WEBVTT - John Hope Bryant Talks Bridging Financial Literacy Gap 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:07.040 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:11.280 There's been so much optimism, Carol, about the future of AI, 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.760 the future investment. People are watching the markets from here, 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:18.360 dazzled by the same numbers that you're seeing. But optimism 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:20.759 is not the same thing as hope. And this is 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:22.959 a conversation that we wanted to bring you here just 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.960 to give you a sense of the diversity here of thought. 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.800 At Milkin, look no further than John Paul Bryant. That's correct, 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.120 Operation Hope, founder, chairman and CEO, who's out with a 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.360 new book, Capitalism for All, with a forward I note 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.040 by none other than Michael Milkin. It's great to see 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.559 you and welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. Well 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.680 it's our honor. So we've got billionaires bumping into each 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:52.599 other here talking about opportunity, investment, the future. Are they 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:54.880 talking about hope when they sit down with you? 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.360 They're talking about hope with a business plan? Okay, I 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.360 mean you mentioned I'm chairman of Operation Hope, thank you. 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.279 I'm also chairman of Brian Greadventures and so it's for 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.360 profit and a philanthropic vision. I understand balance sheets and 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.520 income statements and capital sacks and I've raised and deployees 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:12.680 five billion ols with the capital. But it's all about 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.520 unleashing untapped human potential at scale. I'm a lot of 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.320 emerging markets, and so I think we've been looking at 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:21.000 this entire conversation in the wrong way. And essentially what 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.400 my book says is what you guy. What some people 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:28.640 see is social I see as market development. So nineteen 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.160 seventy two, my book makes this case that the experiment's 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.479 already been made. Carol's mother, your mother, and my mother. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.760 In nineteen seventy two, white or black couldn't get a 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.280 a credit card or a loan unless her husband co 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.680 signed it, couldn't get a bank account. In nineteen seventy two, 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:49.000 blacks and affirmative action teed up what Nixon codified as 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:52.400 affirmative action, gave it to women and to be blunt 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.160 white women, which was I'm fine with white women, open 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.560 the door to all women. Women today are third of 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.960 the US economy, eight to ten trillion dollars. 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.480 Great transfer of wealth going to women, also one. 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.640 Hundred percent coming. That's eighty eight to one hundred trillion 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.840 dollars of wealth transfer the next ten years, and women 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.200 are forty one percent of all businesses in America today, 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.720 So without women getting that necessary step into the economy, 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.239 we'd be a secondary nation today. GDP wise, they're a 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.239 third of our GDP. Black and Latinos are forty percent, 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.280 about about sixty seven trillion dollars of all GDP, so 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:30.519 that's a meaningful, meaningful portion. Immigrants are twenty just under 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.000 twenty percent of GDP for this country. And you've got 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.960 ten thousand baby boomers walking out of the economy every 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.160 day because they're retiring, and by twenty thirty four they'll 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.960 all be gone. So what I'm talking about in this 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.800 book is about emerging markets. I'm talking about literally the 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.440 future of the biggest economy in the world. And my 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:51.480 rich friends, even my poor friends, do better if only 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.880 to stay rich. So when people understand me, they understand 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.440 that I'm going to bring them customers, I'm gonna bring 0:02:58.480 --> 0:02:59.200 them market share. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.160 Let's go there. Because we've talked with you before. You know, 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.440 if anything I've learned in doing businessors for a long 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.440 time and even being at Bloomberg like you and I 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.600 have been talking money intersects with everything. Follow the money 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.840 that's right, and so here you're talking about you know 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.959 Black and Latinos like money follows market, So why hasn't 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.639 money followed this? We were talking about affordable housing here 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.000 at Bloomberg. We've talked about that with you, like why 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.000 isn't money going to these areas where there's money to 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:27.480 be made? 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.280 President Bill Clinton once said it's hard to get somebody 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.360 agreed to the truth on the lives paying their paycheck. 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.560 Wow, what does that mean? That means here in today? 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.440 It means people want a sugar hie. They live in 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:38.880 the moment. 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.280 Some people are afraid to open their mouth because they're 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.560 afraid of being persecuted, prosecuted or targeted in the moment. 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:47.800 So people sort of go along, get along until things 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.520 change because things are working for them at the moment. 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:55.080 So we're in a transactional environment. It's in the moment. Uh. 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.760 But people who I talked to offline all know that 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.080 you've got a plan not for three months or even 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.400 three years, you got a planned for you know, ten 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.800 years and thirty years. And so I just think that 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.840 moments change at the moment, and no pun intended. People 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:15.880 are in a survival mindset versus a thriving or winning 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.160 building mindset, which is really the American ethos, So you 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.320 need the bottom in the traditional thought process. 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.320 The bottom doesn't have seats at the table. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.680 You and I tell you that I'm here in the 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.480 middle class. By the way, this is not even a 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.800 bottom issue. The middle class have got too much month 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:32.680 at the end of their money. You're making two hundred 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.440 fifty thousand dollars a year, you're a third of those 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.039 of living from paycheck to paycheck, one hundred thousand dollars 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.120 a year, half of those of living from paycheck to paycheck. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.000 So this is becoming everybody's issue, but they don't have 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.560 seats at the table. Thank you, Michael Milkin to make 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.480 sure that I am here for this as his voice, and. 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:54.440 We'll hold that for a moment, because when you walk 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.719 around here, we're very impressed by the diversity in ideas 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.280 here at Milkin. Does that need to be matched by 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.120 diversity in culture. This is a reflection of the c 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.400 suite and the boardroom, and you have the ultimate perspective 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:07.600 on that. 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:09.760 And I love that you mentioned that because we've been 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.640 at Milkin in years past, Joe and we talked about 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.279 diversity inclusion big time. Nobody talks about it anymore. 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.279 I'm gonna gain and these private rooms that I have 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.279 been in, particularly Sunday night was a big, you know, 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:26.839 private dinner. Michael Milkins actually brought up, he repeatedly, repeatedly, 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.320 the power of immigrants, the necessity for it. I'm going 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.479 to commend him for saying out loud what most people 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.360 are afraid to say, which is this is a positive, 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.520 that positive, not in that negative, that immigrants have actually 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.120 caused more income to the US government, to the economy 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.799 and tax receipts. Then they calls by farward thirty years. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.120 So I like math because it doesn't have an opinion. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.120 Mike calls me his little brother because we think in 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.000 the same way. But Mike can't bend the c suite. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:58.400 He can't put somebody in a CEO position, so he 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.560 can only invite who sit there and leadership. Unfortunately, it 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.320 looks pretty uniform. I do believe the world's changing. I 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.800 have I met with a number of these CEOs, a 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.400 number of these billionaires. They all what they say to 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.960 me privately is very encouraging. 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.440 What do they say without giving who? What are they 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:22.479 saying to you privately? John? That gives you hope. 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.560 We're in full support of what you're doing. We think 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.480 that you've made a brilliant business case. Thank you for 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.279 giving us a new language, inclusive of economics that's not 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:34.960 fraught with political dynamics. 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:35.360 In it. 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:37.760 The color is green, not black or white or red 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.880 or blue. Let's fold in behind that. Let's wait for 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.680 the moment when you know, when everybody can come together again, 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.920 which we believe is sooner rather than later. People are just, 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.280 you know, as you know, markets a dynamic. The current 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.919 stock market moves a lot on a sentiment. Yes, and 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.360 so I think people are riding the wave, and sometimes 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.200 some things are more comfortable as a conversation. I think 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.200 things have been in the last couple of years uncomfortable 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.480 to address difficult issues other than to be angry about it. 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.400 People are now saying angry is out of strategy. I 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.120 really hope, like every by the way, we've got the 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.440 extremes in both parties that are driving agendas both parties. 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.600 I hope that the Mayor of New York and the 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.400 White House administration. I hope the mayor of the Mayor 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.880 of la all read this book and steal ideas from it. 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.720 I don't want credit for it, but the majority of 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.720 this country is actually pretty moderate. I mean, forty eight 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.840 percent of this country are basically independence and you've got 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:41.200 almost half of each party who say, I don't really 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.400 like the rhetoric in my own party, but they don't 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.160 have a voice. So I'm trying to talk economically through 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.840 math to give reasonable people and reasonable thought of voice. 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.760 And it's about what I'm about, what I'm for, not 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:55.520 what I'm against. 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.320 All the while, states are redrawing their congressional maps to 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:03.360 potentially make things even more partisan in Washington red versus blue. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:05.920 If anger is not a strategy, we need a new playbook. 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.120 I cover Washington with carols, in New York covering markets. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:10.760 How do we get out of this morass? 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:12.360 You go far enough of the North Pole, you end 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:17.160 up south. So look, this is going to go until 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.920 it goes. But we're the two hundred and fifty anniversary 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:22.960 of American it's one hundred anniversary of Black History Month. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:24.280 You can't make this up. 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.720 The whole country is having one huge calonic right, it's 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:33.959 one huge family fight after this, Yes, yes, we realized 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:39.080 that fighting is not an answer. Anger is not a strategy, 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.480 and yes I was angry, and I okay, did that 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.120 give you more market share? Did that pay your mortgage? 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.760 Did that pay your car note? Are you better off? 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:48.840 Or you know? 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.679 Is it really everyone wants to be an American, but 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.760 Americans and we need to not stop knocking each other 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.640 because unless we want to speak Mandarin in twenty years, 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.319 meaning Chinese because their economy is we got to figure 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:02.560 out whether we're better together. 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:05.120 The Bible says the house divided cannot stand. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:06.960 So I think that we're in the short term, we're 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.640 gonna we're gonna fight, That's what families do. I think 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.959 we're gonna find that something's worked, some things didn't. We're 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.600 gonna have clarity of vision, and we're gonna comet rainbows 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.640 after storms. We're gonna come back together again. 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:20.520 So do you think it starts with the midterms? John, 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.679 and I would love to, You know, we talk specifics 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.040 with you, like what if you could change two or 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.720 three things, be it political, private, private or public sectors. 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.000 Go into specifics for us, what would you change. 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.560 I would have financial literacy for all. I'd make it 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.000 a civil rights issue with this generation, whether you're black 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.920 and brown, urban or white rule, financial literacy is a 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:40.240 requirement K through college. 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.040 I would love that because we've been talking about it 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:42.640 for decades. 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:44.240 I would read. I would not shut down to the 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.680 proper of education. I give it a new mission. AI upskilling. 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.360 I do a Marshall Plan for America. I'd upskill all Americans. 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.880 Don't Walmart has brilliant. They didn't fire people, they were 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.240 training them in. AI is brilliant. It'll be a dip 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:56.760 in jobs with AI. And then it's gonna be a 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.480 surge on the other side, because it's gonna be your 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.480 job not replaced by AI. Your job replaced body who 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:06.040 can use AI. So I'd make AI and financial literacy 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.960 future literacy. I would then give an intern a tax 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:13.680 credit for internships, a tax credit for apprenticeships, a tax 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.160 credit to sponsor a school, and entrepreneurship, a tax credit 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.600 for a sponsor for sponsoring a small business UH and 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:25.240 investing some capital and intellectual capital to get them spooled up. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.479 I would I would use the tax system to inspire 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.640 economic growth and expansion of markets. 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.000 I'd build more houses. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.520 I would incentivize affordable housing votes of single family, and 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.360 I'd let single family go from rent to own right 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.280 for the rental companies rent to own as a and 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.800 incentivize that returning inventory back into communities, and then give 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.360 a pathway for that through financial literacy. And I'd raise 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.360 credit scores to seven hundred, by the way, because seven 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.800 hundred credit card communities don't write, they go shopping. 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.479 I mean, these are simple, non controversial. 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.920 So you said, what's the reckoning look like in the miries? 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:08.800 I think people are just sick and tired of being 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:09.360 sick and tired. 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.480 But does that mean a Democrat takeover of. 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:18.400 Here's here's even the Democrats don't have the answer because. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:19.480 The pendulum swings. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.520 Yes. Look, I'm not a political uh No. 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:29.920 I'm saying I'm saying that people want change. They're going 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.240 to make a decision about who's on the ballot books, 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.280 but you're going to see them. What they're really signaling 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.800 is I'm saying I'm not I'm not saying I want 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:39.920 you or I want you. What I want is not this. 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.320 So I'm going to rattle this cage. America is going 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.240 to rattle this cage. And that's signaling that if somebody 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.040 can get in the in the in the solutions business, 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.640 I'm for you. If you can be in the I'm 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.880 a radical movement of common sense business. I'm for you 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.640 if you can actually have me, create a situation where 0:11:57.640 --> 0:11:59.400 you actually listen to me and my day is better 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:00.960 to marvel than was yesterday. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:02.280 I'm for you. 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.800 At some point, somebody's going to get that message. I 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:09.160 think the ideal politician has a Republican head and democratic heart. 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:11.880 I know one, but I'm not going to mention who 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:12.240 that is. 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.640 I am. I certainly have no political ambitions whatsoever. Make 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:19.760 that saying that in the camera. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.760 But I am a capitalist with a heart, and I 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:25.400 want a movement. I do want to finish that. This 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:26.240 is the third reconstruction. 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.480 Twenty thirty seconds, Really quick, John, I know you can 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:28.760 do this. 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:32.840 I stumped you. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:34.640 You did, and now I lost my place. 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:36.079 Twenty to thirty seconds. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.000 Oh are you talking to President Trump? Do you have 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.040 a voice in the White House? Real quick? Twenty seconds? 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.640 I know, minution, I know some of his people. If 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:44.199 they call me, I answer the phone. 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:46.040 Trump taking your calls. 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.000 I'm not involved in politics. I don't think this. I 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.600 don't think right now my voice is helpful. I think 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.160 that when people want to talk reasonably about reasonable stuff 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.920 and have solutions at the end of problems, I'm gonna 0:12:58.920 --> 0:12:59.319 get it done. 0:12:59.320 --> 0:12:59.560 Party. 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:00.920 And that's not a party, by the way, it's an 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.319 operating system. I want to get something done. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.520 Thank you for waiting while my synapsies started working, John. 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.520 O'Brien, I might have made my bait nothing. That was nothing, 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:11.160 nothing for all 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.520 Of the book who we're going to continue with much 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.760 more for Milk and he is, of course, John O'Brien.