John malone with the legendary media icon has to say about the covid19 virus, direct to consum consumer, streaming, so many other topics we hit in our hour long shutdown. The ceo of goodrx, we had him last week, since then, amazon came into the business what does it mean for his business carl, well ask that question amongst others. Yeah, thats good stuff for this hour, guys. Jim, we talked for last week and a half about the fact that a path to the vaccine would face some setbacks and clearly new york city schools, new state of emergency in wisconsin, speak to that i think that one of the things that we needed was a bridge, which would be stimulus, to the vaccine we dont have the stimulus were getting terrible numbers, we have half the country that thinks the numbers are okay, given the fact that the death rate hasnt skyrocketed. We have the other half, were saying, look, if we dont do something about it, then the Healthcare System is going to be overwhelmed. In that scenario, it is very difficult to be able to say, you know what, i am going to start buying stocks, not worrying about the illness because one day it will be a vaccine david, as long as we were close to a vaccine, or at least thinking we were close, and there was nothing catastrophic between that, then we would be happy to buy all sorts of stocks but it is catastrophic out there. We have been talking about the course of the virus over the last couple of weeks, more frequently again, because we need to. Because of the potential impact that it is going to have on the overall economy, jim and we know that and the numbers are horrible there is no other way to put it. Different parts of the country are dealing with it in different ways, but the fact is hospitalizations, which i think is a good measure in terms of our ability to cope with it, is at an all time high. Where are e, 79,000 i think Something Like that, approaching 80,000 people being hospitalized in the country and a number of places are very close to being potentially overwhelmed and thats a key consideration here because at that point, your government does need to do something locally and typically to try to shut things down and some way to prevent a healthcare crisis. But the lockdown is not embraced by a series of states, mask not embraced, viewed as being frivolous ordain ush st d came out last night, the whole point is to have everyone wear a mask, so, look, if you want me to sneeze on you, all right, i think you prefer me to have a mask thats just kind of cut and dry. And, carl, i look for things like just two days ago, where we had some just roaring yesterday, with target, roaring retail numbers and saying, okay, those are ones that are going to accept, they will get through a lockdown, they will get through whatever, and then you get a little beleaguered and say, you know what, i dont know who is going to go because it is too scary. So youre back to using shipt at target, using amazon i think amazon comes out the winner here when we talk to goodrx, youll feel even better, even if doug hirsh puts up a good fight, amazon is what you go back to thats what you defaulted to when this started. And it is what you default to now. Jim, a lot of this threads into the president ial transition today it is two groups, the National Association of manufacturers and the u. S. Chamber of commerce who put out a statement saying lets get this transition going. Something that the president elect talked about yesterday. And just trying to get access to information about where we are on Covid Response in the coming weeks. Heres what he said. We have been unable to get access to the kinds of things we need to know about the depth of the stockpiles, we know there is not much at all. We get to the point where we have a sense of when these vaccines come out, how theyll be distributed, who will be first in line, what the plan is, were going to be behind by weeks or months being able to put together the whole initiative relating to the biggest trauma we have with two Drug Companies coming along and finding 95 effectiveness, efficiency in the vaccines, which is enormous promise. Jim, i mentioned the two business groups today, but axios puts it pretty well today, saying it is business leaders, mcmillan, nadella, mary barra, who are filling the vacuum of leadership in d. C. How many divisions do they have they are a private industry people, that was referenced, that was stalin versus the pope. And i always think about the idea that what michael semblis put in my head, which is that there is this is an ongoing battle to get reelected it has shown no slack, even though there has been many decisions in courts that are against the president. I dont think the president is going anywhere and i know there are people who say, wait a second, the apparatus will come in, and claim the white house. I do not see i read the president s tweets, david, do you think the tweets mean nothing . It is a strategy that mr. Trump, President Trump followed his entire life. He litigates and litigates and litigates, i remember following his Business Career and talking to people who he dealt with for many years, oftentimes, he would end up, you know, like that dish dont like that deal and then just pushing and pushing and pushing until conceivably he could get a better one that was a black swan event. Did not say it was likely. Every day i pick up there is a new challenge and a new state. This is highly unusual place we find ourselves in we can all agree on that never seen anything quite like it, 14, 15, 16 days after an election, which, again, seemed to have been decided a few days after that, when they counted all the mailin ballots that we still have a person in the white house refusing to in any way, shape or form accept that they lost what happens it is extraordinary i dont want to make light of it. What happens if barr this is not archibald cox, my friend. It is not it is not. That happens if attorney general barr says i had enough, and he impounds george wiageorg ahead of the Electoral College vote carl, can he do that . I mean this is in the semblis note, this idea that perhaps the attorney general could come in and impound some of the results, jim. That note also says that a lot would have to go wrong for trump to be reelected and even some of the experts hes working with at jpmorgan have written stories literally titled, relax, joe biden will be sworn in on january 20th. If michael semblis says dont relax, im not relaxing. Ive known him for many, many years and he is someone who jamie dimon is listening to, i believe, over these other people hes a mustread this is the eye on the market. And hes not necessarily coming up with a path for the president to become reelected he is coming up with a path that says this is ongoing, and it could go through the inauguration, and there is nothing david. No, listen, it bears watching and we all are very closely. Noted yesterday, theyre not seeking to invalidate a million and a half mailin ballots in pennsylvania, bears watching, but it also bears mentioning so far they have lost every single challenge because they have not been able to actually in any way bring to a judge sufficient evidence of what they continue to call fraud. Is that what maybe attorney general barr says the whole system is corrupt and it is time for jim, you know what, if that happens, we have got so many bigger problems, you know. I just dont want to we can talk about where were headed. Under those circumstances, do i want to go buy home depot . I dont know it would impact you, the way you view the market now. By the way, well get to them, well get to nvidia earnings, macys, well get to some of the key earnings thismorning and news as well cant we put it on the table . If we put it on the table on squawk on the street, what is going to happen, people say, okay, thats a risk factor but right now i think there are a lot of people in the country who think the idea that you need tw two white houses is ridiculous you need a second white house. I dont know what youre talking about. You dont know what im talking about . Where is the second white house . I havent arranged it yet i dont know put it in the pentagon we get to that point, and it is were done. People being fired now. The apparatus to protect this country. Im aware of it the continued question is whether or not sufficient number of republicans in the senate and in the house will step up, jim and say, okay, we have got to move forward and you heard president elect biden talking about the real life impact of it, the funds have yet to be released for the gsa and it is having some impact on their ability to know about the trumps plan for vaccine distribution, how that would affect their own distribution. What kind of stimulus package can you do when all the president does is tweet about pennsylvania, georgia, and michigan are his and arizona is his and the georgia count is getting closer and closer. You can ignore it i can ignore it. Thats what i got to tell you to do. I can ignore it. In some way. I would rather hear malone, he gave us last year some unbelievable picks. Malone is always a man of reason talking john malone, of course typically he and i sit down live at this time when Liberty Media has its annual investor day meeting, all the different ceos of the Companies Either control or have some sort of level of control in and tracking stock in, we do it midtown, manhattan. This year like Everything Else it is virtual, it is today and tomorrow but i did get my opportunity virtually to talk to mr. Malone. Of course, about so manufacture the things going on in the industry as we always do at this time but specific to what were talking about right now, we actually also spent some time talking about the current environment, given the virus, given the impact it had on the economy, and how he remember hes one of the wealthiest men in the country, largest landowner, owns a enormous amount of maine and lumber and i asked him has the current environment and whats been done in terms of spending to deal with the relief that businesses have needed, has that changed the way he thinks about allocating capital in my opinion, were seeing we have seen we survived this because of enormous fiscal and monday toet stimulus i got to believe this will lead to devaluation of currencies that hard assets, you know, will increase in value, in currency terms. Im not sure im going to call this inflation but it will look like and feel like inflation and i think were seeing it in housing, you know, that this unrealistically low Interest Rate environment, which has been necessary now in order to avoid worse problems, you know, it is hard for me to believe that it wont be followed by a period of currency devaluation so personally, you know, ive been trying to invest or diversify into hard assets, you know i think things i bought this last year i bought substantial interest in multifamily housing, primarily in the u. S and i bought i bought i bought irrigated farms because commodities were cheap, and farms were at a low cycle in value and i always wanted to have some irrigated farming, so now im growing potatoes john malone always surprises. It is interesting to listen him talk about devaluing currency. Many people hope there is more spending to come given the period were in now and the aid that is potentially needed by small and medium sized businesses, not to mention municipalities and states around the country. That is fascinating he already owns hes the largest single landowner in the United States of personal, private land. Thats what you buy hyperinflation. It is funny, he didnt say he wanted to call it inflation, but he did believe fully in currency devaluation, which would essentially have that effect yeah it is funny, were going to talk to him as Everybody Knows all about the media landscape, his view of things, where they stand, this new idea that he has about the socalled Channel Store, that being the rokus and apple tvs, apple tvs and amazon fire stick and hes a believer. And how powerful they are. Does he think apple is going to develop channels . You know, im going to leave that for the viewer to see teasing me. Tease a little. Why not . Wow carl. Are you going to buy potato farms at all no, my wife wants to buy another house. We have a lot of houses. Yeah. It is hard assets. She says it is an investment. It is it is. Furnish it. Youll be able to move it all of them when there is two white houses. This one has ag land. Im feeling malone they got a spac did you see that, carl why not . Now liberty has a spac were going to talk to greg mafee later as they get that Liberty Media investor day under way as well. Yeah, ticker lmacu. Interesting. There is a look at maffei coming up in the 10 well get to macys, nvidia, vaccine headlines out of azn, that affirm ipo news and more. Futures are mildly weak here back of a break. Before we talk about taxsaudreys expecting. New . Twins wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone because this. Come on jessie one more. Is the reflection of an Unstoppable Community in the mirror. You can go your own way its time you make the rules. So join the 2 Million People who have switched to xfinity mobile. You can choose from the latest phones or bring your own device and choose the amount of data thats right for you to save even more. And youll get 5g at no extra cost. All on the most reliable network. So choose a data option thats right for you. Get 5g included and save up to 400 dollars a year on the network rated 1 in customer satisfaction. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. We promised we would get to the earnings lets do it in a mad dash. Nvidia is a name youve been following so closely for so long, know so well and not to mention, man, when we look at five years, which we will looks bad there one of the better stocks youve ever recommended. Thank you i got it from, believe it or not, ali, ali told me nvidia is going to change the way cars are built, probably 15 years ago and this is people thought it was just a gaming play last night, david. Yes. Tour de force, jensen on more than hes been on in a long time these are personalities in the valley people think of jensen the way they thought when da vinci came up with the helicopter remember that . I do. Very well. Hes so far ahead of the rest of us, hes talking about inference, imeans you go into ai is hot in here, immediately the air conditioning goes on hes saying the user interface is replacing the traditional semiconductor. This is before the whole thing is done without any discussion about the big deal the arm deal, yeah. The numbers that theyre putting up are enormous, not that they havent been reflected in the stock price, which gets back to t we it well see if it opens down, flat. If if it opens down, you can buy. The there was a reason why they didnt miss they missed on some lines, data center david, so much demand, they cant make them. And jensen has always said, look, thats a high quality problem, the real problem is when there is too much supply. That is not the case if he had all the chips, i have no idea what number hes saying that they should get all the chips to people who want them, and remember, were talking about google, were talking about were talking about unbelievable demand from amazon, from microsoft they all look to jensen and say, please, we need more chips the gaming companies, hes developed shading. You know what that means it means the characters are shaded, this is what cezanne did. This is what it was cezanne remember the techen tonic shift, the bowo the peaches and apples, cezanne. Cezanne. I thought he was da vinci hes both. Hes both and the two white house, look, i want to tell you yeah, what . Im saying it is going to be a fight to the end thats what the two white house there will not be it is not going to be the naval observatory in the white house e im just saying the election is not over for one man for one man. Continues to battle giuliani and then maybe barr. A couple of other people. The u. S. Army, which i think is going to take the side of biden. All right there we go john malone, hes a great patriot, the exclusive continuing to talk to him about so many Different Things in the media landscape channg sgio quickly. Stay with us opening bell coming up before we talk about taxsmart investing, whats new . Audreys expecting. Twins wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. On this week of retail earnings, look at macys, narrower than expected loss. But comps down 20. 2. Not that much better than they expected 23. 4 decline shares down 5 well get to that and a bunch of dto yws uray thithsd soon ganhere a lot of airline news today as southwest holds a call about returning the max to service jim, at the same time, delta is going to keep the middle seat open through the end of march. And united says they are seeing an uptick in cancellations and decline in bookings for the week that ended yesterday as maybe perhaps some of these restrictions are starting to force americans to cancel some travel plans yes, i think it has to do with where theyre going, not the plans. I believe that the airlines and boeing have made a very good case by now, saying, look, one of the safest things to do is be on a plane i think the 737 max is a plane that i would fly with ease but to where to where what to go to . Little bit of disney land that was just opened, david where are you going to go . Take airbnb and go where what is your plan . I dont have one, unfortunately. I i did i look forward to getting the vaccine as soon as we all possibly can and start to move around. Are you which ones have you applied to i applied to j j and pfizer. I havent applied to any im going to wait until it gets distributed and it is available to me. But to your point, and this point has been made, of course, by southwests ceo, who gary kelly who joined us saying, yeah, were ready to go, the request he is whether people have anywhere to go, jim. I know. Gary kelly, from the beginning, carl, he points this out, he is hes just hes talking again about, you know, what is there to do . Hes right i mean, i want to go ill go at this point, ill go anywhere ill go to the new white house yeah. Stop. Jim, you know, you mentioned disney and got lost yesterday, but s p did cut disney to triple b plus. Their point is that vaccine does not mean that the consumers are going to race back to crowded venues they say they see normal operations at the parks in fiscal 2022. So this notion of even i think it is leering today, says no full