WEBVTT - Conservative Court Would Strike Down Progressive Legislation 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.920 Welcome to the Bloomberg p m L Podcast. I'm Pim Fox. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.720 Along with my co host Lisa Bramowitz. Each day we 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:18.319 bring you the most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews for 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.000 you and your money, whether you're at the grocery store 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.919 or the trading floor. Find the Bloomberg p m L 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:38.920 Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Bloomberg dot com. The 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.959 Trumpet administration aims to have a replacement for retiring Supreme 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.600 Court Justice Anthony and Kennedy confirmed in time to join 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:51.160 the Court for its new term in October. This according 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:53.800 to the White House Today. Joining us now to talk 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.720 about this Noah Feldman, Professor of law at Harvard University, 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:01.280 also a Bloomberg opinion columnist, also a former clerk to 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.040 u S Supreme Court Justice David Suitor. Uh no, thank 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.160 you so much for being with us. I just want 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.400 to start with your view of kind of how are 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.880 going to proceed going forward? Who you think the front 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:17.959 runner will be for this Supreme Court vacancy. Well, the 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.839 Trump administration has publicized a list of potential nominees, and 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.120 rumors have that list cut down to further to five people, 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.520 and until now, the administration has been as good as 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.680 its word in nominating people from its public lists. So 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.319 based on prior experience, it's almost certain to be one 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.800 of those five. But they have in common is that 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.520 they're all died in the wool conservative um. In age. 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:53.760 They range from middle forties to late fifties, and most, 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.720 though not all, have some experience on the federal appeals courts. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.320 So you know, died in the wool conservative can take 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.760 different forms when you're talking about constitutional law, whether their originalists, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.880 whether they're more sort of ideological. What's your impression of 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:13.840 these particular candidates. I think nearly all of these, perhaps 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.880 of them would have asked say that their constitutional philosophy 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.480 is broadly originalist. I don't think any would say that 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.160 they had some other view, and none would say that 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:29.400 they supported the idea of a living constitution, Noah Felton. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.680 Based on what you know in terms of the court's 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.800 current voting pattern, and based on what you've just described 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.200 in terms of the kind of person there, they're legal 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.400 perspective that will join the court. What kinds of rulings 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:52.480 do you expect when the court reconvenes in October. Well, 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.840 the biggest issue, which will be watching most closely and 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.200 debated most intensely over the next few months is certainly 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.799 abortion rights. Several states UM have either passed or on 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.560 the verge of passing laws that are extremely restrictive of 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:12.480 abortion rights, much beyond the current legal standard, and those 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.200 are the ones that will be focused on UM And 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.240 for that reason, I think one of the crucial issues 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.640 over the next few months in the public debate about 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:26.160 this is whether several of the more moderate Republicans in 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.040 the Senate, including Senators Collins and Murkowski, both of whom 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.000 were formally pro choice rather than pro life, would cast 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.839 their votes to confirm a nominee who would be very 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.080 likely to vote to overrule Roe v. Wade. And so 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.200 you know that is very much at issue here. It 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.920 could well be that this justice would provide the decisive 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.480 fifth vote. We don't know absolutely for short, because we 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:53.520 don't know how Chief to stuff just as Roberts would vote. 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:55.920 But we know that Justice Kennedy, who has just retired, 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.680 cast the decisive vote to preserve Roe v. Wade back 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.520 and I ninety two. And we know that whoever is 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.160 likely to be confirmed sending a confirmation is probably someone 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.040 who will think that that case should be overworld. Well, Noah, 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:14.240 is it likely that whoever is the nominee will answer 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.640 a direct question on this topic. I'd say it's totally unlikely. 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.760 Clothes to zero. I mean in theory, of course, you know, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.840 with a guarantee that republic all Republicans would vote to 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:27.680 confirm the person could actually go up there and do it. 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.640 Almost no nominee in modern history has done, namely, be 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.160 honest and say yes, I would vote on that and 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.159 this is how I would vote. But there's a strong 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.599 precedent now for nominees saying I can't answer that because 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.240 that issue may come before the court and I don't 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.440 want to disqualify myself in the future, and so therefore 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.200 I decline to answer. And so my guess is that 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.840 you not just a guess that My overwhelming prediction is 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.600 we won't hear any direct answers to that question. So Noah, 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.919 the shift here. Anthony Kennedy's retirement has been portrayed, uh, 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.640 pretty dramatically on both sides, both as a political boon 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.360 to the GOP and as a sort of uh, you know, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.760 catastrophe on the left. Um, And I'm just wondering, you know, 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.000 it's definitely. Pretty broadly, people agree this is the biggest 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.920 change or shift potentially in American jurisprudence since arguably since 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.680 ro versus Wade. Would you agree first of all with 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.160 that statement, and how do you think it's going to 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:26.000 change the nature of Supreme Court rulings going forward? Yes, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.480 it's going to mean a very significant and potentially vast shift. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:31.360 We should keep in mind that part of that is 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:36.080 because the Republican Senate blocked Barack Obama's nominee, a Merrick Garland, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.279 who would have replaced Justice Scalia if he If Garland 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.039 had gone through and then Kennedy had retired, we would 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:44.320 be back in a position of balance between the sides. 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.520 But because the Senate blocked Garland, and as a result, 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.400 Donald Trump was able to nominate and confirm the of 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:55.039 coursu that makes this the decisive decisive vote. And the 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:57.800 thing is Justice Kennedy was a conservative in many ways, 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.680 but on a handful of hot button issues, including gay 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:05.719 rights and abortion and Guantanamo, he actually voted with the liberals, 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.680 and for that reason, his retirement opens the possibility of 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.919 a durable conservative majority for a whole generation, and that 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.000 is potentially a sea change in the U. S. Constitution 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:21.560 has interpreted. Are there any precedents that are being broken 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:27.480 or created because of the unusual circumstance of President Donald 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:35.240 Trump and the Mueller investigation simultaneous to this potential appointment, Well, 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:39.200 we don't know yet. Um Certainly, Donald stun's goal and 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:41.440 his success in fact, has been in breaking all the 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.280 unwritten rules, and even when he's pressed the boundaries of 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.400 the written rules, he's more or less gotten away with it. 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.080 The travel ban was struck down by the lower courts 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.279 in at first two forms, but as you know, in 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.960 its final version three point now, it was upheld by 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.080 by the Supreme Court just just earlier this week. It's 0:06:58.080 --> 0:06:59.479 hard to remember that it was so recently, but it 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.320 was just really in this week before that the Candy's 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.160 retirement was announced. So yeah, there's a kind of pressure 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.800 on the boundaries of constitutional law right now, and we 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.160 can expect that pressure to continue because Donald Trump is 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.400 obviously inclined to try to put the envelope, and a 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.440 court dominated by conservatives, and with two of his nominees 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:20.760 on it would probably be much more likely to uphold 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.800 those actions than with another court. So no, you know, 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.760 there has been a lot of focus on abortion rights 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.600 that Row versus Wade, and possibly that getting overturned. But 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.560 aside from sort of the hot button issues, is there 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.360 another place that people should be focusing where we could 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.040 see a major shift that would have an impact in 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:45.200 people's life in terms of how the constitutionalist constitution is interpreted. Yes. Um. 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.000 One question is whether the right to gain marriage, which 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.640 the court established, would be preserved or overturned. We don't 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.800 know the answer to that. Another area of importance is 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.920 environmental law, where if there were to be a democratic 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.480 president in the future and the Democratic controlled e p 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:05.200 a aggressive pro environmental restrictions could potentially be struck down 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.560 by a court. Um. Yet another area is the freedom 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.880 of speech, where a conservative activist court could use the 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.120 freedom of speech as a tool to strike down relatively 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.720 progressive laws, which we actually already saw happening over the 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.880 last week or ten days in several importance between court opinions. 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:23.960 So yeah, there are there are a whole There are 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:26.480 a whole host of areas in which there could be 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:28.960 a real difference. And I would say, most broadly, again, 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:31.560 should the Democrat get elected present and should there be 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.960 a Democratic House and Senate in the future, UM major 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.640 progressive legislation. Again, hypothetically, if it would be passed along 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.280 the lines of Obamacare, would stand a good probability of 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.640 being struck down by a conservative court. Thank you very much, 0:08:45.679 --> 0:09:08.079 Noah Feldman, Harvard Law Professor, Bloomberg Opinion a columnist. Steel, aluminum, whiskey, mustard, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:13.040 toilet paper, washing machines, motor boats, even maple syrup. These 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.599 are all subject to tariffs from Canada as it celebrates 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:21.240 its one and fifty one birthday on Sunday. And here 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.600 to tell us about tariffs trade wars in the United 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.439 States and Canada is Clay Lowry. He is managing director 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.959 of Rock Creek Global Advisors. They're based in Washington, d C. 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.480 And he is also a former Assistant Secretary for International 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.880 Affairs at the US Treasury Department. And he also chaired 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:42.640 the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States known 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.480 as Syphius. Clay Lowry, thank you very much for being 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:51.200 with us. Uh. You know, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:57.000 celebrates Canada's birthday, he's going to be doing it under 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:02.040 this cloud of trade wars with the United States. What 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:03.640 effects do you think is going to have on a 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:07.520 long lasting relationship between the United States and Canada, and 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.640 what do you think the economic fallout is going to be. Well, 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.320 first of all, thanks for having me, UM. In terms 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.920 of the UH our relationship with Canada, it's based on 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.280 one mutual respect that we've had for a long time 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.840 between our two countries. So UM. I worry obviously that 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:31.760 the trade war aspect that you mentioned, UM could affect 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:37.400 specific businesses. UM, but I'm hopeful that UM, while there 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:41.360 has been some pretty um, not so great rhetoric between 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.200 our two leaders of our country over the last few months, 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.760 that uh, you know, cooler heads will prevail and we'll 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.720 be able to start coming to agreement on how we 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.680 want our relationship to go forward. So I have a 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.199 lot of respect for the Canada, obviously respect my own country, 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.720 and so I think I'm hopeful that that will work 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.080 out in the end. As to the specific economic issues, 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.920 I think it's much more going to be a microeconomic story, 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:11.160 which is a problem because, of course, UM, it's going 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.240 to hit specific businesses. You mentioned a bunch of different 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.640 industries at the lead into this story, UM, and they're 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:20.720 being hit. They're not just being hit by Canada, they're 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.480 being they're getting tariffs by a lot of other countries 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.840 around the world, and there's a lot of businesses that export, 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:32.440 and it's not exactly surprising that the countries are hitting 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:37.199 back when we're putting tariffs on them for fairly dubious reasons. 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.679 You know, claim, I'm so glad you're with us today 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.720 because you have the deep experience with some of these 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.160 trade relationships that will actually give us an informed view 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.920 of fairness. You know, we hear a lot about how 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.440 the US has an unfair trading partnership with the rest 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:58.000 of the world. Where do you see the biggest inequities 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:03.800 and are we moving closer to solving those? So? UM, 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.160 I'm not look, I think that having an unfair trading relationship, 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.240 I'm not sure we actually have that. UM. I know 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.880 that that is the president's contention, and there's other people 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.880 that believe very strongly in what he says, and I 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:20.200 give them due credit for that. But the UM, I 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.760 think what we should be always striving to do is 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.080 to try to better ourselves by making you know, opening 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.120 up our opening up markets, making sure we have good 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.280 rules of the road so that we can figure out 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.400 how do we get our products into other countries and 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.840 by the way, allow their their products to get into 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:41.640 our country because that actually helps our consumer um and 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.439 it helps our exporters. So I think that what I 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.800 would be doing and I'm not is I'd be focusing 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:49.800 on how to work with those countries in a way 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.760 to actually get better and more positive as opposed to 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.800 what we're right now doing, which is much more negative, 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.920 which is we're putting caraffs on a number of countries 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.559 around the world. We did it on steel and aluminum, 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.600 We're threatening to do it on auto imports. UM. And 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.480 the one country that really has been probably most most 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.720 problematic has been China. And instead of actually trying to 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.199 take a coordinated approach with a lot of our allies 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.079 who have some of the same similar problems with China, 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:23.559 were instead hitting those same allies UM. And I that 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.120 that part of the negotiating tactics I don't get. But 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:30.680 I'm not the president and I'm not his negotiators, Clay Lowry. 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:35.960 While we're having these war of trade uh words, I 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.960 guess because nothing is set in stone, at at least 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:43.720 not in the moment um, China seems to be moving 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.520 just as rapidly ahead with its trade ties, let's say 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.480 with Latin America. Indeed, I believe if you go to 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.360 Panama right now at the sort of promontory right at 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.960 the opening of the newly widened Panama Canal in which 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.680 the first ship was a Chinese to go through it, Uh, 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:06.040 the Chinese have secured land to build their new embassy. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.920 Is that going to be emblematic of what happens in 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:14.480 the future if this trade war continues. It's not exactly surprising. 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.080 I mean, if if a, if your country is being 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:24.360 hit by the United States on certain exports, um, why 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:29.960 would you not instead try to find new sources of 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:35.680 of of exports that yourself, um what expert markets yourself? Um. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.680 For instance, I remember talking to a Canadian company which 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.560 basically was saying, boy, these steel tariffs are really going 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:45.880 to hit us hard because we import from the United 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.240 States and we won't be able to do that anymore. Instead, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.560 what we're going to do is try to find other sources. 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:53.000 And it turns out there are a lot of other 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:57.720 steel producers in the world, and so uh, they're now 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.640 going to be instead of h buying US deal, which 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.720 was easy because of course there weren't really tariffs and 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.560 it's right next door. Now that there's a tariff on that, 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.560 they were like, well, we can pay for the shipping 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.160 costs to come from other parts of the world instead. 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.040 And so what you were saying about Panama is not 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.800 surprising that people are looking elsewhere than just the United States. 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:21.800 We're still the biggest player out there, but we're not 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.680 the only player. So just about a minute left here, 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:28.640 I'm just wondering you advise clients on the trade backdrop, 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:34.000 what do you tell them, Well, we're I mean, the 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:35.840 main thing is, look, it's been a it's been a 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.840 very bumpy ride, and I think trade clients are very 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:45.160 concerned about uncertainty, and the uncertainty is hurting their business. 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.200 So in some respects, a lot of the tariffs have 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.480 not actually gone into place yet, but the threat of 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.920 tariffs has happened and that is actually already affecting their business. 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.040 So now with the tariffs in place, it will affect 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.800 that more directly. Um And the only thing we can 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.880 say is, right now, it's hard to see the plan 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.520 that is in place from the administration, So continue to 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:12.760 prepare for alternatives um U as the administration thinks to 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:17.400 its plans. But Basically, there is very little consistency. So 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.760 because of that, you have to kind of prepare for inconsistency. 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.400 Clay Lowery, thank you so much for being with us. 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.640 Clay Lowry as Managing director of Rock Creek Global Advisors 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:32.840 in Washington, d C. His resume is very full of 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:37.120 government experience with trade, both with chairing the Committee on 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.960 Foreign Investment in the United States known as Cyphius, as 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.560 well as serving as the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.800 the US Treasury Department from two thousand five to two 0:16:46.840 --> 0:17:06.360 thousand and nine. I want to turn our attention now 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:12.119 to video games and bringing Felix Gillette. He's a writer 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.359 for Bloomberg business Week, and he wrote a story that 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:17.639 caught my attention. First of all, was a cover story 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.840 for Bloomberg Business Week and it has to do with Nintendo, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:22.720 and I gotta say, Felix, first of all, thank you 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.840 very much for coming in. I did not know that 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.680 the company was a hundred and thirty years old, and 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.560 I really found it was fascinating that you managed to 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:36.560 go to the Nintendo headquarters. Maybe just describe what you 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:38.960 experienced when you went there, and then we'll talk about 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.840 Super Mario and video games. Yeah, I had the opportunity 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.359 to go to Kyoto and interview uh, top executives and 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.000 gamemakers at at Nintendo. They don't do this very often. 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:50.760 I mean the whole setup is basically, if you're a 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.000 Western reporter and you say, hey, I want to write 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:54.960 about the company, and say, oh, great, go talk to 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.240 the head of Nintendo of America's of the you're in 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:59.080 the U S or bere in Europe, They'll say, oh, 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.240 go to our executive is in Europe. Um. They don't 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.359 do too much individual press. So it was a great experience. 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.560 I will say. In the you know, fifteen years I've 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.399 been a journalist, this story took longer to set up 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.920 the interviews than any other story I've ever worked on. 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.800 So but but described so I got there and uh, 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:19.359 it was not what I expected. I mean, it's this essentially, 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.199 you go to the headquarters and the R and D building, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.359 which is these two buildings a couple of blocks away. 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:31.000 They're these white minimalist cubes and they're so perfectly quiet, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.720 and you know, just there's no Mario stuff anywhere. There's 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.159 no uh post donkey cough, there's just nothing. It's just 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.639 you know, it's very, um, you know, quiet serene environment 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.480 from which all of these crazy, this huge fountain of 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.639 games has been flowing now for you know, hundred and 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.000 thirty years. One thing that I thought was so interesting 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.880 full disclosure is a mother of two boys. I think 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.800 of video games is sort of mindless and a place 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.440 where you go and sort lose yourself with a little 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:06.800 sort of redeeming value. I'm totally exploring my bias now publicly. Um. 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.120 But the feeling of whimsy and and creativity and and 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.840 just sort of rooted in history that you really captured here. Yeah, 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:19.639 I mean it's got Nintendo has this incredibly rich gamemaking culture, um. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.440 And the company was there at the start of this, 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.480 you know, this whole art form of video game making, 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.439 uh in the late nineties seventies, and their first you know, 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:37.440 very talented GameMaker, UH Shigeru Miyamoto, who made Donkey Kong, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:42.200 which was their first globally huge, hugely successful game. He's 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.800 still at the company, he hasn't left, and he just mentors, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.560 you know, generation after generation of these game makers they 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.640 come in and in some ways it's very reminiscent of 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:56.399 the entire artisanal culture for which Kyoto is known. I 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.159 mean you can go around Kyoto and you can go 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:03.280 visit these studios and see these classical crafts of you know, um, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:07.280 bamboo making, whatever it is that go back centuries, and 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.320 it's a similar system. There's a master craftsman and there's 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.800 always an apprentice learning. And it's very much this system, 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.639 this tension between you know, learning the traditional craft but 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.080 also pushing it forward. And the same thing happens in 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.080 Nintendo basically. And when you talk to the senior gamemakers 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.760 and Nintendo, they all say they always differ the praise 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.080 down to the newcomers. They say, no, you know, this 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:31.159 wouldn't be possible. Yeah, you know, we've been part of 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.560 these franchises Mario, Zelda that have been around for thirty 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.480 years now, but it really wouldn't be possible. We didn't 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:43.680 have these young gamemakers coming in and pushing these traditions 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.680 forward with each new console. Tell us about one of these. 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.680 Tell us about Switch. So Switches the console that Nintendo 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.600 came out with last year. It's been very successful. It's 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:56.919 a more it's a hybrid system. You can hook it 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:58.760 up to your TV and then you can also take 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:00.600 it with you out, you know, in the subway or 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.639 the airplane or whatever. UM, and it's been hugely successful. 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.439 And Nintendo is this kind of fascinating company where it 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.800 goes through these big boom and bus cycles. And before 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.159 the Switch came out, you know, they've been in one 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:14.920 of these lulls where people were saying, Ah, these guys 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.200 are you know, they're like BlackBerry, They're like Sega their doom. 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.040 They can't keep up with you know, the mobile phone era. 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.040 They're never going to have another hit product. And lo 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.960 and behold, Switch comes out and gamers go crazy for it. Um. 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.280 And it's been the biggest thing in video game industry 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:32.639 for the past year and a half. And now you know, 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.880 Nintendo's kind of back on top. The revenue more than 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.280 doubled during this past fiscal year. UM. They had this 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:44.879 incredible lineup of very popular games. Again, these re reimagined 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.199 versions of these franchises that have now been going for 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.080 third years. I played as a kid in nineteen eighties. Uh, 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:54.720 their new versions now the kids are playing. Felix to Lett. 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:56.280 Thank you so much for being with us. It's a 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.280 really terrific story. And uh, I'd love to hear more 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.800 about your trip Frankly feelings to let writer for Bloomberg 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.600 Business Week. Joining us here in our eleven three oh studios, 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.120 we talked a lot about Amazon and it's foury into 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.840 the pharmaceutical business. A lot of the shares of possible 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.560 competitors sold off today. Interestingly, the sell off is continuing, 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.920 at least with respect to CVS and Express Scripts. Joining 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:36.359 us now to talk about the consequences of Amazon UH 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.280 in just lowering drug prices is Michael Ray, pharmacist, founder 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:44.639 and chief executive officer of our X Savings Solutions. Michael, 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.600 thank you so much for being back with us. I 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.560 just want to get your view from the outset. When 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.560 you heard that Amazon was getting into this industry with 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:58.240 its latest purchase UH, did you think that this would 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.760 materially lower drug prices in a near term. Well, I 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:03.520 think that it will, and I think that the way 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.240 the angle that they've decided to take into the market 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:10.520 is UH is going to make that a swift more swift, 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.560 you know, opportunity to do something in the near term. 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.040 Buying a group like Tillpack that really is is centered 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:22.600 around convenience and logistics. UM with pharmacy licenses in place 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.280 allows them to make a big move quickly. Why do 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:30.800 you think that someone else didn't scoop up pill Pack previously. Well, 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.639 I know there was rumors that that Walmart was was 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:37.080 kind of in the hunt. In the hunt, Um, you 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:38.359 know why they didn't. I don't know if it came 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:40.480 down to price or or what the what the deal 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.199 structure looked like. But it's a tremendous asset for anybody 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:48.560 that's looking to materially affect the affect the pharmacy game, 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:51.480 especially as it relates to to being you know, home 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:56.480 delivery inconvenience for for seniors. Yeah, we actually Bloomberg News 0:23:56.520 --> 0:24:00.840 did report that Walmart actually stole it a our got 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:04.640 it stolen away from it the pill pack purchase when 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.639 Amazon came along and outbid them. Um, I just do 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:11.639 want to get your sense, Michael about exactly how Amazon 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:16.400 will lower prices materially given this purchase. Well, I think 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:18.960 that you know, the famous Jeff Bezos quote of your 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:23.000 margin is my opportunity really rings true here. Amazon is 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:28.359 a tremendous, tremendously big company. Uh. They don't enter markets. Uh, 0:24:28.440 --> 0:24:31.080 they're small or with the intent of doing things in 0:24:31.119 --> 0:24:35.159