recent screams. this is boom bust the one business show you can't afford to miss. in washington coming up u.s. g.d.p. close out 2020 at its worst rate since $1046.00 and shrank by 3.5 percent and the game stop saga continues as robin hood and other major trading partners are strict in trading as the battle between wall street and small investors can use we'll explain what this means for future trading with the us close with christiane and ben next several lot to get through so let's get started . here's a headline that will surprise no one in 2020 the u.s. economy had its worst performance in 74 years since the end of world war 2 it

contracted 3.5 percent now this was of course because of the coronavirus lockdowns and the impact of the worldwide pandemic so what's in store for 2021 especially in an economy that remains so uncertain joining me now to discuss this and more. on it chrystia i ben let's start with you can you give us a rundown of how the economy did or didn't perform in 2020. yeah i mean as you said in the beginning here it's really no surprise that anybody the economy did not do well contract at 3.5 percent as you said the worst it's done since 1946 so it's been a long time since the economists contract that much in a single year and that came off of a 2.2 percent growth that we saw the year before in $1000.00 of the bottom line here is this is basically every sector was down because of the coronavirus with the exception by the way of government government grew during this time where everything else is down it's always a bad recipe when you're talking about of a free market system or at least supposedly

a free market system we'll talk about that in a minute but yeah i mean obviously everything contracted because of coronavirus it's not really a surprise here the economy works we're thinking it's going to come back but a lot of that depends on the regulations that are put into place remember coronavirus did not cause the economy to to contract or to falter government policies over the coronavirus did right well we're seeing some movement and stocks right now kristie u.s. stocks jumped on thursday they're roaring back from that sharp sell off that we saw on wall street earlier that saw the that's and p. 500 and the dow jones industrial average they suffered their worst drop in 3 months what's going on here. you know the market stage a drastic comeback and we're still in the middle of earnings week so we have shares of things like american airlines started more than 8 percent after quarter better than results so you have financial materials and other cyclical sensitive names jumping more than 2 percent in each of the bulge back arc it's still intact so yesterday we had with violence sell off and that stemmed from years of an overly

speculate of vironment and many of wall street's biggest firms were actually forced to liquidate and sell out of their favorite positions things that had been working for the past year things like amazon netflix space for examine all of tech names in order to raise cash and pay off margin calls on their short positions i got absolutely smote and that forced liquidation and fears of needing to raise more cash in the future sparked this massive across the board wednesday that accelerate into the close however today as many brokerages are introducing restrictions on these small cap names order is coming back into the market so robinhood blocked you can stop stock purchases and market brokers t.d. ameritrade are also restricting access to specific names which include e.m.c. need blackberry nokia and a few others and these names are restricted to position closing only and traders cannot buy more shares of the company so as order is kind of restored to the market the macro backdrop still remains mostly the same and mostly positive but now the

big question is is that really order because while things are returning back to status quo for retail traders are disillusioned saying that this is unfair and it's market manipulation to restrict trading in these new preventing retail traders from profiting and if these are really affecting the markets you mention this game works which the saga continues then i need to ask you shares in the company they've been at the center of this trading frenzy fueled by this reddit message board but we're down sharply on thursday after the brokers are stricter trading on stock now i do want to mention weeble lifted their restrictions on the stock just a just a little bit ago robin hood is facing a class action lawsuit in new york against what it's done but do we know. yeah i'm so so excited about this story this is a story we should spend the entire show on today for entire half hour right now excited to hear what my buddy christie is going to say about this also we might agree we might disagree to me this is the biggest story financial story of the year so far i'm

a in the be the biggest story of the year period which is that you have these these retail sites like robin hood coming in today and basically restricting and saying you cannot buy game stop stock from us you cannot buy amc the nokia bed bath and beyond and by are they doing that they're doing that because these wall street heads hedge fund managers want to be able to come in and short those stocks and make big profits on them and so what you actually have happening here is a war between retail investors who guess i believe are absolutely trying to hurt hedge funds and they're trying to hurt money on wall street by doing this so what that's what you can do in a free market in a true free market if you say hey i see that big hedge funds are trying to short the stock on game stop and make a profit so rather than letting them sell low on that we're going to buy it and we're going to pump that price up and that's for those who are not following the story that's what retail investors did they came in they started buying game stop in the in the stock went through the roof for the last couple of days and they're sticking it to wall street and in response to that these retail investments i think

robin hood say you're not allowed to buy we're going to block you and this is how outrageous it is a o c ted cruz sherrod brown republicans and democrats in congress are all in agreement that this is bad guys how outlandish this was for once the as they are in agreement which they're happy to be here had ever happy to hear that for once or an agreement we talked a little bit about this before christie and it is interesting i'm with you ben is a major story this is something that has been happening for years now market maybe not necessarily manipulation whatever you want to call it has finally been to be doing this for so long it's just now there are other creative people who are getting on board with this and this is actually exposing a lot of what's been going on christie what do you think. i mean hedge funds have been doing it to other hedge funds for years i mean that's just what a short squeeze is if the hedge fund sees another hedge fund a competitor amassing a massive short position they do it to each other so what's the difference between

retail traders coming in and staging a war between hedge fund is just going to be helpers and such so i don't know if brokers should be setting an arbitrary rule like this of what we saw today it's unfair it's unfair to retail traders i swoop in to say under the guise of volatility because it actually locks retail trade us out of their accounts and as a result a lot of retail traders today actually lost money whilst lot of money due to the arbitrary decision of these mergers so yes they are private companies and they can do whatever they want but the trust in the system that's gone especially for robin hood because robin hood it's stablish their platform on the model in our the ordinary investor give them access make it an even playing field so this now goes totally against what we saw today was not a free market despite the fact that they say they support a capitalist free market robin hood and other brokerage house like t.d. ameritrade and active brokers they can act in their own form of market manipulation by restricting purchases well any warning previous to exploration even overnight disclosures especially when hedge funds and other professional today are able to

freely trade stock as they see fit a professional stock traders hedge funds they can actually buy a game stop today while retail traders are walked out of it well and really go to say something real quick about that which is that the only thing you could do if you were a retail trader robineau is you could sell which means that robin hood didn't just lock you out of your account they said the only thing you can do is what the hedge fund managers want you to do we're going to actually put you in a position where you where you either lose money by sitting on it or you can sell it off right now so that it benefits them and there is no more stark example of market manipulation than what we saw today there's nothing really that's going to change here no rules are going to be enforced i think perhaps the only one is that they brokerages may not allow right for them to restrict these brokerages are rules in force are not going to allow them to restrict these brokerages from taking action in this sort of circumstance right. well but we'll see what happens i think congress may take action to make it illegal for you for these kinds of of retail

firms to be able to lock you out of your account they should make it illegal what absolutely should be illegal the bottom line is if we believe that people have the right to buy and sell in the stock market then they have the right to buy and sell in stock market you cannot stop them from doing that because you don't like what they're buying and you don't like who it's hurting because it's hurting big money that is christie said does this all the time and that this is how they make their money and the idea that you and this is what's so fascinating about this this isn't a racial issue this is an issue of of the retail market against wall street that's what it is people men women people from all over the country who got in on this and said hey you know what we're going to stick it to these firms what if you want to do that you have the right to do it it's your money and you can do it and the idea that you would be locked out of that system and those accounts rosen and then told well you can sell it so that these wall street firms that don't need more money can go ahead and make their money and not lose anything is obscene like you said we could go on forever about this and i'm sure this isn't the end will touch base

again on it but i must co-sponsor on it christy i thank you so much for that discussion. the struggle to an ocular at the u.s. population continues with some states are reporting vaccine shortages while others are still dealing with a distribution debacle as of today only 6 percent 6 percent of the entire population has received the 1st shot it's a tall task for the new leadership in the white house that's determined to ramp up these vaccinations and to add insult to injury the biden ministration projects hundreds of thousands of people could die from the virus in the coming weeks as reports. this is a wartime effort today the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of letting up the u.s. reporting more than 25000000 cases and more than 424000 deaths the biden administration issuing a stark warning if we continue on the other trajectory the c.d.c. most recent national ensemble cast. 179002500000 could 9000 that's what.

212-0218 sobering message as the administration continues to push ahead in the battle against covert 19 mass vaccination sites rolling out across the country as the president works to fulfill his promise of vaccinating 100000000 americans during his 1st 100 days in office so far this week. we've been hitting our target of an average of $1000000.00 a nation's per day necessary to meet the president's early commitment to administer $100000000.00 shots in $100.00 days. still though health departments across the country say they are facing challenges with demand for kovan 1000 axioms that far outpace the supply. and while the biden and ministration has repeatedly touted its plans to aggressively use the defense production act white house officials say there is no need for more vaccine manufacturers just yet i don't think our concern

at this point is whether or not we're going to have the vaccine doses obviously the president announced yesterday the intention to purchase additional doses are confidence in the manufacturers to have those doses available this as new variants of the corona virus are being reported now in at least $26.00 states scientists warn that with no robust system to identify genetic variations of the virus the united states is not fully equipped to track dangerous. to not only have an increase in burial. like you series. but it does have the. ability. and as the country continues to grapple with the virus the biden administration is now actively considering a requirement for coke at 19 testing for all passengers catching a domestic flight already travelers entering the u.s.

must provide proof of a negative kovan 1000 test in order to board their flight but they are still strongly encouraged to avoid any non-essential travel reporting for boom bust trinity child as r.t. . time now for a quick break but when we come back super bowl $55.00 is just around the corner and while many major brands have opted out of advertising. c.b.s. confirmed it's already virtually sold out of commercial spots all discuss this. more with professor victim they were. in 24 to you know bloody revolution to the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it just the lawyer who put him in your list book video clued me in the neighborly as i knew pulling me out of the former ukrainian

president recalls the events of 2014. those who took. it invested over $5000000000.00 to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. was a pandemic no certainly no borders and is blind to nationalities. has emerged with the facts in the whole world needs to be. judged as commentary classes please don't think. we can do better we should. everyone is contributing way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenges grateful to response has been must so

many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we are in it together. secret prisons are not usually what comes to mind when thinking about europe however even the most prosperous can be deceived within. the world to view houses were allowed to leave those prisoner was located only cia people had access to the story investigators covered the darkest dealings of the secret services but i mean . the great ignore. for justice.

a battle is brewing over the distribution of astra zeneca covert 1000 vaccine in europe the pharmaceutical company was expected to deliver about 80000000 doses to members of the european union by the end of march but that number has been cut by 60 percent only e.u. leaders want to know if the u.k. is keeping doses its member countries should get and are now threatening to withhold supplies of other vaccine doses from the u.k. in response legal journey here with america's lawyer joins us with more molly good to see you as always what's going on with supplies of the astra zeneca coated 1000 vaccine in the u.k. and the e.u. . you know there just aren't enough to go around and everybody is clamoring for them and i think you're also seeing some distrust of the system so as you mention

those numbers the e.u. is expecting some 80000000 doses and what they're getting is around $31000000.00 they're looking across the water over there at the u.k. they've got a couple of factories that are also supplying these astra zeneca that scenes in there like hey are you sure we're being we're getting our vaccines fairly the u.k. seems to be having theirs and so there is this mistrust of astra zeneca really in the whole process but you know the u.k. put in the request for their doses a lot sooner that's what the c.e.o. of astra zeneca said that the supply coming out of the u.k. would stay in the u.k. that that was their agreement and the basically distrusting of that there seems to be a supply chain issue worldwide with the vaccines in general but is astra zeneca technically legally obligated to supply the stocks into the european union. well there is some confusion over that depending on who you talk to i guess is basically saying that they are contractually obligated astra zeneca saying that they're not that it was based on a best effort clause and they didn't commit to

a specific timetable for deliberate but they are committed to working it out the saying that that's not at all what they said that the company had committed to providing vaccines from those 2 factories in britain as well and again we heard astra zeneca saying that those were to stay in britain so you know the e.u. invested about 400000000 for these 400000000 doses of the vaccine so far and since not all the money has been paid to astra zeneca lawyers are trying to determine if that's a breach of contract there's talk belgium may withhold doses of other vaccines from being exported into the u.k. is it within the rights to do something like this. they're going to have to pass a law to do it basically do a new authorization mechanism and this is something that broke in the news today and it would basically give national regulators the right to refuse exporting the vaccine and so there's some pfizer biotech vaccines that are being made at a factory there in brussels and they are basically threatening to withhold those if they can pass this mechanism that gives them the power to do that it's about

a $40000000.00 doses supposed to go to the u.k. and you know a spokesperson for the belgian health ministry they actually toured the site were also the astra zeneca doses were being made because that was one of the reasons the c.e.o. bashers anika said they weren't getting that there were some issues with getting the manufacturer in there was a problem that particular plant so they toured the plant to determine if there actually was a production problem and they hope that there's no need to ban exports but they will if they basically feel like it's possible and they're not getting their fair share so britain also did the same thing by the way they banned the export of certain coronavirus medicines and so that's another reason you're saying hey we're going to look out for ourselves so it's basically acts of protectionism you know whether it's fair or not that's what they're looking and we knew this was going to be a tremendous for hardships that they were going to face in the roll out all over the world legal journalist wine barrels were out of time but thank you so much with that for having the latest for us. as we approach super bowl sunday it seems

even the big game is going to be a little bit different this year the tampa bay bucs are the 1st team in n.f.l. history to play a super bowl in their own home stadium while many are excited to watch veteran tom brady take on defending super bowl champ patrick holmes well a lot of people watch the game soley for commercials c.b.s. confirmed it has virtually sold out this is just by companies like and eyes are bush coca-cola and pepsi pulling out of the ad spotlight will the beer maker say they are putting the money toward a different cause saying later this year but wiser hopes to support recovery on promise at bars and restaurants by accelerating coated recovery so people can we unite again their planet to pursue a more effective campaign promoting docs and education for more we welcome back professor of sports economics college of the holy cross dr victor matheson professor thanks again for being with us let's start with these major brands that are opting out of these where he expensive super bowl commercials is this more republish city stunt to kind of help boost engagement with the brand. i think

what's really going on here is the fact that it's risky to advertise in time period when by the time the game goes on almost half a 1000000 americans will die from cobe it. seems sort of subtle but surely ads were the same sort of you know. wiser for august or was. that there was a. as well it sort of makes it a risk you know and it's very similar and in fact in the environment we've got after 911 out you advertise your product old storm a period of mourning right think things are very different obviously we're living in a different time it's not what we expected a year ago but we are coca-cola which is taking a big hit from the stadium closures said that it wants to make sure that it's investing in the right resources during these unprecedented times pepsi it's still hosting the halftime show right. yes so it's it should be pointed out that just because they've taken commercials out of particular brands doesn't mean these

companies are pulling up completely so budweiser is still lab or ties in the it's ard seltzer's i could still leverage as the michelob and other product that's just not average as a budweiser and bud light same with pepsi it's still advertising do just not it's primary you know all of on it i think that and again to go ahead. and again you know some of these companies have been hurt as much as anyone where you were you drink so if you drink at the movie theater you drink it out at restaurants you drink it out of ballparks in stadiums and of course that business has been decimated by rotavirus and it's very surprising because pepsi yes they are going to contain a sponsor the halftime show but they had pretty good commercials and and commercials that really get a lot of attention during during the super bowl so it's interesting to see them kind of pull out but despite these major brands opting out by a come c.b.s.

confirmed it's already virtually sold out of commercial spots is the demand really that high for commercials to did was that caused by these other major brands pulling out what's the reason behind this. well the super bowl is still of the prime real estate in the night on television in the united states. the networks are . to sell about $400000000.00 of commercials during that night. the absence of you know some of the big sponsors like budweiser see it gives an opportunity for some of these smaller companies who can help or to take a risk going to a little bit different way than these because that was. you know maybe they hit that right note. these very unusual definitely looks like it but we were talking about this before professor the ratings for n.f.l. specifically right where we're seeing that 2020 season ratings were down about 10

percent in viewership compared to last year to 2019 now the last 3 weeks of the playoff games they're leading up to the super bowl they seem to be picking back up ratings a little bit they aren't a little over 2020 1000000 viewers per per game what should we expect for the super bowl. no matter what happens whether ratings are up a little more little opera little down it'll still be far and away the biggest ratings of any show during the year we're going to get over $100000000.00 viewers for this again far bigger than any other sporting event or non sporting event by actor of 2 or 3 so it will still be a huge night for that fact it's been set a very very well for the n.f.l. with kind of the old guard versus new guard you know at home 1st brady is an appealing match up for the n.f.l. so i think the n.f.l. will be fine in terms of your ratings here obviously they're going to take a big on will. be only be at about

a 3rd after the but in some ways at least the game will be a little bit normal because most of us are our walk home anyway and we're not at the we're not at the a.t.m. offer these sort of. probably parties too so we'll see whether that has some effect on the ratings as well and what we're not getting together in big groups that and 30 and a lot you get in you know very small. fry and we know that they still expect some attendees $7500.00 n.f.l. is giving away $7500.00 tickets for those health workers that have been vaccinated and now the average price of a secondary market now selling this year for $14110.00 that's up from the $5511.00 average the last year people are paying less. well it's always hard to know what it means when that you saw it and when you say tickets are selling for $40000.00 certainly you know there's not large numbers of

tickets being sold like that but there's a couple things going on obviously a huge reduction in supply means there's less tickets available out there which ins to drive prices up the other big playing driving prices up is the fact that now but it's actually wearing a whole game of 1st time ever in super bowl history about the only team is actually played in the super bowl and what that means is that people if you're a local amp or resident in some ways super bowl tickets are on sale you don't need to sit out. many days i'm probably would not be. playing in. so you know you can really splurge on just to get itself you know where you go you would feel that the really normal year when travel would also pinball that's a very big deal the 1st n.f.l. game in history where the buccaneers are playing in their home stadium not something scary to many people here and forward to that veteran tom brady defending super bowl champ the home so it's going be an interesting one and and much like you

said i think a lot of people are expecting this to be have huge viewership professor victor matheson of the college of the holy cross thank you for your time today well thanks for. that's it for this time you can catch bill must on the man on the portable t.v. at i will see you next time. you know my phone lines don't they couldn't put them in the muslim on muslim for appointments you know demos done a lot of photos of stuff to get a. lot

of buzz off but i did just that they had nothing. she was even. done bombard from the sun on my book you go to the british course there's been a member of. i mean you got. to . take. in 2040 you know bloody revolution to tikrit the demonstration going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it you know here i mean you know i lived with video clue

in the new bill is that i do schooling you know to the former ukrainian president recalls the events of $24.00 g. and. those who took. it invested over $5000000000.00 to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. when yellen says we're going to go and that's fine if she's going to print scads more many many chinese war chest understand that she's pouring that money into something that's structurally broken. it's like a bucket of the bottom is missing it doesn't matter it's like liquidation of course and that bucket is structurally broken it's just going to come right at the bottom doesn't matter how much the force of the state of the economy is fundamentally broken all the distribution all the finance everything every piece of the puzzle has been decimated by the command and control money printing psychopaths have run the economy since greenspan.

coded vaccination campaign grinds to a halt in parts of the country as a supply run out prompting doctors to question the use handling the vaccine procurement. where concerned that apparently those countries defer just vaccines and a higher price than the european union have not experienced such delay delivery we're not at all satisfied with the current situation. the british prime minister is grilled in parliament over his handling of the parent demick as the death toll soars beyond 100000 the nation braces for even tougher.