Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day, we bring
Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: middle markets, and we love to chat with Lawrence Golob,
Speaker 1: CEO of Golob Capital about middle markets. You know, how
Speaker 1: are the middle markets doing? How are some of the
Speaker 1: small midsized companies doing. We always here about in these
Speaker 1: earning seasons some of the bigger companies. But let's take
Speaker 1: a look at what the middle market is doing. Lawrence,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us here. I know you
Speaker 1: guys are out with a new report looking at the
Speaker 1: middle market of this economy. What are some of the
Speaker 1: key takeaways that you guys found great, very happy to
Speaker 1: be here, Thanks for having me. Gall of Capital is
Speaker 1: one of the largest lenders to medium sized businesses in
Speaker 1: the United States, and we put together this report to
Speaker 1: look at actual monthly results from the early months in
Speaker 1: a quarter to see what's going on in the real
Speaker 1: US economy, not projections, not conjecture. So our report is
Speaker 1: based on UH, the actual results from July and August,
Speaker 1: on revenue and on profitability. And what we see almost
Speaker 1: across the board is a booming degree of growth, booming
Speaker 1: growth and revenue, booming growth and profits. Very few one
Speaker 1: but not many warning signs UH and and this is
Speaker 1: one of the strongest periods of growth we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Hang On, you say there's one warning sign, Well, we
Speaker 1: have in the aggregate about growth rate and revenue, about
Speaker 1: growth rate and profits, but not in industrials. Industrial profits
Speaker 1: are down. We're seeing margin contraction, and that margin contraction
Speaker 1: is especially alarming because revenue is still growing. I think
Speaker 1: we're seeing the impacts of UH declining productivity, of inflation
Speaker 1: in cost components. We're seeing the impact of shipping and
Speaker 1: logistic issues. In contrast to that. On the consumer side,
Speaker 1: consumer margins have been exploding up almost fiftuh in in
Speaker 1: this period, and I say it's a warning side for
Speaker 1: industrials because eventually those margin issues may start migrating over
Speaker 1: to other industry areas. So, Lawrence, you mentioned the supply chain,
Speaker 1: and we're hearing that from companies across the board on
Speaker 1: a global scale. Even Apple had to take down their
Speaker 1: iPhone sales forecast due to supply chain issues. I would
Speaker 1: think from middle market me don't have the buying clout
Speaker 1: in the marketplace that might be even more pronounced. What
Speaker 1: are you hearing my My message to listeners is do
Speaker 1: your Christmas shopping now. Grinches for Halloween and he's not leaving,
Speaker 1: and he may not even be leaving for Christmas. Of two. Yes,
Speaker 1: middle market companies that can't hire their own ships have
Speaker 1: certain disadvantages over some of the big box or or
Speaker 1: internet retailers. But fundamentally, what's going on is we have
Speaker 1: an excess of demand. Now that's good. People want to
Speaker 1: buy things, but we've pumped five trillion dollars of fiscal
Speaker 1: stimulus into the economy and nothing's going to change that.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of buyers chasing fewer goods than exist.
Speaker 1: I think that the the supply chain issues will vary
Speaker 1: from sector to sector, but you're going to see in
Speaker 1: why areas of consumer products this Christmas something similar to
Speaker 1: the toilet paper effect we saw when COVID first hit.
Speaker 1: That people are going to see some stock outs than
Speaker 1: other people are gonna try and really load up, and
Speaker 1: the stockouts are going to be worse than fundamentally called
Speaker 1: for it. I really have concerns about the degree of
Speaker 1: consumer disappointment coming this Christmas. It's going to be a big,
Speaker 1: big Christmas for gift cards. It's not the great the
Speaker 1: greatest time to try and ship in nine eleven and
Speaker 1: a garage full of Yukati's back from Germany to New York.
Speaker 1: What about the labor um shortages that we've been hearing
Speaker 1: so much about. Isn't that a concern as well? Sure
Speaker 1: it is, and it's a puzzle. We're down five million
Speaker 1: jobs from before covid uh and you would have thought
Speaker 1: there'd be, you know, a fair amount of demand for
Speaker 1: those jobs. But it's not just it's not just non
Speaker 1: managerial labor. It's across the board. Consulting firms are having
Speaker 1: trouble hiring. NBA's entry level jobs for college graduates are
Speaker 1: going begging. It's a little bit peculiar to to really
Speaker 1: get to the bottom of. And it also emboldens everybody
Speaker 1: who's got a job that they don't love to think
Speaker 1: about moving somewhere else. One of the statistics that came
Speaker 1: out and we're seeing this in our portfolio companies. Is
Speaker 1: that that employee turnover at all different levels is going up.
Speaker 1: That's a whack to productivity. It's great that wages and
Speaker 1: UH compensation are going up. That's good for Americans, it's
Speaker 1: good for American families. But it has to go hand
Speaker 1: in hand with productivity or drives more inflation. Lawrence, where
Speaker 1: are you, guys, goal of capital, looking to invest your capital?
Speaker 1: Put your money to work. So we're very we're very
Speaker 1: excited about industrial businesses that have control over their supply chains.
Speaker 1: We have proved a deal just two days ago, for example,
Speaker 1: after a lot of work and a deep live company
Speaker 1: that manufactures inputs for other manufacturing processes. But we established
Speaker 1: for ourselves that their supplies are domestic in the United States,
Speaker 1: that they're raw materials are shipped by train and truck,
Speaker 1: and that there's not a lot of commodity price wings.
Speaker 1: Take that same business with inputs coming from Asia, where
Speaker 1: you have the risk that COVID could spring back up
Speaker 1: in Asia, You've got the risk of shipping costs, you've
Speaker 1: got the risk of international commodities, and it would have
Speaker 1: been a very different picture. We do a lot of
Speaker 1: investing in business to business software companies where the projects
Speaker 1: where the software is designed to improve productivity, and that
Speaker 1: plays into a lot of the themes we just finished
Speaker 1: talking about, like shortages of skilled labor, tremendous high returns
Speaker 1: on investment, in efficiency, inefficiency driven capex through through technology
Speaker 1: through software. I think something we've seen and that our
Speaker 1: report is is giving good news about is in the
Speaker 1: healthcare field, where actually healthcare services companies have been doing
Speaker 1: a good job of controlling their labor costs, of of
Speaker 1: not letting their labor costs get out of whack with
Speaker 1: increases in productivity. That's actually quite a bullish thing, something
Speaker 1: that we haven't seen in some prior cycles. So we
Speaker 1: haven't seen the inflation hit the health care sector yet,
Speaker 1: and that's an area we continue to look at very favorably.
Speaker 1: All Right, well, great talking to you. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us, Lawrence. Always great to get your insight.
Speaker 1: Lawrence called there from gold Capital, one of the biggest
Speaker 1: lenders to the middle market in America, talking to us
Speaker 1: about um the economics of middle market business right now
Speaker 1: and giving us his outlook as well. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: Let's bring in liz Anne Saunders. Now she is chief
Speaker 1: investment strategist Charles Schwab and um, you know they have
Speaker 1: trillions of dollars and assets under management, so good to
Speaker 1: listen to what she has to say, Lizzie, And let
Speaker 1: me first get your take on the CPI five point
Speaker 1: four percent year over year growth. It's the fastest we've
Speaker 1: seen since two thousand eight. Is inflation a concern? Uh, well, sure,
Speaker 1: and I think it's it's being reflected in more volatility
Speaker 1: in the market. There's lots of other risks that have
Speaker 1: manifested themselves in in some of the weakness we've seen recently,
Speaker 1: but inflation is clearly one of them. And although we're
Speaker 1: not seeing kind of an ongoing huge month over month, sirte,
Speaker 1: we're staying at very elevated levels and I think that
Speaker 1: that has become a risk factor for the market and
Speaker 1: really puts the FED, I think, in a bit of
Speaker 1: a pickle because they would certainly concede that supply chain
Speaker 1: bottlenecks as a driver of inflation is not something solved
Speaker 1: by tighter monetary policy. So uh, it's the uncertainty around
Speaker 1: monetary policy response is is elevating as well. Lauzanne given
Speaker 1: that the CPI number. Give us your thoughts about stagflation.
Speaker 1: It's something a lot a lot of people have had
Speaker 1: to go to Google and figuring out what stagflation is,
Speaker 1: because it's not something we're just gonna talked about for
Speaker 1: a while. You as the kid of kids, So what
Speaker 1: are your thoughts there, Lausanne? Well, I think of it
Speaker 1: almost stagflation with the lower case, since stagflation with an
Speaker 1: upper case s Clearly we're in um stagflation lowercase version
Speaker 1: right now, given that we're in an environment where growth
Speaker 1: expectations are rolling over. GDP now has gone from you know,
Speaker 1: six point three to one point three in the last
Speaker 1: few months. At the same time, elevating inflation is remaining elevated.
Speaker 1: But the kind of systemic wage price spiral environment that
Speaker 1: went on for years in the midst from the mid
Speaker 1: seventies to the early eighties, was driven by a lot
Speaker 1: of forces that are or at least not yet in
Speaker 1: place here. It was a very different structure in terms
Speaker 1: of the labor market, greater munization, productivity was quite weak,
Speaker 1: which is clearly not the case right now. We're not
Speaker 1: seeing systemic wage increases. But maybe most important, and this
Speaker 1: is the more esoteric thing to to watch for is
Speaker 1: that what what feeds an environment like the nineties seventies
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with psychology. The psyche changes it.
Speaker 1: It gives workers and and even companies a feeling of
Speaker 1: power in terms of either being able to ask for
Speaker 1: consistently higher wages, consistently being able to pass higher costs on.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of the psyche changes and the and
Speaker 1: the power um is created, and that's where the spiral
Speaker 1: kicks in. And I don't think we're there yet, but um,
Speaker 1: it's certainly something to watch for. We are, though, in
Speaker 1: um extremely cash rich environment. Luzan, And I know I've
Speaker 1: been talking to you about so much cash on the
Speaker 1: sideline for over a decade now, but it's getting a
Speaker 1: little ridicut you list. I mean, I was thinking you
Speaker 1: had two trillion and assis under management, and you have
Speaker 1: more like seven and a half trillion dollars and assets
Speaker 1: under management. There's a lot of money out there, yes
Speaker 1: and no. So I think sometimes the math is done
Speaker 1: incorrectly if you look if you're talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: cash on the sidelines, so to speak, within uh sort
Speaker 1: of the investor sphere. If you look at the amount
Speaker 1: of money and money market funds. Yes, the level is
Speaker 1: very high, at about four and a half trillion dollars,
Speaker 1: but relative to the value of the stock market, it's
Speaker 1: less than ten percent, which is at the very low
Speaker 1: end of the historical range. If you're talking about cash
Speaker 1: in the economy, that household tool using say the savings rate, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's it's nine percent or so, which is above the
Speaker 1: seven and a half or so recent average. But that's
Speaker 1: down about the way from the liquidity driven spike of
Speaker 1: last year to where it is now. And we can't
Speaker 1: assume that we're going to go back down to historic averages.
Speaker 1: We can stabilize area, we don't know whether households are
Speaker 1: going to want to keep a bit more of a
Speaker 1: savings cushion, So we just can't assume that we go
Speaker 1: all the way back to the long term norm. So
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that argument is as strong if you
Speaker 1: look at sort of relative numbers rate of change versus.
Speaker 1: We do see, though, in some assets, a lot of speculation, right,
Speaker 1: I mean the fact that a string of code that
Speaker 1: makes up a bitcoin is worth almost sixty thou dollars.
Speaker 1: I get that there are believers out there, and I
Speaker 1: love a good fad, but it's a little bit crazy, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's going on in lots of other nontraditional
Speaker 1: assets classes, the meme stocks, heavily shorted tech, nonprofitable bankruptcy companies, stacks,
Speaker 1: crypto and uh yeah, there there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: fundamental basis for what's happening. The only bright sort of
Speaker 1: news about all that is that heightened speculative froth has
Speaker 1: been more concentrated in those non traditional areas. Then, and say,
Speaker 1: you know the leadership names within an index like the SMP,
Speaker 1: and that's I think what is very different today versus
Speaker 1: say period where the speculative froth was concentrated in the
Speaker 1: leadership names in the benchmark indexes of the SMP in
Speaker 1: the AZTEC In just about thirty seconds, what's the area
Speaker 1: that you're focusing on right now in terms of this market.
Speaker 1: I think you want to if you're if you're a
Speaker 1: stock picker, you want to be focused on quality. I
Speaker 1: think quality is going to reign in terms of leadership
Speaker 1: in these very uncertain times. I also think you really
Speaker 1: want to take advantage of the discipline of rebalancing given
Speaker 1: the massive leadership rotational swings that we're seeing I think
Speaker 1: that is probably the most beneficial discipline right now that
Speaker 1: investors can employ what is a much trickier market environment. Luzianne,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. We always appreciate
Speaker 1: getting your thoughts and wisdom. Lazanne Saunders, she's a chief
Speaker 1: investment strategist for Charles Schwab and again assets under management
Speaker 1: for Charles Schwab uh seven point five trillion with eight
Speaker 1: t so just extraordinary there. Now let's bring in Hondres Pairson.
Speaker 1: He's the chief investment officer of Global fixed Income over
Speaker 1: at now Vene and you must be honors a a
Speaker 1: dinner guest in high demand right now as everybody kind
Speaker 1: of freaks out about inflation and we start to see
Speaker 1: rates finally rise, the tenuere um getting up to one sixty.
Speaker 1: Now it's back down to one fifty five, but still, um,
Speaker 1: there's actual movement here. What do you make of it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me on um. Yeah, there was so
Speaker 1: many exciting times, a lot of a lot of crosscurrents
Speaker 1: that's still playing to earn the fixing come markets. And
Speaker 1: we just released our que for outlook report and we're
Speaker 1: still we're still quite constructive for the rest of the year,
Speaker 1: particularly when we look at the kind of the credit
Speaker 1: parts of fixed income, we still think there are some
Speaker 1: opportunities for this reflation trade to continue. And at the
Speaker 1: core we still take some comfort here that you know,
Speaker 1: COVID cases, hospital rates are declining, and economic gride growth
Speaker 1: is holding up quite well, and certainly supply side issues
Speaker 1: is something that we're keeping a close eye on, but
Speaker 1: we do expect that to ease over time, and then
Speaker 1: finding inflation you know, obviously top of mind today. Um,
Speaker 1: we still continue to think it's it's going to not
Speaker 1: be fully transitory, but manageable and not too problematical markets.
Speaker 1: So that all in all kind of keeps us in
Speaker 1: a in a quieter positive light and quite constructive for
Speaker 1: the rest of the year. Well, Andrews were you know,
Speaker 1: the growth is certainly still very good, although we are
Speaker 1: past peak growth, but a lot of investors are concerned
Speaker 1: that we're and add our near peak valuation. So where
Speaker 1: do you see opportunities, I guess in your world, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly growth is expected to slow down when
Speaker 1: so some of the imp numbers come out to speak obviously,
Speaker 1: but it's still you know, global rates close to six
Speaker 1: percent for this year and for twenty two sort of
Speaker 1: five percent. That's still very healthy in our minds. So
Speaker 1: we're even kind of talking about how the markets are
Speaker 1: more or less priced um sort of for reality, not
Speaker 1: price for for perfection. And we look at fundamentals being
Speaker 1: quite strong. Again, I mentioned economy growing um and earning
Speaker 1: school for corporation is very healthy. So what we what
Speaker 1: we're focusing in on right now for opportunities is basically
Speaker 1: basically sort of looking at corporate credit risk, preferring that
Speaker 1: over the governments and mortgages. We like lower quality over
Speaker 1: higher quality. In other words, were comfortable dipping down and
Speaker 1: to the lower rated kind of opportunities. We still kind
Speaker 1: of prefer shorter duration over longer duration. We do expect
Speaker 1: rates to be grinding higher and for the rest of
Speaker 1: the year, but all in all a view is uh,
Speaker 1: it's really more of a coupon clipping kinter top environment
Speaker 1: more or less a income carry kind of play. So
Speaker 1: we're comfortable reaching for a little bit of yield and
Speaker 1: certainly what spread levels are not exciting. We are comfortable
Speaker 1: going after acid classes like laverge loans, preferred securities, certain
Speaker 1: parts of the emerging market, so again kind of going
Speaker 1: after that credit part. The plus sectors of fixed in
Speaker 1: commerces are preferred approach at this point. And you know,
Speaker 1: we hear similar um a sentiment from Howard Marks right
Speaker 1: now as well. You're not then at all worried about
Speaker 1: a wave of defaults. Even though people are talking stagflation.
Speaker 1: No one's really talking about the economic economic growth grinding
Speaker 1: to a halder or been coming close to contracting. No,
Speaker 1: we're we're we're not worried about that at this point.
Speaker 1: And the learning's growth again for corporations very healthy. The
Speaker 1: faults have been coming down to record levels. Expect to
Speaker 1: be below one percent for for this year kind of
Speaker 1: one in a quarter, one and a half or two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty two. You know, rating agencies obviously have some
Speaker 1: influence in the fixed income space, and they have been
Speaker 1: upgrading their ratings significantly more than we're seeing downgrades, and
Speaker 1: and all in all, you know, start plaction. Obviously, it's
Speaker 1: a topic that that you hear a lot about right now.
Speaker 1: Our view is that with again economic growth being as
Speaker 1: healthy as it is right now, um, that's really not
Speaker 1: the top of mind on our end. So you know,
Speaker 1: we cannot come back to the fact that we're seeing
Speaker 1: healthy growth all in all, supply chains obviously being a
Speaker 1: bit concerning and taken longer to kind of play through
Speaker 1: than I think most everybody was expecting, but the demand
Speaker 1: remains very, very strong, and we think that's going to
Speaker 1: be addressed over time. And as I mentioned, inflation is
Speaker 1: mostly going to be transitory in our minds. So so
Speaker 1: all in all, I think staculations, you know, it's really
Speaker 1: not a concern of ours, and defaults continues to be
Speaker 1: very low. So the fundamentals continue to be to be
Speaker 1: very strong here if you take kind of step back
Speaker 1: and try to ignore, you know, many of the cross
Speaker 1: currents that we're dealing with, and that's why we remain
Speaker 1: quite constructive, particularly on the credit side of fixing. Coman Andrews.
Speaker 1: You mentioned emerging markets. Talk to us about China. Hear
Speaker 1: lots of changes there from our governmental regulatory perspective. How
Speaker 1: do you you China? Yeah, China, it's certainly, you know,
Speaker 1: top of mind for for all investors at this point,
Speaker 1: and you know, key focus of the past few weeks,
Speaker 1: particularly around the everground kind of type ongoing uncertainty. You know,
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, we we still are quite
Speaker 1: constructive in China overall. It's particularly to look at the
Speaker 1: sovereign kind of have level of Chinese government. Lawns were
Speaker 1: actually quite we quite like them. We're not too concerned
Speaker 1: about that. If anything, you know, a little bit of
Speaker 1: a flight to safety there and our mind. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: it could be quite attractive and there is diversification and
Speaker 1: not quite as correlated to other parts of the fixed
Speaker 1: income space. So you know, certainly from the sovereign side,
Speaker 1: require comfortable. On the corporate side, you know, we we're
Speaker 1: keeping of our clothes eye am that we prefer to
Speaker 1: take a little bit of await and see to make
Speaker 1: sure that we get a little bit of a better
Speaker 1: feel for how they're going to be handled. Ever grand
Speaker 1: but um, there's still a lot of moving parts in that. Okay, Anders,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. We always appreciate
Speaker 1: getting your global perspective. And Parson, chief investment Officer of
Speaker 1: Global fixed Income for Nouvine, another big, huge asset manager
Speaker 1: one point to trillion dollars in assets under management. Well
Speaker 1: more coming up. This is Bloomberg Markets. Good morning. Looking
Speaker 1: at the markets here, kind of mixed obviously as we
Speaker 1: head into the teeth of this third quarter earnings. Next year,
Speaker 1: it looks like tax rates are going up, and what
Speaker 1: does that mean for individual investors now is they think
Speaker 1: about their portfolio. Let's check in with Dan Griffin. He's
Speaker 1: senior vice president and director of Wealth Strategy at Huntington's
Speaker 1: Private Bank based in North Canton, Ohio, the great state
Speaker 1: of Ohio. Dan, thanks so much for joining us again
Speaker 1: here talk to us about taxes. It appears at taxes
Speaker 1: are going up. We don't know by how much. So
Speaker 1: when you talk to your clients, what do you tell
Speaker 1: them about taxes and tax planning. Well, glad to be here,
Speaker 1: Matt and Paul, and thanks for having me. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a great question. It's a wonderful thing to be
Speaker 1: able to go into another year end here with a
Speaker 1: little bit of frantic ear end planning. As everyone remembers
Speaker 1: last year, we were in a similar situation as we
Speaker 1: can think back to people's concern over what was going
Speaker 1: to happen with the potential flip in the Senate and
Speaker 1: we didn't know what was going to happen there, and
Speaker 1: I fear that we're kind of in the same position
Speaker 1: right now. So what we're telling people is be prepared,
Speaker 1: make sure you've got good advisers in place, make sure
Speaker 1: you've got a plan in place, and make sure that
Speaker 1: you're prepared to be flexible around what could be any
Speaker 1: number of responses from Washington that could happen. Is there
Speaker 1: anything you can do to limit your your income hit
Speaker 1: to taxes? I mean, obviously, if you've got money after
Speaker 1: income taxes lying around, you can put it into muni's
Speaker 1: and there a number of other things. But in terms
Speaker 1: of a salaried woman or man, is there anything besides
Speaker 1: an IRA that can be done? Oh? Sure. I think
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, what you might want to
Speaker 1: be thinking about would be obviously reductions in this year
Speaker 1: and then reductions in the future. The folks that were
Speaker 1: most concerned about and that we're working hardest to advocate for,
Speaker 1: are the people who are going to end up in
Speaker 1: that highest bracket position. And ironically a lot of our
Speaker 1: clients think that they're in the highest tax bracket, but
Speaker 1: they're not. So that's one of the first things to
Speaker 1: think about is even with the proposals that are on
Speaker 1: the table, there are many people who aren't going to
Speaker 1: be affected. It's probably only about nine hundred thousand households
Speaker 1: in the United States that are actually paying taxes at
Speaker 1: the highest brackets. So the first thing that we suggest
Speaker 1: to people is, let's make sure that you're affected. There
Speaker 1: are plenty of folks around the country club tables who
Speaker 1: complain about being in the highest tax brackets and may
Speaker 1: not actually be there, and so that's the first thing,
Speaker 1: is feeling feeling out whether or not your tax providers
Speaker 1: can put you in that position. So that's one of
Speaker 1: the first things that we do. Dan, We're going into
Speaker 1: this third quarter earning season a lot of folks saying
Speaker 1: this is really critical for the market. How do you
Speaker 1: feel about these markets here? Are you concerned about valuation
Speaker 1: or are you still kind of all in for your clients. No,
Speaker 1: we're still uh cautiously optimistic. I think we're in a
Speaker 1: position where we are still investing post recession with a
Speaker 1: real recognition that there's going to be some inflation risks.
Speaker 1: You know. In the position I'm in, I get to
Speaker 1: talk to a lot of business owners as they go
Speaker 1: through the process. Um, you all mentioned earlier the challenges
Speaker 1: associated with UH with working making sure they can get
Speaker 1: enough stuff and making sure they can get enough people
Speaker 1: supply chain is a big, big question mark for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, and so substitution is a big one.
Speaker 1: And with substitution, whether it's UM substituting technology for labor
Speaker 1: or different technology itself or different products, with that substitution
Speaker 1: comes new opportunities. And so I think that's a reason
Speaker 1: to be optimistic. What do you think in terms of UM,
Speaker 1: what we got, in terms of what the markets got
Speaker 1: left in it? I mean, we've had a great run
Speaker 1: already and now they're all these headwinds popping up. People
Speaker 1: are worried about inflation. The term stagflation is being thrown
Speaker 1: around regardless of how we want to define it. Um,
Speaker 1: do we still have room to run in this SMPY.
Speaker 1: We think the answer is yes. And again, the opportunity
Speaker 1: to talk to small businesses throughout the Midwest shows us
Speaker 1: that a lot of businesses are to you to be
Speaker 1: cautiously optimistic, not that there aren't headwinds, but that they
Speaker 1: can get through those headwinds and potentially get to a
Speaker 1: place that's even better. We're seeing that even if people say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not able to continue my business.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sell it, but I'm going to sell it
Speaker 1: to people that I know we're going to be able
Speaker 1: to take it to a different level. And so though
Speaker 1: all though people are definitely recognizing the challenges that exist
Speaker 1: out there, that we still hear optimism at the at
Speaker 1: the ground level, and I think that that's justified, all right, Dan,
Speaker 1: So it's interesting here where do you see some opportunities here?
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of folks are worried about evaluation.
Speaker 1: Are you kind of looking for value or you looking
Speaker 1: for growth or maybe geez, growth at a reasonable price.
Speaker 1: We're doing both. I think what's been really interesting, both
Speaker 1: on the tax planning standpoint and on the investing standpoint,
Speaker 1: is that we've been a lot more strategic about talking
Speaker 1: to our clients about taking advantages of what what are
Speaker 1: smaller dips in the market. So even in a day
Speaker 1: like today where it looks like the market might be
Speaker 1: down just a bit, is that a time to talk
Speaker 1: about doing things like roth conversions or even doing some
Speaker 1: some investing in the right places or rebalancing to take
Speaker 1: advantage of those I think that's the hard part is
Speaker 1: instead of waiting for big chunks when the market drops
Speaker 1: to do things, we're looking to make little marginal changes
Speaker 1: on the edges, which ultimately is the path to success.
Speaker 1: All Right, Dan, thanks so much for joining us. Always
Speaker 1: a pleasure talking to you. Dan Griffith is senior vice
Speaker 1: president and the director of Wealth Strategy for the Huntington's
Speaker 1: Private Bank. Um. I guess I should disclose that I
Speaker 1: bank with Huntington's and so does my entire family because
Speaker 1: we're from the great state of Ohio. You know, Ohio
Speaker 1: State University. Yeah, I'm sure Dan is a fan of
Speaker 1: the Ohio State buck Eyes and uh. Just the idea
Speaker 1: of being able to to to move back and live
Speaker 1: in a country where you can watch football every weekend.
Speaker 1: It's just it's it's enough to draw me back, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta get back here with Although the housing markets
Speaker 1: still a little tight met yeah, well, you know, um,
Speaker 1: I hope it loosens up a little bit. I do
Speaker 1: see that inflation is um is in places like used
Speaker 1: cars and fuel, and you don't see it as much
Speaker 1: right now in uh, in previously owned homes. So we
Speaker 1: can we can just hope that over the next few
Speaker 1: months that market calms down a little bit. This is Bloomberg.
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