WEBVTT - Surveillance: Justice Dept Highly Politicized, Valliere Says 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.800 Welcome to the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane Jay Ley. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.560 We bring you insight from the best in economics, finance, investment, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:23.520 and international relations. Find Bloomberg Surveillance on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:34.000 Bloomberg dot Com, and of course on the Bloomberg Right now, 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.480 JP Morgan and I want to focus with our Taylor 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.560 Riggs on one person, the physicist out of reading Mary 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.200 Lake is a different person. She's really a nerd, really 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.279 a geek. How did you get the JP Morgan and 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.400 what are they grooming her for? I think this is 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:50.760 a brilliant move a CFO. She's been running all of 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:52.920 the analysts calls, all of the media calls, for example, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.040 leaving last Friday, for example, Jamie Diamond is calling in 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.280 from Florida and she's the one holding down the fort. 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.160 No one questions her ability to be a key CFO. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.000 Moving her over to the consumer business a sort of 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:07.160 squashes the rumors that we've been hearing about her going 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.399 to Wells Fargo more importantly, people it could be, but 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.160 I also think it's very clear about succession planning, and 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.680 I think putting her over in the consumer business, which 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.720 as we know Jamie. JP Morgan is best in class, 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.280 but as we know, they've been sort of leveraging more 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.679 and more of the consumer business is equity and fick, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.240 and some of the investment banking pipelines have been slowing down. 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.240 They have been leveraging more that consumer business. Putting her 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.360 in a clear line to be running that specific franchise 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.000 I think is also a very smart move. I think 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.640 a lot of this came as well from the hearings. 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.240 One that the House of Representatives had asked Jamie Diamond 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.600 if a person of color or woman would be the 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.520 next CEO. He did not raise his hand. He joked 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.040 with Marian Lake on the earnings call a few days 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.760 later and basically said, the operating committee makes the decision. 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.120 I'm not going to so I think this is very 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.040 smart for them. It's gonna be interesting to sspect a 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:00.560 lot of hedhubs is going to be seeing their way 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.560 to these three women's doors who are at JPMorgan right now. 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.720 Other banks not in the position that JP Morgan is 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.520 in right now. Taylor Riggs, thank you very much. Indeed, 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:22.560 it is you know, for particular for those of us 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:25.680 at Live Watergate, John Ferrell, it's an interesting moment. We'll 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.560 see how interesting by say twelve known today, Yeah, twelve 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.520 new h precisely because at ninth thirty we get the 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:32.600 news conference, and I have no idea from that point 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.480 Tom when we actually see the full report on Wall Street, 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.120 I also have no idea how many people actually care 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:39.639 and who will be watching. I want to bring in 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:44.840 Michael Shell, market Field Asset Management chairman, portfolio manager and CEO. Michael, 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:46.720 what does all of this made to you with anything 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:50.440 at all? Nothing? Really? Um? I mean, certainly at nine thirty, 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.040 I won't be watching it. I'll be watching the market open. That's, 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.600 you know, generally a much better use of time. UM. 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:01.280 You know, it's it's going to be dominating the news waves. 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.760 I don't think it's going to dominate financial media. I 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.160 think you guys will will move on, you know, fairly 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.120 quickly from this. But but this large document will be 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.920 passed and turned into headlines and turned into commentary for months, 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.520 months ago. Yeah. I don't want to prejudge the outcome 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:16.920 of the report, but it feels like a lot of 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.120 people go in this with a pretty strong confirmation bias. Michael. 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.120 It doesn't seem to change the mind of many people, 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.840 the more information we get, No, And I think what 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.799 you'll find is is more and more people get less 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:30.800 and less interested in this as it goes on, But 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.960 there's sort of political die hards. We'll still be preaching 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.160 from it into the next election. Do you think it 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.400 shapes policy outcomes elsewhere? More specifically on the trade story, 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.280 it was interesting that as this bubbles away in the 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.680 background in Washington, we take another step potentially towards a 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.200 deal with China in the United States, perhaps by May time. 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:48.600 Do you think that gives us a little bit of 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:52.120 a nudge on the trade side. You know, I think 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.440 this report could have gone worse for the administration. You know, 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.360 I think it's a president who doesn't mind fighting partisan 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.240 fights as goes along. And you know, all the evidence 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.320 suggests that we are heading towards some kind of a 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.280 solution in trade, and I don't think this report is 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.040 going to have any impact on that. Let's talk about 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.200 the fundamentals and how resilient this secuity market is Eurozone 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.000 p MS downside surprise and equity market that just shrugs 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:16.720 it off. What do you think about that, Michael? This 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.960 secuity market is looking somewhat bulletproof in the in the 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.040 face of economic data that is weaker in China and 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.839 weaker in Europe. Rather China a little bit better. Yeah, well, China, 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.159 you know, is better than the European data. You know, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:30.760 isn't that bad? I think if I looked at it 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.720 coming in the cab, it was Italy and Spain's service 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.880 data was weak, that Germany's was okay, and for manufacturing 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.440 still below fifty. But it's closer to fifty. I mean, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.159 you know, this isn't bad. Um, it's stuff that people 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.960 know is very already. Um. You know, if you look 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.280 at if you look at economic sentiment in German, it's 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.279 extremely low, but the Zoo index low single digits with 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.520 a DAS going up. I mean, but that's generally what 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.640 I call a positive divergence. I think that markets tend 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.160 to move in without direction, and economists tend to follow. Uh. 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.920 There are two brilliant Bloomberg articles today on what we'll 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:08.360 call the European banking mess. How do you take advantage 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:09.880 of that? How do you do you know you were 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:12.400 the Oscar groose for years with a real European band. 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:18.240 How do you become opportunistic given these stories. Well, I'll 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.960 tell you a story back from and I knew absolutely 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.800 nothing and was sitting around in Oscar Goose and the 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.599 story came across the tape that that Manny Hanny was 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.760 was was being bought by chemicals. And one of the 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:31.839 partners turned to me and says, that's it. The market. 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:33.800 You know that the whole cycle just turned. I don't 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:35.880 know what he was talking about, but I still think 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:37.800 about it twenty eight years later. So you know, I 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.080 do wonder whether if Deutsche Bank could actually get a 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.120 deal done with Commers Bank and they could start cleaning 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.960 up where whether that would be something of a turning 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.200 sentiment for that banking industry. This is wonderful. Michael Shure, 0:05:49.320 --> 0:06:03.280 thank you so much. This is a joy Foreign Affairs. 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.359 I talked about John, I'm a broken record. I'm a 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:10.360 broken seat every month. It's great, except they've topped it 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:15.400 all this month. George Packer, who was the definitive IRAQ writer, 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.880 I would say with the New Yorker, Damn Dressner, Um 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.080 Ambassador Burns, William J. Burns is in here as well. 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.320 Gideon Rose. I'm searching for a strategy, and this is 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.840 not a Brexit issue. We're searching for a strategy when 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.479 in America aren't we exactly? And it's really it's unfortunately 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.039 I like the issue too, thank you very much for 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:36.960 your praise of it. I'm it's kind of a depressing issue. 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.560 I suggested that we shrink wrap some xanax with it 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.160 as well, because the entire theme of the issue basically 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:45.960 is Trump will have ended up killing off the previous 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:50.279 foreign policy, but his foreign policy is not particularly uh 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.680 sustainable or effective, and so the real question is what 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:58.200 happens after Trump's feign policy when US hedgemony has been 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.480 essentially shaken to its core but it is still standing. 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.960 What happens next? Does it deteriorate or does it get revived? 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:09.200 Every single person listening to this would kill for their 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.960 children to be William Burns. He is a public servant 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.320 of the country. He went through the foreign exchange, the 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:21.640 foreign policy treadmill, a state department and all that. What 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.480 are the William Burns of the world doing with our 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.080 American foreign policy right now? Uh? The William Burns is 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.880 are basically like the staff of a US embassy with 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.440 a political appointee, a rich campaign contributor who gets appointed 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:40.080 to a major embassy, and the embassy staff spends the 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.160 time trying to protect the u S interests in the 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.960 Bilotle relationship from the sort of rich dufice and charge 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.520 who's who's things up, And that's happens well when you 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.960 have the political appointees come into varieties. There are some 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.920 of the best American diplomats in history have been political 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.800 appointees who bring an outsiders flair to things, but some 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:01.320 of the worst are people who should never be in 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.280 government and are just essentially a spoil system. And the 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.280 problem is now we have the entire government run by 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.840 a rich campaign donor who's an amateur, and the professionals 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:11.920 are trying to make sure that the government doesn't collapse 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.240 on his watch. And it's a struggle because the White 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.240 House right now essentially trying to undermine the independence of 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.560 the bureaucracy and the civil service and the public service, 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.320 and everybody is tearing their hairs out in that kind 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.440 of thing. Getting elections have consequences. That goes without saying. 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.000 I'm trying to get my hands around the kind of 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:31.240 foreign policy the American electorate want. I don't know what 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.800 kind of uh farm. If not clear, the American public 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.840 has a choice on these things, and they don't have 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:42.640 a real educated preference because, uh, reading out their preferences 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.920 from what they vote is very, very difficult. The same 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.200 people who voted for Barack Obama voted for Donald Trump. Uh, 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.600 and uh, there's a lot of problems in trying to 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.040 figure that out. The real problem is they don't like 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.480 what's being done now and even though it is successful, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.280 and so how do you make it how do you 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.200 make people understand the alternatives to current policy can be 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.800 even worse to the elite world In John's question is 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:11.440 absolutely brilliant. We have two presidential candidates walk away from 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:15.280 a multilateral America. Right this this is the great challenge 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.560 which is right now. The country's foreign policy that actually 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.679 is providing security guarantees for the world and stability for 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.760 the global economy is benefiting the world in general, and 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.280 the United States as the leader in that system. But 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.760 there have been so many flaws in management of American hegemony, 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.920 both domestically and internationally, whether it's the rock board, the 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.120 financial crisis, are inequality that the public doesn't see the 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.520 good things that American geminy is bringing, and so they 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:41.720 just want to give it up. And then the challenges, 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.480 how do you convince people that global leadership can make 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.920 sense and is worth paying as a price anybody willing 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.520 to get on the campaign trail and do that. No, 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.120 And so you're gonna have two years of reverse Trumpism 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:57.600 in which the Democrats compete with each other to make 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.760 wild and crazy promises that can't possibly to be fulfilled. 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:02.920 And then the next president is going to come in 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.360 and essentially have to have the challenge of dealing with 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.280 real problems that have not been addressed after four years 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.480 of drift. And that's the big challenge that we don't 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.760 know yet what's going to happen when we try to 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.840 restart a real foreign policy in two years. I just 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:17.719 always feel like we have these discussions and we sit 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:19.800 in ivory towers about what should and shouldn't be done. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:21.800 But I just get the feeling of the electorate just 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.600 has less appetite for intervention abroad, both in terms of 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.480 soft and half power power power. It's less appetite to 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.319 deliver foreign aid. It's always been it's always been the case, 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.480 but that has changed quite remarkably over the last five years, 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:35.360 and not just in the United States, but in Europe 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.640 and the UK as well, Gideon. So essentially, I think 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:39.360 what's happened is, you know, I was talking, We talked 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:40.960 about this a lot, and in fact the next issue 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:42.599 is sort of what went wrong, and Tim's gonna like 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:44.440 that one as well, which is basically how we screw 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.880 up usgemity so madly over the last generation. But I 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.480 guess my answer would be that a lot of us 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.880 took our eye off the ball and we didn't focus 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.040 on things like the internal periphery and how things benefited 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:57.320 sort of you know, the in effect what you would 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.400 call Trump voters. We can contend did ourselves with progress 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:06.560 on general statistics without necessarily understanding the political reality of 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.439 that and understanding the progress wasn't being conveyed to voters, 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:15.280 and then the voters basically rebelled understandably, Gideon, really smart, 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.000 really appreciate time as always, and your insight and your 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.880 personal forew Gideon Rose, Foreign Afast magazine editor and Peterson 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:32.320 g Peterson chat. You could go into the podium elector 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.120 in a department of justice with the one count them 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.720 two three four flags set up. One is of course 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.840 the American flag, which will be over Attorney General bars 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.360 right shoulder, and then there is the acclaimed and important 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.520 Department of Justice flag in blue, along with two other 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.560 blue and white flags as well. And this goes back 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.000 in history. Greg Villier knows it is a unique history 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.080 of the Department of Justice. As we await Attorney General 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:04.360 bar his comments on this eagerly awaited Bloomberg report, Greg 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.360 Vllier tell us how through the years that you know 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:13.480 that Democrats and Republicans have treated this Department of Justice well, 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.480 usually as a pinata ton, whether it was Republicans against 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.559 you know, Jana Reno going back a long time, or 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:25.240 whether it's Uh Democrats against Sessions and others. It's a 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:30.120 highly politicized agency. And frankly, I think William Barr has 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.840 continued that trend. William Barr in all the punditry I've 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.520 seen I've been told, he can say. We now see 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.360 Mr Barr beginning to walk down the Marble isisles here 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.840 at Justice. He's got the usual entourage with him. He's 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:48.080 caring about five inches of documents with him. I would 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.880 suggest the vlier report from Toronto is within there today 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.600 as well. We will see on that Greg. Uh. The 0:12:55.640 --> 0:13:00.160 Attorney General is supposedly one who can surprise. Do you 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:06.920 think he can surprise today either Democrats or Republicans? He could, Tom, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.400 I mean a lot is unknown. But there's a really 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.760 interesting story in the Washington Post this morning from Giuliani 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.600 who says that the Trump team is ready to rumble, 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.920 that they're going to counter the findings in the report. 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.040 So the issue then becomes, would Bar be part of 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.160 that countering Paul Soon? I misspoke Attorney General bar but 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.640 that was an older film. I have him walking. We 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:29.200 don't know where he's right now. We'll see him here 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.280 in a number of minutes, nine minutes away from the 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.120 scheduled panel exactly. I think, you know, Greg, I think 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.480 probably the first question a lot of people are just 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.000 asking themselves before we get a chance to look at 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.080 the report is will there be any new news? What 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.839 is your thought? I think there will, think I think 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:49.079 there'll be new revelations about how the White House handled 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.719 all of this. I think that it will give Democrats 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.719 an opportunity for more hearings, more subpoenas. But I think 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.560 the bottom line is going to stay the same, and 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:02.199 that is chances of impeachment fenty percent, chances of conviction 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:07.439 in the Senate. So Greg you mentioned the Democrats here. 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:09.880 I mean, let's assume that this report. I think the 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.439 expectations are that there will be a lot of redactions 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:16.680 of this report. If so, presumably the Democrats will fight 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.120 for greater disclosure. What do you think their strategy will 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.000 be in terms of getting more disclosure? How hard do 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.600 you think they will push or they should push? I 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:27.560 think very hard. They're going to listen to the base, 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.040 and I think they'll go after a lot more. They 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.800 run a risk, however, of overplaying their hand, just as 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.120 Newt Gingrich did with Bill Clinton. I think that it 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.240 backfired on the Republicans, and this you know, and an 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.320 overreaction by the Democrats could backfire on them. We should 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.920 say who the attorney general is, and so those particularly 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:52.040 in our Bloomberg eleven three zero New York audience, it's 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.080 of most interest. William Barr out of New York. His 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.680 father was at Columbia University and then was headmaster at 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.520 the Alton School on the Upper East Side in uh 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.440 New York. He went on to um all sorts of 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:11.040 good academics, including the Horseman's School and George Washington Law 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.840 as well, and then he's really had Paul Sweeney an 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.200 interesting Washington career. He's made a lot of stuffs. It's 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.000 almost George Bush Senior like. And that Greg Valier Attorney 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.760 general bar has not just been in the legal record, 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:30.440 has he. No, he has a very distinguished career. People 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.680 who know to speak very highly of him. But I 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.920 have to be candid, Tom, I think that Trump has 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.600 an attorney general who is more helpful to Trump than 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.640 Jeff's sessions was compared to Edmeys that we remember from 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:47.880 a number of years ago. So it's interesting, Greg, what 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.640 what do you think the reaction will be from the 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.800 White House as this report comes out? Over the next 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:55.520 you know, day or two, them people really start to 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.800 dig into how gressy do you think the White House 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.920 will be in in terms of responding. That's a really 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.160 crucial question. If Trump just hunkers down and let's the 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.600 store and pass, there's going to be a few days 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:11.280 of rocky relations with the Hill, then I think he's 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.360 in good shape. But if Trump is Trump and he 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:19.000 gets he gets furious and reacts angrily, I think that 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.000 could raise issues. I think that could prolong this if 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:26.640 he starts to attack Maller personally. I think this could 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.680 drag on even longer. Craig value with us as we 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.280 await a number of minutes away, seven eight minutes away, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.440 and I would suggest the Attorney General may be timely. 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.640 We would see that this is not at the White House, 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:40.760 This is not in the press room or any rooms 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.160 at the White House, at the Department of Justice, with 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:47.720 the crest uh standing behind Mr Barr with a blue curtain, 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.360 very typical federal government blue curtain, the crest of Justice 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.160 on elector in the American flag again to the left, 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.160 and then that famous blue flag of the Department of 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.240 Justice over the years to the right with two other 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:03.960 flags as well. Gregg Valier, the Democrats come in different flavors. 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.880 You mentioned the impeachment idea, but there can be much 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:11.760 much more here, including prosecution. Will we see text, do 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.359 we see footnotes? Do we see appendixes? Do we have 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.920 any idea appendices? It's going to take hours for everyone 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.640 to wait through what's in there, and there will I'm 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.600 sure the speculation about more indictments. But Tom, if I 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.119 could make a quick point about the markets, you know, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.320 we all you know, are in the business of talking 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.679 about the markets for our listeners, I would say The 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:38.399 bigger story today is the retail sales report. It shows 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.800 that not only is a recession not imminent, I think 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.280 that's a growing I think there's a growing chance that 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:49.000 this economy could overheat. The economy is clearly rebounding. And 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.679 I think a chance of a fat rate cut is zero, 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.040 and I think people may start to talk, well, a 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:59.439 second half rate hike. Herman Kane out with a statement today, 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:05.080 if you will on his advantages. Does he persist in uh, 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.040 moving towards some form of domination to the Fed, or 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.440 does that become a distraction for the president. The President 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.080 moves on to saying, hey, look, this is my economy, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.600 give me credit for it. Yeah. I mean you've got 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.040 to say that. The big surprise economically is how strong 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.960 the economy is now looking as we as we're now 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.960 into spring. And I think for the White House that's 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.560 something they can most about. For Herman Kane, I think 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.520 the chances of him becoming a FED governor aren't close 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.040 to zero. Again, we gotta pen right now. Paul Sweeney 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.479 of the Attorney General's stage in the audience of all 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.000 I'm not good at guessing crowds. You're much better. What 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.119 do you think seventy eight in the room, all of 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.520 their cell phones ready to go. I think so it's people, 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:50.760 it's filling up very very quick. You've got your embargoed 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.399 report over there. But yeah, they it's it's filling up 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.200 very quickly, and we're you know, four or five minutes away. So, Greg, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:00.280 you mentioned the markets, it's just been in extraordinaries. Are anything, 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.240 you know, We've had this great start to the equity 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.240 markets this year, very much of a risk on field. 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.520 Things are all okay out there, um, and that obviously 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.879 is much different from what we experienced in December when 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.440 one of the issues impacting the markets in December on 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.760 the negative was, you know, all this political issue out there. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.440 Is there anything today in the Mulla report that could 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.800 trip up the markets? Maybe the markets not discounting. I 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.320 don't think so. I think the markets are correct to 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:30.600 assume that this will not lead to impeachment or more accurately, 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.159 to conviction. So you make a really good point. You 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.800 go back to December, we were fearful of a long 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.920 trade war. I think that has diminished greatly. I think 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.840 we'll get a deal with China. There was a great 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.760 deal of fear over the Federal Reserve, and I think 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.320 even though you can rule out a rate hike in 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.880 the second half, the Federal Reserve is dovish and they're 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.480 going to stay dovish. So a lot of the anxieties 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.240 that dominated just four or five months ago have evaporated. 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.480 We'd like to give details, and of course we dive 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:00.720 into Wikipedia in any other sort as we can find 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.399 for this. Greg, I think it's important to state that 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.240 the Attorney General is an avid bagpiper. I mean that 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.800 that that gives us credit here for moving forward today. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.439 Have we ever interviewed a bagpipe? I don't think. I 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.560 can't imagine. I don't remember bagpipes the studios. It's a 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:22.280 reposed the most grating instrument of all times. That from 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:24.679 Mr Vilia. It's a Republican sport. I guess that is 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.320 how we would. But we await the Attorney General, and 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:31.000 of course this important moment for Washington. We welcome all 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.880 of you on our different radio platforms and particularly serious 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:41.920 XM Channel one across this nation Bloomberg, uh Bay Area 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.440 in a very early morning San Francisco, and of course 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.600 on the Eastern Seaboard in Boston, New York and Washington 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:52.440 as well. Particularly Good morning to FM in Washington, where 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:56.440 we are certain all the Beltway riveted to this. Right 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:58.720 now again Bloomberg Radio will give you full coverage of this, 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:03.240 not only the comments by the Attorney General, the frenzy, 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:06.800 the headlines around all that, but really the further analysis 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.600 summing up I'm sure at four pm or six pm 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:14.400 later tonight, Paul Sweeney with with a lot more analysis 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.159 of the four hundred I mean again four hundred pages. 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:18.480 Think of that there was a yeah, I mean it 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.240 was a two year investigation and you know, a four 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.800 page summary. I think a lot of people are questioning 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.880 whether that's really sufficient to kind of really dig into 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:32.280 what was in the report. Greg, I mentioned Mr McGann 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:34.760 as my first word search, Jonathan swanted to Actually I 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:36.880 was talking it up as well today. I do agree 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.320 with that. Who is Mr McGannon. Why should I be 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.880 words searching him? Well, he test to find a lot. 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.040