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American Morning
Minding Your Business: What Do You Do with 'The Pitt?'
Aired November 01, 2002 - 08:46 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Unemployment figures are proving that a lot of folks are losing their jobs right now. Minding Your Business with Andy Serwer.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, Leon, unemployment figures just came out for the month of October. The unemployment rate is 5.7 percent. It just -- that is ticking up from 5.6 of last in September, expected 5.8, so actually...
HARRIS: Not a surprise?
SERWER: No, not a surprise. We lost jobs for the second month in a row. New month on Wall Street. Actually October was a very good month. The best month since January 1987. The you see the Dow is up 10 percent. Mixed picture yesterday. Futures are down this morning.
But the big news, what everyone is talking about on Wall Street this morning, Leon, is Harvey Pitt, the embattled SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, chairman.
And where do you begin with this? Let's start with the situation with William Webster. His nominee for -- that's Pitt right there. He has a whole litany of things that people are getting ticked off right now about. He met privately with CEOs of companies under investigation. Remember, back in July, he asked for a raise at a very inopportune moment.
Then he, according to some people, politicized the appointment of Webster. Remember, he reached out to this guy named John Biggs, and then there was lobbying him to pull back on that, and then he named William Webster.
Now people on Wall Street were objecting to Webster because had he no knowledge of accounting, because he is 78 years old, and then we find out yesterday that William Webster was connected to a company, in fact, he was on the board of a company, that was facing civil lawsuits because of fraud.
So right now, Harvey Pitt is in a situation where I think he has lost confidence of Wall Street and, frankly, there is bipartisan disdain on Wall Street right now. In other words, Both Democrats and Republicans that I talked to on Wall Street do not support Harvey Pitt. The president is sticking with him, but the thinking is, that might have to do we have an election coming up in a matter of days.
HARRIS: You have to wonder. You did digging on this company, U.S. Technologies, the company in question right now with William Webster?
SERWER: That's right, really interesting. No one has delved into exactly what U.S. Technologies does. This is really interesting stuff here. This company is a small Washington D.C. firm. It loses money. George Mitchell, the former senator for Maine and Senate majority leader, was also on the board of this company until recently. Very tiny company, does some venture capital stuff, owns some Internet companies, but it has an operating company that is extremely interesting, Leon. Basically, what this company does is it puts prison inmates to work.
HARRIS: What?
SERWER: I will read it to you what they say here. "UST is a pioneer for meaningful work programs for America's prison population. Having our manufacturing plant located on the grounds of a minimum security facility affords UST the opportunity to tap this underutilized resource. Resident employees undergo intensive classroom training and are screened for attitude"
So you know, if you check into this company that William Webster was on the board of, let's, just put it this way, Leon, it's very interesting. And I just started to check into this company this morning. As people dig more and more into this company, who knows what they are going to turn up.
HARRIS: My first question is, how is it a company using prison labor can't make money?
SERWER: It has a captive labor market you could say.
HARRIS: That's one way of putting it.
Andy Serwer, thank you for putting that way and keeping it clean.
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 November 1, 2002 - 08:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Unemployment figures are proving that a lot of folks are losing their jobs right now. Minding Your Business with Andy Serwer.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, Leon, unemployment figures just came out for the month of October. The unemployment rate is 5.7 percent. It just -- that is ticking up from 5.6 of last in September, expected 5.8, so actually...
HARRIS: Not a surprise?
SERWER: No, not a surprise. We lost jobs for the second month in a row. New month on Wall Street. Actually October was a very good month. The best month since January 1987. The you see the Dow is up 10 percent. Mixed picture yesterday. Futures are down this morning.
But the big news, what everyone is talking about on Wall Street this morning, Leon, is Harvey Pitt, the embattled SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, chairman.
And where do you begin with this? Let's start with the situation with William Webster. His nominee for -- that's Pitt right there. He has a whole litany of things that people are getting ticked off right now about. He met privately with CEOs of companies under investigation. Remember, back in July, he asked for a raise at a very inopportune moment.
Then he, according to some people, politicized the appointment of Webster. Remember, he reached out to this guy named John Biggs, and then there was lobbying him to pull back on that, and then he named William Webster.
Now people on Wall Street were objecting to Webster because had he no knowledge of accounting, because he is 78 years old, and then we find out yesterday that William Webster was connected to a company, in fact, he was on the board of a company, that was facing civil lawsuits because of fraud.
So right now, Harvey Pitt is in a situation where I think he has lost confidence of Wall Street and, frankly, there is bipartisan disdain on Wall Street right now. In other words, Both Democrats and Republicans that I talked to on Wall Street do not support Harvey Pitt. The president is sticking with him, but the thinking is, that might have to do we have an election coming up in a matter of days.
HARRIS: You have to wonder. You did digging on this company, U.S. Technologies, the company in question right now with William Webster?
SERWER: That's right, really interesting. No one has delved into exactly what U.S. Technologies does. This is really interesting stuff here. This company is a small Washington D.C. firm. It loses money. George Mitchell, the former senator for Maine and Senate majority leader, was also on the board of this company until recently. Very tiny company, does some venture capital stuff, owns some Internet companies, but it has an operating company that is extremely interesting, Leon. Basically, what this company does is it puts prison inmates to work.
HARRIS: What?
SERWER: I will read it to you what they say here. "UST is a pioneer for meaningful work programs for America's prison population. Having our manufacturing plant located on the grounds of a minimum security facility affords UST the opportunity to tap this underutilized resource. Resident employees undergo intensive classroom training and are screened for attitude"
So you know, if you check into this company that William Webster was on the board of, let's, just put it this way, Leon, it's very interesting. And I just started to check into this company this morning. As people dig more and more into this company, who knows what they are going to turn up.
HARRIS: My first question is, how is it a company using prison labor can't make money?
SERWER: It has a captive labor market you could say.
HARRIS: That's one way of putting it.
Andy Serwer, thank you for putting that way and keeping it clean.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
