Toby Howell

These are all decisions that maybe at the time seemed depressing because they wanted to be an affordable airline, but

the airline industry has gone in the complete opposite direction, which does make it ripe for a potential merger.

Yeah, remember, though, the U.S.

industry as we know it has been built largely through consolidation.

I mean, Delta merged with

Northwest Airlines, you don't even remember Northwest Airlines, United and Continental merged, American-US Airways.

These are the bedrock of the modern industry, but now you are right.

If JetBlue can't get it done with Spirit, how would... American is the biggest carrier in the world by just total number of flights, so it sounds crazy on the surface.

The one angle that United was apparently floating to the Trump administration was that this tie-up would help carriers compete on

international routes.

He previously has talked about how the fact that two thirds of long haul seats to and from the U.S.

are often by foreign airlines.

So maybe that's the tack that he's bringing to the administration saying like, hey, we need to beef up our domestic long haul operations.

This is one way to do it.

Yeah, it was a very interesting earnings season for banks because on the one hand, they are trying to paint this very complex picture of the economy and say a lot of risks abound.

But then they look at the actual details.

It's literally like putting a thermometer in the consumer's mouth.

And they're saying that

They're reading all right.

They're reading pretty healthy right now because when you look at where consumers are talking with their wallets, they are still spending.