WEBVTT - Making Voting Easy for Military and Partial Disabilities (Podcast) 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.320 Welcome to the Bloomberg Penl podcast. I'm Paul swing you 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:07.680 along with my co host Lisa Brahma Waits. Each day 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.240 we bring you the most noteworthy and useful interviews for 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:12.520 you and your money. Whether at the grocery store or 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.480 the trading floor. Find a Bloomberg Penl podcast on Apple 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:17.960 podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.360 at Bloomberg dot com. Well, we are so lucky because 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:23.160 we have a Max needs to be here with us. 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:25.480 And the reason why Max, we really wanted to talk 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:27.480 with you was because we love talking with you. You You 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.720 cover healthcare for Bloomberg Opinion, but because Ford is in 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.519 discussions with its union over the cost the the surging 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.199 costs of healthcare. And the reason why this was interesting 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:44.040 this comes the potential bill is likely going to exceed 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.680 one billion dollars for the first time next year. So 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.320 this is this a huge cost. But it's not alone 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.199 that Ford is dealing with it. This is something that 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.200 a lot of companies are dealing with. Can you just 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.720 first frame the issue of just how big of an 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.160 issue health care is? Using forward as a lens are 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.160 Absolutely so. So it's definitely an issue for for just 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.720 about any large employer. Growing healthcare costs, growing drug costs, 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.759 you know, prices and spending continue to rise, although at 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.919 a slightly lower rate than than people forecast in the past. 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.240 But it's particularly acute for Ford and other companies that 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:24.240 have large union workforces because those unions negotiated, basically having 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.920 negotiate over time, really incredibly generous health coverage, you know, 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:34.760 basically more generous than than just about anyone else gets anywhere. Um. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:36.920 And then kind of the point of contention this time 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.039 is that while those union workerss gave up on a 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.440 lot of other things back over the financial crisis, the 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.479 other thing that they really held onto, um and kind 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.080 of used as a justification for sacrificing else score was 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.680 those incredibly generous healthcare benefits. So now, of course, um, 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:55.760 you know, they get things. You know, these things don't 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.520 get cheaper, they just get more expective. People age, and 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.800 as the cost healthcare increases. So you come to another dayton, 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.480 So Max, maybe you can just give me like a 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.640 healthcare one on one here, just because the number I 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:09.760 see in a Bloomberg News article has really struck me 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.919 that nationwide health expenditures are expected to grow by five 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.440 point five percent annually from seven more than twice the 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.600 rate of inflation. So just real, simply for all audience 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.160 and for me, what are the main drivers of that growth? 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.320 I mean, that's the question that depending on which kind 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:30.400 of actor in the system you you ask, you'll you'll 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:33.880 get a different answer. But the general kind of the 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.760 biggest thing is always is that it's it's the prices. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:39.840 Then the United States, just because of the system that 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.040 we have that's kind of fragmented between employers and the 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.040 government with kind of you know, split negotiating power. Depending 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.320 on what you're talking about, whether it's drugs or hospital services, 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.320 that no one can kind of push back and aggregate 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.720 against those, you get prices that rise at a far 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.679 greater rate of inflation than in everything, not just in 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.360 ugs where we receive all of the coverage, but really 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.600 in hospital services as well, um with just very little restraint, 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.560 and that's set to continue. Five point five is actually 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.359 not as bad as what we've seen at points of 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.680 the past though, which kind of puts the problem in 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.240 perspective of how much the cost health care has gone 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.720 up over time. Alright, So in the US, workers with 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.640 health insurance contribute an average eight of the premium for 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.440 single coverage of the premium for family coverage. How much 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:30.880 has that gone up over time? I mean, essentially, do 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.280 you foresee a time when companies won't provide health care 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.720 at all? Uh? You know, I think because of the 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.160 tax advantage of providing healthcare. It's basically a way to 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.040 provide more generous benefits, basically the equivalent of higher wages 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.880 without paying as much tax. As long as that tax 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.680 benefit exists and we don't have something like a Medicare 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.040 overall plan, you're still gonna have pretty generous employer coverage 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.880 and incentive to provide it. Okay. So if that's the case, 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.240 then is it a also argument that the rising cost 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.440 of healthcare is the reason why we've seen a shift 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.320 to the gig economy and away from full time employment 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.200 with benefits. I complicated in the sense that you know, 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.800 even though that that share of premiums has stayed relatively constant, 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:18.120 what has gone up is deductibles. Basically that people have 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.680 to pay more out of pocket and face less of 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:22.800 that premium cost. So just more, you know, the costs 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:24.560 have been going up just much before. It's just been 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.000 shifted in a different way as opposed to the shift 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.680 to the gig economy. Um, you know, it would be 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:31.919 one thing if if the A, C. A. We're working 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.400 you know on all cylinders as intended as kind of 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.520 a fairly priced and and stable alternative for people that 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:41.720 want to work for someone other than a large employer, 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.200 and and to a certain extent, you know, it continues on. 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.360 But if you fall into you know, the kind of 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.560 middle category where you make a fair amount of money 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.680 and don't qualify for subsidies, then it's basically unaffordable and 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:56.000 you're you're kind of out of luck. So it's it's 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.120 still a system with a lot of compromises, a lot 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.000 of people to get left out. So just real quickly 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:01.640 on board when they sit down A the U, A W. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:03.520 How's that gonna go? Are they going to trade off 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.679 you know, salary increases for keeping healthcare what a company 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.800 is doing these days? I mean, I think both are 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.800 gonna attempt to give away as little as possible. That's 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.400 the point of collective bargaining. You know. It's a it's 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.520 a great success of the unions that they've managed to 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:22.599 negotiate these these really generous health benefits over time but 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.200 you know you always have the argument on the contrary 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.119 room for that. You know, if we want to stay 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.960 competitive with other countries, UM, we're gonna have to you know, 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.480 labor as in terms of labor costs, We're gonna have 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.960 to see some sacrifices for both sides. So it's gonna be, obviously, 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.400 as always, a really difficult negotiation. Um, and they really 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.000 aren't gonna want to It's I mean, if you want 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.600 to make that comparison that post Americans pay eighteen percent UH, 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.240 cost sharing for auto workers is a fraction to that, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.080 so very different. Maxson, thank you so much for being 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.480 with us. Max Newson is a biotech, farm and healthcare 0:05:53.480 --> 0:06:10.320 columnist with Bloomberg Opinion. Well, people, when you look around 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.599 the global economies, you certainly have China slowing, although there 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:15.520 maybe some green shoots, and then we got some data 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.640 last week about how weak things are in Europe and 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.120 how the e c B is responding. Of course, we 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.640 had some data come out today that chose inflation remains 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.760 muted here in the US amid a relatively decent economy here, 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.760 but people still persist in talking about a recession risk 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.080 for the US market at some point over the next 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.160 twelve day months. I think our next guest can provide 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.440 some perspective. Joel Stern. Joel is chairman and chief executive 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.160 officer of Stern Value Management. He joins us live here 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.960 in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio. Joel, Welcome to Bloomberg. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:48.600 You just raised before we went on the air. Here 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.240 your thoughts about kind of how the global economic environment 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.279 looks recession risk, that type of thing. How do you 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.240 see it from from your perspective? Recession at all? And 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.839 the people who say they see your recession must have 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.200 different glasses than I do. The major reason for it 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:09.080 is this. Just last week, Krugman Nobel Prize winner said 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.240 I see a recession on the horizon. I'd like to 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.520 know what his indicator is. Let me explain. Even if 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:20.120 the number was wrong. Back in December, we had three 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.520 hundred thousand new jobs created. Let's assume it's off by 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.880 even a hundred thousand because of all kinds of seasonal things. 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.040 Do you think businessmen would be hiring people at that 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.480 pace if a recession was just around the corner. No way. 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.560 Not only that, take a look at where long term 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:41.600 interest rates are thirty year government bonds are yielding three 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.800 what's that all about? You know what that tells us? Also, 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.880 there's no inflation to talk about either. And you know, 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.840 when people take a look at inflation, they're leaving all 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.720 kinds of things out that bring the inflation rate not 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.960 at two percent, down to zero. I'm wondering if we're 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.440 looking at it through the wrong lens, if people are 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.960 looking for another recession big are akin to what we 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:06.680 saw in two thousand and eight, and if they're looking 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.200 in the wrong place, because that's not what we're going 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.440 to see this time. If instead we're seeing sort of 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.600 rolling recessions through different industries, the oil, the healthcare, you know, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.600 whichever is poised to go next, could be, could be. 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.040 But you know, one of the interesting things about our 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.840 economy is not just what we would call high technology. 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.400 Think about the discoveries that we're learning though from the 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.800 pharmaceutical industry, industries that we had given up on. People 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.120 would contract that disease, they were finished, there was no 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.520 chance for them at all. I've just been reading about 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.400 what's going on with regard to cancer technology. I call 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:48.320 it cancer technology because when people contract cancer, they're not 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.000 going anywhere necessarily they're going to get better, okay, and 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:56.040 those types of things are creating a tremendous amount of jobs. Well, 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:57.840 how concerned are you about when you think about some 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.240 of the technologies you just mentioned that can out of 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:02.640 a situation with China. We have trade negotiations going on 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.120 right now. A lot of that, A lot of the 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.840 real hard sticking points are some of those hard issues 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.400 about technology and data integrity and all the type espionage, 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.240 corporate espionage. And it seems like, uh, in order for 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.240 the US to maintain its current position, maybe we need 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.720 some tougher trading. Well, first, the the Chinese situation regarding 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:26.120 high technology that's been with us for maybe decades. Okay, 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.920 and look where we are. We're doing very nicely, thank you. 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.320 They're not doing well for a different reason. They engaged 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.000 in what the Japanese did back in the nineteen eighties. 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:40.640 They spent money building cities, building buildings, and there was 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.880 no market for it. In other words, their economy overstated 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.679 how well they were really doing. They were creating monuments, 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.440 they were not creating real business there. And what's happened 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.400 now is they returned to a more normal level for themselves. 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.600 I still think that the six percent figure is way 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.880 too high. I'll make you a if they do revisions properly. 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.520 Maybe our commerce department is doing the calculations, you'll find 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:08.120 their growth rate as close to the four and a 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.080 half percent, not six and a half percent. So as 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.480 you as you think about managing money that in this environment, 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.480 if you view that the U. S economy is really 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.199 being quite robust and its fears of of our recession 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.920 considerably overblown, is it just US equities all the way 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:28.000 NASDAC in particular because of Jack advancements, our stock market 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:32.240 measured by the DOO fell over four thousand points over 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.320 the last year. Remember it dropped down to twenty two 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.640 thousand from twenty six thousand plus, and people said, oh, 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.920 my gosh, a recession is coming. That's not what was happening. 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.040 We are not accustomed to having the kind of negotiations 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.280 the administration has with China, for example, and the Chinese 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.319 that's dependent on how we're doing well with the North Koreans. 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.360 At the same time, my view on all of this 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:02.120 is that we we are accustomed to having it our way, 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.120 and we have a president who was certainly accustomed to 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.360 having it his way, and I think his strategy for 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.640 getting them to relax the restrictions they have on our 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.640 trade is going to be very successful. Now that's just 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.840 my guess. Within say, four to five months from now, 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.959 you wait and see, there'll be a major concession by 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.959 the Chinese and of course by the North Koreans as 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:25.719 a result of them. So do you think that that 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.640 will directly lead to a rally in US equities? People 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:31.640 are not pricing it right now with our question, Okay, 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:33.080 so you think that that will just price it in? 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.120 And are you worried at all about some of the 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.880 external factors that FED Chair Powell has been talking about, 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.160 particularly Brexit, especially today as we see Theresa May on 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.280 the brink of losing confidence of of of her constituents 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.200 and possibly losing office sooner than later. Uh, you know 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.120 how much does that bow into the U s econi 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.240 I feel sorry for her, she was sorry for her, 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.200 but not for the U s econtovating. Well, listen, what's 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:02.280 what really happened here was that the British said, what, 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.920 we're going to have a million refugees coming into our country. Incidentally, 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:11.720 in my view, Angela Merkel political career is over and 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:15.000 what cost it exactly what's led to this Brexit issue. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.439 The Brexit issue is very simple. If you're going to 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.920 have these people a million, say two million, coming in 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.640 like that, what's it gonna do to your job? What 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:24.839 would you do? How would you want your politician to 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.880 vote for this? Okay, and half half the country voted 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.200 for Brexit, the other half to remain. I agree, they're 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.760 as polarized as we are in this country. They should 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:35.760 take a look at us and say, oh, we don't 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.320 want to become like those Americans. But it's too late. Well, 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.440 how concerned are you about just the whole European Union issue, 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.719 Brexit as it relates to kind of how you want 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.520 to position yourself globally investing, because it seems like it 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.240 really is an issue for the European Union. I've heard 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:53.240 money managers say the pe ratios there, their market to 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.000 book ratios are much lower than ours. There's a good 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.719 reason why. Look what it's done to their economy. Look 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.360 what it's done to the prospect I wouldn't be investing 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.679 in in the European Union at all. Okay, there are 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.440 so many other places to invest where other prospects is 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.600 so much better. One place outside the U s that 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:15.840 you like, Israel the Televisive Stock Exchange and Israeli companies 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.079 where there were over a hundred and fifty Israeli companies 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.120 that are traded on Nazak. You want to buy those companies. 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.760 Joel Stern, thank you so much for being here with us. 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.360 Joel Stern is chairman, chief executive officer of Stern Value Management, 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.160 joining us here in the Interactive Brokers studios. He also 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.000 is an adjunct professor at six business schools, a variety 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.560 of them including UH Columbia University and University of Chicago 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:58.640 Carnegie Melling. I could go on and on. It is 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.959 so interesting to me all that when we talk about voting, 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.720 and we talked about how the twenty campaign is heating up. 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.920 Certainly a number of candidates Joe Biden is on on 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.839 the docket to decide whether or not to run for 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.640 the presidential election in the United States any day now. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.040 Question becomes why can people not vote on their phones? 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.480 Why can they not go online and vote? Why do 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.920 we have chad's hanging chad's and people waiting in lines 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.080 to go around the block, and and and you know, 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.280 are we staffed enough at certain places? This is a 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.600 perennial question and uh it's really important to address. Luckily, 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:34.800 for us, we have Bradley Tusk here. He's chief executive 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.560 officer of Tusk Philanthropies, joining us here in our Bloomberg 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:41.880 Interactive Broker's studios. Bradley obviously has had an extensive career 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.600 on a number of different campaigns as Deputy Governor of Illinois, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.720 Chuck Shoomers communications director full disclosure, he did serve as 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.880 Mike Bloomberg's camp pay manager and Mike Bloomberg what is 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.520 the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, which owns 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:56.880 us So, Bradley, thank you so much for joining here. 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.560 So let's just start with what is TUSK for lanthropiece 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:02.920 and how does it relate to this sort of perennial issue. 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.840 Sure so, uh my family foundation. I got really lucky 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.400 in that. Um when I after I finished working running 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:11.760 Mike's campaign, I took a chance on this little known 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:16.000 startup called Uber. I've started working on all their political problems. Yeah, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.760 and took my fee and equity. Uh so that's done 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.520 pretty well as a result. Now there's to philanthropies. So 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.840 we focus on two things. The kind of easier one 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.040 is hunger, So we fund and run campaigns and states 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.520 around the country to create breakfast after the ballots create 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.240 universal school breakfast. The harder one is mobile voting. Um. 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.280 What I learned from the twenty years that I spent 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.880 in the trenches of politics is, with the exception of 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:38.880 Mike and I say that, even when I'm not on 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.000 blue brick radio, UM, I've yet to meet a politician 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.840 where every single policy decision is not governed solely by 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.480 the political inputs. Uh. Most politicians just can't live without 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.920 the validation that comes with holding office and be like 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.440 asking us to stop having oxygen right. So, UM, they're 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.320 never gonna do anything that's not in their political edic. 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.840 So let's just say, as an example, your Republican can 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.960 us from for Florida, UM, turn out your primaries twelve percent? 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.720 Because if Jerry manderin the primary effectively as the general 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.600 election and n R A voters make up half that 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.480 twelve percent, you may know that assault weapon band probably 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.000 makes sense, but you're never gonna be for it because 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:15.960 you're not going to risk alienating half of the people 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.280 who actually vote in your primary. What if turned out 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:20.960 were all of a sudden, everything would flip and then 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.320 the politics would be that if you didn't vote for it, 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:25.760 you would lose your job. Um. The reason why turn 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:27.600 out is so low if we have a system that 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.640 was built, as you were saying, for an a grarian 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.640 economy two hundred and fifty years ago, um, and it's 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.880 never really been updated and so as a result, UM, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.680 no one really turns out. And the incentives of politicians 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.960 get are really disprit and different from what most people 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.360 actually want. And what I learned we were trying to 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.200 figure out how to make rides sharing legal all around. 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.600 The u S for Uber is when you give people 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.240 the ability to advocate from their phone, they'll do it. 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:53.000 So the millions of people who reached out to regulators 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.920 and politicians and said let ride sharing exist, you know, 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:57.600 they don't vote in primaries, right because they're not going 0:16:57.640 --> 0:16:59.720 to figure out what random Tuesday is the election and 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:01.760 where to go and wait on line and deal all 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:03.560 that stuff. But when I was like, oh, I could 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.880 just press this button from my phone from inside the app, 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.000 they did it. And the final pieces blockchain, which now 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.399 enables you to really move data from point A to 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.800 point B in a secure fashion. So and putting all 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.440 those things together occurred to me, hey, maybe there's a 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.600 way to use all of this to create mobile voting. 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.480 So kicked it off out of my foundation. UM last 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:23.879 year's started working with the state of West Virginia. We 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.320 did it for deployed military both in their primary and 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.840 in their general election. We kind of put everything together 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.120 and paid for the state's cost so there's no taxpayer expenses. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.040 Went really well. So we've been talking to other jurisdictions 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.360 and last Thursdays, a couple of days ago, we announced 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.840 that Denver's the next jurisdiction to do this, first sitting 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.560 in America to do it, and we're excited. So it'll 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:43.639 take place in there, may meet a small elections, and 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:45.399 then if the run off, will happen again in June. 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.399 So what's really been the gating issue to for adoption? 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:50.920 I mean, you know, for as long as I've been voting, 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:52.480 I walked into this little booth, I put a little 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.480 you know, uh you know, apron behind kind of put 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.440 pushing the buttons. It's just it's ridiculous. So what really 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.040 is the gating issue? Is it the technology wasn't there? 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.320 Is the technology wasn't there? I think there's sort of 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.000 two problems. So there's the day to day stuff of 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.480 people who say, oh, maybe tested enough, maybe it's not safe. 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:12.760 Or you have the incumbents in the election industry just 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.760 like you know taxi with Uber hotels of their BnB, 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:17.560 and they don't want to be disrupted either, so they 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:19.600 try to fight it. Um. That stuff we can work 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:21.760 through pretty well. The real problem is going to be 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.040 everyone who has power, it's not gonna want to make 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:25.960 it easier for them to then lose power. Right, and 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.199 this could be whether you're an alloted official, uh, the 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.919 n r A, teachers unions, whoever, it is. If you 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.120 figure it out how to game the system and how 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.199 you can take these low turnout primaries and use them 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.280 to your advantage. Of that politicians do what you want. 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:41.760 You're not looking to then give away all that power. 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.200 So then how are you getting this sort of blockchain 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.680 experiment rolling in different places? Totally? So a couple of things. 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:49.680 One is, you know there are a handful of alected 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:52.959 election officials around the U s who are willing to 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.080 give it a try anyway, So we just have the 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.360 city clerk in Denver, Secretary State of Wes Virginia before that, 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.400 and we keep talking to more and were people. But ultimately, 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:02.960 what I've got to do is sort of prove that 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:05.920 this works and proved that it's safe. What I learned 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.400 in in my experience in tech is when you let 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.199 the genie out of the bottle, you can't put it 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:12.280 back in. Right. So if I can spend the next 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:16.119 five years commencing jurisdictions to try it, funding their elections, 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:18.320 showing the world that it works, I think about my 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.280 daughter who's twelve, when she's eighteen, she won't accept the 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:23.640 notion that you can't do this. So have you found 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.960 anything interesting at least with the first experimental run here 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.200 as far as what turnout is or how the voting 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.800 actually Yeah, So it's so far been limited just to 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.560 deployed military, because it's really hard to object to the 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.440 fact that people who are literally putting their lives on 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:39.960 the line to protect the right to vote, right that 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.160 we don't even use um. Their votes never count. You're 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:44.960 mailing your ballot from Canada, harn it shows us like 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.360 a month later it just goes right in the trash. Um. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.920 So what we have found so far is people are 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.320 taking advantage of it one. Two, at least in a 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.560 system where we were able to verify who everyone is 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.160 because they already have a military idea, it works really well. Three. 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.120 We ran four step security audits of West Virginia after 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.479 we finished it, and everything came back clean. So what 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.080 that all says is the concept works, keep expanding. My 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.320 hope is at the next constituency we work with a 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:12.600 disability community because a lot of people who are blind 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:15.200 or deaf have found that their phones provide a lot 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:17.239 of things to make their lives a lot easier. So 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.160 we've been talking to these different groups, like the National 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.359 Association for the Blind, who said, yeah, voting is especially 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:24.080 hard if you're blind. You don't even really have secrecy 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.440 the ballot because you're trusting the person there were flat 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:31.120