Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman on the company's $15M Donation to help New York State

Stephen Schwarzman, The Blackstone Group's Chairman & CEO, joined Yahoo Finance's Jen Rogers, Myles Udland, and Andy Serwer to discuss the company's $15M Donation to help New York State as it takes on the COVID-19 crisis as well as his outlook for the market.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: All right, welcome back to "Yahoo Finance Live." Myles Udland here in New York. We're joined now by Blackstone CEO and Chairman Steve Schwarzman for a little bit more on what that firm is doing to help the New York area. Mr Schwarzman, thanks for joining the program. I was listening to Andrew Cuomo's press conference today. All of a sudden, I heard Blackstone. Tell us a little bit about the program you guys announced and-- and what you're doing to help the New York area here.

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: Well, we've-- we've done two things. We've committed a total of $15 million, and 10 of it's going to Governor Cuomo's First Responders Fund, and another 5 million is going to organizations serving health care workers, making sure that they have places to live and eat and-- and provide other types of support for them. And the reason we've done this is, of course, New York is facing an enormous crisis. I guess they've got close to half of the cases in the United States.

And Blackstone is a New York-based company. I'm a New Yorker, and, you know, we-- we need to help our-- our city cope with this-- this pandemic problem. And-- and one of the reasons why we gave the money, besides helping New York, is we wanted to make sure that other businesses throughout the country understood that-- that helping their local hospitals, their first responders, other charities that help feed people in their cities is a very important thing. Many people have responded already.

But from my perspective and our perspective, being able to show that you can do things is-- is super important, and other people should do it. We're doing a variety of things beyond just this money. Our-- our companies are providing apartments for first responders, masks. We've given a huge facility, like the Javits Center in New York, located in the UK in Birmingham to convert to a major hospital, the-- the way it's done here. So-- so many different parts of Blackstone's businesses are-- are providing services for the people on the front lines here, and every-- every business can help.

ANDY SERWER: Right.

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: And-- and some of us, some of us are supporting individual small businesses who are under enormous pressure now, and-- and they got to turn to somebody.

ANDY SERWER: Right.

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: A lot of people at the firm are-- are supporting them as well.

ANDY SERWER: Hey, Steve, Andy Serwer here. I-- I wanted to sort of follow up on that point and ask you, what responsibility do wealthy Americans have to help out during this crisis?

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: Well, I think you're-- you're seeing it, and people are responding all over the country. I think every citizen needs to help out. And if you have more resources, then you help out more. What you're seeing from us with this 15 million from the firm is a bit of a tip of an iceberg in terms of the number of things we're trying to do around the country and around the world with-- with our people.

JEN ROGERS: Hey, it's Jen Rogers here. You are-- you said you're a New Yorker, Blackstone's a New York company. Do you think that New York can survive this and come out on the other end? Because a lot of this revolves around density issues. Are people going to want to stay in New York? Will companies leave New York?

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: New York will definitely survive this. This is a virus that should have a vaccine in-- in the next 12 to, you know, sort of 18 months, which will really make a huge dent in people's concerns. It may be possible and it's just sort of unpredictable that there will be other medical things that can happen in the meanwhile to make people feel more comfortable.

I think nationally we're going to need what-- what is called massive testing so-- so that we can test every week or two a very, very large percentage of the American population. And-- and if you find somebody who's got a problem, they go home and spend two weeks, but everybody else stays in the workforce. If you know that the person to your left and your right is-- is got no problems, you're going to be a lot more comfortable.

You'll go back to assembling, you know, whether it's for conventions or sporting activities. Right now, we don't have that procedure in place, so-- so people are more-- more concerned, and rightfully so. But I think as you look backwards on this from 18 months or-- or a year, you'll-- you'll see that these types of things are put in place, and people will be much more comfortable. New York has survived a lot.

ANDY SERWER: Right.

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: You know, there is-- there is no doubt that some things, of course, will change. This idea that we're, you know, many people are on Zoom working distance, you know, you'll be used to that for certain numbers of things. But-- but I think the great cities of the world have shown, whether they're London, New York, Beijing, Tokyo, these cities have shown astonishing resilience over centuries, and I don't think that's going to be reversed by what will be a relatively temporary virus.

ANDY SERWER: Steve, two quick questions. One, you talked to President Trump. Do you think he gets it? Do you think he understands the magnitude of the crisis? And two, what's going to happen to the stock market from here?

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: Well, you asked me too easy ones, Andy. Is-- is that your specialty?

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, softballs to Steve Schwarzman is my specialty. Thank you very much.

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: Well, I-- I think with President Trump, I never share, you know, what I discuss with him, even though I'm sure if I mentioned it to you now, it would be kept confidential. But-- but I think it's impossible to not--

ANDY SERWER: Just between the two of us.

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: Excuse me?

ANDY SERWER: Just between the two of us, go ahead.

STEVE SCHWARZMAN: Yes, exactly. I think it's impossible to not understand the severity of-- of this problem of-- of the coronavirus and the-- the number of people who are ill and-- and passing away, and I-- I think that would be something that would be shared by anybody. In terms of the stock market, I-- I think it's a reflection of-- of what will happen on the health care side. We have really quite a stunning response by the US government, you know, sort of led by the president, with bipartisan efforts in the Congress and really great execution by-- by the Senate.

And had-- had the government not stepped up with-- with the $2 trillion stimulus, which actually they passed two other bills so it's probably closer to 2 and 1/4 to 2 and 1/2-- they'll come back and do another trillion dollars or more-- you know, these types of responses and giving money to unemployed people at a relatively high level as-- as well as, you know, providing liquidity for companies and markets the way the Fed is-- is doing, take us from being in a very desperate economic environment to-- to bridging us to where we can get to the other side. Once people look at the medical situation and say, I feel really secure, then you'd probably see a continuation of-- of this type of rebound.