Fox Business guest: “Better safe than sorry” for coronavirus is “the strategy of losers, not the strategy of winners”
Commodities trader Scott Shellady: “This isn't my America anymore”
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From the March 17, 2020, edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co.
STUART VARNEY (HOST): I want to bring Scott Shellady into this, because the debate, and we've had it this morning, is who gets the money. I think I can make a case that the airlines — they're kind of a utility. I think they should be propped up and kept in business. But I'm not so sure about casinos and cruise lines. What say you?
SCOTT SHELLADY (COMMODITIES TRADER, THE COW GUY GROUP): Well, I mean, there's going to be hands out all along the way. If they give it to one, they're going have to give it to everybody, Stuart. And just think of the economic — and I don't want to say disaster yet — but we're talking about shutting down 7 million people. And this is where — you know, I've got an agrarian background, and maybe I'm just not that bright and I don't understand. But when we've got —and say, in the state of Indiana, 15 cases and one death — horrible, I don't want to make light of anybody's death, whether it be the flu or the measles or this virus. But we've shut down all the schools, all the restaurants, and all the bars. That doesn't pass the smell test with me. Now, maybe something's coming around the corner that the government's not going to tell me about, but I still don't understand about all this reaction with something that now we've got 180,000 people that have got it across the world, of which almost half of them have already beaten it, and survived, and we've lost 7,000 people globally. I'm not — these things are not — they're incongruent. The action and the reaction don't add up for me.
VARNEY: I see your point, but there's a political dynamic to it. Who could stand — which politician can stand for election, who is accused of doing nothing while people die. That's the issue, isn't it?
SHELLADY: Yes, it is. And l let me answer with this. Last week I was on your show, I got a little worked up because I was talking about, we can't err on the side of caution anymore. And I said last week we had to err on the side of hysteria. We can't do that anymore. “We have to be better safe than sorry.” And you know what? That's the strategy of losers, not the strategy of winners. So now we're judging everything on, “Better safe than sorry.” Now, a coach would be fired for that line of — a CEO would be fired for that line of thinking. Why are we going down that line with our country? This isn't my America anymore.
VARNEY: Because a politician would be fired for that line of thinking. I'm just bringing the politics out here, because there's a dynamic — which I think is very important, Scott.
SHELLADY: Well, I'm going to have to go with common sense, and I think ultimately that will rule the day.
VARNEY: Look, stay with us, Scott, because this is a debate that is not going to go away, and is actually very, very important.