WEBVTT - David Malpass Talks US Election Impact, Economy 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:06.800 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.600 David Malpass. Many of you will know him as a 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.480 driving force for Alan Schwartz at bear Stearn's Economics years ago. 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:17.400 Of course, the service to the nation at the World 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:19.880 Bank for President Trump. And we're thrilled he can join 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.200 us in the studio. Now there's four or five six 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.800 topics David we can talk about. You are the rarest 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:31.920 of rare ducks, a Colorado College physicist who was so 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.000 dumb he actually ran for public office. I want to 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:40.800 focus on this election. Come on, you're an institutional guy. 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.199 You can do the foreign the foreign policy and all that. 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:45.239 Forget about it. 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:46.360 What was it like. 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:51.520 Campaigning in Broome County in twenty ten against Senator Gillibrand 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:52.680 Tom That was. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:56.760 An experience for the lifetime. I had the minivan and 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.520 drove around New York State and really talked about how 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:05.000 could Washington actually stopped growing? And so remember it was 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.680 the tea pot of the year in twenty ten. The 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:12.320 Senate seat had been Hillary Clinton's Senate seat and Jillibrand 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.160 was holding it in twenty twenty nine and ten. So 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.480 I decided to run because I really think that the 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.720 issues can be changed in Washington if you have people 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.640 leaders in Washington talking about what to do about the budget, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.560 what to do actually about the dollar and keep it stable. 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:34.319 These are important topics. 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.040 Most important tweet of the last twenty four hours was 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.319 the wonderful Michael besh Loss who put out a photograph 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.200 of a Puerto Rican in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform. And 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:49.960 the bottom line is the rhetoric and dialogue across all parties, 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.240 but particularly what we've seen in the last forty eight 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.240 hours is just totally unexcusable. And this guy hired you 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.120 to run the World Bank. How can guys like you, 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.680 in your lovely wife who ran Manhattan GOP support this 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:05.560 guy with a rhetoric we're. 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:10.440 Hearing Tom I'm not into the election itself, but into 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.239 the policies. And as you look at where the US 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:15.800 stands in the world, it's a it's a voice of 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:20.400 weakness around the world. It's causing instability all through Africa. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.680 Any international meeting I went to, people were almost pleading 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.839 saying can't the US have a voice? And that it's 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.480 not there. And the policies that are being projected by 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.720 the current administration and into the future look like the 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:38.680 more wants to get. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:40.160 In here pause looking at me like, what is this 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.600 a monologue? But I was just in Rome, and I'm 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:49.000 sorry they're petrified of a certain candidate winning here. How 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.880 does your part? Could you run for secretaries? Could you 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.239 take secretary of State under a new Trump administration? Would 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:56.320 you accept that position? 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:01.919 That's not not even a question? Can the US grow more? 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.080 And will that be stabilizing in the world? And the 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.040 answer is yes. And is the budget that's now in 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:13.399 front of the US nation from the Biden Harris administration acceptable? 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.200 The answer is no, it's an unacceptable budget and it's 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.680 not going to lead to growth. They are willing to 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.560 have the country grow at one and a half percent 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.120 per year with big government. That's their dream of how 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:28.239 a country will look. 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.440 What will become of the World Bank if Trump wins 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.400 on Tuesday. 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.560 As an institution, it's got its shareholders, so I don't 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:40.600 think that would be the focus of change. And the 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:45.080 World Bank's not very big within the world scene. One 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.800 of the things that has to be discussed the United Nations. 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.640 Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations, just went 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.400 to the Bricks Summit in Russia, why aren't people talking 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.360 about that? And did the US protest that Here he 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:02.560 is in Kazan, Russia with uh, you know, shaking hands 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:05.720 bowing at the time of a vicious war that's going 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.200 on in Ukraine, And so how does the world really 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.480 interact with these institutions that are that are harming people 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:14.400 around the world. 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:20.279 Trump presidency was kind of more, you know, just nationalistic 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.080 as opposed to internationalism. Doesn't he want to step back 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.160 from the world stage? Doesn't he want to? I mean, 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:29.360 how does that project world US influence globally. 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:32.479 Case by case? For one, you don't want to have 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.080 permanent wars. And it sure looks like we've gotten into 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.360 a very long term war in Ukraine and Russia where 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.400 we're arming one side and they're arming the other side. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.720 Not on the field. We're letting the Ukrainians fight our 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:47.560 wars and that's the best strategy. 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.560 No, that's not a good strategy at all. They're dying 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:52.279 and so that's a best fight. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.440 All we're doing is funning and we're letting them fight 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:55.480 against your your. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:59.320 Question of nationalism. So Trump's been pretty clear that he 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.839 would pick his pick his fights, and that through deterrence, 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.920 the US would be a stronger nation. And I think 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.200 that's a very defensible position to be in. If you 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.960 say to Putin or to China, we are going to 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.640 be the strongest growing country. We're going to have the 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:20.040 best technology. We're supporting our troops one hundred percent. They're 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.120 going to be more reluctant to start wars. 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:27.280 The three percent economy that we have. Everyone, every political persuasion, 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.800 every economic persuasion, has been shocked by the growth that 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:36.040 we've seen. David Malpass, do you equate the growth we 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:40.160 have in twenty twenty four directly to the stimulus of 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.400 twenty twenty one or can we actually say there's a productivity, 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.320 a technology overlay going on right. 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.640 Now, some of both, but with a big thing is 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:52.720 the government is running a six and a half percent 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.680 fiscal deficit. Now, this has never happened where you have 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.760 a full employment economy and the government treed, and so 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.320 some part of our GDP growth right now is just 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:07.640 the expansion of the national debt. The government borrows money. 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.719 Okay, so go there, David. It's good Colorado College physics. 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.280 But the bottom line is, do you hear either candidate 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.799 going on the path of Peterson Paul Saugus and Sam 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:23.520 Nunn and getting our debt and deficit trajectories in better control. 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.040 No, but to those three people, those were austerity policies, 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.920 and what Trump is talking about is growth policies. They're 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.680 very different. That means changing the regulatory policy so that 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.360 people will actually build things. You know, a giant part 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.239 of the semiconductor problem right now is you can't build 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:44.000 a factory because of the rules that go into that 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.320 IRA Bill, and so they're pumping money into the economy 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.239 but getting nothing for it. That can all be changed, 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.720 and that's not as hard to change as people think. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:59.000 It just means sensible decisions at the top in Washington 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.719 to spend the money less wastefully. 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.800 Is there a will in Congress to get that done. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.320 No, to some extent, they're part of the problem. That's 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.080 why I ran in twenty ten for the Senate. So 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.400 they love it when you just spend money and it 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.240 doesn't matter if it has effect. But that can change 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.200 through leadership from the top. We're just not getting it now. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:24.320 Tell us about money and running a campaign. I mean, 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.040 you know, I look at the day to day battle 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.080 of each of the candidates and all that out in 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.280 the trenches as you were in twenty ten. Are you 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.840 just basically waking up in the morning and trying to 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:37.760 raise money. 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.000 Yes, Plus I was spending quite a bit of my 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.720 own money because I really believed in the cause. But 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.800 the secret, I don't know that it's very much of 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.160 a secret, is there's corruption across the whole system. How 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.560 is it that Washington is the richest part of the country. 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.280 That doesn't make sense? And with them moving up every 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:04.480 year on a leader on the leaderboard, Washington's the big winner, right, 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.840 And so that comes from campaigning constant campaigns. 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:12.160 This has been a really successful interview. Everyone that's been 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.720 listening to it thinks that I'm a piece of garbage 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.880 floating around the East River. David Malpass, thank you so 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.280 much for joining us and for a spirited debate here 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.280 as we go to November fifth. Mister Malpass, of course, 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.360 is a former president of the World Bank.