mlb. welcome to 'squawk alley" on a day when fang is regulartively supportive, john, but there is so much coming up in the week, the fed, big tech hearings, and investors might be sitting on their hands and in front of it >> facebook in the green barely but the best of the fang names not fairing well i think the big unknown is what comes to the surface in the hearings perception is important here and that is where we're going to begin this morning with big tech and the hearings that are happening later on this week the pressure being put on the big four, amazon, apple, facebook, and alphabet ahead of the anti-trust hearings.

bill gates weighed in earlier. >> i think over time the tech world is naturally very, very competitive. i'm not saying that the authorities have to be totally l laze fair, but they will have to come into the space. >> it is 2020, folks, bill gates weighing in on other people es anti-trust issues. that is weird for me to see them talking about it >> i think he love it's, this is the time of his life >> i also think, and i wonder your thoughts on this. we're in an environment where too many people are pointing fingering at big tech for what are government shortcomings. it is like blaming car companies

for polluting when you don't have emission standards a or you have not creating the epa yet. >> that's right i think it has not been a focus for a long time this is the first time in 50 years and congress has not been paying attention to this or this industry which has network effects and scaling effects. this a pretty good turning point. we're talking about this being heat on big tech, but this should be heat on congress they're operating in the rules and congress is not doing their job in making laws that address the dynamics of today's economy,

right? it is hard to put the heat on congress unless it is the first tuesday in november. >> i think i'm one tick over the line for you there i agree that congress has not done their job, but the european union has been looking at these companies for years. congress is not doing it's job, but that is nothing new. on the other side the companies have spent millions for the rules not to be changed. in these hearings tomorrow, the committee is very interested in making sure that we all know that it is an investigation. they said today that they are investigators. they have documents and recei s receipts i think the committee will show that it is not just good

business, but a pattern of abuse. you can blame congress we should all do that. you would not be getting your moneys worth if there was not a little gr little grand standing. >> i'm so glad you bring up lobbying, lobbying spent at record levels for three of the four companies last year what has that done and does it contribute to the reason they have not done anything >> yeah, it has been a hlot of excitement you are so great young upstarts we want for google to come put fiber in our district. there is excitement, feeling like you're going something innovative

as the companies achieve this scale and more people felt the effects of that scale. more stories about the app store crushing small business or facebook ads to enable counterfeit products amazon saying they weren't making competitive products, but they are beginning to affect more and more people and more and more businesses and i think that lobbying is getting less effective. >> if you believe this is performative or will lead to real changes, different laws, we're all getting our popcorn ready to watch we have never seen the four ceo's appear together. who are you most looking forward to seeing up there is it besos because it is his first time

>> absolutely besos. mark zuckerberg is getting good at it they have a pretty narrow range of emotions. besos we have not seen up there and we know he is fierce i think they will try to push him into reacting. >> it has been interesting to read some tea leaves the strategies that the executives would have. besos has always tried to approach dc. as opposed to zukerberg who is poised to say that in a war with china you don't hobble your own giants how far already that go? >> i think it is pretty reasonable in one frame. saying tiktok is over there, if you mess with us, fix tiktok and

all of the companies are going to be mad at you they are protecting the national security interest of the united states the economic interest of the united states. there is probably one step way too far for most of these congressmen. facebook is huge and it locked up growth in that company. if the argument is that you can spint out instagram and it would also get huge and you would have two big companies protecting the national security interest of the united states. without making it obvious that two companies the size of facebook would be better than one. >> how important is that for a lawmaker and their line of questioning to get the point across that it affects consumers. when you talk about amazon in particular, the ease and the convenience for consumers, how do they get them to care about

the issues that often go into the nitty gritty >> i think consumers can feel it they go to amazon, they search for something, they're confronted with a list of products from a company they have never heard of. they are being steered towards amazon brands if is a growing feeling that the company vs. a lot of power and i think tomorrow their really focused on showing documents, e-mails, transcrip transcripts, and other productions they have gotten in the last year. i think the case here will be made almost in the form of hey, you sent this e mail, did you mean this? are you really going to try to crush your competitors storm we tomorrow we'll see if they do it >> an argument that i don't love

is the rearview mirror back ward looking criticism. facebook bought instagram, yes, but instagram sold at the time they thought facebook is paying a lot for a company with no revenue, and yahoo tried to buy facebook for a billion dollars and people thought mark zuckerberg was nuts for not taking that deal this happens and some entrepreneurs don't sell and they go on to be facebook. some sell and they end up being groupon. when you look at retrospect from a company that grew up to be kesk, of course it is easy someone sold on the other side that didn't have to. >> that is right, a great argument i think we will hear that for awhile particularly as it

relates to instagram are they being being scrutinizey enough at the time they did not scrutinize heavy enough they didn't have a theory that they should buy other networks >> you can't buy instagram there is phone phofun photo sha, could a government really do that >> i think you could write a hul that businesses that operate on network effects cannot buy more of the operator network effects. i think that might be hard to manage, but but as that coale e

coalesce, we're coming out to this with more rules i think we will see a rule out of coming out of this entire investigation process that says here is how we will scrutinize something like facebook buying instagram. >> i worry about unintended consequences >> there is a fear they will have to fund it, that it won't be able to survive on it's own i don't know >> yeah, you know, i agree i'm very sympathetic to that argument i hear that a lot. at the same time the current state of the technology industry is that the rate of start up formation, it is one of the big four companies and if you're starting a company, the portfolio has a company, i think

this is compressing the market for startups particularly consumer startup that's we have not really reckoned with if you say they have to grow up and be real companies with real revenue, you might see more investment over time >> you might also kill the golden goose thank you, good to see you >> thank you so much >> meanwhile, joe biden is going to try to give some details today. >> yeah, the details are out surrounding racial economic equality this is the fourth of what the biden campaign is calling the pillars of his economic plan and what they're saying is they want to steer more funding to

minority businesses and neighborhoods. there is also an interesting part with the federal reserve. it is an expansion of the focus on economic racial justice that is something that the fed has not been expected to do before but the biden campaign saying this is a little noticed but important piece of the overall racial justice component we'll see the former facebook later on today laying all of this out on tv and what is fascinating is when you take the biden economic agenda in total and compare it to the trump economic agenda what strikes me is the similarities in the approach to global trade both men want a similar goal for decoupling between the united states and chinese economy

and sort of a deglobalization. they differ on how to get there and it seems like with this campaign, carl, we're entering an era of deglobalization and le le lessenning >> certainly china is a bipartisan issue and we'll watch biden later on today up next the ceo of planet fitness on the challenges that gyms across the country are having in reopening. do go anywhere, we'll be back in just a minute.

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a new survey finding that 59% -- fitness centers are struggling to reopen we have the ceo of planet fitness joining us >> thank you, nice to have me, appreciate it. >> i see you're adding a mask mandate that you announced a couple days ago. is that is signal of the evolution of policy that gyms are figuring out how to do this? >> i think as you see some of the spiking states the safety of everybody, and this is a good step for us here.

>> tell me how it reopened, and if any of them had to close, and you must have good data on your customer base in terms of how good they feel and how much they want to come back. >> yeah, we have 1450 stores up today out of 2,000 we were open in arizona temporarily and then now we're closed again unfortunately our members, the customer sentiment, i could not be more pleased with the excitement about coming in. what they're saying about the protocols in place the staff staff coming back in here to get back to work

>> 59% of americans say they will not renew their gym members so i'm wondering about the acquisitions and technology. what are you thinking about that >> i think one thing with that survey is if you look at the average survey it is $400 a month but plant fet fitness, it only $10 a month you almost can't do that at home home fitness is a really great supplement it has been around since richard simmons. but the quality and environment of equipment at a facility, and personally i have a gym in my basement, but i work out at my

local planet as much as i can. the experience is unbeatable it is hard to get board they have a million downloads that are not members and they're using the content to stay active >> that makes me wonder, it is john by the way, good morning, if you and others might need to take this as an opportunity to shift the business model going towards digital. does it open an opportunity for you to take a fresh look and say what kind of digital infrastructure that is paid, that connects and engages the customer can and should we have so that if something like this should happen we continue? >> absolutely.

that is a good point we went on this technology en f endeavor because they would go to our store, but they were y using a different fitness app. so it was a piece of the business that we did not focus on that much, and now i think it is a key piece of our future >> we asked you about customer churn, and i can't decide whether or not post covid churn goes up or churn goes down because those who are going really want to be there. >> only 20% of the u.s.

population oechb heven has a gym membership so you know, i think there will be little bumps in the road here, but at the end of the day, i think people will have a new sense of the importance of health and wellness with this pandemic it is unfortunately pre-existing conditions cardiovascular disease, on and on gyms are part of the health care delivery system. shutting us down is counter productive they are rooting on the industry to find a safe way to do it. making up the same couple of dumbbells, thank you so much >> thank you, have a good day. >> a disrupter with the back field and now he is looking to

fund them with technology. bobby wagner is going to john us in a few minutes ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back, everybody, i'm sue herera 191 new deaths from covid-19

today. atlanta's mask mandate will not be challenged today, but he wants to continue negotiations with atlanta officials nbc news confirmed that the yankees and phillies game has been post poened bringing that team's total to 17 and on a lighter baseball note, a baseball card of dr. anthony fauce sending out a first pitch. >> that is a record for the company. so far my favorite story of the day. that's the snuz update at this hour after a quick break

welcome back, our next guest has rare insight into both sides of the issue being the former ftc commissioner and an advisor for facebook i asked earlier and i think most reporteders are looking forward to seeing jeff besos testify for the first time my question to you is who, and which business model is most vulnerable tomorrow? sfwli think mark will attract a lot of attention because of laex iss election issues. when you talk about vulnerability i think all of the companies are anxious not to say too much they all moved their earnings calls to thursday. they're in a odd quiet period if

is very interesting. it is a time when you hear from the congressman about what is on their mind and since it is election season it is probably likely the most prominent talking points you're going to see. >> right, that is a good point mark zuckerberg is expected to argue that tiktok is a genuine competitor is that going to work and how do you respond to that? >> i think that is a good point, let's talk about what happened for the past few months, you have tiktok and zoom people who say there is not time for a competition in the tech area, that is not true

the theory is to think about new ways of dealing with anti-trust then the question is what is competition and what is consumer we we welfare. you have covid out there now people are using them for covid, education, civil rights, protests, locating things. looking for entertainment and they're more important and more useful than ever before. and they're using it in an array that we have not seen. so to the extent that people were currented about the one size fits all bottleneck, i'm not sure it shows that >> are you arguing that in the

state of competition across all of these companies is fine is this the optimal state of health both for the consumer and for new ventures, new start ups, with with gate technology to have a great opportunity to choose to get acquired or become independent public companies >> i think that with the antitrust law has to look at is what constitutes consumer welfare. they each offer something a little different in that regard. football is still a free service and people can get to it they offer a different kind than others and the question is who gets access and under what circumstance if for some people they want to try to argue that some of these companies are like a public

utility. you have other competitors in the marketplace, not in the united states if it is tiktok or places where google and facebook can't operate if is a different landscape. >> why should it be the standard if this is congress who has an opportunity to make law, and in this case is it consumer welfare or advertiser welfare? they are the one that's are paying if you're looking at google or facebook, and is it different from the way historically that the standard has been used. >> it has always been consumer

welfare. if you look at the market for advertising, what the pandemic has done is accelerated a trend so that to the extent that there is a move to advertising, the way that people get their products to market, and the question of whether or not it will come back, and if it is on the offline space. so to the extent that people are saying that it hurts online advertising, actually what you see is an increasing trend, not a decreasing trend but i think it is a legitimate concern on some of these platforms to talk about who gets access and under what terms and conditions and make them fair. do consumers gets to see everything that is out there and i think throes legitimate

concerns but if there will be a change about how consumers are better off or not you have to look at a lot of other issues. content based or for that matter other different sectors other than tech. if it is >> as a former ftc commissioner, what is their view on how they have been too lax, and do you think this is performative theater or real change >> i think you will see theater tomorrow, okay but whether or not you're going to see real change or not, a lot of it depends on the entities

that depend on a form of regulation from the regulator. they will look at what their real competitive practices are maybe we should look at. and that is the opportunity going forward. america has never been a country that has really penalized success. unless it harms consumers. if it is a different standard, what is it that is a larger question to hear and you will not hear that discussed tomorrow, at the hearings, for the house. and i think it is, in fact, every single member of congress using these platforms and they will get reelected they have to walk on egg shells,

too. they have to figure out how to use them effectively >> yes, it is a bit of a web there. thank you. former ftc commissioner. >> good to see you all when we come back, the ceo of polaris will join us. a beat on the top and the bhot m line the stock close to a two-year ts morning when "squawk alley" comes back in a moment. and even now, many experts predict the next gold rush is just beginning. so call us money reserve, the only precious metals organization led by a former director of the united states mint. as one of the largest us gold coin distributors in the country, us money reserve has proudly served hundreds of thousands of clients worldwide. there may have never been a better time to start diversifying your assets with physical gold and silver. and right now it's easy to get started.

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welcome back, polaris reporting a doubled street consensus this morning boosted higher by a 57% increase you see shares of polaris up nearly 10% scott wine joins us now on a cnbc earnings exclusive.

>> good morning. >> it is great to have you not just existing customers here, but new customers. is this part of the getting out of the city effect getting recreational equipment to survive the summer? >> the set up is better than we thought. our tag line is think outside. no matter what vehicle it is we give people an opportunity to safely social distance not only are our current customers buying new products, but a lot of new customers coming in. various out reach efforts. and we're seeing a lot of people finding enjoyment in off-road vehicles >> how do you keep this from being a simple pull forward in demand and turn it into something longer lasting do you need to do things around leasting and rentals

is it a matter of service relationships particularly with the new customers, how are you planning >> our deaders have reached out to the new customers and we want to provide a good experience for them we launched polari srs rentals. we're giving people alternative ways to experience the outdoors in polaris products. we will certainly continue to bring new innovative ideas we just launched ride ready. our new service that comes to your house to fix the vehicle or provide a upgrade. >> just a couple questions on product and financing. are consumers putting a lot of -- we talked about splooi chain and mexico engine, has

that gotten any better >> really proud of the way that our team managed through the challenges and risks with global supply chance we had certainly our number of challenges but we're really pleased with the way they ramped up demand and we talked about the unprecedented demand from customers and dealers. we're behind but they're runs at almost full rate >> you were drawing in a younger demographic. how has that been going and have you had to tweak your strategy at all >> it is something we have been working on for a long time but the pandemic accelerated that effort the millennial, if you think between 25 and 42 are up 100% for us the great thing about the younger and new customers coming

in is they're more likely to invite friends in as well. it is an opportunity for longer term growth, not just a one-time hit that you're seeing. >> how are you managing the balance between a direct relationship with a customer and the network. >> we want to partner with them to provide better solutions for our customers. we had a new hire a few months ago, and he is bringing in a lot of new customers allowing you to have tremendous opportunities for trail mappings, and we were making it better and easier. the click deliver ride customers could order online

and many of the customers shift to the area. >> does that set you up for a repository of the customer data and a direct ripgs, but do you have that actual transactional relationship with the customer as well. >> we just launched the first ever customer portal in power sports giving them the opportunity to keep the garage of their vehicling in their onli -- vehicles online. if they want to plan a ride with their friends they could do it here so giving tools to our customers

to make the sport more available to them. >> all right, scott wine, chairman and ceo of polaris. thank you. >> one of the best linebackers in the nfl voted the 15th best player in the league last year by his fellow players, the seattle seahawks, bobby wagner, up next. stay with us hey, our worker's comp insurance is expiring. should i just renew it? yeah, sure. hey

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our next guest reports to nfl training camp later today. first, he joins us to talk about the season and his new vc firm

launching today. super bowl champ bobby wagner is with us today. thanks for joining us. great to see you >> good morning. appreciate you having me on. >> i want to talk about the season, obviously, but in terms of vc work, you're no stranger to this environment. you've had investments go public tell us about fuse venture partners and why you think now is the time. >> fuse is a venture firm that myself, cameron, john and i decided to form. it's really important right now because there's a lot of interesting innovating software companies coming out of seattle. we feel like we're not really capturing that in seattle. we feel like this will be able to capture that and provide a unique opportunity for them as well as unique outreach to help build their company, to help expand their company

>> it is seattle focused in terms of industry or space or type of disruption, is there a common thread behind the projects you'll be looking at? >> we feel like seattle is one of the most innovative in tech spaces around. we feel like we can capture a lot of the companies that come out of seattle, we feel like they have to go down to the bay area to get the money that they need to build their business we don't believe that's true we're here to make the companies in seattles don't leave seattle. >> bobby, great to have you. it's john ford just so happens i was talking to manny medina yesterday of outreach, a unicorn base there he's a latino. he said it's like you had to know the right people in seattle to enter that very narrow investor group he went down to the bay area to raise. how are you going to change that culture? is it a matter of holding

events how will you create that deal flow and put your banner out and change the culture around vc in seattle? >> i think it's a merit of hosting events it's making sure the company knows we're out here doing a great job sourcing a lot of deals they have seen. we'll do a better job of making sure the companies out there feel the presence of the vc firms. i feel like that's our job to go out there. >> i'm going to ask you another vc question. my husband is a big seahawks fan. i'm sure he would like me to ask a sports one i wanted to get your broad thought on the state of start ups and markets now. it's been an interesting year. you had weworks big surprise and subsequent fall. valley of coronavirus.

how are they looking to you right now? dr do you think there's a lot of opportunity now? >> around 2008 when tlp was a big price, there's a lot of companies that spent out starts changing, life changing companies. i feel like it weeds out the group that's just trying to get into the business but the people that are serious about making a real change, i feel like this is one of those times people will lock in and really try to think about ways they can affect the world moving forward i feel like tech is way to go. >> as far as the season goes, we know about the postponements of

these major league baseball games. patrick chung said he will opt out for the season you retweeted bruce irving who said i want to play but we need the nfl to step up how comfortable are you going into today >> today will be our first day going into the building. i think seattle has done amazing job of making sure that they can provide the safest home environment. i trust seattle and everybody. it's an interesting time we want to make sure that it's as safe as possible. we understand we're the people taking the risk. we're putting our bodies on the

line we always put our bodies online but it's even more crazy this go around i trust seattle. i'm looking forward to seeing what they have in store. i think you have to be disciplined with how we go about this season. we're not going to be able to do a lot of the things we normally do us not being in the bubble, but i think the guys can have, a lot of discipline to be able to get this done. >> yeah. the past couple of weeks some of the guidelines have come out a lot of people have been shabishab i -- shaking their head what do you mean we have the restrictions in the locker room when we have spent two or three hours on the field with each other. do the guidelines, to you, make sense? >> i think a couple of the guidelines were being talked about. they weren't agreed upon i think one of the ones you were d talking about is we couldn't exchange jerseys after the game. i think a lot of guys were confused if you can hit somebody and be

around somebody for three hours, what is two more minutes that's not the case. it's a will the of guidelines that you really have to play out. you don't understand how it's going to play out until you start playing games and you start traveling. i think nfl did the best job they could i feel like it's up to the players to be conscious of everything and really be smart about this >> finally, do you feel as healthy as you felt going into any other prior season have work outs been an impediment so far? >> i feel amazing. this time has been great i've been able to chill with my family and work out consistently give my body a big rest. i'm excited for the season i feel healthy >> we can't wait to watch.

congrats on fuse venture partners incredibly exciting and best of the season hope to talk to you at some point down the road. >> thank you >> referring to the concert held in the hamptons over the weekend at which goldman's david solomon did dj the department of health will conduct an investigation adds we have no tolerance for public health. this is not helpful. >> he's distanced. you can see him in the pictures up there in the dj booth no one around him but the question is, are people going to behave we have seen across social media so many examples of people

thinking they are the exception to the rule and it's okay for them then there's also this sort of, i think, negative sort of finger pointing and policing with the cell phone camera going on i guess how would we know that there's this problem of people not distancing if people didn't do it. >> you're referring to cancel culture. the time is unfortunate after settling for $3.9 billion now the concert, he can't help the fact that people were close together it's not a good look >> carl. >> guy, obviously, earnings will just intensify as we get into

the next few trading sessions. tonight we get amd we'll see after all the news from intel and nxpi and taiwan semi this week starbucks tonight, is that going to be an echo of what mcdonald's said today let's get to the halftime. it comes as shares have surged 500% in less than a year. 100% in just the past three months our investment committee with me today as well. joining me for the hour, stephanie link, josh brown, rob is back. ubs private wealth management. he's one of forbes top advisers.