Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stanabek. We're here every day bringing
Speaker 1: you the latest news from the world of business and finance, bus, technology, politics, economics,
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Speaker 1: radio show at two pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio,
Speaker 1: or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg Global News. I
Speaker 1: want to get right to our next guest. Mike al
Speaker 1: Qaire is with US, president and CEO of the healthcare
Speaker 1: improvement and supply chain company. It trades on the NASDAC
Speaker 1: it's called Premier, and he is back with us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Dallas. Mike, nice to have you back
Speaker 1: with us. You guys are front and center when it
Speaker 1: comes to the healthcare and COVID supply chain. What does
Speaker 1: it look like right now? And first of all, how
Speaker 1: are you do you have? Mike? Uh No, So okay,
Speaker 1: We've got you. How are you hey? Good? Carol and Tim,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me back. So just a quick update
Speaker 1: on the vaccine distribution numbers. UM. Right now, we're doing
Speaker 1: about two point three million vaccines per day. That compares
Speaker 1: to about five forty thousand, uh the first six weeks
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, So we're catching up. I think the
Speaker 1: most important part that number is that we're on track
Speaker 1: to exceed the Biden's administration goal of hitting hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty million vaccinations in the first hundred days. That goal
Speaker 1: was a little low though, right Well, I you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I think when people were thinking about when
Speaker 1: he said it, it seemed a little bit high, but
Speaker 1: and seemed aspirational. But I will tell you today, uh,
Speaker 1: we seem to be attract to surpasses. What about when
Speaker 1: it comes to Ppe? Right now, the story, if we
Speaker 1: think back to a year ago, was do not buy
Speaker 1: masks if you're a consumer, not just because you need
Speaker 1: trees are of them for healthcare professionals and there was
Speaker 1: a worldwide shortage, but also because we didn't know that
Speaker 1: this was the type of thing that was so easily
Speaker 1: transmittable through breathing. Where are we when it comes to Ppe,
Speaker 1: not just for for us but for healthcare professionals right now,
Speaker 1: what does the supply chain look like? Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I guess the first thing we've learned with this whole
Speaker 1: issue with COVID as it relates to PE, is that
Speaker 1: we've got to diverse supply our portfolio manufacturing, just like
Speaker 1: you would hedge against risk if you've had an investment
Speaker 1: portfolio and there was such an overdependence on China and
Speaker 1: other Southeast Asian organizations or countries. Um. And I think
Speaker 1: that you know today where we are premiers taking steps
Speaker 1: along with a number of others, to try to create
Speaker 1: more resiliency in that supply chain, where we've made investments
Speaker 1: along with our healthcare systems and the domestic production of
Speaker 1: face mask, made investments in the production of isolation gown uh.
Speaker 1: And we're also doing similar stuff with exam gloves and
Speaker 1: generic drugs because we think that obviously those uh uh,
Speaker 1: these supply chains are have a lack of resiliency to them,
Speaker 1: So we want to create a bit more resiliency and
Speaker 1: obviously create more diversification the supply chains. Yeah, how easy
Speaker 1: is that to do, especially when it's you know, we've
Speaker 1: all kind of farmed everything out too in many ways,
Speaker 1: a lot of emerging markets. So it's a great question. Look,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about this for the last ten years.
Speaker 1: It's been a significant issue on our minds, um and
Speaker 1: and it's tougher now obviously to do it. But we
Speaker 1: were able very very quickly to stand up exam glove
Speaker 1: or I'm sorry, face masks and is inflation gowns. We
Speaker 1: have a partner that's going to be able to stand
Speaker 1: up exam gloves probably domestically in the next eighteen months.
Speaker 1: I'll pull you while. While it's difficult, we have to
Speaker 1: do it because, uh in, the only economy that crew
Speaker 1: was China at six point five, and the US economy
Speaker 1: shrank during the pandemic at almost four. So I think
Speaker 1: that there's been this great shift of wealth from the
Speaker 1: U s to obviously to China, and we've got to
Speaker 1: rectify that by creating a more resilient supply chain. Easier
Speaker 1: said than done, though it's absolute. The inswards have been done,
Speaker 1: but we've got to start the hard work now. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I heard a little bit of your
Speaker 1: interview at the prior folks on what the administration is
Speaker 1: doing from you know, really one of the next steps
Speaker 1: they're thinking about through taxes and those kinds of things.
Speaker 1: I think the administration has to be a lot more
Speaker 1: proactive to supporting domestic manufacturing of a lot of these
Speaker 1: critical items as well making it more more friendly to
Speaker 1: actually manufacture. Here in the stage, so Mike, safe to say,
Speaker 1: just got twenty five seconds left here, you would be
Speaker 1: opposed to increasing the corporate tax rate. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: going to stay out of the corporate tax rate. But
Speaker 1: what I what I would like to say is that
Speaker 1: we are very interested in the administration of making it
Speaker 1: more friendly for domestic bottom understood. Hey, Mike, listen, thank
Speaker 1: you so much and for going with the flow today,
Speaker 1: especially as we had to step into the President for
Speaker 1: his update on the COVID relief package. Alright, Mike, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Mikelaer, he's president and chief executive officer
Speaker 1: at Premiere on the phone in Dallas. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. So right now, the current issue
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week features a deep dive into equality.
Speaker 1: It's all part of our enhanced and you know, kind
Speaker 1: of a reset we're doing on our equality vertical here
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg. It also coincides with the Bloomberg Ee Quality Summit,
Speaker 1: UH this week. We've covered several of the stories in
Speaker 1: the magazine on our air in the past week or so,
Speaker 1: but one more we wanted to bring you, and this
Speaker 1: tim is about the new data that exposes precisely how
Speaker 1: white and male some US companies are. It's an interactive feature,
Speaker 1: so I highly encourage you to check it out on
Speaker 1: the website when you are done listening to us. Joel
Speaker 1: Webber is editor of Bloomberg Business Week. Jeff Green is
Speaker 1: Managing Diversity reporter at Bloomberg News. Joel, talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the presentation of this because that is a
Speaker 1: big part of the story here. Yeah, and and to
Speaker 1: be clear, the magazine and and me, which is a
Speaker 1: very little credit for this poet. Same with we. We
Speaker 1: we tried to make the team tried to make the
Speaker 1: interactive be you know, the glory here and and we
Speaker 1: were able to take a slice of this and bring
Speaker 1: it into print because we thought it was such an
Speaker 1: important topic. Um. And that is really like the heart
Speaker 1: of this thing was to actually like look at corporate
Speaker 1: America and and it does as you would expect. It
Speaker 1: is very white. But to actually be Bloomberg and put
Speaker 1: data behind that and actually attempt to show progress was
Speaker 1: really what the this project was all about. So so
Speaker 1: Jeff talked to us about how you went about getting
Speaker 1: this data, what it revealed, and what you're starting to
Speaker 1: watch as this is an ongoing project. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the really really key thing here is that
Speaker 1: when we first did this last year, companies were agreeing
Speaker 1: to show us this stata, which is not required to
Speaker 1: be released publicly. In fact, the Supreme Court has made
Speaker 1: it very clear they can't be compelled to do it,
Speaker 1: so it has to be voluntary. And so in this
Speaker 1: time around we have thirty seven with another thirty promising
Speaker 1: yet this year to show so the among the SMP
Speaker 1: one hundred, the hundred largest companies in the US, a majority,
Speaker 1: a significant majority. By the end of this year, we'll
Speaker 1: be sharing this data that they have been keeping private
Speaker 1: for decades. So I mean that's almost more interesting than
Speaker 1: what it's showing, which is kind of what we know,
Speaker 1: but in a way that now makes them much more
Speaker 1: accountable to it. We'll talk about this the e O
Speaker 1: one form because that's where some of this data come from,
Speaker 1: right right, And this is very important for people to
Speaker 1: understand because there's been there were a lot of people said,
Speaker 1: why are you being such a stickler, why are you
Speaker 1: saying CEO one or nothing. Well, what happens is every
Speaker 1: year all company these with more than a hundred employees
Speaker 1: acceptoring COVID. They've been delayed, but they will be doing
Speaker 1: it again. Basically next month. I have to report the
Speaker 1: racial and gender breakdown of their workforce in detail. And
Speaker 1: there's a it's very you know, very instructive, is how
Speaker 1: to do it. So even if it's not shared publicly,
Speaker 1: there is an aggregate database of the entire workforce for
Speaker 1: the United States that that that we can see and
Speaker 1: there's no such thing, there's no other source for this
Speaker 1: kind of information. So when a company gives us their
Speaker 1: individual form, we can compare them against their industry, we
Speaker 1: can compare them against the country. We can do things
Speaker 1: that you can't do with what people just throw up
Speaker 1: on their diversity page and say this is what we're
Speaker 1: showing you. Well, I always feel like the devils and
Speaker 1: the details. The deeper you you really dive into numbers,
Speaker 1: you really get a much truer picture, and it's really cool,
Speaker 1: Like as to mention, it's interactive, so you can put
Speaker 1: in down costco, Facebook, uh and video and really get
Speaker 1: a good handle on how they're doing. Overall. Though, when
Speaker 1: we do take that big odd look Jeff, how are
Speaker 1: companies doing? What are the numbers? Well, I mean it's
Speaker 1: kind of where we know they say they are, but
Speaker 1: in a much more detailed way. And it also just
Speaker 1: kind of shows how much diversity right now is sort
Speaker 1: of focused on um Asian employees tend to be overrepresentative
Speaker 1: in terms of where they where companies shift if they're
Speaker 1: not a lot of the companies that have given us
Speaker 1: their data actually are underrepresented in terms of white workers,
Speaker 1: but where they shift to is um in Asian workers,
Speaker 1: especially tech and Hispanic and black workers. The the I
Speaker 1: guess the poor employees are not faring as well. There's
Speaker 1: a few exceptions where you have companies that are maybe
Speaker 1: in the consumer space. Um you look at McDonald's and
Speaker 1: Starbucks have managed to move some of their employees from
Speaker 1: from the workforce into the into the management ranks. But
Speaker 1: it's it's it really kind of shows especially if you
Speaker 1: if you look at it all as a big snapshot,
Speaker 1: which you can do with one of the graphics kind
Speaker 1: of where everything falls out. There's very few company that
Speaker 1: are um overrepresented or even represented in terms of black
Speaker 1: employees for example. Well, and that's interesting stuff because and
Speaker 1: it makes me kind of red between the lines here
Speaker 1: because just in in the wake of George Floyd social unrest,
Speaker 1: like it's almost like the companies, and these are the
Speaker 1: biggest companies in corporate America now recognize that they basically
Speaker 1: have to put this out in the open and actually
Speaker 1: like confront it and not try away from it. So
Speaker 1: is that what kind of tone are you have you
Speaker 1: been able to pick up on from the companies just
Speaker 1: in terms of their willingness to finally cooperate. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think there's a very much a tone of like, you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: this doesn't look good, but it's better than being like
Speaker 1: cited is among the nose that won't share. Obviously, some
Speaker 1: companies are still willing to you know, stand by. They
Speaker 1: don't think this is a good measure. They have lots
Speaker 1: of reasons why they don't want to show this to us.
Speaker 1: But I think ultimately the you know, sort of the
Speaker 1: momentum is against them now. And companies are basically saying
Speaker 1: transparency is part of the is basically the cost of
Speaker 1: entry now to show that you're you're serious about this.
Speaker 1: Where a year or two ago, um, the focus was
Speaker 1: on gender, which is a lot easier to show because
Speaker 1: it's one measure. This is a lot more complicated and um,
Speaker 1: you know, asking people to present this in a way
Speaker 1: that you can compare to other companies is key now.
Speaker 1: Hence why we have this tool, and it's something that
Speaker 1: will continue to develop as we go forward. M Jeff,
Speaker 1: we kept you busy in the issue. I also want
Speaker 1: to talk about the back page that you also wrote,
Speaker 1: which is about the diversity officer hiring is pre It's
Speaker 1: basically like within corporate America, they know they have this problem,
Speaker 1: they're trying to address it. What what job if you're
Speaker 1: if you want to be an executive in corporate America
Speaker 1: right now, what's the best way to get that to
Speaker 1: get hired? Yeah, well, I mean there are a lot
Speaker 1: of companies hiring chief diversity officers for the first time
Speaker 1: and and also kind of refreshing what their approach to it,
Speaker 1: which is kind of part and parcel with people want
Speaker 1: to show their showing their data they're more willing to share,
Speaker 1: and they also want to show some sort of tangible
Speaker 1: evidence that they're trying to do something. I mean, the
Speaker 1: risk is that they hire a person and not with
Speaker 1: the resources behind it, and not to the results and
Speaker 1: then sort of say, see, I told you so, Um,
Speaker 1: we tried and you know, nothing changed, which is kind
Speaker 1: of where the pressure is now is to actually tie
Speaker 1: these executives and all executives to outcomes. And so you're
Speaker 1: you're seeing a lot of companies bringing their first chief
Speaker 1: diversity officer, but they were now reporting to the CEO
Speaker 1: as opposed to maybe through HR in a couple levels. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely been up to um. Listen, those are the
Speaker 1: both stories, just really really smart and full of lots
Speaker 1: of information. It's in the current issue of Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week magazine. Jeff Green, thank you so much, Bloomberg News,
Speaker 1: along which Old Weber, the editor of Bloomberg Business Week magazine.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. So we've been
Speaker 1: talking about at this this is among our most right
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg And once we get into it. You
Speaker 1: are going to totally know why it's among the most read.
Speaker 1: It's about Goldman Sachs. It's about Goldman's modern CEO, David Solomon,
Speaker 1: and it covers everything tim from empty offices to island getaways,
Speaker 1: even with a stop in the Hampton's along the way.
Speaker 1: On is Finance reporter for Bloomberg News, joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone from New York Street. I'm so glad I
Speaker 1: get to talk to you again about this story. We
Speaker 1: spoke on quick Take earlier today. Um, look, what do
Speaker 1: you think is the juiciest detail from what you learned
Speaker 1: about Goldman Sacks over the last year. Then thanks. It's
Speaker 1: always that it's always good to talk to you, whether
Speaker 1: that's twice or more times in a day, and always
Speaker 1: they're just speak to do Carol, thank you. And I'm
Speaker 1: just being nice because I'm hoping when you get your
Speaker 1: own jet you would take us along. I will, I will,
Speaker 1: I promise. Look on gold Honestly, I think the bigger
Speaker 1: picture is what's really important here. You have a film
Speaker 1: that is doing, by all accounts, really really one of
Speaker 1: the stock is it in all time high? It's obviously
Speaker 1: Wall Street focused operation. It's one of the most premier
Speaker 1: investment banks out It is the premier investment bank out there.
Speaker 1: Great trading performance, great banking performance, in part aided by
Speaker 1: the wings fall from the pandemic that has held so
Speaker 1: many other big banks with their Wall Street operations. Then
Speaker 1: why is it that when everything is supposed to be good,
Speaker 1: there is still so much grumbling internally? And and and
Speaker 1: that's that's the question that we've tried to explore here.
Speaker 1: There's obviously some level of frustration with the CEO leadership style.
Speaker 1: You've seen senior level defections, and at a time when
Speaker 1: there are numerous lucrative opportunities for successful golden executives outside
Speaker 1: of the banking space, and many of them seem to
Speaker 1: be taking up on that opportunity. And there's without a
Speaker 1: doubt the underlying theme of and it's something that affects
Speaker 1: government but also every other large bank. As we think
Speaker 1: about a wind down to the pandemic, hopeful wind down
Speaker 1: to the pandemic, we're also trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: the you normal will look like. How much flexibility will
Speaker 1: bank provide And that's a key question because that will
Speaker 1: play a big role in the kind of talent you
Speaker 1: can attract so every company has to wrestle with it,
Speaker 1: and that has also been a source of tension inside
Speaker 1: Goldman Sex because of what appears to be a hardline
Speaker 1: stance of the CEO David's owner. So, okay, so many
Speaker 1: different places we could go, but first of all, I
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, put a note to myself, let's
Speaker 1: just start with the jet, because is that normal? I
Speaker 1: feel like sure, if you go pre financial crisis, a
Speaker 1: lot of corporations had their own private jet. It was
Speaker 1: the norm. I don't think we would fingerpoint or anything.
Speaker 1: It was just the way CEO has got around is
Speaker 1: that the case for Wall Street? Was it that way?
Speaker 1: And has it not been that way? And so it's
Speaker 1: kind of a bit of an anomaly for Goldman. I
Speaker 1: think it's an extremely fair point to make. Carol jets
Speaker 1: by themselves are not normally on on Wall Street. An
Speaker 1: executive jet might be seen as normal in fact, but
Speaker 1: Goldman fact long may day point of not buying one,
Speaker 1: not having its own private jet, because it was one
Speaker 1: of the extravagance. But invite our public schand and even
Speaker 1: those who have it, it would be hard to certifind
Speaker 1: cases where they've used it. Extensively for personal trips, and
Speaker 1: Goldman's only had jets for a few months now, and
Speaker 1: from what we have been able to see in the
Speaker 1: record we've seen, it seems half of those trips have
Speaker 1: been these we can getaways. But then you also have
Speaker 1: to juxtapose that with what is happening in the broader
Speaker 1: world right now. You have a firm whose CEO has
Speaker 1: access to the corporate asset to be able to escape
Speaker 1: to these getaways, while at the same time his subordinate
Speaker 1: and the public at large are still dealing with the
Speaker 1: rigors of pandemic life. That brings a whole level of strain.
Speaker 1: And when you know that your boss has access to
Speaker 1: these getaway and at the same time want to back
Speaker 1: in the city, want you back at the desk, because
Speaker 1: he believed that is what will keep innovation going, and
Speaker 1: that is what will make sure that the film continues
Speaker 1: to strive. There is obviously a bit of a right
Speaker 1: a level of fiction, and that messaging mismatch has to
Speaker 1: be address. Listen that tension you get into so well
Speaker 1: in this story, we can't go through it all and
Speaker 1: it is really a must read. As we said, it
Speaker 1: is among our most read on the Bloomberg. So I'll
Speaker 1: put it out on Twitter and highly recommend everybody go
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg dot com and check it out. Tree, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Tree. Not Jon finance reporter at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News joining us on the phone from New York City.
Speaker 1: And that's really that important point that he said, come on,
Speaker 1: I want people back at work, and yet he has
Speaker 1: the luxury to kind of jet off to different places. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great point. I want people back at work too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know. Well they're slowly coming back, slowly, slowly. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes.
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. Let's get into our next guest,
Speaker 1: because listen, we keep a watch on bitcoin every day.
Speaker 1: Did drop back a little bit today after scaling a
Speaker 1: fresh record on bets at some of the pandemic relief
Speaker 1: payments in the US will end up chasing the digital
Speaker 1: tokens towering rally. We've been writing about that, uh and
Speaker 1: also writing about bitcoin. In his weekly column, he tackles
Speaker 1: maybe how central banks get into the cryptocurrencies. Let's bring
Speaker 1: in Bloomberg New Economy editorial director Andy Brown. He's with
Speaker 1: us on the phone in New York City, Andy, good
Speaker 1: to have you here with us. I feel like bitcoin
Speaker 1: is one of those things as we continue to watch
Speaker 1: it take out level after level, there's either people who
Speaker 1: are all in on it are people who don't like
Speaker 1: it at all. Yeah. Well, you know, just looking into
Speaker 1: the whole issue of cryptocurrencies, in bitcoin, it strikes you
Speaker 1: how how shockingly retrograde this whole thing is, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you start, you start with the environment. I
Speaker 1: know this is is a terribly unpopular thing to say
Speaker 1: with bitcoin Enthusually, I have to will argue against it.
Speaker 1: The true to the matter is that bitcoin in producing
Speaker 1: bitcoin requires massive amounts of computing power and according to
Speaker 1: the analysts, analysts that the researchers at Cambridge University equal
Speaker 1: it equals the carbon emissions equal to the equal to
Speaker 1: the entire output of Argentina. Okay, so it's terrible for
Speaker 1: the terrible for the environment. In terms of a medium
Speaker 1: of exchange, it's really super inefficient. Now there are layers
Speaker 1: that are being built on top of the of bitcoin,
Speaker 1: but right now you can do about four or five
Speaker 1: or six transactions every second versus literally thousands that are
Speaker 1: done by visa and master cards, so it's clunky. Janet
Speaker 1: Yellen was just the other days saying this is extremely inefficient.
Speaker 1: And then as a store of value, I mean this
Speaker 1: time last year it was trading at something like less
Speaker 1: than ten thousand. Now it's it's up as as as
Speaker 1: you as you say, now hitting hitting new new records.
Speaker 1: So you know, in terms of what it is, uh.
Speaker 1: And of course nobody actually actually knows what what what
Speaker 1: what value it represent beyond scarcity, right, so basically as
Speaker 1: a string a string of software code. Uh. And and
Speaker 1: there's this artificial scarce because only twenty one million bitcoin
Speaker 1: will ever be produced or mind as as as they say, uh,
Speaker 1: and yet it actually does represent right now, there's there's
Speaker 1: a very fundamental threat uh to central banks um. And
Speaker 1: central banks are really scrambling to come up with a
Speaker 1: response to this thing. Um. And it does seem as
Speaker 1: though China is at the forefront of the response to
Speaker 1: this challenge by coming up with a central bank issued
Speaker 1: digital currency. And again, you know, this is something that
Speaker 1: banks are now looking at. They didn't want any part
Speaker 1: of cryptocurrencies, but they're being forced to respond. Janet Yell
Speaker 1: and the other day said, well, yeah, actually you know, uh,
Speaker 1: maybe a digital dollar would be a good idea. Maybe
Speaker 1: it would facilitate payments and so on. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and kind of the thought is that the
Speaker 1: irony here is that you know, the the the people
Speaker 1: who invented bitcoin. This this was very much a libertarian experiment,
Speaker 1: a radical experiment and peer to peer money. You you
Speaker 1: you took out the middle person, right that the banks,
Speaker 1: the monetary authorities. What would you know the unintended consequences
Speaker 1: of this, Maybe that they have that they're going to
Speaker 1: spur the creation of these ultimate top down currencies issued
Speaker 1: by monetary authorities, central banks, um, all over the world.
Speaker 1: And actually, you know that may not be such a
Speaker 1: terrible thing, to the extent that you know, you could
Speaker 1: really blur the lines between monetary and fiscal policy. China
Speaker 1: and China they're talking about, you know, using using central
Speaker 1: bank issued currency, for instance, to you know, issue helicopter
Speaker 1: money to businesses, right individuals, right unlimited queue for the
Speaker 1: for the for the for for the masses, um, you know,
Speaker 1: and and uh, it's it's it's just something that they're
Speaker 1: actively considering. This is this isn't some kind of wild theory.
Speaker 1: This is the practical application that they're talking about in China. Right, Well,
Speaker 1: it's and it's fascinating. Like you mentioned John Yelle in
Speaker 1: the one eight that she's done, but you do talk
Speaker 1: about China. And listen, since we have you, we've got
Speaker 1: to ask you about all of the headlines, the flur
Speaker 1: of headlines, including one this morning coming out of China
Speaker 1: about the Chinese government asking Ali Baba to sell media assets.
Speaker 1: You know, we are seeing increasingly andy this campaign to
Speaker 1: curb the influence of China's technology moguls um. We continue
Speaker 1: to see that expand what's the endgame and what's what
Speaker 1: does this ultimately mean in terms of especially China's plan
Speaker 1: to be operating on a more sophisticated kind of industrialized scale. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, look, I think you can look at this
Speaker 1: in in in two ways. I mean, one way is
Speaker 1: clearly they've launched the launching the mother of all antitrust
Speaker 1: investigations now into UH into Ali Baba. Uh. It looks
Speaker 1: as though this is now going to spread from Ali
Speaker 1: Baba to ten Cent, And so you could say that
Speaker 1: you know, as they're going through Ali Baba's business is
Speaker 1: trying to figure out ways where it is abusing its monopoly,
Speaker 1: perceived to be abusing its monopoly. Now they're taking a
Speaker 1: look at the whole issue of media, and so according
Speaker 1: to the Wolf's Reet Journal, Ali baba Is may have
Speaker 1: to divest its media assets. You know, the other way
Speaker 1: I look at this is, you know, from a from
Speaker 1: a political perspective, I would say this is deeply negative
Speaker 1: and deeply troubling for Jagna because in China, you know,
Speaker 1: media is. Of course they're saying, oh, you know, we're
Speaker 1: we're in media not because we want to control the message,
Speaker 1: you know, not because we want to we we we
Speaker 1: we we we want to have political influences, all about
Speaker 1: leveraging technology to help media companies. That's not the way
Speaker 1: regulators look at it at all, as far as they
Speaker 1: concerned media politics, Media is propaganda. Propaganda is shaping public opinion.
Speaker 1: And as far as the party is concerned in China,
Speaker 1: that is a plank, a central plank all the way
Speaker 1: it holds power and and and and perpetuates its rule.
Speaker 1: This is deeply now a deeply political tone that the
Speaker 1: antitrust investigation against Ali Baba has has has has has taken.
Speaker 1: Yeah listen, and it just feels like almost every morning
Speaker 1: or every day or every week that there's another headline
Speaker 1: against one of the major Chinese players. Um, Andy, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, really appreciate a. Bloomberg New Economy editorial
Speaker 1: director Andy Brown with us on the phone in New
Speaker 1: York City, macro a journal Now, but you let me drive?
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, no no, please, I'll do the right
Speaker 1: revel I want to try. Just drive, baby, question trying.
Speaker 1: This is the drive to the globe. Thanks, we'll try
Speaker 1: us on Bloomberg Radio. All right, just wout eleven minutes
Speaker 1: left in the Monday trading session. The IDEs of March.
Speaker 1: So it's happening, it's happening. Hey, Let's bring in J. J.
Speaker 1: Ken In. He's chief market Strategies at t D A
Speaker 1: Merge Trade, joining us once again on the phone from Chicago.
Speaker 1: Are you spooked at all? Girl? I spook. No, not
Speaker 1: at all. Let's get here. We're saying the IDEs of March,
Speaker 1: you know, little nervousness here. Well, it is funny though,
Speaker 1: isn't it. You know, as we set new records on Friday,
Speaker 1: if I were reading the you know press over the weekend,
Speaker 1: not knowing what happened, I would think that we were
Speaker 1: in the middle of a terrible, terrible stock market right now.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. I'm many people are just waiting for
Speaker 1: the fall, so to speak, as we continue to rally.
Speaker 1: Were they right to feel the way? And here I
Speaker 1: am looking at the last few minutes of trading today
Speaker 1: and we're seeing another leg up on the major equity
Speaker 1: servicing buying into the clothes here, Um, but are investors
Speaker 1: are individuals right to be a little nervous. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: not even this this year's story, Maybe it's in the
Speaker 1: next year's story. Well, I think, you know, you bring
Speaker 1: up a great point. Part of it should depend on
Speaker 1: your time frame quite a bit. But I do think
Speaker 1: that healthy, healthy pessimism is always a good thing when
Speaker 1: you are investing. There's no question about that. But you know,
Speaker 1: you can't stop it for you can't. You can't let
Speaker 1: that stop you from investing in quality names that are
Speaker 1: doing wealth. And you know, as we talk right now,
Speaker 1: we're seeing bonds rally quite a bit as the S
Speaker 1: and P s rally quite a bit. I think the
Speaker 1: thing that maybe people should be concerned out at the
Speaker 1: moment is that the relationships are still a little bit askew,
Speaker 1: and I would expect that to continue, and I would
Speaker 1: expect actually volatility to continue for at least till the
Speaker 1: end of the month, and certainly this week as we
Speaker 1: have quade people witching exploration on Friday, and so it'll
Speaker 1: be interesting for me to see how many people are
Speaker 1: sort of rolling positions forward or are people going to
Speaker 1: have the same enthusiasm for the summertime as they've had
Speaker 1: for the uh, you know, first quarter of the Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of enthusiasm, our colleague David Weston spoke with A
Speaker 1: Bank of America's CEO, Brian moynihan earlier today, and one
Speaker 1: thing that struck me from part of the interview that
Speaker 1: we played right here on Bloomberg Radio is when he
Speaker 1: talked about consumer spending and credit card use and the
Speaker 1: way they were rebounding really strongly, seeing significant shifts after
Speaker 1: people get vaccinated in April. Data will probably show quote
Speaker 1: massive growth compared with what kind of preview does that
Speaker 1: give you for what things look like on the other
Speaker 1: side here and what is that and how much of
Speaker 1: that is priced in already in stocks? Right? How much
Speaker 1: of that optimism is already priced in? Well, I think
Speaker 1: him that's really going to be the question that we hit,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, out a couple of months. And the
Speaker 1: reason I say that it's at the same time that
Speaker 1: you're talking about that, you're also getting checks going in
Speaker 1: the mail this week, so people get excited about that.
Speaker 1: But where I think the real test comes is, you know,
Speaker 1: but I believe and trying after May first, we're also
Speaker 1: you know, every adult silso to get vaccinating. So let's
Speaker 1: say they come to June. What happens then when people
Speaker 1: who have been at a home for close to eighteen
Speaker 1: months in many cases, will fall between twelve and eighteen. Uh, productivity,
Speaker 1: you know, as they say, it's never been higher, creativity
Speaker 1: never been lower because people have been working so much,
Speaker 1: but not in groups, and everybody has a bunch of
Speaker 1: vacation time saved up. What I'm worried about. To be
Speaker 1: honest with you, it's third quarter GDP because you may
Speaker 1: come to the situation where so many people say I'm
Speaker 1: going outside. I don't care. I just want to enjoy
Speaker 1: life for a little while, because I haven't really done that.
Speaker 1: And I know, I mean, I say it kind of smirking,
Speaker 1: but I do think it's a real threat to things,
Speaker 1: uh for a core, because I really feel like you
Speaker 1: live in New York, I live in Chicago. We know
Speaker 1: how precious nice weather is. And I think that that's
Speaker 1: a risk of the account. But but maybe that would
Speaker 1: manifest in other consumer spending. Right if we think about
Speaker 1: it from the perspective of the way that we hit
Speaker 1: a hospitality right and traveling leisure like that could be
Speaker 1: a boon, then that could be a boon, And I
Speaker 1: I believe you're absolutely right, And actually theoretically, I think
Speaker 1: it could be a boon for the energy market to
Speaker 1: to be uh quite out oft also, but that also
Speaker 1: has longer term effects. And so I think that if
Speaker 1: you see GDP start could come down, even if it's
Speaker 1: just for a quarter, then it's okay, how do we
Speaker 1: recover from that, because hopefully we don't need any more
Speaker 1: stimulus after this one, et cetera. And if it's that's
Speaker 1: at the same time as we start to see some
Speaker 1: text proposals, that's the only thing that I see concerns
Speaker 1: me longer. Yeah, but we seem to somehow manager I
Speaker 1: don't know, no offense, but I feel like companies figure
Speaker 1: out a way in terms of their effective tax rate
Speaker 1: to actually despite a you know, actual tax rate that
Speaker 1: they're supposed to pay, they ultimately pay up less j J.
Speaker 1: So it's not so onerous on the corporate community bottom line. No, No,
Speaker 1: that's true, Carol, But I just mean spending in general, etcetera. Again,
Speaker 1: I think it's great when you know people have this
Speaker 1: optimism and there there's incredible optimism right now, and and
Speaker 1: love to see it. Like I said, even though you know,
Speaker 1: reading a lot of the reports of the market, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't know there's an incredible optimism, But days like today
Speaker 1: make me believe there is. I guess what I'm really
Speaker 1: saying is I think anybody who believes sort of this
Speaker 1: shorter term volatility is going away is probably a little
Speaker 1: bit kidding themselves because there are things to worry about
Speaker 1: in the shorter term. But as we look for the rest,
Speaker 1: certainly for the rest of the next quarter, I just
Speaker 1: feel like we have a lot of momentum. We have checksitting,
Speaker 1: we have people anxious to spend money. It's the second
Speaker 1: half of the year that I start to wonder about
Speaker 1: a little bit and can we continue with this great
Speaker 1: optimism prove all right? So having said that, then how
Speaker 1: do you position a portfolio at this point? What's your
Speaker 1: take well. I think, you know, financials as have been
Speaker 1: a great uh contributor to the market so far this
Speaker 1: year half to be there. You know, they they fought
Speaker 1: for so many years the headwinds, and they were like
Speaker 1: a great boxer that wouldn't go down and kept getting
Speaker 1: punch in the face. And now with with the way
Speaker 1: they managed their business, the ability to collect funds and
Speaker 1: now they actually have true banking functions hopefully back and
Speaker 1: a little bit of a spread even though again I
Speaker 1: know I'm talking about at ten year rate, it's just
Speaker 1: over one point six. As if it's unbelievable us, let's
Speaker 1: face it. In perspective of historical it's nothing but the
Speaker 1: trends in the right direction for them. And I think
Speaker 1: Tommy hit on something on for a few minutes ago,
Speaker 1: and that is the hospitality industry, you know, small businesses
Speaker 1: all the way through these stocks and airlines. So I
Speaker 1: do think they have a great opportunity. The only thing
Speaker 1: that I think puts a little bit of a crimp
Speaker 1: in there, and and I don't know what I'll slow
Speaker 1: it down in the short term is actually a prude
Speaker 1: Prices continue up above seventy as we speak right now.
Speaker 1: You know West Texas is eight, but we uh, if
Speaker 1: we get above seventy, I think that puts a little
Speaker 1: bit of expense, perhaps back on airlines. J J. In
Speaker 1: five seconds, is there a ten year yield number that
Speaker 1: scares you? All? Right? Well, there it is, all right,
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