"strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. ♪ ♪ >> from the fox studios in new york city, this is maria bartiromo's "wall street." maria: and happy weekend to all. welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo. thanks so much for joining us this weekend. coming up, rwr adviser groups ceo roger robinson is here to talk about china and the u.s. capital markets. then later, my exclusive interview with the ceo of delta airlines on how long he expects the recovery to take as now this weekend all 50 states are reopening in some phases. all that coming up. but first, playing hardball with chinese companies during the pandemic. this week the senate passed a

bill that will force chinese companies to follow the same accounting rules as u.s. companies listed on u.s. exchanges. the nasdaq is set to unveil new rules of initial public offerings, a move that could make it harder for some chinese companies to list on nasdaq. i spoke with larry kudlow,ing the white house chief economic head, about this a hard-line stance toward chinese companies as well as the white house's decision to halt money from the thrift fund going into chinese companies. watch. >> the solution here is for the chinese to open up their investment system and to play according to the rules set by longtime authorities in the usa, the sec being the key and the public accounting board being another key. we can't ask military retirees to invest in chinese companies that are operating against our own interests and in some cases with respect to this pandemic,

we saw the president wrote an excoriating note to the world trade organization, china and the w.h.o. were complicit. they lacked transparency, they lacked information. it looks like there was collusion for a cover-up. maria: and joining me right now to discuss more on this is roger robinson, president and ceo of the rwr advisory group, he is also a former senior director for international economic affairs for the national security council during the reagan administration. roger, it is great to have you, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, maria. maria: let's go through the most important things that took place this week, roger, because i you have the thrift fund, a fund of 500 plus billion dollars. the goal was to take 10% of that money, $50 billion, and invest it in the msci index. the president has changed that because when you zero in and

understand the companies there, you're talking about chinese companies building tanks, chinese companies building the tracking system that are tracking the uighurs who are currently in jail, all companies that are pretty much against u.s.' interest. >> that's for sure. it was the a monumental decision. i mean, this has been an area, maria, that's been largely neglected for 20 years. i mean, you can't find much on the national security and human rights dimensions of china's presence in the u.s. capital markets. you can't even find much effective march of last year on the investor protection angle. so this has been off the radar screen for a couple of decades, and it came back on with a vengeance with the thrift plan. those board members of the federal retirement thrift investment board simply went too far. i mean, the msci all country

index, as you said, has advanced weapons systems manufacturers, human rights abuserses and so forth, but there's also the problem that larry kudlow and others have been talking about which is the lack of pcaob audits, lack of disclosure of their corporate financials, their noncompliance with sarbanes-oxley and dodd-frank. i mean, china has cheerily not been playing -- clearly not been playing by the rules. the chickens have come home to roost. this is now out front and center at long last, and the president should be commended for that. but it was a very close call. we were within two weeks away from all that you're talking about becoming a reality. maria: right. and in addition, i asked the president about these companies that trade on the new york stock exchange and on the nasdaq that don't follow the same rules as u.s. companies. watch. >> you know, everyone wants to

be a tough guy. look, i'm the toughest guy, but what happens is we we say you're going to do this and you're going to follow the rules of the new york stock exchange if or nasdaq, what do they do? they say, okay, we'll move to london or we'll go to hong kong. maria: let's review. china has a raised as much as $3 trillion or more in i our equity and debt markets, and there are now well over a thousand chinese companies in our capital markets, most of them listed over the counter, nyse or nasdaq, but they don't follow the same accounting rules. they don't is have to sell us -- have to tell us if they're making money. how is that possible, roger? >> well, the index providers of this country certainly didn't help. they've gone to asian markets and added hundreds of chinese companies. i didn't see a wit of diligence as to who those companies are or what they do for a living or whether they're compliant with federal securities laws and the

like, and they wered ad to etfs and put in the portfolios of scores of millions of americans. we might have as many as 170 million americans unwittingly holding the wrong sorts of chinese companies in their portfolio today. look at the states' public pension systems, universities. the vast majority of those are holding these companies because of lack of vigilance and lack of compliance. and forcing compliance, more importantly. so this has been a,ing frankly, a disaster. and when you talk about going elsewhere to london, hong kong, other places, that's not happening very easily, i can tell you. look at the liquidity's not there, the depth and volume of the markets, the research report not to mention the prestige. none of that is happening in places like london. london has a total market cap of

2.4 trillion, ours is 37 trillion. and they have how many companies on their exchange today? two or three? i mean, the shanghai, london stock connect which was advertised as being a huge new event to increase listings in london, it's all but collapsed because of the repression in hong kong. hong kong itself is being beaten down by the mainland, and it's shaking investor confidence. so if you look around the world as to where china goes, if we have the temerity to force their compliance with federal securities laws, it's a very bleak picture for china. it's a very strong picture for us. maria: yeah. you make a really good point in all of that. i want to take a short break, and then i want to come back and ask you about the impact on u.s. investors. we got a taste of it when we saw what happened with the starbucks wannabe.

there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair

and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save.

♪ ♪ maria: welcome back. we are back with the ceo of rwr advisory group, roger robinson. roger, i want to talk about the impact this is having on u.s. investors. look at this chart of luckin coffee. what happened here was exactly what you're talking about. we learned that the company was lying about its sales, about its earnings and, of course, the shares plummeted. american investors had access to that, they thought that luckin coffee was the new starbucks until they didn't. >> indeed. and look, if you want to see fraud, we're talking about a $4.4 billion overstatement. luckin coffee was about $310 million which is dramatic as well. so the problem with fraud is rampant. and just imagine in may, on may 7th in 2013 the u.s., through the pcaob, signed an mou with

china's security regulatory commission that basically gave china a free pass on these kinds of audits and compliance with federal securities laws. seven years later nothing has happened. if anything, china has dug in and is even more recalcitrant in terms of the willingness to allow their companies to submit to independent audits that every american company is forced to do. i mean, this is preferential treatment, pure and simple. i can't imagine that the president is keen on seeing this kind of thing continue. i mean, it's a, it's end dangering the american investor community. maria: yeah. i also want to mention gsx. gsx is another firm that has been really, carson block, who joins me on "mornings with maria," has said that the company is making false

statements. this is a beijing-based company, they keep pushing back though. so far the stock has host a lot of value because investors are thinking maybe there are also issues at gsx. the bottom line here, roger, we don't know. we're not getting the transparency, and we don't have a clear read on their accounting, so investors need to beware. why isn't the scc doing more on this, rogersome. >> well, they put out a statement that i have to tell you was quite anemic from the chairman of the scc and pcao to b not long ago that was heavily criticized by former chairman arthur levitt and michael mann. they were on target with this, i'm afraid. i mean, you can't just say buyer beware and then not offer remedies. i mean, they didn't have any kind of solution set. i mean, when you don't play by

the rules and u.s -- and break laws, forked goodness sake, you should be deregistered, delisted. there are a number of tools available to the sec. we haven't seen any of those tools applied here. i mean, we have the ability to give 30 days' notice on that mou, and after 30 days we should give the chinese a distinguished period of time, say six months, to come into compliance with these federal securities laws and pcaob laws. if they don't comply, those noncompliant companies should be deregistered. maria: do you think we're going to see blowback from china? look, they hold a significant amount of debt, the u.s. debt. that, if they start selling that debt, that could be a disruption to u.s. markets. the chinese communist government is not happy that the u.s. administration is pushing back so much not only on things like theft of intellectual property,

but their inclusion in our capital markets. what kind of a response might we see from china, roger? >> well, i think they have to be the awfully careful. i mean, this is the area of their single greatest vulnerability and arguably our greatest strength. i mean, we utterly dominate the financial domain on this planet. and that's something they have to keep in mind. i mean, their response will probably not entail trying to sell off treasuries. not only would they take a bath, but we can handle the trillion one if they were to do so. i mean, it would be a rise in interest rates. not debilitating. it would be fairly short-lived. i mean, they don't have nearly the leverage that is attributed to them, so i'm not unduly concerned about that at all. they have to, again, tread lightly on the finance. they never wanted the money to see the light of day. that's why it was off screen for 20 years. so, maria, i think that we don't

have to worry. what are they going to do? go elsewhere? there largely is no elsewhere. maria: all right. we will leave it there. $1.1 trillion in debt. it's interesting, you're right, a lot of people make it out to be a much bigger number. roger robinson, it's great to have you here. thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, maria. maria: stay with us, my e one-on-one with the ceo of delta airlines is up next to talk about the reopening of america. back in a moment. >> maria bartiromo's "wall street," i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424.

where's tommy? (sfx: stage doors opening) i thought he was with you? no jack! (sfx: piano plays "twinkle twinkle little star" tommy? (sfx: audience laughing) go get him! don't stop. keep playing. (sfx: pianist playing masterful duet) here we go here's the fun part did you do this? great job! (sfx: audience applause)

wthe natural light is amazing. hardwood floors. there is a bit of a clogging problem. (clog dancing) at least geico makes it easy to bundle our renters and car insurance. yeah, helping us save us even more... for bundling made easy, go to geico.com there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need.

tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us. ♪ ♪ maria: welcome back. as america gets back up and running, all 50 state now showing some phase of opening, all eyes are watching the airlines, one of the industries

hardest hit by this crisis. traffic down more than 90%. one of the keys to how fast the post-pandemic recovery will be has to do with the airlines. former wynn resorts' ceo steve wynn joined me on "mornings with maria" on what it's going to take to get vegas back up and running. >> first thing is the airlines. we've got to make sure that the service that has supported those 160,000 rooms on the strip the, that the airport is up to speed. otherwise people will only be able to drive from california. so assuming that we get lift from the airlines. maria: so where are we in that? an exclusive interview this week, delta ceo ed bastian gave me his thoughts on the state of the airline industried today. when will we start seeing traffic once again? >> i agree with what steve said. we need to get our, the economy reopened.

one of the challenges we have in the airline space is that no one flies on that airplane just to fly in an airplane: they need to have someplace to go. so they need to have the resorts open, the casinos open, the hotels, the restaurants. people need to know what to expect when they get to their destination. what i'm hearing from travelers constantly, particularly those that are out traveling, and we still have a meaningful number of people who are traveling, is that there are very impressed with our cleaning standards, with the quality of service that we're providing. they don't have someplace to go when they get there, so so they need to understand what's going to be on the other side of their trip. they need businesses to be reopened, they need those casinos to be in place. we're working as a travel ecosystem. i spoke last week at the u.s. travel association board meeting about that very case, and we're all in this together as we all say. maria: how would you characterize where we are now, ed? do you feel like you've seen the worst, or it's hard to know? >> i do think we've seen the

worst. mid april while everyone was under stay at home orders and international restrictions were up in terms of travel for every country around the world, we really were at the bottom of we were down to probably about 5% of our revenue base that was still traveling, primarily in the u.s. you compare that to today, we're up to 10. so the optimist in me says we've dealt with the worst in the last 4-6 weeks as we start to reopen our economy, still very much domestic, but still we've got a long ways to go. we're about 90% down on a year-over-year basis but making slow and steady improvements. maria: you have said you want to keep planes no more than 60% full, new reports that the company will administer flights to keep up with that demand, and you could resume service on some routes. what can you tell us about that and about your cash burn right now, ed? the analysts, obvious, are talking about the liquidity position, and you seem to be having enough liquidity, but

where are you in terms of that and your -- and how much money the company burns? >> i'll tell you,ing we've done a great job of reducing costs. when your revenues are town as low as they are, you really need to focus on getting your costs down. for the current quarter that we're in, our second quarter, costs are going to be down in total more than 50% on a year-over-year basis, that's over $5 billion for delta. we've done a great job of raising capital through the private markets. we expect to end the june quarter, june 30th, with a cash balance of about $14 billion. so we're prepared for a long, difficult winter ahead, there's no question it's going to be very slow in coming back. but over the next 12-18 months, i'm confident travel is going to return, and we're going to see our economy opened up primarily because of the mobility that we're going to enable through the airline industry. maria: yeah. i mean, the president, when i spoke with the president last week in that exclusive interview said that, look, we're not sure

about international travel, but people will start moving within the country fairly soon, certainly he was expecting that. what do you say about international travel, ed? is that sort of the last thing that you might expect to reopen at this point? is that a 2021 affair, do you think? >> i think international travel largely is a 2021. we do operate continued routes, you know, into europe and into asia, into latin america where we can. but primarily though we're flying because of cargill. we're bringing medical supplies in, we're bringing essential supplies back to the country -- cargo. but we are starting to take customers on those trips as well. i'd say the one market that we're seeing the most success on is korea, and we are going to be instituting, starting next month, seven-day service to seoul. i think the koreans have done an excellent job of giving us a peek as to a what the future looks like in our industry. on the domestic side, it still continues slow, but, you know,

we're making good progress. today our load factor on dell a that is somewhere about a 35-40% full primarily because we've taken many flights occupant of the system. i was on a plane yesterday, it was 50% full, and what i said is once we get close to 60 president on an individual route, that'll be the trigger for us to administer planes into the system. so for the month of june we're adding about 200 flights into the system, and then in july probably another 2-300. maria: my thanks to ed bastian, ceo of dell a that airlines. don't go anywhere, more "wall street" right after this. ♪ ♪

maria: welcome back. coming up next weekend right here on the program, don't miss us friday night, 9 p.m. eastern. ceo barry sternl are ich will be my special guest. and be sure to tune in for "sunday morning futures" over on fox news channel, special guest this weekend tennessee senator marsha blackburn, congressman andy biggs and former acting attorney general matt whitaker. 10 is a.m. on sunday. plus, every weekday start smart and tune in with us weekdays from 6-9 a.m. eastern for "mornings with maria" right here on fox business. this upcoming week we will welcome martha stewart on wednesday. and my colleague stuart varney will be hosting a virtual town hall this upcoming week, that's next thursday, may 28th. stuart's panel will be dave ramsey, ken coleman and chris hogan.

send us your video questions, and we'll get them on the air, invested in you at foxbusiness.com. that'll do it for us for this weekend. thanks so much for joining me. have a great rest of the weekend. from all of us, a good memorial day. i'll see you again next time. ♪ gerry: hello, and welcome to "wall street journal at large." well, it's memorial day weekend, the weekend when we remember those who sacrificed their lives for the country. it's also normally the unofficial start of summer and a time for three days of r&r for millions of americans. but these are not normal times. as the country grapples with the economic devastation caused by the lockdowns. as of this week, all 50 states have now finally allowed some nonessential businesses to open but with limits. memorial day beach