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“ ‘The damage that is being done every day is enormous. Everybody needs to be bailed out for this one time thing, and we’ll worry about paying the bills later.’ ”
That’s billionaire Barry Diller, chairman of Expedia Group EXPE, -5.54% and IAC/InterActive IAC, +1.42% , talking about his view that the government needs to step in and save all the companies that have been hammered by the coronavirus shutdown.
Expedia , of course, has been hit hard by the complete lack of demand, as have its competitors in the sector. Diller said the travel site is generating no revenue and will need to cut costs.
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“The landscape is cataclysmic,” he continued. “There’s nothing like it before, and while we know some things, we really know nothing… nothing about what’s going to happen.”
Diller said he doesn’t expect any return to normalcy until at least the fall.
His comments follow word of a deal between U.S. airlines and the Treasury Department that gives the carriers access to loans and grants while giving the government warrants in return.
Bailouts have been a thorny issue since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the economy and triggered historic job losses. While some, like Diller, have pushed the idea of a sweeping government handouts, others question whether it’s the way forward.
It’s rugged individualism, capitalism and ‘The Hunger Games’ on the way up,” NYU professor Scott Galloway said this week on MSNBC. “And on the way down it’s a lot of call signs by CEOs that we’re in this together and sort of a Hallmark Channel-like socialism.”
And last month, billionaire Mark Cuban weighed into the debate.
“If we are going to bail out companies, we need to make sure all employees benefit from a turnaround, not just execs,” he said. “This would be a step toward income equality.”
