i wish he could have vented his spleen on our show. no doubt sometime in the future he will. that is what portnoy is saying. as we leave you the market urning around, overall market, from yesterday's loss. down 600 yesterday, up 570 right now. time's up for me. neil it is yours. neil: just incredible. thankthank you, stuart, very, vy much. gamestop which been in and out of various halts, half a dozen of them, confusing stocks. it will get more so as the stock gets whipsawed. the criticism of robinhood some other social media marketing concerns are getting fingered for abandoning their followers here, in favor of helping those who shorted all the stocks in the first place. that might be a bit after leap here but it led to some wild trading already in the likes of american airlines, nokia, amc. i could go on and on. what a lot are calling this

reddit rebellion. whatever you want to call it. you could be making money and losing money, by a whole ton today. but the fact there does seem to be some order returning, some of this crazy business being ironed out that is the hope, the fact we have good news coming out of premier technology names that have food numbers to back up their strong stocks, it has the dow up close to 600 points today. a lot of those names like tesla and apple are not exactly soaring today. tesla is separate case itself. it reported its first full-year profit on record, it is concerns it has a lot of competition. you probably heard the news gm wants a fully electric line by 2035. it is not the only one contemplating that. can you say hyundai, looking to go completely electric. welcome, everybody, i'm neil cavuto. this is "coast to coast."

let's get kristina partsinevelos to sort of kick things off in new york city. what is going on, not only with all the attention on gamestop but all the ancillary player once short favors, now the focus of this international struggle between the buyers and sellers. kristina. reporter: it is a very risky rebellion like you mentioned between those retail traders as well as those institutional investors like hedge funds betting stocks will fall. you have got a lot of these stocks like gamestop used as the weapon. for example, gamestop share price last april was less than 3 bucks. today it hit intraday high of $469. the stock has been halted and now the latest news, neil, that we just received is that a class action complaint has been filed against robinhood. robinhood is a brokerage firm. a lot of these retail investors use that app to trade the stock. that is just another element to this story but these retail

investors, they joined forces not only on reddit but tiktok as well, facebook. they encouraged each other to push up the price of gamestop. they did the same with amc, nokia, blackberry, cost, retail express just to name a few. traders are saying these trades are not on the fundamentals of the stock, profit margins, cash flow, leadership, the board. none of that more so has to do with what these companies stand for. what that is, i took it from the form, a fight against corporate interests and wall street. according to them it seems to be working because some of these hedge funds, citron, melvin capital, have pulled their positions but the risky behavior has everyone watching. janet yellen, treasury secretary, the sec, said they're watching. you also had even wells fargo tell its advisors not to write any recommendations on amc or gamestop. you had the nasdaq chief say

they would halt any stocks that had, were connected to unusual social media chatter. the latest is the robin hoods. this is that trading platform. robin hood put out a statement, quote, in light of recent volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only. means you can only sell it, amc, blackberry, bed, bath & beyond, express, gamestop, koss, nokia. we reached margin requirements for certain securities. you need more money in your account to borrow. a lot of people are upset on this because robinhood restricted trading including dave portnoy. he is the barstool founder, he tweeted to the cofounder of robin hood saying i hope you go to jail. throughout wall street veterans argue these retail traders are inexperienced, lack diversification just as high as that momentum went up we're starting to see it go down.

and they could lose big. but it doesn't seem like the trend is stopping as it is trickling a lot of hard-hit stocks, neil. neil: thank you very much for that, kristina. to kristina's point, raised concern of nancy pelosi that congress will play a part in lot of scrutiny of the gamestop trading. she referenced to other key players, amc theaters and others caught up in this. this is the big worry for the markets. not reflecting obviously in the dow, but when you have a lot of people shorting the stock, pushing the notion the stock can go down and then these social media concerns, reddit, get involved to counter their moves, lifted stocks up and wipes out shorts and hedge funds big in this, the dilemma starts when you look at money you made doing that, you want to about oat. what can oftentimes happen, the

key feature of the waning days of 1990s in the bull market the final year, everyone wanted out at the same time. there is only one door. you can only get out if you do that. there is the concern here. a lot of people seen enormous runup of gamestop $500 a share, down $90 a share today, no fewer five interruptions, halt in trading. they will have trouble doing that. they could be left holding the bag. something our charlie gasparino was worried about, he is here again. john layfield is here. charlie, take a look what is happening now. what is going to happen? what is your sense where this is going? >> i think there are two stories, or maybe three or four. number one are there any hedge funds that will be liquidating their good positions because they're getting hammered on their short positions based on that bear raid by the reddit

robinhooders? that is clearly out there in the market that is it leading to some market wild swings. if hedge funds en masse unload stocks, stocks will go down and hedge funds need capital to survive, if many need capital that is when the fed starts getting involved t could lead to tremendous market volatility. the other story is the regulatory story quickly coming. i have spoken with people at robinhood today. they are worried about regulation, there is no doubt. they are, listen, they stopped the trading of these two stocks for the simple reason of this, there is going to be an investigation into legal touting on the reddit message boards. that will be an enforcement investigation. the last thing robinhood needs is to be a conduit for the illegal touting of these stocks. if people are lying about the prospects about gamestop and other stocks pushing them up on

the message boards and using the app to capitalize on that, they could be roped into an investigation. so they prudently have to restrict selling of those shares. and then you know, the broader regular -- regulatory response, listen, you have biden administration in. i would pay attention to elizabeth warren. she is calling the shots. she has gone from gadfly, someone in the majority of senate on economic or regulatory issues. i could see her pushing, i am hearing this, the end of short selling. short selling has nothing to do with this. this is touting, buying with a low-cost trading app. so a lot of stuff is happening, neil. neil: all right, buddy, hang in there. i want to update you. robinhood and charlie touched on this, is restricting trading in stock options and the stock itself of gamestop and amc and some of these other players.

interactive brokers is doing essentially the same thing. mark cuban is among those who use reddit and some of these other players is a great equalizer on the street even though he acknowledges it can be a bumpy role for that equalizer? this robinhood notion tends to hurt the rich and poor alike. there is another issue i i wanto raise with you, jon layfield, that is the role of the big short trading hedge funds. we mentioned citron and melvin capital. we do know a couple of big players were providing some support and funding to the tune of 2 1/2 billion dollars to melvin capital. i guess the fear is always that others are on the hook to melvin and that you know, that could be a problem. we learned later in the late 1990s situation how many banks were on the hook to some of these internet companies that eventually went bust. do we have any sense of that now or is it simply too early?

>> i don't think we do, neil, it is not a systemic risk right now. gamestop goes to five million or zero, that is not a systemic risk you've seen happen in the past say the financial crisis. you have a lot of hedge fund exposure. charlie is spot on about this. a lot of selling going on in the market right now is repositioning of the long shorts that are happening. regulation is coming. the and the reason regulation is coming because the wrong guys won. if you have a player walk into a casino and that player beats the casino, one of two things happens. either that player is thrown out or the rules change to take whatever advantage that player had away. that is exactly what is going to happen right now. the problem is not necessarily the momentum trade that happened. it is not who hopped on the train. who started the train. that's the issue. there has to be some group saw they put a fire out, they would have gasoline poured on that fire by an army of crusaders who wants to storm the castle.

i wouldn't be surprised if that group is on the short side, the other side of the trade, trading these stocks down. the question once they get regulated out of this where do they go next? is it currency short? a commodity short? this trade worked. this was the trade of the last several years. it is going to happen again and the problem is not the momentum guys, retail guys got in. it is the guys who started the momentum. that is where the issue is. neil: you know, role we're watching the role of the federal reserve, i believe danielle dimartino booth, former dallas fed advisor, danielle, jerome powell made brief reference to this phenomenon yesterday but he was looking at it in a much bigger picture role. the federal reserve is always there. if you're looking for a change in the near zero rate policy that won't change. i think his role, not specifically to discuss these names, and who's good or who's bad, robinhood type guys or

those who short stocks and their sort of credo but that the fed is there and the fundamentals are sound and the economy has its complete backing and, this environment that has been you know, tan at that mount to making more risky trades you could say will continue. what do you think? >> well, look, i think that there -- reporters tried hard yesterday to push jay powell. they went so far as to ask him about what alan greenspan should have done years ago in the late 1990s. there is criticism looking through the rear view mirror that margin requirements were never increased. we do have margin debt at and all-time high. there actually is a role for the federal reserve to play here in a more direct way but jay powell punted on that to his peers in other agencies. of course we did hear from janet yellen yesterday. we did hear from the sec.

but the problem is, the underlying problem is, where robinhood's foundation is, if you will, this idea that you can't fight the fed. don't fight the fed. no matter what happens, no matter what the trade is, no matter how crazy the trade may seem to be, if you're betting on the prospects of a company that has no prospects, has no profits should be going down, no matter what happens the fed has your back. and that very notion, constant source of liquidity that has emboldened some of these individual investors will get caught in the cross-hairs, neil. >> neil, i'm surprised this didn't happen sooner. we've had super-low interest rates for as long as i can remember. we had it when we didn't need it, then president trump was pushing the fed to keep rates low. neil: right. >> when you keep rates this low for this long it's simple. it forces people to go out on the risk spectrum. robinhood isn't the culprit.

robinhood is just conduit. even message boards. it has been illegal to lie about stocks forever. they have cracked down on message boards, they, meaning sec cracked down on message boards for years but the underlying thing here that is causing all the massive speculation is the fact that we have interest rates at zero. it doesn't pay to keep your money in a bank or in a bond or just a regular stock. you can leverage up easy when interest rates are at zero. you can push your position up easy. this is scary stuff. it is the fed's fault. the irony is, why is the fed keeping interest rates at zero? because we have a covid economy that is problematic. you know the real issue, if you, the real economic fix to the economy probably wasn't zero percent interest rates but opening it up faster unfortunately and that's why we have this. you can't have interest rates at zero all this time and not have massive weird bubbles. neil: they get a little chancy

in the environment. john layfield, there is push for government to get involved whether federal rye serve directly or nancy pelosi. apparently to echo the language we've heard out of elizabeth warren, directly. i'm just wondering whether there should be a policy here buyer or seller beware? if you're getting a little greedy and you're pumping something hopes of having a small version after tesla that rockets and then to cash out you should know there are risks that come with that. why does the government have to intervene to save you from yourself? >> i don't think the government should. you can't fix and regulate stupid. if these people are going to buy a stock a 20-dollar stock, i'm sorry to be mean to the folks, buy a 20-dollar stock, that is now 469-dollar stock with no increase earnings, no value, those are the same people that would buy gold miner shares on the moon. you can't regulate stupidity out of market completely.

to charlie's point, charlie is right with misleading. there is nothing wrong with speculation. there is fine line between it, when i worked on wall street you couldn't capitalize things in a sentence, that is how strict it is on wall street. it is not that way in a chat room. you can say you think a stock is going to $1000. now if the intent -- neil: you can do the reverse, john, right? you can do reverse, a lot of shorts have ways of getting out that x stock is not worth what it is trading now. both sides can play this game where they're essentially trying to sway potential buyers and sellers to their point of view. >> 100%. neil: what about the other? >> both sides have played the game. look what they did with bill ackman and herbalife. looks like group ever hedge funds got together to kill the shorts. this was three-martini lunch wall street of moving stocks one way or the other. the difference, the retail guys, the wrong guys made money off

this so the guys who have the power will regulate the change in this where it puts them back at the position of the house. neil: you know, danielle, obviously when we get this type of wild swinging, depending on who you are, you're going to be a target or you're going to be scrutinized. i just wondered that old ronald reagan i'm from the government, i'm here to help, might regret this direction? >> well, look, it's the underlying source of the speculation and it's also naivete of a lot of these investors. you can say a stock is going to the moon if you're trying to push a short squeeze which is what we've been seeing. that means that the losses, neil, can be infinite as opposed to whether, if you're trying to push a stock down, well there is a finite level of losses. but there is, there is a fine line. there is a role for the sec to play. i don't necessarily think there is a role for elizabeth warren and nancy pelosi to play just

because it might get them headlines and they think they might gain political capital. this is not politicians purview. this is not the place. there are regulatestores for this, as charlie said, chat rooms have been going on since the dawn of time. we should be extremely careful about letting an explosive situation that generates all of these headlines end up bleeding into something where the government goes where it simply does not belong. >> you got to ask yourself why now? neil: charlie, real quickly, the irony is, normally the government pounces on fat cats, hedge fund magers, those greedy s.o.b.s taking advantage of average folks. looking at this way average folks revenge on fat cats who might now get the scrutiny and might now get punishment if it comes to that just sort of a switch in roles and what the

government will do to police that. that is probably what worries me the most right now. >> yeah. i don't know where they're going with the policing because elizabeth warren and some of leadership of the dems are all over the place but i will say this, this is the average folk, possibly, this is what has people legitimately smart and caring people worried this is average people ripping off average people. what i'm saying is this froth in, this gamestop and some of these stocks was pushed up by these chat rooms where people were starting to buy it at $500 a share, $300 a share way above where it is owned because it was being touted on message boards. remember this is more than just sticking it to the man. it what has i think legitimately people at the sec worried and people at rob -- robin hood them being used as conduit for this thing, people sucker ised into

this thing at 200, 300, 400, $500 a share and those people never sell when they need to sell. i know a lot of smart people in gme. money managers run big funds, they have been out a long time. neil: thank you very, very much for that. the irony will be in this, we'll follow it everyone, think about how the social media concerns crack down on those who were following donald trump and anyone associated with him, even conservative thought here this, is a whole another level and a financial layer to that where you're going to go after those who might prematurely touted names that didn't deserve it without necessarily impressing the underlying short hedge funds and rest that started the ball rolling here. boy, you talk about a very, very delicate balance. we're in the middle of that. regardless, we're also focused on other developments including how the biden administration

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♪. neil: all right. it's one thing to shut down the keystone pipeline as president biden did, making good on a campaign promise he would do that within the first day of his administration but now targeting any new drilling on federal lands, well then there are fighting words. senator cynthia loomis joins us, republican senator from the beautiful state of wyoming. senator you introduced a bill barring the president from doing this. how much support do you think you will have in the senate? >> we have over a quarter of the senate now as cosponsors, neil and we have house sponsors as well. we've reached out to democrats to cosponsor. so far none have taken the bait but, i'm hopeful that it will become bipartisan as well as bicameral. neil: so your argument is, it was a switcheroo here? you can't just institute something already happening and change it.

now the administration has come back, senator, to say, this is only for new drilling efforts, not for those that might already be midway now. i don't know that makes a difference to but is there a distinction? >> well it, there is not a distinction because once reservoir of oil and gas is discovered and efforts to drill are proceeding it is a necessary adjunct that they continue to be able to drill and produce that reservoir over time. so to say now we're going to take a grand pause, even if you're into a oil and gas reservoir that is producing, that is permitted, that is allowed, authorized by the state oil and gas commission, you can't do it because it is on federal land, that is the problem. this is contrary to existing federal law that has been in effect since the 1970s. neil: you know, the biden

administration's view is, all this new clean energy. i know you have been among those saying well, you're pro all energy alternatives, not just at the expense of what got us to the energy independence table. but that argument is not diving with this new white house. and i'm wondering when a republicans are plan to do? it is one thing to fight executive orders, to challenge it, just as environmentalists challenged donald trump's executive orders to do the reverse. where is this going? >> there are attorneys general from around the nation that intend to challenge this executive order. i can tell you that if we're really looking at it as a land conservation and a prevention ever climate change that the

executive order will not meet those requirements. this isn't going to impact climate change postively or negatively and if you look at the pads on which wind energy are built, they're huge disruptors of the surface of the ground, much bigger disruptors of the surface of the ground than oil and gas wells. to say there is a preference of wind energy over oil and gas wells, the surface disturbance is much worse for wind energy. so we need to be weighing these issues as apples to apples comparisons. neil: real quickly, senator, are you surprised that the oil markets that trade on this sort of stuff, if he were worried all of sudden about a potential supply cut prices would be rocketing. they're not. they're soft and continue to get softer today. i'm wondering if this is just

not the issue and the need for worry that you illustrate now and that offsetting the loss of that oil potentially is the slow economy and that is in a weird way giving the president the wind at his back on this stuff, what do you think? >> well there has been a decline in oil and goose consumption during the pandemic. that is absolutely true. but we don't know how long this moratorium's going to last. i'm not surprised that markets have not been affected by this executive order. there is a lot of oil and gas that is produced on private land and so that will offset to a certain extent some of the losses on public land for those states that primarily have oil and gas on private land but in my state of wyoming, half of the state is federal land. in utah it is 2/3. in nevada it is 7/8.

alaska, 9/10 of federal land. this is impactful of those areas. it is hugely impactful on the states of the gulf of mexico because it also affects the outer continental shelf and the revenues shared by the states with the federal government on this oil and gas drilling provides revenue for our schools. so it is going to be really devastating to those specific states that rely heavily on mineral production from federal land and offshore. neil: you make a very good case, senator. keep us posted if it gets beyond a quarter of the senators who are signing on to this. thank you very, very much, senator cynthia lummis, republican of wyoming. you hear about the various variants of covid-19. there is one out of south africa is per specsing a lot of top doctors and infectious disease

specialists, this one some of the vaccines cannot address, not address fully. the latest word it arrived in the u.s. it is in south carolina. we'll have more after this.

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>> you should be fired from your day jobs, because if you are employers knew you were more inefficient than the dmv you would be replaced in a heartbeat. you're a bunch cowards hiding behind our children keeping schools closed. you think you're martyrs of the decisions you are making of the statistics do not lie that the vast majority of the pop like is not at risk from virus. the garbage workers that pick up my freakin' lives risk their lives more than anyone in this school system. figure it out or get off the podium! because you know what? there are people like me and a line of other people out there who will gladly take your seat and figure it out!

it is not a high bar. raise the freakin' bar! neil: all right the irony from that angry parent, all the protests they are still reluctant to reopen schools and a lot of teachers unions and the rest are dead-set against it. it is playing out the same in month claire in new jersey. tom joins us a montclair, new jersey, parent where the state is advocating getting kids back in school. of course that can be easily been torpedoed as it can in montclair by teachers not too keen of that idea. tom, thank you for joining us. where do things stand in montclair, for kids and in-person classes. >> i'm a month claire resident, parent of three young kids here. we get the information that we can. i don't necessarily have the latest and greatest.

what we know thus far is, in fact the school superintendent and our board of education has been working for several months now on a plan to get our kids back in school. had set a hard date of this past monday. -- kids into the classroom. unfortunately late last week it became apparent the local teachers union was strongly recommending against -- coming into the classroom and so it turned out this monday in-class learning was again postponed indefinitely. beyond that we, have a mayor with no clear position on the issue you. a union, superintendent, board of education that are now locked -- over reopening plans. and we understand via local reporting that our district is in fact taking or already taken legal action now -- for the decision this past monday.

meantime you have a group of parents and community members where based on the latest surveys from the school, et cetera, we know at least 70% of parents in this town want to get their kids back into some form of full in person or at least hybrid learning. neil: tom, we have some audio issues with you. we'll address them. i hear what you're saying, you want to get your kids back in school and you're returning into a wall but hopefully not too long. bring you up toe speed that you've been noticing, incredible surge in the dow making up ground lost and then some from yesterday. how long this holds is anyone's guess but it could be you know, better news on the vaccine front and that more vaccines are going to be available. others are some established giants, tech giants, not necessarily fly-by-night names that have market valuations

they're doing find, making money old-fashioned way, justifying prices old-fashioned way. the market rallying around established leaders, guys who make money, when they disappoint, they don't disappoint by much. that is going on. that is the backdrop what is happening here. we'll have more after this.

♪. neil: all right. i want to update you on a, this is probably fall under odd alliances. senator ted cruz says he fully agrees with alexandria ocasio-cortez on some potential measures stemming from gamestop and the stock surge there. you might say she was concerned

as apparently senator cruz now a lot of people are getting caught up in the maelstrom here. what they're planning to do, or what the government can do is anyone's guess, this follows on nancy pelosi indicating earlier today, that congress does have a role to plays a part of the security looking into gamestop trading. so you can imagine the wagons are circling on this type of activity. the issue is, what the government can or even should do to address this. that back and for the will go on here, but an interesting wrinkle here is that conservative like ted cruz and alexandria ocasio-cortez are on the same vibe here when it comes to tackling all of this. in the meantime i do want to take attention back to washington but more to the point on dealing with the virus right now and health care and all these new executive orders are coming out. i lost track, but blake burman has not. joined us from the white house with more.

hi, there, blake. reporter: neil, i have. certainly a lot of them from president biden in the first eight or nine days of the administration here. now the executive actions as we turn to health care in the upcoming hour. two main points to note from the biden white house as the president is about to sign these eos. first off the president asking the health and human services department to have a new open enrollment period for the affordable care act. that period, at least asking hhs to consider it, would be from february 15th. until may 15th. talking about three months time. the biden administration believes the trump administration did not highlight the enrollment periods. they feel uninsured americans suffered as a result. official from the biden white house saying quote, we're really looking to reach people who had been eligible all along but may not have been aware ever the opportunity to sign up for coverage. that is one aspect. the president will also scrap the mexico city policy. this is an executive order that has gone back and forth, back

and forth, among democratic and republican presidents dating back to reagan. the policy prohibits federal money to go towards non-governmental organizations who provides abortions. the so-called mexico city policy will no longer be on the books when the president signs an executive order. a change in health care policy already from this administration, neil. hhs is instructed to freeze any rules that haven't hit the federal register, to consider them to postpone for 60 days. that would impact a rule placed in the trump administration dropped ensue lynn prices. that would have dropped community health centers from receiving future grants had they not lowered prices for insulin and epipens. we reached out to hhs, neil, and we have not heard back from them. president comes up next hour.

after that a press briefing from the press secretary. neil. neil: i'm curious. you covered the white house under two different presidents here, actually three, technically, but i'm curious what you make of this president's flood of executive orders, actions, memoranda. i know there are distinctions between all of them. there have been a lot. in fact more than his last, four predecessors combined at this point. i know he wants to work with republicans, that he talked he wants to do everything on a bipartisan basis but republicans, i talked to are getting ticked off at that because he is saying one thing and with these orders and memoranda doing quite the opposite. is it poisoning the bipartisan well? what are you hearing? >> look, whether you agree with these executive orders or not, whether you think they the policy is sound or not prudent at all, what you have to say, neil, you have to recognize about the biden administration, they have come in, in the first thursday, so nine days. and laid out their policy

priorities. executive actions day after day after day, hitting on topic, a, b, c, d, on down the line. they have had a plan out the gate. they have executed that plan, done so in organized fashion really putting these out day after day. the question that you raised as well is, might that poison the well with republicans? the first big issue that the administration is going to try to do is come up with some covid relief package. but, as we've seen, democrats are already telegraphing that they might try to go at this alone through the process known as budget reconciliation. there is some sort of a sense from the biden team they do want to work with republicans, but we're also seeing him execute his plan as he is able to, as any president really is with these executive orders, neil. neil: you're right. he is not surprising anyway. he said he would do it. anybody following the campaign

should not be surprised he is acting on it. donald trump did the same early on with his initiatives. reporter: i believe, neil, not to cut you off, i believe the mexico city policy was the very first eo president trump signed, one of them. president biden is taking it up today. neil: yeah, just in reverse. thank you, my friend. i'm curious about that. blake burman, you heard about joe biden in his push to get everyone to wear a mask. now the new guidelines, make it two masks, after this.

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now it's your turn to lose weight, look great, and be healthy. get off the floor and get on the aerotrainer. go to aerotrainer.com, that's a-e-r-o-trainer.com. of. neil: all right. you know, we talk about these various strains, these new variants if you will on covid but there is one particularly out of south africa is bearing a lot of watching, especially it arrived in the united states and south carolina because it is not responding as other variants have to the vaccines that exist that are out there. dr. gupta joins us, johns hopkins university professor, anesthesiologist, physician, overall brilliant doctor, i'm happy to have her here.

this latest say rant from south africa, what makes it different from some of the others? >> you know, we have to thank you for having me. what we have to keep in mind as these viruses are continuing to evolve, we just don't have enough information. what is so important to remember is that we have to emphasize that people have to get vaccinated right now. in that, that is utmost as importance because these vaccines can protect against the most important virus that we're trying to protect people against. until we have the information against these new evolving variations of the cove dove virus, individuals need to protect themselves and their families to really get the protection they need. neil: doctor, i'm hearing a lot more cases of people getting the virus again after testing positive for earlier, they get it again and, what is that about? i know these are people

obviously not had the vaccine yet but is that typical, more than a few cases, it is building? >> what is so important to remember that people need to get tested. the individuals that are getting it again for not sure what they have, do they have cove? do they have in fact have it before? testing is so critical of verification what they have had. we have to emphasize to those individuals, do they have in fact the appropriate immune response? so in those cases critical individuals to get that testing. neil: real quickly this, issue of making it two masks not just one, you know, dr. fauci among those saying not a bad idea, what do you think of that? >> yeah. the issue of double masking, you know, the simple answer, look, people need to wear a mask you know.

i think people are just not wearing masks right now. i think the reasons are the question of double masking is coming up there isn't enough protective equipment out there. individuals are just wearing a mask that may not have the proper filtration. so you know, the question of wearing a quality mask has come up. so individuals are wearing double masks to have better protection. we heard it from dr. fauci. it makes common sense to have two, better filtration, better protection. neil: doctor, thank you, very, very much. good catching up with you, doctor. anita gupta. we're keeping eye on gamestop. confirmation of market watch, one of its largest investors, a south korea asset management firm, sold a shares around made a billion bucks on gamestop. one billion dollars. more after this.

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♪ ♪ ♪ neil: all right, you know, there's an old market adage, you have to know when to get into a stock, but more importantly, when to get out. we told you of the danger of the likes of gamestop leading this parade of once-shorted stocks that, you know, got a lot of buying interest and then for those who were, who wanted to capitalize on that, i told you

not everyone can lead, but apparently one has. gamestop confirming and market watch now reporting that one of gamestop's largest share hollers, the south korea-based musk asset management firm, no longer has any shares of the video game and consumer electron thetic retailer. -- electronic retailer. it sold 3.3 million shares or about 3.7% of the shares outstanding which ended up making gamestop its ninth largest shareholder. it sold that share block and made about a billion dollars in the process. i don't know exactly what level it bought, it's safe to say that if they made a billion dollars, they made a billion dollars. to they had a nice tidy profit there, and chances are it was not one of those things, a position that was held extremely long. so, again, if you time it just right, you make a lot of money. if you don't, you lose a lot of money, and therein lies the

dilemma that's getting the attention of regulators and politicians of all stripes on capitol hill. ted cruz agreeing with alexandria ocasio-cortez that we have to look at in this, and you know what that means when they rook at it, the next step is to regulate it or do something about it. lauren simonetti's been following all of that, what's the latest? >> reporter: yeah, it's bipartisan criticism, neil, that's exactly the point. their looking into the ethics of this. let the hips fall where -- chips fall where they may, right? or not. the difference between yesterday and today when you're looking at gamestop and these popular short-squeeze stocks is that today the handcuffs have been put on. so volatility, yes, it remains, but contagion has been limited, and that is because robin hood, interactive brokers, even wells fargo have reined in access in some way. they don't want to be left holding the bag or responsible, accountable in the end. and what they're doing is responding to these huge

fluctuations and record volumes that we're seeing. this is gamestop just today. the stock was at 112 and nearly $500 in one day. you can't explain that movement with fundamentals. it's these chat room traders continuing to take on the hedge fund shorts and drive them out. so it's david versus goliath. the day traders are smart, they have time, they have access to information, and they're part of a movement and a moment where they feel empowered and emboldened. a class action complaint was just filed in the southern district of new york against robin hood, and this is what part of it says, and i'm quoting: purposefully, willfully and knowingly, robin hood removed the stock gme, gamestop, from its trading platform in the midst of an unprecedented stock rise. thereby, it goes on, manipulating the open market. so the big question is what do regulators do about it? house speaker nancy pelosi says

congress will be part of the scrutiny, the biden administration is looking at the situation, so is the sec. and as you noted, neil, congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeting this: we now need to know more about robin hood's decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit. and, of course, she's a member of the house financial services committee, she's calling for a hearing. i'm not sure if we get a hearing, i'm not sure what it's going to do about this, but like i said, ethics are being raised, and there's bipartisan criticism right now of what's going on. neil: yeah, just amazing stuff here and odd roles that ted cruz agrees with alexandria ocasio-cortez -- >> when does that happen? neil: yeah, exactly. the populist social media concerns behind this. lauren are, thank you very much,

lauren simonetti. all right, i want to get to where all of the goes right now because it's a battle between the free marketeers who say, all right, let the buyer and/or seller beware, they know what they're doing, and they should suffer the consequences, leave the government out of it. others are saying it's a slippery slope here, and if you don't watch frothiness that could grip the innocent who have nothing to do with these trades and it's time for action. dan geltrude is here, or susan li -- susan li and also david asman. all right, susan, you're hearing that old song, buyer, seller beware. leave it at that. but, of course, these are fast market conditions and times, remotely billion dollar leverage positions are tested every second. so is it different and should it be different? this interest in washington, is it the stuff that traders should be worried about rather than

celebrating to the tuner if thousand -- to the tune they are now? >> i think it's concerning to the individual brokerages and private companies step in today, also interactive brokers now liquidating options, and you have to raise the margins in order to trade gamestop, express or blackberry in this case. td ameritrade did that yesterday. i think the call is coming from washington to standardize these laws for everybody to adhere to the same rules x if washington's not willing to step in, should private companies be implementing their own handcuffs. i think that's the big question today on the market. neil: you know, dan, i have sort of a crackpot theory on in that a lot of people who look at this market, it's rich, regret not buying tesla not realizing that it would eventually, you know, be flirting with $900 a share. it's coming down a little bit today. so i think we've been tesla-fyked, and everyone wanted

to repeat that magic and all of a sudden, boom, this whole battle between the shorts and the longs on some, you know, small and mid cap stocks that all of a sudden we're looking like mini teslas. and greed gets the better part of them, and they all want in on that. i'm just wondering people can get into stocks for any reasons they want, but should the government police greed? should it watch over greed? is that its job? >> i don't think so, neil. i don't think it's government's job to get involved with trying to legislate or regulate how greedy people can be. let's face it, wall street is built upon greed. we've seen movies and stories and endless things about that. what's happening here though is you have so many people that have been chasing this shiny object which you're alluding to such as the example of tesla, but tesla had some value behind

it. we're looking at gamestop here which has no business being that high. and it goes that thigh and what happens? that high and what happens? it is attracting those people that are looking for gold. and that is not a place for people with that mindset to be in the stock market. it doesn't work. but you get the government involved, that is a slippery slope, indeed. neil: you know, david, i had a chance to talk to ken langone about this, and at the time he was focusing on this frothny what he called bubble activity very akin to the late 1990s, but he used tesla la as an example of that. good company but, come on, guys, get real. this was from ken langone yesterday. >> yeah, what we're seeing -- neil: made a ton on money on the teslas and the amazons and the apples, and they're still making money hand over fist. >> with all due respect, i look at what tesla's market cap is, guy's done a hell of a job.

everybody that i know that owns a tesla loves it. great car. but let's face it, audi and mercedes and gm and ford are not going to just roll up and go away. they're going to be back. neil: all right. sorry about that confusion, david. you got the gist of what he was saying here that, you know are, this might be a time where the great comeuppance for a lot of these names, to super's point, a little -- to susan's point, a little too high, too fast. there's no way of knowing right now, we'll see how it sorts out, but it might have begun with tesla. many argue it might have begun with amazon. but i'm just wondering what you make of maybe a readjustment that could go on, the final throes of the internet boom. >> yeah. it's a little different from tesla. gamestop and the others. this is dealing with the trades themselves. i mean, people are using call options without going into too much detail, you could have bought a call option for

gamestop at $19 on friday. that gave you the option to sell it at $200. so what is really upsetting people like alexandria ocasio-cortez or dave portnoy and some other libertarians and conservatives is that robin hood and ordealers that were giving people an option to both buy and sell are now just giving you the option to sell. and that's really infuriating a lot of traders. you go on twitter and you see some of the comments of these traders who are saying that robin hood, the folks behind it should go to jail. that's essentially what aoc is suggesting. one person says here thanks, robin hood, for forcing me to side with the communist, speaking of aoc. essentially, dave portnoy saying the same thing. and here's the detail, one trader says if you can sell but not buy, then who are you selling to? obviously, the big hedge funds who need to cover their shorts.

it's mind bogglingingly corrupt. it's robin hood shutting down one side of a trade that is infuriating many of these people. and it's interesting that aoc may take a different view than what elizabeth warren would take, two democrats on different sides of this. warren, i think, wants to be from the government and save you, an expression that ronald reagan made famous which nobody believes, whereas aoc wants to allow the trading to continue on both the buy and the sell side. neil: you know, susan, when i look at this, no one is saying boo about those old, evil hedge fund short sellers -- [laughter] who their goal is to look at a stock, say we don't think it should be that high, we want to hammer it down. >> right. neil: did it in the past, used all sorts of various means to do just that. they're not the target of this, the average joes and jo anns

working through some of these sites like reddit and robin hood that are getting targeted. that's the weird part, to me. >> yeah. two rules that we learned from this whole gamestop phenomenon is that you shouldn't bet money that you can't afford to lose. but then conversely for the hedge funders, you shouldn't be shorting on stocks you can't afford. we know it's a social media era, but the fact that we have these cartel trade thers that are able to align and coronate our reddit page in order to kill the billion dollar hedge funders, i think that's got to be the story so far of the year. and i would say we love the fact that it's democratizing the investment community. now average joes can get in. and when they call it dumb money versus smart money, i argue that there's no such thing as smart money anymore, 2020 has proved that. the fact that individuals can now recognize strategy and opportunity, why not let them come in but recognize you can

also lose your money as well. neil: yeah. i think we have to do that latter part, we have to recognize that's the risk inherently in investing, whether you're shorting a stock or going long. having said that, dan, i'm curious you've heard these parallels, oh, it feels like 1999 all over again. i'm wondering if you buy that. i mean, we saw this type of frenetic frenzy, if i could play those two together the, then. are we seeing it now or is this just a unique phenomenon with a few unique small cap stocks? >> well, i don't think it's unique because this is probably the beginning of a trend, i believe, neil. and if you look at the initial headlines here, it was david had beaten goliath. but that's really not what's happening especially with robin hood, what robin hood has done in terms of not allowing buying and only selling because that does benefit the hedge funds.

so really what you have here as the music is stopping, you have the small investors which everybody was cheering for, look what they did to the hedge funds. in the reality, those are the people that are going to get hurt the most. but in comparison to 1999, this is far greater, it's a far larger scale of what's happening right now. neil: but, you know, david, you think about it, it has rejiggered interest on the part of individuals looking at stocks famously shorted and whether they're buys. now they go to the other extreme, but i'm thinking really american airlines benefiting, nokia, obviously we mentioned amc and some of these others, that people are looking at issues that when shorts have a big position -- nothing like 140% position -- but they're getting a whole new look. i'm wondering what you make of that. >> well, they're getting into the action, and they're furious

now that while they were able to buy yesterday, now on robin hood and the other sites they use which, by the way, they're advising their fellow traders on the internet to boycott robin hood and the other companies that they used to trade on because now they're canceling one side of the trade. and that, there is something wrong with canceling. you should be allowed to, if you can sell, you should be allowed to buy as well. i mean, it's just that simple. but the one thing i think we do have in common with what happened in '99 is there's a bubble. you talked about this before with a former member of the fed. there is at zero interest rates you have bubbles occurring in markets, various markets whether it's the stock market itself or the real estate market, whatever. i think this is a reflection. if you boil it down to what's causing all this, what's allowing people like robin hood, for example, to have have these

no-cost sales on stocks whether it's buy or sell, you're going to have these bubbles. and it's a direct result of market manipulation by the federal reserve in keeping interest rates artificially low. maybe there's a good reason for it, because of the pandemic. but you're going to have bubbles when you take that kind of action. neil: you know, susan, real quickly, you could argue though that those rates are low for a reason. there's no inflation, or there's very are little. >> right. [laughter] neil: whether they should be at 0%, is that the fed's fault, or should it be having rates higher now in preparation for, i guess, you know, the inflation or more inflation to come? >> but you remember the greenspan era. remember he started to raise interest rates at really fast rates -- neil: dave does. i was too young, but dave does. >> thanks a lot! [laughter]

>> my point is, look, in this type of environment, we're still in, by the way, a covid pandemic and trying to come out of the worst recession that we've seen since the depression, i don't think raising rate is the is a smart thing. putting more money in the pockets of individuals whether they want to spend it on the stock market or to pay for food or their bills, i think it's a great thing for the economy and it's a great thing for america period. neil: all right. guys, i want to thank you all on all of that. in the meantime, we're following another development here. you know, the tokyo olympics are still on. i know a lot of people are saying, gee, are they going to be able to pull that off? just in case, i want you to meet the floridian that has an idea. come to the sunshine state. ♪ -- find someone like you. ♪ i wish nothing but the best for you. ♪ don't forget me, i remember

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i'm actually speechless, i apologize. in the meantime, you know, in japan if you read the press and some of these others, they're getting increasingly worried about being able to pull off the winter olympics. remember, they postponed them a year ago with the start of the pandemic. now while their still on and -- they're still on, and the japanese at least are saying they're still going to go through, or there's alarm that it might not happen, and is there a backup plan if cases in japan, which are spiking, my next guest has aned idea, why don't you come to florida? jimmy prone -- paf -- patronis. >> the olympics are in a tough place. 80% of the japanese people do not want the games moved forward. "the wall street journal" featured an article saying we

need president biden to weigh in and fight for these games. the talent's here, the networks are here, the viewership is here. it's an opportunity to create some unity, but this isn't the case, and, you know, earlier today -- you're the first actually i've told this to, i had a nice visit with the ioc. they pointed out the value that florida brings to the table, the talent, the resources, the funding we provide, and we use the same teams to put together the super bowl in two weeks in tampa as they do to put together the olympics in japan. neil: that's interesting that you did meet with the international olympic committee. did you get any vibeses from them they're concerned whether tokyo's going to be able to pull this off or that the virus is such a concern that even if they want to, they won't be able tosome. >> what i definitely picked up from it is i know the olympics wants japan. i'm just concerned japan doesn't want the olympics. what i gathered from there is the commitment that's been put

forward, but they left this built on a four-year growing, rolling budget. seven years goes into building out the olympics, and when you punt this thing for a year, you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of resources that now is coming out of budget. and how that affects insurance markets for reinsurance, the olympics isn't an event to take lightly. it costs billions of dollars to put it together. so, you know, a lot of anxiety, a lot of emotion. the outpouring of support though has been incredible to bring it to florida. neil: all right, if you look at the more than $15 million the japanese have spent to get the rights and build up for these elections, what would florida put forth if that happened? >> even the ioc chairman said yesterday this is no longer a speck spectator sport, it's a television sport. it's always been a television sport, but the dollars that goes into pouring into the infrastructure for transportation, hotels, we're talking 18 days of world class

athletes competing for the gold whose window is tight. they train, they eat, they breathe, they sleep for the opportunity to win this gold. so their window is leaving, so that talent is also leaving. that affects the viewership, the enthusiasm. but, you know, as japan said, 2032 sounds okay, this is what made me raise my hand and say florida's open for business. if. neil: any reaction from the governor? >> so i'm going to be with the governor in about 30 minutes, and one thing i'll say about governor desantis, he has led. he has led on the rollout and protection of the vaccines. we just vaccinated our one millionth senior. at the same time, he's kept florida's economy open. we've got basketball teams from canada moving their operations to florida because canada is shut down. we just had the nba bubble, we had the ufc fighting championships, disney, universal are open, their doing it safely, and i know this: we serviced 131

million tourists last year, that's more than the entire country of japan combined. neil: amazing. i know people scoffed and laughed when you first proposed this, but every day that goes by, they're not doing that anymore. jimmy patronis, florida chief financial officer. never say never. the japanese papers are increasingly worried, and a lot of japanese in general are concerned about a flood of foreigners, you know, storming their country and bringing god knows what. i think they were worried about covid. i think it was that. ♪ ♪ we fell in love as the leaves turned brown ♪♪

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looking at where we're going with regulations in this country and when we've gotten a little bit too far on all of this. but ever since president biden, as he promised during the campaign, shut down the keystone pipeline and added insult to injury for energy workers by saying that he is going to stop all new oil activity on existing federal lands, well, that was -- those were the fighting words. mike summers, american petroleum institute, president and ceo there. none of this should come as a surprise, mike. i think the double whammy was, within the same week, extending it to new exploration on federal lands. the only distinction, i guess, i got from that is at least he didn't stop projects, you know, that are going, if you will, on those same federal lands. what do you make of this? >> well, look, i mean, every president for the last 40 years

has made energy independence a hallmark of their presidency. we're on the cusp of that, and it seems like president biden is going in a direction of energy dependence with these moves. the keystone xl pipeline cancellation, of course, killed about 10,000 union jobs. the same day he really shut down permits to drill on federal lands, and then yesterday's decision with a decision to cut off leasing on federal lands was very, very concerning. and i think it sets this country back particularly from an environmental perspective. that's the irony here. neil: so what does your industry do? >> well, look, my member companies at the american petroleum institute, we are a resilient bunch and of course we're focused on providing the energy that america needs. and one thing we know based on all analysis that we've seen is that even if the world meets its

commitments under the paris climate accords, the world's still going to consume almost 50% of their energy from oil and gas in the year 2040. and the question the american people have to answer is whether they want to get that oil and gas from regimes that are hostile to the united states or whether they want to get their energy from american resources. so we're focused on working with policymakers to insure that they understand the huge implications so far of what these moves are going to mean for american energy independence. neil: i'm just wondering why can't everyone be all in on this stuff, you know what i mean? if you like wind and solar, fine. but that doesn't mean cutting off your nose to spite your face. >> well, that's exactly right -- [inaudible conversations] neil: it's not happening, right? >> yeah. i mean, look, we believe in wind and solar, we know that they're going to be part of our energy mix going forward, but you can't have wind and solar without oil and gas. you can't have renewables without the backup, particularly

of natural gas within our energy mix. so we're going to communicate this to lawmakers, we're going to make sure that they understand the implications of some of these decisions on american energy independence, ask we hope to -- and we hope to work with the biden administration particularly on exporting american energy commence. and that excellence includes making sure we can take u.s. natural gas, export it overseas so that others can improve on their environmental progress as well. neil: are you surprised though that the markets -- i'm talking the energy markets, you've seen prices spiking. now, they're not, obviously, owing to the pandemic and the residual effect it's having on slowing the economy, but their their -- they're not alarmed by it. i know they were project by then-candidate joe biden. what's going on there? >> i think you're starting to

see as the pandemic slow ares down, you are -- slows down, you're going to start people coming back to the market, tart driving again, start commuting again. we're going to see a resurgence in the american energy economy very quickly, we hope. but we've got to get this economy moving again. and so, you know, our first priority is to get through covid-19 to make sure that we can get this economy moving again. but, neil, i think you recognize that before the pandemic the world was consuming 100 million barrels of oil every single day. and even during the worse part of the -- worst part of the pandemic, the world was consuming 81 million barrels a of oil a day. that makes clear you're still going to need oil in this world to make sure that the world gets the energy that it needs. so we're keenly focused on making sure that the american oil and gas industry is part of

that future because we know the world's going to continue to consume these products to get their energy. neil: all right. we'll watch it closely. mike somers, thank you. all right, in the meantime here, we're following a lot of developments with the super bowl less than a couple of weeks away, but you'll notice who's missing. not maybe a favorite team of yours, but a certain advertisers that is more focused not so much on beer, but alternatives. grady is here. >> reporter: yeah, neil, there's a specific type of beer that is gaining popularity. excitement is bubbling over for this. but it's what's not in it that's making it so popular. we'll tell you more next. ♪ ♪ or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions.

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♪ and you will let her go. ♪ will you let her go? ♪♪ neil: all right. an iconic name when it comes to super bowl advertising, budweiser has more than any other marketer or company period or over the years on the big game but not this year. but they are looking at alternatives to, well, beer including non-alcoholic versions that are now suddenly getting to be all the rage. grady trim the bl on all that in -- trimble on all that in chicago. hey, grady. >> reporter: hey, or neil. maybe not as many ads in the super bowl, but the craft brewers are getting in on this trend of non-alcoholic beer, and it is growing in popularity. met me show you the sales numbers for 2020, $188 million in sales for non-alcoholic beer, that's up about 38% year-over-year. we are at great central brewing

in chicago, david abram is the ceo here, and you guys are contract brewers for this brewing company, non-alcoholic beer. what is with this? i would have thought have a ginger ale or a coke or something. >> that might be the way of the past. i think between lifestyle changes, cultural changes, generational movement, the non-alcoholic beer scene is really coming into its own and taking shape. we have a chance to participate in that with companies like big draft on a craft level. we get to enjoy sort of the start-up phase, the formulation phase and working closely with clients to put out a product like big draft. >> reporter: we saw this growth in 2020, is that related to the pandemicking or is this a category that's going to keep exploding in. >> i think it's going to keep exploding. it seems to be a real cultural movement. it's something that people are, i think, taking ownership over their own health, fitness, wanting to understand more of the ingredients that go into

their foods, their beverages that they consume. is and so with a more knowledgeable consumer, better technology on the brewing side, a greater level of education for the brewers, the product that's coming out today is fantastic whether it's a craft-based product or one of the larger domestic producers. >> reporter: yeah, neil, it's not just o'douls anymore. we cover quite a few beer stories over here in chicago, but this is one that we can drink on the job, is so cheers to you, neil. neil: it's interesting you're making that distinction, finally. grady, thank you very much. [laughter] grady trimble in chicago on all of that. in the meantime, we're waiting to hear from president biden on some health initiatives to get people back into the medical coverage arena. but ahead of that, i want to talk to university of kentucky assistant professor of finance who's been doing a little digging into the $15 minimum wage. a lot of people go back and forth on who that would help,

but more importantly in the good professor's case, who it could hurt, the very people trying to get into the labor market. good to have you, professor. explain. >> hey, or neil. i think, i think, well, first off, thanks for having me on today. i think my co-authors and i really have two issues with kind of the proposed $15 an hour plan. the first issue is timing mostly. it's small businesses, especially restaurants and small retailers, are closing left and right due to covid-19. and even a small increase in the minimum wage could push more of these businesses into bankruptcy. and large businesses are also at risk right now to an increase in the minimum wage. our own research shows that an increase in the minimum wage drastically reduces the hiring rates of large employers. this is obviously not something you want when so many people are currently out of work and they're looking for jobs. okay? our second issue with the biden plan is that the $15 an hour seems just way too high for most parts of the country. you know, $15 an hour is close

to median wage in most u.s. states, and this is not a single u.s. state right now that has a minimum wage as binding that's call to $15 an hour. and the main idea really is that someone has to bear the cost of that 15 an hour minimum wage, and our research shows those working in manufacturing are the ones most likely to be bearing that cost. and this is what because businesses in the tradeable sector compete on a very global scale, and this means they compete against companies and countries that might not even have a minimum wage in the first place. so a flat $15 an hour policy would be a really good way if you wanted to put manufacturing workers in mississippi out of work and send their jobs overseas. neil: you know, professor, a lot of people look at the pre-pandemic world versus the post-pandemic world, and we had gotten as low at, what, 3.6% unemployment levels, records in so many of these states. in the middle of a lot of them, you know, seeing these $15

minimum wages and above. so if it was to hurt that community or workers, if you did it then, you might have a point right now in this world that it's a whole different world now. but what caused that phenomenon? because there were employers racing to catch up on recruiting good candidates for their operations, all competing on high wages. you don't think that could survive or are you worried that the federal wage is set at this $15 level, it will push those same employers up to 20 or even further to keep that talent? >> so our research says kind of two things about this. first, raising the minimum wage on the federal level might not be that bad of an idea during a good economic time. so that's why we kind of want them to push the timing back. our own research shows that when you raise the minimum wage in a good labor market, incumbent workers actually benefit a lot.

they experience an increase in incomes, and they do not experience a large mal-effect in terms of employment. the main way this minimum wage manifests is most times through the hiring channel. when the unemployment rate is very high like jeff clemons at ucla-san diego has done some research during the great recession, and his work really, really shows that raising the minimum wage is usually a bad idea when the unemployment rate is so high because of this hiring effect. during normal, good times it's not that bad of a policy at least if it's kept within a reasonable domain because at least our research shows it can have nice income spillover effects to people making slightly above the wage distribution and can also help their situation. to be clear though, i think if the goal of the biden administration is to reduce poverty with the minimum wage, i think they should instead focus more on more targeted policies. if you think about it, the

minimum wage is actually a very blunt policy tool for reducing poverty in the first place. most minimum wage earners aren't core breadwinners, they're college students and other people. they're better off doing things like tax breaks or other more target programs. neil: you know, you're the first professor to use the screening mcduck -- scrooge mcduck analogy. >> thank you, neil. neil: in the meantime, we were talking about the big super bowl game coming up and advertisers who were in it, advertisers who are knot in it. -- not in it. a company that is committed to still being with it, after this. ♪ feel the vibration. ♪ it's such a good vibration. ♪ it's such a sweet sensation. ♪ it's such a good vibration ♪♪

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now broadcast. a lot of commercial time is still available. we've got the chairman and ceo of known, by the way well known for getting very effective advertising that gets the world's attention, certainly, during the big game. very good to have you. you're obviously still committed to this venue. i'm just wondering why when so many others are either rethinking it or not having anything to do with it? >> well, first of all, thanks for having me, neil, as well. neil: thank you. >> you know, we like the super bowl under the right circumstances for the right client with the right story. and i think the first reason why, hook, there's no other -- look, there's no other stage in advertising where you would talk about who's not participating in a single-day event. so it's an extraordinary cultural phenomenon. people watch it, they love it for the sports, they love it for the ads. and so it does provide a real opportunity for an advertiser with a well-timed, well-placed

message to break through. and that's why under the right circumstances we do still recommend it for our clients. neil: so what are you doing for the big game? >> what are we going to do? well, we've got a couple of respondents. one of -- spots. one of them is for the nfl themselves and, obviously, it's a great stage for them to bring an endemic message out to their fans about the game, the at -- the apt -- athletes and the fandom that the it creates. and our second spot is a huge new launch, and it's going to be incredibly inspiring and hopeful, and we think really powerful. it's got a real purpose to it. neil: do your clients ever get a little anxious about the costs involved, will they get any bang for the buck? >> you know, we think really carefully about all these decisions, and so do all the

clients out there. i think it's got to make sense in the context of the story you want to tell, it's got to make sense in the context of the investments you're making in other platforms in media for the right client under the right circumstances. it's the best investment they can make because there's nothing like it. but at the same time, it's not something people should take as a default or easy choice. it is a lot of money, and you've got to be designing a program of advertising through and around the game to make it make sense. so it's not for everybody. but, again, under the right circumstances, it's just such a unique asset that it can be incredible. neil: yeah, i'm not an expert. i do know your ads are very uplifting, they seem truth of -- truthful, but it does stand out in that regard. how important is that for you

not go typecast, not to do the silly stuff? >> you know, i think we have really built a discipline around trying to understand the truth and essence of the brands we work for and what matters to their audiences and to try and get to the, get to the intersection of something that's true, something that is meaningful and that breaks through. and i'm glad that you've appreciated it, some of our spots. we're trying to do it a different way, and we think that 2020, 2021 have really become years where you've got to think differently, and you've got to be authentic. audiences demand it. neil: yeah. well --

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neil: welcome back. time for me to pass the baton, was he rowdy yesterday, charles payne. charles: neil, thank you very much, my friend. i'm charles payne. this is making money. one of the moats explosive sessions i have ever seen, certainly in a honk time, marked by dubious actions of wall street. they're circling the wagons to save the hedge funds at the expense of individual investors. robin hood, other trading platforms limiting investors to to tell selling certain stocks. that is not demockeryization of markets, not free markets and certainly not fair. i have some of the best in the business to discuss a dub bus

day in