Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week inside from the reporters and
Speaker 1: editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus
Speaker 1: global business, finance and tech news as it happened, Sloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes, Tim
Speaker 1: Stinevin on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, and welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Week fifty four. Working home
Speaker 1: Still for so many, It's week tim where more U
Speaker 1: s States open vaccines to anyone's sixteen and older, where
Speaker 1: Wall Street was maybe finally finally seen a path back
Speaker 1: to the office. Hey, this is our backdrop the Biden administration,
Speaker 1: of course, saying weeks ago that by May one, Biden
Speaker 1: wants to see this happen in all fifty states, vaccine
Speaker 1: eligibility being available to all adults. We did have some
Speaker 1: big macro conversations though this week, on everything from E S,
Speaker 1: G and E VS. To white wealth and our own
Speaker 1: well being right, including conversation with Nobel Laurie economist Joe
Speaker 1: Stiglitz on the developed world remembering the developing one, especially
Speaker 1: if we want to end to COVID. Plus Jimmy Ethridge,
Speaker 1: CEO of Accenter in North America on being okay to
Speaker 1: say that you're not okay during the pandemic. It is
Speaker 1: okay to not be okay. And we've also got a
Speaker 1: former NFL pro bowler on being a force for good
Speaker 1: and tapping into the sanitizing craze. All of that to come.
Speaker 1: We begin with the cover story this week, a business
Speaker 1: takeover of the magazine that's all about vaccine passports. Companies
Speaker 1: and governments from Beijing to Brussels that depend on travel
Speaker 1: or large gatherings. They're counting on the unproven concept of
Speaker 1: vaccine passports to get the wheels of the economy going
Speaker 1: Againberg Business Week Assistant managing editor Jim Ellis oversaw the coverage.
Speaker 1: So we've we've heard so much about, you know, the
Speaker 1: pain that businesses have had and the countries have had,
Speaker 1: you know, particularly tourist dependent countries since the pandemic has
Speaker 1: pretty much stopped the ability that sort of easily moved
Speaker 1: between places or even the congregating groups. So I thought
Speaker 1: it would be a great idea to sort of take
Speaker 1: a long look, deep dive at, you know, a the
Speaker 1: problem and also the range of solutions that are coming
Speaker 1: out now and whether this vaccine passport, this sort of
Speaker 1: mythical savior that so many people have been talking about,
Speaker 1: is really going to be as effective and is easy
Speaker 1: to put together as a lot of people seem to think.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is one of those things that this
Speaker 1: is a solution that people came up with quite so
Speaker 1: quickly before actually understanding what it means. It's like, look
Speaker 1: at that, really, will it be the golden ticket? And
Speaker 1: you guys take us to Israel, you take us to
Speaker 1: uh Europe or I feel like this is where we're
Speaker 1: starting to see kind of moves in that direction, at
Speaker 1: least more ahead than some other parts of the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've been very, very much more interested in in in
Speaker 1: getting things reopened in a coordinated way than here in
Speaker 1: the US for for a lot of reasons. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's in some ways it's simpler because their health systems
Speaker 1: sort of centralize a lot of data, and so therefore
Speaker 1: here in the US we've got a health system where
Speaker 1: you know, millions of different systems in every state, and
Speaker 1: so it's sort of hard to be able to track people.
Speaker 1: That's easier in it when in countries that have their
Speaker 1: own health systems, But more importantly, UM certain parts of
Speaker 1: the world are so impacted by the drop and travel
Speaker 1: that they have an interesting getting this back together, particularly Europe.
Speaker 1: Europe has a lot of countries, particularly in Southern Europe,
Speaker 1: like a Greece or Spain or in Italy, that desperately
Speaker 1: need tourism to come back. It's a big piece of
Speaker 1: their GDP and they want some reason to say that
Speaker 1: it's safe to travel, whether it's truly safe or whether
Speaker 1: that's just the big lead. It seems more and more businesses,
Speaker 1: whether it's an airline, whether it's in the hospitality business,
Speaker 1: but increasingly whether it's in things like sporting events, um um,
Speaker 1: you know, gyms, all those are looking to a vaccine
Speaker 1: passport as a way to say, hey, it's safe, here's
Speaker 1: your get out of jail car. You have this. Now
Speaker 1: let's get back to business as usual. All right. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the things that are out there.
Speaker 1: There's the International Air Transport Association. They've got a travel
Speaker 1: pass app. You've got the EU with their Digital Green
Speaker 1: Pass proposal, you've got the a Okay Pass. Any of
Speaker 1: this really working well, or at least maybe some tests
Speaker 1: of it, Well, yeah, the things are in test. The
Speaker 1: issue is that there's right now no coherent standard about
Speaker 1: what these things should, um you know, sort of what
Speaker 1: kind of data they should capture, and how they should
Speaker 1: be able to sort of share that data, and what
Speaker 1: do you have to do to make sure that that
Speaker 1: data is sort of private because it's often tied to
Speaker 1: other data, other health data on you and other sort
Speaker 1: of just personal information on you, which is a really
Speaker 1: big issue in parts of the world, particularly in Europe,
Speaker 1: where privacy is a major concern amount over everything. And
Speaker 1: so you've got a lot of competing systems as opposed
Speaker 1: to a standard, whether it's you know, right now, Air
Speaker 1: France is trialing something called an a Oka pay s
Speaker 1: um you know, IATA you know has its travel pass,
Speaker 1: the Common Pass, which is something that's backed by the
Speaker 1: World Economic Forum. All of these are basically competing systems
Speaker 1: that in various ways take your vaccination and and and
Speaker 1: COVID testing history and put it uh into a form
Speaker 1: that can somehow be displayed on a screen. Uh. The
Speaker 1: problem is that, um, you know, how that happens can
Speaker 1: really affect how private the data is. So increasingly what
Speaker 1: we're seeing is people are you know, coalescing around sort
Speaker 1: of an open standard that's tied in with the way
Speaker 1: that we look at security on the Worldwide Web, which
Speaker 1: is pretty well adopted around the world. And the key
Speaker 1: here is rather than having a central database that has
Speaker 1: everyone in the world's health data, which is something that
Speaker 1: most people would not want, I'm just gonna say, you
Speaker 1: made me really nervous. Like I think about it's like
Speaker 1: similar to what we're trying to do with, you know,
Speaker 1: medical history. Every time I go to the doctor's office,
Speaker 1: I'm frustrated that I file something out. But will I
Speaker 1: be ultimately comfortable if there is some universal database that
Speaker 1: knows everything medically on me, particularly since that database is
Speaker 1: you know, some people would say that's cool if it's
Speaker 1: just to transport, to transit borders or something like that
Speaker 1: where government is involved, but increasingly, you know, this is
Speaker 1: going to be used in Britain is arguing now about
Speaker 1: whether this can be whether a vaccine passport can be
Speaker 1: used for admissions to pub Look, a lot of thorny
Speaker 1: issues can arise when you're thinking about this type of thing, Carol.
Speaker 1: That was, of course, Bloomberg Business Week Assistant managing editor
Speaker 1: Jim Ellis. Check out the full cover story and coverage
Speaker 1: including more on the uncertain science of vaccine passports. It's
Speaker 1: all in the magazine, on newsstands, online, and on the Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: With everything with COVID, it's never a straight line forward,
Speaker 1: all right. Coming up more on the virus with Nobel
Speaker 1: lauread economist Joseph Stiglets, who talks how we can free
Speaker 1: the world from COVID nineteen. He weighs into on taxes
Speaker 1: as well as Jamie Diamond. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: So Tim safe to say, we had so much to
Speaker 1: talk about when Nobel Laureate economist and Columbia University professor
Speaker 1: of economics Joe stick Let's joined us. Yeah. He's also
Speaker 1: a co chair of the Commission on Global Economic Transformation
Speaker 1: at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The organization recently
Speaker 1: publishing a report on how dealing with the pandemic needs
Speaker 1: to be a global effort and one that takes care
Speaker 1: of the developing world. The key point is that that
Speaker 1: uh the developing countries, particularly in emerging markets are not
Speaker 1: on tracked to have the kind of UH light at
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel that we're beginning to see
Speaker 1: in the United States into distinct areas. UH, we're getting vaccinated.
Speaker 1: President Biden talked about July four being I heard day
Speaker 1: of independence from the from the COVID nineteen And there
Speaker 1: are many many countries, as we document around the world
Speaker 1: that have not had a single vaccine. They just can't
Speaker 1: get access, UH, they can't afford it. UH. And one
Speaker 1: of the points we make is that that supply constraint
Speaker 1: is in part artificial. UH. The second thing is the
Speaker 1: noting States has spent approximately seventeen thousand dollars UH per
Speaker 1: capita GDP on UH the Economic Recovery, the Rescue Act
Speaker 1: UH combined with the Cares Act that was last last
Speaker 1: spring and the December bill UM. The developing countries are
Speaker 1: spending a fraction of that because they just don't have
Speaker 1: the money. UH. They're spending on average somewhere between two
Speaker 1: dollars and seventeen dollars per capita. Compare that with seventeen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in the United States. Professor, let's start with
Speaker 1: the recovery. When it comes to vaccinations around the world.
Speaker 1: Then get to economics in just a few minutes here,
Speaker 1: but obviously the two are intertwined. I gotta ask, you know,
Speaker 1: when it comes to this virus, the way that we're
Speaker 1: looking at it, I think so many Americans look at
Speaker 1: it from a perspective of where they live, right in
Speaker 1: their neighborhood, who who they're around in their city, and
Speaker 1: those are the statistics that they're looking at, how easy
Speaker 1: it is to get them a vaccine. Make the case
Speaker 1: as to why we should take a global approach and
Speaker 1: why we're not out of the pandemic until the world
Speaker 1: is vaccinated. The real reason, one of the real reasons
Speaker 1: we ought to be concerned is this virus seems particularly
Speaker 1: successful in mutating. And as long as it's mutating, as
Speaker 1: long as it's flourishing in any part of the world,
Speaker 1: and the longer it flourishes, the more mutation, some of
Speaker 1: those mutations are going to come back, and to put it,
Speaker 1: you know, bite us. We don't know when, and we
Speaker 1: don't know how bad it will be will be Will
Speaker 1: those mutations be more um contagious, more deadly? Uh? With
Speaker 1: a uh, We just don't know. So we are at
Speaker 1: a very big risk letting this UH virus just basically
Speaker 1: flourish in some parts of the world. And listen, not
Speaker 1: apples to apples, but professor stickles, you know, coming off
Speaker 1: of the financial crisis, I think we learned hopefully a
Speaker 1: lot in terms of we thought this was going to
Speaker 1: be developed you know, the developed world thing. We thought
Speaker 1: it really spread around the globe. In terms of the crisis.
Speaker 1: Is there something that we can or should have learned
Speaker 1: from that crisis that we can carry over to this
Speaker 1: crisis in terms of its impact globally? What you remember
Speaker 1: in that particular crisis, Uh. The G twenty was founded
Speaker 1: on the basis of the recognition that we needed to
Speaker 1: have a global economic recovery. Gordon Brown, who was the
Speaker 1: Prime Minister of the UK at the time, was particularly forceful.
Speaker 1: He pointed out that if one country is doing well,
Speaker 1: it helps its neighbors, and if it's doing poorly, it
Speaker 1: hurts its neighbors. UH. We've lost enormous number of jobs
Speaker 1: in the export area because of the global slowdown. So
Speaker 1: just in our own self interest that there will be
Speaker 1: a strong global recovery UH and certain sectors, of course,
Speaker 1: if we don't have a slow strong recovery, they just
Speaker 1: won't be able to get back on their feet. So
Speaker 1: that's UH on the economic side, why it's so important
Speaker 1: for this to be a global recovery. Back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight nine, China played a very big role
Speaker 1: in that global economic recovery. UH. It grew really very
Speaker 1: very strongly. Uh. This year China is the only major
Speaker 1: country growing, but it's only growing about three UH. Next
Speaker 1: year is expected somewhat stronger, but uh uh with Europe
Speaker 1: as weak as it is um a decline of something
Speaker 1: like twice that of the United States eight percent, and
Speaker 1: having a hard time getting the vaccines and getting the
Speaker 1: disease under control, it's really important that developing countries and
Speaker 1: emerging markets have a stronger recovery as we can engineer.
Speaker 1: What do we need to put in place in order
Speaker 1: for this to happen at this point? Is this just
Speaker 1: a case of developed government saying, listen, we've got to
Speaker 1: spend a help these developing economies get the vaccine? There
Speaker 1: is it that the first big step that we have
Speaker 1: to do health is obviously UH the first order of business,
Speaker 1: getting vaccines, therapeutics, protective gear to the UH. Developing countries
Speaker 1: and emerging markets is absolutely necessary. There's a policy for
Speaker 1: amework though that can help facilitate that. And the next
Speaker 1: a temporary suspension on some of the intellectual property rights
Speaker 1: that pertain particularly to COVID nineteen, meaning allow companies to
Speaker 1: reproduce vaccine and other technology so it can quickly be distributed. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and you know that they can pay uh license fee.
Speaker 1: It's not like you're uh not compensating those who did
Speaker 1: the basic research. But remember much of that research was
Speaker 1: funded by the public in the United States and in Europe.
Speaker 1: So uh, the and the returns that have all the
Speaker 1: vaccine companies have already obtained or scheduled to obtain this year,
Speaker 1: are you look like they will be a enormous return
Speaker 1: on their private investments. Let's talk about your plan and
Speaker 1: the Institute for New Economic Thinking, this three pronged strategy
Speaker 1: of helping the world in terms of getting beyond COVID
Speaker 1: and it's impact. We've already talked about vaccines, that vaccines
Speaker 1: need to be made available for the developing world. You also,
Speaker 1: though the other two prongs economic recovery policies in debt management.
Speaker 1: Tuck briefly about those I've mentioned earlier that the disco
Speaker 1: space in the United States. It's just so much larger
Speaker 1: than they used to. Developing countries and merchy markets, they
Speaker 1: just don't have much much much they can do. So
Speaker 1: if there's the usual stanks of two little depth restructuring
Speaker 1: done too late, these countries growth gets so inhibited they
Speaker 1: aren't able to pay as much as they would be
Speaker 1: able to pay if you gave them more space. Right now.
Speaker 1: That was Nobelt Lauria Economists Joseph Stiglitz, also co chair
Speaker 1: of the Commission on Global Economic Transformation at the Institute
Speaker 1: for New Economic Thinking. I canna say we're just getting
Speaker 1: started with the weekend, so but that was one of
Speaker 1: my favorite conversations this week. Yeah, that was one of
Speaker 1: my favorites as well. We could have gone cold on
Speaker 1: the entire show with them, hours and hours and hours
Speaker 1: all right still ahead. There are many worries out there
Speaker 1: when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus, right, we
Speaker 1: know that, and Toll in particular, is that on our
Speaker 1: collective mental well being. The CEO of X Center in
Speaker 1: North America, Jimmy Afridge, walks the talk that conversation next
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg broadcasting from the
Speaker 1: financial capital of the world Bloomberg eleven Frio in New
Speaker 1: York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one
Speaker 1: oh six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to
Speaker 1: the country Sirius XM Chado one nineteen and around the
Speaker 1: globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week News this week about black
Speaker 1: Stone leading a one hundred million dollar funding round in
Speaker 1: the on demand mental health company Ginger Right. And then
Speaker 1: we also had tim City Group CEO Jane Fraser. She
Speaker 1: banned Friday internal zoom calls and encourage vacations for her staff.
Speaker 1: It's all about an effort to combat workplace malaise that's
Speaker 1: been brought down by the pandemic. I mean, everybody's feeling
Speaker 1: kind of wiped out. Yeah, I'd be okay with no
Speaker 1: video call Friday's which ever, seriously well our mental well
Speaker 1: being Carol has been one of the other crises over
Speaker 1: the past year, exposing mental health struggles as never before,
Speaker 1: also increasing corporate awareness big time. Think about all the
Speaker 1: conversations we've had with CEOs and leaders about the mental
Speaker 1: well being of their their teams. With that in mind,
Speaker 1: I did catch up with Jimmy Ethridge. He's the CEO
Speaker 1: of Accenter North America. This happened at the Bloomberg Live
Speaker 1: Mental Health in the Economy Virtual event. I began though,
Speaker 1: by asking him about the economic and market outlook. I
Speaker 1: had to do this, especially since Accentia works with global
Speaker 1: clients in all industries. We survey the C suites of
Speaker 1: our clients a couple of times a year, and the
Speaker 1: outlook right now is as optimistic as it's been. The
Speaker 1: survey that we did in December, which is over fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred C suite executives, the vast majority are anticipating this
Speaker 1: case shaped recovery, consistent really around the globe and a
Speaker 1: pretty optimistic outlook. A little more optimistic in North America,
Speaker 1: where about half of these executives feel build their growth
Speaker 1: goals by the end of a little more pessimistic when
Speaker 1: you look at Europe and um, you know, I think,
Speaker 1: not surprisingly a lot of this is tied to success
Speaker 1: with the vaccine and vaccine deployment. What's happened with COVID
Speaker 1: has really created a little bit of a technology time
Speaker 1: machine and are and clients are moving much more quickly
Speaker 1: around technology investments, looking to achieve in ten months what
Speaker 1: normally would have taken them, uh five plus years to do.
Speaker 1: And that's good news for our business because we're exactly
Speaker 1: where our clients needs to be. But you know, as
Speaker 1: you were saying with some of the survey results, the
Speaker 1: fact is a lot of the productivity that the clients
Speaker 1: have experienced over the past year, it has really been
Speaker 1: through adrenaline as much as anything. Well, let's talk about
Speaker 1: those pressures. I've seen them firsthand. I've seen them with colleagues,
Speaker 1: I've seen them with family members. Jimmy, what have you
Speaker 1: seen with your employee base, with your leadership team over
Speaker 1: the past year. First of all, I'm really proud of
Speaker 1: what our employees have been able to accomplish. The creativity,
Speaker 1: the compassion, and the resiliency. We shifted what has been
Speaker 1: a long traditional client service model of being on site
Speaker 1: at clients with with a lot of our services, to
Speaker 1: completely working remotely and for most of our employees working
Speaker 1: from home. And the fact that we were able to
Speaker 1: do that without skipping a beat with the client service. Um,
Speaker 1: the fact that we've had to shift so many key
Speaker 1: processes to being virtual. It's still blows my mind that
Speaker 1: with the thousands of people that Accenture has hired in
Speaker 1: the last year, none of them have ever stepped foot
Speaker 1: in an Accenture office. Probably none of them have met
Speaker 1: in person with Accenture leadership or colleagues. But the compassion
Speaker 1: and grace that I've seen our people try to take
Speaker 1: care of each other, uh in dealing with you know
Speaker 1: what's a combination help crisis, economic crisis, and social crisis.
Speaker 1: It makes me very proud. However, while the SEMs to
Speaker 1: have been incredible, they are clearly feeling the stress, anxiety, depression.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of corporations, we do internal surveys and
Speaker 1: it was very clear that everyone is feeling that. And
Speaker 1: I think it kind of goes back to the point
Speaker 1: I made earlier that the adrenaline can only take you
Speaker 1: so far, and the things that are happening to people
Speaker 1: that they're having to deal with are really putting a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on mental health. Well. And you know
Speaker 1: it's interesting is I feel like we all will say
Speaker 1: how you doing, I'm doing okay, or I'm having a
Speaker 1: bad day, and then we just kind of brush it off.
Speaker 1: But when you start to drill down. And we actually
Speaker 1: took a poll of our audience here and ask the
Speaker 1: question have you experienced any of the following since COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen lockdown and almost said they have experienced anxiety? UM,
Speaker 1: almost said they felt lonely, depression, and then in terms
Speaker 1: of thoughts of self harm about four percent. Tell me,
Speaker 1: like those results, how do they speak to you? I
Speaker 1: s we can relate to them, and I can relate
Speaker 1: to them personally. I mean, my life is a lot
Speaker 1: different than it was before. Um, I've been I haven't
Speaker 1: been on a plane and over a year and you're
Speaker 1: talking about someone who lives lives in airplane and airports. Um.
Speaker 1: My dogs have gotten to know me better than the
Speaker 1: guy that just leets us on the weekend. Um. And
Speaker 1: of course I've got the cliche COVID puppy that has
Speaker 1: become a key part of my stress therapy and kind
Speaker 1: of coping mechanisms. But I will say about to your
Speaker 1: point about how are you doing? UM, I'm speaking more
Speaker 1: frequently with the c suites of our clients in part
Speaker 1: because video just enables It's a lot easier than getting
Speaker 1: on a plane and going to meet with someone. I
Speaker 1: gotta say, it's a hard thing for most of us,
Speaker 1: Tim to admit, and maybe maybe just look soon for
Speaker 1: a chief empathy officer coming to a company near you.
Speaker 1: It would be nice, right, wouldn't it part of the
Speaker 1: C suite that was the centure in North America CEO
Speaker 1: Jimmy Ethridge. You can watch the full interview on Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Lives YouTube page, so be sure to check that out.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up next, speaking
Speaker 1: of empathy. A former NFL pro bowler on athletes being
Speaker 1: agents of change. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. So, Tim,
Speaker 1: it's over a years since I caught up with former
Speaker 1: NFL pro bowler and fullback for the Atlanta Falcons. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about Ovie Muhailey. We caught up at the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Power Players Summit. Like I said, about a year ago
Speaker 1: in Miami. Obe's president and founder of the foundation that
Speaker 1: bears his name, and Carol, A lot has happened since
Speaker 1: you two last talk. The pandemic. Of course, the Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter movement gaining so much momentum over the summer
Speaker 1: and more. There was so much I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: with him about, and we really got to it. And
Speaker 1: I gotta say, though, like so many of our conversations
Speaker 1: to him that we do on our daily radio show,
Speaker 1: we had to begin with what his life has been like.
Speaker 1: Been been crazy, but um, we're definitely blessed and realizing
Speaker 1: now more than ever that wire blessed to be a blessing. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's interesting it's been a year um that you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about the dual crisis, whether it's racism, inequities
Speaker 1: obviously the health pandemic, and I just wonder, you know,
Speaker 1: we've had some great leaders in all communities, including the
Speaker 1: sports community, kind of step up and help us get
Speaker 1: through this. What do you see as kind of the
Speaker 1: roles of of athletes and other leaders in the sports
Speaker 1: industry when it's times of crisis. Well, really, it's using
Speaker 1: your voice, using your platform for good, and it's wherever
Speaker 1: you feel like you can make the most impact. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people have pivoted whatever their nonprofit
Speaker 1: does to provide COVID solutions, you know, with the work
Speaker 1: that I do with um you know the way I
Speaker 1: blessed it on their board and my nonprofit in the
Speaker 1: environmental space, we have to just trying to pivot to
Speaker 1: how can we help these kids. Uh So it's everything
Speaker 1: from trying to get the resource so they can work
Speaker 1: at school, uh, mental health resources, trying to make sure
Speaker 1: food is available, and of course testing. Being a doctor son,
Speaker 1: I've had my medical consulting firm for the last eight years.
Speaker 1: Since I'm retired, I've been really just trying to use
Speaker 1: my love with the medical field to health doctors and
Speaker 1: their patients. So everything from PPE to testing to try
Speaker 1: and just you know, finding resources for those who even
Speaker 1: the most. What are you hearing too in terms of
Speaker 1: the black community in the Atlanta area and other minorities
Speaker 1: in terms of stepping up and being comfortable with taking
Speaker 1: the vaccine. That's an interesting one because I'll be honest
Speaker 1: with you, even me personally, I've been on defense for
Speaker 1: a long time, but I'm definitely leaning towards getting the vaccine.
Speaker 1: Uh just because having a face to face conversation with
Speaker 1: people who have had COVID and have totally like dear
Speaker 1: friends of mine, uh, their experiences going through it. It's
Speaker 1: to the point where as as much of a fortunate hesitation,
Speaker 1: there is an after the community, and that I have
Speaker 1: as well. Whatever symptoms I could have from the vaccine
Speaker 1: is worse than death that could come because of COVID.
Speaker 1: So I'm moving that way. But it's really just using
Speaker 1: the voices that African Americans listen to and that they trust.
Speaker 1: Try let them understand that the vaccine is, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the best way to move forward safe. Yeah, no, exactly. UM. Hey,
Speaker 1: one thing I want to ask you, because you listen.
Speaker 1: You know, you were great when you caught up with
Speaker 1: us at the Power Players summit and you guys, you
Speaker 1: know you're out there. You've got causes, you're helping out theirs,
Speaker 1: but you've also got some interesting investments. Tell me, um
Speaker 1: about an investment and business that you've been involved in,
Speaker 1: you know, in a business that's very appropriate to this time.
Speaker 1: Sanitizer the foundation we partnered with an eco friendly company
Speaker 1: called Austria, and they use hemp bidegradable plastic for their
Speaker 1: refield and rather than using batteries, they have u a
Speaker 1: put pedal sanitizer. And so the model that we were
Speaker 1: using is you know, really unique and I'm surprised that
Speaker 1: more people haven't used it. We have a high end
Speaker 1: European device that's more to waste, high stainless steel, laser
Speaker 1: edge powder coded, fully customizable, and it allows our partners,
Speaker 1: our clients to make their customers feel comfortable going to stand.
Speaker 1: And I won't name any any names, but some of
Speaker 1: the leaders in the Santis of market, you look at
Speaker 1: their stands and they look kind of jankie and you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a rundown and full all ours has a
Speaker 1: sensor to where anyone can see which one of their
Speaker 1: dispensers is full, needs to be refilled, and so on
Speaker 1: so forth. But we took us to the next level
Speaker 1: and have added a sponsorship model where with some of
Speaker 1: our clients like St Regis or Google or Penn State, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, or some of the other wonderful class working with,
Speaker 1: we'll find a sponsor that can go there and actually
Speaker 1: pay to be have their logo in their insignia and
Speaker 1: even though a QR code that could be on there
Speaker 1: to get the information out there quick. Example, Penn State
Speaker 1: has Target as a sponsor and rather than Penn State
Speaker 1: having their sametimes to being expensed. Now Target gets more
Speaker 1: than enough. I think uh beverage being on the dispenser
Speaker 1: as a QR code that gives percentages off to get
Speaker 1: some of their students to go to Target. They're making money,
Speaker 1: Penn State's making money, and we're doing well because part
Speaker 1: of the four proceeds goes to our nonprofit. That's really terrific.
Speaker 1: And I know you're doing stuff with b of A
Speaker 1: Cox Communications. You mentioned Penn State Delta US Bank, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and you said the money goes to your
Speaker 1: your foundation. I mean talk to us about where that
Speaker 1: money the ultimately goes. Yeah. So, um, we've been really
Speaker 1: on the forefront. Uh. Very proud to say have the
Speaker 1: first NFL player to have a fully environmental foundation back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight, and it wasn't even uh
Speaker 1: you know, gets in to talk about the environment. And
Speaker 1: my biggest thing was just trying to use my platform
Speaker 1: to educate and inspire the next generation of violence leaders.
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring more diversity and inclusion into the
Speaker 1: green space because that's the only way we're going to
Speaker 1: solve this problem. And so the money is going for
Speaker 1: our comic books. Our second edition of grid Iron Green
Speaker 1: is coming out, and we have a curriculum that goes
Speaker 1: along with that. We call it a sustainability STEM curriculum
Speaker 1: where you focus on the science, technology, engining, and math
Speaker 1: in the sustainability space. Because there there are so many
Speaker 1: green jobs out there, but very few people in you know,
Speaker 1: urban areas or black and brown people are vibe or
Speaker 1: not enough are buying for these green jobs because they
Speaker 1: don't know about it. They don't know about the opportunity
Speaker 1: to do good, to do well. They're not exposed to
Speaker 1: it on a daily basis like other parts of the country.
Speaker 1: Is so we want to use my influence ethn athlete
Speaker 1: and also entertainment and just fun to really expose people
Speaker 1: with some of the great ways that you can uh
Speaker 1: be part of a solution. Right, it's not just about
Speaker 1: opening doors, you're actually providing doors. You know what I
Speaker 1: loved about when we talked over a year ago, but
Speaker 1: I'm even thinking about as we're talking now. You know,
Speaker 1: you're someone who's accomplished a lot and and succeeded um
Speaker 1: and done very well. But you know, this past year
Speaker 1: has exposed that not everybody has the same opportunities, and
Speaker 1: in particular if you're black in America. It's very difficult,
Speaker 1: and you have a different set of doors that are
Speaker 1: opened or not open to you than a lot of
Speaker 1: other individuals and a lot of white Americans here. What's
Speaker 1: the smart conversations that we need to be having. What
Speaker 1: are the what are the conversations you've been having with
Speaker 1: you know, um, people that you know, black, white, or
Speaker 1: other that you think will help move this all forward
Speaker 1: into a better place. Absolutely, because you can't have any
Speaker 1: conversations about moving for other people until we discussed you know, racism,
Speaker 1: because it's it's always there and that hasn't gone away.
Speaker 1: It's just become more prevalent the last couple of years
Speaker 1: against all races, but especially you know, with African Americans.
Speaker 1: And so what we're doing is trying to just to
Speaker 1: educate people because it's it's hard to do better, you
Speaker 1: know better, It's really hard. It's just like you know,
Speaker 1: we always said of football, if you know better, do better,
Speaker 1: same thing applies in life and towards racism. I had
Speaker 1: a really interesting conversation with h a high school friend
Speaker 1: of mine Scott, where we hadn't spoken in a long time,
Speaker 1: and he went out of his way to ask me,
Speaker 1: you know, how are you doing? He's a Caucasian white gentleman, uh,
Speaker 1: and he was like, you know, how are you dealing
Speaker 1: with everything that's going on in the last year with
Speaker 1: with race? You know? And I shouldn't. Wow. No one's
Speaker 1: asked me that. No one my friends have just said like,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? Are you okay? How you know? What?
Speaker 1: What can I do to help? And it was very
Speaker 1: It took me a back, but I was really impressed
Speaker 1: and appreciative that he asked that I gave him some
Speaker 1: really simple answers. I was like, those who want to
Speaker 1: be an allied to people of color, uh, and especially
Speaker 1: African Americans, they just have to speak up and you
Speaker 1: have to do everything. No one could solve this in
Speaker 1: a staff of the thing here with one act, But
Speaker 1: it's the accumulation of more people who aren't as oppressed
Speaker 1: and who aren't don't have some of these up hill
Speaker 1: um hills the client and can easily call somebody out
Speaker 1: or make a point to uplift someone who should be
Speaker 1: in a certain position because they know that, hey, my
Speaker 1: job is safe, I can speak out. You know, some
Speaker 1: of people will be able to speak out or say
Speaker 1: their truth because their color. They have to just keep
Speaker 1: quiet and do what they're doing. So to answer your question,
Speaker 1: it's really about getting more uh white people to to
Speaker 1: help really enforced where we're going with this and how
Speaker 1: we're trying to move forward. Because I've been very blessed
Speaker 1: pass with great friends and UM and when they've reached
Speaker 1: out and asked how they can help, and I gave
Speaker 1: them the solutions, they've actually taken advantage of it and
Speaker 1: if on it, so that that helps out a lot. Well,
Speaker 1: And you know, it's interesting of you too, and I'm thinking, UM,
Speaker 1: what you just said, it's just kind of really staying
Speaker 1: with me. And I do wonder though, you know, you're
Speaker 1: experiencing the NFL, and I'm not looking for you to
Speaker 1: be critical or anything like that, but I do wonder
Speaker 1: I feel like the NFL itself, you know, there's been
Speaker 1: some enlightenment perhaps, you know, or some better understanding. You know.
Speaker 1: I think of Colin Kaepernick and how much criticism he
Speaker 1: came under, you know, initially, uh, and how that has evolved. UM,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on that? My thoughts are that
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting and my wife always uh has cast
Speaker 1: me not to be too too honest, but I'll be
Speaker 1: flatly honest. They messed up. They messed up in a
Speaker 1: big way. They messed up, and I think they are
Speaker 1: trying to just say whatever people want, they thought people
Speaker 1: wanted to hear. And the truth of the matter, or
Speaker 1: the matter of the fact, is that you know, he
Speaker 1: was absolutely right, and there is inequality and there uh,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of racism that needs to be rooted out. Yes,
Speaker 1: a lot more work needs to be done, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad we were able to talk about what the NFL
Speaker 1: has done in the past and what they're doing now
Speaker 1: in the future. That was former NFL pro bowler and
Speaker 1: fullback for the Atlanta Falcons, Ovie Haley. That wraps up
Speaker 1: the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Tim Stinabeck and I'm Carol Masser.
Speaker 1: Morehead in our next hour, including our interview with Emory
Speaker 1: law professor Dorothy Brown on her book The Whiteness of Wealth,
Speaker 1: How the tax system impoverishes Black Americans and how we
Speaker 1: can fix it, Plus the end of Tesla's dominance maybe
Speaker 1: closer than it appears to the dramatic music, dn't Danta.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week inside from
Speaker 1: the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted
Speaker 1: business magazine, plus global business, finance and tech news As
Speaker 1: it happened. It's Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stenovin on Bloomberg Radio. Hi'm Carol
Speaker 1: Masser on Tim Stanovic wlenty. Coming up ahead in our
Speaker 1: second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week,
Speaker 1: including a front row seat to what exactly has been
Speaker 1: going on in the housing market with the CEO of
Speaker 1: KB Home. What is going on? Homes are getting expensive,
Speaker 1: they are indeed, speaking of housing, there's a new book
Speaker 1: out that looks at how racism and tax policy is
Speaker 1: impacting black home ownership and wealth creation. It's called The
Speaker 1: Whiteness of Wealth. And we're gonna wrap up with a
Speaker 1: voice very familiar to many, the grandson of Jacques Cristau,
Speaker 1: Philippe Custo, along with the CEO of New Day Impact
Speaker 1: on teaching kids about sustainability and impact investing. Come on, everybody,
Speaker 1: let's get into the zodiac. I love that you go first, alright,
Speaker 1: deal first up this hour, though the battle. It is
Speaker 1: funnily on or at least it feels that way tim
Speaker 1: when it comes to dominance in the EV market, which
Speaker 1: begs the question is the era of elon coming to
Speaker 1: an end? And one that Bloomberg Europe Auto's team leader
Speaker 1: Craig Trudell explored as he joined us along with Bloomberg
Speaker 1: business Week editor Joel Webber. Craig did a great job
Speaker 1: of the story. And you know, I just want to
Speaker 1: totally be clear that, you know, for for more than
Speaker 1: a decade now, I think Tesla has just dominated what
Speaker 1: a bunch of naysayers said would never be a viable space,
Speaker 1: and by by being such a leader in the space,
Speaker 1: it has absolutely transformed the future of the auto industry um.
Speaker 1: And the question now is like are there is there
Speaker 1: going to be meaningful competition? And the head start that
Speaker 1: Tesla has had like leads us to to now and
Speaker 1: Volkswagen is going to basically be of, you know, a
Speaker 1: viable competitor in the very near future. They will have
Speaker 1: almost instant scale from from what we're able to kind
Speaker 1: of look at with their numbers, and we're gonna basically
Speaker 1: see a version of the world that starts to look
Speaker 1: a little bit more like streaming where Netflix also had
Speaker 1: a huge lead, but it wasn't like other incumbents could
Speaker 1: enter the space and also have a decent business model.
Speaker 1: So so, Craig, how do you how do you see
Speaker 1: this all all setting out? How realistic of a shot
Speaker 1: does Volkswagen we have here to take on Tesla's market power? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting that the comparison we made
Speaker 1: to streaming absolutely makes sense. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the company that we raise in this story that you know,
Speaker 1: is a great example of what v W might be
Speaker 1: like is Disney, where you know they have uh, you know,
Speaker 1: all the hits. They have an ability to you know,
Speaker 1: bring out some new ones you think about, you know,
Speaker 1: Disney Plus and what a hit the Mandalorian has been. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Volkswagen is a company that has a lot
Speaker 1: of flaws and uh they still have a lot to
Speaker 1: overcome in that regard. But Erbert des really is dead
Speaker 1: set on on you know, really taking on Musk and
Speaker 1: he's not, uh, you know, sort of dismissive of of Ellen.
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the most interesting things about him.
Speaker 1: He really, I think takes Ellen seriously, has thought highly
Speaker 1: of him and and has said so. He's been very
Speaker 1: public about the idea that they are sort of a
Speaker 1: artstick for VW, which is really something considering this as
Speaker 1: a company that sells, you know, in normal years, more
Speaker 1: than ten million cars worldwide. Yeah, that's a lot of cars. Hey, Craig,
Speaker 1: I want to home in on something that I really
Speaker 1: focused on in your story, and it reminded me of
Speaker 1: what Volkswagen has gone through over the last year. Skeptics
Speaker 1: you write could be forgiven for raising their eyebrows at
Speaker 1: the idea of going electric. And I'm paraphrasing you here,
Speaker 1: coming as it was from the same car maker that
Speaker 1: spent years gaslighting the world about quote clean diesel. Where
Speaker 1: is where is Volkswagen in getting over that scandal? Because
Speaker 1: it is, you know, a tough message I think for
Speaker 1: the company given its recent history. Yeah, it's it's still
Speaker 1: something that is playing out in the courts and it's
Speaker 1: still haunting them, you know, things, things that that they're
Speaker 1: going to have to deal with in terms of more settlements,
Speaker 1: uh and uh, you know, dealing with even questions about
Speaker 1: you know, disclosure. A lot of those sorts of issues
Speaker 1: continue to linger. I think, you know, largely the world
Speaker 1: has you know, kind of uh more less moved on.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are consumers who you know, did buy
Speaker 1: into this the quote unquote clean diesel, uh you know,
Speaker 1: messaging who really felt betrayed and when will never buy
Speaker 1: a VW again. But I think we have been surprised
Speaker 1: to see that, you know, especially in America, where you know,
Speaker 1: VW has never been uh you know, really big in
Speaker 1: the US, but we have seen you know, this is
Speaker 1: a company that while they're still small there, you know,
Speaker 1: they really have come all the way back in terms
Speaker 1: of the hits that they took in the immediate aftermath
Speaker 1: of that scandal. Uh. You know, they remain a sort
Speaker 1: of bit player, but they're back to where they were
Speaker 1: or were back to where they were before COVID hit.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think the thing that there's mentioning there,
Speaker 1: Tim and Craig, Uh, we can turn it back to
Speaker 1: you on this again, is is the fact that as
Speaker 1: to to make good on basically epic deception, they had
Speaker 1: to agree to Electrify America. That has been a huge
Speaker 1: infrastructure undertaking. They it was a massive settlement that they
Speaker 1: agreed to with the US and California and Electrify America
Speaker 1: is this affiliate that you know, is part of two billion. Uh.
Speaker 1: Was was a portion of that settlement that needed to
Speaker 1: go to setting up charging infrastructure and uh sort of
Speaker 1: you know, building up sort of educating consumers in the
Speaker 1: US about electric vehicles and Electrify America is now the
Speaker 1: largest fast charging network in the US. Uh. This is
Speaker 1: a company that was you know, set up by Volkswagen,
Speaker 1: funded by Volkswagen, but as sort of a condition of
Speaker 1: the settlement, it also needs to sort of benefit everybody.
Speaker 1: It can't just favor Volkswagen or be you know, closed
Speaker 1: to VW. So this is a network that actually is
Speaker 1: being used by Ford, Mustang mach Ee drivers. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it'll it'll be a network that will really come in
Speaker 1: handy for you know, really the broader efforts of the
Speaker 1: industry to go electric and take you on Moscon. As
Speaker 1: Craig writes, evs are shifting from what seems like a
Speaker 1: one man show to an extravaganza with an increasingly crowded stage.
Speaker 1: As Bloomberg News eurob Otto's team leader Craig Trudell and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Webber, could Ellen be sharing
Speaker 1: the stage one day with the VW CEO. Perhaps perhaps
Speaker 1: stay tuned. Coming up, we'll look at housing from two
Speaker 1: different angles. First, the CEO of KB Home on what's
Speaker 1: really going on in the US housing market, Then how
Speaker 1: tax policy impacts homeownership and the creation of wealth. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. We've got to check on
Speaker 1: the housing market this week thanks to the latest quarterly
Speaker 1: update from Kaby Home, which posted fiscal first quarter revenues.
Speaker 1: It did come in below the lowest analyst estimate. Building
Speaker 1: stocks have been up just under twenty this year, and
Speaker 1: shares of KB Home up well just around here to date.
Speaker 1: We got more on the industry and outlook when kby
Speaker 1: Home Chairman, president and CEO Jeff Mezger joined us. You
Speaker 1: guys had a pretty good quarter. We did? We did.
Speaker 1: I was joking with someone, it's a good time to
Speaker 1: be a home builder. How good? Tell us walk us
Speaker 1: through the metrics. Actually, it's as strong and as good
Speaker 1: as it's ever been, Carol. Both the demand side, um
Speaker 1: in particular is very strong, right now. Interest rates are low,
Speaker 1: We're coming out of a pandemic, and the economy is
Speaker 1: starting to percolate a little as other than as just
Speaker 1: by the g d P you just reported. So you
Speaker 1: have job growth, you have a better economy, people feeling better,
Speaker 1: strong demographics, low interest rates, and no no inventory out there.
Speaker 1: So it's uh an incredibly strong combination for us right
Speaker 1: now of solid demand and low inventory. Well, you have
Speaker 1: homes for throughout the United States in eight different states, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, Texas, and Washington. Which market has the most opportunity?
Speaker 1: Which state has the most opportunity? Yeah, it's sad to
Speaker 1: say this, but right now every city is performing very
Speaker 1: well in the metrics I described of no inventory, strong demand,
Speaker 1: solid economy right now is very broad based across our footprint.
Speaker 1: Any concerns about California though, and I asked this for
Speaker 1: a couple of reasons. One, I'm a California We've seen
Speaker 1: so many reports again anecdotal anecdotal reports of people leaving
Speaker 1: California for among different reasons, but also going to places
Speaker 1: where you do that. Are that included in your markets
Speaker 1: right Florida, Texas. So why are you still bullish on California. Well,
Speaker 1: the demise of California has been predicted for about fifty
Speaker 1: years now, I think. And we're headquartered here, so what's
Speaker 1: our home state, and we enjoy the market here in
Speaker 1: the economy. What's going on? And if you look at
Speaker 1: our business, one of our indicators of future revenue is
Speaker 1: our backlog, and our backlog at the end of the
Speaker 1: quarter was up basically a hundred percent year over year.
Speaker 1: Our backlog in California was over well over a billion dollars.
Speaker 1: There's just a shortage of housing in this state. It's
Speaker 1: very underserved right now, and demand is good and we're
Speaker 1: enjoying a strong market right now. Jeff, what about a
Speaker 1: shortage of land? I mean, you guys have enough land
Speaker 1: to meet the demand that you're seeing in terms of
Speaker 1: order flow what we do, and it's growing right now. Carol,
Speaker 1: I I used to refer to this as a supply
Speaker 1: constrained recovery in that coming out of the financial crisis,
Speaker 1: the issue was the industry didn't have enough approved land
Speaker 1: to develop because things had had stopped. And now now
Speaker 1: we're past that. And I shared on our call yesterday.
Speaker 1: In the fourth quarter, we increased our spend on land
Speaker 1: and development by year over year, and in the first
Speaker 1: quarter again here we were up thirty seven percent, So
Speaker 1: we're actually increasing pretty significantly the investment we're making in
Speaker 1: future growth. So, Jeff, I wish you were here because
Speaker 1: the conversation we were having kind of behind the scenes
Speaker 1: about you know, maybe how homes change as a result
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. Are we all going to look at
Speaker 1: them differently? Are we going to want in every home
Speaker 1: maybe a little workout space and office just in case. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a great topic right now. And in our business, Carol,
Speaker 1: we believe in personalization of the home. So when we
Speaker 1: sell a home um to someone, we don't build it
Speaker 1: and then sell it. We sell it, let them personalize
Speaker 1: it in our studio, and then we build it for them.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of flex space in the homes,
Speaker 1: and and we rolled out what we called the kby
Speaker 1: Home office feature where you could convert a bedroom or
Speaker 1: a then to an office space. And we're seeing that
Speaker 1: as a pretty popular option right now, whether it's people
Speaker 1: work from home, or kids schooling from home, or just
Speaker 1: you know, a new area for a family to gather
Speaker 1: and um because you know, how do you know how
Speaker 1: you know how people like their demands? Like it went
Speaker 1: from every you know, homes years ago, where like just
Speaker 1: every everything was its own space, and then we got
Speaker 1: to kind of open concept and you know, lots of
Speaker 1: open space and shared space. And I just wonder if
Speaker 1: there's something that you think as a result of the
Speaker 1: pandemic is going to kind of impact housing maybe for
Speaker 1: years to come or maybe not. Um, I think homes
Speaker 1: became more valuable and appealing to people because everyone wants
Speaker 1: our own space and we've all been spending a lot
Speaker 1: more time in our home, so you you want it
Speaker 1: to be yours. The trends worth seeing and with the
Speaker 1: consumer is still great rooms. They want a lot of
Speaker 1: open space, but then they want that little dedicated enclave
Speaker 1: they can go to get away from the world as well. Well.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the world, I'm interested Jeff to here where
Speaker 1: where you were a year ago. We talked about it
Speaker 1: a lot because, as as we could say here on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio, it's been a year like no other. So
Speaker 1: so take me back to where you were last March
Speaker 1: when California was shut down in New York City was
Speaker 1: shut down. Did you ever foresee that you would have
Speaker 1: a in early one like this? Absolutely not. It's been
Speaker 1: a wild ride. And as we look back on it January,
Speaker 1: in February last year, our sales were incredibly strong. We
Speaker 1: were set up on a great trajectory to have a
Speaker 1: great year, and then the the pandemic was declared and
Speaker 1: we went in the bunker mode. Um I took some
Speaker 1: steps to protect the employees and their teams, and we
Speaker 1: actually shut our business down for about six weeks, totally
Speaker 1: totally shut down. And when you're in that mode, it's
Speaker 1: lower overhead, horde cash, don't plan any lots, it's gonna
Speaker 1: get worse, and uh, your plan for the worst and
Speaker 1: hope for the best. And then coming coming out of
Speaker 1: that in May and June, things started to percolate and
Speaker 1: by July or August it was an incredible run. And
Speaker 1: we just had the quarter. We just reported our best
Speaker 1: quarter of sales in fifteen years for a first quarter. Well,
Speaker 1: we're on the good side of the swing, though, good
Speaker 1: side of the swing. What about its rates start to
Speaker 1: go up? And listen, you know, we all have to
Speaker 1: remember perspective because you go back to the early eighties
Speaker 1: and you know, we had mortgage rates that were off
Speaker 1: the charts, um so even a few higher points from here,
Speaker 1: it's still low by historical standards, but nonetheless it can
Speaker 1: prevent some people from maybe being able to afford a
Speaker 1: mortgage with a higher rate. So is there a certain
Speaker 1: rate that you're watching or that you're concerned that if
Speaker 1: we start to go higher? Now we're obviously mindful of rates,
Speaker 1: and it's a math equation. You only make so much money,
Speaker 1: you can only afford so much, so affrights to go
Speaker 1: up that it squeezes affordability. Look, it's always great to
Speaker 1: check in on housing, of course, a good economic indicator. Listen,
Speaker 1: we talk about it all the time. We are very
Speaker 1: closely watching what's happening in the New York metro eraic
Speaker 1: because has been a lot of movement, but really across
Speaker 1: the country tells us so much. Constantly asked about it too.
Speaker 1: Mortgage rates, Yeah, they're going up, still low though historic
Speaker 1: by historical standards, a way down. That's Jeff Masager, CEO
Speaker 1: at KB Home will still account more on housing and
Speaker 1: how tax codes disproportionately impact Black Americans. It was a
Speaker 1: recent Business Week cover story that profiled the work done
Speaker 1: by Emory law professor Dorothy Brown. That's story. That cover
Speaker 1: story really stayed with me. This week she joined us
Speaker 1: to talk about her work. It's all in her book,
Speaker 1: The Whiteness of Well, she's coming up news. This has
Speaker 1: bloom broadcasting from the financial capital of the world, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Eleve in Frio in New York to Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius XM Chado one
Speaker 1: nineteen and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Busines this week. Well,
Speaker 1: we promised you this next guest just a few weeks
Speaker 1: ago when she was the subject of a Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: cover story for her work and career as a law
Speaker 1: professor who's documented racism and a tax system that's supposedly
Speaker 1: color blind. Yeah, Tim, we're talking about Dorothy Brown. She's
Speaker 1: a professor of at Emery University School of Law. What
Speaker 1: she found out is that tax laws discriminate when it
Speaker 1: comes to things such as marriage and home ownership. It's
Speaker 1: all in this new book she's got out it's called
Speaker 1: the whiteness of wealth, how the tax system impoverishes black Americans,
Speaker 1: and how we can fix it. How she got there, Well,
Speaker 1: it just kind of happened. Yes, So I kind of
Speaker 1: fell into this. I didn't. I went into tax law
Speaker 1: thinking it had nothing to do with race. Deliberately went
Speaker 1: in a tax law I think it had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with race. And I'm doing my parents tax return
Speaker 1: and I'm the numbers are not adding up. They seem
Speaker 1: to be paying too much in taxes, but I can't
Speaker 1: figure out why. And I have a graduate degree in
Speaker 1: tax law. I know what I'm doing, but something didn't
Speaker 1: add up. Well, fast forward a few years later, I'm
Speaker 1: an academic. I read an article that said, how do
Speaker 1: you know there isn't a race and tax problem until
Speaker 1: you look? And I thought, really, rates and tax So
Speaker 1: I went looking. And what I found over my twenty
Speaker 1: five years of research is that whenever black and white
Speaker 1: Americans engage in the same activity, tax policy subsidizes how
Speaker 1: white Americans engage in the activity, but penalize how black
Speaker 1: Americans gage in the actor. So dig down into that
Speaker 1: and explain that how is that happening? Yes, so we
Speaker 1: can start with marriage, which is what got me on
Speaker 1: this road to begin with. My parents were two equal
Speaker 1: earner couples. They both worked full time. My mother and
Speaker 1: father contributed roughly equal amounts. Contrast that couple with a
Speaker 1: different married couple that has the same overall income that
Speaker 1: my parents had, but only earned by one person. One
Speaker 1: person works in the paid labor market, the other person
Speaker 1: works at home. Well, tax law gives a tax cut
Speaker 1: to the couple with the one wage earner, but no
Speaker 1: tax cut two couples like my parents, and for decades,
Speaker 1: couples like my parents paid higher taxes when they were married.
Speaker 1: So what does race have to do with it? Guess what?
Speaker 1: When you look at Census Bureau data, you find out
Speaker 1: that my parents two equal earners were the typical black
Speaker 1: couple and the single wage earner getting a tax cut
Speaker 1: couple were white. Well, and I feel like there was
Speaker 1: many times in I know the story that Ben Stephenman
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week wrote and thinking about in your book,
Speaker 1: that you know tax policy, which you think would be
Speaker 1: color blind, Right, it's just policy. It's numbers. It's just
Speaker 1: you know, you go down and you do it. But
Speaker 1: disproportionately a lot of that policy. Disproportionate was the word
Speaker 1: that I was going to go for. You know, used
Speaker 1: a lot that disproportionately the policy, the ex policy, whether
Speaker 1: it was for homeownership or whether it was for marriage,
Speaker 1: it disproportionately impacted Black Americans. Yes, and why is that?
Speaker 1: It's because Black Americans live in a society with systemic racism.
Speaker 1: Why is it that you need to black couples right
Speaker 1: to black spouses working to be able to bring in
Speaker 1: income that one spouse could could make. Well, part of
Speaker 1: it is the labor market, right, Why does the labor
Speaker 1: market devalue black and white workers? Were whereby they value
Speaker 1: white workers? So taxpayers bring their racial identities onto their
Speaker 1: tax return. Who do you blame for this? Is it
Speaker 1: the policymakers? Who is it who's responsible for all of this? Well,
Speaker 1: it has to be the people who write the laws, right,
Speaker 1: it has to be Congress, because we don't have tax
Speaker 1: policy without tax laws, and we don't have tax laws
Speaker 1: without Congress. Do you think any of the tax code
Speaker 1: that you have found through your research that that is biased?
Speaker 1: Do you think any of that will ultimately change? Because
Speaker 1: you've been pulled in by some of the staffers up
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill. You've been consulted when it comes to
Speaker 1: race and tax and I'm just curious what the momentum
Speaker 1: is that you're hearing maybe for change, right So, I
Speaker 1: so we can start with President Biden's first Executive Order
Speaker 1: where he talked about racial equity across the government and
Speaker 1: talked about data by race, including the Secretary of the Treasury. Right. So,
Speaker 1: the President has said racial justice is important across the
Speaker 1: government agencies, including Treasury. Now, I think there's a disconnect
Speaker 1: between that executive order and the discussions to date with
Speaker 1: the Biden administration because they're talking about these tax policies,
Speaker 1: but they're not talking about the racial impact of these
Speaker 1: tax policy, which needs to be part of the Biden
Speaker 1: administration has to figure out if you're committed, then you
Speaker 1: have to talk about it when you talk about tax change.
Speaker 1: And with tax policy changes in the arrogant we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to see if there's the political will to actually
Speaker 1: address any of the biases in the system. That was
Speaker 1: Dorothy Brown, professor at Emory University School of Law. Her
Speaker 1: new book, The Whiteness of Wealth, How the tax system
Speaker 1: impoverishes Black Americans and How we can fix it All right,
Speaker 1: everybody coming up a familiar name on a mission, just
Speaker 1: like his grandfather. We hear from the grandson of Jacques Cousteau.
Speaker 1: We're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, bloom You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes.
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Green. Tim reporting this
Speaker 1: week that the fossil fuel industry is talking about us
Speaker 1: like never before. The US fossil fuels industry still turning
Speaker 1: out emissions. We know that, but what's happening is we
Speaker 1: did some analysis of conference calls involving names like ex
Speaker 1: On Mobile, Chevron, and kinder More, and we found that
Speaker 1: E s G is coming up a lot in this conversation.
Speaker 1: Somebody who's having a lot of conversations about the e
Speaker 1: s G space is Philippe Cousteau, co founder of the
Speaker 1: nonprofit Earth Echo International. Also Doug Heskey, the CEO of
Speaker 1: New Day Impact. It's an app in digital investing platform
Speaker 1: that lets users target a specific area of impact. The
Speaker 1: two are teaming up to inspire and teach young people
Speaker 1: how to take action and invest for sustainable future. I'm
Speaker 1: delighted to be here and delighted to talk about this partnership.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's something environmental UM, social government, you
Speaker 1: know E s G investing, sustainable investing in something I've
Speaker 1: been involved in a long time and is someone focused
Speaker 1: now is a third generation of a family focused on
Speaker 1: conservation and education UM it Uh. We're big believers in
Speaker 1: the power of financial markets to to be forces for
Speaker 1: good and we're thrilled at this partnership with New Day
Speaker 1: because it allows us to continue both both drive more
Speaker 1: funding towards the work that Earth Echo does and reaching
Speaker 1: young people around the world. We're leading of I'm an
Speaker 1: education organization with the focus on engaging on people as
Speaker 1: leaders solving environmental problems. UM. We've today impacted over two
Speaker 1: million people in a hundred forty six countries with our
Speaker 1: programs and UM and this will just supercharge our work
Speaker 1: and allows to be even more impactful. But then also
Speaker 1: recognition that as I said, financial markets have an impact
Speaker 1: UM and they can have a tremendous positive impact, and
Speaker 1: it's one of the choices we advocate people to to
Speaker 1: take consistent with their values and sustainability is where they
Speaker 1: invest their money. Well, listen, that's huge it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bring Dug into a sect. But I just want to
Speaker 1: Philip want you know, money talks, and we talk constantly
Speaker 1: about the boom and E s G investment four billion
Speaker 1: dollars and counting, and it's expected to growth. I mean
Speaker 1: the kind of investments that individuals make um or will
Speaker 1: make in the future that's going to determine really where
Speaker 1: the money goes going forward. And and that's the connection
Speaker 1: that you're making. Well it is and and you know,
Speaker 1: decade or more, I've been involved in one way, shape
Speaker 1: or form in in the markets as well and sustainable investing.
Speaker 1: I was involved in some different exchangiated funds over the years.
Speaker 1: And and really looking at how, you know, we have
Speaker 1: a annual charitable given the United States is roughly a
Speaker 1: private charitable given a hundred billion dollars, very little of
Speaker 1: that goes to environment and even less to environmental education conservation.
Speaker 1: And yet financial markets are in you know, twy and something,
Speaker 1: an enormous number. And and I thought to myself, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago, as I was working in nonprofit and
Speaker 1: raising money, how do we sit at that table like
Speaker 1: that's where change really happens. So I started getting involved
Speaker 1: in that world because looking at what are those catalysts
Speaker 1: for change? When you drive funding towards good business, solid business, um,
Speaker 1: sustainable businesses, progressive businesses from a environmental perspective, we can
Speaker 1: really affect more change than simply doing the education and
Speaker 1: you know, conservation work on its own. So I mentioned
Speaker 1: for that was just governments, corporations and other groups raising
Speaker 1: a record four undred ninety billion last year, and that
Speaker 1: was selling green, social and sustainability bonds. Another seven billion
Speaker 1: went into E s G focused investment funds and we
Speaker 1: saw more than seven hundred new funds were launched globally
Speaker 1: to capture all of these influence influence, and that is
Speaker 1: shaping up to be as frothy, Doug, come on in
Speaker 1: your platform, your digital platform for investing, you guys are
Speaker 1: specifically targeting for those investors who want to go after
Speaker 1: a specific area of impact and the way you convest
Speaker 1: is really novel. Ways. Philips said this so accurately that
Speaker 1: there is a mind shift that's going on today in
Speaker 1: a ground swell that's building led by responsibly minded investors.
Speaker 1: And they're not just people with higher levels of affluence
Speaker 1: and influence. There is a younger generation that appeared to
Speaker 1: be more committed in making transformational change than ever before.
Speaker 1: And so it really was the catalyst and the spiration
Speaker 1: for this organization. Here a New Day, and we asked ourselves,
Speaker 1: what is the impact that we could have if we
Speaker 1: were able to unleash this younger generation is bigger for
Speaker 1: deep and lasting change by giving them a mechanism for
Speaker 1: engagement that ends up being more grassroots oriented, allowing all
Speaker 1: of them to share their collectivized desire to change the world.
Speaker 1: And so this is what we do through New Days.
Speaker 1: So at our core, we're an institutional asset manager that
Speaker 1: provides impact investment portfolios, but we want so much more
Speaker 1: than that. We want these individuals that really care about
Speaker 1: these fundamental issues to engage and not just put their
Speaker 1: capital um behind these issues, but to activate, to get
Speaker 1: involved in causes like earth Echo and to volunteer time
Speaker 1: to participate in beach cleanups and things like that. We
Speaker 1: have with us Philippe Cousto, co founder of the nonprofit
Speaker 1: Earth Echo internationally. He is still with us on the
Speaker 1: phone in Los Angeles. Along with Doug Hesky, he is
Speaker 1: the CEO of New Day Impact, which is a digital
Speaker 1: platform for in staying. Doug is with us on the
Speaker 1: phone in San Francisco. So, Doug, let's talk a bit
Speaker 1: about some of the ways that you can invest. I
Speaker 1: love it. It's sea turtles, it's coral reeves. As a diver,
Speaker 1: these are things that are like near and dear to
Speaker 1: my heart. Um stopping plastic straws. You can also protect
Speaker 1: the poles, you can protect wild tigers, keep eaches clean.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are things that I think a younger
Speaker 1: population can relate to their saying, Okay, this is what
Speaker 1: I want to help protect. So let me figure out
Speaker 1: the way to invest in those areas that actually get
Speaker 1: to that goal. Yeah, no, no question about this. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's such an appropriate time to be talking
Speaker 1: about water health and ocean health. We spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time understanding how companies use water in their businesses,
Speaker 1: whether their businesses are responsible stewarts of water, and what
Speaker 1: companies are developing truly innovative technologies to protect and conserve
Speaker 1: the resource as well as provided so many that don't
Speaker 1: have it. The water is playing this app resolutely critical
Speaker 1: role in every business in the world, and this is
Speaker 1: the data work that we do behind the scenes. So
Speaker 1: whether it has to do with protection of fish populations
Speaker 1: or the coral reefs, or reduction of ocean plastics and
Speaker 1: things like that. We are choosing these subjects and engaging
Speaker 1: them not just with a lot of a younger audience,
Speaker 1: but literally any other responsibly minded investor that use a
Speaker 1: responsibility to affect change in the world. A great example
Speaker 1: of that is is that we have a partnership with
Speaker 1: the Syphima Foundation that runs the National Stock Market Game.
Speaker 1: In the CASE through twelve educational system, there are more
Speaker 1: than six hundred thousand students every year that are taught
Speaker 1: sustainability as a part of economics classes, as a part
Speaker 1: of math classes in their K through twelve system, and
Speaker 1: Philippe is going to be joining us to do a
Speaker 1: live event with the Syphima Foundation for their six hundred
Speaker 1: thousand students in the fifteen thousand teachers that teach in
Speaker 1: the class from every day the importance of sustainability. All
Speaker 1: of this is done in an effort to really affect
Speaker 1: transformational change and get younger people and all people to
Speaker 1: think differently about how they're making not just investment and
Speaker 1: financial decisions, but even consumer purchasing decisions as well. Right
Speaker 1: changing habits We've had guests on that talk specifically about
Speaker 1: that have been involved in getting rid of straws and
Speaker 1: other things that you can change habits and make a
Speaker 1: significant difference. Fully. One thing I do want to ask you,
Speaker 1: you guys are reaching six hundred students each year. That
Speaker 1: is a lot of students. There are though, fifty one
Speaker 1: million public school students in the United States. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of kids out there. And I do wonder
Speaker 1: um that this is a way to also reach minority populations,
Speaker 1: less fortunate populations, to teach these kids about how to
Speaker 1: protect the environment, how to be sustainable, but also create
Speaker 1: kind of a financial future for themselves and strange the
Speaker 1: financial history perhaps of their families. Well, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's a great point. And because when we're talking about sustainability,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the environment, we're talking about big issues.
Speaker 1: By our diversities decline right in my life, and in
Speaker 1: forty years, the world's bio diversities declined. And while we
Speaker 1: care about birds and trees and coral reefs, bio diversity
Speaker 1: is also what makes the world pick. So it also
Speaker 1: has an impact on us and our crops, on our health,
Speaker 1: our food systems, etcetera. We've seen the oceans com you've
Speaker 1: got climate change in a massive crisis, and so you know,
Speaker 1: solving these types of problems is going to take all
Speaker 1: of us. And historically, um, you know, the environmental movement
Speaker 1: and environmental education has not included uh, predominantly, you know,
Speaker 1: communities of color in the way that it should have.
Speaker 1: And that's that's the that's the thing that needs to
Speaker 1: be addressed. And we've been at earth Eco been doing
Speaker 1: that for several years now looking at how do we
Speaker 1: broaden the conversation and particularly reach those communities because not
Speaker 1: only do they need to be engaged, they are also
Speaker 1: typically the ones on the front lines of environmental degradation.
Speaker 1: So there's very much an environmental justice element here that
Speaker 1: comes to play, and that is that is top of
Speaker 1: mind for us and has been for several years because
Speaker 1: we're all in this together, you know, no matter what
Speaker 1: our politics, no matter economics, we're all in this together.
Speaker 1: We need to solve these problems together and education is
Speaker 1: the best and most important way to do that, and
Speaker 1: specifically with our partnership with Sithma a New Day, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, they reach well over two thousand young people,
Speaker 1: specifically from communities of color UM and that's a big
Speaker 1: focus for them, and and also girls UM who have
Speaker 1: often not been enough of a conversation, you know, part
Speaker 1: of the conversation about UH financial literacy and so UM.
Speaker 1: That is a big focus for us and UH. And
Speaker 1: we're excited about this partnership because it expands and grows
Speaker 1: our audience of people that we can reach with this matter.
Speaker 1: Phelippe Gusto, co founder of the nonprofit Earth Echo International,
Speaker 1: and Doug Hasky, the CEO of the digital impact investing
Speaker 1: platform New Day Impact. We're done, Tim wow by exactly.
Speaker 1: And if you missed any of this podcast listen, just
Speaker 1: check out our podcast because you can get the conversations
Speaker 1: and some of the full conversations because we're just giving
Speaker 1: you a little excerpts. That wraps up the weekend edition
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week from Blomberg Radio. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us, Carol Master and then Tim Sneek, and
Speaker 1: be sure to tune into our Bloomberg Business Week daily show.
Speaker 1: It's Monday through Friday and starts at two pm Wall
Speaker 1: Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. We can also watch a
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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Global News and check out to our Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week podcast. You can find that at Bloomberg dot com,
Speaker 1: Apple or wherever you get your podcast and tim That's
Speaker 1: where you're also going to find our extra podcast this week.
Speaker 1: It's Ted's side Ees. He's found a managing partner of
Speaker 1: Capital Allocators. He hosts a podcast by the same name.
Speaker 1: He's talking to the world's top professional investors. We're talking
Speaker 1: about those conversations and his new book, How the World's
Speaker 1: Lead Money Managers Lead and Invest. You can also see
Speaker 1: me on Bloomberg Quick Take, available at Bloomberg dot com,
Speaker 1: slash qt, and streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung
Speaker 1: TV and more. Bloomberg Business Week it's available on newsstands
Speaker 1: right now, at Bloomberg dot com and on the Bloomberg Terminal.
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend everyone. This is Bloomberg