Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / CPI, Auto Prices, Crypto, and ESG (Podcast)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
- 0:04Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day, we bring
- 0:06Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
- 0:11Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast
- 0:15Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
- 0:18Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Let's check in with
- 0:21Speaker 1: Ira Jersey. He actually thinks about this stuff all day
- 0:25Speaker 1: when he's not thinking about soccer. Uh. That's because he's
- 0:27Speaker 1: a US interest rate strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, so we
- 0:30Speaker 1: pay him to think about this stuff. So, Ira, you
- 0:33Speaker 1: looked at the data this morning, and I'm gonna ask
- 0:35Speaker 1: you to put your little FED chairman hat on. What
- 0:38Speaker 1: are you taken away from today's data? Uh? Really not
- 0:42Speaker 1: very much. I mean I think this is more or
- 0:44Speaker 1: less what the Fed was thinking. Um. You know, Matt
- 0:47Speaker 1: just mentioned a second ago that you know, inflation is
- 0:49Speaker 1: not coming down very quickly. That's you know, very true.
- 0:51Speaker 1: And I think that that's always been the risk and
- 0:54Speaker 1: the danger is that, um, you know, the market was
- 0:57Speaker 1: pricing for inflation to come down much faster than it
- 1:00Speaker 1: was ever likely to come down, and that's one of
- 1:02Speaker 1: the reasons why what you're seeing today and and the
- 1:04Speaker 1: reason why two year yields are are off so much,
- 1:07Speaker 1: is that we're now pricing out some potential cuts later
- 1:11Speaker 1: in the year. And I think that that's probably the
- 1:13Speaker 1: right move. I do think that the FED is going
- 1:15Speaker 1: to do what it says and hike two or three
- 1:17Speaker 1: more times at twenty five basis points each then basically
- 1:20Speaker 1: do nothing for the better part of the year. And
- 1:22Speaker 1: and the market is starting to come around to that
- 1:24Speaker 1: way of thinking, which you know, Paul, I've told the
- 1:27Speaker 1: stock market due the last six weeks, not the stock market.
- 1:30Speaker 1: I mean, we rallied yesterday into this inflation print. Today
- 1:34Speaker 1: we got it and it was at expectations are higher
- 1:38Speaker 1: than expected, and were continue to see prices rise. I
- 1:42Speaker 1: just can't work it out. What what's the disconnect between
- 1:45Speaker 1: stocks and bonds? Uh, well, I can't. I can't really
- 1:49Speaker 1: speak about equity valuations, but I think maybe, um, you know,
- 1:53Speaker 1: maybe part of it is the idea that there still
- 1:55Speaker 1: is some some pricing power for certainly for some goods
- 1:58Speaker 1: and services, um you know. But I can tell you
- 2:00Speaker 1: that that from the rates perspective, you know, the reason
- 2:02Speaker 1: why you're seeing this deeper inversion of the yield curve
- 2:05Speaker 1: where now the deepest inverted that we've been in decades UM,
- 2:08Speaker 1: and we're at the and and we're likely to see
- 2:11Speaker 1: more um. You know, we have fair value on the
- 2:13Speaker 1: two year yield assuming that the Fed does what we
- 2:16Speaker 1: think it will do at around four so we still
- 2:18Speaker 1: have another five basis points to go here in in
- 2:21Speaker 1: the two year yield. And you know, we're looking for
- 2:24Speaker 1: ten year yield maybe to get up towards three ninety,
- 2:26Speaker 1: but not break four percent. So that's an interesting you know,
- 2:29Speaker 1: I think a really interesting dynamic where you can see
- 2:32Speaker 1: very inverted yield curves. You wind up with in an
- 2:35Speaker 1: environment where um, where that that probably persists for most
- 2:38Speaker 1: of the year UM and people are gonna be saying like, hey,
- 2:41Speaker 1: that that's a signal that we're going to be in
- 2:43Speaker 1: a recession blah blah blah, and and you know, maybe so,
- 2:46Speaker 1: but it's going to take a long time for that
- 2:47Speaker 1: to filter through to the to the rest of the market.
- 2:50Speaker 1: And maybe that's what the equity markets uh really thinking here,
- 2:53Speaker 1: is that we're not going to be in a recession,
- 2:55Speaker 1: that there's not going to be a very hard landing.
- 2:58Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at the ursion, it's crazy
- 3:01Speaker 1: that this is the most inversion we've been as far
- 3:04Speaker 1: as I can see since what the seventies, because you
- 3:08Speaker 1: had so the early eighties, which means that you know,
- 3:12Speaker 1: the bursting of the Internet bubble was nothing on this.
- 3:16Speaker 1: You know, nationwide housing bust, well, global housing bust uh
- 3:20Speaker 1: in the two thou eight global financial crisis didn't hold
- 3:23Speaker 1: a candle to this, right, It's it's only this recession
- 3:27Speaker 1: that gets us back to like the blow up of
- 3:29Speaker 1: Breton Woods. Well, I think though, Matt, you know, what
- 3:32Speaker 1: we have to appreciate is that this is also the
- 3:34Speaker 1: first time since the early eighties that we've had inflation
- 3:36Speaker 1: like this, right, and and it's coming down so uh
- 3:39Speaker 1: so slowly that the market is trying to adjust to
- 3:43Speaker 1: what is the near term outlook for both inflation and
- 3:47Speaker 1: you know, policy rates, which is that they're going to
- 3:49Speaker 1: it's going to remain a little bit higher for longer
- 3:51Speaker 1: than the market was initially thinking versus where are we
- 3:54Speaker 1: going to be in four years? Um So, in four
- 3:57Speaker 1: years we might be in a deflationary environment and you know,
- 4:00Speaker 1: we're not there yet, and hopefully we won't get there,
- 4:02Speaker 1: but but you can you can see an environment where
- 4:04Speaker 1: we go back more to like es level of interest
- 4:09Speaker 1: rates and of of an economy where you know, a
- 4:12Speaker 1: five or six percent mortgage is just normal. Look, I
- 4:15Speaker 1: keep on bringing this up. My first mortgage that I
- 4:17Speaker 1: got in the late nineties was seven and I thought
- 4:19Speaker 1: that was a decent rate. You know, so so, but
- 4:22Speaker 1: but what we've gotten accustomed to very low interest rates, right,
- 4:25Speaker 1: so we have to get readjusted to a higher interest
- 4:28Speaker 1: rate environment, which especially considering the prices paid. You know, uh,
- 4:33Speaker 1: who was it iceman Um from the Big Short Steve
- 4:37Speaker 1: Eisman was. I keep bringing this up, but on the
- 4:39Speaker 1: Odd Lots podcast he said, I do the back of
- 4:42Speaker 1: the napkin math from three percent rates to the seven
- 4:46Speaker 1: percent rate mortgage that we're looking at now, housing prices
- 4:50Speaker 1: have to drop thirty in order to make up for that.
- 4:54Speaker 1: People don't maybe realize what a big jump that is. Well,
- 4:58Speaker 1: but in fairness too, you have to also look the
- 5:00Speaker 1: income side of the equation, right, because if you look
- 5:02Speaker 1: at something like housing affordability. And Erica Heidelberg, who's our
- 5:05Speaker 1: mortgage strategist, who reports to me she's been doing some
- 5:07Speaker 1: great work on this. Um. You have to appreciate that
- 5:10Speaker 1: affordability is certainly lower because of the higher interest rates,
- 5:13Speaker 1: but you also have have wages that are growing at
- 5:15Speaker 1: six percent a year, right, So if you think about
- 5:17Speaker 1: it from an affordability perspective, it doesn't necessarily have to drop.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Does it have to drop you know, some level you know,
- 5:23Speaker 1: five and fiftent? Yeah? Maybe, but we also rallied yea,
- 5:27Speaker 1: you know, but but houseprace has also went up massively
- 5:29Speaker 1: over the last couple of years as well, so you
- 5:30Speaker 1: would expect potentially some type of adjustment. And quite frankly,
- 5:33Speaker 1: that's what the FET is trying to engineer right there,
- 5:36Speaker 1: trying to get some of the froth out of the
- 5:37Speaker 1: real economy. Um. That hasn't necessarily translated as directly to
- 5:41Speaker 1: the financial economy, right, That's one reason why the equity
- 5:44Speaker 1: market is maybe where it is at the moment um.
- 5:47Speaker 1: But the but but we're still much lower, right, We're
- 5:49Speaker 1: still very far off the highs, and in terms of
- 5:52Speaker 1: of equity markets, we haven't we're not making new highs
- 5:55Speaker 1: yet and um, and an environment where we're not going
- 5:58Speaker 1: to fall into recession, than then try waters probably not
- 6:02Speaker 1: can't be completely unexpected. All right, so, Ira, super bowls
- 6:06Speaker 1: over pitchers and catchers not yet, so I can actually
- 6:08Speaker 1: focus a little bit in European soccer or any soccer.
- 6:11Speaker 1: What am I? What am I watching this coming weekend? Um?
- 6:14Speaker 1: You know I haven't looked at the fixtures for this weekend,
- 6:16Speaker 1: but I know after this past weekend that the battle
- 6:19Speaker 1: at the top of the Premier League is heating up
- 6:20Speaker 1: where you don't have Manchester City up there at the moment,
- 6:23Speaker 1: you have Arsenal and Manchester United currently one and two
- 6:26Speaker 1: in the in the table. So he's gotta keep mean.
- 6:29Speaker 1: John Farrow is pretty happy, I think an Arsenal guy.
- 6:33Speaker 1: He's a Chelsea guy, but um Arsenal because Manchester UH
- 6:39Speaker 1: United about to be bought by Dubai, right, and don't know,
- 6:42Speaker 1: the little Easterner has already owned Manchester City a lot.
- 6:45Speaker 1: So all right, Ira, thanks so much for joining us,
- 6:47Speaker 1: our Jersey chief US interest rate strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence,
- 6:52Speaker 1: uh breaking down some of the inflation data and what
- 6:54Speaker 1: how the FED might interpret that data going forward and
- 6:56Speaker 1: next upcoming meetings, well more coming up. This is Bloomber.
- 7:04Speaker 1: I am in a bit of a tough spot, right,
- 7:08Speaker 1: now I'm looking for a couple of cars that you
- 7:11Speaker 1: have a couple of cars I have to have. Well,
- 7:13Speaker 1: there's there's certain first, especially the Dodge Challenger. I have
- 7:18Speaker 1: to get um not really uh before they are done
- 7:26Speaker 1: making them. So this is the last year for the
- 7:27Speaker 1: six point four Leader hemmy, and I must have that's
- 7:30Speaker 1: what I hear. A Challenger scat pack wide body. Tough
- 7:34Speaker 1: to find allocations for that, and the prices are off
- 7:37Speaker 1: the charts. I also want a Bronco, but I was
- 7:40Speaker 1: at the Ford dealership the other day and they said,
- 7:42Speaker 1: look forwards, putting a stop to the good combinations with
- 7:46Speaker 1: the big sasquatchas package you know. Um, they're just giving
- 7:50Speaker 1: out the little ones right now. So that's that's hard.
- 7:53Speaker 1: And that's not even getting into electric car territory. Because
- 7:56Speaker 1: if I wanted a Lightning right now, or if I
- 7:58Speaker 1: wanted to order a Silver to e V, I mean,
- 8:01Speaker 1: I would be paying probably a hundred grand. It's crazy.
- 8:04Speaker 1: Prices are off the charts right now. I want to
- 8:07Speaker 1: bring in David Welch, who wrote our Big Take story
- 8:10Speaker 1: today about this pricing situation. Car prices hit record highs
- 8:15Speaker 1: as automaker's limit output UM and we're seeing it really
- 8:18Speaker 1: across the industry. But evs play a big, big piece
- 8:23Speaker 1: into this right now. David joined us out of Detroit,
- 8:26Speaker 1: the motor city obviously, So David, what are you finding
- 8:29Speaker 1: Because we've been in this situation for a couple of
- 8:32Speaker 1: years now, our prices are just ramping up and it
- 8:35Speaker 1: doesn't seem like there's any end in sight. Yeah, they've
- 8:40Speaker 1: they've been going nuts since really the pandemic started. A
- 8:43Speaker 1: lot of it is production related, but going forward and
- 8:47Speaker 1: even to a circumstance right now, car companies want to
- 8:50Speaker 1: keep productions somewhat constrained because they've learned that making fewer
- 8:56Speaker 1: vehicles and selling them a big prices is just a
- 8:58Speaker 1: way better business than atting deal or loss with a
- 9:01Speaker 1: bunch of production and hoping it will sell and when
- 9:04Speaker 1: it doesn't, inevitably putting four or five dollars in rebates
- 9:07Speaker 1: out there to make it move. Um, But that's how
- 9:11Speaker 1: they've always done it. There's no way they're going to
- 9:14Speaker 1: maintain this discipline, are they. Well, we'll see, but let's
- 9:20Speaker 1: look at a few numbers first. So Too and General
- 9:24Speaker 1: Motors say that the industry probably has enough semi conductor
- 9:26Speaker 1: chips this year in the US, let's start with to
- 9:29Speaker 1: make fifteen million vehicles, which is two to two and
- 9:32Speaker 1: a half million fewer than they usually make, you know,
- 9:37Speaker 1: years with pretty strong economies and low unemployment like this one, Um,
- 9:41Speaker 1: And that's been the case for the past couple of years.
- 9:43Speaker 1: In fact, they only sold about thirteen million last year.
- 9:45Speaker 1: So there's a lot of pent up demand out there,
- 9:48Speaker 1: people looking for cars, people like you, who either couldn't
- 9:51Speaker 1: find what they wanted because it didn't exist, or they
- 9:53Speaker 1: didn't find what they wanted but a dealer was charging
- 9:56Speaker 1: two thousands over stick er and they walked, and for
- 9:57Speaker 1: that they just keep driving their card wait until prices
- 10:00Speaker 1: came back. What I would give two that would be
- 10:04Speaker 1: a dream come true. I'm hearing, David, I'm hearing on
- 10:07Speaker 1: the Challenger, Um, I'm hearing the best deal I've heard
- 10:12Speaker 1: so far as five thousand over sticker. And good friends
- 10:15Speaker 1: of mine whom I've grown up with since elementary school
- 10:18Speaker 1: are saying ten to twenty k over. I mean, look,
- 10:23Speaker 1: there's there are some crazy galaging. Those are the exceptions.
- 10:26Speaker 1: And I was searching for a key for my daughter,
- 10:29Speaker 1: helping her find a car, and you know, she ended
- 10:32Speaker 1: up having to buy some stupid thing where you basically
- 10:36Speaker 1: scotch guard the seats for four d over sticker and
- 10:39Speaker 1: that was it. And you know some are one or
- 10:41Speaker 1: two thousand over sticker. A lot of that has actually
- 10:44Speaker 1: gone away. So prisons are sockening up a little. But
- 10:46Speaker 1: there's just there's not enough production out there and still
- 10:48Speaker 1: enough pent up demand where these high prices are probably
- 10:50Speaker 1: gonna last this year and maybe into and that's when
- 10:56Speaker 1: we'll kind of figure out do they really have disciplined Yeah,
- 11:00Speaker 1: that's kind of production. I mean, I'm just looking at
- 11:03Speaker 1: you know, you have the Big Take story today out
- 11:05Speaker 1: on this topic. So you can find that at bloomber
- 11:07Speaker 1: dot com, Slash Big Take or ni space Big Take
- 11:10Speaker 1: go on the Bloomberg terminal, and it is a deeply
- 11:12Speaker 1: reported story here. But it just comes down to, I
- 11:15Speaker 1: think back to the Henry Ford. I mean, that's the
- 11:18Speaker 1: business model. Crank out, seventeen millions are and you move them.
- 11:23Speaker 1: But I mean I understand that this is a better
- 11:25Speaker 1: economic model. David. I will tell you that Paul has
- 11:27Speaker 1: been pushing for automakers to get back to peak start
- 11:31Speaker 1: for a couple of years now, so it's one of
- 11:33Speaker 1: this is along with working from home. This is one
- 11:34Speaker 1: of his pet peeves. And and there's no shortages of
- 11:39Speaker 1: chips and stuff, right, I mean so there still are,
- 11:41Speaker 1: right David, there's still Yeah, there's still It's like the
- 11:46Speaker 1: chip shortage. It is not binary. We don't go from
- 11:48Speaker 1: having nuns having as many as you possibly wanted things
- 11:50Speaker 1: all over by the roadside like that. We we're like
- 11:53Speaker 1: I said, we're going to go from having a dearth
- 11:57Speaker 1: of chips to being able to make about fifteen million
- 12:00Speaker 1: US this year. That's not near peak ins fact, that's
- 12:03Speaker 1: twelve fifty percent Bulle peak. So if you have if
- 12:05Speaker 1: you're still twelve to fifty Bullie peak in terms of
- 12:07Speaker 1: what you canm produce this year, and there's still a
- 12:10Speaker 1: lot of consumers out there, like you guys who want
- 12:12Speaker 1: a car, then it's still a sellers market. And I'll
- 12:16Speaker 1: throw one more thing at you. This year and next
- 12:19Speaker 1: we're gonna have about five or six hundred thousand fewer
- 12:22Speaker 1: vehicles coming off lease because automakers and fevers were not
- 12:25Speaker 1: leasing as much. So people can the cars they purchased,
- 12:29Speaker 1: they can hold longer than at least least you gotta
- 12:30Speaker 1: you gotta buy the car, get something new. It's just
- 12:32Speaker 1: what's the contract siss. So the used market, even though
- 12:36Speaker 1: that has been softening up a bit, is still not
- 12:41Speaker 1: going to come roaring back as a source for cars
- 12:43Speaker 1: because you don't have as many coming off least. I'm
- 12:45Speaker 1: not saying prices won't weaken this year for new and
- 12:47Speaker 1: used cars. I think they will. But in order for
- 12:49Speaker 1: to get really affordable, which is the whole point of
- 12:51Speaker 1: the big take, for middle class buyers to be able
- 12:53Speaker 1: to afford this and get a payment from the current
- 12:55Speaker 1: rate of seven seventy bucks a month down to more
- 12:58Speaker 1: affordable four month, prices will need to soften the world
- 13:01Speaker 1: this year. They need to collapse. They're not, they're not,
- 13:04Speaker 1: but we do see some softening. You put up point
- 13:07Speaker 1: out in the story, and I remember, um, Paul and
- 13:10Speaker 1: I spoke with Keith Notton when he when he when
- 13:13Speaker 1: he had talked just talked to Ford about cutting prices
- 13:16Speaker 1: on the Mockee that and they told him in response
- 13:20Speaker 1: this question, why, um, well, we got to do it
- 13:22Speaker 1: because Tesla just cut prices. So you're starting to see
- 13:24Speaker 1: little cracks, right, And the question is can uh you know,
- 13:30Speaker 1: if if Jim Farley and Elon Musk are already um
- 13:34Speaker 1: you know, are already falling falling out of rank um
- 13:39Speaker 1: can Mary Barra and Mark Royce and the rest of
- 13:43Speaker 1: the industry. You know, hold hold hold the line for
- 13:47Speaker 1: the moment. I think the EV market and the internal
- 13:51Speaker 1: combustion vehicle market are kind of two different markets. Uh.
- 13:54Speaker 1: And also after after Chess of cut prices, they went
- 13:56Speaker 1: back and it's not increase um. There are some other
- 14:00Speaker 1: dynamics going on there. Some of the price decreases we
- 14:03Speaker 1: saw from Forward and Tessa were so they can get
- 14:06Speaker 1: their sticker prices under the thresholds where their customers can
- 14:08Speaker 1: get federal tax credits. So you drop your the price
- 14:12Speaker 1: of your car by three thousand, you get under a
- 14:14Speaker 1: certain threshold, and the government gives that from swing under
- 14:16Speaker 1: seventy bucks or bucks whatever, you know, whatever it comes
- 14:19Speaker 1: out to for that vehicle, and it's an even bigger
- 14:22Speaker 1: bonus and they'll sell more thanks to Uncle Sam. So
- 14:25Speaker 1: there was some of that going on, and I do
- 14:27Speaker 1: think Look, Test was in a funky position right now.
- 14:31Speaker 1: They have a ton of production capacity coming online that's
- 14:34Speaker 1: pretty new, and and the plant now some types hasn't
- 14:38Speaker 1: even really begun to get close to full production. So
- 14:41Speaker 1: Ellen saw his sales goals being missed. He wanted to
- 14:44Speaker 1: grow sales. He only grew up by forty still great
- 14:47Speaker 1: by anyone else's standards, but that was it um and
- 14:50Speaker 1: he didn't like that. He has a ton of production
- 14:52Speaker 1: coming online. All of his vehicles, particularly the models and
- 14:56Speaker 1: the modeloques haven't been redesigned in almost a decade. The
- 14:59Speaker 1: model as almost told enough to shave. So he's got
- 15:03Speaker 1: and look at his cars. People love them. They're good products,
- 15:07Speaker 1: but they all go like so the like tests with
- 15:09Speaker 1: vehicles are different sizes and shapes of the same sauceage.
- 15:13Speaker 1: So you know, I think he's got three things going on.
- 15:16Speaker 1: He does have new competition coming in from Foard, GM,
- 15:19Speaker 1: Volkswagen out uh BMW Mercendies had vehicles out the Koreans
- 15:23Speaker 1: Hunt i KA have some very good products out there,
- 15:26Speaker 1: so that he has competition, He has a ton of
- 15:27Speaker 1: compassion becoming online, and he has I'm fresh in any
- 15:29Speaker 1: of his vehicles. All of that, all of that is
- 15:32Speaker 1: any other vehicle market, any of the vehicles segment says
- 15:35Speaker 1: you gotta cut prices, and I think that David Real
- 15:37Speaker 1: Real quickly thirty seconds. What are consumers doing today? Are they?
- 15:41Speaker 1: Are they paying a hundred thousand dollars for a pickup trend?
- 15:44Speaker 1: Some of them are. Yeah, So like there are a
- 15:48Speaker 1: variety of things going on. People are buying expensive vehicles,
- 15:52Speaker 1: but that's your wealthy or more fooling consumers. A lot
- 15:55Speaker 1: of your middle class consumers are either writing or vehicle
- 15:58Speaker 1: for another year or two and just putting money into repairs,
- 16:01Speaker 1: or they're buying like eight nine year old vehicles in
- 16:04Speaker 1: the youth markets because that's where you can really get affordably.
- 16:06Speaker 1: Right now, all right, amazing stuff. I mean, I'll be
- 16:10Speaker 1: it's fascinating to see if this industry can maintain its discipline. Uh,
- 16:13Speaker 1: but we'll see. David Watch, Detroit Bureau Chief or Bloomberg News.
- 16:20Speaker 1: All right, let's talk crypto and there's a million ways
- 16:23Speaker 1: we can go here, but I want to go crypto regulation.
- 16:27Speaker 1: I mean, is this a space that's going to be regulated?
- 16:29Speaker 1: Needs to be regulated? For all that stuff? We turn
- 16:32Speaker 1: to Nathan Dean, He's a senior policy analysts for Bloomberg Intelligence. Nathan,
- 16:36Speaker 1: you're the smart guy in the room. BS and management
- 16:38Speaker 1: from Purdue Heckla Hoops team. This year. Where did that
- 16:40Speaker 1: come from? And then an NBA from Chicago, So you
- 16:43Speaker 1: are over educated to that to the max. What do
- 16:45Speaker 1: you make of all this crypto space in terms of regulation?
- 16:48Speaker 1: You know, it sounds like there's a massive crackdown coming.
- 16:51Speaker 1: And I mean just putting it in Purdue terms, it's
- 16:53Speaker 1: like if produced you know, playing the uh you know,
- 16:56Speaker 1: one of the smallest teams out there. It's just one
- 16:58Speaker 1: of those things where you know, we've seen over the
- 17:00Speaker 1: past year the SEC c come in and register, come
- 17:02Speaker 1: and talk to us. In the industry largely has not,
- 17:05Speaker 1: and just within the last few months we've started to
- 17:08Speaker 1: see the SEC start to crack the whip. One of
- 17:10Speaker 1: the things that they've done is they've sent out what
- 17:12Speaker 1: are known as wells notices out to many different crypto players.
- 17:16Speaker 1: In fact, packs so's announced that they had received one. Essentially,
- 17:19Speaker 1: what this is is the SEC has decided we're going
- 17:21Speaker 1: to take an enforcement action against you, but we're just
- 17:23Speaker 1: giving you a heads up so that you can give
- 17:25Speaker 1: us a written response of why we shouldn't do this.
- 17:28Speaker 1: It's not going to stop the SEC, but we are
- 17:31Speaker 1: going to see a lot more enforcement actions between now
- 17:34Speaker 1: and the next few months. And that's really going to
- 17:36Speaker 1: issue a further chill to the industry. I get how
- 17:39Speaker 1: staking could be considered a security, certainly staking as a service,
- 17:43Speaker 1: um in the cracking case. It's harder for me to
- 17:47Speaker 1: grasp how stable coin is a security because you're not
- 17:51Speaker 1: expecting any return from a stable coin. No. So, actually,
- 17:55Speaker 1: sec each chairman Gary Ginsler gave a speech last year
- 17:57Speaker 1: where you essentially insinuated a stable coins of money mark
- 18:00Speaker 1: good funds and money market funds has its own, you know,
- 18:03Speaker 1: regulatory regime, and in the sec S eyes, you know
- 18:07Speaker 1: potentially they should be following that money market reform. Now,
- 18:10Speaker 1: if you assume that they're not a security, well then
- 18:12Speaker 1: they could be considered a deposit. And if they are
- 18:14Speaker 1: a deposit, then there are other types of banking regulations
- 18:17Speaker 1: that need to apply here. And so I think when
- 18:20Speaker 1: you move forward with stable coins, the idea here is
- 18:22Speaker 1: is that there's got to be some type of regulation.
- 18:25Speaker 1: You can't have nothing. But the question is what does
- 18:28Speaker 1: it look like now. I still believe that Congress will
- 18:30Speaker 1: eventually move forward on a stable coin regulation. In fact,
- 18:34Speaker 1: as we speak right now, the Senate Banking Committee is
- 18:36Speaker 1: talking about this. But you know, outside of stable coins.
- 18:39Speaker 1: For the rest of the crypto industry, it's really not
- 18:43Speaker 1: looking good right now in terms of new regulations. Is
- 18:46Speaker 1: this to what extent? Is this maybe increased regulatory attention
- 18:52Speaker 1: a function of FTX going bust and Sam Bankman freedom
- 18:55Speaker 1: all that mess. Oh? Absolutely, I mean this gave it
- 18:58Speaker 1: was like given the politicians a piece of andy and
- 19:00Speaker 1: making them all excited because it gave them a talking point.
- 19:03Speaker 1: You know, they can understand the failure of a company.
- 19:06Speaker 1: They understand that there are over nine million creditors out
- 19:09Speaker 1: there who potentially may not get their funds back. And
- 19:12Speaker 1: this is essentially giving politicians the ability to say, we
- 19:15Speaker 1: need new regulation, we need customer protections, we need anti
- 19:19Speaker 1: money launching. The problem is that there are multiple different
- 19:22Speaker 1: ideas out there right now. Senator Brown is talking about
- 19:25Speaker 1: doing this. Senator Tim Scott, the ranking member for the
- 19:27Speaker 1: Senate Banking Committee, was talking about putting in new customer protections.
- 19:31Speaker 1: Senator Elizabeth Warren is actually building a coalition including some
- 19:35Speaker 1: conservative Republicans, to come up with her own crypto bill,
- 19:39Speaker 1: and this is where it's going to play out over
- 19:41Speaker 1: the next six months. The problem for the crypto industry, though,
- 19:45Speaker 1: is that they've always said they want clarity. The problem
- 19:48Speaker 1: is is that the clarity is coming, or it could
- 19:50Speaker 1: be coming, and it may not be exactly what they want.
- 19:53Speaker 1: It may be very very onerous, very restrictive, and it's
- 19:57Speaker 1: gonna cost a lot of money to comply with it.
- 19:59Speaker 1: All right, let's get onto it. Well. First of all,
- 20:00Speaker 1: let me plug my show, uh Bloomberg Bloomberg Crypto one
- 20:04Speaker 1: pm this afternoon. We are focused on this issue for
- 20:08Speaker 1: a full thirty minutes. Nice, which is I guarantee the
- 20:11Speaker 1: most you want to hear about it? Okay, is the
- 20:15Speaker 1: upper limit? You don't want to hear anymore about token? Yeah, no,
- 20:19Speaker 1: it's doing great. Um. I want to talk though, while
- 20:21Speaker 1: we have you, Nathan, about some of the other things.
- 20:22Speaker 1: First of all, whatever happened to this guy is falling
- 20:25Speaker 1: dead ceiling? People? Are they still like warning about how
- 20:28Speaker 1: horrible this is and what a problem we face. Yeah,
- 20:31Speaker 1: but now that the State of the Union is over,
- 20:33Speaker 1: you know, the Congress is actually turning back to other topics.
- 20:37Speaker 1: I mean the dead ceiling. The problem with the dead ceiling.
- 20:39Speaker 1: It was a good thing that the politicians began to
- 20:42Speaker 1: look at it on an earlier earlier in the year.
- 20:44Speaker 1: I honestly didn't think they were going to do that. Um,
- 20:47Speaker 1: you know, but they've gotten their initial talking points through
- 20:50Speaker 1: out there in the public, and now they've turned to
- 20:52Speaker 1: other issues. The problem with it is is that with
- 20:55Speaker 1: Treasury setting this June fifth date, in our own rate
- 20:57Speaker 1: strategist Irish Jersey saying, potentially even September October is the
- 21:01Speaker 1: X date, Congress has a lot of time to sit
- 21:03Speaker 1: around and do nothing, and so it's more likely going
- 21:06Speaker 1: to be one of those situations where they'll start talking
- 21:09Speaker 1: about it again. But until the market and until New
- 21:11Speaker 1: York comes down and says, folks, you need to start
- 21:14Speaker 1: looking at this. We're getting worried, that's when they'll actually
- 21:17Speaker 1: start negotiating. So I think you'll see some more negotiations,
- 21:20Speaker 1: probably in April or May uh, and then certainly more
- 21:23Speaker 1: information if that June d gets pushed back out to
- 21:25Speaker 1: September October. All right, then the two things that I
- 21:28Speaker 1: always need to keep abreast of, okay, uh, safe banking
- 21:32Speaker 1: so that weed companies can can expand and grow, and
- 21:35Speaker 1: then um, the salt tax deduction. What do we know, Nathan,
- 21:41Speaker 1: You know I'm not giving you good hopes on either
- 21:43Speaker 1: of them. I mean when it comes to safe banking. Uh,
- 21:45Speaker 1: you know, there was a real opportunity to get it
- 21:47Speaker 1: done last year in the lame duck. Uh. You know,
- 21:49Speaker 1: we're gonna see a catalyst around April twenty if that's
- 21:51Speaker 1: when the Senate Democrats especially like to yeah exactly that
- 21:56Speaker 1: you'll see a lot of catalysts and a lot of
- 21:57Speaker 1: movement around April twenty. But we just don't it. I mean,
- 22:00Speaker 1: the one thing for the marijuana industry going right now
- 22:02Speaker 1: is that President Biden has directed his agencies to look
- 22:05Speaker 1: at reschedulizing, uh every declassifying marijuana. But that's a multi
- 22:09Speaker 1: Schedule one drug? Is it still a Schedule one drug?
- 22:12Speaker 1: Still a Schedule one drug? And yeah, and you know
- 22:17Speaker 1: it does give the industry hope that a change is coming,
- 22:20Speaker 1: but it's a multi year process, and you know, regulations
- 22:23Speaker 1: never moved fast. And then on the salt deduction, you know,
- 22:26Speaker 1: we saw the Salt Coalition, the lawmakers from New York
- 22:30Speaker 1: and New Jersey give a speech last week outside the
- 22:32Speaker 1: Capitol Hill and I'm just sorry again for the folks
- 22:35Speaker 1: in New York and New Jersey. It's just not something
- 22:37Speaker 1: that I think is gonna happen anytime soon, alright, as
- 22:39Speaker 1: long as they don't extend it past Oh that's when
- 22:42Speaker 1: a sunset, that's when the Trump uh tax thing wears off. Yeah,
- 22:48Speaker 1: thirty seconds. Think what will they get done in the
- 22:51Speaker 1: next couple of years? So, you know, I think you're
- 22:54Speaker 1: gonna have to see anti China. You know, anti being
- 22:58Speaker 1: anti China is really popular big tech. You know, there's
- 23:01Speaker 1: a lot of ideas floating around there in terms of
- 23:03Speaker 1: technology right now. That's gonna take some time. But you've
- 23:06Speaker 1: got to look at these months past pieces of legislation,
- 23:08Speaker 1: so like the dead stealing the government funding bills and
- 23:10Speaker 1: so forth. That's when the lobbyists are going to try
- 23:13Speaker 1: and attach things like the salt deduction uh and potentially
- 23:16Speaker 1: try and you know, get government to pass it that way.
- 23:19Speaker 1: So I'm not saying things can't get done. It's just
- 23:21Speaker 1: it's not gonna be these gradioseconomic stimulus bills. All right.
- 23:24Speaker 1: That's called gridlock, I think is kind of what we Yeah,
- 23:27Speaker 1: that's why we give him thirty seconds to tell us
- 23:28Speaker 1: what Congress is gonna get done exactly, all right, Nathan,
- 23:31Speaker 1: good stuff. If they if they do get anything done,
- 23:33Speaker 1: give us a ring, and we'll certainly chat about it.
- 23:35Speaker 1: Nathan Dean, senior policy annals for US and Latin America
- 23:38Speaker 1: for Bloomberg Intelligence. That's right. I mean, I'll tell you
- 23:42Speaker 1: almost nobody on Wall Street has policy annals like we do,
- 23:45Speaker 1: covered all different parts of the government and where policy
- 23:49Speaker 1: can impact industries and companies. So nobody knows it like
- 23:51Speaker 1: our Nathans. Nobody knows that like our Nathan's. We're gonna
- 23:54Speaker 1: more coming up. This is Bloomberg. All right. Let's talk
- 24:00Speaker 1: about a big, big picture topic here. We're talking E
- 24:04Speaker 1: s G. We're talking diversity um maybe in the technology space,
- 24:08Speaker 1: because there's been some some news coming out of Silicon
- 24:10Speaker 1: Valley on that front. And there was a recent op
- 24:13Speaker 1: ed in Newsweek entitled why Elon Musk and Peter Thiel
- 24:17Speaker 1: are wrong on E S G Investing? And the person
- 24:19Speaker 1: who wrote that op ed piece isn't Bloomberg in her
- 24:22Speaker 1: active broker studio. Help me out with the pronunciation here, Anniellason.
- 24:26Speaker 1: She's a founder of Edge and Power. She's based in Zurich,
- 24:31Speaker 1: but she's here in our Bloomberg in actor broker studio today.
- 24:33Speaker 1: How good is that? Aniella? Thanks so much for joining us.
- 24:36Speaker 1: Here talk to us about why you wrote this OpEd
- 24:39Speaker 1: and what are some of the key takeaways from your
- 24:40Speaker 1: operator as you think about diversity inequality. Thank you for
- 24:45Speaker 1: having me so. One of the main reasons why we
- 24:48Speaker 1: wrote that opened is that, of course, with all the
- 24:51Speaker 1: layoffs that are going on in the tech sector right now,
- 24:54Speaker 1: the big question is why should companies continue their investments
- 24:58Speaker 1: in diversity equita susan. Are these investments only making sense
- 25:03Speaker 1: when things are going well and times are good, and
- 25:07Speaker 1: it is this disposable investment in that times. And there
- 25:12Speaker 1: are three reasons why we believe that companies should continue
- 25:16Speaker 1: their dn I investments also in tougher times, in times
- 25:21Speaker 1: of dayoffs. First and foremost, it's because study after study
- 25:26Speaker 1: shows positive correlation between profitability and diversity. The most recent
- 25:32Speaker 1: one published in January by the World Economic Forum shows
- 25:35Speaker 1: that ethnically diverse and gender diverse companies outperformed their industry
- 25:42Speaker 1: peers in terms of profitability by thirty six percent and
- 25:47Speaker 1: twenty five per cent. That is fascinating because I would
- 25:50Speaker 1: expect and our performance in terms of revenue growth. Right
- 25:54Speaker 1: if you want to sell more stuff to more people,
- 25:57Speaker 1: you need to get more people to sell that stuff
- 26:00Speaker 1: right um in a sense, But profitability is an even
- 26:04Speaker 1: more interesting metric. Why why do you think that is?
- 26:06Speaker 1: I think that profitability is also related to the capacity
- 26:10Speaker 1: of the organization to show agility, to adapt to changing
- 26:13Speaker 1: market conditions, to show resilience, and to show an increased
- 26:18Speaker 1: capacity to innovate. And all these are positively correlated with
- 26:22Speaker 1: a more diverse workforce. So just looking at your that
- 26:26Speaker 1: was only one three oh three, gore you just jump
- 26:30Speaker 1: in all the time. What's reason number two? Why we
- 26:32Speaker 1: should care about reason number two is that we should
- 26:34Speaker 1: really care about people who stay in the workforce, So
- 26:38Speaker 1: we should really give them some good news and positive
- 26:42Speaker 1: vibes and showing them that we need them to stay
- 26:45Speaker 1: engaged as opposed to quiet equitters, as opposed to quiet quitters.
- 26:48Speaker 1: And very interestingly, a Gallop study show that in the
- 26:53Speaker 1: US right now, the number one reason for diverse talent,
- 26:57Speaker 1: women and other historically underrepresented groups to join or to
- 27:04Speaker 1: stay a company is how well they feel respected, what
- 27:09Speaker 1: is their work life balance, and what is their personal
- 27:12Speaker 1: well being taken care of in the workplace. So these
- 27:15Speaker 1: are key ingredients for engagement. Alongside it's a good motivator
- 27:19Speaker 1: is basically what you're saying exactly. What's number three. Number
- 27:22Speaker 1: three is that, of course we need to take a
- 27:25Speaker 1: long term view of diversity, equity and inclusion. We cannot
- 27:28Speaker 1: continue considering it as a layer on top of an
- 27:32Speaker 1: organizational core purpose. It's fundamental to it because it's investment
- 27:36Speaker 1: in people. So there has been. Number three is a
- 27:40Speaker 1: little softer than I think. Number three is a little
- 27:42Speaker 1: bit wishier, washier than number I mean, number one. I
- 27:44Speaker 1: get it, you're driving the bottom line. Number two, okay,
- 27:47Speaker 1: you're motivating your soldiers. Number three, we should because we should,
- 27:51Speaker 1: well not exactly. In the last three months, one in
- 27:56Speaker 1: four American employees where truth it whether they were looking
- 28:02Speaker 1: actively for an opportunity or not, and thirty nine percent
- 28:05Speaker 1: of those decline a job offer because the company could
- 28:08Speaker 1: not demonstrate their commitments to diversity, equity inclusion. Now, in
- 28:14Speaker 1: a market where there is a lot of competing demand
- 28:18Speaker 1: for talent, being able to demonstrate long term commitment to
- 28:21Speaker 1: that gives you an edge in terms of attracting, retaining,
- 28:26Speaker 1: and motivating the best talent. Okay, sorry, now go ahead, Sorry,
- 28:31Speaker 1: I just wanted to get through those I know. Let
- 28:32Speaker 1: me take the other side. Of the coins. Some influential
- 28:34Speaker 1: folks out there, Elon Musk, the pushing back on this stuff.
- 28:37Speaker 1: Elon Musk recently called E s G the devil. Peter
- 28:41Speaker 1: Teel's out there and some others, Bill Actman and so
- 28:43Speaker 1: on and so forth. What is there? And we've had
- 28:46Speaker 1: effect Ramaswani come in here and say he's telling companies
- 28:49Speaker 1: just focused on profits, don't worry about social stuff. He
- 28:52Speaker 1: would like reason number one, He might even like reason
- 28:55Speaker 1: number two. He might. Yeah, So what's the pushback that
- 28:58Speaker 1: that you in the s G community are seeing from
- 29:01Speaker 1: some of these folks. Yes, So I think that that
- 29:03Speaker 1: the main pushback is related exactly to what you said. E.
- 29:06Speaker 1: S G is perceived as wishy washy. And why is
- 29:09Speaker 1: E s G perceived as wishy washy Because we do
- 29:12Speaker 1: not feel that we can measure some of the aspects
- 29:15Speaker 1: behind the s G, especially behind the S and behind
- 29:18Speaker 1: the G taxonomy just isn't there in objective ways. We
- 29:21Speaker 1: cannot agree how material some of those topics are, and
- 29:25Speaker 1: we cannot agree to some standards of excellence when it
- 29:29Speaker 1: comes to the s G. So because we cannot make
- 29:33Speaker 1: that link, which is undoubtedly there, we tend to think
- 29:38Speaker 1: that E s G it is an afterthought and it's
- 29:41Speaker 1: destroying shareholder value, while e s G is about creating
- 29:46Speaker 1: sustainable shareholder value and keeping the company competitive long term. Well,
- 29:52Speaker 1: see the argument the background a Swami would make if
- 29:55Speaker 1: you were here. Actually I can't speak for him, no,
- 29:57Speaker 1: but I would guess he would say, Look, my number
- 30:00Speaker 1: one motivation is profit, and if I need to put
- 30:04Speaker 1: uh some environmental or social concerns aside for that, I'm
- 30:09Speaker 1: going to do it. Yes, I think that you will
- 30:13Speaker 1: always have investors. You might think that's short sided. Well,
- 30:16Speaker 1: I think that that's his opinion and he's entitled to
- 30:18Speaker 1: have it. I think that the beauty of guessing that's
- 30:21Speaker 1: his opinion. I can't. We haven't have both of you
- 30:24Speaker 1: on together. That would be a very good conversation. I
- 30:26Speaker 1: think that the idea of it is to go beyond
- 30:30Speaker 1: this very polarized view. I think that there will always
- 30:32Speaker 1: be companies and investors that will take that view. Our
- 30:35Speaker 1: focus is profit, profit only short term, and there will
- 30:39Speaker 1: be companies who will take a longer term view of
- 30:42Speaker 1: how they create value for their stakeholders, and the two
- 30:46Speaker 1: can coexist. We just have to make sure that we
- 30:51Speaker 1: there are very clear signs because they will always be
- 30:53Speaker 1: people who want to work for one company or to
- 30:56Speaker 1: the or or the other, or who would want to
- 30:58Speaker 1: invest in one rather than the other. Well, in this
- 31:00Speaker 1: E s G also seems to me in a sense
- 31:03Speaker 1: like um the crypto industry, in that it's nascent, right,
- 31:08Speaker 1: it's still growing up and getting into its adolescence. We
- 31:14Speaker 1: just started talking about this really a decade ago, and
- 31:18Speaker 1: we haven't developed the classifications, we haven't developed the metrics,
- 31:22Speaker 1: standard metrics that we all agree on yet, but we're
- 31:25Speaker 1: doing that. For example, you help Bloomberg work on the
- 31:28Speaker 1: gender Equality Index, don't you so? And as we get
- 31:31Speaker 1: more metrics like that, and you can show investors, hey,
- 31:35Speaker 1: look this chart goes up and to the right, then
- 31:38Speaker 1: they're gonna get on board. Yes, And I think that,
- 31:41Speaker 1: you know, coming from Europe, I think that Europe is
- 31:44Speaker 1: a little bit further ahead when it comes to creating
- 31:47Speaker 1: that taxonomy and creating that clarity around the debate. Because
- 31:52Speaker 1: one of the things that I still believe needs to
- 31:54Speaker 1: be clarified is that E s G and E s
- 31:57Speaker 1: G investments do not necessarily imply a focus on having
- 32:04Speaker 1: a positive E s G related impact E s G
- 32:07Speaker 1: investment can be simply considering the E s G related
- 32:13Speaker 1: risks as part of a certain number of risks in
- 32:18Speaker 1: evaluating the risk of the portfolio. Or it can be
- 32:23Speaker 1: considering E s G risks as being the main risks.
- 32:27Speaker 1: Or it can be impact investment, which is making investments
- 32:32Speaker 1: with the intent to have a positive E s G impact.
- 32:36Speaker 1: It's a big broad bucket, it is, and I think
- 32:38Speaker 1: that there is confusion between the outcome and the process
- 32:42Speaker 1: in some of these conversations, right yea. Or just just
- 32:45Speaker 1: to let you know how seriously Bloomberg the terminal takes
- 32:49Speaker 1: E s G. If you go to one of the
- 32:50Speaker 1: most widely used functions for financial analysis on the Bloomber terminal,
- 32:53Speaker 1: f A, go for any ticker right up there with
- 32:56Speaker 1: the income statement, the balance sheet, the cash low statement,
- 32:58Speaker 1: there's a tab for E s G M the clip
- 33:01Speaker 1: on that tab you'll see all the E s G
- 33:03Speaker 1: metrics on a historical basis that Bloomberg captures for these companies.
- 33:09Speaker 1: So uh, it's you know, just from the Bloomberg perspective.
- 33:12Speaker 1: In terms of the efficacy of the data, we value
- 33:14Speaker 1: it as we would income statement data, balance sheet data.
- 33:17Speaker 1: Think things like we're trying to build that function exactly right,
- 33:20Speaker 1: and I would imagine we're working with people I cannela
- 33:24Speaker 1: to do it. Yeah. So, and I think that you know,
- 33:27Speaker 1: another way to look at the s G E s
- 33:29Speaker 1: G is being good ancestors, right, it's behaving respectfully knowing
- 33:34Speaker 1: that we live in a world with limited resources and
- 33:37Speaker 1: thinking what kind of a planet, what kind of economy,
- 33:41Speaker 1: what kind of the social fabric we leave to the
- 33:44Speaker 1: seventh generation down the line? Ye great stuff, An Godson,
- 33:48Speaker 1: founder of Edge Empower based in Geneva. I believe right,
- 33:53Speaker 1: zurch Geneva, zur Okay, good stuff. Join the University of Geneva,
- 33:59Speaker 1: NBA from university and even why didn't I think of
- 34:01Speaker 1: that Duke was fun, but Geneva would have been maybe
- 34:03Speaker 1: a little bit better. Joining us here in a blubern
- 34:05Speaker 1: Actor broker studio. We're breaking down talking all the E.
- 34:07Speaker 1: S G stuff. It continues to be get big issue
- 34:09Speaker 1: for investors. Market sharply lower here this morning. I got
- 34:16Speaker 1: that print of inflation um kind of suggesting maybe some
- 34:20Speaker 1: folks are saying, maybe this friend is gonna stay a
- 34:22Speaker 1: little bit higher for longer. Uh, let's check in with
- 34:25Speaker 1: two Sharma founder and investment manager of Alpha Structure l
- 34:29Speaker 1: l C. Two. We had that big inflation print this morning.
- 34:33Speaker 1: What do you've had, you know, a few hours here
- 34:35Speaker 1: to die digested? What do you make of it? Hi,
- 34:39Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Uh. Clearly we're seeing, um,
- 34:43Speaker 1: some metrics of inflation come down, but we're seeing others increase. Overall,
- 34:49Speaker 1: the inflation dynamics remains uh, unprereddictable. I think it's hard
- 34:55Speaker 1: to say, um, how the numbers are going to pan
- 34:59Speaker 1: out over the next few months, but I think we
- 35:03Speaker 1: can clearly say that inflation is not coming down at
- 35:07Speaker 1: the rate that Fred would like to see. Um, we are.
- 35:12Speaker 1: It's possible last year we've seen goods inflation come down,
- 35:16Speaker 1: but services remain higher. And it's possible that some of
- 35:22Speaker 1: that consumer spending last year, which was more driven by
- 35:25Speaker 1: travel and leisures, some of may come back to goods
- 35:29Speaker 1: again this year. So I think um, UM, I think
- 35:34Speaker 1: the Fed is um. It's I think the Freed is
- 35:38Speaker 1: likely to say, uh in that inflation control mode and
- 35:43Speaker 1: they want to keep the interest rates higher for longer.
- 35:46Speaker 1: So I mean we rallied into this number yesterday. Um.
- 35:51Speaker 1: You know, equities really have been on a tear since
- 35:54Speaker 1: the October lows. We're trading at four thousand, one hundred basically,
- 36:00Speaker 1: which is in line with strategists expectations for the year end.
- 36:06Speaker 1: So in that case, I mean, aren't we too highly
- 36:10Speaker 1: valued here at you know, eighteen times earnings? I think
- 36:16Speaker 1: I actually agree with you. I think equity valuations are
- 36:19Speaker 1: are very high, and it is It's a bit of
- 36:21Speaker 1: a surprise to me also given the disconnect between the
- 36:25Speaker 1: bond market and the equity markets, because we've seen yields
- 36:29Speaker 1: rise across the short end and the long end in
- 36:32Speaker 1: light of some of this recent data, we've seen the
- 36:36Speaker 1: economic data being very strong and the risk of a
- 36:38Speaker 1: recession getting uh pushed back. UM. The labor market is
- 36:44Speaker 1: remains very strong, so there is no reason for the
- 36:47Speaker 1: Fed to come around and cut right right now. They
- 36:51Speaker 1: can focus on this inflation dynamic because the unemployment data
- 36:54Speaker 1: remains UH very strong. And so to see the equity
- 37:00Speaker 1: markets rally like they have given all this uh, you know,
- 37:04Speaker 1: the the underlying interest rate environment remaining UM in a
- 37:09Speaker 1: tightening space is surprising and and I think partly it
- 37:14Speaker 1: is driven by the fact that, yes, we have seen
- 37:17Speaker 1: the econ me stronger the corporate turnings for not as
- 37:21Speaker 1: weak as sphere, So there's some positive around that. But
- 37:26Speaker 1: partly I think it has a lot of It has
- 37:28Speaker 1: been a lot of positioning. The biggest positioning that we
- 37:32Speaker 1: had in the last year. Uh, that's playing right now.
- 37:36Speaker 1: Now let's put this in. Let's put this key too
- 37:38Speaker 1: into perspective. So listeners understand, before you founded Alpha's future, um,
- 37:43Speaker 1: and after you graduated long in business school, you went
- 37:46Speaker 1: on to really have a broad career. You worked at
- 37:50Speaker 1: an insurance company, you were a credit ratings analyst, you
- 37:54Speaker 1: were in equities at Credit Suite, and then picked Ted
- 37:56Speaker 1: asset Management. So you've you've been across as sets and
- 38:01Speaker 1: in regions around the world. What what are we heading
- 38:04Speaker 1: for right now? What does it look like to you?
- 38:06Speaker 1: This you know, recession that's so widely forecast globally. Thank
- 38:12Speaker 1: you for the uh you know, sharing my background. Uh yeah,
- 38:17Speaker 1: it has been UM. I mean, I think the the
- 38:21Speaker 1: diversity of perspective I have really helped me look at
- 38:25Speaker 1: markets from different angles. And uh, what we're seeing right
- 38:29Speaker 1: now is that your base rates based interest rates, the
- 38:33Speaker 1: risk free rates are going up. The real rates are high,
- 38:37Speaker 1: but the equity the premium, which is the excess reward
- 38:42Speaker 1: you you want for taking equity equity risk that is
- 38:46Speaker 1: coming down and UM and that is a disconnect given that, uh,
- 38:52Speaker 1: you know, ultimately we've we've seen peak economy and UM
- 38:56Speaker 1: an inflation outlook is still very high. So UM, I
- 39:01Speaker 1: think from our valuation standpoint, we really have to be
- 39:04Speaker 1: careful about what we buy right now. We don't want
- 39:07Speaker 1: to indiscriminately change this market rally. We should at least
- 39:12Speaker 1: from our perspective, what we're recommending to our investors is
- 39:15Speaker 1: to focus on companies that have quality, that can that
- 39:20Speaker 1: have frightened power, that have valuation support uh, rather than
- 39:25Speaker 1: those which are interest rate sensitive and therefore uh you know,
- 39:29Speaker 1: may suffer from just reduction and valuation multiples. So what
- 39:34Speaker 1: are some of the examples that fit into the bucket
- 39:36Speaker 1: that you feel like are higher quality, perhaps a little
- 39:38Speaker 1: bit bit safer in this uncertain time. So we are
- 39:42Speaker 1: looking at value opportunities and industrials, healthcare, also technology. UH.
- 39:48Speaker 1: The companies that have uh you know, have some structural
- 39:53Speaker 1: mega trends and can grow with the with the economy. Also,
- 39:58Speaker 1: you know, at a global level, companies that can grow
- 40:01Speaker 1: with the China reopening story and Europe recovering from last
- 40:06Speaker 1: year's kind of energy crisis. Um. And also quality defenses
- 40:12Speaker 1: that can that have pur chasing power and can you
- 40:15Speaker 1: know pass on cost inflation that have pricing powers. Um. Yeah,
- 40:21Speaker 1: it's more it's less about selecting sectors, but more about
- 40:26Speaker 1: looking at companies within sectors that can sustain um, the
- 40:31Speaker 1: growth environment and the inflation environment and higher interest rates
- 40:35Speaker 1: from evaluation standpoint, versus those that might be at risk.
- 40:40Speaker 1: Thank you too. I'm not sure how much you guys
- 40:43Speaker 1: traffic in the energy space, but the energy stocks are
- 40:45Speaker 1: just such a great year last year, and I'm looking
- 40:47Speaker 1: at bring fruit it barrel. Did I miss that trade
- 40:52Speaker 1: or do you think they're still room to go in energy? Um? See? Energy,
- 40:58Speaker 1: I think is a hard one to forecast. We don't
- 41:01Speaker 1: do We don't do commodity forecasting, so uh, and we
- 41:05Speaker 1: don't play in the energy space because we have a
- 41:07Speaker 1: focus on sustainability. UM. But I think UM, I mean clearly,
- 41:13Speaker 1: if if we do see commodity prices go up, both
- 41:16Speaker 1: energy and other commodities, uh, I mean one, it would
- 41:20Speaker 1: be a sign of global economies doing well. Um. But
- 41:25Speaker 1: at the same time, I think more widely. It can
- 41:29Speaker 1: have a negative impact on global equities from my inflation standpoint. Alright,
- 41:36Speaker 1: great stuff. I really appreciate getting a few minutes of
- 41:38Speaker 1: your time. That is to Sharma Founder, an investment manager
- 41:42Speaker 1: for Alpha's Futures ll C. A little bit of an
- 41:45Speaker 1: e s G bed there, Matt kind of sustainability, another
- 41:48Speaker 1: investor incorporating that into their investment framework. We're hearing more
- 41:52Speaker 1: and more of that. Yeah, yeah, we are. I mean,
- 41:54Speaker 1: it's an interesting debate that's that's going on. But it
- 41:56Speaker 1: looks like, um, you can see where the road is
- 41:59Speaker 1: going at this point. It doesn't look like we're gonna
- 42:01Speaker 1: turn back, so it makes a lot of sense. All right, good,
- 42:04Speaker 1: So I forgot more coming up. We've got the equity
- 42:06Speaker 1: market selling off today. We'll break it down for you
- 42:09Speaker 1: going forward. This is Bloomberg. Good morning. Thanks for listening
- 42:17Speaker 1: to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen
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- 42:25Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller. P
- 42:30Speaker 1: On fall Sweeney I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before
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