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Quest Means Business
President Obama Warns About Trump; US Debt Examined; ; Jobs Numbers Discussed; Fort McMurray Wildfires Burn 250,000 Acres; Marissa Mayer says she's the exception on short maternity leave; Mayer Defends Brief Maternity Leave; Cupertino Mayor says Apple Abuses Us; Cupertino Mayor wants to Raise Apple's Taxes; How to Call a Horse Race. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired May 06, 2016 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
NINA DOS SANTOS, HOST: And that is the woman's NBA ringing the closing bell on Wall Street. Though it's not quite a slam dunk session as the Dow
finishes slightly higher today. It's Friday the 6th of May.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Tonight, crunch the numbers before you vote. President Obama calls on the public to question Donald Trump's budget plan. A country at a
crossroads yet again, Greeks go on strike in a protest against austerity.
And running Yahoo! is far from child's play. Marisa Mayer defends her short maternity leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: I'm Nina Dos Santos and this is "Quest Means Business."
Good evening. Well, tonight, this is not entertainment. This is not a reality show. The words of Barack Obama as he sent this warning to the
American electorate. Make sure Donald Trump's numbers add up. On the day that the U.S. released its April monthly jobs report Mr. Obama says that
the vacancy in the oval office needs to be filled by a candidate who won't break the country's financial system.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: He's calling for closer scrutiny of Donald Trump's record as a businessman and he's also asking voters to hold all candidates to account
over their plans for the U.S. budget.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Folks who historically have been concerned about making sure that budgets add up. And that we are
responsible stewards of government finances have to ask, does Mr. Trump's budgets work? You know, those are going to be questions that Republican
voters' more than Republican officials have to answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Well Michelle Kosinski is live at the White House this hour. Michelle, word of warning from the outgoing President, who's of course
Democrat, but even people inside the Republican Party having similar questions it seems.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean this is clearly the big story here. So here comes President Obama in the White
House briefing room there for the daily briefing. Which is a fairly rare occasion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: He's there to talk about economic growth. But, of course, the first question out of the gate was going to be about Donald Trump, now,
essentially, the Republican nominee. And then the President was asked, well, what do you think about Donald Trumps' taco bowl tweet?
It's an unusual question. This is referring to Donald Trump's tweet where he was shown eating a taco bowl on the Mexican celebration day Cinco de
Mayo saying that he loves Hispanics. So the President's response was pretty annoyed there. He just said "I have no thoughts on Trump's tweets and as a
general rule I don't pay attention to them." But I don't know if you should believe all that because what happens inevitably is that Donald Trump
tweets something or says something, it makes headlines around the world and inevitably the White House is going to be asked about if not the President
itself as we saw today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: So what we've seen from the White House is kind of a slow ramping up as this campaign has developed. At first they would say, well, you know
we don't really want to comment on everything any candidate says, then they started hitting Republicans but veiled criticism of Donald Trump although
nobody had any question about who exactly the White House was referring to. But then the White House started really letting loose with the slams just
like what we saw today, hitting Donald Trump for his reality T.V. past.
The President also said he didn't think that Donald Trump would be elected President because he said America has better judgment than that. So these
two points are what we've heard from the President before several months ago and this seems to be about as far as the White House is willing to go
at this point in criticizing the candidate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: That's not to say it won't ramp up further. But you know the White House doesn't like to get embroiled in the fray of politics all the
time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: But you know over time as things have escalated or developed in the rhetoric to what we have seen now, the White House really hasn't been
able to help itself and has wanted to jump in at least to the point of criticizing Donald Trump in these very specific ways, Nina.
SANTOS: Well, if we're going to talk about the economy here and Barack Obama was keen to point out, well, have a look at Donald Trump's business
record, if he says that he's the man to fix America's economy because he has business acumen have a look at his record.
Let's look at Barack Obama's record over the last few years in office. The U.S. economy has actually weathered the storm, it's doing better than many
economies around the world but many Americans don't feel like they're participating in that.
KOSINSKI: Right, there's much pessimism out there and in fact today there was a new poll out by CNN and ORC showing President Obama's approval
ratings and they're pretty good, especially when you compare to the lows that they were before.
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[16:05:00]
KOSINSKI: Right now 51% of Americans feel that he is doing well at his job. Less than half of Americans, though, don't feel like things are moving in a
good direction in America economically. Still, that's a higher number than we saw before. Right now, it's at about 46%.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: So these numbers are nothing to be jumping up and down about but they have improved. And President Obama, you know, not too long ago, he did
address that. In fact we asked the President directly, given that you're constantly touting the economic growth, the jobs numbers, which are good, I
mean, you know there was some weakness in this month's and it's not as if it's been this, you know, rocket-like growth month to month necessarily.
There's still problems, obviously, in the U.S. economy. Why do you think so few Americans are really acknowledging that? Why do you think the pessimism
is there?
And what President Obama has said is that, well you know, it's not surprising, first of all, given the shake-up that the American economy felt
back in 2008 that so many people lost their jobs and lost their homes he feels like there are still after effects of that, and given the rhetoric
from Republican candidates out there. So that's really what the White House is up against. But of course, any time these good job numbers come out,
that are positive in any way, they're going to want to celebrate those publicly, Nina.
SANTOS: Michelle Kosinski, thank you very much there live at the White House this hour.
Well Donald Trump's budget plans have already attracted plenty of scrutiny and also quite a lot of skepticism from the world of economics. His
signature policy and a favorite talking point on the campaign, has of course been the issue of new trade tariffs, Donald Trump says that he would
tear up existing free trade deals with countries like, of course, Mexico and China and put up taxes on foreign goods entering America.
He says in turn that helps to eliminate the $19 trillion national debt in just about 8 years. That's all while cutting taxes at home, as well. And to
make that work it's estimated that Donald Trump's potential future administration if indeed that's what we see would need to slash 60% off of
the government's spending bill, that's a prospect that some experts describe as frankly unrealistic.
Earlier this week Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he sees himself as "the king of debt."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a very successful person, I would buy companies, throw them into a chapter, bankrupt it,
negotiate. I would do great deals. I didn't use them for myself. I used them as a business person. Like others do. I mean many of the people,
people in my top category use the laws. I know more about debt than practically anybody. I love debt. I also love reducing debt and I know how
to do it better than anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Diane Swonk is in Chicago, she is the Founder and CEO of DS Economics. Thank you for joining us here Diane.
He describes himself as the king of debt, Donald Trump and the reality is is that you know whether you're looking at Reaganomics two or three decades
ago or the policies that we have today where the debt pile is significant in America, if you print U.S. dollars you kind of can be the king of debt,
can't you?
DIANE SWONK, CEO, DS ECONOMICS: Well, we certainly have gotten a free waiver in terms of being the reserve currency of the world and not had to
pay the extraordinary higher interest rates other countries do when they run as large a deficits as we have and carry as much debt as we do. So that
is true. That said, the numbers don't add up. Donald Trump's numbers don't add up at all. It's almost like he's just suspended all rules of math, let
alone gravity.
SANTOS: Run us through exactly what issues you have specifically with this particular manifesto as far as we have it because it's in a rather anemic
state, as well. It gives him a bit of latitude to say well look, I didn't really mean that, you know I've crunched the numbers and I really meant
this.
SWONK: Well that's the issue is there's not a concrete policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SWONK: but the policies that are expressed there's huge cuts in taxes which would require pretty much a lot of (kumbaya) in congress to get through to
begin with but you know you can't get enough supply side economics to have that stimulate enough growth. And he said he won't touch social security,
he won't touch any entitlements, he won't deal with any of the real spending side of the equation in any real way. And then he'll refinance
somehow the entire debt of the United States with U.S. treasury bonds at a magnitude that's sort of unfathomable in terms of what impact that would
have on interest rates elsewhere in the treasury markets.
It just doesn't add up. The kinds of explosion in debt without the rise in interest expense alone are pretty substantial if you take any of what he
says at face value. And that's what's so disturbing is people are willing to take it at face value and just take his word for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWONK: And we need to hold all of our politicians accountable for how they're get to where they're going to go and also deal with the reality of
the political environment we're in.
[16:10:05]
SANTOS: Yes, it's also interesting to think that he can - he thinks that he can simultaneously on the one hand on trade alienate China, but also keep
it as one of the largest customers for U.S. denominated debt.
Diane I also want to talk about the U.S. economy as it stands today. Irrespective of politics, 160,000 jobs created as per the latest Nonfarm
payables numbers. That's not particularly stellar. Anything below 200,000 obviously is viewed as disappointing but there were some bright points in
this report. What were they?
SWONK: Well, you know, when's really interesting is that the job gains were driven by professional jobs, full-time hires. These are college grads and
they're actually higher up on the pecking order than just new college graduates, as well which is something we haven't really seen and that
helped to boost overall wages.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SWONK: We've also seen since the beginning of the year, low wage jobs this month not as good in the retail sector but in general surprising strengths
since the beginning of the year in low-wage jobs despite the fact that we really are now seeing some traction in minimum wage - changes in minimum
wages at the state and local level. And so it suggests a bit more durability in the job market than many people are giving it credit for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWONK: That said, I think it's important to think of you know the labor market. We're still prying ourselves not only out of the hole of the great
recession, the pain that you're seeing reflected in the polls is decades in the making and free trade becomes, you know, correlation doesn't imply
causality. It becomes a scapegoat. The reality is we didn't prepare a labor force to work in the global economy and now that the economy is global it's
easy for people to blame people on the outside rather than our inability to train ourselves and make the investment we needed to in human capital let
alone other investments we've neglected over the years.
SANTOS: Diane Swonk, great to see you have a great weekend. Thanks very much for joining us on this important day for politics and also economics
in the states.
SWONK: Thank you.
SANTOS: Well staying with the world of economics, the U.S. Labor Secretary, Thomas Perez spoke to CNN Money's Maggie Lake after those jobs numbers were
released earlier today and he's been painting quite an optimistic picture about the health of America's job market.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS PEREZ, U.S. LABOR SECRETARY: What to me is as important as anything about this report and the trend data is not simply the quantity of people
that are getting jobs but who's getting those jobs. What we're seeing now is the percentage of long-term employed as an overall percentage of the
unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in seven years. And two thirds of the people who -- two thirds of the reduction in the unemployment rate over
the last year is from the ranks of long-term unemployed. And what that tells me is labor markets continue to tighten so that employers are looking
at people that they were otherwise unwilling to look at for, you know, in the years before that.
MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I understand from an economic point of view a lot of what you're saying but we can see from what's playing out in the
election that there are an awful lot of Americans out there and they are people with jobs who may have come back into the work force but they still
feel very fearful about the economy. What's going on? Why do we have this - - this feeling that things are not working? If we have unemployment, the unemployment rate so low. Where's the disconnect in your mind?
PEREZ: Well, I mean -- I meet too many people who are working but they haven't had a meaningful raise in years. I meet people who are working and
they're making $7.25 an hour. You can't live on $7.25 an hour in this country and that's why we have to raise the minimum wage.
We've got to do more to provide protections for workers because you know frankly this unmitigated assault on the labor movement has left a lot of
workers vulnerable. And studies have shown that you know roughly a third of the inequality that we have seen in recent years is attributed to the
declining labor union density in this country.
And so we've got to - and that's why the President is so supportive of collective bargaining and the labor movement and other efforts to ensure
that workers have a voice in the workplace. Because you know when workers are together the power of we gives them that leverage. And when they are
alone and when they get divided then they can be more easily marginalized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Well Wall Street rallied to finish the week on something of a high note as you can see here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Stocks closed up nearly 80 points after recovering from an 80% drop earlier on in the session. Shares of the mobile payment company Square,
though, they had a really tough day as you can see here plunging more than 20% after this company revealed a bigger than expected loss for the first
quarter.
CNN Money's Paul La Monica joins us to discuss all the stock exchange action including this live from New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: So Paul, it's been a bit of a topsy turvy day on the market ending up the week up but not by that much.
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was a good day considering the jobs report being lackluster but I think we're back in that weird sort
of mode, Nina, where bad news on the jobs front is perceived as being good news because it probably means that the Federal Reserve may not raise rates
in June.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[16:15:10]
MONICA: And the closer we get to the election people are going to start speculating that the Fed is not going to will not want to do anything in
the election cycle. So I think some investors are now looking at the jobs data as a sign that maybe the Fed is on hold until after inauguration day
which is still a pretty long way away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Yes, it is. And that really means a revision of those predictions where people expecting two, maybe three interest rate hikes as we headed
towards the second half of the year.
Paul, let's talk about specific stocks and we've got to mention Square as I was pointing out there, down 21% on the day. This is just a bit of a
nightmare situation for Jack Dorsey, isn't it? Who founded that mobile payment system and now he's back at twitter, as well.
MONICA: Exactly Jack Dorsey is doing double duty. He's the CEO of both Square and Twitter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MONICA: And it's not as if twitter is doing all that well. That stock recently hit an all-time low. With regards to Square, the revenue growth is
there. He's growing extremely rapidly. The problem is that the costs are growing at a higher pace than the revenues and that's why you have the
losses.
Square faces a lot of competition in the mobile payments world. It is, you know, a very innovative company and a lot of small businesses use Square to
process payments but I think right now the big question is, is there going to be enough growth to get that company to be profitable? And if not, Jack
Dorsey you know has some more explaining to do to Wall Street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: All right. Paul La Monica, thanks for that. Have a great weekend.
MONICA: Thank you, you, too.
SANTOS: Now let's take a look at how markets fared here in Europe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Stocks edged higher in the U.K. but still it was the FTSE's worst week for nearly three months. Some of the heaviest losses in the metals and
mining sector and financials. German stocks also up on this session but as you can see the DAX only eking out a gain of about a tenth of 1%. Markets
fell in places like Paris and also in Zurich.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Protesters were back on the streets in Athens today telling lawmakers what they think about new austerity measures that are being
debated this weekend. More on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANTOS: Greek unions kicked off a three-day strike on Friday protesting against new austerity measures that they say will hit people's incomes
hard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Athens. Garbage collection, public transportation and other services came to a halt. The
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, insisted that better times lie ahead.
ALEXIS TSIPRAS, GREEK PRIME MINISTER: (As translated) We are at a very crucial crossroads but we are determined much more experienced and much
stronger than ever. That is why we will succeed. We will take this country out of the crisis and we will gaze into the future with much more optimism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[16:20:00]
SANTOS: After years of austerity in Greece there are plans for spending cuts to come. On Sunday, the Greek parliament will be voting on new
proposals. On Monday Eurozone finance ministers are going to be heading towards Brussels specifically to talk about whether Greece should be
getting anymore bailout funds.
And remember that Athens badly needs the money because it's due to repay billions of dollars' worth of bonds back to the ECB by the date of July the
20th.
I spoke to Constantine Michalos who's the President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce today. I asked him what would happen if lawmakers backed the
new austerity measures that are to be debated on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONSTANTINE MICHALOS, PRESIDENT, ATHENS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: When certain high income echelons which in Greece they're considered over 60,000 euros a
year will be called upon to pay approximately 72% of their total income you can imagine that these professional classes will try to find alternative
solutions by transferring their tax base elsewhere.
And remind our viewers that tax rates, business tax rates in Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus are currently running between 10% and 16%. So, therefore,
the expected revenues, public revenues from the government will literally fly out of the window. So it will create tremendous problems to the
economy. At the moment, we still have a Greek economy which is at a standstill. Primarily because of this uncertainty over the last few months
and, of course, the lack of liquidity which is of paramount importance for a business to be able to operate on a day-to-day basis.
So I fear the worse will come following the vote. This movement by the government is essentially taken so that they can go to Monday's Eurogroup
by using a leverage essentially against the IMF which wants a further 3.6 billion measures to the 5.4 billion which is going to be discussed over the
weekend. And it's going to be an interesting but extremely dangerous period ahead.
SANTOS: So essentially what your' saying is because of the government relying so heavily on high income pensioners for raising all of this money
through changes to the tax and pension system it's going to create capital flight which will just make it even worse for Greece. Does that mean that
Greece will never get out of the spiral of needing more and more money drip fed by Europe and also by the IMF?
MICHALOS: Capital flight at the moment is extremely if not impossible simply because of the application of the capital controls which we have had
since the 29th of June last year. So it's new revenues, new capital that's going to be created that will be created elsewhere in the third country,
rather than Greece in order to avoid this heavy taxation.
What the government needs to realize is that the right mixture of economic policy is not overtaxing which it's doing at the moment and of course we
have suffered this phenomenon over the last five and a half to six years without any real results, positive results, because the curve very clearly
states the higher the taxes the lesser the tax revenues.
What they need to do is to also enhance growth into the economy. And ideologies against the private sector or privatizations or foreign direct
investment have to change. This is a left-wing government and they have to realize that if they want to remain part of the European Union, part of the
Eurozone, we have to play by the rules. And the rules in the globalized economy is that we have to enhance the private sector, something that this
government is not doing at the moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: It will soon be sundown in Venezuela literally leaving many people in the dark. The government can't guarantee to keep the electricity on as
an economic crisis grows deeper by the day.
CNN's Paula Newton has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For months now in Venezuela they've been rationing basics, people line up for hours just for food, hospitals are
rationing medicines supplies and now everywhere except for in the capital of Caracas, the energy superpower is rationing electricity, too.
We travelled to the industrial heartland in the city of (inaudible) where scheduled blackouts are the new reality. From bakeries to small businesses
to families, no one is escaping a daily dose of power rationing.
(Perez) walks us through his blacked out bakery. Every day for at least four hours the power is cut he complains and his business takes a hit.
Besides not having supplies he tells me now I have to deal with the power rationing. He says the already precious products he has are at risk of
spoiling, he can't make coffees, can't tell them when he will have bread.
It's the same for salon owner (Alison). No power. No customers.
[16:25:05]
City counselor (Manuel Molina) walks us through what was a busy business area now nearly (inaudible). What's the situation right now in Valencia?
What critical is it? "The situation in our country and our city is critical right now" he's explaining. "We have seen 30% of the businesses close."
(Molina) blames the government mismanagement for the crisis but the Venezuelan government calls this a natural disaster. El Nino it says has
deprived the Guri dam of water and it produces most of Venezuela's electricity.
(Gladys) isn't buying any of it. "My blender is broken. My refrigerator is broken" and she walks me over to show me, "I have meat in here and you can
imagine this goes bad. I have to keep it closed." "El Nino" she says, forget El Nino. She, too, blames the government.
No matter who is to blame there is no quick solution and its taking a toll on communities and families. (Inaudible) never thought life could be
tougher. Now every day when the lights go out they know it will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Well the head of one of the biggest investment firms in the United States says that China's consumer economy is thriving. The CEO of
Blackstone doesn't think that the country is heading for a hard economic landing all. CNN Money's Cristina Alesci, asked him about his bullish take
on China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN SCHWARZMAN, CEO BLACKSTONE: Well, I don't think I'm bullish or unbullish. I try and be in touch with the truth. If you go back to the
first six weeks of the year, where the markets in the United States, equity markets, were down 11% but one of the primary reasons allegedly was concern
about China's hard landing. But the truth is more complicated. China's divided into two types of economy; one is their consumer economy, which is
probably growing this 7% to 10%. That's pretty amazing for a shopping mall which is geared to upper middle. Not luxury. Not middle type of consumers.
China's rebalancing its economy. Some of it is purposeful. Because when the current President of China took office, his first speech was on the China
dream. Well what's the China dream? Sounds a lot like the American dream. He wants people to have higher wages. He wants them to have better houses.
And he wants them to have better health.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump said something like China is raping America.
TRUMP: Because we can't continue to allow China to rape our country and that's what they're doing.
ALESCI: He was obviously referring to trade deals and manufacturing. You have always supported a Republican candidate. It looks like Trump is going
to get the nomination. Will you support him if he becomes the nominee?
SCHWARZMAN: You know it's one thing to get a job, it's another thing to do a job. And I think Donald's doing a very effective job getting the job,
certainly getting the nomination. And I think everybody wants to see what happens from here. Everybody has to sell themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: Well raging wildfires in Canada are threatening key oil fields there with some companies halting production; the affects could be felt
worldwide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: We'll have a live report from Edmonton after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:30:00] NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN MONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Hello. I'm Nina dos Santos. Coming up for the next OF QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. We'll be live in
Canada where giant wildfires are forcing oil companies to suspend their production. And the mayor of Apple's own hometown said that company should
pay more tax to the city. Before that, this is CNN and on this network the news always comes first.
Donald Trump has been invited to meet with Paul Ryan a day after the Speaker of the House of Representatives told CNN he is not ready to endorse
the presumptive Republican nominee. Ryan hopes to discuss ways in which the two Republicans can cooperate ahead of November's general election. In
the past few minutes Trump's former Republican rival Jeb Bush said that he will not vote for Trump in November. Earlier on Friday President Obama
warned American voters that Trump's record should be subject to close scrutiny.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Barack Obama, US PRESIDENT: I just want to emphasize the degree to which we're in serious times and that is really serious job. This is not
entertainment. This is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States. And what that means is that every
candidate, every nominee, needs to be subject to exacting standards and genuine scrutiny. It means that you got to make sure that their budgets
add up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
At any time now Londoners should find out who they elected as the next mayor. The main candidates are the Labour Party, Sadiq Khan Labor party
and Zac Goldsmith from the conservative party. They're involved in a bitter campaign with scathing accusations centered on race and religion.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to gain more power of the country's most significant political gathering in decades. More than 30,000 members
are attending the ruling parties first Congress since 1980. Kim praised the recent nuclear test and rocket launch as a great success.
Police in Pakistan arrested more than a dozen people over the murder of a 15-year-old girl. They say that the teenager was drugged and then burned
alive. Police say that it's tribal council had ordered that she be killed after she was accused of helping a neighbor and her boyfriend to elope.
As police in the U.S. state of Maryland arrested a man of suspected of three deadly shootings. They believe that Eulalio Tordil shot and killed
his estranged wife on Thursday and also connecting him to two shootings on Friday. A man was killed outside of a mall there. And separately a woman
was shot and killed at a grocery store, as well.
The wildfires in the Canadian city of Fort McMurray has now burnt nearly 250,000 acres of land. The entire city has had to be evacuated and nearby
oil fields are also being threatened, which could have big ripple effects in the global oil market. There are fires burning right throughout western
Canada as we speak. Major ones are mostly in oil-rich region of Alberta. Sixteen hundred homes destroyed and 88,000 people have been evacuated.
Shell has had to shut down the production of its Albian Sands oil facility. That's about 80 kilometers to the north of Fort McMurray and others reduced
their production, as well. CNN's Dan Simon joins us now live from Anzac, which is a town to south of Fort McMurray. Tell us more about the
wildfires behind you. I mean, I can see smoke behind you, Dan.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Nina, it's really been an unprecedented situation here in Canada. We are talking about a fire that's
more than ten times the size of Manhattan. And you can see these thick clouds of smoke behind me, a pretty ominous sign. At least right now, the
fire is burning away from the communities, but this fire is by no means under control.
[16:35:14] For much of what we are, we are next to highway 63 and a convoy of cars stream down the highway. These are people north of the fire, they
were forced to evacuate north of the fire. They have been there several days in camps. These are camps that are normally used to house oil
workers. But instead they took in fire evacuees and now those people are just fleeing most likely to the town of Edmonton, which is a couple of
hundred miles away. But in the meantime the fire rages on. Firefighters doing the best they can to protect homes and infrastructure in the area
but, of course, they have their hands full and this things going to go on for quite some time, Nina.
DOS SANTOS: It's quite significant, as well, economically for Canada's economy and also for those big producing countries. Sorry. Companies I
should say, Dan, because obviously, this will affect the oil price, won't it? A time when obviously it's been under pressure.
SIMON: well, this is one of the largest oil producing regions in the world. And many of those companies have had to curl back production or
they have stopped altogether. How ultimately that's going to impact the oil markets remains to be seen, but I think it's going to be sometime
before they're back up to full capacity. And even if they could start producing oil again, the problem is getting the workers. You have so many
people who have lost their lives, their homes are gone and so they have to take some time off from their jobs to really deal with their own personal
situations. So how this ultimately affecting the oil markets remains to be seen and pretty significant.
DOS SANTOS: And also, it's quite challenging, isn't it, for firefighters the try and put out those fires if, of course, it is in a royal rich
region, isn't it? What about the kind of rescue and relief efforts that are currently under way? But the containment effort to try to stop this?
As you said, this fire is so big.
SIMON: it's so big and you're talking about conditions that are favorable for fire. It's been very windy and it's dry. And that's what is
ultimately allowed this fire to spread quickly. You have a lot of forested area. As far as what we know, the fire has not really taken over any of
those oil rich fields if you will. Those fields are contained. But you have a lot of vegetation in the area. A lot of homes and businesses and
right now firefighters doing the best they can just to protect the homes that have not been lost.
DOS SANTOS: Dan Simon, thanks very much for that live in Anzac near Fort McMurray there in Canada in Alberta.
Now, Yahoo CEO has been defending the choices that she made about work and family, and going back to work two weeks after giving birth. I'll have
more on that after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:40:12] DOS SANTOS: Yahoo CEO defending the choice to take very little maternity leave after giving birth. Some people have criticized Mayer for
setting a bad example for women at her company and also beyond. Mayer responded to these kind of allegations on Twitter saying this, "I
understand I'm the exception and need to be for all the reasons cited. I find other ways and times to bond with my kids." She also said, "I
understand there's a worry about setting the tone, but the data suggested it isn't an issue at Yahoo. Kelly Wallace is CNN digital correspondent and
editor at large. She joins us for more of this story. Kelly, personally, as a working mum, who recently add a baby, I know that you can't win in
these kind of arguments, so with friends and other mothers on maternity leave is often viewed as too long, too short. Why did she feel she needed
to take to Twitter months after having her second and third child to defend herself?
KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT AND EDITOR: I know. I think that's the million-dollar question. I was asking myself all day. Why did
she feel the need to respond? She was responding to a post on LinkedIn by a tech executive in Arizona who was very much defending Marissa Mayers
saying, "Why are we so harsh? Why shouldn't everyone make their individual decisions." And this woman on LinkedIn saying that what a CEO needs to do
or decides to do may be very different from employers and employees at the organization. Marissa Mayer also said, you know, and a Happy Mother's Day
to all on Twitter. So maybe this is on her mind. The cynic in me, Nina, is wondering if she is doing image control as her company is center stage
and lots of discussions about the future of Yahoo. But the one point she was heavy criticized for was by taking such a short maternity leave. She
was setting a terrible example for other women at Yahoo. And that they would feel compelled to take short leaves, as well. She said the facts
don't prove that. She said 75% of women who had children at Yahoo during 2015 took the maximum amount of leave which is 16 weeks. So she saying
that, you know, she's the exception. Other people did what they felt they needed to do.
DOS SANTOS: But, Kelly, either way it's very interesting because both times when she took short maternity leaves, that went against the grain of
what the technology industry is trying to implement in a place like the United States, which is famous for its very short parental leave policies.
WALLACE: I know. I mean, we are seeing -- I have written stories about it. It's almost a maternity and paternity leave boom going on at the tech
companies offering more and more leave as a way to hold on to, in particular their female employees. And the larger question here, and as
you said earlier, you get sort of criticism no matter what you do. But I think the larger message many women felt or the women who were unhappy with
what she did. They thought she isn't saying that to be a CEO, to be at the top of your game, you really can't be away from work at all.
And then Mark Zuckerberg when he took his paternity leave at Facebook when he and his wife had their first child and he took two months of paternity
leave. And the thinking is until we see more people at the top, men and women, we're not really going to get that message out that it's going to
take the leave, to be with your family and still be at the top of your game at a company. I think that was the big criticism that people felt they
were directing at Marissa Mayer beyond the Yahoo employees themselves.
DOS SANTOS: But shouldn't be people direct it at the activist investors who've been angling for a seat on the boardroom table and angling for Mayer
to leave Yahoo for some time? That's presumably a reason she felt she needed to step back so quickly because otherwise it may not be there taking
a couple of months off?
WALLACE: I think that's a great point. I mean I do think that she said either in her twitter or tweets today, you know, that she's the exception,
not the rule and that there were many reasons she did what she did. She felt she needed to be there. I mean, I think that we know that if a man,
his wife takes a child and he doesn't take time he's not criticized and a male CEO does take two months of paternity leave as I mentioned with Mark
Zuckerberg, no one's raised questions of Facebook. Oh my gosh was going to happen to Facebook. Everyone applauded him for doing it. For wanting to
be with his family. And totally realizing that, well, Facebook will continue and be strong, because that's just the way it's going to go. So
until I think, we sort of see a sea change in terms of our attitudes about women and men at the top, and what they need to do, I think you'll still
have some of this criticism.
DOS SANTOS: Do you think we'll see a change of attitude toward Marissa Mayer there and the investment community? The future at Yahoo does not
look safe there these days. Maternity leaves her lack of maturity leaves notwithstanding.
WALLACE: Yes, I know Nina, I'm no expert on this question at all, but I do not know that the tweets go a long way when it comes to those questions
about the future of the company. If she's the right person to continue leading the company. If she has the strategic vision to help the company.
I don't think these make that big of a difference, but you never know. We'll have to see.
[16:45:00] DOS SANTOS: Yeah. All question of getting in turn with that human side there on Twitter, as well. Maybe it's also feeding into showing
a slightly different and softer side of Marissa Mayer? Who knows? Maybe we'll find out.
WALLACE: Absolutely.
DOS SANTOS: Kelly Wallace, thank you very much for that.
WALLACE: Thank you.
DOS SANTOS: Now staying with the world of technology, take a look at your Apple devices and somewhere on the back like for instance my little iPhone
you find the phrase designed by Apple in California. Well, now the Mayor of Cupertino, which is the town that Apple has for a decade called home,
says that the tech giant is abusing it. Mary Chang says that Apple pays $18 million a year in taxes. But really it should be paying it $41
million. Cupertino has almost become synonymous with Apple, hasn't it? And the company soon plans to open another swanky new facility dubbed this
time the spaceship. When I spoke to the Mayor Chang, I asked him why Apple should pay more tax.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARRY CHANG, MAYOR CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA: Because the traffic, congestion problem is not only the resident problem. It is actually created by the
business. And then, also, the high housing costs here and that drive our teacher, our firefighter, our police pretty much middle class here. And
they cannot afford to live here. And so we need to solve the problem altogether between the business and then the resident here.
DOS SANTOS: Mr. Mayor, forgive me for a second but isn't this rather unorthodox business proposal here. You're essentially asking one of the
world's most successful company by virtue of having been located in your city to fund your transport bill?
CHANG: Right. It's a little bit unusual because no one dared to ask. You know? But we've got a problem. I mean, Silicon Valley is the high-tech
center of the world. Right? It's innovation center here. But you look at our public transit system. It's really embarrassing. Really embarrassing
and it is getting worse. Right? And then so the people cannot move around. Because it's stuck in the traffic. And this is -- this also will
be bad for the business, too. If their employee cannot get around and their employee cannot afford to live here, and so they may end up moving to
somewhere else. So it's actually good for the business.
DOS SANTOS: Is tackling it through tax the right way? Because, obviously, tax is a very sensitive subject for technology companies like Apple.
You're effectively saying, pay more taxes, because you should be paying more to contribute more to the community. But that has national precedence
and potentially international precedence for one of the cash richest companies anywhere in the world. Why a are you using this argument to play
local politics when it has very big ramifications on a national scale for Apple?
CHANG: Well, you have to look at it. One of the historians say before when they have is willing to share with the have not there's peace. When
the have is not willing to share with have not there's war. So this is -- this is much bigger complication now if we don't -- if the big company, the
wealthy doesn't want to share with the poor guy, OK, which it is not -- they're working hard and then, you know, like our teacher, our firefighter,
our police, they're working hard, but they're pretty much middle class and middle class got squeezed out in this region here because of high cost in
the housing, in the transportation and I think those causing this high cost is business. So they have the obligation to step up and then do their fair
share. And that's what I'm asking for.
DOS SANTOS: In a nutshell, what is your message to Apple?
CHANG: My message not only to Apple, to all the big company, big, high- tech company here, please stand up to the plate and then do your fair share to help this community because we are all in together. Don't point the
finger to other problem, other people say this problem is not my responsibility.
[16:50:00] Everybody should stand up to the plate and pick up their responsibility. And do their share. And that's only fair.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOS SANTOS: Now announcing the Kentucky Derby might be nearly as difficult as actually competing in it. Our Richard Roth takes a shot at describing
the run for the roses. But first, a highlight from "MAKE, CREATE, INNOVATE."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOS SANTOS: It's the epitome of refined Southern decadence. The Kentucky Derby is this very Saturday. Some people call the race the most exciting
two minutes in sports. So the announcers have a tough job to get it right. Our Richard Roth gave it a shot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN COMMENTATOR: Up fast with so bad I'm good. The bad deputy gets away alertly from the inside and settles in.
I'm calling today's fourth race. What should I know?
KEN WARKENTIN, FREEHOLD RACEWAY ANNOUNCER: You need accuracy and clarity. You need control. You can't get too excited. And you should use the
binoculars.
ROTH: How upset can you get if a race caller makes a mistake?
WARKENTIN: Oh, very upset.
ROTH: Because I might make a mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not going to make a mistake. I've got full confidence in you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a half-mile track you'll find if you stick with the one, two, three and four you'll probably do pretty good. Just stick with
those numbers
ROTH: I wasn't good in math though in school
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so we'll go with the six, seven and eight then.
ROTH: during testing I called the horse Paystobea a mean girl. And we later learned it was pains to be mean girl.
Is Paystobea a mean girl in front.
Is that embarrassing?
WARKENTIN: Yeah. That is embarrassing.
ROTH: Is it proper for a race announcer to make a bet on the race he's calling?
WARKENTIN: It's an unbiased approach to the business. You might be concentrating too much on that horse that you bet.
ROTH: $2 across on the five Rock Rock Who's There. Number 6 Ok Cognac number seven Real Mystical. And number eight Magnum Might.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My great pleasure to introduce Richard Roth. Don't mess up, Richard.
ROTH: The fourth race at Freehold, second away. Many people don't know Wolf Blitzer was a driver once. Finished 14th in the Preakness. Breaking
news, this fourth race is under way. Rock Rock Who's There going for the early lead in the middle of the track. Cheyenne Patty, though, along the
rail, gets the lead. Grabbing the lead, Rock Rock Who's There, along the back stretch. Comfortably in the pocket second shot Cheyenne Patti. It's
Factor J. A little bit of an error there Cheyenne Portsman four. That's OK Cognac coming on third. Knock, knock Rock Rock. Got to drive me crazy
Rock Rock Who's There. Pulling away. Magnum Mike third making a move. We have Rock Rock Who's There in front in the fourth at Freehold.
[16:55:00] Give me at straight. How bad or good?
WARKENTIN: Well, you had to go through the field. There's some horses that you really had -- didn't give a call to at all. I'll give you a "b."
ROTH: yeah. You heard my screw-up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the middle, but you recovered.
ROTH: Do I have a future?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. But that's beside the point.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOS SANTOS: No pressure. We'll be back with more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment's time. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOS SANTOS: Welcome back to the show. There's bad news I'm afraid to say for fans of "Boaty McBoatface". It was the popular choice in an online
vote in a new British research vessel but the UK's natural environment research council has rejected the name. Instead it said that the ship is
named after Sir David Attenborough a legendary British broadcaster's program on a natural world and has inspired millions of people the world
over.
Back in to business news and stocks rallied on Wall Street to close out its trading week. As you can see, the DOW Jones ending at about 80 points
higher. That's despite a disappointing April's jobs report that showed that hiring in the United States, at least the place of hired had slowed
last month according to the monthly figures. Traders are thinking that the slowdown is taken as a sign that the federal reserve is not strong enough
for another interest rate hike at the next meeting which takes place in June. And one of the reasons why the market rebounded.
Let's take another look at how the European Markets fared. Stocks edged higher in the UK but still it was FTSE 100's worst month in nearly months.
When it comes to German stocks they were up on the day, but as you can see only by around about just showing .22 percent. And not a great day for
markets in places like Paris and also Zurich as you can see. They fell by some heavier amounts and percentage terms. That's it for QUEST MEANS
BUSINESS. I'm Nina dos Santos in London. I've been in for Richard Quest today. Thanks for joining me this hour and have a wonderful weekend.
END
