Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stanebeck. We're here every day bringing
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Speaker 1: YouTube search Bloomberg Global News. Global virus cases now topping
Speaker 1: one d four point five million deaths, surpassing two point
Speaker 1: two million. We've had more than a hundred and eight
Speaker 1: million COVID shots given around the globe, so let's get
Speaker 1: into our virus guests. Great to have joining us once again.
Speaker 1: Dr William moss He is Executive director of the International
Speaker 1: Vaccine Access Center, Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology, International Health,
Speaker 1: and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
Speaker 1: School of Public Health, which, as you know, supported by
Speaker 1: Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg ALP and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Speaker 1: Dot the Moss back with us on the phone from Baltimore. Bill,
Speaker 1: Nice to have you here once again on Bloomberg. So
Speaker 1: I gotta say, I'm starting to feel optimistic because I
Speaker 1: know people, um in my world that are getting the vaccine.
Speaker 1: It looks like the flow is opening up. Tell me
Speaker 1: how you're seeing it. What are you seeing in terms
Speaker 1: of COVID cases and then the vaccine getting out to people. Yes,
Speaker 1: thanks Caroline, it's my pleasure to be back with you. Um.
Speaker 1: So we are seeing some positive signs. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: we can let our our guard down, um, particularly with
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl coming and and we don't want another
Speaker 1: super spreading event. But we are seeing case numbers come
Speaker 1: down in the United States yesterday a hundred nineteen cases.
Speaker 1: That's down from about two hundred and fifty thou cases
Speaker 1: in early January. So we're really down on cases. UM.
Speaker 1: We are still seeing tragically high numbers of death. The
Speaker 1: death numbers always kind of lag the case numbers by
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. We're still at about three three
Speaker 1: thoight hundred deaths yesterday, so that's that's obviously still tragically high.
Speaker 1: Our test positivity around eight percent, still much higher than
Speaker 1: we'd like it. But we are seeing the case come
Speaker 1: the case numbers come down, and as you pointed out,
Speaker 1: we're getting more vaccines out over fifty five million doses distributed. Um,
Speaker 1: we've gotten over thirty four million doses into arms. That's
Speaker 1: about those distributed. Uh, we're doing much better and getting
Speaker 1: vaccines doses into people. And I think this combination of
Speaker 1: you know, the case numbers come down. If that we
Speaker 1: continue that trend and in continue to do better and
Speaker 1: better and getting people vaccinated, we may be seeing the
Speaker 1: light at the end of the tunnel. But again that's
Speaker 1: not going to be for a couple more months. People
Speaker 1: still need to practice. They're good public health measures. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing to hear you rattle off these statistics
Speaker 1: because it's all relative, right. I mean, we're in a
Speaker 1: worse place than than we've been than we were in
Speaker 1: a few months ago, but a much better place than
Speaker 1: we were in a few weeks ago. So I guess
Speaker 1: context is everything. UM. I do wonder about the new
Speaker 1: Strain bill because these this decline in numbers that we're
Speaker 1: seeing is also coming at a time where in recent
Speaker 1: weeks we've heard about the discovery of new and potentially
Speaker 1: more transmittable strains. You're exactly right, Tim, And you know, uh,
Speaker 1: this the surge that we saw probably you know, in
Speaker 1: in throughout January was probably related to the holidays and
Speaker 1: holiday gatherings, and so we're seeing that fall off. Um.
Speaker 1: But you're exactly right. These uh, these new variants of
Speaker 1: the virus that are more transmissible, and particularly of concern
Speaker 1: there's some suggestion that perhaps they may cause more severe
Speaker 1: disease and and maybe able to escape some of the
Speaker 1: protective immunity conferred by our vaccines, not completely. And and
Speaker 1: we think these vaccines are still going to be really
Speaker 1: good about preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and depth. Um. But
Speaker 1: but we need to be on guard, um, and we
Speaker 1: need to be ready for um increasing circulation in our
Speaker 1: communities of these more transmissible virus variants. UM. So that
Speaker 1: is something we're gonna have to watch very carefully. And
Speaker 1: that's what we're worried about, that these variants being more contagious,
Speaker 1: right and and and circulating as you said, more easily
Speaker 1: and more quickly. That even though we're vaccinating. If we
Speaker 1: don't have enough of our population vaccinated, that can create
Speaker 1: a whole other wave. Yes, you're right, and it's it's
Speaker 1: why it's so urgent right now. UM, before these these variants,
Speaker 1: these more transmissible variants become the dominant of viruses circulating
Speaker 1: in our communities, that we do everything we can to
Speaker 1: decrease the transmission of this virus, and that includes as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible, getting more people vaccinated and really doubling
Speaker 1: down on our public health measures to prevent transmission. The
Speaker 1: more this virus transmits, the more it's going to mutate
Speaker 1: UH and create further problems for us. So we I
Speaker 1: think we have a short window of time right now
Speaker 1: to really try to clamp this down. What's the best
Speaker 1: way to increase vaccine distribution because at the current rate
Speaker 1: we're going right now, which is about one point three
Speaker 1: four million vaccines each day, UM, it will take months
Speaker 1: to reach immunity in this country. Right There are a
Speaker 1: number of steps that can be taken, and I think
Speaker 1: the Biden administration is working on this. I think of
Speaker 1: it UH in in kind of the four d s
Speaker 1: UH doses, delivery, demand and data, and so we certainly
Speaker 1: need to increase the number of doses. There are there
Speaker 1: are limitations on how many vaccines can be manufactured, but
Speaker 1: there are efforts to increase the number of doses, purchase
Speaker 1: more doses for the US population, and also bring on
Speaker 1: hopefully in the next few weeks Um, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: new vaccines such as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. We
Speaker 1: were waiting for the results of their Phase three trial.
Speaker 1: We need to improve our delivery. That's increasing the number
Speaker 1: of vaccinators, increasing the number of sites where vaccines are
Speaker 1: being delivered. We're already seeing a lot of progress on
Speaker 1: that front. And then on the demand side, we need
Speaker 1: to make sure that we target our public health messaging
Speaker 1: to those communities that have mistrust or skept or a
Speaker 1: skeptical of the vaccine and and and build that trust.
Speaker 1: Dr moss Um, one day, I wanted to follow up
Speaker 1: on you said something about having a short window to
Speaker 1: get the vaccines out before these virus mutations really pick
Speaker 1: up a lot of momentum. How short is that window? Yes, Carol,
Speaker 1: you know, the Center's a disease control and prevention predicted
Speaker 1: that the variant that we know scientifically as B one
Speaker 1: one seven that was first identified in the United Kingdom
Speaker 1: would become the dominant virus variant in the United States
Speaker 1: and in March, in mid March, so you know, I
Speaker 1: would say, we really need to decrease our trans the
Speaker 1: transmission in this country, you know, over the next four
Speaker 1: to eight weeks, and that's gonna include getting really increasing
Speaker 1: the number of people vaccinated as well as continuing our
Speaker 1: our basic public health measures. There was a really interesting
Speaker 1: story by the Associated Press that came out this morning
Speaker 1: bill that talked about the need to vaccinate around the
Speaker 1: world and not just focus on country by country. The
Speaker 1: International Federation the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. They
Speaker 1: found that the fifty poorest countries have received only one
Speaker 1: tenth of one percent of total vaccine doses that have
Speaker 1: been administered worldwide so far. Here's why that matters, though,
Speaker 1: because that inequality, according to them, could potentially backfired a
Speaker 1: deadly and devastating effect, because areas of the globe that
Speaker 1: remain unvaccinated could allow the virus to spread and mutate.
Speaker 1: So even if somebody is vaccinated against a strain that
Speaker 1: could be developed in another country. Right, Yes, this is
Speaker 1: a really important point, Tim, and you know, obviously the
Speaker 1: pandemic has been particularly tragic in the United States, and
Speaker 1: the United States certainly has the highest case numbers and debts.
Speaker 1: But we also need to be looking globally and and
Speaker 1: ensuring equitable access to vaccines around the world. That's really
Speaker 1: hard right now when when vaccine supply is scarce UM.
Speaker 1: But there are efforts led by the World Health Organization
Speaker 1: UM to procure vaccines through a number of mechanisms and
Speaker 1: from a number of vaccine manufacts lectures and be able
Speaker 1: to ultimately provide enough doses to the population UH in
Speaker 1: all all countries around the world, and particularly they're focused
Speaker 1: obviously on the low and middle income countries. But you're right,
Speaker 1: this is a global pandemic and unless we have a
Speaker 1: global effort, we're not going to stop it. And this
Speaker 1: virus has shown us that it can mutate more quickly
Speaker 1: than I think many experts anticipated, and if there's ongoing
Speaker 1: transmission in parts of the world, everyone's impacted by that. Yeah, absolutely, UM.
Speaker 1: What is you know, in terms of the headlines that
Speaker 1: you're focusing on right now, what are they? Yes, I
Speaker 1: think the big one is the concern around the new
Speaker 1: variants UH that are both more transmissible and potentially UM
Speaker 1: we have vaccines that are less effective. We've seen, for example,
Speaker 1: in the trials of the John's and the Jonasan vaccine
Speaker 1: and Nova vax vaccine UM that they do have reduced
Speaker 1: UH efficacy against the variant that was first identified in
Speaker 1: South Africa. UM. Fortunately, they still seem to protect against
Speaker 1: severe disease and that should be our number one goal.
Speaker 1: We want to stop hospitalizations and stop death, and that
Speaker 1: was something that came up in the conversation we had
Speaker 1: with Jay Jay's US Chief Scientific officer just about one
Speaker 1: week ago. Hey, Bill, thank you so much, really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Dr William Moss. He is Professor of epidemiology at Johns
Speaker 1: Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Of course, as you know,
Speaker 1: supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder, Bloomberg Galp and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Speaker 1: Bill also the executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center.
Speaker 1: Joining us once again on the phone from Baltimore. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick
Speaker 1: Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. Let's not forget there's
Speaker 1: a lot going on. We just heard from President Biden
Speaker 1: giving his first foreign policy speech. We cannot forget though,
Speaker 1: kind of on the end of the spectrum is we've
Speaker 1: got the Super Bowl fifty five is happening this weekend.
Speaker 1: We're typically there at Radio Row outside of it, talking
Speaker 1: to all members of the sports community about the big Game.
Speaker 1: It's a different world. It's a COVID world. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not just different for us and for the players and
Speaker 1: the viewers, but of course different for the fans who
Speaker 1: will or will not be in attendance right exactly, it's
Speaker 1: going to be much limited and socially distanced. Um. But
Speaker 1: for most of us we also will of course watch
Speaker 1: the big Game from at home. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that's always there, uh, no matter what year it
Speaker 1: is is security concerns around the big Game and keeping
Speaker 1: everybody connected. So great to have back with us. William Bratton.
Speaker 1: He's former New York City and Boston Police Commissioner, former
Speaker 1: Chief of the l A Police Department, Chairman of Risk
Speaker 1: Advisory over to NEO Commissioner. Bratton is on the phone
Speaker 1: in New York. Also with us is Andreas Orlando. He
Speaker 1: is President of the Public Sector and a Verizon connect
Speaker 1: over at Verizon, he's also a senior VP there, which
Speaker 1: is investing millions in expanding permanent five G deployments in
Speaker 1: and around the Tampa area around the Big Game. He
Speaker 1: joins us on the phone, Atlanta, gentlemen, so nice to
Speaker 1: have you here with US Commissioner Bratton. I want to
Speaker 1: start with you, and we are going to talk about
Speaker 1: security around the Big Game. We've got a nice chunk
Speaker 1: of time here. I do have to ask you, though,
Speaker 1: about President Biden, a new administration. When we are talking
Speaker 1: about foreign policy, we're hearing about a lot of things.
Speaker 1: When you look at the security and national security of
Speaker 1: the United States, how do you see it and what
Speaker 1: do you see as our biggest concerns right now? Is
Speaker 1: it domestic terrorism? Uh? I believe it is domestic terrorism
Speaker 1: at the moment. They'll always be concerned with international tourism,
Speaker 1: But this year, I think that has been divide uh
Speaker 1: thially after January six, uh usue with domestic terrorism is
Speaker 1: first and foremost. International terrorism, interesting enough, has been relatively
Speaker 1: quiet as it relates to efforts directed against the United States. Well,
Speaker 1: you've neific a number of much now, and I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why domestic terrorism is attracting
Speaker 1: so much attention. Is what had been concerned since nine
Speaker 1: eleven hasn't fact and diminished significantly. Commissioner written, how do
Speaker 1: we get that under control? In the United States? It's
Speaker 1: gonna be much much more difficult. That I've took over
Speaker 1: the lapt in two thousand two, and at that time
Speaker 1: one of the first priorities to me was getting the
Speaker 1: LAPT up and running to deal with the two threat
Speaker 1: of international terrorism. UH. Local police forces had very little
Speaker 1: to do with terrorism Currens prior to Night eleven. That
Speaker 1: was lastly responsible. After to Night eleven we had to
Speaker 1: focus on and have focused on for the ensuing now
Speaker 1: all's point heat is But the issue UH now is
Speaker 1: Christian poemost domestic terrorism, and that's gonna be much more
Speaker 1: difficult because very limited in terms of the laws we
Speaker 1: have that they lost past depth of eleven allow us
Speaker 1: to effectively deal with all and terrorism issues here in
Speaker 1: the United States, we don't have a lot of those
Speaker 1: laws that work. So wealthless so I do want to
Speaker 1: talk of the issues. Oh go please finish, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: please finish. They also had the additional issue in the
Speaker 1: United States guns. We have more guns than the people.
Speaker 1: In the last month two million guns and gold the
Speaker 1: United States. I think that's the highest funds ever and
Speaker 1: so Paris would have to basically try and bring guns
Speaker 1: into it. They've already here that four hundred billion guns
Speaker 1: and people in many states allowed to carry them overly
Speaker 1: been in a number of states ports in Michigan the
Speaker 1: open carry laws that people along with all types of
Speaker 1: weapons or allowed to park them out with. We have
Speaker 1: a very different situations that be very difficult yet under control.
Speaker 1: Now it's not on. Yeah, that's a such a bigger issue.
Speaker 1: We're gonna come back to some more serious topics, but
Speaker 1: I do want to talk a little bit about the game.
Speaker 1: I think for me, I kind of was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, the social it's the super Bowl this weekend,
Speaker 1: because it just kind of crept up on us in
Speaker 1: in this virtual, socially distanced world. It's just such a
Speaker 1: different year. Um, Andreas, come on in on it and uh,
Speaker 1: we were talking with your team members at Verizon last
Speaker 1: year this time in Florida, we were there at the game.
Speaker 1: Tell us about Verizon in their involvement and making sure
Speaker 1: that everyone who's in and around the game stays connected
Speaker 1: and make sure that everybody is safe and secure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I'm glad to hear you talked to our the
Speaker 1: last year. We have been doing this now UH, side
Speaker 1: by side with first responders for decades. Every Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: every major event like this, we are our teams roll
Speaker 1: out and have a presence with first responders to ensure
Speaker 1: that UH they in the communities that they serve or
Speaker 1: say during a big event like the Super Bowl, and
Speaker 1: this year is it's no different the same playbook that
Speaker 1: we had last year. Obviously we update it and we
Speaker 1: have to account for COVID and some of the unique
Speaker 1: aspects of this year's event. But we have again our
Speaker 1: Verizon Command Center, which is UH something we do every year.
Speaker 1: On the ground, we have over a hundred engineers and
Speaker 1: technicians who are monitoring and managing the network around the
Speaker 1: clock in and around the actual stadium Raymond James where
Speaker 1: the teams will be playing, but also in the greater
Speaker 1: Tampa area. And this is an incredible source of pride
Speaker 1: for our company h to ensure that the event goes
Speaker 1: off with with without a hitch we UM. We're also
Speaker 1: on site in the Florida State Joint Emergency Operations Center. UH.
Speaker 1: This is where all of the law enforcement in public
Speaker 1: safety agencies, including of course the Tampa Police Department, have
Speaker 1: a presence UM and are communicating and uh collaborating real time.
Speaker 1: And we have a team on the ground as part
Speaker 1: of that to ensure that we're doing everything we can
Speaker 1: to help first responders and public safety agencies make this
Speaker 1: event as safe as it possibly can. And as I said,
Speaker 1: you know, COVID changes some of the dynamic um of
Speaker 1: the game and UH and of the situation, but our
Speaker 1: commitment as America's number one network for public safety remains
Speaker 1: the same. It's twofold one. We're working over time to
Speaker 1: ensure that first responders stay connected when it matters most
Speaker 1: um and whether that's on our four G LTE network,
Speaker 1: America's most reliable, or on our five G network, the
Speaker 1: world's fastest, in most advanced and two UM. We are
Speaker 1: working with first responders in the public safety community to
Speaker 1: make sure they have most advanced solutions and technologies they
Speaker 1: need to keep the community and themselves UH safe. And
Speaker 1: you know what, it's generally a generally a pretty safe event,
Speaker 1: but a lot goes into making it that way. And
Speaker 1: obviously there's always, uh, there's always risks for things to
Speaker 1: happen well and you know, Commissioner Protton, come on, come on,
Speaker 1: back in on this conversation, because what's different about this
Speaker 1: securities You know, this year's security plans around the big
Speaker 1: game versus what we've seen in years past when it's
Speaker 1: a much more quote unquote normal year. Double things. First off,
Speaker 1: significant focus on COVID that ship large part of the
Speaker 1: public safety focused on the idea of trying to the
Speaker 1: best of their bility, UM courage the social distancing. Wearing
Speaker 1: a mask to do that is minimal. UH, if you will,
Speaker 1: uh use of police resources for that of the encouraging
Speaker 1: that may be worn in the social distancing. But the
Speaker 1: security issue this year is multifaceted because of COVID. Good
Speaker 1: news is that I was just speaking to the chief
Speaker 1: of the Camp Police Department this morning coordinating the over
Speaker 1: seventy agencies will be involved in the public safety effort
Speaker 1: down there, and they leave at this juncture that there's
Speaker 1: no direct threat either international terrorism or domestic terrorism corrected
Speaker 1: against the event. UH. That's good news, and they will
Speaker 1: watch that very closely in the run up to the event.
Speaker 1: But after the events of January six, more concerns with
Speaker 1: the demonstrations, UH in Tampa around the issues that we're
Speaker 1: in the forefront of the January sixth event, and there
Speaker 1: is no evidence that that's going to have to down there,
Speaker 1: that's in reduced. Well, how how has the role of
Speaker 1: law enforcement changed in the wake of what we saw
Speaker 1: on January six How is the thinking a round law
Speaker 1: enforcement change now getting that clear indication that this is
Speaker 1: such an issue in this country. Well, it is the
Speaker 1: point I was making earlier that they here that they
Speaker 1: don't have to try to get into the country illegally,
Speaker 1: they don't have to create a cell. Uh, They're already here,
Speaker 1: and they are heavily u the incredibly well trained. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the the far right militants that some of
Speaker 1: these militias and probably types that about them, and that
Speaker 1: is of concern. And we are also very limited ability
Speaker 1: to wantitor some of their activities because again this is
Speaker 1: domestic terrorism rather than international terrorism. So that's a significant limitation.
Speaker 1: And the technology of today. We've been talking about technology
Speaker 1: and thankfully visons bringing the latest technology that there is
Speaker 1: to this event, but a lot of the technology is
Speaker 1: now capable of being encrypted, so that significantly mitigates law
Speaker 1: enforcements ability to monitor and keep control over um what's
Speaker 1: going on here. But right now, as of this morning,
Speaker 1: talking to the chief and then the sources, ideal within
Speaker 1: the lasting world that there's no indication of direct fresh
Speaker 1: against the event. It's a very different events. Certainly know
Speaker 1: what was going on in Washington January six, which was political.
Speaker 1: This is plebitrary sports. And uh, I think we're going
Speaker 1: to have a very safe event, very happy event. And
Speaker 1: uh I know which team I'll be looting for. Who
Speaker 1: is it in Boston? Inoculator, you sound like our producer
Speaker 1: Paul Brennan. You can you can take Tom Brady out
Speaker 1: of Boston right right, New York, l A. I always
Speaker 1: had to move for not the hometown team, but my
Speaker 1: hometown of Boston. So same, same, same thing. This year,
Speaker 1: Andrea has come back in here because in terms of
Speaker 1: the way the network is is working at the game,
Speaker 1: I'm wondering how you and Verise and think about prioritizing
Speaker 1: certain services at a game like this, for example, making
Speaker 1: sure fans can access Instagram or communicate with one another,
Speaker 1: communicate with people back home versus police and first responders
Speaker 1: be able to communicate with one another. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a great question. UM. It's something that is relevant
Speaker 1: to an event like the Super Bowl, but it's something
Speaker 1: that we think about in the operation of our network
Speaker 1: every single day. So obviously UM for an event like
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, we reinforce the network. We add a
Speaker 1: lot of capacity and bandwidth so that UH our customers
Speaker 1: UM will all be able to use the network in
Speaker 1: the ways that they would like. Of course, with five G,
Speaker 1: where we've made a significant investment, there's even greater bandwidth
Speaker 1: and speed and characteristics of the network that will help
Speaker 1: customers in Tampa loan. In anticipation of this event, we've
Speaker 1: invested over eighty million dollars UM in five G. UH.
Speaker 1: Tampa is one of sixty four UH cities across the
Speaker 1: country now that have our five G services, and so
Speaker 1: there will be plenty of bandwidth and capacity on the
Speaker 1: network to manage the demand. Now. Obviously, with first responders
Speaker 1: in public safety, they have the highest level of priority
Speaker 1: on our network, and we've built into our network not
Speaker 1: just for the Super Bowl, but for every day and
Speaker 1: for every part of the country where first responders have
Speaker 1: access to voice UH priority and data priority UH. And
Speaker 1: then if and when our network becomes congested ever UH,
Speaker 1: they also have preemption UM, where we UH put first
Speaker 1: responders and the public safety community of of everyone else
Speaker 1: to get access to that network if if if that's necessary,
Speaker 1: it's it's not often necessary, given how robustly we build
Speaker 1: our networks. But yes, first responders and the public safety
Speaker 1: community have the highest level of access on our network
Speaker 1: every day. But that will be true with the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl as well. So and have you Andreas in terms
Speaker 1: of working from home? Have you I mean, is this
Speaker 1: something that all of a sudden we've kind of had
Speaker 1: to learn even more about kind of managing bandwidth? I mean,
Speaker 1: have you guys learned a lot with everybody working at
Speaker 1: home and tapping into networks? Absolutely? Absolutely, Um, we have
Speaker 1: UH and I think we've talked quite publicly about this
Speaker 1: and some of our earnings calls and other settings. But
Speaker 1: early on in the pandemic, we saw a massive increase
Speaker 1: in use of our of our network, UM, lots of
Speaker 1: video as you can imagine, gaming really took off. And
Speaker 1: while we maintained our our capacity and our usage to capacity,
Speaker 1: which is a really important metric that we watch in
Speaker 1: our networks in a constant throughout that period. UM, It's
Speaker 1: it's clear that people working from home. The pandemic has
Speaker 1: changed the way in my space I have the I
Speaker 1: run the public sector part of our business. We've seen
Speaker 1: governments work differently, we've seen people work from home, We've
Speaker 1: seen uses of the network that didn't exist before, and
Speaker 1: it's been it's been very instructive and and candidly. It's
Speaker 1: very timely for the nationwide rollout of five G because
Speaker 1: the character the unique characteristics the five G really are revolutionary.
Speaker 1: They're not incremental to four G that the speeds that
Speaker 1: we've never seen before, the latenty characteristic, these are all
Speaker 1: going to make the kinds of use cases that the
Speaker 1: pandemic is highlighted, it's gonna they're gonna make them even
Speaker 1: more possible. So it's a good time technologically, uh or
Speaker 1: the changes that we're seeing in usage patterns. Commissioner Britt
Speaker 1: and I wanted to to shift gears a little bit
Speaker 1: and and and talk with you about your thoughts around
Speaker 1: defunding the police. It's something that we heard a lot
Speaker 1: about over the summer in the wake of the death
Speaker 1: of George Floyd, and I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: questions around what people mean when they say defund the police.
Speaker 1: But the Brookings Institution says it means reallocating or redirecting
Speaker 1: funding away from the police department in order to fund
Speaker 1: other government agencies funded by the local municipality. Um, what
Speaker 1: are your thoughts when you hear defund the police? Well,
Speaker 1: I think the issue is that true, uh, was really
Speaker 1: taken out of context in terms of how it was
Speaker 1: initially presented, the idea of taking money resources away from
Speaker 1: the police and putting them someplace else at a time
Speaker 1: when actually there's an increased need law police services. Police
Speaker 1: leaders are not opposed to the idea of defunding. It
Speaker 1: is for purposes of reallocation of resources to take some
Speaker 1: responsibilities away from the police that a better situated elsewhere,
Speaker 1: particularly dealing with mental health issues, dealing with a myriad
Speaker 1: of issues that wouldn't be handled by other city agencies
Speaker 1: more appropriately. But oftentimes they would need to collaborate with
Speaker 1: the police. That there are very few things that the
Speaker 1: police deal with it could be handled exclusively by another agency.
Speaker 1: This is where the importance of technology such as what
Speaker 1: provis and provides is so important that this this need
Speaker 1: to have collaborative into operability so that if money has
Speaker 1: given over to a city agency to improve their mental
Speaker 1: health resources and ability to respawned to mental health calls
Speaker 1: along with the police. They are going to need to
Speaker 1: have to be able to talk with the police, and
Speaker 1: then going to need to be able to have radio
Speaker 1: systems and data systems and video systems that allow them
Speaker 1: to have seamless interoperability. And what provising has been doing
Speaker 1: and so exciting, right is Dad these last twenty years
Speaker 1: they've been able to pull that off. And so going forward, uh,
Speaker 1: there will be efforts to take resources away from the
Speaker 1: police and put the more appropriately elsewhere. The rum defunding, however,
Speaker 1: is taking on a negative context, right idea no police
Speaker 1: talking about taking police and reducing the size of police
Speaker 1: force each other. But all right, got it, Bill, We've
Speaker 1: got to jump in because they're running out of time here. Um,
Speaker 1: both of you. Thank you so much. Bill Bratton, Chairman
Speaker 1: of Risk, advisor of it to New Risk. And of
Speaker 1: course Andreas Orlando over at Verizon he's president of Public
Speaker 1: Sector of course, looking ahead to security, ahead of the
Speaker 1: big game. Road a journal now, but you let me drive?
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no no, no, please, I'll do the riding.
Speaker 1: L let me I want to drive, Just drive. The
Speaker 1: question This is the drive to the Globe community. Thanks,
Speaker 1: we'll try us on Bloomberg Radio. All right, just about
Speaker 1: levin mids left in today's trading day, it is time
Speaker 1: for the drive to the close. Back with us to
Speaker 1: Sean Crue, senior market strateges A T. D Merrit trade
Speaker 1: back with us on the phone from Chicago. Sean, Good
Speaker 1: to have you here with us. How are you? Is
Speaker 1: Sean there? We might be having some technical problems, so
Speaker 1: we're hopefully going to get that line connected up so
Speaker 1: we can bring in Sean. Just Thursday. Sometimes the gremlins
Speaker 1: coming out at the top of the show, didn't they Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what happens. Did I hear Sean there? Sean? Are
Speaker 1: you there? Oh? Welcome, welcome, Hey, nice to have you
Speaker 1: back with us. UM. Before we get into kind of
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the market and the trade, what do
Speaker 1: you make you guys are also a zero commission trade platform.
Speaker 1: What do you make of what has been going out
Speaker 1: with these meme stocks, game Stop and the like. I mean,
Speaker 1: it certainly is going to drive a lot of interest.
Speaker 1: And there's those names are going to be a vault
Speaker 1: as you started to see the trade get one side
Speaker 1: and what you can attribute that to be it um
Speaker 1: interest from from chat rooms on social media, or hedge funds,
Speaker 1: short interest, whatever it might be. I mean, those names
Speaker 1: are going to be a little bit more volatile, So
Speaker 1: we just try and tell our clients to make sure
Speaker 1: they understand the risk of what they're they're getting into
Speaker 1: when they do decide to enter into these trades. Did
Speaker 1: you see a lot of trading activity on your platform
Speaker 1: as well? We saw we saw some elevated trading activity
Speaker 1: last week, and it's typical of what we see UM
Speaker 1: just in general in markets. When you start to see
Speaker 1: volatility move higher, whether it be just the overall dixident
Speaker 1: of itself or whether you see specific names start to
Speaker 1: show elevated volatility, it does drive a lot of quiet interest.
Speaker 1: And it's not just on the the what do you
Speaker 1: trade in front, but also on the derivative trading front
Speaker 1: as well. Are you at all concerned about the type
Speaker 1: of interest that it drives? As long as we feel
Speaker 1: comfortable with the overall risk of what's going on and
Speaker 1: we feel that, you know, the clients are are able
Speaker 1: to handle advantage that risk. Um. You know, that's something
Speaker 1: that we keep an eye on and we certainly want
Speaker 1: to enable clients to trade whatever it is that they
Speaker 1: want to trade, but we do monitor these names, and
Speaker 1: you know, I mean saying pretty much anything else across
Speaker 1: our book. Our clients are trading, We do monitor that
Speaker 1: on an ongoing basis, and that's continuous throughout the day. Right,
Speaker 1: did you guys have to shut any trading down because
Speaker 1: of these I'm just curious, Um, the last week you didn't.
Speaker 1: You didn't shut down trading its clients wanted to come
Speaker 1: in and buy or sell um these names, they certainly could.
Speaker 1: We did um increase margin requirements, and we also limited
Speaker 1: what was clients were able to do on the derivative
Speaker 1: trading fronts. For instance, we weren't allowing the just selling
Speaker 1: naked calls, for instance, in some of these highly volerful names,
Speaker 1: and that's just because of the inherent risk that and
Speaker 1: come with you are just short a call in the
Speaker 1: stock makes uh what happened in some cases last week
Speaker 1: a seven sigma move. And we also put a few
Speaker 1: controls on what we were allowed in terms of spread
Speaker 1: trading as well. Sean, I want to get your thoughts
Speaker 1: on earnings that we saw this week Alphabet and Amazon
Speaker 1: and wondering if that changes at strong earnings, of course,
Speaker 1: I mean for for Amazon, it was its first year
Speaker 1: that we saw a billion dollars a day revenue exceeded
Speaker 1: that for the company. Um in then Alphabet also topping
Speaker 1: expectations from from analysts. What are the signs that this
Speaker 1: gives you about the economy and the recovery that we're seeing.
Speaker 1: I think it was interesting in Amazon's relief one there
Speaker 1: was I think a lot of in that Revie spell
Speaker 1: in the shadow just days in Chairman, but it was
Speaker 1: an incredibly strong report and I think there was a
Speaker 1: few interesting things that takey one, the head of Amazon
Speaker 1: Web Service, is stopping up in that your role, I
Speaker 1: think gives a little bit of an indication of what
Speaker 1: the business is going to focus on moving forward. Um
Speaker 1: The other thing that was on the retail front actually said,
Speaker 1: even as we moved into the recovery this year, they
Speaker 1: still expect demand for e commerce to remain strong. And
Speaker 1: I think that was something a lot of investors were
Speaker 1: asking themselves, not just about Amazon, but a lot of
Speaker 1: these names that thrived over the past year and had
Speaker 1: some pretty strong upside move in some great returns. Was
Speaker 1: whether or not that was all pulled forward and then
Speaker 1: there's not going to be as strong growth where the
Speaker 1: businesses is going to maybe fall off a little bit
Speaker 1: um as we get into this more reopened return to
Speaker 1: some sort of normalcy whatever that ends up looking like
Speaker 1: what that would really mean for the businesses. And I
Speaker 1: think they're able to reassure investors that they are still
Speaker 1: expecting to demand to remain strong. And we saw that
Speaker 1: not only maybe help sentiment around Amazon itself, but names
Speaker 1: like Shopify, names like eBay also benefited from that because
Speaker 1: they didn't just say it was going to be Amazon
Speaker 1: and specific, they said there's an overall general trend. They
Speaker 1: expect the commerce to remain strong this year. Hey, I'm curious.
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about the VICS yesterday. It's
Speaker 1: definitely come down from the recent spike that we just saw,
Speaker 1: certainly last week amid the volatility. How closely do you
Speaker 1: watch the VICS as an indicator, and if so, what
Speaker 1: is it telling you right now? So the VICS I
Speaker 1: kind of view in sort of three three buckets, and
Speaker 1: so when in the buckets that means there's some cautious
Speaker 1: optionism out there, and that's where we're at right now
Speaker 1: thirty is genuine uncertainty, and anytime you get north of thirty,
Speaker 1: that is there is a caution tone. It's really setting
Speaker 1: in across the market. And I think last week, when
Speaker 1: you had a lot of volatively being driven in a
Speaker 1: handful of names, the question for Marcuts wasn't his game
Speaker 1: stop doing? Something's gonna gonna really cause this issue in
Speaker 1: GameStop itself. The question of markets make sure was would
Speaker 1: this turn into a systemic issue? And I think that's
Speaker 1: what drove it higher. As we get further away and
Speaker 1: we realize that we are returning sun center normalcy, this
Speaker 1: isn't gonna become a systemic issue across the board for equities.
Speaker 1: That that's what allowed the volatility index to really pull
Speaker 1: back as much as it did. I expected as we
Speaker 1: got further away from last week that we would see
Speaker 1: the exposing lower, but I did not expect to get
Speaker 1: down at twenty two. But I think that just shows
Speaker 1: that the market is moving away from focusing on what
Speaker 1: we saw last week and they're returning to focusing on
Speaker 1: things that matter. Economic reports are coming out, we're getting
Speaker 1: continue there's a lot of earnings reports out and those
Speaker 1: are coming in UM as as as expected, in many
Speaker 1: cases better, and I think that's really is what the
Speaker 1: markets focused on, and they're coming more optimistic. And twenty
Speaker 1: seconds tomorrow's jobs report, Um, what are you expecting? Looking
Speaker 1: for twenty seconds? I actually think we're gonna see a
Speaker 1: little bit of a pullback and wage growth. And that's
Speaker 1: because in the A d Q report we stall that
Speaker 1: services jobs and these are in hospitality, had a pretty
Speaker 1: strong rebound, which is good overall, but that will sort
Speaker 1: of drag that average wage number down because those tend
Speaker 1: to be lower pain jobs. So that's I'm going to
Speaker 1: be interested to see what happens with the wage growth number.
Speaker 1: All right, We're gonna leave it on that note. Hey, Sean,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Sean Crew, Senior Market Strategies at
Speaker 1: t D Merrige Trade with Us from Chicago. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to
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