Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stanabek. We're here every day bringing
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Speaker 1: don't have to check your calendar on this, because one
Speaker 1: year today we know the World Health Organization declared the
Speaker 1: coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Tim, We've come a long way.
Speaker 1: We have come a long way. We've come a long
Speaker 1: way when it comes to vaccine. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think if you were to ask any of us
Speaker 1: one year ago today, if one year later where we
Speaker 1: are now, five hundred more than five hundred thousand of
Speaker 1: our fellow Americans would be dead as a result of
Speaker 1: this pandemic we'd have probably said no way, yeah exactly. Um,
Speaker 1: and listen, we're still hearing stories about people not taking vaccines,
Speaker 1: not wanting to, even as we see the availability of
Speaker 1: such are increasing. Listen, we had a bunch of our
Speaker 1: former presidents get together and really kind of collaborative, collaboratively,
Speaker 1: say let's get the vaccine. Check it out. We've lost
Speaker 1: enough people and which suffered enough damage in order to
Speaker 1: get rid of this pandemic. It's important for our fellow
Speaker 1: citizens to get vaccinated. I'm getting vaccinated. We college we
Speaker 1: won't just pandemic to in as soon as possible, so
Speaker 1: we urge you to get vaccinated and when it's available
Speaker 1: to you, So roll up your sleeve and do your part.
Speaker 1: This is our shot. Now it's up to you, all right. Uh.
Speaker 1: Former presidents and former First ladies. Yeah, that's right. Some
Speaker 1: familiar voices you've heard. George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama,
Speaker 1: and of course Bill Clinton. One name missing though, yeah fromer.
Speaker 1: President Trump exactly did not take part, but we do
Speaker 1: know he and the former First Lady Um Milania did
Speaker 1: get the vaccine. They did. They got it in secret though,
Speaker 1: at the White House before they left all right. So nonetheless,
Speaker 1: we're hearing a lot of people come out and say,
Speaker 1: let's get the vaccine. So let's get through, uh kind
Speaker 1: of where we've come you know, what we've come through
Speaker 1: over the past year, and where we are Rupoli Lamay.
Speaker 1: She is Associate Scientists for the Departments of International Health
Speaker 1: at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It is
Speaker 1: supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder, Bloomberg LP, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Speaker 1: She's on the phone in Falls Church, Virginia. RUPOLLI, thanks
Speaker 1: for um letting us kind of put that out because
Speaker 1: that was kind of a big deal. You know, you
Speaker 1: are seeing lots of leaders and leadership come out and
Speaker 1: really encourage Americans to get the vaccine. That's something you've
Speaker 1: been watching as well. That's right, Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: having me. And I think it's really important if people
Speaker 1: get the vaccine because it is a new product and
Speaker 1: there tends to be I think maybe people might have
Speaker 1: more concerns because it is a new vaccine, So it's
Speaker 1: really important to get folks that people trust out there
Speaker 1: talking about their experiences and showing people that they're also
Speaker 1: getting the vaccine, to show that they trust the process
Speaker 1: and the product. So the reason I brought up President
Speaker 1: Trump not taking part in this is because there's new
Speaker 1: research coming from the Pew Center that says that partisan
Speaker 1: differences are seen in vaccine and tent Democrats are now
Speaker 1: twenty seven percentage points more likely than Republicans to say
Speaker 1: they plan to get or have already received a coronavirus vaccine.
Speaker 1: I wonder from your perspective if if you think that
Speaker 1: it's a missopportunity for the former president not to come
Speaker 1: out publicly he did at Sea Pack. He said he
Speaker 1: told everyone at Sea Pack to get a shot, but
Speaker 1: not to participate in a video like this that and
Speaker 1: and not be public when he got the vaccine in
Speaker 1: secret at the White House back in January. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a great question, and I think if we track
Speaker 1: intentions since the beginning of last March, from about a
Speaker 1: year ago today, we can see that there's always been
Speaker 1: a bit of a huge change, I would say with
Speaker 1: regards to the proportion of Democrats that said that they
Speaker 1: would be willing to get a vaccine and Republicans, And
Speaker 1: as you just mentioned in the new Pew report, it's
Speaker 1: actually it's widen compared to what we have seen about
Speaker 1: a year ago, and so I think anything we can
Speaker 1: do to really narrow that gath right is really important.
Speaker 1: Do I think that having a political leader um that
Speaker 1: a lot of people such as former President Trump did
Speaker 1: vote for in and in this last election, come out,
Speaker 1: would that make a difference. Yes, I do think it would. Um.
Speaker 1: I think even if it's not him, I think other
Speaker 1: Republican leaders if they came out and really talked about
Speaker 1: the process of getting the vaccine and you know, maybe
Speaker 1: questions that they may have had that there were then
Speaker 1: a laid after they talked to a healthcare provider or
Speaker 1: a vaccine scientist, I think it would go a long way,
Speaker 1: especially when you look at disparities by state, and you
Speaker 1: look at sort of political ideology by state, and we're
Speaker 1: starting to see some of those differences as well. And listen,
Speaker 1: we understand, right Repoli like why there might be certain
Speaker 1: segments of our population, particularly the black community, who said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not comfortable with this. I get it. Um.
Speaker 1: Having said that, what are you hearing when it comes
Speaker 1: to community leaders. We've talked to folks, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: certainly religious leaders who are trying to reach out to
Speaker 1: their communities, to to especially a minority communities, to help
Speaker 1: them step up. What are you seeing Are we making
Speaker 1: any progress along those lines? I think it's a great question,
Speaker 1: and it's a lot of work that I have been
Speaker 1: focusing on with colleagues that we have been going to
Speaker 1: African American churches and talking to congregation members and really
Speaker 1: you know, trying to be there as resource persons so
Speaker 1: that when people do have questions about the vaccines, were
Speaker 1: able to answer those. I have to give a huge
Speaker 1: sort of hats off, I would say to religious leaders,
Speaker 1: especially within the African American community, that I think are
Speaker 1: really going above and beyond. They want to make sure
Speaker 1: that their members have the right information that they need
Speaker 1: to make an informed decision, and a lot of them
Speaker 1: have reached out to I know, not only myself, but
Speaker 1: other colleagues that have worked in vaccine science and have
Speaker 1: been asking individuals to come and sort of sit in
Speaker 1: on these listening sessions so that individuals that have been
Speaker 1: studying the vaccine science are there for them to ask questions.
Speaker 1: And so I think we are starting to see some
Speaker 1: of that progress. However, I think to your earlier I
Speaker 1: think there is going to be there's as you know,
Speaker 1: medical trauma, historic medical trauma because of experimentation, and so
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, it's gonna be hard to
Speaker 1: eradicate it overall. But I think we're we're doing better
Speaker 1: with regards to disparities. The problem is still going to
Speaker 1: be access, which tends to be more of the issue.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily intention but access to the vaccine. This is
Speaker 1: also becoming a problem. Well, it's interesting because I was
Speaker 1: going to ask you, Okay, so tell me about what
Speaker 1: are the questions people are asking. But if it's increasingly
Speaker 1: maybe not that people and certainly within minority communities are hesitant,
Speaker 1: but it's just about having the access and what are
Speaker 1: we making Are we making any progress in that? Because
Speaker 1: it does feel like Tim and I talked about this,
Speaker 1: It feels like in our spheres that we are seeing
Speaker 1: either family members or people we now that are increasingly
Speaker 1: being able to get access to the vaccine, which it
Speaker 1: didn't feel that way maybe a month ago, six weeks ago. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I think States are doing an amazing job of ramping up.
Speaker 1: We now have a third vaccine product, which will also help.
Speaker 1: I think these a lot of the issues that we
Speaker 1: were having with supply the problem that we are seeing
Speaker 1: is that the outreef is not necessary really matching the
Speaker 1: segment of the population. And what I mean by that
Speaker 1: is when you're asking individuals to essentially pre register for
Speaker 1: their priority group online and you, as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: you have huge segments of the population that is just
Speaker 1: not comfortable registering online. And that's really where there is
Speaker 1: a mismatch. And we've talked to several states about this,
Speaker 1: is that how do we make sure that we recruit
Speaker 1: and we really communicate our outreach in a way that
Speaker 1: is accessible for the segments that are eligible. And I
Speaker 1: think states are still sort of catching up to that,
Speaker 1: if you will, We're not quite there yet. That's huge.
Speaker 1: I never even thought about that, right because you have
Speaker 1: to put in a ton of information online and if
Speaker 1: you listen, a lot of people may not be comfortable
Speaker 1: with that. Not only if you're not comfortable, but if
Speaker 1: you don't have regular access to the internet, if if
Speaker 1: you're not somebody who accesses the Internet through a PC
Speaker 1: or maybe your smartphone is the primary way you're doing that,
Speaker 1: and it's not necessarily a mobile friendly site. So so,
Speaker 1: so what does that look like, RIPOLLI? Does it? Does
Speaker 1: it look like it looks like door to door with
Speaker 1: with the census. I mean, is is that what we
Speaker 1: are going to have to do? Yeah, No, it's a
Speaker 1: great question, and I think there's a number of different
Speaker 1: ways that we can go about doing this. So earlier
Speaker 1: on in the pandemic, we were working with the City
Speaker 1: of Baltimore to let people know, for example, if they
Speaker 1: needed to get tested, right, because this was sort of
Speaker 1: an issue kind of earlier on about a year ago.
Speaker 1: And one thing that I thought was really interesting and
Speaker 1: innovative was they put in that the city put in
Speaker 1: leafless in water bell, right, so you have your water bell,
Speaker 1: and then in that there's a leaselet of information that
Speaker 1: there was a call in number that you could call
Speaker 1: in different ways in which you can get really assistance
Speaker 1: if you needed help getting testing. I think doing something
Speaker 1: similar like that, because the one thing that we have learned,
Speaker 1: especially going to these different congregations that tend to be
Speaker 1: filled with individuals that are fifty five and older, by
Speaker 1: the way they do say things like well, I don't
Speaker 1: know how to get online or how would I look
Speaker 1: for an appointment at CBS dot com, And so part
Speaker 1: of that is understanding like can we help with peer navigators,
Speaker 1: which has really been happening in a number of different
Speaker 1: countries with regards to any sort of a treatment option.
Speaker 1: Is that something we could do? But I think there
Speaker 1: is still a long way to go. Unluckily, I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of individuals that are older can at least
Speaker 1: have access to individuals that do feel comfortable getting online.
Speaker 1: What do you just do it? Like, why don't we
Speaker 1: just do like after a hurricane or you know, something
Speaker 1: really terrible where there's the Red Cross comes in, there's
Speaker 1: big tents for feeding, people were handing out water. It's
Speaker 1: done overnight. It's just line up and get it done. Yep.
Speaker 1: It's a great idea, and they're starting to do that
Speaker 1: in some states, like for example, I know Hawaii was
Speaker 1: sort of first to this because they started sort of
Speaker 1: math maxination sites if you will, that do not require appointments.
Speaker 1: I believe they have walked in at stadium and this
Speaker 1: was several months ago, right, So they were sort of
Speaker 1: ahead of it in that way because they understood they
Speaker 1: were like, well, people aren't going to get online, right,
Speaker 1: this isn't a way that we're going to be able
Speaker 1: to get people to get an appointment, and so I
Speaker 1: think it's more states are able to do that, and
Speaker 1: you know, move towards that model, then I think we'll
Speaker 1: be able to more quickly and rapidly, I think ramp
Speaker 1: up how many people are actually getting a shot in
Speaker 1: the arm. Well, it's interesting because we are seeing still
Speaker 1: increased demand, you know, more demand than supply in many
Speaker 1: places right now. Yesterday we learned that the state of
Speaker 1: Alaska is reducing the age to anyone who works in
Speaker 1: the state or lives in the state over the age
Speaker 1: of sixteen will soon be able to get the vaccine.
Speaker 1: At the same time, Governor Ronda Santas that Florida said
Speaker 1: the vaccine could be open to all adults in April.
Speaker 1: Are these the right moves right now when we do
Speaker 1: still have demand exceeding supply and among certain demographics and
Speaker 1: age groups. Yeah, I don't think they're mutually exclusive, right.
Speaker 1: I think the goal here is to make sure that
Speaker 1: we're allowing access to populations as quickly as possible, so
Speaker 1: that we can get a proportion of the population vaccinated
Speaker 1: as do it as possible. But I think that can
Speaker 1: go hand to hand with still continuing to do outrage
Speaker 1: where we are seeing disparities right, So whether that be
Speaker 1: you know, a pop up sort of vaccination clinic where
Speaker 1: they set it up in the neighborhood, they allow people
Speaker 1: to come in, they allow people to get vaccinated without
Speaker 1: you know, having pre registration, etcetera. Um, but I think
Speaker 1: it's it's something that you could do simultaneously, side by side,
Speaker 1: and I think that's the only way we're really going
Speaker 1: to be able to reach people that really need to
Speaker 1: get the vaccine, that are more at higher risk of exposure.
Speaker 1: All right, So probably the question that Tim and I
Speaker 1: love to ask people, it's okay, here we are a
Speaker 1: year in. UM, I don't know, it's the timeline do
Speaker 1: you think for this year where we start to feel
Speaker 1: quote unquote normal. It's so funny. We were just looking
Speaker 1: at models this morning. Um, you know, with our Infectious
Speaker 1: Disease Dynamic, this is modeling unit. And one of the
Speaker 1: and one of the questions that I had, of course
Speaker 1: is you know what are we looking at? And I
Speaker 1: think if we can continue, if folks can continue to
Speaker 1: do the non pharmaceutical interventions, and what I mean by
Speaker 1: that is social distancing still you know how wearing a
Speaker 1: face mask for the most part, still meeting outside I
Speaker 1: think if we can stay at the levels that we
Speaker 1: have been engaging in those types of activities, we should
Speaker 1: start to see a pretty The summer is starting to
Speaker 1: look actually really quite nice with regards to how supply
Speaker 1: is changing with Johnson and Johnson coming in UM and
Speaker 1: we'rek helping with that product development processes. I think you
Speaker 1: all know. I think the key here is going to
Speaker 1: be we then see things like what happens in Texas
Speaker 1: where all of a sudden they're repealing a mask mandate.
Speaker 1: And our concern there, as you can imagine, is that
Speaker 1: are we at the right threshold of a population with
Speaker 1: regards to a population acquiring immunity to be able to
Speaker 1: go there yet? And that's the concern is that are
Speaker 1: we going to have setbacks because of that? Right? So
Speaker 1: it's not going to be ques. So I think that's
Speaker 1: going to be the key here. As as governors decide
Speaker 1: to reopen states, are they doing it safely? Are they early?
Speaker 1: Really that's going to impact how we're gonna look. Going
Speaker 1: to need that state to state passport, we can just
Speaker 1: see it a pandemic passport. Poli uh LeMay, thank you
Speaker 1: so much, really appreciated Associate scientist over at Johns Hopkins
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg School of Public Health. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovich
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. You know, Carol, you and I have
Speaker 1: been talking a lot about it being a year since
Speaker 1: the World Health Organization called this a pandemic. Let's think
Speaker 1: about what has happened during that year. Twenty nine million
Speaker 1: infected here in the United States, five d and twenty
Speaker 1: nine thousand dead, and about ten million who are unemployed.
Speaker 1: That's big destroy, big disruption if you think about it, big,
Speaker 1: big disruption. I mean, it's it's absolutely shocking when when
Speaker 1: we really think about those numbers. Emma Court is somebody
Speaker 1: who has been thinking a lot about those numbers. She's
Speaker 1: a healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News and Us on the
Speaker 1: phone right now from New York City. Emma, your your
Speaker 1: latest future feature follows ten Americans over the last year.
Speaker 1: It's a diverse group. It includes a comedian like Mike
Speaker 1: big Leia. It includes a psychiatrist, it includes a physician,
Speaker 1: It includes a business leader, a funeral home director. How
Speaker 1: their lives have changed over the last year. What is
Speaker 1: a common thread that runs through their stories. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I think we're all trying to find ways to process
Speaker 1: what's happened over the last year and understand these tremorous
Speaker 1: changes that have occurred in our lives and in the
Speaker 1: world at large. I think this is the common thread
Speaker 1: between a lot of these stories, and I think many
Speaker 1: of us probably recognize us in our own lives as
Speaker 1: these sort of themes of loss and grief and trauma
Speaker 1: and sorrow, but also you know, change and adjustments and
Speaker 1: coping and so um. You know, we spoke with, you know,
Speaker 1: a funeral director in California, for instance, who you know,
Speaker 1: just a couple of months ago, lost not just her
Speaker 1: father with whom you know, she and her mom and
Speaker 1: her son lived, but also two uncles. And she's also
Speaker 1: grappling with a new reality at work where funeral homes,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, especially in California, have been just
Speaker 1: absolutely overwhelmed and have had to start waiting list for
Speaker 1: for people coming in and even turn some families away,
Speaker 1: and um, that's just been, as you can imagine, incredibly difficult.
Speaker 1: She said. It's almost unheard of in that industry. Um,
Speaker 1: and then you have things like you know, Mike Verbiglia,
Speaker 1: who you know, initially when the pandemic started, thought you know,
Speaker 1: he would never try doing stand up comedy remotely, and then, um,
Speaker 1: you know what he ended up finding. As the pandemic
Speaker 1: drag done over the summer, he said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I will, I will try this out, and he found
Speaker 1: you know, it's a different experience. He said, it's harder,
Speaker 1: for sure than the comedy feller, right, but it's something
Speaker 1: where he can actually see people now in their living rooms,
Speaker 1: sitting on their couch and you can actually see their
Speaker 1: faces as opposed to a dark you know club where
Speaker 1: you can only see kind of the front road because
Speaker 1: of all the bright lights. So I think, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we're all changed because of this, and I think our
Speaker 1: economy has changed, or the way we work and live
Speaker 1: has changed. But there are ways that I think we
Speaker 1: are finding, you know, maybe not a silver lining, but
Speaker 1: you know, new ways of living a bit all that.
Speaker 1: I love what my had to say about reading the room.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit more difficult when you're doing it virtually.
Speaker 1: It's like really tough, you know, speaking about um reading
Speaker 1: the room, I look around the rooms here now that
Speaker 1: I'm back at work, but I think about to my
Speaker 1: room at home when I was working. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of yoga pants. There was a lot of casual
Speaker 1: where I've worn a lot of jeans back at the office,
Speaker 1: which I haven't done in years. Um, fashion industry, that's
Speaker 1: another one. Retail, like, it's just been really an upheaval
Speaker 1: there as well. And you talk to Valerie steel over
Speaker 1: at the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we did, and it was funny. She referenced this like
Speaker 1: quote about how sweatpants basically mean a person who has
Speaker 1: given up. Well, I mean, I think a lot of
Speaker 1: us then have given us over the last year, because
Speaker 1: that is that is I'm wearing leggings right now, just
Speaker 1: from the waist down. I would not wear that into
Speaker 1: the office, but I think, you know, it's interesting she
Speaker 1: was saying, this was a trend that was in the
Speaker 1: works already, right. You think of that sort of stand
Speaker 1: classico aesthetic, the all birds, so like you know, the
Speaker 1: hoodies to work, and so this was a trend that
Speaker 1: was really kind of more accelerated by the pandemic that
Speaker 1: it didn't just sort of come out of nowhere, and
Speaker 1: she said, you know, if we go back to the office,
Speaker 1: even if it's kind of part time, people will be
Speaker 1: doing more dry cleaning, and you know, maybe they'll be
Speaker 1: wearing our suits a couple of days a week. But
Speaker 1: it seems like it's kind of sure to stay at
Speaker 1: this point, and we only have ten seconds left. Do
Speaker 1: we continue to bake? You talk to Karen Kolberg, coach
Speaker 1: CEO of King Arthur Baking Company. We all know those
Speaker 1: flower shortages right right, so they, you know, the baking
Speaker 1: trend is they think it's here to stay. You know,
Speaker 1: you're hopefully not going to be making sour dough every
Speaker 1: day the way made you right in the beginning of
Speaker 1: a pandemic, but you know, to make salad. Oh God, listen,
Speaker 1: I was on a hunt for flower many months ago.
Speaker 1: It was really tough. Um. It's a great right through
Speaker 1: of just oh so many individuals being impacted, all of
Speaker 1: us by the pandemic. I really appreciate it, Emma, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Bloomberg News healthcare reporter Emma Court. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes.
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio Tim, We're living in a
Speaker 1: world where it feels like just about anybody can get
Speaker 1: famous on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. It's something we talked
Speaker 1: to Nick Bilton about just just a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: right right, being famous. Yeah, you did that HBO documentary
Speaker 1: which is really really cool. And listen, as our Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News technology reporter Sarah Fryer found out, it's a lot
Speaker 1: easier you can do that, but it's a lot easier
Speaker 1: to make a living doing it if you are white.
Speaker 1: So joining us with more on the stories. Max Chafkin,
Speaker 1: features editor at Bloomberg business Week. He's with us on
Speaker 1: the phone in Queen's New York along with Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week editor Joe Weber on the Access line in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: This is a deep die that just once again, Jill,
Speaker 1: you know, shows us the inequities about you know, doing
Speaker 1: something in this world, but you're treated differently, pay differently
Speaker 1: if you're black or if you're white. That's right, and
Speaker 1: and just a reminder that this is all part of
Speaker 1: the equality issue of Bloomberg Business Week, which has been
Speaker 1: rolling out all week. And you know, we've got to
Speaker 1: talk about taxes a little bit and then uh, instead
Speaker 1: of taking money, let's talk about making money. But some
Speaker 1: people get to make more than others. Um Max. Great
Speaker 1: to talk with you about this feature that you edited
Speaker 1: and and tell us. What Sarah found is she dug
Speaker 1: into the reporting. You know, the feature is about when
Speaker 1: what you probably should think of as sort of the
Speaker 1: new Hollywood. So this is the world of influencers, YouTubers,
Speaker 1: tick talkers, UM and memurs, uh and and and so on,
Speaker 1: basically anyone who's kind of making content UM for mobile
Speaker 1: phones and and for you know, young people. And you know, obviously, uh,
Speaker 1: we're living through this moment that you know, starting last
Speaker 1: summer where um, you know, everyone around the world and
Speaker 1: especially m or marketers included, UM, basically became much more
Speaker 1: aware of you know, racial issues, Black Lives Matter movement.
Speaker 1: We started seeing you know, all of these kind of
Speaker 1: Instagram takeovers, you know, you know, being pushed by you know,
Speaker 1: both baseboth activists, but also lots and lots of big companies.
Speaker 1: And what Sara found out is, you know, often the
Speaker 1: people are actually making this content are being paid less,
Speaker 1: so so they're they're making content that is in some
Speaker 1: ways you know whatever narrowing. Uh, you know, narrowing a
Speaker 1: cultural gap, but there's there's still a pay gap, so
Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to social media. And this
Speaker 1: is something that Sarah addresses in her piece. One of
Speaker 1: the promises all the way back to when the Internet
Speaker 1: was really founded, right, it would democratize things. It was
Speaker 1: a meritocracy. People would be treated equally these social platforms.
Speaker 1: It's not a meritocracy, is it, Max, Yeah, totally. And
Speaker 1: and that's one of the one of the really interesting
Speaker 1: things in this story. Sarah has some reporting from uh
Speaker 1: former Facebook employee who was working on the rollout of
Speaker 1: one of these new you know, social media features for Facebook,
Speaker 1: and he, you know, encouraged his bosses to try to
Speaker 1: sign up some black and Hispanic influencers on the platform
Speaker 1: because they are some of the biggest, you know users
Speaker 1: of Instagram, some of the um, you know, some of
Speaker 1: the most popular people on the site, and and so
Speaker 1: it made a lot of sense, um, even from a
Speaker 1: business perspective. And as this person, as a source described,
Speaker 1: you know, he was basically shot down, um because Facebook said, well, look,
Speaker 1: we don't have relationships with these people. We don't have
Speaker 1: relationships with with with non white influencers, which is you know,
Speaker 1: on one hand, that's kind of an explanation, but it's
Speaker 1: also of course an indictment because you know, that's that's
Speaker 1: a huge oversight, especially for a company that is supposed
Speaker 1: to be focused on data. So so and and with
Speaker 1: the piece argues, um, you know, really persuasively is you
Speaker 1: know in the old days, you know of the entertainment
Speaker 1: industry where we're really used to hearing about you know,
Speaker 1: basically white male studio executives, um, you know hiring uh
Speaker 1: sort of you know, propagating their own biases, and we
Speaker 1: see the same kind of thing happening with social media
Speaker 1: companies where you have a lot of basically white executives, um,
Speaker 1: white marketers and of course you know who are they
Speaker 1: gonna hire. They're gonna hire people like them. Hey, Max,
Speaker 1: so how much money are we are? Were you talking
Speaker 1: about here? In general? Like, how how big of a
Speaker 1: of an industry of influencers influencers become and what's the
Speaker 1: pay dis variety actually look like for for them? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So the the biggest uh, you know, the biggest social
Speaker 1: media influencers, um, you know, are are pulling in millions
Speaker 1: of dollars a year, you know, as much as a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars of post um. This kind of like
Speaker 1: middle of the road influencers are making anywhere from you know,
Speaker 1: a few hundred bucks to several thousand dollars to say,
Speaker 1: make a TikTok video for a brand. UM. The lead
Speaker 1: example of this story, you had kind of an up
Speaker 1: and coming influencer UM who Sidney McCrae, who who created
Speaker 1: as dance uh for a record label. UH, was paid
Speaker 1: to do it, and then she saw a white influencer
Speaker 1: come in later and was paid by an affiliate of
Speaker 1: that label. Basically you know, probably something like ten times
Speaker 1: more and that you know, that white influencer had a
Speaker 1: lot more followers UM uh. So so you know, you
Speaker 1: could argue there should be some difference, but there is
Speaker 1: something a little bit staggering about somebody who who creates
Speaker 1: UM creates this art and and then it's you know,
Speaker 1: performed by a white person for a much much larger figure. Well.
Speaker 1: The other thing, you know, and we talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot when it comes to women, When you know,
Speaker 1: when it comes to minority is just in the business
Speaker 1: workplace of having kind of mentors and people and the
Speaker 1: infrastructure in place to bring along often, you know, people
Speaker 1: like yourselves. There is UM sur Wrights in her story
Speaker 1: Max about the Crib, which is a group of well
Speaker 1: known influencers minorities for banding together to kind of learn
Speaker 1: from one another. Yeah, this, this editing a story caused
Speaker 1: me to have to get up to date on the
Speaker 1: hype houses. If Andrew Yang is elected mayor, I think
Speaker 1: UM the the so that the deal is basically these
Speaker 1: are are sort of collectives of influencers. Brands will UM
Speaker 1: you know sometimes sponsor the entire house and like these
Speaker 1: you know, it's like a group of attractive young people.
Speaker 1: They produced content mentioning the brand and UM and Sarah
Speaker 1: spoke with a new one which is UM you know,
Speaker 1: focused on you know, black influencers called the Curb around
Speaker 1: the Corners. He said, And what's interesting is you know
Speaker 1: that this this group UM, they signed up a big
Speaker 1: corporate sponsor, a T and T UM. It's just launching now.
Speaker 1: I mean you know that this this is something that's
Speaker 1: that that's happening at the moment um and and they're
Speaker 1: really excited about it because from the point of the
Speaker 1: view of the influencers, like it allows them to kind
Speaker 1: of compare notes on say, because that's that's one of
Speaker 1: the big issues here. We have um people, these these
Speaker 1: these kind of up and coming stars. It's just like
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, right, no one knows exactly what what theyre work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that creates opportunity to be taken advantage of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're right exactly. Um. Good stuff. There's so much
Speaker 1: detail in this story. Max, Thank you so much, and
Speaker 1: thanks to Joe Weber as well. That story by Sarah Fryer.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. So another far
Speaker 1: most read stories on the Bloomberg was also highlighted in
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's Five Things to Start Your Day newsletter that was
Speaker 1: this morning. It's the subject of a Bloomberg podcast. We're
Speaker 1: talking about an ancestral search done by our own Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News Senior executive editor of The America's Jacqueline Simmons. What
Speaker 1: she found out during this process. Uh, it's I've listened
Speaker 1: to some of the podcast. It's really riveting. Jackie joins
Speaker 1: us on the phone in New York City. Jackie is
Speaker 1: so good to have you here with Tim and myself
Speaker 1: so tell us about what you initially set out to
Speaker 1: do and kind of why you did it and where
Speaker 1: it led you. Sure, um, thanks for having me. So
Speaker 1: this really was born out of the conversation I had
Speaker 1: with my co host Rebecca Greenfield about how to approach
Speaker 1: the next even you know, just a short reminder, the
Speaker 1: first two were about the gender pay gap, and at
Speaker 1: the time we're having discussiom, you know, there was George Floyd, UM,
Speaker 1: and we also saw coming out of the pandemic a
Speaker 1: lot of economic data, whether it was unemployment figures or
Speaker 1: small businesses closing, and you know, you could see how
Speaker 1: the disparity skew to certain demographics, and especially the black demographic.
Speaker 1: And so the thinking behind the series is really a
Speaker 1: chance to query that gap. UM. Knowing that um, you know,
Speaker 1: there were protests in the streets after George Floyd's killing,
Speaker 1: and knowing that this desparit widening on the back of
Speaker 1: this major global pandemic. And so that's basically kind of
Speaker 1: what got us thinking about the story, and that got
Speaker 1: me thinking about my story and how does my family
Speaker 1: narrative fit into that. Well. I don't want to give
Speaker 1: too much away in a podcast, but what can you
Speaker 1: tell us about what you found about your own family
Speaker 1: without without giving too much away. It's sure, I mean
Speaker 1: in a nutshell, Um, really it's a cantle worms. Um,
Speaker 1: I thinking about you know, their families. History is going
Speaker 1: to find you know that can but in this case, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, tracing your roots back to slavery. Um in
Speaker 1: this country is no these small task. Um. There are
Speaker 1: no clear ledgers. Uh, there's no clear record keeping. Synceus
Speaker 1: records go back only so far. Um, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people who really do know the history. You know,
Speaker 1: have you know Sally passed away or forgotten or moved on.
Speaker 1: I did manage to piece enough of the tail together
Speaker 1: to understand what we lost, um, you know after coming
Speaker 1: into land in East Texas. However, so you know, cantle worms,
Speaker 1: but pretty interesting, you know when you tilt back the
Speaker 1: layers to find out what we came and then subsequently lost. Well,
Speaker 1: and you go back to your great great aunt and uncle.
Speaker 1: What's interesting too and liked tim. Uh. You know, we
Speaker 1: don't want to give away too much because you really
Speaker 1: you guys, over the season of the podcast, UM kind
Speaker 1: of work it through, but it gets to that bigger
Speaker 1: story and something we've been talking about here on Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week all week about um blacks and wealth and
Speaker 1: wealth creation and how you get it. And I think
Speaker 1: the disparities between blacks and whites you really dig into that.
Speaker 1: I mean, wealth happens over generations, and whites have had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do that. Blacks have not, at least
Speaker 1: not as much. Yeah, so I would say, um, you know,
Speaker 1: systemic racism is all about structures in our society, in
Speaker 1: our economy, our communities that are uneven. And you know,
Speaker 1: when I think about the land, narrative of our family
Speaker 1: in Texas fits with that because it tells the broader
Speaker 1: narrative of how you passed on law. You know, just
Speaker 1: keeping in mind that a lot of the wells in
Speaker 1: this country comes from property. I think it's importing for
Speaker 1: senta ince fact. And so when there's disparities and one's
Speaker 1: ability to access loans, um, disparity in the way you
Speaker 1: actually bob proper and neighborhoods been desirable or less desirable,
Speaker 1: or when you're in a tax code that is put
Speaker 1: you out a disadvantage. All that taken together, you know,
Speaker 1: makes it systemic. And so you know, our land is
Speaker 1: part of that narrative pulled from you know, a different optic.
Speaker 1: I wonder about these trends shifting. I wonder about, Look,
Speaker 1: this is a story that has played out in your
Speaker 1: family over generations. How does this get fixed within our lifetimes?
Speaker 1: How do we fix these systemic issues? It's it's a
Speaker 1: question that we've been grappling with, well, you know, in
Speaker 1: this current issue of Bloomer Business Week, of course, but
Speaker 1: this year, for in last year talking about it a lot,
Speaker 1: and I would lay on it wise and have been
Speaker 1: fixed already. M hmm. Yeah. So I mean that's the
Speaker 1: kind of you know, a thousand dollar question. Um, it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen overnight. I think, you know, awareness is a
Speaker 1: first step, and I think that what we saw in
Speaker 1: twenty after May um was just you know, kind of
Speaker 1: woke up a lot of people. Um, however you saw
Speaker 1: whatever is your point of view is, it's sort of
Speaker 1: the awareness was kind of put front and center about
Speaker 1: the disparity issue in this country and quite honestly the
Speaker 1: disparity issue around the globe. So how does it get six?
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna have to have a lot of
Speaker 1: painful conversations. I think you're gonna have to have legislation.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to have to have take that
Speaker 1: conversation and awareness to planning level UM with real specifics UM.
Speaker 1: And you know, the banks are going to have to
Speaker 1: you know, change the way that they operate to some
Speaker 1: degree and sort of in terms of inclusivity, in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, the issue that we've had with redlining, um,
Speaker 1: you know everything right to the tax code um. Right.
Speaker 1: It's a real structural, you know, deeply embedded situation that's
Speaker 1: going to take I'm not sure we're gonna stick in
Speaker 1: our lifetime, I'm afraid, which is incredibly discouraging. Listen, this
Speaker 1: is something we've talked about a lot. It's in the
Speaker 1: Equality issue too of a Business Week magazine about the
Speaker 1: tax code, uh and the racism and biasedness that we're
Speaker 1: seeing in it. More on Jackie's story in the Paycheck Podcast,
Speaker 1: a Bloomberg News series. It examines the intersection of money
Speaker 1: in inequality with Jackie and Rebecca Greenfield, head of Diversity
Speaker 1: coverage at Bloomberg News. Find it at Bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: or wherever you download your podcast. I was listening, had
Speaker 1: to stop just before the show. But it is fascinating
Speaker 1: and interesting and engaging a road a journal. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you let me drive? Oh no, no, no, no no, all right, please,
Speaker 1: I'll do the road. I want to drive. Just thank
Speaker 1: the questions, drying job. This is the drive to the globe.
Speaker 1: Thanks well us, Dawn on Bloomberg Radio. Right, just about
Speaker 1: eleven minutes left in today's trading session. Great to have
Speaker 1: back with us. Randy Watt's chief investment strategis at O'Neil
Speaker 1: Global Advisors, with us once again on the phone in Miami. Randy,
Speaker 1: Nice to have you back with us. I feel like
Speaker 1: there has been a lot going on in the financial markets,
Speaker 1: and I think everybody is trying to figure out are
Speaker 1: we going to see more of a pullback? Is tech overdone?
Speaker 1: Is there more fluff to come out? Or is it
Speaker 1: just taking a little bit of the excess out and
Speaker 1: we're gonna move back to the upside. How do you
Speaker 1: see it, especially on a day where we see the
Speaker 1: SMP at another record Well, first of all, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me back, and everybody's safe and well in New York. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks you too. I think, um, I think a couple
Speaker 1: of things. I don't. I'm not sure the volatility in
Speaker 1: the short run is done with I know, the market's
Speaker 1: very very strong today. It would not surprise me to
Speaker 1: see a little bit more of volatility, a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a pullback here. But I do think over
Speaker 1: the rest of the year we are going to move higher.
Speaker 1: And the key driver on that is really the stimulus bill.
Speaker 1: If you look at the amount of money we've put
Speaker 1: towards this crisis, and you compare it to the Great
Speaker 1: the Great Recession, the Great Financial crisis, it's about double.
Speaker 1: It's been about two point eight trillion back in that
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight two thou to ten period. With
Speaker 1: with the new law that Biden just signed today, you know,
Speaker 1: that's up to five point eight trillion, and that money
Speaker 1: is going to help stimulate the economy. And I think
Speaker 1: inevitably some of that money is going to find its
Speaker 1: way into financial assets. So I think the direction of
Speaker 1: stocks over the rest of the year is actually up.
Speaker 1: So you don't think that that's already priced in right now.
Speaker 1: It was widely expected that that that this bill would
Speaker 1: pass without publican support, and indeed it did. I think
Speaker 1: it's one thing to be expected, but I think it's
Speaker 1: another thing when the money actually starts to flow into
Speaker 1: the system, and I just think it's such a big
Speaker 1: number that it can't be ignored. Now, I do worry
Speaker 1: about the effect it's going to have an inflation and
Speaker 1: on the bond market longer term, but in this kind
Speaker 1: of short to intermediate term, I think that money is
Speaker 1: going to work its way through the system and that's
Speaker 1: going to drive stocks higher. Where does that money flow specifically, Well,
Speaker 1: it's gonna It's gonna flow in a lot of places.
Speaker 1: One of the things is that this bill fortunately really
Speaker 1: helps the bottom third of the country, and I think,
Speaker 1: as you know, economically, those people tend to be to
Speaker 1: be spenders more than than savers. So that money is
Speaker 1: going to get spent and it's going to drive up
Speaker 1: the demand for goods and services. That's going to help
Speaker 1: boost the economy. It's also probably, unfortunately, going to help
Speaker 1: boost prices a little bit, right, But don't you see that,
Speaker 1: you know, potentially randy that increase in prices. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: just a temporary thing, just some of the disconnect between
Speaker 1: supply chains, reopening, people getting back to working, kind of
Speaker 1: everything ramping up to meet that increased demand, especially as
Speaker 1: the economy gets back on track. Absolutely, I think the
Speaker 1: direction I think there's been a you know, a quote
Speaker 1: a regime change in bond yields, and I think the
Speaker 1: path on bonn yield is higher also, and I think
Speaker 1: that is going to suppress the multiple on the market.
Speaker 1: So really gains in the market have to be driven
Speaker 1: by earnings. That being said, I think one is going
Speaker 1: to be a very good year for corporate profits and
Speaker 1: corporate earnings. Right now, earnings estimates are looking for about
Speaker 1: a increase for the SMP to about about one seventy
Speaker 1: two between the market right now is training about twenty
Speaker 1: three times. That's an that's awfully fast earnings growth. And
Speaker 1: I think stock I think I don't think that's all
Speaker 1: priced in yet. I think stocks are going to react
Speaker 1: to that positively. Hey, one thing I want to ask
Speaker 1: you because Dave Wilson, our stocks editor, just at a chart,
Speaker 1: an interesting chart of the day, and it looks specifically
Speaker 1: on how short positions are way down. And Tim and
Speaker 1: I were talking. You know, shorting the market is a
Speaker 1: part of the market, just like going along. And you're
Speaker 1: someone who have managed long only in long short hedge funds,
Speaker 1: I mean, do you see kind of the game stop effect?
Speaker 1: And maybe people a little bit nervous to take on
Speaker 1: their short positions. Is that going to be problematic for
Speaker 1: the financial markets and trading? I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's scary to step in front of all this money
Speaker 1: that's coming out from the government. Right the Fed remains loose.
Speaker 1: If you look at real rates right now, they're basically negative.
Speaker 1: The Fed continues it's bond buying program, and you have
Speaker 1: one point nine trillion coming out from the federal government.
Speaker 1: So I don't think you want to be a hero
Speaker 1: and step in front of that that that fire hose.
Speaker 1: But eventually that is gonna wind itself down, and when
Speaker 1: it does, I think there'll be much better opportunities to
Speaker 1: short the market. The market is going to have a
Speaker 1: big move here, driven by liquidity. I do worry about
Speaker 1: what the other side of that liquidity looks like. So
Speaker 1: you did say that the the markets will be higher
Speaker 1: by the end of the year, but it's not going
Speaker 1: to be a straight line up there. There could be
Speaker 1: some sort of pullback, some sort of correction. What does
Speaker 1: that look like? How big? I think that's I think
Speaker 1: that's driven by a couple of things. I think it's
Speaker 1: driven by increasing yields and pressure on valuations, and you know,
Speaker 1: a typical move in the market, though you just had
Speaker 1: one on NAS deck, is there usually is volatility peak
Speaker 1: to trough in a given year. Now you just had
Speaker 1: about an eleven pullback on NAVS deck. You haven't had
Speaker 1: that same level pullback on the S and P. A
Speaker 1: little more volatility as rates move up would not surprise me.
Speaker 1: But I think at the end of the day, a
Speaker 1: stronger economy and stronger earnings are going to overcome that
Speaker 1: for for for this year, for this year. So I
Speaker 1: gotta ask you about bitcoin. I know you recently wrote
Speaker 1: a column, uh, and I'm just curious I think about
Speaker 1: you know, if you look at bitcoin, I'm just looking
Speaker 1: at It's already up almost this year. It's on a tear.
Speaker 1: How do we need to be smart about it as investors?
Speaker 1: How do you see it? I think what's funny about
Speaker 1: bitcoin is it was really designed to kind of go
Speaker 1: around the existing financial system. But now the existing financial
Speaker 1: system is actually co opted in, right. So Bank of
Speaker 1: New York is going to start offering digital currency services
Speaker 1: for custody. People like MasterCard and PayPal and Square are
Speaker 1: incorporated incorporating it into their payment networks. So Wall Street
Speaker 1: is kind of voted, and they voted that that bitcoin
Speaker 1: is is here to stay and going to be the
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency of choice. I do think people like it right
Speaker 1: now because they see it as a store of value.
Speaker 1: There's a finite amount of bitcoin that's ever going to
Speaker 1: be created. Why now there's about eighteen point six million
Speaker 1: created right now, The finite amount is going to be
Speaker 1: about twenty one million. And I think people are nervous
Speaker 1: about as we talked about earlier, because of liquidity and
Speaker 1: all this money that's being being put out by the government.
Speaker 1: People are looking for stores of value, and I think
Speaker 1: people are are using bitcoin as a store of value
Speaker 1: kind of like they did it with gold in the past.
Speaker 1: It's not a great transaction mechanism because it's actually pretty slow,
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure if it's going to become like
Speaker 1: the free day thing you used to buy your groceries,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But I think there is value in its scarcity,
Speaker 1: and I think it's your to stay that value. Though.
Speaker 1: Do you think it stays that store of value? Just
Speaker 1: got about twenty seconds. Do is it stay up near
Speaker 1: these levels or do you think it's actually headed a
Speaker 1: lot higher because of that? You know, we're not going
Speaker 1: to just see an endless amount of it just quickly.
Speaker 1: I think over the next several years, it's definitely gonna
Speaker 1: move higher. I think it's up eleven times in the
Speaker 1: last twelve months, so it would not be surprised me
Speaker 1: to see a substantial pullback. But where do I think
Speaker 1: it is three years from now? I think it's higher
Speaker 1: than fift it's a right now. Okay, that's fair. Hey, Randy,
Speaker 1: be well, Um, thank you and stay safe. Randy Watt's
Speaker 1: chief investment Strategies at O'Neil Global Advisors with US from Miami.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast
Speaker 1: on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com, and you can
Speaker 1: also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern
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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Global News.