Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Charle Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stanibek. We're here every day bringing
Speaker 1: you the latest news from the world of business and finance,
Speaker 1: plus technology, politics, economics, all parnessing the power of Business
Speaker 1: Week reporters and editors, not to mention our journalists and
Speaker 1: analyst in more than one twenty countries. You can download
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week and iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot Com.
Speaker 1: You can also listen to our radio show at two
Speaker 1: pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio, or watch us on
Speaker 1: YouTube search Bloomberg Global News. We know that there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of headlines out there, Charlie and I talking about
Speaker 1: them earlier when it comes to COVID and the virus
Speaker 1: among them, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning that quote
Speaker 1: extra precautions might be needed even after the July he said,
Speaker 1: we'll mark the end of the country's COVID restrictions. So
Speaker 1: we are watching a lot and for what our guest
Speaker 1: is watching when it comes to the virus, let's bring
Speaker 1: in Dr Ruth Karen. She's Professor of International Health and
Speaker 1: director of the Center for Immunization research and founding director
Speaker 1: of the Johns Hopkins Vaccine and NiTi Shative at the
Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, supported by Michael R. Bloomberg,
Speaker 1: of course, founder of Bloomberg ALP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Dr
Speaker 1: Karen joins us on the phone from Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Speaker 1: Dr Karen, nice to have you here with us. I
Speaker 1: want to get into your focus, which is, i know,
Speaker 1: looking at pregnant women in general. Help me though, make
Speaker 1: some sense of some of the conversations you all at
Speaker 1: Hopkins are having when it comes to the Delta variant.
Speaker 1: So really nice to be with you, Carol. We are following,
Speaker 1: of course, as is everybody, the progression of the delta
Speaker 1: variant very carefully. Um it's certainly it is. It is
Speaker 1: here in our country, as in many countries around the world,
Speaker 1: and as I'm I'm sure you've heard, we really do
Speaker 1: expect it to take over as the dominant strain in
Speaker 1: the coming weeks. What does that mean when that takes
Speaker 1: over the dominant strain? Well, meaning that that it will
Speaker 1: when people are infected with COVID, they will be infected
Speaker 1: with the delta variant. And the reason that we're concerned about.
Speaker 1: That is because we know that this virus is both
Speaker 1: more infectious than other strains of COVID that we've had
Speaker 1: before and more lethal. But the really important thing to
Speaker 1: know and the and the good news and all of
Speaker 1: this is the vaccines that we have do offer protection
Speaker 1: against the delta variant. So the best thing that we
Speaker 1: can do is to get as many people vaccinated as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible, and that includes pregnant women. And I
Speaker 1: know that there's been some debate, you know, throughout this
Speaker 1: process among those who are pregnant, uh, and trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what's the best and safest thing to do.
Speaker 1: Weigh in on this if you would, Yeah, So I'd
Speaker 1: like to say a couple of things about this, And
Speaker 1: and I very much sympathize with um pregnant people and
Speaker 1: with their provid iters, because one of the problems we
Speaker 1: have is that pregnant people were not included in trials
Speaker 1: of the COVID vaccines. There are some trials going on now,
Speaker 1: but so UM these individuals and their providers had to
Speaker 1: make decisions initially when there wasn't much data we didn't
Speaker 1: know about the safety of these vaccines, and pregnant individuals.
Speaker 1: That situation has largely changed. UM. We are collecting data
Speaker 1: we have been since January about the use of these
Speaker 1: vaccines and in pregnant people. UH the CDC has maintained
Speaker 1: a registry of of pregnant people who get the COVID vaccines,
Speaker 1: as do many other countries around the world, and so
Speaker 1: we have increasing evidence of the safety of these vaccines
Speaker 1: in pregnant individuals. It's also really important to know and
Speaker 1: I think UM the CDC makes makes a good point
Speaker 1: about this, as do many There's the pregnant people are
Speaker 1: really elevated risk of severe COVID disease and death compared
Speaker 1: to non pregnant people at the same age. So it's
Speaker 1: really very important for people who are in positions of
Speaker 1: making decisions about whether UM to become vaccinated to understand
Speaker 1: that well. And I also think what's really important in
Speaker 1: understanding Dr Karen is understanding what this vaccine does. And
Speaker 1: I think there's been some misinformation out there about it
Speaker 1: changes genetic code and help us. And I know I've
Speaker 1: done this. I've gone to doctors many times throughout the
Speaker 1: past year to understand exactly what's going on. And you know,
Speaker 1: in later months. Obviously, what what this vaccine is all about?
Speaker 1: Can you explain it again, exactly what this vaccine does.
Speaker 1: So these vaccines UM, whether they're the the mr in
Speaker 1: A vaccines UM, the MODERNA and the Fiser bio and Tech,
Speaker 1: or the Johnson and Johnson vaccine UM there each those
Speaker 1: are made a little bit different ly, but they have
Speaker 1: the same end result, which is that they have your
Speaker 1: body produce UM does the COVID nineteen virus spike protein,
Speaker 1: and then your body makes antibodies to that spike protein
Speaker 1: and that's what protects you against COVID nineteen. UM. These
Speaker 1: are not UM. These are not vaccines that can integrate
Speaker 1: into your genetic material, change your genetics, or change the
Speaker 1: genetics as the fetus or a baby. These vaccines don't
Speaker 1: have any effect on fertility. So I think those are
Speaker 1: both important things for people to know. Agreed, And I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you laid it out. Dr Riath Karen, Professor
Speaker 1: of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Speaker 1: joining us on the phone from Maryland. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes.
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio chairs of American Express. They're
Speaker 1: up about one percent in the Thursday trade. The company
Speaker 1: up and the upping the anti to win more premium
Speaker 1: card customers. But yeah, as Charlie mentioned, it's going to
Speaker 1: cost more here with what they are doing and exactly
Speaker 1: maybe why they're doing it. Bloomberg News Finance team Sally
Speaker 1: Big while she's in our Interactor Broker studio, so later
Speaker 1: at for us what Amex is up to. We've kind
Speaker 1: of talked about it a little bit, but lay it
Speaker 1: out for us, Sally, Well, I think companies are really
Speaker 1: starting to pull out all the stops again to lure
Speaker 1: customers to take on new credit cards after they retreated
Speaker 1: from some of these kinds of deals during the pandemic
Speaker 1: because we weren't traveling right in. Amex is known for
Speaker 1: its travel perks exactly now the economy is reopening, traveling
Speaker 1: travel is firing up and folks are shopping and dining out,
Speaker 1: and Amex is adding a number of perks to its
Speaker 1: Platinum card. And let me tell you a bit about them.
Speaker 1: They include two hundred dollars in hotel credits and deals
Speaker 1: chartering private jets um which of course you know that's
Speaker 1: sort of exactly my um my jam there. Um. And
Speaker 1: it's also branching out a bit from its typical dining
Speaker 1: and travel offerings. Um, it's offering card hold just whole
Speaker 1: is twenty dollars a month to use for digital products
Speaker 1: like Audible, as well as twenty five dollars towards high
Speaker 1: end gym Equinox. So yeah, they having having to be
Speaker 1: a bit more creative in a bid to keep their
Speaker 1: affluent customers because of course, yeah, people haven't been able
Speaker 1: to travel during the pandemic, and so they've had to
Speaker 1: go a little bit beyond the normal travel and entertainment time.
Speaker 1: So it feels like it's much more of a lifestyle
Speaker 1: card or trying to become more of a lifestyle chart card.
Speaker 1: It's not just about people who are traveling to cool places.
Speaker 1: I mean, they kind of got a SmackDown right during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, like a lot of cards. But nonetheless it
Speaker 1: feels like they've been thinking about it differently. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's spent months working on this card under the code
Speaker 1: name Project Pentagon, and it is going to cost you.
Speaker 1: It's um annual fee is going up from five hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty to six d um. You know, credit card
Speaker 1: companies they don't want to lose their best customers, so
Speaker 1: they pay a lot of money upfront to acquire customers
Speaker 1: via advertising, via sign up bonuses, and actually that can
Speaker 1: make the investment quite hard to recoup um. There are
Speaker 1: analysts estimates out there that for the Chase Sapphire card,
Speaker 1: it took them some five and a half years UM
Speaker 1: to make good on the investments they had to put
Speaker 1: into little customers, because of course that was a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand points as a sign up bonus. Well, and it's
Speaker 1: interesting I'm thinking about the cost of it. I mean
Speaker 1: almost seven dollars. That's pretty steep in comparison to even
Speaker 1: some of the premium cards that are out there, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think most people it's generally five hundred dollars, isn't
Speaker 1: it um, Which is a lot of money. It's still
Speaker 1: a lot and you get that in exchange for special
Speaker 1: access to airport lounges, extra rewards for travel and spending
Speaker 1: and other perks. But given much of those were halted
Speaker 1: in the pandemic, yeah, they've had to come up with
Speaker 1: other ways to entice customers sell. Generally speaking, these bank
Speaker 1: cards are these, um, I mean American Express, this is
Speaker 1: what they're all about. But I even think about some
Speaker 1: of the banks that have cards, how important are they
Speaker 1: as a revenue source? And I think about for American
Speaker 1: Express in particular the platinum, the high end. I guess
Speaker 1: I'm assuming among their card members they might have more
Speaker 1: green cards, right American Express card. I know, the travel
Speaker 1: like we have Bloomberg Travel, right, like we have American Express.
Speaker 1: I mean, where do they make the most money? Is
Speaker 1: it these high the higher end cards? Is it to
Speaker 1: travel the business travel? Yeah, I think it's the premium,
Speaker 1: the higher end UM. And it's been tough for them.
Speaker 1: They've been in a bit of a bind because it
Speaker 1: does cost them so much UM for to build up
Speaker 1: these high end card offerings. And so that's why it's
Speaker 1: so important for them to retain their customers. UM. But
Speaker 1: also don't forget, you know, they had to set aside
Speaker 1: a lot of banks had to set aside or card
Speaker 1: lenders had to set aside extra provisions to cover suring
Speaker 1: loans last year, which also pinched their profitabilities. So they
Speaker 1: were facing they were being confronted with some pretty tough
Speaker 1: forces there um And but actually still that said attrition
Speaker 1: levels weren't actually that high for premium cards um at
Speaker 1: KPM City and AMEX, So it does show that their
Speaker 1: efforts pay off to keep hold of those premium customers.
Speaker 1: The more afluents, right, the last thing they want to
Speaker 1: do with somebody like snipping up the car and cutting
Speaker 1: up the car, right, because it's yeah, I mean, the
Speaker 1: longer you stay with it, the and the more likely
Speaker 1: you already used that card if you've got it in
Speaker 1: your wallet. Um, it's a loyalty thing. Such a lot
Speaker 1: of money. Seven. Uh good, good. Good to get the
Speaker 1: breakdown of what they're up to, Sally Bake, Well, she's
Speaker 1: our finance team leader at Bloomberg News. Here in our
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. This is Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: So this story, it's our Bloomberg Big Take today. It's
Speaker 1: also in the heigst issue of Bloomberg Business Week, which
Speaker 1: is hitting newstands now, online at Bloomberg dot com and
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg Terminal. It's story about robbing the Xbox Vault.
Speaker 1: For more on this in story inside Story of the
Speaker 1: ten million dollar gift card g Yep, you heard right
Speaker 1: here it is. Let's get to Bloomberg Business Week Features
Speaker 1: editor Max chaff and he is responsible for putting this
Speaker 1: heist issue together. He's here in our interactive broker's studio. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is this issue. First of all, really is your baby?
Speaker 1: I know Joel created the idea a few years ago,
Speaker 1: but then he said, all right, Max, put it together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, it gets more and more fun every
Speaker 1: year every year. I think there doesn't really well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's just you know, as you said, it's
Speaker 1: a whole issue dedicated to basically true crime, and it's
Speaker 1: our opportunity to try to give people some, um, some
Speaker 1: interesting fun stuff to read in the beach. Um. And
Speaker 1: as you said, you know, one of one of the
Speaker 1: stories in the issue is about this crazy gift card scam.
Speaker 1: You know, you you sort of think of gift cards
Speaker 1: as being a nineties phenomenon, which of course they are,
Speaker 1: but they they continue in various forms to to power
Speaker 1: a lot of the commerce that that happens, uh, you
Speaker 1: know online and and this Microsoft Contractors basically a junior engineer, uh,
Speaker 1: discovered this loophole to basically print an unlimited number of
Speaker 1: gift cards for the Microsoft Xbox, which is their you know,
Speaker 1: video game platform. What's great about this is this Microsoft
Speaker 1: engineer was hired to find problems in the system. Kind
Speaker 1: of right. He found a problem, he just did not
Speaker 1: report it. Um and it's it's funny. The writer Austin
Speaker 1: car gets into the the investigation and you know, Microsoft
Speaker 1: often initially thought this was you know, some some external hackers,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a really sophisticated operation. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: it turns out, I guess this is often the case
Speaker 1: with with crime in general. But you know, turns out
Speaker 1: it's a it's a much simpler scam. Basically, this guy
Speaker 1: was guessing his colleagues passworks. There were other people on
Speaker 1: his team with passwords such as you know, very secret
Speaker 1: one to three and things like that. So it's a
Speaker 1: nice reminder that you gotta work remember your password security.
Speaker 1: Make them a lot more complicated. Did it take a
Speaker 1: while though? I mean well, first of all, in the process,
Speaker 1: he actually racked up a bunch of money, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: as you said, ten million bucks. The basic con worked
Speaker 1: like he got the he got the gift cards, and
Speaker 1: then he would go on the Internet. There are these websites,
Speaker 1: one of which is called packs Full, where people trade
Speaker 1: these things. It's just like another financial product basically. And
Speaker 1: we we talked about the way that which gift cards
Speaker 1: are kind of you could think of them as a
Speaker 1: virtual currency, not not on like bitcoin. So you can
Speaker 1: take these gift card codes, you can swap them for crypto.
Speaker 1: You can then basically, you know, launder your crypto and
Speaker 1: then at the other end, you've got cash. And he's
Speaker 1: using that to buy real estate, uh, you know, high
Speaker 1: end vacations. And when the police caught up with him,
Speaker 1: it's one of my favorite details of the story. Had
Speaker 1: a list of of his basically a shopping list which
Speaker 1: included things like one yacht and seaplane, which you know,
Speaker 1: it's just a fantastic detail. He's just you know, aspiring
Speaker 1: to these things. You gotta have a seaplane. Um, Hey,
Speaker 1: just want to mention a headline Financial Times Robin Hood
Speaker 1: targeting evaluation of at least forty billion and it's I
Speaker 1: p O. We talked about that I p O earlier.
Speaker 1: I do wonder Max, when you guys are going through
Speaker 1: in Austin's going through this process, I mean it requires
Speaker 1: going through a lot of legal documents right to tell
Speaker 1: the tale. Yeah, yeah, Austin I think went through it
Speaker 1: says in the story, you know, thousands of pages of documents. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, talking to basically investigators, people who are involved
Speaker 1: in the case. Um, you know that that that's kind
Speaker 1: of the fun of a story like this is where
Speaker 1: it's it's all sort of laid out there. And of
Speaker 1: course prosecutors are you know, really good at at at
Speaker 1: telling a story, but often when that story is gets
Speaker 1: buried in just you know, just reams and reads the documents.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, a case gets sort of covered
Speaker 1: by the press early, like when it first happens, but
Speaker 1: then you kind of miss all these you know, really
Speaker 1: you know, wonderful and interesting details. And you know, I
Speaker 1: I would be shocked if Austin is not getting calls
Speaker 1: from you know, Hollywood producers and things like that, because
Speaker 1: it really it does have the kind of stranger than
Speaker 1: fiction quality to it. I feel like the whole magazine
Speaker 1: has a bunch of those cinematic uh store are those
Speaker 1: stories that would play so well on the big screen.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what's interesting. It's it's not you know, fiction,
Speaker 1: this is reality. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I do think
Speaker 1: this story, you know, first of all, it really makes
Speaker 1: you think about about these digital currencies because one of
Speaker 1: his big legal arguments in the in the case was
Speaker 1: that you know, hey, this isn't a crime because these
Speaker 1: things are not real. Microsoft is just making up these
Speaker 1: codes and then giving people free stuff. It's not money.
Speaker 1: But of course it is money, you know, because he
Speaker 1: was able to buy stuff, and Microsoft has then taking
Speaker 1: the laws for it. So of challenges your sense of
Speaker 1: like what, you know, what is money and and and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing when you look at the whole
Speaker 1: issue overall, the pandemic, I know, the issue gets into
Speaker 1: the magazine, the heighst issue gets into that the pandemic
Speaker 1: was right for fraud. Yeah, absolutely created situations that were
Speaker 1: right for fraud. I mean, just just a fun fact,
Speaker 1: the number of romance scams went way up during the pandemics.
Speaker 1: I think it's when you meet somebody on the internet
Speaker 1: and then they started asking you for money. Um, but
Speaker 1: it makes sense, right because everyone is stuck at home,
Speaker 1: they had a lot more free time. Um, there may
Speaker 1: be feeling, you know, more vulnerable than normally, and and
Speaker 1: that obviously leaves us, you know, vulnerable to to scammers,
Speaker 1: and we saw a lot of that. The story, the
Speaker 1: the issue has you know, a couple other kinds of
Speaker 1: pandemic related scams. But I do think there was a
Speaker 1: it was a moment, you know, in addition to the
Speaker 1: boom and you know, uh bread flower and beast and
Speaker 1: things like that, there was a boom for for fraud. Listen.
Speaker 1: I had a conversation a phone call. They were so persistent.
Speaker 1: They're like, we're we work with your healthcare company. You
Speaker 1: can actually get things like sunscreen and all these like
Speaker 1: consumer products that were I guess broadly considered healthcare types
Speaker 1: of products, and they had I'm not stupid. I don't
Speaker 1: think I am. But I was like, oh, well, maybe
Speaker 1: that's a new thing that our healthcare plan is doing.
Speaker 1: If I realized when they were asking for all this
Speaker 1: information that if they were part of my healthcare plan
Speaker 1: they should have had there was a lot of things
Speaker 1: going on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I think Max didn't
Speaker 1: say I wasn't stupid. I just noticed that there was
Speaker 1: no backing me up. But that's okay. I still like,
Speaker 1: you do not give your personal information to random stop.
Speaker 1: I didn't do that. Uh yeah. The the I think
Speaker 1: we're really we're only probably beginning to reckon with all
Speaker 1: the ways that the pandemic you know, change things and
Speaker 1: created weird opportunities and and this is certainly one um,
Speaker 1: you know, another another thing that you know, it's getting
Speaker 1: a lot of chatter. It's mentioned briefly here is just
Speaker 1: you know, benefits fraud. Obviously a lot of people were
Speaker 1: applying for government benefits that that that creates a huge
Speaker 1: opportunity for scameras, you know, and it goes on and on,
Speaker 1: lots of you know, fake medical stuff as well. I
Speaker 1: got a favorite story. Can you do that? Do you
Speaker 1: have a favorite child? I hope the reporters are listening.
Speaker 1: So if you, if, if you should read this Xbox story,
Speaker 1: and then you should also read this wonderful piece that
Speaker 1: we posted yesterday about an Instagram influencer. This was like
Speaker 1: a big time fashion guy. He was working with all
Speaker 1: the big brands, and he was also a really epic
Speaker 1: money launderer. And so it's a it's a wonderful yarn
Speaker 1: that that you should check out. And you think ransomware
Speaker 1: is the big problem, but this story gets into we
Speaker 1: only have a few seconds, gets into really what's the problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're called b EC scams um and this if
Speaker 1: you work in the in an accounting department or stuff,
Speaker 1: you probably know about this. This is it's it's like
Speaker 1: the dumbest scam there is. But basically someone convinces you
Speaker 1: to to tech to wire money to the wrong place
Speaker 1: and huge organizations fall for this. That dude, by the way,
Speaker 1: has some great nicknames, but we're not gonna give it away.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to go pick up the magazine, go online,
Speaker 1: or go on a Bloomberg Max Chafkin, Thank you so
Speaker 1: much you put the magazine and that Heigst issue together.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massier and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So earlier
Speaker 1: this week I got a chance to moderate a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: panel on how we work, How leaders are leading and
Speaker 1: organizing for the future to make sure that they and
Speaker 1: their teams have what they need. All of this we
Speaker 1: know is impacting employers, relationship with employees, clients, customers strategy,
Speaker 1: and really attracting new talent. The panel was sponsored by
Speaker 1: the Boston Consultant Group BCG. One participant was Tamla Oates Fourney.
Speaker 1: She's Senior VP in chief People Officer for Waste Management,
Speaker 1: A really great voice on this panel. She's kind enough
Speaker 1: to join me once again to talk about this topic.
Speaker 1: She is in Houston, Texas. Tamla, it is good to
Speaker 1: have you back with us that panel. I learned a lot.
Speaker 1: I've been talking about it with some of my colleagues.
Speaker 1: We are kind of finding our way forward when it
Speaker 1: comes to what is work, what's the relationship between employees
Speaker 1: and employers? How do you all see it at Waste Management?
Speaker 1: And you are a company that your workers had to
Speaker 1: keep working um when the pandemic hit because they had
Speaker 1: to be out there cleaning up after everyone collecting garbage.
Speaker 1: It was a crucial service, absolutely, I will tell you that.
Speaker 1: And I heard you talking earlier before I joined about
Speaker 1: the competitive nature and the workforce, and we are seeing that.
Speaker 1: In fact, it was something that we were experiencing even
Speaker 1: prior to the pandemic, and so we were looking at
Speaker 1: ways to really augment and showcase the value of a
Speaker 1: w M job that far exceeded that of a take
Speaker 1: home pay. And we recently launched this new program known
Speaker 1: as Your Tomorrow, where we're providing debt free educational benefits
Speaker 1: for our employees and beginning in January two, it's going
Speaker 1: to be a benefit that's not only intelligible for employees,
Speaker 1: but their dependence as well, meeting their spouses and their children.
Speaker 1: And we think this is a creative and innovative and
Speaker 1: competitive way to want attract people to waste management, but
Speaker 1: not only attract them, but we came them, tell them
Speaker 1: this is this is this is a big deal. Why
Speaker 1: did you do it? And and can anybody access this?
Speaker 1: And anybody's family accesses? So why did we do it? One?
Speaker 1: Because there are a couple of things. One, our employees
Speaker 1: were asking about educational reimbursement benefit in its traditional senses,
Speaker 1: but it's something that our employees were interested in. But
Speaker 1: when we looked at the old model, it was more
Speaker 1: of a reimbursement, so the burden was on the employee
Speaker 1: to find the school and university and they would have
Speaker 1: to come out of pocket upfront and the company would
Speaker 1: pay for that. So we were looking at options for
Speaker 1: an educational benefit and we discovered Guild Education, which has
Speaker 1: been a phenomenal partner for us. And with Guild Education,
Speaker 1: every employee that's the full time employee Waste Management is
Speaker 1: eligible for the benefit so long as they've completed ninety
Speaker 1: days ninety days of free employments, they have to go
Speaker 1: to a probation area period, but on the ninety first day.
Speaker 1: This is yet another benefit that we offer and through Guild,
Speaker 1: once they apply for the benefit, they get an education
Speaker 1: coach right and they will help them determine what opportunities
Speaker 1: are best aligned with their interest and also their career
Speaker 1: aspiration that's aligned with us at Waste Management. So once
Speaker 1: they come on they are eligible for the benefit and
Speaker 1: the next year their family members will be eligible for
Speaker 1: the benefit. And we looked at this for a couple
Speaker 1: of different reasons. One, we know that we're going to
Speaker 1: have to reteal really fast and we needed an educational
Speaker 1: partner that could help us up steal and refel the
Speaker 1: workforce to be aligned with the changes that are happening
Speaker 1: in the workforce. So we were I would like to
Speaker 1: say we were proactive and we were ahead of COVID,
Speaker 1: but once COVID hit, it really just exacerbated the need
Speaker 1: and this was a really a good program that we're offering.
Speaker 1: We launched it in April of this year well and
Speaker 1: as you said, I mean we saw this pre pandemic.
Speaker 1: You know, employers were beginning to fight for workers. You
Speaker 1: don't want to lose workers. It cost the company when
Speaker 1: that happens, absolutely absolutely on average, if we look at
Speaker 1: the our drivers and technicians, you see will those are
Speaker 1: the ones that are most critical to our our survival
Speaker 1: as a company. If you and we were seeing that
Speaker 1: on average, it's about twenty three thousand dollars or more
Speaker 1: a year to we we lose a driver. So we
Speaker 1: can't afford to do that. And you think about COVID
Speaker 1: and the demand for drivers and technicians have increased exponentially.
Speaker 1: You have companies that big box stores that are you know, um,
Speaker 1: they have more customers, and more customers generate more products
Speaker 1: that to have to deliver and ship from different places,
Speaker 1: so they have to hire truck drivers and so the
Speaker 1: demand has gone up, but the supply is somewhat dwindling.
Speaker 1: I'm the mother of two gen zs, and most gen
Speaker 1: Zs are not thinking about a career driving a truck,
Speaker 1: and so what we're trying to do is bring them
Speaker 1: into our organization. We're looking at them not just for
Speaker 1: a job before the career, and our program has called
Speaker 1: Your Tomorrow because it talks about how we're planning and
Speaker 1: supporting you on having a career not just for today,
Speaker 1: but for tomorrow. And we have to have a way
Speaker 1: of getting them in. And this is something that is
Speaker 1: addressing a need that a lot of people have in
Speaker 1: terms of education, and we're solving net for them. And
Speaker 1: I think this is going to put us at a
Speaker 1: competitive advantage. Tamla's you know from the panel, we talked
Speaker 1: for an hour, and I could have talked for more
Speaker 1: hours because several more, because there's so much to unpack.
Speaker 1: We just have about forty seconds left here. Help me
Speaker 1: with the debate between workers staying at home workers in
Speaker 1: the office. There feels like a disconnect. The financial sector
Speaker 1: really wants all the workers back in the office, but
Speaker 1: when I talked with the broader corporate America, it feels
Speaker 1: like it's a bit mixed. How do you think it's
Speaker 1: going to plan? Again? Just got about thirty five seconds. Sorry,
Speaker 1: so no, I think it's going to be a hybrid.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be all the above and not
Speaker 1: one or the other. I was on a panel with
Speaker 1: another panelist. In what they were saying, I was saying
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talent war, and they said it's not a
Speaker 1: war any longer. That talent has won the war, which
Speaker 1: means that they have more say in terms of how
Speaker 1: they work, and so to the extent the companies can
Speaker 1: be flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of the workforce,
Speaker 1: that's what's going to make them an attractive employer of choice.
Speaker 1: So I think it's gonna be all the above. All right,
Speaker 1: great stuff, Thank you so much. Come back soon, Tamla.
Speaker 1: It's Forney. She's senior vice president, chief people officer for
Speaker 1: Waste Management, joining us on the phone from Houston, Texas.
Speaker 1: And I'll later on kind of post the panel she
Speaker 1: was a member of because it was just such great insight.
Speaker 1: I'm roo macro journal now. But you let me drive. No,
Speaker 1: no, no no, drive home, honey, please, I'll do the righting
Speaker 1: drivel Let me. I want to drive, Just drive, baby,
Speaker 1: the questions trying. This is the drive to the Globe Commune. Thanks.
Speaker 1: We'll drying us to dawn on Bloomberg Radio. Just about
Speaker 1: ten and a halfnts left in today's trading session. It's
Speaker 1: the first trading day of the third quarter, and we
Speaker 1: do see some games As Charlie mentioned in the SMP
Speaker 1: in the down text, ducks are really lagging. Let's get
Speaker 1: to it. Count down to the closing bell. Here with J. J. Kinahan,
Speaker 1: Chef Bucket Strategies at t D A Merriage Trade. He
Speaker 1: is with us once again on the phone from Chicago. JJ.
Speaker 1: How's it going, Hey, Carol, Good to be with you.
Speaker 1: Think revenue, Well, it's nice to have you here. We're
Speaker 1: kind of tiktoking down to the monthly jobs report tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We know that's a key metric, something that the FED watches.
Speaker 1: How do you see it, how do you see it
Speaker 1: playing out in the markets potentially? Well, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously people are pretty optimistic going into it. I think
Speaker 1: that there's a couple of things you want to look
Speaker 1: for in the report tomorrow. The first thing, of course,
Speaker 1: is always the top line numbers that matching up. But
Speaker 1: what I really want to look at tomorrow is where
Speaker 1: are the jobs being created in one area. I'm really
Speaker 1: going to focus in on this hospitality and leisure. You
Speaker 1: want to see that people are going back to, you know,
Speaker 1: working restaurants, working bars, working hotels, et cetera. Normally, when
Speaker 1: you're building employment, it's not a place you look for
Speaker 1: to build employment longer current, but where we're at now
Speaker 1: in terms of recovery and cities and towns opening up everywhere,
Speaker 1: those are the jobs that seems to be uh where
Speaker 1: people are having the most couple of filling. So it
Speaker 1: would be great to see those jobs come back. With
Speaker 1: that that may lead to a little bit of a
Speaker 1: disappointing wage number if we can outperform, because again, those
Speaker 1: aren't jobs that normally pay as high as hourly wages
Speaker 1: as they rely on. So those are those are two
Speaker 1: of the main things I'm going to look more in
Speaker 1: tomorrow's We are increasingly though, hearing about wages, even for
Speaker 1: fast food workers for those in the hospitality industry, that
Speaker 1: wages are being increased to entice workers to come back.
Speaker 1: Is that gonna be problematic for companies when we get
Speaker 1: into earnings, um it, maybe, But what I would say
Speaker 1: is in the shorter term, not necessarily, because I think
Speaker 1: the bigger things many companies are suffering from right now
Speaker 1: is the ability to serve their clients at the rate
Speaker 1: they're used to being served. So if you can increase sales,
Speaker 1: that's going to more than be offset by the ways
Speaker 1: increases now, of course that's that's it's a very tough scale.
Speaker 1: Let's tax it. And I think that for the next year,
Speaker 1: that's going to be something that sort of plays out
Speaker 1: in real time for us as we get to see
Speaker 1: these earnings. The one thing that may lead to carol
Speaker 1: is actually some uh, some of the bigger, the bigger
Speaker 1: fast food chains. Maybe they close some of the restaurants
Speaker 1: that aren't as efficient or making as much profit. So
Speaker 1: that would be the natural I think, uh, sort of
Speaker 1: derivative of this playing out if those expenses start to
Speaker 1: become too hot. Do you think we could see a
Speaker 1: rates market adjustment if for some reason we get hotter
Speaker 1: than forecast monthly jobs report to more, especially after the
Speaker 1: last two months have been disappointing. Uh, you may see
Speaker 1: a slight one. I don't see the spee just coming
Speaker 1: off FED meeting. I don't know that I necessarily see
Speaker 1: this being more than an important data point unless there
Speaker 1: is an absolute huge miss or an absolute blowout number.
Speaker 1: I I just don't see this as being that sort
Speaker 1: of number that lets us going crazy on rates one
Speaker 1: way or the other. And it's to your point, though,
Speaker 1: there's so much going on, you know, on the lead
Speaker 1: and you guys talking about crewe oil. Obviously, the data
Speaker 1: expense is one that hits people directly in the pocketbook,
Speaker 1: very very quickly, faster than any other commodity going up.
Speaker 1: So that combination may lead us to a problem in
Speaker 1: the fall. But I think people are so anxious to
Speaker 1: get out right now. Summer vacation plans have been made,
Speaker 1: people are not changing them in my opinion, because they've
Speaker 1: had a few months to save money. Also, in the
Speaker 1: short term, when we go back, when kids are back
Speaker 1: in school, when the normal you know, I'll use air
Speaker 1: quotes on that life returns, people are back at work,
Speaker 1: normal expenses, That's when I think you may see the
Speaker 1: result of gasolene prices being higher start to affect the consumer.
Speaker 1: And that's when we have an opportunity where things could
Speaker 1: either lead to inflationary pressures or probably works yet a
Speaker 1: significant cept back and spending. You guys at t d
Speaker 1: amrit trend you can see trends flows where our investors,
Speaker 1: you know, increasingly allocating money. Where's the interesting hotspots in
Speaker 1: the equity markets. What's been really interesting to me is
Speaker 1: to watch over the last uh six weeks or so,
Speaker 1: is we've seen the nasdack stock, particularly the thaank stocks
Speaker 1: start to lead us higher. How Apple and Microsoft. You know,
Speaker 1: we had this dip in May and people came in
Speaker 1: to buy it, those two particularly, but the fame stocks
Speaker 1: in general sort of leading the way. Those two I
Speaker 1: call out because what's interesting to me, Carroll, is they
Speaker 1: get the buy the dip mentality, the trusted blue chip
Speaker 1: if we go down the lot of perform. But then
Speaker 1: on the upside they get the great benefit of being
Speaker 1: viewed as growth stocks. And so with that, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a double whammy they give every stock
Speaker 1: would love. So they started and I think people are
Speaker 1: starting to trust more technology now outside that, over the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks, we're starting to see some of
Speaker 1: the chip makers, etcetera coming to favor. And you know,
Speaker 1: the one stock has been a consistent buy for our
Speaker 1: clients the last few months has been four and uh, Well,
Speaker 1: the reasons that it makes sense to me is they
Speaker 1: we know that they're really good and distributing cars. They
Speaker 1: made a bigger commitment to electric vehicles, and let's face it,
Speaker 1: in terms of a pure price point, if you want
Speaker 1: to play it, you have our stock that's trading just
Speaker 1: under fifteen dollars, so people can certainly afford it as
Speaker 1: part of their uh you know, and all account sizes,
Speaker 1: so to speak. There's a stock that's very affordable, that's
Speaker 1: you know, proven that they can distribute the cars. Now
Speaker 1: it's in the F one fifty. I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of excitement around the uh you know, the e
Speaker 1: V of the F one fifty. It's wild because if
Speaker 1: I look at yours A four J J, it's up
Speaker 1: almost se so far this year. But as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: it's got a pe whether it's forward looking or current,
Speaker 1: of about twelve twelve thirteen. So as you say, still affordable.
Speaker 1: Where don't you want to be in this marketplace? I
Speaker 1: think that the toughest question right now is I won't
Speaker 1: say you don't want to be there, but you have
Speaker 1: to be patients financials. I just don't see this rate picture,
Speaker 1: uh the Tuggle war in my opinion, between is UH
Speaker 1: inflation passing or is inflation here to stay? The tugg
Speaker 1: A war is going to continue for a few months.
Speaker 1: So with that, I just don't see rates moving significantly
Speaker 1: one way or the other. So if you are going
Speaker 1: to be long financials heading in the earnings knowing that
Speaker 1: some have already said that they're trading revenues are going
Speaker 1: to be down, interest rates haven't necessarily done them a
Speaker 1: favor over the last quarter. That that's one that it's
Speaker 1: going to test your patients if you buy, not saying
Speaker 1: that by the end of the year it won't turn
Speaker 1: out well. You just have to be aware of that
Speaker 1: as we had an earning season financials. By the way,
Speaker 1: everyone your second best performing major industry group in the
Speaker 1: S and P five up about energy of course, a
Speaker 1: top that list. P twenty seconds here, JJ, gotta be quick.
Speaker 1: Would you buy energy? Though? Even considering the run in
Speaker 1: the bounce back we've seen, I think you have to
Speaker 1: watch freed and we're just at seventy five right now,
Speaker 1: it should run into some resistance about a dollar up
Speaker 1: from here between seventy six seventy six and a half.
Speaker 1: I think that's actually the key area for at the
Speaker 1: breakout in those energy stocks to respond to the upside
Speaker 1: gonna run. Hey, have a great holiday weekend. J. J. Canaan,
Speaker 1: he's chief market strategist over a t D A marriage trade,
Speaker 1: joining us on the phone from Chicago. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to
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