Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Penel podcast. I'm Paul swing you
Speaker 1: along with my co host Lisa Brahma Waits. Each day
Speaker 1: we bring you the most noteworthy and useful interviews for
Speaker 1: you and your money, whether at the grocery store or
Speaker 1: the trading floor. Find a Bloomberg Penl podcast on Apple
Speaker 1: podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com. We are broadcasting from the Commonal
Speaker 1: Financial Network Summit for Women Advisors here in Nashville, TENNESSEEE.
Speaker 1: Last night, many people were watching the next ten presidential
Speaker 1: Democratic candidates debate each other in Florida. There was a
Speaker 1: very different tone in this debate. A lot of policies discussed.
Speaker 1: Take a listen to some snippets from the event. And
Speaker 1: we have got to pass a Medicare for all single
Speaker 1: play as system. We have to make sure we understand
Speaker 1: that the return dignity to the metal class. They have
Speaker 1: to have insurance that is covered and they can afford it.
Speaker 1: Everybody who says Medicare for all, every person in politics
Speaker 1: who allows that phrase to escape their lips, has a
Speaker 1: responsibility to explain how you're actually supposed to get from
Speaker 1: here to there. Yes, they will pay more in taxes
Speaker 1: but less in healthcare for what they get. There was
Speaker 1: that question when the Republicans and Donald Trump passed a
Speaker 1: tax bill bit that benefits the top one just says
Speaker 1: and the biggest separation at the typing. Donald Trump has
Speaker 1: put us in a horrible situation. We do have enormous
Speaker 1: income inequality. And the one thing I agree on is
Speaker 1: we can make massive cuts in the one point six
Speaker 1: trillion dollars in tax loopholes out there, and I would
Speaker 1: be going about eliminating Donald Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy.
Speaker 1: We've been listening to the voices of former Vice President
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, among others,
Speaker 1: in that debate. Joining us now to unpack what we
Speaker 1: heard is Doug High, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director,
Speaker 1: Doug So glad that you could join us. My main
Speaker 1: question is who are the Republicans. Who is Donald Trump
Speaker 1: most scared of? Uh? Coming out of these two nights
Speaker 1: of the Democratic candidate debates. Well, there there's a there's
Speaker 1: a discussion in the inside the Trump campaign of what
Speaker 1: they fear the most. Is it somebody like a Joe
Speaker 1: Biden who has the experience and also can win some
Speaker 1: of these states that Trump flipped, like a Pennsylvania, Or
Speaker 1: is it a change agent, somebody who represents something completely different.
Speaker 1: I think last night we saw that Kamala Harris has
Speaker 1: the ability to stand to to toe with just about anybody.
Speaker 1: That should certainly send uh, some some worry into the
Speaker 1: Trump camp. But also one thing, I think while it
Speaker 1: was a big, big night for Kamala Harris, it was
Speaker 1: a very good night for people that edge. One thing
Speaker 1: I did see that over last night and the night
Speaker 1: before is Democrats were almost arguing with each other over
Speaker 1: who could learn further to the left. Um, and that
Speaker 1: is a ground that Republicans want a campaign on. That
Speaker 1: is exactly the contrast with the Trump campaign would love
Speaker 1: to campaign on, regardless of through that nominee is. And
Speaker 1: that's something Democrats need to be careful of. So, Doug,
Speaker 1: that's exactly where I wanted to go. You know, my
Speaker 1: question I guess is, you know, I think at these
Speaker 1: primary at these early debates, UM, you know, we'll probably
Speaker 1: see a lot of candidates try to, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of push to the left. But when push comes to
Speaker 1: show when we get to the general election, do you
Speaker 1: expect that Democrats to put up a centrist or maybe
Speaker 1: something a little bit more left of that. Well, I
Speaker 1: think at this point we defined centrists. This is true
Speaker 1: to some extent with Republicans as well. We define centrists.
Speaker 1: Who sounds reasonable much less what the policies are. So
Speaker 1: Pete fort Edges, I would say his policies are uniformly
Speaker 1: in line with where Democrats are. But he doesn't talk
Speaker 1: like a typical politician. He sounds like somebody from Indiana.
Speaker 1: He sounds like somebody who's more of a centrist. That's
Speaker 1: that's a great attribute to have. But the policies that
Speaker 1: every Democrat last night, basically all of them and the
Speaker 1: night before lined up on we're all almost exactly in
Speaker 1: accordance with each other. And what we see healthcare being
Speaker 1: one good example is Democrats, where it was a real
Speaker 1: asset to them in and the election, have moved very
Speaker 1: far from where they were on election dates in thousand eighteen,
Speaker 1: which wasn't that long ago. And if that continues, it
Speaker 1: sets the Democrat up whomever that may be. Uh. For
Speaker 1: a contrast with the Trump campaign would love to have,
Speaker 1: you know, Doug, I'm actually surprised to hear you saying
Speaker 1: that this was a competition to just move the furthest
Speaker 1: to the left, because I actually was surprised that it
Speaker 1: was not more that way. Uh. And I was surprised
Speaker 1: that a number of candidates, potential candidates came out and said,
Speaker 1: you know what, we don't think that a single payer
Speaker 1: healthcare system where you can't have your own insurance will work.
Speaker 1: And that's not what it's looked like u in places
Speaker 1: like Canada or in Europe, and you know, trying to
Speaker 1: make an argument for a more sustainable type of program.
Speaker 1: So what exactly are you pointing to? That was more
Speaker 1: left leaning than you thought and more of a consensus
Speaker 1: throughout well on on healthcare. Uh. Certainly there was some
Speaker 1: talk of whether or not people would be able to
Speaker 1: keep their insurance plan. Obviously, if you like your and
Speaker 1: you can keep it with something Obama ran on and
Speaker 1: then couldn't deliver on, there was some dissension there, but
Speaker 1: they have moved further to the left. They're also immigration,
Speaker 1: where every hand went up on decriminalizing the border. That
Speaker 1: is a fight that Donald Trump wants to have, regardless
Speaker 1: of what's going on at the border right now, And
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, as a Republican, it's a crisis,
Speaker 1: and it's terrible. The conditions that we're seeing for kids
Speaker 1: and what's happening with families is terrible. Politically, this is
Speaker 1: a fight that's a very comfortable one for Donald Trump
Speaker 1: to have. When every Democrat raised their hand and said,
Speaker 1: we want to decriminalize crossing the border, that's the fight
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wont so, Doug, It's it's interesting. Do you
Speaker 1: expect coming out of this huge field of Democratic uh candidates? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a Bill Clinton type of candidate, a Barack Obama,
Speaker 1: you know, to come out of nowhere and really take
Speaker 1: the lead. Do you think there's possibility of that happening
Speaker 1: this year? We have so many to choose from. Well,
Speaker 1: I think what we'll see is is a winnowing and
Speaker 1: the threshold for the next debate will be higher. So
Speaker 1: we're fortunately not going to see you know, a Mary
Speaker 1: Anne Williamson or and Andrew Yang in the next debate
Speaker 1: most likely. So we'll get more substance from Biden, from Warren,
Speaker 1: who had a good night two nights ago. Take the
Speaker 1: problem for Elizabeth Warren, where she was the first night,
Speaker 1: not the second night, and it's kind of been lost
Speaker 1: in the conversation. Clearly, Kamala Harris is a star that
Speaker 1: shouldn't have surprised anyone, and she'll do well in further debate.
Speaker 1: And again I wouldn't forget Corey Booker and Pete Edge
Speaker 1: Edge who don't talk typically like politicians do. When when
Speaker 1: Pete talks like a midwesterner and a mayor somebody who
Speaker 1: does things or in this case, accepts responsibility for when
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to do something, which politicians really don't
Speaker 1: do very often, or when Corey but Booker talks about
Speaker 1: living in a community of color. A lot of politicians
Speaker 1: don't know that world and certainly don't talk about it.
Speaker 1: That gives them an opportunity to communicate in a very
Speaker 1: different way. So, Doug, since you are Republican strategist and
Speaker 1: a former RNC communications director, I'm wondering whether there has
Speaker 1: been less or more support among Republicans recently for President
Speaker 1: Trump heading into this election cycle based on the tariffs
Speaker 1: and some of the trade talk, because tariffs have traditionally
Speaker 1: been not in the playbook of Republican economics. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I know from watching Bloomberg has a major part of
Speaker 1: the conversation. And I'm gonna be in Iowa in a
Speaker 1: few weeks and I can't wait to hear on the
Speaker 1: ground what the conversation on teriffs is when I'm in Iowa.
Speaker 1: Clearly it's it's having a negative impact. That is a
Speaker 1: very important state for Donald Trump. I don't think it
Speaker 1: will erode his base, but certainly those who maybe were
Speaker 1: Obama voters in Iowa in the past and then flipped
Speaker 1: for Trump. That's a place where where you're going to
Speaker 1: look and see how are those voters looking at this
Speaker 1: now where they like the fact that Donald Trump is
Speaker 1: taking a fight um to China for instance, um where
Speaker 1: other presidents haven't. But the effect that those are having
Speaker 1: are are having real impacts on their day to day life.
Speaker 1: Being from North Carolina, I know I could have that
Speaker 1: same conversation about sweet potade is all day long. Dougu
Speaker 1: I thank you so much over being with us. We
Speaker 1: really appreciate your insights. Doug High is a Republican strategist,
Speaker 1: former RNC communications director, a director, and sweet potato aficionado
Speaker 1: heading to Iowa to get the pulse on the ground.
Speaker 1: Talking about the Democratic debate. Joining us is Maria Considine
Speaker 1: King Maria as a senior vice president Practice Management at
Speaker 1: Commonwealth Financial Network. Maria, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Just give us a sense of why this summit is
Speaker 1: important for the women advisors a Commonwealth. Yeah. Absolutely, So,
Speaker 1: you know, this month is a momentous month for Commonwealth
Speaker 1: or celebrating our four youth anniversary. And ever since we've
Speaker 1: been founded, we have had this vision. Joe Ditch has
Speaker 1: has a vision that this is a place where everyone
Speaker 1: can thrive and that is what we have striven for
Speaker 1: for all the all these years. And so in order
Speaker 1: to strive, people need to be able to have a
Speaker 1: community that is supportive of them, that allows them to
Speaker 1: sort of explore who they are, understand what is what
Speaker 1: is possible for them, and help them to move forward.
Speaker 1: And for women advisors are Commonwealth who are about of
Speaker 1: the field, it's been hard for them to just know
Speaker 1: who their peer group is. When we go to our
Speaker 1: national conferences and other events, it's predominantly male, and so
Speaker 1: it's hard for them to just know who those people are.
Speaker 1: So events like this allow them to literally set eyes
Speaker 1: on one another and recognize you are my peer, you
Speaker 1: are my colleague, and so it takes it levels the
Speaker 1: field right out of the gate um. And then it
Speaker 1: also provides them with an opportunity to find their own voice,
Speaker 1: to find their commonalities, to to share how they can
Speaker 1: help one another what has been successful for them, um,
Speaker 1: not only for the women who are here today, but
Speaker 1: also to establish a community and a dialogue that attracts
Speaker 1: women to come to our community in the future. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's not just about women really, right, this is
Speaker 1: about diversity overall. So hopefully by providing a community and
Speaker 1: creating a community that lifts up women, and we are
Speaker 1: creating a community that lifts up everybody, um, and is
Speaker 1: an attractive place for people to be. You said about
Speaker 1: of the field, and the Commonwealth works with almost two
Speaker 1: thousand independent financial advisors. Why is only twenty percent of
Speaker 1: that total female. That's a great question. Uh. And it's
Speaker 1: it's a needle that hasn't moved a whole lot over
Speaker 1: the years. Um. And I think there are a few
Speaker 1: reasons for that. I think, you know, younger women coming up,
Speaker 1: I don't think they sort of see this industry. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's very visible to them when they think
Speaker 1: about a career. In finance, they're often thinking about a
Speaker 1: career in investment banking or something on Wall Street that
Speaker 1: that conveys a lifestyle that might not be conducive to
Speaker 1: them having a family of their own, or life of
Speaker 1: their own, or just whatever they want their life to be. UM.
Speaker 1: So I think that we're not visible as an industry.
Speaker 1: So I think it's important for the women advisors who
Speaker 1: are here today to start making themselves more visible and
Speaker 1: start getting out in their in their communities to to
Speaker 1: show them what is possible within the wealth advisory field. UM,
Speaker 1: and that it's a great field and it's a great
Speaker 1: career for for women to happen to explore. So I
Speaker 1: think we've got a visibility issue UM, certainly. UM. And
Speaker 1: then I think on the independent side, I think young
Speaker 1: women sometimes aren't all that encouraged to take risks. And
Speaker 1: so if you're going to be an independent advisor, you're
Speaker 1: going to be an entrepreneur, you're going to be a
Speaker 1: business owner. It's a lot of responsibility, it's a great commitment. UM.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of potential there, but I think some
Speaker 1: younger women may not feel fully supported and being able
Speaker 1: to take that step and take that leap um, so
Speaker 1: they may tend to take more employee advisor rules rather
Speaker 1: than be that forward facing business owner and entrepreneur. So
Speaker 1: we have a lot of work to do as as
Speaker 1: a as a community, and certainly as a field uh
Speaker 1: to attract younger women into our industry. So when a
Speaker 1: woman comes to and wants to set up a practice,
Speaker 1: are there are there specific is this is some specific
Speaker 1: advice you give to a woman setting up a practice
Speaker 1: that maybe it's a little bit unique. I was intrigued
Speaker 1: to hear that question because I think, you know, business
Speaker 1: principles are business principles, and I think they're they're the same.
Speaker 1: Whether it's it's a man or a woman doesn't doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: What I think is different is the adoption and the
Speaker 1: implementation rate between men and women. And this is entirely
Speaker 1: my perspective. So you might talk to a colleague who disagrees.
Speaker 1: But when I work with women advisors, they tend to implement.
Speaker 1: Like when we have a consulting engagement with them, we
Speaker 1: come up with their strategies and their tactics, they implement,
Speaker 1: they report back, and they're telling me where the successes
Speaker 1: are and what their challenges are. With men, they may
Speaker 1: do that UM, but they may hold back a bit
Speaker 1: and may sort of vetted against a number of other
Speaker 1: ideas and look look for other information. And so there
Speaker 1: there seems to be a faster adoption rate among women
Speaker 1: for basic business principles and establishing their practice in an
Speaker 1: effective way. So when it comes to the business opportunity
Speaker 1: for women, I've seen some statistics around the amount of
Speaker 1: wealth that women are actually accumulating and are in a
Speaker 1: position of power over money in a way that they
Speaker 1: really haven't been historically out of proportional basis, especially as
Speaker 1: they live longer. And so I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: whether women tend to work with female financial advisors more
Speaker 1: often than men. In other words, is this a sort
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, select group that has a specific
Speaker 1: pitch right now at a time of growing financial prowess
Speaker 1: among women. I think they certainly do have that have
Speaker 1: that advantage to leverage UM and they certainly can and
Speaker 1: they and many of them are. I think that women
Speaker 1: who are new to wealth or have accumulated a lot
Speaker 1: of wealth, many of them talk of feeling more comfortable
Speaker 1: talking with a woman about their financial circumstance. And part
Speaker 1: of that is sort of the history of of a
Speaker 1: bit of gender bias that has happened between advisors and clients,
Speaker 1: where advisors don't always recognize the woman as a decision
Speaker 1: maker and they tend to direct their information and questions
Speaker 1: to the man in the relationship. And so I do
Speaker 1: think women advisors have UM a great advantage and being
Speaker 1: able to attract women advisors and women, excuse me, women
Speaker 1: clients of wealth UM and I believe and my impression
Speaker 1: is that that is happening with greater and greater frequency.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being with us and for
Speaker 1: having us here. Maria Considine King, Senior vice president Practice
Speaker 1: Management at Commonwealth Financial Network. She is the one who
Speaker 1: organized this that Commonwealth Financial Networks UH summit for women advisors,
Speaker 1: first of its kind, and it is a really interesting area,
Speaker 1: this whole idea of how do you end up diversifying
Speaker 1: fields that historically have been dominated by one group. How
Speaker 1: do you do that? What are the barriers something? It's
Speaker 1: a complicated question that's facing the entire financial world right now,
Speaker 1: financial services in general. It's been an issuing. Yes, the
Speaker 1: big question of the day, will Presidents jij And Ping
Speaker 1: of China and Donald Trump of the United States come
Speaker 1: to some sort of truce fire, at least at the
Speaker 1: G twenty meetings, after escalating rhetoric around imposing tariffs. Joining
Speaker 1: US now from Hong Kong, Steve Engle, TV correspondent for
Speaker 1: Bloomberg and in New York Macky international economics and policy
Speaker 1: correspondent for Bloomberg News. Thank you so much both of
Speaker 1: you for being with us. Steve, I want to start
Speaker 1: with you. Can you just sort of paint a scene,
Speaker 1: give us a sense of the mood on the ground
Speaker 1: there at the G twenty meetings. Yeah, I am here
Speaker 1: in Osaka morning, uh, and we've been, you know, covering
Speaker 1: it for the last couple of days, and we've all
Speaker 1: been just kind of previewing this meeting between she Denting
Speaker 1: and Donald Tump that is going to happen, uh, scheduled
Speaker 1: for twelve hours from right now. So it's eleven thirty
Speaker 1: at night here in Osaka. They're gonna plan to meet
Speaker 1: at eleven thirty in the morning. And again we got
Speaker 1: mixed signals from the President today. He said, on the
Speaker 1: one hand, is a good chance of doing something with
Speaker 1: China hunt trade tomorrow meeting Saturday at eleven thirty in
Speaker 1: the morning and they're working lunch. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: he also said he hasn't promised to hold off on
Speaker 1: new tariffs. So again there's so much speculation about whether
Speaker 1: a truce can be reached, like we got seven months
Speaker 1: ago and Buenos Aires where they had a ninety day
Speaker 1: truce and of course it all fell apart in May.
Speaker 1: But you know, he has a busy day tomorrow in
Speaker 1: between season thing or a sandwich over season thing is
Speaker 1: meetings with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, and then
Speaker 1: after season thing he has Turkish president or the one.
Speaker 1: He's got a lot on his plate tomorrow. Michael McKee. Uh,
Speaker 1: clearly these international trade issues are having a significant impact,
Speaker 1: you know, over the last several months on the financial markets.
Speaker 1: What do you think the markets are an investors in
Speaker 1: general are expecting coming out of Osaka this weekend. They're
Speaker 1: expecting sort of Steven said Buenos Iris like situation where
Speaker 1: the two sides agree to continue talking at least get
Speaker 1: back to the bargaining table, kick the can down the road.
Speaker 1: Some Donald Trump may say, we'll give you of ninety
Speaker 1: days or whatever before we impose tariffs. That would be
Speaker 1: the good enough scenario. The better scenario is some sort
Speaker 1: of agreement that they have moved closer. Nobody's expecting a
Speaker 1: full agreement out of this. The obviously terrible prospect is
Speaker 1: that they don't reach any kind of agreement to continue
Speaker 1: talking and the President comes out and says I'm going
Speaker 1: to impose tariffs. He can't do it yet. They're not ready,
Speaker 1: they haven't finished the bureaucratic paperwork. But he could set
Speaker 1: a date sometime later in July to do that. So, Steve,
Speaker 1: we're all focused on j jumping and Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: their meeting, but other things are actually happening. G twenty
Speaker 1: means G twenty, not G two. And I'm wondering what
Speaker 1: we have seen in terms of other meetings between President Trump,
Speaker 1: for example, and Russian President Vladimir Putin or German Chancellor
Speaker 1: Angela Merkel. Yeah, that's right. I mean he didn't meet
Speaker 1: with Vladimir Putin. Today was the first meeting since the
Speaker 1: Mulla report um and he was prompted by, you know,
Speaker 1: a few reporters questions as the two of them sat
Speaker 1: there before their bilateral um and and Trump asked Prutin
Speaker 1: directly after a reporter asked him, is Uh, he's going
Speaker 1: to ask him whether to stop meddling in the future
Speaker 1: election in and Donald Trump's turned to do Vladimir Putin said,
Speaker 1: don't meddle in the election. Please have wagged his finger
Speaker 1: and said, don't meddle in the election. And it was
Speaker 1: more of a joking, in a lighthearted response to what
Speaker 1: is obviously a very serious issue in the United States.
Speaker 1: But apparently according to the White House, they also in
Speaker 1: their bilateral discussion, did talk about Iran, did talk about Syria,
Speaker 1: Venezuela and the Ukraine. Michael, you know, we're talking about
Speaker 1: tariffs here, and we've had a first round of tariffs.
Speaker 1: Just give us a sense of you know, if we
Speaker 1: have the second round of tariffs here, how impactful could
Speaker 1: that be on the economy. It would be much worse
Speaker 1: for the economy than we have seen so far. We
Speaker 1: were just talking with Mary Daily, the president of the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Fed, yesterday, and she noted that the tariffs
Speaker 1: that have been imposed have had a modest impact on
Speaker 1: growth and inflation. But if you start adding in all
Speaker 1: of the consumer goods, which is the parts the President
Speaker 1: has left out of the tariff so far on China,
Speaker 1: then you really start to affect consumer spending because of
Speaker 1: people may want to hold off, especially if they think
Speaker 1: that this will be settled. Why by an expensive good
Speaker 1: today if you think the price will go down tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And we're at the end of a long expansion and
Speaker 1: people have bought a lot of stuff, so they may say,
Speaker 1: I can wait on that new iPad rather than pay
Speaker 1: a tenor premium on it, and that would not be
Speaker 1: good for the economy. We've already seen business spending stop
Speaker 1: now the consumer has threatened exactly, So I will certainly
Speaker 1: keep an eye on this over the weekend. Bloomberg's Mike
Speaker 1: mckeat International Economics and Policy correspondent and Steve Angel TV
Speaker 1: corresponded for Bloomberg in Osaka at the G twenty. Well,
Speaker 1: we are in Nashville, Tennessee today. We are broadcasting a
Speaker 1: life from the Commonwealth Financial Network Summit for Women Advisors.
Speaker 1: Being in Nashville, guess what's an hour and a half
Speaker 1: away Lynchburg, Tennessee, the home of the Jack Daniel Distillery.
Speaker 1: So of course we felt like we had to get
Speaker 1: somebody on to talk to us about Jack Daniels and
Speaker 1: what's going on in the business. Of course, we got
Speaker 1: our good friend Chris Fletcher, Assistant Master distiller of the
Speaker 1: Jack Daniel Distillery based in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Chris, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. I wonder if you could just
Speaker 1: tell us about how the market is for bourbon, for
Speaker 1: the whiskey's that Jack Daniels famous for. Yeah, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me on. Really excited to speak with you. Um,
Speaker 1: and it's a great time to be making whiskey in
Speaker 1: the United States. We're enjoying a whiskey boom um and
Speaker 1: I think it's um. Probably whiskey in the US is
Speaker 1: as hot right now as it's been at least since
Speaker 1: probably post prohibition time. So thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being with us. Chris. I I do have to say
Speaker 1: that are are fantastic producer on the technical front. Give
Speaker 1: me a look and told me that I broke his
Speaker 1: heart because I referred to it as bourbon. What is
Speaker 1: Tennessee whiskey versus bourbon. Well, don't don't feel too bad,
Speaker 1: because they're they're very um. So we're talking. When you
Speaker 1: refer to these specific types of whiskey, you're still talking
Speaker 1: within the world of whiskey, right, So bourbon is whiskey
Speaker 1: and of course Jack Daniels is a Tennessee whiskey, which
Speaker 1: of course is whiskey um. And so the rules for
Speaker 1: bourbon state that it has to be made in the
Speaker 1: United States, you can make it in all fifty states.
Speaker 1: Has to be made mostly from corn, at least fifty
Speaker 1: one per cent corn, and it has to always be
Speaker 1: aged in a new charred oak barrel. And so at
Speaker 1: Jack Daniels to be Tennessee whiskey, we follow all of
Speaker 1: those guidelines, so we do qualify as bourbon. But we
Speaker 1: have a couple of additional requirements. Number one, it cannot
Speaker 1: be made outside of the state of Tennessee, so it's
Speaker 1: specific only to the state instead of all fifty And
Speaker 1: then it has to go through a process we call
Speaker 1: charcoal mellowing, which is a filtration step that softens our
Speaker 1: whiskey right after distillation, so it looks like what you
Speaker 1: would think moonshine would look like, and it slowly seeks
Speaker 1: through this hard maple charcoal and then we put into
Speaker 1: that new charred barrel to age. Fantastic Chris, I'm guessing
Speaker 1: that you are not new to this uh business, to
Speaker 1: the distillery business. Give us a little sense of your
Speaker 1: history with a company, and your family sister with a company. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, born and raised here in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Um,
Speaker 1: grew up about three miles down the street from the
Speaker 1: distillery and my mom's dad, my grandfather, was a former
Speaker 1: master distiller here. Um. He worked here from nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: seven until nineteen eighty nine. Um. So I've been running
Speaker 1: around distilleries for a while, um, since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: really with my grandfather and um started working here um
Speaker 1: at Jack Daniels when I was in college. Um. So
Speaker 1: I've got about eighteen years in the industry officially, and
Speaker 1: then a lot of time with my grandfather before that
Speaker 1: as well. Okay, but here's the really strange thing. Lynchburgh's
Speaker 1: home county of More is a dry county, and yet
Speaker 1: it is also home to Jack Daniel's world famous, world
Speaker 1: famous Tennessee whiskey. Can you square those two realities with
Speaker 1: with with us? Yeah, it is a bit unusual. Um. Lynchburg,
Speaker 1: I guess, can be a bit quirky in some ways,
Speaker 1: and this is obviously at the top of the list. Um,
Speaker 1: but we've been in a dry county since Prohibition. Here
Speaker 1: in Lynchburg. We are Moore County, it's the second smallest
Speaker 1: county in the state of Tennessee. Um. Now, prior to prohibition,
Speaker 1: it was not a dry county. We had saloons here
Speaker 1: in town and things like that. But um, since prohibition
Speaker 1: began for us it was nineteen o nine, more county
Speaker 1: has been dry, which simply means there are no liquor
Speaker 1: sales here. So there are no restaurants that can serve
Speaker 1: you a a glass of whiskey or even a beer
Speaker 1: for that matter. So Chris, just give us a sense
Speaker 1: of how the whiskey business has changed, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: over the the arc of your grandfather. Um, I know
Speaker 1: it's probably made the same or similar ways, but how's
Speaker 1: the business change? Sure, Um, that's a great question. My grandfather,
Speaker 1: you know, starting in nineteen fifty seven, Jack Daniels was
Speaker 1: really a small, mostly regional brand. Um, it was not
Speaker 1: nearly as well known as it is today. But we
Speaker 1: you know, we've had a lot of help with growing
Speaker 1: our brand. Of course, we meant great whiskey here in Lynchburg.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, back in the fifties our brand
Speaker 1: was adopted by Frank Sinatra and then you know, as
Speaker 1: you move on into the sixties and seventies with you know,
Speaker 1: countless rock and roll stars and in Hollywood, you know,
Speaker 1: using Jack Daniels branding as well in different things. And
Speaker 1: during that same time, the rest of the American whiskey
Speaker 1: category struggled a bit as people turned more towards clear
Speaker 1: spirits and um. For for whatever reason, we were fortunate
Speaker 1: enough here at Jack Daniels to continue to grow uh
Speaker 1: and things that really um. Over the last now ten,
Speaker 1: the fifteen years have come full circle. American whiskey as
Speaker 1: a whole is as popular as ever uh And of
Speaker 1: course we're enjoying this rise in popularity just like our
Speaker 1: other whiskey makers here in the US. Chris Fletcher, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being with us. Chris Fletcher, Assistant
Speaker 1: Master Distiller at the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Panel podcast. You can subscribe.
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Speaker 1: pt Sweeney. I'm Lisa abram Woyits. I'm on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Lisa abram Woits one. Before the podcast, you can always
Speaker 1: catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio,