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Quest Means Business
Trump Fires Commissioner Of Labor Statistics After Weak July Jobs Report; U.S. Markets Tumble As Trump Unveils Sweeping New Tariffs; Henry Frick's Art Collection Lives On As Gilded Age Relic; How Accurate Is The Idea That Donald Trump Always Chickens Out?; Positioned Two U.S. Nuclear Subs In Response To Russia; Estimates Value Henry Frick's Estate Up To $2.8 Billion Today; CNN Talks To The Man Who Paid $10 Million For The Original Birkin Bag; The Art Of Creating The Porcelain Garden. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 01, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:21]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on wall street. There is the gavel being hit as trading comes to an
end. And AB InBev ringing the closing bell. The fifth straight day of losses on the Dow. The Dow, I mean you can see from those numbers there. It
went down at the beginning and it never looked back.
Well those are the markets. We will understand why and what we are talking about over the next hour. These are the main events that you and I will be
talking about.
President Trump fires the Commissioner of Labor Statistics on the same day that shows a sharp slowdown in U.S. job hiring. The new U.S. tariffs are
now enforced in many cases, not in all, they are the highest since 1933. An average tariff of some 17.5 percent.
And it is not all doom and gloom, just look where I am. The Gilded Age, indeed. I am behind-the-scenes at the museum. The director of The Frick
Collection explains the dramatic changes that he has seen in museums, and now here, since the pandemic.
Good evening. Live from The Frick Collection in New York. It is a Summer Friday like none other. It is Friday. It is August 1st, start of a new
month. I am Richard Quest, and of course, at The Frick Collection with these magnificent paintings, I mean business.
I am feeling a bit guilty. I should be keeping my voice down, but I am not going to.
Good evening.
A warm welcome tonight from the New York City treasure known as The Frick Collection. It is the home of the former home of Henry Clay Frick.
Absolutely magnificent, alongside Central Park.
Clay himself, of course, was a titan of industry in the Gilded Age of the United States. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few individuals
(speaking in foreign language) as they may say.
Well, Frick amassed a vast art collection, and for his riches, it is now open to the public after his death, so these good people can come here on a
Friday afternoon and thoroughly enjoy all the delights. He would be charmed and delighted by what he is seeing.
It has just completed a multi-year renovation, and we will discuss it all throughout the course of tonight's program. But let's begin with our agenda
tonight.
President Trump has fired the official in charge of collecting U.S. jobs data, or at least he says he has asked his staff to do so, after the July
Jobs Report painted a rough picture of the labor market.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said the head of the BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had faked the job numbers ahead of the election in
order to boost Kamala Harris' chance of winning. The President accused Erika McEntarfer of manipulating current job numbers for political
purposes.
It all comes after the release of a jobs number earlier today. It showed the economy added just 73,000 jobs last month, far less than economists had
expected. The real story might be the figures from May and June, which were revised sharply down by more than a quarter of a million.
David Chalian is with me.
This came out the blue. I mean, this was extraordinary, not expected. And I mean, somebody may correct me, but seemingly without precedent.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, and I think, it sort of gives away what Donald Trump is really fearing here,
which is that he may be overseeing a weakening economy. That's more your wheelhouse than mine, Richard, but he has in the past complained about the
Bureau of Labor Statistics and these government numbers. This is part of his sort of accusation without evidence of a Deep State plot against him,
like he mentioned in his Truth Social post.
But what are we really talking about here? We are talking about the agency that is charged with getting the best, most available, accurate reading of
the employment picture in this country. And if you're President of the United States, you want to rely on that as you try and sail the ship of
state overseeing the economy in the right direction.
So I am not quite sure what he will achieve here by getting rid of the person in charge of this. Does he envision that an ally is going to give
him false numbers in in months to come?
[16:05:10]
If the numbers -- if the economy and the jobs don't support that?
QUEST: But David, the President's point is that the numbers earlier in the year were faked to be favorable to the last administration, and that the
numbers are politically being faked against him now.
Now, if the President is right and there doesn't seem to be any evidence, then, you know, obviously he says that the head has got to go. But the
reality, as far as we know, there is no objective evidence of this, is there?
CHALIAN: Zero. None. And I sort of see this akin to a political candidate firing their pollster for telling them that they're way behind in a race. I
mean, the numbers are what the numbers are. It is not an exact science, obviously. This is based on a survey, as you know, but it is something that
not just the President or a White House, but government agencies across the board rely upon and then do work based on these numbers.
And I will just say, to what you were saying, I don't know of any precedent either, Richard. There is no doubt about that, and I don't know of any
president who has been pleased to get bad news about job numbers, but that is what is the underlying fact here. The last three months, only 106,000
jobs added, given the revisions. That is a concern clearly to President Trump.
I think he is telling all of us he is concerned about that.
QUEST: David Chalian, thank you. Grateful for you being here.
With me is with Professor Jesse Schreger, the Professor of Macroeconomics at Columbia Business School. We are going to talk trade tariffs in just a
moment. But I just want to get your take on what we are talking about here.
To your knowledge has there ever been any legitimate questioning of the BLS numbers before?
JESSE SCHREGER, PROFESSOR OF MACROECONOMICS, COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL: No. The Commissioner of the BLS has a sterling reputation. The staff of the BLS
has a sterling reputation, and these revisions happen.
QUEST: So when you hear what is happening now, what do you make of it? I mean, because obviously this person is going to be replaced, one imagines,
with somebody who would be more favorable or at least put a more favorable spin on the numbers, which for somebody in the -- you know, it makes it
very difficult to interpret.
SCHREGER: Right now, you don't have to think when you use numbers from the BLS. This is happening at high frequency. So we don't even know who
President Trump is considering replacing the current commissioner with.
However, any time someone is removed from their position for political reasons, you always have to worry about what the motivations of the
replacement are going to be.
QUEST: And that is what is going to be happening now.
SCHREGER: I would assume so.
QUEST: Right. You're here to talk about tariffs. The deadline has passed and the President has wasted no time. U.S. trading partners have until
midnight. I will go through the facts.
U.S. trading partners had until midnight to reach a deal. Those who haven't faced tariffs ranging from 10 to 41 percent that kick in next week. Wall
Street summer rally came to a screeching halt. The Dow dropped about 500 points. The S&P 500, a percent-and-a-half. The NASDAQ got absolutely
clobbered, 2.25 percent off.
White House officials say Americans will be thanking the President at the end of the day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MIRAN, CHAIR, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: We've been hearing a lot about uncertainty over the last few months, but that's all resolved
now. We are creating trade deals left and right that have unlocked enormous new potential for the American economy.
LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER, U.S. LABOR SECRETARY: While we could have seen better jobs numbers, right now, we are seeing American workers are being put
first.
JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: These are the highest level of tariffs that we've seen, and this is a great deal for the country and the
President has also agreed that if a country has another plan where we could have some level of tariff, but also some investment and purchases and
market opening, that we can have some deals.
There are others available, if the President wants them, you know. At some point, you know, his view is maybe a tariff is better than a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: For a few examples, Taiwan, excuse me, has been hit with 20 percent, which it expects to be temporary. The semiconductors, the number of them
from the U.S. South Africa has drawn the ire. It is on the hook for 30 percent. The Trade Minister said he is looking for ways to save jobs and
Canadians, of course, 35 percent. Most goods are exempt because of USMCA. The Prime Minister Mark Carney, says he is disappointed.
Back with you, Professor. So what do you make of it?
SCHREGER: It is hard to know what the goal is. When the April 2nd Liberation Day tariffs came out, it was all about closing the bilateral
trade deficit. Since then, it has been some combination of figuring out how there can be balanced goods trade between the U.S. and every trading
partner around the world. It is unclear why that's the goal, as well as a range of other goals -- revenue, and then I would say geo-economic
pressure, how are you going to use the threat of these tariffs to get other things that you would like?
[16:10:03]
QUEST: Okay, we will do geo in just a second, but the revenue we know is quite large that's coming in. It won't offset increased deficits, but it is
quite large, the revenue.
Is it going to actually improve America's exports and reduce imports.
SCHREGER: So fundamentally, yes, I believe that if you were to raise tariffs on foreign goods, you're making the price of buying things from
abroad higher, keeping the price of stuff that's made domestically the same, there should be some adjustment. However, in the long run, trade
deficits are driven by differences between savings and investment. Nothing there should really change.
QUEST: And so therefore, we are also seeing -- let's take for example India where the tariffs are being used on secondary sanctions; Brazil where it
has been used on Bolsonaro; Canada where it has been used on fentanyl and seemingly the Palestinian statehood. One imagines that's not going to
change. But you say this isn't necessarily a strong way of using tariffs.
SCHREGER: Well, so it is not exactly clear what the asks are.
QUEST: Right.
SCHREGER: There is a sense in which India is being punished for not buying -- for buying Russian oil. The tariff on Russia is 10 percent, so it is the
misalignment between what countries are actually facing and what we are asking for seems to be fairly out of whack. Switzerland to me really jumps
out. We've put a 39 percent tariff on Switzerland. Switzerland is a very small country in goods trades. They are very important to us in the
international financial system. Why are we pressuring Switzerland in goods?
QUEST: Pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals, you know the answer.
SCHREGER: Pharmaceuticals are important. It is not nearly as important as Switzerland going along with, say, sanctions on Russia.
QUEST: Okay. So at the end of the day, though, isn't this a case of where does the 500-pound gorilla sit? Wherever it wants to.
SCHREGER: Yes, but right now we don't even know what is going to happen with the most important bilateral relationship, China. When the
administration came into office, there was this belief that there was going to be some sort of coalition building to, you know, guide the U.S. in a
competition against China. Right now, we are in a world where tariffs against China, the main geopolitical adversary, have been pushed back
another week pending negotiations, but we've already set the tariffs on everybody else.
If you look at this, if you look at this on the screen here, this is a flow chart that one set of consultants has brought in to explain to their
clients how you flow through the military chartered. Basically, this is the complexity. If you are dealing with tariffs, if you do this, then that
happens. If you do that, then that happens. Nobody can really understand what this is all about.
SCHREGER: No. And in fact, it is -- different bilateral tariffs against different countries is what makes this so complicated. If you have a
uniform tariff, say 10 percent against everybody, you pay it. The moment you have very different tariff levels against different countries, you have
so many incentives to game the shipments -- to game the system.
They are adding essentially penalties against trans shipments, meaning that you are pretending --
QUEST: That's what that chart is all about.
SCHREGER: You are pretending to buy something from a country where you're not actually, but how you actually measure that, nobody knows.
QUEST: Finally, just look around us here. I mean, extraordinary to be here, isn't it? It is absolutely extraordinary. But what I find fascinating is
all of this is really the result of industry -- Coke, iron, steel -- the great industrialists of the Gilded Age in the last century who accumulated
vast wealth and then went and bought all of these Rembrandts, Vermeers and everything else.
SCHREGER: It really is, and today, the rhetoric is around the possibility of bringing, say, some industries back to the U.S. I am actually surprised
how much the tariffs are currently focused on a lot of those same products that you mentioned were so important in kind of the last Gilded Age.
QUEST: The Gilded Age -- the last -- if you could have any one of them, which would you take home?
SCHREGER: I think I'd have to go with that one over there.
QUEST: Well, The Turn, one of The Turn.
SCHREGER: Yes.
QUEST: Yes. All right, I will have a word with the director. I am very grateful. Thank you very much.
SCHREGER: Thank you so much for having me.
QUEST: We are at The Frick Collection tonight.
Coming up next, I will take you through the estate's history, and we will talk to the Museum Director about its recent four-year-long renovation.
What's four years when you're talking about a Rembrandt over there?
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS live from The Frick.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:16:50]
QUEST: Welcome back. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS tonight coming to you live from The Frick Collection on New York's Fifth Avenue. We are here tonight, and I
am standing in the pride and joy of one man. This is all the result of his wealth, Henry Clay Frick.
On one hand, he built his professional legacy brutally, a legacy, in an old American industry, working alongside those other great philanthropists --
Andrew Carnegie, JPMorgan and the like. They all knew each other, by the way. They were great rivals, not only in business, but also in their
collecting.
But also, look at it, his personal legacy was built with this art collection. In many ways, more famous for this than for his steel and iron.
Since he left it for the public to enjoy, the people who are thoroughly enjoying it at the moment, it is been a true relic, if you will of the
Gilded Age.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Titans of industry, tycoons, robber barons, whatever we call them, this is how America's richest lived at the turn of the 20th Century. Their
stately mansions stand as a monument to a period now known as the Gilded Age.
And even for an era known for its opulence, Henry Clay Frick's New York mansion is in a league of its own. Frick made his fortune the old fashioned
American way industry, with Coke, iron and steel, and he spent much of that fortune building, one of the finest private art collections in history.
AXEL RUGER, DIRECTOR, THE FRICK COLLECTION: Mr. Frick had a very specific taste. He was really going for quality. He was very, very selective in what
he acquired, and he was really prepared to pay, also serious money for the works.
QUEST: A Rembrandt over there, that's a Vermeer. How about a Goya or a Holbein? Priceless works adorn every wall, and each day, thousands of
visitors flock to this Fifth Avenue mansion to view them.
And almost certainly, try to imagine what life was like for a Gilded Age tycoon.
RUGER: There is a certain kind of almost aspirational quality also to it. You dream yourself a little bit when you come to this house, to this
museum, what it would be like to live here.
QUEST: Henry Frick lived here for only five years. He always envisaged the building would be open to the public after his death. More than two decades
later, that wish was fulfilled. The Frick collection opened its doors in 1935. Today, many of these rooms remain unchanged.
RUGER: His daughter, actually reports that late in the evening she would come into the big West Gallery, and there was his father, just sitting
there by himself, marveling at, you know, at the collection.
[16:20:05]
QUEST: And so history repeats itself. The Gilded Age has recaptured the public's imagination in the 2020s, set alight by HBO's "The Gilded Age."
(CLIP FROM "THE GILDED AGE"/HBO/UNIVERSAL TELEVISION)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could rehearse a new production of "Aida" in here and still have plenty of room to spare.
QUEST: After a five-year quarter of billion dollar renovation, The Frick and its new director are ready to meet this moment.
RUGER: I think in everyone's mind was first to open it and reopen it, and, you know, that is the primary focus at the moment. I arrived here, we were
still closed and a few weeks later we had 3,000 people every day through the door.
QUEST: The Frick collection stands in a unique position along New York's Museum mile, with The Guggenheim, The Met and others because whilst they
are larger institutions with changing exhibitions and collections, The Frick stands as a testament, a monument, if you will, to a moment in time
in American history, The Gilded Age.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: And there is plenty of gilding on all the various picture frames around me. I think I could live comfortably on the proceeds of just one of
these paintings.
Now, as you briefly saw, The Frick has recently undergone a massive renovation, the first since it opened 90 years ago. Modernizing such a
storied treasure was certainly not taken lightly. It was a big undertaking, and lots of people were involved.
The museum's director assured me that the redesign has the balance between the original beauty with bringing the collection and the building, and the
gardens firmly into the 21st Century.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUGER: On the one hand, it is dramatic and on the other hand, it is also meant to appear as if nothing much has changed because The Frick is, of
course, one of the most beloved museums that there is, not only in New York, almost globally. Yet at the same time, also all sorts of facilities
needed to be added to really make it a museum of the 21st Century and also to expand the space.
QUEST: Youve been given an institution that is beautiful and much loved in this city, which of course, having come from the academy in London, you
know that you're never going to please everyone.
And the changes that you make, you will be excoriated; you will be pilloried; you will be praised. How do you live with that?
RUGER: Well, at this part of the, you know, of that excitement and museums, while they are conservative with a small c, because of course they
preserve, we conserve things, but at the same time they are, you know, living organizations and they need to move with the times and adapt to
changes in your environments, in your settings, understanding how audience tastes change and they have certainly dramatically, audience behavior has
dramatically shifted since COVID.
And in --
QUEST: In what way?
RUGER: To work with that -- well, that audiences have become in some ways, we experience that in London as well, on some level, a little bit more risk
averse, more conscious of, you know, also, everything is expensive. Also, going to museums has become more expensive, so they become more selective.
Many people who have to travel into cities to go to museums, travel into cities a lot less. We kept joking that lots of people, you know, have
befriended their neighbors over COVID and play Bridge with them in wheelchairs. So you know, they're not coming into London as much. That to
some degree is true here as well.
So it is kind of to understand and then also the next generation and we are also in a changing landscape where, for example, we have all these sort of
immersive experiences now around us, in digital, the sort of seduction of digitally generated settings and so forth.
And how do we relate with something like this? And in a way, The Frick is, of course, a totally immersive experience because it is not white walls
with works of art on the wall, it is the whole concert of this incredibly quality collection in this purpose-built setting, a historic house with a
furniture and everything else.
QUEST: Mr. Frick, what sort of person was he besides a brutal businessman?
RUGER: Well, brutal, a fierce businessman indeed, very determined, but clearly also with a very, very keen sense of art, of looking. He developed
his eye and he also greatly appreciated talking about art. He traveled in order to see art.
So I think those were the sort of two aspects of his character.
[16:25:05]
QUEST: Right. So there were many portraits upon which the dollar bill was based, but this was one of the early ones, apparently.
RUGER: Well, the composition -- this is the only American painting in the collection, actually, Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington, and
there is a very considerable series of these portraits, whereas usually he wears a black coat, whereas in this one, and this is one of the earliest of
that series, he wears a red coat and the motif, yes, became then the basis for the dollar bill portrait.
QUEST: Difficult to imagine them living here, isn't it?
RUGER: He wanted it to appear somewhat modest, and it is a little more low slung than many of the other buildings where -- and we have the glorious
front garden, which looks out over towards Central Park, which none of the other mansions had.
So, you know, it is a sort of -- if you like, almost quiet luxury that he permitted himself.
QUEST: On the day when you leave this job and you retire into living in great glory, and they say to you, so you can have one thing, you can have
one painting.
RUGER: Yes.
QUEST: You can have one painting which you can put on the shelf at home, even for six months. Which one would you take with you? What would you
pick?
RUGER: Well, let's put it this way, the work that I always gravitated to when I came to visit The Frick, over the many years that I've been coming
to New York and always came to The Frick, is Holbein's portrait of Thomas More. It is such a sensational portrait.
One artist once said about that glowing red velvet sleeve that Holbein painted, that that sleeve should be illegal and just also, he captures also
that rather complex and interesting character of Thomas More, I think in the picture extremely well. So that is the one picture that I've always
gone to --
QUEST: Good to see you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: I think they might notice if it was missing. It is somewhere around there and over there.
Now, later on, we will also tell you about the magnificent flowers of course, in the middle, the ceramic flowers.
Now, TACO, Trump always chickens out, is the phrase and it has become part of the Wall Street lexicon. Well, that seems to be not the case at the
moment and we are talking about tariffs. Robert Armstrong, who coined that phrase, TACO, joins me after the break.
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS live tonight on a Summer Friday from The Frick.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:30:39]
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's a lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment.
Donald Trump has raised the stakes. He's finally got his global tariff regime in place. I'm talking to the man who suggests, or did suggest, that
the president always backs down. Let's see if he holds that view now.
And we'll discuss the beautiful flowers that are just over there. There always somebody standing in the way, but there we go. There are there, I
assure you, there are beautiful flowers. Oh, there they are. Thank you. Beautiful. And they're all over The Frick Collection. They aren't even
flowers. They're ceramic and no, you can't touch them.
Before that, though, we'll get to the news, because this is CNN and here the news always comes first.
President Trump has fired a top Labor Department official following the release of weaker than expected job numbers. The president said, without
evidence, that the official has manipulated the monthly jobs report for political purposes. The U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs in July.
Also, the president is ordering the movement of two nuclear submarines. It follows the response of what it calls a highly provocative remark by the
former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Mr. Trump says the subs will be moved to the appropriate regions, and gave no further details.
U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee is praising a controversial aid distribution in Gaza, saying it's accomplished an incredible feat. Mr.
Huckabee visited a site run by the Gaza humanitarian foundation earlier today, along with the envoy Steve Witkoff. Huckabee says more than 100
million meals have been distributed since May. That's less than a meal a day for Gaza's two million residents.
The Frick is a symbol of the Gilded Age. It was a term coined by the great author Mark Twain, to gild means to cover a surface with a thin layer of
gold, if you will, to make things look nicer, to gussy it up. And arguably, it sums up an era where select few were living lavishly while many were
doomed to poverty.
My next guest is Robert Armstrong, he claimed a different term TACO, standing for, Trump always chickens out. I've always wanted to ask you in a
second, it's the notion of the president backs down from his harshest threats, most notably when it comes to tariffs? So, how does the applicable
term TACO use now?
Robert Armstrong, what do you make the tariffs we got yesterday? Are there an example, or is it a sort of an elongated TACOrama?
ROBERT ARMSTRONG, U.S. FINANCIAL COMMENTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES: What's really struck me is how little Trump has had to chicken out from. In other
words, he's had a very easy ride from the markets up until just today, and very few countries, with the possible exceptions of China and Canada, have
really pushed back on the president. So, there's been no -- for me what the TACO trade means is the president isn't actually that committed to these
tariff policies, and if he faces pressure, he will back down. But there hasn't been any pressure.
QUEST: Right. But he's got what he wanted. And you know as well as I do, he always wanted just a headline tariff number. He didn't matter -- to some
extent, 10, 15, 20 percent it was the tariff number. What he's backed down from is the extremists.
ARMSTRONG: Yes, and we will see if these tariffs do cause economic trouble, and we're seeing some sense of that over the last couple of days, will he
remain firm in the face of that, or in the face of pushback from a China or a Canada?
QUEST: What do you make of today's announcement on the BLS?
ARMSTRONG: It's a scandal. This is a human being that he's accused of committing a very grievous crime without evidence.
QUEST: To be clear, as far as I'm aware, and I cover this as much as you, there's never been a scintilla of suggestion that the numbers are fiddled,
dodgy or weird.
ARMSTRONG: And it's hard to imagine, looking at the numbers that have -- as they have come out over the last couple of years, how they have,
particularly helped Biden or hurt Trump. It's -- you know, it's sort of varies month to month. The conspiracy theory that the BLS is fiddling
around sort of fails on its face.
[16:35:13]
QUEST: And if you will, I'm trying to choose my words carefully because -- well, because whoever does get pointed could be extremely respectable and
legitimate.
ARMSTRONG: Absolutely.
QUEST: But they will be tainted from day one.
ARMSTRONG: We won't be sure, right?
QUEST: Exactly.
ARMSTRONG: Even if they play it straight, that question will always be in our head. And this is a theme, of course, in the Trump administration, that
there's one issue that's the policies which with you can agree or you can disagree, and then there's the way those policies are set, communicated,
reinforced, which cause problems of their own.
QUEST: I want to show you this chart. You'll have to see it here. This is a flow chart which was put together by Miller and Chevalier. You may have
already seen it. Look, this is basically, if you're guiding, I'll make it a bit larger in the screen for you. Not as good as I could to be able to do
these things.
ARMSTRONG: Yes, that's right, I'm sure you're doing great. All right, there we go.
QUEST: So, this is the idea of which tariffs apply to my product. And if you do this, this is this, if you're doing that, it's this. The trans-
shipment is doing it. From your understanding, nobody really understands where they stand.
ARMSTRONG: Well, what we know for sure from reading surveys of what business leaders think is that ever since Liberation Day in April, they've
been extremely uncertain about what is going to happen to their businesses, whether they should invest in their businesses, whether they should -- they
should hire.
And indeed, I think precisely what we saw in those negative revisions was that uncertainty crystallized in the numbers.
QUEST: I wonder what would Henry Frick -- Henry Clay Frick have made of it all, because this is all the product of that gilded age where U.S. Titans,
Morgan, Carnegie, Mellon, Frick went around the world, buying up everything with that -- and building out America.
ARMSTRONG: I think there's a powerful metaphor there, because, of course, in the days of Carnegie and Frick and JP Morgan, these men would march into
the president's office and tell them what was what and policy was set in rooms like the rooms we're sitting in right here. Is the Trump
administration so different? The companies that have managed to avoid tariffs are the ones where the CEOs can get into the White House.
QUEST: Right. But I hear, for example, Jamie Dimon and David Solomon and Goldman are due to have a meeting with the president. Who's got the upper
hand there?
ARMSTRONG: Well, the president always has the upper hand. The president -- the presidency of the United States, is an office of terrible power, more
powerful even than being the president of CEO of JP Morgan.
QUEST: How appropriate that we are here today? Good to see you. Have a lovely weekend. Thank you very much indeed.
Now, President Trump says he has ordered the appropriate positioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines in response to what he calls highly provocative
statements by former Russian President Medvedev. Mr. Trump had warned the former president to, "Watch his words." It's not clear if Mr. Trump was
hinting to nuclear warheads as U.S. subs on nuclear powered. Natasha Bertrand has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: President Trump, on Friday, announced that he is ordering two nuclear submarines to be deployed
closer, potentially, to Russia, following remarks by former president, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on social media alluding to
Russia's nuclear capabilities.
President Trump essentially said that the reason why he is deploying these nuclear submarines is because, "Medvedev has made foolish and inflammatory
statements," and he wants to have these nuclear submarines available in the region. Should those statements be, "More than just that."
President Trump said, "Words are very important and can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances."
Now it's unclear at this point just what kind of nuclear submarines are going to be repositioned. The U.S. has nuclear powered submarines.
Essentially all of its submarines are nuclear powered, but only about 14 of them are actually capable of carrying nuclear weapons. And it is the
longstanding policy of the United States to neither confirm nor deny when its submarines that are capable of carrying these nuclear warheads are
actually carrying them.
And so, at this point, it's not clear what kind of submarines are being repositioned and just what they're carrying.
However, it's worth noting that it is very extraordinary for the U.S. to reveal at all where its nuclear submarines actually are in the world, these
nuclear capable submarines, they routinely patrol near U.S. adversaries, including Russia and China, for example. But it is very, very uncommon and
very rare for the U.S. to say anything about. Their particular whereabouts, because, of course, they are meant to operate in extreme secrecy.
[16:40:20]
So, what this is essentially doing is sending a signal to the Russians that the U.S. has these capabilities and that they're nearby. We should also
note that as of right now, the Kremlin has not responded to President Trump's announcement that he would be deploying these nuclear submarines.
Natasha Bertrand, CNN, in Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Now, Henry Frick spent a fortune on all of this collection. He was far from the richest man of his day. Here is one of our riches. Come on,
that was good, Harry.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: That was pretty good.
QUEST: That was pretty good. Harry's going to look at the wealthy through the ages, but actually getting a token at his wallet, that's a
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS -- I suppose you want to do this, don't you? QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. That was pathetic. After the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: The picture gallery, magnificent. That's a turner that you're looking at over there. In fact, there's one on either side of the walls of
Vermeer, just not far away. And then there's a Rembrandt just a little bit away.
Tonight, you're joining me where I'm at the Henry Frick estate on Fifth Avenue. Values range. How vulgar of us to be talking about money amid such
beauty and art between 150 million and nearly three billion. It's a lot of money. And though it was far from the wealthiest tycoon of his era, which
surprises me, but not Harry Enten, who is really good to see you.
ENTEN: Nice to see you.
QUEST: Nice to see you. He wasn't wealthiest.
ENTEN: Now, he wasn't even close to being the wealthiest. I mean, Rockefeller was by far the wealthiest. I mean, at least in today's dollars,
adjusting for GDP growth, we're talking about Rockefeller being with, you know, like more than $700 billion. How about Andrew Carnegie?
[16:45:10]
I mean, my goodness gracious, look at that. $375 billion. So, when you're talking about nearly $3 billion you're really talking about chump change in
terms of Frick, even at the paintings in here. Absolutely love it.
QUEST: Yes. But look what he did.
ENTEN: He did a lot of beautiful things.
QUEST: I mean, where's Carnegie's mansion hall? Do you know the way to -- did you know -- how do I -- how do I get to Carnegie Hall? Practice on,
practice. There you go.
ENTEN: I know more about the Carnegie Deli than I know about Carnegie Hall.
QUEST: Well, clearly not.
ENTEN: No, but I love a good pastrami. Let's talk about that.
QUEST: We're talking pastrami, can we get back to talking about money?
ENTEN: All right, fine, OK.
QUEST: They've all made money the -- I was going to say the old fashioned way. They basically took it from everybody else. Oil, coke, steel,
industrial, all the things that the president wants to bring back into the United States.
ENTEN: Yes, that is true. But of course, we're in such a different era now than we were back in, say, the 1800s in the 19th century or the early part
of the 20th century.
Yes, that is what Donald Trump wants to do, bring us back to a glorious day. But I think one of the things that's so important to note was the
wealth disparities in those days were absolutely tremendous, right? And we're now dealing in a country in which the wealth disparity is becoming
greater. Obviously, Donald Trump wants to bring that down, but at this particular point, it seems to be climbing ever higher.
QUEST: If we look at philanthropy, say, for example, Bill Gates, who has completely changed the philanthropic concept of mantra, and this idea of
giving away your money, creating these institutions that still exists, but in a different way.
ENTEN: Yes, I think it absolutely exists in a different way, right? I mean, first off, it's become global, right?
I mean, what does Bill Gates do? He gives his money, a lot of his money to Africa, for example. Andrew Carnegie, but a lot of stuff in this country,
right? We mentioned Carnegie Hall at the beginning of this. We -- you know, J.D. Rockefeller. Obviously, we have the Rockefeller hospital system here
in New York City.
So, look, there are very big differences with how folks who are wealthy are giving away their wealth. But yes, that idea is still there.
QUEST: And this idea of wealth disparity which was huge then, and arguably, well, it is huge today. But is it as much? Does it play much in the
politics? Do people -- how do you say that, though? But it is -- it's, you know, there is a -- the strata that voted for Donald Trump are often those
with less, and they still voted for a billionaire.
ENTEN: Yes, but they don't see him as elite. And I think that is the key difference, right, they see the Democrats as elite.
And right now, what you have is essentially a very interesting political system in which the wealthiest are voting democratic and the poorest are
voting democratic, but those in the middle are voting Republican. And we're going to see whether or not that continues, especially as their pocketbooks
get hit harder and harder.
You know, you mentioned my wallet, the theme in this segment. If this wallet all of a sudden starts losing some change, and we start losing some
stuff going out the way, I would not be surprised if all of a sudden, here you can take it. Would you like a $2.00 bill? There you go, a one.
QUEST: And make a donation.
ENTEN: Make a donation. There you go. That's what the $2.00 are here for.
QUEST: Thank you for joining us.
ENTEN: My pleasure.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir.
ENTEN: After spending a little money around, right?
QUEST: Spending the money, good to see you.
ENTEN: Nice to see you. (INAUDIBLE).
QUEST: After high priced items are sold on the auction block, we often don't find out who placed the winning bid. Last month's war over the
original homemade Birkin handbag finally ended at $10 million and instead of the typical anonymous buyer, we now know who bought it, Saskya Vandoorne
-- I know it wasn't Harry Enten, his wallet, even his wallet wouldn't stretch to that. Anyway, Saskya spoke to the new owner to find out why he
wanted to buy a handbag.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER (voice-over): This is the moment a bag made history. The original, Hermes Birkin, designed for a 60s icon,
smashed auction records in July, selling for an eye watering $10 million and this is the mysterious buyer on the other end of the phone.
SHINSUKE SAKIMOTO, CEO OF VALUENCE (through translator): I was sitting in this very chair. It was the most expensive purchase I've ever made per
item. So, to be honest, it was very exciting, but it really made me sick to my stomach.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): Tokyo based Shinsuke Sakimoto is a businessman and collector. In an interview with CNN, he revealed what was really going on
behind the scenes in that dramatic 10 Minute bidding war.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We now come to the Star Lord Mako. Do you want to bid Mako 6 million? At 6 million euros?
SAKIMOTO (through translator): Are there many enemies? It's a one-on-one match -- Here comes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 7 million euros.
SAKIMOTO (through translator): Wow, amazing. For real.
[16:50:02]
VANDOORNE (voice-over): A former professional soccer player, the auction appeared to bring out Sakimoto's competitive nature.
SAKIMOTO (through translator): We were almost at the upper limit. And those few minutes, we were actually strategizing to inflict a certain
psychological damage on our opponents. And force them to give up by making a bid without delay.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): His company, Valuence, specializes in circular design and the purchase and sale of rare, pre-owned luxury items. But this
bag won't be resolved anytime soon.
SAKIMOTO (through translator): I think it's a truly artistic piece. We will like to exhibit this at museums and venues to convey this value and
background to the next generation and to inspire people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Extraordinary, art and -- comes in many different forms. Take, for example, the flower arrangements at The Frick. They're all over the place.
They are absolutely glorious. You can certainly see the one just over there on the table.
Well, when we come back in a moment, those flowers are more than they seem. The artist behind these delicate creations.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Now, believe it or not, the wonderful flowers throughout The Frick Collection. They are not live, although you might be fooled. That table
arrangement, for example, you want to go in there and have a good sniff of them. But they are porcelain floral sculptures, and the artist is Vladimir
Kanevsky. He came to the United States in 1989 as a political refugee from Ukraine, which was then, of course, part of the former Soviet Union.
His work on display here, commissioned by The Frick. I joined Vladimir, and we talked about how he managed to capture such delicate beauty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VLADIMIR KANEVSKY, ARTIST: It was an idea of a march of celebrating the opening -- reopening of one of the greatest museums of the world. And what
can be better than flowers? And that's why flowers are here. And at the regional opening in 1934 they also used flowers.
[16:55:05]
QUEST: Have you ever met a flower that you couldn't do?
KANEVSKY: There are some flowers that I just don't want to make. I can't explain why not, but some flowers are just inflamed me.
QUEST: Really?
KANEVSKY: Yes, for example, the artichoke. When I first saw the artichoke, I was so impressed. It was in Madrid, in Spain, and I was so impressed that
I thought about all the time and eventually made them. So, it's mostly iconic flowers, but there are flowers that are not porcelain genic.
QUEST: Really, which is what?
KANEVSKY: I don't like making orchids, for example, maybe because it's too exotic for me.
QUEST: So when you designed this, you knew where it was going to go?
KANEVSKY: Yes, of course, every piece is made especially for this place, and every piece is made for Frick. And the whole collection is made from
scratch for this place. It's a march to the great museum.
QUEST: How fragile are these? I mean, obviously you know --
KANEVSKY: If you drop it on the floor, they will break. But if you send it UPS, it's OK if you pack it correctly, so it's not terribly -- You can do
this.
QUEST: Sorry.
KANEVSKY: You can do this.
QUEST: You'll be repairing it before tea time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: I did point out to him that at least in this case, if one of these flowers were to get broken, at least the artist is alive so he could make
it again. That didn't go down terribly well.
When we come back, there'll be a profitable moment after the break. And what better place than here to have a real profitable moment?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's profitable moment. What better place to do a profitable moment than a place where a lot of profits were made? The Frick Collection,
the result of iron, steel, great industry of the last century, the Gilded Age, and Henry Frick left this magnificent collection, which for people to
come and enjoy, true philanthropy, which, after this recent renovation is spectacular in all its pictures and flowers, you name it, it's magnificent.
And I think the moral and the message here is that even today, we can still look back, we can admire, we can enjoy, and we can ask, what sort of legacy
are we leaving for the next lot? Who's today's Henry Frick, and what are they going to be collecting? Because they're there. It's just not me.
Now, that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for this Friday night, or first summer Friday. How magnificent. I'm Richard Quest at The Frick Collection.
Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. We'll be back in the studio on Monday.
END
