Ive got another one for you. 25 million of us were indeed out and about over the last two weeks and that is a big increase. Its not back to normal but we are coming out of the total lockdown. Dead on arrival. Thats the speakers 3 trillion spending plan. It would have encouraged staying at home. It would have bailed out the Postal Service. It would not have provided any Liability Protection for businesses. It was a votebuying scheme. Thats my opinion. Thank heaven its dead. Now this. Fed chair powell is speaking right now. This is the man who is in charge of printing money so whatever he says is important and it can move the markets. Edward lawrence is with us. Whats the headlines, edward . Reporter yeah, stu, the Federal Reserve chairman saying right now we are in the worst recession since world war ii. He says that this is a severe decline of Economic Activity and that job gains over the past decade have been erased. He says the coronavirus is the largest shock in history. Hes talking about no economic bubble created this. This is purely the virus doing this, the Economic Foundation he sees was strong going into this. Powell talking about how the fed will take further action. This is not the final chapter in terms of stimulus going forward. The Federal Reserve will also use its tool kit to the fullest extent for well into the recovery. Thats a signal from the fed chairman that rates will be near zero for some time to come. Powell will say this has been the largest and fastest fiscal response in history. He calls the reaction to protect the economy swift and forceful. The Federal Reserve chairman saying they need to protect Small Businesses. For him in this speech, hes saying Small Businesses will be the clue as to how robust the economy can be if those Small Businesses can survive. Stu . Stuart thanks, edward. The headline that i picked up on in particular was weve got to use the tools to the fullest to deal with this very very bad recession, and what reporter and its not over. The stimulus is not over. Stuart right. Picking up on that, he said to date, with the tools that weve used, thats not the final chapter. Theres more to come. I think thats a plus for the markets. Thanks, edward. Thats what we are seeing right now, a modest uptick for the dow industrials. I see a gain of about 20 odd points. I want to bring in shah gilani on this. I liked what i heard there from the fed chair, especially the bit about were going to use the tools that weve got to the fullest, and our response is not yet over. Now, i know that you have been thinking about a second downturn for the market. Does what the fed is saying make any difference to your prediction . Its a bit of a mixed message to me. On the one hand, hes promising pulling out all the guns as the Federal Reserve already has done, really the last step they can take is starting to buy equities and that may be in the future, if things get that bad. But what hes saying in terms of having to supply whatevers necessary is that the economy looks worse than he had hoped for and thats a bad message for the rest of investors. Stuart i did notice that before we found out what he was saying, the dow futures were up over 100. Now we are up just, what, 18, 19 points. So maybe investors are not as enthusiastic as i thought they might be about what he had to say. Repeat for me, are you still looking for a second downturn in the immediate future . Tell me. Yes, stuart. The reason i am is because earnings, earnings, earnings. The First Quarter earnings have been better than expected for the most part. Theyre down but were not finished through the season, but we are down about 14 quarter over quarter from last year. Thats not as bad as a lot of investors had thought. The market has not only held up, the market has basically reacted by rebounding in a v fashion. So far, so good. I think its gotten ahead of itself. Now that earnings season is winding down, we are almost through it, investors will focus on the economic metrics and they dont look promising. That to me means that there may be some profit taking. That could lead theo a selloff, that could lead to negative feedback and we could see the markets once again head lower, maybe test their lows. Stuart whoa. The low would be 18,000 on the dow. You think thats a serious possibility, that we go back down to 18,000 . Mechanically its absolutely a possibility. The markets have done a brilliant job, have been very resilient. Thats really, i would give that credit to the Federal Reserve 100 . So they are saying today they will continue to back the capital markets, they have done a herculean job of doing that but i think the weight of the economy in terms of the dire metrics we may see over the next quarter, especially in terms of unemployment, may weigh on investors. There may be profit taking and that may turn into a rout. Stuart i notice dow futures have now turned negative to the tune of 30 points. Thats a real turnaround. Before we found out what fed chair powell was going to say, futures were up well over 100. Now we know what he said, in the process of saying, and we are down 11. Okay. Now, i want to hear news about all Different Industries and how they may or may the not coming back. We featured the Real Estate Industry at some point on this program. Ive got the latest read on Mortgage Applications. Thats a pointer to the future. Lauren, what do we have . Lauren the spring Housing Market is not dead. Mortgage applications last week rose 11 . Indeed, they are higher four weeks in a row now. The zillow ceo said some people say right now they want to move more than ever. So this market is slowly coming back to life as states do reopen. One quick final point. Refis which we have been following, yes, are higher by 200 on an annual basis but they actually fell last week. Many banks are just overwhelmed right now. Stuart thats understandable. Lauren, thank you very much indeed. New numbers on how many Small Businesses have closed their doors already because of the virus and the lockdown. On your screens, its 100,000. Ashley, give me more on this, please. Ashley yeah. Thats the estimate. Its at least 100,000 and it is only just at the beginning, they say. They say it will be the worst wave of Small Business bankruptcies since the great depression. That, by the way, is just about 2 of Small Businesses in this country which doesnt sound like a lot, but it does have a ripple effect. If you think of the high street in local communities, you start losing businesses down that high street, you start losing customers and it is a ripple effect. So they are very concerned. 3 of Restaurant Operators will never, ever open again. That number is expected to get worse. By the way, what we are seeing is a shift of power and jobs from Small Companies who have had to lay off a lot more than the Big Companies. So the Big Companies now we know that Small Business has been the lifeblood of the u. S. Economy, but this pandemic has really, really seen a shift in balance, and as i say, economists believe this is just the beginning of that wave. If you dont have any income for weeks and weeks and weeks and then when you do reopen, its at reduced capacity, its just too much for so many of these businesses. Stuart 100,000 out already. All right, ash, thank you. Economist Brian Brenberg is with us. Whats your reaction to this . Thats a very big number, 100,000 Small Businesses gone already. Your reaction . Look, this is exactly why you have people at state capitols, this is why you have people taking to the streets in revolt, in protest against the fact of being closed down. Its not the virus that is causing these bankruptcies, these closures. Its our response to it, stuart. Thats why so many people are so upset. Small businesses are willing to fight, willing to fight against this, but they are tired of fighting against the government who wont let them fight and if you dont let them fight, if we dont give them the chance, this number is going to get bigger and its going to be devastating. I think its a terrible number. Its exactly why we have to change our policy response now. Stuart you have an oped in foxnews. Com. The title is virus recovery, protect businesses from this when they reopen. I know what this is. You are talking liability, arent you . Go. Absolutely talking liability. Look, it is so hard, forget about lawsuits, its so hard for a business to figure out how to come back in this environment, but you make it almost impossible when they know lurking around almost any corner could be a frivolous lawsuit, even if its frivolous, could bankrupt them because theyve got to fight it. We need to protect businesses from these kinds of things so they can focus on hiring and focus on getting back to work. This is proworker, protecting businesses from frivolous lawsuits is proworker because it gives businesses the confidence to hire again. Stuart Brian Brenberg, thank you for joining us. We always appreciate it. See you again real soon. Next one, musk, elon musk, looks like hes got a win in california. Alameda county will allow him to reopen his factory in fremont. Susan, did the local authorities cave to musk . Susan victory, musk. You got to give it to him. Thats right, alamedas Public Health department announcing on twitter that the fremont, california plant will be able to go beyond basic operations this week and start making cars this coming monday. The plant can reopen as long as tesla delivers on its worker safety protocols and what are those . If you can bring up the graphic, that means more ppe being used, temperature checks, providing disinfectants, adjusted work shifts, social distancing, also reduce shuttle occupancy so people arent too close together. Elon musk of course was upset by the fact that his rivals ford and General Motors were allowed to restart manufacturing over in michigan, in detroit. Now, Fremont Police say they will be checking on whether or not tesla is adhering to these protocols but you have to give it to him. He pushed the limits and gets the victory. Stuart i think so. I think they caved. I think he won on this one. Thank you. Look at futures. We are looking down for the dow industrial average. Mr. Powell, fed chair powell is speaking at the moment. He has said we are going to use the tools that weve got to the fullest. I thought that might encourage some stock buying. Apparently not. We are down 35 on the dow. Big show for you today. Arizona senator Martha Mcsally is here. She has a proposal that would allow us to sue directly china. Congressman jim jordan. I want his take on the flynn case going all the way to the top. Hes got it for us. Martha maccallum on getting people out and about again. They are, you know. And steve forbes has a plan to offer a huge prize, not him, but the government, for a vaccine. All on the show today. Jack dorsey at twitter told his staff you can work at home forever. Okay. How about that. We are talking about the future of the workplace in this postpandemic world. Big show on that one. Then theres that 3 trillion spending plan from speaker pelosi. Irresponsible government. Thats what congressman dan crenshaw says about it. Hes next. 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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. Stuart more from the allimportant jay powell speech. Hes answering questions right now. Edward, whats the headlines from this . Reporter yeah, stu, hes saying the Unemployment Rate he believes will peak in the next month and then sharply decline. He does believe it might not go back right away to the 3. 5 . It will be well above that. However, he did say we can get back to the 3. 5 unemployment. He said we need to get on the road to recovery and stay there. Stu . Stuart he did say the economy should substantially recover. I think thats a direct quote from what he had to say. All right. Okay. All right. Reporter exactly. Yes. He does believe that we could be on the road to recovery, he said the fundamentals were still there. The stimulus theyre putting in there, he believes, provides a good foundation. We just have to see if the Small Businesses can survive this sort of bridge until the economy opens up. Stuart thanks, edward. Keep checking on that for us, please. The market has turned around. Futures now pointing slightly higher. First president ial tweet of the day. Here it is. Big congressional win in california for mike garcia, taking back a seat from the democrats. This is the first time in many years that a california dem seat has flipped back to a republican. Also, tom tiffany beat his democrat rival big in wisconsin. Two great congressional wins. All right, everyone. Now this. Roll tape, please. Its a big price but its a big problem, and the chairman of the fed said think big because Interest Rates will never be lower, so we are they use the Interest Rates to give confidence that credit will be available because Interest Rates are low. In terms of the house phase four bill, its got so much unrelated to coronavirus, its dead on arrival here in terms of a viable idea. Stuart there you saw it. Speaker pelosi, senator Lindsey Graham going at it there over the democrats 3 trillion relief package. Congressman dan crenshaw, republican, texas, joins us now. Sir, you say this is plain irresponsible governing. Make your case, please. Well, theres a couple reasons why that is. For one thing, nancy pelosi and the democrats, they operate in a different reality. They operate in a reality where you can keep everybody locked down forever at the governments orders and then just keep sending them checks in the hopes that there will actually be an economy there when we come back. Well, that wont happen. It will wither on the vine. I think we all intuitively know that. Businesses continue to fail even with ppp funding that cant last forever. Its like they want to create this sort of socialist utopia where everybody is on some new ubi payment. Thats not living in reality. Thats living in a false utopia. But second of all, as Lindsey Graham said, its dead on arrival. We havent been able to see the text of this thing. They didnt draft this at all with republicans. There was no input whatsoever. You know, i remember all of these freshmen democrats coming to congress, they flipped a bunch of red seats and they said over and over and over again that they were here to work with the other side, they just wanted to solve problems. That has never been the case. That has never been the case, not once during this session and when America Needs them the most, needs them the most, to actually work and solve problems, they refuse to do it. Listen, we have to be looking at the problems now with a scalpel, we have to be looking at individual issues, then solving them. Know how we can do that . We could actually be at work. We could actually be at work debating and working in committees and moving forward. I have a bill to do something just like that. Stuart congressman, you do have a plan. I believe you would extend this 600 a week emergency employment payment, 600 a week, you would extend that, even if someone goes back to work. That sounds a lot like free money, no matter what you do. Well, so this is an example of actually solving the problem because the way this was originally drafted and why a lot of republicans were against it was because it ended up that we might be paying more to people more money to remain unemployed instead of going back to work. Thats a huge problem, especially when we are trying to get our economy back on track. So what this bill does is it allows states to allow people to keep that 600 extra a week for six weeks, even if they go back to work. Theres no way politically we are going to be able to remove that benefit at this point. Democrats want to extend that benefit through the end of the year, by the way. If you want to make sure that americans dont work, and remain dependent on the government, well, thats a great way to do it. With my bill, its a great way to actually keep stimulating the economy but encourage people to get back to work. And actually get our country back on track. Stuart congressman, could you just give us a quick update from the state of texas, which has opened up to as much as it can, given the restraints on it . How is it going . Are people using the businesses, which are now open in