Billionaire IAC and ExpediaGroup CEO Barry Diller told Face the Nation‘s Margaret Brennan that “there’s no chance, certainly this summer,” of things getting back to normal amid the coronavirus crisis and had dire predictions for the U.S. economy.
“To anyone who thinks that this economy is going to bounce, I mean you’d have to have the idea of a rubber ball not in existence to think it’s going to bounce high,” said Diller. “It can’t. The damage that’s being done is catastrophic.”
Added Diller: “You’re going to have a massive amount of businesses that can’t return, businesses that go bankrupt. It’s inevitable. And hopefully, the government will, so to speak, pick up the tab, because this is an existential crisis and we shouldn’t worry so much about doing it in a neat way. It ought to be sloppy to get that money out to everybody who needs it.”
“We’re going to have to be told [what to do to return to normal activities],” Diller added. “Now, unfortunately, we have a witch doctor as a president and he ain’t going to tell us. But the science part of it, I think that has to be translated into more practical solutions. So somebody is gonna have to say, ‘Yes, you must wear masks, period, or no, take your chances. But the chances are pretty good.’ There’ll be a teething period where we’ll kind of get used to this.”
Diller said we would “learn some stuff” as people who refuse to stay in their houses start to mingle.
He also offered some hope: “I do not believe that life is ever changed. At some point I think this is going to be over, and we humans are going to get back to the life that we have made for ourselves. Basically, we’re all going to get together again.”
