Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Carrot Hot Dogs May Be Coming To A Stadium Near You
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, along
- 0:04Speaker 1: with my co host of Bonnie Quinn. Every business day
- 0:06Speaker 1: we bring you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts,
- 0:10Speaker 1: along with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets
- 0:13Speaker 1: Podcast on Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts,
- 0:17Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com. Bolthouse Farms has been around
- 0:22Speaker 1: for more than a hundred years, literally more than a century,
- 0:26Speaker 1: but since it's split off from Campbell it's sort of
- 0:28Speaker 1: been able to go its own way and do some
- 0:31Speaker 1: interesting things R and D wise, let's bring in the
- 0:34Speaker 1: CEO now, Jeff Don, to give us a rundown on
- 0:36Speaker 1: what exactly Bolthouse Farms is planning for the future. Jeff,
- 0:40Speaker 1: great to have you. We all know you for your
- 0:42Speaker 1: carrots and for all of those wonderful juices and so on.
- 0:45Speaker 1: But you have big plans for the plant based economy.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Talked us about those plans. Well, hey, Bonnie, thanks for
- 0:53Speaker 1: having me. So the plant based economy tasks is really
- 0:56Speaker 1: twofold one. At the consuming level, it's the shift that's
- 0:59Speaker 1: already happening towards a more flexitarian diet, and that flexitarian
- 1:04Speaker 1: diet is really grounded against people looking to eat less
- 1:07Speaker 1: animal proteins and just get more plants and into their diet,
- 1:11Speaker 1: because it's clear that's a great help outcome for people.
- 1:15Speaker 1: And the second piece is that you know, the produce industry,
- 1:20Speaker 1: we've been in carrots for a long time, and plant based,
- 1:22Speaker 1: which is more technology driven, are trying emerging into a
- 1:27Speaker 1: different kind of economy and I think that goes to
- 1:29Speaker 1: regenera agriculture. So when you talk about plant based economy,
- 1:33Speaker 1: it goes to consumer products, but it also goes to
- 1:36Speaker 1: a more sustainable future, and I think those two things
- 1:39Speaker 1: are what's really driving it across the globe. Jeff, can
- 1:43Speaker 1: you give us some examples of what you mean by
- 1:45Speaker 1: plant based? So you know, I think I think we
- 1:48Speaker 1: know some of the very obvious ones, but what I
- 1:49Speaker 1: what are some of the new ones you're developing. Yeah,
- 1:52Speaker 1: So for both House we're starting to leverage off our
- 1:56Speaker 1: care adheritage. So we're just in the process of launching
- 1:58Speaker 1: a hole new platform called one of Roots, uh and
- 2:01Speaker 1: wonder Roots is really about meat and and carb swaps.
- 2:05Speaker 1: We call them replacements. So three different product lines were launching.
- 2:09Speaker 1: The first is kind of carrot feta changing, which is
- 2:11Speaker 1: you know, carrot sliced into fetic geney noodles. You've seen
- 2:14Speaker 1: things like you know, cauliflower rice and squashed noodles. These
- 2:18Speaker 1: we think and their meal kits. So this goes to
- 2:20Speaker 1: people homing. You know, what's happened post COVID is people
- 2:24Speaker 1: spending a lot more time at home and cooking. So
- 2:27Speaker 1: a feta chainey kit, a rice uh side kit, same thing,
- 2:30Speaker 1: flavored rice, but carrot based, not rice based. And then
- 2:34Speaker 1: probably the one that's most exciting the carrot hot dogs.
- 2:37Speaker 1: So carrot hot dogs is directly going at you know,
- 2:40Speaker 1: regular hot dogs. It's a whole carrot that's been brined
- 2:43Speaker 1: and seasoned and you cook it just like a hot dog.
- 2:45Speaker 1: And that's that's hard. Probably big spring introduction coming up.
- 2:48Speaker 1: That one is a lot of fun. That's amazing. Now,
- 2:51Speaker 1: do you need preservatives and things in there? What else
- 2:53Speaker 1: isn't there? Nope? Nope nothing. What we do is we
- 2:56Speaker 1: take whole carrots and we're shaved down with hot and
- 2:59Speaker 1: we rhynd them, you know, brianing, just put it in
- 3:01Speaker 1: a kind of liquid and spice for a while, and
- 3:04Speaker 1: then we use pressure high pressure pasteurization to you know,
- 3:08Speaker 1: make it to make it stable, right, so it has
- 3:10Speaker 1: some shelf life, but there's no preservatives. It's a fresh
- 3:13Speaker 1: product and we ship it out. And the thing about
- 3:16Speaker 1: it is you put it on a grill, you put
- 3:17Speaker 1: it in paying cooking, just like a hot dog, and
- 3:19Speaker 1: it bites like a hot dog. It's it's really funny.
- 3:21Speaker 1: One of our R and D guys came up with
- 3:23Speaker 1: this crazy idea of meat swaps and he said, I
- 3:26Speaker 1: think we can make carrots replace whole series of meat
- 3:28Speaker 1: ideas and he started with a hot dog. Uh. And
- 3:31Speaker 1: you know, we have a big plans across this because
- 3:34Speaker 1: the consumers telling us they want flexitarian options, you know,
- 3:38Speaker 1: they want to eat less meat, but they don't want
- 3:41Speaker 1: to give up the fun and the familiarity of things
- 3:44Speaker 1: like hot dogs and Ambergers, which is really the strength
- 3:46Speaker 1: of Beyond and impossible. It really played into that trend. Yeah.
- 3:51Speaker 1: I mean with this, I see baseball stadiums and games
- 3:54Speaker 1: becoming more healthy all over the colt. Can you imagine.
- 3:57Speaker 1: I'm a big Dodger fan right now. We've got a
- 3:59Speaker 1: big game tonight, and you know we're going to launch
- 4:01Speaker 1: in the spring and we might just show up at
- 4:03Speaker 1: a bunch of baseball games next year and you know,
- 4:06Speaker 1: the season opens, it's a great opportunity to expose people
- 4:08Speaker 1: to this new product. Well, that's for sure. I'll take
- 4:11Speaker 1: my commission now, thank you. Is is immigration policy difficult
- 4:16Speaker 1: for you right now? The Trump administration obviously having an
- 4:19Speaker 1: impact on farm labor shortages? Has it been resolved? What
- 4:22Speaker 1: have you done? It's it's you know, in California, it's
- 4:26Speaker 1: very difficult. It's left difficult for us because we're pretty
- 4:29Speaker 1: highly automated, We're much less labor dependent, and a lot
- 4:31Speaker 1: of other commodities, you know, care it is. You know,
- 4:34Speaker 1: we use a lot of machines unless people, but across
- 4:37Speaker 1: the board with all of our farming partners, very very
- 4:40Speaker 1: difficult immigration issue combined with COVID so COVID you know,
- 4:45Speaker 1: difficult enough in a manufacturing environment. We've done a lot
- 4:48Speaker 1: of work to keep our our employees safe. But think
- 4:50Speaker 1: about a field environment people field harvesting it. You know,
- 4:54Speaker 1: you can spread them out, but those people live in
- 4:57Speaker 1: shared housing and it's just really really difficult. Yeah, it's um,
- 5:02Speaker 1: it's hard. It's very, very very hard. What what are
- 5:06Speaker 1: your plans for staffing up? Should it become you know,
- 5:09Speaker 1: I mean, say, say the current administration continues on, do
- 5:14Speaker 1: you then sort of have to you know, look at alternatives.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Do you have two base cases in mind for post election? Yeah,
- 5:22Speaker 1: we actually do, because we actually think it's such a
- 5:25Speaker 1: binary choice whatever your politics are, there different creations pretty clear, uh,
- 5:31Speaker 1: and you have to be prepared for either one now.
- 5:33Speaker 1: Now either way, we think automation and technology, which is
- 5:36Speaker 1: really part of you know, we brought this business back
- 5:38Speaker 1: from Camell's a year ago, stop for a year ago,
- 5:41Speaker 1: and so one of the things that you know makes
- 5:43Speaker 1: a plant based so interesting is obviously you're growing things
- 5:47Speaker 1: in the ground and our ability to have the right
- 5:50Speaker 1: kind of rotations where generative agriculture is a terminal here
- 5:53Speaker 1: a lot over the next ten years. And it's usual
- 5:55Speaker 1: really agriculture to sequester carbon back into the soil. And
- 6:00Speaker 1: and that is a function of you know, your farming
- 6:03Speaker 1: kind of practices and you know, no till farming, a
- 6:06Speaker 1: whole series of things. And so what I actually think
- 6:09Speaker 1: farming is going through a massive change right now. It's
- 6:11Speaker 1: going to become less people, you know in kind of
- 6:14Speaker 1: raw labor dependent and much more about machine learning and
- 6:19Speaker 1: ultimately robots. You know, it's it's all about automation because
- 6:23Speaker 1: to feed the growing population globally, you know, farming has
- 6:26Speaker 1: to evolve and really adopt a modern technology. And that's
- 6:29Speaker 1: happening at a very aggressive ray Jeff. A fascinating conversation
- 6:34Speaker 1: and a very very good luck to you for these
- 6:36Speaker 1: new products, and uh, you know, it's it's it's a
- 6:38Speaker 1: great time to be launching. And I suppose also a
- 6:40Speaker 1: difficult time with consumers under a little bit of pressure.
- 6:43Speaker 1: So do come back and tell us how it all goes.
- 6:45Speaker 1: Bolt House Farms CEO, Jeff done there. And my takeaway
- 6:50Speaker 1: from that was, I can't wait to taste this, uh
- 6:52Speaker 1: this hot carrots substitute for hot dog. This is Boomberg.
- 6:59Speaker 1: Well it is times were Bomberg Opinion and we have
- 7:01Speaker 1: a host of wonderful opinion columnists, none more so than
- 7:04Speaker 1: Brian Schapatta, who's our debt columnist here at Bloomberg Opinion.
- 7:08Speaker 1: And Bryan writes about debt markets, which are always fascinating.
- 7:12Speaker 1: But the column I want to look at today is
- 7:14Speaker 1: about the Goldman clawbacks. Yes you heard that right. Those
- 7:17Speaker 1: two words you don't very often hear in the same sentence.
- 7:20Speaker 1: There were massive clawbacks from some very top level Goldman
- 7:25Speaker 1: executives announced just this week, and Brian Chapatta is here
- 7:29Speaker 1: to tell us exactly why it has to do with
- 7:30Speaker 1: one MDB. And if you don't know, Bryan, would you
- 7:33Speaker 1: give us a little synopsis of what the one MDB
- 7:36Speaker 1: scandal was? Yeah, I mean it was. It was pretty
- 7:40Speaker 1: bad by even by Wall Street standards. Um. Goldman effectively
- 7:44Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to having a role in this scheme that
- 7:48Speaker 1: diverted billions of dollars that were supposed to go to
- 7:50Speaker 1: economic development in Malaysia into a whole variety of of
- 7:55Speaker 1: of frivolous things in a lot of ways, high end
- 7:57Speaker 1: our real estate, a super yacht, even the movie Wolf
- 8:01Speaker 1: of Wall Street. So it was a bad look and
- 8:04Speaker 1: it was Goldman's first guilty plea ever through the small
- 8:08Speaker 1: Malaysian unit um. And so what's interesting, I think is
- 8:12Speaker 1: the fact that actually some of the top executives were
- 8:14Speaker 1: held accountable to the tune of a hundred seventy four
- 8:17Speaker 1: million dollars. And the reason that's so fascinating is because
- 8:20Speaker 1: you really don't see this ever. Usually the bank pays
- 8:22Speaker 1: of fine and the top executives may or may not
- 8:25Speaker 1: you know, issue a Mayo copa. But they don't have,
- 8:28Speaker 1: you know, monetary penalties. They certainly don't go to jail
- 8:31Speaker 1: in this case, at least what a dozen top current
- 8:35Speaker 1: and former executives, including CEO David Solomon and the previous
- 8:40Speaker 1: CEO Lloyd Blank Fine have to pay up to the
- 8:42Speaker 1: tune of Walpine exactly. Um. I mean when the news
- 8:46Speaker 1: first came out, there was this, uh, there was this
- 8:49Speaker 1: thing called the deferred prosecution Agreement, um, which basically was
- 8:54Speaker 1: a win for Goldman Sachs because if they had been convicted,
- 8:57Speaker 1: they would have risked losing some institutional aliance. UM. So
- 9:01Speaker 1: they really haven't lost any business from this. But the
- 9:03Speaker 1: question is going to be how do you save face?
- 9:06Speaker 1: How do you show to share Hold that we are
- 9:08Speaker 1: keeping some accountability here, And that ultimately came in the
- 9:11Speaker 1: form of digging David Sullivan, like Blank Blank find as
- 9:15Speaker 1: you said, um of millions of dollars. Half of the
- 9:18Speaker 1: total of the one seventy four million is going to
- 9:20Speaker 1: be from three people who were directly implicated in the
- 9:24Speaker 1: actual one and one MDB scheme. But but yeah, actually
- 9:29Speaker 1: going after Solomon and Blank Find was was pretty significant. Right,
- 9:32Speaker 1: because David Solomon continues to lead Goldman sax salary is
- 9:36Speaker 1: what about twenty seven million dollars, So presumably if half
- 9:39Speaker 1: of the four is spread out between him and a
- 9:43Speaker 1: few more that that's going to hurt. Yeah, exactly. And
- 9:46Speaker 1: I think what's going to be interesting going forward, um,
- 9:49Speaker 1: because one of my colleagues over in London wrote this
- 9:53Speaker 1: week about the Morgan Stanley departures because they had issues
- 9:57Speaker 1: with WhatsApp, I think, um. And so it's gonna be
- 10:01Speaker 1: interesting to see because there has been this whole question
- 10:03Speaker 1: about how much oversight bankers can have UM during this
- 10:07Speaker 1: work from Home era over the past several months. If
- 10:10Speaker 1: there is more wrongdoing that comes out, is this going
- 10:14Speaker 1: to set a precedent that you have to you have
- 10:16Speaker 1: to keep the top level accountable? Um? And if so,
- 10:20Speaker 1: what does that mean for mean for Wall Street? But
- 10:22Speaker 1: I think there is this lingering effect from the financial
- 10:25Speaker 1: crisis where bankers were seen as running rampant and doing
- 10:30Speaker 1: things that ultimately hurt the little guy in this you know,
- 10:34Speaker 1: in some cases it was it was people who are
- 10:37Speaker 1: buying homes. In this case it's Malaysia. But either way,
- 10:40Speaker 1: I think there is a perception on wall streets that
- 10:42Speaker 1: they have to at least outwardly show some sort of
- 10:47Speaker 1: remorse above and beyond just saying sorry. It's interesting because
- 10:51Speaker 1: we saw after the financial crisis just how difficult it
- 10:54Speaker 1: is to actually, you know, prosecute or hold accountable executives
- 10:59Speaker 1: of a corporation. I remember one of the you know
- 11:03Speaker 1: justices in in New York wrote a long article explaining
- 11:08Speaker 1: it's just really really difficult, in uh in the lower
- 11:13Speaker 1: worlds to actually have this happen. So what happened here?
- 11:16Speaker 1: Did Goldman just pony up itself or or did somebody
- 11:20Speaker 1: legally make Goldman do this? Right? Well, I I my
- 11:24Speaker 1: understanding is that it's basically Goldman saying that we that
- 11:28Speaker 1: that we're holding our executives accountable. I mean effectively they're
- 11:32Speaker 1: paying um various regulators these massive billion dollar fines. And ultimately,
- 11:38Speaker 1: what who that hurts is it hurts the shareholders, right
- 11:41Speaker 1: because that's what's money at the company to pay out,
- 11:44Speaker 1: and it's less profitability for Goldman um. But if you
- 11:47Speaker 1: call back the money from top executives, that actually benefits
- 11:51Speaker 1: shareholders ultimately, because that's money that they're that they're taking
- 11:54Speaker 1: back putting back into the business rather than paying it
- 11:57Speaker 1: out to the likes of of its Solomon or Voyd
- 12:01Speaker 1: Fline Finn. Now, given that it's Goldman, Pang and Goldman
- 12:04Speaker 1: saying that it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to
- 12:07Speaker 1: see more of this in the future, does it. No? Yeah,
- 12:10Speaker 1: I mean it basically comes down to what banks think
- 12:14Speaker 1: is the right move. Um. And I'd want to be
- 12:17Speaker 1: interested to see if this is the start of something
- 12:19Speaker 1: or if it's just kind of This was such a big,
- 12:22Speaker 1: one off, huge global scandal from regulators across multiple countries
- 12:29Speaker 1: that Goldman felt that it was just such a there
- 12:32Speaker 1: was such a stain on on their reputation that they
- 12:34Speaker 1: had to go above and beyond what what was typical. Um.
- 12:38Speaker 1: It's hard to it's hard to think of anything that
- 12:40Speaker 1: that that could amount to something similar to this, But
- 12:42Speaker 1: we'll have to see. And just for anybody interested, I
- 12:45Speaker 1: want to make clear that that article I was referring
- 12:47Speaker 1: to was from U S. District Judge jed Rakoff of
- 12:50Speaker 1: New York and it was at the very end of
- 12:53Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen and it appeared in the New York
- 12:55Speaker 1: Review of Books on The essential essay question was why
- 12:59Speaker 1: haven't the financial egs, I could have been prosecuted, and
- 13:02Speaker 1: his point was, well, it's really just bleep hard. So Brian,
- 13:06Speaker 1: what are you working on today and what corners of
- 13:08Speaker 1: the dead markets are you looking at? Well, I'm interested
- 13:11Speaker 1: in uh in treasuries right now. Obviously it's a big
- 13:14Speaker 1: potential trade ahead of the election. UM expectations that if
- 13:19Speaker 1: there is in fact Democratic sweep, that that would usher
- 13:22Speaker 1: in a wave of fiscal stimulus and yields would go
- 13:25Speaker 1: up quite significantly. UM. Right now, the tenure yield, the
- 13:28Speaker 1: benchmark is right at its two day moving average and
- 13:33Speaker 1: is not breaking through, which is interesting because it raises
- 13:37Speaker 1: the question of our bond traders just skittish ahead of
- 13:40Speaker 1: the election, or are they maybe you know, holding back
- 13:44Speaker 1: on bets for Democrats taking both the White House and
- 13:48Speaker 1: the Senate in addition to holding the House. So a
- 13:51Speaker 1: lot of a lot of positioning ahead of the election,
- 13:53Speaker 1: I think is what a lot of markets are entirely
- 13:55Speaker 1: focused on right now. I was speaking with Edi Ardny yesterday.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Of course, widely known on Mall Street were his bond calls.
- 14:01Speaker 1: He says roughly the same thing, that we could see
- 14:03Speaker 1: the ten years help one percent if that happens, but
- 14:05Speaker 1: he's looking for the Federal Reserve to actually put in
- 14:07Speaker 1: a yield curve control range of a half percent to
- 14:11Speaker 1: three quarters of a percent. What do you make of that, Bryan, Yeah,
- 14:14Speaker 1: I mean I think that's kind of the feeling out
- 14:17Speaker 1: there right now, that that the FED is going to
- 14:20Speaker 1: cap long and yields if they start to rise to
- 14:23Speaker 1: dramatically for the wrong reasons. Um. But I do wonder
- 14:26Speaker 1: to the extent that if it's basically bond traders are
- 14:30Speaker 1: betting that there's going to be fiscal stimulus and it's
- 14:33Speaker 1: going to get to a lower income, unemployed people who
- 14:37Speaker 1: will spend it into the economy and kind of revitalize
- 14:41Speaker 1: US economic growth. I'm not necessarily sure that FED would
- 14:44Speaker 1: push back on that. I'm sure they'd like to do that. Yeah, absolutely, Brian.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Thank you. Brian Schapatta Bloomberg Opinion, Dead columnist Currency, but
- 14:53Speaker 1: also writes on many many things will Street related for
- 14:56Speaker 1: Bloomberg Opinion. All right, it's time for all we can
- 15:01Speaker 1: check in with Laurence Sower JOHNS. Hompkins University, Assistant Professor
- 15:04Speaker 1: of Emergency Medicine. Laurence, thank you so much for joining
- 15:08Speaker 1: once again, always wonderful to speak with you. I guess
- 15:11Speaker 1: let's first take the temperature of where we're at. We
- 15:13Speaker 1: just had a record number in once again from Italy.
- 15:15Speaker 1: It seems like cases that are going up all around
- 15:18Speaker 1: the world. Where is it most concerning? Yeah, I think
- 15:22Speaker 1: UM in the US, especially in rural communities and across
- 15:25Speaker 1: the Midwest, that's very concerning. It is concerning in many
- 15:29Speaker 1: places in Europe UM, and we are starting to seek
- 15:32Speaker 1: places closed down. I believe France just the sheet another
- 15:35Speaker 1: lots and as well. UM. So I think when you
- 15:39Speaker 1: adjust for the population, the coronavirus infections in the European
- 15:43Speaker 1: Union and UK are are have surpassed the US. I
- 15:48Speaker 1: think both areas are particularly concerning. UM. You know, I
- 15:52Speaker 1: think as we enter into blue season, UM, we have
- 15:55Speaker 1: a lot to be worried about. Presumably people will be
- 15:59Speaker 1: getting there for shots all over the country. Is there
- 16:01Speaker 1: anything that you would like to say to help convince
- 16:04Speaker 1: people that yes they should. Yeah, flu shots are really important.
- 16:09Speaker 1: They're always really important, but never more than this flu season. UM.
- 16:12Speaker 1: We've heard a lot in the media and in scientific
- 16:16Speaker 1: reports about UM the southern hemisphere is flu season being
- 16:20Speaker 1: sort of suppressed and possibly because of the control measures
- 16:23Speaker 1: of COVID, but all the more reason to make sure
- 16:26Speaker 1: you go out, you get that flu shot. You protect
- 16:27Speaker 1: yourself here um. As we enter into flu season in
- 16:30Speaker 1: the northern hemisphere, you know, we may not see that
- 16:33Speaker 1: same dampening of cases. We may see a strong flu season,
- 16:36Speaker 1: and you want to protect yourself both from the flu
- 16:39Speaker 1: um and reduce your likelihood of needing to be in
- 16:42Speaker 1: the hospital, so you reduce your exposure to COVID nineteen,
- 16:45Speaker 1: but also to say that space in the hospital for
- 16:48Speaker 1: people with COVID nineteen who may need it, may need
- 16:50Speaker 1: that same you know, respiratory care that a really bad
- 16:54Speaker 1: case of flu could could cause, and we're seeing some
- 16:57Speaker 1: states have difficulty with that at the moment in the Midwest.
- 17:01Speaker 1: My colleagues and Hagarl allerged to me did this study
- 17:04Speaker 1: showing that universal masking could save some one and thirty
- 17:08Speaker 1: thousand lives by the end of February. This is an
- 17:11Speaker 1: analysis which appeared today actually in the journal Nature Medicine.
- 17:15Speaker 1: Without masks, half a million people could die, according to researchers.
- 17:18Speaker 1: I mean, Lauren, is there anything you can say about that.
- 17:20Speaker 1: I know you may not have been involved in this
- 17:22Speaker 1: particular research project, but there's no reason to disbelieve it
- 17:27Speaker 1: is there. No, absolutely not. I mean I haven't seen
- 17:30Speaker 1: this particular study, but I think as we get more
- 17:33Speaker 1: and more information and more and more research being conducted
- 17:36Speaker 1: on the use of masks, what we're learning is that
- 17:38Speaker 1: they're very effective. Um. There are low cost, low risk impact,
- 17:42Speaker 1: and they can have a potential to reduce a lot
- 17:45Speaker 1: of spread and protect the most vulnerable community. Is because remember,
- 17:49Speaker 1: you know, we like to say my mask is for you,
- 17:51Speaker 1: your mask is for me. So really what you're doing
- 17:54Speaker 1: is um putting that protection out into the community. Whenever
- 17:57Speaker 1: you wear a mask with very little um pretend to
- 18:00Speaker 1: risk to yourself. We've you know, there are many scientists,
- 18:04Speaker 1: myself included, who were somewhat dubious in the beginning of
- 18:07Speaker 1: the pandemic about the impact that masks may have on
- 18:11Speaker 1: on spread. But we have learned so much and there's
- 18:14Speaker 1: so much rigorous research conducted around their efficacy. So now
- 18:17Speaker 1: it's definitely the time to mask up. What does it
- 18:21Speaker 1: mean to you that Ramdasa here now has the fd A. No,
- 18:25Speaker 1: this is the guilliad drug that President Tom used. Yeah,
- 18:30Speaker 1: so um, right now, I think there's a lot of
- 18:32Speaker 1: conversations happening around whether or not that FDA appogal was appropriate. UM.
- 18:37Speaker 1: I think everyone sort of felt like the FBA Emergency
- 18:40Speaker 1: use authorization was appropriate. UM. There's a lot of questions
- 18:43Speaker 1: around whether or not the data as a whole UM
- 18:47Speaker 1: sort of indicate that that act that m M deserve
- 18:51Speaker 1: is effective. But I think one of the takeaways for
- 18:54Speaker 1: me is that that ACT study, the very first UM
- 18:57Speaker 1: major drug in that act, an aged trial included remdzevir
- 19:02Speaker 1: with a placebo arms. The study was blinded, and and
- 19:05Speaker 1: that is strong evidence that remdzevir actually works. UM. It's
- 19:09Speaker 1: shortened the duration of symptoms UH in people in those
- 19:13Speaker 1: requiring oxygen. So we know that for a certain subset
- 19:17Speaker 1: of the population. We see in a very rigorous scientific
- 19:20Speaker 1: study that remdes of your work. So I think you know,
- 19:23Speaker 1: when you think about it, together with the with some
- 19:27Speaker 1: of the other trials that weren't his UH that didn't
- 19:30Speaker 1: have a strength of study design, UM, it makes sense
- 19:34Speaker 1: to move it forward to approval. UM. I think overall
- 19:39Speaker 1: will continue to gather evidence on remdesivie, particularly UM now
- 19:43Speaker 1: that it will be standard of care in a lot
- 19:45Speaker 1: of places UM, But I think it's I think it
- 19:49Speaker 1: was the right move here. What will be next? Lauren?
- 19:53Speaker 1: And we've had some some bad news about a trial
- 19:56Speaker 1: being stopped the other day, but now it looks like
- 19:58Speaker 1: the person who died was that to be given the placebo,
- 20:01Speaker 1: so it may have had nothing at all to do
- 20:03Speaker 1: with the actual trial and so on. This is the
- 20:05Speaker 1: Oxford Astra Zeneca. Any reason to believe that we're not
- 20:08Speaker 1: proceeding full speed ahead with everything that's out there already, No,
- 20:12Speaker 1: I mean, I think we're going to see these adverse events,
- 20:15Speaker 1: and it is important to understand UM and for the
- 20:18Speaker 1: companies to be forthcoming about whether or not the UM
- 20:22Speaker 1: participants were in the placebo or the study, drug arm
- 20:25Speaker 1: or vaccine arm UM. The evidence right now is being
- 20:30Speaker 1: gathered right so, so we can't make visions on the
- 20:33Speaker 1: safety or the efficacy from these single events UM. And
- 20:36Speaker 1: there are entire data safety monitoring boards put in place
- 20:39Speaker 1: to do these interim analyzes to assess whether stopping is appropriate,
- 20:44Speaker 1: to look at these adverse events and make sure that
- 20:46Speaker 1: the study can continue or not depending on what that
- 20:49Speaker 1: they find, and so we have to trust that process. Now,
- 20:53Speaker 1: I think we will see that as more and more
- 20:56Speaker 1: evidences gathered um that they'll make decisions on it. But
- 20:59Speaker 1: for now, seeing these events happen is what we want
- 21:03Speaker 1: to see the process working. Lauren, Thank you as always
- 21:06Speaker 1: or weekly check in with Lauren Sower Johns Hopkins University,
- 21:09Speaker 1: Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine. Very very grateful. It's a
- 21:14Speaker 1: fantastic interactive article slash old platform read if you like.
- 21:21Speaker 1: The author is David Yaffi Belonie and it's on the
- 21:24Speaker 1: big legal threats Trump will face if he loses the election.
- 21:27Speaker 1: It's out today and you really need to read this.
- 21:30Speaker 1: David joins us now, David, thank you for joining. Pleasure
- 21:33Speaker 1: to have you, thank you for having me. So there's
- 21:36Speaker 1: a list in this of you know, the types of
- 21:39Speaker 1: things that President Trump could face, including, let's begin at
- 21:42Speaker 1: the beginning, possible criminal charges for obstruction of justice, campaign
- 21:46Speaker 1: finance violations, federal tax charges, New York state tax charges.
- 21:50Speaker 1: I mean it doesn't end. Yeah, I think that the
- 21:54Speaker 1: issues that most people are familiar with from the you know,
- 21:59Speaker 1: roughly year and a half we spent talking about Robert
- 22:02Speaker 1: Mueller's investigation into the President's contacts with Russia. Are these
- 22:06Speaker 1: possible obstruction of justice charges. Um. The actions that might
- 22:11Speaker 1: lead to those types of charges were laid out pretty
- 22:14Speaker 1: clearly in the Mueller Report. UM. And as president Trump
- 22:18Speaker 1: was immune from any actual criminal prosecution stemming from that,
- 22:22Speaker 1: it's a long standing Justice Department policy not to charge
- 22:25Speaker 1: the president with a criminal offense. But when he leaves office,
- 22:28Speaker 1: he becomes potentially vulnerable to those charges. Presumably there are
- 22:34Speaker 1: teams of people and all sorts of law firms and
- 22:38Speaker 1: projects and especially formed groups ready to do just that.
- 22:42Speaker 1: Give us a list or a lineup of the types
- 22:45Speaker 1: of people we might see doing it. So, to some extent,
- 22:49Speaker 1: it will depend on who President Joe Biden puts in
- 22:53Speaker 1: his Justice Department. UM, the attorney General. The new attorney
- 22:57Speaker 1: General would be certainly largely possible for making the decision
- 23:01Speaker 1: about whether to pursue federal criminal charges against the president.
- 23:05Speaker 1: I mean, that's something that Biden himself would certainly weigh
- 23:08Speaker 1: in on as well. And there are major reasons to
- 23:11Speaker 1: think that a Biden administration might not want to do that,
- 23:14Speaker 1: even if they have the evidence and the ability to
- 23:17Speaker 1: do it, just because it would be uh such a
- 23:21Speaker 1: major political event. UM that would continue to divide the
- 23:24Speaker 1: country at a time when Lue suspects the next president
- 23:27Speaker 1: would want to unify the country. UM, but other other
- 23:31Speaker 1: figures outside the federal government. Sidance is the district attorney
- 23:35Speaker 1: in Manhattan who has been investigating Trump's finances his tax
- 23:41Speaker 1: practices for a couple of years now. Of course, he
- 23:44Speaker 1: went to the Supreme Court in an effort to force
- 23:47Speaker 1: Trump to turn over his tax returns. Won that battle,
- 23:51Speaker 1: Um is sort of continuing to fight it in the
- 23:53Speaker 1: lower courts as expected at some point soon to get
- 23:55Speaker 1: ahold of Trump's taxes, and that will factor into the
- 23:57Speaker 1: state level investigation that sith Ance in New York is doing.
- 24:02Speaker 1: Um Latitia James, who is the Attorney General of the
- 24:06Speaker 1: state of New York, is doing a separate civil investigation
- 24:08Speaker 1: into Trump's real estate practices. Because it's a civil inquiry
- 24:13Speaker 1: that wouldn't involve criminal charges, the penalties would be economic
- 24:17Speaker 1: if she found something as part of that investigation, there's
- 24:21Speaker 1: some people have speculated that, you know, it could turn
- 24:24Speaker 1: into a criminal inquiry if if she turns up something
- 24:28Speaker 1: that that warrants it. So those are some of the
- 24:30Speaker 1: key figures who will be involved in these types of decisions.
- 24:33Speaker 1: If Trump loses, and is there any reason to suggest
- 24:36Speaker 1: that some of these people might team up or will
- 24:38Speaker 1: they all want to go their own separate way. So
- 24:42Speaker 1: these are all separate jurisdictions, but there's I mean, these
- 24:45Speaker 1: people will certainly all be communicating. Um, the Biden Justice
- 24:49Speaker 1: Department would I'm sure to get on the film with
- 24:51Speaker 1: scith Ance in New York and find out what he's
- 24:54Speaker 1: looking at, whether there are leads they can share, you know,
- 24:56Speaker 1: whether their investigations are overlapping in various ways. I'm sure
- 25:00Speaker 1: there'd be a similar level of communication between the teacher
- 25:03Speaker 1: James and cive ants. So yes, I mean these investigations
- 25:06Speaker 1: or potential prosecutions you know, you know, could continue along
- 25:11Speaker 1: separate path, but I certainly imagine will be communication among
- 25:14Speaker 1: the decision makers. What about private people taking cases against
- 25:19Speaker 1: the president? Will that happen? Yeah, I mean that's that's
- 25:23Speaker 1: already been happening. One of the one of the cases
- 25:26Speaker 1: that we looked at, Um, there's a group of an
- 25:29Speaker 1: anonymous group of investors who are basically arguing that Trump
- 25:34Speaker 1: encouraged them to invest in a multi tier marketing scheme
- 25:37Speaker 1: that eventually went bust and they lost a lot of money.
- 25:39Speaker 1: And are blaming, blaming Trump and a few of his
- 25:42Speaker 1: children for that. So that's the that's an example of
- 25:45Speaker 1: the type of lawsuit that we might continue to see
- 25:48Speaker 1: or maybe see see more of. Obviously, it's possible to
- 25:51Speaker 1: bring those lawsuits even when he's still president, um, but
- 25:54Speaker 1: when he's no longer president, he loses all sorts of
- 25:57Speaker 1: legal arguments that allow him to drag these things out
- 26:00Speaker 1: to avoid handing over evidence or sitting deposition or testifying
- 26:04Speaker 1: a potential trial trial down the line. So the obstacles
- 26:07Speaker 1: that would face people, you know, hoping to bring those
- 26:10Speaker 1: sorts of lawsuits would sort of begin to dissipate. You
- 26:14Speaker 1: also in your article talk about where things stand and
- 26:17Speaker 1: what happens if if President Trump, who by then may
- 26:20Speaker 1: or may not still be president, loses these different suits.
- 26:23Speaker 1: So one of them is Summers or was his defamation suits,
- 26:26Speaker 1: the eating Carol deformation suits, the Mary Trump fraud suit,
- 26:30Speaker 1: and then there's also the multiple level of marketing fraud suits,
- 26:33Speaker 1: so that the president could be locked up in these
- 26:36Speaker 1: in these suits for decades to come. I mean, right, yeah, well,
- 26:42Speaker 1: I mean with these with these existing suits, I don't
- 26:44Speaker 1: know about a decade, but you know, certainly years. And
- 26:46Speaker 1: then if more litigation emerges, then obviously that could you know,
- 26:49Speaker 1: stretch on and on. I mean, I think that one
- 26:52Speaker 1: of the main threats that he faces in the in
- 26:55Speaker 1: the two defamation suits is that in the eating Carol case,
- 26:59Speaker 1: you could Justice the part is attempting to substitute for
- 27:01Speaker 1: him as the defendant in the case, which would essentially
- 27:04Speaker 1: cause the case to to disappear because you can't actually
- 27:07Speaker 1: sue the government for for defamation. You know, if if
- 27:10Speaker 1: he if he loses the election, then you know, it's
- 27:13Speaker 1: unlikely the Justice Department would continue kind of fighting for
- 27:16Speaker 1: him in that way. So he loses, he loses that defense.
- 27:19Speaker 1: And then in the in the Summer Servs case, his
- 27:21Speaker 1: big argument has been that the president is immune from
- 27:24Speaker 1: state level civil suits. And obviously if he's no longer
- 27:27Speaker 1: president and that doesn't apply anymore. So in both those cases,
- 27:30Speaker 1: you know, relatively soon he could be in a position
- 27:33Speaker 1: where he has to give DNA evidence, he has to
- 27:36Speaker 1: fit for a deposition. Um. You know, that's not the
- 27:39Speaker 1: same as going to jail, but um it's embarrassing and
- 27:42Speaker 1: it could lead to two revelations that could be harmful
- 27:46Speaker 1: to him or the financial penalties down the line. Briefly,
- 27:49Speaker 1: will there be I mean there will be obviously, you know,
- 27:53Speaker 1: any amount of groups that are ready to back the president.
- 27:57Speaker 1: But if he's not president anymore, will they be as
- 27:59Speaker 1: likely to you know, I mean, he'll lose the resources
- 28:04Speaker 1: of the Justice Department because he'll no longer be the
- 28:07Speaker 1: head of the executive branch. Um. But he'll still be
- 28:10Speaker 1: able to hire expensive law firms to represent him in
- 28:13Speaker 1: all these cases. Um. You know, in some of these
- 28:15Speaker 1: cases is already being represented by his private lawyers. You
- 28:18Speaker 1: know nothing about those relationships. But change if he loses,
- 28:21Speaker 1: but he loses legal arguments. You know, I'm the president.
- 28:24Speaker 1: Therefore I don't have time to deal with this litigation.
- 28:26Speaker 1: I'm the president. I'm immune to this kind of investigation.
- 28:30Speaker 1: He loses all that, and he loses the resources of
- 28:33Speaker 1: the Justice Department. So those are those are major blows,
- 28:35Speaker 1: even if they don't mean that he'll be out in
- 28:38Speaker 1: the cold on his own, um, you know, on on January. Yes,
- 28:42Speaker 1: by the end of January's called the opening nine of
- 28:45Speaker 1: your article. President Trump has more at stake in this
- 28:47Speaker 1: election than whether he remains in the pointe House. Are
- 28:50Speaker 1: Thanks to David Yuffy Belany, who has this story out
- 28:54Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg Today. It's it's essentially that the big
- 28:58Speaker 1: legal threats Trump will face if he loses the election.
- 29:03Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe
- 29:07Speaker 1: and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast
- 29:10Speaker 1: platform you prefer. I'm Bonnie Quinn. I'm on Twitter at
- 29:13Speaker 1: Bonnie Quinn. And Paul Sweeney I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney.
- 29:17Speaker 1: Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at
- 29:19Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio