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American Morning

America Recovers: Interview of 'Fortune''s Andy Serwer

Aired October 15, 2001 - 09:30   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We have Andy Serwer with us, of "Fortune" magazine, to walk us through.

What are the stocks we should be watching watch today?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Actually, a big day for financial stocks, Paula. Bank of America has already reported before the bell. Actually, its numbers were pretty good. Fannie Mae has been benefiting from the great housing refinancing boom. We've got Charles Schwab later in the day. And Bethlehem Steel, the third-largest steel maker, has reportedly filed for bankruptcy today.

ZAHN: But what are people talking about on street this morning? Is there a lot of reaction to these anthrax stories over the weekend?

SERWER: Absolutely. I talked to people all weekend about anthrax, and actually, I was surprised the markets held up pretty well on Friday, given that we are in middle of an anthrax scare in New York. But people are, obviously, extremely concerned about this.

On the other hand, the take I got on Sunday afternoon, which is kind of the important one, is that you look at all this, and it's actually rather ineffectual. You have this terrible situation where one man did die, in Florida, but otherwise, it's just sort of scattershot stuff.

So we are fighting the three furies this morning, Paula. We are fighting lower Asian markets, lower European markets, and lower futures, so don't expect too much.

ZAHN: You had an opportunity to speak with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Did he actually talk about bioterrorism with you?

SERWER: Absolutely. He has been pounding the pavement about his national ID card program, where he wants to make a database everyone where everyone has an ID that will be checked in at the airport. But he also talked to me about bioterrorism, and biotechnology is an area he is very interested in. He has some expertise in areas invested in a lot of these companies. I spoke to him on Friday as this sort of anthrax scare was permeating through New York, and he was in New York City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LARRY ELLISON, CEO, ORACLE: There are very good antibiotics against anthrax. We can deal with this threat very, very effectively, as long as we prepare for it. Preparing for it means that we have the antibiotics handy, and we have our civil defense personnel and crisis management personnel trained and ready to respond to the situation. And we actually can minimize human suffering and loss of life. We know how to do this; we just really have not prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERWER: One thing I think is impressive about Ellison, say what you will about him -- a lot of people are saying that the national ID program is self-interested because it would be using the Oracle database, although he said he would give it away for free -- at least he is out there doing something, and I would like to see other CEOs out there trying to do something about the situation that we're in.

ZAHN: I will say nothing about him, because I don't know him. But when this letter was sent to Microsoft in Nevada, I've got to believe that that made Larry Ellison pretty unsettled.

SERWER: Absolutely. He talked to me a little bit about that as well, about the situation where companies like his are targets for terror, including the whole Internet backbone and that sort of thing. He said you used to be able to come to Oracle, and it you forgot your ID, it's OK, you are Paula, come in. He said nowadays if you come to Oracle and you don't have your ID, he doesn't care who you are, you're going home, you're not allowed in. So security has really been stepped up in his company and others in Silicon Valley.

ZAHN: It's a smart way to run a company. Of course, we don't feel that when we try to get into this building, do we? We have to get out the ID, bag search...

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Absolutely. But I'm saying our attitudes aren't always that good when you are assaulted with "get the ID out, get the second ID out, and get your bags out."

SERWER: But it is worth it.

ZAHN: Absolutely.

Thank you very much.

SERWER: Thanks, Paula.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Private pilots have been under very tight restrictions since the September 11 terrorist attacks. First, they couldn't fly. Then they could. And they couldn't once again. The FAA is allowing more private planes back into the sky today. The changes affect some 15 metro areas across the country.

Miles O'Brien, himself a pilot, is here to tell us all about that.

Hi, Miles.

Have you flown since September 11 on your own?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am one of the people grounded still, Paula, as a matter of fact. Here's some full disclosure for you.

Visual flight rules pilots -- people who fly by looking out the window -- they don't fly by instruments or follow a flight plan -- have been prohibited from taking off in 30 metropolitan areas within 22-mile band radius from major airports.

The concern is security, an understandable concern. But this ban on VFR aviation has hit the general aviation hard, so the Federal Aviation Administration, the aircraft owners and pilots association, has been lobbying hard with the National Security Council to try to come up with ways to get those planes back into airspace, and in a way that makes people feel comfortable.

So the rollout begins. Let's take a look at the map for just a moment, to give you a sense of where it's OK to spool up those VFR light aircraft. Beginning today, as we see the Wright flier flying overhead -- that plane, obviously, not in play -- that one hanging in the Smithsonian. But today, Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, Houston, and New Orleans are officially open and ready for VFR pilots. Tomorrow, we're talking about Minneapolis, Cleveland, Dallas and Phoenix. Then on Wednesday, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Charlotte, and Tampa.

Some of the bigger markets still remain restricted. And in those markets, there are some rule to live by. You have to have an altitude encoding transponder. That means a transponder that allows controllers to see your altitude at any given point and time. Also, you are supposed to listen to the National Guard frequency, which is very good idea on the off chance that an F-15 or an F-16 decides you are unfriendly. You would want to be listening to that National Guard frequency.

Let's look at some pictures of some grounded aircraft. These came in from over the weekend from the Freeway Airport, in suburban Maryland. This airport has been really hard hit. It's very typical in a lot of small airports that are within those 22-mile disks around the big airports. This airport had three dozen employees on September 10. It now has about four and is potentially facing insolvency, because in Washington, none of these restrictions have been lifted.

Another caveat in all of this is that traffic reporters, news helicopters, sightseeing operations -- all of those operations remain banned in these 30 major metropolitan areas.

So for general aviation, this has been a big economic hit -- perhaps understandable, of course, in the wake of what's happened on September 11 and given the fact that these small airports don't have the levels of security that you see at the big airports. Nevertheless, there are a lot of people in general aviation who say it's high time they got back in the air -- Paula.

ZAHN: Miles, when do you think folks like you, who fly visually, will be able to fly again?

O'BRIEN: We're told that there is progress being made, that the FAA and the NSC are coming to some logical conclusions on ways of beefing up security at some of these smaller airports, and once they get comfortable with that -- perhaps enhancing local enforcement at these airports, maybe having a grassroots crime watch, if you will, and locking up hangars a little more carefully -- hopefully, they'll start allowing those other 15 major metropolitan areas to get back in business -- no timetable, however, Paula.

ZAHN: Miles, you will keep us posted on that, won't you?

O'BRIEN: I will. A little vested interest there.

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