Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Over the next couple of hours,
Speaker 1: we're gonna bring you news of the week, insights from
Speaker 1: the magazine, and so much more. And Jason, it was
Speaker 1: week sixteen. We both had to kind of do a
Speaker 1: reality check on that. We've been working from home for
Speaker 1: about four months. Like so many other Americans. We began
Speaker 1: this working from home just before the first quarter of
Speaker 1: the year ended. Now we just wrapped up the second quarter.
Speaker 1: The first half of the year is over, and this
Speaker 1: week Bloomberg Business Week magazine a little bit of a respite,
Speaker 1: perhaps from some of the big headlines out there and
Speaker 1: stresses that we've all been dealing with. It's the heist issue,
Speaker 1: and we'll get more later on from our editor Joel
Speaker 1: Webber and features editor Max Chafkin. It is, as you say,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a respite, Carol, uh and the
Speaker 1: heist issue. It's an annual tradition, so looking forward to
Speaker 1: hearing more about that. But meanwhile, the headlines continued to
Speaker 1: come fast and furious. We are a country in a
Speaker 1: world dealing with multiple crises, and crises that continue to
Speaker 1: befuddle us in many ways, not the least of which
Speaker 1: is the virus. We got spiking cases across the United States,
Speaker 1: and it is a scary time for many people. We're
Speaker 1: going to hear later on what that means from a
Speaker 1: medical perspective, and obviously it informs just about every conversation
Speaker 1: we had, but first it's a topic we continue to discuss,
Speaker 1: diversity and inclusion, and one of the most read stories
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg this week the Unwritten Code on race
Speaker 1: Black and White on Wall Street. You're right, Jason, it
Speaker 1: was one of the most read stories of the week
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg. We got more from Bloomberg News Finance
Speaker 1: reporter Michelle Davis. Over the past few weeks, UH, Wall Street,
Speaker 1: much like the rest of the country and the rest
Speaker 1: of corporate America, has been facing of reckoning over race,
Speaker 1: and that means there's been lots of conversations happening, and so,
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to talk to black workers across
Speaker 1: the industry to hear about, you know, what it's like
Speaker 1: to be black in a predominantly white industry, what sorts
Speaker 1: of conversations are happening at their firms right now, and
Speaker 1: you know why they think diversity initiatives has failed. And
Speaker 1: in talking to folks, what I found or what I heard,
Speaker 1: you know, was that, well, a lot of people are
Speaker 1: really heartened by the fact that, you know, there are
Speaker 1: these open conversations about race happening right now. It is
Speaker 1: clear that Wall Street has failed as people of color,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of skepticism that anything is going
Speaker 1: to change anytime soon because a big part of this is,
Speaker 1: you know, there are these unwritten rules and there is
Speaker 1: a systemic racism that is just ingrained in the culture
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, some say it is going to
Speaker 1: take a long time to change more than just a conversation, Michelle,
Speaker 1: what surprised you the most as you were reporting this
Speaker 1: story because the way you wrote it is fantastic because
Speaker 1: you just come right out with these we these unwritten rules.
Speaker 1: And note that some people will say, no, that's not true,
Speaker 1: maybe that's untrue, but the reality is is, as I
Speaker 1: read it, at least knowing Wall Street fairly well, every
Speaker 1: one of them rang true to some extent or another.
Speaker 1: But what surprised you the must So I would say
Speaker 1: two thinks. One is I hadn't realized that even though
Speaker 1: Wall Street has, you know, had diversity initiatives in place
Speaker 1: for decades, the industry has actually gotten whiter over the
Speaker 1: past few years. At JP Morgan Bank America and City Group,
Speaker 1: the percentage of black workers overall has been falling, not rising.
Speaker 1: So that was surprising to me. And the other part
Speaker 1: was just the fact that every single person I talked
Speaker 1: to you had experienced some sort of racism. Not you know,
Speaker 1: just when they left the building, because social status doesn't
Speaker 1: protect you from racism, but it was inside the building,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, maybe not all of it was
Speaker 1: as overt as like a coworker calling them an an
Speaker 1: appropriate name, but it was just these little things that
Speaker 1: happened every single day that um, I found shocking and horrible. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you just the list reading through, and
Speaker 1: I've read it a couple of times. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: as you say, never forget, despite all those promises about diversity,
Speaker 1: only about one percent of senior management on Wall Street
Speaker 1: is black. You know, you go down this list, adopt
Speaker 1: a white voice, don't laugh too loudly, act like all
Speaker 1: of this is normal. Don't talk about race. I've had
Speaker 1: conversations with a lot of folks. I know, Jason, you
Speaker 1: have to and you know, it's amazing how Black Americans
Speaker 1: on Wall Street and I feel like in corporate America
Speaker 1: they have really felt like they are not allowed to
Speaker 1: speak freely and that's troublesome. Yeah, And I think something
Speaker 1: that one person I talk to you said that I
Speaker 1: think really kind of sums up what you just said there.
Speaker 1: And what I found interesting is that a lot of
Speaker 1: this dogs have to do with culture. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you have to change your hide part of yourself
Speaker 1: to fit into a culture. And based on the conversations
Speaker 1: I had, you know, people are getting penalized if they don't,
Speaker 1: So that means there's clearly something wrong with the system
Speaker 1: and the culture itself. And I think, you know, the
Speaker 1: big question is how do you actually Here's that one
Speaker 1: thing I would have loved to do and here that
Speaker 1: I didn't is actually be able to break down like
Speaker 1: what the black representation is like on actual treating floors
Speaker 1: and like within investment making because those numbers they don't
Speaker 1: exist anywhere. Um. I know anecdotally that you know, at
Speaker 1: some of the banks, there are no black workers on
Speaker 1: certain desks, but it's just there. It's it's I think
Speaker 1: until there are actual numbers, it's going to be it
Speaker 1: might be hard for some of the banks to actually
Speaker 1: admit that there is a problem. And that's Bloodberg News
Speaker 1: Finance reporter Michelle Davis, as we said, one of the
Speaker 1: most read stories of the league, which in some ways
Speaker 1: I have to say is good news in the sense
Speaker 1: that I do feel like Wall Street is paying attention
Speaker 1: to this story more and more. Race, race relations and inequality, Carol.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes on Wall Street went unspoken, and I think that
Speaker 1: is underneath everything that Michelle was writing about in this story,
Speaker 1: these unwritten rules. They are disturbing to read, but also
Speaker 1: paint a portrait of maybe, maybe, just maybe a Wall
Speaker 1: Street that's ready to change. I'm just gonna say, check
Speaker 1: out our story in the Bloomberg at Bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: because there are so many revealing statistics and startling statistics
Speaker 1: in that story. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up.
Speaker 1: As states continue reopening, the question remains, are they doing
Speaker 1: it too soon? We'll hear from one of our go
Speaker 1: to voices on the virus, dr Ian LUs Bader He's
Speaker 1: the clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at n y U
Speaker 1: Landgo Medical Center. It's a week where Anthony Faucci came
Speaker 1: out and talked about virus cases could rise to a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand a day if behaviors don't change. The story
Speaker 1: front and center. This is Bloomberg. Is is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: And today we're bringing you some of the most important
Speaker 1: and we hope informative conversations we had on our daily
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week radio show this week. And Carol, as
Speaker 1: much as we would love to move on from the virus,
Speaker 1: the virus is not moving on from us. We continue
Speaker 1: to see spiking cases across the country. Well, and I
Speaker 1: feel like it was brought front and center by Anthony Fauci. Right.
Speaker 1: He's the U. S Government's top infectious disease specialist. Jason
Speaker 1: he warned lawmakers that virus cases could rise to a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand a day if behaviors do not change. I'm
Speaker 1: very concerned and I'm not satisfied with what's going on
Speaker 1: because we're going in the wrong direction. One of the
Speaker 1: voices that we talked to weekly is Dr Ian LUs Bader,
Speaker 1: his clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at n y U
Speaker 1: Landgoing Medical Center, and he told us where we are
Speaker 1: when it comes to fighting the virus. Most doctors that
Speaker 1: I speak to certainly are very concerned, and hospitals are
Speaker 1: concerned as they should be um to some degree. You know,
Speaker 1: I think by by not really mandating you know, masks
Speaker 1: and social isolation, really by giving that as an option,
Speaker 1: which you know, with multiple states and in a free country,
Speaker 1: that's certainly one approach. We're really in a way, uh
Speaker 1: following the Swedish model, which is letting nature take its course.
Speaker 1: And when that happens, there's certainly a significant risk. As
Speaker 1: Dr Fauci says, you know, cases at this point we're
Speaker 1: about forty or fifty thousand a day. We know they're
Speaker 1: really much higher because we're really only picking up about
Speaker 1: one intent or only diagnosing one intent. There are probably
Speaker 1: ten times more people who have UH COVID than than
Speaker 1: are actually being picked up by tests. So we're talking
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands a day of new cases, and of
Speaker 1: course that translates into potentially um higher surge on hospitals
Speaker 1: and health care facilities, and this is what we're seeing
Speaker 1: across the Sun Belt. Yeah, it's not even it's not
Speaker 1: even just the surge with hospitals, which is a concern,
Speaker 1: but really ultimately a higher death rate and then what
Speaker 1: I like to call post COVID syndrome. Even people who
Speaker 1: get through it often have a lot of other symptoms
Speaker 1: and ongoing healthcare issues. So it's it's quite worrisome. Ian.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that. In anticipation of our conversation, I
Speaker 1: was talking to others about, um, exactly what you're getting to.
Speaker 1: You know, you were the first one, Jason, and I
Speaker 1: can kind of almost remember the day where you talked
Speaker 1: about the blood clots, you know, throughout the body and
Speaker 1: this was just not something you see often. Talk to
Speaker 1: us about the implications of that and and the problems
Speaker 1: that seemed to be maybe staying with some patients even
Speaker 1: after they recover. Exactly, So this uh and Dr Faucci
Speaker 1: has said this. He said, this is a virus with
Speaker 1: protein manifestations, meaning multiple ways of manifesting. We typically think
Speaker 1: of viruses perhaps as an ammonia or fever, chills and aches,
Speaker 1: but this virus is unique. We we really can't think
Speaker 1: of something similar where multiple organs are affected, strokes in
Speaker 1: the brain, and kidney disease, liver disease, very high liver
Speaker 1: function test g I disease, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and not
Speaker 1: only that, besides UM killing people with blood clots and
Speaker 1: and some of the latest data show that the virus
Speaker 1: seems to increase platelet aggregation or the stickiness of platelets
Speaker 1: and platelets. Normally, you know, we need to to cause
Speaker 1: some clotting when you get an injury or a cut,
Speaker 1: but when there's a massive increase in platelet stickiness, you
Speaker 1: get clots everywhere. And that probably explains a lot of
Speaker 1: the you know, severe consequences that we see as a
Speaker 1: result of these infections. Well, and presumably that ultimately has
Speaker 1: an impact on a hospital and doctor's abilities to treat
Speaker 1: a whole host of things, including new case is. But
Speaker 1: also this long tail, as it were, uh Ian of
Speaker 1: COVID exactly right, So we have the you know, the
Speaker 1: acute UH injury or the the acute illness, and we're
Speaker 1: still a bit perplexed why there is a number of
Speaker 1: patients who have mild to to no symptoms. And this
Speaker 1: is that large young group of people who are asymptomatic,
Speaker 1: they form a reservoir. They're often feel fine and feel invulnerable.
Speaker 1: They're not wearing masks. They're potentially transferring this to other
Speaker 1: people who are older, which is why you know, universal
Speaker 1: masking is certainly a reasonable request for for all UM
Speaker 1: and then uh, insusceptible patients, you get this really cascade
Speaker 1: of effects that make people more short of breath, have
Speaker 1: clots everywhere, and then even if people survive after hospitalization,
Speaker 1: many have a long term not only psychologic effects but
Speaker 1: physical effects. Ian A Fiser vaccine showed some promise. And
Speaker 1: what's interesting is well street investors they tend to react
Speaker 1: pretty enthusiastically, rather quickly when it comes to virus news
Speaker 1: UM put it in context, when do you realistically still
Speaker 1: expect a vaccine? So I, you know, I think this
Speaker 1: is encouraging news Fightser is one of the number of
Speaker 1: companies Maduna j and j a estro Zeneca, you know,
Speaker 1: who are really moving forward. A lot of these studies
Speaker 1: are going to go into phase three with wider number
Speaker 1: of patients. The Fiser study is is fairly small, uh
Speaker 1: you know, forty five patients or so um, but it
Speaker 1: certainly is encouraging. What we don't know is in a
Speaker 1: larger number of patients, how many will develop antibodies that
Speaker 1: are neutralizing, how long those antibodies will last, and will
Speaker 1: the virus mutates. So I think it is encouraging that
Speaker 1: we're making progress. It is a unique way of making
Speaker 1: UH vaccine with messenger RNA which gets into your own
Speaker 1: cells and uh UH forms these proteins that are typical
Speaker 1: of the coronavirus COVID nineteen, typically the spike protein, and
Speaker 1: then your body forms antibodies to that, so you're not
Speaker 1: subject to the risk of a live virus. And we
Speaker 1: think that this is hopefully a better way. It is
Speaker 1: a relatively new technology, but again there are a lot
Speaker 1: of hurdles before not only is it proven effective, but
Speaker 1: it can be ramped up, manufactured and distributed, and probably
Speaker 1: there'll be several vaccines using similar technology, hopefully with similar efficacy.
Speaker 1: So I think at some point UH and I'm thinking early,
Speaker 1: but I think it can be a very bumpy road
Speaker 1: until we get there where it where it's widespread. That's
Speaker 1: Dr Eatin loss Better, clinical Associate professor of medicine at
Speaker 1: n y U Landgown Medical Center and Jason. I feel
Speaker 1: like so many of our weekly conversations with him have
Speaker 1: really often revealed things at then are in the headline.
Speaker 1: So I really feel like he has kept us ahead
Speaker 1: of the news when it comes to COVID nineteen. Well,
Speaker 1: and one of the reasons, and I think we're feeling
Speaker 1: this acutely, is because New York was so much on
Speaker 1: the front lines in New York City specifically, and he
Speaker 1: was on the front line, so he saw this virus
Speaker 1: up close and personal. He saw the effect that it
Speaker 1: had on doctors and nurses and other essential workers. And
Speaker 1: he's also seen the cautious reopening, a reopening that got
Speaker 1: a little more cautious this week, even as New York,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, Connecticut, all the states around us, in the
Speaker 1: states that we live in. Carol started to say, we
Speaker 1: may need to slow this down because of what's going
Speaker 1: on across the country. Yeah, two steps forward, one step back.
Speaker 1: It feels like you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up.
Speaker 1: We can't forget it's a presidential election year. Why Summer
Speaker 1: saying President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, well
Speaker 1: that they've switched roles when it comes to the election
Speaker 1: that's coming up next. It's like a freaky Friday. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser
Speaker 1: and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bring
Speaker 1: you some of the most important and we hope informative
Speaker 1: conversations we've had on our daily radio show, Bloomberg business Week.
Speaker 1: This week, Carol and we can't get too far away
Speaker 1: from politics. No, and it's easy to sometimes forget it's
Speaker 1: a presidential election year. Jason, it's just about four months away.
Speaker 1: Josh Green one of our favorite voices from Business Week
Speaker 1: to have on air. He's a national correspondent. He wrote
Speaker 1: the book about the elections. This week though, writing about
Speaker 1: the role swap going on between President Trump, the incumbent,
Speaker 1: and his challenge our former vice president, Senator Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: Basically Biden Jason is acting more like the incumbent. Josh
Speaker 1: joined us along with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Webber. Overall,
Speaker 1: what stood out was just the oddity of this race.
Speaker 1: But the specific thing that seems so odd, as we
Speaker 1: talked about, is that the two guys have sort of
Speaker 1: just swapped rolls. So in speaking to you past presidential strategy,
Speaker 1: administration officials, Trump officials really has to do with the
Speaker 1: unique nature of these two men. I mean, on the
Speaker 1: one hand, Donald Trump, you know, loves being a Kennedy,
Speaker 1: loves holding stadium rallies and tweeting and criticizing people, but
Speaker 1: he's never really kind of content to running the government.
Speaker 1: And when you look at all this going wrong in
Speaker 1: the country, from the spread of COVID to the recession
Speaker 1: and the collapse the stock marketing, all these other things,
Speaker 1: it's kind of understandable why he might not want to
Speaker 1: focus on that and run the way a traditional president would,
Speaker 1: which is having lots of rose garden ceremonies and reminding
Speaker 1: people that he's the president and he's in charge. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, you know, we've never had a candidate
Speaker 1: quite like Joe Biden, somebody who's been on the national
Speaker 1: stage for so long and it's so familiar that he
Speaker 1: doesn't really need to introduce himself to voters the way
Speaker 1: that like a new candidate like Barack Obama did in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. Biden doesn't really have to convince people, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm qualified to be president because he's been
Speaker 1: vice president for eight years he's been a senator for
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty years or something like that, and
Speaker 1: so he has very well known name recognition. People have
Speaker 1: a very clear idea of who Joe Biden is, moderate,
Speaker 1: Uncle Joe whatever, whatever, And so he can kind of
Speaker 1: camp out in his basement and as long as he's
Speaker 1: leading in the polls by ten, twelve, fourteen points, he
Speaker 1: can essentially run an incumbents campaign and just say, hey,
Speaker 1: vote for me. I'm Joe. Time to put me in charge. Well,
Speaker 1: and a big difference is, as you write, your story
Speaker 1: is about you know, incumbents, you know, going after um,
Speaker 1: undecided voters in the middle right. And that's what's missing
Speaker 1: from Trump. Yeah, it really is. I mean, look, there's
Speaker 1: a reason that income in presence of both parties going
Speaker 1: back a hundred years tend to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: You roll out a big second term agenda, You bring
Speaker 1: in government business big wigs into the Oval office, You
Speaker 1: kind of flaunt the power that you have in the
Speaker 1: bully pulp it and sort of established the conditions by
Speaker 1: which voters think, you know, that guy looks like he's
Speaker 1: in charge of Thanks, let's give him four more years.
Speaker 1: That's worked for every president you know, except for George H. W.
Speaker 1: Bush and Jimmy Carter and my in my lifetime, and
Speaker 1: you know, because the incumbents, he has a real measurable advantage.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of interesting that Trump has chosen to
Speaker 1: forego those potential advantages. I mean, he can, you know,
Speaker 1: call a nationally televised addressed you know, he can reach out.
Speaker 1: You know, he can you can start jobs program. There
Speaker 1: are things that you do in a big recession that
Speaker 1: Trump is just not doing. And by failing to do those,
Speaker 1: I think that helps explain why it is that swing voters,
Speaker 1: voters in the middle at least right now, according to
Speaker 1: the polls we have, are primarily signing with Joe Biden. So, Josh,
Speaker 1: I mentioned the the artwork, and for those who haven't
Speaker 1: seen it, and because this is obviously a radio program,
Speaker 1: the Our Department superimposed a Biden face on Trump and
Speaker 1: a Trump face on Biden to get this point across um.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering if that's still haunting you, Josh. It
Speaker 1: is haunting my dreams and my nightmare. I tweeted, I
Speaker 1: treated out the image of my Twitter feed a little
Speaker 1: a little while ago. Anybody wants to check it out
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure it's a Business Week um online
Speaker 1: in the print, but yeah, it's it is weird. The
Speaker 1: face the face swapping is a very vivid visual representation
Speaker 1: of the broader idea I was trying to get out
Speaker 1: here and one that you will not be able to
Speaker 1: shake from your mind for better or force, and that's
Speaker 1: Sploomberg Business Sweet national correspondent Josh Green, along with Joel Weber,
Speaker 1: the editor of the magazine, and the art. As these
Speaker 1: guys alluded to for this story. You gotta go check
Speaker 1: it out if you're listening to us on the radio,
Speaker 1: just you know, go to Josh Green's Twitter feed because
Speaker 1: it says a lot about where we are and it
Speaker 1: also a, as you said at the top, Carol, a
Speaker 1: reminder we're still in the midst of a presidential election
Speaker 1: and also are a reminder that when Donald Trump has involved,
Speaker 1: it's never business as usual, and it certainly is the
Speaker 1: case as we get closer and closer to November. That's
Speaker 1: what I was thinking when we're talking to Josh and Joel.
Speaker 1: It's an unusual year on so many different levels, including politics.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up as the
Speaker 1: presidential election heats up. We're gonna train our people who
Speaker 1: are professionals um in sports, the sports business, to be
Speaker 1: professionals in the voting business. We'll hear more from Atlanta
Speaker 1: Hawks CEO Steve Coonan, who's taking steps to in shore
Speaker 1: Atlanta voters can get to the polls. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bringing you some
Speaker 1: of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had
Speaker 1: on our daily radio show this week. And Carol, it's
Speaker 1: a business of sports invasion, but it's a great invasion.
Speaker 1: And Jason, we know that this year is turning to
Speaker 1: be a very different year on many levels. That includes
Speaker 1: the upcoming presidential election. You and Micha Lynch had an
Speaker 1: interview with the Landahawk CEO Steve Coonan. We have offered
Speaker 1: our arena, State Farm Arena, which is about seven hundred
Speaker 1: thousand square feet, to the Fulton County Commission to host
Speaker 1: voting for both the August runoff in the general election,
Speaker 1: and we will be the home of early voting for
Speaker 1: Fulton County, which is a county that has almost a
Speaker 1: million registered voters UM in early voting in Georgia, you're
Speaker 1: allowed to vote in any super precinct. So we will
Speaker 1: take our full time staff and turn them into full
Speaker 1: time poll workers. One of the difficulties Georgia has had
Speaker 1: is that they aren't volunteer training but maybe an hour
Speaker 1: before the polls opened. And we're gonna train our people
Speaker 1: who are professionals the sports business to be professionals in
Speaker 1: the voting business. They'll train for a week. We will
Speaker 1: open our doors, we will socially distant, we will allow
Speaker 1: for handicap, we will allow um for any kind of needs.
Speaker 1: And the biggest need is for an efficient, timely way
Speaker 1: to vote, and hopefully that's what we're going to deliver
Speaker 1: to the city of Atlanta in Fulam County. Steve, take
Speaker 1: me through the process here, because I'm a Boston guy,
Speaker 1: and if this idea of surfaced here in Boston, it
Speaker 1: would take a decade to get it through all the
Speaker 1: appropriate people that need to put the stamp on it.
Speaker 1: Who'd you have to deal with, who gave the green light,
Speaker 1: and whether roadblocks or any impediments. Actually it moved pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: I kind of had the idea when I was watching
Speaker 1: the protests the first couple of nights, because they were
Speaker 1: literally at the street intersection of where our arena sits,
Speaker 1: and that was the epicenter of the protests in downtown Atlanta.
Speaker 1: And protests have to lead to change, and changes very
Speaker 1: very difficult, and in my mind, the one thing that
Speaker 1: I thought we could help influence immediately was voting. And
Speaker 1: so because of the unique structure of the NBA season
Speaker 1: this year that we're not starting our season in mid
Speaker 1: October has traditionally done. But in some time in December,
Speaker 1: our building was open and available. So I had a
Speaker 1: conversation with our coach, who is coach Lloyd Pierce, who
Speaker 1: has been leading the Coaches Association on social justice and
Speaker 1: has been very very active, to bounce it off at him.
Speaker 1: He liked the idea. Our owner, Tony Rustler, liked the idea.
Speaker 1: So I placed a call to Fulton County Chairman Rob Pitts,
Speaker 1: who I had known through my career, and he called
Speaker 1: me back the next day and said, can we tour
Speaker 1: the arena? And they walked in the arena and within
Speaker 1: an hour we had a deal, and we did a
Speaker 1: press conference forty eight hours later. You had to have
Speaker 1: been surprised to eve that it moved that fast. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've been doing this for a long time, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I really applaud the Fulton County folks. They
Speaker 1: were very humble. They said they're going to move from
Speaker 1: worst to first. They understood the dilemma they were in.
Speaker 1: In fact, their head of voter registration said, we didn't
Speaker 1: know how we would solve this problem. So when somebody
Speaker 1: thinks you're a good guy, going in and candidly, we
Speaker 1: offered him everything. We're gonna pay our employees, we're going
Speaker 1: to make the parking free. We've got Marto, which is
Speaker 1: rapid transit in Atlanta, to reopen its station, which is
Speaker 1: from our door. We gave him a turnkey solution because
Speaker 1: this was something we felt passionately about. And yes, I
Speaker 1: was stunned that it moved so quickly. And I just think,
Speaker 1: you know, good timing met a good opportunity with a
Speaker 1: good solution. For us, it gives us a real opportunity
Speaker 1: to do something to help effect change, and for Fulton County,
Speaker 1: it gives them a building that has everything you need
Speaker 1: that you're not going to find in a classroom. Or
Speaker 1: a library, you know, great connectivity and WiFi, highly educated,
Speaker 1: trained young staff, spacing for social distancing. We gave them
Speaker 1: our practice court for a month with a secure with
Speaker 1: twenty four hour security. Is where they're going to count
Speaker 1: all the mail in an absentee ballots. So we're literally
Speaker 1: turning our building from State Farm arena to like a
Speaker 1: good neighbor State Farm. Is there, state Farm left and Central?
Speaker 1: How did I do on that flock? Pretty good? Pretty good?
Speaker 1: They're gonna be happy, you know, sometimes going and voting
Speaker 1: to us. As you said, a school or a library
Speaker 1: or fire station, you could stand in line for a
Speaker 1: long long time if if it's inclement weather, it discourages people.
Speaker 1: But you know, I've been to that facility. I'm a
Speaker 1: Boston guy, but I spent a week down there at
Speaker 1: the super Bowl. It's a great facility, public transportation. This
Speaker 1: might become such a pleasurable experience that you might be
Speaker 1: asked to do it every time there's a major election,
Speaker 1: at least every four years. So are you ready for that?
Speaker 1: I would love that if it became a national NBA
Speaker 1: holiday in every arena and in the league. Did it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, have you heard from other I mean, I
Speaker 1: know that this is brand new, but I have to
Speaker 1: think this is an idea that could catch on across
Speaker 1: the leagues. I talked to six teams. We have a
Speaker 1: network of NBA presidents. We work together even though we
Speaker 1: compete on the court, where business partners off. And there's
Speaker 1: only thirty of these jobs in the world. So we
Speaker 1: talked quite a bit. So I had multiple cities, UM
Speaker 1: call me and multiple cities are doing voter registration and
Speaker 1: they've already got their programs into place, so they're going
Speaker 1: to look. You know, if you own your building, your
Speaker 1: building is going to be dark from most likely concerts,
Speaker 1: and um, the start of hockey and basketball are being delayed.
Speaker 1: It's a great opportunity, and I think one of the
Speaker 1: keys is through our owner, Tony Wrestler and his generosity.
Speaker 1: We've been paying all our employees and so bye bye
Speaker 1: treating people well. Now we need something back from our
Speaker 1: staff and they couldn't be more excited to participate. So
Speaker 1: they're going from full time sports employees, hawks employees, the
Speaker 1: full time poll workers, which really hasn't happened. So Steve,
Speaker 1: you know, we were talking about the n b A
Speaker 1: and you put it very well that they're only thirty
Speaker 1: of these jobs, and you guys talk all the time.
Speaker 1: It does strike me that the NBA has been more
Speaker 1: progressive than most leagues in terms of activism, in terms
Speaker 1: of reacting and maybe being proactive around a lot of
Speaker 1: social issues. Aid you agree and be why is that?
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree. I think if you look at I
Speaker 1: think it has to start on two levels. I think
Speaker 1: the first its ownership structure. You know, Adam Silver, who
Speaker 1: is progressive and innovative and a phenomenal leader, works for
Speaker 1: owners And if you look at the ownership in our league,
Speaker 1: it's not generational ownership like you see in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have wonderful families who have owned a
Speaker 1: football team since the start. Here you've got this next
Speaker 1: generation of private equity and investors and Steve Balmer and
Speaker 1: people who are you know, well versed in the needs
Speaker 1: of community when you buy a sports team. Mark Cuban
Speaker 1: wrote this, and in fact, you wrote a letter to
Speaker 1: Bomber that was great. It said, you don't own the team,
Speaker 1: You're just the steward of the team, and the team
Speaker 1: is owned by your community. Tony calls our team a
Speaker 1: community asset, and I think sports are the great unifier.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons that I left the TV industry
Speaker 1: and went and ran my team in my town was
Speaker 1: because I thought we could do more to unite and
Speaker 1: excite the city of Atlanta than any policy or politician.
Speaker 1: And I think sports has the ability, and we're kind
Speaker 1: of seeing it with our announcement to solve problems and
Speaker 1: create opportunity in a very unique way. But I think
Speaker 1: our young ownership structure with people who are invested in
Speaker 1: their communities and also understanding our players are our product,
Speaker 1: and our players want to have a voice in Our
Speaker 1: players are our partners. We share our revenue virtually fifty fifty.
Speaker 1: I think it's fifty point one, but surrounding sake, let's
Speaker 1: go with and they want to do more than basketball,
Speaker 1: and we want to be more than a basketball team.
Speaker 1: So I think the aspirations line up perfectly in Orlando, Steve,
Speaker 1: there's going to be on the floor painted on all
Speaker 1: the courts that are playing Black Lives Matter? Um will
Speaker 1: that carryovers went to if we come to the next
Speaker 1: season in the NBA, and could we see visible signage
Speaker 1: of standing up for so a little justice in the
Speaker 1: thirty arenas around the NBA. I can't comment on whether
Speaker 1: it carries over, but I think the idea of strong
Speaker 1: pro social statements and positionings and reinforcement of ideals absolutely
Speaker 1: makes sense. You know, I said, I haven't even discussed
Speaker 1: that with anybody. I saw that you thought it was fantastic,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a huge statement then, and I'm very,
Speaker 1: very very proud to be part of the NBA when
Speaker 1: they make statements like that. That's Atlanta Hawk CEO Steve
Speaker 1: Coonan Jason with you and of course Mike Lent you
Speaker 1: guys interviewed him for the Business of Sports. I think
Speaker 1: this is fascinating and I'm curious to see if other
Speaker 1: cities and states start to do the same thing. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's a callback to last week's invasion that I
Speaker 1: had into this show, which was Lebron James and everything
Speaker 1: that he's doing around this more than a vote effort.
Speaker 1: I mean, what we're talking about here, Carol, is an
Speaker 1: attempt to write some structural wrongs that have to do
Speaker 1: with access to voting in this country. It's just that simple.
Speaker 1: These are the sorts of efforts I really believe that
Speaker 1: could fundamentally alter Dare I say democracy in the United States. Well,
Speaker 1: I love what this team is doing, right, because they're
Speaker 1: also challenging other NBA franchises to essentially become civically involved
Speaker 1: ahead of the November election. So let's see if everybody
Speaker 1: follow suit. Kind of keeping my fingers crossed on that,
Speaker 1: me too. That wraps up the first hour of the
Speaker 1: weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Plenty coming up in
Speaker 1: our next hour as we take you into our special
Speaker 1: double issue. It's the heist edition, perfect for stay at
Speaker 1: home reads or maybe social distancing beach reads. Perhaps, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just don't get any ideas about stealing stuff. Plus, we'll
Speaker 1: hear from Mac Weldon CEO Brian Burger his take on
Speaker 1: running retail during this new world order. That and so
Speaker 1: much more is coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg rate O. Hello, I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. Plenty ahead a few in this hour of
Speaker 1: the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including our conversation
Speaker 1: with an old friend of the show mac Weldon CEO
Speaker 1: Brian Burger on the front lines carol of retail and
Speaker 1: the collision of e commerce and brick and mortar, if
Speaker 1: that's even a thing anymore. Plus time to eat, Yes,
Speaker 1: exactly impossible. Foods Chief financial Officer David Lee stopped by.
Speaker 1: He talked about expanding sales of their plant based sausage.
Speaker 1: They're rolling it out nationwide, and he had some interesting
Speaker 1: statistics about what's been happening at their company as a
Speaker 1: result of the lockdown. But first, let's sake you inside
Speaker 1: the Heist edition. It's a double issue of the magazine,
Speaker 1: an annual tradition. Now here's the editor of the magazine,
Speaker 1: Joel Webber and Max Chafkin. He oversaw the whole issue. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a third annual Heist issue. It's
Speaker 1: a huge testament to one Max Chafkin, who has become
Speaker 1: just the captain of this thing. And you know, Max
Speaker 1: and I just like all year long or basically like
Speaker 1: talking about this issue and like putting together our our
Speaker 1: works in progress list or whip list, and you know,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the ones that are going to
Speaker 1: make it or not make it. And you know that
Speaker 1: this issue is a culmination really of that process and
Speaker 1: a huge testament to him. And you know, all these
Speaker 1: UM reads, you know, we've always said joke that, um,
Speaker 1: we want to kind of steal your summer with this
Speaker 1: issue and and boy, um could we have come out
Speaker 1: at a better moment in time for that. Um. So
Speaker 1: hopefully everyone can you know, pack this around all summer
Speaker 1: long and take their time enjoying it, because the stories
Speaker 1: are just tremendously good. Max, what is your favorite? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I love them all, but the story that
Speaker 1: Carol mentioned at the top, the Super Bowl Ring pis
Speaker 1: um is is epic and wonderful. It's by Zeeke Fox,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to ruin the whole thing, um,
Speaker 1: but it's about a very very very committed New England
Speaker 1: Patriots fan who decided in basically that thirteen years ago
Speaker 1: to get revenge on on the Giants and the way
Speaker 1: he decided to do that was by healing their Super
Speaker 1: Bowl now and it wasn't even the biggest heist that
Speaker 1: he went math for that you'll have to read the story.
Speaker 1: Um Uh. You know you guys talked with Clear Steth
Speaker 1: yesterday about her story about the Gardner Museum where this
Speaker 1: five million dollar mystery remains, this this sort of thing
Speaker 1: in the art world that no one has ever been
Speaker 1: able to crack. Um. My favorite little detail about that
Speaker 1: is we call it we've called it the case of
Speaker 1: the Empty Frames, because the museum has to keep the
Speaker 1: frames empty on the walls because otherwise the the entire
Speaker 1: museum would actually turn over to Harvard and they have
Speaker 1: to keep things exactly as they were when the eras
Speaker 1: handed them down and created the museum. Um. So it's
Speaker 1: like a heist within a heist if they you know,
Speaker 1: if they act out of wine U and the stories
Speaker 1: just kind of keep going. There's an amazing one that
Speaker 1: we just published today by Natalie Obico Pearson Um about
Speaker 1: Huawei and Canada, where there was once a company called Nortel.
Speaker 1: A mysterious hack um sink that company Whahwei. It coincides
Speaker 1: with basically the moment in time that Whahwei really started
Speaker 1: to emerge as a dominant force. And actually, uh Whahwei
Speaker 1: ended up hiring a whole team of Nortel engineers who
Speaker 1: basically ended up being the ones that built five G
Speaker 1: at Wahwei. So it's a way for us to be
Speaker 1: both timely and timeless, which is sort of one of
Speaker 1: my favorite attributes that we try and do it. They're
Speaker 1: just so much fun. So Max, I'm just curious about
Speaker 1: the conversations you guys have in the news room when
Speaker 1: you are putting this together. You gotta think about it. It
Speaker 1: It comes out every year, at least for the last
Speaker 1: four years, so you know what goes on in the
Speaker 1: news room as you get ready, you know, and you
Speaker 1: plan for this well. So I mean these are mostly fun.
Speaker 1: Not every story in this issue is what I would call,
Speaker 1: you know, a hundred percent fall laugh. Um. But but
Speaker 1: for the most part, we're talking about stories that are
Speaker 1: fun and entertaining to report and and and entertaining to
Speaker 1: write and entertaining to read. And so you know, the
Speaker 1: reporters in the newsroom like this issue. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a kind of journalist favorite and um and so yeah,
Speaker 1: throughout the year, you know, we're Joel, like Joel said,
Speaker 1: you know, we're fielding pitches, um for these stories. The
Speaker 1: super Bowl one that I mentioned was, uh, you know
Speaker 1: months in the making. I think we first started talking
Speaker 1: about it in October and November of last year. Um
Speaker 1: and uh and and and so it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: a combination of just sort of over the year, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, fielding a bunch of pitches, but then also
Speaker 1: trying to be a little bit imaginative and think about,
Speaker 1: you know, what are some what are business stories that
Speaker 1: you wouldn't necessarily think of as a conventional heist story,
Speaker 1: but that could be thought of that way. And and
Speaker 1: and that's one that's like the Northtell story that that
Speaker 1: Joel mentioned, you know. Also by the way, Happy Candida Day, everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, the story is about a UM Canadian national
Speaker 1: champion that UM was you know, through its own hand,
Speaker 1: through the market, and through a hack, was destroyed. And
Speaker 1: so it's not it's not a straight up heist, but
Speaker 1: it is a story where there where some theft plays
Speaker 1: a role, and there's also kind of a sort of
Speaker 1: business theft that is like one company taking another company's
Speaker 1: market share. So we try to take a you know,
Speaker 1: a a sort of broader view of heist and then
Speaker 1: we and then but of course they have to have
Speaker 1: some like just classic you know, take the painting type
Speaker 1: type pet stories and and and we actually have two
Speaker 1: of us issues. So so it's a mix. And that's
Speaker 1: s Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber and Features editor
Speaker 1: Max Chaffkin, the architect of the Heist issue. I wonder
Speaker 1: if he got any big ideas. I kind of love
Speaker 1: this issue. Right, You never know what you're going to
Speaker 1: get in the Heist issue, but it's all about stories
Speaker 1: of mystery and things gone missing. I love it. Stolen
Speaker 1: super Bowl rings, pleased workers, I don't love that. But nonetheless, man,
Speaker 1: where they go when they do this issue, it's always
Speaker 1: a wonderful, wonderful read. All right, you're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. Coming up, Mack Weldon is airing its ads
Speaker 1: on television for the very first time. Our conversation with
Speaker 1: the company's founder and CEO that's coming up next. They're
Speaker 1: a digital retailer, but man, they are definitely doing things
Speaker 1: a little bit differently in this environment. Well, they're at
Speaker 1: the nexus of everything when it comes to apparel and shopping,
Speaker 1: and we know it's a new world. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: If you came across someone struggling with hunger, how would
Speaker 1: you recognize them? By their clothes, their age, the way
Speaker 1: they speak. Hunger can be hard to recognize. Learn Why
Speaker 1: I Am Hunger in America dot Org brought to you
Speaker 1: by Feeding America, two hundred food banks strong and the
Speaker 1: ad Council. Vice is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser
Speaker 1: and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some
Speaker 1: of the most important and informative conversations we have throughout
Speaker 1: the week on our daily radio show. And Jason, we
Speaker 1: do like to remind everybody that as we were having
Speaker 1: these conversations, I mean, the world continued to evolve. The
Speaker 1: stories continued across the Bloomberg terminal, I mean, news just
Speaker 1: was fast and furious well. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that we know is happening is that people actually are
Speaker 1: continuing to shop now they're doing it a lot more
Speaker 1: online and that's probably good news for Mac Weldon. CEO
Speaker 1: Brian Burger, he's a friend of the show. We check
Speaker 1: in with him pretty regularly about what they're doing. Full disclosure,
Speaker 1: I'm a customer by Stuff Stuff. It's really good. But
Speaker 1: he caught up with us to talk about some of
Speaker 1: the new things he's doing to respond to the crisis.
Speaker 1: The irrespect of what's going on now, and we're always
Speaker 1: trying to be really thoughtful about where our at show
Speaker 1: up a lot of our ads are served by algorithms, UM,
Speaker 1: and so UM, you know, you can put constraints on
Speaker 1: you know, on sites that you want to be excluded,
Speaker 1: but UM, you know, so it's something that we think
Speaker 1: about on a regular basis and that we have thought
Speaker 1: about a lot with respect to what's going on right
Speaker 1: now with Facebook. UM. I wouldn't say that we're at
Speaker 1: a point where we feel that we're going to be
Speaker 1: kind of pulling our ats, but we absolutely respect UM,
Speaker 1: you know, the moves that some of the larger brands
Speaker 1: are making in this regard, and you know, these are tough,
Speaker 1: you know, these are tough calls, and I think for everybody, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, we're living in UM you know, and in
Speaker 1: really unprecedented times. And I think that UM brands taking
Speaker 1: a stand for things that they believe in is really awesome.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've tried to do that as appropriate,
Speaker 1: and we'll continue to look at this situation and see
Speaker 1: what makes the most sense for us well and speak
Speaker 1: of taking stands and the conversations that that you're having, Brian,
Speaker 1: I mean, I do UM wonder about the conversations you're
Speaker 1: having around equality and inequality and diversity right now. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you're a relatively young company in in some ways.
Speaker 1: It's what we've heard from a lot of ceo as
Speaker 1: we've talked to, is that when you're a younger company,
Speaker 1: in some ways it's easier to have this conversation, you know,
Speaker 1: younger in terms of the age of the company, but
Speaker 1: also candidly in terms of the age of your work
Speaker 1: wars and whatnot, and how you are constructed. Tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit if you can, about what those conversations
Speaker 1: are like and some of the things you're hearing from
Speaker 1: your employees that you're putting into play. It's been super
Speaker 1: it's been super um uh. You know, also with respect
Speaker 1: to the COVID lockdown and then the murder of George Floyd. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's been challenging on so many levels. But
Speaker 1: but the murder of George Floyd was was particularly challenging
Speaker 1: because there was a bit of a galvanizing effect when
Speaker 1: we all went into quarantine. And really the message for
Speaker 1: myself and from from for most c e o's was that,
Speaker 1: you know, this is we're all in this together. Um.
Speaker 1: And in this instance, the message was we're not all
Speaker 1: in this together. Um. There are parts of our employee
Speaker 1: base that have been uh and and are way more
Speaker 1: affected by this than other parts. But that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that we can't all together come together UM and do
Speaker 1: a much better job. But how we think about diversity
Speaker 1: and inclusion in our company, and so we took some
Speaker 1: very specific actions, UM, and we came together and you know,
Speaker 1: the work is just beginning, but uh starting with you know,
Speaker 1: a diverse an inclusive workspace. UM. We all felt that
Speaker 1: there was way more that we could be doing proactively
Speaker 1: to make this part of our operating culture and our
Speaker 1: d n A than we have historically been doing. So
Speaker 1: we committed ourselves to to certain things as a company
Speaker 1: and we look forward to um, you know, rolling those
Speaker 1: out and really sort of moving the ball forward on this.
Speaker 1: I have to tell you, Brian Jason, I are messaging
Speaker 1: ourselves back and forth because you're what you said about
Speaker 1: we found out that we're not all in this together.
Speaker 1: I mean that is such an important statement because we're not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again that doesn't mean that we can't and it's
Speaker 1: an opportunity to learn. UM. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that we did that was really powerful. You know, ends
Speaker 1: are really compelled to like react when things happen and
Speaker 1: a lot do. And it's it's challenging because you don't
Speaker 1: want to be seen as you know, kind of being
Speaker 1: opportunistic or pandering to the moments for your own kind
Speaker 1: of you know, brand advantage. So we really tried to
Speaker 1: be very introspective and and and we had an employee
Speaker 1: first mindset. If we treat our employees right, and we
Speaker 1: create the right work culture and environment for employees, and
Speaker 1: no will ultimately manifest itself externally to our customers and
Speaker 1: to our brands. And I have to say, Jason, I've
Speaker 1: talked to you know, Richard Edelman of Edelman you know,
Speaker 1: Corporate Communications, and he's you know, advising a lot of
Speaker 1: companies and reminding us whether it's through the virus and
Speaker 1: also you know, with what happened in Minneapolis that it's
Speaker 1: just not the time for companies. I think we all
Speaker 1: had a little bit of a time where we had
Speaker 1: to kind of find our way. But ultimately, bottom line,
Speaker 1: it's not a time for companies to go dark or
Speaker 1: for leaders to go dark. You know that people want
Speaker 1: to hear from companies, especially those that they like. UM,
Speaker 1: so it's an interesting time. It's an interesting time too
Speaker 1: for you guys, because you're doing TV ads. What's up
Speaker 1: with that? Yeah, So this is something that we had
Speaker 1: as a priority in ten, but because the rest of
Speaker 1: our advertising, um, you know, all the rest of our
Speaker 1: advertising programs were quite honestly, UM facing a lot of
Speaker 1: headwinds in for a whole variety of reasons, we didn't
Speaker 1: really have the space in our marketing budget to really
Speaker 1: execute on it. And like so many things that have
Speaker 1: happened during this kind of hundred plus day quarantine, it's
Speaker 1: just an amazing example of our team, our entire company,
Speaker 1: our entire team UM doing more with less, no fancy shoots,
Speaker 1: no big production budgets, no kind of new you know,
Speaker 1: original content. We effectively looked UM into the assets that
Speaker 1: we had and really found probably the best thing you
Speaker 1: can use in an ad, which is a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of video customer testimonials that we had done early in
Speaker 1: UH in the year that we were able to repurpose
Speaker 1: with some video editing, with some you know, voiceover, with
Speaker 1: some graphic insertions around product and really stitched together creative
Speaker 1: that was very UM you know, I think tone wise,
Speaker 1: really UM appropriate for where we are right now, and
Speaker 1: then able just to get to market really fast with
Speaker 1: with a test and then the other the other thing.
Speaker 1: We're basically um a lot of advertisers pulling out of
Speaker 1: traditional kind of linear television, spot television, over the top
Speaker 1: video create a little bit more space for brands like
Speaker 1: ours to come in and test, because we're just testing
Speaker 1: this right now. That's Mac Weldon founder and CEO Brian
Speaker 1: Burger Jason. We loved talking with him digital retailer, right
Speaker 1: but they did open their first brick and mortar store
Speaker 1: about a year ago this spring at the shops at
Speaker 1: Hudson Yard. So really understands the retail environment and really
Speaker 1: how to operate in this new world order. Well, and
Speaker 1: what I find fascinating is the world has in many
Speaker 1: ways that no one would have predicted it. This has
Speaker 1: sort of come to him, not only in terms of
Speaker 1: the way people shop. We're all shopping online, but what
Speaker 1: we're buying, what we're wearing. I am a testament to this.
Speaker 1: You see me every day our video conference system. You know,
Speaker 1: it's T shirts and jeans all the time. And we
Speaker 1: had a story this week via The New York Times
Speaker 1: about zoom shirts. Basically people throwing on a dress shirt
Speaker 1: if they've got to be seen on video. I do
Speaker 1: that sometimes, but I do wonder what's gonna stick on
Speaker 1: the other side of this. That's right. I recently saw
Speaker 1: you in a jacket. I'm like, Jason, what's going on
Speaker 1: over there? Feels weird? I know, I know. All right,
Speaker 1: you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, We've got
Speaker 1: an investor in entrepreneur looks at the world through so
Speaker 1: many different lenses. We're talking about FS Investments, vice chair
Speaker 1: and CEO campus apartments. David Edelman is back with us.
Speaker 1: That's coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well,
Speaker 1: today we're bringing some of the most important, we hope
Speaker 1: informative conversations we had on our daily radio show this week,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week too to six pm Wall Street Time.
Speaker 1: Just as a reminder, and we love talking with folks
Speaker 1: Carol who have multiple lenses, multiple views into the economy
Speaker 1: and business. It takes almost a couple of minutes to
Speaker 1: just introduce him, but I love talking with him because,
Speaker 1: as you said, Jason, you can talk about real estate, sports, education, travel.
Speaker 1: David Edelman he see of campus apartments. He's also the
Speaker 1: vice chair of FS Investments. That's an alternative investment fund manager.
Speaker 1: They've got about twenty four billion of assets under management,
Speaker 1: and we caught up with him, you know, to just
Speaker 1: check in about where we are in terms of the
Speaker 1: investment and business environment. It's interesting. You know, you had
Speaker 1: the best quarter since the dall so I guess, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think things were that as good
Speaker 1: a month or six weeks ago when we were on
Speaker 1: the phone. So a lot has happened in the markets,
Speaker 1: I guess since then, and uh, you know, interesting time
Speaker 1: here we are. Yeah, this sort of divergent world that
Speaker 1: that we're living in, David for sure, and we've been
Speaker 1: talking a lot about that. So let's start there. What
Speaker 1: do you make of it? I mean, you see investments
Speaker 1: across the spectrum from rive it to public. You see
Speaker 1: the public markets, but you're also looking at startups. You're
Speaker 1: advising entrepreneurs like synthesize it for us, Like, what do
Speaker 1: you make of the world? What's your view? It's interesting.
Speaker 1: I look, if I was betting against the market, I
Speaker 1: would have been really wrong. And you know I I
Speaker 1: didn't take into account how much capital, Uh, the FED
Speaker 1: would put into the economy to kind of you know,
Speaker 1: prop it up. And it's done an unbelievable job because
Speaker 1: I think, you know, without that, we wouldn't have an
Speaker 1: all time high where we are right now, in a
Speaker 1: great quarter in the markets for sure. Uh. And they've
Speaker 1: done a great job of taking you know, a horrible
Speaker 1: pandemic and creating optimism at least from a standpoint of
Speaker 1: the you know, the capital markets. Well, David, are you
Speaker 1: one of those who thinks there is a divergence between
Speaker 1: what's happening in the financial markets versus what is happening
Speaker 1: in the real economy. What are you seeing you know
Speaker 1: as you look at your different businesses and your different investments. Well,
Speaker 1: so it's interesting. You know, I also wouldn't have bet that,
Speaker 1: you know, May and June had strong retail sales as
Speaker 1: things started opening. There was this pent up demand and
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't see that coming because you know,
Speaker 1: you still have over you know, thirty forty million unemployed people,
Speaker 1: which is just, you know, really sad, and you know,
Speaker 1: we have to figure out a way to open up
Speaker 1: the economy and get those folks back to work. And
Speaker 1: you know, for those who have lost jobs in industries
Speaker 1: that you know might not might have gone away. We
Speaker 1: need to retrain them. And so that's the divergence that's
Speaker 1: confusing to me is where you see the markets really
Speaker 1: doing well, you see retail spending going well, e commerce
Speaker 1: is moving um, and then you still have to think
Speaker 1: about these, you know, kind of the unemployment claims. David
Speaker 1: talked to us shifting gears a little bit about back
Speaker 1: to school. You're very involved with campus housing, campus apartments
Speaker 1: that Carol mentioned, you're the CEO there. Housing obviously is
Speaker 1: a key part of getting college kids back on campus.
Speaker 1: What's it gonna look like? What are you seeing literally
Speaker 1: from the ground level. Yeah, so I think you know,
Speaker 1: one thing got really proven during the pandemic and um,
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned this last time. That's over sixty
Speaker 1: up to eight on where we were in the country
Speaker 1: of our residents actually quarantined in our apartments off and
Speaker 1: kind of stayed in that environment. And what became very clear,
Speaker 1: and you know, the universities will acknowledge this that the
Speaker 1: online learning experience, you know, people didn't feel they got
Speaker 1: the value out of that, and so people are craving that,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of in person experience. Uh, looking you
Speaker 1: have for the schools to open, and the schools really
Speaker 1: realized from a business perspective. You know, I'm a parent
Speaker 1: who's got a high school senior that's going to start
Speaker 1: as a freshman in the fall. If you're a college
Speaker 1: that doesn't open your child, you might lose that customer
Speaker 1: and they might transfer to a school that is going
Speaker 1: to open. And so really important from the business perspective
Speaker 1: that they kind of provide a service to their customers.
Speaker 1: There was a great article actually today in the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal, uh, from the president of Cornell talking about
Speaker 1: how they're opening up, why they're opening up, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the COVID testing they're gonna do, and you know, so
Speaker 1: I commend the schools because they've really come out thoughtful
Speaker 1: plans and you know, in the last three weeks, you know,
Speaker 1: most of the other schools in the country, you know,
Speaker 1: we're probably north of the schools have probably reported at
Speaker 1: this point, you know, with some sort of hybrid model,
Speaker 1: meaning your big giant lectures while those are going to
Speaker 1: do online, but they're still going to utilize in person,
Speaker 1: in class teachings for the smaller classes, you know, just
Speaker 1: a little more spread out. You are the owner of
Speaker 1: a number owner part owner of a number of sports teams.
Speaker 1: Where are we in the world of sports right now?
Speaker 1: How optimistic are you that we're going to get back
Speaker 1: to something resembling close to normal here. I think I've
Speaker 1: watched every replay of every you know, basketball games for
Speaker 1: the last twenty years, So I'm ready for fresh content,
Speaker 1: as is everybody else, right And um, you know, I
Speaker 1: think you know, the leagues are all trying to figure
Speaker 1: this out as best they can. Um, you know, the
Speaker 1: NBA is near and dear to me, and you know
Speaker 1: my friends who play, are you know ready, They're all
Speaker 1: working out very hard. And I think that, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to give credit to just you know, the
Speaker 1: way they're trying to be safe and which is what
Speaker 1: you have to do first. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: people are excited to have, you know, some id content.
Speaker 1: And that's FS Investments Vice chairman David Edelman. They have
Speaker 1: some private equity investments. They've got about four billion dollars
Speaker 1: in assets under management. Carol and I love his view
Speaker 1: of the world, in part because he's in Philadelphia said
Speaker 1: that makes it a little bit different. He owns some
Speaker 1: sports teams. He's invested in the higher education realm through
Speaker 1: real estate, so all these inputs that he gets gives
Speaker 1: him a pretty holistic view of the world. I love
Speaker 1: what he had to say to he too, like so
Speaker 1: many of us, were surprised at the market run up
Speaker 1: um and it was just kind of fun to get
Speaker 1: his take on where we are, certainly in the equity
Speaker 1: markets and so much more. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week.
Speaker 1: Coming up, the plant based protein market getting a boost
Speaker 1: during the virus lockdown. We check in with Impossible Foods
Speaker 1: chief financial officer David Lee. That's coming up next. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser
Speaker 1: and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Today we're bringing you
Speaker 1: some of the most important and informative conversations we had
Speaker 1: on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show this week.
Speaker 1: And Carol, you know the meat alternative market. I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: by it. You are too. It is booming during the pandemic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and one of the big players in this market that
Speaker 1: continues to tap into that growing demand is Impossible Foods. Jason.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting, this was a big week for them.
Speaker 1: They rolled out nationally. It's first all new products since
Speaker 1: it released It's impossible Burger back in It's sausages, protein
Speaker 1: based sausages. We got the latest on the new product
Speaker 1: and the market from Impossible Foods CFO David Lee. Well,
Speaker 1: our world has continuously been about increased demands, even as
Speaker 1: more and more folks to this global pandemic or sheltering
Speaker 1: in place. You've seen something like a thirty x increase
Speaker 1: in Impossible Foods business and grocery stores, and we're on
Speaker 1: track actually to exceed fifty x growth this year. We
Speaker 1: are trying to adjust to meet the meat eater where
Speaker 1: they're increasingly shopping, and that means in grocery stores, it
Speaker 1: means creating our direct to consumer business by not Impossible
Speaker 1: Foods dot Com, as well as supporting the rollout at
Speaker 1: Starbucks and at Burger king our new platform, the Impossible Sausage.
Speaker 1: So David talked to us about sort of those shifts
Speaker 1: that you had to make to to meet that demand.
Speaker 1: Was it, uh? Did it involve sort of shifting spending?
Speaker 1: Did it involve shifting production? Like take us inside, what
Speaker 1: what you had to do as this uh sort of
Speaker 1: changed and then kept changing, right because search doesn't Demand
Speaker 1: are great, but sometimes you gotta all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, exactly you, But I mean we have
Speaker 1: been well prepared for the search that we're recently seeing
Speaker 1: because a big part of our research and development it's
Speaker 1: not just in a delicious impossible sausage product or an
Speaker 1: a possible burger, it's the actual way we make our product.
Speaker 1: So being able to scale with co manufacturers like O
Speaker 1: s I has allowed us to meet all the doma
Speaker 1: and we're seeing and continue to grow. That said, it
Speaker 1: is unprecedented the amount of demand we're seeing, and so
Speaker 1: far we are on track to supply it. Were you,
Speaker 1: David surprised by that? I mean, I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people have been home and they're ordering lots of food,
Speaker 1: But I am curious how you think specifically the virus
Speaker 1: impacted kind of your world, maybe opened it up or
Speaker 1: made more people aware. Did you specifically target folks with
Speaker 1: advertising or how do you think it came about? What
Speaker 1: are you hearing? Well? Our brand has been built predominantly
Speaker 1: based on earned media and word amount, and I think
Speaker 1: is more and more meat eaters are sheltering in place,
Speaker 1: they're thinking about the choices that they make every day
Speaker 1: to feed their families. They're thinking about what is the
Speaker 1: meat they created due to the environment and their health.
Speaker 1: You know, nine out of ten of our customers are
Speaker 1: self about meat eaters. And when you have the benefit
Speaker 1: of really deeping, deeply thinking about better choices for yourself,
Speaker 1: it's a natural fit with the rollout of the products
Speaker 1: because we're just as crevable. We just don't have as
Speaker 1: many compromises for your health and for the environment. That's interesting.
Speaker 1: So tell us more about what you've learned about the customer, David,
Speaker 1: because you make such a good point that it is
Speaker 1: a very reflective time. I mean, and that extends to
Speaker 1: everything from exercise to nutrition to you know, maybe even
Speaker 1: some bigger um crises that we're facing as a country
Speaker 1: around social justice and consumption and inequality and all those
Speaker 1: different things. But it is a time to get to
Speaker 1: know your customer more. Tell us more about them. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, meals have always brought family together, and the
Speaker 1: impossible burger could possibly be the one product that's been
Speaker 1: launched to bring everyone together, whether your immediate or your vegan,
Speaker 1: your halal or your kosher. You know, what we find
Speaker 1: is that as home chefs experiment with cooking. You know,
Speaker 1: they've come to realize that meat is incredibly bespoke to
Speaker 1: how they want to serve it. They can make it
Speaker 1: rare or all done. They can put it in pasta
Speaker 1: or a burger. An impossible burger and impossible sausage are
Speaker 1: unique in that they're entirely meet from plants, but you
Speaker 1: can make them into whatever you're you're you're hoping to
Speaker 1: make for dinner for your family, unlike almost any other
Speaker 1: plant based product prior um So, I think that experience
Speaker 1: of watching our products transform in their own hands has
Speaker 1: been a unique one, different than going to a burger
Speaker 1: King or to a Starbucks where you can enjoy the
Speaker 1: impossible breakfast sandwich or the impossible sandwich. And that's been
Speaker 1: driving a lot of the growth we're seeing out of grocery. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what I was curious, David, like, break it down
Speaker 1: for us. I mean, we're Bloomberg, we're nerdy, we loved
Speaker 1: you know, kind of to breakdown exactly where you're seeing
Speaker 1: the growth. So is it you know you talk about
Speaker 1: the direct consumer market, so people can go online, there's
Speaker 1: the supermarkets, there's those partnerships, right Starbucks you know, announcing
Speaker 1: their own breakfast sandwich that's made with your possible sausage.
Speaker 1: So rolling it out to fifteen thousand stores nationwide, where
Speaker 1: is the most growth among those revenue streams. Well, candidly,
Speaker 1: we're seeing growth across all of them. I mean twenty
Speaker 1: thousand locations for impossible sausage made from plants since the
Speaker 1: start of the year, an increase of thirty x the
Speaker 1: number of grocery stores right up to nearly five thousand
Speaker 1: locations today with plans to grow that even faster. And
Speaker 1: then the recovery that we are helping support amongst food service,
Speaker 1: where you're seeing innovative tactics by our restaurant partners. They
Speaker 1: are they're shipping raw impossible burger direct to the home consumer,
Speaker 1: they're creating meal kits uh and and frankly, all of
Speaker 1: that is happening in a way that transcends any single channel.
Speaker 1: It because we are building a new business we can
Speaker 1: adjust to where the meat eater has shifted, and they're
Speaker 1: shifting increasingly to cooking at home. Though we are seeing
Speaker 1: resurgence again back in the food service world. So David,
Speaker 1: talk to us about sausage because you know that is
Speaker 1: an area be sage love sausage I have. I've tried
Speaker 1: the product in restaurants. I'm excited to try it uh
Speaker 1: in my home. But I mean, it obviously is a
Speaker 1: different sort of product. But as you say, a lot
Speaker 1: of possibilities there tell us about sort of the development
Speaker 1: of it and how you market it maybe differently than
Speaker 1: you do just the straight up burger and the more
Speaker 1: straight ahead meat or meat product. Yeah, I mean, well,
Speaker 1: the hallmarks for Impossible Sausage in some ways are really
Speaker 1: similar to the way in which we've been successful with
Speaker 1: the Impossible Burger. It it appeals to meat eaters like men.
Speaker 1: You um. It transforms the way the Impossible Burger does.
Speaker 1: And it's comfort food. You know, we we announced that
Speaker 1: with yelps help, we're at thirty of America's top rank diners,
Speaker 1: these mom and pops that are just knowing known for
Speaker 1: delicious comfort food, even as we roll out at fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand locations across Starbucks and Burger Kings. And that's the
Speaker 1: thing about a great sausage product. It creates a new
Speaker 1: opportunity for breakfast or impossible foods. You know, burgers are great,
Speaker 1: and the Impossible Burger is one of the best, but
Speaker 1: it's often not the first thing you wake up and
Speaker 1: choose to eat, whereas a great breakfast sandwich is something
Speaker 1: I think we all If the first thing you're waking
Speaker 1: up and eating is a Burger David, you've had in college,
Speaker 1: you're you're in college, or you've had a really rough night,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that's that's right. But yeah, speaking of which,
Speaker 1: the Impossible Sausage is some of the best health potentials
Speaker 1: around and that it has more iron than an average
Speaker 1: brand of pork sausage, right, it has less calorie, less fat,
Speaker 1: so you know, Patty for Patty, the Impossible Sausage is
Speaker 1: a pretty good choice first thing in the morning or anytime. Well,
Speaker 1: you know why, we're very excited. I have to jump
Speaker 1: in because you know, and Jason and I always go
Speaker 1: there when we're looking at all these you know, meat alternatives,
Speaker 1: protein based products. You know, because you know that everybody
Speaker 1: talks about the high levels of sodium. I've got to say,
Speaker 1: I went to your website. You guys go into a
Speaker 1: lot of detail about the sodium levels in your products.
Speaker 1: It's very informative, um and I highly recommend that everybody
Speaker 1: read it. Having said that it sounds like, though, David,
Speaker 1: that you folks at Impossible are still looking at ways
Speaker 1: to reduce maybe the things that might make people a
Speaker 1: little concerned about the health factors of eating your products.
Speaker 1: Is that fair to say that you're still trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe even improve it, whether it's the sodium
Speaker 1: levels or what have you. Absolutely, you know, the benefit
Speaker 1: of the way we approach our work is we're driven
Speaker 1: by science, which means there's a new, better version around
Speaker 1: the corner for every product we have. You know, we
Speaker 1: already have no cholesterol in our products and as much protein,
Speaker 1: as much iron, but we're increasingly improving the health profile,
Speaker 1: whether that's less and less fat or less and less salt.
Speaker 1: You know, the thing about salt, which you probably read,
Speaker 1: is that most meat eaters don't take raw meat and
Speaker 1: eat it without seasoning it. And so we like to
Speaker 1: think that by the time you enjoy our product versus
Speaker 1: the product from an animal, not altogether that's different in
Speaker 1: the amount of sodium your consumer. But that said, are
Speaker 1: the promise of our technology is to get better and better,
Speaker 1: and I think you'll see more and more versions and
Speaker 1: improvements to come. That's a possible. Foods Chief financial Officer
Speaker 1: David Lee, and I think it's really interesting, Jason. They're
Speaker 1: seeing growth for their products on all of their revenue streams.
Speaker 1: They talked about I think something like thirty three times
Speaker 1: an increase in their business um, which is pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: And I also thought you and I both found it
Speaker 1: interesting that nine out of ten of their customers are
Speaker 1: meat eaters. Yeah, totally. Yeah, this is a market that
Speaker 1: I think tells us a lot about where consumers are going.
Speaker 1: And it was interesting also to talk to him about
Speaker 1: their company and being a mission driven company and being
Speaker 1: a mission driven company at a time when so many
Speaker 1: companies are facing big existential questions about what they are
Speaker 1: and where they want to go when it comes to
Speaker 1: diversity and when it comes to you know, the type
Speaker 1: of consumers they want to appeal to. Yeah, exactly. And
Speaker 1: that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. That so much for joining us. I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masster. Be sure to dune
Speaker 1: into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Monday through Friday starting
Speaker 1: at two pm Wall Street Time. And if you can't
Speaker 1: catch us live, get our daily Bloomberg Business Week Podcast
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to check
Speaker 1: out our podcast feed for all of the full interviews
Speaker 1: that were highlighted in our weekend show over the last
Speaker 1: couple of hours, and also check out our extra podcast.
Speaker 1: We talked with Charlotte Say Martin of the Broadway League
Speaker 1: Jason in a week where they came out and said
Speaker 1: theaters will remain closed for at least the rest of
Speaker 1: the year. Broadway is going to be dark for a while.
Speaker 1: You can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just
Speaker 1: search for Bloomberg Global News and get this week's edition
Speaker 1: of the magazine that is on newsstands now. We'll be
Speaker 1: back right here next week at the same time. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg