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 happens. Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messier and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, everyone, Welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. While earning season in full swing,
Speaker 1: with all the big banks, the top three US airlines, Tesla, Netflix,
Speaker 1: and dozens more already out with third quarter earnings, and
Speaker 1: big tech on tap this coming week, I had on
Speaker 1: the program our Bloomberg Business Week and news teams take
Speaker 1: us inside the likes of Goldman, Sachs, Exxon, Meta Platforms,
Speaker 1: and Netflix to help us understand some of these storylines
Speaker 1: affecting these closely watched companies. And as we explore, some
Speaker 1: of the world's most influential companies, will also zoom out
Speaker 1: to look at why the global economy and financial system
Speaker 1: may permanently be fractured into We'll do that with investigative
Speaker 1: journalist know Me Prince. All of that to come. We
Speaker 1: begin though with one of the companies we mentioned at
Speaker 1: the top. We're talking about Goldman Sacks, the world's most
Speaker 1: valuable investment bank, scored an earnings beat thanks to its
Speaker 1: fixed income traders helping to drive revenue above analysts estimates.
Speaker 1: And this is all happening as CEO David Solomon looks
Speaker 1: to engineer the third major reorg at Goldman during his
Speaker 1: four year tenure. Bloomberg News finance reporter Shri Natarajan broke
Speaker 1: it down for US just ahead of the big banks
Speaker 1: earnings release, Goldman shaking up its leadership ranks and yet
Speaker 1: another overhaul. What's the big headline here, what's the what's
Speaker 1: the what's the re org? Who's taking who's taking over
Speaker 1: for these divisions? It's not with the last three words
Speaker 1: of the headline, yet another overhaul. And I feel to
Speaker 1: some extent that's more the news than actually what they're
Speaker 1: moving around. It's not the rearranging of the deck chats,
Speaker 1: to be clear, without any Iceberg inside, but it is
Speaker 1: not about the changes itself, but the fact that it's
Speaker 1: happening again because David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman SAX,
Speaker 1: is four years into the top job at the Wall
Speaker 1: Street joint and this is this is the third major
Speaker 1: structuring he's undertaking. Not just that with this move, he
Speaker 1: will be undoing a lot of the signature moves he
Speaker 1: put in place and changes he made just two years ago.
Speaker 1: That is not a good look and that gives a
Speaker 1: little bit of whiplash to investors. So let me actually
Speaker 1: step in and tell you what the changes are. You
Speaker 1: have a Goldman Sacks with four distinct divisions trading, investment, banking,
Speaker 1: two units where their strength is it's fair to say unparalleled.
Speaker 1: Then they had this asset management business, which is the
Speaker 1: Goldman Sacks asset management business, investing in public markets on
Speaker 1: behalf of other investors, as well as this merchant bank,
Speaker 1: which was sort of their in house private equity shop.
Speaker 1: And then the fourth pillar, which was actually created in
Speaker 1: was this consumer and wealth management business because that catered
Speaker 1: to individual money, some very very very very rich people
Speaker 1: and some averages. But those were all people that Goldman
Speaker 1: was targeting. They wiped the slate clean. They've combined banking
Speaker 1: and trading in a way to try and or gets
Speaker 1: to the market that hey, if you see banking and
Speaker 1: trading as one combined group, similar to how JP Morgan
Speaker 1: does it, similar to how Morgan Stanley does it, you
Speaker 1: may be able to appreciate how good it is. That's
Speaker 1: one goal with c IB Then what they did, and
Speaker 1: we've talked about for a few months now, they've had
Speaker 1: major issues with their consumer business. They're effectively dismembering that,
Speaker 1: bringing back wealth management into their asset management business, shoving
Speaker 1: up part of their director consumer business, which operated under
Speaker 1: the Marcus brand name, into that unit. And then the
Speaker 1: third is this weirdly named business called platform Solutions, has
Speaker 1: such a mckenzian ring to it, but it is taking
Speaker 1: their you know, the online loans provided that they bought
Speaker 1: last a Green Sky, the credit card partnerships which is
Speaker 1: the ones that they have with Apple in general motors,
Speaker 1: and the transaction banking business, bringing it under one roof
Speaker 1: having it as a standalone business. Think of it somewhat
Speaker 1: like embedded finance, which a lot of people are hot on,
Speaker 1: including McKenzie. Wow, I'm actually closed on this McKenzie conspiracy theory.
Speaker 1: They might have been behind this name. To be clear,
Speaker 1: I do not know for sure. I hear some reporting
Speaker 1: a little bit later on, but it is a standalone
Speaker 1: business and it will be interesting to watch because that
Speaker 1: business will report losses for the first stable future for
Speaker 1: the next quarter or two, or three or four or more.
Speaker 1: Not many Wall Street banks have a standardone division that
Speaker 1: where the pm L. It will be so visible and
Speaker 1: so painful. Goldman's got to hope that investors don't pay
Speaker 1: too much scary attention to it, are willing to cut
Speaker 1: them some slag and actually see the new, new, new
Speaker 1: narrative that they're trying to uh spread and believe in it.
Speaker 1: What prompted this shift a number of things. First off,
Speaker 1: why this shift just in January? You did a massive
Speaker 1: change of the asset management leadership in twenty We just
Speaker 1: talked about all the other changes they made, but the
Speaker 1: mumbling and grumbling outside of Goldman SAX had been clear
Speaker 1: for the better part of the last six months. They
Speaker 1: worried about the situation and asked management group and how
Speaker 1: the new leadership is getting along. They really worried about
Speaker 1: the consumer business, which, as we've reported at mid year,
Speaker 1: they projected would lose a while more than one point
Speaker 1: two billion dollars in a year, in a year when
Speaker 1: the bank's total earnings is expected to drop from the success,
Speaker 1: the fabulous success they had in one that was just
Speaker 1: too harsher. Spotlight on that business, so it was clear
Speaker 1: something had to be done, and it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that the problems with consumer accelerated some of the discussions
Speaker 1: they had about other orcs. If you're bringing back asset
Speaker 1: in wealth management and making this large one unit, you
Speaker 1: probably do the c IB aspect of it. The banking
Speaker 1: and trading combination is something people had been pushing for
Speaker 1: the firm. David Solomon and esteem had been reluctant about
Speaker 1: that because they were more interested in steering investor attention
Speaker 1: towards asset management and consumer, those recurring fee businesses that
Speaker 1: they think investors will appreciate. Now that they've actually made
Speaker 1: this combined banking, Global Banking and Markets Group or has
Speaker 1: it's an acknowledgement that maybe it is fair to shine
Speaker 1: the sport light on their crown jewel, and maybe it
Speaker 1: will give them a boost with investors that we don't
Speaker 1: know yet and that we'll see over the coming months
Speaker 1: and quarters. That was Bloomberg News finance reporter Shrina Irain
Speaker 1: coming up. She worked at Goldman Sachs and is now
Speaker 1: writing about how the division between Wall Street and Main
Speaker 1: Street is growing faster than ever before. We're like in
Speaker 1: the middle of potentially, you know, hue forever um, even
Speaker 1: if books come down by a little bit. And so
Speaker 1: what does that mean? I mean the real economy doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily get the benefit of financing the same way it
Speaker 1: used to get the benefit of financing in the sixties
Speaker 1: and the seventies and the fifties when we're building roads
Speaker 1: and highways, because it's come second to money being created quickly,
Speaker 1: being leveraged excessively, and flowing into financial assets that are
Speaker 1: quicker to turn around. Economist, journalist, and author Naomi Prince
Speaker 1: joins us next, you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business this Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Our next guest spent years working at several iconic Wall
Speaker 1: Street firms. She's a former Goldman Sachs managing director, former
Speaker 1: senior managing director at bear Stearns that was over in London,
Speaker 1: and then before that, she held positions at Lehman Brothers
Speaker 1: and Chase Manhattan Banknomi Prinds is an economist. She's also
Speaker 1: an author and investigative journalist. She's got a new book out,
Speaker 1: it's called Permanent Distortion. How the financial markets abandoned the
Speaker 1: real economy forever. She joined us in studio to discuss
Speaker 1: why she left the world of finance and the fast
Speaker 1: growing gap between Wall Street and Main Street. The real
Speaker 1: economy doesn't necessarily get the benefit of financing the same
Speaker 1: way it used to get the benefit of financing in
Speaker 1: the sixties and the seventies and the fifties when we're
Speaker 1: building roads and highways, because it's come second to money
Speaker 1: being created quickly, being leveraged excessively, and flowing into financial
Speaker 1: assets that are quicker to turn around. So can I
Speaker 1: ask you, I think so the sophistication of markets and
Speaker 1: how we can trade it and slice and dice it,
Speaker 1: is that why you're saying it doesn't. It's just a
Speaker 1: whole different game on Wall Street versus years ago, decades ago,
Speaker 1: when it really was reflective of what was going on
Speaker 1: in the economy. Well, there was certainly more information that
Speaker 1: was coming from the direct economy through companies that were
Speaker 1: involved in creating different components of the economy and being
Speaker 1: more directly related to individuals. And now, of course we
Speaker 1: have much more technology and much more analysis. We also
Speaker 1: far more leverage um, and so we combine the technological
Speaker 1: leverage with the financial leverage, we have this complete disconnect
Speaker 1: between again, money going into the economy and sticking around
Speaker 1: and being used for longer term capital investments and creation
Speaker 1: and all of that relative to I'm here now, I'm there. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm trading on momentum, on trading on technological factors, I'm
Speaker 1: trading on computer science, and I'm not necessarily trading on
Speaker 1: value and the long term view. You said something that
Speaker 1: makes me think about the role that government takes, because
Speaker 1: when you think about big infrastructure projects the nineteen fifties
Speaker 1: and nineteen six does you think about the post World
Speaker 1: War two boom here in the United States, the building
Speaker 1: of Levittown for example, all of these like shovel ready projects.
Speaker 1: That's something that you need to have widespread agreement on
Speaker 1: when it comes to putting that, you know, implementing them.
Speaker 1: We don't have that right now. It's all a joke.
Speaker 1: It's always infrastructure Week right in Washington, and nothing ever
Speaker 1: gets done. Is that a big obstacle to kind of
Speaker 1: getting past where we are the financialization of the economy.
Speaker 1: That's a really good question, and it's true. In the
Speaker 1: fifties and sixties, we had we had a connection in
Speaker 1: politics that related to the connection of what was needed
Speaker 1: to be done in the country, the building of those highways,
Speaker 1: the building of the space program, the building of permanent,
Speaker 1: lasting features. We've been had that in the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 1: Whoever dam was built in the middle of the Great Depression,
Speaker 1: because it was a process that had started and it
Speaker 1: had financing, and it retrieved that financing throughout the all
Speaker 1: the years that it took to build it. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of longer term thinking and longer term capital
Speaker 1: commitment in those days, not just from the direction of Washington.
Speaker 1: I had that too, but also from the direction of
Speaker 1: of it industry, from Wall Street, from companies throughout the country.
Speaker 1: That there was a collaboration that that has really become disintegrated.
Speaker 1: Now what I want to talk to you is about
Speaker 1: how you made the transition from banking into becoming an
Speaker 1: author an investigative journalist, Like why did you leave the industry?
Speaker 1: Did you run from the industry? Now? Just kidding, um
Speaker 1: nine eleven had two things happened from the industry, right,
Speaker 1: nine eleven happened. I was at Goldman Sachs Corner office
Speaker 1: and twenty floor, the whole, the whole thing UM that
Speaker 1: was going on at the time. And at the time
Speaker 1: also there was a lot of corruption that was happening
Speaker 1: on the corporate side. That was sort of when en
Speaker 1: Ron was breaking, you know, it was in world calm
Speaker 1: was breaking. There was a lot of like tension in
Speaker 1: terms of what the reality of balance sheets were, what
Speaker 1: the role of Wall Street was, and then of course
Speaker 1: what we found it to be UM in all those
Speaker 1: corporate scandals, and I was I was seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of that and getting sort of, you know, very disgusted
Speaker 1: with a lot of that. And then of course eleven
Speaker 1: happens and sort of you know, add one and one,
Speaker 1: get two and two is based on I need to
Speaker 1: go and I need to talk about this stuff, and
Speaker 1: so a lot of them the first writings I did
Speaker 1: UM were about what was going on in terms of
Speaker 1: the corporate scandals, telecom sector, the due SECTORUM in Wall
Speaker 1: Streets connection, and I wound up taking that route into
Speaker 1: my first book, Other People's Money, The Corporate Monky of America,
Speaker 1: which also talked about the internmance of Golden Sacks as
Speaker 1: well as a banking industry and everything that was going
Speaker 1: on there, because I thought at the time nobody was
Speaker 1: talking about it. I mean, at the time, we couldn't
Speaker 1: even talk about being inside wall streets, not like today
Speaker 1: where everybody's talking sort of about everything all the time.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like that. It was. It was very much
Speaker 1: a sort of more secretive sort of situation, and I
Speaker 1: needed to talk about it. So I needed to be
Speaker 1: outside to talk about inside. Nomi Prints, author and investigative journalist.
Speaker 1: Google her because her backgrounds incredible. She's got a new
Speaker 1: book app Permanent Distortion, How the financial markets abandoned the
Speaker 1: real economy forever Permanent Distortion? Why is it permanent? Excellent question.
Speaker 1: It was not taken lightly because I like words as
Speaker 1: well being an author. Um. It's because in the wake
Speaker 1: of the financial crisis, when we went down to zero
Speaker 1: percent interest and and and we created four and a
Speaker 1: half trillion dollars worth of money from nowhere to take
Speaker 1: debt out of the market. At the time, US debt
Speaker 1: in general is nine trillion dollars. Four and a half
Speaker 1: trillion equivalent was on the Fed's books. Some of that
Speaker 1: was mortgages, treasuries, was all connected. Then we had a
Speaker 1: double down situation that happened in twenty So the period
Speaker 1: in between, there was a lot of speculation when will
Speaker 1: the FED rais race, etcetera. They raised in markets where
Speaker 1: we're insanely negative on that whole prospect. They didn't raise
Speaker 1: again until twenty six and then sort of bits along
Speaker 1: the way to turned around in twenty nineteen and to
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen because Wall Street collateral wasn't working between Wall
Speaker 1: Street and its own its own, its own customers, UM,
Speaker 1: the repo markets were falling apart, so the FED turned
Speaker 1: around and created more q E, brought rates down again.
Speaker 1: UM talked about as if it was related to the economy,
Speaker 1: but in fact was related to liquidity on Wall Street, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, when we got into twenty just a
Speaker 1: few months after that and the pandemic hit, that's when
Speaker 1: there was an overdrive factor. And that's when the FED
Speaker 1: went to nine trillion dollars from at the time four
Speaker 1: point one, but effectively doubled in a few months what
Speaker 1: it took a number of years to get to the
Speaker 1: first time. Other central banks around the world following and
Speaker 1: what became just a sort of help which was enormous
Speaker 1: to begin with, became a permanent artificial cushion to the markets.
Speaker 1: And even right now, even with Ray it's coming up
Speaker 1: now and all the speculations the FEDS, you know, totally changing,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be this inflation hawk. Even though
Speaker 1: can't fight a lot of the inflation it says it's
Speaker 1: trying to fight, it doesn't actually change the fact that
Speaker 1: this cushion is underneath all the financial markets. And that's
Speaker 1: why we have days like today where the market basically
Speaker 1: spans the fifteen hundred points and day on the doubt,
Speaker 1: that's not normal, that's not healthy. That's related to the
Speaker 1: speculation versus this permanent idea of this distortion between where
Speaker 1: the money goes to the real economy, how it gets
Speaker 1: to the markets where it stays. It's not a question
Speaker 1: of blaming the FED. It's a question of the FED
Speaker 1: is responsible for creating the cushion. So I blame the cushion.
Speaker 1: The FED created the cushion. So in that respect, yes,
Speaker 1: I do blame the FET. But you have to look
Speaker 1: at the bigger picture, not just not just what is
Speaker 1: the FED doing now with interest rates? That obviously is
Speaker 1: creating uncertainty in the markets, and it's certainly oppressing people
Speaker 1: trying to get mortgages right now, which are twice as
Speaker 1: expensive as they were six months ago. That and that's
Speaker 1: a really quick change. And if you're trying to budget
Speaker 1: and you're the bottom level of your own you know,
Speaker 1: sort of the economy. But this is more about the
Speaker 1: fact that cushion exists. It's not just the FETE, it's
Speaker 1: the Bank of England, it's the European Central Bank is
Speaker 1: a bankage, but it's the global um central bank network
Speaker 1: that has basically created this this outside source of capital
Speaker 1: in order to be there when it deems necessary. And
Speaker 1: that that uncertainty about what's necessary is now what's permeating
Speaker 1: in the markets, and it's a reason why capital can't
Speaker 1: go outside of those markets when they're going up or
Speaker 1: when they're going down, to long term projects into the
Speaker 1: foundational economy to the same extent as before. That was
Speaker 1: former Wall Street or turned investigative journalists know Me Prince
Speaker 1: her latest book, Permanent Distortion, How the financial markets abandoned
Speaker 1: the real economy forever and it's out now still ahead
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Business Week. Exxonmobile is making more money than
Speaker 1: ever as the energy market stays robust and yet top
Speaker 1: talent is fleeing the company in droves. And exclusive look
Speaker 1: at the deep cultural problems exposed at the one forty
Speaker 1: year old oil giant during the pandemic and where the
Speaker 1: company goes from here. 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 nine team, and around
Speaker 1: the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. Well, the latest issue Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week magazine. You know it is out now on newstands, online,
Speaker 1: and on the Bloomberg terminal. Featured in this special double
Speaker 1: issue is a Bloomberg exclusive about Excen's toxic culture and
Speaker 1: how it's driving away workers who once coveted a career
Speaker 1: at the company. With more on the story, let's bring
Speaker 1: in Bloomberg News US Big Oil reporter Kevin Crowley along
Speaker 1: with the editor of Bloomberg Business Week, Joel Weber, to
Speaker 1: help explain the exodus from the oil giant, you know,
Speaker 1: excellent is built on engineers really and science, and this
Speaker 1: is like a place where one of the few remaining
Speaker 1: companies really in America where a job is really for years, right,
Speaker 1: if not life. But what Kevin was able to report
Speaker 1: is that not only has there been this success, but
Speaker 1: there's a difference with Exxon, which, as Kevin writes, it's
Speaker 1: almost like the culture has been trapped in this amber. So, Kevin,
Speaker 1: you spoke to more than forty people for this article.
Speaker 1: It was a major feat of reporting. Not an easy
Speaker 1: story to get, and I'm curious what did you learn
Speaker 1: along the way. Yes, really, as you said, they've been
Speaker 1: started out really like just just not a great resignation story,
Speaker 1: but really once so once I really started to speak
Speaker 1: to people and dig in, there was there was really
Speaker 1: one common reason why people were quitting, and that was
Speaker 1: this toxic culture. People that were scared too to speak
Speaker 1: against their bosses. They didn't feel comfortable speaking freely about
Speaker 1: climate change or breaking diversity. There was there was a
Speaker 1: real lack of of exchange, of free ideas, lack of innovation.
Speaker 1: There was also a fear of being dropped in the
Speaker 1: company's zero sum performance ranking. System. So what really changed
Speaker 1: was that you know exone would was was, as you said,
Speaker 1: very much, were one of America's last job for life corporations.
Speaker 1: They used to take care of you as a graduate
Speaker 1: all the way through to retirement, so long as you
Speaker 1: were loyal, so long as you worked hard. That all
Speaker 1: change during the pandemic because they decided they were going
Speaker 1: to cut people. They cut people through layoffs that basically
Speaker 1: used the performance evaluation system, and everything just became a
Speaker 1: lot more apped up. And over the last two years,
Speaker 1: really two we've seen huge amounts of employees leaving this
Speaker 1: time of their own position. Okay, so there's a metaphor
Speaker 1: in the story that we got to talk about here, Kevin,
Speaker 1: which is Rex's Tree UM. Rex being Rex Hillerson, who
Speaker 1: is the prior CEO. At that time, the company was
Speaker 1: doing great. It had made forty billion dollars in a
Speaker 1: single year, the biggest profit of any company in u
Speaker 1: S history at the time. UM the company built a
Speaker 1: whole new compound and put a tree, moved a hundred
Speaker 1: foot oak tree that was meant to be sort of
Speaker 1: like Peace Days, the done of good, be honest campus.
Speaker 1: And what happened from there, So they moved. They moved
Speaker 1: the tree. It's a huge feat of engineering to to
Speaker 1: dig up the roots system a hundred foot oak tree,
Speaker 1: to to move it into into the middle of campus. UM.
Speaker 1: It was. It was really a remarkable feat to even
Speaker 1: had its own custom built irrigation system UM to keep it,
Speaker 1: to keep it alive. After the move, and basically over
Speaker 1: the years, the canopy thins. It lost leaves, it lost branches,
Speaker 1: It got hit by lightning at least once UM and
Speaker 1: it really it really started to look worse for for aware.
Speaker 1: The employees started to joke it was a bit like
Speaker 1: the giving tree UM the shelves steel that's Silverstein book.
Speaker 1: And eventually over eventually, over Memorial Day one, the campus
Speaker 1: arborists removed the entire tree and a memo went out
Speaker 1: in the morning saying that despite its outward appearance, it
Speaker 1: was dying. And so take this to the company, right,
Speaker 1: because that tree was supposed to be, you know, a
Speaker 1: symbol if you will, or I think as you write
Speaker 1: the company's reverence for the surrounding landscape and the environment.
Speaker 1: You know, we see big oil companies thinking about life
Speaker 1: after fossil fuels UM and this was, I guess supposed
Speaker 1: to kind of indicate to you know, x On thinking
Speaker 1: about what's next, and yet it's not been the case inside,
Speaker 1: has it. So this is this is a This is
Speaker 1: the biggest issue facing thing eggs On at the moment
Speaker 1: is the energy transition. That oil prices are surging up
Speaker 1: at ninety dollars barrel eggs On. Eggs On made more
Speaker 1: money than it ever did before last quarter. This year
Speaker 1: on track to make more money than Amazon, Tesla, Procter,
Speaker 1: and Gamble combined. However, long term, there is an energy
Speaker 1: transition underway. We just passed the biggest climate bill here
Speaker 1: in the US. Europe is moving much faster towards clean
Speaker 1: energy features results of what's going on with Russia. UM
Speaker 1: and this is this is the issue challenge for Exxon
Speaker 1: and sees really feel this. Employees want ex On to
Speaker 1: push harder. Employees want them to be on the cutting
Speaker 1: edge of new technologies, which they really haven't been. UM
Speaker 1: and employees expect them as an industry leader, to be
Speaker 1: able to build that clean energy future. And this is
Speaker 1: coming from the bottom. And the big challenge should really
Speaker 1: is that if EGSS to dominate the next century as
Speaker 1: it did the last century, it's going to have to
Speaker 1: work out how does it attract and retain the best
Speaker 1: and the brightest engineers and technologists of the new generations
Speaker 1: gen Z, even millennials, if they work very differently than
Speaker 1: they did in the past, and they care about things
Speaker 1: like diversity, they care about things like climate change, and
Speaker 1: you know the company is the company really needs to
Speaker 1: respond to that. That was us Big Oil reporter Kevin
Speaker 1: Crowley with Bloomberg Business We get out of Joel Weber
Speaker 1: and by the way, Excellent scheduled to release third quarter
Speaker 1: earnings on Friday. Up next, we stay in the energy
Speaker 1: rich alone Star State to find out why thousands of
Speaker 1: people are flocking to a key Texas hub. We're talking
Speaker 1: about the Metroplex. Fort Worth Mayor Maddie Parker joins us.
Speaker 1: On the other side, This is Bloomberg. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. Earlier this year, Bloomberg News
Speaker 1: reported on how fort Worth, Texas, which is the fifth
Speaker 1: largest Texas municipality, was jumping on the crypto bandwagon, approving
Speaker 1: a plan to mind bitcoin with computers located in city
Speaker 1: Hall to move. According to fort Worth would make it
Speaker 1: the first city government in the US too mind bitcoin.
Speaker 1: We got the Mayor of fort Worth, Texas with us
Speaker 1: right now, Mattie Parker, Mayor Mattie. Good to have you
Speaker 1: with us. How are you? Thanks Carol, Thanks Tim, going
Speaker 1: to be with you. Well, let's let's start with bitcoin,
Speaker 1: because Carol so elegantly told us at the top there
Speaker 1: that you guys became the first city to mind your
Speaker 1: own bitcoin from city Hall. Give us an update there.
Speaker 1: How's it going. It's actually been a really interesting pilot
Speaker 1: program for the City of fort Worth. Will get an
Speaker 1: update from city staff in the next few weeks. But
Speaker 1: really the thanks goes to Texas Blockchain Council for helping
Speaker 1: make it a possible. We had these machines donated to
Speaker 1: help it be at no cost attacks payers able to
Speaker 1: plug them into city Hall and just really try to
Speaker 1: be on the forefront of the learning curve or what
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency really means in this country right now, and also
Speaker 1: blockchain technology, and and be a city that's welcome to innovation.
Speaker 1: We do know that crypto mining, specifically bitcoin mining, uses
Speaker 1: a ton of energy. It's not a technical term, but
Speaker 1: it uses a lot of energy. We did see some
Speaker 1: miners taken off the grid during recent power crises in Texas.
Speaker 1: Did you guys have to disconnect the computers at all
Speaker 1: at times over the summer when you had to turn
Speaker 1: the air conditioning up really high? Really? The lucky think
Speaker 1: for us. We are part of our I T departments.
Speaker 1: They make those decisions based on what they would do
Speaker 1: with the rest of our I T equipment and any
Speaker 1: kind of surge scenarios. So in our situation, they just
Speaker 1: followed along the same lines as what city staff recommended.
Speaker 1: So we didn't really have it. We have only three machines,
Speaker 1: so we're pretty small m dent and what you probably
Speaker 1: have seen across major mining operations and across the country.
Speaker 1: All right, So wait, so I know when we reported
Speaker 1: on it, the computers are located in city Hall, um
Speaker 1: and so it's three mine riggs, as you said, donated
Speaker 1: by the Texas Blockchain Council. Why are you guys doing this? Honestly,
Speaker 1: Fort Worth wants to be known and synonymous with innovation
Speaker 1: and technology and this this is an opportunity for us
Speaker 1: to get noticed in the right ways. And truthfully, it worked.
Speaker 1: I mean we had over seven or eighty million impressions
Speaker 1: across the globe. But what what for Worth was doing
Speaker 1: and got new inquiries from other technology companies even if
Speaker 1: they really weren't involved in cryptocurrency, to ask the question, Hey,
Speaker 1: if you're willing to do this and take take a risk,
Speaker 1: so to speak, and work alongside other technology companies, what
Speaker 1: would you be willing to do in the future as well?
Speaker 1: So that's the real why behind the City of Fort Worth.
Speaker 1: Cryptocurrency is one piece of this. The future of blockchain
Speaker 1: technology and a multitude of different industries is something I'm
Speaker 1: personally very interested in and want to make sure for
Speaker 1: words at part of the conversation. Okay, so you know
Speaker 1: that this, We know that the city is planning to
Speaker 1: revaluate the program after six months. It's been about six months.
Speaker 1: What does that reevaluation look like? And is there a
Speaker 1: chance that the city would abandon this? Absolutely and anything
Speaker 1: could be abandoned any point. It's a Pallette program for reason.
Speaker 1: That's what we promised to city officials to kind of
Speaker 1: understand what the advantages were um and what the program
Speaker 1: should evolve into. Importantly, is it just mining bitcoin and
Speaker 1: we need a more robust program in the future to
Speaker 1: really be meaningful. Um, and I think that's the point
Speaker 1: we're at right now to kind of determine what next
Speaker 1: steps are. The Texas Blot Chain Council has been immensely
Speaker 1: helpful and expertise that they offer. So it's interesting. So
Speaker 1: talk to us about you know, it sounds like you
Speaker 1: and so many other cities are thinking about things to
Speaker 1: attract people coming in. Tell us about the folks that
Speaker 1: have been coming into your city, specifically, what kind of
Speaker 1: where they coming from and how many? Yeah, well, good question.
Speaker 1: I mean right now, Fort Worth experiences three and twenty
Speaker 1: eight people moving here every single day, which is hard
Speaker 1: people to believe. We don't have a problem attracting folks
Speaker 1: to Fort Worth, So it's important we really understand what
Speaker 1: it looks like as you're attracting new talent to our cities,
Speaker 1: how do you also attract the businesses and jobs to
Speaker 1: come along with those and also be responsive to the
Speaker 1: amount of growth that we're seeing in the Fort Worth region.
Speaker 1: You know, North Texas and Dallas Fort Worth region will
Speaker 1: soon past Chicago is the third largest metro in the
Speaker 1: entire country, so being in front of the infrastructure needs
Speaker 1: is incredibly important, UM, But honestly, during COVID, you saw
Speaker 1: this across the entire country, people moving to where they
Speaker 1: wanted to experience quality of life. Unfortunately for us in
Speaker 1: Fort Worth, we do have that, and it's a place
Speaker 1: where we do want to raise your family or build
Speaker 1: your business. Mayor Parker, mayor Maddie, Where are they coming from?
Speaker 1: Is it the East Coast or where are you finding
Speaker 1: that they're coming from? And well in Texas? Yeah, good
Speaker 1: question about Texas. About half the migration is domestic migration
Speaker 1: across the United States, a lot of from coastal cities
Speaker 1: in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Seattle,
Speaker 1: those those are some pretty predominant communities. But also about
Speaker 1: fift of the growth is um natural. You know, new
Speaker 1: babies being born across Texas and people having additional family
Speaker 1: members come and join them. So I think it's a
Speaker 1: mixture of both the two. UM. I think here in
Speaker 1: Fort Worth you're seeing most people they could work from
Speaker 1: anywhere they can move their companies, and you're seeing more
Speaker 1: more tax and invasive states be a place they're fleeing from,
Speaker 1: and and Texas is an incredibly welcoming, open for business
Speaker 1: type environment. So I think you're seeing some a lot
Speaker 1: of success here in North Texas because of that. Delighted
Speaker 1: to still have with us from Fort Worth, Texas via
Speaker 1: zoom the forty five mayor of fort Worth Fort Worth
Speaker 1: Mayor Maddie Parker UM. So, Mayor Maddie, you know, I
Speaker 1: am curious about the political climate, and you have taken
Speaker 1: positions that are against the kind of Republican thought if
Speaker 1: you will and been, it feels like more open minded,
Speaker 1: whether it's about transgender kids or other issues. So does
Speaker 1: that make things difficult for you? And honestly doesn't. I
Speaker 1: mean I've I've always been known as someone that speaks
Speaker 1: my mind. I think I was pretty honest about that
Speaker 1: when I ran for mayor. UM I just want to
Speaker 1: be known as a mayor for all people that's really welcoming,
Speaker 1: welcoming city, which I know that we are, and try
Speaker 1: to turn the political temperature down a bit. I think,
Speaker 1: no matter if you're far left or far right, I
Speaker 1: just don't think that's how you govern. And it's certainly
Speaker 1: not my mentality as a mayor of a large, growing city,
Speaker 1: and so truthfully it's it's actually made my job easier.
Speaker 1: People are more approachable. We don't always agree on things.
Speaker 1: My role is to be, you know, a compromise agent,
Speaker 1: and it's absolutely how I operate here at city Hall
Speaker 1: and working alongside my city council members. Is it frustrating
Speaker 1: you to you to see some of the positions that
Speaker 1: prominent Republicans take nationally when you and you get concerned
Speaker 1: about being painted with that brush. I think about questions
Speaker 1: about the election of twenty for example, or what happened
Speaker 1: on January six, UM, or even even abortion potentially. So
Speaker 1: I think for me, you know, I actually decided to
Speaker 1: run for office here in mayor mayor for Worth one
Speaker 1: right after January six, So UM, I was heartbroken, as
Speaker 1: were most Americans at the situation and what happened in
Speaker 1: our nation's capital and what that means for democracy. And
Speaker 1: I've been pretty open about that. UM. But again, my
Speaker 1: role is really to try to be forward looking on
Speaker 1: behalf of not just the residence of for Worth, but
Speaker 1: residents of Texas. You know, I think it myself obviously,
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of conversation. At my age. I'm
Speaker 1: thirty years old, a mother to three children, my husband,
Speaker 1: I live here in Fort Worth. UM, I feel like
Speaker 1: I have a really good pulse on what's happening in
Speaker 1: my community. UM, and regardless of maybe the topic and
Speaker 1: how contentious it may or may not be, I try
Speaker 1: to have a listening ear and again turn the temperature down.
Speaker 1: What you see on social media sometimes it's portrayed in
Speaker 1: the media, UM is oftentimes not how you actually have
Speaker 1: to interact with people and listen to their ideas and
Speaker 1: for positions to really get things done well where you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of since we've got mid terms just around
Speaker 1: the corner, and then of course we're going to have
Speaker 1: a presidential election, you guys have a gubernatorial race. Is
Speaker 1: you know a Governor Abbott versus a Governor of Rourke
Speaker 1: is one thing better for you in terms of your
Speaker 1: city In terms of strategy going forward, it's really not.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think both governor candidates obviously Governor Abbott
Speaker 1: um and I don't have a relationship with Mr O'Rourke,
Speaker 1: but to understand what they are going to really do
Speaker 1: on behalf of of Texas cities. Um, we're fast growing
Speaker 1: infrastructure and mobility needs or significant UM investments in education
Speaker 1: and under staying all those things are really important to
Speaker 1: me as mayor and also as a mom here in Texas.
Speaker 1: So I'm just like every other text and watching that
Speaker 1: race really closely, um and looking forward to the election
Speaker 1: being over in November. I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: are looking forward to absolutely. Do you ever think about,
Speaker 1: you know, potentially changing to an independent or uh over
Speaker 1: concerns about the national role of the political party or
Speaker 1: questions about Republican party identification when you're going out and
Speaker 1: meeting voters. I don't have to think about it right now.
Speaker 1: You know. I get to run as a nonpartisan elected official,
Speaker 1: which is really special and and allows me um a
Speaker 1: lot of room. I will say, I'm I've always been
Speaker 1: a Republican and a conservative, worked for Republicans, um the
Speaker 1: conservative ideals or something I really hold dear and important
Speaker 1: or kind of how I govern. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I maybe y'all don't know that's about me. I was
Speaker 1: raising a really small town in Texas where you just
Speaker 1: take care of one another, and I try to lead
Speaker 1: with that first, you know, open minded approach in any
Speaker 1: kind of role. And so I'm just I just honestly
Speaker 1: don't have time to worry about it. And it sounds silly,
Speaker 1: but this may, this job is full time and then
Speaker 1: some plus being a mom, and so I'm just not
Speaker 1: trying interested in being involved in partisan politics right now.
Speaker 1: Where do you want to spend money? Where do you
Speaker 1: want to spend your tax dollars on? Yeah, so we're
Speaker 1: actually investing about three point five billion dollars and mobility
Speaker 1: projects across Fort Worth and Tarrant County right now, and
Speaker 1: that's in partnership between the City, Tarrant County, are MPO,
Speaker 1: North Texas or Central Texas Council of Governments and text
Speaker 1: DOT UM. So I'm really proud of that plan process
Speaker 1: that started well before I was mayor and continues today.
Speaker 1: UM is first and foremost, of course, affordable housing across
Speaker 1: the region and kind of keep up with that growth
Speaker 1: in different types of products for families across the area.
Speaker 1: And then educational opportunities. Making sure we have high quality
Speaker 1: education from cradle all the way to career has always
Speaker 1: been a priority for me prior to priority mayor and
Speaker 1: it continues today. What about when it comes to public safety,
Speaker 1: because cities around the country are facing an issue that
Speaker 1: Fort Worth is also facing as well, rising homicide rates,
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm wondering what specifically you're doing in order
Speaker 1: to bring crime down in Fort Worth. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: we're making the right investments in our police department. UM,
Speaker 1: we are pro police in pro community. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm really proud to tell you that we're adding fifty
Speaker 1: three sporn officers in this year's budget that was just approved,
Speaker 1: along with about twenty civilian positions to support our police department.
Speaker 1: That's Patrol division, but also in in in our and
Speaker 1: our police divisions, such as our c A T Team,
Speaker 1: which is our crisis intervention team to help with mental
Speaker 1: health issues, our Hope Team with help of our homeless population,
Speaker 1: and these investments matter also making sure we're really focused
Speaker 1: on recruitment and retaining top talent that deserved to be
Speaker 1: police officers in our city. We're very fortunate we have
Speaker 1: a community that really appreciates our police officers, works alongside them,
Speaker 1: shows them how much we care and appreciate the work
Speaker 1: that they do on behalf of our residents, and that
Speaker 1: really shows up and how we're able to attract police
Speaker 1: officers into our cadet program. So all that holistically is
Speaker 1: focused on public safety. The last thing I'll say is
Speaker 1: I'm not a police officer. I don't have the expertise
Speaker 1: of law enforcement. I have a very close relationship with
Speaker 1: our chief Chief, Neil Noakes in our department, listening to
Speaker 1: his command staff and understanding what they need to fight
Speaker 1: violent crime, especially on homicide and aggravated assault rate that
Speaker 1: has continued to rise in the city. And I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna be a real example for this country over
Speaker 1: the next year and what we're doing right. That's Mayor
Speaker 1: Mattie Parker fort Worth, Texas. And we do want to
Speaker 1: point out we did ask her if she would consider
Speaker 1: running for higher office in the future. She was a
Speaker 1: bit noncommittal here, but it sounds like she has a
Speaker 1: long runway in politics. Alright. That wraps up the first
Speaker 1: hour of the weekend edition to Bloomberg Business Week from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser and Tim Steinovick. Ahead in
Speaker 1: our next hour, we're gonna look at how Netflix is
Speaker 1: getting itself back into growth mode by abandoning some of
Speaker 1: its executives most important ideals. Plus, Mark Zuckerberg is putting
Speaker 1: most of his time and effort into building out the metaverse,
Speaker 1: and that's leaving Facebook twisting in the wind. We'll explain
Speaker 1: it's all coming up This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week inside from the reporters and editors who bring
Speaker 1: you America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business, finance
Speaker 1: and tech news as it happened Sloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Messier and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Plenty ahead in our second hour of the weekend edition
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week, including the details of a Netflix
Speaker 1: makeover that's been years in the making, whether it's leaders
Speaker 1: like it or not. Plus our finance team profiles John
Speaker 1: mac and his new book about a tumultuous and at
Speaker 1: times cutthroat career on Wall Street. And by the way,
Speaker 1: it's almost ski season getting cold out there, Carol, We're
Speaker 1: gonna get a report from our friends over at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Pursuits about some pretty cool places to stay around the world.
Speaker 1: First up, this our story from our Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: team that you'll find online and on the terminal. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get an update, of course next week about the
Speaker 1: business of meta platforms when the company releases earnings. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg isn't saying much
Speaker 1: about the core platform in business known as Facebook. I've
Speaker 1: heard of it. Well. To find out what it means
Speaker 1: for the world's biggest social media platform and for its investors,
Speaker 1: Carol and Bloomberg Radio is Paul Sweeney spoke with Business
Speaker 1: Week magazine editor Joel Weber and the individual who wrote
Speaker 1: the piece, business Week columnist Max Chafkin. Meta. You know, ak,
Speaker 1: Facebook is a very interesting company right now, because on
Speaker 1: one hand, you have this enormous and very successful, you know,
Speaker 1: dominant business, which is social networking and advertising, so dominant
Speaker 1: that you know, governments all around the world are you know,
Speaker 1: worried about regulating it, even possibly breaking it up. We
Speaker 1: saw they'd have to defest from giffy um. And then
Speaker 1: you have the metaverse, which Zuckerberg is very excited about
Speaker 1: out talking about all the time. And there really just
Speaker 1: isn't a whole lot of traction despite tons and tons
Speaker 1: of spending, you know, and almost mind boggling sums of
Speaker 1: money that they're spending to try to make this thing happen.
Speaker 1: Is the attraction within meta for the metaverse, well that
Speaker 1: is what you know, super details, you know, super discouraging
Speaker 1: from the point of view of a sort of meta investor.
Speaker 1: We saw reports over the last couple of weeks of
Speaker 1: Meta employees not wanting to use their own product, which, again,
Speaker 1: that's sort of discouraging on one level because you'd you'd
Speaker 1: expect and hope that the people who are building this
Speaker 1: thing are excited about it, but also because Zuckerberg is
Speaker 1: pushing the idea that the metaverse is going to make
Speaker 1: a huge difference for office work, right, that it's not
Speaker 1: just a video game platform. And the reason he's doing
Speaker 1: that is because the video game business is actually pretty mature,
Speaker 1: you know, they've been at this for almost a decade um,
Speaker 1: and the fact that they can't get their own employees
Speaker 1: to use the platform, how they say we're all going
Speaker 1: to use it in the future, you know, doesn't bode well.
Speaker 1: But I do think that there's an interesting kind of
Speaker 1: strategic decision here at that of like this tech maybe
Speaker 1: away from consumers and towards the corporate world. Right. So,
Speaker 1: if you watched connect um, which is their annual developer
Speaker 1: event for vr UM, a lot of the focus was
Speaker 1: around office work, as you said, you know, the big
Speaker 1: special guests, you know, they had some gaming announcements and
Speaker 1: and they did sort of the usual stuff. Um, But
Speaker 1: the big get was Sati Adela, the CEO of Microsoft,
Speaker 1: talking about now you can, um, you know load Microsoft
Speaker 1: sixty five, which is the product most people know is
Speaker 1: as office Word, Excel, power Point. You can do that
Speaker 1: in the metaverse. The chief executive of a Centure showed
Speaker 1: up to say, um, you know we Centure. You know,
Speaker 1: I think this is such a great thing. We've been
Speaker 1: you know, doing brainstorming sessions on the nth floor, which
Speaker 1: is the consultancies, um, you know metaverse thing. And again
Speaker 1: this stuff potentially could matter and you can sort of
Speaker 1: understand from a strategic perspective why Microsoft why censure thinks
Speaker 1: is a good idea. You know, Microsoft wants to be everywhere. Um,
Speaker 1: but how are points in the metaverse? Yeah? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: so hey why not. On the other hand, it's it's
Speaker 1: really hard to watch that and think, like, who is
Speaker 1: going to get excited about this? They're talking about sort
Speaker 1: of the parts of office work that everyone hates, you know, spreadsheets,
Speaker 1: management consultants, um, you know, brainstorming you know sessions floor
Speaker 1: where you really have to yeah, I mean you'd have
Speaker 1: to be like sort of being a management consultant to
Speaker 1: like this, which again Okay, maybe there are a lot
Speaker 1: of management consultants that could be a good business, but
Speaker 1: it's just it just doesn't feel like they're able. They're
Speaker 1: generating a ton of excitement, and when you compare that
Speaker 1: to the amount of spending they've done, we're talking something
Speaker 1: like twenty seven billion dollars is early um, and they
Speaker 1: call that an investment. Of course, Wall Street calls it
Speaker 1: a loss. UM. So so we'll see. Okay, So the
Speaker 1: headset is another thing that comes up in the in
Speaker 1: the story and has been talked about a lot. It's
Speaker 1: expensive bucks, right, which your take on on the HEADSETE.
Speaker 1: So the headset, it'll be very interesting. You know, Apple
Speaker 1: is widely rumored, we've reported um that they're they're working
Speaker 1: on a headset. Will be interesting what they do. The
Speaker 1: headset was both sort of more expensive than a lot
Speaker 1: of people who watched Space closely. We're hoping, you know,
Speaker 1: is three times what Facebook's sort of consumer headset costs.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to imagine somebody upgrading. And then
Speaker 1: the technical capabilities it includes eye tracking, which is you know,
Speaker 1: very cool. I guess um the company says for sort
Speaker 1: of meetings and things like that, but battery life is
Speaker 1: lower than their cheaper headset. You know, the processing power
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like hugely better. Um. We even had a
Speaker 1: Meta employee, you know, John Carmack, who's like an industry pioneer,
Speaker 1: sort of saying, you know, their pros and cons of
Speaker 1: this device, which you wouldn't really want to hear when
Speaker 1: you're talking about your hot new product that you just
Speaker 1: released compared to something that you released, you know, two
Speaker 1: years ago that costs a third the price. I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: if nothing else, this metaverse discussion has taken some of
Speaker 1: the attention away from some of the problems that Facebook
Speaker 1: has with the regulators, elections coming up, things like this.
Speaker 1: It kind of feels like unintentional head fake. Or maybe
Speaker 1: it's an intentional head fake. I mean, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the interesting things that's happened is you go back
Speaker 1: two years ago, we're heading into a general election, and
Speaker 1: all Mark Zuckerberg wanted to talk about was the platform
Speaker 1: sort of responsibility to society. We saw Meta talking a
Speaker 1: lot about back then, called Facebook, you know, talking a
Speaker 1: lot about election integrity, also talking a lot about public
Speaker 1: health and things like that. Now what's happened since then
Speaker 1: is some of those duties have been sort of pushed
Speaker 1: off to other parts of the company. You know, we
Speaker 1: have Nick Clegg has been elevated, uh to to this
Speaker 1: sort of role um and And as a result, all
Speaker 1: the focus in terms of media attention and um and
Speaker 1: and from a public policy point of view is on
Speaker 1: this new thing um which I think has come with
Speaker 1: some pros and cons. On one hand, Zuckerberg isn't taking
Speaker 1: it from all sides, like, is not maybe being criticized
Speaker 1: as much, even as there's tons and tons of misinformation
Speaker 1: on the platform today. On the other hand, a lot
Speaker 1: of focus on this platform that really doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: be thriving. That was business Week, call him this Max
Speaker 1: Chafkin and Bloomberg Radio. Is Paul Sweeney helping out there
Speaker 1: as well. Joe Weberry is going to stick around for
Speaker 1: our next story. All right, you're listening to Bloomberg business
Speaker 1: Week coming up Netflix? Yep, it's growing again. So what's
Speaker 1: the problem. Well, our Business Week team breaks down the
Speaker 1: challenges ahead for the streaming giant as its competition continues
Speaker 1: to intensify. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg business Week
Speaker 1: with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick takes Tim Stinovik from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Investors embraced the latest earnings out of Netflix
Speaker 1: this past weekend a pig way. The streaming leader, saw
Speaker 1: shares jump by double digits after announcing it had added
Speaker 1: two point four one million customers in the third quarter
Speaker 1: that exceeded internal forecast as well as expectations on Wall
Speaker 1: Street by a mile. Netflix told shareholders on Tuesday that
Speaker 1: it expects to sign up another four point five million
Speaker 1: globally this period. Meantime, the company is set to launch
Speaker 1: it's advertising supported seven dollar monthly subscription plan that's going
Speaker 1: to happen on November three. The hope there is to
Speaker 1: entice new budget conscious customers and jump start growth. Definitely
Speaker 1: feels like a new narrative for Netflix. Well. The special
Speaker 1: double issue of Bloomberg Business Week features a story about
Speaker 1: the firm's coming makeover, with its streaming competition heating up.
Speaker 1: At the same time, Jill Weber and Bloomberg News entertainment
Speaker 1: reporter Lucas Shaw have more being an ad free streaming
Speaker 1: service was sort of the core part of its proposition,
Speaker 1: something that made it better than cable TV, where people
Speaker 1: were overwhelmed with ten fifteen minutes of advertising per hour,
Speaker 1: and it is really a sign of kind of the
Speaker 1: maybe not desperation, but the you know, the challenge they
Speaker 1: face here where they've just hit a wall in terms
Speaker 1: of growth over the last eighteen months and are now
Speaker 1: doing two things both advertising and charging for password sharing
Speaker 1: that they've long set We're not an issue. The one
Speaker 1: the one quible I take with the comparison to the
Speaker 1: starting streaming, which I think is totally valid, is that
Speaker 1: if you asked the leader ship of the company, they
Speaker 1: would argue that this is more of a minor alteration
Speaker 1: because they still believe in streaming. They're just making some
Speaker 1: changes to it. But that is of course a little
Speaker 1: bit of corporate spin. Lucas. The thing that I just
Speaker 1: wanted to it's been a little bit of time talking
Speaker 1: to you, was this the culture at Netflix, And you know,
Speaker 1: Surrender's obviously been there for a while, has been the
Speaker 1: architect of of sort of the content strategy. Um the
Speaker 1: the thing that you know, like we said in the story,
Speaker 1: he never wanted to do was was ads right, And
Speaker 1: so internally I'm really curious to see how they tested this.
Speaker 1: The price of this model like, what's your early sense
Speaker 1: of just like, how did they land on this particular price. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the price comes from mimicking other services. They
Speaker 1: don't like to say that out externally. You know, there
Speaker 1: was a call earlier today where a reporter asked Regg Peters,
Speaker 1: the CEO of the company, if they chose six nine
Speaker 1: a month, because it's a dollar less than Disney Plus
Speaker 1: is at year, which just seven ninths nine a month,
Speaker 1: And they said no. But I've had conversations with people
Speaker 1: at the very top of the company who said that
Speaker 1: they were modeling it a little bit after Hulu, which
Speaker 1: was sort of the first big streaming service to offer
Speaker 1: ads in one of Netflix's earliest competitors, and it's priced
Speaker 1: in a way where they believe the month seven dollars
Speaker 1: a month plus what they'll make from advertising, means that
Speaker 1: they'll make as much, if not more, from an ad
Speaker 1: to your customer as they will from the premium. One
Speaker 1: to your question about culture, I just think this year,
Speaker 1: in general, the past couple of years have been very
Speaker 1: destructive towards the culture that was was pretty unique in business. Well,
Speaker 1: let stick with that, because one of the things that
Speaker 1: you talk about was the I will call it a debacle,
Speaker 1: which was the Quister moment where they said, you know what,
Speaker 1: we're we're going to change the name and we're gonna
Speaker 1: turn the streaming thing into Quixter and uh, you know
Speaker 1: it's Boy, did not go over well, but it speaks
Speaker 1: to this Knee's ability to sort of try things. Maybe
Speaker 1: you self launched something, it doesn't go well and you
Speaker 1: pivot and boy, that last decade since the Quickster thing
Speaker 1: looked really good. But one of the things you pointed
Speaker 1: out in the story is that there's not that many
Speaker 1: people left at the company from back then. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you have to give them credit to your point
Speaker 1: about Quickster with the advertising and the password chairing, they're
Speaker 1: moving very quickly. I mean they went from at the
Speaker 1: end of last year still not thinking they were doing
Speaker 1: advertising to standing up an AD service in less than
Speaker 1: a year. They're doing it faster than Disney got there
Speaker 1: at supported tire out there. And keep in mind Disney
Speaker 1: already has an ad supported service in Hulu, and Disney
Speaker 1: is a major player in video advertising. So there is
Speaker 1: a degree to which the company can still move incredibly quickly.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the credit to be age things
Speaker 1: in ted Sorrando's, but a lot of the senior leadership
Speaker 1: around them has left. There's just, in general, a lot
Speaker 1: of restlessness among employees. And I think there was a
Speaker 1: feeling for a long time that you know, Netflix was
Speaker 1: the I used to work if you wanted to be
Speaker 1: in media and in some cases in tech. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was at the top of every list of most
Speaker 1: desirable company. And it's not like it's completely fallen off,
Speaker 1: but for a lot of the folks who work there,
Speaker 1: it now feels like another company because there there was
Speaker 1: forever this very unique culture that Read Hastings had built
Speaker 1: and written a book about. And while while it's still
Speaker 1: there in pieces, you know, it has kind of fallen
Speaker 1: to pray to the same thing that all companies do,
Speaker 1: is they is they get scale, They just become a
Speaker 1: more corporate and traditional. So what is stuck around from
Speaker 1: that that infamous culture deck that kind of went viral
Speaker 1: years ago. The idea, you know, the company is is
Speaker 1: like a sports team, not a family. Right. They'll cut
Speaker 1: people who don't who aren't top performers, but at the
Speaker 1: same time they encourage you to go out and see
Speaker 1: how much you're worth in the market place and come
Speaker 1: back and you can can get a raise from Netflix
Speaker 1: that way. I mean, what parts are sticking around to
Speaker 1: you and what parts are kind of gone there? I
Speaker 1: mean it's I'd say it's it's a moderation of things. Right.
Speaker 1: So the company is infamous for having radical transparency. You know.
Speaker 1: Redhastings modeled a lot of his leadership off of Ray
Speaker 1: Dalio the Bridgewater Guide um, and that comes in a
Speaker 1: couple forms. It's it's a lot of feedback, so people
Speaker 1: being very direct and blunt with one another, and also
Speaker 1: then sharing metrics and data. You know, Netflix makes pay
Speaker 1: the pay available to or excuse me, employees can see
Speaker 1: what one another is making above a certain level. They
Speaker 1: share their financial results weeks before they announced them publicly
Speaker 1: with hundreds of employees, which is very rare. Um. Some
Speaker 1: of that is still sticking around. They still share some
Speaker 1: of those financial results ahead of time. They do still
Speaker 1: have the pay available to some. But you talk to
Speaker 1: employees and they say that a lot of the decision
Speaker 1: making which used to be decentralized. It used to be
Speaker 1: you want to empower people who are you know, VP
Speaker 1: level relatively mid level executives to be able to buy
Speaker 1: a project or try something that just doesn't happen as
Speaker 1: much anymore. A lot of the decisions seem to be
Speaker 1: made by a few stakeholders, and people are just playing
Speaker 1: with fear more because the company is under more pressure.
Speaker 1: I love this line though, in your story, with all
Speaker 1: this going on, you say, it's important to note that
Speaker 1: in some ways Netflix, Netflix has never been stronger. Twenty
Speaker 1: seconds why it's profitable. It doesn't have to borrow money anymore,
Speaker 1: and it is far and away the bigger than all
Speaker 1: these other companies which are dealing with the decline of
Speaker 1: cable TV, which does not affect Netflix. Bloomberg News entertainment
Speaker 1: reporter Lucas shot with a Business Week editor Joe Weber
Speaker 1: once again still to come on Bloomberg business Week, Our
Speaker 1: finance team takes us inside the mind of one of
Speaker 1: the big bank CEOs that was there during the financial crisis.
Speaker 1: The reason that the book Um was so much fun
Speaker 1: for me to write about is that Max's personality, the
Speaker 1: personality that he sort of portrays in the book, He
Speaker 1: is a something really essential on Wall Street, which is
Speaker 1: a sort of atlas of Wall Street ego that it
Speaker 1: really does give you a sense of the clothes that
Speaker 1: he wears, and the French restaurants that he goes to,
Speaker 1: and the you know, coach k who can get on
Speaker 1: the phone, and his wife is a golfer, and his
Speaker 1: life as a prankster. It also gives a really really
Speaker 1: good sense most of all, of how he sees himself
Speaker 1: as courageous and honest and strong and also a horse whisper.
Speaker 1: At one point, why former Morgan Stanley boss John Max
Speaker 1: says he has few regrets. This is Bloomberg broadcasting from
Speaker 1: the financial capital of the world, Bloomberg eleven Frio in
Speaker 1: New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: one O six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty
Speaker 1: to the country Sirius XM Chado one nine and around
Speaker 1: the globe of Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. All right, everybody, We've got
Speaker 1: perhaps a weekend read for you. It's the new memoir
Speaker 1: by the former CEO of Morgan Stanley. We're talking about
Speaker 1: John mac The book's title up Close at All in Life,
Speaker 1: Lessons from a Wall Street Warrior and writing about it
Speaker 1: in a story you'll find online at bloom Berg dot
Speaker 1: com Slash business Week. Max Abelson Bloomberg News finance reporter,
Speaker 1: and he notes that Max Book is quote a rare
Speaker 1: opportunity to hear powers unvarnished internal monologue. I can pay
Speaker 1: John Max like one of the highest like Wall Street
Speaker 1: reporter compliments that I can think of, which is that
Speaker 1: his book in some ways really brought to mind Michael
Speaker 1: Lewis's absolute masterpiece, Slyers Poker, because you know what made
Speaker 1: that book fun in the eighties was the sense it
Speaker 1: gave of being an outsider and and really getting a
Speaker 1: taste of Wall Street. I think at the time with
Speaker 1: Solomon Brothers and Max book is sort of like a
Speaker 1: cousin to it, but you get to hear from the boss,
Speaker 1: like the John good friend. I think in Liar's Poker,
Speaker 1: you really get to hear his internal monologue, and that
Speaker 1: made it really fun for me. How do you describe
Speaker 1: his internal monologue here? Because this is a guy who's
Speaker 1: he's pretty complex like all of us, Max, how would
Speaker 1: you describe what goes on internally? The reason that the
Speaker 1: book was so much fun for me to write about
Speaker 1: is that Max's personality is something really essential on Wall Street,
Speaker 1: which is a sort of atlas of Wall Street ego.
Speaker 1: But it really does give you a sense of the
Speaker 1: clothes that he wears, and the French restaurants that he
Speaker 1: goes to, and the you know, coach k who can
Speaker 1: get on the phone, and his life as a prankster.
Speaker 1: It also gives a really really good sense, most of all,
Speaker 1: of how he sees himself. I really really enjoyed the
Speaker 1: way that Max sort of self describes he sees himself
Speaker 1: as courageous and honest and strong and and also a
Speaker 1: horse whisper at one point. It's a It's a really
Speaker 1: wonderful sense of how a powerful financial executive sees himself.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I honestly recommend that you read it.
Speaker 1: I feel like it really will really stick in my memory.
Speaker 1: Didn't John Mac when he was getting the check to
Speaker 1: save basically Morgan Stanley Chris. I think he was in shorts.
Speaker 1: He had a borrowed jacket because it was a Japanese bank.
Speaker 1: That is a great memory, Carol. It's a wonderful memory
Speaker 1: that John Mac wears shorts because he choose out a
Speaker 1: colleague wearing shorts. But you know, Carol, the you know,
Speaker 1: the thing that really sticks out in my mind is,
Speaker 1: you know, he depicts himself as a really, really intense guy.
Speaker 1: He has a piece of art in his office that's
Speaker 1: like a head being impaled by by something between the eyes,
Speaker 1: you know, between the eyes. He really does give a
Speaker 1: wonderful sense of what he must have been like to
Speaker 1: work with. And you know, the speaking of Andrew us
Speaker 1: Organ's book and the financial crisis, you know, Carol, the
Speaker 1: thing that I felt, um disappointed by was that he
Speaker 1: sort of snaps his fingers and takes us from Christmas
Speaker 1: at two thousand seven to basically Lehman Weekend. And I
Speaker 1: wanted more from him, Like I would have loved to
Speaker 1: hear what the beginning of two thousand eight was like,
Speaker 1: which is in my memory, that's um what two Big
Speaker 1: to Fail is about you. I wanted I wanted more
Speaker 1: of that, not not like reading the book. I agree,
Speaker 1: like right, because I think that's what I loved about
Speaker 1: that book, because it just it felt like you were
Speaker 1: flying on the wall in terms of when when the
Speaker 1: financial crisis was was coming down. We're speaking with Max Abelson.
Speaker 1: He reports on Wall Streets, Money and Power. His latest
Speaker 1: about John Max's new book, Up Close and All In Max, Um,
Speaker 1: what about the time period that that mac Uh kind
Speaker 1: of oversaw on Wall Street? It it goes from you know,
Speaker 1: a state business, as you write, of quiet corporate advisors,
Speaker 1: to a multi trillion dollar industry of globe trotting trading
Speaker 1: giants that became too big to fail. It's it's so
Speaker 1: nice to talk to you two about my journalism because
Speaker 1: you both are obviously such close readers of the story,
Speaker 1: and it really, it really makes me feel good to
Speaker 1: feel um, I can really tell how engaged you are
Speaker 1: in in the writing and the reporting. It means a
Speaker 1: lot to me. Well, let me answer your question this way.
Speaker 1: When John mac gets to Morgan Stanley, the company has
Speaker 1: like a hundred people or something like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: don't don't hold me to it. It might be or
Speaker 1: somewhere around that, but it's a small company. You know,
Speaker 1: for for decades, Wall Street was really the stuff of
Speaker 1: advising corporations or advising rich people, or advising governments. And
Speaker 1: you know, there was not um, they they had not
Speaker 1: yet become these multi trillion dollar essential companies that we
Speaker 1: think of two or too big to fail as it were.
Speaker 1: And Max's career is really fun to follow because you see,
Speaker 1: you know, we began by mentioning UM Michael Lewis's book
Speaker 1: in the eighties. His career sort of takes us from
Speaker 1: the early seventies when it's a much different business to
Speaker 1: the sort of smoky uh curse word filled halls of
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. And then, of course the reason that
Speaker 1: we think of Mac is that he returned to Morgan
Speaker 1: Stanley in two thousands five, and in those years two
Speaker 1: thousand five, two thousand six, two thousand seven, he oversaw
Speaker 1: a company that took a lot of risk. And you
Speaker 1: know that that is not the reason that we had
Speaker 1: a global financial crisis, but Max Era at Morgan Stanley
Speaker 1: really typifies UM an era of risk taking that obviously
Speaker 1: led to bad results. And you know, I have to
Speaker 1: say he does address that. He addresses it briefly. You know,
Speaker 1: he moves on pretty quickly, but he does say he
Speaker 1: basically apologizes for for taking excessive risk, which I thought
Speaker 1: was like really memorable. That's Max Abelson, Bloomberg News Finance reporter.
Speaker 1: The story worth a full read, which you can find
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg terminal and of course at Bloomberg Dot
Speaker 1: com slash business Week. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: Coming up, it's time to go skiing, and we've got
Speaker 1: from ski to Shining Sea, a lot of places you
Speaker 1: can get ready to go to if you can afford
Speaker 1: the tickets this year, it's all coming up next. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. Well, Tim,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we are approaching
Speaker 1: the holiday season many of us starting to think about
Speaker 1: taking our next big trip. We often dispatch our Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Pursuits team to seek out the most beautiful beaches and
Speaker 1: remote island paradise. Is I was just thinking, Carol, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what a cool job. Yeah, I like the dispoach. Sorry,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna have to go to Fiji and figure
Speaker 1: out if the hotels are nice. Yeah, I guess I'll
Speaker 1: do that. Okay, Well, this week we're not going to Fiji.
Speaker 1: We're hitting the slopes and taken you to skiing's final frontier.
Speaker 1: We are, indeed our Bloomberg Pursues editor Chris Rouser is
Speaker 1: with us with a look at our annual Ski issue.
Speaker 1: And also joining us is Bloomberg Business Week contributor Jen Murphy.
Speaker 1: She's got the lead in this week's Pursuit section. It's
Speaker 1: about sea and ski trips in the mountain sides. I
Speaker 1: had no idea it was a thing. It's around Alaska's
Speaker 1: Prince William sound for the hardcore adventure skier. Did you know,
Speaker 1: Chris that this was a thing. No, I did. I
Speaker 1: did not know that this particular, this particular boat to
Speaker 1: ski tradition was a thing. And Jen, actually, you know
Speaker 1: a lot of times we plan out trips before she goes,
Speaker 1: or she's like, I've got this idea, and this really
Speaker 1: was a trip that she took for fun. And then
Speaker 1: she came back and said, you guys, this was wild,
Speaker 1: Like I should write about this. And then she told
Speaker 1: us about it, and we thought this is really really unique,
Speaker 1: and we want to hear more. I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: what was it that made you come back to Chris
Speaker 1: and say, all right, you've done this trip and then
Speaker 1: you're like, wait a minute, we got to write about it.
Speaker 1: What was it that just blew your mind? You know,
Speaker 1: I've I've skied in a lot of places and I'm
Speaker 1: fair lucky. I have been Helly skiing in Alaska and Valdez,
Speaker 1: which is the birthplace of Helly skiing. I have been
Speaker 1: all over Europe, and there was just something about skiing
Speaker 1: tracks that no one has skied before. And I'm an
Speaker 1: ocean lover. You're skiing down to the sea and you
Speaker 1: see a pot of Orca whales or a little odd
Speaker 1: or it just felt like a real adventure, which is
Speaker 1: so rare to have these days. It truly is like
Speaker 1: one day we were skiing in a bear came out
Speaker 1: of its jan luckily on a ridge far away from us,
Speaker 1: but it really simples like it was the last frontier,
Speaker 1: and I just think it's very rare these days. I
Speaker 1: want to hear a little bit about the snow because
Speaker 1: when we think about snow that's kind of near the coast,
Speaker 1: it's it's near water. It can be heavier snow like
Speaker 1: in Vancouver, for example, in British Columbia. What's the snow
Speaker 1: like where you went in Alaska. The interesting thing like
Speaker 1: we think skiing and we think like December January. I
Speaker 1: took the strip in May, like May was the preferred
Speaker 1: time of year, so it was actually like the ultimate
Speaker 1: spring break. And in May, in this part of Alaska,
Speaker 1: you get something called corn snow, um, which is this
Speaker 1: kind of elusive spring condition that you know, it's just
Speaker 1: soft enough that it has a forgiving quality to it,
Speaker 1: but it's and it's and it's not too heavy or wet.
Speaker 1: So that is what we were kind of in search
Speaker 1: of and what we ultimately found. That we did have
Speaker 1: one or two days some kind of a heavy snow,
Speaker 1: but ultimately we found the fantastic horn snow. So let's
Speaker 1: set the scene for our readers who can't look at
Speaker 1: the amazing pictures right now in the magazine, although you
Speaker 1: should pick it up, um, Prince William sound is. When
Speaker 1: I looked it up, I was shocked at how vast
Speaker 1: it is. It's sort of under the chin of Alaska,
Speaker 1: and it's this huge bay surrounded by mountains both on
Speaker 1: the outside and on the islands. So describe you know
Speaker 1: what it's like. They're physically what it looks like. And
Speaker 1: you know how you got around. Um. So it's ten
Speaker 1: thousand square miles of roadless older how much you and
Speaker 1: no roads? She said, roadless, no roads, um. And we
Speaker 1: you know our guy Nick Celestio, who owns remarkable adventures.
Speaker 1: So se c to ski boat trips are a thing
Speaker 1: in Europe in places like Norway, and Nick, who lives
Speaker 1: in Girdwood, Alaska, was like, we like, why isn't that
Speaker 1: one doing this in Prince William Sound. He found a
Speaker 1: brother and sister who owned a fishing charter company and
Speaker 1: they just happened to personally have started skiing all around
Speaker 1: the sounds when they had downtime. Um So that is
Speaker 1: that was the connection. And the boat, the Babkin was
Speaker 1: basically our floating hotel. Um So we would sleep on
Speaker 1: the boat, we'd have hils on the boat, we had
Speaker 1: kayaks and tattleboards on the boat, and Nick and our
Speaker 1: co guide Brooke would essentially just look off the vaal
Speaker 1: every morning and say that looks like a good line
Speaker 1: we could ski, or based on the conditions, let's like,
Speaker 1: you know, vote three more hours to this part of
Speaker 1: the sounds and most ski there. So it really was
Speaker 1: um at like choose your own adventure if you will.
Speaker 1: And anyone who's not familiar with that country skiing, um
Speaker 1: and I have done helly skiing. It is thrilling and terrifying,
Speaker 1: and but there is something so satisfying and for me,
Speaker 1: almost meditative about earning your as I earning your turn.
Speaker 1: So we would take the dinghy ashore. We would hike
Speaker 1: through some beautiful, um you know, old growth forest which
Speaker 1: was a mix of like moss and wet snow, and
Speaker 1: then you'd come to the clearing and we would put
Speaker 1: skins on our skis and slog up hill for one
Speaker 1: hour or two hours, sometimes even more than that. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's not like you're bagging twenty runs a day
Speaker 1: like resort like somebodys. We're only doing two runs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no helicopter, no chair lifts. You're earning your turns. You're
Speaker 1: throwing the skins on. You've got the beacon, the probe
Speaker 1: and the shovel as well for safety, which raises the
Speaker 1: question who's this for? Yeah, you need to have give
Speaker 1: you have never used skins as if you've never gone
Speaker 1: up hill, like this is not for you. Um. That said,
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is and we did the first day
Speaker 1: we went to a local ski resort and the guide,
Speaker 1: you know, they just watched this like can they use
Speaker 1: their crampons? Like we had to put crampons on the
Speaker 1: bottom of our skis if the snow got kind of
Speaker 1: icy and slippery, so we didn't fly down. Um, so
Speaker 1: they did watch we went over avalanche safety. You should
Speaker 1: have a basic understanding of avalanche safety. I mean, even
Speaker 1: if you're just in the back country general. But I
Speaker 1: will say and and I think that was the most
Speaker 1: one of these surprising things, like, yes, you can find
Speaker 1: InCred with ten square miles. You can find him with anything.
Speaker 1: You can find super technical skiing lines. And in the
Speaker 1: article I mentioned one of the ways I found this
Speaker 1: was a friend who used to work at Warren Miller
Speaker 1: had been on this trip, and Warren Miller Productions have
Speaker 1: filmed the one of the sections for UM Winner starts
Speaker 1: now in with the Babkins and they show some insane
Speaker 1: you know, they're known for their ski horn like insane, crazy,
Speaker 1: scary they runs and yes, you haven't find that. Um.
Speaker 1: The Chris Patterson, who he's worked at Warren Miller for
Speaker 1: I think almost three decades, he loved filming there so much.
Speaker 1: He he actually went back to a personal trip, which
Speaker 1: like he really it and that just speaks to like
Speaker 1: how special it is. But for me, like he was
Speaker 1: definitely not one of the most technical skew trips I've
Speaker 1: ever gone on and we did not there There was
Speaker 1: high avalanchey inur so we actually didn't ski anything super
Speaker 1: scary and that was great. It was about being in
Speaker 1: true wilderness and for almost a week I think maybe
Speaker 1: we saw two other boats. Um yeah, that was that
Speaker 1: was the point. So if you want like the steep
Speaker 1: and deep and scary like go take a Hallie trip.
Speaker 1: If you want something where you're going to feel like
Speaker 1: an explorer and you were out in pristine nature like
Speaker 1: this is for you. And if you have some back
Speaker 1: country experience, yeah, if you want a glacierita delicious, take
Speaker 1: Jen's trip. Hey, listen, Jen, It's a great read. We
Speaker 1: had so much fun and highly recommended everybody check it out,
Speaker 1: either online or certainly in the magazine. Um, Jen, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, really appreciate it. We want to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more too about the rest of the
Speaker 1: section because that Chris is more there right. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: you know one person who I think would be totally
Speaker 1: prepared for a trip like this is Bodie Miller. You
Speaker 1: know him as an Olympian. I mean he's a huge
Speaker 1: skier here in the US. Uh And it took him
Speaker 1: a while. I was surprised to find Chris to actually
Speaker 1: find a ski that he really liked. So now he's
Speaker 1: trying to build that ski. Yeah, so that the bodie
Speaker 1: now has his own ski company. It's called Peak Ski Company,
Speaker 1: and he's making what he thinks are the perfect skis
Speaker 1: where he says are um And how he got to
Speaker 1: this formula was in two thousand four, he had a
Speaker 1: pair of ros and y'all's that were like the best
Speaker 1: skis he'd ever skied on. He won a bunch of races,
Speaker 1: and then even when they were all kind of like
Speaker 1: filed down to nubs, he gave them to another skier
Speaker 1: who also won a bunch of championships with them, and
Speaker 1: they could never figure out what was exactly about those
Speaker 1: keys until he finally got them back and figured out
Speaker 1: that it was an error in the ski making. Ros
Speaker 1: and y'all had um not had the right glue to
Speaker 1: a fix their like motion dampener onto the front of
Speaker 1: the ski, so they screwed a hole through the front
Speaker 1: of the skey to attach the motion dampener the shock absorber,
Speaker 1: and that hole in the ski actually was what made
Speaker 1: the whole difference, which seems crazy if you think about
Speaker 1: how many different iterations of skis we've had over the years,
Speaker 1: and so now body started making these skis that have
Speaker 1: a kind of a little key hole cut into the
Speaker 1: structure of them. Um and our ski writer Gordy tested
Speaker 1: him out, and he tested hundreds and hundreds of skis
Speaker 1: and he said they're the best kis he's ever tried.
Speaker 1: And Chris, what else is in this section? There is
Speaker 1: a great story about where you should go skiing in
Speaker 1: the Dolomites before the Olympics. And there is a great
Speaker 1: profile on these little headphones that you put in your
Speaker 1: in your ski helmet so you can talk to your
Speaker 1: friends and find them on the mountain. They're called Smith
Speaker 1: by alec O O six. Our thanks to Bloomberg Pursuits
Speaker 1: editor Chris Rouser and Business Week contributor Jen Murphy for
Speaker 1: guiding us through this year ski issue. Also a shout
Speaker 1: out to Bloomberg Radio is Paul Sweeney for helping us
Speaker 1: out this past week. And that wraps up the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg Radio, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. I'm Carol Masser and on Tim Stanovk.
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: starting at two pm all street time on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: You can also watch your daily broadcast on YouTube. Just
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Speaker 1: available on newsstands, now, at Bloomberg dot com and always
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg Terminal. You can also see us daily
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Speaker 1: It's available at Bloomberg dot com, slash qt, and streaming
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Speaker 1: can also catch me on Crypto I r L. Have
Speaker 1: great weekend, everyone, stay safe. This is Bloomberg