Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg p m L Podcast. I'm Pim Fox.
Speaker 1: Along with my co host Lisa Bramowitz. Each day we
Speaker 1: bring you the most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews for
Speaker 1: you and your money, whether you're at the grocery store
Speaker 1: or the trading floor. Find the Bloomberg p m L
Speaker 1: Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Bloomberg dot com. The
Speaker 1: Trumpet administration aims to have a replacement for retiring Supreme
Speaker 1: Court Justice Anthony and Kennedy confirmed in time to join
Speaker 1: the Court for its new term in October. This according
Speaker 1: to the White House Today. Joining us now to talk
Speaker 1: about this Noah Feldman, Professor of law at Harvard University,
Speaker 1: also a Bloomberg opinion columnist, also a former clerk to
Speaker 1: u S Supreme Court Justice David Suitor. Uh no, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being with us. I just want
Speaker 1: to start with your view of kind of how are
Speaker 1: going to proceed going forward? Who you think the front
Speaker 1: runner will be for this Supreme Court vacancy. Well, the
Speaker 1: Trump administration has publicized a list of potential nominees, and
Speaker 1: rumors have that list cut down to further to five people,
Speaker 1: and until now, the administration has been as good as
Speaker 1: its word in nominating people from its public lists. So
Speaker 1: based on prior experience, it's almost certain to be one
Speaker 1: of those five. But they have in common is that
Speaker 1: they're all died in the wool conservative um. In age.
Speaker 1: They range from middle forties to late fifties, and most,
Speaker 1: though not all, have some experience on the federal appeals courts.
Speaker 1: So you know, died in the wool conservative can take
Speaker 1: different forms when you're talking about constitutional law, whether their originalists,
Speaker 1: whether they're more sort of ideological. What's your impression of
Speaker 1: these particular candidates. I think nearly all of these, perhaps
Speaker 1: of them would have asked say that their constitutional philosophy
Speaker 1: is broadly originalist. I don't think any would say that
Speaker 1: they had some other view, and none would say that
Speaker 1: they supported the idea of a living constitution, Noah Felton.
Speaker 1: Based on what you know in terms of the court's
Speaker 1: current voting pattern, and based on what you've just described
Speaker 1: in terms of the kind of person there, they're legal
Speaker 1: perspective that will join the court. What kinds of rulings
Speaker 1: do you expect when the court reconvenes in October. Well,
Speaker 1: the biggest issue, which will be watching most closely and
Speaker 1: debated most intensely over the next few months is certainly
Speaker 1: abortion rights. Several states UM have either passed or on
Speaker 1: the verge of passing laws that are extremely restrictive of
Speaker 1: abortion rights, much beyond the current legal standard, and those
Speaker 1: are the ones that will be focused on UM And
Speaker 1: for that reason, I think one of the crucial issues
Speaker 1: over the next few months in the public debate about
Speaker 1: this is whether several of the more moderate Republicans in
Speaker 1: the Senate, including Senators Collins and Murkowski, both of whom
Speaker 1: were formally pro choice rather than pro life, would cast
Speaker 1: their votes to confirm a nominee who would be very
Speaker 1: likely to vote to overrule Roe v. Wade. And so
Speaker 1: you know that is very much at issue here. It
Speaker 1: could well be that this justice would provide the decisive
Speaker 1: fifth vote. We don't know absolutely for short, because we
Speaker 1: don't know how Chief to stuff just as Roberts would vote.
Speaker 1: But we know that Justice Kennedy, who has just retired,
Speaker 1: cast the decisive vote to preserve Roe v. Wade back
Speaker 1: and I ninety two. And we know that whoever is
Speaker 1: likely to be confirmed sending a confirmation is probably someone
Speaker 1: who will think that that case should be overworld. Well, Noah,
Speaker 1: is it likely that whoever is the nominee will answer
Speaker 1: a direct question on this topic. I'd say it's totally unlikely.
Speaker 1: Clothes to zero. I mean in theory, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: with a guarantee that republic all Republicans would vote to
Speaker 1: confirm the person could actually go up there and do it.
Speaker 1: Almost no nominee in modern history has done, namely, be
Speaker 1: honest and say yes, I would vote on that and
Speaker 1: this is how I would vote. But there's a strong
Speaker 1: precedent now for nominees saying I can't answer that because
Speaker 1: that issue may come before the court and I don't
Speaker 1: want to disqualify myself in the future, and so therefore
Speaker 1: I decline to answer. And so my guess is that
Speaker 1: you not just a guess that My overwhelming prediction is
Speaker 1: we won't hear any direct answers to that question. So Noah,
Speaker 1: the shift here. Anthony Kennedy's retirement has been portrayed, uh,
Speaker 1: pretty dramatically on both sides, both as a political boon
Speaker 1: to the GOP and as a sort of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: catastrophe on the left. Um, And I'm just wondering, you know,
Speaker 1: it's definitely. Pretty broadly, people agree this is the biggest
Speaker 1: change or shift potentially in American jurisprudence since arguably since
Speaker 1: ro versus Wade. Would you agree first of all with
Speaker 1: that statement, and how do you think it's going to
Speaker 1: change the nature of Supreme Court rulings going forward? Yes,
Speaker 1: it's going to mean a very significant and potentially vast shift.
Speaker 1: We should keep in mind that part of that is
Speaker 1: because the Republican Senate blocked Barack Obama's nominee, a Merrick Garland,
Speaker 1: who would have replaced Justice Scalia if he If Garland
Speaker 1: had gone through and then Kennedy had retired, we would
Speaker 1: be back in a position of balance between the sides.
Speaker 1: But because the Senate blocked Garland, and as a result,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump was able to nominate and confirm the of
Speaker 1: coursu that makes this the decisive decisive vote. And the
Speaker 1: thing is Justice Kennedy was a conservative in many ways,
Speaker 1: but on a handful of hot button issues, including gay
Speaker 1: rights and abortion and Guantanamo, he actually voted with the liberals,
Speaker 1: and for that reason, his retirement opens the possibility of
Speaker 1: a durable conservative majority for a whole generation, and that
Speaker 1: is potentially a sea change in the U. S. Constitution
Speaker 1: has interpreted. Are there any precedents that are being broken
Speaker 1: or created because of the unusual circumstance of President Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and the Mueller investigation simultaneous to this potential appointment, Well,
Speaker 1: we don't know yet. Um Certainly, Donald stun's goal and
Speaker 1: his success in fact, has been in breaking all the
Speaker 1: unwritten rules, and even when he's pressed the boundaries of
Speaker 1: the written rules, he's more or less gotten away with it.
Speaker 1: The travel ban was struck down by the lower courts
Speaker 1: in at first two forms, but as you know, in
Speaker 1: its final version three point now, it was upheld by
Speaker 1: by the Supreme Court just just earlier this week. It's
Speaker 1: hard to remember that it was so recently, but it
Speaker 1: was just really in this week before that the Candy's
Speaker 1: retirement was announced. So yeah, there's a kind of pressure
Speaker 1: on the boundaries of constitutional law right now, and we
Speaker 1: can expect that pressure to continue because Donald Trump is
Speaker 1: obviously inclined to try to put the envelope, and a
Speaker 1: court dominated by conservatives, and with two of his nominees
Speaker 1: on it would probably be much more likely to uphold
Speaker 1: those actions than with another court. So no, you know,
Speaker 1: there has been a lot of focus on abortion rights
Speaker 1: that Row versus Wade, and possibly that getting overturned. But
Speaker 1: aside from sort of the hot button issues, is there
Speaker 1: another place that people should be focusing where we could
Speaker 1: see a major shift that would have an impact in
Speaker 1: people's life in terms of how the constitutionalist constitution is interpreted. Yes. Um.
Speaker 1: One question is whether the right to gain marriage, which
Speaker 1: the court established, would be preserved or overturned. We don't
Speaker 1: know the answer to that. Another area of importance is
Speaker 1: environmental law, where if there were to be a democratic
Speaker 1: president in the future and the Democratic controlled e p
Speaker 1: a aggressive pro environmental restrictions could potentially be struck down
Speaker 1: by a court. Um. Yet another area is the freedom
Speaker 1: of speech, where a conservative activist court could use the
Speaker 1: freedom of speech as a tool to strike down relatively
Speaker 1: progressive laws, which we actually already saw happening over the
Speaker 1: last week or ten days in several importance between court opinions.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there are there are a whole There are
Speaker 1: a whole host of areas in which there could be
Speaker 1: a real difference. And I would say, most broadly, again,
Speaker 1: should the Democrat get elected present and should there be
Speaker 1: a Democratic House and Senate in the future, UM major
Speaker 1: progressive legislation. Again, hypothetically, if it would be passed along
Speaker 1: the lines of Obamacare, would stand a good probability of
Speaker 1: being struck down by a conservative court. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1: Noah Feldman, Harvard Law Professor, Bloomberg Opinion a columnist. Steel, aluminum, whiskey, mustard,
Speaker 1: toilet paper, washing machines, motor boats, even maple syrup. These
Speaker 1: are all subject to tariffs from Canada as it celebrates
Speaker 1: its one and fifty one birthday on Sunday. And here
Speaker 1: to tell us about tariffs trade wars in the United
Speaker 1: States and Canada is Clay Lowry. He is managing director
Speaker 1: of Rock Creek Global Advisors. They're based in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: And he is also a former Assistant Secretary for International
Speaker 1: Affairs at the US Treasury Department. And he also chaired
Speaker 1: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States known
Speaker 1: as Syphius. Clay Lowry, thank you very much for being
Speaker 1: with us. Uh. You know, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Speaker 1: celebrates Canada's birthday, he's going to be doing it under
Speaker 1: this cloud of trade wars with the United States. What
Speaker 1: effects do you think is going to have on a
Speaker 1: long lasting relationship between the United States and Canada, and
Speaker 1: what do you think the economic fallout is going to be. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, thanks for having me, UM. In terms
Speaker 1: of the UH our relationship with Canada, it's based on
Speaker 1: one mutual respect that we've had for a long time
Speaker 1: between our two countries. So UM. I worry obviously that
Speaker 1: the trade war aspect that you mentioned, UM could affect
Speaker 1: specific businesses. UM, but I'm hopeful that UM, while there
Speaker 1: has been some pretty um, not so great rhetoric between
Speaker 1: our two leaders of our country over the last few months,
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, cooler heads will prevail and we'll
Speaker 1: be able to start coming to agreement on how we
Speaker 1: want our relationship to go forward. So I have a
Speaker 1: lot of respect for the Canada, obviously respect my own country,
Speaker 1: and so I think I'm hopeful that that will work
Speaker 1: out in the end. As to the specific economic issues,
Speaker 1: I think it's much more going to be a microeconomic story,
Speaker 1: which is a problem because, of course, UM, it's going
Speaker 1: to hit specific businesses. You mentioned a bunch of different
Speaker 1: industries at the lead into this story, UM, and they're
Speaker 1: being hit. They're not just being hit by Canada, they're
Speaker 1: being they're getting tariffs by a lot of other countries
Speaker 1: around the world, and there's a lot of businesses that export,
Speaker 1: and it's not exactly surprising that the countries are hitting
Speaker 1: back when we're putting tariffs on them for fairly dubious reasons.
Speaker 1: You know, claim, I'm so glad you're with us today
Speaker 1: because you have the deep experience with some of these
Speaker 1: trade relationships that will actually give us an informed view
Speaker 1: of fairness. You know, we hear a lot about how
Speaker 1: the US has an unfair trading partnership with the rest
Speaker 1: of the world. Where do you see the biggest inequities
Speaker 1: and are we moving closer to solving those? So? UM,
Speaker 1: I'm not look, I think that having an unfair trading relationship,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure we actually have that. UM. I know
Speaker 1: that that is the president's contention, and there's other people
Speaker 1: that believe very strongly in what he says, and I
Speaker 1: give them due credit for that. But the UM, I
Speaker 1: think what we should be always striving to do is
Speaker 1: to try to better ourselves by making you know, opening
Speaker 1: up our opening up markets, making sure we have good
Speaker 1: rules of the road so that we can figure out
Speaker 1: how do we get our products into other countries and
Speaker 1: by the way, allow their their products to get into
Speaker 1: our country because that actually helps our consumer um and
Speaker 1: it helps our exporters. So I think that what I
Speaker 1: would be doing and I'm not is I'd be focusing
Speaker 1: on how to work with those countries in a way
Speaker 1: to actually get better and more positive as opposed to
Speaker 1: what we're right now doing, which is much more negative,
Speaker 1: which is we're putting caraffs on a number of countries
Speaker 1: around the world. We did it on steel and aluminum,
Speaker 1: We're threatening to do it on auto imports. UM. And
Speaker 1: the one country that really has been probably most most
Speaker 1: problematic has been China. And instead of actually trying to
Speaker 1: take a coordinated approach with a lot of our allies
Speaker 1: who have some of the same similar problems with China,
Speaker 1: were instead hitting those same allies UM. And I that
Speaker 1: that part of the negotiating tactics I don't get. But
Speaker 1: I'm not the president and I'm not his negotiators, Clay Lowry.
Speaker 1: While we're having these war of trade uh words, I
Speaker 1: guess because nothing is set in stone, at at least
Speaker 1: not in the moment um, China seems to be moving
Speaker 1: just as rapidly ahead with its trade ties, let's say
Speaker 1: with Latin America. Indeed, I believe if you go to
Speaker 1: Panama right now at the sort of promontory right at
Speaker 1: the opening of the newly widened Panama Canal in which
Speaker 1: the first ship was a Chinese to go through it, Uh,
Speaker 1: the Chinese have secured land to build their new embassy.
Speaker 1: Is that going to be emblematic of what happens in
Speaker 1: the future if this trade war continues. It's not exactly surprising.
Speaker 1: I mean, if if a, if your country is being
Speaker 1: hit by the United States on certain exports, um, why
Speaker 1: would you not instead try to find new sources of
Speaker 1: of of exports that yourself, um what expert markets yourself? Um.
Speaker 1: For instance, I remember talking to a Canadian company which
Speaker 1: basically was saying, boy, these steel tariffs are really going
Speaker 1: to hit us hard because we import from the United
Speaker 1: States and we won't be able to do that anymore. Instead,
Speaker 1: what we're going to do is try to find other sources.
Speaker 1: And it turns out there are a lot of other
Speaker 1: steel producers in the world, and so uh, they're now
Speaker 1: going to be instead of h buying US deal, which
Speaker 1: was easy because of course there weren't really tariffs and
Speaker 1: it's right next door. Now that there's a tariff on that,
Speaker 1: they were like, well, we can pay for the shipping
Speaker 1: costs to come from other parts of the world instead.
Speaker 1: And so what you were saying about Panama is not
Speaker 1: surprising that people are looking elsewhere than just the United States.
Speaker 1: We're still the biggest player out there, but we're not
Speaker 1: the only player. So just about a minute left here,
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering you advise clients on the trade backdrop,
Speaker 1: what do you tell them, Well, we're I mean, the
Speaker 1: main thing is, look, it's been a it's been a
Speaker 1: very bumpy ride, and I think trade clients are very
Speaker 1: concerned about uncertainty, and the uncertainty is hurting their business.
Speaker 1: So in some respects, a lot of the tariffs have
Speaker 1: not actually gone into place yet, but the threat of
Speaker 1: tariffs has happened and that is actually already affecting their business.
Speaker 1: So now with the tariffs in place, it will affect
Speaker 1: that more directly. Um And the only thing we can
Speaker 1: say is, right now, it's hard to see the plan
Speaker 1: that is in place from the administration, So continue to
Speaker 1: prepare for alternatives um U as the administration thinks to
Speaker 1: its plans. But Basically, there is very little consistency. So
Speaker 1: because of that, you have to kind of prepare for inconsistency.
Speaker 1: Clay Lowery, thank you so much for being with us.
Speaker 1: Clay Lowry as Managing director of Rock Creek Global Advisors
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. His resume is very full of
Speaker 1: government experience with trade, both with chairing the Committee on
Speaker 1: Foreign Investment in the United States known as Cyphius, as
Speaker 1: well as serving as the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs
Speaker 1: the US Treasury Department from two thousand five to two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine. I want to turn our attention now
Speaker 1: to video games and bringing Felix Gillette. He's a writer
Speaker 1: for Bloomberg business Week, and he wrote a story that
Speaker 1: caught my attention. First of all, was a cover story
Speaker 1: for Bloomberg Business Week and it has to do with Nintendo,
Speaker 1: and I gotta say, Felix, first of all, thank you
Speaker 1: very much for coming in. I did not know that
Speaker 1: the company was a hundred and thirty years old, and
Speaker 1: I really found it was fascinating that you managed to
Speaker 1: go to the Nintendo headquarters. Maybe just describe what you
Speaker 1: experienced when you went there, and then we'll talk about
Speaker 1: Super Mario and video games. Yeah, I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to go to Kyoto and interview uh, top executives and
Speaker 1: gamemakers at at Nintendo. They don't do this very often.
Speaker 1: I mean the whole setup is basically, if you're a
Speaker 1: Western reporter and you say, hey, I want to write
Speaker 1: about the company, and say, oh, great, go talk to
Speaker 1: the head of Nintendo of America's of the you're in
Speaker 1: the U S or bere in Europe, They'll say, oh,
Speaker 1: go to our executive is in Europe. Um. They don't
Speaker 1: do too much individual press. So it was a great experience.
Speaker 1: I will say. In the you know, fifteen years I've
Speaker 1: been a journalist, this story took longer to set up
Speaker 1: the interviews than any other story I've ever worked on.
Speaker 1: So but but described so I got there and uh,
Speaker 1: it was not what I expected. I mean, it's this essentially,
Speaker 1: you go to the headquarters and the R and D building,
Speaker 1: which is these two buildings a couple of blocks away.
Speaker 1: They're these white minimalist cubes and they're so perfectly quiet,
Speaker 1: and you know, just there's no Mario stuff anywhere. There's
Speaker 1: no uh post donkey cough, there's just nothing. It's just
Speaker 1: you know, it's very, um, you know, quiet serene environment
Speaker 1: from which all of these crazy, this huge fountain of
Speaker 1: games has been flowing now for you know, hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty years. One thing that I thought was so interesting
Speaker 1: full disclosure is a mother of two boys. I think
Speaker 1: of video games is sort of mindless and a place
Speaker 1: where you go and sort lose yourself with a little
Speaker 1: sort of redeeming value. I'm totally exploring my bias now publicly. Um.
Speaker 1: But the feeling of whimsy and and creativity and and
Speaker 1: just sort of rooted in history that you really captured here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's got Nintendo has this incredibly rich gamemaking culture, um.
Speaker 1: And the company was there at the start of this,
Speaker 1: you know, this whole art form of video game making,
Speaker 1: uh in the late nineties seventies, and their first you know,
Speaker 1: very talented GameMaker, UH Shigeru Miyamoto, who made Donkey Kong,
Speaker 1: which was their first globally huge, hugely successful game. He's
Speaker 1: still at the company, he hasn't left, and he just mentors,
Speaker 1: you know, generation after generation of these game makers they
Speaker 1: come in and in some ways it's very reminiscent of
Speaker 1: the entire artisanal culture for which Kyoto is known. I
Speaker 1: mean you can go around Kyoto and you can go
Speaker 1: visit these studios and see these classical crafts of you know, um,
Speaker 1: bamboo making, whatever it is that go back centuries, and
Speaker 1: it's a similar system. There's a master craftsman and there's
Speaker 1: always an apprentice learning. And it's very much this system,
Speaker 1: this tension between you know, learning the traditional craft but
Speaker 1: also pushing it forward. And the same thing happens in
Speaker 1: Nintendo basically. And when you talk to the senior gamemakers
Speaker 1: and Nintendo, they all say they always differ the praise
Speaker 1: down to the newcomers. They say, no, you know, this
Speaker 1: wouldn't be possible. Yeah, you know, we've been part of
Speaker 1: these franchises Mario, Zelda that have been around for thirty
Speaker 1: years now, but it really wouldn't be possible. We didn't
Speaker 1: have these young gamemakers coming in and pushing these traditions
Speaker 1: forward with each new console. Tell us about one of these.
Speaker 1: Tell us about Switch. So Switches the console that Nintendo
Speaker 1: came out with last year. It's been very successful. It's
Speaker 1: a more it's a hybrid system. You can hook it
Speaker 1: up to your TV and then you can also take
Speaker 1: it with you out, you know, in the subway or
Speaker 1: the airplane or whatever. UM, and it's been hugely successful.
Speaker 1: And Nintendo is this kind of fascinating company where it
Speaker 1: goes through these big boom and bus cycles. And before
Speaker 1: the Switch came out, you know, they've been in one
Speaker 1: of these lulls where people were saying, Ah, these guys
Speaker 1: are you know, they're like BlackBerry, They're like Sega their doom.
Speaker 1: They can't keep up with you know, the mobile phone era.
Speaker 1: They're never going to have another hit product. And lo
Speaker 1: and behold, Switch comes out and gamers go crazy for it. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's been the biggest thing in video game industry
Speaker 1: for the past year and a half. And now you know,
Speaker 1: Nintendo's kind of back on top. The revenue more than
Speaker 1: doubled during this past fiscal year. UM. They had this
Speaker 1: incredible lineup of very popular games. Again, these re reimagined
Speaker 1: versions of these franchises that have now been going for
Speaker 1: third years. I played as a kid in nineteen eighties. Uh,
Speaker 1: their new versions now the kids are playing. Felix to Lett.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being with us. It's a
Speaker 1: really terrific story. And uh, I'd love to hear more
Speaker 1: about your trip Frankly feelings to let writer for Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. Joining us here in our eleven three oh studios,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about Amazon and it's foury into
Speaker 1: the pharmaceutical business. A lot of the shares of possible
Speaker 1: competitors sold off today. Interestingly, the sell off is continuing,
Speaker 1: at least with respect to CVS and Express Scripts. Joining
Speaker 1: us now to talk about the consequences of Amazon UH
Speaker 1: in just lowering drug prices is Michael Ray, pharmacist, founder
Speaker 1: and chief executive officer of our X Savings Solutions. Michael,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being back with us. I
Speaker 1: just want to get your view from the outset. When
Speaker 1: you heard that Amazon was getting into this industry with
Speaker 1: its latest purchase UH, did you think that this would
Speaker 1: materially lower drug prices in a near term. Well, I
Speaker 1: think that it will, and I think that the way
Speaker 1: the angle that they've decided to take into the market
Speaker 1: is UH is going to make that a swift more swift,
Speaker 1: you know, opportunity to do something in the near term.
Speaker 1: Buying a group like Tillpack that really is is centered
Speaker 1: around convenience and logistics. UM with pharmacy licenses in place
Speaker 1: allows them to make a big move quickly. Why do
Speaker 1: you think that someone else didn't scoop up pill Pack previously. Well,
Speaker 1: I know there was rumors that that Walmart was was
Speaker 1: kind of in the hunt. In the hunt, Um, you
Speaker 1: know why they didn't. I don't know if it came
Speaker 1: down to price or or what the what the deal
Speaker 1: structure looked like. But it's a tremendous asset for anybody
Speaker 1: that's looking to materially affect the affect the pharmacy game,
Speaker 1: especially as it relates to to being you know, home
Speaker 1: delivery inconvenience for for seniors. Yeah, we actually Bloomberg News
Speaker 1: did report that Walmart actually stole it a our got
Speaker 1: it stolen away from it the pill pack purchase when
Speaker 1: Amazon came along and outbid them. Um, I just do
Speaker 1: want to get your sense, Michael about exactly how Amazon
Speaker 1: will lower prices materially given this purchase. Well, I think
Speaker 1: that you know, the famous Jeff Bezos quote of your
Speaker 1: margin is my opportunity really rings true here. Amazon is
Speaker 1: a tremendous, tremendously big company. Uh. They don't enter markets. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're small or with the intent of doing things in
Speaker 1: business as usual. There's also this you know, uh strong
Speaker 1: belief that there's a tremendous amount of excess uh waste
Speaker 1: in the supply chain when it comes to pharmacy. So
Speaker 1: I believe that is what they will attack. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: Amazon has such a strong brand with consumers, you know,
Speaker 1: the ability to capitalize on the brand that they've already
Speaker 1: built and add drugs to that allows them to just
Speaker 1: you know, service more and more people and and and
Speaker 1: do so in a way that's convenient and easy. Can
Speaker 1: you just give us a sense of what that access
Speaker 1: is in the pharmaceutical industry? Well, if you look at
Speaker 1: the supply chain you've got you know, your manufacturers, your wholesaler's,
Speaker 1: your your pharmacy benefit managers, and your retailers um. Each
Speaker 1: of those depending on the drug you know, there's there's
Speaker 1: profit built into each of those transactions. Is as the
Speaker 1: drugs move um, how much is enough is a question
Speaker 1: that's often asked. I think, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: Amazon will come in and attack those those high margin
Speaker 1: areas UM and do so in a way that could
Speaker 1: you know, really affect the pharmacy landscape and in a
Speaker 1: short amount of time. Michael, what role do you think
Speaker 1: Alexa and Whole Foods will be playing in this, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think Whole Foods, I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: they're looking to create another retail network. I think that
Speaker 1: they're trying to build on what their core strengths are,
Speaker 1: and that's logistics and moving moving products and making it
Speaker 1: easy for consumers. Um as far as Alexa, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, voices definitely something you know, we've worked a
Speaker 1: lot on at our company and have that function in
Speaker 1: our app. It's something that people like to use, and
Speaker 1: as those technologies get better, doctors will use them, consumers
Speaker 1: will use them much more than they do today. I
Speaker 1: think we'll look back in five years and say, alex
Speaker 1: or similar products I have have really taken uh taken
Speaker 1: a huge uh really added convenience to the to the process. Michael,
Speaker 1: I'm curious what you think Amazon's next step will be
Speaker 1: in terms of its fore into the health care industry. Well,
Speaker 1: I can only speculate, um, Yeah, but you can speculate
Speaker 1: from an educated place, knowing exactly how much information and
Speaker 1: access you have once you get into the drug the
Speaker 1: drug supply chain. Yeah, I mean I would I would
Speaker 1: guess that they'll start out with you know some of
Speaker 1: the some of the easier components of of managing drug benefits.
Speaker 1: I think that you know, cash cash generics have been
Speaker 1: floated around in the markets as something that you know,
Speaker 1: would be the kind of easy first step. I think
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Um. But you know, they're they're sophisticated,
Speaker 1: very smart organization. UM. I think they could attack it
Speaker 1: in a variety of ways. But this retail piece interfacing
Speaker 1: with the consumer, uh, is a good first step. Michael,
Speaker 1: If you happen to be running a pharmacy right now,
Speaker 1: what do you take away from this week's announcement and
Speaker 1: what should you do? Give you that thirty seconds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's going to be tremendous margin compression on profits.
Speaker 1: How quickly that happens is to be seen. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think as we've seen, CVS and Walgreens are both
Speaker 1: down ten um in the market, and that I think
Speaker 1: that's indicative. And if I was running my own, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of independent pharmacy, I'd feel the same pressure that
Speaker 1: those guys are experiencing in the public market. Thanks very
Speaker 1: much for being with us. Michael Ray is a pharmacist.
Speaker 1: He's also the founder and the chief executive of our
Speaker 1: ex savings solutions, talking about drug prices, pharmacies, and the
Speaker 1: effects of Amazon dot Com purchasing a pill pack to
Speaker 1: see what happens to the brick and mortar pharmacies as
Speaker 1: a result of this acquisition as well. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to the Bloomberg P and L podcast. You can subscribe
Speaker 1: and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whatever
Speaker 1: podcast platform you prefer. I'm pim Fox. I'm on Twitter
Speaker 1: at pim Fox. I'm on Twitter at Lisa Abramo. It's
Speaker 1: one before the podcast. You can always catch us worldwide
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio