#Episode11 Daily Updates with Sridhar – Many from SM have links with Dems

Transcription –

Sree Iyer: Hello and Welcome to PGurus channel. I’m your host Sree Iyer. This is episode number 11 of ‘Daily updates with Sridhar Chityala’. Sridhar Chityalaji, Namaskar and welcome to PGurus channel.

Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar and Good morning to you sir.

Sree Iyer: Good Morning to you Sir. Today we have a lot of ground to cover. Let’s start with the cross-pollination of several people who worked in social media companies, also happening to be Democratic party members. I don’t have numbers of how many Republican people who are working in social media, but at least there is one side that seems to be coming out. What are your thoughts on this, Sir? Should somebody’s personal politics interfere in the way they do their job?

Sridhar Chityala: I think it’s a great question, Sir. Before we proceed your screen is static, so I’m not able to see a live video of yourself. I’m just seeing a picture, just from a technical point of view.

Okay to respond to your question, Historically, there seems to be a seamless confluence between the Democratic party and the social media platforms czars and there’s a cross-pollination of people going from either side. It doesn’t, in any way, mitigate or detract the presence of the social media czars in the Republican party, but at least there’s no evidence as yet of they playing in a direct or indirect role in influencing any of the decisions that are happening on the platform. I think this whole controversy has taken an alarming shape, especially with the Hunter Biden article being suppressed and Twitter continuing to play hardball in the New York Post article not getting posted and the New York Post article itself being blocked. And then it is coming to light that there are at least two personalities from the social media who are either in Harris’s camp or people from Harris’s Camp made their way into either Twitter or Facebook? We don’t want to dwell on names and personas because all these things would be the information that could change, but one thing is very clear that this election in the United States is bringing to the fore the influence of social media platform to maintain and control the narrative as well as the dissemination of news. It’s not very good. It’s not very healthy.

Sree Iyer: Sir, I watched with interest Maria Bartiromo’s interview with Donald Trump jr. And he again reiterated the fact that while they have been trying to muzzle the voices of New York Post. Nobody has disputed what was released or what was revealed in that article. So into that limited point, all that the Democratic party has said is that there was no official engagement on his calendar. So, What do you make of this? Why is it that somehow a lot of things seem to be leaning only in one way? By the law of averages, we expect that a few things will break Republicans also. I am being a neutral observer here.

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think we were at a private event with Donald Trump Junior, last evening and Kimberly Guilfoyle. He hammered home the point, that for four years, they were under investigation. He himself spent more than six months being questioned and interrogated. Whereas, the Hunter who has to be hunted is nowhere to be seen in the news that he has created. The very fact that for the past 4 days there has not been any rebuttal except these token responses that you are getting by way of, the meeting schedules don’t align or the meeting schedules don’t reflect the same times, is a lukewarm response to wash away the issue. So every time the Democrats are confronted with tangible evidence of issues, they always try to shift the playing field or they do not respond. It doesn’t matter. This is a social media platform and separation of news is only one thing. Nobody has answered from the Democratic party what they have done with three years of the Russian investigation, which has come to 0. They mislead the nation. The same thing happened in the past with the Clinton Saga for 12 months. He dragged the nation through the process when all that he could have done is accepted his folly. This seems to be a pattern with the Democrats, which is very unfortunate. When you talk to them on anything which is tangible, they try to be wishy-washy with it and more towards and start the issue. That seems to be the general trend and I have seen in my own discussions or debates with some of them. When you talk to them about poll numbers, they will talk to you about outcomes. When you connect to them about outcomes, they talk to you about poll numbers. When you talk to them about social media platforms, they will tell you, everything is independent objective and they have their own rights and they don’t influence. So there’s always this kind of a game.

And to your point on Maria Bartiromo’s interview with Donald Trump jr, he’s right, he’s hammering the same point that they don’t want to take this up because the moment they take it up then China-Hunter Biden connection will come into the fore. So, it’s not just purely Ukraine but also their connection with the Chinese and he mentioned some astronomical numbers in terms of compensation that was being paid to Hunter.

Sree Iyer: Absolutely. I was going to allude to that. He said I think 1.2 billion. That’s a lot of numbers, lots of 0s. Lets move-on then sir, on to the stimulus package deal. Nancy Pelosi said a couple of days ago that he’s going to give 48 hours for the deed to be finalized. Is there any movement on both sides or is it just movement on one side? Because I know from one point six trillion, the Trump administration moved to the Gold to 1.8 trillion and Democrats have been sitting at 2.2. Is there any movement from their side?

Sridhar Chityala: Well, if you read the press, I’m personally haven’t talked to anybody, the differences seem to be around that testing, the coronavirus testing, around the nation. There seems to be some reconciliation between Steve Mnuchin, the treasurer and Nancy Pelosi on the verbiage or the voting that goes into the release as well as the specifics of the package. There seems to be convergence on that point which is the sticking point. The largeness of the package which needs to be delivered is now come down to about 300 billion dollars, 1.8 is still a big number now that there seems to be alignment between President Trump and Pelosi that the package has to be big and the specifics are where the nuances are. But that’s actually contrarian to what the Senators are likely to pass on Tuesday, which is controlled by the Republicans. They don’t have any bar up this 1.8 trillion. They started with a targeted package of 30 billion to the airline industry at 122 billion to small-scale can also be added additionally to local schools, local government, local administration and obviously the medical component. This seems to have moved the needle from 122 plus 500 billion dollars contain package largely enhance support, to including the unemployment insurance, the personal PPP program and the individual taxpayers etc. So the Republican Senate may pause tomorrow a bill for 500 billion and send it to the president and Tuesday is the deadline and they have to come to a resolution either it is going to be 500 or it is going to be, there’s no 30 and 122, there’s a 500 billion or there is a 1.8 trillion package. I think we are converging and that is encapsulated in captured in market sentiment.

Sree Iyer: Thank you. And let’s move on to Europe. Britain is running out of time on the Brexit package. What are your thoughts on that?

Sridhar Chityala: I have a feeling that Johnson will eventually be able to cut a deal and move forward. I don’t think there’s any kind of escape route, having gone down that specific path for a range of reasons – his own illness, negotiations, getting his party behind the line, getting the House of Commons to toe the line, all this is playing, playing, playing out and then Europe is not in a very stellar situation either. They are far more decisive in terms of, get out or stay and no more to negotiate it in terms of timings and specifics and so on. So, I think what you will see is that they would be probably a hasty exit rather than further delays.

Sree Iyer:  Viewers, You should watch out for development. It’s coming out of France. We don’t have any specific update. But I think Macron is beginning to tighten a lot of restrictions around how immigrants can and will be able to do in Europe. Sridharji, you have anything to add on that

Sridhar Chityala: I think the latest news on that is that they have identified some adult 300 small, it a small number of 300 people who have monitored for extraneous activities or Jihadic activities. And they are likely to be the repatriated or expelled from the country and sent to their respective domicile country. If that happens then that would probably trigger some chain reaction of similar activities in Europe. There will be far greater scrutiny going on in terms of monitoring because the continued events in Paris have not been is detrimental to any Civic Society behaviour and I think that’s catching the attention of people.

Sree Iyer:  Moving on Israel has now sent its staff to open its consulate in Bahrain and it is expected that more countries from the Middle East are going to open diplomatic relations with Israel. SridharJi, do you have any idea on when the next Middle Eastern countries going to be perhaps normalizing relations with Israel?

Sridhar Chityala: Well, certainly UAE has completed Bahrain. There is very much Oman probably is the next candidate that could be coming on board. There is perhaps discussions with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and whether that would come on board fairly rapidly. We don’t know but certainly, I see Oman probably coming on board, but, if all offers well. During this period also the latest news is that Mnuchin is likely to be the Middle East to continue to engage not Pompeo.  Pompeo has just returned from Japan. For me, the Middle East is a great accomplishment by Trump in terms of foreign policy and diplomacy.

Sree Iyer: Yes indeed and that is also being downplayed by the social media as well as the mainstream media, which is very regrettable because of the amount of movement that we have seen is quite significant. So the next topic is China and it’s amassing of troops. They not only have 60,000 troops along the LAC- the line of actual control with India. Now there is significant build-up across the Taiwan Straits and there is some fear that China might attack Taiwan. What are your thoughts on that sir?

Sridhar Chityala:  Along the south China coast, there has been a build-up and the analysts are alluding to the fact that whether there is a contemplated move to attack. Now, you can see the Chinese – the game plan. The game plan is as you come closer to the US Elections, they have organized themselves. They probably have some kind of inside view; they could be either a stalemate or a delay. So, they are trying to see how best to seize the opportunity of any uncertainty in the US Mandate and delayed announcement that they could exploit in not only in the northern side but also on the southern side. North, I’m talking about is India, South I’m talking about the South China Sea. More to their attention is Taiwan because Taiwan has been flexing muscles. Taiwan is now armed by the United States and there is now tacit support of quad towards the aspirations of Taiwan. Also, there has been a transition in leadership, Suga taking over from Abbe in Japan. So I think China’s game plan is to be ready in the event of any uncertainty in the outcome of the US Elections.

Sree Iyer: I think it gives importance to let our viewers know that the Office of the President of the United States is run like a company and that even if President Trump were to lose on November 3rd, he would be the Up until the next president takes over at which will be somewhere around January first or third weeks or something like that and the office continues to function there will be no let-up there is going to be no something like the caretaker government that India used to have again. Remember that Pakistan attacked India when there was a caretaker government in place of AB Vajpayee in 1999. So we’re looking at some interesting times ahead. I have a feeling regardless of who comes to power, come January 2021. The policy towards China is not going to see much of a difference, I could be wrong; I know that Hunter Biden thing has to be resolved. I hope that that that happens fairly quickly because the same media will turn against Biden because once this bigger picture is out, there have to have something to write about what are your thoughts on that sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think I echo your sentiments that there is a government in action either through the office or through the president during the intervening transition period. There is always a transition government is in a place, where both sides play an active part. But, let’s not forget that quad is well established with India, Japan and Australia in the region having a very strong command and control mechanism. One of its Charters is the security and security of the South China Sea and the security of Nations who are in the South China Sea and South Seas. So, therefore, that aspect of it one should not overlook, there is no United Nations. It is quad which has a mandate in terms of maintaining maritime security and protect the nations in the neighbourhood.

Sree Iyer: Yes, indeed and lastly quick look at the markets IBM, Netflix and Tesla reporting earnings today. It’ll be very interesting to see how Tesla is going to do. Netflix, I expect that to do well. I’m not sure about IBM also. Your final thoughts are before we wrap up this program.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes, markets in my humble view, sometimes it can be an oxymoron, the Corona Virus cases shooting up. There is a stimulus package that looks imminent on the back of the Corona Virus. The markets are expressing a very positive sentiment as the Corona Virus cases are rising and the stimulus being imminent. The markets are all point, that remark three big ones – Dow Jones, the S&P and NASDAQ for all pointing to 0.6 to 1% gains, pre-market trading Asian markets also showed an uptick on the back of the Chinese 4.9% economic growth for the last quarter and the economic stimulus being the other Factor. So, we expect the markets and on the earnings, I think we will continue to see earnings positive learning sentiments from most of the companies. It will not be larger than the last corresponding quarter last year. But definitely, there’s there will be an uptick at the office.

Sree Iyer: and that’s it for us, from the United States from the east coast and from the west coast. Once again, thanks for joining us and we look forward to having the same conversation tomorrow, 24 hours from now.

Sridhar Chityala: Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day, or have a great evening depending on where you are.

Sree Iyer: Yes. Thank you.