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Quest Means Business

U.S. Officials Warn Global Order At Stake; U.N. Chief Visits Moscow, Pleads For Ceasefire; Ford Chair Says Leaving Russia Was The Right Thing To Do; Former Renault CEO Says He Cannot Surrender To French Authorities; Ford Chair Says Company Is Way Ahead On Electric Vehicles; Quest's World Of Wonder: Texas. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired April 26, 2022 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:00:34]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: It's a nasty day in the markets, I'm sorry to tell you. That is unless you shorted the

market, but if you haven't, look at that, the one to focus on there is the NASDAQ down two and a half percent, off over 330 points, absolute. I mean,

it's just horrible. The Dow is down, the S&P -- we will talk about the reasons why. Rahel will be with me later in the program.

The markets and really, you can't divorce the markets from the main events. They're all tied at the moment, no time to waste.

Western allies are agreeing to send more military aid to Ukraine.

Ford -- Bill Ford, the Executive Chairman tells me he is in no hurry to restart business in Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL FORD, CEO, FORD MOTORS: There will be a new Russia one day, but it will take a little time to sort out what that means, and we will take our

time with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: And Deutsche Bank ramping up its warning for the U.S. economy saying there will be a major recession now in the United States.

With all that cheerful news, I am still glad you're very -- you're with me. It's live from New York on Tuesday. It's April the 26th. I'm Richard Quest.

And yes together, we mean business.

Good evening tonight from New York.

U.S. officials say the global order is at stake. Western businesses are digging in for a long absence from Russia and the top U.S. General tells us

there is no time to waste in supporting Ukraine against the invasion.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says Russia must not be allowed to get away cost free. The United States is now urging other countries to

offer more support for Ukraine.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Jim Sciutto, General Mark Milley says Europe security is on the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Now, what's at stake here is much greater than Ukraine, what's at stake is the security of

Europe. This is the greatest challenge to the security of Europe since the end of World War Two. And indeed, you could easily make the case that

what's at stake is the global international security order that was put in place in 1945.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: And the evidence is everywhere. Western companies are now acting accordingly. The Chairman of Ford tells me the company won't rush to resume

suspended Russian operations and Bill Ford is later in this program.

Let's update you on the events in Ukraine, where U.S. officials are now slamming the nuclear saber rattling from the Kremlin. The Russian Foreign

Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian state TV this week the danger of nuclear war erupting in Ukraine is serious and real.

I can't believe I am even reading this. General Mark Milley called that kind of talk completely irresponsible.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin responded in kind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD JAMES AUSTIN III, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It's dangerous, and any kind of rhetoric like that, you know, which I think is unhelpful. You know,

we've said over and over again that a nuclear war cannot be won by either side. And so I think, saber rattling and rhetoric like that, it's just

unhelpful.

And so, again, hard to say what is motivating Mr. Lavrov, but again, I think that kind of talk should be avoided.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, there were developments in Moscow. President Putin said that Russia and Ukraine continue to hold talks. The Russian President was

speaking as he met the U.N. Secretary General in Moscow just a short while ago, saying the diplomatic solution in Ukraine is impossible without a

settlement on the future of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. The Russia President still says he hopes the talks will lead to a positive outcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If we have not been able to resolve something preliminary as a draft, then it means this

is just never going to be resolved.

And so, it is impossible to assign any security guarantees if you don't have this issues with regard to Crimea and to the Crimea and in east of

Ukraine and Donbas and yet the negotiations are still underway, and I do hope that somehow, we reach some positive results.

[15:05:14]

QUEST: CNN's Nic Robertson is our international diplomatic editor. He is in Brussels for us tonight.

Two things are noted. First of all, that long table is back. We are not sure it ever went away. I mean, it looked ridiculous when they sat down at

it, President Putin on one end and the U.N. Secretary-General at the other.

But the other thing was the way in which the Sec-Gen spoke. I mean, he danced his words, but finally had to say there has been an invasion of

Ukraine.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: He did. Look, that long table really is a metaphor for how far apart the two sides are, and

when we say two sides, in this case, as you say, the U.N. Secretary General really trying to sort of steer the middle ground.

Remember, you know, he is the top person at the U.N., the most prized table, the top table at the United Nations is the U.N. Security Council

table. China and Russia are on one side of it. Now, the U.K., France -- U.K., France, and the United States are on the other side of it, and the

Secretary General is really having in mind that he needs to walk a fine line because ultimately he will be the one person that can try to bring the

sides together. That's how he views his position.

But he talked today about the need for peace, the need for humanitarian efforts to rescue the beleaguered people in Mariupol. He didn't get a

particularly positive response on that or definitive response, he didn't say that President Putin indicated that the U.N. and the Red Cross could

help in some way in Mariupol, but that wasn't entirely clear.

What the Secretary-General really came up against, and this is probably what tested his patience, and his fence setting, if you will, was a

complete barrage of propaganda from President Putin to the point of saying that the war crimes -- alleged war crimes committed around Bucha were the

responsibility of the Ukrainians, and so much more propaganda about the U.N. being stacked against Russia and so much more like that -- Richard.

QUEST: It begs the question. I mean, does -- Putin doesn't seem to want an agreement. He seems now to have set his heart on at least the Eastern

Donbas region, judging by what he said today, about, you know, with a deal, but it had we done on Crimea and that he wants a long-term agreed solution

for those areas. He's not going to get it.

ROBERTSON: It doesn't seem that he will. Going into this, he said that Crimea was a done deal. It was completely off the table. Russia has been

saying that for the last number of years. Mariupol is a prime example.

Look, he could give ground, he could give the international community some access to the civilians there. The last thing Putin wants in his strategy,

though is what he would see as a loophole, some way for the international community. The U.N. in particular, a peacekeeper, to be in there in

Mariupol and give the Ukrainian forces a chance to stay there because he wants the Ukrainians gone from Mariupol because he wants control of the sea

that they're on there, the Azov Sea and that gives him the land bridge all the way from Russia through to Crimea.

His strategy is to continue to fight this out on the ground, and to a degree, the Ukrainians also believe that they may be able to make at least

hold Russia back, potentially make some gains. They want to push Russia completely off their territory, the international community is supporting

them to defend themselves and defend their civilians.

So, this is still in the battle phase and Putin still thinks he can win this, he can win more and realistically, the only way that President Putin

will stop and I think this is the assessment of most military experts in the West is when he meets a force that he cannot move. He hasn't met that

yet, so he's going to keep going.

QUEST: Nic Robertson, thank you, sir.

Now Nic was talking about Mariupol and the mayor of the city says a third mass grave has been found nearby. Officials claimed that new satellite

pictures of a village cemetery show a trench 200 meters long. The mayor is accusing Russians of coercing locals to help with the burials in exchange

for food. We're unable to verify the claims at the moment.

There are still thousands of soldiers and civilians inside Mariupol. Matt Rivers spoke to a woman whose husband stayed behind in the city to defend

it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Before Mariupol became a hellscape, before Russian military depravity turned a city into a

cemetery, there was love here.

Just two weeks before the war began, Natalka Zarytska spent Valentine's Day with her boyfriend in the city. They took this picture at a cafe and this

one after eating, and a few days later, she snapped this one of him from her window seat on the train that would take her back to Kyiv.

[15:10:11]

NATALKA ZARYTSKA, SEPARATED FROM HER BOYFRIEND DUE TO THE WAR IN UKRAINE: He kissed me and told, "Natalka, I don't know when I will see you again."

RIVERS (voice over): Resignation from a man who understood the realities of the war to come.

Natalka's boyfriend, who we are not naming or showing for security reasons, is a soldier in the Azov Battalion, a unit that has fought the Russians in

Mariupol for months.

We went to see Natalka at her home in Kyiv, where she told us her boyfriend was given a command to quote "fight until the last drop of blood."

RIVERS (on camera): What did you think when he told you that?

ZARYTSKA: I recommended him to save his life, but he answered, "No. I should keep on the command. I'm a soldier and I have to be here."

RIVERS (voice over): She says her boyfriend lost cell service on March 3rd. His silence was as deafening as the bombs that by then had started to

fall around Kyiv forcing her and her family down into this cellar. It was in here that after two weeks she heard from him

ZARYTSKA: When he called, it could be 10 or 15 seconds and then bombing and no connections.

RIVERS (voice over): But with what connection he did have, he would send her videos of the utter destruction that surrounded him. We can't show you

those for security reasons.

RIVERS (on camera): What do you think when you watch these videos?

ZARYTSKA: I think empty. I feel empty, absolutely empty.

RIVERS (voice over): Along with the videos were selfies and texts, and on his birthday, a particularly special message

ZARYTSKA: He gave me a proposition that I couldn't --

RIVERS (on camera): Say no to.

ZARYTSKA: Say no.

RIVERS: What did he write to you?

ZARYTSKA: (Speaking in foreign language.) So, "I love you and do want to be my wife?"

RIVERS (voice over): A few days later, a marriage certificate made it official. Now, a wife, she says she refuses to cry. Her husband is stoic in

the face of death. So she will be, too. How else to describe her reaction to the last message he sent.

ZARYTSKA: My husband told me that Natalka, please be glad because very soon, it will finish.

RIVERS (on camera): When you say it is going to finish very soon. What are the two options?

ZARYTSKA: Very simple, they will be alive or they will be killed. Just two options.

RIVERS (voice over): Matt Rivers, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Now, the Ford Motor Company left Russia after the invasion of the country. The company's chair tells me what it will take before Ford

returns.

And Deutsche Bank has changed its economic forecasts from mild to major. Markets are plunging. The markets are down very heavily with the worst of

the day. Who knows what happens between now and four o'clock?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:54]

QUEST: The Chairman of the Ford Motor Company says his company will return to Russia, but only when the time is right. Ford pulled out shortly after

the invasion of Ukraine.

Ford was operating there with a joint venture with a Russian automaker, Sollers. It had about 4,000 employees. Ford had already scaled back in

Russia over recent years.

Now, speaking earlier, Bill Ford told me leaving Russia was painful, but necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FORD: If you think of a company that's been around 118 years, you know, we've had to do this more times than I would certainly have liked in my

lifetime, where there were just troublesome spots, and we had to, you know, say no more, we're out, and that's what we've done in Russia.

And so, you know, it's never a great thing, because we have employees that are affected who weren't part of the whole political scene there and yet --

and yet, it was the right thing to do.

QUEST: Since you are -- you sort of carry the name of the company, it's an appropriate question to ask you. When the war is over, how quickly will you

look to return? Or do you believe that there has to now be a moment of reflection? And just because business is open there doesn't mean you're

going to rush back.

I'm hearing a lot of CEOs saying, "No, we're going to make sure that their human rights records is right. We are going to make sure that it is right

to move back." What do you feel?

FORD: I think that's right. I mean, you know, when I look back to the days of South Africa when we pulled out during the apartheid era, you know, we

wanted to make sure when we went back that it was the right atmosphere with the right government, and in that case of Mandela government was absolutely

the right time for us to go back.

So, you know, we'll do the same thing again here. There will be a new Russia one day, but it will take a little time to sort out what that means,

and we'll take our time with that.

You know, it's important that we do get the human rights equation correct. And that we feel that the country is headed in the right path. So, you

know, that is one thing that I keep telling our employees because you know, this is a family company, it's been one for 118 years, and we take the long

view.

And I think it is one of the things that separates us as we can take the long view, and we can take stances that others don't take. I mean, you

know, we were the -- on the Paris Accord, we were the only company to come out and support it. We came out and supported California against the Trump

administration on air quality when our competitors went the other way.

So, you know, again, it's important that companies have values and it is important that those values see you through.

QUEST: You just raised a very important point. In fact, you answered the question I was about to ask, which is the significance of somebody like

yourself, who has been there.

But are you now concerned -- let's just take with what's happening in Florida with Disney and the DeSantis administration. You've seen what's

happened there? And are you concerned, when you see administrations essentially wreaking some form of revenge on a company that has followed a

policy they don't like.

FORD: When you've been around 118 years, you've been through everything, right? And, you know, and we've been in countries all around the world, you

know, and we've been in this country for 118 years, and you know, we've always had to deal with different political winds that have been blowing.

And so -- but again, it's important that our employees understand what we stand for. But, there are no perfect worlds, I can tell you that.

And so -- and you know, we have to operate in a very imperfect world every day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: We will hear more from Bill Ford on the company's new electric truck and we'll talk about that later in the program.

[15:20:10]

Markets are down very sharply as investors are waiting to see earnings from Microsoft and Alphabet. We're down to the lows of the day, 729. I think

this could be another thousand-point day.

There is a whole range of issues, losses over mega cap technologies, the nerves on Fed policy, but the NASDAQ itself, if you look at that, you see

the NASDAQ is off three percent even GE, the new GE is down 11 percent on 2022 outlook. Tesla is off some 10 percent.

CNN's Rahel Solomon is with me. This is a full-scale route with many reasons, but seemingly no obvious catalyst today.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Richard, in fact, one analyst bank saying very few places to hide. That is the warning from

Morgan Stanley to investors about the market conditions we find ourselves in.

In terms of exactly what we're seeing today, in terms of the selloff. Yes, as you pointed out, we have a major tech earnings coming this week in

addition to today after the closing bell, but if you take a step back a little bit further, you can see it's not just a story today, right? We had

on Friday, the Dow plunging almost a thousand points, but every few days, we get a breather. And so, you know, we sort of get amnesia, so to speak.

And so then we hit another selloff.

And so let's take a look back and look at the last few weeks and the major averages. Year-to-date, it hasn't been a strong year. Let's take a look at

the Dow, off eight percent. The S&P off 11 percent, and the NASDAQ down about 20 percent year-to-date.

And then if you look specifically at the last few weeks, not a pretty picture either, Richard. The Dow off about four percent, the S&P eight

percent, and the NASDAQ 12 percent.

QUEST: Of course, these are generals but if you look at some individual stocks within them, you're seeing stocks down from their 52-week high, 40,

50, 60, 70, 80 percent in some cases. What will -- there is no reason to believe this market will turn around.

SOLOMON: No, it appears that market sentiment is in consensus, right, that we are expecting growth to slow and yet we are hearing some glimmers of

hope from certain investment banks. Goldman Sachs, for example, saying that they don't exactly think that a recession is inevitable, but it does appear

like market sentiment overall is pretty pessimistic.

QUEST: Okay. Listen to Bill Dudley, on this program, recently, former head of the Fed, New York Fed. He basically -- well, have a listen and see what

you think, we'll talk about it afterwards. He says that share prices have to fall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL DUDLEY, FORMER NEW YORK FEDERAL RESERVE PRESIDENT: Monetary policy works through financial conditions, the Fed needs to make financial

conditions tighter. One aspect of tighter financial conditions is weaker stock prices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, weaker stock prices as a result of tighter monetary policy. We know rates are going up. I just wonder why the market is so unhappy. It

knows where this thing is going.

SOLOMON: It does. I mean, it certainly has been priced in right, but what wasn't exactly priced in is just how hawkish the Fed appears to be getting

that, you know, CPI is still at 8.5 percent, Fed Chair Powell last week saying that 50-basis points next month is definitely on the table or at

least on the table, and so it does appear that the Fed is getting more aggressive, inflation is still high, and yet we're also starting to hear

not from all, but from some companies that it appears that the consumer may be slowing down.

And so with inflation at, you know, 40-year highs, it certainly isn't a huge surprise. But then you add to the mix these warnings from some of

these banks, it is definitely not something you want to hear -- Richard.

QUEST: Tesla, just quickly, let's wrap Tesla on the day. The stock itself is down some 10 percent, but that has more to do with worries over Elon

Musk's purchase of Twitter. Join the dots on that for me, please.

SOLOMON: Yes, so basically it's sort of Economics 101. Right? If Elon Musk has to unload many of his -- not many, but some of his -- a decent amount

of his Tesla shares to secure the financing for Twitter, then all of a sudden you have a sort of offloading of Twitter shares. You have much more

supply of Twitter shares on the market. So of course that is sort of driving down the price and that's part of what we're seeing today, down

about 11 percent right now, about $110.00 bucks per share.

QUEST: Rahel Solomon joining us, thank you.

The markets are down sharply I will continue to update you as we go through the hour, we've got 40 minutes left.

European stocks have mostly closed lower. Tech again is under pressure, in step with what we're seeing in the NASDAQ. The FTSE has a small game, but

it's so small it's not worth talking about. Zurich is off heavily as well with the worst of the day being in Zurich, and in Frankfurt.

As we continue tonight on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, Carlos Ghosn says he cannot leave Lebanon despite a French warrant for his arrest.

[15:25:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS GHOSN, FORMER NISSAN CEO: I have no freedom. You know the Lebanese authority took my passport and I'm forbidden to leave the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The auto executive turned fugitive wanted on many continents, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: I am Richard Quest, there is a lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS as we continue tonight.

Carlos Ghosn tells me he won't be leaving Lebanon despite an arrest warrant in France and Bill Ford shows us the new F-150 Lightning, the electronic

version of its bestselling truck. That will only happen though after we've given you the news headlines.

Because this is CNN and here, the facts always come first.

The top U.S. General, Mark Milley has told CNN, the international security order would falter if Russia gets away with the invasion of Ukraine cost

free. He made the comments after a meeting in Germany where the U.S. and its allies discussed support for Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILLEY: If Russia gets away with this cost free, then so goes the so- called international order. And if that happens, then we're heading into an era of seriously increased instability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: North Korea's leader says his country will strengthen its nuclear force at the fastest possible speed. Kim Jong-un was speaking at the parade

marking 50 years since the founding of North Korea's Army, while he said nuclear weapons are meant to deter war, he warned that any force attempting

military confrontation with North Korea will, as he put it, cease to exist.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. A Press Secretary said the Vice President is currently symptom-

free. The White House says Miss Harris has not recently been in close proximity to President Biden.

[15:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

QUEST (voice-over): Carlos Ghosn says he won't be surrendering to French authorities. He won't return to Japan, either. Tonight, the fugitive car

executive who is wanted on two continents tells me he will stay in Lebanon for the foreseeable future.

Last week, French prosecutors issued an arrest warrant over alleged suspicious payments to a car dealer in Oman. Carlos Ghosn says he is not

able to comply and says there is zero chance of him facing prior charges of financial misconduct in Tokyo, either.

Carlos Ghosn says he has done nothing wrong, throughout a fugitive saga, now spanning more than five years, across several countries. So starts in

Japan when he's arrested and accused of misusing company money.

Then, while on bail, he was arrested on new charges of financial misconduct. A lengthy prison sentence if convicted. So he escapes from the

house arrest eight months later, turning up in Lebanon, which doesn't extradite its citizens. And there he remains to this day.

Interpol put him on a red notice at the start of 2020, when he told me he only wanted to clear his name. Now it's the French government who also

wants him arrested.

Earlier, I spoke to Carlos Ghosn and I asked him, why not surrender to the French authorities?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLOS GHOSN, FORMER CEO, RENAULT-NISSAN-MITSUBISHI ALLIANCE: Look, I cannot. It's not the question if I want or I cannot. As you know, I have

the red notice from Interpol, at the request of Japan, which has been lasting now 2.5 years.

Usually, when there is a notice, there must be a transfer of the file to where you reside so justice can be rendered. Well, in this case, the

Japanese are not cooperating at all. So I have no freedom. The Lebanese authorities took my passport. And I'm forbidden to leave the country.

By the, way the investigating French judge knew about that. He decided anyway to issue an international arrest warrant.

QUEST: So what's the effect?

(CROSSTALK)

GHOSN: This is not the verdict. He, usually, when he finishes an investigation and he needs to transfer the file to justice, to the judge,

he needs to give me an official notice. You cannot give me one if I'm not on the French soil.

As I cannot go to France, because of what I told you, he admitted in arrest warrant, which is like an official notice. Now I can access the file. My

lawyers can access it and I can defend myself.

QUEST: Is the real issue here that, whilst you might be prepared to go back to defend yourself in France, you're going to do nothing that would

risk you being removed back to Japan?

GHOSN: That's exactly the issue, Richard. As long as we have this red notice, I can't move from the country where I am. So for all the people

who, in a certain way, care about human rights, the good thing to be done would be to transfer the file to the Lebanese authorities, so judgment can

take place, both the Japanese file and the French file.

Because they are linked, they are based on the same accusation. Transmit them to Lebanon and let's finish with the story.

QUEST: I suppose the answer would be, no, Mr. Ghosn, the correct thing to do would be to return to Japan and face the proceedings there.

GHOSN: I can tell you that returning to Japan is out of the question. Submitting yourself to the hostage (ph) justice system is something that I

will not do. I don't trust the fairness. I don't trust the fact that I will have anything remotely looking like a fair trial.

I just have to look to what they have done to my ex-colleague, Greg Kelly, who was retained in Japan for 3.5 years, on a single charge of complicity,

of not declaring compensations that was neither paid nor decided. He spent 3.5 years because he dared say that he was innocent.

QUEST: So how are you filling your days?

I have to say so, you are looking considerably better fed, obviously; and more robust. You've got your color back, you've got your spark back. But I

can imagine, even though you are a free man in Lebanon, you must feel a bit like a caged animal, unless you are starting to do something.

GHOSN: Look, if you have to be caged somewhere, my number one country would be Lebanon.

[15:35:00]

I can tell you that life here is probably one of the best in term of warmth of people, support of the population, et cetera. But what I want to tell

you is, I don't have anymore the burden of having to worry about three companies.

As you know, in 2018, when I was arrested, I was in charge of three companies. These three companies were doing very well. Obviously, that

required a lot of work, attention, cautiousness.

Since then, I don't have this burden. I have to worry about my own problem and I have to worry about other problems, which are much lighter than what

I used to carry. Unfortunately, what makes me very sad is to see the situation of these three companies.

For 18 years, they had been doing so well. We reached in 2018 the number one automotive group in the world. When I look today at what is the

situation of Renault, Nissan or even Mitsubishi, it makes me very sad.

QUEST: Since you don't have a dog in the fight anymore, what is your feeling an electric vehicles, the big three, Ford's ability to capture

market within this area?

GHOSN: I think I have always thought that and you are a witness of it, Richard, since 2008 and 2009, I think this is the future. But that epoch,

in 2008-2009, we were only two to believe in the electrification of the car industry. There was Elon Musk and myself.

He took the richery (ph) part of the market. We took the mass marketed cars. Today, all the industry is moving in this direction, except that

traditional carmakers have to deal, not only with the revolution of moving everything to electric cars but also they have to deal with all the

liabilities coming from the past, which obviously Elon Musk, with Tesla or Rivian or other newcomers don't have this liability.

That's why they have such a big market capitalization compared to the other carmakers because the markets consider they will be winners because they

don't have these liabilities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Carlos Ghosn talking to me.

There can be no better example of what he's talking about than the Ford Motor Company. The liabilities of the Ford Motor Company is as a legacy

manufacturer. Today, it said its new electric pickup truck will bring EVs to everyone. It would revolutionize transport as the Model T did today.

Ford has launched the F-150 Lightning, and electric version of its most popular truck. It has a range of 300 miles. Bill Ford told me that the

launch of this is the most important development of his career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL FORD, CEO, FORD MOTOR COMPANY: It's a huge day for Ford and for our entire industry, because this isn't just another electric vehicle. This has

been the best-selling vehicle in America for 45 years. And now we are electrifying it.

In many ways, it's a better vehicle than the internal combustion engine F- 150. So if you think of it in other terms, the Model T, in over 100 years ago, brought cars to everybody. Well, this vehicle will bring electric

vehicles, particularly electric trucks, to everybody.

QUEST: You are quoted as saying it's the most important launch, because of the significance of the vehicle to Ford and its popularity.

But dare I suggest, while it is the most important, you really had no choice, did you?

This had to happen.

It really is a question of, are you going to make a great success at it?

Are you going to manage to harness what people love about that with the ability to make it EV?

FORD: Well, I think there are a couple of important points. Number one is, we are way ahead of everybody else in doing this. So yes, at some point, it

probably would've been inevitable. But we took the first step. And as I say, we are way ahead of everybody in terms of an affordable electric

truck.

But secondly, we had to shut the order bank. We are sold out. We are so sold out that we had to stop taking orders. So I think that shows the

appetite out there for a vehicle like this.

QUEST: How key were you to make sure that this truck did not look like our parents' disco dancing?

Remember that sort of -- you've got all the right technology, all the right moves but, somehow, it's a legacy trying to wear an ill-fitting wig and

look modern.

(LAUGHTER)

FORD: I love your metaphor.

[15:40:00]

I do think this is a very good-looking vehicle. I think it will be familiar to people in a way that it will actually reassure them.

But your basic point is correct. I think each generation of electric vehicles will depart more and more from the prior generations. If you go

too far initially, you could put some people off to say, wow, this thing doesn't look like a pickup truck. I won't be able to use it like a pickup

truck.

But from an evolutionary standpoint, you will start to see the designs evolve.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: That's Bill Ford, talking to me earlier.

A look at the markets, I'm going to show you quickly how they are trading. We are down -- we are off the low of the day. However, dash to the closing

bell, an update with it all at the top of the hour after the break. It's "World of Wonder."

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QUEST (voice-over): On this cold morning, I ventured to Dallas' sister city, Fort Worth.

QUEST: Can I give you a hand, can I carry something?

DERRICK WALKER, BARBECUE CHEF: Sure. Like the small (INAUDIBLE) three at a time, maybe nine.

QUEST: It's not that small.

QUEST (voice-over): The sun is still several hours away. But this is when the work begins if you are in the business of cooking up Texas traditions.

WALKER: I don't know if a Gucci scarf was the right attire for the job.

(LAUGHTER)

QUEST (voice-over): Nothing escapes Derrick Walker's attention. He's talking about the scarf I usually wear.

WALKER: I, too, like to have dabble in fine haberdashery. But I keep it at home until the weekend.

(LAUGHTER)

QUEST: Isn't haberdashery a lovely word?

(LAUGHTER)

QUEST (voice-over): Derrick is a wordsmith.

[15:45:00]

But I haven't come to him for lexicography. It's his skills as a barbecue pit master.

WALKER: You'll smell in just a second. The whole process is definitely a different mixture of art and science.

Smell it.

QUEST: Oh, wow. Yes, there it is.

WALKER: People will hug you.

(LAUGHTER)

WALKER: Everywhere I go, they love me, oh, you smell so good.

Where do come from?

I own a barbecue restaurant.

Where?

It's advertisement.

QUEST: So what is it seasoned with?

WALKER: A couple of proprietary items that I shall not mention on camera.

QUEST: Every pit master gets all coy and secretive at some point about what's on the meat.

WALKER: At some point, you have to.

(LAUGHTER)

WALKER: In competition terms, it's called shagging.

QUEST: What?

WALKER: Shagging. It's where another pit master steals your recipes or ideas.

QUEST: Have you been shagged?

WALKER: Can we say that?

QUEST: Shag, oh, yes, we can say shagged.

(INAUDIBLE).

(LAUGHTER)

QUEST (voice-over): Derrick may like to hide his classic chef's training behind his Texas bonhomie. But I'm not fooled. I am witnessing years of

thought, careful craft.

WALKER: My granddad taught me the basics. My grandfather had a trailer and smoker about half the size of this. And that's what he would pull. It's

kind of a family tradition, actually, on both sides of my family. So barbecue is in my blood.

QUEST (voice-over): Like oil and the Cowboys, barbecue runs in the veins here. Adverts for Texas barbecue joints started popping up in the 1800s.

WALKER: Actually goes a little deeper than that, slaves got lesser cuts of meat, brisket that was tough. So anything that was tough and couldn't be

cooked easily was handed over to slaves. And they dug holes in the ground and put metal over it and made fire pits and they started cooking over

coal.

QUEST (voice-over): These days, it's brisket that's the headliner at any good Texas barbecue. I love being in a restaurant kitchen during prep time.

It's like a theater show before curtain up.

Now this is interesting. I've never heard of Coca-Cola cake.

(voice-over): I promised myself just a bit. I lied.

WALKER: The little kitchen that could.

QUEST: Fascinating. Absolutely loving it, absolutely loving it.

(voice-over): I had heard there would be customers lined up, waiting for Smoke-A-Holics' doors to open.

WALKER: Y'all ready?

QUEST (voice-over): This is barbecue with soul. And people are prepared to alive early and wait.

What is that?

WALKER: Brisket nachos.

QUEST: I just want to speak with that Texas accent, very good.

That's very unusual for me.

WALKER: So this is the filet.

QUEST (voice-over): I'm being given the honor of cutting this hallowed meat.

How thick should it be?

WALKER: Two inches or an inch.

QUEST (voice-over): There is an art to doing this.

WALKER: Let me give you your knife skills. Let the knife work for you.

QUEST (voice-over): I haven't got it.

QUEST: I was watching him there, you're like the conductor of an orchestra. And you just -- sides -- cutting --

WALKER: And I've already written the sheet music so after that, it's up to them to play the instruments. I've coined the phrase "Tex soul" because our

barbecue is Texas barbecue with soul. It's something within the African American culture, where we call it soul food, where we cook from the heart.

QUEST: The brisket is just, I mean, look at it.

WALKER: Tender as a mother's love.

QUEST: I can't resist it, even though it's got the wrong order.

WALKER: There it is, the peach thing.

QUEST: Just let me have my moment.

That's very good.

No, no, no.

Five second rule, five second rule, that's a crispy bit. Five second rule.

WALKER: When I was a kid and that happened, we would say God kiss it, devil miss it.

(LAUGHTER)

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QUEST (voice-over): The whole concept of barbecue in Texas, is it uniquely Texas.

WALKER (voice-over): I wouldn't say uniquely Texas. I would say Texas does it best.

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QUEST (voice-over): There it is again, that Texas mindset that seeps into everything here. It's not arrogance, it's confidence.

The settlers' frontier mentality, independence, self reliance, very impressive.

My goodness. You don't see that every day.

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[15:50:00]

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QUEST (voice-over): The Dallas of history and those who fueled the city's growth. They're always larger than life. The oil barons who struck it rich.

It's the real-life stuff upon which TV successfully fed.

So has it survived, the mansions, the gaudy, the great?

CANDACE EVANS, CANDYSDIRT.COM: Hi.

QUEST: Wow.

(voice-over): This is what an oil fortune of yesteryear buys today.

So this was oil money.

EVANS: Oil money originally. But it came down through a few generations. It mutated. It mutated.

(LAUGHTER)

QUEST: The oil money of the elite. Tough ladies.

Would you agree?

EVANS: Yes, they are the first ones. They paid the price. They were the speculators. They took the chance, they paid the price.

QUEST: 10 million?

EVANS: Yes, 10 million.

If you want 25 acres --

QUEST: Yes, with a garden and --

EVANS: Yes, you're going to have to spend 30 million.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plus.

EVANS: Or 40.

The guy who owned this home before it was the guy who climbed Mt. Everest and almost died.

QUEST (voice-over): Candy Evans is as colorful as they get. She is a self- confessed voyeur, a snoop.

EVANS: (INAUDIBLE) over here is --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: (INAUDIBLE). She's off. She's having a nosey.

(voice-over): And doing it all with the owners' blessing. She's a real estate journalist.

EVANS: I just put my nose around.

QUEST: She knows everybody and probably all the secrets, if she will tell us.

EVANS: One thing that I noticed about Dallas is that, when you go to someone's home, you go look at the whole house. It means that you can't

keep your underwear out, you know?

QUEST (voice-over): There is a point to all this prying. In Dallas, the house is as much about you as the hat and the horse used to.

EVANS: Oh, the home is everything. The home says who you are, what you do, who your family is. I think that goes back to that frontier mentality.

Oh, look at this, look at this.

QUEST: What am I looking at?

What price are we looking at along here?

EVANS: Oh, 15 million.

QUEST: There's no privacy there at all.

EVANS: I know but, OK, so do you know what people would rather have in Dallas than privacy?

I love the way you say that.

They would rather have it to be shown. In Dallas, you have it and you show it.

QUEST: Wow. Look at -- good grief. That needs to be in 100-acre lot of gardens.

EVANS: Oh, you are just thinking of the royal family having it --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: Yes, with a stately home, that's --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST (voice-over): Oh, let not hypocrisy be my sin. I am here, too, for the secrets and the gossip.

EVANS: This is Mark Cuban's on this corner here.

This is where Owen Wilson grew up, the actor, Wilson brothers.

This is the honey pot of Preston Hollow (ph). It's absolutely beautiful.

QUEST: Oh, my goodness, just stop. Just stop. Just stop, I mean, you're talking -- 30 feet from the road.

EVANS: Yes, but it's lengthwise so people can see the whole house and go, oh, my God.

QUEST: Anybody who has paid multi-multi-millions is secretly wanting to boast about it, aren't they?

EVANS: Actually, you are right. I do their dirty work.

QUEST (voice-over): And so I return to this curiosity that brought me on today's journey.

Oil money?

EVANS: Oil money, you got it.

(CROSSTALK)

EVANS: There it is, that's it. That's the original (INAUDIBLE) estate, which was the home in Dallas.

QUEST: Northern California has got big homes. Upstate New York has got big homes.

Is everything bigger in Texas?

EVANS: Is everything bigger in Texas?

I think our egos are.

QUEST (voice-over): A Texas-sized swagger that can't be defeated.

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[15:55:00]

QUEST (voice-over): There is one phrase I've heard again and again here, Texas is a state of mind. I know what they mean. It's bold, audacious, dare

I say even brash. Those are the words that sums it all up. I think it is frontier, a willingness to always push on.

And you'll want to come here and experience and see this frontier for yourself. Dallas, Texas, larger than life, undoubtedly part of a world of

wonder.

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QUEST: I'm Richard Quest. We're going to have a dash to the closing bell. We are just only two minutes away. And the markets are deeply, sharply

lower. This is the worst of the day, I think, where the low points looking at that chart.

Essentially investors are now assessing economic risk across the board. We've got -- going to talking about a major recession the U.S., not a minor

one. You've got the worries over sharply higher interest rates. The Fed moving quicker to actually bring down inflation.

And so you end up with the Dow down 777 points, the Nasdaq off nearly 4 percent, it's a truly awful day. The triple stack down as well.

Ford shares a slightly lower. I spoke to the chair of Ford, Bill Ford, about his decision to exit Russia. He told me he doesn't regret it but it

was difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORD: If you think a company that has been around 118 years, we've had to do this more times than I would certainly like in my lifetime, where there

were just troublesome spots and we had to say no more, we're out.

And that's what we've done in Russia. And so, it's never a great thing, because we have employees that are affected and who weren't part of the

whole political scene there. And yet it was the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: And the Dow components, to show you exactly how things went, the worst of the day is likely in Boeing. That's why the Dow's off. But Apple

is also down sharply. Oil prices are up some 3 percent that's why maybe -- but the most important thing there to note is there is one stock in the Dow

in the green. Not one, everything is down.

One of those sort of days. And that's our dash to the closing bell tonight.

END