Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. We're right here every day bringing you the
Speaker 1: latest news from the world's of business and finance, plus technology, politics, economics,
Speaker 1: all harnessing the power of Business Week reporters and editors,
Speaker 1: and of course Carol that's part of a team of
Speaker 1: twenty seven hundred journalists and analysts and more than a
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty countries and Jason. You can download Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, blo Bloomberg dot com. You
Speaker 1: can also listen to our radio show at two pm
Speaker 1: Eastern on Bloomberg Radio every weekday, or watch us on
Speaker 1: YouTube by searching Bloomberg Global News. Amid all of this
Speaker 1: talk about how we get back, maybe eating outdoors, maybe
Speaker 1: getting back to the office. We know that life is
Speaker 1: going to be different, and one of the key elements
Speaker 1: of how we continue to get back is can we test,
Speaker 1: and maybe more importantly, can we trace? Contact Tracing has
Speaker 1: been a term of art that we have all learned.
Speaker 1: Emily Gurley is with us. She is Associated Scientists at
Speaker 1: John's Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She joins
Speaker 1: us on the phone from Baltimore. As you might be
Speaker 1: able to tell by the name of the Bloomberg School
Speaker 1: of Public Health, it's supported by Mike Bloomberg. He is
Speaker 1: the founder of Bloomberg FLA frees and Bloomberg LP, the
Speaker 1: owner of this radio station. Emily, Really nice to have
Speaker 1: you with Carol and myself. Oh, it's a pleasure to
Speaker 1: be here. Thanks for the invitation. So tell us what's
Speaker 1: going on, because I feel like contact tracing is one
Speaker 1: of these things that if I go back and I've
Speaker 1: lost all sense of time and space at this point,
Speaker 1: you know, working at home for twelve weeks, but it
Speaker 1: feels like a few weeks ago. This really came to
Speaker 1: the forum. We said, okay, this is what we need
Speaker 1: to do. But this is what we need to do.
Speaker 1: Is a complicated process, or at least a fairly ownerous
Speaker 1: process of just standing this up, as they say, help
Speaker 1: us understand how it works and where we are sure.
Speaker 1: So contact tracing is not is not new departments to
Speaker 1: do this every day across the country. So it's not
Speaker 1: that we don't know how to do contact tracing or
Speaker 1: that we're not doing it. The problem is that contact
Speaker 1: tracing for COVID requires us to do contact tracing at
Speaker 1: both a scale and speed that are really unprecedented and
Speaker 1: way beyond what we need for other diseases UM that
Speaker 1: we currently UM track with with this program so UM.
Speaker 1: So the big lift is getting our programs up to speed,
Speaker 1: which requires huge resource investments if we're going to do
Speaker 1: it right. So and what what what's involved emily in
Speaker 1: doing it right? So doing it right means making sure
Speaker 1: so it doesn't stand alone from testing, it links up
Speaker 1: with testing. In fact, when someone is diagnosed with COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: that's where the whole chain of events starts. So it's
Speaker 1: important that folks, you know, as soon as they develop
Speaker 1: any signs and symptoms, are able to get a test,
Speaker 1: get it quickly, and get results quickly UM. And then
Speaker 1: from there a number of things happen. So that person
Speaker 1: will be contacted by the health department about their diagnosis.
Speaker 1: They'll be asked to isolate themselves from others so that
Speaker 1: they don't uh transmit the infection on UM. That's a
Speaker 1: big ask. There's a lot to sort out there in
Speaker 1: terms of the logistics of your life. If you're not
Speaker 1: going to have contact with other people while you're sick,
Speaker 1: and so they help people come up with a plan,
Speaker 1: they make sure they know where they can get medical care. Um.
Speaker 1: And then the next part is identifying the people who
Speaker 1: they may have already infected, the people who they may
Speaker 1: have exposed. And one of the difficult things about this
Speaker 1: virus is that people can be infectious and infect other
Speaker 1: people before they themselves know they're sick. Right, so up
Speaker 1: to two days before you get sick, you could infect
Speaker 1: somebody else. And really, you know, on the day the
Speaker 1: first day you start feeling ill is probably one of
Speaker 1: the days when you're when you're also very infectious. So um.
Speaker 1: So the person from the health department who calls who
Speaker 1: calls the patient, we're calling them contact tracers, uh, and
Speaker 1: this example, they would try to identify who may have
Speaker 1: been exposed to that patient and then they get the
Speaker 1: contact information of those people so that they can let
Speaker 1: them know that they've been exposed. Because what you want
Speaker 1: to try to do is ask those people to change
Speaker 1: their behavior also to quarantine themselves so that they don't
Speaker 1: unknowingly infect someone out because again they if they've been infected,
Speaker 1: they could become infectious before they know that they're sick.
Speaker 1: So this is so it's a it's a program facilitated
Speaker 1: by contact tracers to notify people who have been exposed
Speaker 1: so that we can try to stop change of train submission. Right. So,
Speaker 1: just I'm going to be a voice of skepticism here
Speaker 1: a little bit because for it understanding how this works.
Speaker 1: You know, it feels like one of the tough links
Speaker 1: in this chain, as it were, is that ask that
Speaker 1: you just described. Hey, you're getting a call from a
Speaker 1: contact tracer because at some point along the course of
Speaker 1: the last few days or whenever it was, you've been exposed.
Speaker 1: Do you have any sense of how receptive people are
Speaker 1: to that of saying, all right, now I've got to
Speaker 1: take two weeks off of work or two weeks off
Speaker 1: of you know, being around my family or whatever. That
Speaker 1: is what evidence do we have in in terms of
Speaker 1: candidly like how people will sort of adopt this behavior?
Speaker 1: So I think, well, so adoptive behavior in terms of
Speaker 1: change their behavior and quarantine. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Um, I
Speaker 1: think that there are a couple of ways to think
Speaker 1: about this. Um. I it's it's a difficult thing to do,
Speaker 1: as you say, um, and there will be some people
Speaker 1: who will be unwilling to do it um I UM.
Speaker 1: I believe, however, and I think that the data we
Speaker 1: have so far shows that people are willing to do
Speaker 1: it because what's the alternative. The alternative is that you
Speaker 1: infect people that you know, that you love, that you
Speaker 1: work with. Um and as we all know, most of
Speaker 1: us have people within our world that are at high
Speaker 1: risk first year disease. That's a really good point, Charlie
Speaker 1: mentioning some of the latest from Johns Hopkins, which has
Speaker 1: been closely tracking everything to do with the virus. We've
Speaker 1: got with us right now. Emily Gurley still still with us,
Speaker 1: Associate scientist at Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned earlier, the Bloomberg School of Public Health
Speaker 1: supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Philanthropies. One thing I wonder, Emily, is I got
Speaker 1: a couple of questions. Corporations, Well, they I don't know,
Speaker 1: what are you hearing? Well, they ultimately play a big
Speaker 1: role in contact tracing and might get to a point
Speaker 1: where they kind of demanded of workers to make sure
Speaker 1: that everyone is keeping and staying safe. UM. Well, I
Speaker 1: think if we're if we're going back to work. If
Speaker 1: we're reopening our societies, there's no no risk life. Um,
Speaker 1: So everything we do have to function around reducing risk
Speaker 1: wherever we can. Um. So workplaces are you know, that's
Speaker 1: where people spend time. So UM, I think it just
Speaker 1: makes sense that corporations are thinking about, you know, in
Speaker 1: their own particular context, what are the vulnerabilities that they face,
Speaker 1: where could um, where could infections take place? What are
Speaker 1: they doing to prevent that? Uh? If someone is infected, Uh,
Speaker 1: there you would want to know, and you'd want to
Speaker 1: let workers know that they've been exposed. Again, for all
Speaker 1: the reasons that we've already discussed, no one would want
Speaker 1: to unknowingly infect someone else. I think that you you know,
Speaker 1: you should also think about if um, you know, just
Speaker 1: your systems, then if someone is infected, um, you know,
Speaker 1: how many contacts have they had, it might be worth
Speaker 1: while to rearrange workflows or how you do business so
Speaker 1: that if one person is infected, you don't have everyone
Speaker 1: else quarantining because they've all had close contact with that person.
Speaker 1: All right. Uh, that's really an an interesting point. So
Speaker 1: are you seeing like different areas or different places or
Speaker 1: different institutions who are sort of doing this. Well, what
Speaker 1: what are the role models that we should be thinking
Speaker 1: about here, Emily, Um, I think we're all still figuring
Speaker 1: this out. UM, so we're still in learning mode. I
Speaker 1: think it's important that uh, you know, anyone who's doing
Speaker 1: this be reporting out how it's worked, ging what's working,
Speaker 1: what's not, um, just for everyone's improvement. I think that
Speaker 1: there are some really low tech, easy things that we
Speaker 1: can do, particularly from the business side, that just make
Speaker 1: a lot of sense, including making sure people know that
Speaker 1: they should and can stay home when they're sick. Even
Speaker 1: if you're just feeling a little unwell, it's worth it
Speaker 1: to stay home and this context and that will go
Speaker 1: a long way. So simple, right, but it's just common sense. UM.
Speaker 1: One last question, what do we learn from HIV contact
Speaker 1: tracing that can help us here? So contract tracing for
Speaker 1: HIV is similar, doesn't have to be done again at
Speaker 1: the scale and speed as COVID. UM, but we do
Speaker 1: have a few things that are important. One is, um,
Speaker 1: you know, stigma doesn't help, It doesn't help prevention efforts,
Speaker 1: It doesn't help people who are infected, so UM, you know,
Speaker 1: so we should do everything we can to avoid that. UM.
Speaker 1: The second thing is it works. Um, if we can
Speaker 1: find people, help them change their behavior so they don't
Speaker 1: spread it onto others, we're doing a service to our
Speaker 1: whole community. Um. So I think those are the two
Speaker 1: major things. Yeah, and that's a really important one. And
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you framed it the way that you
Speaker 1: did in the earlier part of the conversation that you
Speaker 1: need to remind people. And I do think we're doing
Speaker 1: a better job of this, and I hope it continues
Speaker 1: to resonate that. You know, even in the controversy around well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to wear a mask, people essentially say, listen,
Speaker 1: you have to do this because this isn't just about you.
Speaker 1: This is about the community. And I think you put
Speaker 1: it really well, Emily, that this is about people that
Speaker 1: you care about. You know, people in your family, people
Speaker 1: who you work with, your friends, your your close circle. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, even if you can't get your head around, uh,
Speaker 1: the good of greater society, you know, you think about
Speaker 1: the people that you love in many cases. All right, Emily, girlie,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Associate scientists JOHNS. Hopkins University, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: School Public Health joining us on the phone from Baltimore.
Speaker 1: It is you, it is me, it is everyone. It's
Speaker 1: like one of those situations, right, you really need to
Speaker 1: think about your community the greater good. Uh, And putting
Speaker 1: on a mask is so simple. So uh, certainly great
Speaker 1: to hear from her and responding. And basically, if you're
Speaker 1: told like you've been exposed, then you need to do
Speaker 1: something to take yourself out of it right in many ways,
Speaker 1: and let everybody that you expose know about it, right exactly.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, so let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about the world of economics, because clearly
Speaker 1: it is top of mind the back half of this
Speaker 1: week given all the jobs and jobless data that we
Speaker 1: are getting, and we also are coming to understand the
Speaker 1: crises that we're facing our economic in many ways at
Speaker 1: their core, and we're going to talk about that throughout
Speaker 1: the course of the show. Let's continue the conversation right
Speaker 1: now with Steep Blitz, He's chief US economist, with Ta
Speaker 1: Lambard joining us on the phone from New York City. Steve,
Speaker 1: it's nice to have you with Caroline. Myself, I do
Speaker 1: wonder as you look at the data that continue to
Speaker 1: come out, you know, you see the market reacting and
Speaker 1: as our own Michael McKee, who I know, you know
Speaker 1: who said earlier, Uh, it's quite a day when we say, oh,
Speaker 1: one point nine million jobless claims. Okay, cool, better than
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be. I mean that
Speaker 1: it's still is hard for me to get my head
Speaker 1: around it. And yet you look at this market with
Speaker 1: a clear eye. What do you see out there? What
Speaker 1: are the important things we need to be zeroing in on? Well,
Speaker 1: I think the important things we need to be zero
Speaker 1: you know. First of all, Hello, everybody, how are you?
Speaker 1: We're doing okay? I hope you are too, Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: what we are? Um? So the thing to really key
Speaker 1: on is this, you're looking for two things. You're looking
Speaker 1: for whether or not there's a broadening of unemployment beyond
Speaker 1: the initial firms that we're shut down. And when you
Speaker 1: look and reading the paper and Bloomberg reporting this company,
Speaker 1: that company is starting to report layoffs that are you know, second, third,
Speaker 1: fourth degrees away from you know, the local store that
Speaker 1: gets shut down. That's what you're looking for. And when
Speaker 1: I looked at the ADP numbers yesterday, and admittedly employment
Speaker 1: is a lagging indicator. UM it began to tell me
Speaker 1: that one the two million a week in initial unemployment
Speaker 1: claims is not just an administrative backlog, which we know
Speaker 1: it does exist, but it's also telling us that there
Speaker 1: is a broadening of unemployment. So what you want to
Speaker 1: see in the weekly claims numbers is is that number
Speaker 1: of continuing claims starting to go down. Right as the
Speaker 1: economy reopens, people get called back. PPP is supposed to
Speaker 1: put people back on the payroll. There was a big
Speaker 1: jump and last and that's really two weeks last. By
Speaker 1: week two weeks ago, we saw a big drop in
Speaker 1: continuing claims. That was great. We saw small and small
Speaker 1: increased and increase about six thousand this week. So that's
Speaker 1: probably and then what should really if I'm in the
Speaker 1: equity market's what I should really be focused on, because
Speaker 1: the equity markets obviously is a forward discounting mechanism. As
Speaker 1: we all know. UM of the people who said they
Speaker 1: lost their jobs last month said it was temporary. That's
Speaker 1: an extraordinarily high number. And that's one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why forward expectations by consumers and business has been that
Speaker 1: this is sort of a three month bank holiday. I
Speaker 1: want to know tomorrow it's gonna be a horrendous number.
Speaker 1: The unemployment number rates are gonna be higher. And I
Speaker 1: and and I get all that, we're gonna see that,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be the headline. But what really
Speaker 1: look at is has that number shifted as people have
Speaker 1: people begun of view, they are on their jobs that
Speaker 1: were lost no longer being a temporary loss, but a
Speaker 1: permanent loss. Well and and well and Steve, we know, right,
Speaker 1: permanent becomes our temperate, temporary excuse me becomes permanent, especially
Speaker 1: if there isn't demand on the other side of this,
Speaker 1: like we don't. We don't really know what growth is
Speaker 1: going to be like on the other side. And maybe
Speaker 1: we can watch Asia for some ideas, you know, as
Speaker 1: they come back from the virus. They're ahead of us, certainly,
Speaker 1: but we just don't know. And if a business doesn't
Speaker 1: have demand, they're not going to hold onto workers, They're
Speaker 1: not going to bring in new workers. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: we've seen that. We've talked to CEOs who thought we're
Speaker 1: gonna hold out of workers, you know, they you know,
Speaker 1: back when when this all started, and then they've had
Speaker 1: to let folks go right exactly, And that's why that
Speaker 1: number is so important. The most extraordinary aspect was a
Speaker 1: lot of extraordinary aspects. But one of the extraordinary aspects
Speaker 1: of this whole downs aren't is that usually ex current
Speaker 1: expectations and forward expectations by consumers and I'm really looking
Speaker 1: at the conference board numbers drop this time. The current
Speaker 1: expectations dropped, the forward expectations never did. And if you
Speaker 1: look at the Philly Fed Survey of manufacturing, their current
Speaker 1: business numbers dropped as they would normally would in a recession,
Speaker 1: the forward expectations did not. If those numbers start to slip,
Speaker 1: the equity market has to slip with it, because that
Speaker 1: forward expectations is also what's built into the equity market,
Speaker 1: and liquidity works to boost the equity market when the
Speaker 1: forward expectations are strong. But when those forward expectations starts
Speaker 1: a week, you know a lot of money can go
Speaker 1: into cash too. And so is that a and how
Speaker 1: soon will we kind of get a really good picture
Speaker 1: of whether that is the case. Is it measured in
Speaker 1: weeks or is this something that we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: watch for the balance of this year. Steve, I think
Speaker 1: July August, if we are not seeing some real improvement
Speaker 1: or the numbers, that we will see improvement. I mean,
Speaker 1: I do think the unemployment rate is gonna go from
Speaker 1: say percent down to ten percent, and that's gonna feel great.
Speaker 1: But eight ten percent in this country is a severe recession.
Speaker 1: And by August you're gonna see we should begin to
Speaker 1: see whether or not the unemployment rate is settling into
Speaker 1: Not only is that it's settling the eight to ten
Speaker 1: percent range, but who's unemployed moves up from the low skills,
Speaker 1: you know, low wage worker to It's exactly what Carol
Speaker 1: you were just talking about, which is it starts to
Speaker 1: move up the food chain, so to speak, as a
Speaker 1: terrible word to say, it's wort that just came out live,
Speaker 1: but moves up the income chain to people who to
Speaker 1: higher skills hire income workers. And that's going to change
Speaker 1: the political tenor as well, which is what our Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Economics they've done a lot of work on this. We
Speaker 1: talked with Lena Schliteva about it yesterday, that it's you know,
Speaker 1: that second wave is not blue collar, it's white collar.
Speaker 1: So it really definitely changes the dynamics it's all bad.
Speaker 1: Whether you're blue collar or white collar, it's not good.
Speaker 1: Steve Blitz, thank you so much, Chief US economist at
Speaker 1: TS Lombard on the phone in upstate New York. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. Jason Kelly, Yes, we actually have had
Speaker 1: some IPO activity as of late. We have, indeed, uh
Speaker 1: coming back slowly, but it's been a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's interesting. You know, I was listening to
Speaker 1: a conversation David West was having with a banker, uh,
Speaker 1: an adviser, I believe, right before we came on the air,
Speaker 1: and you know, talking about M and A activity, I
Speaker 1: P O activity. I mean certainly, Look, bankers don't get
Speaker 1: paid if they don't get deals done. But you do
Speaker 1: wonder about the kind of the shape and the substance
Speaker 1: of these deals, both companies going public and M and
Speaker 1: A activity out there. We know that private equity deals
Speaker 1: are continuing to happen in some form of fashion. We
Speaker 1: have the KKR Cody deal. Yep, that's our daily mention
Speaker 1: of Cody. But I'm sure you'll mentioned in the stocks too,
Speaker 1: do um. But uh, you know, you do think about
Speaker 1: how money gets deployed, because as we know, there is
Speaker 1: this wall of capital that needs to be put to
Speaker 1: work from a private equity perspective. And look, we have
Speaker 1: a stock market that is very healthy, and so why
Speaker 1: wouldn't you go into that market at this point? If
Speaker 1: it's very simple too when it comes to initial public offerings,
Speaker 1: companies do not bring companies public, or bankers don't bring
Speaker 1: companies public. Companies don't. Startups don't want to go public
Speaker 1: if the market isn't warm and welcoming. And so when
Speaker 1: you start to see activity, that's optimism about the business environment.
Speaker 1: Warner Music of course, just going public. And then of
Speaker 1: course today we had a big one zoom Info. Don't
Speaker 1: be confused with zoom the virtual and cloud based video
Speaker 1: conferencing company UM, which has also been out there, but
Speaker 1: zoom Info of the tickers z I it I p
Speaker 1: oed at twenty one dollars to share shot up UH
Speaker 1: in its first day of trading. And lucky for us,
Speaker 1: we actually have Henry Shack. He is the founder and
Speaker 1: CEO Assume Info. He joins us on the phone from
Speaker 1: I Believe, Vancouver, Washington. UM Henry, first of all, congratulations.
Speaker 1: UM on the I p O. I gotta ask you
Speaker 1: right out of the gate, though twenty one dollars at
Speaker 1: prices at its shot as high as forty dollars, do
Speaker 1: you kind of feel like the banker's miss price this one? Uh,
Speaker 1: thank you for having me on. Um, you know, I don't. Look,
Speaker 1: I I we brought together the best advisors in the
Speaker 1: world with JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley and Credit Swiss
Speaker 1: and Barclay's and b of A, and so we feel
Speaker 1: like we we feel like we bought the best brains
Speaker 1: in the world to this. And look, I'm not looking
Speaker 1: at the price today. The stock will do what the
Speaker 1: stock does today. We're building value for long term shareholders
Speaker 1: who will be with us five years from now and longer,
Speaker 1: and so I'm focused on building a business that creates
Speaker 1: value for them. I have the same business today that
Speaker 1: I had yesterday, and the stock market doesn't really affect
Speaker 1: what we're building. So Henry talked to us about this process.
Speaker 1: I mean, and I think probably from a Bloomberg You're
Speaker 1: gonna hear more about the nuts and bolts than than anything,
Speaker 1: because you know, our audience are people. Are the folks
Speaker 1: who put these sorts of deals together. And I do wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, giving your experience and your expectations, what it
Speaker 1: was like to do a deal like this in a
Speaker 1: world that is still very much at home. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we did our We did the road show completely
Speaker 1: from home. Um. We obviously we spent the last year
Speaker 1: meeting with investors across the country and getting them familiar
Speaker 1: with our story. I think it would probably be pretty
Speaker 1: difficult to do this and if we hadn't already done that,
Speaker 1: And so by the time we came up to running
Speaker 1: a virtual road show, uh, you know, the big contingent
Speaker 1: of the ssters we were talking to had met us,
Speaker 1: what would they had understood the story, they understood the
Speaker 1: management team, and so being able to do do this
Speaker 1: virtually was actually, you know, some blessing in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. You know, ending a day after eight or
Speaker 1: nine or ten meetings and being able to walk out
Speaker 1: the door to my wife and my four year old
Speaker 1: daughter is a lot more interesting than finishing the day
Speaker 1: having dinner with a banker and then sleeping in a
Speaker 1: random hotel room in New Yorker San Francis breaking it
Speaker 1: down at the hotel bar at the Marriott in midtown,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to you know, make small talk with
Speaker 1: a banker. Yeah that your wife, Your wife and daughters
Speaker 1: say thank you very much. They're very appreciative that you
Speaker 1: said that. Um, listen, you know, as we kidded at
Speaker 1: the top, you're not zoom the one that we've all
Speaker 1: been zooming with our families or having, you know, after
Speaker 1: our cocktail parties are having lots of meetings more likely,
Speaker 1: UM with it this hour? What exactly do you guys
Speaker 1: do your sass company? Right? Yeah, So, we're a staff
Speaker 1: company that helps sales and marketing professionals today over two
Speaker 1: of them at fifteen thousand different companies find their next
Speaker 1: best customer. We do that through a mix of technology,
Speaker 1: data and analytics. But if I'm a B two B
Speaker 1: salesperson or a B two B marketer and I need
Speaker 1: to go to market in an effective and efficient way,
Speaker 1: we make that possible through our platform, through our data,
Speaker 1: through our insight. Are you worried because I know some
Speaker 1: of your customers in retail, restaurant, hotels, airlines, these are
Speaker 1: obviously industries that we know have been impacted severely by
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Are you a little nervous about the business outlook,
Speaker 1: No look, I think for a little less than for
Speaker 1: about four percent of our businesses and heavily impacted industries.
Speaker 1: I think what we're most excited about is what we're
Speaker 1: seeing in the SMB segments and our business, and what
Speaker 1: we're seeing in the enterprise segments of our business. In
Speaker 1: the SMB, what we're seeing as companies pivoting their business
Speaker 1: models and using our platform to do that. There's a
Speaker 1: great story in our s one about a company called
Speaker 1: tent Craft that makes outdoor tents for events, and as
Speaker 1: a pandemic hit, literally every event on the space of
Speaker 1: the year disappeared, and Tencraft came to us and said,
Speaker 1: I think we can use these tents for COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: testing for hospitals and healthcare facilities. Can you help us
Speaker 1: figure out how many hospitals there are in the United States,
Speaker 1: where they're located, who who the decision makers are at
Speaker 1: those hospitals, And we were able to give them access
Speaker 1: to our platform, and last month they had their biggest
Speaker 1: revenue month in history, going from a place where they
Speaker 1: had no business left to the biggest revenue month of
Speaker 1: their history, all powered by the Zoom into platforms, and
Speaker 1: there you go, yeah, all right, Well we're eager to
Speaker 1: keep in touch with you. See how it goes. Congratulations,
Speaker 1: Hopefully you're breathing a little bit of a sigh of relief.
Speaker 1: Uh go have a drink. Founder and CEO of Zoom
Speaker 1: And he's there. He's already there. He just has to
Speaker 1: walk outside the journal. Now let me drive. Oh no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, honey, please out of the riding revels.
Speaker 1: I want to drive. Just drive by the questions, trying
Speaker 1: the drive to the globe community. Thanks, we'll try us
Speaker 1: on Bluebird radio. All right, it's time for the drive
Speaker 1: to the closed. Delighted to have back with us. It's
Speaker 1: been too long. And Milletti head of a active equity
Speaker 1: easier for me to say, wells Fargo Asset Management. They
Speaker 1: look after about five eighteen billion dollars. That's half a trillion,
Speaker 1: Carol Masser. She turns on the phone. Good round there,
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. Nice. That's why you know, I have no business,
Speaker 1: uh really talking about any of this stuff. But Anne
Speaker 1: Milletti does. She d on the phone from Mnominee Falls, Wisconsin. So,
Speaker 1: and it's really nice to have you with us. First
Speaker 1: of all, how are you doing I'm doing well. How
Speaker 1: are you guys doing? We're doing okay. I mean it's
Speaker 1: been a you know, we're putting together our weekend show
Speaker 1: earlier today, and I think candidly just revisiting all the
Speaker 1: conversations we've had this week. I don't want to speak
Speaker 1: for Carol, but I will. Um, it's heavy, like it's
Speaker 1: very heavy. I think what what we're all going through?
Speaker 1: And I do wonder, Um, you know, we've spent some
Speaker 1: we spent a lot of time with you over over
Speaker 1: the years, and I feel like you are a person
Speaker 1: who is acutely aware of others. I know you're an
Speaker 1: active volunteer, and you know, someone who really brings their
Speaker 1: own experience to bear on all this. And I do
Speaker 1: wonder what you think in a time like this in
Speaker 1: your community and as you're talking to your family and others. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for asking. And I do feel like I
Speaker 1: have to give a special shout out to all of
Speaker 1: my friends and people in New York. Um, you all
Speaker 1: have been hit so hard over the last few months, um,
Speaker 1: with really three crisises. And it's been the healthcare crisis
Speaker 1: and an economic cr system certainly now a social crisis.
Speaker 1: But um, as I focus so much on the market,
Speaker 1: I do think it's hard to ignore the pain that's
Speaker 1: going on and taking place in all of the communities
Speaker 1: that live in And while I live in the Midwest, UM,
Speaker 1: we we can't escape our own been in the Midwest,
Speaker 1: don't escape the pa that happens when we see tragedy,
Speaker 1: tragedies like we saw in Minneapolis. UM. But but we're
Speaker 1: all impacted by it. And I think at Wells Fargo,
Speaker 1: I'm lucky enough to work for a company that really
Speaker 1: does push its employees to dedicate time in their communities.
Speaker 1: And UM as a company, we've we've volunteered just under
Speaker 1: two million hours to projects in our communities, and UM
Speaker 1: the foundation has, you know, put grants aside to focus
Speaker 1: specifically in community. But I personally have been involved in
Speaker 1: an organization called Secure Futures and it's it's really been
Speaker 1: one that focuses on financial literacy. Mostly important to me
Speaker 1: is that it focuses at a young age, and it's
Speaker 1: with high school kids. And when you touch people at
Speaker 1: a young age and tell them both the pros and
Speaker 1: cons of how to deal with finances, why you may
Speaker 1: not want to go into a check cashing store um,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to teach them from maybe your own
Speaker 1: personal mistakes you made when you were young, but also
Speaker 1: the mistakes of others. And despite where I am today,
Speaker 1: I've lived through um my own challenges in life, and
Speaker 1: they're not the same as some of the students I've
Speaker 1: talked to. But I think by sharing our own experiences,
Speaker 1: that's something that kids can relate to. And no one
Speaker 1: teaches you in high school what a credit score means
Speaker 1: and why you shouldn't go into a chack hashing store.
Speaker 1: And many of the students, you know, believe that banks
Speaker 1: are for rich people and that they were unattainable, that
Speaker 1: they couldn't go into them. And so teaching financial literacy
Speaker 1: is something that can unlock power in students at a
Speaker 1: young age and something that can help them more for
Speaker 1: the future. It's a small thing, and it is just
Speaker 1: a small um difference that I think I can make.
Speaker 1: But if it's one person doing one thing, hopefully we
Speaker 1: have we have many other volunteers. As they said earlier,
Speaker 1: it's not just me, Um, it's it's actions. I know,
Speaker 1: actions speak louder than words, and I hope we're all
Speaker 1: doing some of that as business leaders in our communities
Speaker 1: to make a difference. And I do wonder. No, I
Speaker 1: think you bring up a good point. And I think education,
Speaker 1: you know, more equal education for everyone will provide more
Speaker 1: equal access to you know, becoming part of this system. UM.
Speaker 1: You know it's really important. But and I do wonder
Speaker 1: about specifically. You know, you talk about programs at Wells Fargo,
Speaker 1: but I do wonder about the role. We keep talking
Speaker 1: to some great voices throughout the week, you know, money
Speaker 1: talks and whether you're a company that puts money to
Speaker 1: programs that UM then do contracts with minority owned businesses,
Speaker 1: whether you make sure when you're doing an internship program
Speaker 1: you bring in minority you know, UM interns. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's ways to really change the system. And I do
Speaker 1: wonder how the conversation might be changing it well as
Speaker 1: far ago as a result of this week. Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I just got off the phone earlier this afternoon with UM,
Speaker 1: the CEO of our asset management business, and we were
Speaker 1: having a conversation about our about our hiring processes. And
Speaker 1: although we've focused for years on diversity, UM, he would
Speaker 1: still like to make a bigger difference and why don't
Speaker 1: we Why is it so why is it so tough?
Speaker 1: Why don't we we because we've all had programs in
Speaker 1: place for a long time. I'm curious what you guys
Speaker 1: are observing. Yeah, you know, I really, Carol, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's been it's been a question that's been presented to
Speaker 1: me for a long time, and it gets back to you.
Speaker 1: I think we we all, um, we all go back
Speaker 1: to the same pond to fishing right for the talent.
Speaker 1: And if you think about being in finance, you go
Speaker 1: to some of the same schools to recruit, to some
Speaker 1: of the same programs to recruit. And when I came
Speaker 1: into this business, I was lucky to come into it
Speaker 1: at a time, you know, more than twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: where a lot of these programs did not exist. You
Speaker 1: could come in with a liberal arts background, and you know,
Speaker 1: you were trained by other people that were in this business,
Speaker 1: and you know, yes, there's still are licensing programs and
Speaker 1: you still have the cf A and other programs to
Speaker 1: make sure people are well qualified. You could go to
Speaker 1: business school after, but I think we can't bring in
Speaker 1: We can fish in different ponds and bring people in
Speaker 1: different ways and train them right, but we'll get We'll
Speaker 1: get more diverse pools if we fish in bigger ponds
Speaker 1: and different ponds than we just do. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: well we'll leave it there. We didn't get to talk
Speaker 1: about the market, but I dare say we had a
Speaker 1: more interesting conversation with the Annimaletti. Always thoughtful, We really
Speaker 1: always enjoy our time with her head of Equity Active Equity.
Speaker 1: I still can't say it well as Fargo Asset Management
Speaker 1: joining us on the phone from a nominee falls and
Speaker 1: there's a clear line, and I think you were alluding
Speaker 1: to it, Carrol. Between what Anne just said in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: what we heard from John Hopebryant earlier in Atlanta, that
Speaker 1: this is an economic crisis, this is a crisis of poverty,
Speaker 1: This is a crisis of education to a large extent,
Speaker 1: and what Anne was just talking about when it comes
Speaker 1: to financial literacy and just getting folks, getting young people
Speaker 1: that basic understanding of candidly how money works, how this
Speaker 1: system works, really is at the heart of this. So
Speaker 1: I feel like a theme is emerging here, right, and
Speaker 1: they understand how it works, that they can be part
Speaker 1: of the system right and be part of the masses.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to Bloomberg Business Week, Download
Speaker 1: the podcast on iTunes, Southcloud, Bloomberg dot com, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. And of course you can always
Speaker 1: listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio, or watch us on YouTube by searching Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Global News