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First Move with Julia Chatterley
America at Political Crossroads after Derek Chauvin Murder Conviction; Corporate America Responds to Court's Verdict; Most Football Clubs Withdraw from New Super League. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired April 21, 2021 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:31]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Hello, I'm Julia Chatterley in New York. This morning, America waking up to a potential
cross road following the Derek Chauvin murder trial.
The nation waiting to see if Chauvin's conviction for the murder of George Floyd will translate into a new era of accountability, if not justice for
those that have lost their lives unlawfully.
Now, there have been spontaneous marches and celebrations in response, now comes the eight week wait for sentencing and an ongoing fight to tackle
racial injustice and inequality more broadly. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus reports.
Tape
ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): After more than 10 hours of deliberations --
JUDGE PETER CAHILL, HENNEPIN COUNTY: Members of the jury, I will now read the verdicts.
BROADDUS (voice over): The jury deciding the fate of the former Minneapolis police officer who held his knee on George Floyd's neck for
more than nine minutes last May.
CAHILL: We, the jury in the above-entitled matter as to count one, unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony find the
defendant guilty.
BROADDUS (voice over): Derek Chauvin guilty of second degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second degree manslaughter. The Judge
revoking Chauvin's bail before he was handcuffed and taken into custody.
BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE FLOYD'S FAMILY: This is a victory for those who champion humanity over inhumanity. Those who champion justice
over injustice.
BROADDUS (voice over): Marking the end of three weeks of testimony in a trial centered around a bystander video showing the final moments of
Floyd's life.
KEITH ELLISON, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: I would not call today's verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration. But it
is accountability, which is the first step towards justice.
BROADDUS (voice over): Outside the Cup Foods Store, now known as George Floyd Square, silence erupting into cheers of cautious celebration and
sorrow.
Mixed emotions shared by Floyd's family here in Minneapolis and watching on screen more than a thousand miles away in Texas, nearly one year after his
murder.
PHILONISE FLOYD, BROTHER OF GEORGE FLOYD: I'm going to put up a fight every day because I'm not just fighting for George anymore, I'm fighting
for everybody around this world. Today, we are able to breathe again.
BROADDUS (voice over): President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris speaking with them on the phone Tuesday.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): We're all so relieved. Not guilty on one verdict, but all three. Guilty on all three
counts. It's really important.
BROADDUS (voice over): Biden and Harris later addressing the nation with the President warning that while the verdict may be a moment of, quote,
"significant change," it is not enough.
BIDEN: We can't stop here. In order to deliver real change and reform, we can and we must do more to reduce the likelihood that tragedies like this
will ever happen and occur again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: On "New Day," George Floyd's brother spoke of relief when the verdict was announced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
P. FLOYD: The moment I heard guilty, guilty, guilty, I was excited. It felt like I had just won a championship, it felt like the world had won a
championship because as African-Americans, we feel like we never get justice.
It is not about black, it is not about white, it is not about Asian. It is only one race and that is the human race.
And the world, let it be known that we all can breathe again because justice for George means freedom for all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: It's certainly a call for change from the community to the board room. Leaders want action following the Derek Chauvin verdict.
Christine Romans joins us for more on that. Christine, great to have you with us. Certainly, from the business community, they were ready the
instant that verdict came through to respond.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, moments after the verdict, you were starting to hear from all kinds of companies
who had crafted statements and CEOs and leaders who wanted to make sure that they were striking the right tone from the Business Roundtable, this
is the powerful group of corporate executives that together, they employ some 15 million people.
The Business Roundtable saying that the verdict was in and that we still had more work to do for racial equality in this country to ensure true
justice and healing, our country needs to take steps to address its long history of racial inequity in law enforcement.
[09:05:05]
ROMANS: Lots of different companies from CEOs, Mary Barra, to Wells Fargo, up and down the line, very quick with their reactions to the Chauvin
verdict. And from AT&T's Tim Cook -- or sorry, I'm looking at the AT&T on the bottom right under your screen, from Apple's Tim Cook, you had him
quoting Martin Luther King Jr., "Today's verdict was just, but as Dr. King wrote, 'justice for black people will not flow into society nearly from
court decisions nor from fountains of political oratory, justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our
society.'"
Which brings me to: what next? As Cuba Gooding, Jr. said in that great movie "Show me the money," companies are standing up for democracy, they
are standing up for fairness, but show me the money. What are companies doing today and into the future to make sure that these inequities that are
woven through all parts of American society and the American economy are addressed.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, show me the money and show me the action quite frankly, because words are cheap at this moment. Christine, you and I have been
talking about this for a long time and you can look at the data and it is just not happening quickly enough.
And there is a delicate balancing act to be found if you do too much here, you get criticized by the right of politics. If you do too little, you get
criticized by the left.
Concrete action. Christine, what can they do and what can they do today to do more?
ROMANS: It's so interesting. On the voting rights issue, we showed you all of those hundreds of companies that put the two-page ad in "The Washington
Post" and "The New York Times." They were criticized by some on the right for sticking their nose in where it doesn't belong, right, and were accused
by some on the left for not doing enough, like pulling more of their political donations for states and for cities and for politicians that
don't support voting rights and don't do more for fundamental fairness in American democracy. So they get it on both sides.
They get it also from politicians who say, oh, you criticize the American system, but you say nothing about China and you do business there? So there
is a tightrope to walk here.
I would say in the very near term, I know the corporate leaders are thinking about this every single day. Their employees and their customers
are demanding it, but there are things that they can do.
Comb your own numbers for pay inequity, find out what your hiring practices -- why is it that so few of your leaders are black Americans? Figure it out
how to make your leadership ranks more diverse to represent your customers and your employees.
These are things I know that they are trying to do. You know, police reform is part of it; education reform is part of it, but companies pay the
paychecks, right? If there is income inequality in this country among races, the paychecks come from the companies. There are things that they
can do on their end.
CHATTERLEY: Figure it out faster, I think that is the message. Christine Romans, thank you for that.
And CNN will continue to recover the reaction to the Chauvin trial verdict throughout the day.
Now, though, it is another day of caution and consolidation on Wall Street as investors pare back on reopening plays, and the major tech names that
outperformed during lockdowns.
A great example of that, Netflix, down some eight percent premarket after first quarter subscription growth disappointed, just four million new
subscribers were added compared to 16 million subscribers added this time last year amid the lockdowns. It was the future growth I think being
brought forward. More details on those numbers later on in the show.
For now, lockdown fears, a big driver in the Asia session, too. The Nikkei falling some two percent as Japan battles the latest COVID outbreak. A
stark contrast it seems is what we've got going on in Europe where we are seeing greater clarity as reopenings, and as the vaccine supply picture and
rollout takes shape.
And we cannot discuss Europe without mentioning the European super non- league, however. Is anyone left standing? I am telling you what. Investors, they are not hanging around, shares of Premier League giant, Manchester
United falling six percent in U.S. trading yesterday; under a bit of pressure again premarket.
Italian giant, Juventus, also being punished, down more than 13 percent in Milan as we speak. It's actually below Friday's close, so they certainly
are being punished for what has happened in the last couple of days.
Super league, super shambles. The European super league collapsing, football clubs can't walk fast enough. The owners of Liverpool apologizing
to the fans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN W. HENRY, OWNER, LIVERPOOL FC: It goes without saying, but should be said that the project put forward was never going to stand without the
support of the fans. No one ever thought differently in England.
Over these 48 hours, you were clear that it would not stand. We heard you. I heard you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Yes, walking alone on that decision. Alex Thomas is live in London with the latest. Alex, I think that is as close as it gets to a
billionaire begging for forgiveness quite frankly. What on earth happened in the last 48 hours? And is it all over?
[09:10:02]
ALEX THOMAS, CNN WORLD SPORT: It was a slow gradual buildup of pressure from every corner of the planet really, Julia.
We had the announcement late on Sunday night that the super league had billions of dollars of financial backing and was definitely going ahead.
They never officially used the word European by the way, even though it only involved European clubs, such was the stoke with their ambition spread
this further should it get off the ground, but it never did.
You had not just football authorities protesting against it, even the British Prime Minister, France's President and a member of the Royal Family
and then crucially, on Tuesday, as things continued to gather pace in terms of the criticism, while no one was speaking for the project, you had actual
players and managers from the clubs involved with the breakaway project speaking out against it as well.
And then on Tuesday night, ahead of a Premier League game between Chelsea and Brighton in the stadium behind me, just a few hundred yards up the road
at the other entrance to it, we had a massive sit-down protest by Chelsea fans. Remember, none of them allowed in to sit down because of COVID
restrictions, which have been eased in England more than on the continent, so they were allowed to gather, and they stopped the team coaches at one
stage that were driving in or carrying the players for the game.
I think that all this led to the owners of the English clubs particularly realizing that they have made a horrible mistake. They are massive losers
in this. The financial pressures that led to the projects are still there, but the idea of it coming back to the table anytime in the next few years
is dead and buried and I've never seen that video, that sound from John Henry, the owner of the Fenway Sports Group, but also the Boston Red Sox is
astonishing.
They have badly misjudged the mood of the Liverpool fans overseas in ticket prices a few years back, they made the same mistake again, although, it was
a humble and sincere apology, I know from having been up in Liverpool, Liverpudlians do not forgive and forget easily and I think they are going
to be facing a lot of pressure to stay at the club at all now.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, beware the egg throwing, quite frankly. It is personal for me and my family, I can tell you. Is it going be a break free, do you
think for walking away from this deal? I mean, we don't know what the contours of this deal looked like. It looked rushed, as bad business
decisions go, it is right up there, but Alex, what about some kind of break fee?
THOMAS: Yes, well, I think that the Italian and Spanish clubs, by the way, not everyone has pulled out yet, but we know that after all of the English
clubs overnight, we've had both of the Malayan clubs and Atletico Madrid say they are also going to pull out of the project as well.
I think the Italian and Spanish clubs will be worse off for the collapse of this because they financially needed the money more than the English clubs
who at least have the lucrative Premier League to fall back on.
We do know that the UEFA is going to revamp the Champions League. After the English clubs said they were pulling out, there was slightly more
conciliatory words from the UEFA President who felt completely betrayed and referred to snakes and liars previously.
And they know it is their job to make money for the top clubs because they can afford to pay the salaries of the biggest stars and that's what brings
new people into the game and keep making it the most popular sport on the planet.
You know, the kids across the world that start kicking a ball around their local streets, all do it because they are inspired by the stars in the
field at the highest level, so the game needs to stay joined up from top to bottom and hopefully, this would stop people trying to breaking away for
now and do it their own way.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, football is for the fans ultimately and the ethos of football was the community.
Alex, great to have you with us. Thank you. Alex Thomas there.
All right, let me bring you up to speed now with some of the other stories making headlines around the world.
Russian authorities have reportedly detained dozens of people taking part in protests in support of Alexei Navalny. At least two close allies of the
Kremlin critique were detained before the protests even began according to their lawyers.
Demonstrations are happening on the day Vladimir Putin delivered his state of the nation address.
Let's go live to Moscow now with CNN's Sam Kiley. Sam, I am reading and I am trying to look at the pictures as well. What have we seen in terms of
protests despite those detained?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, very muted so far, Julia. They are not officially supposed to get under way until about
half past 7:00 Moscow time, that's in about three and a half hours. So there is time for it to build, and of course, it is obviously time to start
after the workday, this after all being the middle of the week, not a weekend which might have been expected to attract more demonstrations.
But on top of that, the Russian authorities right across this enormous country of a large number of different time zones, seven hours ahead of us
right out in the east, there were some detentions and some demonstrations were attempting to get off the ground and some key members of Mr. Navalny's
entourage in a circle also had been preemptively detained.
There are some people gathering here and there, but the authorities have made it abundantly clear partly using the issue of COVID and the need to
socially isolate as part of the argument to ban these demonstrations.
Although, it is quite interesting to note the very few of those people listening to a tightly packed hall for the people to the speech given by
Vladimir Putin were even wearing masks, let alone socially distanced.
[09:15:10]
KILEY: So there is obvious hypocrisy there. But the issue really has been whether or not to have this demonstration from the opposition's perspective
when they reach the 500,000 signatures that they had hoped to get online, or whether to bring it forward because of the failing health of Mr.
Navalny.
Now, according to the local authorities in the area where he is being kept about two hours outside of Moscow in a Penal Colony, he has been visited by
what is being described as four independent doctors, but they are not the doctors he has been asking for, not his private doctors during what is now
the third week of his hunger strike.
But both his lawyers yesterday and these doctors today, and we have no independent verification that they even saw him, let alone what their
conclusions are, but their conclusions they are saying do dovetail with the reports coming from his lawyers that he is now on some kind of glucose or
nutrition drip to try to maintain his health.
And he issued a statement through Instagram yesterday joking that he looked like the sort of creature that might frighten children into eating their
food properly since he looks skeletal with enormous ears, but he has been able to walk around his cell. So perhaps claims that his death was imminent
coming from opposition members of his own entourage may have been exaggerated.
But this is all very much in the realms of tweet and counter tweet between the opposition and statements from the government -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, important we keep talking about it though. Sam Kiley, live in Moscow, thank you so much for that.
Okay, still to come here on FIRST MOVE, dose delay, Greta Thunberg joins the fight for fair vaccine distribution and shortages hamper COVAX rollout.
And sun, sea and shots, vaccine shots that is. The Maldives lures tourists with a novel proposition. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. A record number of new COVID-19 infections were reported worldwide last week, so says the World Health
Organization which puts the tally at 5.2 million people.
Driving the surge, major outbreaks in Brazil and India. Brazil now has more than 14 million active cases. India, meanwhile, accounts for 28 percent of
new cases worldwide. The country reported the highest ever number of new infections and deaths on Wednesday. Hospitals there are turning away
patients as they run out of beds, oxygen and COVID tests.
Now, as India grapples with the surge, the world's biggest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India has slowed the export of vaccines. Among doses
delayed are the March and April deliveries for the COVAX program, which allocates vaccines to lower income economies.
And joining us now is Dr. Seth Berkley. He is Chief Executive Officer of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and co-head of the COVAX program.
Dr. Berkley, fantastic to have you on the show. Let's just talk about what you have achieved so far, I believe around 14 million doses of vaccines
have been delivered, which is fantastic progress. But when you compare it to the two billion you were hoping to do this year, there's a long way to
go.
DR. SETH BERKLEY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF GAVI, THE VACCINE ALLIANCE: Well, it's nice to see you again, Julia, and you're absolutely right, we've
delivered now to 118 countries around 41 million doses. We always knew we would be starting slowly because there weren't that many vaccines approved
early on, and we had to prepare countries for them.
We always expected the big push would be in the second half of the year. But of course, the delay you talked about at the Serum Institute of India,
where we're now 90 million doses down in March and April, of course, has slowed us down even further.
So we still hope to get to two billion doses by the end of 2021 and we will be announcing new deals in addition to the ones we've already announced to
have a fully diversified portfolio of vaccines.
CHATTERLEY: How are you going to get around this and ensure that you manage the two billion this year? I mean, to your point, and we've
mentioned the Serum Institute of India prioritizing domestic needs, they were also saying that they were having supply chain issues with the United
States prioritizing their domestic vaccine manufacturing, too. There's a whole chain of complications here.
BERKLEY: Well, let's be absolutely honest about this. The world uses normally about three and a half billion doses of vaccine a year, if you add
flu, maybe it's five billion. Of course, people would like this year to be able to vaccinate the whole world against COVID. That would be talking
about, you know another tripling or quadrupling of vaccines that will be made.
Now, manufacturers are working very hard to scale up, but we are seeing supply constraints, shortages of products. We are seeing some hoarding by
companies. We are seeing export bans and controls and this is making it very hard to move forward on this massive scale up that the whole world
needs.
It's one of again, the reasons why it's important to have multiple different vaccines. You never know what side effects may occur or when you
may have manufacturing problems, or supply chain problems for the products.
CHATTERLEY: I can't help but compare the 41 million, I stand corrected, versus what -- more than 210 million doses that already have been
administered in the United States.
We talk about this a lot, whether it is vaccine nationalism or people focusing on their own domestic priorities, the gap between delivery in
richer nations and poorer nations is widening.
BERKLEY: Well, you know, we certainly have seen this in the past and the last outbreak or pandemic in 2009, the swine flu pandemic, we saw a number
of countries buy up all the doses. It's one of the reasons we moved quickly to set up COVAX to try to get a global mechanism going forward.
But of course, we do understand political leaders need to serve their own populations, but what we ask is that they serve their high risk
populations. And then as soon as that is done, they try to get other high risk population served because in a case with the new variants, we're only
safe if we're all safe.
So what we need to make sure of is that we are controlling the pandemic everywhere. We're also asking countries to share doses. So when they have
vaccines that they're not using yet or may have excess volumes, that they share those with other countries as well.
CHATTERLEY: And Dr. Berkley, is that happening? Or do countries need to do more?
BERKLEY: So we've seen the first announcements of dose sharing. We had our investment opportunity hosted by the U.S. government last Thursday,
Secretary of State Blinken hosted it. We had there the first announcements from New Zealand donating doses. We also heard from France, Norway, other
countries now beginning to talk about making doses available and this will help in these countries.
Of course, there are principles of those donations to try to make sure they're used equitably, and that they still have a long enough shelf life.
But again, we're all in this together. I think this pandemic has showed that to be the case, and that's why we have to work together.
[09:25:19]
CHATTERLEY: Some big nations missing from that list, I will note that for you and myself and the viewers.
Let's talk about safety concerns because the first half of this year, you were prioritizing, of course, with the Serum Institute of India, the
AstraZeneca vaccine. The second half of this year, I know you have orders in for Johnson & Johnson, both have had concerns raised on certain subsets
of the population with blood clot risk. How are you managing vaccine hesitancy in nations where you're delivering these vaccines?
BERKLEY: Well, of course, one of the important principles of vaccinations are that you always look at the risk-benefit ratio, I mean, there normally
are some side effects associated with vaccines, and what we rely on then are regulatory agencies to assess those carefully when there are questions
to stop vaccination to analyze and understand.
Right now the recommendations for those vaccines are that they are -- that the benefit-ratio is way in favor of the vaccines, by the way, you get
those particular clots also from COVID infections. And as you know, COVID is rampant across the world.
So we are continuing to use those vaccines. We will continue to watch what W.H.O. recommends, the European Medicines Agency and, of course, the U.S.
is due to finish and have their own recommendations on this. At the moment, the vaccine has not been licensed in the U.S.
CHATTERLEY: It highlights the importance of information campaigns as well to educate people about the risks and the relative risks between catching
COVID and taking a vaccine.
I read from them the U.S.-based health Charity Care that for every dollar spent on vaccines, a further $5.00 is required to tackle things like
information campaigns, for the logistics of actually getting those vaccines in people's arms. Money, Dr. Berkley, you clearly need more money, how much
more do you need?
BERKLEY: Well, thanks for asking at the investment opportunity launch and that is the investment opportunity of course is on our website. We asked
for an additional $2 billion for this calendar year 2021 that will allow us to raise the total for the poorest countries to closer to 30 percent of the
population, but allowing us to buy an additional half a billion doses.
We're also asking for cost sharing from countries and from the multilateral development banks. So we hope to get that support to continue to make this
drive.
But right now, the acute need is vaccines early because we want to make sure that every healthcare worker in the world is protected. That's the
right thing to do and it's also, you know, the thing to do, even if we're only concerned about, you know, our own countries, because at the end, as I
said, these viruses are moving very quickly around the world.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and a great contribution as well, flying the flag for that, Greta Thunberg, providing 100,000 euros. I mean, that's an amazing
statement and contribution from her.
BERKLEY: I agree with that, and I think she understands that this type of global cooperation is important when you have things that transcend
borders, in a sense, like climate change, one can think of, oh, my country did the right thing and that's it. You have to think about what's happening
in other countries.
And I think it's the same thing when you have a global pandemic is we have to take that global approach for a global problem. So very pleased to have
her support us.
CHATTERLEY: We're in it together. Dr. Seth Berkley, sir, thank you so much for your time and for the work you and your team are doing. Chief Executive
Officer of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance and the co-head of the COVAX program. Great to have you with us once again.
The market opens next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:56]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. A wary tone on Wall Street, investors reassess record gains, concerned too that COVID cases remain at
record highs globally despite stronger vaccine rollouts. The NASDAQ as you can see, pulling back slightly for a third straight session after two days
of near one percent losses.
Netflix not helping of course, a Big Tech loser. It is reporting a normalization, let's call it that, of subscription growth following last
year's stellar lockdown gains. Much more on Netflix shortly, and from the Netflix subscription glitch to super league football ditched, U.S. listed
Manchester United shares are a little higher after yesterday's six percent drop as plans for a football super league collapse. You've just got to look
at someone's computer there, how exciting.
And disappointment in Crypto Land, too. Dogecoin disciples failing to push their fledgling cryptocurrency to a $1.00 level during Doge Day
celebrations yesterday. Dogecoin a real dog today, oh dear, down another 18 percent to a mere 31 cents.
Now, speaking of crypto, a former U.S. banking regulator becoming the head of one of the world's largest crypto exchanges. Brian Brooks is former
acting Comptroller of the Currency set to become the CEO of Binance U.S. He was also Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, and he joins us now.
Brian, fantastic to have you on the show. Congratulations, firstly, on the move. You are who I think can be credited with bringing the Office of the
Comptroller into the 21st Century in terms of what payments and the financial system can look like in the United States. How does that focus
fit with becoming the CEO of Binance U.S.?
BRIAN BROOKS, INCOMING CEO, BINANCE, U.S.: Well, look, Julia, first of all, thanks so much for having me. And, and you know, I think you're
talking about Dogecoin just shows, we're at a place in this market where it's a $2 trillion market that needs some channeling, right, it needs some
directionality and that's what we tried to do in my last role running the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it is to demonstrate to people
that these are not Cabbage Patch Kids, these are not collectibles.
These are tokens powering fundamental financial networks, and that's why the cryptocurrency market has gone from zero to $2 trillion in only 11
years.
What I hope to do at Binance is use that platform to bring those technologies to the market in a way that's safe, easy, inexpensive, and
accessible to more Americans and ultimately more people in the world.
CHATTERLEY: We're going to talk more about that. But firstly, you mentioned Dogecoin again, so now I have to do include Dogecoin in that, not
a Cabbage Patch Kid.
BROOKS: You know, here's the funny thing when you have a market. So think about the stock market. There are all kinds of stocks out there for
companies that are ultimately not going to be useful and are not going to succeed. And many of those companies go to bankruptcy and I'm not saying
Dogecoin will do that.
Dogecoin seems to be a novelty item, kind of like Cabbage Patch Kids were in the '80s, as I say, but Dogecoin is not a not a token that is powering a
fundamental network the way that Ethereum is or Solana is or Filecoin is. I mean, there are things out there that really are changing the world.
[09:35:04]
BROOKS: And the point about exchanges is to bring all of those before the market so that investors and customers can assess which ones are most
useful. That's why stocks have value. And ultimately, that's why crypto tokens have value.
CHATTERLEY: Diplomatic, but is it about an exchange being an on ramp for a broader understanding? Because you and I not only talked about
cryptocurrencies as an entry point into this space and this technology, it's the underlying networks that provide, I think, what's most exciting
about the potential?
BROOKS: Yes, I think you've got it exactly right, Julia. I think about exchanges as on ramps that ultimately won't be necessary in their current
form five years from now.
If you think about fax machines or scanners, they were a funny sort of intermediate technology where, you know, to use a document on the internet,
you had to first print out a piece of paper and sign it and then get it onto the internet using your scanner. But nobody does that anymore.
Right now, we have DocuSign, and fully internet native tools to allow us to never leave the internet. And I think ultimately, that's the way crypto
finance will work as well is at a certain point, finance will have migrated out of the analogue age and into the digital age, at which point the idea
of moving your fiat currency into your crypto wallet won't really have meaning anymore.
At that point, we'll be fully network native just as we are on the internet for everything else.
CHATTERLEY: So you are saying in five years' time, Coinbase Binance U.S. will be unnecessary.
BROOKS: No, I guess what I'm saying is at that point, these companies will be radically transforming the platform companies that are providing
services for the economy, like Google won't be on search at one point.
CHATTERLEY: And that makes sense to me. I think one of the other things and again, you and I have discussed it, and we've touched this -- on this a
little bit on the show is the idea of decentralized finance. This idea of cutting out the middleman and things that require some form of contract,
whether it's insurance, whether it's lending, is that another avenue that you see as potential for Binance U.S. going forward?
BROOKS: Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, we've learned a lot in the last year about not just the costs of middlemen, but also the dangers of middlemen.
So we know what the costs are, right? We all know how expensive it is to go to the bank and experience an overdraft fee, or a late fee, or a low
balance fee on our account, right? That's the cost of them performing their middlemen function.
But we've also seen how dangerous it can be. You know, think about the sort of social issues of people being de-platformed from various social media
accounts, because some central, you know, overseer decided that their opinions were the wrong opinions or whatever.
When that comes to finance, which is what is very possible in a world where you have bank CEOs deciding who gets an account or which services get to be
provided, that gets a little bit scary in a free society.
The point of decentralization is to say, let's take that out, and let's just all be free, right?
Let's just all have access to our money and to all the transactions that we want to do as free people. That's a fairly fundamental ideology that powers
a lot of crypto, it is what decentralization is about, and it is about freedom.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, these are the things we have to be talking about. I think when we're trying to educate people about the crypto space. It's not just
about the rise and fall of digital tokens or cryptocurrencies, as we call it.
Coinbase, I mention again, because it is a competitor. And one of the statistics that came out from that when it IPO'ed was that they are making
75 percent of the revenues of the NASDAQ on two percent of the volumes. And that's hugely alluring for people to come into this space and compete and
fight for those margins, quite frankly, Brian.
But is part of what we've just discussed here, sort of an evolution of what these exchanges represent, focusing too much on the loss of those margins
is irrelevant as the products that these exchanges offer diversifies.
BROOKS: I think that's exactly right. I mean, at some point, as you saw with Robinhood and Charles Schwab, you can't actually have a business
model, certainly not a decentralized business model that's focused on harvesting exchange free from people, you know, for the privilege of
spending money that won't last.
But at the end of the day, there's a lot of value add services that need to be brought. And I'll just tell you about Coinbase. Coke is a better product
because of Pepsi. That's kind of my thesis for Binance U.S. Coinbase will be a better company, because it will have fierce competition from us and
that's good for everybody.
CHATTERLEY: Because you'll fight and innovate.
BROOKS: Exactly.
CHATTERLEY: Talk to me about regulation, because this is the big question mark that remains, and I know you are one of those at the forefront of
fighting for clarity for the better of the industry.
How do we find a balance between addressing some of the concerns over lack of transparency, of it being misused versus suppressing innovation that
puts the United States at a disadvantage relative to other countries like China, for example, that are pushing this and moving forward in leaps and
bounds?
BROOKS: Yes, well, Julia, I would say a couple of quick things about that. First of all, now that we're in a $2 trillion market cap and crypto, I
think the fear that regulation will somehow banish or suppress this that's gone away where it's too late for that. Too many people are here. There's
too much value here. So that's the good news as we've crossed that Rubicon.
The other thing I would say is during my time at the OCC, we did some things that are fairly permanent, right? We chartered crypto banks, for
example, and those charters can never be taken away. So this is now embedded in the system in a permanent way.
Now, what we need to start thinking about is, what should the content of these regulations be? And you know, in the same way that we don't apply FCC
broadcast licenses to YouTube, even though YouTube is a way of distributing video content all around the world, we need to start getting rid of some of
these banking regulations.
[09:40:33]
BROOKS: They don't exist for the sake of existing. They exist because banking presents certain risks that don't exist in crypto lab. You know, so
there's no risk that there's a middleman committing fraud or that there's some bad credit decision being made in crypto because there's no person
making a decision. We can put those to one side.
What we need to focus on are things like money laundering and terrorism financing, which are real risks in crypto as they are elsewhere and find
blockchain native solutions to those things that allow people the benefits while suppressing the cost.
We need to focus on both the benefits side and the cost side if we want to have another internet revolution, like we did in the '90s, and I think
that's where we'll get to.
CHATTERLEY: Regulate the use of technology rather than just regulating the technology itself for the sake of regulation.
Brian, great to have you --
BROOKS: Well put.
CHATTERLEY: I have my moments. Brian Brooks, incoming CEO of Binance U.S. Stay in touch, please. It's going to be interesting to keep track of your
progress.
BROOKS: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you. All right, coming up after the break, beach break with added benefits, why the Maldives wants you to visit and get vaccinated
potentially, at the same time?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. The Maldives, a chain of sun- kissed islands in the Indian Ocean and the smallest country in Asia is promoting itself as a destination for vaccine tourism in a world first.
It's called the three V's: visit, vaccinate and vacation. Visitors will be offered vaccines once all the local population has been inoculated.
The government says, 90 percent of frontline tourism workers are already vaccinated, and about half the population has received at least one dose.
[09:45:08]
CHATTERLEY: Visitors who have been vaccinated before traveling won't have to submit a PCR test.
Tourism accounts for nearly 30 percent of Maldives's GDP, and what's important to note is its reliance on visitors from India, too, which as
you've heard on the show already, is seeing a massive second wave of COVID cases.
Minister is Mausoom is Minister of Tourism for the Maldives and joins us now. Minister Mausoom, fantastic to have you on the show. I saw your 3V
Plan and was intrigued. How soon could this be up and running?
ABDULLA MAUSOOM, MINISTER OF TOURISM FOR MALDIVES: Thank you, Julia. The idea is to first, as you just mentioned, have the Maldives population
vaccinated. All the restaurants including the expats here, that is the first priority. So we are working on that.
And if you work on the existing timeline, probably latest by third quarter, you should be able to have the vaccination in the Maldives.
CHATTERLEY: I guess the benefit of this and assuming you are up and running by the third quarter, is that people have to stay for a while if
we're talking Pfizer or Moderna. It is three to four weeks. Are you assuming people will be coming and staying for a while or perhaps a work-
cation working and vacationing at the same time?
MAUSOOM: Yes, the work-cation has been very popular now recently. We have had very long staying guests, and in fact, our duration of stay has been
longer compared to previous years now.
The vaccination program is actually a way that we want to appreciate the tourists, just our notion of "Thank you." It is a token of appreciation we
wish to give to the tourists for coming to the Maldives when the world was shut down.
You know, we managed to run the tourism quite successfully in 2020 and this year, we are doing rather well again. So now with vaccination, I think we
are geared to have even better tourism.
CHATTERLEY: If you compare the tourism that you're seeing this year and even in 2020 relative to what you saw in 2019, how down is it?
MAUSOOM: If we compare 2019, many markets should already back to the pre- 2019 level. India and Russia have surpassed 2019 levels and other markets are also going to be that.
All in all, we are about 35 percent down compared to 2019, and that is -- we have the Eastern Market is not coming yet. China and Japan, Korea is not
coming and much of Europe at the moment is not really open.
So when everybody open, we are hoping to see this era, our traditional loss season, May June July, we expect it to be much, much better than the
previous years. We are almost back on track. But we want to keep the tempo as we move towards our golden year, that's 2022.
CHATTERLEY: A golden year. What about India?
MAUSOOM: Because we are going to be 50 years.
CHATTERLEY: Talk to me about India, because there are concerns clearly with what we're seeing in terms of COVID cases in India. Are you worried
about perhaps having to put some limitations on visitors coming from there because that will clearly materially damage your visitor numbers?
MAUSOOM: The various variants of the COVID out there we have been -- with our tourism system, we have got very good protocols in place. First thing
is the whole management is a very much top down everybody engaged approach where Head of State, President Ibrahim Solih is taking charge of everything
and we have got the whole of government, whole of community and whole of travel industry approach with a very strong support from health sector and
other related agencies.
And now, the way the Maldives is because of our unique geography, we are relatively safe.
Julia, when we started the tourism, when we opened the borders, everybody was -- everybody is closed and we have managed to run it that way, and the
safety protocols we have already are quite adequate and we want to make sure that we have the tourism with maximum safety for tourists, safe staff
and the local community with the minimum inconvenience.
Still, they will need a negative PCR if they come without vaccination and after without vaccination. If they come with vaccination, and if they have
finished the record duration of 14 days, then that is pretty much.
I think we will be managing this well. Of course, we will are vigilant. We keep our monitoring in place, and we make sure that we move on. This is the
new way we have to live and we have to make sure that tourism continues.
[09:50:10]
CHATTERLEY: Yes, finding some kind of balance and a return to some degree of normality is essential. I couldn't agree more with you, Minister. Can
you give me any sense of cost? What's the additional cost going to be of a holiday to the Maldives of coming and getting a vaccine?
MAUSOOM: As I mentioned earlier, this is a token of appreciation for the tourists who manage to come to Maldives.
CHATTERLEY: So it is free.
MAUSOOM: It will not be -- the main idea is not the business out of it. The main idea is to give an opportunity especially for the pensioners who
have missed traveling in the last couple of months, because they are the most vulnerable group.
So we want to make sure that pensioners especially get this chance. It is more of a really appreciation gesture, rather than a business. But of
course, we want to have our tourism going. We need tourism because tourism is our economy.
CHATTERLEY: Of course, and I have to say, anyone watching those beautiful pictures while we've been talking, I'm sure it's completely sold. It looks
amazing.
Minister Mausoom, we wish you the best of luck. The Minister of Tourism for the Maldives there. Thank you, sir, for your time.
And as a programming note, Richard Quest visits the Maldives. Yes, we hate him -- in this weekend's "Quest's World of Wonder" catch it dayside in
Europe at 10:00 a.m., in London; 11:00 a.m. in Berlin. We don't really hate him, but what a great job.
All right, up next, does the lifting of lockdowns mean the end of Netflix streaming binge? We'll take a look at the latest numbers. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Subscriber growth slowdown. Netflix shares lower this morning after the company missed targets for
subscriber growth.
Just a comparison though, the stock is still up over 20 percent compared to a year ago. Frank Pallotta joins us now.
Frank, the financials on this were actually really good. I've been pouring over them. It was just a great expectations over subscriber numbers and
they couldn't achieve it.
FRANK PALLOTTA, CNN MEDIA WRITER: Yes, that's the thing with Netflix. Nobody cares about the money. They only care about the subscribers.
It's true. Like, you know, there are so many great numbers in Netflix's earnings last night. One of the biggest numbers I thought that kind of got
overlooked was they plan on spending $17 billion on content this year, but they missed their subscriber count, and their forecast was really weak and
pretty lackluster.
So today the stock is down eight percent. That's how Netflix rolls because they don't have a lot of other revenue streams. When you think about
Disney, they have the parks, they have Baby Yoda plush dolls. Comcast has NBC. Apple has Apple products and Amazon has AWS.
Netflix, it is their subscriber growth. If that's not growing, then Netflix is seemingly not growing and then the stock takes a huge hit.
CHATTERLEY: Is it a saturation problem? Because you and I have talked about this before. I mean $17 billion on content. They are a monster in
this market and if I look at the churn numbers, it is not so bad. It's not like people are signing up and then disappearing. What is the deal here?
[09:55:18]
PALLOTTA: It depends on where you are talking about saturation. Are you talking about U.S. and Canada? Because probably, yes. They might have hit a
wall there.
But the world is big and Netflix is always talking about how much of their company is global. And so if they can break into other places around the
world that aren't as saturated as say the U.S. and Canada is right now, then there is still growth there. But that is the question and that is why
people are curious about what the future of Netflix looks like because it is one thing to break into the U.S. and Canada and well-established
countries, but that might not be the case everywhere.
CHATTERLEY: The world is big though, Frank, it sounds like a movie title.
Frank Pallotta, great to have you with us. Thank you.
Okay, that's it for the show. Stay safe. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is next. We will see you tomorrow.
We will see you tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
