WEBVTT - Amex Earnings Top Estimates as Platinum Card Demand Surges 

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<v Speaker 2>We had some earnings, We had American Express and some

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<v Speaker 2>numbers out there and bringing together the bringing to the

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<v Speaker 2>forefront just this whole credit card business, which is such

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<v Speaker 2>a competitive business in terms of fees and what service

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<v Speaker 2>cards premium card space exactly and kind of what services

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<v Speaker 2>they provide.

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<v Speaker 3>You.

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<v Speaker 2>I know, people are really aggressive in kind of managing

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<v Speaker 2>the points and really trying to take advantage of that.

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<v Speaker 2>Ben Elliott, Bloomberg Intelligence consumer finance analysts. Ben talk to

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<v Speaker 2>us about American Express, the numbers that they reported today.

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<v Speaker 2>What did you see and what are some of the takeaways?

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<v Speaker 4>So I think what really jumped out to me today

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<v Speaker 4>is their their new plot Them card product, which you know,

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<v Speaker 4>made a bunch of headlines for raising the fee. It's

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<v Speaker 4>like nine hundred bucks a year now it is getting

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<v Speaker 4>great traction amongst millennials and gen z MX says that

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<v Speaker 4>they're getting two times as many applications and new card

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<v Speaker 4>accounts after the refresh. So how that translates to AMX's earnings.

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<v Speaker 4>You know, you see their expenses go up right away

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<v Speaker 4>because people get all these new benefits, all these new

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<v Speaker 4>credits that they have access to with the new card.

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<v Speaker 4>But the fee sort of advertises in over a year

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<v Speaker 4>or two, but the growth engine is still there. People

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<v Speaker 4>are still clamoring for this card and the business is

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<v Speaker 4>really sustaining an incredible level of growth.

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<v Speaker 5>Okay, so they raise a feed to eight hundred and

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<v Speaker 5>ninety five dollars and even more people applied for this

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<v Speaker 5>card because there's a bunch of these new perks. Do

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<v Speaker 5>these perks actually cost American Express a lot of money?

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<v Speaker 5>I mean, we're talking about four hundred dollars a year

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<v Speaker 5>of dining credits. There's also like free credits at Lululemon

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<v Speaker 5>and sacks and these are all things that people get

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<v Speaker 5>really up sessed over on Reddit threads, reddit boards.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah they could. I mean, so the costs are real, right,

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<v Speaker 4>they call them variable customer expenses. Typically they're brought about

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<v Speaker 4>like forty percent of the revenue of the company, but

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<v Speaker 4>that's the number is pretty flat actually, despite the introduction

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<v Speaker 4>of some of the new benefits. But so you know,

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<v Speaker 4>so their expenses are up about ten percent, which is

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<v Speaker 4>sort of there in line with their long term revenue

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<v Speaker 4>growth target. But over time you'll see that fee increase

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<v Speaker 4>start to advertise into earnings and that should more than

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<v Speaker 4>offset the increase in costs.

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<v Speaker 5>And how does the pick up in new customers compare

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<v Speaker 5>to its biggest competitor, which is a State Chase Sapphire

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<v Speaker 5>card and as well City Group coming out with a

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<v Speaker 5>new Strata card. It's its own elite card offering. How

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<v Speaker 5>would you stack them up against one another?

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<v Speaker 3>You know, it's interesting.

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<v Speaker 4>MX is always going to have a little bit of

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<v Speaker 4>an advantage here because they capture all of the economics

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<v Speaker 4>of a premium credit card because they're also the network, right,

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<v Speaker 4>so they're in addition to to earning the fee, they're

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<v Speaker 4>also earning a swipe fee every time customers use that card.

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<v Speaker 4>So the value proposition to AMEX is always inherently higher

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<v Speaker 4>than it would be to Chase or to City to

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<v Speaker 4>increase sort of the benefits they provide to the card

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<v Speaker 4>and to drive more customers there. I think what's really

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<v Speaker 4>interesting is that millennials and Gen z or are driving this.

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<v Speaker 4>I think it's like sixty five sixty four to six

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<v Speaker 4>five percent of the new customers or millennials and Gen zs.

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<v Speaker 4>And it's interesting the CEO is saying to they learners

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<v Speaker 4>call it. They're looking into how many of these people

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<v Speaker 4>are coming from other premium cards or how many people

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<v Speaker 4>are just coming to a premium card for the first time,

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<v Speaker 4>because they're so attracted to this new offering that that

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<v Speaker 4>Amex has out on the market. So it looks like

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<v Speaker 4>there's appetite for this. It's probably driven by social media

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<v Speaker 4>and sort of new new forces in our in our

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<v Speaker 4>society that are driving interest in premium credit cards. And

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<v Speaker 4>it looks like it has legs.

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<v Speaker 3>It looks like it has legs. And people don't just.

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<v Speaker 5>Get one Amex Platinum card the other thing, right, Ben,

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<v Speaker 5>I mean, they often get the Amex Gold card and

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<v Speaker 5>the Amex Screen card.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm on these Reddit threads.

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<v Speaker 5>I've been spending a lot of time on them because

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<v Speaker 5>I'm trying to decide which card I should keep or use.

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<v Speaker 5>And what struck me is how some people have like

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<v Speaker 5>ten credit cards in their wallet.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, they're very proud of how how the platinum and

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<v Speaker 4>the and the goal and some of their other cards

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<v Speaker 4>work together, and people love to be in the AMEX ecosystem.

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<v Speaker 4>And they actually had a lot of strength in their

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<v Speaker 4>high yield savings account growth this quarter as well, which

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<v Speaker 4>kind of goes along with people sort of. The MX

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<v Speaker 4>is able to meet all of their needs, right from

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<v Speaker 4>travel down through dining down through sort of every day

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<v Speaker 4>spend on groceries. And that's kind of the ultimate goal

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<v Speaker 4>is to pull people fully into the ecosystem, capture one

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<v Speaker 4>hundred percent of the economics of these super super prime,

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<v Speaker 4>super high income customers.

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<v Speaker 2>Ben, I'm holding in my hand my money clip cash.

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, he pulls it out right pretty regularly.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I got the green card on old school.

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<v Speaker 4>What's the fee on that cash exactly?

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<v Speaker 2>Hey, Ben, talk to us about just the credit quality.

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<v Speaker 2>What are the card companies you follow? What are they

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<v Speaker 2>saying these days about their consumer and credit quality?

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<v Speaker 4>So MX is incredible, right, they have almost no signs

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<v Speaker 4>whatsoever of stress. There's a little bit of stress. Last quarter.

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<v Speaker 4>Airline spending was down, that's sort of like the top top,

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<v Speaker 4>top of the wallet, kind of front of cabin spend

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<v Speaker 4>was down. But by and large, the companies I follow,

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<v Speaker 4>even sort of the less prime companies, the Synchronies and

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<v Speaker 4>Breads of the world that are doing things like point

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<v Speaker 4>of sale retail credit cards, even they are continuing to

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<v Speaker 4>see an improvement in credit And the interesting thing about

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<v Speaker 4>credit card charge offs is you see people go delinquent first,

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<v Speaker 4>and then you can kind of look six months into

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<v Speaker 4>the future and when they'll charge off, and delinquencies are

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<v Speaker 4>still improving. So as far as we can tell, six

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<v Speaker 4>months in the future, credit card charge offs still look good.

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<v Speaker 5>So what does this say for what Capital One is

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<v Speaker 5>likely to report, which I believe is on the twenty

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<v Speaker 5>first October.

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<v Speaker 4>I would expect the REA cross to be positive for

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<v Speaker 4>Capital One as well. You know, they're interested in this

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<v Speaker 4>top of wallet competition with Chase and an Amex, but

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<v Speaker 4>they're sort of the perennial third player, so it'll be

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<v Speaker 4>interesting to see if they lean more into that, you know,

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<v Speaker 4>through their marketing spend and some of the other expenses,

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<v Speaker 4>but ultimately chases bread and butter.

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<v Speaker 6>Sorry.

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<v Speaker 4>Capital One's bread and butter is kind of the less

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<v Speaker 4>prime borrower and that flows through in a much higher

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<v Speaker 4>net interest margin versus Chase and Amex, which are more

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<v Speaker 4>focused on fees and swipe revenue.

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<v Speaker 3>Stay with us.

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<v Speaker 2>More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us Live

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<v Speaker 1>weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, Cocklay and Android

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<v Speaker 1>Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever

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<v Speaker 1>you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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<v Speaker 5>The fundamentals underpinning this economy and the point financial mark

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<v Speaker 5>is is this idea that the consumer is resilient. But

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<v Speaker 5>a new study shows that all is not well in

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<v Speaker 5>car loans. Keith Notton is Bloomberg News is auto reporter

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<v Speaker 5>in Detroit. Anti joins us now and Keith auto loans

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<v Speaker 5>is really a good leading indicator of the economy because

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<v Speaker 5>people will continue to pay their car loans because they

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<v Speaker 5>need their car to get to work. So when they're

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<v Speaker 5>not paying their car loans, that's a sign that something's

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<v Speaker 5>not going well. What are we learning about car loans

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<v Speaker 5>right now?

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<v Speaker 7>Yeah, you know, the authors of this study say that

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<v Speaker 7>consumers are actually in their most precarious position since the

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<v Speaker 7>last recession. You're absolutely right, Scarlett. Normally, the car loan

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<v Speaker 7>and the mortgage payment are the priorities, particularly the car

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<v Speaker 7>loan because you need to get your kids to school,

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<v Speaker 7>get to work, all the things you need from a car.

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<v Speaker 7>But what we're seeing is over the last fifteen years,

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<v Speaker 7>delinquency so sixty days past due and more, have gone

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<v Speaker 7>up by more than fifty percent. So that has made

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<v Speaker 7>car loans actually the riskiest consumer credit product out there,

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<v Speaker 7>more so than mortgages of cards and personal loans, so Keith.

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<v Speaker 2>Another data point that jumped out of me is the

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<v Speaker 2>average auto loan balance has grown fifty seven percent since

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<v Speaker 2>twenty ten, outpacing all other credit products. I mean, it's

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<v Speaker 2>getting crazy out there. The average cost for average new

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<v Speaker 2>cars I think north of fifty thousand dollars now, I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>what's the industry saying?

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<v Speaker 7>Yeah? So that's also news of this week is that

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<v Speaker 7>the average price of a car, of a new car

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<v Speaker 7>is topping fifty thousand dollars for the first time. This

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<v Speaker 7>is all part of a shift that the industry has

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<v Speaker 7>made to selling more high price, high profit vehicles, especially

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<v Speaker 7>sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. You know, the industry,

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<v Speaker 7>particularly the Detroit automakers, have sort of moved away from

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<v Speaker 7>the bare bones economy models you might remember coming straight

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<v Speaker 7>out of college, and now it's all about these very

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<v Speaker 7>well equipped, very well appointed cars. You can spend over

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<v Speaker 7>one hundred thousand dollars for a Ford F series pickup truck.

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<v Speaker 5>Keith, You've spent about forty years tracking the auto industry,

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<v Speaker 5>covering it in great detail. When you get a report

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<v Speaker 5>like this, how do the automakers respond, how do they

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<v Speaker 5>capitalize on this or how do they modify their offerings

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<v Speaker 5>in response to this?

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<v Speaker 7>Yeah, you know, there is a lot of talk and

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<v Speaker 7>some movement lately toward coming out with affordable models. Again,

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<v Speaker 7>they really had kind of disappeared from the market cars

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<v Speaker 7>under thirty thousand dollars. In fact, one of the Kelly

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<v Speaker 7>Bluebook people recently said the twenty thousand dollars car has

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<v Speaker 7>basically become extinct. So there is some focus on that,

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<v Speaker 7>including in the electric vehicle space, but we've yet to

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<v Speaker 7>see that materialize in a big way. Scarlett.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, what Matt Miller tells me, Keith, is that they're

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<v Speaker 2>going to continue to make these cars because people are

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<v Speaker 2>these high price cars which are very high margin because

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<v Speaker 2>people are buying them.

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<v Speaker 7>Yes, they are. What it does, though, is it shrinks

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<v Speaker 7>the new car market to just kind of the wealthiest households.

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<v Speaker 7>It really excludes mainstream consumers if everything is priced above

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<v Speaker 7>fifty thousand dollars, and you know, that can cause trouble

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<v Speaker 7>down the road if your market keeps shrinking.

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<v Speaker 5>So how do you think this plays out in the

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<v Speaker 5>second secondary car market, the used car market.

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<v Speaker 7>Then, used car prices are also high. You know, they're

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<v Speaker 7>close to thirty thousand dollars on average. So a lot

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<v Speaker 7>of those first time car buyers or budget minded car

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<v Speaker 7>buyers are going to the used car market and they're finding,

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<v Speaker 7>you know, the sort of three year old used car,

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<v Speaker 7>the classic Goodbye, is more expensive than it used to be.

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<v Speaker 2>And what's the and this is the stat that gets me,

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<v Speaker 2>what's the average age of a car these days out

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<v Speaker 2>there on the roads.

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<v Speaker 7>It's over twelve years wow, which is such a change

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<v Speaker 7>from the days of our youth when a car would

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<v Speaker 7>never last past one hundred thousand miles. Now cars are

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<v Speaker 7>built to really go the distance. And so that's another

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<v Speaker 7>factor in this affordability crisis. A lot of people aren't

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<v Speaker 7>even going after the used cars. They're just you know,

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<v Speaker 7>sticking with the clunker that they have for as long

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<v Speaker 7>as they can ride it.

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<v Speaker 3>Stay with us.

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<v Speaker 2>More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live

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<v Speaker 1>weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, Cocklay and Android

0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.120
<v Speaker 1>Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever

0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.280
<v Speaker 1>you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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<v Speaker 3>Let's talk a little bit about higher education.

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<v Speaker 5>It has been in the spotlight, and not always in

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<v Speaker 5>a good way, but for four historically black colleges this week,

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<v Speaker 5>it's been a very good week because the family foundation

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<v Speaker 5>of Arthur Blank, who owns the Atlanta Falcons and was

0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.920
<v Speaker 5>the co founder of home Depot, gave a very generous

0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:52.800
<v Speaker 5>gift to four of those schools. I want to bring

0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.920
<v Speaker 5>in now, Rosbrewer. She is the interim president of Spelman

0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:01.200
<v Speaker 5>College in Atlanta. And Janet Wore Bloomberg News is higher

0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.640
<v Speaker 5>education finance reporter. Janet, why don't you just set the

0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:05.319
<v Speaker 5>scene for us here?

0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.400
<v Speaker 6>Thanks for having me so. Arthur Plank, as you mentioned,

0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.880
<v Speaker 6>is the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, his adopted hometown,

0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.920
<v Speaker 6>and he decided to give a fifty million dollar gift

0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.480
<v Speaker 6>to four historically black colleges. And what I found pretty

0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.520
<v Speaker 6>remarkable is that when all four colleges said what our

0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.400
<v Speaker 6>needs are. It was exactly the same thing. It was

0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:31.400
<v Speaker 6>grants to students to help them finish college, get over

0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.680
<v Speaker 6>the line. And in some cases it's just a couple

0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:36.280
<v Speaker 6>of one hundred dollars, it could be a couple of

0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:40.120
<v Speaker 6>thousand dollars. But one of the most intractable problems in

0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.040
<v Speaker 6>higher education is students completing college, and these types of

0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.440
<v Speaker 6>grants literally help them get to the next semester and

0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.800
<v Speaker 6>to finish and to realize the economic benefit of college

0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.240
<v Speaker 6>rather than leaving and having loans, which is the worst outcome.

0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.480
<v Speaker 5>All right, So, ros can you walk us through how

0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.280
<v Speaker 5>the schools came up with this idea to give students

0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.480
<v Speaker 5>small grants to finish their degrees. What the conversation was

0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.160
<v Speaker 5>like with Arthur Blank.

0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:06.240
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely.

0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.280
<v Speaker 8>I think if you know Arthur Blank and his family foundation,

0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.640
<v Speaker 8>they are deeply committed to the Atlanta community. But he

0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:19.240
<v Speaker 8>also has a great commitment to accessible education and he's

0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.480
<v Speaker 8>made that very clear to us over the years. This

0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.319
<v Speaker 8>is actually the second grant that we've received as Spelman

0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.600
<v Speaker 8>College from the Arthur Blank family Foundation. The first one

0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:31.040
<v Speaker 8>was a ten million dollar grant towards our Center for

0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.600
<v Speaker 8>the Innovation in the Arts He named the Innovation Lab

0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:39.319
<v Speaker 8>after his family and himself. But this was really a

0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:43.920
<v Speaker 8>combination of discussions around how we both believe the game

0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:49.440
<v Speaker 8>changer of education through accessibility and affordability, and he stepped

0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.920
<v Speaker 8>right in. This wasn't an easy grant, let me just say,

0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.800
<v Speaker 8>because we wanted to make sure that this was mutual

0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.160
<v Speaker 8>and that we would meet his expectations.

0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.840
<v Speaker 2>Talk to us about, you know, the typical student at Spelman.

0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.720
<v Speaker 2>What's the financial burden on them? These days we hear

0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.719
<v Speaker 2>in read and we all experience the spiring cost of

0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.240
<v Speaker 2>higher education. Talk to us about maybe a typical student

0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:13.720
<v Speaker 2>at Spelman.

0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:18.760
<v Speaker 8>Yes, a typical student at Spelman actually is what we

0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.200
<v Speaker 8>call a pal eligible student, usually coming from a family

0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.160
<v Speaker 8>of you know, roughly about one hundred and fifty thousand

0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:28.720
<v Speaker 8>dollars or less of income and has more than one

0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.240
<v Speaker 8>child in the family. And so when you think about

0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.280
<v Speaker 8>the cost of higher ed tuition, room and board at

0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:39.200
<v Speaker 8>an institution like Spelman College is roughly fifty six thousand dollars,

0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.680
<v Speaker 8>and a young woman from Spelman could graduate with as

0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.880
<v Speaker 8>much as thirty two thousand to forty thousand dollars worth

0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:51.520
<v Speaker 8>of student loans alone. And so when you think about that,

0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.720
<v Speaker 8>that's sometimes a non starter, especially if they're thinking of

0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:57.160
<v Speaker 8>going on to graduate school.

0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.640
<v Speaker 5>Jennet just put this into context for us because President

0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.480
<v Speaker 5>Trump in his second term has boosted funding for historically

0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:08.600
<v Speaker 5>black colleges and universities while taking aim.

0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.800
<v Speaker 3>At Higher ED. Has he followed through on that funding The.

0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.840
<v Speaker 6>Details of that, I don't know, but typically historically black

0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:21.320
<v Speaker 6>colleges do not have as high graduation rates as other colleges.

0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.720
<v Speaker 6>And part of the reason our large populations of eligible students'

0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.600
<v Speaker 6>lower income students where potentially just a couple of one

0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.040
<v Speaker 6>hundred dollars, a couple of thousand dollars can get them

0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.680
<v Speaker 6>again to that next semester to graduate.

0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.800
<v Speaker 2>Ros's just kind of follow up a little bit on that.

0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.000
<v Speaker 2>President Trump and this administration have taken aim at some

0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:47.720
<v Speaker 2>very high profile, large research universities, including Harvard and Columbia.

0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:53.000
<v Speaker 2>As an educator yourself, how are you viewing this environment?

0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.160
<v Speaker 8>Well, you know, it is a tough environment in higher

0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.760
<v Speaker 8>ED right now because you know, on their early on

0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.760
<v Speaker 8>of this administration, we saw deep cuts in research funding.

0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.960
<v Speaker 8>And the one thing that I know for sure, you know,

0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.400
<v Speaker 8>having a corporate background now combined with higher ED is

0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.760
<v Speaker 8>that research funds a lot of innovation and technology that

0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.880
<v Speaker 8>happens at the corporate level which becomes commercial opportunities. So

0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.520
<v Speaker 8>I think, you know, more understanding of cutting off the

0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.920
<v Speaker 8>lifeline of innovation in this country is something that should

0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:29.240
<v Speaker 8>be explored. I will, you know, agree with Samantha that

0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.760
<v Speaker 8>you know, we don't know what these new funds are

0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.920
<v Speaker 8>that are directed towards HBCUs and we're interested to learn more.

0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.560
<v Speaker 5>And of course, Ros with your background leading Walgreens, leading

0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:44.840
<v Speaker 5>Starbucks as COO and of course CEO of Sam's Club,

0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:47.480
<v Speaker 5>what kind of best practices can you take from the

0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:52.040
<v Speaker 5>corporate boardroom to the academic institutions that you're now running

0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:53.960
<v Speaker 5>to dispel them In college, for instance, that would kind

0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.200
<v Speaker 5>of dispel some of those concerns that people have about

0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:00.520
<v Speaker 5>higher ED not knowing how to run their institutions efficiently.

0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.640
<v Speaker 8>Yes, you know, one of the things I've committed to

0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.199
<v Speaker 8>this board of trustees at Filman College is that I

0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.400
<v Speaker 8>will try to bring as much business to this institution

0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.720
<v Speaker 8>as I possibly can, and that would be through a

0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.160
<v Speaker 8>new financial or business model. You know, we live off

0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:19.080
<v Speaker 8>of very few sources of revenue, but if we looked

0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.560
<v Speaker 8>at our institutions through the lens of what we could

0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:26.000
<v Speaker 8>monetize things like our online learning programs that right now

0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.480
<v Speaker 8>through the number of you know, high school students that

0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.840
<v Speaker 8>need certifications, could we provide those. So there's some avenues

0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.880
<v Speaker 8>that we're researching right now in terms of how we

0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.520
<v Speaker 8>look at monetizing the things we do on our campus.

0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.360
<v Speaker 8>I would also say strong fiduciary responsibility. You know, we're

0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.879
<v Speaker 8>proud of ourselves at Spelman that we actually balance our

0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.600
<v Speaker 8>budget really for the last twenty to twenty five years.

0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:54.520
<v Speaker 8>But that takes discipline and also to looking at unique partnerships.

0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.160
<v Speaker 8>You know, I reflect on my corporate career and said,

0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.720
<v Speaker 8>you know, when we wanted to venture into a new category,

0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.680
<v Speaker 8>please oftentimes select the partner to go with.

0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:08.440
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