Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Welcome to the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: This Weekend podcast with David Gura, Christina Raffini, and Lisa Matteo.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us for today's selection of conversations from
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: You can listen to our favorite discussions right here on
Speaker 3: the podcast, and also make sure to join us live
Speaker 3: every Saturday and Sunday morning starting at seven am Easter.
Speaker 4: We're on Bloomberg Television, Radio and the Bloomberg Business App,
Speaker 4: bringing you unique takes and in depth interviews on news, politics,
Speaker 4: lifestyle and culture.
Speaker 3: Now for our exclusive sit down interview with the heads
Speaker 3: of the National Governors Association. Two Republicans, two Democrats, two
Speaker 3: ten gallon hats between the four of them, joining Bloomberg
Speaker 3: this weekend on Saturday to announce a bipartisan task force
Speaker 3: designed to tackle immigration reform.
Speaker 2: I will say they did share the hats at our
Speaker 2: previous clip. Governor Spencer Cox of you Tap, Wesmore of Maryland,
Speaker 2: Kevin did of Oklahoma, and Matt Meyer of Delaware.
Speaker 5: Take a listen.
Speaker 6: We get elected. We always say that the governors really
Speaker 6: can't be that partisan, because potholes aren't partisan. We actually
Speaker 6: get judged by what we accomplish. We get held accountable
Speaker 6: for that. So unlike Congress, we have to do those things.
Speaker 6: And there's this cool thing we're celebrating America to fifty.
Speaker 7: But the way our country.
Speaker 6: Was set up, most of the power was left to
Speaker 6: the states, not to the federal government. That's certainly changed
Speaker 6: over the years. Unfortunately, we think that that's one of
Speaker 6: the problems. But here's I think why this really matters
Speaker 6: and should matter to all Americans is that we are
Speaker 6: the laboratories of democracy. So if a blue state comes
Speaker 6: up with a new policy that solves a problem in
Speaker 6: their state, I'm going to steal that.
Speaker 7: I want the best for my people. It goes the
Speaker 7: other way around.
Speaker 6: We were just talking about Mississippi today and they're reading scores,
Speaker 6: the third grade reading scores.
Speaker 7: They went from forty.
Speaker 6: Nine to top ten, and all of us looked around
Speaker 6: and said, hey, yeah, what is Mississippi doing. We should
Speaker 6: copy that. And so almost all of us, I think,
Speaker 6: have adopted some portion of Mississippi's policies around the science
Speaker 6: of reading. That's why governors and mayors are I think
Speaker 6: more popular.
Speaker 7: There's a little more trust. Although we're all struggling with
Speaker 7: that right now.
Speaker 6: But we're lucky to have these events where we can
Speaker 6: get together and learn from each other.
Speaker 8: I can tell you I took it a step further
Speaker 8: where we saw what was happening in Mississippi. We didn't
Speaker 8: just copy the model. We actually told our superintendent who's
Speaker 8: now the superintendent of the state of Maryland. So it's
Speaker 8: now becoming the Maryland model.
Speaker 5: I don't know if I want to encourage that.
Speaker 2: No poaching people, guys, everybody playing nice in the sandbox
Speaker 2: governors did when you talk to constituents, what is the
Speaker 2: number one issue, number one or two issues that they
Speaker 2: talked to you about? And have you found when you
Speaker 2: go to the NNGA, when you talk to your colleagues
Speaker 2: that those are common pretty much about across all the
Speaker 2: states right now?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean I tell people all the time and
Speaker 9: every year of my I've been governor now for eight
Speaker 9: years and it hasn't changed.
Speaker 7: I mean, I believe that whether you live in rural.
Speaker 9: Oklahoma or urban Oklahoma, you want the same thing, whether
Speaker 9: you're Republican or Democrat, you really want the best education
Speaker 9: for your kids, the best opportunity.
Speaker 7: I want to make sure I put my.
Speaker 9: Kids in the best situation possible so.
Speaker 7: They can chase their American dream.
Speaker 9: I want the best access to healthcare. I want the
Speaker 9: best roads and bridges and infrastructure and utility cost. And
Speaker 9: then I want the best economy. I want wages to growth.
Speaker 9: I want opportunities for upward mobility. And so those four
Speaker 9: things are non political, and I always tell Oklahomas, Hey,
Speaker 9: let DC play politics. We're all Oklahomas. Let's make Oklahoma
Speaker 9: top ten. And so I focus on those things. And
Speaker 9: I don't think it's any different when I meet with
Speaker 9: my colleagues around the country. They're dealing with the exact
Speaker 9: same things in their state. So it's those four things
Speaker 9: I always focus on.
Speaker 10: People are starving for government that delivers, for people that delivers.
Speaker 10: There's so much nonsense out there, not just in politics
Speaker 10: and government, but everywhere, and I think people are just
Speaker 10: looking for people they elect to roll up their sleeves
Speaker 10: and get actual, real work done to help educate their kids,
Speaker 10: deal with childcare, the costs that I have three kids,
Speaker 10: one more on the way, and the costs are skyrocketing.
Speaker 10: Making sure when you go and get gas it's affordable,
Speaker 10: and so that's really what we're spending time on all day.
Speaker 10: You look at the national news and things people are
Speaker 10: fighting about. Most of what we do our kitchen table issues,
Speaker 10: just trying to make life a little bit easier for
Speaker 10: the people that live in our respective states.
Speaker 6: I would just add the price of housing is a
Speaker 6: big piece of that.
Speaker 7: That's when we hear you do energy too.
Speaker 6: Yeah, all of the consumer costs, that's huge for all
Speaker 6: of us.
Speaker 5: That's funny.
Speaker 2: I was actually just going to say, so obviously, I'm
Speaker 2: here in New York. I moved here recently, and I
Speaker 2: talked about on the show a lot. Everything here is
Speaker 2: insane expensive. But I grew up in Colorado. And I
Speaker 2: was talking to a friend who was a very different
Speaker 2: life than me earlier this week, and she was saying
Speaker 2: the same things I was dealing with. She was like,
Speaker 2: we've gotten to a place in our lives we always
Speaker 2: wanted to be. My husband and I are making the
Speaker 2: money we always wanted to and we feel like we
Speaker 2: can't afford even the basic things. So governor more, I
Speaker 2: want to start with you, but what is your plan
Speaker 2: to tackle affordability? How are you going to tackle this?
Speaker 2: And then I brought it out to the group. What
Speaker 2: are you guys doing to bring these prices down.
Speaker 8: Well, I think one thing that all the governors recognize
Speaker 8: is that, you know, we wish we could control the
Speaker 8: price of gas, you know that, but that's not something
Speaker 8: that governors control.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 8: We know we are seeing how nationwide the price of
Speaker 8: gas has just skyrocket over the over the past twelve weeks.
Speaker 8: We see how, you know, we wish we could control.
Speaker 7: The price of groceries.
Speaker 8: Unfortunately, we're now seeing how inflation is the highest that
Speaker 8: it's been in three years, and so you're watching the
Speaker 8: price of groceries continue to go up. And so there
Speaker 8: are certain factors that that as governors, we don't control
Speaker 8: the fact that things continue to rise, but we can
Speaker 8: control the things we can control.
Speaker 7: So, for example, when.
Speaker 8: We're talking about best practices that we've seen and that
Speaker 8: as other states we've also brought on board. You know,
Speaker 8: we actually in Maryland we pass legislation that deals with
Speaker 8: the issue of price manipulation at supermarkets, where you know,
Speaker 8: supermarkets and big supermarket chains cannot use your data against
Speaker 8: you when you walk into a supermarket and increase the
Speaker 8: prices because they know that you will pay for the
Speaker 8: increased prices. So we are the first state to actually
Speaker 8: ban price manipulation that when it came to things like
Speaker 8: rising energy prices that we're all wrestling with, you know,
Speaker 8: in our state, and I know other states have done
Speaker 8: the same. We've now put one hundreds of dollars back
Speaker 8: in the pockets of our people in Maryland. You know,
Speaker 8: it's three hundred million dollars that we've now put back
Speaker 8: to the people of Maryland to deal with these rising
Speaker 8: energy prices. And so we're making sure we can control
Speaker 8: the things we can control, making historic investments in childcare,
Speaker 8: as Matt was talking about, because that is one of
Speaker 8: the largest costs that families are dealing with, whether they're
Speaker 8: now having to choose between are my kids going to
Speaker 8: be okay?
Speaker 7: Or can I go back into the workforce.
Speaker 8: And so we're making sure as governors that while we
Speaker 8: cannot control a lot of the dynamics that are existing
Speaker 8: within our states, the things that we can control to
Speaker 8: make life a little bit easier for the people of
Speaker 8: our states, we can and we will.
Speaker 2: Does anybody else want to get to anything any other
Speaker 2: specific policies that y'all want to highlight that you are
Speaker 2: trying to do, either on housing or I know, energy
Speaker 2: is a big concern, especially with data centers going in
Speaker 2: a bunch of places, food costs, childcare, of any of
Speaker 2: the policies that come to mind that you're trying to
Speaker 2: enact in your states.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, I think we all want to do
Speaker 7: all right, keep.
Speaker 5: Going down the road. But you're grown up, so you
Speaker 5: can figure out. All right, thanks guys.
Speaker 9: Good Well, I would just say on housing, we're all
Speaker 9: dealing with affordability. We want you know, home ownership is
Speaker 9: so important. My whole career has been in the mortgage
Speaker 9: business and banking and promoting home ownership and strengthening families
Speaker 9: and how important that is to own homes. And so
Speaker 9: when you see that cost rising and you see people
Speaker 9: delaying housing, perching the first house so they're in their thirties,
Speaker 9: Now what is that? Well, if you believe in economics,
Speaker 9: I believe it's a it's a supply problem, right, So
Speaker 9: how do we get more houses built? Some of that
Speaker 9: is zoning problems. We're not allowing more developers. To me,
Speaker 9: it's always over regulation, right, So we passed a built
Speaker 9: to encourage zero interest loans to developers to develop more houses.
Speaker 9: And then for that they had to produce affordable houses
Speaker 9: for the working families. The Build Act that we did
Speaker 9: allows developers now to burden the cost of utilities, infrastructure
Speaker 9: as far as water sewage instead of back on to
Speaker 9: the municipality. So we're doing everything we can to encourage
Speaker 9: more supply coming in. It's already we're already very affordable
Speaker 9: in Oklahoma, and we're getting tremendous economic development.
Speaker 7: But we want we want more.
Speaker 9: We want to unleash the UH, the innovation of companies
Speaker 9: to go meet the demands of Americans. And I think
Speaker 9: that's the best policy, just a free market approach.
Speaker 5: Governor Meyer.
Speaker 2: One of the big things that we were just talking
Speaker 2: about with the big costs is energy, and energy costs
Speaker 2: are really going up, and we're seeing that coincide, of course,
Speaker 2: with these big data centers that are going in all
Speaker 2: across the country.
Speaker 5: I'm wondering if you are hearing from your.
Speaker 2: Constituents that they are concerned about AI, they are concerned
Speaker 2: about the energy draw of these data centers, and what
Speaker 2: you're doing about that in your state.
Speaker 7: I am hearing a lot.
Speaker 10: I think all of us are hearing a lot about
Speaker 10: data centers and the concerns about AI. They run the
Speaker 10: gamut from security concerns, privacy concerns, environmental concerns, and wealth
Speaker 10: inequality concerns, and.
Speaker 7: I think each of us have a different approach.
Speaker 10: We're looking to attract employers in Delaware, where in my
Speaker 10: first eighteen months in office, we've been very successful doing that.
Speaker 10: But I've also been very clear that if you're going
Speaker 10: to negatively impact our environment, if you're going to increase
Speaker 10: rate payers energy bills by a single penny, then we're
Speaker 10: not going to have you here. So we're putting in
Speaker 10: place rules, we're about to finalize them, about to sign
Speaker 10: some legislation that does just that, that says, hey, if
Speaker 10: you want a data center or anything like that in
Speaker 10: our community, you have to come with.
Speaker 7: Benefit for the community.
Speaker 10: I think a number of us that are doing behind
Speaker 10: the meter policies where kind of bring your own energy.
Speaker 10: If you bring your own energy and you're not drawing
Speaker 10: from the grid, it's much easier to get a pathway.
Speaker 10: I think we also understand that data centers and AI
Speaker 10: at some level is a national economic and security imperative.
Speaker 7: We cannot let China win on this one.
Speaker 10: We have to make sure that our respective states aren't
Speaker 10: blocking each other and blocking things so that we as
Speaker 10: a country cannot move forward.
Speaker 2: All right, gentlemen, we're running a little short on time.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you taking time. Before I let you go,
Speaker 2: I do want to play a game. So if everybody
Speaker 2: could please raise your hand like this. Wait, I have
Speaker 2: to find my camera here.
Speaker 5: Put your hand up. We're going to do. Put a
Speaker 5: finger down.
Speaker 2: If I'm sure you have children or have been on
Speaker 2: the internet and you understand how this works, all right,
Speaker 2: you ready, Please put a finger down. If you are
Speaker 2: concerned about affordability in your state.
Speaker 7: Put a figure down. If you're concerned.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're concerned about affordability in a state, put
Speaker 2: one of your fingers down.
Speaker 5: Please put a finger down.
Speaker 2: If you have released a book in the past year,
Speaker 2: or planning to release a book in the coming year.
Speaker 5: All right, that's two out of the floor. Put a
Speaker 5: finger down.
Speaker 2: If you're going to Iowa this year or in the
Speaker 2: next cycle.
Speaker 7: Iowa, old meyer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the gentleman from Delaware has put a finger down.
Speaker 2: And finally, please put a finger down.
Speaker 7: We're just going to New Hampshire.
Speaker 2: New Hampshire also counts. Okay, dream my final question of
Speaker 2: the day, Please put a finger down. Gentlemen, if you
Speaker 2: are running for president in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 5: I'm looking. I'm looking all right.
Speaker 2: No one committed, no one committed. Thank you for being
Speaker 2: good sports. I appreciate it. Thank you again with the task.
Speaker 8: I have to say, though, I'm the only one of
Speaker 8: this group who actually has a reelection in less than
Speaker 8: one hundred days, So I'm sweating a whole lot more
Speaker 8: than than my friends are here.
Speaker 5: That's all right.
Speaker 2: If it's a little hot, friends can let you borrow
Speaker 2: a hat.
Speaker 5: Gentlemen, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I have a great time with the stockyards. We really
Speaker 2: appreciate you joining us today.
Speaker 3: Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend right
Speaker 3: after this. As artificial intelligence becomes ingrained in everyday life,
Speaker 3: disagreements over the technology are increasingly becoming disagreements over values and.
Speaker 2: The latest Bloomberg Forecast newsletter, Bloomberg News contributor Josie Cox
Speaker 2: explores how AI adoption is dividing friends, families, and coworkers, writing,
Speaker 2: researchers have only just begun to study AI social consequences,
Speaker 2: and there's little impair work examining whether attitudes or the
Speaker 2: technology are becoming part of people's identities.
Speaker 5: I have opinions about that, but I will leave them
Speaker 5: to the expert.
Speaker 2: But interviews with the ai skeptics suggest that for some people,
Speaker 2: AIUS has become a proxy for values.
Speaker 11: Josie Cox joins us.
Speaker 3: Now she sells with the author, I should save the
Speaker 3: book Women, Money Power, The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality.
Speaker 3: Great to have you with us. Let's start with this disagreement.
Speaker 3: We can maybe not to how popular this has become
Speaker 3: and how we're all kind of fumbling through. And I
Speaker 3: think we can acknowledge that what did you find as
Speaker 3: you dug into this in terms of what the personal
Speaker 3: or interpersonal ramifications of this are thus far.
Speaker 12: Yeah, it's so interesting. I mean everyone is familiar, of course,
Speaker 12: with the headlines of just the meteoric rise of ai
Speaker 12: It's doing everything for us. It's in our work lives,
Speaker 12: our personal lives, in our bedrooms, it's everywhere. But what
Speaker 12: I have generally found really interesting is the ways in
Speaker 12: which it's exacerbating divides. Initially I was reporting on the
Speaker 12: gender gap that it was potentially exacerbating men more apt
Speaker 12: to use it. They are more apt to use it.
Speaker 12: Bloomberg a couple of years ago really kind of the
Speaker 12: in the sort of beginnings of AI dominance, showing that
Speaker 12: there was actually quite a stark divide between used rates
Speaker 12: among women and use rates among men. The gap has
Speaker 12: closed a little bit, but that really sort of planted
Speaker 12: the seed of interest, and since then I've been interested in,
Speaker 12: you know, ways in which AI is not only uniting
Speaker 12: us but also dividing us. And so this story really
Speaker 12: came from sort of anecdotal evidence and conversations that I
Speaker 12: was happening with people in my life who were sort
Speaker 12: of vehemently anti AI, and I just thought it was
Speaker 12: really interesting because a lot of people have different reasons
Speaker 12: for being anti AI, for being sort of AI refused
Speaker 12: and ex as I like to call them, you know,
Speaker 12: be that the environment or ethical concerns, or in the
Speaker 12: creative industries, a lot of people are concerned about copyright
Speaker 12: things like that, but ultimately they all sort of tend
Speaker 12: to kind of congregate around this idea of it being
Speaker 12: a bit of an identity, right, and it's sort of
Speaker 12: a you know, as I was reporting the story, I
Speaker 12: realize that it was almost tribal. It was like us
Speaker 12: versus them. Interesting, and I just think it's fascinating to
Speaker 12: kind of consider as AI continues to dominate, continues to
Speaker 12: infiltrate our lives, what that will ultimately mean for workplaces, families, relationships,
Speaker 12: et cetera.
Speaker 2: I am one of those people who gets very surprised
Speaker 2: by the people in my life who have started relying
Speaker 2: on AI so quickly, especially people my age and like,
Speaker 2: as we've managed to make it our whole lives without
Speaker 2: having your computer tell you how to get on the
Speaker 2: subway or what to order it dinner. And the people
Speaker 2: who adopt it, even people in creative industries, people who
Speaker 2: it's threatening their livelihood, are adopting it in a way
Speaker 2: that I think counteracts.
Speaker 5: All the rest of their values.
Speaker 2: But I personally get really upset. I was at dinner
Speaker 2: the other day and we needed to google something, and
Speaker 2: my friend picked up his phone and said, hey, chat,
Speaker 2: just google it.
Speaker 5: But like, what do I care? You know what I mean?
Speaker 5: Why is it so emotionally interesting?
Speaker 12: I think the reason one of the reasons that's so
Speaker 12: emotional is because a lot of the uses of AI
Speaker 12: that we're resorting to to do with communication, right, and
Speaker 12: communication is something that is so personal. One of the academics,
Speaker 12: so I spoke to who's a sociologist and who kind
Speaker 12: of studies political divides, which is sort of a good
Speaker 12: corollary for this. Said that, there's a lot of AI
Speaker 12: skepticism around communications that should be personal, like wedding vowels, right,
Speaker 12: like birthday greetings.
Speaker 2: Or dating as people are like having their dating asks
Speaker 2: just talk to each other.
Speaker 5: The messages are completely AI generated.
Speaker 12: Right, and communication is one of the most personal things
Speaker 12: that we rely on and one of the most sort
Speaker 12: of personal building blocks of our lives. So if we're
Speaker 12: relying on a machine to do that, you know, what
Speaker 12: does that tell us about the state of humanity?
Speaker 3: Quite frankly, we stuck with this agentic setup that's happening.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's terrifying.
Speaker 2: They've like programs, you know, prompt responses because you know,
Speaker 2: but it is a quite exhausting process.
Speaker 3: A lot on the subject of dating. You cite in
Speaker 3: your piece here a survey by the dating app Hillys
Speaker 3: that right, I think, so sixty four gen z fifty
Speaker 3: six percent of millennial dators say they would not date
Speaker 3: someone who relies on AI for everyday decisions. Here, we
Speaker 3: do have some empirical evidence, at least there's a survey
Speaker 3: that's taken place here. We have some data here, but
Speaker 3: what does that tell you just about the way that
Speaker 3: like lines are being drawn even preemptively?
Speaker 12: I think, yeah, well, I think you know, to your point,
Speaker 12: empirical data is scant.
Speaker 3: Right now, even about you know, economic impact.
Speaker 12: Or all that were kind of so I am completely
Speaker 12: I had a cast around for this, right, but I
Speaker 12: thought this was a really interesting data point. The other
Speaker 12: thing I should say about it is that this is
Speaker 12: cause people who are saying sure that they feel this
Speaker 12: way about AI, right, whether they're actually acting on it
Speaker 12: is another thing. This is the same as you know,
Speaker 12: the perennial issue with political polling, right. But I think
Speaker 12: what it does tell us is that there is a
Speaker 12: bit of a backlash, right Obviously, you know, as we're
Speaker 12: saying at the beginning of this conversation, the rise has
Speaker 12: been absolutely meteoric, and I think that there is a
Speaker 12: sort of hankering for personal connection amid this AI era
Speaker 12: that we're all finding ourselves in. So I'm hopeful that
Speaker 12: we'll get more empirical data on this. Stanford is to
Speaker 12: some good research on this. We also had some I
Speaker 12: came across some data for the piece showing that skepticism
Speaker 12: or lack of trust in AI is rising at a
Speaker 12: pretty rapid clip globally, with some regional differences, But over
Speaker 12: the last sort of three four years, distrust in AI
Speaker 12: has actually risen by about ten percentage points, which is
Speaker 12: a remarkable rate of increase for anything really. So you know,
Speaker 12: let's see what the next generation does and what the
Speaker 12: dynamics look like.
Speaker 5: There, well quickly before we let you go.
Speaker 2: I mean, I want to ask about that next generation
Speaker 2: because I was surprised. I don't know if there's again
Speaker 2: researchers scant, but is there an age difference with adopters
Speaker 2: as well? Because I noticed in my life younger people
Speaker 2: have almost stronger ANTIAI feelings than some of the older
Speaker 2: people in my life, who.
Speaker 5: Were like, this is cool, I can do this thing.
Speaker 2: And then I noticed this week LinkedIn now has an
Speaker 2: option where you can hit the little button and say
Speaker 2: this looks like AI slot. Because I think they were
Speaker 2: getting bombarded with things that people didn't like and it
Speaker 2: was ruining the user experience.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean, I think, as ever with new technologies,
Speaker 12: it comes down to literacy, right, and the younger generations
Speaker 12: are individuals who grew up with the Internet, right, They
Speaker 12: don't know a time before the Internet, so maybe that
Speaker 12: sort of skepticism is a little bit more intuitive for them.
Speaker 12: But again, let's see.
Speaker 3: I would ask you lastly just about the difficulty of
Speaker 3: being a skeptic or a fusee as you put it,
Speaker 3: use site in the piece. There are companies now that
Speaker 3: are incentivizing employees to use AI, and so even if
Speaker 3: you don't want to do it or don't think that
Speaker 3: it's going to help or be a positive thing, there
Speaker 3: is pressure now being placed on people to use it
Speaker 3: in the workplace.
Speaker 12: Yeah. Absolutely, there are large companies that are not only
Speaker 12: incentivizing employees to use AI, but actively almost forcing them, right,
Speaker 12: mandating it. And I think those are the skeptics who
Speaker 12: were least willing to speak to me, sure, right, because
Speaker 12: they think their job might be on the line.
Speaker 11: Right.
Speaker 12: But I think that is where we see kind of
Speaker 12: that's really concerning, right, if you're being forced to do
Speaker 12: something in your work that becomes a productivity issue, that
Speaker 12: becomes an engagement issue. Ultimately that could become a workforce issue.
Speaker 5: Stating subject.
Speaker 2: I think it's one that we're all thinking about all
Speaker 2: the time, especially when I don't have kids.
Speaker 5: But I will trying to parents in the water.
Speaker 2: Has to be especially especially difficult that my dog doesn't
Speaker 2: know how to AI, so we're safe there.
Speaker 11: But yes, Cox, thank you so come back because you
Speaker 11: get more empiricals. Please let us know well I can
Speaker 11: see the story as well.
Speaker 2: As to see you.
Speaker 5: Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend.
Speaker 2: Right after this, I want to start by saying the
Speaker 2: story is allegedly a data based analysis, and I am
Speaker 2: now surrounded by legs.
Speaker 5: We've got David.
Speaker 2: Cara and our friend Chris Browser is here. Boys, you're
Speaker 2: showing a lot of leg Is this office.
Speaker 3: Approach showing a lot of leg This piece we're going
Speaker 3: to talk about by Chris has cost more than a
Speaker 3: minor tempest and office towers across New York City and
Speaker 3: indeed in commercial capitals around the world. He not proposing
Speaker 3: the shorts be allowed in the workplace, but investigating whether
Speaker 3: or not there's appetite for it. And Chris, to Christina's point,
Speaker 3: you did this in a very data driven way. You
Speaker 3: conducted a survey. Is now the time, in the dog
Speaker 3: days of summer you feel about it?
Speaker 5: Their facts here?
Speaker 13: No, we had we had the bloom Bloomberg Terminal People
Speaker 13: survey using one of their market pul surveys analysts and
Speaker 13: Terminal subscribers, and forty five percent of.
Speaker 3: People forty five percent, not a majority, said that it
Speaker 3: was suitable to wear shorts to work.
Speaker 13: Now, some of these people responded and said, yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 13: it's of course it's okay. If you work at a
Speaker 13: surf shop. You know, people really do not support wearing
Speaker 13: shorts work. However, I believe it's time.
Speaker 3: You believe it's time you're going to take that position.
Speaker 3: I work near you physically in the office. You often
Speaker 3: do wear shorts in the summer. You've been taking the
Speaker 3: stand for a while. I have Before you put pen
Speaker 3: to paper, I want you to go back to when
Speaker 3: you first did it. Were you apprehensive about it? What
Speaker 3: did you think the reaction was going to be?
Speaker 13: Yeah, Well, like a lot of people I talked to
Speaker 13: you for this piece, I had, at one point or
Speaker 13: another my career been scolded for not being dressed up
Speaker 13: enough for work. And that's a real thing.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is a guy who wears Monograham shirts
Speaker 3: to work. Would be clear about that.
Speaker 5: Very fancy, very she glen and pants on. Last time
Speaker 5: he was here.
Speaker 13: But there are times, you know when you're not dressed
Speaker 13: appropolyated for a situation, if you're in meeting with people
Speaker 13: or whatever. But if you're not, if you're just going
Speaker 13: to work, you know you're just gonna be a desk
Speaker 13: jockey for the day. My personal rule is that if
Speaker 13: it's over ninety degrees farenhet be allowed to wear fahrenheit
Speaker 13: about thirty two, you should be.
Speaker 5: Allowed to our listeners and shorts.
Speaker 13: Now, one of the first times I did in this office,
Speaker 13: I was walking through the newsroom and the deputy editor
Speaker 13: in chief of Bloomberg News yellow.
Speaker 11: Hello, Reda Grigory. We said good morning to you, Yes.
Speaker 13: Good morning.
Speaker 7: He said, what are you going to the beach? And
Speaker 7: this is a scary Swiss.
Speaker 5: Many lovely but very attached plush Yes.
Speaker 13: So I thought, okay, this is maybe not super accepted,
Speaker 13: but I powered through, and now I think it's a
Speaker 13: It's a topic of conversation all over New York City.
Speaker 2: I will say, since I knew we were doing this piece,
Speaker 2: forget my shorts.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, I just came out for vacation. I did
Speaker 5: forget my shorts.
Speaker 2: Ironically, but as I was looking around today on a
Speaker 2: Friday in the summer, there were quite a few pair.
Speaker 5: Of work shorts.
Speaker 2: Now I've never done summer shorts, but I do have
Speaker 2: like the really long bermudas that kind of go with
Speaker 2: the matching.
Speaker 11: Jocket with all those cool clam diggers.
Speaker 2: And I've done winter shorts because you can wear them
Speaker 2: with tights. Because for me, the controversy here, especially on
Speaker 2: the women's end, is what length of short is workplace appropriate?
Speaker 2: Because we have variant hemlines on YouTube.
Speaker 11: We wanted to show a little leg. Yes, yeah, well.
Speaker 2: But I mean, is there a fine is there a
Speaker 2: thigh threshold for work appropriate? Is did you ask people
Speaker 2: about the length and kind of short people?
Speaker 13: You know, the thing is you think the longer like
Speaker 13: the more appropriate. But if you get shorts that are
Speaker 13: kind of below the knee, that's also a different look
Speaker 13: that can be like feel less tidy. So my feeling
Speaker 13: is like a seven to nine inch in seem anything
Speaker 13: shorter than that. Usually my husband tells me what is
Speaker 13: appropriate for work. And one day he wasn't home, he
Speaker 13: was traveling, and I went to work and I immediately
Speaker 13: walked in the office and I was like, these are
Speaker 13: too short.
Speaker 7: I'd made a mistake.
Speaker 11: You dig into the history here.
Speaker 3: Look, during revolutionary war times, the men in power were
Speaker 3: wearing I guess not shorts, but breeches.
Speaker 7: Is the thing.
Speaker 13: We think that like, we've been wearing suits and stuff
Speaker 13: to work forever, and that's simply not true.
Speaker 7: It used to be that.
Speaker 13: Wearing clothes that recognize that you live in the world
Speaker 13: and you have to use your body for work was
Speaker 13: very like, was very not fancy. Like if you were
Speaker 13: an aristocrat, you needed to wear clothes like corsets and
Speaker 13: tight things and things that showed that you didn't have
Speaker 13: a body or you could never possibly use.
Speaker 5: Your body for you You didn't have to do labor,
Speaker 5: you didn't.
Speaker 13: Have to do it, like prove that you didn't have
Speaker 13: to do labor. But even then, men showed their legs,
Speaker 13: people wore breeches and wore tights. At the signing of
Speaker 13: the Declaration of Independence, John Adams was wearing stockings and
Speaker 13: showed his calves. So like you can do it.
Speaker 3: Celebrate that two fiftieth Christina, right now, can I ask
Speaker 3: you last week a minute loud, I go home.
Speaker 11: I can't go home.
Speaker 3: You know you're you're paving this path or designers doing
Speaker 3: it as well? Are we seeing this like on the
Speaker 3: runways that now one comes to men's.
Speaker 2: Fashion and women as well, there are suit short outfits
Speaker 2: more frequently that.
Speaker 5: You can buy two two.
Speaker 13: There were two main pegs for this story, one of
Speaker 13: which was in Tokyo, there's actually like a government and
Speaker 13: mandate the municipal workers are allowed to wear shorts and
Speaker 13: that has caused and has caused a lot of consternation.
Speaker 13: And then also on the on the runs the runways
Speaker 13: at the Men's Wort show in Milan and in Paris,
Speaker 13: there were a lot of shorts paired with blazers, suits
Speaker 13: and jackets. So like, uh, you know, Tom Ford lou Vitan.
Speaker 5: Has been doing this forever too, like the short suits.
Speaker 13: I meant Tom Brown, Yeah, Tom Brown has always been
Speaker 13: doing it, doing it. Saint Laurent sent down a look
Speaker 13: on the runway which was basically like a guy in
Speaker 13: a blazer with no bottoms and that is like a
Speaker 13: nightmare that a lot of us have actually had and
Speaker 13: what it feels like.
Speaker 11: To show up summer of twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe not here, Chris, Thank you very much, co
Speaker 3: rats on the controversy.
Speaker 5: Thank you well for breaking down borders.
Speaker 2: And raising hemlines starting you appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend right
Speaker 4: after this, Welcome.
Speaker 3: Back to Bloomberg this weekend, Bloomberg B this T Weekend
Speaker 3: w B T W.
Speaker 11: As we say, David.
Speaker 3: Grew, Christina Lisa Matteos, you've ascertained out this week. Nathan
Speaker 3: Hager with us with some stories you might have missed.
Speaker 3: You've been mining the terminal, mining Bloomberg dot com, mining.
Speaker 11: Outside sites as well.
Speaker 14: I should say it's not for us to look.
Speaker 5: Broadly at the news, not using AI. Using your brain.
Speaker 14: Can't do that critical thinking.
Speaker 15: We even do that this early in the morning, and
Speaker 15: morning it's hard, is a struggling.
Speaker 11: There is coffee.
Speaker 15: There is coffee speaking of right, this is about coffee.
Speaker 15: This is about drinking culture. Because I don't think there's
Speaker 15: it's any secret that the beverage industry has been dealing
Speaker 15: with the changes twenty somethings kind of pulling back because
Speaker 15: of health concerns or the economy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we just have a story of Jim Beam and
Speaker 2: they're owned by this big Japanese conglomerate and.
Speaker 3: They because that they're actually getting into not a non
Speaker 3: alcoholic whiskey, but like no.
Speaker 5: But Jim Beam.
Speaker 2: They're doing non alcoholic cocktails to try to, you know,
Speaker 2: get these young people who are not drinking alcohol to
Speaker 2: purchase some of their produities.
Speaker 15: Well, this isn't just a Western phenomenon or here in
Speaker 15: the States. It's even spreading to China. Although the reasons
Speaker 15: here are a little bit different. This is really about
Speaker 15: a generational divide. This was from the Wall Street Journal
Speaker 15: this week. A sober curious generation is challenging the business
Speaker 15: culture of heavy drinking. Because you can see it right
Speaker 15: here for our listeners on radio, they do toasts. This
Speaker 15: has been a part of the culture for dagoes. Now
Speaker 15: some business leaders say that you know, just you can
Speaker 15: tell whether a deal is going to go down based
Speaker 15: on how many toasts are in the deal. So an
Speaker 15: initial business steel is even about business. It's about just
Speaker 15: doing the toast. And this is around a national drink
Speaker 15: called by Jew It's actually one hundred and seventy billion
Speaker 15: dollar business. This is a clear spirit that's distilled from sorghum,
Speaker 15: and it's kind of the traditional alcoholic beverage that Chinese
Speaker 15: business people and at social gatherings do to do these toasts.
Speaker 15: But only about a fifth of adults in China ages
Speaker 15: twenty five to thirty five name it as their preferred
Speaker 15: alcoholic drink. They say at least one worker says, it
Speaker 15: burns your thoughts instinct It is very I have, but
Speaker 15: I've never had this.
Speaker 11: It's extremely strong.
Speaker 15: Would you say that the aftertaste is worse than a
Speaker 15: mix of funky cheese and ferment well juice, you know.
Speaker 3: I don't even know if I had time to process
Speaker 3: the taste because it was so powerful and strong. Oh,
Speaker 3: it reminds me of that. But mylord, isn't that the
Speaker 3: Chicago drink. It's like a very strong I don't know
Speaker 3: what that is either. Well, I will bring some in
Speaker 3: for you to have, But I mean I.
Speaker 5: Had moonshine ones. Well it almost killed me.
Speaker 15: So the bottom line about how this is worked in
Speaker 15: China is that it's not just about giving up alcohol necessarily.
Speaker 15: It's about changing the way that young people decide to
Speaker 15: drink and sort of rejecting or you know, going a
Speaker 15: little bit against how the older generation have done it
Speaker 15: with their alcohol experience or what else you got, Well,
Speaker 15: you mentioned the must have summer status symbols.
Speaker 14: Weased well, something to drink.
Speaker 2: It's not a tan because we've all learned that's not
Speaker 2: happening for me.
Speaker 14: Well, it's something in a bottle. It's not sunscreen. It's
Speaker 14: a three ninety nine dollars bottle of water.
Speaker 15: As you can forget your bai juw flavored lattes or
Speaker 15: your bubble tea.
Speaker 14: This is lunar water. It's showing up.
Speaker 15: At bougie grocery stores, private events here in New York City.
Speaker 5: Must have seen it and the show how dare you? Also? Yes,
Speaker 5: I have, I'll have you know.
Speaker 15: And the way they sell this is it's sourced from
Speaker 15: a southern California spring. Yes, there stainless steel filtration, adding
Speaker 15: net minerals like Celtic sea salt, magnesium, potassium, and calcium,
Speaker 15: all this for the low low price of three dollars
Speaker 15: and ninety nine cents. Now, this was founded co founded
Speaker 15: last year actually by a woman named Clara cig She's
Speaker 15: a former venture capitalist too. When she was, you know,
Speaker 15: deciding to get pregnant, getting ready to decided to educate
Speaker 15: herself about micro plastics and found that.
Speaker 14: She says that the stainless steel.
Speaker 15: Filtration process gets out more of the microplastics. But when
Speaker 15: you talk to experts, they say water's water. And even
Speaker 15: if there is a you know, evy on or liquid bovy,
Speaker 15: there is no evidence that any of these elite brands
Speaker 15: are going to give you any other water.
Speaker 5: And glass does taste.
Speaker 16: It's it's called Luninkay what else editorial drink? Why would
Speaker 16: I editorialize?
Speaker 9: Never?
Speaker 14: Okay never.
Speaker 15: So we're going to go from luxury water to luxury
Speaker 15: hotels here because this is a new trend across Europe.
Speaker 15: Actually it's not just about the thread count or the
Speaker 15: buzzy restaurant. History is the new amenity. This story is
Speaker 15: actually from Bloomberg Today. This week, you can go to
Speaker 15: the Raffles London at the ow Woe and sim Martinis
Speaker 15: in a basement that was once used by British intelligence
Speaker 15: like that.
Speaker 2: Of course you're speaking my language history nerd and bougie hotel.
Speaker 14: Quiz O w WO stands for Office of Wartime along
Speaker 14: the lines.
Speaker 15: The Old War Office the Nomad London. You can tour
Speaker 15: old prison cells where Oscar Wilde once waited for sentencing.
Speaker 15: So guests are paying upwards of thirteen thousand thirteen. So
Speaker 15: you can stay at places that were once limited to
Speaker 15: the most powerful, and like I said, this is a
Speaker 15: trend to cross Europe. Their old ministries in Paris and
Speaker 15: Lisbon that are turning into hotels, the former Italian Central
Speaker 15: Bank headquarters in Rome, because they got to offload some
Speaker 15: of these old buildings as the governments are modernizing, and
Speaker 15: these hotel chains are saying, you know what, we'll go
Speaker 15: ahead and snap them up and give our guests an
Speaker 15: experience that they'll never forget compared to like the museums
Speaker 15: or the spa or whatever.
Speaker 2: You know, I understand there's an access issue here and
Speaker 2: it's not equitable, but I also do think it is
Speaker 2: nice to preserve these buildings that other might otherwise not
Speaker 2: have a purpose. At least someone is paying to save them.
Speaker 2: And you know you got to buy a fourteen dollar
Speaker 2: martini to help an.
Speaker 15: Old post office V Well, there's a olderf historian now.
Speaker 5: It is now and has a very nice bar. I've
Speaker 5: been there multiple times, Nathan.
Speaker 11: Thank you very much, appreciate that.
Speaker 14: Give btw.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on today's Bloomberg This Weekend podcast.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to tune in live for the show every
Speaker 2: Saturday and Sunday morning, starting at seven am Eastern
Speaker 3: We're on bloom Television, radio, and the Bloomberg Business App,
Speaker 3: bringing you unique takes and in depth interviews on news, politics,
Speaker 3: lifestyle and culture.