Speaker 1: It might be hard to imagine, but two years ago
Speaker 1: Bloomberg was not really in the podcast business, and when
Speaker 1: we recorded that first Benchmark, we really didn't know what
Speaker 1: we were doing. We just wanted to produce an intelligent,
Speaker 1: fun show about the global economy, and frankly, we were
Speaker 1: just happy to make a second episode. And now here
Speaker 1: we are nine nine shows later, and boy, what a
Speaker 1: ride it's been. We've talked about all kinds of things
Speaker 1: that affect billions of people around the world. We've interviewed
Speaker 1: everyone from a Nobel Prize winner to a best selling author,
Speaker 1: a senator, a hip hop legend, and even some members
Speaker 1: of our own families. We've journeyed all over the world
Speaker 1: to discuss economic issues, from Europe, the Middle East, to China, Japan,
Speaker 1: and of course Dan's native Australia. And today we're going
Speaker 1: to share with you some of our favorite moments from
Speaker 1: those shows, and we have a couple of special guests too.
Speaker 1: The one hundredth episode of Benchmark starts now. I'm Daniel Moss,
Speaker 1: I cover global economics for Bloomberg View in New York,
Speaker 1: and I'm Scott Landman, an economics editor with Bloomberg in Washington. So, Dan,
Speaker 1: how does it feel to hit the big one hundred.
Speaker 1: It feels good. And one of the things that feels
Speaker 1: particularly good about it is the breadth of people and
Speaker 1: issues we've looked at on the show. And you didn't
Speaker 1: even mention the chap who developed the surfing algorithm to
Speaker 1: determine which coastal communities were benefiting the most from the
Speaker 1: surf industry. You didn't even mention that one. We set
Speaker 1: out to make a show. I think we said right
Speaker 1: at the start, this was not a program about statistics.
Speaker 1: Who wants to listen to fifteen minutes of statistics bor ring?
Speaker 1: And economy is a living, breathing thing, with people and
Speaker 1: companies making decisions every day when to spend, when to
Speaker 1: say And I honestly think we've covered such a range
Speaker 1: of issues that are so far beyond the day to
Speaker 1: day of what people think of as economics, like the
Speaker 1: GDP numbers or the jobs report. We even said that
Speaker 1: GDP numbers were rubbish at one point, did we not.
Speaker 1: We did have an episode all about that, and I
Speaker 1: think that you know, for me, this has definitely provided
Speaker 1: a way too to present people with a different side
Speaker 1: and a more real world side of things that are
Speaker 1: actually happening in the world that have a some connection
Speaker 1: or that we connect in some way to economics. Well,
Speaker 1: a few minutes ago we promised you some special guests.
Speaker 1: Let's bring in someone who was also there at the beginning,
Speaker 1: aki Eto. She left the Benchmark podcast halfway through our
Speaker 1: run to join the Knowledge News team here at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: and his co host of our tech podcast Decrypted Back
Speaker 1: should we call it disrupted? That's certainly one after I'm
Speaker 1: good to be back. Guys. Thanks for coming on, Archie.
Speaker 1: Why don't you tell us a little more about your show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we we cover all kinds of different stories from
Speaker 1: the global technology industry, usually something that's a little bit controversial,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of unintended consequences, uncomfortable truths, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Um. Yeah, we've been going for almost a
Speaker 1: year now and I've been looking on with pride. Thank you.
Speaker 1: But you know, there is one other person present at
Speaker 1: the creation Tory stillwell, she joins us on the line
Speaker 1: where she's just finished an internship in the office of
Speaker 1: the North Carolina Attorney General. She's heading back to do
Speaker 1: her second year at Yale Law School. Tory. Hey, guys, Hey, Tori,
Speaker 1: it's so right to hear your voice. It's good to
Speaker 1: be bad. How's life after Bloomberg and after the Benchmark podcast?
Speaker 1: Can it even be called life after Bloomberg? I'm not sure. Well,
Speaker 1: we're still waiting for that episode you promised us on
Speaker 1: the best Pizza in New Haven. We'll have to give
Speaker 1: the crowd the whole crew over with the New Haven
Speaker 1: and you can see for yourself. So that brings me
Speaker 1: to one of our favorite moments. And Tori, you were
Speaker 1: instrumental in this. It's the three am wake up call.
Speaker 1: What's it like to get a call in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night saying you've won the Nobel Prize. Angesteton,
Speaker 1: who had just been told he'd won the prize, shared
Speaker 1: that moment with you. That's right. So you didn't think
Speaker 1: it was a prank at least No, well I didn't
Speaker 1: think it was a prank until my friend Torston person
Speaker 1: this is not a prank. I never thought it was
Speaker 1: a prank. Why is he telling me that basting with
Speaker 1: my head? He's right trying to psych you out. It
Speaker 1: is a very funny, very playful guy. Let me turn
Speaker 1: to one that is one of my favorite clips and
Speaker 1: personally for me was it was a proud moment when
Speaker 1: we had ed Duke Booty Fletcher on the show. And
Speaker 1: for the uninitiated, Duke Booty was the principal author of
Speaker 1: the seminal hip hop song The Message, you know, that
Speaker 1: one that goes what most people do not know is
Speaker 1: that he is actually a scholar. He teaches at a
Speaker 1: university in Savannah, Georgia, and he has a lot of
Speaker 1: insight into uh, into the economy, into markets that really
Speaker 1: came through in that song if you listen carefully, and
Speaker 1: is something that we tapped him to talk about on
Speaker 1: our show because I was really piqued in specific by
Speaker 1: the line in that song referring to double digit inflation.
Speaker 1: So clearly his is somebody who knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: You who lived during the Clinton era, when home buying
Speaker 1: in America was at its highest, there was a certain
Speaker 1: element people who still couldn't get a mortgages, who still
Speaker 1: didn't have enough money for a down payment, and who
Speaker 1: never got a home. So now those same people, you know,
Speaker 1: even though the mortgage rate was low and you could
Speaker 1: get the morgue, they didn't have the money for morgans.
Speaker 1: So you know, that same destination still there. Well, we
Speaker 1: said right at the get go, this would not be
Speaker 1: a show about statistics, so sure enough when it came
Speaker 1: to discuss manufacturing, who knew it better than Tories? Mom?
Speaker 1: What was that conversation? Like? Right now? I think manufacturing
Speaker 1: is still a part of our lives and and and
Speaker 1: it will for a while. But I think further on
Speaker 1: down the road, stay like by the time maybe Tories
Speaker 1: forty or so, Oh god, maybe when is that exactly
Speaker 1: twenty years or twenty years down the road? I could
Speaker 1: I could see it baton out well, Mom, Yes, thank
Speaker 1: you Tory. How's your mom doing? And what did she
Speaker 1: think of that episode? Deads doing great? I just got
Speaker 1: back from Hickory last weekend. Actually, she loved the episode,
Speaker 1: so I think it was really fantastic for her to
Speaker 1: get to be a part of that with me. I
Speaker 1: have to say that was one of my favorites too.
Speaker 1: And when I began on the show as a co host,
Speaker 1: I also came up with a similar idea for an
Speaker 1: episode about truck drivers and what's happening to them in
Speaker 1: the labor market? Where are they so hard to find?
Speaker 1: What's happening there? And I went very close to home.
Speaker 1: Also for a guest, my uncle Kenny Hahn has been
Speaker 1: a truck driver for over thirty years and he shared
Speaker 1: some of his own thoughts on the business. Let's listen
Speaker 1: to that. Well, the teams have been decimated by by
Speaker 1: the regulation from UM. When I first started driving, there
Speaker 1: was a hundred and sixty two trucking companies teams to
Speaker 1: trucking companies, and we're down to two now. One of
Speaker 1: them is a company I worked for, a BF and
Speaker 1: the other one is Yellow Roadway, which is a combination
Speaker 1: of two major companies that had to combine because they
Speaker 1: weren't making any money. And uh, you know, they can't
Speaker 1: find drivers any more to be teams. Is because the
Speaker 1: pension plans are going into the toilet. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: my pension in particular has been cut by nineteen hundred
Speaker 1: dollars because they because the pension is going broke. So
Speaker 1: even those were the best jobs in trucking, and those
Speaker 1: jobs stink. So you can only imagine, you know, working
Speaker 1: for companies like J Beyond that want to work you
Speaker 1: like a dog and not pay you anything for for
Speaker 1: your for your efforts, how hard it is for them
Speaker 1: to find drivers you know, I think it's great that
Speaker 1: the Landman family in the Stillwell family were able to contribute.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the Moss family back in Australia has
Speaker 1: no clue. What I do. You know, Dan, speaking of
Speaker 1: your family, I do remember a certain moment when you
Speaker 1: told us all about the origins of your accent. Let's
Speaker 1: take a listen to that clip. So, Dan, I was
Speaker 1: scouring the internet one day when I see this great
Speaker 1: article about how the Australian accent is a result of
Speaker 1: like you guys drinking too much when you first settled Australia,
Speaker 1: and that you guys speak with just two thirds capacity,
Speaker 1: with one third of your like mouth muscles sedentary. There's
Speaker 1: a couple of versions of that. One is that this
Speaker 1: is the kind of English that convicts spoke in the
Speaker 1: late eighteenth century. The other version is when the first
Speaker 1: male convict ship arrived a few days before the first
Speaker 1: female convict ship, they were all going crazy. Then when
Speaker 1: the first female convict ship arrived to join the first
Speaker 1: male convict ship, there was this massive, massive night with
Speaker 1: rum and nothing was ever the same. Again. It's fair
Speaker 1: to say that some of the first European Australians were
Speaker 1: conceived that night. But that's an incredible story. Well, it
Speaker 1: just goes to show you that we sometimes went into
Speaker 1: other topics outside of economics on this show, although you
Speaker 1: can argue that just about anything has a tangential connection
Speaker 1: to that subject. But anyway, I thought it would be
Speaker 1: a good time to bring in a couple of people
Speaker 1: who are usually behind the studio window but are extremely
Speaker 1: integral to getting this program out. Alec McKee is the
Speaker 1: head of podcast for Bloomberg and Sarah Patterson is the
Speaker 1: producer of this podcast. We usually mentioned their names at
Speaker 1: the end, but we thought it would be a good
Speaker 1: idea too if they got to pick a couple of
Speaker 1: their favorite clips on the show. Alec and Sarah, do
Speaker 1: you want to do? You want to share that with us? Hi, everybody,
Speaker 1: it's Alec. It's a privilege to be in the studio
Speaker 1: with you guys instead of behind the glass wall. And
Speaker 1: congratulations everybody. On the one episode, I did want to
Speaker 1: just introduce a clip from a show we just did
Speaker 1: about two months ago, less than two months ago, about
Speaker 1: how we were poised in Asia at the time to
Speaker 1: cover the biggest story of the year, which of course
Speaker 1: is going to be the handover of Hong Kong to China.
Speaker 1: That story that you turned out to be something completely different.
Speaker 1: Let's listen in and and Lee. You were in Bangkok
Speaker 1: a day was it a day or two days after
Speaker 1: the handover? It was the next day, Actually it was July.
Speaker 1: So you know, we were all caught a little bit unprepared.
Speaker 1: We had seen things kind of melting down rather quickly
Speaker 1: in Thailand, but the way when the devaluation was announced
Speaker 1: and they used some up tooth phrasing. But when we
Speaker 1: realized what it was and we sent the first headline,
Speaker 1: you know, we were just like, wow, this is not
Speaker 1: the handover of Hong Kong. This is something big. And
Speaker 1: Sarah Pattison, our long suffering producer, also has a favorite.
Speaker 1: It's when we interviewed a survivor of a Bosnian concentration
Speaker 1: camp and asked him not only about his resettlement in St. Louis,
Speaker 1: but what the election and some of the anti immigration
Speaker 1: further meant to him. I hope I will not get
Speaker 1: misunderstood up that is a hat and mistreating and things
Speaker 1: like that. But a lot of people forget, not just
Speaker 1: in Missouri, United States of America, where is their heritage?
Speaker 1: Coming from Maybe maybe they were not refugee, but they
Speaker 1: are emigrants like youre. And color of the skin or
Speaker 1: heavily accent like mine is doesn't mean anything. Ah, people
Speaker 1: try to hurt you. Maybe they don't even think why. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: here in the city of St. Louis, picture is not bad.
Speaker 1: Picture is pretty good and uh, neighbors try to stick
Speaker 1: together and most of them appreciate what we did here
Speaker 1: in the past years. Having said all of that, is
Speaker 1: there a count you would have rather been resettled in? No? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about United States, and United States
Speaker 1: definitely look different now and when I come here. But
Speaker 1: if I have to choose, people don't understand what we
Speaker 1: have here. People we this is as country in the world.
Speaker 1: It's tough to top a moment like that. Scott, Where
Speaker 1: should we go for future episodes? Yeah? I agree with
Speaker 1: you it is. It was a very poignant moment. Good
Speaker 1: to leave it there. I mean, as far as the future,
Speaker 1: where can't we go there? There are so many topics
Speaker 1: that we still haven't covered, even even though we we've
Speaker 1: done a hundred episodes. As you know, one topic that
Speaker 1: I often reason for our meetings is looking at German
Speaker 1: manufacturing and how that compares with the efforts to poost
Speaker 1: manufacturing in the United States. And I always get voted
Speaker 1: down at our meetings to pursue that one. So I'm
Speaker 1: really hoping that sometime in the next one episodes we
Speaker 1: can look at that one. I think we should spend
Speaker 1: more time in Asia. The idea that a labor shortage
Speaker 1: in Japan is hurting service at restaurants in Tokyo. That's
Speaker 1: something our listeners would be interested in. Thanks to everyone
Speaker 1: who's worked on the episodes or contributed in some way
Speaker 1: that we didn't get to mention, so we'll mention them now.
Speaker 1: Magnus Henrikson, Liz Smith, Kate Smith, Michael Shane, Jed Sandberg,
Speaker 1: our colleagues around the world who have been on all
Speaker 1: our guests, the staff of Bloomberg Radio one Washington for
Speaker 1: letting us use their booths. Everyone who's can should read
Speaker 1: at the time. Now, family, everybody's who's reviewed the show,
Speaker 1: and especially those who have given us five stars. And
Speaker 1: if you have any ideas for the show, or if
Speaker 1: you want to talk to us or send us an email,
Speaker 1: please get in touch with us. Uh We give our
Speaker 1: Twitter handles at the end of every show. You can
Speaker 1: probably look us up on other websites. We're not really
Speaker 1: that hard to find. Please, we love hearing from you.
Speaker 1: We love getting comments, and keep it coming.