Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, along
Speaker 1: with my co host of Bonnie Quinn. Every business day
Speaker 1: we bring you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts,
Speaker 1: along with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets
Speaker 1: Podcast on Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com. It is time now to
Speaker 1: welcome Danielle di Martineau, boost CEO and director of Intelligence
Speaker 1: at Quill Intelligence. Of course, Danielle's former advisor at the
Speaker 1: Dallas Fed and also a Bloomberg opinion columnists and she's
Speaker 1: based in Dallas. Danielle, what do you make of the
Speaker 1: idea that we may not get stimulus before the election
Speaker 1: while the pandemic lingers. So there's that, and that will
Speaker 1: definitely put a pin in any kind of burgeoning recovery
Speaker 1: that we're seeing. Well, I think that there are two
Speaker 1: different factors at work in today's market. One of them
Speaker 1: is that there's this underlying weakness that is going to
Speaker 1: continue to play out and stay and local employment for example,
Speaker 1: in in in families who are just getting by and
Speaker 1: we're waiting patiently as as they could for that next
Speaker 1: true stimulus package that provided them with a weekly jolt
Speaker 1: of of income while they continue to wait out a
Speaker 1: full and escape velocity, if you will, reopening of the
Speaker 1: U S economy. The other thing I think that's at
Speaker 1: play today, though, is the market trying to wrap its
Speaker 1: head around quantitatively what the stop gap measures will accomplish.
Speaker 1: There is a lot of money in Uncle Sam's checking account,
Speaker 1: the Treasury General account, and money that can be can
Speaker 1: be pulled upon. But what what will what will it
Speaker 1: do to say, keep the airline workers on payrolls versus
Speaker 1: the rest of the country that needs stimulus measures not
Speaker 1: receiving them. What might do you can those checks come
Speaker 1: out before election day? And most importantly, I think what's
Speaker 1: driving trading today is rumblings on trading floors about Bill
Speaker 1: Gates saying we might not need a vaccine. If what
Speaker 1: treated President Trump is as good as it is, we
Speaker 1: might be able to move past the pandemic with just
Speaker 1: treatments in hand. So, Danielle, you know, the the administration
Speaker 1: is touting uh, the declining unemployment rate, the fact that
Speaker 1: the people are going back to work, But at the
Speaker 1: same time we see big companies like the Walt Disney
Speaker 1: Company talking about, you know, laying off an additional twenty
Speaker 1: eight thousand employees. What is your sense as to the
Speaker 1: underlying health of the employment market or lack there of
Speaker 1: in the United States. Well, I think it's more important
Speaker 1: to look past. Twenty eight thousand is a huge mass
Speaker 1: layoff figure. It gates gets a lot of headlines, but
Speaker 1: two thirds of those workers were part time, So the
Speaker 1: economic the macroeconomic impact is not nearly as bad as
Speaker 1: well as fargoes intent this morning that it was going
Speaker 1: to be laying up and another seven hundred employees of
Speaker 1: KPMG announcing that it would be laying off white collar
Speaker 1: workers in tax and auditing and consulting UM. The list
Speaker 1: goes on and on of companies that are beginning to
Speaker 1: cut at headquarters salaried employees. If you looked at the
Speaker 1: job openings data yesterday, the worst category by far was
Speaker 1: business and professional services, and in Friday's Peril Report we
Speaker 1: saw three consecutive months of losses again in business and
Speaker 1: professional services. These are the highest paying positions that account
Speaker 1: for the vast majority of US consumption, and they will
Speaker 1: continue As these white collar job losses percolate through the economy.
Speaker 1: That will continue to trickle down, but not in a
Speaker 1: good way to the smaller businesses that are still holding
Speaker 1: on but in need of their of their business. So, Danielle,
Speaker 1: what happens next? How does the economy recover? How do
Speaker 1: people get by? I mean what the federals are has
Speaker 1: done as much as it can. There's possibly things that
Speaker 1: can do. It says, it's toolbox is never empty. But
Speaker 1: essentially this is a federal government issue. Does Joe Biden
Speaker 1: need to get elected and then, you know, implement a
Speaker 1: huge amount of stimulus. Well, I think the scenario that
Speaker 1: the ladder of the two scenarios that you just painted
Speaker 1: out has been playing out in the bond market for
Speaker 1: the better part of a week now. We've seen bond
Speaker 1: yields break out of a very tight range in which
Speaker 1: they've been stuck anticipating some massive stimulus spending bill. Uh.
Speaker 1: If Biden is victorious on on election day or in
Speaker 1: the days that follow, the question I have though for
Speaker 1: all politicians inside the Beltway is whether or not they're
Speaker 1: going to be looking to implement some programs that have
Speaker 1: proven successful in Germany, jobs, reskills, training, vocational training, infrastructure
Speaker 1: spending more than throwing money at people who who need it.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying we should put people out on
Speaker 1: the street by any means, but more than that, actually
Speaker 1: pro biting means by which people can get back into
Speaker 1: the workforce forcibly the way that it was done years
Speaker 1: ago in the New Deal, when there were no bridges
Speaker 1: and tunnels. Now we just have crumbling bridges and tunnels
Speaker 1: and roads that need to be repaired. I would hope
Speaker 1: that the Order of Business number one would be looking
Speaker 1: to stimulus spending measures that not just make sure people
Speaker 1: were put back on their feet, but also that gave
Speaker 1: them job opportunities. So, Danielle, we heard from FED Chairman
Speaker 1: pal You speaking yesterday at an economics conference calling for
Speaker 1: fiscal stimulus. Yet again, um does Congress listen to to
Speaker 1: FED chair people when FED chairman when they do speak
Speaker 1: about fiscal stimulus, Well, congress is track record is pretty
Speaker 1: is pretty spotty on that account. Bernanke spent years of
Speaker 1: his career as head of the fed UH pleading with
Speaker 1: Congress to do more on the fiscal side and to
Speaker 1: be more creative on a fiscal side, and he got
Speaker 1: the heisman time and again, which is why we ended
Speaker 1: up having q E two and que three. Uh. The
Speaker 1: problem I have with with Powell, though, is on a
Speaker 1: more fundamental level, and that is that it appears that
Speaker 1: most of the Fed's tools in the toolbox are broken.
Speaker 1: And the one thing that that Powell knows he can
Speaker 1: do if there's fresh treasury issuance in order to finance
Speaker 1: stimulus spending, it is by those bonds via quantitative eavening
Speaker 1: that filters back into the stock market. Daniel d Martino Booth,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us yet again. We
Speaker 1: always appreciate your insights. Danielle de Martino Boots, CEO and
Speaker 1: directive intelligence at Quill Intelligence, former advisor at the Dallas
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve, and a Bloomberg Opinion columnists. Also you know
Speaker 1: just extraordinary book. She's the author of fed Up, an
Speaker 1: insider's take on why the Federal Reserve is bad for America.
Speaker 1: It is time for Bloomberg Opinion on Bloomberg Radio. Tai
Speaker 1: Kim Technology Commas for Bloomberg Opinion joins is here. There's
Speaker 1: some significant news out recently. The House of Representatives out
Speaker 1: with a report suggesting some key regulatory oversight provisions for
Speaker 1: some of the biggest tech companies out there, including Apple, Google, Amazon,
Speaker 1: and Facebook. Take Kim, thanks for joining us. We really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. How it just give us a sense of
Speaker 1: what the House report says and how worried does some
Speaker 1: of these tech companies be. I think the technology companies
Speaker 1: should be worried. Um, this report was four hundred fifty pages.
Speaker 1: The subcommittee poured over one point three million documents, and
Speaker 1: they really laid out the case and a pattern of
Speaker 1: anti competite behavior by each and every one of these
Speaker 1: big tech companies. And it kind of lays our role
Speaker 1: map and a case for action over in that coming year.
Speaker 1: And they gave a bunch of remedies. Some of them
Speaker 1: more aggressive ones may not happen and buy pars in Congress,
Speaker 1: but you never know what happens with the November election.
Speaker 1: If there's a Democratic sweep, and I do think we're
Speaker 1: gonna there's a good chance some of these remedies will
Speaker 1: be pointed action in coming. Here do we have an
Speaker 1: outline of the types of remedies Congress is looking for? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have like a dozen things in there. Um. The
Speaker 1: most important one is a structural separation of any dominant
Speaker 1: platform if they compete with other competitors on their business. UM.
Speaker 1: Another big one is a shift of burdener proof. So
Speaker 1: whenever of these big dominant platform big tech companies by
Speaker 1: company in the future, UM, they're going to have to
Speaker 1: prove that it's not anti competitive. So the burdener approof
Speaker 1: will beyond the technology company to argue that it's not
Speaker 1: anti competitors. So those are two big ones. UM. So
Speaker 1: there are a lot of recommendations that they lay it out.
Speaker 1: So tell you I think you know. Historically the United
Speaker 1: States has taken a very light touch too big tech
Speaker 1: in terms of regulations, I guess, preferring to foster innovation.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna argue whether that's been positive or negative,
Speaker 1: but certainly it's helped Silicon Valley. Is there a real
Speaker 1: bipartisan support for significantly regulating these big tech companies like
Speaker 1: an Amazon, like an Apple? Right now? There isn't bipart
Speaker 1: support for the more aggressive remedies, but there is support
Speaker 1: for certain things such as increasing funding for the antitrust
Speaker 1: regulators DEDC and the Anti Trust Division the t o
Speaker 1: j UM. But yes, there isn't like the Republicans aren't
Speaker 1: a board for more of these uh progressive breakup actions.
Speaker 1: Does any of this change if we get a change
Speaker 1: in leadership or even you know, the change in the
Speaker 1: Senate for example. I think so like if the Senate
Speaker 1: changes and there's a Biden administration. Um, it was reported
Speaker 1: earlier this week the Biden the Biden team was given
Speaker 1: the heads up on this report. So I think if
Speaker 1: we see a democratic administration, will see some action. Another
Speaker 1: thing that the report outlined was UM potential limits on
Speaker 1: self preferential behavi year by Google and Apple. So what
Speaker 1: Google does is they kind of bolster their own services
Speaker 1: on top of search results and potentially with either the
Speaker 1: d o J, which actually is on the Trump administration, UM,
Speaker 1: potentially putting out the report leader this week or next
Speaker 1: week to go after Google in terms of the the antitrust lawsuit. UM,
Speaker 1: that's another thing that that could be put in action.
Speaker 1: And also Apples app Store. UM, I could see it
Speaker 1: certain legislation to limit Apple from preferential treatment for their
Speaker 1: apps and services. So tell you, I think even last year,
Speaker 1: I believe it was when the Federal Trade Commission and
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice kind of divvied up these big
Speaker 1: tech companies and say, okay, you take a look, you
Speaker 1: d J, you take a look at these companies. You
Speaker 1: Federal Trade Commission, you take a look at these companies.
Speaker 1: Is this report in concert with those investigations or is
Speaker 1: it separate from them? And and how are they tied together?
Speaker 1: If at all? So, I think they're pretty separate. This
Speaker 1: was the House subcommittee doing their investigation. The d o
Speaker 1: j it's is on their own path, and the most
Speaker 1: imminent one is a lawsuit that's going to to Google
Speaker 1: for their search engine and the dominance and the ad
Speaker 1: platform business. But I do believe they're separate. But they
Speaker 1: all they're all tied in together of greatest scrutiny of
Speaker 1: big technology companies because I mean, everyone agrees that these
Speaker 1: companies are just so dominant in their markets and something
Speaker 1: needs to be done. And this four hundred fifty page
Speaker 1: report really I think it is an important step because
Speaker 1: the outlines the huge pattern of behavior. Uh Specifically, I
Speaker 1: think the most egregious is Amazon in terms of how
Speaker 1: they know aplied on individual seller data to inform their
Speaker 1: private label business. So there's this great pattern behavior of
Speaker 1: these companies using their market power. And I think this,
Speaker 1: this report, this vast report, is really good step in
Speaker 1: terms of going to the next level of actual actions
Speaker 1: against these companies. So these companies, many of them, have
Speaker 1: been dealing with or working with these types of issues.
Speaker 1: Let's say, in Europe for a very very long time.
Speaker 1: Margaret of s day Or was one of the most
Speaker 1: fierce competition commissioners that the European Commission has ever seen.
Speaker 1: And all of the companies that we're talking about how
Speaker 1: to work with her, What lessons can they learn in
Speaker 1: terms of how they deal with Congress? How will how
Speaker 1: will you know what the US wants from these companies
Speaker 1: differ from what the EU wanted and ultimately got from
Speaker 1: most of these companies. So the EU is actually in
Speaker 1: progress with a number of these antitrust probes. Also, they
Speaker 1: started a few months ago invest seeing Apple and how
Speaker 1: they require their in app purchasing and the fift cut.
Speaker 1: So I think we're actually going to see a lot
Speaker 1: of these actions come together at once, and the EU
Speaker 1: is still involved and really working, especially on the Apples.
Speaker 1: So I think we'll see a lot of these governments,
Speaker 1: but they're all all on there are on all their
Speaker 1: stuff tracks, like they're not really working together. Um, potentially
Speaker 1: we'll see the state, the trained generals and the d
Speaker 1: o J I think the d J is trying to
Speaker 1: get this data trainee channels on board for their Google lawsuits,
Speaker 1: so they're all on this epic tracks. But I do
Speaker 1: think over the coming year, we're just going to see
Speaker 1: more scrutiny action. You look at the stocks, the stocks
Speaker 1: are not worried. Stocks are trading up, they're not trading
Speaker 1: down on this news. Particularly. What does that tell you time, Um,
Speaker 1: I think day to day it's it's it's tough to say.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this stuff is going to take
Speaker 1: a long time to get legislated out, a year or
Speaker 1: two at the earliest. I mean, this is not something
Speaker 1: that you could flip on a switch and say, oh,
Speaker 1: new Congress to kind of work on it. So it's
Speaker 1: gonna take time. And I mean I don't really foresee
Speaker 1: like vast breakup per se, but I do see on
Speaker 1: the margin rule changes limiting acqua eficians, like I said,
Speaker 1: the self preferential behavior and maybe prep and it's not
Speaker 1: being compelled to give up the private business. So I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that you know, they're earning power and gets
Speaker 1: smashed because of their scrutiny, But I do think there
Speaker 1: will be accents where there will be limits to their
Speaker 1: behaviors and in terms of crushing competitors and things of that,
Speaker 1: some of that action will will be under this also.
Speaker 1: Take him, always a fascinating conversation. Take him as technology
Speaker 1: columnists for Bloomberg Opinion, and we thank him for joining
Speaker 1: us today. And you know, it really is interesting called
Speaker 1: you preparing you know, a Digital Services Act, so an
Speaker 1: actual act of regulation. And if you go on a
Speaker 1: website for any of these companies in Europe at the moment,
Speaker 1: you know, you have to answer a whole load of
Speaker 1: information about you know, what you're allowing them to take
Speaker 1: from you in terms of your privacy and so on.
Speaker 1: You don't you don't typically get that yet in the US.
Speaker 1: Let's get straight to our next guest. He needs, you know,
Speaker 1: is political contributor and professor polit legal science at Iona College, Jennie.
Speaker 1: A lot to talk about, not least the VP debate tonight,
Speaker 1: but first let's talk about Nancy Pelosi trolling the President
Speaker 1: on the view a few moments ago. Having had a
Speaker 1: conversation this morning with Steve Mnuchen about airline aide that
Speaker 1: apparently is going nowhere. Does Donald Trump bite before the
Speaker 1: debate tonight? Does he make some kind of unilateral announcement
Speaker 1: or something to do with stimulus. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: very good at predicting what Donald Trump will do. I
Speaker 1: hesitate to do that, but if I had to guess,
Speaker 1: I would say I do think he will respond. Um.
Speaker 1: He was very very active on Twitter, as you know,
Speaker 1: and you've been talking about all night, um and so
Speaker 1: you know from yesterday late yesterday to into today. So
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if he didn't respond. And of
Speaker 1: course this does I have to say, this does work
Speaker 1: to the President's advantage. He he wants to um, you know,
Speaker 1: set this up as a debate between him and particularly
Speaker 1: the Democratic leadership in the House, led by Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker 1: So I think any chance he gets to do that,
Speaker 1: he's going to do that. And this is a way
Speaker 1: to energize his base. So I would be surprised if
Speaker 1: he didn't respond. Genny, you know, I want to ask
Speaker 1: you about what you think President trump strategy is here.
Speaker 1: But every time I mentioned President Trump and strategy, Tim
Speaker 1: O'Brien Bloomberg Opinion Calmness and long time Trump chronicle or
Speaker 1: tells me that the president does not have a strategy.
Speaker 1: But what do you think his strategy is here so
Speaker 1: close to the election, seemingly handing the opposition of victory. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I would have to say, you just made me
Speaker 1: chuckle because Tim is so right about that, and I
Speaker 1: would never ever disagree with him on anything to do
Speaker 1: with Trump. Um, and I do think he's right. There
Speaker 1: does not seem to be a strategy. And in this case,
Speaker 1: when we were getting these tweets last night, these mixed
Speaker 1: messages about the stimulus package, I was scratching my head
Speaker 1: to try to figure out what could the thing king be.
Speaker 1: For most people running for office, the opportunity to invest
Speaker 1: money into the pockets of the people voting for them
Speaker 1: would be something they would jump at. So the idea
Speaker 1: that the President took that off the table when it
Speaker 1: seemed they were, you know, getting much closer in the
Speaker 1: last few days was absolutely baffling from a sort of
Speaker 1: electoral campaign political strategy perspective. And then to your point,
Speaker 1: I had Tim running in my head saying, Okay, well
Speaker 1: maybe there is no strategy here. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: really really hard to tell what the president. The most
Speaker 1: I can say is, on the one hand, he makes
Speaker 1: a case about walking away from the table when you're negotiating,
Speaker 1: you have to be prepared to do that, and that
Speaker 1: seems to be what he did last night. And then
Speaker 1: he walked back right up to the table a few
Speaker 1: hours later. So you know, we're getting these again mixed
Speaker 1: messages from the president, in which case he can always
Speaker 1: declare victory, and that seems to be sort of par
Speaker 1: for the course with him. If there is a deal,
Speaker 1: he can declare victory. If there's not, he can say, see,
Speaker 1: I told you so, and I walked away before you know,
Speaker 1: this thing didn't work. Let's I'll forget that this is
Speaker 1: a very very ill man right now as well. And
Speaker 1: while you know, officially he had no symptoms yesterday, he's
Speaker 1: on huge doses of you know, very strong chemicals and
Speaker 1: you know apparently at some point that will start to
Speaker 1: wear off in the next day or two, after the
Speaker 1: fifth dose of de severe. How much do you think
Speaker 1: that that is coloring his stands on things right now? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the million dollar question. And I
Speaker 1: don't think we know, as you just said that his
Speaker 1: doctors are saying that he's showing no symptoms, and yet
Speaker 1: we hear from doctor to you know, say that this
Speaker 1: absolutely can cause you to have a reaction, and that
Speaker 1: can be in you know, some kind of psychological way
Speaker 1: as well. So I think the honest answer is that
Speaker 1: none of us know that said um, even if the
Speaker 1: President wasn't on these medicines, I'm not sure any of
Speaker 1: us would be surprised by the tweeting and the decisions
Speaker 1: made in the last twenty four hours visa VI or
Speaker 1: the statements made not decisions visa be some kind of
Speaker 1: stimulus package. I'm not sure what the answer to that is.
Speaker 1: We hope that he is physically and mentally fine and
Speaker 1: that we as the American public, are getting honest answers
Speaker 1: from his doctors. And I don't think after this weekend
Speaker 1: we can be confident about that. Jenny, we do have
Speaker 1: a vice presidential debate this evening from Salt Lake City. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, typically we don't spend pay too much attention
Speaker 1: to these VP debates, but given the ages of the
Speaker 1: two president, the president and the vice president former Vice
Speaker 1: President Biden, seems a little bit more relevant, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: It absolutely does. I think in an ideal situation, you know,
Speaker 1: the vice presidential nominees for two men in their seventies
Speaker 1: would be a big deal, as you mentioned. And then
Speaker 1: of course we're in a much different situation, not ideal,
Speaker 1: in the midst of a pandemic, with a president who
Speaker 1: we've just been talking about has been diagnosed is currently
Speaker 1: under treatment, we understand, and a former vice president whose
Speaker 1: health has been called into question at numerous times, you know,
Speaker 1: throughout the campaign. So both of those things give this
Speaker 1: sort of vice presidential debate, which normally gets a rather
Speaker 1: small audience. I think it's going to get a lot
Speaker 1: more attention tonight for that reason. And then, of course,
Speaker 1: just a week ago we have the you know, sort
Speaker 1: of stunning presidential debate where we didn't get a lot
Speaker 1: of answers in terms of policies. So I think we're
Speaker 1: really looking for president vice President Pence to sort of
Speaker 1: play clean up for the president and to sort of
Speaker 1: fill in some of those gaps that were left and
Speaker 1: try to get a you know, a you know, some
Speaker 1: scoring here for the Republicans in terms of doing a
Speaker 1: better job. Because of course, polls show that the president
Speaker 1: did not do well according to voters after that last debate.
Speaker 1: So what does sont of they Kamala Harris have to
Speaker 1: do to avoid making a mistake Denny, I think what
Speaker 1: she's got to do is focus like a laser beam
Speaker 1: on COVID. I think she's got to prosecute the case,
Speaker 1: but do it in a, you know, not a terribly
Speaker 1: stringent way, but bring more evidence forward, if you will,
Speaker 1: that they have not done well. These are the the
Speaker 1: American public in terms of managing this crisis, that is
Speaker 1: the pandemic. I think if she can do that for
Speaker 1: a sustained period of time, put Pence on the defensive
Speaker 1: trying to defend you know, in many cases what the
Speaker 1: administration has done here, she will have succeeded, provided, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, she doesn't make any mistakes, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be tough. She we haven't seen her in a lot
Speaker 1: of one on one debates like this, so we're not
Speaker 1: quite sure she's a great prosecutor. She was very good
Speaker 1: in the multi person debate, but this is a different
Speaker 1: format and Vice President Pence is good at this format,
Speaker 1: and I think he doesn't get enough credit for being
Speaker 1: successful in this venue. No, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. Once again. We appreciate your thoughts here as
Speaker 1: we get ready for the vice presidential debate. Jeniso, political
Speaker 1: contributor for Bloomberg News also professor of political science at
Speaker 1: iona at College. We always appreciate her thoughts here again, So, Vanni,
Speaker 1: you know the markets are going to be you know,
Speaker 1: they seem to be not obviously not focused on the
Speaker 1: debate tonight, but certainly focused on uh Twitter and the
Speaker 1: it's coming out of the White House as it relates
Speaker 1: to fiscal stimus. Is it on again? Is it off again? Um?
Speaker 1: I just don't know. And you know, at some point
Speaker 1: the focus will turn to the debate. It it maybe
Speaker 1: an hour before the debate, but at some point the president,
Speaker 1: you know, won't be able to keep the limelight if
Speaker 1: he does indeed take it today. Will you be watching tonight,
Speaker 1: Paul I will? I will. I'm be flipping back between
Speaker 1: the Yankee game and the debate, so we'll happen to see.
Speaker 1: But there are other important things going on. Is that
Speaker 1: what you're saying? Well, the Yankees, Yeah, they usually get
Speaker 1: top billing for me, so we'll see. But this will
Speaker 1: be important, so I think everybody will be paying attention
Speaker 1: to it. Well, there's another hurricane bearing down on the
Speaker 1: southern coast of America, and it is just another storm
Speaker 1: in a extraordinary year of disasters. UH certainly copped capped
Speaker 1: off by the COVID uh pandemic. Team Rubicon is a
Speaker 1: nonprofit veteran lead disaster response organization. You have about hundred
Speaker 1: seventy full time employees a hundred thirties thousand volunteers and
Speaker 1: they have been busy this year in disaster relieve. Jake Would,
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of Team Rubicant, joins us here. Jake
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about Team Rubican, kind of
Speaker 1: where this came from and kind of where your focuses
Speaker 1: uh in an epic. Yeah, well, thank you for having
Speaker 1: me on to share the story. Team Rubicon were a
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization that was founded about eleven years ago in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. Um I had served
Speaker 1: in the Marine Corps served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following
Speaker 1: the earthquake, I led a team of veterans and doctors
Speaker 1: down the Court of Prince to help with the response
Speaker 1: effort down there, and we realized that these men and
Speaker 1: women who have served in uniform overseas had a lot
Speaker 1: of skills and experiences that were applicable in disaster zones.
Speaker 1: So in the decades since, we've built up uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a really incredible organization that leverages military veterans and first
Speaker 1: responders to go into disaster zones and humanitarian crises, you know,
Speaker 1: like we've been seeing throughout I mean, you mentioned the
Speaker 1: hurricane season. We've got Hurricane Delta, which is an upgrade
Speaker 1: to a Category force and a slam in the southeast Louisiana.
Speaker 1: You know, this is one of many major hurricanes that
Speaker 1: have hit the US already this year. And all of
Speaker 1: this in the midst of of COVID nineteen. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's been a year fraught with disasters and prices,
Speaker 1: and and Team Rubican has been their serving communities along
Speaker 1: the way. So, Jake, how has COVID nineteen changed the
Speaker 1: environment for you all? I imagine you may have gotten
Speaker 1: you know, extra volunteers in some ways if people were
Speaker 1: at home doing nothing and felt like they wanted to
Speaker 1: to get out there and do something, if they didn't
Speaker 1: at all, or what have you. But also keeping everybody safe. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we made a commitment early into OVID nineteen. We made
Speaker 1: two commitments. One we were going to step into that
Speaker 1: crisis aggressively, and we were gonna assist communities to get
Speaker 1: through the pandemic, and we've been doing that. We've been
Speaker 1: doing that by sending medical providers to Navajo Nation, We've
Speaker 1: been sending up mobile testing sites, We've been distributing PPE
Speaker 1: for the entire city of Chicago, and we flood did
Speaker 1: food banks across the country with thousands of volunteers to
Speaker 1: support their efforts. But we also did it through the
Speaker 1: lens that we were always going to keep our volunteer safe,
Speaker 1: and so we very quickly developed the necessary protocols, ensured
Speaker 1: that we had the necessary PPE to keep our volunteers safe.
Speaker 1: And the one thing that we realized early was that
Speaker 1: Mother Nature didn't care about COVID nineteen and we never
Speaker 1: predicted that we'd have a storm season quite like we've had,
Speaker 1: But we knew that we were going to have to
Speaker 1: continue to respond to natural disasters in the midst of this.
Speaker 1: So that has required us to rework all of our
Speaker 1: disaster response protocols, ranging from how we fly in volunteers,
Speaker 1: how they transport in vehicles, how they sleep at night, um,
Speaker 1: the types of equipment that they have to take h
Speaker 1: into these homes that they're helping to recover from the storms.
Speaker 1: And so, yes, we have seen an influx of new volunteers,
Speaker 1: but we've also seen a dramatic decrease in funding. Um,
Speaker 1: you know this issue, you know, the economy, the broader
Speaker 1: macro economic trends that we're seeing are are creating real
Speaker 1: headwinds for the organization. You know that I think is
Speaker 1: coupled with kind of the uncertainty of the election and
Speaker 1: all of the money that's being diverted into both sides
Speaker 1: of the Democrats and Republicans. And then finally the rise
Speaker 1: of social justice as an issue that's pre eminent many Americans. Uh,
Speaker 1: the unfortunate reality is that public support for these disasters
Speaker 1: has waned. So Jack, let's let's go there a little bit.
Speaker 1: I mean, I would I would think your resources are
Speaker 1: beyond stretched in a year like with COVID and this
Speaker 1: extraordinary storm season that's impacted the United States. Kind of
Speaker 1: how are you funding your operations? Well, you know, our
Speaker 1: funding is all uh private philanthropy. So it's it's corporate funding,
Speaker 1: it's foundations and as individual giving. We don't take any
Speaker 1: government money and we don't charge the homeowners that we
Speaker 1: assist for the services that we provide, and so we
Speaker 1: really rely on these these institutions and these individuals to
Speaker 1: the fund our efforts. And as I said, you know,
Speaker 1: people pocketbooks are are stretched. We have extraordinarily high unemployment
Speaker 1: many sectors of the economy, the core of corporations. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, despite where the you know, the Doubt and
Speaker 1: the Nashtac are sitting. You know, many of these companies
Speaker 1: stock prices are still pummeled. That's that's been an impact
Speaker 1: to our bottom line because they have fewer dollars available
Speaker 1: for philanthropy. And so yes, we you know, we're having
Speaker 1: to kind of clench our jaw here and find creative
Speaker 1: ways to to flex into these operations and not leave
Speaker 1: these communities behind. And it's it's challenging. Tell us how
Speaker 1: very clearly j people can donate. Well, if anybody wants
Speaker 1: to support our work, they can go to Team root
Speaker 1: becon USA dot org. You know, five dollars, five dollars,
Speaker 1: anything in between, anything above, uh, you know, will will
Speaker 1: maximize the impact that that that money can have in
Speaker 1: the community. Uh. You know, if you want to volunteer,
Speaker 1: that's your most precious resource, your time. We'd love to
Speaker 1: have you and even just sharing the word of what
Speaker 1: you're hearing and the work that we're doing can go along.
Speaker 1: So we'd encourage people to follow us on social media
Speaker 1: and share the story of Team Rubicon. Team Rubicon dot
Speaker 1: org and Jake, if people did want to volunteer, what
Speaker 1: are your criteria? It's Team Rubicon USA dot org and
Speaker 1: anybody is eligible to volunteer as long as they're over
Speaker 1: the age of eighteen. Um. We you don't have to
Speaker 1: be a military veteran. It certainly makes up the bulk
Speaker 1: of our volunteers, but we take people of all stripes.
Speaker 1: Uh and uh. You know, we're just looking for you know,
Speaker 1: great American citizens who are looking to help their neighbors.
Speaker 1: Team Rubicon USA dot org. I'll say that one more time,
Speaker 1: Team Rubicon USA dot org. Jake, thanks for sharing your
Speaker 1: story with us today and we will definitely continue to
Speaker 1: follow your movements throughout the country and stay safe. And
Speaker 1: I know that if anybody can, you guys can much
Speaker 1: much appreciated. That is Jake would, founder and CEO of
Speaker 1: Team Rubicon. Thanks for listening to the Boomberg Markets podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Bonnie Quinn. I'm
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Bonnie Quinn and I'm Paul Sweeney. I'm
Speaker 1: on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can
Speaker 1: always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio