Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Minding Your Business: Sir, Please Empty Your Pockets
Aired March 03, 2003 - 07:45 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: Have you ever wondered where all of those confiscated items at the airport wind up?
Andy Serwer is home. You should check out -- no, I'm must kidding. How are you doing?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'd love to. I'm fine. How are you doing, Paula?
ZAHN: Good, thanks.
SERWER: They take all of that stuff away and sell it. We're going to talk about that in a second. We'll check in on the markets first.
The last trading day of the month on Friday. You can see last week we were down pretty sharply. Up a little bit on Friday, down for the week, down for the month, down for the year. The Dow was down about 5.4 percent.
And you know, Paula, I'm always glad to just start a new month when we're in a bear market like this, because we get to just try it again for the month of March.
ZAHN: Yes, and the big question on the bottom of the screen is: Is that the same old song on Wall Street, Andy?
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Yes, yes, same old song is right. No, well, it's the same old song on Wall Street, which is, of course, just -- we're just waiting for things to resolve on the political front.
Volume is dropping on Wall Street, and that will happen in a bear market, Paula, as people just start to give up a little bit, so we're going to be watching that. Futures are up a little bit this morning, though, because of the situation in Iraq with the missiles being destroyed; some optimism there.
Let's talk about this story out in California, where they're confiscating items at the airports -- Sacramento and Oakland -- and selling them on eBay. You know, we've been talking about states having budget problems. A lot of people upset about this.
All of these pocket knives, scissors, cork screws, Leatherman tools, the state is putting them up for auction right there. You can buy yourself a lot here -- 350 pocket knives for $504. That's how much the bid went for. Twenty-two Leatherman tools, those are a little bit more expensive -- $305.
The state has gotten about 16k doing this so far. Passengers are outraged, saying how come you just can't return the things? I mean, I thought we'd take this knife and put your name on it. And when you fly back, then you pick it up. The state says no time to do that; we're just going to sell them.
ZAHN: I'd like to ask those folks who brought this stuff to the airport why were they...
SERWER: Hello. You know...
ZAHN: ... carrying those in the airport and trying to get them on an airplane, thank you very much.
SERWER: ... people bring Swiss Army knives, and they say, but I've always had it with me, so that's -- but you're not allowed to do that, and you should know that buy now.
ZAHN: So, just know that it's going into the coffers of California.
SERWER: That's right, the state of.
ZAHN: The state of. I was going to say lawmakers, but state of.
SERWER: Right, right.
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 March 3, 2003 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Have you ever wondered where all of those confiscated items at the airport wind up?
Andy Serwer is home. You should check out -- no, I'm must kidding. How are you doing?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'd love to. I'm fine. How are you doing, Paula?
ZAHN: Good, thanks.
SERWER: They take all of that stuff away and sell it. We're going to talk about that in a second. We'll check in on the markets first.
The last trading day of the month on Friday. You can see last week we were down pretty sharply. Up a little bit on Friday, down for the week, down for the month, down for the year. The Dow was down about 5.4 percent.
And you know, Paula, I'm always glad to just start a new month when we're in a bear market like this, because we get to just try it again for the month of March.
ZAHN: Yes, and the big question on the bottom of the screen is: Is that the same old song on Wall Street, Andy?
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Yes, yes, same old song is right. No, well, it's the same old song on Wall Street, which is, of course, just -- we're just waiting for things to resolve on the political front.
Volume is dropping on Wall Street, and that will happen in a bear market, Paula, as people just start to give up a little bit, so we're going to be watching that. Futures are up a little bit this morning, though, because of the situation in Iraq with the missiles being destroyed; some optimism there.
Let's talk about this story out in California, where they're confiscating items at the airports -- Sacramento and Oakland -- and selling them on eBay. You know, we've been talking about states having budget problems. A lot of people upset about this.
All of these pocket knives, scissors, cork screws, Leatherman tools, the state is putting them up for auction right there. You can buy yourself a lot here -- 350 pocket knives for $504. That's how much the bid went for. Twenty-two Leatherman tools, those are a little bit more expensive -- $305.
The state has gotten about 16k doing this so far. Passengers are outraged, saying how come you just can't return the things? I mean, I thought we'd take this knife and put your name on it. And when you fly back, then you pick it up. The state says no time to do that; we're just going to sell them.
ZAHN: I'd like to ask those folks who brought this stuff to the airport why were they...
SERWER: Hello. You know...
ZAHN: ... carrying those in the airport and trying to get them on an airplane, thank you very much.
SERWER: ... people bring Swiss Army knives, and they say, but I've always had it with me, so that's -- but you're not allowed to do that, and you should know that buy now.
ZAHN: So, just know that it's going into the coffers of California.
SERWER: That's right, the state of.
ZAHN: The state of. I was going to say lawmakers, but state of.
SERWER: Right, right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
