States are now open in some capacity, some states requiring that visitors and residents who are returning from other states selfquarantine before they actually enter that state. Joining me now to talk about the reopening of america and the real and permanent changes to the country that we can expect is the chairman and ceo of the Starwood Capital group, barry, always a pleasure to see you. Thanks for joining us this weekend. Great to be with you. Maria so now weve got all 50 states open in some capacity. I know you were out and about this weekend. What can you tell us . Assess this first week of the reopening. How do you see it . You know, i was on tv march 13th, and i was fairly bullish on the speed of the recovery. And everything ive seen only reinforces that. So ive been taking weekend drives im in miami right now where ive spent my covid quarantine [laughter] but ive driven to naples, and i was up in georgia the weekend before last, and ive been in northern palm beach. The island of palm beach only has, like, 23, 30 cases. So the impact of covid has almost been zip code by zip code, and people are very much ready to get back to things. We probably underestimated the pentup demand. I think the facts are also coming out, and theyre sort of indisputable. This is not impacting 040yearolds. Whether they get sick or not is one thing, but almost infinitesimal numbers are dying, and 40 of the deaths are in Nursing Homes and mostly people with preconditions. The other thing thats obviously happened is the optimism around a vaccine. And i think people are feeling things will be okay x theyre watching real data from real countries like all over europe where cases are declining rapidly. I found out from my friends in london that they had no new cases in london for three days and now maybe its ten. So this will end. And it was a version of a flu, far more toxic to the elderly. But i think the rest of the nation sort of wants to get back to it. I was talking with some friends the other day in the state of missouri, there were 500 or so deaths, and 250 of them were in Nursing Homes so they closed the state for 250 deaths. And while humanitarian, the i really care, its hard to imagine that you spent 6 trillion, you know, to keep the markets afloat and to support the country and maybe we might have overdone it a little bit, in my opinion, particularly for the kids who were going to get immunity. Im sure you know people and i have friends who actually tested positive for the antibody, but their wives and children never got sick and dont have the antibodies. So the denominator was much bigger than people thought, so, you know, the infection rate and the death rate is much lower than people thought. But how this translates into the economy, i will also tell you in georgia, i was in southern georgia, theyre out and about. Theyre not obeying many protocols, frankly. And theyre very healthy. The case loads have held fairly constant. I think large gatherings are probably a nono, and i think people should, you know, wear their a masks, of course. But i also think that is very differently done. I have a friend who visited cape cod last weekend and went to see a very wealthy person, and we said lets take our masks, in l. A. Theyre playing golf with masks on. Down here nobodys wearing a mask outside really. Maria yeah, its interesting you know, its kind of interesting to see how its playing out. Maria and playing out differently depending on the state. I mean, you look at the fact that florida has many more Nursing Homes than new york, and yet more people died in nursing home in new york than in florida. So there are things to sort of identify in terms of whats specific to each state. Go through some of the real estate that you own. Youve got a great Vantage Point in terms of office space, commercial space. How much is that, and tell me what you think of what that looks like when we get out of that. Are you hearing from business owners, relaters that they renters that they want to change the way the building looks . Are they retrofitting, etc. Lets take the different asset classes, so in the office, again, its kind of following the footprint of covid. And new york city is in a real different situation than most other places in the country. We dont actually own buildings in new york, but anecdotally, if youre in a b building, half the tenants arent paying rent, a significant portion of tenants arent paying rent and health clubs like equinox arent paying rents. If you move out of manhattan, almost 97 of our tenants have paid 97 of our tenants have paid their represent. We own in minneapolis and portland and sacramento. So those towns people are paying their rents, and we own 80,000 apartments, and we dont own new york city, and we dont own california. Those everyones paying their rent, basically, now in apartments, about 97 . And, again, were kind of in the red states, texas and atlanta, georgia. I think were the largest owner of apartments in florida. People are paying their rents. The issue is in places like new york and california theres been this huge populist move to not pay rent, and its almost unpatriotic to pay your rent, and there have been [laughter] slackers say dont pay your rent. We also have is control of a Company CalledStar Property plus that trades on the new york stock exchange, a total enterprise value of about 15 billion. Were the nations large commercial mortgage nonbank lender. And there were working with borrowers to forbear on their interest experience and what expense, and what we also need is because were empathetic to the fact that theyre not getting revenues, and i think in almost every case weve reached agreement with the owner of the property and were the lender. But often times we borrow from banks also, so the whole chain has to work. The bank beneath us has to forbear interest, well forbear interest, and well give the guy four months, six months to get back on his feet. That really is mostly hotels where revenues went to zero maria i see. Not residential. There is one quirk of this recovery which is weird which is the forbearance on Single Family mortgages. As you may know, almost a trillion dollars of mortgages are in forbearance meaning the homeowner decided he wouldnt pay his interest expense for three months. Thats Government Agency paper. Of but how that plays out going forward, do those people in the fourth month catch up on the three months of interest they owe, or will they maria yeah. Pate over 12 months, thats a chapter we havent seen. Martha barry, i want to get your take on investing as well. Youve got a great Vantage Point in terms of allocating capital. Lets take a break, when we come back, gotta get your take on these markets. Well be right back with more. Motorcycle riders love the open road. 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Interesting to see averages still near record highs even where we just came out of a full shutdown where businesses had zero cash flow and no revenue. Go figure. What do you think about marketed today, barry e . Well, im actually surprised at the pace. I thought wed have a vaccine, so the whole investing cycle figuring out where to invest was how shallow, what would the recovery look like from here, today, to the vaccines, you know, wide distribution. And i think from what im seeing, we talked about it earlier, i mean, people are going out to restaurants in florida now, the hotels are reopening. Theyre going to have slow business at first, but we have a hotel in jacksonville on the water that ran 70 occupancy last weekend, and the panhandle of florida the hotels are running 70 , same in myrtle beach. People are home, they want to get away. Its also helping the Shopping Mall because theyve never been home from monday through friday the entire day, everyone seems to be tired of going to the supermarket, so theyre going to the mall. We have a mall actually in ohio which the number one macys store in the country, who knew, in ohio. So people are theres pentup demand for entertainment which i think physical shopping provides some form of entertainment. Right here in miami theres a beautiful Shopping Center called bell harbor shops, and they have the guccis maria its beautiful. Ive been there. Its beautiful, right . And its packed. You can only go in the stores maria withdraw wow. Theres Little Things on the floor that says stand here, stand here, and the restaurants were quite busy. Theyre spacing them out, but theres a lot of people out and about. I think thats very encouraging, exactly what we would have hoped would happen. I actually thought spending was going to slow going into this year because its an election year, and covid sort of interrupted that. In some ways it may have helped the economy because its accelerated a change to digital. People have learned, my mom learned paypal, shes 86. Maria wow. Thats fabulous. Actually its amazing, right . And she got a thermometer online. Sheshe was really fired up. Maria wow, i love your mom 86, doing all this stuff. Shes got to give my mom a call whos 87, trying to teach her [inaudible conversations] maria this ease back into things, is that a buy signal . Do i want to buy this market here or wait for better valuations . So i think, you know, in a way the Trump Administration may get, your next guest is going to talk about it, i think, were going to reinvent manufacturing now in the United States. We went from just in time inventory to now just in case inventory. And i think a lot of people, a lot of companies are going to move the supply chain back here. And with Interest Rates where they are and accommodations by local governments to help them grow their manufacturing, thats really important because with we need to retrain some of these workers that may not go back to restaurants, they may not go back to stores retailing, they may not go back to my hotels because for a while i think business travels going to be impacted significantly. And until we fix Airline Travel so people feel comfortable getting on planes, both domestically and and internumberly, were internationally, were not going to get to full staffing, and there were 30 million americans employed in those industries. Maria yeah. Its going to be a while, and some of these people are going to need to be retrained. But you can see where the opportunity is, and the federal government now should shift its focus to training these people from the store help and my hotels into how do they find jobs in this new economy thats going to form. And, again maria i love that idea. Wed have an election issue, right . And before covid we had the election slowdown, two very diametrically opposed philosophies battling it out in public view. Here we had a 6 trillion stimulus package. [laughter] so, you know, in some ways and then the consumer has the money, and i think most people, i think Consumer Confidence has not fallen as far as you may have expected. Maria blank check ceo, explain this company. Youve been such an innovator. Jaws acquisition going mix this week. Yeah, jaws acquisition is called a blank check company. Essentially, we raised 690 million. We did it in a virtual zoom road show, and we had maria unbelievable. More than two time the orders than we could take. We raised close to, the like i said, 700 million. Our goal is to find a Growth Company to take public that may be stuck and cant go public. Well probably target a transaction from 2 to 3 or 4 billion in total value and try to offer very cs and management vcs and management and authority some liquidity in a time when the markets are is still a little volatile. Essentially, were a vehicle for them to go public. Negotiate with me and not wall street necessarily. Maria barry, it is great to see you. Please dont be a stranger, come back soon. Thanks, maria. Great to be with you. Good luck. Maria and to you. Thank you. Dont go anywhere, introducing new voltaren arthritis pain gel, the first and only full prescription strength nonsteroidal antiinflammatory gel available overthecounter. New voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. Voltaren. The joy of movement. New voltaren is powerful arthunlike ordinaryef in a gel. Wmemory supplementsr . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. Maria and new developments with china, increased border tensions with fellow Nuclear Power india and unrest in hong kong highlighting the urgency behind the white houses effort to get u. S. Companies to move their supply chains back to america. Eric edwards pharmaceutical company,phloe, is leading the effort, producing the ingredients for drugs in the United States. Eric edwards, great to have you, thanks very much for joining us. Great to be on the show. Maria eric, there are more than 60 bills right now in congress to try to hold china accountable whether it be for the supply chain situation, moving supply chains, or making sure that there will be sanctions on individuals because of the overreach in hong kong and so many other issues around china right now. Tell us how youre managing to actually produce in america. This is the largest contract weve ever seen with hhs, correct . Well, its one of the largest, for sure, that barta has provided. Were absolutely thrilled to be partnering with the United States government. Were thrilled that this administration has seen the need to reevaluate the supply chains and then take action working in unique Public Private partnerships like this one with phloe, and were trying to work to secure our nations most essential medicines and their ingredients, and to do that, we have to evaluate how we make medicines here in america, how we distribute them and how we secure the ingredients that are vital in order to produce pills that are essential to the health and wellbeing of all americans. Were doing that right now. We have the plans in place, and to execute that you have to reevaluate who your partners are in the supply chain from precursor chemical, starting material ingredient to the active ingredients to the finished dosage form. So thats part of the plan. Maria yeah. I mean, most people were pretty unnerved when they learned that 70 of the active ingredients in our prescription drugs are made in china. Youre talking about antibiotics and penicillin and all of these things that are so important to americans in the middle of this pandemic. We had a threat from the Chinese Communist party where in staterun media they said, well, maybe we wont manufacture these prescription ingredients to america while donald trump pokes china about tariffs. We need to be less reliant on china. What specifically are the drugs that you planning on making here . What we wanted to start with were those essential medicines vital for the health and wellbeing of americans during this covid19 response. So were talking about icu medications. In the news everyones been talking about ventilator shortages and ppe shortages, but what about the medicines that actually are required to get individuals onto the ventilators, certain sed tyes, etc. We sedatives. We plan to manufacture Blood Pressure control, certain antibiotics as you mentioned. But weve lost this industry, maria, over 20 years, so its going to take time. Hopefully well be seeing the administration and h healthhs ce to informs in creative ways to invest in creative ways to bring other key manufacturing infrastructure back in addition to the phlow program. Hopefully this is a catalyst, and were happy and thrilled to be working with the government, but its going to take a huge effort, and were getting to work as fast as possible. Maria and i know that you are expert in this. Youve been working on drug shortages for a long time in your career. Let me ask you, the first reason that so many u. S. Manufacturers went to china in the first place, it was cheaper, you had cheap labor, you had lax manufacturing of conditions and lax environmental rule so they said, well, lets just do it there and sell it into america and all over the world. What about that, the cost . How are you able to do this and still do it efficiently in terms of the cost . Isnt that the big issue . It is the big issue, and the way were doing that is were reinventing the supply chain and the Manufacturing Technology around how we make our medicines. Were using whats called advance continuous manufacturing. Individuals and companies have not been investing in this for generic medicines. They started doing it for branded medicines, so the federal government is accelerating our efforts to use advance manufacturing approaches and techniques that increase the yields, reduce the environmental waste, improve the quality as you see theres been a ton of information on the news lately about the quality of some of the pharmaceuticals that include ingredients made from other countries. And most importantly, it drives down the cost. So our processes have been validated before with our partners at medicine for all and bc who have shown they can reduce costs through this approach of up to 40 . In addition to that, you have to reinvent the supply chain and the distribution model which is broken in america, and were going to be doing some very Creative Things in order to be competitive and to resecure this industrial base. You know, maria, its crazy. Individuals go into airports and we buy a 4 bottle of water, yet we get challenged in america when were trying to make a 1. 30 bottle of med zip. Maria such a great point. Great to see you this weekend. Erin edwards is the ceo of phlow manufacturing right here in the u. S. Thank you, eric. Dont go anywhere. More wall street right after this. I just love hitting the open road and telling people that Liberty Mutual customizes your insurance, so you only pay for what you need [squawks] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. Maria welcome back. Thatll do it for us for this weekend. Thank you so much for joining us. Well have a big show next weekend, every friday at fox business, 9 p. M. Eastern for another edition of wall street, and next friday well be zeroing into the jobs situation when we get the may jobs numbers. Join us for that. And this weekend over on fox news, sunday morning futures, live at 10 a. M. Eastern. Weve got a big show this weekend, secretary of state mike pompeo, along with Florida Governor ron desantis, former white house chief strategist steve bannon and House Minority leader kevin mccarthy. Catch it live, 10 a. M. Ian on fox news. And right here on fox business, start smart every weekday, tune in 69 a. M. Eastern for mornings with maria. Weve got a big show this monday, our fiveyear anniversary. Join us then. Thatll do it for us righthave e weekend, everybody, and ill see you again next time. Gerry hello and welcome to the wall street journal at large. When 2020 began, we all thought the big news story throughout the year would be the president ial election as President Trump aimed to repeat his stunning 2016 win while democrats hoped to kick hem out of office. But the coronavirus, of course, has changed all that. Not only is it still in the headlines, its turned the race at least for the past few months into one of the most unusual in american history. Because of the lockdown, the Presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President joe biden, has been mostly stuck in his delaware hom