WEBVTT - Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - June 10th, 2022 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:05.400 This is Bloomberg Business Week Inside from the reporters and 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:09.200 editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.200 global business, finance and tech news. As it happened, Sloomberg 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.759 Business Week with Carol Messier and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.480 Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, everyone, Welcome to the weekend 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.880 edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Inflation jitters, economic growth concerns, 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.320 and anticipation of the Fed's upcoming policy meeting once again 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:31.680 front and center as we get ready for what will 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.960 likely be another half point rate hike this coming week. Okay, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.000 you mentioned inflation, Carol. The US Central Bank certainly trying 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.239 to tame soaring prices. There is some progress, though, being 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.400 made on another front. Working class Americans are gaining ground 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.199 for the first time in a generation. That story in 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.040 just a minute, and a question of whether it will last. 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.720 Also ahead, the CEO Plug Power on the company's hydrogen 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.440 fuel plans for Europe, the latest on the push for 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:00.160 gun reform with the Connecticut Attorney General, and our over 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.200 story our Business Week cover story on the so called 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.160 Lord of Lenai Oracle co founder Larry Ellison. All of 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:09.200 that to come first up though a story in the 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.000 economic section of the new issue of Business Week. It 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.760 begins like this quote, so Faro is on quite a 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:19.000 role war inflation, market sell offs for session where he's 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.680 virus lockdowns in China and record breaking consumer pessimism in 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.960 the US, plus a new book by inequality expert Thomas 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.720 Pachetti spotlighting the unfairness of it all. Bloomberg News Personal 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.959 Finance editor Ben Steve Verman wrote the piece. He joined 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.959 us along way Toil Webber, the editor of Bloomberg Business Week, 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.760 Joel with so much talk of inflation, higher prices across 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.120 the board, the pandemic, and the challenges. In fact, the 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.400 bottom of Americans are in a relatively good financial position, 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.600 at least compared to how they have been in previous generations. 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.120 Relative really important word, right, But what really stuck out 0:01:55.160 --> 0:02:00.000 to me in Bin's reporting here is how historic, um, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:05.240 the gains of the pandemic have actually been. Um. You 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.440 know the bottom that you know, the US is basically 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:13.359 the most unequal developed nation in the world. And what 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:18.520 we saw was a glimpse of maybe hope, um, but 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.360 also these gains that could be incredibly fragile. So so 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:24.640 Ben break it down to us what really jumped out 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.200 to you with these numbers? So yeah, I mean, basically, 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.520 we've seen a doubling of the net worth of the bottom. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:36.560 You can kind of think of the bottoms like the 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:41.040 working class and there, well they the thing is, they 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.880 never really have ever had that much wealth, So uh, 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:50.920 we're talking about h going up. We're still much less 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.399 wealth than than the rest of the population has, but 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.520 doubling is significant, and it means that people have more 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:03.640 cash on hand to emergencies. Um. And I've talked to 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.120 a lot of people in this situation who've been able 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:12.399 to use that money coming from pandemic stimulus and also 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.320 from the hot job market, and they've been able to 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.359 make some changes in their lives like maybe moves, maybe 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:24.320 go to school, um maybe um uh, just find a 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.679 career instead of just a dead end job. And that's 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:32.840 really that's hopefully, that's something that's that's good that's come 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:34.720 out of this pandemic. Ben One of the things I 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:36.800 love also about this story, and this has happened so 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.120 often in Business Week, is just going to individuals themselves 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.440 and telling their personal stories just give us a highlight 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.680 that maybe stuck out for you, UM, because I think 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.320 that just tells what a difference a higher paying job 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.120 can make for some of these individuals. Yeah. So UM, 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.160 one woman I talked to she was a nanny UH 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.640 and in March she lost her job UM, and she 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.680 actually had to tap like an emergency fund set up 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.680 for domestic workers just so she could move back home 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.440 with her mom uh and move in with her. But 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.880 then when the unemployment check started coming in, UM, she 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.800 was making more than she was than nanny and she 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.599 was able to really kind of hold out for a 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.800 good job and make a career shift. And so what 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.120 she ended up doing. It took forever there were any 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:26.920 jobs for a while, and then it took a while 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.160 to find the really a good one. But in September one, 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.120 she started working from home for a tech company doing 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:37.760 consuming customer service. She loves it, UM, and she basically 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.680 doubled her nanny salary. And not only that, she has 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.360 a path for advancement at this company. UM. I talked 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.960 to another guy who UM, he had a criminal conviction 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.560 on his record and he lost his job. And when 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:56.200 this criminal conviction came through and um, she would then 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.880 just cycled from job to job to job he wasn't 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:00.960 able to keep things, he was am able to get jobs, 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.159 wasn't able to get second interviews when they learned about it. Um. 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:08.159 Now he you know, employers are treating applicants differently these days. 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:12.480 They're opening broadening up the up application pool, looking for 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.599 good people. And now he's working at a hospital. He's 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.599 basically a janitor, but he this is something he actually 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.880 thinks he can, he likes and he he thinks he 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.080 enjoys this work, working talking with patients, working with patients, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.479 and he again he sees an opportunity to advance himself 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.360 at this job. Whereas he go ahead, I want to 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.039 make sure because when we have a minute left, that 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:35.560 we get to the flip side of this and the 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:39.120 fragility that Joel referenced in the beginning, because so give 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.960 us the context there and what Picketty warrants. Yeah, I mean, inflation, 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.120 first of all, could eat up all these games, um. 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.359 And we're still seeing wage games at the bottom that 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.400 are faster than inflation if you look at twelve months 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:58.080 back or so. But that could get with them all away. 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.520 The other thing that's it's worrying is just raising higher 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.560 reterest rates, tipping the US into recession, then you have 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:07.160 a lot of people out of work again, and we 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.000 have a much cooler job market and we don't have 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:14.400 the decent kinds of games. Yeah, and the other thing 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.080 that you don't have time to point out really, but um, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:19.560 that I thought was interesting here is that it came 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.360 the bottom half. That that game came at the expense 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:27.240 of the middle class, which has potentially serious ramifications politically 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.800 and and beyond. Frankly, but it's you know, one thing 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:32.880 goes up and another thing's got to come down, and 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.200 it's like encouraging and yet at the same time, you know, TBD, 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.159 what what other things are play out? Yet? That was 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.920 Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Webber, along with Bloomberg News 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.560 Personal Finance editor Ben Steve Berman, coming up building supply chain, 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:50.119 resilience and renewable energy sources when we need them the most. 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.600 My conversation with the CFOs of Chevron and Flex. You're 0:06:53.640 --> 0:07:04.839 listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.760 Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes. 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:13.640 Tim Stenovik from Bloomberg Radio at a Bloomberg Live event 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.280 this week. It was all about companies thriving in the 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.760 new normal. It also included a panel I moderated on 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.520 volatility and resilience, the call for Greater Agility. Carol caught 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.640 up with Anya Manuel, the co founder and partner at Rice, Hadley, 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.440 Gates and Manuel LLC, which specializes in scenario planning and 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.360 advises the global companies about global markets, Paul Lundstrom, the 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.680 CFO at Flex It's a global manufacturing supply chain solutions company, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.960 and Chevron CFO Pierre Breber. I told them it was 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.480 an all star lineup to address the big macro issues 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.120 that are really impacting our world right now. This conversation, 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.080 it starts with Anya Manuel, a one time foreign policy 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.560 advisor under George W. Bush, on what she's telling clients 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.920 to prepare for in the current economic climate. And resilient 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.080 are the watchwords we Connolly's a Rice, my other business partners, 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:09.520 and I advised US CEO s on geopolitics. And so 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.360 it's been an exciting few months and I think the 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:14.960 good lesson that most of the CEOs we work with 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.440 have taken away is they were a little bit blindsided. 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.640 They didn't quite see Russia coming. I think there's an 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:26.320 untold story here that US businesses reacted so well, I mean, 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:29.559 really had their values out front, did what they could 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:34.400 for their own employees in Russia, in Ukraine went well 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.920 beyond what the sanctions required and really found their values 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.960 as corporations. And that's a really good story. And now 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.480 what we're doing with a lot of our clients as 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.880 a follow up is saying, okay, so we did that 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:51.600 in Russia. Russia was a tiny amount usually of US 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.600 companies revenue, but China is a huge chunk of their revenue, 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:57.840 and the supply chains run through their everything that talked 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.479 Paul was talking about. Now we're doing a lot of conversations. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.480 How do you make that part of your business more resilient. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.360 How do you think about diversifying and having a pan 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.040 Asia strategy exactly what Paul talked about, rather than just 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.680 a China strategy. How careful do you have to be 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.679 about R and D in China where it's inexpensive and 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.640 they have great engineers, but spies are likely already in 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.960 your system and a whole list of things running through indicators. 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:28.600 What are the break glass things that could happen in 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.480 US China relations that would really make you have to 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.800 rethink as a CEO whether you need to make sure 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.839 your expats are safe, what they need to move your 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.200 operations out of there, or whether you can continue to 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.559 do business well. And you know, Paul, come on back 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:44.760 in on this, because I do think if for anybody 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.080 who's out there, this concept of near shoring or on 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:51.400 shoring is something changing when it comes to globalization, which 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.880 we know has benefited so many globally. And many would 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:56.960 say it's hard to go back on this, but how 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:58.680 do we need to Is there going to be something 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.480 different going forward about a near shoring and on shoring? Well, 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.480 I think it has changed, and it hasn't just been 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.599 the last couple of years. It's it's been for I 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.880 don't know, at least it Flex, it's been for fifteen years. 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.080 You look back thirty years ago and it was you know, 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.120 manufacturing was it was all about labor arbitract and so 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.800 you saw a lot of work moving overseas to take 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.400 advantage of lower labor rates. Interesting status here this is 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.600 this is just for Flex, but fifteen years ago, fifty 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.800 six percent of our sales came out of Asia, so 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.600 it was for export, but it was produced in Asia 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.560 sent of the business last year thirty seven. So over 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.240 the last fifteen years you've seen about a twenty point 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.800 drop in in production in Asia. Now, does that mean 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.680 that we're exiting you know, Asia, No, absolutely not. You 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:49.959 know I mentioned before, we're going to produce in Asia 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:51.720 four Asia, We're gonna produce in Europe for year, We're 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.400 gonna prouce in the Americans for the Americas, and there's 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.679 going to be export out of all of those regions 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.640 as well. But I think it's just as the supply 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.800 chain to have grown more and more sophisticated, as end 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.920 customers want their product closer to the end customer, we've 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.520 just been repiping the network. So, Pierre, how do you 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.000 think about this current cycle? As you said, there's boom 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:13.760 and bust, certainly in the energy market. How do you 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.480 think about this one? Is there something different that is 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:18.800 shaping strategy or some of the conversations that you're having 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.720 with your CEO, Mike Worth. All cycles have similarities fundamentally 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.160 demand and supply getting out of sink because again they 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.880 operate on different time cycles, and and yeah, they all 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.000 have differences of go oh eight oh nine, you know, 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.480 global financial crisis fourteen fifteen largely specific to the industry 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.800 and supply responding, and then and then covid UM. So 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.200 what does feel different about this one clearly is UH, 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.520 E S G and and the you know, we we 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:47.640 have been an out of favor investment for a long time. 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.280 I know the energy sector has performed UH well for 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.480 the last year, but if you go back ten years 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:55.600 and for most of the last decade, we've been a 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.320 flat stock with a growing dividend, but a flat stock 0:11:58.320 --> 0:11:59.959 in a market that's tripled. And if you go back 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.080 five years of markets double, then again we were flat 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.600 until very recently. So we still have a long way 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.200 to go to win back investors. But what we're seeing 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:11.199 is clearly the constraints on capital investment is a difference. 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:13.960 E S G. Investing is a much bigger trend than 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.000 it was. You know, the last couple of prices that 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.800 we've had. UM. You have European companies under a lot 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.280 of pressure to shrink their business. We have not UH. 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.120 You know, we can tend to grow our traditional business 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.080 and our new energy business. We think we can do both, 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:28.840 and we know we can move both. But we have 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.320 some major competitors that are shrinking, getting out of the business. 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.120 Essentially you have Saudi Aramco, which is a public company. 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.320 So yeah, there's always some differences, uh that, and it 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.840 might cause this cycle to stay up longer, but fundamentally 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.400 it's a cyclical business. We're prepared for a correction. We 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.760 show our investors what we call downside resilience upside leverage. 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:49.960 So we at fifty dollar brands, so less than half 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.480 of where we're trading right now in all prices, we 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.400 can invest in the business. We can grow the business, 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.800 we can grow the dividend um and have a strong 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.280 balance sheet, and of course at prices above that will 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:01.319 generate excess pre cash flow and we can buy back 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.240 a lot of shares. So when when old prices were negative, 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.640 we knew it wasn't gonna last forever. When all prices 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:08.320 over a hundred dollars, and we know that's not gonna 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.599 last forever either, you know when you said E s G. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:12.040 Because this is one of the other things that people 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.520 are concerned about that because of the pressures on the 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.640 system right now, especially in the energy market, that it 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.800 will slow the transition to all the energy um being 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.760 agile in this volatile market, you have to still continue 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:25.480 to think about kind of where this world is going? 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.040 Is that fair to say? Pre and you have to 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.440 continue to make those investments. Both things are true. So 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.360 the world's going from seven and a half billion people 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:33.760 to nine billion people. Billions of people around the world 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:36.880 want greater access to energy, and of course the world 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.520 wants address climate change in the Paris Agreements and want 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.280 lower carbon sources of energy. So we can do both, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.880 and we are doing both. Uh. And you see that 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.400 in the growing production we've talked about earlier this year, 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.320 and and our Renewal Energy Group acquisition, which we'll do 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.240 in June. We'll be the largest biodiesel producer in the country. 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.360 We're gonna grow renewable diesel. Like Paul has customers who 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.680 want um shorter supply chains, we have stromers who want 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.679 lower carbon solutions. So United Airlines wants lower carbon jet fuel, 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.920 Amazon and Walmart for their trucking fleet, they want lower 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.600 carbon fuels, renewable natural gas, renewable diesel, conventional diesel that's 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.480 made with lower carbon hydrogen one day. And so our 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.880 new energy business, which is focused on renewable fuels, hydrogen, 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.040 carbon capture and storage, is making great progress. But it 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.360 is a long transition. It's decades. We talked about the 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.040 chip shortage takes a long time. That was Chevron CFO 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.480 Pierre Breber, Flex CFO Paul Lundstrom and a former State 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.160 Department official on your Manuel. She's the co founder and 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.720 partner at Rice Hadley Gates and Manuel. And if you 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:36.400 missed any of the conversation or want to hear the 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.880 full conversation, just go to Bloomberg Live dot com. Still 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.040 ahead on Bloomberg Business Week, how the n r A 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.840 sought to suppress data that researchers believed could help prevent 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.760 deaths from gun violence here in America. This is Bloomberg 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.800 Broadcasting from the financial capital of the world, Bloomberg Rio 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:03.120 in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.640 Bloomberg one oh six one, does San Francisco, Bloomberg nine 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.960 six to the country Sirius XM Channel one nineteen and 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.400 around the globe the Bloomberg Business at and Bloomberg Radio 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.600 dot com. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:23.320 and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stenovin on Bloomberg Radio. All right, good, 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.920 a question, why is it that as the toll from 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.359 gun shooting mounds, public health funding to study the problem 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.560 does not and asking that question and really seeking out 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.080 a solution is a story found online at business week 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.360 dot com and on the Bloomberg It looks into how 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.560 National Rifle Association and r A lobbyists have been curbing 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.720 research aimed at preventing gun violence deaths. We talked about 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.280 it with business Week editor Joel Weber and the journalist 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.400 who wrote the story, Bloomberg News health reporter Madison Mueller. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.320 I had seen some data after the most recent shootings 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.160 that gun violence had become the leading cause of death 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.400 and kids and teams under the age of nineteen, and 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.560 I was like, Okay, well, obviously that's a health issue, UM. 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:05.440 And so started started talking to some experts in this field, 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.680 people who have been studying it UM about why the 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.440 US doesn't really treat gun violence as a health issue 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.840 despite UM the huge mortality impact that it that it 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.280 has on, especially kids and teams. And it's sort of 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.520 led me down this path of learning about how you know, 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:27.920 Back in the nine eighties and nine nineties, UM, the 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:32.560 n r A started lobbying against research and funding from 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.880 the US government to study gun violence. UM and you 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.800 know this is something that could it's really bipartisan, it's 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.160 evidence based, it is based on science. It really looks 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.360 into the root causes and and you know why gun 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:50.880 violence is happening versus going immediately to policies based on 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.640 you know, more political elements. Well, Madison, this is the 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.040 part of the conversation, I think where we have to 0:16:56.040 --> 0:17:00.000 talk about J. Dickie, the Republican representative from from Arkansas 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.160 and the so called Dicky Amendment, because that name just 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.320 keeps coming up over and over again when we talk 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.520 about funding this type of research. Mm hmm. Yeah. So 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.159 that that was really interesting and uh, sort of surprising, 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:18.080 kind of in retrospect because in UM J. Dicky was 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.480 a member of Congress and he at the time described 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.359 himself as the n R A point person for Congress, 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.800 and he really was the one that pushed for UM 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.240 funding cuts for this research and also for language to 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.159 be added to the Appropriations bill UH to sort of 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.160 make sure that the CDC couldn't continue doing this type 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.680 of research UM. And it was unclear at the time 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.600 whether they were completely barred from doing research or whether 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.160 it was just research that appeared to advocate for gun 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.000 control and so um, there was confusion and a lot 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.040 of CDC scientists were sort of scared, Um, this is 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:57.960 what you know experts and told me they were scared 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.640 to talk about gun violence. That to this they thought 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.240 funding was going to get caught to some other studies, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:08.880 and so it really done. That's when research was heavily restricted. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:15.480 And years later in J. DICKI actually came out with um, 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.320 you know, former member of the CDC and said he 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.720 acknowledged the impact that these funding cards have had on 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.600 research and on this situation, and you know, said that 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.640 this is really the only bipartisan approach to this problem, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:35.040 and this and you know, the scientific approach to it 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.159 is what we need to do going forward. I do 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.359 feel like, you know, just some I don't know, not 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.199 apples to apples Madison, but it does feel like, you know, 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.080 we've been here before smoking right, What what companies knew 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:47.760 and what that the impact had had on people's health. 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:49.800 I think I feel like the fossil fuel industry, like 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.160 there are things we know the impact on climate change 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.600 and here we are again. I mean, I gotta tell you, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:56.840 I'm no rocket scientists, but I don't need a lot 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.240 of research to tell me that you put you know, 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:03.200 automatic weapons out there and you know, kids and people 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.280 who shouldn't be nobody should be impacted by them. And 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.000 so I just do wonder why why this hasn't had 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.640 a bigger impact even some of the early research that's 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.840 been out there. Is it just nobody wants to touch 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.320 it politically? Is the n r A that powerful? That's 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:20.240 a good question, And I mean I think that that's 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:22.640 especially you know that the point you bring up about 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.359 us knowing and having a lot of information about various 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.280 things that impact our health and are huge issues, but 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.680 maybe not taking the action that we need to um 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:37.119 to combat them. And you know, I think there's people 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.479 really don't know. I think what I was experts were 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:44.439 telling me is that they have missed out on twenty 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.159 years of knowing how to effectively combat gun violence. So 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:51.399 because of these you know, research and the funding cuts 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.280 back in the late nineties, Um, we really don't have 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.960 the information that we should about this is a health problem, 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:04.040 and so it's it's been difficult to craft effective policies 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:06.719 around that and to discuss it as a health problem 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.040 because it just hasn't even really been considered one because 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.320 it hasn't been being studied as one um and you know, 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.320 in recent years the funding has picked back up. There's, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.920 you know a little bit of funding, still significantly less 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:24.959 than other public health issues, but researchers are really starting 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:26.520 to look at this as a health issue again, and 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.960 the CDC has said that it needs with public health approach, 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.720 so you know, hopefully that will lead to some more 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.000 effective change. That was Bloomberg News health reporter Medicine Mueller 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.879 and the editor of the magazine, Jill Webber. You're listening 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.199 to Bloomberg Business Week. Up next, more on guns and 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.800 another epidemic in the United States, the opioid crisis. Two 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:50.840 big things impacting the health and wellness of Americans. We 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.960 tackle both issues with the Connecticut Attorney General, William tom 0:20:54.200 --> 0:21:04.480 on the other side. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.480 Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:13.720 Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. So two big issues affecting 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.240 our time and the safety and well being of our citizens, 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.479 guns and opioids. Nearly five hundred thousand Americans died from 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:25.720 drug overdoses between nineteen as part of the opioid epidemic. 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.200 And as far as guns, We've had more than two 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.040 hundred fifty mass shootings in the United States just so 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:36.639 far this year. Unbelievable. Two two. This past week, Carol 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.560 and Bloomberg Markets Senior editor Mike Reagan spoke with William Tong. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.439 He's Attorney General of the state of Connecticut. It's a 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:47.200 state all too familiar with both crises. You were key 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.040 and helpful in passing gun control measures after the Sandy 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.280 Hook massacre. I think we all thought after that, Oh, 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.480 things are going to change dramatically. I'm not even sure 0:21:56.520 --> 0:22:00.800 what the smart conversation is about gun control in this country. 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.480 When we see tragedy after tragedy just in the last 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:07.400 month alone, what is the smart conversation? Recognize that this 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:11.400 is a public health emergency and an epidemic, and nobody 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.640 knows it better than Texas right now, and nobody knows 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.840 it better than Connecticut. You know, it's been barely ten 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.840