Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Former House majority leader Eric Canter joins us now currently
Speaker 2: of Molus, and I want to start on the economy
Speaker 2: and all of these deals that we see going on.
Speaker 2: I mean, is this just an incredibly robust deals pipeline
Speaker 2: on the heels of benign economy and wide open capital markets.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, I know, Molas.
Speaker 3: You know, our bankers are really busy as we come
Speaker 3: into the very end of the year running through the tape,
Speaker 3: and so there's a lot of dialogue. We're in the
Speaker 3: business of advising on transactions. Transactions are a tool for
Speaker 3: companies to accelerate growth, to figure out how to better position,
Speaker 3: to gain efficiencies, and as you say, there are accommodative
Speaker 3: capital markets right now too, and so we are seeing
Speaker 3: just a lot of dialogue, a lot of activity, and
Speaker 3: I think a general optimism as we come to the
Speaker 3: new year.
Speaker 2: What's interesting is in markets right now you're seeing a
Speaker 2: bit of skepticism pushback broadcom perfect example of that. We
Speaker 2: also saw that with Oracle, investors are saying you need
Speaker 2: to pay up a little bit more. As vice chair
Speaker 2: of Molus, so you're seeing that pushback in any way
Speaker 2: shape or form, or deals just coming out of the
Speaker 2: woodwork in ways that keep even your associates really busy,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: I think if you look at the if you look
Speaker 3: at the strategic sort of universe, I mean, they are
Speaker 3: and have always had a list of where they're heading
Speaker 3: in terms of targets and the kind of deals they
Speaker 3: want to do. And certainly in the sponsor world, there
Speaker 3: are other sort of forces at work. You know, the
Speaker 3: need to recycle capital, you know, assets that may need
Speaker 3: to be to go into a continuation fund them. There
Speaker 3: are all types of different tools available for clients, investors' sponsors, strategics,
Speaker 3: and as you say, I think overall the framework in
Speaker 3: the environment is more constructive now, certainly Washington, when people
Speaker 3: look to the regulatory impact, we have sort of come
Speaker 3: out from under this very very negative regulatory outlook that
Speaker 3: we had in the prior administration.
Speaker 1: Talk a bit more about that. So when you're talking
Speaker 1: to executives about that regulatory environment, how would you describe it?
Speaker 1: I mean, we see some of these agencies where there's
Speaker 1: not a full panoply of commissioners. For instance, we heard
Speaker 1: it from the Treasury sectory. There's be some new corporate
Speaker 1: tax policies coming here into effect in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: How much of it is still in cod or clear
Speaker 1: for you at this point of where it's headed regulatorily.
Speaker 3: You know, I think with this president and this administration,
Speaker 3: and I think there is just sort of an acceptance
Speaker 3: that you're never really going to know for certain anything
Speaker 3: because of the way that you know, the rapidity that
Speaker 3: things are about in Washington, the way that President Trump
Speaker 3: sort of approaches, you know, the power he's got in
Speaker 3: the position very unique. But I think on the whole,
Speaker 3: it's a much more constructive regulatory environment, and you just
Speaker 3: don't have this overhang that you had in the prior
Speaker 3: Biden administration, where you know, there was really an anti
Speaker 3: business sentiment and if you just remember that we'd select
Speaker 3: eons ago. But with the likes of Lena Kahn and
Speaker 3: Jonathan Canner, they were sitting in these spots in the
Speaker 3: head of the anti trust regulators and they really definitionally said,
Speaker 3: if you are bigger, that is bad, and therefore we're
Speaker 3: not really inclined to allow you to do it. Whereas
Speaker 3: this administration, it's not like it was under the Bush administration,
Speaker 3: but it's certainly much more constructive than they like to
Speaker 3: do deals.
Speaker 1: As you've watched that parade of executives going through the
Speaker 1: Oval Office, some of whom are giving up equity stakes
Speaker 1: to the US government. What are you thinking, as a
Speaker 1: lifelong Republican this kind of new new breed of Trump
Speaker 1: Republicanism that involves again, it's not derogism, but it's sort
Speaker 1: of like the state is having a heavier hand in
Speaker 1: the way that these.
Speaker 3: Pals are not. I know, David, I still remain a
Speaker 3: limited government, free market Republican and conservative. So it's obviously
Speaker 3: something very new to me to see that the government
Speaker 3: wants to take a stake in a business and or
Speaker 3: a toll if it's an export. That is something that
Speaker 3: is obviously and I think for the majority of the
Speaker 3: members that are in the Congress now, it is something
Speaker 3: that's very new. But I do think it's much more
Speaker 3: in keeping with what President Trump is about and what
Speaker 3: his career has been about about deal making. And I
Speaker 3: think if you look at sort of the Intel situation
Speaker 3: and what happened there, it was more of a response
Speaker 3: to the disdain that the White House had for the
Speaker 3: Chip Sack and just giving away moneies and instead say, hey,
Speaker 3: we need to do something for the taxpayers. Now, where
Speaker 3: I have an issue is the governance rights. You know
Speaker 3: that is you know, it's not as if the federal
Speaker 3: government has not stepped in before. I mean, you and
Speaker 3: I were down there when the Great Financial Crisis happened
Speaker 3: and a lot of bailouts. You look at the airline industry,
Speaker 3: you look at the GSCs. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of history. But the difference this Before there was always
Speaker 3: sort of a path and a known path to an
Speaker 3: excess and now not so clear.
Speaker 2: Well, this is sort of the concern is that right now,
Speaker 2: if you're putting an empersistent deal making, deregulation and potentially
Speaker 2: job owning the FED to cut rates more aggressively at
Speaker 2: a time that the economy is still chugging along, at
Speaker 2: what point are you setting up the risk of that
Speaker 2: kind of scenario once again in twenty twenty seven or
Speaker 2: twenty eight.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, I think this president has been very consistent
Speaker 3: his message of growth and he wants growth, and that
Speaker 3: is the way, and that is where sort of the
Speaker 3: more traditional sort of conservative Republican can come along with
Speaker 3: the agenda, because it is we've always been about real
Speaker 3: growth comes from the private sector. And if you look
Speaker 3: at where the administration has been taking stakes, it's really
Speaker 3: in these industries that are critical to the national security.
Speaker 3: It is about AI related, it is about the rare
Speaker 3: earth's minerals. It is all about how do we go
Speaker 3: and continue to take the lead in these critical sectors
Speaker 3: Visa China and other bad actors.
Speaker 2: How do you think this administration is done with respect
Speaker 2: to messaging around affordability? This is something that has been
Speaker 2: dogging the administration quite a bit. Now we're talking about
Speaker 2: dolls and Christmas presents, but there's this issue of people
Speaker 2: aren't feeling great even though the economy is chugging around.
Speaker 2: What do you think, What do you think the Congress
Speaker 2: should be doing? How do you think the president should
Speaker 2: be messaging this? Well?
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting after the off year elections, one
Speaker 3: of which was in my state of Virginia, and the
Speaker 3: party didn't farewell, President was fairly nimble and ten days
Speaker 3: later turning around and taking the steps he did in
Speaker 3: lifting the tariffs on two hundred food items and which
Speaker 3: directly impact people when they go into the grocery store
Speaker 3: to look to prepare for the holiday meals, including not
Speaker 3: just the things that we don't grow here, but like
Speaker 3: beef right in Brazilian beef, And there's a real inflationary
Speaker 3: pressure in the beef industry in this country. And I
Speaker 3: think the administration took the steps necessary to provide the relief.
Speaker 3: So I think you're going to see a lot more
Speaker 3: accommodation in terms of that as we head into the
Speaker 3: new year. And look, the President's also this is something
Speaker 3: also very novel, David, back to your original point about
Speaker 3: the kinds of things that administration's doing. He's talking about
Speaker 3: a dividend from the tariffs. I mean, but that is
Speaker 3: something directly related to the issue, Lisa, that you bring up,
Speaker 3: and that is how is a presence supposed to bring
Speaker 3: down prices when we're in a free market.
Speaker 1: Don't have a whole lot of time left, but I
Speaker 1: want to ask you about the prospects of the fiscal
Speaker 1: stimulus in the new year from the tax bill. I
Speaker 1: mean that the President talks about so much, maybe he
Speaker 1: hasn't been focused enough sort of on the potential benefits
Speaker 1: of that for ordinary Americans. How do you see that's
Speaker 1: laying out in the year head.
Speaker 3: Look on what's going on with AI and with cap
Speaker 3: ax necessary to bring about this infrastructure, not just in
Speaker 3: the data center piece and all that, but on the
Speaker 3: power end of things. I mean, there is a tremendous
Speaker 3: tailwind we're going to experience from the ability to completely
Speaker 3: you know, write off the expense upfront. So you know,
Speaker 3: I do think, and I think most economists will say,
Speaker 3: there will be an uptick in terms of what that
Speaker 3: will do to increase people's willingness to go and put capital.
Speaker 2: To work by share. Eric Canter of Molus and Company,
Speaker 2: also the former House majority leader, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for being with us this morning.
Speaker 3: Hollow