the media's fanned the flames of division. the motional payload from anger, fear, disgust, they're just too the irresistible for the media. saving a cat from a tree? who cares? the neutral headlines are the biggest duds of them all. there's no incentive to play it down the middle other than maybe an ode to the truth. whether it's d.c. politics or the media highlight, we, the people, our insatiable appetite to rubber neck car crashes and have it our way or burn it all done, that's -- down, that's exactly what's happening. something to consider as i hand it over to lauren simonetti in for liz claman today. lauren: hi, everybody, i'm lauren simonetti. we have a fox market alert, stockses rallying at this hour as the white house calls for tougher rules for mid-sized banks. take a look at the dow,, it's up 103 points. the other markets higher as well.

min yap lis federal reserve president neel kashkari says the banking sector stress could last longer than many expect when it comes to the rates, tom barkin says he's comfortable with the 25 the basis point ooh hikes, and boss on the fed president susan collins is leaning to one more interest rate increase. charles schwab is the worst performer on the s&p 500 odd. morgan stanley down graded the financial services company to equal weight from overweight. the firm cites an uncertain earnings outlook due to less visibility for customer moss it out-- deposit outflows. the collapse of silicon valley bank earlier this month is weighing on shares of the spanks including -- banks including schwab shares, down 33% in march. and we have one day left. all of this as markets eye the pce inflation report tomorrow. that's what the federal reserve looks at too. and with that we bring in

jpmorgan asset management chief global strategist david kelly. david, thank you for coming on. good to sew you. >> glad to be here. lauren: all of this banking stress, what is the fed going to do stress the, and you look at the markets for the month, nice gains. i mean, the nasdaq's up over 4% this month. >> that's right. and i think what people are sensing is that there may be a bit of a silver lining to all this chaos. there certainly has been a lot of turmoil in wangs -- banks, but it's putting a limit on how much the federal reserve can raise interest rates and also bringing forward the day the fed's going to have to cut interest rates. all of last year service the hurting the markets, i think that now we're looking at a slightly better prospect, and i think the that's helping the markets. lauren: so the banking crisis, in quotes, is doing the fed's work a little bit in bringing down can inflation, maybe cooling the pace? >> a little bit that, but the federal reserve should not is have pushed interest rates this high, they should not raise rates again because it works as

a lag on economy, and inflation's coming down anyway. what the crisis has done, it's kind of like the ice has been cracking under the federal reserve. they realize that they've now pushed the banking system to a point of stress, and that's going to make them a little bit more reluctant to push it forward. and since neither the economy nor the markets need higher interest rates, that's a good thing. lauren: are you blaming the banking crisis that we have now, putting crisis in quotes, do you think it's a crisis, but are you blaming what we're seeing on the federal reserve and interest rate increases that have been relentless? >> i would -- yeah. you call it a mini crisis. it's nothing like 2008. but, yes. and it's not just the federal reserve raising rates to a very high level, the problem is they kept rates so low for 15 years, everybody got used to this morphine drip of zero interest rates, and everybody sort of priced for that. and they built a lot of asset bubbles or allowed a lot of asset bubbles to build, and then sudden suddenly they push rates up by 475 basis points in one

year, and this is what happens. lauren: so now what? what is the next sector we need to look at that could be in trouble? what now? >> i think there's good news and bad news. i think the good news is consumers, despite the fact that they've been building up a certain amount of debt can, they're very relentless s and we're not seeing a rollover in consumer spending. the bad news i think is probably in business investment spending and spending in general. we know that the regional banks are going to be pulling back in terms of lending. they're not going to be as anxious to lend to small businesses. i think at loft businesses are bracing for recession -- a lot of businesses are bracing for recession -- lauren: look at all the layoffs. >> yeah. i feel good about consumer spending, i'm not so sure about business spending. lauren: but consumer spending is slowing down also. it started at the end of last year. we got gdp for the fourth quarter. yes, consumer spending is up, but not as much as the prior read, up 1%. we get spending numbers tomorrow for the month of february.

spending is expected to increase by .3% from january. but many january it increased by 1.8%. i throw a lot of numbers out, but the consumer is softening. >> i think so. first of all, what happened last year, we did see a softening as the year moved on, and what really happened is in 2020 and 2021 we got all these stimulus checks, and people were buying a whole pile of sufficient, but he were buying more stuff than they could afford in the long run. what happened last year, okay, they still wanted to buy the stuff, but they borrowed on credit cards, and now there's a limit to how much they can do that. so i think there is gradual drag of consumer spending going on which, by the way, will get worse if student loan payments resume -- lauren: how much worse? >> well, it'll get pretty slow. i think you're looking at consumer spending growth of less than 1% in the second half of the year. so i do think that's almost recession-like. and hen the question does business spending roll over concern. lauren: what because that the mean, almost recession-like?

a, do you think we have a recession, and if so, is it a modest one, a mild one, or are we in for a really hard landing? >> we're teetering on the edge of a swamp, not a cliff. lauren: but, david, people have been saying we're tiahrting on the edge of a concern teetering on the edge of a recession. where's the recession? nasdaq's up 14% this quarter. >> well, yes. but it's been delayed by the fact you had all these excess job openings. you don't have any real excess in the cyclical sectors. yeah,st soft. as i said, we're on the edge of a swamp, not the edge of a cliff. for the news business,st it'd be nice to say, hey, we did have a recession, can't have a recession, but the reality is it's just going to to be slow going. we may end up in recession, it's just going to be hard to get out of. lauren: yeah, that's the problem. like, you cut -- the stagnation, in a sense. we received word about an hour ago that president biden and the white house want regulators to

regulate further the small -- the mid-sized banks, right in make them face the same regulations that the bigger banks face. these were rolled back during the trump administration. and janet yellen, the treasury secretary, will speak in about 40 minutes from now, and she's expected to say prepared remarks. recent events in the banking sector show that our work is not done great. so we're talking about -- done yet. we're talking about more regulations coming on more banks. your thoughts. >> well, ist the ineffable. -- i think it's inevitable. when you have a financial contagion episode is, people look for the weakest link. and a lot of these regulations forced banks to own more and more capital to nobody concern so nobody could doubt that the money was safe is. we now have a dual system where the biggest banks, most globally significant banks have huge amounts of capital so people are very confident that money's okay but not so confident in the regional banks. and what i think the administration's trying to do is, yeah, you've got to build up

your capital so people are confident in you also. i think it's inevitable that we're going to go down this road, but it does have a knock-on effect in the economy overall. lauren: these are the regionals today. they're down, you know, 2.33% for key corp. over there, that's the worst on the list, so we're not seeing the double-digit falls that we have seen in so many days this month. do you think we're out of the woods when it comes to this banking sector crisis of confidence? >> i think -- i don't think we're going to see a repeat of what we had with sill can con valley bank. -- kill son valley concern silicon valley bafnlgt we may see some other aspect, we saw it with credit suisse in europe two weeks ark i think it was two weeks ago -- lauren: it's hard to keep rack the. >> it is. lauren: every sunday night is nerve-wracking. >> what's happening is the government is saying both the central banks and the government are saying we will not let this fail. we will do whatever is necessary. we may, you know, the shareholders of these banks may be in trouble, but the

depositors should feel safe. i think that's you're going -- what you're going to see, the government come to to rescue of various financial institutions as contagion hops around a little bit. i i think we're going to be okay, but i don't think we're cone with this yet. lauren: does that make sure the government will make sure the smaller banks are okay too? >> well, exactly. even an itty bitty bank going under could cause a problem. and you coset up a problem. you can't protect everything. lauren: no. >> what that means is in the long run you've got to have a system that is more stable and that means don't push interest rates down to 0, don't jack them up by 5% in one year. you've got to be more stable, make sure you've got a secure regulatory system so you don't have these problems. lauren: it's funny you say that, because now the market is pricing in a 50% chance that the market because nothing at the next three meetings, may, june and july, and a 55% chance they cut in november. translation, nobody knows. 50-50. where do you come in?

>> it's a close call. at the moment, they still seem to think they could raise rates on may 3rded. it would be a mistake. the real issue is the markets are convinced that the economy's going to slip into recession and the fed's going to ease before the end of the year. the fed says they're not going another the it, but if you see jobs being lost and the unemployment rate going up, i think the fed will sing a different tune. lauren david kelly, thank you very much. elon musk and op the tech minds warning about the impact of artificial intelligence on humankind and the rise of a.i. adding to employee concerns about job security and the future of work. what i'mss of jobs are -- types of jobs are under threat from a.i.? that answer is next. but it's the not the all doom and gloom. one company's using a.i. to the make construction workers safer and more efficient. we've got the ceo of semiawe. on the mouse construction equipment company -- autonomous construction equipment company, the elio here. "countdown" coming right back. ♪

♪ the new chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam who make...? ...everyday products... ...designed smarter. like a smart coffee grinder - that orders fresh beans for you. oh, genius! for more breakthroughs like that... ...i need a breakthrough card... like ours! with 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more... plus unlimited 2% cash back on all other purchases! and with greater spending potential, sam can keep making smart ideas... ...a brilliant reality! the new ink business premier card from chase for business. make more of what's yours.

these days, our households depend on the internet more and more. families grow, houses get smarter, and our demands on the internet increase. that's why we just boosted speeds for over 20 million xfinity customers, on us. so you get more of the speed you need for day and night streaming.

more speed you need when you're work from homeing. and more speed you need as your family keeps growing. check in on your current speed through the xfinity app or upgrade to the speed that's right for you today.

lauren: that's not the scariest intro, the rise of a.i. elon musk is a bit scared. he's joining the growing list of ec the leaders warning the world about artificial intelligence. apple cofounder, steve wozniak, andrew yang and, of course, elon musk signing this letter along with 1,000 others pushing a.i. companies to stop training models that are more powerful than the current gpt4. the letter describes the systems as, i'm quoting, becoming human-competitive and maybe taking over. all this as a recent study shows 80% of u.s. jobs are at risk of

becoming automated in some way. lydia hu concern i always do that -- >> that's me. lauren: -- has the details for us. are you scared by this at all or kind of like, eh, we've just got to go with the flow of where technology is headed? >> reporter: i've got a lot of questions about it, but in my view, the genie's out of the bottle. there's no going back. but there are good reasons why we're hearing from those tech the heavyweights, or you know, calling for a pause on the development of a.i. because of the changes it could bring to the work force. very fast, very soon, maybe within the next five years. watch. >> the society, the way we live, the way we work could be quite different. it's not cry wolf per se, it is really wolf is at the door the because it is here. >> reporter: now, around the world economists from bold theman saks estimates -- goldman

sachs estimates that as many as 300 million jobs could be impacted by autoa mission with artificial intelligence. here in the u.s., they say 7% of the u.s. work force could be replaced by a.i. some to have professions that are the most at risk, administrative professionals, the legal field, architecture and engineering. what do you see here, lauren? these are white collar jobs. these are not the blue collar jobs that have been edged out when we've seen periods of automation -- lauren: are you going with replaced or maybe supplemented? like, a lawyer can do more work because someone, a computer is processing information for them. >> reporter: that's such a good point, because i was talking with the chief technology officer of accenture, and he said we should think about as things being eliminated for the workers rather than elimination of work e. but according to goldman sachs, they do have that estimate that as many as 7% of u.s. workers could be replaced by artificial intelligence. so, you know, a lot to think about there, a lot to keep up

with. but that includes broadcasters like you and me, according to goldman sachs, maybe about a quarter of our tasks. they say around 26% for people in arts oring media, entertainment, we could see our responsibilities eliminated. so maybe that's a good thing. lauren: have you tested how that would work? >> reporter: i'm glad you asked because i did ask chatgpt, and it wrote a 90-second news story. i've got it right here on how artificial intelligence will impact jobs. lauren: would you'll use that? >> reporter: you know, it's not great. but there is a beginning, a middle if an end. it well comes you into the broadcast and signs out and says that a's all for now, thank you for tuning in. it's a good start, and think that's the point here, this is the start. a. a.i.'s going to likely get better and better. lauren: and while it feels scary, maybe we do this 6-month pause, but china's not pausing. >> reporter: in some ways, i think that's the scare scarier

point, don't you? whether or not we want to commit a the we are in a race with artificial intelligence, we absolutely are on so many fronts we're in a race with china and russia. lauren: lydia hu, thank you very much. good to see you. well, from white collar analysts and television the reporters to blue collar manufacturing jobs, roles across various sectors of the economy are seeing inpact of artificial intelligence. bernstein analyst jay wong projecting that the manufacturing sector could see a huge spike in 56789i.ous -- a.i. use. the market could be worth $11 billion by 2025. not just manufacturing, construction also seeing a surge. teleo creates supervised autonomous technology to make bulldozers, cranes and more, operate partially op on their own while workers control them remotely. the company's cofounder and ceo previously worked with lyft on its self-driving car initiative, and he was part of creating google's technology, the prompt

that makes you prove you're not a robot. i will commitment sometimeses the difficult to prove when they ask you to look at all the pictures of the palm trees, and you're, like, i thought i saw a palm tree in that picture. he joins me exclusively now. good to see you. >> hi, how's it going? [laughter] lauren: so you're bringing a.i. to companies that employ construction workers, right? it makes their job safer, i'd imagine? >> that's right. so we build technology to retrofit large construction pa machines like bulldozers, dump trucks, loaders and convert them into remote-controlled, autonomous machines. that means the operator is no longer sitting inside the machine, but in a comfortable control station where they have joysticks, they have pedals, and they can control the machine just as they would if they were in the machine itself. lauren: that sounds like a win-win. >> and because they are remote, they can switch between machines instantly as well as put the machine in awe. on the mouse mode for part of

the time and, therefore, one person can control multiple machines at the same time. lauren: we're looking at video of a worker, and it looks like he's playing a video game. what do the workers say? ooh, glad i don't have to do that, i don't want to be outside today or that looks dangerous, or or do they miss that hands-on experiencesome. >> every time you see an operator come to our station, hay feel like they're going to miss that experience, but when they're sitting behind the controls and realize how comfortables it is and they don't get shaken around, beat around and they start to like it. they start to enjoy what they're doing. and they also realize that they are able to be as productive as held be sitting in the machine. lauren: the companies that you work with, what do they say to you? what incentives are there for them to the automate? what is the true cost and reward to their business? >> so every contractor we've spoken to has told us that the number one problem they have is finding skilled labor.

so they all have more work to do, and they have people available to do that work. and so for them when they come to us, we offer a solution that can help them in two ways. the first is we make the operator's job easier because they're now sitting in an office-like setting and not in the machine. and that makes the job accessible and more attractive to people. and the second, because they can switch across multiple machines and go in autonomous mode for some situations, it lets them do more. lauren: would you require the same skill set to operate heavy machinery remotely? >> so we've seen that it helps a lot, the experienced operators get behind the controls and are able to start operating machines pretty rapidly because they're familiar with the machine already. but what we believe is going to the happen over the next years is, again, because of the shift from being in the machine in this harsh environment to a comfortable office of environment that, you know, we

can attract a wider group of people in, people who today may not want to physically be in the a machine or may not be able to physically be in a machine, they could operate the machining successfully. lauren: are you worried that there's been slowdown in the overall economy, particularly in the housing market, that that will impact demand for what you co? >> so, look, there are always going to be the ebbs and flows many terms of command, but what is true is that construction is the bedrock of modern society. we are going to be building for a long time to come, and people don't realize this, but every time you build a building or you build a house or commercial property, that is big machines that level the land, that move dirt, and operators, men and women who sit in these machines who work 8 hours, 10 hours a day in pretty harsh environments and really, to me, this means this technology can immediately make their jobs a lot more comfortable. lauren: vinay, thank you for the time. >> thank you for having me. lauren: well, crypto kingpin sam

bankman-fried back in court today over an alleged $40 million brine to chinese officials. the concern bribe to chinese officials, pleading not guilty to five additional charges. details on what went down inside that courtroom right after this. plus, regional banks continue to see whip saw trading action following the collapse of svb. joining us later this hour, the ceo of one of the banks that bid for svb's assets. right now we're in rally mode. you can see the dow jones industrial average higher by 114 points, the s&p up 18. check out the nasdaq, the best percentage garon, two-thirds of 1% to the upside, above 12 the ,000. we're coming right back.me ♪mb ♪ and buying your starter home. or whatever this is. but the things that last a lifetime like happiness, love and confidence... you can't buy those.

but you can invest in them. we believe that your investments should work harder for the future you imagine. and that's where our strategic investing approach can help. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. when you stay at a vrbo you always get the whole home not part of it but the whole upstairs the whole downstairs the whole fridge and the whole secret nap room because is it really a vacation home if you have to share a house with a host? ♪ only with vrbo

champion iron provides a rare solution to decarbonise the steel industry, which represents nearly 8% of global emissions. controlling one of the largest portfolios of high purity iron ore, the company is well positioned to align with the industry's accelerating transition towards green steelmaking. having recently completed an expansion to double the company's production capacity at its mine in eastern canada, champion continues to deploy its vision with organic growth projects. champion iron

♪ choosing miracle-ear was a great decision. like when i decided to host family movie nights. miracle-ear made it easy. i just booked an appointment and a certified hearing care professional evaluated my hearing loss and helped me find the right device calibrated to my unique hearing needs. now i enjoy every moment. the quiet ones and the loud ones. make a sound decision. call 1-800 miracle now, and book your free hearing evaluation. say goodbye to daily insulin injections with omnipod 5... a tubeless system that automatically adjusts insulin to help protect against highs and lows. try it today. go to omnipod.com for risk information and instructions for use. consult your doctor before starting on omnipod.

lauren: fox business alert, some calm in the market right now, almost the end of the quarter. dow is up 131, the broader market up 20 the and the nasdaq by 81 points. restoration hardware lower after reporting fourth quarter earnings that missed an list expectations. the furniture company also forecasting weaker revenue for the year as persistent inflation cuts into sales of luxury homes. that stock down 2%. ev -- says revenue spiked 283% in the quarter helping the charger stationary row demand adding 59,000 new clients in the

quarter, and it expects significantly hire revenue for the year. the stock up 22% to $7.04 a share for ev go. and to ev maker farraday future intelligent electric, that's a mouthful, has started production of the ff-9 91. it had raise doubts about its about to continue as a growing concern due to lack of capital. a launch event for the car is scheduled for next month, april 26th investors, huh, aren't convinced. the stock is down 1.5%, but it's the only at 35 cents a share. take a look at electronic attars, they're cutting 6 of their work force -- 6% of their work force. it's trying to down size and save money. roku cutting its work force by 6%, that's 200 employee, and this is the second round of job cuts for the streaming device maker in four months ooh' i'm.

they cut 200 jobs back in november. roku i cue down almost 4%. beth bath and beyond say -- bed bath & beyond warning that if it doesn't receive proceeds from an offering, it will likely need to file for bankruptcy protection. if bed bath & beyond says it has terminated its fund raising deal with the hedge fund hudson bay capital management, and they expect fourth quarter comp sales to fall between 40-50. that have's ugly. so the the the stock today, down 25%. it's down 75% in this young year. well, crypto's fallen angel, sam bankman-fried, has pleaded not today in a new york court -- the not guilty. he made a $40 million bribe to chinese officials. prosecutors say the bribe was meant to help unfreeze about a billion dollars in the crypto assets held by an ftx sister

company, alameda. we go live to connell mcshane outside the new york courthouse where sbf, as we call him, was seen earlier today. how'd he look, connell? >> reporter: well, about the same as he always looks, lauren, the dark do suit, the dark tie and the white shirt as it comes out that for showing up at these court appearances. he was seen here, not seen for very long, was in and out. an appearance in new york, pleaded not guilty, on his way back to california, home confinement at his parents' home. you're looking at the scene as sbf arrived in new york earlier today. always so chaotic when he gets out of suv with the photographers waiting, just has to fight his way into the courthouse. and once he was many there, like i said, it was quick. the hearing took only about 20 the minutes, he entered the guilty plea via his lawyer, mark cohen who, by the way, is challenging these new charges because they're arguing the charges were inappropriately filed, improperly filed because they weren't approved by the

authorities in the bahamas before sbp was that extra kited from there. -- extra dieted from there. accused of bribing these chinese government officials, but also in the superseding indictments he hadn't yet been arraigned on so you add this all up, and this is a 13-count federal indictment with a possible prison incident, again, when you add up all the counts, of 160 years behind bars, 1-6-0. other developments if you're looking at this case this week, new bail conditions were announced by the judge, louis kaplan. the goal is to make sure that sam bank man fried doesn't try to tamper with any potential witnesses. for example, he has a new cell phone, but there's no internet on it. you can just text and and call, that's it, like an old school flip phone. so things like that to try to make sure he's not communicating. and the final point i think a lot of people have been wondering, how does this guy may his legal bills?

supposedly, he lost everything. well, "forbes" had a story about that saying that what he did was he gave a multimillion dollar gift to his cad, $10 million plus, back in 2021 before all this starts -- started. and supposedly, that's money he's been using to pay these legal bills. so we move on with this case, the trial still slated to take place in october here in new york. lauren: october. and, by the way, connell, he's allowed to go on netflix, doorcash and gmail, the last i checked. i don't know why doorcash and not uber eats, but there you have it. >> reporter: well, that sounds like a good weekend from where i come from. [laughter] lauren: connell mcshane outside the courthouse in new york, thank you very much. the white house calling for new mid-sized bank rules in the wake of the collapses of silicon valley bank and signature bank. how is a regional like valley national navigating this turmoil? the ceo, ira robbins, is here next. and the venture capitalist alan

patricof, he's been through many investment cry serious and difficult times -- cry crises. he went from selling newspapers by the new york city subway to dominating the vc space. he's been in the start-up funding race for more than 50 years all while running dozens of new york city marathons. maybe too's concern maybe that's where liz made him. everyone talks to liz podcast episode, you can find that wherever you get your podcasts. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ did you ever stress about us having three kids? no, that was always part of the plan. three kids?! this was never part of the plan! these kids order the lobster mac 'n cheese! what if she wants to play golf? we're going to have to outlaw golf. absolutely no golf in this house! not under my roof! since we started working with empower, all of our financial questions have been answered, so we don't have to worry. so you never- nope. always part of the plan. join 17 million people and take control of your

financial future to empower what's next. start today at empower.com your wyndham is waiting. whether it's for the bucket lists... the free breakfasts and wifi... or the... romantic getaways? with 24 trusted brands your wyndham is waiting. get the lowest price at wyndhamhotels.com if your child has diabetes, you'll love how easy dexcom g7 is. it's on. and, he's off. you can see his glucose numbers right on your phone, so you can always be there for him with dexcom g7. ♪ ♪

if sports fans built a streaming service... what's happening? we won the j.d. power award. number one in customer satisfaction among live tv streaming providers. how long has this been going on? too long. fubo! justin baker: across the globe, the vast majority of children with cancer will die. those children deserve so much better. the thing we are called to do is to make sure that those children are surrounded o know how to provide the very best care possible. - representative! - sorry, i didn't get that. - oh buddy! you need a hug. you also need consumer cellular. get the exact same coverage as the nation's leading carriers and 100% us based customer support. starting at $20.

consumer cellular. first, there's an idea and you do something about it for the first time with godaddy. then before you know it, (it is a life changer...) you make your first sale. small business first. never stopped coming. (we did it!) and you have a partner that always puts you first way. (no way!) start today at godaddy.com. century lithium is advancing their clayton valley project towards production, with the goal of becoming a domestic lithium producer for the growing electric vehicle market. nevada's lithium is the key to america's green future. century lithium

lauren: a vote of confidence, blackstone ceo steve schwarzman has faith in u.s. banks, so much so that he expects most to to the withstand the current turmoil if. he blames the collapse of silicon valley bank and who the other regional lenders on the after-effect of covid and technology.

schwartzman says the crisis was fuel by social media causing massiveive withdrawals in a short period of time. a bank run started on twitter and then click, click, click to withdraw money on your phone, it's that easy. silicon valley bank's remaining 17 branches reopened under new ownership this week after of a deal with first citizens bank. but before that sale, new jersey-base valley national was interested in purchasing svb. joining me now in a fox business exclusive is valley national bank chairman and ceo ira robbins. thank you for coming on. >> thank you for having me. lauren: why were you interested in svb, and how do you feel you didn't get it. >> obviously, a bit disappointed, but i think it's a realest thement to who we are and the diverse business model that a bank our size was even able to bid on it. we have a very diverse banking platform here. we have been around for 95 years, we've never had a losing quarter during that 95-year period. and i think being -- to some of

the diverse business rhines in acquiring svb would have been a positive for us and our shareholders. lauren: you have 60 billion in assets now. if you had gotten svb, they're 100 billion many assets, you would have had 16 of 0 billion in assets which means per the president of the united states, per the treasury department, you would have had more regulations. dodd-frank, all the rules that the bigbacks face would have faced you as a mid-sized banks. your thoughts. >> i think odd the there's a lot of regulations that the impact banks today. i think regulations in the banking environment is a real positive, to be honest with you. our industry based on a confidence of trust that exists here, and regulate helps support that confidence of trust. and what we had was an illusion of that we -- confidence and that collapsed based on what happened with signature and with silicon valley bank. that led to contagion and fear. those were id idiosyncratic risks that were happening at those specific organizations.

many banks like valley have strong balance sheets, and the entire industry is very, very strong. and i think one of the problems is the contagion that came out of those two banks was a function of what happened outside of dodd-frank back in 2008-2009 when we created an environment of ooh too big to fail. and unfortunately, too big to the fail has led to too small to to succeed today. and that is an environment that has to the change. providing additional regulations on individual banks, i don't believe, is the solution. we need to fix the environment that has created an ability for consumers and potential clients to move their money at just a whim, picking up their phone to a bank that they deem to be too big to the fail. that creates concern. lauren: whose ear do you have in congress right now or at treasury or at fdic? who's listening to you? you're saying i don't think this is a good idea, and i'm talking to customers and businesses every single day. >> and we talk to clients all the time. i was in washington last week

monday, tuesday and wednesday talking to a lot of people. look, i think many of the mid-sized banks across this country believe that. we have more than 200 basis points of capital what we kid going into the last great financial crisis. banks are strong today. that is not the issue. the issue is, is how do we not have an industry where there's too big to fail, where there is, as the blackstone the chairman said, the ability to move money at the click of a phone. that creates a problem where people feel that they need to because there's this perspective that these larger banks are too big to the fail. that has to be addressed. lauren: how? >> there are short-term solutions that the you can go and provide automatic deposit insurance for everyone today. ultimately, that's not a great long-term solution. are there possibilities where you could have private insurance that comes into the space? i believe we need to have a thoughtful conversation. having a conversation during a crisis is not a good idea by any means, but we need to level the playing field.

and without leveling the the playing field, we are just creating an environment that continues to be ripe for contagion. lauren: yeah. well, as our regulators and banks conduct this autopsy right now of what went down, you're saying slow down, be careful before you overregulate in the wrong ways. very quickly, do you agree with what the blackstone ceo said, that really this was a social media sort of technology event and maybe not a failure of supervision or bank management? >> look, there was obviously a failure of supervision here which was precipitated by a failure of actual management. to have those interest rate risk profiles in those concentrations, that's banking 101. that should have never happened. and the regulators have the ability today to step in make those overall changes to it. no, i cobelieve that information today moves at the same speed as money because, and we're not going to the change that. we're not going to take technology backwards 0 the, 30, 40 years. it's how do we operate in this

environment today is what we need to do. and my belief is, once again, creating a level playing field for all banks is the first step. lauren: ira robbins, thank you very much for the time. >> thank you. lauren: next, charlie gasparino joins us with more on the regional banks. they are down the for the most part odd the across the board including the fate of first republic. "claman countdown" coming right back. ♪ ♪ luxury exemplified. innovation electrified. with apple music seamlessly integrated. the all-new, all-electric eqs suv from mercedes-benz. see your dealer for exceptional offers on mercedes-benz electric vehicles.

if lawn care were easy, everyone would do it... as well as trugreen does it. trugreen's online tools help ensure your custom treatment works to deliver a greener, healthier lawn - guaranteed. it's time to trust your experts at trugreen. go online today! .

♪. lauren: final ten minutes as embattled first republic bank attempts to turn around business model, management firms are looking to poach high net worth clients an advisors. charlie bass is here. stock was $171 recently. now it is 13. >> it was down 80%. came back up on a report we had two days ago on "the claman countdown." sources tell us it is not for sale. they think they make a run. they got deposits from big wall street firms. they're trying to literally plug holes in the wells so to speak or whatever cliche i'm mangling here. lauren: can't help you. i get it.

>> one of the holes keep the wealth management decision. look at financial firm, bank with the deposits, make loans, most banks have wealth managers, brokers essentially, pitching clients, some of the same client in the bank, you know, stock deals, bond deals, ipos, they have about 270 of those folks. they manage 200 plus billion dollars of assets. they focus, you know, myopically on high net worth individuals, same people that essentially bank at first republic this bank has a blue chip clientele. if they lose these brokers, it's big, big problem for the banks health going forward because most of their client have the deposits. so if they leave the brokers leave to morgan stanley, to ubs, which are two firms we hear are trying to poach, guess what? they take the deposits and you have another sort of semibank run. we should point out that is not

happening yet based on my sources at the bank. obviously i can't, this is what the bank people, at the bank are telling me. they have 270 brokers. they lost a handful. four so far. that doesn't mean they won't lose more. lauren: can you say where those four went? >> one of them went, one team went to rockefeller funds run by greg fleming. that is true but, the other one was to another major wall street firm which i can't remember. but from what i do hear, there is a poaching effort going on. i will tell you, this is pretty es sustention for the bank. again -- if you lose brokers, wealth management which is fee business, but they take deposits. that is basically how they cross sold theirs. open up a bank account, you go there, you're a richfy. guess what? we have broker handles accounts

for rich guys. we can get you in on all the iposs was a interesting policy mix. if they lose a lot of brokers, some of the clients are forcing poaching. clients are saying you're my broker, joe smith. right? i have 200, two million dollars in first republic. that is above the 25, 250,000-dollar insurance limit. i'm taking that money out. so he takes it out, brings it to someone else. by the way -- lauren: not withdrawal based on fear of a banking collapse or even liquidity of the bank, you want to sell it to broker? >> two-ways. brokers receiving themselves. people taking money out of bank saying i don't want anything to do with this bank because it is problematic so that -- lauren: feeds on itself. >> feeds on itself. that is the problem i think they're trying to prevent this is not a bank run on the brokerage, telling me, swearing

on a thousand stacks of bibles a handful so far left, one team to rockefeller and they are preparing for more to go but it hasn't happened yet. so just keep an eye on this because this is a threat to them. if they're going to make it, and again we reported earlier in the week they're trying to make it alone. they're getting some capital. jamie dimon is involved in some sort of a deal to try to keep -- lauren: he is involved in everything. 1-800 jamie dimon if there is a problem. >> before i wrap this up, we're in a lull of this banking crisis right now. >> i would agree. >> that doesn't mean it's over. again my sources tell me there are 25 banks out there with similar deposit loan characteristics as -- lauren: 25? >> as sbv, silicon valley, signature, and first republic. there can't be just three guys that took enormous risk-taking when you're the federal reserve and you perverted south of rules of the road with free money for so long.

just remember. this is a lull. that is what jamie dimon's involved in. larry fink is involved. they know there is a lull. there were lulls in the 2007. i bear sterns hedge funds went under, people freaked out. known as a credit crunch. the market hit all-time high right after that 14,000 in november, october, 2007. within three months, bond matures went over, under, next couple months bear stearns went down. so the race was on. remember this stuff takes time, if it is going to happen. hopefully it doesn't happen. lauren: charlie gasparino. thank you. >> thank you. >> look at wall street. all stock market averages are up on the second to last day of the month and the quarter. the dow 140 points. the high of the session was 188. it was down 34 at one point. broad market is down 22 points. it has not been negative today. nasdaq up by 86. it was up 118 at one.so doing

pretty good. take a look at bitcoin, down by $323 to 28,015. the token has been on a run month to date popping over 20% which got it past 28,000. if it hits 29-k our "countdown" closer says buy it. cloning me is the closer,$.5 billion under management. sanders morris chairman george ball. george, good to see you. thanks for coming on. bitcoin what happened? i just feel like everyone is waiting for the next shoe to drop, bitcoin goes up. why? >> bitcoin is unusual phenomenon. there are investment or, you might call them belief facets to it. it is also a little bit of an interesting speculative phenomenon, very wise, old investor that i knew quite well-said, buy things from other people are buying it. buy them when they're going up. i was on the show some months ago, said bitcoin which was then

18,000, goes above 20,000, buy it because there is momentum behind it. same thing true today. bitcoin goes above 29,000, by half of whatever fairly small unit you should invest at that time. goes above 30,000, then buy more. bitcoin is a speculative favorite of traders. it also for people who are very worried about the degradation of the dollar, entire monetary system it is a favorite of theirs. there is fundamental reason, there is a speculative reason and if bitcoin suppose up some more i would say follow the trend and buy it then, not in great quantity, not in great size but buy it as both a hedge, an opportunistic investment. lauren: i feel foolish asking you this, the former cto of coinbase predicts bitcoin is going to a million dollars in 90 days? care to weigh in?

>> will weigh in by saying that sounds imbecilic to me. bitcoin will be a volatile type of investment. lauren: not that volatile? >> but, not that volatile. there are some underpinnings of people tend to poo-poo, that they shouldn't. there is a reason for bitcoin for a unit of holding that isn't government sponsored. and it does have certainly fundamental appeal that way. and again, it does have characteristics to the speculator. lauren: got it. >> that will be attractive. maybe over the near term. if it goes up, then i would buy some again, not too much but some. lauren: what about teledoc? i think of this name as telehealth, pandemic winner, since loser but you like it? >> remote health is going to be a growing phenomenon. teledoc is the biggest company in the business and like a lot of technology stocks it is

making a transition now from a high revenue growth while losing money to a slower revenue growth but hopefully with vastly improving profit margins that will make it very, very profitable. got enormous potential. if it can pick up more subscribers and subscribers at higher prices it could with just normal margins be enormously profitable company. it is another case down 80% plus from its high. down 20% this year. lauren: it is cheap. >> if the market rally as bit it could be a cash flow phenomenon. [closing bell rings] lauren: george ball, thank you very much. bells sound on wall street. ramping up penultimate day of the month and quarter except for the russell as we close it out. ♪ larry: hello, folks, welcome to "kudlow," i'm larry kudlow. so in th