The backdrop in this market. We had down week but we had record highs going into this week because the economy seems okay what he think . I think the expectations for the worldwide economy are coming down a little bit with the virus scares. Its not so much the people, investors thinking were headed for some terrible Global Pandemic but business disruption in china. People from other countries running parts from china, that has been a damper on things so thats gonna cut into earnings you expect . Take china out for the First Quarter, no flights going inandout, shortages, look what apple just did in terms of what they are expecting, thats going to hit the u. S. Thats going to hit u. S. Companies in the First Quarter and for the year. So keep in mind, we are now paying, investors in u. S. Stocks we are paying quite a bit more for a dollar of earnings than we did year ago. So that has to be based on some optimism about the future i think weve got a lot of optimism lately with the resolution of the trade dispute with china, at least for the moment. The president got the u. S. Mexico trade deal done that removes and certainty. Now i am hoping he will hold off, avoid a fight with europe on trade, maybe push it to the second term or never would be okay. Before whe. Maria he has not backing down. I think its important to remember that hes made a good case that china is a bad actor and with instant natural theft. There is consensus whether you agree with the tools he is use, thousand issue they had to be addressed. With europe we are talking about our friends, democracies who are allies, yes there are issues that we went to lower barriers going both directives. Tariffs are really low, but those trade barriers that hes focused on. But this should be a discussion among friends and its not going to help the economy or Corporate Investment if he initiates a new trade fight this year. Maria s if you think he has a trade fight with Europe Markets react . The consumer, the worker, the employee is loving this economy, who is not loving it so much of the ceos, the Democratic Candidates have it backwards in these debates words the one. Centers who are not as optimistic. You see it in not a robust environment for Business Investment and i think that is almost entirely tied to trade concerns. Moving that cloud would go longways to boost that investment. Maria you make a good points on the Ampex Prilosec about the debate. There is a debate last week were Michael Bloomberg make an appearance for the first time on the debate stage. You have another debate coming up on the 205th. Assess the situation for us. There is President Trump at his rally pumping up the economy, talking at how great things are going. Then you got these candidates trying to talk down the economy. They are describing a miserable place, especially Bernie Sanders. Bloomberg i dont think he can get much worse. I think this next debate, its not as a game we should see some sort of game and the passing range. Maria how is he not prepared for the incoming at the debate . Hes been out of the game a while. Think in the second half of the debate he rallied a little bit. He got in some nice zingers on Bernie Sanders. Kind of explaining the bankruptcy of his ideology, but also pointing out the hypocrisy of sanders owning multiple homes. But i think generally, it was a win for Bernie Sanders because he wasnt catching all of that fire. He is the front runner and i think investors have to start thinking about what that means. It seems unlikely he could be elected, but put potentially catastrophic if he is. Maria the biggest winner of all is probably President Trump, its beginning to look like no ones going to build take him down. What you looking at ahead your settings investment spending on corporations is important. There get a pole in their spending if theres another trade by coming with europe . What else you looking up or can last . Trade pcb great as we think about Economic Policy going forward, people kind of debating whats likely to come out of this election. If the president is going to roll out a tax cut 2. 0 plan, hes talking about, not going to happen this year. But as a setting the table if he wins reelection, i think another reduction in the corporate rates, i know this is not part of the discussion because its not as seen as politically viable. But i think he should realize that was the juiciness economic program. And even if people dont realize they got a tax cut, that was the engine that has given this economy where voters love the results. Maria its great to see you James Freeman the wall street journal. Dont go anywhere mitchell dont go anywhere mitchell wherever we want to go, autosave your way there with chase. Chase. Make more of whats yours. The better question would be where do i not listen to it. While im eating my breakfast. On the edges of cliffs. On a ski lift. Everywhere. Download audible and start listening today. At comcast, we didnt build the nations largest gigspeed network just to make businesses run faster. We built it to help them go beyond. Because beyond risk. Welcome to the neighborhood, guys. There is reward. Beyond work and life. Who else could he be . There is the moment. Beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. 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. Wherever we want to go, autosave your way there with chase. Chase. Make more of whats yours. Maria welcome back 130yearold sportings good giant, modells is fighting to keep the lights on as it deals with sagging sales and increased competition from online retailers and other megastores. The chain known for its catchy jingle is considering various options now to stay in business including offering a Minority Stake in the company. We get more right now from the ceo to discuss this mitchell modells here. Mitchells great to have you. Marie its great to see as always. Maria so great for you to be here take us back to 2019, why you find modell in the position its in. It was march 11, 2015 we get an email from the wall street journal, mr. Modell we are doing an article on modells Sporting Goods we understand you have financial problems, we understand you over expanded, we understand you hired a restructuring during company and we understand youre looking at all options including filing for bankruptcy. And i said, call my pr firm i need to control the message and not let it run. Well deal with it runs. Maria when it ran it new cycle. Vicious cycle, between text, emails and calls every vendor, every factor every Insurance Company shut us off. Downgraded immediately. It was a disaster. Maria made everything that much worse. So he took the next two weeks calling every single supplier, begging them. They just went to bankruptcies of bobs, mc sporting the city sports, bmi, and they did not want to get burned by shipping goods and getting that back. When you ship goods prior to far you dont get paid. They said wait to file they will ship to your paper not shipping now. But without merchandise is not having food or water to feed your body. And you die. So what happens . Because of our relationships for 130 years, we begged everybody called him oneonone and we got back and we started started shipping to us. The problem was we had a tremendous round of reduced receipts. People cutting back credit, when you turn the machine off and turn it back on, goods came in a lot slower. 38million less in receipts and a drop in 50 million sales in 2019. Maria should great grandfather grandfather. Greatgrandfather 1889 we are the oldest family owned a Sporting Goods company. Maria this isnt just business this is personal future Family Business for you. Its in my blood is my dna its who i am. Maria ive known you for a long time, you have so much integrity. Have you gotten reception from anybody just because of the leadership you have, because of the 130 year history, what kind of reception you got in from equity owners . Equity owners have just started playing paired we are putting all options on the table. We always said we would never go public, we said we would never sell equity in the business. But today we are different times, and are putting all options, including signing a minority interest. Maria im getting it back to that because we have a lot of Small Business owners watching and we want to talk about that and get more information. But how did you get to the point where things got so tough . Before the wall street journal called due to that article, tell me about the retail backdrop and why things it got so difficult . You need base business so that means in the wintertime when its cold, people by apparel, fleece outerwear boots et cetera. If its warming christmas time in december theyre not going to buy. You could be 50 off in our stores and if its warm out no one is buying. You could be regular price if its freezing they buy. We quadrupled them about 8 million of license closeouts. Next, jets, giants, yankees, huge margins. We were get a run 50 off and make a nice profit on it. Except the teens were bad so we marked those goods down on top of a warm winter, on top of six days less between thanksgiving and christmas, on top of whats going on on Everything Else and the vendors going direct to the consumer, add all of those pieces together caused major crash of liquid tea. Maria to have a preference and whether youd have private equity buy into the company . Or another mall operator who do you really want . Was the ideal situation . Number one situation is working with the lenders, and by the way our lender is chase and wells fargo has been phenomenal. We are totally transparent with them, we give them the good news and the badges theyve been great partners. Maria will be for one of them . No if we get the support, 90 support collectively of our vendors, our landlords, and the factors that we have an outside chance, and a great chance of getting outside equity infused in. But this at the landlords in the vendor support you we are going to put money in. Without it, we have a problem. Maria you broke the news on mornings with maria on friday you were closing stores. You had to close doors as we can correct . Correct so we hired a Restructuring Company ber g Berkeley Research group, and they have been working with us going through every one of our 141 stores and looking at which of the stores are unprofitable. If we get rid of those unprofitable stores, then we have all stores who are forprofit move forward. It was excruciating. We told the people on thursday, family and some of the managers have been ten, 20, 30 years. It was heartbreaking. Youre trying to find a home somewhere and do whatever we can in any way possible. Its just heartbreaking. Maria you are an incredible person. Are you willing to take on a different approach, direct consumer, are you willing to do Different Things to keep going . We have to come at the end of the day if you dont change or die. So the question is how do you create that experience that people will want to come back . And its all about traffic. If you dont get traffic in the stores, you cant survive. Maria mitchell we will be watching the situation and i wish you the best. You are going to commit smelling egg arose in all of this. Mitchell modell joining us lets be honest, quitting smoking is freaking hard. Like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. And youll be surprised at how easily starting small. Can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette i need all the breaks, that i can get. At liberty butchumal cut. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The new rx. Crafted by lexus. Lease the 2020 rx 350 for 419 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. For people 45 plus at average risk. I took your advice and asked my doctor to order cologuard, that noninvasive colon Cancer Screening test. The delivery guy just dropped it off. Our doctor says it uses advanced science. Its actually stool Dna Technology that finds 92 percent of colon cancers. No prep, and private. Colon Cancer Screening thats as easy as get, go, gone. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your Healthcare Provider if cologuard is right for you. Maria next week on mornings with maria monday Michael Bloomberg plans to rain and wall street, the chairman of the fcc clayton reacts. Choose a democrats debate ahead of the South Carolina primary could this be joe bidens last stand . Wednesday we are taking you inside how u. S. Malls are surviving the downfall of retail giants like jcpenney and macys. And on thursday or favorite physician doctor mike is here with the latest health and wellness news. Friday we answer the questions that matter the most to you, its time to ask maria, right here on mornings with maria. Maria meanwhile former Alan Greenspan is seen as boom and bust markets. I asked him thoughts on whats driving this most recent amazing run on wall street . First of all i think what is happening is we are getting a very significant increase in retirees. Medical science is such that the average age of elderly people is getting older and there are more of us. The results of this is as you well know, Social Security and all other entitlements are rising rapidly and have projected very stiff and entrancing nipple he higher in the future. Both Historical Data show unequivocally, those pressures are driving gross domestic savings dollar for dollar with the entitlements. And gross domestic savings is the major source of funding for gross domestic investment and hence productivity growth which is directly related to it. So what we are seeing is the cause and effect, as the population ages, and it will as medical science continues to expand, we are ending the entitlements which effectively impact productivity and real gdp growth. What we are seeing now, as well into it, well into the process i should say, and we are getting a very Significant Impact and longterm rates. The decline in real longterm rates explains all of the price earnings ratio that we have seen in recent months. Maria but in terms of Interest Rates, when youve got the 30 year loan at 2 the ten year around the same rates, there arent a lot of alternatives for peoples money. So they are not going to go in treasury if youre not getting any return or under 2 . Theyre going to go into the stock market and probably go towards Companies Paying dividends, which by the way have a higher yield than treasury does right now. Is there any reason to believe, mr. Greenspan that this changes anytime soon . The administration recently came out with their budget, and they predicted that rates would stay around these levels, 2 or lower for the next ten years. Is that what you think . No, i dont think thats what they think either. The problem that we have got, as the population ages and people retire, they then begin to seek secure resources, ten years hence, to fund their increase the expected life. And what they are doing is they are buying safe securities with ten years in the future or 20 years in the future. And they are doing that to make sure they have the resources to live the lives they had lovable trade lead will they were working. A very substantial part of whats this cause and effect is, the impact is that the demand for secure bonds mainly as the population of retirees grows, is driving Interest Rates down. Maria what is your take on the federal budget deficit the 202 trillion in debt this country faces and what the ultimate impact of this will be . Politically at this stage it is impossible for anybody in the political ram to resolve the issue. What will resolve it will occur as a consequence of this very major rise in debt already and projected in the future as history tells us that type of change creates inflation. Inflation, on like the debt which is a bookkeeping item, has a significant political impact. Maria doctor greenspan du expected big impact from the coronavirus . Anything is think about that around Economic Growth . What kind of Economic Growth would you expect for 2020 and 2021 . The virus has been having an effect. It has virtually wiped out the rate of increase in Mainland China to a Significant Impact on hong kong, and peru, taiwan, and all of those particular areas. Indirectly of course on the United States as well. It is a phenomenon that we have never observed before, presumably it is now under control and will gradually dissipate. A consequence of that, most forecasters are expecting a rebound as usually happens after these types of catastrophes. Maria my thanks to doctor Alan Greenspan. More wall street right after this, dont go anywhere. [sfx doorbell] hello, i saw you move in, and i wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood with some homemade biscuits oh, thats so nice and a little tip, geico could help you save on homeowners insurance. Hmm cookies uhh, biscuits. Mmmm, is there a little nutmeg in there . Oh its my mums secret recipe. You can tell me. Its a secret. Is it cinnamon . Its my mums secret recipe. Call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. Ill come back for the plate. light musical cords maria walk about coming up next week and on the program right here the head of the Dallas Federal ReserveVoting Member of the fed he will be my special guest weekend. This weekend over on fox news told me for sunday morning futures on the Fox News Channel 10 00 a. M. Eastern live when i speak with South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham and texas congressman ratcliff. My special guest Candace Owens joining me live 10 00 a. M. Eastern on sunday. Plus right here on foxbusiness start smart every weekday tune in weekdays from six to nine eastern for mornings with maria right here on foxbusiness. Help youll join us and set the tone for the day every weekday. Have a great west of the weekend everyone thank you soor. I will see you again next time. Gerry hello and welcome to the wall street journal at large. The president ial 2020 campaign was this weekend with nevada caucuses buried the third stop for democrats is a battle to try to get the upper hand in the race the nomination. That gain does not emerge as the man whose serious threat to the candidates. Former new york mayor city manic mayor mike bloomberg. However in his very first debate wednesday, in las vegas, he was the main targ