extraordinary the sense it is monday like no other. the virus is upon us. extraordinary that the stock market selloff has been extraordinary. come back a little bit. i'm sitting in for charles payne. right now, neil, it is yours. neil: these markets. those two words seem to be operative ones to define a freefall from the dow from its highs. there was a point where we were close to 30% from the highs reached a little more than a month ago. we clawed our way back here but not before the implementation of the third circuit breaker in six trading sessions. despite what is massive amount of federal reserve rate cutting, 150 basis points. it was back in late summer we were at 2.5% fed fund rate, bake lending rate. we're now at essentially zero. so all those hikes have been

wiped out. we're back to where we were right after the financial metdown. a lot of people are wondering how many arrows are left in the fed's quiver. the president is taking emergency action of his own. he is already restricted international travel. of course for school systems across the country, comprising now better than 11 million kids, they're closed and a lot of kids sort of have to, technologywise do their classes on their home computers. i can tell you as a parent of a couple teenagers good luck with that. meantime the global impact is clear, as one market after another sells well off into bear territory. deirdre bolton following all of that. bolton, we are jolten. >> a tough start to the trading day. the fed seemed to make more traders anxious than not. the fed, neil, you know this, basically what the fed has done in credit crisis over seven or

eight month period t was done within hours this weekend markets reacted in the first 10 seconds. we dropped on the s&p 500. we had a 15 minute halt. to providerd early markets. this is the third time in the past few sessions one of these had to kick in. take a look right now at the markets. obviously lower across the board, no other way to say it. we're off absolute awful section lows, lows of the day. look at groups weighing most heavily, you will see financials, real estate, materials, consumer discretionary all of those heading lower. i want to take a look at some of the retail stocks, neil, look at target, walmart, walgreens, cvs. this is part of the trump administration plan to do a public/private partnership with some of these companies.

the idea they will give up some of their parking lot, space, for testing, drove-through testing of the coronavirus. some states have programs already set up. for example, new rochelle, here in new york. oahu in, hawaii. hartford, connecticut is another spot, denver, colorado. essentially people stay in their cars. health care workers are a little more protected. they get drive-through screening. the u.s. and europe were criticized, no other way to say it, knot having widespread testing with pop-up sites. more than a few cities are getting on board. the president's plan to involve more retailers, obviously staffed by federal employees. neil, back to you. neil: how do they do the drive-through thing? not like the department of motor vehicles, not that that is a horrible experience but pretty close. how do they do this? >> in new rochelle, there are

six lanes. you drive up. a health care worker takes swabs from you. new york has a lab it is using. essentially take all the material they need. they send it away. get your results. obviously the sooner, the better. there have been a few hour delays. some had 24-hour delays but the point is, residents can make appointments by phone. and then there is, for example, in denver, you can't do this unless you have a doctor's note saying that you do need to be tested. every single locality is handling it a little bit differently. the point, if you think you're at risk, stay in your car. the health care worker is less impacted. hopefully you get the results. we'll see more and more of this pop up testing throughout the country, neil. neil: deirdre, thank you very much. deirdre bolton. the president is wrapping up a lot of calls to g7 leaders, u.s. governors. some are complaining he hasn't been responsive enough to them. usually democrats. republicans say the president is doing a great job on this.

we'll pick apart both sides making claims in almost diametric fashion. blake burman at the white house. hey, blake. reporter: coronavirus all consuming at white house this morning. president trump own a couple different teleconferences, first one 10 a.m., scheduled to be with leaders of g7 nations. the biggest leaders all across the globe. after that a phone call with the nations governors. there have been so many people all across this country, neil, who are wondering whether or not as governor after governor goes forward with these sort of shut-downs, whether or not the federal government itself is going to step in, impose some sort of a quarantine? the message out of the white house today is to listen to the cdc. so much so, that the national security council took to twitter last night and posted the following message, writing, quote, text message rumors after national quarantine are fake. there is no national lockdown.

the cdc has, will continue to post the latest guidance on the coronavirus. here was larry kudlow speaking to stuart varney a little while ago. >> i have seen a lot of rumors 14-day shutdowns for everybody in the country. that is simply not the case. there may be other rumors like that. we made no such decisions. reporter: there may be other rumors like that. we made no such decisions. the reason why i highlight that, neil, there will be a press briefing over here, 3:30 white house, scheduled to be with the coronavirus task force. we'll see if president trump attends that. the vice president yesterday had mentioned that there they were still vetting cdc guidelines. they would to forward with them this morning so far that hasn't happened. we're looking to the 3:30 briefing to see potentially here what the trump administration announces. neil? neil: my friend, a lot of fast fast-moving parts there. let's take a peek at corner of

wall and broad before we get to my next guest. we were down over 2,000. it was a little month ago we were flirting with 30,000 on the dow that was then as i like to say, this is now. it is confusing market. circuit breakers have kicked in no fewer than three times in the last few trading sessions. more are likely this environment. some are talking about shutting down the exchange as was the case after 9/11. we had a few days where the market shut down after that, resumed trading on 9/17 that was then. what could happen now? the guy heading exchange at that time of personal finance hal crisis, former new york stock exchange chairman and ceo dick grasso joins us on the phone. dick, thank you for taking the time. >> neil, great to be with you. neil: what do you make first of all, the talk of a cooling-off period for the exchange, shut it down a little while, allow cooler head to prevail or think before they leap? >> neil, i'm a free market

person, have been for more than 50 years. i'm also cognizant this may have well spun into a free-for-all market. i think what the president has done in terms of the partnership between the public and private sector is taken taken from the 2001 experience. i think it is fabulous. he should call together his presidential working group on financial markets which is composed the head of the fed, the treasury, the cftc and the sec, together with help from larry kudlow who is an expert on this and that group should look at four periods in the history of u.s. markets. the period just following the start of world war i, when the market shut from december to july. the period in 1987 when the

market dropped 22% in one single trading day. the period after 9/11 attacks when we were shut for four 1/2 trading days. and the period after the financial meltdown in 2008. i think that group, are articulating a response to what we've seen will be very important in terms of calming the markets. neil, i'm not concerned about wall street. i'm not concerned about professional traders. i'm concerned about the pension plans of firefighters and police officers, the individual retirement accounts of small investors around the country. we've got to just take a, what is right for folks. it well may be a brief interruption in the marketplace. i'm not advocating that but there has to be a clear --

[inaudible]. to calm people down. neil: we're having some problems with your audio. we hope to reconnect with you in just a second. i apologize to that. i want to go to my colleague and friend connell mcshane with all of this. thank you, first, you and david asman for your hard work in my absence. it is interesting that he is hope, grasso, is opening sounds like to a temporary shutdown. if required. after 9/11 they had no choice because the exchange was seriously damaged as were a lot of member firms. so it was necessary to do that. here you could make an argument unwieldy as the volatile as markets now it is not necessary now. >> mr. grasso was not making argument that he was open to it. seems significant that given his stature in history where he has come from on this. so when we -- neil: seems like he is looking

at individual investors getting whipsawed through no fault of their own. >> understood. i haven't heard people in those someone in those positions former head of new york stock exchange. people are cutting rates, near zero what effect will it have? getting bond market with 700 billion-dollar buying program, there was issues of functionality in markets that the fed was seeing. it was on the call with jay powell, the chairman last night, listening in on all of that and he talked about certain markets having liquidity issues. so there were, obviously concerns about how we're functioning on a day-to-day basis they thought they could address on margins. people expect a little more on the commercial paper side the next few days. what people really expect, whether on wall street or just in the regular economy now, is some sort of fiscal action, and a lot of it. and action to come out of washington faster than we've seen, that that -- neil: wondering let's say you're not buying or going to stores,

having nothing to do with your financial situation but everything to do afraid as heck of crowded places. giving people a tax break or cutting their interest rates or flooding the banking system with a lot of money going to change that? in other words -- >> i think what people need reassurance they can get through this. around one way to do this for example, might be making sure if you're operating a small or medium-sized business in this country, you know, if you're getting hit by the verydown, because remember the prescription here, everybody, governor cuomo talked about this a lot in new york. the real concern, if you want to keep it system pell is the hospital system. every move they're making in terms of mitigation on the health side is aimed at somehow avoiding the hospital system being overwhelmed. by doing that, by nature of doing that it will harm the economy. they know that. if that harms a medium or small sized business in this country, how does the operator of that business know they're getting through the next few weeks or months? time frame is uncertain but if someone in the federal

government is to say, listen if you need to borrow x-amount of dollars in that time frame, however long we're going through a crisis that money is available that might do more for confidence than cutting interest rate or handing out a tax cut. neil: they want to avoid the credit or money freeze we had in the last financial crisis. i get that. >> a different problem though a little bit, right? neil: absolutely. stay there, connell, thank you very much i do want to go back to dick grasso. we addressed those issues. we simply move ad couple feet on the cell phone. i hope everything is all right. >> i'm back with you, neil. i apologize for the interruption. neil: you have to pay your phone bills, dick, that is the bottom line. let me ask you, my friend, i'm curious what you make of some of the financial incentives thrown out there, connell touched on a few of them. interest rate cuts, money in the banking system, to make sure if you greases everything so we don't have repeat of what happened in the melt down, but if you're sort of hunkering down

in your home, not inclined to go out because you're afraid of catching this virus, will some extra money made available to you change that? what do you think? >> well, we have to, we have to remind ourselves that the economy is almost 70% driven by consumer sentiment and consumer action. neil: right. >> i think a lot of folks who initially poo-pooed the idea of a payroll tax cut haven't considered the possibility that payroll tax cut at a ceiling of say, 75 or $85,000, so that it goes to the people most in need of cash flow at this point of time. i picked those numbers arbitrarily, neil. i just think we have to look at everything we can possibly do to incent the consumer not to go into a cave. let's remember one thing. this is america. we're going to get over this. a year from now, the comps

because we'll have two very tough quarters, earning comps a year from now are going to look pretty good. the market has been incentivized by low and zero interest rates. i believe that we'll restore calm to trading and things will be, look, neil, rook what happened after 1987. look what happened after 2001. look what happened after 2009? america always comes back. the markets -- neil: i have no doubt about that. i'm not meaning to second-guess you, dick. i am wondering though that some of the things being proposed would they have the impact people hope if they're being told by the cdc, nih, other groups, stay in your home, hunker down. they're not being alarmist. they're become told to do that, being told in the case of crowds anything more than 50 people.

that kind of rules out, pretty much everywhere. so i'm just wondering, if whatever incentives you throw their way, if they're going to make a difference? i understand what you're saying down the road they will in fact do just that, they might. meantime, markets are trading more on the course of this virus than they are on the course of that economic help, right? >> well, look at the short-term behavioral change on the part of consumers in america. over the last five years, look at the enormous growth in online shopping, whether it is through retailers. whether it is in the food industry. neil: right. >> what you will see is a spike in that, neil. the way it will spike, by putting cash in the pockets of people who most need it. i think that, you know, this is true, a, a period of lack of information. there's fear. there's uncertainty but there is also the need to eat. there is the need to provide

basic goods and services to our families and that will continue. it perhaps shifts from consumer if you will interaction to consumer online action. so i don't see it as negative as most people do. neil: good. let me ask but the market and we talked about from height of the dow jones industrials, for example, to our worst level this morning before circuit breakers kicked in. we were down 31% from the highs. those were reached a little more than a month ago. is that too much to you? >> well, neil, let's just amend that observation. we're down at the peak, at the bottom this morning 31%, not from the recent highs but from an all-time high. market is at an all-time high. and i think that people have got to remember when this president was elected, it was under 17,000 on the dow. neil: we're back to levels,

we're back to levels we were at three years ago. >> right. and you know, is that disasterous? for some people who might sell based on fear and panic, it will be, neil but remember one thing, you don't make money in the market. you don't lose lonnie in the market, until you say sold, okay? for people out there, who don't know what to do at this point, talk to your financial advisor, if you're a do it yourself investor, and you don't know what to do, the answer is do nothing. neil: very wise and very calming words. you were certainly that and much more through a number of crises that we experienced at corner of wall and broad. always good to have you, my friend. >> always great to be with you. neil: former head of the new york stock exchange. meanwhile we're learning now that the white house is looking at the possibility of a providing some relief or assistance programs for the airlines. this of course on the news united airline seen a drop of

1 1/2 billion dollars in revenues and other airlines are feeling the pinch, not just here by the way but abroad with the likes of air france, british air, sas, virgin atlantic all running at a fraction much their normal capacity. virgin atlantic will ground 85% of its fleet. obviously the administration saying through no fault of their own we have to help the guys out. what kind of help are we talking about? grady trimble live at o'hare international airport with the latest how all of this is sorting out at one of the world's busiest airports. grady? reporter: neil, the that federal help might come in form of monetary assistance or a loan. treasury secretary steve mnuchin said, don't call it a bailout. nonetheless all airlines in u.s. and abroad are getting hit incredibly hard as travelers continue to cancel their trips. here at o'hare, one of the busy international terminals, there was a lot of scrutiny at the

international terminal over the weekend because long lines of people returning from europe and coming in from other international flights. as they were screened, waiting in line in tight quarters. some people reported waiting up to four hours for enhanced screenings, in some cases to get their temperatures taken. here at newark, not every single person is having their temperature taken. here is what some passengers say about that. >> actually i was surprised they didn't. i thought they would and they should. maybe that is recommendation i would make to the government, you know. >> no, none much the questions asked where we have been, what we were doing, if we were sick or temperature taken. it was same as always. it was really no different. reporter: every major airport or airline i should say started to cut flights. united started cutting flights up to 50% in the coming months. they have seen one million fewer passengers this march compared to last march. and they're projecting their

revenue to be down by 1 1/2 billion dollars this march compared to last march. now here in illinois, aside from travel all dine-in restaurants and bars are ordered closed by the governor much like many other states are doing. governor jb pritzker said there are no easy decisions to make as we address this unprecedented crisis. we must do science and experts say will keep people safe. when you think of that, neil, there is speculation there might be domestic travel bans in the pipeline as well. something we'll have to wait and see. something that the trump administration says it has not ruled out at this point. neil. neil: thank you very much. grady trimble. the overall loss of the airline industry is hovering $125 billion. that is as of last week. obviously with latest indications from virgin atlantic and united, it is clear that the number will jump exponentially.

before i get to my next guest, guatemala is closing borders for next two weeks to contain the virus f that sounds like a familiar theme across the globe. in italy and in spain they're looking already at doing that around their entire countries and those that border them. in both country cases they have had 500 deaths over just the past weekend that is a record number of deaths as number of new cases outside of china for the 7th straight day running is exceeding the number of new cases in china. john hofmeister looking at how this is impacting oil markets. oil is hovering about 36 bucks a barrel. as bad as it is for the oil industry it will be good for consume here's no doubt will be looking for a lot cheaper gas. john, we look for silver linings when we can what do you make what is happening with oil in the virtual collapse a lot of

people thought, hoped last week at this time would ease after saudis and russians went to blows on this? >> well the dynamic, neil, is twofold. you have a normal market which will go up and down and based upon supply and demand relationships. you have that artificial market that has been contrived by vladmir putin and mohammed bin salman out of saudi arabia. so between the two, it doesn't make any economic sense other than to pull back on costs. that is about all the industry can do. there is an oversupply of oil, probably we're producing two to three million barrels a day more than what we need because of the cut back in flights and cutback in other forms of transportation. but the reality is, that could snap back with the end of the virus period. and so we would be about equalibrium. but on top of that you have the

putin, bin salman escapade taking place which is an artificial driver, because they're selling oil cheaper than the price that is on your screen. in other words they're trying to get market share and sell their oil before someone else does. they're taking a five to 7-dollar a barrel discount on the market price. so this is just nuts. i guess they can do it for a while in the case of the saudi arabia, you know you're gambling of the future of kingdom. they need $80 a barrel. in case of russia, a very controlled country. i suppose putin can get away with anything he wants because he can deflate the ruble if he needs to. it is not a good time for oil markets period. neil: or for u.s. wildcatters. it is akin to the early '80s with a serious down draft in oil

prices wiped a lot of those guys out. they merged. so-called seven sisters, the big energy giants themselves. i'm wondering what the impact will be on them if this lingers much longer? >> we'll see a rationalization on the upstream, neil. that will involve drillers. we don't need as much drilling. neil: but i'm sorry to jump on there, what is the level, whether it is 35, 40, where you are staying below that for a significant amount of time that sort of drives them either into someone else's arms or right out the door, period? >> it is going to vary by producer. considering i take a long-term view as well as deal with day-to-day dynamics of operations, i think you need north of 50. all this, some companies say, well we're, we break even on cash at $35. that's not taking care ever anything for the long term.

that is eliminated next year's capital expenditure. if they don't have capital next year they're not going to drill. it is an artificial number. somewhere between 50 and 60 is about break even in the shale patch at least. offshore it is a little higher than that because of the long-term costs but on offshore you get volumes more resilient. the problem with the shale, is that the decline rate of the oil wells is excessive relative to conventional oil. conventional oil, three to 5% decline rates. oil shale, 40 to 50% decline rates so you just got to keep drilling and drilling in the oil shale business. which means you need constant increase of capital if you are going to grow your production. where do you get the capital? is it self-funded or coming from banks? if it is coming from banks, what is the oil price which you make money and can repay the banks? the problem with the oil shale they have been borrowing from the banks for a very long time.

we're going on a decade now. some much them have been net negative cash for many of the years of that decade, which is unfortunate for the industry. so, i think, the industry will rationalize. production will come down. yes, people will be laid off. yes, companies will disappear. but the industry has been doing this for 125 years, neil. this is not new. we know how to do this while it is painful, we'll get past it. there will be a very good industry for a long time to come. neil: you know i mentioned that early '80s experience. we eventually got so low on gas prices, that combined with the final boom of the reagan tax cuts and what was happening with the federal reserve having clamped down on inflation we got a boom out of that that eventually not only helped ronald reagan in 1984 get reelected it was a delayed response where the cheap gas obviously ignited and helped

consumers and the rest is history. do you think that with the tumble in gas prices, not nearly as notable yet as the tumble in oil prices that could happen again? what do you think? >> yes, it will happen in multiple ways. because, first of all the consumer, for his or her personal car, you're going to be seeing probably gasoline prices, maybe in the dollar 50 range if it stays where it is today. that means, hey, let's go for a drive. you can be isolated in your home or isolated in your car. let's go for a drive. that's a boon to consumers. then, then you have the air transportation which is going to have lower aviation fuel prices which will allow the airlines to lower their ticket prices, bring people flying again. there is great around the country, less pressure on diesel

price for all the freight that moves around the country. you're putting moveing money in people's pockets. you're cutting costs which will lead to eventual decline in production and gasoline will rise again. neil: that is sort of hope you truncate it, a bang for the buck sooner than you normally would. john hofmeister. thank you, see you soon, my friend. before i go to kristina partsinevelos at new york stock exchange, connell can help me, nfl draft in las vegas has just been canceled. >> almost. public events surrounding it. they will still hold a draft and televise it what the nfl said. they changed venue a lot. for years it was always in new york in the theater in

madison square garden and radio city. now they move it around with nfl team moving to las vegas that was the theme to move it there. they will not have public events. it speaks to larger issue we're talking about. people make decisions largely, companies, ceo's, government officials now, the speed of movement on the acceptance of what needs to be done here in the last, three, four, five, days, has been remarkable this is another movement here where people understand, more you can do to keep people aweigh from each other, still maybe hold your event, don't do it with people and large number of people in the same place, essentially the safer rest of us can be. nfl has a draft. will be on television. no public events surrounding it in vegas. neil: doing this at a time dozen casinoses are shut down or limiting hours, who is going to vegas if this accelerates? >> it is going to be, that is a problem. >> i would go for the breakfast

buffet. >> that is whole different story. the term shutdown is real. we're talking about the economy. to go back to the earlier point, if we give people money, hunkered down will they go out to spend it, the answer is probably no. i think policymakers are thinking about in washington. what about the people hunkered down who are not say as lucky as you and i might be or others that might be have a salaried position, knock on wood, you are still going to receive even if you work from home, whatever the case may be. a lot of people in one of two spots which is really, really difficult. people have to come up with a way to help the people. a, they own the business, worried about paying their workers, worried about themselves or they're just not going to make money during this time period. they will not get paid what they do. paid on hourly basis or gig economy not getting a salary. those two groups of people may be hunkered down. need a way to get through this, otherwise economic hit will be much longer.

washington dillydallying on fiscal side, what can we do for those people. not saying it will calm down everything in the markets but -- neil: it is richest country. we should do something no fault of their own, waiters, waitresses, people who run the restaurants, certainly in this town have been shutdown, you can only order take-out. >> some of us, if we, someone, you go to the gym, can't go anymore, still pay the person or go to a restaurant normally, you only doing take-out. maybe you tip a little bit more. i get all of that. we should be doing all of that. there is lot like individual people that have means can do. but there is role -- neil: not make up. >> definitely a role for government. we don't know exactly what that role will look like. larry kudlow floated 800 billion. stuart varney interview. not clear what it looks like. how it is structured. it still has to run through congress. neil: we'll see what happens. meantime i promised you kristina partsinevelos following from the new york stock exchange, down

1870 points. believe it or not that is off the worst levels of the day, kristina. kristina: thank you for fulfilling the promise. markets continue sell off despite the federal rate cut by federal reserve. monetary policy coming in. look at sell off. when we opened markets, a lot of traders walked in there expecting the circuit breaker to be halted. it was halted for third time in less than two weeks. s&p 500 dropped 7%. it is really quite calm and quiet on the floor. but the dow, nasdaq, and s&p, at their worst point today dropped over the 11%. we're seeing largest intraday point swing in history at this moment. let's look at some of those section losers on the s&p 500. all 11 sectors are down. financials, real estate, on your screen you're seeing individual losers, l brands, victoria secret, down over 28%. this comes as lot of retail

stores are closing up for the next two weeks. you won't see a lot of foot traffic. it will affect their future earnings reports as well as resorts. if we could bring up the vix. the vix measures 30-day volatility in terms of what investors believe the markets will be like heading into the near future. it is pretty much seen as a fear barometer. it is hitting a high for today, above 78. but it is not the high we saw intraday in 2008 which was 89. there is still a lot of uncertainty about the economic impact. i want to end on one positive stock right now, peloton. if you can afford this bike, over $2,000, share price up 9% as more people stay home, plan to work out. neil? neil: there is that. kristina, thank you very much. new york, new jersey, connecticut governors are joining forces. they're hitting restaurants and bars, particularly in manhattan where it is take out and delivery only. jackie deangelis in

new york city with more on that. jackie? reporter: good afternoon, neil. governors said even if you want to go out in tri-state you can't go out. they're limiting that to 8:00 tonight. this is the lincoln center. daniel balud closed three of his restaurants on east side, union scare hospitality group, polo bar, quality restaurants, blue ribbon restaurants, before this tri-state ban said we'll protect customers. we're going to protect staff. we're not really worried about the profits. we'll temporarily close down. what is interesting here in lincoln center where the theater is, it is usually so busy. it doesn't feel like afternoon on a monday. it feels like a sunday around 7:00 a.m. the streets are pretty empty. the couple cars, couple people walking around. really no activity. a lot of folks heeding travel bans. heeding stay in, work from home

if you can. it gives you a sense of chilling effect it will have on local economies, on these businesses because nobody knows how long this will last. not just restaurants. within that tri-state ban it is also gyms. it is also movie theaters. any public places where people can gather like you said in numbers over 50. they want to contain the virus. they want the curve to be moderate rather than spike this is interesting, a lot of people who are younger feel they're invincible coming to the virus. they're taking those risks, state and local officials are saying we don't want anybody taking those risks. it is better to stay home. but, neil, of course the aftereffects of the economic impact remain to be seen. back to you. neil: very clear, walking through times square, it is like a wilderness. it is surreal. jackie, thank you very, very

much. then you have colleges and universities, they're forcing students to leave, move out of the dorm rooms. that is lot easier said than done for parents. they're calling for to issue refunds. congressman, good too have you. what progress are you making? >> they're making students aware they're entitled to refunds. universities are waking up. some are doing the right thing. some haven't made their public decisions made but i think, that students are realizing that they have paid for something that they're not getting this is not, we want you to have a full refund. we're just saying if you paid for the whole messer semester, you're being kicked out you deserve those monies to be refunded to you. neil: airlines through no fault of their own dealing with a freeze in travel hitting their bottom line. we could talk about restaurants. we just had a report on that, that are not able to stay open,

say, delivery, take-out orders and the rest. you could make a argument a lot of people need help from the government or make whole people directly affected by that, right? >> no, you absolutely are. this is about students who have paid money, we're saying they should have the money back. this is not about i bought a plane ticket, i get a credit, i can use the credit later in the year when we start flying again. these are college kids. in many cases they don't have parents who can afford to purchase a plane ticket to fly home. kids are stranded. low income families, hey, let's just eat these funds. these kid if they had the money back it would be stimulus for economy. neil: congressman, in this case, if the college is saying again through no fault of our own we're forced to shut down our campus for weeks or months, or maybe the rest of the semester, we're just following federal guidelines from the cdc, national institute of health, what have you, they're saying we can't pony up the dough here, it has to be government.

what do you think? >> universities we're talking to are not necessarily saying that. they have been, some have been reluctant but many in fact have said we are refunding a prorat at that share. neil: are these public universities, sir? >> in some cases they are. in some cases they're private. i think for the most part they're going to do the right thing. i don't want to have to file a bill to make the students whole. i think you will see lots of scenarios as we finally put this to bed in the months to come, hopefully sooner than later. i hope it is not necessarily. neil: congressman gooden, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. neil: i want to getted read from scott martin, kingsview management cio. we have a lot of things to talk about and i do want to get into that but i always believe the good intentions of people to try to make whole people impacted by this, connell and i were discussing through no fault of their own they're caught up in this. restaurants who have no choice. they have been told they can't serve people save take-out,

delivery and all of that. he raised a good point, the congressman, kids shoved off campus have to handle this on their own, i get that. but i'm also getting appreciation of the magnitude of the federal government response here. is that something you digest or have you been able to digest it here? what we're looking at, certainly a lot of economic stimulus to come there from that but it is big and we have a lot of bills to pay in this country. what do you think. >> it is big, neil. i'm running out of zeros in this spreadsheet. that is in microsoft xcel. if that doesn't tell you how big this is we have another thing coming. the road to somewhere is paved by good intentions. when we think about the comments, neil, i like how you put it, these comments, well if you have an economic interare up shun, if you get laid off or furloughed or firsted some paychecks it is not your fault. this is. >> exogenous event, we'll make

you whole. brings into the question of moral hazard. brings into the question of risk versus reward in business. i think to your point at the end there, whatever the solution is, federal reserve done or done through congress or the administration the amount coming into play here, call it bailout money or save your money is gigantic in numeral. neil: how do you react to some staggering numbers at the worst level, down 31% from the highs on the dow, 28% on the s&p, 27% on the nasdaq? deep, deep, deep into bear market territory. we were down a little bit, i find it surreal showing folks at home, a 1856 point hit in the dow it is worse. it is just weird, you know? >> amazing on days look up from the bowl of soup, market only down 1400 on the dow, you're

celebrating, feeling a bit of lefty on that. neil, looking on the speed and viciousness of this selloff, we were, as you and connell were talking about, we were at all-time highs a little over a month ago roughly, we're at a bear market and heading lower. the speed of which tells me the market is getting overdone here. fundamentals are out the windows. this is purely emotional market, this is algorithmic market. a lot of computers are playing ping-pong with each other, knocking the market down and knocking the market up, as you saw on friday this is market if you're long-term investor there are advantages. i would let a lot of volatility subside before i dipped another toe in the water. neil: could be just me, scott, but i know in the past we traded on big stimulus moves on part of the federal reserve. in this case 150 basis points in a little more than go weeks. flooding the banking system with all the cashing they can get

their hot little hand on, no response to the markets. in fact quite the opposite. so i suspect maybe only thing that will change this is signs of this whole coronavirus thing stablizing. to that end, we're hearing that nih continuing clinical trial of a vaccine that begins study enrolling seattle-based adult volunteers. seattle for quite a time was ground zero of cases in this country. 19 deaths reported there. and i'm just wondering if that is the kind of stuff, really only the kind of stuff that reverse this is market free fall? it is all about the virus and getting a handle on that, all that other economic incentive stuff, welcomed, not trying to minimize it, is not going to move the needle. what do you think? >> yes, i agree. this becomes almost a medical market where we get advances in the vaccine, advances in treatment, obviously as we know, see numbers tick up, what is

really happening in this country, that i think actually helps the market feel better. neil, i cringe a little bit when we hear some of the officials and quote, unquote experts come on your show and other shows talk about how strong the economy was, and how we can weather this because the economy was in great shape. i agree that's true, but the market doesn't care about that right now. it doesn't matter if we're coming off a 6% gdp number in q4. the fact is the market see as minus five or minus six as we've seen some latest predictions in q2. that is what it is trading on. that will not change until the medical part of this is cleared up. neil: that is belle putt. thank you very much, my friend. scott martin on all that. connell, number of brokerage houses say there will be a big hit. goldman sachs saying 5% hit this quarter.

>> yep. neil: jpmorgan chris two% in the first quarter, 3% in the second quarter. what do you think of that? >> the goldman sachs number was out there. it got a lot of people's attention. the 5% contraction in the second quarter of the year. neil: that is back to meltdown levels. >> they did say, i'm not sure how they come up with these numbers, would rebound with 3% third quarter growth and 4% fourth quarter result. neil: like hurricane delayed response. >> jay powell said last night, there is no way to really project that and that is the problem. one of the interesting things listening to powell go through it, not just because of mechanics of market or trying to help the bond market which was all important in the short term, at one point he was asked how long will this last? that is what anyone who asks is on, so-called expert. powell says the response will dictate how long the economic rebound take. public officials talk about how important the response is the on

medical side but powell linked the two together on economy. much that depend, i wrote it down, he said, how compliant we are, those are the exact words he used what public health officials and dr. fauci and others are recommending. powell said if people stay away from each other, if people do what they're told essentially, don't sit back anecdotally, i saw a little too much of this this weekend from people being out at the store, you have to pick up something, overhearing conversation, this is overreaction hope from policy officials -- neil: picking up rolls of toilet paper. >> hope from public policy officials summer we're all sitting around this is overreaction. they're saying to themselves, that means it worked. jay powell linked economy with that last night in his, fine do we have a 5% contraction in the second quarter, maybe? third and fourth quarter we have no idea. powell says essentially if we do what we're told, basically the economic impact might not last as long.

it might be tough fora short period of time but it might not last as long. neil: we're practicing telling -- >> six feet. neil: knowing that you were going to be with me, could we make it 12 feet? >> gasparino? >> we put him in whole another state. connell, thank you very much. what is impressive about connell, not only quoting federal reserve chairman but spending a good part of his sunday listening to the entire teleconference that is worrisome. that could be worrisome. joe biden and bernie sanders clashing over health care policies and this whole coronavirus pandemic. that is what they're calling it right now. hillary vaughn with the latest from washington, d.c. reporter: neil, last night's debate was the very first one with no live audience. changes were made with the them coming into contact with the coronavirus. they were standing with podiums six feet apart. the first one-on-one debate kicks off with a elbow bump

greeting. the debate included a few coughs and a few sniffles. >> first of all, my heart goes out to those, go to joe biden.com. i laid it out in significant detail. because the existential threat to united states of america is donald trump. it's critical. i would hope that bernie would do -- >> i'm not shaking hands. joe and i did not shake hands. >> i wash my hands god knows how many times a day with hot water and soap. i carry with me, as a matter of fact in my bag outside, hashed sanitizer. i don't know how. times a day i use that i make sure i don't touch my face. reporter: coronavirus dominated last night's debate. bernie said the crisis confirms that the america needs "medicare for all." joe biden disagrees. single-payer system would not solve all the problems of this crisis. >> pandemic exposes incredible weakness and dysfunction alt of our current health care system.

people in the pharmaceutical industry saying oh, wow, what an opportunity to make a fortune. >> it is not working in italy right now panned they have pa single-payer system. that has nothing to do whether or not you have a an insurance policy this is crisis. we're at war with a virus. we're at war with a virus. it has nothing to do with co-pays or anything. reporter: last night the former vp gave us a hint who the vice president would be if he were the nominee. his vp woe be a she. he would choose a woman as his running mate. sanders did not go that far, say likely he would choose a woman but one thing he can guarranty his running mate would be a progressive. tomorrow voters head to vote in four states around the country. ohio, illinois, arizona and florida. in total those states have 583 delegates up for grabs. neil. neil: thank you very much on that. what do you make, eliza, what the former vice president was saying, my vice president will be a woman?

>> well it is certainly a way to grab headlines in a debate. there has been a lot of speculation. biden hinted at this before, listing women he thought would be good for the job but this is certainly the fartherrest he has gotten. it is a commitment. he is looking more and more likely he will be the democratic nominee. his way of reaching out, reassuring voters concerned about it being a white man in his 70s when this whole thing started out with the most diverse field in history, the most women ever. now looking likely, not looking likely, it will be a white man in his 70s whether biden or sanders. neil: how do you think it would break down? say it depend on the female candidate he would choose but how do you think that would fare in a general election? >> well it, would definitely add a new dynamic. it is looking like president trump and pence are both men. it would bring in something new. we are seeing biden has expanded the electorate, expanded turnout

bringing in many suburban women who used to be republicans who showed up in the suburbs of virginia and north carolina and gave biden those wins. he could be reaching out to the voters to say come with me, i'm a man but i have a woman who could take charge on day one. he talked a lot how that person needs to be very prepared in case he were to end up leaving office. he wants someone who can carry the torch. neil: let me ask you a little bit what the president would do in response. he always said he is very comfortable with mike pence. say this entire coronavirus escalates, spirals out of control. a lot of people will blame fairly or not, the vice president, he switches horses midstream? other presidents have done it. fdr did it four times. what do you think? >> i mean it is certainly within the realm of possibility right now. he seems very happy with mike pence's response but you know

anything is possible. we're in an unprecedented time. we're closer to the election, changing thing at the last minute could have any kind of impact. we don't know at the moment. neil: eliza, thank you very much. eliza collins, "wall street journal" political reporter. u.s. surgeon general dr. jerome adams says is difficult to keep kids apart but it is necessary right now. >> we want people in small a group as possible n school they will be seeing, they will be around hundreds of other kids. if we get them around 10 kids instead of 100 kids, that will be better. i have a 15, a 14, a 10-year-old at home. i understand this as much as anyone does. it is really difficult to keep kids apart, especially when they get bored. neil: especially if they have problems being with each other. new york mayor bill de blasio is closing new york city schools at

least until april 20th. lauren simonetti with details. that is played out across the country? reporter: millions of students are at home this week, this month. >> maybe until the end of the school year. at least 37 states check this map out, they're closing schools, connecticut, new jersey, pennsylvania, ohio, north carolina, alabama, washington, it continues. more than 30 million students affected. let's listen now to new york city mayor bill de blasio. >> remote learning will begin. it has never been attempted by city of new york on this scale. this is going to be a kind of a battlefield training. reporter: battlefield training. widespread distance learning takes different shapes and sizes depending where you live, the age of your child, quite honestly the disposition of the parent. >> i'm used to having my three kids around but i have never attempted, i'm not a homeschool teacher. i'm very hesitant, but deferral

going into this with everything i have. reporter: then imagine parents trying to work at home as well. this is how it is going to work, or we think it is going to work as you do remote virtual learning. some students check in the morning with teachers online, get the assignments. turn them in at the end of the day. some schools are operated on line with half a day schedule. teachers will be available for questions between breakfast and lunch. some are sending homework sheets. that is what i'm doing with my kids. that is mass experiment coast to coast. businesses are pitching. zoom, giving schools k-12 the technology for free. this is new reality. already some parents are frustrated and nervous. what is recommended? keep a schedule that mimics your child's normal daily routine. if mom and dad are also working from home where junior is also trying to learn, it can feel

chaotic. another issue is day care especially for both parents who are doctors for nurses or in the health care industry. they're fighting the disease as we speak. neil, they need someone to help take care of kids. it shouldn't be grandma and grandpa right now. neil: lauren, thank you very, very much. you think about this. i always wonder about practical implication. this is new to a lot of school systems. you're planning on kids honesty if you take a test. >> talking about your own history. giving too much a way. it will not be perfect. we're not in perfect situation. i have two daughters in high school. one is starting it today. we'll see how that goes. the other did it last week. continuing this weekend. they're doing best they can. they're using zoom. so they have a modified schedule, i think they started 10:00 in the morning, run into 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon. they have half hour classes. they're all on zoom.

goes to private school. it is a little bit smaller. teachers are there, being interactive. they're doing best they can. they're holding classes with instructional time as where some schools are sending homework sheets. that is not neil: i wonder if it goes more smoothly than thought, if it goes in the future. connell: people talked about that in the workplace as well. we had that movement however many years ago where people were working from home, the technology maybe wasn't quite there yet. ceos wanted to bring people back to the workplace where they could have collaboration, they could meet face-to-face, come up with better ideas. now the case can be made maybe not in huge numbers but there might be certain positions where you can transition to part-time work at home or more work at home if we can be just as efficient and productive. a lot of producers are home. i think they are farreirly productive today. neil: we are following that.

meanwhile, certain teenaged boys right now in new jersey, when you are doing your assignments, the book is closed. the dow picking up steam, down 2136. all right. back with us now as we start our second hour, he alwai always fo don't have commercials. i left you people last week with the market 6,000 points higher. connell takes over. connell: what a mess. neil: what a mess is right. again, we have all these developments we are following. a lot of people wonder where is the money going. right now, walgreens is about the only dow component that's up. probably not a huge surprise, of course, the beneficiaries of lot of people who have to get items there. meantime, they are running back into bonds again. that was disrupted last week when both stocks and bonds were falling. gold not really much of an

advantage today so that notion that some trade plays that normally where stocks sunk, you went into bonds or that didn't work, you went into gold, it's not playing out consistently. let's get the read on all of this right now and where at least a lot of experts say this money could be going from susan li. she's at a flagship apple store in new york. apple has swooned about 30% already from its highs. what's happening right now? susan: yeah. and big business, how does that impact the u.s. economy as well. we are outside the fifth avenue flagship store for apple and this was closed about three years ago, it usually attracts more people than the statue of liberty every year. you so the lines that we are so familiar with to try to get into the store to see the latest offerings from apple nonexistent because apple has shut all stores outside of china until march 27th. out of an abundance of caution

and the lessons they learned from china, where they closed all stores and china apparently trying to get over the coronavirus. nike doing the same, closing all stores in north america until march 23th. under armour, lululemon, am better c abercrombie & fitch and some experts say it could be a peak year for closings of retail. also las vegas, they are not taking any more customers until may 1st. can you imagine the hit to the u.s. economy? big businesses can afford it because they have a lot of cash but what about bricks and mortars? we have heard from the administration some of the help they have rolled out for employees like paid sick leave and some deferment of the payroll deduction. later today, we are looking for something more, maybe $400 billion in stimulus to help out everybody. hopefully the little guys like

more broader tax cuts and the like and maybe some cash injection. but big business and how it impacts the economy is a big question now. that's being reflected in the stock market selloff we are looking at because some people are predicting, goldman sachs has a contraction of 5% in the second quarter, 0% growth in the second quarter. jpmorgan said we are looking at a contraction of 2% in the fers quart first quarter, 3% in the second quarter. back to you. neil: susan, thank you very much. susan li in the middle of that. apple is still up to shipping a lot of its items to you but going into the stores for the time being ain't going to happen. you have been following up on this, we had a chat earlier with the former head of the new york stock exchange, now the present head of the exchange his addressing some of the issues he mentioned. connell: she sent out three

tweets, a lot of people have been talking about it, that's why you brought it up with grasso. the third tweet is the most important after she talked about how to keep the markets open and functioning, she said closing the markets would not close the underlying causes of the market decline, would remove transparency into investor sentiment and reduce investors' access to their money. this would only further compound market anxiety. that's her roeason for saying w have to leave it open. what grasso was saying is not making a case for closing the market but saying maybe we need a brief interruption, the president calling together a working group on the markets, the treasury secretary and all the top officials like kudlow and the rest, discuss these type of issues. he thought it was open for discussion even though he wasn't making the case for it. cunningham saying this would make things worse. there has been separation of discussion as to whether the market can remain open but the physical trading floor would

close. they have been taking people's temperatures, people walking on to the trading floor today. the chicago mercantile exchange already closed the trading floor there. obviously people on the floor will make the opposite case, saying if you ever need us, you need us now when things are this volatile, that's what you need the human element. we have had this discussion before, flash crash and all the rest, how important the human element remains. neil: it sometimes doesn't work out how you opened. the stock exchange closing after 9/11, waiting for the 17th to open. they had no choice. they were not ready. when they did reopen it didn't mitigate the damage. the market still fell thousands of points. it doesn't give you the calm you assume you are going to get. connell: i will never forget that day on the 17th, which was monday, i was outside the exchange and that was a surreal scene as business in business suits walked up wall street with military vehicles at the side of them walking in. the idea we would get any kind of calm in that environment was

next to impossible. also, the idea the markets had been closed, the repricing of assets was going to happen whether on -- you can't delay -- neil: circuit breakers, you get a little bit of calm there. a lot of times that works. sometimes there's no way of knowing. connell: most of our history with circuit breakers over the last week, we really hadn't used them much. the way the rule was written, they weren't in place for the flash crash because it wasn't set for the s&p 500. it was on the dow. once they changed the rule, all of our kind of history of how circuit breakers work is now being written. neil: are they coordinating with other exchanges, with other markets, and if not, they don't do much good. we will see. meantime, we are just getting word treasury secretary steve mnuchin is headed to capitol hill, will be a little later on. they are still discussing economic and other tooypes of

relief. edward lawrence has the latest. reporter: they will look at that fiscal stimulus, something the federal reserve has been looking for, chairman powell yesterday saying that is going to be a component in this. i can tell you in about 15 minutes, less than 15 minutes, the federal reserve will make another big purchase of treasury securities, $40 billion worth by the end of the day is what they will buy in securities, and $7.6 billion is what they will buy in mortgage-backed securities. this was part of the quantitative easing that's now started. $700 billion will be added to the fed balance sheet over the next several months, $500 billion in those treasuries, then $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities. this is all designed to stabilize the markets because powell says there could be a ripple effect, devastating ripple effect, if the treasury market doesn't find the liquidity it needs. also, the federal reserve also reduced the rates to zero or near zero. this marks the first time since the financial crisis things have

been this low. federal reserve chairman jerome powell looking at inflation dropping in the coming months as well as treasury market stress. that prompted the interest rate cut to basically zero. powell says the rates will stay at zero until the event has passed. white house economic adviser larry kudlow saying he applauds this move. >> we're all very happy here with what the federal reserve did yesterday and the regulators endorsed the discount window today. that's all good. reporter: the federal reserve did more than infuse cash and lower the rates to about zero. they removed the reserve for banks and that gave a broad directive for banks to loan out the extra money to businesses as well as people. powell says he got assurances from the big banks, heads of the big banks, that that's exactly what they would do. the federal reserve basically fired almost every bullet they have at this economy yesterday, trying to pick it up. that might have spooked the

markets, the reason we are seeing the selloff here, wondering maybe second quarter, third quarter might not be as good as they're saying. neil: you think about it, from the time the federal reserve announced emergency measures, because there were 150 basis cuts over little more than a week, if you think about it, and we are down 3500 points from that, so obviously the markets are digesting other words, right? reporter: i talked to a number of traders who question what is the fed seeing that they are not seeing. that's what they are concerned about. that's why this move on a sunday before the market was even open after friday was up 2,000 points and change, it really spooked some people i talked with going forward. that is going to be the real issue they will have to deal with, where does this settle. is there really a recession, the big "r" word in the future, or will all of this work? neil: great reporting, as

always. putting it in perspective, we raised this earlier, think of it, in late august, i hope i'm right on that, we were around 2.25%, 2.5% on the federal funds rate, overnight bank lending rate. now we are down to zero, back to where we were in the middle of the meltdown to try to goose the economy and the federal reserve is doing that coupled with buying a lot of mortgage-backed securities, lot of treasuries to provide plenty of liquidity and cash to the banking system, as we hear the likes of nike, apple, urban outfitters, appearer com bappear appearer abercrombie & fitch are closing stores for the foreseeable feature. companies like walmart and gap are cutting back on hours. not closing, simply scaling back the number of hours the store are open. the former walmart ceo bill simon here on all of that. good to have you with us. these measures walmart is taking, others are taking, obviously to do the best about

trying to avoid people lingering or staying in crowded situations, in the case of walmart for 24 hours, but what effect do you think this will have? >> how are you doing? i think the actions for limiting store hours are more about store operations than they are limiting contact. over the weekend, the rush on toilet paper continued. it takes time to get back in stock. they are back in stock or were back in stock in the stores i checked this morning. the replenishment system is working and they just need time to clean the stores and restock the shelves at the rate people are buying products. neil: there has been a lot of panic buying, to your point. i don't know if it happened at walmart but you see people coming to fist fights as a result of this. i only do that if they run out of prime rib on the buffet line but i understand the friction. i'm wondering, are we getting

close now to limiting people to purchase x amount of rolls of toilet paper? x amounts of purell if you can get your hands on it? it's like gold these days. are we heading that direction? >> i think it might be necessary for the next week or so. we, in fact, presold six months' worth of toilet paper and you don't use it the more you buy it. people are stocked up and you know, they've got plenty yet i was in a couple stores this morning and they are still buying it. i spoke to some of the manufacturers yesterday and the plants are running full speed and distribution systems running as it's supposed to be running and it will get back to the stores very quickly, and people will buy it. i think we just need to all kind of grow up a little bit and take responsibility. it's time for us to do that. that's the part we have to play. neil: or think of others, for god's sake. when you are clearing out a shelf of items and you know you are preventing others to at least share in that, it's just

awful behavior. leaving that aside, i'm wondering what you make of some of these dribs and drabs we are getting on what the government is considering to provide more economic incentives to folks. this is coming from dow jones. one of the ideas being kicked around are cash grants to individuals, loans for individuals, small businesses and the like, on top of what the federal reserve has done. what do you make of that kind of stuff? >> well, i think everybody's sort of knocking around some ideas and it's probably necessary. two things need to be done in retail and restaurants, particularly, and that's make sure demand keeps up or restores as quickly as it can after we are past this peak, then liquidity and cash flows for some of the midsized to smaller firms who are going to be in a cash crunch obviously if you close down. they are left with terrible choice of not paying their employees or paying their employees and going broke, in

which case they can't pay their employees. they will need some liquidity, some tax relief. the payroll tax cut helps with both because it relieves some pressure on the business as well as the employee and the tariffs we put in place are sort of a unique sort of sophie's choice now. we took some of the tariffs and now the retailers that took them and paid for them can't sell the products they paid the tariff on because they are being forced to close. something has to happen with that as well. neil: glad you mentioned that. china wasn't paying those tariffs. retailers were absorbing the costs or if not, passing them on to consumers in the case of walmart. i'm curious, your personal take on providing these incentives. let's say a payroll tax cut. if you are leery of leaving your home, is that going to make you more inclined to leave your home? >> probably not. i think if you look at china and korea and the curve and the arc,

it's taken about five weeks to get past the worst of this. we are in week two. we've got three weeks and i'm not sure there's anything in the three-week period that can be done to solve the problem. i don't think there's anything the fed can do. the federal government can and they can start to begin to put plans in place that allow people a little more confidence and a little bit more flexibility once we come out of this, making sure that things are as close to the way they were before we went into it as they are when they come out of it and make sure the great employment rate we had in the country continues by supporting the businesses and allowing them to keep people hired through this. that will make a huge difference. neil: how do you think we are responding to this? >> you know, i think that there's one side of the coin that says we are overreacting and another side that says we are not reacting enough. what we need to do as americans, as citizens, is to just own up to that, to this, and to deal

with it with resolve, with determination, with the focus that gets us through the crises that have occurred in our history. this isn't the worst thing the planet that's ever happened and it may be a difficult time for us, it will be a difficult few weeks or maybe a month, but we as americans just need to sort of just belly up and deal with it and stop doing crazy stuff like buying toilet paper when they don't need it, and move forward, tan governme and the g support us. it would be very helpful if the left and the right stop squabbling and the governor of new york just had a press conference where he picked on the federal government and i'm sure there will be a response out of the federal government towards the governor of new york. it's not helpful, guys. it's not helpful. neil: exactly right. we have to grow up and be less selfish here. people in fist fights over toilet paper. think of your fellow man and woman here. bill simon, thank you.

meantime, i want to pass along something that's the kind of stu stuff, italy is sort of the new ground zero for coronavirus cases. an outbreak that's now hit 2,158, a death toll from a little over 1800 just on sunday. i know for a fact it was a little over 1300 on saturday. so it's escalating there and at a more abrupt pace. meantime, we are also getting report of a lot of people trying to distance themselves from what's happening right now. when it comes to the corner of wall and broad and the new york stock exchange, the former ceo dick grasso saying a lot of this will ultimately hinge on the consumer. take a look. >> we have to remind ourselves the economy is almost 70% driven by consumer sentiment and consumer action. i do think a lot of folks who have initially pooh-poohed the

idea of a payroll tax cut haven't considered the possibility it will be a ceiling of $75,000 or $85,000 so it goes to the people most in need of cash flow at this point in time. neil: so in his view, that is what's going to make the difference. the consumer will have more wherewithal when he or she does essentially leave the home, they will be more favorable to buy things, because they will have more money. connell mcshane joins me on that, we have gary b. smith appeand charlie gasparino joins us on the phone. charlie, what do you make of the debate give these incentives, provide these breaks, because it won't coax people out of their homes right now, they are told to avoid crowds of 50 or more, whatever it is, it will eventually lay the groundwork for economic recovery. what do you think? >> right.

the banks believe we are going in that direction and will in the second half of the year be bouncing back. depending how much of this aid is being sent to individuals who are going to go through what's known as a liquidity crisis, i will get into that in a minute, the arc of the economy could shoot up. here's the bottom line. in 2008 it was a liquidity crisis among banks. they were holding what was then toxic securities. they needed to get them through a certain period and the securities became untoxic so they can survive. right now banks are very well capitalized. they got -- the fed has obviously thrown a lot of money at them. the plumbing of the system is going to be fine. the real problem here is going to be the small businesses, the average american which is -- who are going to go through a liquidity crisis. everybody at the big banks is telling me that. for example, banks are just bracing for the potential that their branches will have to close. a lot of them are saying we

think that will happen. that will have an impact on consumers, obviously. here's what needs to be done. i think the administration is gearing up, they should gear up faster, by looking at affected industries throwing money at these industries to get them through the cash crunch, then give money to small businesses that need to get through liquidity crisis. those two things from what i hear are on the table. i don't know where we are in terms of going there. that's where you will see a real problem. you know, it's not quite a problem we are used to dealing with. the federal government, the treasury, is used to dealing with the big banks. they know how to handle that. they got that down. we got through the financial crisis after about six months, we got through it. this is a little different. this is average people, small businesses, and they better get moving fast because, you know, as much as the economy will come back, it could go down significantly just on the fear.

the other thing is, no one knows how deep the coronavirus will hit. that big unknown causes people to rachet back their consumption even more. restaurants closing, you know what's going on. neil: absolutely. one of the things, too, you have to wonder if all of this talk of stimulus hasn't moved the needle, and it's made things worse because some interpret it saying what does the fed know that i don't know, if it hasn't helped, if there's stabilizing news on the virus front that will help the markets to say nothing of what's more important, the folks directly on the front line of this, and i don't see that changing. >> well, we are following the arc of what happened in italy and trying to avoid the fate of what happened when their health care system became overwhelmed. there are some experts who say we are approximately 11 days behind them. i don't know. that's what some of the experts who are following it say, approximately we are. our path hasn't been that great

yet, because there's no doubt, really no debate we were behind the curve certainly in terms of testing and some of the other response from the government perspective. even if we can catch up there, your point about good news coming on that front is going to take some time because remember, there's a delay in that because things are probably almost definitely worse than we think now and they will be better than we know at some point as well. in other words, we will make the turn before we know it. so having that information of when things are getting better h is going to be really hard. that's why i think the timing of this response is to follow up, charlie is right, the small business person and the person in the gig economy, the hourly worker, that person has a period of time that he or she needs to get through that they have to feel like someone has their back. right now the only entity large enough to have that back is the federal government. we haven't seen movement on capitol hill as fast as many people would have liked. steve mnuchin is heading there now supposedly but this is

dragging out a lot longer. federal reserve acted twice, right or wrong, but the federal reserve has taken action. federal government is playing catch-up. state and local governments have been acting as quickly as they can but congress has not. that delay has definitely hurt confidence. neil: on that point, gary b. smith, you got to wonder, we go back to the last financial crisis, the meltdown a little over a decade ago. back then, we ended up rescuing all the money center banks, investment banks, we extended that later on to a couple of the auto makers. the fact of the matter was, it was a limited pool, albeit an extensive pool of beneficiaries. here, you are extending potential not our fault type of industries like the airline industry. you could make an argument for the casino industry. you could go on and on and talk about small and medium businesses, the restaurant industry that will all argue what you do for one, you better do for me and simply because we

don't have the timeline on this, we don't have any way of factoring in the long-term cost and impact of this. you as a very successful investor, how do you play that? >> it's difficult. because what you're saying, i was just thinking that one thing here in kind of southeastern florida, where i have my whole family here visiting, we were going to go to disney world. they are shut down. can't disney say we are affected also? we can't go to a restaurant, they are shut down. everyone is affected. the problem is from a market perspective, the fed has never fought any battle like this. it's not world war ii, it's not after 9/11, it's not 1987, because as you and charlie and connell say, those were all financial crises, they were all crises of a different making. we have never had, back to your original point, even if we gave everyone money, we took a

helicopter and everyone got $1,000, you can't go spend it. like i said, havei have the fam here, we can't go anywhere. i just can't see the market doing anything other than going into recession. it's almost inconceivable. >> gary, if we can get some money to people, this is what -- i mean, this is the best case scenario, we are going to get crushed now for obviously the next quarter, maybe the next two quarters. what we have to do is get money into people's pockets. not the banks. the banks are okay. and -- >> not even the big businesses. >> they're okay, too. >> it's the small and medium size. >> and some of these businesses like airlines. you want that u-shaped recovery after the pain. you have to think of it like the financial crisis but only dealing with small businesses and maybe individuals. because the financial crisis

when it really came down to it was a liquidity crisis, right, they needed cash up front because their balance sheets were impaired for a limited period of time. going to be the same here with small businesses. by the way -- >> so what you are talking about, charlie, is something like post-world war ii. during the war, people just couldn't spend money on things made of rubber, gasoline, steel, because they were all -- but after the war, we saw a huge rebound in the economy. problem was, we were down from the start of world war ii, about 1939, to the bottom, the market was down almost 60%. that's a pretty good selloff. >> yeah, but that's a good selloff but the bounce-back is what matters. it depends on the time. i think -- >> i'm not arguing that there's going to be a bounce back. but in this case, who do we -- do we just give the money to everyone affected? because everyone will be affected. >> here's what i would do. here's what i would do.

give people with good credit, lend to people with good credit. there should be some standards but you need to be able to do this. here's the thing. when the realit really comes do, all this, the infection rate, how big -- goldman sachs had a conference call today, said it could be 50% of the population. who knows if that's true. and just how much our hospitals are overwhelmed by people very sick. if we are taking drastic measures as we are doing right now, and increasingly will do, you -- we will get out of this faster. it will be tougher, faster and the bounce-back will be stronger if we can get money to people. >> in the interim period, the companies that can manage that, can do it. apple can close its stores -- >> apple can. >> that's my point. they are so well capitalized they can afford to take care of their employees. i'm sure disney is in a similar

position, a lot of these large companies. it is a pick and choose. there are companies who are more importantly maybe individuals and owners of small businesses that will face a true liquidity crisis that won't have the money to pay their employees or the money to keep paying their bills if they are an individual. that's a lot different than saying let's just bail out everybody. the idea is to help people who need it now. >> what about the hourly worker that has no credit? what do you do about them? they are severely hurt. >> there will be other social welfare programs for them. that's the safety net. we do have a safety net. but as walter bagat, lend freely to solvent firms and individuals of good collateral and charge them. that's what we will have to do, on a bigger scale, to avoid a complete meltdown of the economy. i heard you talking with dick grasso about the shutting of the stock exchange. i do know there has been conversations about it.

most people know that would be playing with fire. if you can't trade a stock, man, it's not -- it's not really worth anything. neil: delaying volatility doesn't mean you dodge volatility. >> that's true. neil: guys, thank you all very, very much. meantime, we are just learning the department of defense will be conducting on the record, on-camera briefing with reporters momentarily. we will go to that when we hear more about that. ashley webster, meantime, on a possible development we were just discussing in this case for the airlines and what that might look like. ashley: yeah, in particular in europe. they're just a little bit ahead. certainly the u.s. airlines would like their bailout, too. virgin atlantic essentially from reports asking the government, the uk government, for a $9 billion bailout saying look, we are cutting our capacity, our daily flights, by 80% before the end of this month. british airways also saying they are going to drop their number of flights by 75% in the coming

weeks and it's just not sustainable. in fact, a consultancy firm in the aviation business says many of the world's airlines could be bankrupt by the end of may without government help. we had this from uk airlines saying we are talking about the future of uk aviation, one of the world class industries and unless government pulls itself together, who knows what will be left of it once we get out of this mess. from what i understand, neil, the numbers being put out there with the amount of money that will be repaid once things get back to normal, if we get back to normal, whatever that looks like, that money would be repaid. the airlines saying they would like a letter of credit. they are concerned that credit card companies won't process payments because the credit card companies are very worried about essentially airlines going bust. we are also getting reports here in the united states the airline industry could be asking for some sort of help from the government to the tune of $50

billion. that is not confirmed but they are in talks with the administration because as we know, the airlines have been really badly hit. united says 50% of its capacity is going to be cut and those planes that are flying right now are just a third pull. of course, we have city, state and federal governments telling everyone if you don't have to travel, don't. for the airlines, this is an incredibly difficult situation to weather. neil: to put it mildly. great report. thank you very, very much. ashley webster. when you lo ok at groups that have been hard-hit by this coronavirus situation, they are far-flung. certainly leading the cast of characters through no fault of their own is the likes of the airline industry. number two to them, the hotel industry. hotel owners association president and ceo says there's a looming liquidity crisis for some of the nation's premier hotel owners, not necessarily just the premier ones. where do things stand right now

as you see them? >> thank you very much. good to be with you. i have a great job. i go to work every day with 20,000 entrepreneurs who are living the american dream, many of them first, second, third generation americans. through our association, we represent them, we are the voice of america's hotel owners. lot of people don't yrnd staund when you check into a hotel it may say hilton or marriott. in reality it's a franchise owned by a local person, joe hotelier, trying to make payroll and pay the mortgage like all small businesses across america. right now, we are in a world of hurt. it has to do with occupancy, as occupancy rates have crater eedn recent days. we have been doing great in the trump economy. occupancy rates above 80%. but we are getting reports from our members of rates now falling 30% to 50%, some hotels with

only 10% to 20% occupancy rates and that's leading to a liquidity problem for our members. i'm glad to hear all the talk about liquidity today. that's the real issue going forward. our members are going to be facing severe challenges to meet the payroll and pay the mortgage every month. that's what we are concerned about as we look at the overall response to the situation coming from the government. neil: i'm sure even if you get some help from the government, maybe it is coming, it's going to take a lot to get people to travel again. they are nervous. i suspect that won't change until we make progress on getting this whole coronavirus thing under control. don't you? >> i think that's probably correct. we do hope that it will be short-lived. we hope that at the end of the day -- neil: what would short-lived be for you? april? may? june? in other words, if we are into the summer and people are still

anxious, then what? >> it's going to be very very difficult because of the ripple effect. because you see, when our hotels are empty, the restaurants around them, the retail establishments around them, the communities that depend upon the economic impact from those businesses, you know, that ripple effect is going to continue to negatively impact the overall economy in the united states. look, we are really hoping we are going to see some action on the part of the government, just three or four basic fronts. hoteliers don't want a bailout. what we do want is for the government to make sure that there is some ease in regulation so that banks, for example, and our members who are their customers, can do what they need to do to work out some ways to get through this for several months. same thing is true for capital infusion. we very much appreciate what the sba may be able to do now because of president trump's

initiatives but there's a lot of red tape that goes with sba loans that involve governments and local communities. we want that red tape to be moved so that this capital can be infused more quickly so there are hotelieres who can stay alive and be there whenever the end comes, whenever we do get to the other side. we want to make sure we can be there. hoteliers are resilient. we went through 9/11, through the 2008 crisis. we have been through recessions before. but this is unique. so at the end of the day, you know, we hope that whatever washington does, whatever state governments do, they won't add more regulations, more burdens, more things that are going to get in the way of our being able to survive this and be there on the other side when the economy gets to churning again. neil: cecil, thank you very much. good luck to you, cecil staton. as he was talking to illustrate

how widespread this develops and the fear of it develops, we are learning in the garden state, lot non-emergent travel in new jersey will be discouraged, starting next monday. a number of other states are sort of reconciling how they get people either off the roads or avoid crowded situations. in new jersey they are doing it between those hours, it's best you not travel. could be easier said than done. to the new york stock exchange right now. we have kristina partsinevelos at the new york stock exchange where they are taking people's temperatures literally. right? kristina: literally. when i walked in, i guess we have a skeleton staff because there are traders on the floor. when you come in you get greeted. you come in here, she's not turning around but she will take the temperature. nobody can enter the building unless you take your temperature. if you have a fever, you are not

allowed in. how can you do it? it's literally on the forehead. that's what they have been doing with everybody. i have been running around. am i good? >> 96. >> that's how you get in and out of the building. this is how they are screening everybody. we know the stock exchange president says there's no way they will be closing the floor. should they do so, they are prepared but they want to avoid that. you still have traders here but despite the circuit breaker this morning, you have relative calm on the floor. could be because there are fewer traders here, because everyone is taking this in, it's the third time we have seen markets halt this morning. i want to focus on moderna. big company news, they said they successfully placed the first patient in their phase one study. that phase one study is closed. that patient received a vaccine. they are going to follow this patient for 12 months now to see

if there's any type of repercussions after taking this vaccine. that's why the share price is up around 20% higher for the day. then i also want to focus on teledoc. you can call it the telehealth industry, teledoc has seen a volatile day. this morning it was up fairly high, now a little lower, about 8%. the company has announced they have just seen exceedingly higher numbers of people going on the website signing up for virtual care appointments. they actually hit 15,000 per day on the website. back to you. this is the entrance of the new york stock exchange floor for all the traders. neil: thank you very, very much. in the meantime, some dallas-ft. worth area school districts are offering pickup and go meals for students and families. thousands of students in the region now are home from school. casey steagall has more on that. reporter: yeah, this is a real growing challenge frankly for school districts all across america. here in the dallas independent

school district alone, a little more than 90% of the total student population actually qualifies for the meal assistance program. in other words, they come from low income households and while students are out on spring break this week, this district as well as others all across the country are working really hard to make sure all students are continued to be fed, even as schools close. that means stocking food, creating bag lunches that can be grabbed and taken away from schools. you can't gather in large groups. this as dallas and other major cities are now calling on the usda to take immediate action, relaxing some rules as districts across the country grapple with the reality of covid-19, perhaps keeping schools closed well beyond spring break, possibly through the end of the school year in some places.

>> perhaps we can do a grab box that would have three days' worth of breakfast, lunch and supper at one time for students to take and we believe that would maximize meal access while minimizing contact between staff and families. reporter: now, texas and dallas, this is not the only place this is going on. los angeles independent school districts will begin meals for students on wednesday. that is the second largest school district in the country. 80% are at or below the poverty level. similar programs are being launched in miami-dade, down in florida, also parts of nevada, atlanta, we are getting word these sack lunches are being prepared. a lot of the districts are on a conference call that's happening weekly and they are all sharing ideas with one another. the top 12 largest districts in

the country as the folks in dallas say, these are unprecedented circumstances, obviously, and everyone is trying to figure out the best course of action so no students fall through the cracks here. neil: thank you, casey. imagine being the parents of those kids, wondering what you do. to psychologist dr. wendy dickinson with some ideas. all of a sudden, parents find themselves with the kids at home, some of them playing teacher or watching their kids do their assignments online. that's a lot easier said than done, huh? >> yeah. now we are dealing with stress not only on the macro level but the microlevel in our living rooms. i think it's really important to establish some routines. the things that create stress are a lack of predictability, a lack of the known, and no end point. we are dealing with all of those things.

the more that you can create some sense of predictability for your children, the better off everyone is going to be. neil: but people, you are the doctor so i defer to you, they freak out. that fear compounds itself when we get announcements like we did, in new jersey they will put a curfew into effect. this is being played out across the country. how do you advise people when there is always new stuff happening, new limitations on personal freedoms being compromised? a lot of people say for the greater good, i get that, but the geit gets them nervous. >> i think we are all feeling it. one of the most important things is to stay connected. we hear a lot about social disconnection right now. i think what we are really talking about is physical disconnection. we want to stay connected with the people who help us feel grounded and help us feel safe. neil: how do you do that? on social media? what are you talking about? >> absolutely. it's a great time to reach out

via social media, to make phone calls we wouldn't normally have time to make. you can face-time, i face-timed my nephew the other day and he read me a book or write a letter the old-fashioned way. make a list of all the people you want to connect with, have them pick one or two a day to write a card to or draw a picture for, call on face-time. neil: are you telling me i have to advise my teenaged sons to take out their devices, get on social media and to do that as the cure for their loneliness? is that about it? >> i would also say we need to limit screen time. yes, let's make it productive. neil: just in case they're listening. thank you very much. all wise words. let's go to the "new york post" editorial board member kellyjane torrance. i always hit you with breaking news developments. you always handle it flawlessly. governor phil murphy of new jersey is issuing a statewide curfew. i had it wrong. i said next monday.

it's taking effect tonight, 8:00 p.m. it will be in effect until 5:00 a.m., so 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. each day. he's saying we want everybody to be home, not out. what do you make of all this? >> i have to say i have been most worried about the kind of people who can't work from home and especially hourly employees who aren't on salary. i'm on a salary, i'm lucky, i'm a journalist. most of what i can do, if not all of it, i can do from home but many people can't. when you have rules like this, people who are calling for a lot of closures over the last several weeks are the kind of people who can work from home. a lot of people can't. you talk about 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. if you have someone who is forced to work, for example, all day, when are they supposed to go to the grocery store to get their groceries? i can tell you, delivery has all but stopped. even here in new york city i have been trying for a couple weeks, i managed to get one

delivery. people need to be able to survive, to be able to get the things they need, medical prescriptions, groceries. i'm obviously in favor of social distancing and being careful and taking smart precautions, washing hands more, staying away from the elderly who are most at risk. but i think blanket bans like these are going to hurt i think lower income people, people who aren't on salaries, people who are hourly and people who don't have savings. those are the people that these kind of rules are going to hurt. so i'm a little skeptical that this kind of measure is needed. neil: i know it's a business network, a business show, but we always have to talk about the psychological impact of developments like that. the curfew in new jersey which is voluntary for the time being, but you know it will probably soon be in force. now we have canada closing its border to non-citizens, non-residents. this is coming from prime

minister justin trudeau out of abundance of caution. we are seeing it play out in germany and italy and much of asia. we are seeing it play out on the border of russia and china, on and on worldwide. i'm wondering if that feeds this paranoia. >> you know, it's a good point. when you see canada restricting its borders, you know things are getting serious because canada of course, especially prime minister justin trudeau really prides himself on being very open to people from around the world. i do think it's the psychological impact that is really going to be big. i think certain travel bans make sense. i think this is one reason, for example, italy is so hard-hit. it actually has a very big chinese migrant population because you have a lot of workers who have been coming into italy to work in the textile and other industries there. they didn't close their borders as soon as the united states and i think that's one reason italy is the most hard-hit country in europe. some travel bans can make sense

but at the same time, i'm seeing all kinds of regular everyday people who are really worried is the government trying, you know, to use this opportunity to, you know, to use emergency power. i think you really want to have people understanding what's necessary and what isn't. i think the more that things are voluntary and stay voluntary, i think it's really better for morale. people can make their own decisions in many cases. for some workers, a paycheck is going to mean the difference between life and death. for others, they understand they've got some savings, they can stay off the streets and out of the restaurants and stuff for some time. i really do think that leaving as many decisions to americans right now is the thing to do but of course, you know, as rahm emanuel and others have famously said, never let a crisis go to waste. neil: apart from that, a lot of it is common sense. we talked earlier in this broadcast about people who are

just beyond selfish and crazy when you go to the store and they hoard every product, preventing others from grabbing those products. to that end, we are hearing jersey city now in new jersey is asking grocery stores to set aside shopping hours for the elderly and vulnerable who can't compete with these people who are like tackling them for the last gallon of milk or last loaf of bread or last rolls of toilet paper. probably not a bad idea. i think we all have to step back and remember we all share this planet together. quit being jerks, you know? >> very well said. i couldn't have said it better myself. i'm glad that stores are taking initiative to do stuff like that. i have three rolls of toilet paper left at my apartment. i'm hoping i will be okay but i can't buy any and i'm seeing of course people on facebook, on twitter posting pictures of, you know, 100 rolls they have hoarded. you do wonder hey, you do realize that now some people are not going to be able to get what they need. i think in situations like this, americans have been great in the past.

i hope they will be now in looking out for those who are more vulnerable, who are going to need help and perhaps who didn't think that they were not going to be able to buy toilet paper or hand sanitizer because everybody else bought far more than they needed. so store hours just for the elderly, giving those people a chance where you don't have it so crazy, have fewer people in there, that's great. i think those are the kind of things we need to be thinking about, targeted activities that are really aimed at helping the most vulnerable rather than blanket bans on things that are going to make it harder for the most vulnerable to get what they need. neil: well said. arc it back to the john f. kennedy speech, people get tired of hearing it from me, we all breathe the same air. start acting like it. let's help each other no matter what their political persuasion. the cdc now advising against gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks. major concerts and events have been postponed or canceled. you have seen this play out even

among movie theaters. amc will only fill up half the theater before they consider it sold out. to billboard senior director and live aid dave brooks, who joins us now. we are seeing more and more do this sort of thing. i'm wondering what you are hearing now, how extended this gets. >> it's interesting, in l.a. one of the biggest concert promoters had originally said all shows were going to be postponed until the end of march. that's already gone to april. i think promoters are -- and music people are beginning to think this could stretch into the summer. neil: so then what? if you had so many other -- say nothing of the fact on the sports front but the entertainment front, there are concerts that were being planned, they get delayed, pushed back, that could affect, because some of these are booked so much if advance, where none of that happens this summer. >> right. the bummer summer, right. it's definitely a possibility.

everything is being postponed and you know, what happens when you postpone one concert and don't hold it until say august, is you delay everything that was supposed to start in august. so it's really disruptive to the music business which was supposed to have a huge year. there's more artists going on tour this year than ever before. you know, it's really catching people in the music business by surprise. neil: i'm happy mick jagger returned to acting again because his concerts might not get much of an audience. he's a darned good actor. he will have opportunity there. >> also, i saw him in concert last year at the rose bowl. it was amazing. he's still got some moves. he moves like jagger. neil: i hear you. thank you very much, my very hip friend. meantime, we heard a little earlier the former walmart ceo bill simon telling us we all have to calm down a little here. take a look.

>> this isn't the worst thing on the planet that's ever happened and it may be a difficult time for us, it will be a difficult few weeks or maybe a month, but we as americans just need to sort of just belly up and deal with it and stop doing crazy stuff like buying toilet paper when we don't need it, and move forward. neil: all right. to gary b. smith, connell mcshane back with us. connell, wise words but people are just -- i don't get it now. i don't get that. >> because people are worried about all kinds of different things, whether it be what happens if they get sick and have to stay in their house, what do the kids do. some of this is understandable. you made the point let's just be human beings about it and think about the guy or woman behind you and say well, don't they deserve a chance to have the same items you do and let's think about our neighbor a little bit. neil: if charlie gasparino were

trying to get the same gallon of milk, would you tackle him? >> that's why he's on the phone today. i do think there's actually, to be serious, one important point to make. we have to be careful not to give out inaccurate information. it is not political pundits or people making salaries at home that are telling people here that you need to stay off the roads or the government that's doing a power grab. there is universal agreement and i think the data has shown it and the leaders, people who are taking leadership roles in companies and governments the last few days, it is universally agreed the only way to mitigate this virus is by keeping people away from each other and by -- and sometimes by keeping people as they are doing in new jersey off the roads. you say why is the governor doing this. if people, if you make a suggestion to someone, if i say don't go to the bar tonight and you still go and the place is packed, then come back the next night, i need to keep people away from each other because that will make people safer.

that's been proven by data. that's the difference between italy and singapore and other countries that haven't handled this as well. this is something people have carefully considered and didn't want to do and tried to avoid. here in new york the mayor tried to avoid closing the schools because they wanted to have a place to feed the kids. kids rely on that for meals. they wanted to have child care -- neil: they can dot the is and cross the ts. >> there's a lot of things that are -- these people don't want to do, but the health experts, experts, not pundits or journalists, the experts that are advising them are telling them this is for the greater good, based on data. neil: very good point. to that point, gary b., connell talks about the data that says you clamp down on people getting together in groups in this case now larger than 50, you will mitigate this, you will curtail at least the spread of the disease. those are some of the examples we saw out of a number of countries that tried this, particularly places like taiwan,

where it was limited to 3,000 cases, as we speak, which is unheard of considering its proximity to china and everything else. having said that, the next step from advising curfews like in new jersey and elsewhere, philadelphia, some of these other places we are hearing, is a lockdown. that sort of ramps it all up if we get to that stage. >> yeah. no, you're right. i agree with connell 100%. "the washington post" actually did a good graphic on what it looks like if there's quote unquote, a total lockdown, partial lockdown and none, and the difference in how fast it spreads is phenomenal. look, we are, you know, we talked earlier about parallels. let's just say this is our world war ii, world war iii, if you will. i hope i'm exaggerating. but let's just say it is. you really do -- someone has to come out and say no more

advisements. we are shutting down everything for two weeks, three weeks, i don't know. stay home. we can do that. you remember after 9/11, everyone basically did nothing for at least a week. no one went anywhere. there wasn't anything open. wasn't anything to do. neil: that was a week. that was a week. >> but we could do it. and i think in this case even if you say look, i'm still going to the gym because for whatever crazy reason, it's open, and listen, i try to wipe down everything but i know i'm hitting up against doorknobs and handles and stuff like that. i could be catching it or spreading it. you can't give people the choice at this point. that's the number one job the government should be doing right now, just saying the draconian measure of everyone's on hiatus for x period of time, whatever the medical professionals decide is right. >> that's why they have to step up on capitol hill and do at least something about the people

who are doing ghaary is talking about, people who are stuck at home and can't pay their workers because of a small business. what we understand today, it's still a little bit of a circus to put it mildly with threats from the likes of louie gohmert to stop a bill and tom cotton expressing reservations, senator scott had stuff to say as well. point is, there's a lot of back and forth and little agreement on a timetable on what they will move forward with and what's actually going to be there at the end of what might be phase one of a multi-step stimulus. neil: i just want to dip into this, if we can. pentagon briefing on just how they are handling this and the effect of the coronavirus that has now led to a lot of changes not only in american life but across the world. >> -- about the changes happening in the department impacting our service members. i will give a few updates, then we will take some of your questions. first i want to start with the latest dod coronavirus numbers.

as of 0500 today, there have been 37 reported cases, 18 military, 13 dependents, three civilian, three contractors. we are continuing to monitor the situation and will provide updates each day as we receive them. as you know, on friday, the deputy secretary norquist released additional guidance on domestic travel for service members and dod personnel. effective today through may 11, all domestic travel for military personnel will be halted unless it meets one of a number of waiver criterias, including mission central travel or humanitarian reasons. this will also restrict dod civilian hiring on dod installations to persons who live within the immediate community area of the facility. the secretary continues -- neil: all right. we will monitor the defense department outlining what's already been done and proposed. if you are concerned about the government using this as an opportunity to crack down on things, maybe you are into

individual liberties, connell mcshane was raising this notion it's meant to keep people the flipside of this is be careful what you wish for. i think on flip side would be "the liberty file" host, fox news senior judicial analyst judge andrew napolitano. judge this is kind of like your argument i remember after 9/11, for the good of protecting people we can get government potentially going too far. do you think it is going too far? >> i do. i don't want to second-guess governor cuomo who i have the highest respect. neil: how about second-guessing connell. i would recommend that. >> even higher respect. we have a constitution. there is no emergency trigger or no emergency provisions of constitution, it has to be follow. freedom, ability to move one place to another, the ability to buy a lawful product and sell a

lawful product are default positions. i understand the virus. i understand the government wants to do something, wants to do it well, wants to do it quickly but it can't interfere with basic freedoms. when it does it, has to meet a high due process standard. it has to show a rational basis for it. why is the government of new jersey banning automobiles on state high bays after 8:00 p.m.? maybe i'm trying to get a home. neil: i'm told it is suggested. getting your nose out of joint for no reason, judge? >> i guess depend who you ask. the government can only go, can only go so far. the fear the power we give the government to help in crisis, stays with the government when there is no crisis the constitution is written to prevent that. how it is used depend on the fidelity of the human beings whose hand we repose the powers. whether governor murphy in

new jersey, governor cuomo of new york, or the president of the united states. the governors have more power to effect individual movement and what we can buy, where we can buy it and where we can go than the president does. the tenth amendment refers self and safety to the states keeps it from the federal government. the president can do things, unleash vast amounts of money going to the states, prevent you from crossing interstate line. the president can close the george washington bridge or close local roads or penalize you for driving on them in off hours. neil: forget about fast market conditions, fast times period. we'll see and hear more of this being played out across the country. once this is resolved, then what do you envision? >> you know during the crisis the courts ordinarily with deference to the constitution defer to the executive branch because it has information available to it that the courts

don't have. but it is fundamentally their duty to make sure those powers are no longer exercised when the crisis is over. did you think that tsa was going to be temporary? did you think that the rent controls during world war ii would be temporary? they all started as temporary events. they're still with us. neil: what do you think of that, connell? >> that is one of the things with it. sa has been talked about. taking our shoes off at the airport. we get all the points that was aimed in the time at being temporary. general mcchrystal, i don't know if you asked him about this when he was on, he said in his book, that was his idea, didn't know what to do at the time, wanted to do something make people feel better, still has never been unwound. we get all of that. my point it was, the suggestion is not being made by some random journalist somewhere because they're happy to have their salary or a pundit, it is right or wrong based on data being

presented. neil: judge, you will have to get on the program. we'll see what happens. >> my office is next door to connell's. i have to live with him. neil: tell me about it. he is only couple doors down. some people will be affected by curfew in new jersey is stuart varney doing yeoman's duty for our own charles payne. stuart: i may have to work that out, see you from the studio. only time will tell. thanks, neil. good afternoon, i'm stuart varney in for charles payne. this is "making money." breaking now, stocks sinking across the board. that trigger ad halt to trading at the opening bell. investors were reacting to the gradual slowdown of this economy and move by the fed cutting interest rates to near zero. that left people wondering is the central bank out of ammunition now? there is optimism. pharma companies,