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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Steel Workers Sour on Bush
Aired December 05, 2003 - 07:48 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush repeals steel tariffs. Is he forging good business and political policy?
With that, plus a look at the Dow as it inches closer to 10000, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Welcome back.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Thank you very much. Good to see you guys.
And good questions about whether it is good policy and good for business. A lot of people would argue that it is, Andersen. Of course, last night, you probably heard President Bush formally renouncing those steel tariffs, making it less expensive for imported steel to come into the United States.
Let's take a look at who wins and who loses. Of course, this is a decision fraught with political implications. You can see here, these are steel-producing states. So, these are states that would likely be losers, a lot of steel workers, up to 200,000 steel workers in these kinds of states here. And you can see the electoral votes. The president won both Ohio and West Virginia, lost in Pennsylvania. He's been visiting Pennsylvania a lot, so there are implications there.
Let's talk about the winners, though. These would be states that consume steel. They were hurt by these tariffs, because they use steel to make cars, refrigerators, and that sort of thing. But also Illinois and Michigan produce steel as well, so kind of a mix here.
You know, a lot of people are saying, Anderson, that the steelworkers weren't going to be voting for the president anyway, so not a ground lost. Interestingly, he made no mention of the whole EU controversy, the European Union, saying that basically the tariffs have run their course. There was no need for them anymore.
COOPER: Oh, really? He didn't mention the sanctions.
SERWER: He did not. He just said that it's time for them to go.
COOPER: Right.
SERWER: And so, a lot of people, even in his own party, are sort of maybe turning their eye at that particularly comment.
COOPER: Well, let's talk about the markets. A big November jobs report due out, I think, later today.
SERWER: At 8:30 this morning. That's correct, Anderson. We'll be watching that -- the unemployment report. Of course, you remember in October that dropped sharply to 6 percent. Economists expecting it to hold steady at 6 percent, but that number has been known to jump around quite a bit.
So, a lot of bond traders in particular at the edge of their seats. And as you mentioned earlier, we have been inching towards 10000 on the Dow. And on the Nasdaq, we were over 2000 there briefly. So, the market continues to march upwards as we close in on the end of the year.
COOPER: All right, Andy Serwer, thanks.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And we like that, that's nice news.
SERWER: We all do, yes.
O'BRIEN: It's nice to have you back, Andy. Thanks.
SERWER: Good to see you.
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 December 5, 2003 - 07:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush repeals steel tariffs. Is he forging good business and political policy?
With that, plus a look at the Dow as it inches closer to 10000, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Welcome back.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Thank you very much. Good to see you guys.
And good questions about whether it is good policy and good for business. A lot of people would argue that it is, Andersen. Of course, last night, you probably heard President Bush formally renouncing those steel tariffs, making it less expensive for imported steel to come into the United States.
Let's take a look at who wins and who loses. Of course, this is a decision fraught with political implications. You can see here, these are steel-producing states. So, these are states that would likely be losers, a lot of steel workers, up to 200,000 steel workers in these kinds of states here. And you can see the electoral votes. The president won both Ohio and West Virginia, lost in Pennsylvania. He's been visiting Pennsylvania a lot, so there are implications there.
Let's talk about the winners, though. These would be states that consume steel. They were hurt by these tariffs, because they use steel to make cars, refrigerators, and that sort of thing. But also Illinois and Michigan produce steel as well, so kind of a mix here.
You know, a lot of people are saying, Anderson, that the steelworkers weren't going to be voting for the president anyway, so not a ground lost. Interestingly, he made no mention of the whole EU controversy, the European Union, saying that basically the tariffs have run their course. There was no need for them anymore.
COOPER: Oh, really? He didn't mention the sanctions.
SERWER: He did not. He just said that it's time for them to go.
COOPER: Right.
SERWER: And so, a lot of people, even in his own party, are sort of maybe turning their eye at that particularly comment.
COOPER: Well, let's talk about the markets. A big November jobs report due out, I think, later today.
SERWER: At 8:30 this morning. That's correct, Anderson. We'll be watching that -- the unemployment report. Of course, you remember in October that dropped sharply to 6 percent. Economists expecting it to hold steady at 6 percent, but that number has been known to jump around quite a bit.
So, a lot of bond traders in particular at the edge of their seats. And as you mentioned earlier, we have been inching towards 10000 on the Dow. And on the Nasdaq, we were over 2000 there briefly. So, the market continues to march upwards as we close in on the end of the year.
COOPER: All right, Andy Serwer, thanks.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And we like that, that's nice news.
SERWER: We all do, yes.
O'BRIEN: It's nice to have you back, Andy. Thanks.
SERWER: Good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
