Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stanibek. We're here every day bringing
Speaker 1: you the latest news from the world of business and finance,
Speaker 1: plus technology, politics, economics, all harnessing the power of Business
Speaker 1: Week reporters and editors, not to mention our journalists and
Speaker 1: analyst in more than one and twenty countries. You can
Speaker 1: download Bloomberg Business Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot Com.
Speaker 1: You can also listen to our radio show at two
Speaker 1: pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio or watch us on
Speaker 1: YouTube search Bloomberg Global News. But among our virus headlines,
Speaker 1: we talked about some of them about the US rising
Speaker 1: to the top of Bloomberg's COVID Resilience ranking for the
Speaker 1: first time. It's really a measure that indicates how all
Speaker 1: countries are handling the pandemic. Your pin nations are also
Speaker 1: moving higher on the list as I opened for the summer.
Speaker 1: But we did report that the UK today saying that
Speaker 1: I had the most new COVID cases since January. So
Speaker 1: they continue to struggle through here with how though the
Speaker 1: health care system continues to grapple with the pandemic. Jennet Elkin,
Speaker 1: she's president CEO at Icon Medical Network. She joins us
Speaker 1: on the phone from Dallas, Texas. Janet, nice to have
Speaker 1: you here on this Monday. How are you. I'm good.
Speaker 1: Nice to be heard, Carol. Well, tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit about what you are seeing when it comes to
Speaker 1: health care systems dealing with the pandemics still but getting
Speaker 1: a little bit more back to normal. But also, as
Speaker 1: you know, other medical needs arise. What does that mean
Speaker 1: for demand for healthcare workers? Well, for healthcare workers overall.
Speaker 1: Obviously there's a high demand UM we saw for nursing
Speaker 1: during the because the height hopefully it was the height
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. But now we're seeing physicians staffing really
Speaker 1: warring back. Obviously people were not going to the doctor
Speaker 1: unless they had to and really putting off surgeries. But
Speaker 1: what was already high and demand to begin with, just
Speaker 1: really not enough physicians is causing almost really a crisis
Speaker 1: point with especially with more physicians retiring now. Well, and
Speaker 1: that's interesting. Where are we kind of generally speaking, in
Speaker 1: the United States when it comes to UM people wanting
Speaker 1: to be us because we know who we've seen the
Speaker 1: Ebbs and Flowers here. Well, it's not. I think it's
Speaker 1: not so much a question of the wanting to become doctors,
Speaker 1: it's that they want a different life, different lifestyle. You know.
Speaker 1: The The A m A recently published something that for
Speaker 1: the first time ever, less than half of all active
Speaker 1: physicians are not working in the smaller private practices. They've moved,
Speaker 1: like everything else, right to the large systems because it's
Speaker 1: just too expensive for someone in private practice. That's making
Speaker 1: a real demand difference, because I think the loyalty is
Speaker 1: different when it's not like just someone in a one
Speaker 1: person shops, so to speak. And so we're finding that
Speaker 1: there's they want more choices and they want a more
Speaker 1: flexible lifestyle like everybody else. Does that mean that they're
Speaker 1: gravitating or continuing to gravitate towards major cities, And what
Speaker 1: does that do for rural communities. I'm just curious about that. Well,
Speaker 1: it's always been difficult oly for the royal communities. Right
Speaker 1: now I think even more so. Um, we recently did
Speaker 1: something because we staff temporary um positions for physicians in Arizona,
Speaker 1: where there was a very rural town. They opened up
Speaker 1: a new mine, which meant they doubled the population in
Speaker 1: just a few weeks between that and the pandemic. We
Speaker 1: had to get people, but how do you get them there?
Speaker 1: So we did a telehealth project where we had overnight
Speaker 1: hospitalists that use laptops and they brought the laptop from
Speaker 1: patient to patient. But it was a way to get
Speaker 1: them served. Yeah, how's that working? How do you feel like,
Speaker 1: how do doctors? What's the feedback that you're hearing about telehealth?
Speaker 1: I think it's not obviously going to take over the industry.
Speaker 1: There's sometimes where you have to lay hands on people,
Speaker 1: right and you have to actually see them. But I
Speaker 1: do think that in some areas where we have such
Speaker 1: critical shortages, like psychiatrists, where I'm sure we've all read
Speaker 1: the articles about the demand now more than ever for
Speaker 1: mental health services, that's an area where you also really
Speaker 1: could use more telehealth, And I think it's a way
Speaker 1: of trying to be effective and efficient and just get
Speaker 1: more people taken care of wherever they live. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: know a fair amount of people just anecdotally that when
Speaker 1: especially came to mental well beings, that for the first time,
Speaker 1: because it was much more accessible in many ways, an
Speaker 1: easier to reach out to a therapist, and I do
Speaker 1: wonder if the tables have really or things have really shifted,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to psychiatry and mental well being
Speaker 1: in terms of professionals being able to reach a kind
Speaker 1: of a wider swath of our population. I think you're right,
Speaker 1: and they need to because they're just Psychiatry has been
Speaker 1: in demand for a long time, but now we cannot
Speaker 1: keep up with the demand for assignments for our psychiatrists
Speaker 1: because and no one can. It's just that it's just
Speaker 1: that critical. Really, And remember also that some of the
Speaker 1: psychotrates tend to be a little bit of an older age,
Speaker 1: and we're finding this is amazing to me. They escape
Speaker 1: to the survey recently that of all physicians are looking
Speaker 1: to do an early retirement than they used to and
Speaker 1: we can't afford that. Yeah, that's pretty why old. What
Speaker 1: about the medical community that you deal with the doctors?
Speaker 1: Are we seeing vaccinations continue to be handed out? Are
Speaker 1: we reaching those underserved areas as rural areas? Have we
Speaker 1: have we reached out there to to the people who
Speaker 1: really do want the vaccine? Right, well, they are. I
Speaker 1: think the supply is definitely, um, you know, considerably better
Speaker 1: than it was. But I think regardless um, whether it's
Speaker 1: now or post or pre pandemic, they're just or not.
Speaker 1: You know, rural areas are not often considered really desirable
Speaker 1: for physicians to want to set up a practice or
Speaker 1: go and work at a hospital, and so that continues
Speaker 1: to be an issue. Primary care is one grant example
Speaker 1: of that. There's just there aren't enough There aren't enough
Speaker 1: scholarships to be given to be able to get the
Speaker 1: folks there, and that's where really temporary staffing physicians helps dramatically.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. I don't often think about temporary staffing when
Speaker 1: it comes to doctors. You just assume that they're all
Speaker 1: full time positions that's at hospitals or healthcare. But it's
Speaker 1: not the way it works. Just got about thirty seconds left. Sure, No,
Speaker 1: there's more demand for temporary and we're seeing it either
Speaker 1: new grads at a regidency, middle career and doctors are
Speaker 1: taking about retiring. What's hey, one of the last question
Speaker 1: just a few seconds. Wages are wages going up for doctors?
Speaker 1: Wages are in certain special castes um, psychiatry, cardiology, surgery. Yep. Alright,
Speaker 1: good to know, hey, Great to check in with you.
Speaker 1: Janet Elkin she's president CEO Icon Medical Network. On the
Speaker 1: phone from Dallas, Texas. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stenovich on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. I mentioned this was a most read story.
Speaker 1: It is the most read story on the Bloomberg on
Speaker 1: this Monday. It's about President find targeting two weapons that
Speaker 1: the richest one tenth of one percent used to avoid taxes.
Speaker 1: Let's find out exactly what's going on. Bloomberg New Senior
Speaker 1: Tax reporter Allison vers Sprill is on the phone from Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. Allison, So, what exactly are we talking about?
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the you know, details of the
Speaker 1: Biden proposals that were released late last month. You know,
Speaker 1: I think at first people kind of needed some time
Speaker 1: to dig through these. But on close inspection, you know,
Speaker 1: we learned that the Biden administrations plans would you know,
Speaker 1: essentially dismantled these two popular planning techniques. Um, we have
Speaker 1: one that's called a dynasty trust. Essentially you can set
Speaker 1: these up and they aren't you know, incurring gift to
Speaker 1: state or generation skipping taxes for multiple generations. So the
Speaker 1: Biden plan would actually charge a capital gains tax on
Speaker 1: appreciated assets in these trusts every ninety years. Um. But
Speaker 1: because of the way it's drafted, we could see taxes
Speaker 1: come to us early as December. And then we also
Speaker 1: have language that would charge capital gains taxes. One property
Speaker 1: is transferred into an out of trust and in talking
Speaker 1: with the Treasury official, you know, this is aimed specifically
Speaker 1: at this very common tool, um, if not complicated, tool
Speaker 1: known as the intentionally defective grand toward trust. Uh So
Speaker 1: as people start the great name yes, yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 1: a long name, definitely in a a state planning type of
Speaker 1: type name. Um. But you know, people have started to
Speaker 1: become really concerned about some of this language. We kind
Speaker 1: of missed this earlier. Well, you know, the broad strokes
Speaker 1: of the outline that the President was talking about didn't
Speaker 1: specifically go into how trust were impacted. And then even
Speaker 1: getting into the green book language, some of it's a
Speaker 1: little bit vague. I think that Dyna dynasty trust proportion
Speaker 1: was um, a bit more obvious than some of this
Speaker 1: other language on transfers. And you know, I'm told that
Speaker 1: the second piece of that could affect even beyond um.
Speaker 1: You know, these intentionally defective trust that I mentioned, But
Speaker 1: we'll have to see how kind of the legislation is drafted.
Speaker 1: And you know, I R S riggs even further beyond
Speaker 1: that you writing your reporting, Allison. I mean, and it's
Speaker 1: not just a U S thing. We're seeing it around
Speaker 1: the globe where governments are looking countries are looking to
Speaker 1: implement new taxes on capital gains inheritance basically go after
Speaker 1: the wealthy when it comes to paying maybe a greater share,
Speaker 1: a fairer share that some might argue of taxes. No,
Speaker 1: that's absolutely right. You know, we see these in uh Stockholm,
Speaker 1: we see these in other countries. And I think the
Speaker 1: idea here is that obviously COVID nineteen has um you know,
Speaker 1: poked these massive holes in government budgets, and during that time,
Speaker 1: especially in the US, you saw that the rich weren't
Speaker 1: really necessarily impacted like the rest of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like the rest of the country. So this has definitely
Speaker 1: been a priority in the US. It's definitely a priority
Speaker 1: of class across the globe. Alright, So what's going on
Speaker 1: with all the financial advisors to the wealthy? You're there
Speaker 1: like wait, wait, wait, wait, what trying to figure it out, like,
Speaker 1: what what's the feedback because it's a great quote in
Speaker 1: your story one lawyer, Um, I guess that advises individuals
Speaker 1: or a tax lawyer. What they're doing is creating a
Speaker 1: whole new tax regime, and it sounds like that's what's
Speaker 1: going on. So you know, if enacted, I think people
Speaker 1: are are starting to say that they would really have
Speaker 1: to reconsider the techniques they're using. Um. I don't think
Speaker 1: this makes plan and go away. There are always going
Speaker 1: to be smart planners that can help people get around
Speaker 1: their taxes. Um. But but these are things that have
Speaker 1: become really popular in recent years. And so you know,
Speaker 1: essentially people question is it worth using the specific tool
Speaker 1: that I've I've had in my arsenal for for the
Speaker 1: last several decades, and you have there's definitely consideration of that.
Speaker 1: Two key words you said, if enacted right the final language,
Speaker 1: as we know, in any kind of bill or legislation,
Speaker 1: I mean, ultimately it's up to Congress how they lay
Speaker 1: it out. Definitely, and you know we've already seen so
Speaker 1: we have this infrastructure package that's now moving along that
Speaker 1: would be bipartisan that doesn't have any of these tax increases.
Speaker 1: In it um. There has been discussion that Democrats would
Speaker 1: pursue in the budget sort of their own standalone package
Speaker 1: that would um, you know, make some of these tax
Speaker 1: increases along party line, which has obviously created some controversy.
Speaker 1: But you have to get essentially everyone, you know, every
Speaker 1: Democratic vote in the Senate. UM. There's not a huge
Speaker 1: margin in the House, and so it still remains to
Speaker 1: be seen, you know, if this gets enacted, if this
Speaker 1: gets paired back at all. So we'll just have to
Speaker 1: see how the conversation moves forward. Hey, just fifteen seconds here.
Speaker 1: How quickly does it move forward? Is it before the summer,
Speaker 1: before the end of the year. Just is there a
Speaker 1: bit of a timeline just quickly? I would not anticipate
Speaker 1: if we're talking about reconciliation, that usually start coming together
Speaker 1: around the fall. I mean, you might have some things
Speaker 1: beginning to crystal a lot or discussions are definitely gonna
Speaker 1: be happening this summer, but you have to consider there's
Speaker 1: the recess in August. UM, so I see most of
Speaker 1: the action coming in this fall. All right, good to know,
Speaker 1: we'll put that on our calendars. Alison vers Bill, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Senior Tax reporter at Bloomberg News on
Speaker 1: the phone from Washington, d C. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. Well, and the current is show of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week Magazine. It's a Bloomberg exclusive looking at
Speaker 1: the US unemployment benefits given out during the pandemic. Who
Speaker 1: got them? Really? That story from Bloomberg News Senior Trade
Speaker 1: and Globalization reporter Shawn don and he joins us from
Speaker 1: our one studio in Washington, d C. Along with Business
Speaker 1: Week nitor Joel Webber in our Interactive Broker studio in
Speaker 1: New York. This is such an important story, especially with
Speaker 1: the debate about why workers aren't coming back Joel, because
Speaker 1: they're getting lots of benefits. This story really looks into
Speaker 1: the numbers and it's been one that I think culturally
Speaker 1: we've been aware of for a while. But what Sean
Speaker 1: donnan and Read picker Um did in this particular issue
Speaker 1: was go even bigger. And the number that they came
Speaker 1: out up with was that there were at least nine
Speaker 1: million Americans who were thrown out of work by the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and they didn't receive unemployment benefits UM despite there being
Speaker 1: billions trillions of dollars that flowed into the system. And
Speaker 1: as they were reporting that, obviously that big of a
Speaker 1: number sticks out to you, and then you start to wonder,
Speaker 1: why so so, Sean bring you in here? Why what happened?
Speaker 1: What went wrong? Well, I mean the answer is that,
Speaker 1: and we've all learned this in the in the last year,
Speaker 1: is that the unemployment system in the United Stage is
Speaker 1: just in really lousy shape. And it's everything from being
Speaker 1: overloaded with unprecedented amount of claims or UH as I
Speaker 1: like to think of people reaching out for for help
Speaker 1: UM and UH also old I T systems and just
Speaker 1: trying to to process these applications and also getting caught
Speaker 1: up in this question of fraud that's been hanging over
Speaker 1: the system as well. There there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, when you dig into this system, a lot
Speaker 1: of state officials talk about the high number of fraudulent
Speaker 1: claims that they've seen, but you scratch the surface a
Speaker 1: little bit and you discover there's also a lot of
Speaker 1: innocent people who have been accused of fraud. I look,
Speaker 1: I was on the phone this morning with someone who
Speaker 1: reached out to me after after seeing our story, and
Speaker 1: who says, you know, they've been waiting six weeks for
Speaker 1: their latest unemployment benefits after having after getting benefits for
Speaker 1: without any problem for most of the last year. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the reason is that the state of Maryland says
Speaker 1: they can't verify uh their identity, even though this person
Speaker 1: has sent all sorts of ideas uh their ways. So
Speaker 1: it's just it's a system that's overloaded. But it's a
Speaker 1: system that also in a lot of places seems to
Speaker 1: be kind of biased towards assuming that someone reaching out
Speaker 1: for help may not always be doing so, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: with the right intentions. What's great about this story by
Speaker 1: you and read shall one is that, right, we often
Speaker 1: see headlines, we see numbers, but we forget that there
Speaker 1: are people behind those numbers. Take us to either barbed
Speaker 1: story or raised story. You actually get into their details. Yeah. Look,
Speaker 1: I I just got an imimo in the last hour
Speaker 1: from Barbashbrook as well in Indiana. And Barb is like
Speaker 1: a lot of people in this country, and that she
Speaker 1: kind of cobbles together a living on a couple of different,
Speaker 1: uh part time jobs. Before the pandemic, she worked twenty
Speaker 1: hours a week at Dollar Tree, and she worked twenty
Speaker 1: hours a week or so as a cashier in the
Speaker 1: food court in Eli Lily's, one of their office buildings
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis. Uh And when the pandemic hit, she lost
Speaker 1: that job in the food court because no one was
Speaker 1: going to the office anymore. She applied for unemployment, and
Speaker 1: she was told that she wasn't eligible for unemployment because
Speaker 1: she made more than a d twenty one dollars a
Speaker 1: week at a Dollar Tree where she worked as a cashier.
Speaker 1: And that is more than she would have received in
Speaker 1: benefits from the state of Indiana just to make up
Speaker 1: for her lost income at the food court job. Now,
Speaker 1: you just got to back up for a second there,
Speaker 1: imagine trying to exist one dollars a week, first of all.
Speaker 1: Second of all, the benefits that she would have been
Speaker 1: entitled to with the federal top up at the time
Speaker 1: would have been more like seven dollars a week. That
Speaker 1: would have completely changed Barbashbrooks experience in this pandemic. And
Speaker 1: then it kind of gets almost into a weird kaf
Speaker 1: Gaysk tale where a few months after she was denied benefits,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden some money turned up in her
Speaker 1: bank account from the state of Indiana, um, and she
Speaker 1: sent most of it back right away. It took the
Speaker 1: state a couple of months to acknowledge that. And now
Speaker 1: they've accused her of being overpaid these benefits and at
Speaker 1: one point in March they were threatening to garnish her
Speaker 1: wages and her tax were turns um and she's you know,
Speaker 1: she reached out for help and she didn't get the
Speaker 1: help she needed, and then she got caught up in
Speaker 1: this bureacratic nightmare. And you know, the message and her
Speaker 1: email just an hour ago to me was you know,
Speaker 1: I'm never going to apply for unemployment benefits again. That's
Speaker 1: the big lesson from here is that there's no one
Speaker 1: there to help me. Another another lesson or inside and
Speaker 1: interested in as you mentioned Indiana there, Sean, and it
Speaker 1: really reveals what a patchwork quilt of a country we have,
Speaker 1: because every state has its own systems and its own
Speaker 1: problems that they have to wrestle with her. What did
Speaker 1: you learn on that front? How inconsistent are the states? Look,
Speaker 1: I mean there's huge inconsistency in the states. And this
Speaker 1: is the you know, the Grand Bargain that was struck
Speaker 1: in a new deal was for the states to control
Speaker 1: a lot of how unemployment benefits are paid, and that
Speaker 1: means they get to decide how much is paid on
Speaker 1: on on a weekly basis basis. So you have some
Speaker 1: states that will pay you a hundred bucks or so
Speaker 1: a week, up to eight hundred dollars a week in
Speaker 1: the maximum level in Massachusetts. That's even before this federal
Speaker 1: top up that we've had during the pandemic. And then
Speaker 1: you have also states that are incredibly strict in terms
Speaker 1: of who they will give benefits to. If you lived
Speaker 1: in Arizona and you worked thirty hours a week at
Speaker 1: the minimum wage job, you would not be eligible for
Speaker 1: unemployment benefits because you would not hit their minimum income threshold.
Speaker 1: In Indiana, you know a third of the people who
Speaker 1: applied for benefits in that state, Uh, we did not
Speaker 1: receive any benefits. So what your I always think about
Speaker 1: when you do something like this and you guys went
Speaker 1: through a ton of data. Uh, it's not always perfect,
Speaker 1: right because the reporting isn't always perfect. Um, where's the
Speaker 1: problem is it that we need federal guidelines on this
Speaker 1: or what do we need? What is the problem? How
Speaker 1: do we fix this? Because we're going to have another crisis. Yeah, no, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I think that's the that's the real thing that's
Speaker 1: exposed here is that the system that we have is
Speaker 1: too narrow in terms of who it defines UH as
Speaker 1: being eligible for benefits. So we need to think about
Speaker 1: how the economy has changed and we need to broaden
Speaker 1: out the system to catch more of these people who
Speaker 1: are there. And we also need to understand that, um,
Speaker 1: we need to get this money out there two people
Speaker 1: quickly because that money has actually been hugely effective in
Speaker 1: reducing a lot of the broader economic damage that we've
Speaker 1: seen in this pandemic. This is a great way to
Speaker 1: get money out there when it works. The problem is
Speaker 1: it just doesn't work enough and for enough people. Well,
Speaker 1: it's an incredible read, and I know you guys did,
Speaker 1: like I said, going through all the data points. Sean,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Really appreciate you bringing it to us.
Speaker 1: Sean donn And, Senior Trade and Globalization reporter at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News from our bureau in d C. Joe Weber, editor
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week here in our interactive broker studio.
Speaker 1: Important story. Absolutely, And when that you know that there's
Speaker 1: the wrestle with the amount of data. Only imagine there
Speaker 1: is a part right at the end of the story
Speaker 1: that talks about here's a here's a really hefty paragraph
Speaker 1: to understand how we actually like dealt with the numbers,
Speaker 1: which is what it's all about. All right, chel, thanks,
Speaker 1: I'm rom journal. Yeah, but you let me drive? Oh no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no home, honey, please, I'll do the right drivel.
Speaker 1: I want to drive, just drive by the question trying.
Speaker 1: This is the drive to the globe. Give me thanks.
Speaker 1: We'll drying us down on Bluebird Radio. All right, just
Speaker 1: about ten and a half minutes left in today's trading session.
Speaker 1: We have definitely seen a leg up when it comes
Speaker 1: to the S and P five hundred and the NASDAC
Speaker 1: just off their highs of the session. It really is, though,
Speaker 1: generally speaking, risk off trade today, except if you happen
Speaker 1: to be in the text base, if happened to be
Speaker 1: a chip stock, and we know that. We also saw
Speaker 1: some of those big tech names, specifically Facebook, pishing past.
Speaker 1: It's one trillion dollar market cap, So let's get to
Speaker 1: it and let's talk about the drive to the close.
Speaker 1: Joining us once again is one of our favorite guests here,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about Tom Plum. He is president chief
Speaker 1: investment officer at Plum Funds based in Madison, Wisconsin, joining
Speaker 1: us on the phone from there. I talked about this
Speaker 1: all the time. His balance fund consistently a top performer.
Speaker 1: It has been pretty much all of its peers in
Speaker 1: the past five years, returning on average annually fifteen percent.
Speaker 1: Forgive me, Tom, I have a ton of notes around
Speaker 1: me and I couldn't find we're I wanted to go.
Speaker 1: Nice to have you back with us. How are you?
Speaker 1: It's great to talk to you. It's that kind of
Speaker 1: a Monday. I'm just gonna put it out there. So
Speaker 1: this marketplace, what have you been doing? Have you been buying?
Speaker 1: Have you been selling? How do you see it? Are
Speaker 1: their opportunities? Well, Caroline, like we've talked in the past, um,
Speaker 1: the market initially had the cyclical bound economy, and those
Speaker 1: were the stocks that really were performing first part of
Speaker 1: this year as they rebounded from some real significant problems
Speaker 1: caused by the pandemic. But now we're starting to see
Speaker 1: a little bit of moderation of the growth rates that
Speaker 1: we'll see, and we're starting to discern between value companies
Speaker 1: and value traps because I think that there's a lot
Speaker 1: of areas of the economy. They are still going to
Speaker 1: be stressed, They're still going to have some difficulty growing,
Speaker 1: and there's going to be some companies that are going
Speaker 1: to do pretty well because they've weathered through this and
Speaker 1: they've you know, as we've talked in the past, we
Speaker 1: prefer growth stocks. But the fact that some of these financials,
Speaker 1: for example, now that they're going to be able to deleverage,
Speaker 1: that loan quality has not deteriorated and we we see
Speaker 1: more loan demand pick up, they could actually start to
Speaker 1: become true values and see some growth in their stock
Speaker 1: prices even from these levels. So what name you like
Speaker 1: is JP Morgan. We did have a headline today that
Speaker 1: they are buying a stake in a digital bank C
Speaker 1: six in uh move into Brazilian the retail space there,
Speaker 1: the retail banking sector there specifically, so expanding their reach.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you're gonna be watching for some of the
Speaker 1: headlines after the clothes today to see what they do
Speaker 1: with that extra extra cast cash post the FED stress tests.
Speaker 1: What is though you're thinking about JP Morgan, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: basically the best company out there in the financial the
Speaker 1: major banks that we've seen, and they they have excess capital.
Speaker 1: And when we go back to the times at the
Speaker 1: bank stocks were the leaders um that was back in
Speaker 1: the eighties and early nineties and even the early parts
Speaker 1: of this decade century when they were de leveraging, when
Speaker 1: they had high quality growth and they didn't have to
Speaker 1: continuely borrow more money at expensive rates. So the return
Speaker 1: of capital through dividends and through UH stock buybacks is
Speaker 1: going to be something that's going to fuel true growth.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things that like a Warren Buffett
Speaker 1: has always liked about certain companies like Coca Cola for example,
Speaker 1: it makes sense at this stage and those type of
Speaker 1: companies that have been well capitalized whether through this, I
Speaker 1: think they can be growth stocks. Again. That's interesting. So okay,
Speaker 1: so you're thinking about that about JP Morgan. Another financial
Speaker 1: that you like is Discover Financial tickers d F ACID.
Speaker 1: It's actually had a pretty nice bounce this year. It's
Speaker 1: up about you're also talking about a dividend five year
Speaker 1: net growth of about nine and a half percent. Is
Speaker 1: it the dividend story again that you like or what? Well,
Speaker 1: it's the it's the conversions of the reopening story with
Speaker 1: the structural move to digital wallet, So UM Discover was
Speaker 1: significantly impacted because a lot of their urchranses are through restaurants,
Speaker 1: UH and retail their point of their point of sale
Speaker 1: where you're in contact with the person on the other
Speaker 1: end who's UM. You're buying your product from your at
Speaker 1: the restaurants. So the reopening of the economy is going
Speaker 1: to help them significantly. And then the fact that they
Speaker 1: have real high capital ratio and then we'll be able
Speaker 1: to start to return some of that. They also have
Speaker 1: a network that we think is valuable and can be
Speaker 1: used as all these companies are trying to build up
Speaker 1: their digital wallets. It's a lot of financials that you like,
Speaker 1: I'm just looking to your list. MasterCard is another one,
Speaker 1: and that's again what As the economy reopened, whether it's services,
Speaker 1: whether it's good, people are gonna be using their cards more,
Speaker 1: and especially they're going to use them at restaurants, They're
Speaker 1: going to use them for business traveling, entertainment, and they're
Speaker 1: going to use them for cross border transactions. Those three
Speaker 1: areas were very weak for master Card last year, even
Speaker 1: though they showed revenue modestly increasing because of the online
Speaker 1: purchasing and things and the digital wallet that we've talked about.
Speaker 1: But we expect them to see a real cyclical rebound
Speaker 1: and they're probably going to have earnings maybe even revenues
Speaker 1: up the quarter that we're in, and we're looking for
Speaker 1: the whole year for the earnings to be up almost
Speaker 1: So here's a little bit of a different company ol
Speaker 1: Uh and this is a company that had its I
Speaker 1: p O earlier this year. Tell us about the thinking
Speaker 1: on this one, Well, it's online ordering, So that's what
Speaker 1: it stands for as the interface between the restaurants and
Speaker 1: the on demand world. They've got. They're basically Switzerland for
Speaker 1: those companies, those restaurants that don't want to develop their
Speaker 1: own apps and their own interfaces. This is a company
Speaker 1: that then can put you together with door Dash and
Speaker 1: cavir that and get it you combined with your ordering
Speaker 1: system on at the restaurant with clover and toast and
Speaker 1: processing your transactions. So it's wedding the the person who
Speaker 1: wants to buy something. You want to go to a
Speaker 1: fast food or any type of restaurant and order your food.
Speaker 1: We've all gone there. Now you see the line. You
Speaker 1: can skip the line if you've pre ordered that's what
Speaker 1: this company does. And uh, basically that's the world where
Speaker 1: now people are not going to sit in line to
Speaker 1: go to your subway or something like that, when when
Speaker 1: they can use this app and and get in out
Speaker 1: do whatever they want to do. Yeah, it definitely plays
Speaker 1: into what we've seen over the past year in the
Speaker 1: changing world. Hey, um, Tom just got about thirty seconds
Speaker 1: left here. One name it or not even a name.
Speaker 1: But you are the crypto world. We're all obsessed. And
Speaker 1: you say, don't confuse crypto technology with cryptocurrency, just quickly
Speaker 1: explain that, Well, you know, crypt crypt drole currency is basically,
Speaker 1: I think somewhat of an artificially created shortage story. And
Speaker 1: you know, if you call back and you don't have
Speaker 1: to live the Tulip bubble, but you can go back
Speaker 1: to twenty five years ago to the brute beanie babies,
Speaker 1: and you can see that when you have artificially restrained
Speaker 1: um supply and then you have a story, it becomes
Speaker 1: a fan, it feeds on itself, but it doesn't have
Speaker 1: any real sustainable value. Yeah, it's it's difficult to think
Speaker 1: that you would actually use a bitcoin to buy something
Speaker 1: at Starbucks that you're going to drink and disappears, and well,
Speaker 1: it's certainly something we talked about a lot. Tom Always
Speaker 1: get to check in with you, Tom Plumb, He's President,
Speaker 1: chief investment officer at Plumb Funds from Madison, Wisconsin. Thanks
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