produce in a given year, it's maybe 5, 6% of their market cap. if you think about if it was your private business, if you owned it as a family and you lost a year's worth of cash flow, you'd say okay the value of this business is down 5 or 6% if you think that's somewhat permanently impaired you can say the value may be down 10 or 15%. but assuming that your business can survive until the next upturn, and we think this will be a fairly sharp but relatively brief downturn, then you'd say, my business is not worth half of what it was trading at three months ago but that's where the stock prices are -- what they're currently pricing in >> certainly we'll have to see how all of this plays out over the medium to long term. we have exties selling off, treasuries selling off, we have gold selling off it would seem at least right now there's nowhere to hide for

investors. what do you make of these dynamics taking place in the market >> you know, it makes a lot of sense personally if you're concerned about your health to take precautions for your family to avoid risk. in financial markets, you should not be trying to avoid risk at times when prices are incredibly distressed if you look back to the financial crisis, we thought the financial system was going away. if you look back to 9/11, you thought society was permanently changing you have these moments of stress where investors, because of uncertainty, say now is 250itim protect our portfolio, when in reality the prices offered at such you should be more of a risk seeker at this point in time yes, to your question where do you hide today relative to next week's stock price, that's very

difficult to guess and we 'not going to pretend that we know what to do we can say if you look out, these are very, very attractive entry points into some amazing companies. >> win, i understand the logic this is an attractive entry point. what i want to hear more from you about, is this idea of it being a relatively brief dip we hear other people talk about it as a v-shaped roiecovery. i see the potential for the impacts of this to be longer lasting, particularly for those at the bottom half of the economy. i wonder from you what are the necessary conditions for this recovery that we hope to see to be more v-shaped, what kinds of fiscal stimulus do you think will be necessary? >> the necessary conditions first of all is that the presumption within the next 12 to 18 months that we will have a vaccine or that we will have good medical treatments in place so that people are not petrified and holed up in their houses

i think that everyone assumes that will be the case. and so you have to get your mind to a point where you're not concerned about walking outside your front door. we think that travel will recover. you know, it's a lovely picture of me that you have on the tv, but i think it's, you know, better dressed than i currently am but i think it's a much -- it's very likely that people are going to be traveling for business and leisure again so what you need between now and then is when the unemployment rate spikes to 20 or 25% and a number of people have trouble paying rent, this is the kind of event -- this isn't a financial crisis it's a health crisis where you would want the government to step in, like in the case of an asteroid, you want the government to step in and provide assistance for people who had no way of forecasting or planning this was going to impact them

>> but you would acknowledge that the way people, even with the vaccine, even with confidence you could leave your home and go back to work, go about your business, the way we shop, fly, eat out, the way we travel will be permanently changed, do you disagree >> i think anyone who lives through this, like anyone who lived through the financial crisis or lived through 9/11, will have in the back of their mind the experiences they went through. but i think, as in all of those cases, if you go out three, four, five years, you would say if you moved somebody forward in time ten years from before the event to after the event, you would say, you know, things are relative lysette relatively settled out from a perspective. now things move out with

technology, that was already the case but i think we're overstating the permanence of how this will feel. >> i have a two part question for you here before we wrap it up i'm looking at oak mark funds holding, 28% financials, given everything we're seeing play out with interest rates, with discussions around the banks and other financial entities we continue to stick with that waiting, and secondly, in part, depending on that, are there other specific names or sectors that you think look attract tiv right now at these levels? >> we think financials look exceptionally attractive we think balance sheets have never been less risky. the stress tests required by the government to basically show they could be profitable through something like we saw in '08 and '09 are quite pertinent today and are not going to be breached by any stretch these are excellent franchises

that are going to exist in a societally necessary form for as long as we can see and they're great prices right now you know, the consumer discretionary sector right now is getting killed. everything related to travel, things related to auto general speaking, if you have companies in that space like leer, which makes automotive seating for most of the world, like hilton, one of the best hotel chains in the world, selling at prices that are half of what they were even three months ago, we think they look very attractive. >> i'm sure a lot of our viewers hope you're right, win just very tough to know at this point. we appreciate you coming up and helping us understand your playbook anyway. >> thank you. note the dow is back down more than 1,000 points, 1264 right now, trading back under 20,000 similar moves close to session lows for the s&p and

well, down 140 points right now. meanwhile, more layoffs. >> coronavirus and the plunge in hotel bookings has forced marriott to furlough tens of thousands of employees as it looks to close a number of hotels hilton suspending operations at the capitol hilton in washington d.c. and the new york hilton in midtown, and more closures are in the cards yesterday the ceos of hilton, marriott, best western and others met with president trump urging him to protect workers who face furloughs and layoffs, requesting a relief package of $150 billion in financial aid. ahla says $1.4 billion in revenue is lost every week due to the virus impacting 4.6 million jobs across the u.s. executives i speak to say the

first goal is to protect their workers, the second is to address liquidity concerns. last week, hilton tapped their credit line to ease the financial blow of the coronavirus. a quick look at the shares of hilton, but want to draw your attention to marriott, down nearly 30%, on pace for a record percentage drop as investors try to price in the effect of lower occupancies for the foreseeable future back to you. >> thank you i'll just note treasury secretary steve mnuchin will join our jim cram erinmer in a w moments, at 11:00 a.m. eastern we'll bring in our next guest who owns several hotels, including the ritz and marriott, monty bennett joins us now on the cnbc news line

thanks for being with us, monty. >> thanks for having me. >> we're hearing about plunging hotel occupancy rates. you have travel grinding to a halt, people hunkering down due to the coronavirus and concerns there. how is that playing out for your different properties in different parts of the country right now? >> we have about 130 properties across the country of all different segment types from mid scale-type properties like hampton ins up to ritz karlton and high end properties. i think what people are just starting to understand is not only is this affecting the hotel industry but it is far, far worse than the financial crisis or 9/11, and i never thought i'd say something like that, that a crisis would come close to those two. >> why why is that the case >> in those other situations, occupancies took a hit in the hotel business, if your

revenues are up 10% you do well. if your revenues are down 10%, you can really get creamed and in those situations, occupancies dropped and revenues dropped 10%, 20% well, now, there's no business they're dropping down to nothing. we have hotels that are closing. some hotels are running in the single digits. the loss of revenue is 100%. so the impact of just no travel and no business in these hotels is just absolutely devastating. >> when i hear numbers like that, i would imagine it has major ripple effects and means painful decisions have to be made you've reduced the workforce at your hotels by about 95% what does that entail? are you laying people off? >> we're doing a lot of everything and it's heartbreaking we have about 7,000 associates across the country and we've laid off, we've terminated many,

we furloughed many, for some of the hourlies we've not extended hours for them to work and people that have worked for me for 30 years and we just can't afford to pay them there's just no revenues coming in hotels are big operations with lots of revenues and lots of payroll. when that revenue doesn't come in, we can't afford to pay anything i'm just getting notes from employees that have worked for me for years and years and it's devastating what's happening to them >> monty, about those workers and the notes you're getting, i think government right now is trying to figure out the right fiscal policy response to help workers exactly like those, from what you've been able to gather so far, your experience working with this workforce over decades, what's the type of assistance that you think is going to be most effective for them right now

i don't imagine it's giving you the money necessarily because you're having to furlough people and as you said, even a 10% reduction would be difficult for you. the current conditions are really, really rough should the government be mailing checks to these workers, specifically are there other types of assistance that you think might be more effective? >> our number one priority is our societies -- associates -- >> i think we lost monty benn t bennett's connection there if we can get him back up on the line in the next few moments we will in the meantime, getting a check on the markets here. the dow continuing to slide lower, down 1,349 points right now. 19,893 is your level there similar moves lower for the s&p, as well, down 148 points nearly 6%. 5.8% and the nasdaq holding up relative to those other

averages, down just 4.9% carl >> i think what we were just getting into with monty bennett is one of things i hope to hear more about from the treasury secretary. it's exactly what types of fiscal stimulus, what types of help is the senate considering we heard from mitch mcconnell that they're not going into recess until they've done a bit more in action helping with the coronavirus situation. how do you get help to those workers who are so relying on the service economy? we heard numbers earlier about the number of layoffs, in the mid 3,000 range. that can't be at all representative of the hardship that so many blue collar workers, service industry workers are facing, restaurants, hospitality in new york shutdown, it is rough. >> want to get back to

headquarters, jim crammer is joined by the treasury secretary. >> are you with us >> yes good to be with you. >> thank you i know you and i talked many times. the working people, 100 million people at jeopardy trying to figure out how to put meals on the table, clothe, house, what is your message to them? >> themessage is the president is taking all his actions and, working closely with the senate and the house to make sure we help hardworking americans, we help small businesses and we help industries that are particularly impacted by this. and people are doing what the president has said, which is we are closing down parts of the economy to make sure we destroy this disease and we will. we will get through this americans should know we have the best medical professionals, we have the best medical system and we will concur this disease. but in an effort to stop the spread, the president has asked

certain businesses not to -- you know, restaurants, bars, things like that, at no fault of their own, we're telling people not to go to those businesses and we're going to deliver assistance. i think jim you know yesterday at the president's direction, i announced what is really a $1.3 trillion program. 300 billion of it is deferred tax payments we had previously announced that at the president's direction we increased that from 200 billion to 300 billion we're about to put out an irs press release. i want to emphasize to tax pares, we're not moving the april 15th date we're moving the date you need to pay the money lots of people will get refunds, for those who want to file, please do so for those who don't you can request the normal extension, that's 300 billion of liquidity. we're going to congress, i've been in discussions with the senate and the house for another trillion dollars, that's a

combination of programs, it's small business interruption loans that we want to get out right away it's economic impact payments to the american public. when i said checks in the mail, that was a metaphor. the irs has a lot of information for taxpayers for direct deposits and where we don't we're working with direct payment providers so that is money we can get to hardworking americans right away the last will be an injection into the exchange stabilization fund so we can make loans to the airline industries, hotel industries, travel industries, and other businesses that will have great cash flow coming out of this, but need loans now. >> you used a number and quoted maybe 20% people laid off. that's fdr, the great depression not the great recession. when you say that, it sends

trembles through so many hardworking americans. is there a way to cut that down? you know we're going to beat this and we don't want to get a situation where those people are off and can't get the jobs back. >> i've seen that number in the press, jim, and i didn't in any way say i think we're going to have that. if we follow the president's plan we will not have it i said a mathematical statement, which is 40% of the people employed in the private workforce are employed by companies, 500 people and less it's a mathematical statement to say if half these people were to lose their jobs, this is what it would be but we're not going to let that happen the president has said we're going to make sure companies have money so they can continue to pay those employees it's no fault of theirs. this u.s. economy is going to come roaring back once we concur this disease this isn't like the financial crisis, there will be an end in

sight. >> would you think about -- as you've been saying you can't think big enough, doing something like making sure that the american people actually do well here by investing, say, social security money, like a new entity entirely, i know you're a student of history of the treasury department, to make sure that american people buy stakes, people buy stakes in boeing and suddenly it's off the table. would we ever be that creative it would require congress, for the fed to be able to by corporates, i know you know trading better than anyone we've had in your position, is it possible to be that creative because it would take a lot of pressure off the markets >> the president has been clear. we're going to do whatever we need to take we have certain actions, we're using them, actions we don't have we're working with congress i have a lot of confidence there's going to be bipartisan

support. the senate already has three task forces working on different things so i have a lot of confidence that, you know, we have a great economy, we're doing certain thin things, we'll bounce back. yesterday you know the fed took significant actions. i did approve them, fed chair needed our approval. this announcement was important, a trillion dollars of support for the a 1 p 1 commercial paper market we saw issues in those markets the fed reacted quickly, we reacted quickly and we're going to make sure we continue reacting quickly. >> when you take a breather, i know you haven't had one, do you think about the great secretaries of treasuries that fought huge, think with fdr who recognized we have to take fear in fear itself, are you thinking

of these models because this is a historic time, we would love to know if you and the are the president are thinking, trillion, it doesn't matter, it's so working people think i have nothing to fear. >> absolutely. the president has said, let's think big. you know, congress understands what we need to do again, we are going to protect american workers, because we're doing these things because of this virus and again, there is an end in sight, jim the medicalprofessionals are doing a great job. we're getting more and more testing out. we're going to provide whatever economic aid we need to this economy. >> the stock market we know is smaller than the bond market i know we'd all feel good if there's no freeze up, the federal reserve can get congressional approval to buy, and treasury secretary to buy the corporates one thing we see because we watch our screens, you know we worked in this business for years we see the bank is tos go

down, the transports go down every minute, we see boeing, we know is faced with a liquidity problem and needs 60 billion what do we say to the people who say i give up, i'm selling boeing, the banks, this thing is falling apart. call me when we solve the virus. >> jim, like i said before, i can't predict the market on a daily basis, it's going to go up, it's going to go down. what i can predict, there were a lot of companies that were great companies a month ago, they're going to be great companies six months from now, three months from now, whatever it is and we're going to make sure if there are great companies that need liquidity we're going to work with them for liquidity but let me also emphasize there are a lot of small businesses out there and the president is also determined, our priority is not just big businesses, our priority is small businesses,

workers, this is why he wants to get money into people's pocket quickly so that americans can feel confident that they know, they can stay home, that we can get through this, and our great businesses will be better than ever >> let's clarify that, then. we talk about business interruption insurance you sound like you're talking about worker interruption insurance, too we know the people we lay off at our bars and restaurants, the hairdressers of the world, the people that work at our gyms, they're scared that what accrues goes to the owner of the businesses and never gets to them you're saying that's not the case >> yes we prefer that small businesses do not lay off those people. we want to make sure that small businesses have liquidity that they can continue to pay those people during the financial crisis we had loan modifications for

borrowers who couldn't make payments, they modified those payments and gave forgiveness, think of this as the opposite situation. we need to make sure that small businesses have liquidity so they're comfortable that they continue paying people i can tell you i spoke to marco rubio this morning, he's running a task force, i think i saw him on tv with you guys this morning, but we're constantly on the phone with people, we're going to come out with programs quickly. and i can assure you the president is determined to make sure we provide the liquidity to the u.s. economy. >> does the president need a task force run by you like the vice president's task force? because i think people are starting to feel better. i know the numbers are going to go up, up i'm not trying to reassure anybody falsely but we have dr. fauci who stands for america. and no doubt that man is making us feel like the tests going through the system, one of the vaccines is going to work,

something is going to work do we need a task force? we know the workers need the money. we also know the small to medium size businesses need the money we're not going to stick to 1.2 trillion what we stick to is whatever it takes. does the president have whatever it takes attitude? >> i can assure you he does. we have effectively an economic task force you know the economic team works closely together lair larry kudlow and i and the entire economic team is on the phone with the president daily or in the oval office several times a day. the president is very involved in the details of this, and we have a lot of people working not only in treasury, the white house, but all the other agencies, let me assure you if it's the department of labor, i was on with secretary chow this morning, larry kudlow is now on the phone with the president in the business round table

the entire economic team and administration is working around the clock and we're working around the clock with congress we're going to get things done and make sure the u.s. economy has the liquidity it needs. >> you have a great working relationship with saudi arabia we protect that nation, do everything it takes to keep that regime in power. we don't want higher gasoline prices but are we going to let them take oil wherever it goes to destroy all those jobs? you know people are being laid off right now. are we going to call them and say you know, one day you need us, and if you drive our industry out of business, wait to see what happens when you need us? can we make that phone call? >> jim, as you know, the energy sector is a big part of the u.s. economy, and we are energy independent. and unfortunately this is bad timing for the energy markets in what's going on on top of the coronavirus. i want to be careful commenting on specific conversations, but i

can assure you the president, i, and others have been in communication and we understand these issues. >> that's important because we know if we can stem layoffs from aerospace and oil and gas, and then deal with the workers in the restaurant business, the hotel business, the travel and leisure, we will have a bridge, mr. secretary to when we beat this scourge >> agree with you, jim thank you for having me on and we'll stay in touch. >> let's win >> we will win, jim. >> thank you very much secretary treasury steve mnuchin. thank you carl sorry to interpret the show. feel better. >> don't be sorry at all, jim. we learned a lot just then i got to ask you because we talked this morning about your own experience as a small business owner, you have workers, you have to decide what you're going to do with them is there any validity to the view that if you do give checks to households, that gives the

employer the freedom to think i know you're going to be good, i can afford to let you go >> yes my wife was in tears yesterday because we had to make the phone calls. we'll keep people a couple weeks, 50% i will write checks because i'm blessed and lucky and fortunate. i will write those checks as necessary to bridge them through because i have the means yes, we have to be -- we can't carry them no one wants more debt we're all hand-to-mouth. if i took a loan to pay people, i better home people drink a lot of corona -- corona. modella. i think we have to make sure that everyone recognizes no doubt they will have the job when they come back, but we have to make it even if the place does close, my places are in brooklyn, i saw four places close yesterday, they're done. i'm determined to keep my bar

open but you know what, big deal. i'm lucky enough, i got a good job can. but it is vital to keep this industry open so when we beat these things these companies can still rehire that's why i want the workers to benefit but i like the business interruption for the small business the large businesses they take care of themselves i don't want to see the ceos walking back the stocks making the same they were that would be a travesty. >> jim, thank you. i'm not sure if morgan is with you. >> thank you. >> we learned a lot from steve mnuchin thanks to you. we'll see you tonight, if not before morgan >> that was a fantastic interview from jim with secretary treasurer steve mnuchin. just moments before we get the coronavirus task force update. if i had to boil that interview

down to three main points or main messages it's that treasury secretary steve mnuchin saying we're going to protect workers, we'll provide whatever aid is needed for the economy and there is an end in sight we are seeing a sell off continue and reaccelerate in the past hour here on wall street. you have the dow down 1357 right now. the s&p trading down about 6%, 2376 your level there. i know in the interview they touched on what's going on in energy and what's been the collapse of crude prices wti trading under $23 a barrel right now. levels we haven't seen in nearly 18 years even brent crude, the international brench mark at 26. transports have cratered, down about 8% airlines 20% plus for names like delta. you have copper down, which is seen as dr. copper, the

indicator of the state of the global economy and then, of course, the dollar is stronger today as well as we continued to see the safe haven flows into the u.s. greenback. john >> let's get back into the impacts on business and the health industry. bertha joins us with a special guest, rite aid ceo. >> the nation's drugstore's chains are maintaining two supply chains, access to staples and making sure customers are stocked with prescription medications. joining us now heyward donigan who said it's all hands on deck a at her company thank you for joining us >> i know it's crazy times but never more important time for a pharmacy company and a company selling such essential items and in the middle of such a crisis. >> tell us what you're doing to

try to maintain supplies and keep your stores well stocked. >> yes, that is priority one and to do that, not only do we have to maintain supplies and stock and keep our stores well stocked, we have to keep our associates healthy because that's job one, keeping our stores open and then keeping our pharmacies going and keeping our supply chain stocked as well as you can, that's the challenge at this point i want to say we're in good shape with our drug supplies we don't see any short term issues in terms of being able to fulfill prescriptions to our customers. we are, as you can imagine, struggling with the supply chain and it's all hands on deck we have literally been hand picking from our distribution centers these critical supplies like hand sanitizers and wipes, and fed exing them to our stores

to make sure when we do have the supplies coming in we're able to get them to the stores as soon as possible. we had a shipment of 100,000 hand sanitizers which we're making it our number one priority to get into the stores and in particular to the hot spots. we are also going out to our manufacturers picking up the supplies, the associates are going out to do it themselves, in order to be able to distribute them. and we're waiving all penalties for our manufacturers in terms of if they deliver a load that's smaller than usual anything we can do to keep the supply chain running so that our customers can feel that they're safe and taken care of and, most important, also being able to get their prescriptions. >> one of the things that you told analysts earlier this week in your first virtual analyst day, you've only be on the job five months, is you've been

focussing online and you've seen a huge upswing in demand amazon has had trouble keeping supplies in stock. they announced that they are actually adding to people to try to keep up with demand what is your outlook with regard to that? >> well, luckily we had been preparing for an increase in business online. so we have been preparing our fulfillment capabilities as well as our digital capabilities and our infrastructure to be able to take on higher volumes because we've seen -- we've seen volumes over this weekend and on monday ten times the highest peak we've h had as a company so so far so good. it's not that we've had an easy time of this because the lines are long and supply chains are strained but we've seen an amazing impact

in our ability to deliver our rig riteaid.com experience we're rolling out a new riteaid.com experience in april. so i'm anticipating the volumes and activity will be up for quite a while. >> when you were named ceo, i believe it was in august, the expectation was that you would be leading a turn around and you talked about how you're focussed on growth. i know it's still early days and this is a crisis that we are facing, but i wonder what you've learned so far in this process about what is essential about what rite aid does and what rite aid has and what perhaps might change as a result of the kinds of public health challenges that you're going to be trying to help customers face in the coming months and years. >> i would have to say i certainly didn't anticipate this when i joined the company.

i did know this was a turn around and we had significant issues around our debts and we had to revitalize our brand. but what i did know and was hoping would be the case was that we would be able to grow our company by focussing on being a pharmacy and pharmacy services business. and this is ironic, because our strategy is really centered around pharmacy first and leveraging the pharmacists as the front line of defense in the health care business engaging consumers in ways that noone else can who would have known that this would be on such display so soon and i think that the irony of this is that if it was ever a need or opportunity for pharmacists to show that they can be the last mile extender in a health care system in a situation such as this it is the covid-19 epidemic. the pharmacists are really emergency responders in this

situation. >> yeah. >> and i'm so fortunate to have 6,400 of what i believe are the best, most dedicated and most tenured pharmacists in america working with us at rite aid. >> heyward, such a key point you make i feel in times of crisis and this pandemic, it is the people and people with specialized skills that end up being the most valuable asset at a time like this, whether it's pharmacists, technicians or the cleaning crews you're bringing in regularly to stores right now. do you feel you have enough people >> i am so proud of our associates we have not had any additional callout volume over and above the normal our associates are phenomenal. you're right, it's the staff, the front end teches, it's the distribution associates as well delivering over the top service

now to our customers you know, it's not easy. they're just so committed and i'm so proud of them and, you know, the reality is, the great thing about this for rite aid is that in the near term we can do good by doing good and i think that's really what's fortunate for us and it's our opportunity for our associates to live the mission and the vision we put forth. >> you talked about potentially being a place where people can get tests, how long do you think that would be at the places like the rite aid to obtain a covid test >> it's so hard to know right now. we are working daily with the white house committee and task force. it's so fluid right now. one thing i would say is that we do flu testing and strep testing

in some states today where they allow us to do that, obviously we follow the state regs, but we do testing today, and we would certainly want to be providing these tests when they become commercially available, but we don't know exactly what's going to happen at this point it's so fluid. >> customers know about either the restocking process at rite aid, how much they should think about getting when they go into a store, versus perhaps not hoarding, the types of things that are in short supply, the types of things they should be getting that they're not picking up is there any advice along those lines that you can give us >> first i think -- and foremost, it's really important that people be able to obtain and get, on a regular basis, their medication that's priority one. we're partnering with pbms and

providers to ensure people that can get a 90 day refill do we also -- we just announced we're offering home delivery out of all 2,400 stores and waiving the fee for certain drugs. certain drugs can't be delivered to home, but those that can we are. we have drive-thrus in our stores we're encouraging that. clearly essentials are the priorities, so sanitizing, cleaning we don't have any real -- i wouldn't say we're getting wiped out of toilet paper and paper towel but there's not a problem of getting the supplies restocked, it's a matter of how fast you get them back on the shelves. we are asking customers to place limits on essential items because we want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity, if possible, to get

some level of supply so that is one thing that we have been asking customers to support us in. >> heyward, you are an essential store in this situation. how are you handling staffing? how are you handling your workers, some of whom are also going to have issues with child care, or if they themselves become sick? >> absolutely. we are the most dense pharmacy today in the nation's top four hot spots. so we have the number one share -- number one or number two share of scripts in the hot spots, california, washington, new york and pennsylvania where we're headquartered. so we, of anyone, are experiencing the issues with child care and associates in terms of being able to cover, come to work and potentially callout. as i said earlier, these

committed associates, they've been helping each other out in terms of child care, they've been covering each other's shifts we have not had any unusual level of callout so we have been able to continue our staffing levels. we have not yet and don't know if we will change store hours. we have daily crews coming into those locations. i'm so proud and amazed that we're still able to handle all of this, and i think the test has really been for us in those areas. but so far so good. >> it is amazing what you are being able to do given the personal challenges. you're dealing with this as human beings like we all are i'm curious if you've been able to monitor and judge italy's experience from maybe some of your peers in terms of managing supply and demand under broad shelters in place? >> yes, i mean, we are the broad

shelters in place in northern california where my daughter happens to live and now in pennsylvania i just do want to reinforce that we are paying people we are paying people who are quarantined, we're paying people who get sick you know, my moral obligation is to take care of our people this is nothing that they were able to control. so we're being very generous and, you know, the lessons from italy, i think is that we encourage everyone to follow the cdc guidelines we have moved all of our corporate associates throughout our company to work at home on monday evening and we are still, you know, moving call center associates to home so i think we feel optimistic that if we can all work together in our communities to follow the

cdc guidelines and ensure our own safety that i can continue to have a team of associates that can continue to keep these stores open as we are essential. >> heyward donigan, thank you from rite aid, such an important interview to hear from you let's get to rick santelli in chicago. dow down 1365. >> i'd like to welcome vincent reinhart thank you for joining me today i want to talk three issues. i'm going to bring them up and i want you to give me your viewpoint. even the swiss were auctioning dollars, everybody needs dollars. and credit spreads in the europe are widening, look at the french tenure or the italian ten year

and this is something to pay attention to, and the third issue, of course, we want to help people i get that but moving to my market guy hat you said in your note, cut taxes, don't even think of everything with regard to deficits, we want to help people but we need to remember in the last crisis sometimes the hurry to write checks isn't the best way to proceed. weigh in on all three, vincent >> the first two are pretty related, which is when you are the safe haven, capital goes to you. and at large, the u.s. is a safe haven asset, even though we are now getting a real brunt of the coronavirus infection. we're seeing our currency appreciate because it's still the place to go. germany is seeing the same thing, that within the european continent, germany has many more

resources to address problems. by the way, that leads to your third point, if you squaunder those resources, you may no longer wind up being the safe haven. that's the longer term risk. we have to help people we have to make as many possible efforts but we're not a command and control economy like china we just can't shut things down and we do have to consider alternative means of dealing with these problems. >>, you know, vincent, i have so many friends that are still in the commission-driven business in all financing and trading businesses i had one, he's small. he told me, listen, i have a couple hundred thousand a month in my employment net that i have to pay out my employees, he said i'm small, there's a bunch of us all over he said the government isn't going to be able to take on all

this having full closures and watching the businesses go, i'm not saying i have the answer but this is a difficult issue. >> it's extremely hard, rick, 46% of american workers are firms under 300 employees. that probably means they don't have resources, even on the high end of that scale. and a good chunk of those people are actually single person entrepreneurs. we're all proud of ourselves talking about the rise of the gig economy, well, what happens to those gig workers when people aren't going into ubers and lifts and aren't going to restaurants. that's a real hardship what you're going to see is not just employment go down, but you're going to see business formations disappear and you're going to see lots of bankruptcies the longer we do this, the bigger the fall. >> we're just about out of time vincent. and i want to pick your brain.

my final question to you is this, when it comes to the dollar, and the fed and everything they've done, it doesn't seem to have made a difference i guess the point is, trying to do everything to make a difference now, we have no idea if the things we're implementing today will actually work better once this nervous phase disappears a little bit. your final thought >> so if it is a nervous phase and it disappears the fed is going to be mispositioned, they put in policies that are going to be hard to unwind, particularly in an election year that's what happens when you have l-shape policy meeting a v-shaped economy >> so everyone understands i'm not saying the nervous phase is because we're not looking at the disease in an appropriate fashion. i'm talking about maybe the markets trying to overcompensate because they don't know how to price in an event. we're out of time, vincent, i thank you for joining me today

we'll have you back a lot during this crisis period morgan, back to you. >> rick santelli, thank you. >> i will take it, rick. >> back to the stock exchange. we are moments away from seeing the president we expect and the virus task force briefing at the white house. amin, also in the washington area, do you know what we should expect today we just heard from the treasury secretary, who joined the briefing yesterday, is clearly working on capitol hill, trying to get the president and the white house's view and expectations of legislation communicated there, and things moving along quickly today i suppose we don't expect to see him at the briefing but we expect to hear about any new parameters for how the government is dealing with this? >> sure. these briefings have been surprising us in terms of the velocity of the news cycle here,

john one thing we learned, nbc news is reported from governor cuomo in new york that the united states navy is moving a hospital ship to new york city. it's the "u.s.s. comfort". i believe it has 1,000 beds on it so that will supplement the capacity in new york city. my understanding is there are two ships in the navy, one is on the west coast, one on the east coast. we could expect to see deployments on the west coast if they're moving on the east coast now. and then the question i think that needs to be answered here is how much rounds of payments does the federal government anticipate making here for workers. you're talking about a round of one or two thousand dollar checks to start with then what do you do after the two-week period? do you have to do it again and again and again depending on how long the financial impact from

this virus lasts as we're all sitting here from our home offices, not all of us, but you get a sense of an entire economy hunkering down right now, spending turning off like u.s. government think it's going to have to do now in order to get those checks to the individual americans who have been impacted? that's one of the big questions i think we'll need to get an answer to in this briefing >> maybe the key question, eamon. mnuchin did talk to cramer a few moments ago. and i'll quote him here. we are closing down parts of the economy to make sure we destroy this disease and we will ap is running a headline right now, treasury proposal, eamon, deliver $500 billion in checks to millions of americans first round coming april 6th but the question will be, if we're truly in for 15 days, as the president said two days ago, 15 days to stem the spread, what happens after april 6th? do we need to go another round

or not we're also talking some headlines smashing on small business loans for example, small businesses could borrow up to six weeks of payroll costs, capped at $80,000 annualiz annualized this is according to reuters, which got a look at the documents. so maybe on the margins, some of the details are starting to fill in >> yeah, we're getting a little bit more here from nbc news, which i can relate to you, carl, from some of the same documents. the treasury department document here obtained by nbc news is a source of this they're laying out a three-stage stimulus proposal here one is $50 billion for the airline industry another is $150 billion for what they're calling other distressed sectors. no indication of what sectors those are, necessarily two rounds of direct payments to taxpayers, as you were talking about, each for $250 billion one on april 6th, one on may 18th there's a tiered payment amount based on income level and interestingly, for those of us with a lot of children, family size is going to impact this

small business interruption loan program of about $300 billion those are some of the specifics we're learning right now here in realtime and i want to make a broader point. everything that the united states government does right now is going to echo throw american politics for a decade or more. we are still living with the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis and the political fallout from that. and i would point directly from that financial crisis to the rise of occupy wall street, to the rise of the tea party, to a millennial generation that is concerned about capitalism as an operating system for the economy and embraces socialism in numbers that we have not seen before a president of the united states who is very inwardly focused on the united states and has an america-first approach to the world. i think all of those things, to one degree or another, are legacies of the last round of bailouts and government intervention in the economy. and the anger that those things engendered throughout the

political system and i think americans will accept huge, dramatic changes, huge interventions, but they have to be perceived ultimately as fundamentally fair. and i think that's going to be the thing that policy makers need to consider as they walk through all of this, guys. >> and we're having this conversation in a week where we've seen three more primaries play out in three more states. a report right now from axios, we have not confirmed this, that senator bernie sanders is suspending his presidential campaign right now, eamon. how does it speak to the fact that we do continue to have this presidential election year and campaigns playing out, even in the midst of coronavirus and lockdowns in so many states? >> sure. well, that was sort of mathematically inevitable and politically inevitable in the wake of the trouncing that bernie sanders took yesterday. i mean, the florida defeat was pretty resounding for sanders. and then the question is, you know, does the democratic party consolidate here behind joe biden? they've been split, they've been

divided, there's been some real animosity between the parties. and what sanders can do now for his party is to bring his people into the fold for biden. we'll see whether that happens or not, because of some of those bruised feelings but look, in terms of the coronavirus, i mean, it is -- you know, you've got the government on the one hand saying, we can't have gatherings of more than ten people at any given time, but also, you know, we held elections during the civil war and during world war ii, right? we don't stop elections in this country. >> yeah, eamon certainly a lot of headlines crossing right now thank you for break douing downe latest i'm really curious to see what happens with this navy ship, given that the pentagon says it's going to free up masks skpreand ventilators. and there's been that debate about whether and how the role of the department of defense could expand as efforts ramp up with the federal government. in the meantime, the spread of the coronavirus taking its toll on restaurants and small businesses, as multiple states

closed their doors amid the outbreak our next guest just met with the president about keeping drive-through and takeout options open for the industry. international franchise association ceo robert cresanti joins us now on the phone. robert, thanks for being with us given the fact that you were present for this meeting with the president yesterday, what was your message and what did that conversation entail >> i could just say that thank you so much for having me on, morgan, and for your entire team you know our message was simple, the majority of franchise owners are small business owners, hundreds of thousands of whom are seeking revenue, you know, for their businesses we're seeing it shrink at an unprecedented rate and we need relief now, as quickly as possible. small business es both in the restaurant sector and other sectors like home improvement

and gyms and hair salons have no customers walking through the door and a lot of fixed costs in place and therefore there is no cash flow. you saw cramer talk about this earlier. this is why ifa along with our members need the federal government to step in and increase liquidity to those small businesses fast and i have been, you know, this has been -- i just can't say how, if americans could see how this administration and the leadership, both nancy pelosi and senator schumer's staffs are reacting and listening to the voices that are coming in from these small business folks, you would be proud of the functioning of this country. it's not always what we hear reported in the press, but secretary mnuchin and i were texting and on the phone, you know, close to midnight on saturday night and we have been in constant and consistent touch and they were able to turn around things faster than i've ever seen the federal government turn things around in my career.

>> wow well, that is a message that i certainly like to hear you know, my dad's a burger king franchisee in the new york metro area and i've been having conversations with him and i think he makes such a key point, that maybe many folks don't realize, that franchisees are small business owners. in terms of the conversations you are having with some of those franchisees you represent, what is playing out in realtime on the ground? are stores able, at least the drive-throughs able to stay open are something like layoffs now on the table, as we've heard from other industries, for example, in hospitality? >> i've said this to the president and i've said it to the secretary and also to the members of congress. small businesspeople are making decisions every day on a day-by-day basis when the parking garage in my building here down in washington, d.c. is half empty, i can tell you that the corner bakery, one of our members around the corner that's just around the corner here, knows that day that their lunch business is down by 50%.

so they adjust and work very quickly, so getting assurance from the government and having an understanding that people are putting politics aside and that it is america first in this regard and they're working to move things forward very quickly, give them some amount of comfort but i can tell you, of course, you know from your own family's experience that there is high distress, because these people that have worked in these businesses are -- work side by side with the owners, many days of the week. and they fully understand the pain of putting someone on a furlough and they really don't want to do it. but as customers are not showing up, it is -- it is important that the government help us take ownership of that problem. >> robert cresanti, thank you for joining us today and giving us some more color on what you're seeing and also what that conversation with administration

officials yesterday entailed thank you. we're showing you right now on your screen pictures of the white house as we await president trump and that coronavirus task force that should be happening any moment in the meantime, guys, i will throw it back down to the new york stock exchange and carl >> morgan, yeah, interesting action here. back above 20k s&p holding 2,400. you saw that axios headline cross a few moments ago, where they said that bernie sanders would suspend his presidential campaign now a tweet from mike hasakah, the communications director for the sanders campaign just two words, absolutely false. so we'll take that for what it's worth. it had not been confirmed beyond what we got out of axios the range today, guys, session low was down 1428 for a good part of the morning session, the intraday range on the s&p was about 5%, which is the narrowest in about a week. we did not trigger any circuit breakers, so there was this sense, as mark cuban said

earlier this morning on "squawk box," that we had entered more of a trading range, where we could obviously see declines, but they were not circuit breaker pulling. but of course, the day is far from over. the average daily move, meantime, since february 24, 4.9% for the s&p, which is pretty much unprecedented. we'll wait for the briefing. let's get to the judge >> carl, thanks so much. i'll pick it up right where you left off this is the "halftime report." i am scott wapner. we are waiting for the virus task force to hold their news conference the president expected to join and in the last few moments, we have been getting some details strib trickling out over what kind of stimulus plan we may end up seeing i want to go right to eamon javers who was giving us those details a few moments ago. what is the latest right now i may have to jump in and interrupt you as we get this news conference. i'm not sure if we'll see the treasury secretary join the group and get more details either, but let's go