make the decision, one, to have your workers back in place versus how you're operating today, but, also, will
you continue to make these PPE products?
Because there is still a risk arguably that we see more cases and a second wave of cases going forward, and this equipment will still be really
critical. Can you talk us through the sort of two decisions you're thinking about on that front?
KULLMAN: Well, yes, certainly. So first, the power of 3D printing is its ability to pivot very quickly. We could be making mid-soles one day and the
next day we could be making nasal swabs or other products that are needed.
Because the designs are in the Cloud, they're down loadable. Because -- and plus we have the experience of already doing it once, those transitions can
be very quick.
So we can keep producing as long as there is a need and then we can go back to our more historic work we've been doing in the industrial space, broader
medical areas, the consumer space, and if the need arises again, we can pivot.
Now, you know, the dental marketplace in the United States is largely shut down except for emergencies, so getting dentures, getting, you know,
liners, and night guards and things like that, is on hold.
And if that production network that is really being employed to produce swabs, to produce face shields, so they have some element of business that
they can go on. So it is a pretty tough time for the dental industry and this is a way that they can pivot their production to really help.
So I think utilizing the power of distributed manufacturing and digital manufacturing like 3D printing and specifically Carbon is, it can be very
powerful as these global supply chains are disrupted.
CHATTERLEY: It's fantastic. Leadership and innovation in times of crisis. Ellen, stay safe, please. Thank you for the work that you're doing. Great
to hear what your company is doing and your clients, too.
KULLMAN: Thanks, Julia. Great to be with you.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you.
KULLMAN: And you stay safe as well.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you. Ellen Kullman there, the CEO of Carbon. All right. Up next, physical distance learning with in-person classes canceled. We
speak to a Coursera, a company helping universities keep their students online, but off campus. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:48:30]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Boston University has canceled its in-person summer programs. It is even making plans to teach the fall
semester online if necessary.
As a growing number of schools and universities consider the possibility that campus could remain closed until 2021, online education company,
Coursera is offering thousands of free courses to impact its students.
Jeff Maggioncalda is the CEO of Coursera and joins us now. Jeff, great to have you with us. Right away when this crisis hit, you made your online
courses free for global universities. You're now helping students find courses that best match what they were doing already. Talk us through what
you're achieving here.
JEFF MAGGIONCALDA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, COURSERA: Yes, a few things. First of all, thank you for having me on this morning. Coursera was founded
by a couple of professors from Stanford and they wanted to make online education free to everybody, and so the majority of our business is
directed to individuals.
But last year, we started offering Coursera to help universities and we decided once coronavirus hit that we were going to make this available to
all universities and colleges in the world.
We teamed up with UNESCO, World Economic Forum, and World Bank and now are making it available to many, many campuses and many, many students.
CHATTERLEY: How many students and campuses do you actually have onboard? How many people are actually using this now?
MAGGIONCALDA: Yes, we have 55 million individual students around the world who are using Coursera. You could take the courses for free. You can watch
the lectures. In March, the volumes are up over a thousand percent in the U.S. and over 700 percent globally.
[09:50:08]
MAGGIONCALDA: So there is a really strong demand across almost every country and across almost every content domain to do online learning.
People have more time to do it and they want to continue learning.
On Coursera for campus side, we have received over 27,000 inquiries and we have gone live with 4,800 instances for colleges and universities. We now
have over a million learning hours from students on campus who are now at home studying on Coursera. So we are really happy to be helping.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, this is astonishing. What kind of conversations if any are you having with those campuses about perhaps carrying on with online
learning as I mentioned there after September and perhaps them not coming back in person until 2021? Are those conversations being had?
MAGGIONCALDA: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, the first major response has been what some people call emergency remote teaching, which is
get in front of the Zoom camera and just keep finishing up your classes.
But as people think about the fall, and they are thinking probably courses -- campuses will be closed or partially closed. If the virus sort of surges
again, they might have to go from open campus back to closed campus.
So online learning is really important, and now schools are trying to figure out partly how to create new online content to support students who
can't come to campus, but, also, at Coursera there are over 4,000 courses created by some of the top universities in the world and so universities
can actually use preexisting content to help students learn online.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, this is such an important point, too. How are you coping as a company with the sheer scale of volume that you've seen? Can you cope
with this volume? What about paying for it ultimately? Because I know you made this free, and do you think, in the future, courses stay to a greater
degree online perhaps more than we've ever seen before?
MAGGIONCALDA: I think with social distancing for the foreseeable future, there will be some students who are on campus and almost certainly some
students who will not be on campus.
Now, in fact, there will be some faculty on campus and probably some faculty not on campus. So I do think online learning will be standard for
every university and in terms of coping with the volume, you know, there are a few different things that we did immediately.
First thing, you know, take care of your employees. Make sure they're safe. Make sure they have the support and the tools to continue to work and serve
customers. And then the next thing is making sure that our sort of human processes are scaling.
A lot of what that comes down to is actually writing new software to automate things, and then to make sure the servers are running. And we have
our servers running on A.W.S. so we have got a lot of capacity and elasticity there.
One of the key features that was difficult is that universities had a challenge matching thousands of courses in their on campus catalog with
thousands of courses in the Coursera catalog.
So, our data science team created an artificial intelligence algorithm, some people call this natural language processing that the computer reads
the course catalogue and actually based on the semantics, matches it with the top courses on Coursera so that matching is now done automatically. We
just released that today.
CHATTERLEY: Congratulations, because that is awesome. One can only imagine how many courses you have to reel through in order to find something that
is close enough to what you're already doing.
Great job, Jeff. Thank you so much. Again, thank you for what you're doing.
MAGGIONCALDA: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Stay in touch and we'll continue this conversation and stay well. Jeff Maggioncalda there, the CEO of Coursera.
All right. After the break, something we all need to hear. Simple acts of kindness to get you through the day. One call by this baseball legend
lifted the lives of hard working medical workers. We'll bring you the details, next.
[09:55:55]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. News headlines can sound the same day in and day out, and believe me, you and I know how overwhelming that
can feel sometimes.
So what can we do to make things easier? Every day, small gestures of kindness make a world of difference. Like when the basketball -- sorry, the
baseball star, David Ortiz dropped in on these Boston medical workers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID ORTIZ, BASEBALL LEGEND: How much I love and respect you for what you guys are doing. Taking your life, taking your time, that is something that
goes beyond everything. So the Red Sox are going to donate free tickets for life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: I'll never be forgiven for getting that wrong. But you heard right there, free Red Sox tickets for life. The workers later headed to
Fenway Park to throw a ceremonial first pitch for a season that, like the rest of the sporting world, is now on hold.
We salute acts of kindness everywhere.
Stay safe everybody. Thank you for watching, and we'll see you tomorrow.
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[10:00:00]
END
