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Quest Means Business
Budweiser Temporarily Renames Beer "America"; Clinton, Trump and the "Woman Card"; Fourth Annual Forbes Women's Summit Begins; Brazil's Bewildering Impeachment; Impeachment Back On for Brazil's Rousseff; Jetstar CEO: We Make the World More Accessible; Jetstar CEO: Qantas Realized Fares Were Too High; Jetstar CEO; We Won't become Full-Service
Aired May 10, 2016 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
RICHARD QUEST, HOST: Haven't seen this much green in the market since St. Patrick's day somebody recently said. The market is up 221 points, 1.25%
gain for no obvious reason. At the stock exchange; we have a pathetic gavel to bring trading to a close. It is Tuesday, it's May the 10th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: You've heard of reaganomics then there was clintonomics , now hillary-nomics. Her economic advisor rejects accusations the candidate
isn't exciting. You'll hear from the advisor tonight.
Trending now on Facebook; accusations of liberal bias and the conservatives are piling on. And 5% alcohol but 100% patriotism. Budweiser becomes
America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: I'm Richard Quest. We have an hour together. And I mean business.
Good evening. You may have thought it was already over but most certainly it is not. The polls are open in Nebraska and West Virginia. And then there
were three.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Three candidates remaining in the race for the White House. Hillary Clinton, of course, wants to get rid of it, get rid of Bernie Sanders and
bring it down to a straight head to head between her and Donald Trump. By the way, these are all the other candidates that at sometime were in the
race and well, you know what happened to them.
As for Secretary Clinton she is nearly 800 delegates ahead of Bernie Sanders. There she needs 2,383 to win. She has 2,224. If you add in the
delegates that are bound and super delegates. As you can see, Bernie Sanders is a long way back, certainly he doesn't have the super delegates.
So Mrs. Clinton is eager to get over the threshold and she hopes tonight - although she may have troubles in Virginia to focus on the general election
and Donald Trump.
Now, standing in the way of her at the moment are the voters of West Virginia and polls show Sanders with an edge in West Virginia.
On the Republican side, West Virginia and Nebraska make their picks today, as well. And there Trump is already the presumptive nominee. Today's
contest will show whether voters are willing to rally behind Trump.
Bearing in mind the others have gone for Trump so then they may be on the ballot paper but they certainly won't make any difference and people might
write names in. But he is - but Donald Trump is the only candidate on the Republican side still standing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: CNN's political director David Chalian joins me now live from Washington. So, let's take the Trump side first.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: OK.
QUEST: Where, you know, he can't lose. But we can glean from the voting what?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: Well, we'll be looking to see even though Ted Cruz and John Kasich are no longer actively running and they've suspended their campaigns, do we
see any of the reluctance that we see in the establishment of the Republican Party, let's say, on Capitol Hill with the party's congressional
leaders to fully embrace Trump? Do we see any reluctance among the voters by not fully embracing Trump as the nominee. That's something that we'll be
looking for tonight.
I also think it's interesting Richard, you couldn't fit all the vanquished Republican candidates that Donald Trump has defeated along the way. There
were some there from the early days that can't even make it onto your board that's how many candidates he's already defeated to get there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: And now this is fascinating because there is this poll out on three key states. It's early days David, but I need you to help me through and
understand it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: It relates to Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. And when you look at these swing states, you have Hillary Clinton just eking out Trump in
Florida and in Pennsylvania and losing in Ohio. How worrying is that or should we just ignore this as a Quinnipiac poll that's a long way from
voting day?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: We shouldn't ignore it but your caveats about how early it is are well taken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: But here's what I would look at. I wouldn't separate out any of the three states. Her -- the four points that she's behind is within the
margin of error just like the one point that she's ahead in Florida and Pennsylvania.
But I look at the totality of this and I see here that as an early marker on this race, in these key critical states, a real contest is going to be
engaged. So if you are a Democrat, and you are sitting back and thinking, wow, the Republicans nominated Donald Trump and this is going to be a
breeze, we can start measuring the drapes in the oval office, these polls say that's not the case.
[16:05:06]
CHALIAN: And in fact, Hillary Clinton herself, Richard, said she fully anticipates this to be a closely contested general election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: And I think Donald Trump needed the psychological boost that these poll numbers give because he is going to Capitol Hill and he wants to make
the case to the party that says I'm worth embracing. There's a chance here.
QUEST: Ok. If you are Hillary Clinton and her advisers, and let's refer back you talked about the vanquished that we saw from the Republican Party;
how do you fight an election against a candidate who's playing by rules the like of which we've never seen before? Shooting from the hip, inaccurate
statements, sometimes downright wrong statements? But he's getting through. How do you battle that?
CHALIAN: This is the million-dollar question for the Clinton campaign. You have nailed it. Listen. One way that you can see them already responding,
what they are -- the playbook they're putting together is to define Donald Trump on their terms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: They understand that he has established a brand for himself. They're going to be chipping away at that brand every single day and you
saw it this week. You mentioned Gene Sperling at the top of the show.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: Hillary Clinton's advisers Jake Sullivan and Gene Sperling were out instantly yesterday when he was talking about his tax plan and trying
to prove that he wasn't actually reversing course, he is still going to cut taxes even for the wealthiest. They immediately made the point that nobody
has done more for millionaires and billionaires than Donald Trump's plans do. So they are going to try to define him on their terms every day. But
you are right, they don't know to operate against an opponent like this because nobody's faced an opponent like this.
QUEST: David, we'll talk much more about this. We've got many months to go and we're delighted that you're going to navigate it for us. Thank you,
sir.
CHALIAN: Thank you.
QUEST: David talked about Gene Sperling and the whole issue of the way in which you apply this thing. Well Hillary Clinton's economic plan invokes
clintonomics and she's hoping voters associate her with the prosperity of the 1990s under her husband as President Bill Clinton.
But her economic message doesn't seem to be getting the same traction as Bernie Sanders with his left wing policies or Donald Trump with his
outlandish policies. Clinton's positions on trade have opened her up to all sorts of attacks. Opponents criticize Washington's deals. Mrs. Clinton
supported NAFTA as first lady. Now she says it should be renegotiated.
She called the transpacific partnership the gold standard as Secretary of State. Now she opposes it in its current form. And then you have taxes and
the question of a middle class tax raise. She says she wants close corporate tax loopholes and to cut taxes for small businesses.
But there's more. On the banks, despite the fact she has certain criticisms of her own fees from banks, she says they're still too complex and too
risky and she wants a fee on the largest intuitions and would ban big bonuses.
Put it all together and you have an economic policy that's very detailed but doesn't instill passion. Gene Sperling is Hillary Clinton's economic
adviser. He told me she's the only candidate with a realistic plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENE SPERLING, ECONOMIC ADVISER TO HILLARY CLINTON: Hillary Clinton has been very clear. She is making promises that a President can keep. She's
talking about things that can help make people's lives better on day one. That is her focus. And of course, if somebody just wants to support
somebody who wants to build a wall in Mexico, they should vote for Donald Trump.
But if they want somebody who is going to focus on a trade policy, that is much more focused on ensuring that it benefits United States workers and
United States jobs, if they want a tax plan that is going to call for more fairness and more contribution from the most well off, from Wall Street,
and to provide more relief in terms of college affordability, child care affordability, paid family leave, those type of things for middle class
families, then she is going to be their candidate. And I think she'll show through her plans that she is the one who is a true champion of middle
class families and trying to have an optimistic and pro-growth strategy and one about fair growth and shared prosperity.
QUEST: How will the tax cut that she plans and the infrastructure improvements and increases in spending and the college fund and the
improvements to social welfare, how will they be paid for under a Clinton plan?
SPERLING: Well, you know, it is quite interesting. You know, there's a couple of kind of fiscal watchdogs that have looked at the different
campaigns. They have found plans like Donald Trump to add to the debt by over $10 trillion.
[16:10:03]
SPERLING: Hillary Clinton's plan they found to be essentially paid for because she is asking the largest banks and the most well off Americans to
contribute to pay for these new proposals. So she is putting forward a fiscally responsible plan but it's still an ambitious plan that is going to
be, again, focused on creating jobs in the United States, providing more security for working families, dealing with more kitchen table type of
issues that keep -- that make too many families feel squeezed, worry about the future, and to try to have the type of investment in job creation.
QUEST: Right.
SPERLING: And a tighter labor market, a tighter labor market where wages are on the way up and more of the focus is not on just GDP in general but
on are we creating jobs that are the type that are high paying.
QUEST: OK. If Donald Trump changes his policies and changes his mind as he's done in the last, say, 24, 48 hours on things like raising taxes on
the rich and raising - and is now supporting a minimum wage, surely he starts to steal the clothes, he starts to steal Mrs. Clinton's clothes to
some extent and --
SPERLING: You know, if that's the metaphor you want to go for --
QUEST: And --
SPERLING: But, let me tell you what we -- what Hillary Clinton's campaign is doing. They're not letting him get away with even the view to flip flop
or change positions. He confuses and he confuses and whether intentionally or unintentionally deceives people about his position.
Take the minimum wage. It sounded like he was for an increase in the minimum wage but what did he actually say? He said he was against a federal
minimum wage increase. He just said well the states should maybe do that. That policy is about as bad on the minimum wage as any American political
figure has ever proposed.
Take on taxes. He would actually affirmatively have a plan that would have the very most well-off people in the society paying less than middle class
families' do right now. So I don't think we agree with the view that he's flip flopping. We think he's just trying to hide from middle class families
what his actual policies are and remain right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: All right. Gene Sperling, one of advisers to Hillary Clinton.
This is a story that Facebook didn't want to see trending and according to the technology site Gizmodo someone who worked at Facebook says it
routinely suppressed conservative stories in its trending section.
Now, Senator John Thune, the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee has written to Facebook's Chief Exec, Mark Zuckerberg and he wants answers
and exactly what's going to be happening.
CNN money's senior media correspondent is Brian Stelter, he joins me here.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN MONEY SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good the see you.
QUEST: What is this about?
STELTER: We've just heard from Facebook on this again, they say they're still investigating what this is about. But it's about that trending
stories box on the upper right-hand corner of the Facebook home page. We all see it every day when we're on Facebook. It highlights big stories that
are going on and in this case, these former employees, these former contractors, two of them are saying there was a conservative - there was a
conservative shift away from those stories. A liberal bias, in other words against conservative news.
QUEST: Right. Now, you know, the allegation of bias one way or the other is inevitable in any newsroom because newsrooms are made of human beings.
STELTER: But Facebook is supposed to be made up of algorithms. Right, we think of Facebook being a collection of information on the News Feed from
computer algorithms. But in this case, that's right, humans are involved. Editors are involved deciding what is actually going to be listed trending
and what is not. There's good reasons for that by the way.
Hoaxes and spam and scams should not show up on the Facebook trending list because that would perpetuate the hoax, that would perpetuate the spam. And
so it's good that Facebook is trying to filter out some of that bad information, bad material, but are employees sometimes also removing
stories favorable to Republicans? Are they sometimes removing stories that would interest conservatives? That's the allegation here.
QUEST: And Facebook isn't -- Facebook is only basically saying they've found no evidence of it.
STELTER: That's right. And I frankly --
QUEST: Which is not the same thing --
STELTER: They have changed their tune a little bit. You know they were saying earlier they say there's no evidence. Now they're saying we're
continuing to investigate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STELTER: So here's the latest statement from few minutes ago. The company is saying "Although these allegations are anonymous, we take them
seriously. We are continuing to investigate whether any violations took place." And in the meantime they say they're also willing to look at how
they comprise these trending topics list and see if it should change in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Is it your gut feeling this has got all the hallmarks of no, no, no we don't think so, we don't think so, oh yes, we've discovered something
may have happened.?
STELTER: I wondered about that. I don't know if they can ever know for sure though because this is about what was in staffer's hearts. You know same
thing for a news organization. If you decide to focus on a Republican story or a Democratic story, there could be lots of reasons for that and you'll
never know why for sure.
[16:15:10]
STELTER: Of course up until now we haven't thought about Facebook as a news product, we've thought about it as a giant technology company. But more and
more what it's doing, it kind of acts like a publisher, it kind of acts like a news organization and that's why this senator asking for information
is sort of interesting and maybe troubling to some people. He's saying show me your records, show me how you make these decisions. But if CNN or the
"Wall Street Journal" or Al Jazeera asked those questions I'm not sure Facebook, or in this case Al Jazeera or CNN, or Wall Street, would answer
those questions so we'll see.
QUEST: We would have a firm, robust here as our standards and practices and that's all you're going do get.
STELTER: So we'll see what Facebook gives.
QUEST; Good to see you, sir.
STELTER: You, too.
QUEST: David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, has been overheard discussing some of Britain's allies with the Queen. And he was doing so in
some very undiplomatic way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Fantastically corrupt is how he described two countries, after the break.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: British Prime Minister David Cameron overheard by a T.V. microphone calling Nigeria and Afghanistan fantastically corrupt countries. He was
speaking to the Queen attending a reception at Buckingham Palace and he was talking about the anti-corruption summit in London which opens on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We had a very successful cabinet meeting this morning, we talked about our anti-corruption summit, you've
got the Nigerians. We've actually got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain. No Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly
the two more corrupt countries in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: A spokesman for the President of Nigeria said that Mr. Cameron was living in the past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Transparency International last year put Nigeria near the bottom of its corruption rankings, 136 out of 168 countries. Afghanistan comes in at
166 ahead of North Korea and Somalia. So, we need to put some perspective into this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Maggie Murphy from Transparency International joins me now from London. Maggie, however undiplomatic it might have been, one can't deny the
truth of what the Prime Minister said.
MAGGIE MURPHY, SENIOR GLOBAL ADVOCACY MANAGER, TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL: Yes, absolutely. The remarks were not particularly diplomatic. However, the
evidence points to the fact that both of these countries do suffer from endemic corruption.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MURPHY: The index that you pointed to however, does only look at corruption perceptions in the public sector and kind of misses out the private sector
and the financial sector which is where some of the other countries might want to look at themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Right. So, with this, I mean, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was with the Prime Minister and the Queen pointed out that the New President,
Buhari is, you know, is not corrupt and was elected on an anti-corruption platform. Does Transparency International see an improvement?
16:20:05]
MURPHY: Well, that's also very true. He did come in on an anti-corruption platform, he's only been in the job for one year. It is his honeymoon
period and we have seen some reforms put in place. We have seen that he has himself set up a presidential anti-corruption advisory committee. He's also
tackled corruption in the military head on by opening an investigation into corruption procurement there. There are a number of reforms that he is - he
is putting on the table.
QUEST: Maggie, I've got the list in front of me here. You know, not surprising, Denmark, Finland and Sweden at the top. The United States comes
in at number 16. But what distinguishes, what is the number one distinguishing factor for a country being ranking on the Corruption
Perception Index?
MURPHY: Yes, so as I mentioned it is about perceptions of corruption in the public sector. It doesn't look at the role of companies or the private
sector. It doesn't look at the financial sector. And so, what we might need to think about, especially on the back of things like the Panama Papers is
the role of the middleman, the lawyers, the accountants, the real estate agents and also where the money ends up. We do know that there are a lot of
-- there is a lot of suspicious money that is entering into London, for example, in the real estate and property sectors. So it's not as though
corruption exists all by itself in a single developing country.
QUEST: Do you think the Prime Minister made a gaffe or do you think he knew exactly what he was doing?
MURPHY: I definitely can't say whether it was a gaffe or not. There seems to be a lot of cameras around. However, what he has chosen the do, and this
is interesting, is invite countries to the anti-corruption summit that have pledged to be ambitious to tackle - on tackling corruption.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MURPHY: So even if the countries do have terrible track records in the past, ostensibly they're all willing to make big, bold, precise ambitious
commitments on Thursday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Lovely. Thank you very much Maggie, good to see you from Transparency International.
This very question which I perhaps somewhat unfairly asked Maggie is the one that I answer myself in today's "Quest Means Business" newsletter.
It's the daily newsletter, it arrives after the New York market closes but before Asia opens. Today, it's all about fantastically corruption
countries. You can sign up cnnmoney.com/quest.
Saudi Aramco said it's going to keep pumping oil.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The company's Chief Executive speaking for the first time after Saudi Arabia's long serving oil minister was unceremoniously dumped from
office after a couple of decades in the job. Now you see him, now you don't. Saudi's working to decrease reliance on oil amid falling crude
prices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: As part of that, Aramco is preparing for what could be the world's biggest IPO. Now we know that Aramco's IPO is on the way. We know the
country's hoping to create a $2 trillion fund to help oil diversification for the country.
CNN Money Emerging Market Editor, John Defterios spoke to the chief executive and asked him why it's so important for Aramco to push for the
IPO.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMIN NASSER, CEO SAUDI ARAMCO: I think putting -- listing Saudi, a small part of Saudi Aramco as we are privatizing other industries in the kingdom,
privatizing let's call it the crown jewel is something important and it's just a vote of confidence in what we have and sharing that with the rest of
the world is important.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN MONEY EMERGING MARKET EDITOR: How about the counter argument, is it wise to proceed with an IPO with prices historically low
between $40 to $50 a barrel?
NASSER: Listing would happen as I said in due course. We are going to share with (inaudible) counsel hopefully soon. And then the listing which will
take time for us to develop the plans to Saudi Aramco and listing depends on the price at that time. Oil market is always cyclical so listing it at
this time, as I said, it will take some time and prices will be where it will be when we start listing.
DEFTERIOS: Can you clarify, have you had discussions with other partners, BP, Exxonmobil or Sinopac of China about participating in the IPO
going forward?
NASSER: We did not have any discussions with any of these companies on the privatization of Saudi Aramco. We have a dedicated team that's looking at
different options and listing and the issue about commercial and litigations and which markets to list in. But no discussion with any
companies regarding privatization of Saudi Aramco.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Chief Executive of Saudi Aramco talking to John Defterios. The Dow is up. Actually, it was more than just up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Look at that. Out of the gate up like a rocket and it basically stayed there until the close. I think that's probably the best of the day.
It closed up 222 points, 18,000. They say it's on the back of a rally in oil. But I'm always suspicious when I hear about that.
[16:25:13]
QUEST: Traders are trying to gauge the long-term impacts of wildfires in Alberta in Canada as well. Paul La Monica is here.
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.
QUEST: Before we talk about other issues, Disney's earnings are out. What do they tell us?
LA MONICA: Yes, Disney missed on its earnings and revenue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LA MONICA: This is a company that despite the huge box office success of things like "Star Wars" "Captain America Civil War" just over the weekend,
"Zootopia" they are worried, investors that is, about the decline of ESPN. Cable network business is something that investors are focusing on, I think
maybe a little too much but we are definitely seeing a decline in the ratings power of ESPN and that is something that's freaking people out.
QUEST: Right. And of course, there's also ABC, the network.
LA MONICA: ABC, the part of the network business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LA MONICA: But I think really the myopic focus is on ESPN right now.
QUEST: The shares are down 6% after hours. Is this overdone?
LA MONICA: I think it is. I mean yes, the broadcast business including cable is the largest portion of Disney's overall revenue and profits but
the rest of the business is still doing extremely well. The theme parks, the movies --
QUEST: But every earnings season, we take a disproportionate interest in Disney. And to some extent Time Warner, our own public company. Because as
our chief executive always says, we are the only two companies that are fully traded in the market of the large giant media corps. that you can get
a handle on.
LA MONICA: Yes. I mean, obviously, you still have Fox and News Corp., that used to be a much larger company (inaudible) CBS and Viacom. But Disney,
let's face it, even more so than our beloved parent company has so many iconic brands and then Bob Igor has gone out and bought even more of them
with Pixar and Marble and Lucas Film. But right now investors are squarely focused on ESPN and Cable and they're ignoring theme parks, they're
ignoring all the huge movie hits that they've had.
QUEST: In a sentence, we look at the Dow. What are - I mean there's no reason for this today.
LA MONICA: No.
QUEST: I mean a bit of old commodities rising and few obscure comments about the Fed.
LA MONICA: Yes, and absence of bad news I think was good news today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Absence of bad that's good. Thank you very much.
LA MONICA: Thank you.
QUEST: Paul La Monica, thank you.
European markets, they had a bounce, a nice little bounce with some progress with the Greek bailout package and the question of whether or not
there'll be any debt reduction or debt relief. That all helped things along nicely and you can see particularly in the Athens market up 3%. The
possibility of the bailout tranche being handed over helped that market. Otherwise Credit Suisse posted a smaller than expected loss. And the shares
in the (Juna Pandora) surged on full-year forecasts raised.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Patriotism is truly brewing here on "Quest Means Business." I'm going to crack open a 6-pack, I'll explain why Budweiser becomes America
between now and November. And it's really rather bizarre. "Quest Means Business" good evening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:30:00] RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Richard Quest. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. Brazilian markets surge.
Apparently Dilma Rousseff's impeachment may be back on. We'll talk about that. I'll be meeting the woman card with Moyer Forbes, the head of this
year's Forbes Women Summit. Playing the women's card and what it means. For all of that this is CNN and on this network the news always comes
first.
Donald Trump's former Republican rival Marco Rubio says he will not stand as vice president with Trump. Speaking a few moments ago to CNN's Jake
Tapper the Florida Senator said he was not the person for the job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SENATOR, FLORIDA: Well, I would be impossible because I don't have very many advisers around our campaign is not running. And
unless they're talking to my wife, which is my critical advisor these days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does she want you to be --
RUBIO: like I said yesterday, I think Donald's has one won -- he's the presumptive nominee at this point. But he be best served by having someone
-- not just by the way, as a vice presidential nominee, but active surrogates who agree with him on his issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
London's new mayor says Donald Trump's call to ban on Muslims from entering the United States is ignorant. Sadiq Khan, who is elected London's first
Muslin mayor last week. Trump said he'd make an exception to his no Muslins rule if Mr. Khan wants to visit the U.S. The exception to the rule
and an offer Khan quickly rejected. Sadiq Khan will be speaking to our Christiane Amanpour on CNN on Wednesday.
Barack Obama plans to be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the city of Hiroshima. It's been 71 years since an American plane dropped an atomic
bomb on the Japanese city during World War II. An adviser says Mr. Obama plans to speak against nuclear proliferation.
Nigeria says it's embarrassed by a recording of British Prime Minister calling it one of the most corrupt countries in the word. David Cameron
was caught making the claim while talking to the queen about an anti- corruption summit that's taking place in London.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Cabinet meeting this morning. Talk about our anti-corruption summit, the Nigerians, the -- leaders of
fantastically corrupt countries. Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly two most can you want countries in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The spokesman for the president of Nigeria told CNN, the Prime Minister's views were outdated. And Nigeria is making progress in its
fight to end corruption. Downing Street said the UK stands shoulder to shoulder with the Nigerian authorities.
Manchester United's team bus had its window smashed by West Ham United fans. As it arrived in London for Tuesday evening's match. The kickoff
was delayed after the trouble outside Upton Park stadium the stadium. The game which is now under way, the last to be played at West Ham's 110-year-
old home before the club moves to a new stadium.
If you are a company and you truly want to connect with your consumers, simple. Wrap yourself in the flag. Oh say can you see by the dawn's early
light? I pledge allegiance to the flag. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies. Now, these are words which have echoed through the history of the United
States. And now they have a new home. Because this summer and all the way up to the presidential election, yes, they're going to be on the side of a
Budweiser can and bottle. And that's not all. Budweiser is temporarily renaming itself America. Forget Budweiser, The King of Beers. Next time
you grab a cold one in the U.S. it reads America e pluribus unum, which you of course you'll be well familiar means, out of many one.
[16:35:00] Which is more remarkable since the Budweiser brewery is owned by a multi-national based in Belgium and isn't even American to start with.
But let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story. Bruce Turkel is the marketing and brand expert and CEO of Turkel brands who joins me
from Miami. You have described this as borderline genius. Why?
BRUCE TRUKEL, MARKETING AND BRAND EXPERT: Well, it's genius because they are very smart to take advantage of exactly what their customers are
thinking about, Richard, and exactly what's going on right now. Let's face it. They're going to get a lot of attention. Heck, we're on your show
talking about it. So that makes a lot of sense. The borderline thing is that, "A" it's not innovative, it's not creative. Wrapping yourself in the
flag -- as you said in the introduction -- has done time and time again. And they're not even wrapping themselves in the flag really. They are
applying a temporary tattoo to the can. And number two, they are completely and specifically aligning themselves with a very, very partisan
part of the consumer base. When they say things like, not imported, America, what they're doing is saying that they are following in the
footsteps of Donald Trump. It's a weak beer. It was a weak Republican group. And now they're taking advantage of that. This --
QUEST: Bruce, it could backfire, Bruce, particularly since if we think of what Trump's slogan is, make America great again. He has used the word
America. Budweiser's using it. Do you not think Americans might say, no, hang on, we understand that this is all about the country? It's my country
`tis of thee. One nation under God. Home of the free and so on.
TRUKEL: Of course. A lot of people will say that. But you know, what else people are going to say, "Oh man, Richard, I am so hungover. I had
too much America last night." I mean, come on. This is a risk. It's a big risk. I applaud them for taking a risk. Remains to be seen what
happens and my guess is this is not something to last the summer.
QUEST: Really? Come on. You can't back out of it. Once you've started it, tough go to election day, surely. The embarrassment of sort of taking
America off your can, you stick it out until the bitter end surely.
TRUKEL: Well, there. You just made it worse. I hadn't even thought of that. That's a great point. You can't abandon America. You can't leave
America. It is not America love it or leave it. You're absolutely right about that. No, you know what will happen? The sales are going to matter.
People get excited at first. A bunch of people are going to run out and buy it. They're going to fill their pickup trucks with it. And then if
the sales don't stay up, yeah, Budweiser will say it was just for the summer. It was a fun thing and now we are going back to our brand, which
let's face it, is one of the most identifiable brand names in the world. Why would you get away from that?
QUEST: Bruce, good to see you, sir. Thank you for giving us the insight from Miami on -- next time you're in New York come and join me on the set
an I promise you a can of America or something similar. Thank you, sir.
TRUKEL: We'll have a nice cold America together. Thank you, Richard.
QUEST: As Bruce makes clear, the potential for all of this -- I had a cold America. The America was flat. Would you believe what happened when I
tried to open America? Well, you may need a beer or two to get you through the next few months. The presidential candidates are not holding back.
And that includes Donald Trump. Who's been accusing Hillary Clinton of playing something that he calls the woman's card.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think the only card she has is the woman's card. She's got nothing else going and
frankly if Hillary Clinton were a man I don't think she'd get 5% of the vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: so If fighting for women's health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the
woman card then deal me in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: And never one to miss this is the woman's card. The Hillary Clinton campaign made this card to raise money. The official Hillary for
America, congratulations you're in the majority. Deal me in. Moira Forbes, the publisher --
MOIRA FORBES, PUBLISHER, FORBESWOMEN: Thank you.
QUEST: The Forbes woman joins me now. The Fourth Annual Forbes Women's Summit begins tomorrow.
FORBES: It does.
[16:40:00] QUEST: You have Ivanka Trump whose talking. You don't want it to be party political. But clearly, the woman summit is going to be
political.
FORBES: It's definitely going to be political, but it's talking about a lot of issues. I think so often when we're talking about political issues
or how to create opportunities for women in America today we have to bring together diverse stakeholders. So were going to be bringing together the
top minds in the media, business, philanthropy and people like Ivanka Trump to say how can we tackle the important issues, that are important to women,
but most importantly important to Americans.
QUEST: How do you avoid it being a shouting match on Trump's anti-woman, misogynist, sexist? Hillary Clinton the enabler as he called her. How are
you going to avoid that?
FORBES: I think we're going to avoid it by bringing together such a diverse group of individuals. I think we all share the mission. Right?
We want to advance opportunities for women, advanced opportunities for America. But the question is, how do you bring diverse stakeholders
together who share that mission and may be tackling it from very different vantage points? And by bringing them together and convening the
conversation we hope to start to move the ideas forward.
QUEST: What for you is number one issue for women in America at the moment? Is it inequality? Is it those recent statistics we saw showing
about pay? It about the fact of abortion and the women's right to choose that's under threat? What's the number one issue?
FORBES: Well, I think it's a big misperception in today's political climate to talk about the woman's vote as a monolithic group and to define
it in term of issues of equal pay, reproductive rights. Issues that are that are traditionally "seen as women issues." I think for both Donald
Trump and Hillary Clinton, to attract the women's vote you have to go beyond that. You have to speak to economic vitality, speak to things like
health care, things that cut across genders, race and ethnicity.
QUEST: But both sides do and you know better than most people with your political experience that the psephologist and the research, that digging
into what attracts and what repels different sectors of the population. And women are a key constituent.
FORBES: Women is definitely a key constituent, but it's 50% of the population. It's not a one size fits all policy. And I think women today
do want to talk about things like equal pay and paid paternity and maternity leave, issues maybe women are more passionate about affecting
them more personally.
QUEST: Are you surprised that the prospect of the first -- this is the strongest prospect of the first woman president for the United States and
many women are not excited by this. Is it because, and trying not to take you into political statements here, is it because Hillary Clinton is
perceived to be a damaged candidate in the eyes of many women?
I think she's perceived to be a damaged candidate in many women and many men. I think you can't --
QUEST: We're interested in how women view it.
FORBES: But I think you can't discount the historic significance of her candidacy. And I think that does appeal to a lot of women. But that's not
enough. To say that women should vote, or that we think women are going to vote for Hillary Clinton just because she's a woman is misleading. Does it
help and feel and women voters feel like she's maybe more empathetic and understanding and willing to champion those issues? Yes. But that doesn't
necessarily mean that she's the best candidate to advance opportunities for all Americans.
QUEST: Does Donald Trump serve better purpose if he chooses a woman as a running mate?
FORBES: Well, I think we saw from Ted Cruz just because you -- just because you choose --
QUEST: Not sure that's a good example.
FORBES: -- a woman as a running mate doesn't mean that you're going to appeal to the female voters. I think it could happen. He's a real issue
in terms of unfavorable with women about 70%. He needs to navigate that, but both candidates need to navigate the women's vote in terms of winning
the election.
QUEST: So good of you to come in and talk about it. Good luck for the summit. I know it's fascinating and many stories out of it. Thank you.
FORBES: Thank you so much.
Wonderful. As we continue our evening conversation on business and economics, Brazil's on again off again presidential impeachment now may be
on again enough to make the pundits' heads spin. The editor of one of the country's largest newspapers will try to make sense of latest twist. It's
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Good evening to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:46:24] QUEST: Impeachment proceedings seem to be back on in Brazil and investors seem to be cheering. The SPSE, -- if we take a look and how the
-- this is how it's traded in the course of the week. There's Monday and this is all the way -- it's up the best part of 4% today and as you can see
as it comes up to this sort of level considerably higher. This is where there was questions and possibilities that the impeachment was off and now
just plowed on its way through on to the Tuesday session. As to what is going to happen, you remember the procedure, maybe you don't, it's been
very complicated. The impeachment commitment, then the lower house voted. Well we've had both of that and then the committee. And now we have got
the Senate vote and the Senate vote is expected on Wednesday.
We'll ignore the fact the speakers of the Lower House tried on Monday to annul the impeachment and then back pedaled and so we're at the Senate
vote. If they vote yes, then she is removed from office for 180 days, while the trial takes place. Ricardo Grandour joins me to put all of this
in to some form of perspective. The editor of Grupo Estado, which owns one of the biggest newspaper groups. Let's be men of the world about this and
not worry too much about the politics. Is the general acceptance now, in your view, that she will be impeached by the Senate and a trial will have
to take place?
RICARDO GRANDOUR, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, GRUPO ESTADO: Well, as all the polls shows, she will most likely be impeached by the senate. Today the
government is plane maybe their last cards. Going to Supreme Court trying to block the impeachment processes and, you know, Richard, what is
important, the economic and especially the companies, they're stopped waiting for everything.
QUEST: Right. So if she gets -- for the purposes of this discussion let's assume she is impeached by the Senate. And then, the Vice President Temer,
comes over with a new government.
GRANDOUR: Yes.
QUEST: Is this just going to be a transition government or do you expect Temer to actually have policies of one description or another?
GRANDOUR: That's the very complicated situation because now sort of real elected president, nominated president, but without a transition government
you can imagine the current team is not supporting the new team and Temer is being criticized for -- I mean, taking measures very similar to Mrs.
Rousseff's style.
QUEST: But Temer, by constitution becomes the president even though he's damaged himself over some allegations about -- said he's not going to run
and in his 70s anyway. But Temer has to put together a coalition in his own right because all the coalition parties abandoned Rousseff, which
brought her down in the first place.
That's the point. He is -- Temer is now divided. For building a team to have political support and that many in Brazil consider them the best.
Building a team of good names, names people can trust and can address this type of reform the country needs.
QUEST: Is it at all possible that this temporary government, how long it's got? A couple of years it would have?
GRANDOUR: A couple of years. Roughly two years.
QUEST: Right. Could make any significant economic changes? Because basically, the country's going to be saying we need an elected government
to make substantial changes. So at best, Brazil muddles through for two years.
GRANDOUR: Yes, the new government. Temer must analyze many sort of things to establish confidence of enterprise of the whole market. As I was
saying, the economy is stopping.
[16:50:00] QUEST: How bad is the economy at the moment? how bad is it?
GRANDOUR: It is bad. You know, it's not only a macroeconomics factor. All the companies, imagine planning for this year to launch a new product
or service, it's impossible to position and any message now, any new concept, any branding. The companies are completely stopped. They're
indoors reviewing planning, looking for efficiency and waiting. Of course, I had a breakfast today with a source of a financial market. Of course,
Brazil is very cheap. The real the current exchange rate is very favorable to American dollars, for example. Maybe an opportunity someone is watching
this.
QUEST: It's only an opportunity, sir, if you think it's going to go in a different direction eventually. Good to see you. Thank you.
GRANDOUR: Thank you. Nice to see you.
QUEST: As we continue tonight, we're going to be hearing from the CEO of Jetstar. Australia's low-cost carrier owned by Qantas, with us after the
break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: EasyJet says fears of terrorism are hurting the company's bottom line and lost 35 million in the first half and blamed on Paris, Brussels
and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks. The, Dame Carolyn McCall said, we've seen more external factors affecting us than any other time. EasyJet was one of
the first to get in the low cost game and now a new generation is taking budget travel to a new different height. I flew from Sydney to Honolulu on
Jetstar Airways of subsidiary of Qantas. I spoke to the chief executive, Jane Hrdlicka, and I asked her how her airline fits into Qantas' low-cost
strategy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE HRDLICKA, CEO, JETSTAR: What Qantas group realized was there's a big chunk of Australia that wasn't able to fly because fares were too high. So
the market segments that weren't being served and the way the market was structured. And the only way to enable those people to become active
across Australia was to bring fares done.
QUEST: Why are you not a full airline, a full service airline? Simply because you don't -- I mean, people pay for a bag in the hold, they pay for
the food. If I look at your route map and I look at the way you've developed and I look at your long-haul flying, you are a full service
airline in everything but name only.
HRDLICKA: We're not really. So what we pride ourselves on is making the world more accessible. And the way we do that is by giving customers
choice. You can choose to buy a seat or you can choose to buy a seat plus baggage and choose to buy a seat plus baggage, plus food. You can add a
hotel night in there. You can add cars. You can add parking. It's your choice how you choose to spend your trip dollars.
QUEST: Why can't Qantas just have a sufficient number of seats in economy that satisfies this demand? Because the reality is the passenger
experience in economy is not any different between the two.
[16:55:14] HRDLICKA: I'd argue that but because it is different between the two. But I also say for Qantas to provide seats for the leisure
market, as they have for the history, Qantas is 95 years old, not sufficient capacity for the volume of travel that consumers want to have
for purpose of leisure's or small businesses to build their business and spend as little as possible in travel.
QUEST: What will Jetstar not do?
HRDLICKA: So Jetstar won't become a full service airline. We will not bundle baggage and food and entertainment into the price of our seats. We
will adjust to the needs and demands of our customers. We will continue to evolve as our, you know, vision to make the world more accessible unfolds,
to ensure we're delivering on our customers' needs. But we won't do that in a way that starts to box out the big part of the marketplace.
QUEST: How important is it for you to now focus on the customer experience. Because that is going to be the fighting ground in the future
as everybody's costs come down?
HRDLICKA: I agree. So for us, there are two things that matter. One, we are making the world more accessible full stop. Second is setting the
standard for great low fares look like. And that it's low fares, it's fun travel and it's great value.
QUEST: Did you enjoy it?
HRDLICKA: I love it. This is an amazing business. And I do feel like I've won job lottery. We're helping people do things that they otherwise
couldn't do. It's a pretty big privilege and we take it as quite a considered responsibility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Chief executive of Jetstar and you can see we take flight from the second part of the around the world tri, Business Traveler, this Thursday
at 9:30 a.m. and London 10:30 Europe. We'll have a Profitable Moment after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's Profitable Moment, David Cameron was just deliciously undiplomatic when he described Nigeria and Afghanistan as being two of the
most corrupt countries in the world. And he said that there were fantastically corrupt leaders who were attending the anti-corruption
summit. The problem of course is that much of what he said is true. But it has to be seen through the historical prism and into the future where
changes are being made. It's fine to insult other people, but you have to give them credit when changes are probably being made forward. And that's
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. We'll do it again
tomorrow.
END
