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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside

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Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day, we bring

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Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along

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Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and

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Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Matt and I are

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Speaker 1: calling a trend here. We had some good CPI data

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Speaker 1: last week, we had some good PPI data. This week

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Speaker 1: we're calling out a trend. This FED can cool its jets.

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Speaker 1: What's the market telling you? Yeah, well, the market is

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Speaker 1: certainly thinking that. You know, we're fully priced now for

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Speaker 1: only fifty basis points without much chance of a of

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Speaker 1: a seventy five at all at four December, and then

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Speaker 1: you know one or two basis point hikes after that,

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Speaker 1: and and and you know this idea that whether or

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Speaker 1: not this is a trend, if you look at the

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Speaker 1: month over month numbers for both CPI and pp I,

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Speaker 1: this is now four months in a row that we've

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Speaker 1: been at significant a lower month of month prince than

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Speaker 1: the previous eight months. So so if if we think

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Speaker 1: about this from just from a time perspective, if we

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Speaker 1: stay at this kind of level, UM, inflation will come

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Speaker 1: down to almost where where inflation break evens are currently pricing,

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Speaker 1: So where one year inflation swaps are pricing UM basically

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Speaker 1: in the year in the next eight months. So so

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Speaker 1: so it makes perfect sense, you know. I I think

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Speaker 1: you know the idea that inflation has peaked. People were

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Speaker 1: looking for confirmation of that. Now that again, now that

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Speaker 1: we have four months of uh, you know prints that

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Speaker 1: are are pretty reasonable for both CPI and pp I,

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Speaker 1: it seems that, you know, we have turned a corner here.

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Speaker 1: So what are you expecting now in terms of a

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Speaker 1: terminal rate? I mean, um, when I was on sabbatical

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Speaker 1: UM in the Maldives or wherever you were, seemed like

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Speaker 1: I was in raja Ampat in Indonesia, but I was

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Speaker 1: reading the news from Afar and I saw that, you know,

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Speaker 1: expectations were climbing over six percent. Are they had they

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Speaker 1: come back down? Oh yeah, yeah, there's come way back down. UM.

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Speaker 1: So you know, when we when we look at what

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Speaker 1: um uh, what FED funds futures are now pricing, we're

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Speaker 1: we're talking more about a five percent top end terminal

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Speaker 1: rate is what's currently being priced. I think that that's reasonable. Maybe,

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Speaker 1: you know, if if we do get more prints like

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Speaker 1: this on inflation over the next couple of months, maybe

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Speaker 1: the Fed doesn't hike in um uh in in March.

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Speaker 1: And if they don't, then you might even have a

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Speaker 1: slightly lower terminal rate, which was more what our expectations

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Speaker 1: were for for quite a long time, of of a

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Speaker 1: top end of four point seven five percent. But you know,

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Speaker 1: we're we're playing semantics here. We we're talking about one

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Speaker 1: hike more, one hike less. We're certainly not going to

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Speaker 1: six percent, and we're probably not only going to four

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Speaker 1: and a half percent. We're going to go somewhere in

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Speaker 1: between there. So you're talking about um you know, at

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Speaker 1: at the upper bound at four and three quarters or

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Speaker 1: five percent. I think either way, the Fed has obviously

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Speaker 1: taken a lot of liquidity out of the market, still

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Speaker 1: doing quantitative tightening, so they're shrinking the size of their

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Speaker 1: balance sheet overall, and all of those things are having

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Speaker 1: an effect on financial conditions. And and you know, you

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Speaker 1: you heard a lot of Fed speakers, you know, Lyle

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Speaker 1: brainerd On on Bloomberg Television and Radio yesterday mentioned the

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Speaker 1: same thing Um, you know about financial conditions being much tighter.

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Speaker 1: But these things don't don't These things work with a leg, right,

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Speaker 1: And it's not it doesn't happen immediately, right. So housing

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Speaker 1: we know has fallen, right, Housing activity has fallen, So

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Speaker 1: that has knock on effects that don't take a month

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Speaker 1: or two or three. It takes six months, nine months

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Speaker 1: too for that the filter through the economy. So so

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Speaker 1: so I think we are going to see a slowing

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Speaker 1: not a not only of inflation, but also of just

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Speaker 1: economic activity in general. And that's gonna be quite frankly

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Speaker 1: for the market that I look at. That's gonna be

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Speaker 1: good for treasuries and and I think we've seen a

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Speaker 1: peak and treasury yields well, I mean for investors. Timing

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Speaker 1: is so key, right, These things work with a lag.

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Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of shooting skee. You gotta

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Speaker 1: you're not gonna shoot where what You're not gonna shoot

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Speaker 1: where the pigeon is. Now you're gonna shoot what you

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Speaker 1: gotta shoot where the pigeon is gonna be When you're um,

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Speaker 1: when you're uh, babies get there. So I saw a

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Speaker 1: note yesterday from Matthew miss at Ubs. He says Um

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Speaker 1: in his Global Credit out, Like he says, once in

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Speaker 1: a decade opportunity. Nice. But timing is everything. So what

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Speaker 1: do you think are we looking at? For example, on

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Speaker 1: the long end, you know, we're seeing Mom and pop

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Speaker 1: in e t s start to go after um uh

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Speaker 1: long duration debt right now because they think they're locking

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Speaker 1: in peak rates. Yeah. I don't disagree with that. I

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Speaker 1: mean I I put out a note two weeks ago

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Speaker 1: saying that that we were at peak rates and and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know that was a little bit pre s and

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Speaker 1: on my on my part, but it's, you know, we're

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Speaker 1: I think the idea that you get a bigger sell off,

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Speaker 1: what you would need in order for the bond market

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Speaker 1: to sell off significantly more than it already has is

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Speaker 1: really for another uptick in inflation and better economic activity.

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Speaker 1: And it's hard to see how things get better from here,

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Speaker 1: right It's you know, things might stay the same, which

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Speaker 1: would be the great scenario and the soft landing scenario

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Speaker 1: for for the Federal Reserve, but it's hard to see

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Speaker 1: how they improve significantly with financial conditions right enough on

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Speaker 1: the rates side, enough on the rates. Sunday, the World

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Speaker 1: Cup starts ira As you know, I have Holland as

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Speaker 1: my sleeper pick. Where else should I be looking for value?

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Speaker 1: I don't want to go Spain or Germany or France

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Speaker 1: or any of that kind of stuff. Okay, sleeper pick.

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Speaker 1: So I am gonna so I said Germany when you

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Speaker 1: asked me this question last week. Well, I am going

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Speaker 1: to go with Taylor Rockwell sleeper pick from the Total

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Speaker 1: Soccer Show. Give him a shout out from from the

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Speaker 1: podcast that I listened to. He thinks Japan is going

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Speaker 1: to get out of a group that includes Germany and Spain,

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Speaker 1: and if Japan does get through there, then they can

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Speaker 1: make a bit of a run. I don't know. I

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Speaker 1: don't think that they could win the whole thing, but

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Speaker 1: you know, could they make a run to the semifinals

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Speaker 1: for the first time. Maybe? You know, they have a

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Speaker 1: really good they played really well against the US last month,

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Speaker 1: and they're you know, they have some really talented players.

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Speaker 1: So so maybe Japan. Let me ask, in a day

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Speaker 1: and age where a lot of the players on a

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Speaker 1: team don't really come from that country, doesn't matter as much. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think, well, Japan. They're almost all were born in

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Speaker 1: Japan for sure, and now they play in the Premier

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Speaker 1: League and the bundes League in Spain. Right, but they're

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Speaker 1: they're mostly Japanese crash, all right, Next time we talked

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Speaker 1: to you, it's all soccer, all the time, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to ignore that Federal Reserve because the World Cup

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Speaker 1: is coming up, folks, that's our jersey. He does it

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Speaker 1: off the Bloomberg Intelligence So we got one of those

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Speaker 1: creamy things. Street not a rogy, and he's a senior

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Speaker 1: reporter of Bloomberg News. Joins us here, uh at you

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Speaker 1: and your partner crime Max table. So you guys have

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Speaker 1: a story out there on a Bloomberg trmina about Goldman Sachs.

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Speaker 1: What do you guys find, Well, something that's allowing on

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Speaker 1: two levels. Very rarely do you have someone who has

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Speaker 1: risen to the level of a Goldman partner airing their

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Speaker 1: ugliest experiences, even if it is in an internal complaint

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Speaker 1: at the film. And then when you look at how

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Speaker 1: the process went and the fact that Goldman Sachs settled

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Speaker 1: with the complaining to a tune of more than well

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Speaker 1: more than two million dollars an eight figure payout, tells

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Speaker 1: you that a what was in the complaint wasn't the

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Speaker 1: most pleasing reading and the price they were willing to

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Speaker 1: pay to avoid embarrassment. And that's why this is important. Correct, Correct,

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Speaker 1: this is a former government partner around two years ago

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Speaker 1: settled with the bank after finding what was what we

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Speaker 1: understand to be able Aluminous complained that detailed a sexist

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Speaker 1: culture at the bank, including senior managing making crude and

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Speaker 1: dismissive remarks, paid disparities, the lack of promotions for women.

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Speaker 1: Some of these issues have been things that Goldman and

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Speaker 1: everyone else on Wall Street have been dealing with and

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Speaker 1: have been trying to get past and make real progress.

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Speaker 1: But the fact that this happened, in the fact that

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Speaker 1: most of the issues an incidents described in the complaint

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Speaker 1: were from twenty eighteen and nineteen tell you that this

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Speaker 1: is not from a Wall Street long, long, long ago.

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Speaker 1: This is very much the now in present. So are

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Speaker 1: we talking about the kind of paid disparities that we

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Speaker 1: don't see elsewhere or are these kind of paid disparities

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Speaker 1: common across Wall Street? Unclear? Right, it's it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: very I mean, I'm assuming the complaining in this case

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Speaker 1: would only have had access to internal compensation figure and

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Speaker 1: an understanding of what pay was like at Goldman Sex

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Speaker 1: would would would we be right in saying that Goldman

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Speaker 1: Sachs for somehow is an outlier and the rest of

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Speaker 1: the Wall Streets can be absolved of some of these sins,

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Speaker 1: perhaps not in fact most definitely. No, this is this

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Speaker 1: is a threat that runs across Wall Street and across

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Speaker 1: many other industries, and Wall Street in particular has maybe

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Speaker 1: just because you know, their high profile company names, their

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Speaker 1: high profile people, they make a lot of money, they're

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Speaker 1: they're always a target of you know, a lot of activists.

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Speaker 1: But Wall Street has been an industry that's tried to

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Speaker 1: put this front and center and tried to, at least

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Speaker 1: from external perspectives, deal with this issue aggressively. Yet it's

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Speaker 1: another setback here, you know, your story suggesting that they

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Speaker 1: got a lot of work to do as an industry.

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Speaker 1: That's a very interesting point because when you think of

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Speaker 1: the post me to reckoning, we've seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: troubling things emerged from many other industry, not so much

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Speaker 1: from the highest ranks of Wall Street. One theory has

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Speaker 1: been that Wall Street's go go days, or perhaps in

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Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties, and I was well darn good time.

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Speaker 1: I I will still stick to the fact that I

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Speaker 1: just mentioned Wall Streets go Go days, or perhaps in

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Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties and uh raunchy remarks, lude behavior

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Speaker 1: wasn't all that uncommon. So maybe there's one theory is

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Speaker 1: Wald Street has cleaned up a little bit and has

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Speaker 1: managed to get past that. But at the same time,

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Speaker 1: you also remember these are firms with very deep pockets.

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Speaker 1: These are firms that have a process in their employment

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Speaker 1: contracts where a lot of the claims are handled in

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Speaker 1: secretive arbitration. In fact, for the longest time, even sexual

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Speaker 1: harassment complaints had to go through the forced arbitration process.

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Speaker 1: So there is some validity to the theory that some

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Speaker 1: of the worst things never got aired because they were

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Speaker 1: able to dip into their wallets and pay a big

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Speaker 1: time to score some of these settlements and keep these

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Speaker 1: things private and secret well. And also it's seems from

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Speaker 1: your reporting that some of the alleged bad behavior wasn't typical, right,

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Speaker 1: And you describe a situation where David Solomon made a

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Speaker 1: comment and then you say that his colleagues were surprised

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Speaker 1: because it was so out of character. So it's as

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Speaker 1: if he let something slip and now and now he's

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Speaker 1: paying like twenty million dollars to cover it up. I mean,

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Speaker 1: let's be very clear all the understanding we have that

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Speaker 1: CEO of Goldman Sectavis Solomon, wasn't central to the complaint. Yes,

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Speaker 1: there is an incident described that looks to quote something

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Speaker 1: that David Solomon did say to a gathering of male

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Speaker 1: colleagues that was scrude, to put it mildly, But there

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Speaker 1: were many other managers that were sort of allegedly implicated here,

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Speaker 1: many other managers who were quoted. And that's one of

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Speaker 1: the things that rattled the top rungs of the bank

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Speaker 1: is the broad institutional issue that this problem tried to

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Speaker 1: sketch out, the scope for public embarrassment because of that

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Speaker 1: and the need for them to try and make it

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Speaker 1: go away. Alright, three good stuff. We appreciate it. Shrieta Rogen,

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Speaker 1: senior reporter with Bloomberg News, joinings here in our Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Interactive Brokers studio. Hey, when you want to get a

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Speaker 1: handle on how the retailers doing out there, how the

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Speaker 1: consumers doing out there, you really can look at some

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Speaker 1: of the results from the big retailers, and we got

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Speaker 1: a couple of big ones. Today Walmart reported numbers some

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Speaker 1: good numbs home depot. I thought the numbers were good.

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Speaker 1: They have some inventory issues. We're gonna get to the

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Speaker 1: latest there, but we're gonna break it on down. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna roundtable this stuff we do with Jen Bartashes. She

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Speaker 1: covers all things retail for Bloomberg Intelligence. He's based in Princeton. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And Drew Reading, he covers the home builders for Bloomberg Intelligence.

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Speaker 1: We got both of those folks on the line here. Um, Jen,

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Speaker 1: let's talk with you. Start with you, Uh, Walmart. I

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Speaker 1: mean people are still spending money, aren't they? They are, Um,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's actually you know, the bright spot

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Speaker 1: here is that the consumer is holding up relatively well. Um.

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Speaker 1: They are shifting where they're spending and what they're spending on,

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Speaker 1: but they are still spending money. And that is very important.

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Speaker 1: And as we're looking at the economic environment and heading

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Speaker 1: into that very important holiday season. So the holiday season important,

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Speaker 1: But I mean, how is it going to roll out? Um?

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Speaker 1: This year, We've gotten so much bad news from shippers.

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Speaker 1: You know, if that Exit just said they're gonna furlough workers, Um,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna get DHL tomorrow Thursday. I believe I'm looking

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Speaker 1: forward to that. It's German, but it's a very big,

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Speaker 1: you know, global shipper. And then Amazon cutting jobs going

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Speaker 1: into holiday season. I was shocked, Yeah, what is up

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Speaker 1: with that? Jen? Well, you know, when you're you're looking

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Speaker 1: at cutting jobs, a lot of the jobs are more

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Speaker 1: corporate type jobs as opposed to jobs that are in

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Speaker 1: distribution centers. UM. And we started off with people going

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Speaker 1: into the holiday planning to hire fewer people this year

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Speaker 1: than they have in prior years. And I think we're

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Speaker 1: seeing that come through, and then we're seeing this additional

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Speaker 1: round of layoffs that are more in the in the

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Speaker 1: product development, in the corporate side. UM. But it does

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Speaker 1: it does indicate that that could be a really big

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Speaker 1: boon for retailers like Target and Walmart that have store bases,

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Speaker 1: because if there are delays in shipping and you're worried

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Speaker 1: that your gifts aren't going to get there, they have

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Speaker 1: great alternatives in terms of people either going to the

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Speaker 1: store or being able to pick things up at the

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Speaker 1: store to make sure that they have those gifts. So

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Speaker 1: it could actually be a positive for these retailers. Drew

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Speaker 1: right and let me bring you in. What's the differentiation

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Speaker 1: differentiation here? I mean, um, I feel like Lowe's and

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Speaker 1: Home Depot is going to be a very different story

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Speaker 1: than necessarily um, well even Amazon, right, yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it was certainly certally a good quarter for Home Depot,

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Speaker 1: and you're right, they do have a different customer base

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Speaker 1: than than much of, um, the rest of the retail environment,

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Speaker 1: and I think it speaks to the resiliency of the

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Speaker 1: market despite you know what we're seeing in housing with

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Speaker 1: transactions down at maybe down another ten next year. I

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Speaker 1: do think it's important to point out though that growth

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Speaker 1: this quarter really for the last several quarters, has been

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Speaker 1: driven exclusively by higher average tickets. So a lot of

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Speaker 1: that is the result of product inflation. Um You've got

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Speaker 1: some commodity inflation from from earlier in the quarter. And

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Speaker 1: then you know, particularly for Home Depot, there's there's relative

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Speaker 1: strength due to their exposure to professional customers, which tend

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Speaker 1: to be a little bit higher spending. Uh. You know.

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Speaker 1: On the flip side, though, customer transactions UM have declined

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Speaker 1: for for several quarters now. We think that's gonna probably

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Speaker 1: remain a head wind, you know, as we go to

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Speaker 1: next year. Just given our expectations for housing for many weeks.

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Speaker 1: Hey drew talking about the home depot, the inventory number

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Speaker 1: grew kind of really jumped out of me. It seems

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Speaker 1: like the retail industry has had plenty of quarters to

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Speaker 1: deal with the inventory issues, and a lot of them

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Speaker 1: have kind of done it very well. What's what's different

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Speaker 1: a depot. Yeah, so it's it's actually down a little

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Speaker 1: bit from last quarter, but inventories relative to last year

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Speaker 1: higher because you've got a lot of product inflation due

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Speaker 1: to costs. There's also something interesting they pointed out, is

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Speaker 1: a mix up in a mixshift higher to high value

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Speaker 1: products and what they're selling there hasn't been a trade

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Speaker 1: down among consumers. Um. They've also made a lot of

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Speaker 1: investments in inventory for the holidays. They pointed out that

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Speaker 1: they had the best UM year for Halloween sales on records,

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Speaker 1: so we think there's probably some investments being made ahead

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Speaker 1: of the Christmas season. And then they also pointed out

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Speaker 1: that the higher inventories are result of some of the

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Speaker 1: supply chain challenges that we've seen over the last year. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean, part of that's probably the fact that they

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Speaker 1: were ordering ahead of anticipated challenges and now you're starting

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Speaker 1: to see demand slow a little bit relative to when

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Speaker 1: they made these purchases. True, just gets since we got

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Speaker 1: you here, the home market here, the builders, I mean,

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Speaker 1: are they gonna build stuff here? I mean, you've got

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Speaker 1: an interesting more more mortgage rates is seven percent here?

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Speaker 1: I mean, are they gonna build houses over the next year?

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Speaker 1: So it's it's a good question. We think there's probably

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Speaker 1: gonna be a pretty severe poolback and housing starts. We've

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Speaker 1: already started to see it. Um. You know, we're thinking

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Speaker 1: that from you know, the peak of last year to

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Speaker 1: where we eventually trot could be somewhere around the percent declient,

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Speaker 1: just based on what we've seen in prior housing downturns.

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Speaker 1: So builders have certainly taken their their foot off the

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Speaker 1: gas pedal. They're not spending as much on land, and

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Speaker 1: they're taking a degree of caution. You know. That being said,

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Speaker 1: I think I think the group as a whole is

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Speaker 1: in a much better position relative to the last downturn,

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Speaker 1: which is, you know where everybody tends tends to look. Jen,

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Speaker 1: how does inflation play into a factor into this holiday season,

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Speaker 1: Because at the same time as we're looking at you know,

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Speaker 1: seven point seven pc CP I prints. UM. We're also

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Speaker 1: telling consumers that these big box stores have to cut

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Speaker 1: prices because they have too much inventory. So as the

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Speaker 1: consumer reacting, well, it's it's a delicate balance for the

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Speaker 1: retailers because they want to have a compelling value proposition

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Speaker 1: and consumers are seeking that that you know, low price,

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Speaker 1: but they also need to not completely blow up their

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Speaker 1: margins UM. And so as you know, as we look

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Speaker 1: forward through the holiday season, we're expecting to see a

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Speaker 1: much higher rate of promotions UM because it is going

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Speaker 1: to be competitive for the dollars that people are willing

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Speaker 1: to spend UM, So the promotion rate will be up there. UM.

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Speaker 1: But we we are expecting that as inflation comes down,

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Speaker 1: these are the retailers that pivot very quickly and try

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Speaker 1: to bring prices down as quickly as they can UM.

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Speaker 1: And Walmart alluded to that on their call today, and

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Speaker 1: so UM it'll be it'll be an interesting challenge to

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Speaker 1: see how they manage through the inventory without needing and

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Speaker 1: still can meet that value proposition. Have some discounts, but

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Speaker 1: they may not be UM crazy huge discounts in order

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Speaker 1: to preserve a little bit of margin. It it will

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Speaker 1: help to see how the the season unfolds, and if

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Speaker 1: sales are slow, the council go up. Hey, Jen, just

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Speaker 1: about twenty seconds if I go into a Walmart and

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Speaker 1: shop from my g I Joe with the Kung Fu grip,

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Speaker 1: is it gonna be on the shelves house of supply chain?

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Speaker 1: Supply chain is much better. Um So, they've worked very

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Speaker 1: hard at inventory being you know, and having in stocks.

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Speaker 1: Um So this year they brought they brought product in earlier.

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Speaker 1: There seems to be at this point plenty of product

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Speaker 1: on the shelves. Um And we'll see how long that

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Speaker 1: last to the holiday season. But right now it's at

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Speaker 1: a healthy level. All right, Jen, Great stuff, appreciated Jen Bartashes.

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Speaker 1: She covers all things retail for Bloomberg Intelligence and drew

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Speaker 1: reading our housing analysts. We got the round table. That's

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Speaker 1: great stuff. You can bring these real smart people together

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Speaker 1: get perspectives on the retails. We've got another roundtable coming up,

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Speaker 1: do we Oh, we've got this guy Eli Manning coming up.

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Speaker 1: All right, we'll talk to him in a couple minutes.

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Speaker 1: Were We love talking to the b I folks. They're

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Speaker 1: wicked smart as well as the best quarterbacks and some

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Speaker 1: of the best analysts on Wall Street, Walmart, home depot

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Speaker 1: reporting numbers and retailers put up some good numbs here.

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Speaker 1: Does that bode well for the holiday shopping season? Let's

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Speaker 1: talk private equity here, Private equity and a sports biz?

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Speaker 1: How can that go wrong? Former New York Giant quarterback

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Speaker 1: and partner with the investment firm Brand Velocity, Eli Manning

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Speaker 1: joined us here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio along

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Speaker 1: with Brand Velocity founding and managing partner Steve Liebowitz. Um. Eli, Steve,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us here in our Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Interactive broker. So let's talk about sports first. I'm a

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Speaker 1: I'm a Wall Street guy. For last, I'm a Wall

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Speaker 1: Street guy. All these aheads, I want to talk sports.

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Speaker 1: I want to talk to Wall Street. So, Eli, private equity.

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Speaker 1: You've now step back from football a few years. You

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Speaker 1: and your brother are doing all kinds of crazy TV

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Speaker 1: stuff Manning cast, which is very fun. Um, but talk

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Speaker 1: just about kind of what you're thinking about in the

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Speaker 1: private equity space. Well, I'm excited. I've excited to join

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Speaker 1: with the Brand Velocity group. We've been with them about

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Speaker 1: a year and just really have had a kind of

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Speaker 1: a private equity one on one uh and learning about

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Speaker 1: the business and UH. Just I've been a part of

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Speaker 1: one acquisition and it was in the sports world. It

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Speaker 1: was Score Sports, which is a designer, manufacturer seller of

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Speaker 1: youth sports uniforms, which uh, I'm passionate about. I have

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Speaker 1: four kids and they're playing every sport. I think that's

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Speaker 1: one I think business and area that so many people

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Speaker 1: are familiar with. They love they love their kids playing sports.

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Speaker 1: But it's also in a in a part of this

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Speaker 1: where it is the cost of reasonable you know, you

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Speaker 1: can get your jersey and your kid for eighteen to

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Speaker 1: twenty dollars, and so for me, it's promoting families to

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Speaker 1: get your kids outside, get them playing sports, get them

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Speaker 1: in and different things. It's the life lessons that are

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Speaker 1: taught through sports, and so you know, the cost of

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Speaker 1: a uniform shouldn't be something holding your back from from

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Speaker 1: getting your your your kids out there and get them active.

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Speaker 1: Steve talked to us about your view, your private equity

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Speaker 1: view of sports. I was just mentioned that. ELI just

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Speaker 1: seems like like I've been following the media industry for

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Speaker 1: thirty years and my big media companies, whether it's Disney,

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Speaker 1: your Votico. They spend more and more and more in

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Speaker 1: sports rights every year. It seems like a natural spot

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Speaker 1: for Privamly, you're not in the big ten rights, Like,

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Speaker 1: what are you buying? How do you screen for companies? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: good questions. Sports. It really is the media, as you

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Speaker 1: mentioned that that under underpins all the growth with the

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Speaker 1: media rights, and there's just a scarcity with all the

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Speaker 1: entertainment options that people have out there nowadays, live sports

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Speaker 1: still is the king. And as long as live sports

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Speaker 1: is the king, there's gonna be insatiable demand for it,

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Speaker 1: and that demand leads to the media rights, which in

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Speaker 1: turn leads to the growth of the franchises. So we

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Speaker 1: think it's a great industry. I mean, it's a broad industry.

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Speaker 1: If you take sports sports adjacent you're talking, you know,

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Speaker 1: five hundred billion dollar plus global industry. And it maybe

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Speaker 1: arguably one of the only industries that really is recession proof.

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Speaker 1: Because people always say recession resistant, recession proof sports, really

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Speaker 1: the data backs it up. So what kind of companies

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Speaker 1: are you looking at? What are the sizes? How long

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Speaker 1: do you want to stay involved? Um, what's your plan?

429
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:57,320
Speaker 1: So we're looking at companies typically with ten million or

430
00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: greater of IBATA. We're looking at all sort of businesses,

431
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,520
Speaker 1: consumer sports adjacent businesses as well as you know, potentially

432
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:09,160
Speaker 1: minority interest in sports teams or you know, controlling interests

433
00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:11,320
Speaker 1: in sports teams in Europe. So those are all sorts

434
00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:13,560
Speaker 1: of different things. I mean, like any other investment, you

435
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:15,840
Speaker 1: can't just rely on the greater fool theory. You've got

436
00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:18,440
Speaker 1: to do your homework. You've got to look at the valuation.

437
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 1: Sports clearly fetches more because of the growth, but you've

438
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,160
Speaker 1: got to be cognizant of it. And we will only

439
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,080
Speaker 1: swing at the pitch if we think it's the right pitch.

440
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 1: That doesn't guarantee will be right. But you have to

441
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:32,119
Speaker 1: be super patient and super careful. You're lucky not to

442
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 1: get into the whole crypto thing because some of your

443
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,359
Speaker 1: rivals have been deeply involved with f t X. I

444
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:41,880
Speaker 1: don't know if you noticed that, yes, stories other than

445
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:44,879
Speaker 1: bone coin, which you are shielding with Al Roker, Right,

446
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,760
Speaker 1: wasn't that? It was like Frank's red Hoots. If you

447
00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:50,399
Speaker 1: eat the most buffalo wings, you can get it n

448
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,440
Speaker 1: f t UM. But how did you avoid that? I mean,

449
00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:56,760
Speaker 1: so many uh people were sucked in I guess it

450
00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:00,000
Speaker 1: was big money. It's an exciting story as well. Um,

451
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,440
Speaker 1: were you just too busy with other stuff? Yeah, And

452
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 1: I think just the idea that I just didn't quite

453
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,439
Speaker 1: understand it, like you know, there's something that comes, you know,

454
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:10,600
Speaker 1: to that. And I didn't quite understand private equity a

455
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,160
Speaker 1: year ago also, but it made sense, like you buy

456
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:16,440
Speaker 1: a company that's has doing well, they're making revenue, they're

457
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:18,879
Speaker 1: making money, there's real growth, there's a profit there, and

458
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,560
Speaker 1: we can come in and and make it better with crypto.

459
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:23,960
Speaker 1: Uh you kind of heard these stories and people making

460
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 1: jazillions of dollars and great, you know, but I just

461
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:29,480
Speaker 1: kind ofn't know like where is going house is gonna workout?

462
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 1: So I had a great team of people just saying,

463
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 1: you know, let's just learn more. Let's learn more, and

464
00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: we just kind of kept trying to learn more, but

465
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,120
Speaker 1: never never pulled the trigger on it. So no crypto,

466
00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:41,679
Speaker 1: but yes to private equity. And the cool thing is,

467
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:46,439
Speaker 1: you know, um, a skeptic or a cynics view of

468
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,520
Speaker 1: private equity is you know, these locusts that come in

469
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 1: and eat up the company, borrowing tons of debt with

470
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 1: the brand and then destroying the value of what the

471
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 1: employees have built. You guys are doing it in a

472
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 1: very different way. You were ship airing the gains. I

473
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,399
Speaker 1: think that's like your mantra, right, and you're letting the

474
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,399
Speaker 1: employees in on the deal. Yeah, and that's the idea,

475
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 1: and that's why I got involved and Steve started this

476
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 1: BBG and got involved just could change the culture of

477
00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,919
Speaker 1: private equity. And he truly cares and we care about

478
00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 1: the people. I mean, the people are the most important

479
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,399
Speaker 1: thing with these companies that we're looking at and the

480
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 1: culture of these businesses. And we have a program called

481
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,280
Speaker 1: Share the Gains where we're giving ten percent of our

482
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 1: carried interests back to the employees that are not part

483
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 1: of the upper management. They're getting taken care of in

484
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 1: different ways. But we want the people who are working

485
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:36,960
Speaker 1: at these companies to be a part of the success.

486
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,359
Speaker 1: You know, when we sell it and we make a profit,

487
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:41,199
Speaker 1: we want them to kind of be a part of that.

488
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: Note that they can you know, if we do well,

489
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 1: and they're gonna do well also, and they're gonna be

490
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 1: a part of this and it really creates a team environment. Steve,

491
00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 1: what do you think you know? Partning up with with

492
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 1: a guy as accomplished as Eli is a many walks

493
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 1: of life. What does that bring to your firm too,

494
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:57,960
Speaker 1: and kind of how do you look to kind of

495
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,080
Speaker 1: leverage that. Well, the first thing I'll say is that

496
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:05,000
Speaker 1: Eli is an incredibly humble person and he is the

497
00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:08,680
Speaker 1: same person in private that he is in public, which

498
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: that's critical because for us, like culture is everything, and um,

499
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 1: Eli is just perfect fit with our culture. Like Eli

500
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,920
Speaker 1: his passion for for for for the culture of the companies,

501
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,199
Speaker 1: for for um. You know, everybody loves Eli. Um. So

502
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:31,400
Speaker 1: when Eli believes in Yeah, Tom Brady's parents probably as well.

503
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:36,439
Speaker 1: A few super Bowls taken away there between Eli and Payton.

504
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:42,080
Speaker 1: But but we love um you know, his connectivity, I mean,

505
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,000
Speaker 1: and everybody loves him. And when he says it, he's

506
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,919
Speaker 1: saying what the truth and what he believes. So it

507
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:48,879
Speaker 1: just really fits well with what we want to do

508
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: and getting our message out with share the gains, you know,

509
00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: we do that as very important. We think private equity

510
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 1: often um, you know, companies aren't made of spreadsheets, They're

511
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 1: made of people in private equity often loses sight of that.

512
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: And Eli is as a big believer in the message,

513
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,640
Speaker 1: he really can get that message out, and our hope

514
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,640
Speaker 1: is to really make an impact through that message. Talk

515
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 1: about the Manning cast because all my buddies, uh, the

516
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: man everybody loves to watch it. Um, it's a new

517
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: format and it's something that I thought this was gonna

518
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,240
Speaker 1: something like this was gonna happen ten years ago, and

519
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: nobody ever really did it right until you guys have

520
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 1: done it. What's your what's been your experience? How do

521
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 1: you get into it? Yeah, I mean I think you know,

522
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: we got into it just the idea. We we saw

523
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: you know, Kurt herb Street broadcasting game because he had

524
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 1: COVID and so he couldn't be at the game, so

525
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: he didn't. He's often at the Ohio State University, so

526
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: he just did it from home. And kind of talking

527
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 1: with Payton to say, well, we could I want a

528
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,119
Speaker 1: broadcast game from that sounds pretty good, Like sitting on

529
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 1: my couchs watching football making fun of my brother Like

530
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 1: that sounds like a good job, and you're like paying

531
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:53,439
Speaker 1: me for it, Like yeah, I mean, I know, I

532
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: went to Old Miss, but I know a good deal

533
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: when I see one. And so that was the idea,

534
00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:00,359
Speaker 1: and really, you know, just saying Hey, what would it

535
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: be like if Peyton and I were in your living

536
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,159
Speaker 1: room watching the game? How would we watch it? You know,

537
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,040
Speaker 1: we're not going to talk about the first and tent

538
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: run for two yards and tell you where the running

539
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 1: back went to college? Like, we don't know that answer.

540
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: We don't know where he went to college, and you

541
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: probably don't care either. So let's bring in some guests.

542
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,200
Speaker 1: Have it fun. We'll talk some XS and knows. Tell

543
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: you what's going through the quarterbacks mind right now? What

544
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,479
Speaker 1: you know, how should they handle this situation? Have Peyton

545
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,560
Speaker 1: calls sixty seven time outs? You know when different needs

546
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 1: to call it time out? And so you know, it's

547
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 1: really just kind of uh having fun and in a

548
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 1: different way to watch the game. And you guys got

549
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 1: a great list of guests, the committed. I mean, it's

550
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: super eclectic. How does that all come about? Well, I

551
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 1: think you just you realize there's so many people that

552
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: have a passion for sports and have a passion for

553
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: football and they grew up with a certain team and

554
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: we used so we try to bring in people that

555
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,400
Speaker 1: are associated with one of the two teams playing that night,

556
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 1: and whether it's Barack Obama or Snoop Dogg, and I'm

557
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: talking about the eighties Chicago Bears, eighty five Chicago Bears,

558
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 1: or the Steelers of the seventies with Snoop Dogg. And

559
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 1: he's listing players that he grew up watching. So you know,

560
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: Conda Lisa Rice talking about the Browns, and you have

561
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: so many people that have a passion for their hometown

562
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 1: football team and for them to kind of talk about

563
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: that and get it out, it's natural for them. And

564
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:20,879
Speaker 1: we have fun and we we don't ask any hardball

565
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: questions like you guys are asking today. We try to

566
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: keep it pretty simple. So you guys, you guys, you've

567
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 1: been so busy since leaving the the NFL. You have

568
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 1: a job, like a day job with the Giants and

569
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: you're doing the manning cast and the private equity. I

570
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,400
Speaker 1: mean yeah, I mean exactly. So how how's the Elis

571
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: places gonna play out? Are you gonna keep doing those?

572
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: We got to decide. I gotta talk with Big Bro

573
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 1: and and I'm up, I'm up for a contract, so

574
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 1: I'll have to, you know, have some some tough discussions

575
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,920
Speaker 1: with him. But you, I mean, you really have in

576
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: Peyton as well, Um developed a knack for broadcasting and

577
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: you know a way that a lot of athletes can't. Um,

578
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 1: are you gonna be appearing in how Hollywood movies? What's

579
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: your I don't consider myself a broadcaster, by the way,

580
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 1: just I don't I think they have a I don't

581
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 1: think I would have been good at broadcasting in the

582
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 1: typical way of being in studio and booth and and

583
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: doing those things. I think the fact that I could

584
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: sit on my couch, you know, just talk football, keep

585
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 1: it very casual, uh fits more um you know style

586
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: for me. And so I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I

587
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: enjoy the football part, staying involved in the game I enjoy,

588
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: but also learning and learning about private equity. And you know,

589
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 1: each each day and each deal we look at and

590
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:37,959
Speaker 1: company we look at, I'm learning something new and and

591
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: just understanding how businesses work. And you know, just the

592
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 1: timeframe of how you decide whether you want to buy

593
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: a company, like looking at the profit loss, looking at statements,

594
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 1: looking you know, do do do diligence? You know, given

595
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: a pitch. All these things were new to me, exciting

596
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 1: for me, and I'm enjoying the process. Hey, Steve, You're

597
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,719
Speaker 1: know slout yourself. I mean, you know, went to some

598
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 1: trade school up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I think, uh, New

599
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 1: York State High School, chess champion and old Miss really yeah,

600
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:08,160
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I mean, you got

601
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: to take englnch you gotta take math. What's what's what's

602
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 1: the big called Harvard the Old Miss of the North exactly. Well,

603
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: we interview every Thursday coach Murphy from Harvard because we

604
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: carry the Harvard football games up in Boston on our

605
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: radio station. Your Bills fan, tough two weeks, dude, But

606
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 1: you've got a great you got a great quarterback doing

607
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: about it. But this is the story I want to get.

608
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: You're a family farmer supplying this year's Rockefeller Christmas tree. Yeah,

609
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: that's just that's just nuts. Yeah. Basically, so my family did,

610
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 1: like your great grandfather planted or something. I mean I asked.

611
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: It was like ninety years old. I don't even know

612
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: who planted it. But our family owned, my father's generation

613
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:48,520
Speaker 1: owns the property, and the head gardener at Rockefeller Center

614
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 1: was actually and they get hundreds of submissions for the tree.

615
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: And so he was going to drive to see another

616
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,479
Speaker 1: tree in Glenn's Falls and he was driving down the street,

617
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:01,000
Speaker 1: happened to drive by a bacon lot which had the tree,

618
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,920
Speaker 1: and he's like, that is the tree. The tree was

619
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 1: like discovered like a starlet or something. Right, So it's

620
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: just like a wild experience, you know, for you gotta

621
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 1: be the tree family trees. He like, give me thirty

622
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: seconds on the Giants seven and two. Yeah, I mean

623
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: these guys are good. I think we've got a quarterback too.

624
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:26,360
Speaker 1: By the way, he went to Duke, so he's with me,

625
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:29,040
Speaker 1: what do you think? Yeah, Daniel Jones is playing great.

626
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 1: Se Kwon is running, running hard, defense is playing well.

627
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 1: So in the most important thing, they're finding ways to

628
00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 1: win close games. And they're finding ways to close games

629
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 1: out and that's something we haven't been able to do

630
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,280
Speaker 1: for a while. And and what that does it also

631
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 1: this prepares you for late in the year, you're gonna

632
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 1: have these close games. Can you win them? They're they're

633
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 1: they're kind of tried and tested, and I think it's

634
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: gonna be a good run if you ever get tired

635
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 1: of having Barack Obama or Condoleeza Rice over. You know,

636
00:31:54,080 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: Paul and I are exactly down the good stuff. Eli

637
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 1: Manning he plays football I don't know what he does.

638
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:05,760
Speaker 1: He's doing a ton of stuff. He's doing private equity,

639
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: doing broadcast. Yes, I mean no sitting on the couch

640
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: for this guy, Steve Leebwitz. He's managing partner founder of

641
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 1: the firm is known as brand Velocity. And they joined

642
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 1: us here in a Bloomberg and Actor. They're doing some good,

643
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 1: good stuff. We appreciate them stopping by. We are they

644
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 1: come back to earth a little bit. That was exciting,

645
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 1: little fun. Yeah, it's always fun, you know. I took

646
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 1: my mom for sixtieth birthday. I took her to the

647
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: Super Bowl when Eli and the Giants played Tom Brady

648
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: and what is that team called the Patriots out in

649
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 1: Luke Oil Stadium? Where's that Luke Oil State? Indian Alis, Indianapolisanapolis?

650
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 1: Was pretty cool. I also got to see Jane's addiction

651
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 1: before the game, and I got to meet Anna Ferris.

652
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 1: Oh pretty pretty sweet. Good weekend. Take care of your mom,

653
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:56,920
Speaker 1: good Jane and my mom especially. But we want to

654
00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 1: get back to UH finance right now, and we're gonna

655
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: do that with the Automated Liquidity Exchange. We're gonna talk

656
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 1: to the CEO of Alex chin Zoo Sue Um. She

657
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 1: joins us down the line right now and Chin talk

658
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: to me first about the collapse of f t X.

659
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Ken Griffin said, it's a problem

660
00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: for the entire industry, the entire financial world, not just crypto.

661
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: What do you read into it? Hi, Met Paul m

662
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: thank you for having me today on your show. I mean,

663
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 1: then the collapse of the ft exchange was so devastating.

664
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: I think the crypto industry has experienced the most shocking

665
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 1: event since mounts. I don't know if you remember the

666
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: Mount Goog that was around the mt g o X right,

667
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: it stands for Magic the Gathering Online Exchange. It was

668
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 1: the first big bust in crypto. Yeah, I think up

669
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 1: to fifty tho bitcoins was stolen. That's about hundred six

670
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:08,800
Speaker 1: thirty six billion worth of bitcoin were stolen, and many

671
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,839
Speaker 1: many people in the cryptal industry is in the same

672
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 1: opinions mean that the collapse of this epting ex exchange

673
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,879
Speaker 1: is pretty much as bad as that one. So can

674
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:22,360
Speaker 1: you imagine just in one week, the third largest cryptural

675
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: change of TX, they experienced a bank around, they halted

676
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:29,400
Speaker 1: customer withdraw, they enter into a failed talk to be

677
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: acquired by the competitive bideness. They discover that they are

678
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:37,720
Speaker 1: short between eight to ten billion customer funds. They got

679
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:44,319
Speaker 1: hacked about half a billion. The file chapter PHAPS wasn't

680
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 1: maybe an inside job who took those coins? What do

681
00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 1: you think about how it happened, Shinzo, Yeah, it really

682
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:56,720
Speaker 1: started with is really interesting. Started with with the coin

683
00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 1: deesk article, right, it featured a breakdown of the league

684
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:05,360
Speaker 1: Alameda Research balance sheet. Now Alameda is the hedge found

685
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:10,360
Speaker 1: is a trade in firm that also started uh founded

686
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:15,439
Speaker 1: by sand Banking Tree. And what happened was that as

687
00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 1: of June thirties, you could see that the Alameters essay

688
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: mounted to about fourteen point six billion. However, this single

689
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:28,680
Speaker 1: beings access was three point six six billions of a

690
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:32,080
Speaker 1: lack ft T and f CT is the f T

691
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 1: s own token. And then the third largest entry was

692
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 1: to a bit more than two billions of this collecter.

693
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 1: So basically the majority of Alameters egty is actually f

694
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 1: T s own token um f t T. And this

695
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,360
Speaker 1: is obviously you know the completely runway west risk and

696
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:54,880
Speaker 1: I crediting Ouden on the treature. She she used this example.

697
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,560
Speaker 1: She said, imagine McDonald makes its own money and called

698
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:02,440
Speaker 1: clown bucks, right, it keeps most of it and then

699
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:04,839
Speaker 1: it's still some of it to the market, and then

700
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: McDonald then stand their remaining clumb box to its trading arm,

701
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 1: which is Alameda, which then use it as a collateral

702
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 1: for the actual loves from McDonald. Exactly. That's the problem

703
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 1: with SPF told The New York Times yesterday that UM

704
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 1: Alameda had a large margin position at f t X,

705
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 1: which is another way of saying they had all of

706
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:30,759
Speaker 1: f t X his money and the eventually essentially lost it.

707
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:33,840
Speaker 1: What do you do with ALEX? What does the automated

708
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 1: liquidity exchange do? Because liquidity was one of the big

709
00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: problems here, right, so ALEX Central Automatic Change. We are

710
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:45,840
Speaker 1: at if I built on bitcoin, what it means that

711
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:50,200
Speaker 1: all the transactions are settled on bitcoin. UM. I really

712
00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 1: like this. I really appreciate this opportunity to come on

713
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 1: the air today to really to UM say that out loud,

714
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 1: that there's really a huge difference between fight and ce

715
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,560
Speaker 1: fight right, And I want to stress that c F

716
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 1: I should not be confused with defect. So if we

717
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 1: look back to what happened with the f t X, right,

718
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 1: who caught bank Man Free. It's not sec, it's not set.

719
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 1: It was cryptography and crypto community SPF could influence regulators

720
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:25,400
Speaker 1: legally bright politicians with donations and show faith balance and

721
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 1: due to the opaquness or c fact, but it could

722
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:33,480
Speaker 1: not be bitcoins verification, right, So yeah, go ahead, I

723
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,799
Speaker 1: just should point out that, um, you know, bribery is

724
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,839
Speaker 1: illegal and that's a big allegation. So we don't know

725
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,719
Speaker 1: what happened. We don't know. We don't want to say, um,

726
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,879
Speaker 1: we don't want to make that kind of accusation. Of course,

727
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,399
Speaker 1: SBF was a big political donor. I think he gave

728
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:52,440
Speaker 1: thirty forty fifty billion a million dollars million with an

729
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:56,080
Speaker 1: m UM to political candidates in this election cycle. But

730
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: you know, we still have yet to find out. The

731
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:03,720
Speaker 1: interesting thing I think is that, um, this was supposed

732
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:07,399
Speaker 1: to be bitcoin initially it's a trust less currency, right,

733
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 1: and it's all about decentralized finance. But at the end

734
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: of the day, too many people trusted Sam Bankman Freedom

735
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: f t X gave him their private keys, essentially giving

736
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:23,720
Speaker 1: him their fiat and crypto to hold, and of course

737
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:27,880
Speaker 1: he seemingly then used it wasted it spent it and

738
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:30,520
Speaker 1: they didn't know that was going to happen. Is he

739
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,719
Speaker 1: going to be prosecuted for fraud or do you think

740
00:38:33,719 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: there could be criminal charges coming? Yeah? I think so

741
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 1: because you know, this f t X collapse reflects the

742
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 1: failure not only by you know, from an inexperienced CEO

743
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: who puts short term great ahead of long term value.

744
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 1: I mean I I myself have been regulative for more

745
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,040
Speaker 1: than two decades because I was working on a wall street.

746
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,919
Speaker 1: I think the cryptal industry needs more, you know, growing

747
00:38:57,040 --> 00:39:00,879
Speaker 1: up in the room experienced financiers, that's stay on the

748
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 1: course and apply the best practice. But you know you

749
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,440
Speaker 1: rightly say so. You know CEFI has custody of users deposits,

750
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:12,239
Speaker 1: and user are left trusting in these people running that

751
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,720
Speaker 1: business to carry out the services for you and coming

752
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:22,640
Speaker 1: back to you know, DEFY, you know, brilliant. Yeah, decentralized finance, right,

753
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 1: you know what happened with HPS is not possible happening

754
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:31,160
Speaker 1: on DeFi Why because it's computer code, it's smart contract

755
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 1: that provides the services offered. You keep your funds in

756
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 1: your own wallet and enter into peer to peer transaction

757
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 1: via a smart country there's no middlemen, there's no centralized authority. So,

758
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 1: you know, the event over the past few months making

759
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,200
Speaker 1: really really clear to the whole industry and US builders

760
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 1: that we need more deference services. The goal of the

761
00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:58,200
Speaker 1: crypto is to eliminate the rest and the indefficiency in

762
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:02,520
Speaker 1: traditional finance, right and to build a more efficient, decentralized,

763
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:05,919
Speaker 1: open financial ecosystem, and the one that in a where

764
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 1: to put it simply, the need for trust is removed

765
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 1: and to cuoss Easy, the CEO of violence. You know,

766
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 1: DeFi is the end game, right, all right, and so

767
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 1: thank you so much for breaking that down force. We're

768
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:22,160
Speaker 1: all still learning a lot about crypto in general and

769
00:40:22,239 --> 00:40:24,320
Speaker 1: kind of what went wrong at ft X in particular.

770
00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 1: Shin Zoo Sue, she's CEO of ALEX, the automated Liquidity exchange.

771
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:36,080
Speaker 1: This Federal Reserve has been clear this year about raising

772
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,920
Speaker 1: interest rates to fight inflation. Rising interest rate environment has

773
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,480
Speaker 1: had an impact on a broad variety of industries, not

774
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:45,040
Speaker 1: the least of which is the housing industry. The housing

775
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 1: manufacturing business, uh really feeling the brunt of that. So

776
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,400
Speaker 1: we want to get some color as to how that

777
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 1: business is dealing with this new environment. We turned to

778
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,160
Speaker 1: Brian Fairbanks. He's the CEO of treks uh. It is

779
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 1: a New York Stock Exchange listed company. T r X,

780
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:03,480
Speaker 1: not surprisingly, is the ticker to put into your Bloomberg terminal.

781
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:08,400
Speaker 1: The manufacture non would decking alternative products, you know, all decking, railing,

782
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff that people do to their homes. Brian,

783
00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us here. Really appreciate it. Um,

784
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 1: tell us about your business. How is it faring? I know,

785
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at the chart. The stocks down this

786
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:21,120
Speaker 1: year is you know, one of those as many are,

787
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: but one of those sectors that doesn't really do well

788
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:25,960
Speaker 1: with rising interest rates. But talk to us about the

789
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 1: the state of your business. Good morning, Matt and Paul.

790
00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me on this morning. The consumers for

791
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: outdoor living products have remained remarkably resilient over this year.

792
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:43,280
Speaker 1: Past couple of years, we've grown quite significantly as people

793
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:48,480
Speaker 1: have been spending more time expanding their existing living areas.

794
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 1: As we moved into this year, of course, we've seen

795
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 1: inflation start to catch up with the consumer. Prices of

796
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 1: our products have gone up as well. But what we've

797
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,240
Speaker 1: seen is, rather than growing the year, the volume told

798
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 1: by our company is about flat was the prior prior year.

799
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,720
Speaker 1: Uh and given the kind of growth that we've seen,

800
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,040
Speaker 1: we're pretty pleased with that. So inflation has definitely been

801
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:16,520
Speaker 1: an impact, but consumers are still flocking to the track's brand.

802
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:21,920
Speaker 1: What about the stock I mean, the chart is pretty

803
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,000
Speaker 1: amazing to behold. Um. As Paul said, you know, a

804
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: lot of companies got to run up in the reopening

805
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:30,799
Speaker 1: um push at the end of last year and then

806
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 1: crater this year. But what happened in October and November,

807
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:38,000
Speaker 1: I mean, it just took off from the span of

808
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:42,759
Speaker 1: a few weeks. We were absolutely a beneficiary during the

809
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:46,200
Speaker 1: pandemic run up. As we moved into the later stages

810
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:50,719
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, we announced significant sales growth and then

811
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:55,160
Speaker 1: adding additional capacity in Little Rock, Arkansas. And with that,

812
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:57,759
Speaker 1: the market may have gotten a little bit ahead of

813
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:01,279
Speaker 1: itself in the back half of this year. Coming out

814
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:05,319
Speaker 1: of our second quarter earnings, we announced that we would

815
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:07,640
Speaker 1: be reducing the back half of the year by about

816
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 1: two hundred million dollars to take into account inventory that

817
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:14,320
Speaker 1: had been built in the channel. You heard me mentioned

818
00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 1: earlier that are sales to consumer have been flat year

819
00:43:18,239 --> 00:43:21,719
Speaker 1: every year, but our channel did build assuming that they

820
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:27,320
Speaker 1: would grow fifteen in two and we felt that we

821
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:31,640
Speaker 1: should be aggressive get that inventory normalized so that we

822
00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:35,319
Speaker 1: can start with the right level of inventories moving into

823
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 1: So talk to us about the competitive nature of your

824
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:43,320
Speaker 1: business here. You know how fragmented it is in where

825
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,040
Speaker 1: what is your position? How do you think about market

826
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:51,000
Speaker 1: share in your business? Compositicking and railing is a very

827
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 1: unique business. There are three major players in the marketplace.

828
00:43:55,880 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: Trex has about market share, the number two competitor has

829
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: about market share, and the number three competitor has about

830
00:44:05,800 --> 00:44:11,680
Speaker 1: market share. So it is a consolidated industry and all

831
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:17,200
Speaker 1: three of the competitors understand the value within the industry itself,

832
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:21,680
Speaker 1: uh and we each make the other better in the industry.

833
00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: So the sustainability side of it is that a benefit

834
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,600
Speaker 1: um that consumers are that are into Absolutely thank you

835
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:35,719
Speaker 1: for asking that. Trecks is very unique in that of

836
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: the content that we use in our deck boards is

837
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:41,600
Speaker 1: recycled and reclaimed. The deck board is made of roughly

838
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 1: fift recycled plastic and the other is from reclaimed Would

839
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:51,319
Speaker 1: we get that from furniture flooring and other manufacturers that

840
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:55,840
Speaker 1: have wood scrap. So it's a very unique manufacturing environment

841
00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:58,880
Speaker 1: where we have a lot of variability going into the

842
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:03,440
Speaker 1: plant with our ramic sial, but our manufacturing technology allows

843
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: us to strip out those that variability that comes through

844
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 1: in the raw material and create a very consistent, high

845
00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:13,480
Speaker 1: value added product at the end of the line. Well

846
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:15,960
Speaker 1: what does that chain look like? It's so fascinating to

847
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:19,960
Speaker 1: me because well, right now, um, we've just come out

848
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:22,799
Speaker 1: of COP twenty seven, right or maybe people are still

849
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:26,800
Speaker 1: there in Charmel Shake talking about this, you know, global

850
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:30,680
Speaker 1: plastic problem and here you are. You found, um here

851
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:34,400
Speaker 1: in the US at least one one small solution doing

852
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 1: kind of your part. Where do you get the plastic?

853
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:39,920
Speaker 1: You know, what are the prices like? Um, how do

854
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 1: you how do you put that all together? RECs has

855
00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:47,520
Speaker 1: been using recycled content in our product since day one,

856
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:50,120
Speaker 1: and we've been in business for over thirty years now,

857
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: so it's part of the culture of this organization to

858
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:57,120
Speaker 1: be doing green solutions. The push for e s G

859
00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: over the past years has been a benefit where more

860
00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:04,640
Speaker 1: material has become available on the market. We are the

861
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 1: largest buyer of polyethylene films in the marketplace and we

862
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,480
Speaker 1: will source from all over the country and up into Canada,

863
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 1: will ship to one of our two existing manufacturing locations

864
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:21,239
Speaker 1: and eventually a third one in Arkansas. From there, we

865
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 1: can run that material either direct to our manufacturing line

866
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:29,760
Speaker 1: or we will send it through other processing manufacturing operations

867
00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 1: to create a more consistent product for our decking. So

868
00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:37,680
Speaker 1: Brian talked to us about labor. You know, every business

869
00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 1: we talked to just challenging to attract and retain labor.

870
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: What's it like in your business during the midst of

871
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:49,480
Speaker 1: the pandemic, we were adding a significant amount of capacity

872
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 1: while most organizations were just fighting to hold onto their

873
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 1: existing labor. We were having to add about more heads

874
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 1: to our overall operations, and we were effective in doing that.

875
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:06,400
Speaker 1: It's fair to say it was quite a challenge. Since

876
00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:10,239
Speaker 1: earlier this year, we've seen much more stability in the

877
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:14,000
Speaker 1: labor marketplace, and I expect that will continue as we

878
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:17,760
Speaker 1: go forward. Uh and we have we don't have nearly

879
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 1: the same growth requirements at this point from a labor

880
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 1: need perspective. Brian, great talking to you, Thanks so much

881
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:28,880
Speaker 1: for joining us. Brian Fairbanks, there is the CEO of Treks.

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00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can

883
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 1: subscribe and listen to interviews with Apple Podcasts or whatever

884
00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:41,720
Speaker 1: podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter

885
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:45,800
Speaker 1: at Matt Miller. P On Fall Sweeney, I'm on Twitter

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00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:48,720
Speaker 1: at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can always catch

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00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:50,320
Speaker 1: us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio