Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / IMF's Adrian on Tackling the Uneven Global Recovery
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. The International Monetary Fund
- 0:23Speaker 1: and World Bank they're holding their spring meetings virtually. Uh,
- 0:27Speaker 1: let's get a sense of what might be on the agenda.
- 0:29Speaker 1: We welcome to Bias Adrian. He's a financial counselor and
- 0:32Speaker 1: director of the International Monetary and Capital Markets Department for
- 0:36Speaker 1: the i m F. Tobias, give us a sense what
- 0:40Speaker 1: is on the agenda at the IMF this week. Um,
- 0:44Speaker 1: you know, as we start to emerge from this pandemic. Yes,
- 0:48Speaker 1: thanks so much for this important question. So what we
- 0:52Speaker 1: are seeing is that there's a recovery that is taking
- 0:55Speaker 1: place globally, but it isn't a synchronous recovery. UM. So
- 1:01Speaker 1: we have all followed the fiscal package in the US,
- 1:04Speaker 1: and of course that has shifted expectations about the about
- 1:09Speaker 1: the recovery in the US forward. But the recovery is
- 1:14Speaker 1: not as fast and as strong elsewhere in the world.
- 1:17Speaker 1: So uh, this is why a synchronous is the word
- 1:22Speaker 1: of the day. And when we look out two years
- 1:25Speaker 1: into the future, what we see is that the most
- 1:30Speaker 1: advanced economies in the world have the lowest output gaps,
- 1:35Speaker 1: while emerging markets and low income countries have larger output
- 1:39Speaker 1: gaps relative to the pre pandemic expectations of where these
- 1:44Speaker 1: economies would be. So basically, uh, the more advanced you are,
- 1:51Speaker 1: the more uh the expectation is that the recovery will
- 1:55Speaker 1: take place, will get to healing. So what can be
- 1:59Speaker 1: done out of what can the I m F and
- 2:01Speaker 1: World Bank recommend or or even do in terms of action? Yeah, absolutely,
- 2:07Speaker 1: So of course we are doing three things. So number one,
- 2:12Speaker 1: we are lending two countries that our need. So last
- 2:17Speaker 1: year we did rapid financing was about a hundred countries
- 2:21Speaker 1: around the world. We have never covered so many countries
- 2:25Speaker 1: in terms of help with the rapid financing. Secondly, we
- 2:29Speaker 1: also have programs where we basically, uh, you know, lend
- 2:34Speaker 1: money and help economies to get back on track. And
- 2:39Speaker 1: then lastly we give policy advice. So this is what
- 2:42Speaker 1: it's called our surveillance, and we give very granular policy
- 2:46Speaker 1: advice to our entire membership of one ninety countries. Tobias.
- 2:52Speaker 1: What impact, if any at all, Kennedy, I, m F
- 2:55Speaker 1: and the World Bank have on um countries ability to
- 3:00Speaker 1: get inoculation, to get vaccines into the market here from
- 3:03Speaker 1: the States. Uh, you know, we're just you know, shocked
- 3:07Speaker 1: and at the delays that we're seeing. Uh in Western Europe?
- 3:11Speaker 1: Is there anything that can be done from your perspective, Yeah,
- 3:15Speaker 1: that's a that's an excellent question. Of course, this crisis
- 3:19Speaker 1: will only be over once the pandemic is in check,
- 3:22Speaker 1: and this is where the vaccines are so important. Uh.
- 3:27Speaker 1: And yes, the rollout in the US has been has
- 3:31Speaker 1: been very effective and very fast, and you know, we're
- 3:35Speaker 1: getting to numbers that are that are getting reassuring, but
- 3:39Speaker 1: the rollout is much slower in Europe. We do expect
- 3:44Speaker 1: that this is going to accelerate, but it is somewhat
- 3:47Speaker 1: disappointing how long it has taken so far. But Pabe,
- 3:51Speaker 1: it is important too to keep in mind is that
- 3:53Speaker 1: in between Europe and the US, we have less than
- 3:56Speaker 1: a billion people in the world. Out there are seven
- 3:59Speaker 1: billion doll in total and Uh, you know, really, the
- 4:03Speaker 1: end of this pandemic is going to happen once the
- 4:07Speaker 1: pandemic is conquered everywhere. And uh, the US and Europe
- 4:11Speaker 1: is only a very small share in terms of total numbers.
- 4:15Speaker 1: And you know, as long as COVID is alive, there
- 4:19Speaker 1: will be mutations, and mutations can be threats to everybody.
- 4:23Speaker 1: It's still kind of shocking that the famously efficient Germans
- 4:28Speaker 1: still haven't managed to get it off the ground. They
- 4:31Speaker 1: don't even seem to have any kind of plan as
- 4:34Speaker 1: to how they're going to vaccinate their people. I saw
- 4:37Speaker 1: today that the US has now fully vaccinated almost as
- 4:40Speaker 1: many people as there are adults in Germany. And this
- 4:45Speaker 1: isn't you know, unique to Germany. The French also are
- 4:48Speaker 1: failing miserably at this effort. Why is such an advanced
- 4:53Speaker 1: economy doing so poorly when it comes to getting shots
- 4:57Speaker 1: and putting them in arms. Yeah, that's the next question.
- 5:02Speaker 1: And let me let me uh step back for a
- 5:05Speaker 1: moment and just point out that, you know, the FISA vaccine,
- 5:09Speaker 1: which is one of the predominant vaccines around the world.
- 5:13Speaker 1: It's produced in both the US and Germany, and of
- 5:16Speaker 1: course it was developed by by German scientists here, and
- 5:19Speaker 1: so I happened to be in Germany just now I'm
- 5:23Speaker 1: German originally, I'm also about it and absolutely absolutely and
- 5:31Speaker 1: it is indeed, uh Morris some and I think there
- 5:35Speaker 1: are two things that come together. So number one, the
- 5:38Speaker 1: US is just very good, even the US government is
- 5:41Speaker 1: very good as writing contracts and making sure that their
- 5:45Speaker 1: population is getting the vaccines. First, and uh, the European politicians,
- 5:51Speaker 1: including the Germans, but also more broadly, you know, the
- 5:55Speaker 1: the c as well, has have not been quite as
- 5:58Speaker 1: aggressive in terms of the way in which the contracts
- 6:01Speaker 1: were structured. And secondly, I mean the US did not
- 6:05Speaker 1: allow any shipment outside of the US until the vaccinations
- 6:09Speaker 1: are are sufficient in the US, whereas in Europe, including
- 6:13Speaker 1: in Germany, actually shipments have gone to poorer countries. And
- 6:18Speaker 1: you know that is of course a good thing for
- 6:20Speaker 1: the rest of the world, but it is to the
- 6:22Speaker 1: detriment of the German population. So you know, there's some
- 6:26Speaker 1: balance here that needs to be struck very interest that
- 6:31Speaker 1: is fascinating. So I mean it is I guess in
- 6:34Speaker 1: holding with the kind of multilateral approach that Chancellor Miracle
- 6:39Speaker 1: has embraced. Um, it's just frustrating, I guess for the
- 6:43Speaker 1: people of Germany. But if it's helpful for the world,
- 6:46Speaker 1: that's that's got to be good news in the end,
- 6:48Speaker 1: and I guess we can take it a little bit. Um. Tobias,
- 6:51Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us and answering my kind
- 6:53Speaker 1: of left field questions there. Tobias Adrian is the director
- 6:56Speaker 1: of I m F Capital Markets. He is not responsible
- 6:59Speaker 1: for the back seeing rollout in Germany or the U
- 7:02Speaker 1: i m F meetings kick off. We'll be following them
- 7:04Speaker 1: very closely. Matt. Back in the day, I worked at
- 7:09Speaker 1: Credit Swiss First Boston, did a stint there, um boy,
- 7:12Speaker 1: and in the media space we killed it. We made
- 7:15Speaker 1: tons of money. We had great equity platform, great high yield,
- 7:18Speaker 1: some of the best bankers on the street, and we
- 7:21Speaker 1: made lots of money. It was a great place to work.
- 7:23Speaker 1: But at year end, there was always something that would
- 7:27Speaker 1: muddy up the bonus works. It was a bad trade here,
- 7:30Speaker 1: a bad private investment there. Uh. It seemed like there's
- 7:34Speaker 1: always something that is still the case. Credit Swiss today
- 7:37Speaker 1: taking a four point seven billion dollar hit. Let's break
- 7:40Speaker 1: it down with a couple of experts. Nalie Basket, Wall
- 7:44Speaker 1: Street reporter for Bloomberg News and Alison Williams Uh senior
- 7:47Speaker 1: banks analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence who's covered the sector four decades.
- 7:51Speaker 1: Um Ernali, want to start with you. What's the latest here?
- 7:54Speaker 1: We've got some management changes, We've got a big hit
- 7:57Speaker 1: to the earnings. What's the latest? Yeah, you have a
- 8:00Speaker 1: eight of management changes, really more than a half dozen
- 8:03Speaker 1: out the door, Paul. That's a staggering amount of change
- 8:07Speaker 1: at one time for one of the largest banks in
- 8:09Speaker 1: the world. You have the chief risk officer out, you
- 8:11Speaker 1: have the head of investment banking out um and a
- 8:14Speaker 1: new guard taking shape at a time where they still
- 8:18Speaker 1: have some clean up work to do. So what do
- 8:20Speaker 1: we know about the new guard, Allison? So I think
- 8:24Speaker 1: that you know, the new guard is sort of I
- 8:27Speaker 1: think an interim policeholder at the moment. I think the
- 8:30Speaker 1: most important thing was that management, when they came out
- 8:32Speaker 1: and announced to this big loss, had to at least
- 8:36Speaker 1: show that they were starting the process to make change.
- 8:39Speaker 1: So the management changes are part part of it. Um.
- 8:43Speaker 1: It's it's probably not surprising that that the business had
- 8:46Speaker 1: um as well as the chief of risk. UM are
- 8:50Speaker 1: those that are departing the firm. Given given the circumstances um.
- 8:55Speaker 1: But I do think, especially given all the numerous issues there,
- 9:00Speaker 1: there needs to be sort of a deeper postmortem, not
- 9:03Speaker 1: just on this situation, but there still situation, and then
- 9:07Speaker 1: sort of broadly what are the risks, um and controls
- 9:11Speaker 1: that are in place? After we were just talking about
- 9:13Speaker 1: a post mortem. I feel like last year and bringing
- 9:16Speaker 1: in a new CEO to make changes, so has he
- 9:20Speaker 1: avoided the acts somehow stionally investors are trying to give
- 9:24Speaker 1: him a grace period, it looks like to to make
- 9:26Speaker 1: the changes, to give him time to make the changes
- 9:29Speaker 1: of the bank needs. Here's the thing to Allison's point,
- 9:31Speaker 1: a lot of these people are interim, right. You have
- 9:34Speaker 1: a man who's taking over as chief risk officer in
- 9:36Speaker 1: the interim who was previously the chief risk officer. That
- 9:41Speaker 1: the other person you have taking over the investment bank
- 9:43Speaker 1: who is particularly interesting as Christian Meisner, who is a
- 9:46Speaker 1: former executive at Bank of America. He's new to the bank.
- 9:49Speaker 1: And you know, Credit Suite was actually doing our right
- 9:52Speaker 1: in investment banking until all of this had happened. This
- 9:55Speaker 1: archago scandal happened in the prime brokerage division and the
- 9:59Speaker 1: Green still issue happened in the asset management division largely
- 10:03Speaker 1: where we saw the saw the head of asset management
- 10:05Speaker 1: really um, you know take accountability for this too, right,
- 10:09Speaker 1: So you're seeing many divisions of this bank face issues
- 10:14Speaker 1: in regard to risk management, and you know the investors
- 10:16Speaker 1: now are paying for it. Allison, you've covered this stock,
- 10:21Speaker 1: this company for decades currently at Bloomberg Intelligence, but before that,
- 10:24Speaker 1: when you're an analyst at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, you've seen, uh,
- 10:29Speaker 1: this company's performance versus piers. What is it about Credit
- 10:33Speaker 1: Swiss where they always seemed to find themselves in trouble
- 10:37Speaker 1: one way or another. Well, there there are I mean
- 10:41Speaker 1: there is something different in terms of credit suites and
- 10:44Speaker 1: their mix. So they do generally excel in products such
- 10:49Speaker 1: as leverage, finance, UM and and things that you know
- 10:53Speaker 1: a year ago when we saw a big marks that
- 10:57Speaker 1: credit suite versus some others, that to me is something
- 11:00Speaker 1: you would expect given its mix because um in in
- 11:04Speaker 1: you know, a quarter like March of when spreads are
- 11:07Speaker 1: blowing out. Um. You know, that's the nature of the
- 11:10Speaker 1: business that will be profitable over time but can be
- 11:13Speaker 1: more volatile in you know, sitting sitting here today UM
- 11:19Speaker 1: with a much more significant loss UM, which which I
- 11:22Speaker 1: think has different meaning. I think this does go more
- 11:25Speaker 1: towards UM, you know, the d n A of the
- 11:28Speaker 1: bank and and that's and that's what will be interesting
- 11:31Speaker 1: to address. And I'm sure that the bank is already
- 11:34Speaker 1: working with regulators with regard to this issue. Obviously, legal
- 11:37Speaker 1: risk are going to be something to linger. But I
- 11:40Speaker 1: think what's going to be important is is working with
- 11:42Speaker 1: the regulators UM to get the processes in place. And
- 11:48Speaker 1: you know, there could be some some sort of trailing
- 11:51Speaker 1: impacts I think with regard to UM capital and making
- 11:55Speaker 1: sure that they shored up UM financially. I mean, the
- 11:59Speaker 1: good news is that they had the money to withstand
- 12:01Speaker 1: this hit UM, but what are the operational safeguards and
- 12:06Speaker 1: then what are the financial safeguards going forward? Sonale, are
- 12:10Speaker 1: you hearing from prime brokerage is that they are going
- 12:13Speaker 1: through their books looking for other potential wangs. Well, you
- 12:16Speaker 1: know what's funny about this also, you're you're worried about
- 12:19Speaker 1: other clients. Of course, I mean, who's taking on a
- 12:21Speaker 1: lot of risks? Do we need to clamp down on them?
- 12:23Speaker 1: But the other thing about it is credit suite it was,
- 12:26Speaker 1: you know, not in the top top tier of prime brokerage. Generally,
- 12:30Speaker 1: when these kinds of things happen, clients look around, everyone
- 12:33Speaker 1: looks around and says, okay, do we flocked to safety?
- 12:35Speaker 1: And so at the end of the day, do Morgan
- 12:37Speaker 1: Stanley and Goldman Sachs come out even stronger from this?
- 12:41Speaker 1: Do they gain more clients? Uh? That's that's the big
- 12:44Speaker 1: question moving forward. What type of reputational hit is credit
- 12:48Speaker 1: sweet is going to take among clients for these losses.
- 12:51Speaker 1: And then also there's a financial reason for clients to
- 12:54Speaker 1: keep an eye out. They are their outlook is negative
- 12:58Speaker 1: for Fitch and S and P. If they are downgraded,
- 13:01Speaker 1: it makes counterparty risk that much more of an issue, right,
- 13:06Speaker 1: So that's something to watch for moving forward. All right, Hinale,
- 13:09Speaker 1: thanks very much for joining U. Shonalie Bastik. There are
- 13:12Speaker 1: Wall Street reporter for Bloomberg Television Alison Williams, r B
- 13:16Speaker 1: I Bloomberg Intelligence Banks Analysts. Get over down to Marvin Lowe,
- 13:22Speaker 1: senior global macro strategist at State Street to talk about Well.
- 13:27Speaker 1: First off, Marvin, the U S economy has really caught
- 13:31Speaker 1: my eye lately. Um. The jobs number was amazing. We
- 13:34Speaker 1: had the best I s M number manufacturing number in
- 13:37Speaker 1: March since three and then we just got the best
- 13:41Speaker 1: services p M I number of all time. Um, how
- 13:45Speaker 1: much growth do you expect out of the US and
- 13:48Speaker 1: how much inflation? Yeah? I mean, UM, you know, we're
- 13:53Speaker 1: finally getting to a point where UM prospects are certainly brightening.
- 13:56Speaker 1: And UM, you know, we're we're we're we're getting to
- 14:00Speaker 1: a point where the reopenings are starting to really accelerate. UM.
- 14:04Speaker 1: I think I think the numbers, I think the numbers
- 14:06Speaker 1: that are expected are are are reasonable given UM everything
- 14:09Speaker 1: that we know, so six and a half percent GDP
- 14:12Speaker 1: for the year and an inflation rate that UM will
- 14:15Speaker 1: certainly spike in the short term, but start to come
- 14:18Speaker 1: back once those space effects get lower. UM. And I
- 14:21Speaker 1: think the challenge for all of us looking at the
- 14:23Speaker 1: markets and various asset classes is trying to determine what's
- 14:27Speaker 1: priced in. And a lot has been priced in, I
- 14:29Speaker 1: mean a lot of good news UM since the beginning
- 14:32Speaker 1: of the year, and it's and it's coming to fruition,
- 14:33Speaker 1: which is which is you know, really encouraging. Yeah, Marvin,
- 14:36Speaker 1: That's kind of where I wanted to go I mean,
- 14:38Speaker 1: I think the bull case is very well known on
- 14:41Speaker 1: the street. With the accommodative, fed with the fiscal stimulus,
- 14:45Speaker 1: with the reopening trade and all of those issues, and
- 14:48Speaker 1: obviously the vaccination, the metrics are trending very positively here.
- 14:52Speaker 1: How do you get a sense of what is in
- 14:55Speaker 1: fact priced in? Do you look at evaluation? Do you
- 14:57Speaker 1: look at a pe ratio for the SMP? How do
- 14:59Speaker 1: you that or what do you look at to get
- 15:01Speaker 1: a sense of kind of where we are in terms
- 15:03Speaker 1: of evaluation? Yeah, I I look at the world from
- 15:06Speaker 1: a from a cross asset class perspective. UM. You know
- 15:09Speaker 1: what happens in the rates market and what happens in
- 15:11Speaker 1: the currency markets, UM matter I think to how you
- 15:15Speaker 1: approach risk assets. UM. And you know, since last Friday,
- 15:19Speaker 1: since the near million jobs posts, since some the record
- 15:22Speaker 1: p M I s that that that that you were
- 15:24Speaker 1: UM that you were referencing, we've had very little movement
- 15:28Speaker 1: on those other markets. Certainly, equities are supportive by the accommodative,
- 15:33Speaker 1: fed by the fiscal stimus by the fact that, um,
- 15:35Speaker 1: we we're talking about more fiscal spending. But um, the
- 15:40Speaker 1: stability in those other markets I think points to a
- 15:43Speaker 1: lot of the good news already in there. UM and
- 15:47Speaker 1: with still negative UM real guild in other words, of
- 15:51Speaker 1: repressive UM interest rate environment, equities wind up being one
- 15:55Speaker 1: of those asset classes that can that can continue to
- 15:58Speaker 1: benefit from this kind of broader supportive environment. So when
- 16:02Speaker 1: does that turn around? UM, you know what we have
- 16:06Speaker 1: to get Marvin, Yeah, I think I think interesting. I
- 16:09Speaker 1: think interest rates are are are going to be the key.
- 16:11Speaker 1: You know, once once UM you wind up with a
- 16:14Speaker 1: rates market that is not repressive, once you get UM
- 16:17Speaker 1: really yield closer to neutral rather than the minus sixty
- 16:20Speaker 1: basis points that we're in, it's it's a legitimate substitute
- 16:24Speaker 1: for UM UH for other risk assets at that point. UM.
- 16:28Speaker 1: I look at it from from from that perspective, multiple
- 16:30Speaker 1: expansion can certainly continue to occur and and and you know,
- 16:35Speaker 1: I would make that part of my thought process as
- 16:37Speaker 1: I look at risk assets over the course of the
- 16:39Speaker 1: next few quarters. Marvin, You know, a lot of folks
- 16:43Speaker 1: are are are looking for yield, They're looking for return,
- 16:46Speaker 1: They're willing to take maybe more risk as as we
- 16:49Speaker 1: come out on the other side of this pandemic, and
- 16:52Speaker 1: certainly willing to take more risk what's that. Certainly Bill
- 16:56Speaker 1: Wang was willing to he was a constant at a
- 17:00Speaker 1: risk at that Bill market. Just wondering what your thoughts
- 17:03Speaker 1: are on emerging markets for returns? Yeah, UM, you know,
- 17:08Speaker 1: I do. I do think that, UM, we have to
- 17:11Speaker 1: parcel the emerging markets into those that might benefit from
- 17:14Speaker 1: reflation versus those that are, you know, potentially looking at
- 17:18Speaker 1: higher inflation. UM, the backdrop, the backdrop is still is
- 17:22Speaker 1: still positive kind of given UM again that reach for
- 17:25Speaker 1: yield and UM the positive risk environment that you're talking about.
- 17:29Speaker 1: But UM, each one of those emerging markets are unique,
- 17:32Speaker 1: and I think you have to ultimately analyze the ones
- 17:35Speaker 1: that might benefit more in a reflationary environment, where we
- 17:38Speaker 1: start layering in infrastructure discussions as part of UM, as
- 17:42Speaker 1: part of the summer to early fall action items that
- 17:46Speaker 1: come out of Washington. In the dollar plays a huge
- 17:49Speaker 1: role in e M investments, of course, and at the
- 17:53Speaker 1: beginning of the year one thought the dollar was on
- 17:55Speaker 1: its way down. It's turned out to have a fantastic
- 17:57Speaker 1: quarter and it's doesn't look like it's gonna let up
- 18:01Speaker 1: anytime soon. How does that, how does that play a
- 18:04Speaker 1: role in what you look at globally. Yeah, yeah, absolutely
- 18:07Speaker 1: so so, so the dollar winds up being the most UM,
- 18:10Speaker 1: you know, one of the most important UM factors in
- 18:13Speaker 1: in how well the emerging market discussion occurs. UM. We
- 18:17Speaker 1: had an adjustment that occurred in the first quarter with
- 18:20Speaker 1: regard to how US growth was going to UM really
- 18:23Speaker 1: beat expectations, you know, whether it was fiscally driven UM
- 18:26Speaker 1: as well as kind of the better vaccine UM news.
- 18:29Speaker 1: If in fact a lot of that is priced in,
- 18:32Speaker 1: we could start getting back to looking at the dollar
- 18:35Speaker 1: as a more stable type of asset class, which I
- 18:37Speaker 1: think the market, which I think is encouraging for the
- 18:39Speaker 1: market at this point. UM. If if we've priced in
- 18:43Speaker 1: UM as much as we can from a fad rate
- 18:45Speaker 1: hight perspective UM, and we you know, need catalyst to
- 18:49Speaker 1: get it a little bit further, we could start building
- 18:52Speaker 1: other scenarios around e M eventually UM finding you know,
- 18:57Speaker 1: finding some traction where where it's been a struggle for
- 19:00Speaker 1: the for the past few months. Marvin, thirty seconds as
- 19:03Speaker 1: you talk to your pms at State Street, what's the
- 19:05Speaker 1: most exciting area that you're hearing from your fund managers? UM?
- 19:10Speaker 1: You know, I I still I still from broad risk
- 19:12Speaker 1: is is something that is something that's that's encouraging for folks.
- 19:15Speaker 1: There is a lot more discussion about alternative investments. You know, certainly,
- 19:18Speaker 1: certainly the the crypto spaces is interesting, um as a
- 19:23Speaker 1: potential as a class to think about. But um it
- 19:26Speaker 1: really is trying to continue along with this with this
- 19:29Speaker 1: risk discussion that's been going on. Marvin low thank you
- 19:32Speaker 1: so much for joining us. We was appreciate chatting with
- 19:34Speaker 1: you and getting your perspective on global markets. Marvin Lowe,
- 19:38Speaker 1: Senior at Global macro Strategists at State Street. They're located
- 19:41Speaker 1: in Boston. They are one of the mega players matt
- 19:44Speaker 1: up in Boston. You go up there and you see
- 19:45Speaker 1: the big utual fund complexes as I did for many
- 19:48Speaker 1: years as an annaly. State Street is an absolute anchor meeting. Uh.
- 19:51Speaker 1: They have a certainly a global view. I'm super pumped
- 19:57Speaker 1: for our next guest on us right now. He's senior
- 20:01Speaker 1: vice president for Global Strategy and Innovation at the Berkeley
- 20:05Speaker 1: College of Music. What does music have to do with innovation?
- 20:09Speaker 1: You ask, Well, he's a co author of Two Beats Ahead,
- 20:12Speaker 1: What Musical Minds teach Us about Innovation? His co author
- 20:16Speaker 1: on that book, Michael Hendrix, I'm assuming no relation to
- 20:19Speaker 1: the great guitarist Um Pano. Thanks so much for joining us. Interestingly,
- 20:24Speaker 1: I was just reading about will I am Um from
- 20:28Speaker 1: the Black from the Black Eyed Peas teaming up with
- 20:31Speaker 1: Um Honeywell to bring out a supermask high tech you know,
- 20:37Speaker 1: COVID mask essentially, and I thought, Wow, that's so cool,
- 20:40Speaker 1: and how come no one else thought of that already?
- 20:44Speaker 1: What what is your book, um telling us in terms
- 20:47Speaker 1: of musicians and innovation? Thank you so much. That is
- 20:53Speaker 1: a fascinating pairing, I think very illustrated. Well, the book
- 20:57Speaker 1: is all about the mindset that musicians have that we
- 21:00Speaker 1: believe are trans terrible and applicable in other other domains.
- 21:04Speaker 1: The way that musicians collaborate, the way that they listen
- 21:09Speaker 1: to the environment around them, the way that they create
- 21:12Speaker 1: through experimentation or remixing, or even the way that they're
- 21:16Speaker 1: able to go out there and connect with audiences. I
- 21:19Speaker 1: believe these are all mindsets and skills that we can
- 21:23Speaker 1: all learn from. All right, Panos, It's interesting here as
- 21:28Speaker 1: we continue to deal with this pandemic of so many groups,
- 21:33Speaker 1: so many people have seen their lives disrupted. Gives a
- 21:36Speaker 1: sense of how the average professional musician, what has he
- 21:41Speaker 1: or she had to do to kind of make it
- 21:43Speaker 1: to this pandemic? What's it? What's been fascinating about musicians
- 21:48Speaker 1: the music industry is, if you think about it, whether
- 21:50Speaker 1: it's pandemics, or whether it's technological shifts, or whether it's
- 21:54Speaker 1: societal shifts. Uh, the music industry and musicians in general
- 21:59Speaker 1: have a history of going through massive disruption but somehow
- 22:03Speaker 1: being the first to often embrace new technologies and new
- 22:07Speaker 1: means of connecting with audiences. And this goes back to
- 22:09Speaker 1: the earlier days of radio, television, cable TV, social media,
- 22:14Speaker 1: Have Your A Member Musicians were the first to embrace
- 22:17Speaker 1: social media, subsequently streaming and even the subscription models, and
- 22:21Speaker 1: now with COVID, worth seeing musicians embrace all kinds of
- 22:25Speaker 1: new platforms like clubhouse, TikTok, Twitch and really taking their
- 22:30Speaker 1: art form in ways of connecting with audiences in a
- 22:33Speaker 1: different in a different way. We see a level of
- 22:36Speaker 1: resilience that I believe we can all learn from. And
- 22:41Speaker 1: absolutely the music community has been devastated by COVID with
- 22:45Speaker 1: respect to losing in some ways the last fashion of
- 22:49Speaker 1: income that they had by performances um. But on the
- 22:53Speaker 1: other hand, we're seeing this creativity, imagination and the desire
- 22:57Speaker 1: to connect really siding their choices. I think we can
- 23:00Speaker 1: blown lots from them. I'd say, my kid brother is
- 23:03Speaker 1: a guitarist and a musician producer in in New York,
- 23:07Speaker 1: and I've always been struck by his electrical engineering skills, right,
- 23:13Speaker 1: same is true for for Hendricks and a number of
- 23:15Speaker 1: other guitars. They have to understand the science of amplification
- 23:19Speaker 1: and they play with it to to kind of blow
- 23:21Speaker 1: our minds. But I've also been struck by you know,
- 23:24Speaker 1: his whole crew. Um. The way that they've innovated to
- 23:28Speaker 1: create new revenue streams has been astounding. And are we
- 23:34Speaker 1: going to see the music industry change in any significant
- 23:37Speaker 1: way due to the pandemic? Oh? Absolutely, you are already
- 23:41Speaker 1: seeing it change. Uh. First of all, you're seeing growth
- 23:45Speaker 1: for five consecutive years in a row, so that's a
- 23:49Speaker 1: new chapter that's being written when it comes to music.
- 23:53Speaker 1: But you're also seeing again all kinds of new platforms
- 23:56Speaker 1: being embraced by the music the music industry as a
- 24:01Speaker 1: means of connecting with audiences. I mentioned a few a
- 24:05Speaker 1: few before, but they were also seeing all these amazing
- 24:08Speaker 1: collaborations that are recurring that just never happened before. So
- 24:11Speaker 1: we're seeing a community calless UH be able to be
- 24:15Speaker 1: giving in ways that we haven't seen before UH and
- 24:19Speaker 1: I am convinced that it's not just new technologies, but
- 24:22Speaker 1: new creative expressions that will come out of this pos
- 24:25Speaker 1: Talk to us about the ability of musicians and songwriters
- 24:29Speaker 1: to get to get paid. That's always been a challenge,
- 24:32Speaker 1: and even more so in this digital area. But I
- 24:35Speaker 1: know Apple's invested in something called United Masters. Talk to
- 24:38Speaker 1: us about that and how that might help musicians and
- 24:41Speaker 1: artists actually get compensated for their work. Absolutely well, we're
- 24:48Speaker 1: obviously with a migration to streaming the music community has
- 24:53Speaker 1: um UH lost a significant amount of its its revenue
- 24:57Speaker 1: that it used to earn from c D Ease as
- 25:00Speaker 1: well as other sources. Now with streaming, I think it
- 25:05Speaker 1: takes about three thousand streams and hour on Spotify for
- 25:09Speaker 1: the average musician to earn an equage, so clearly that
- 25:13Speaker 1: has that has to change. We have sixty thousand songs
- 25:17Speaker 1: a day that are uploaded to Spotify. I mean that's
- 25:21Speaker 1: a staggering amount of music. So not only is it
- 25:24Speaker 1: more difficult to be discovered, but also because of the
- 25:27Speaker 1: way that UH the streaming services pay in in in
- 25:31Speaker 1: the paradoxical way, the more users and the more music
- 25:34Speaker 1: is there, the less money is distributed, especially to musicians
- 25:38Speaker 1: at the lower at the lower end, or or the
- 25:41Speaker 1: tail at the thinner end of the tail. So with
- 25:44Speaker 1: united masters from the end the Apple deal, that's an
- 25:47Speaker 1: interesting move by Apple ineffectively investing in this new uh,
- 25:52Speaker 1: new independent artist community if you will, that's emerging and
- 25:57Speaker 1: really showing faith. Then the music industry has growth beyond
- 26:03Speaker 1: the major superstars. Were really seeing the independent music sector
- 26:07Speaker 1: for the first time breaking the billion dollar revenue stream UH,
- 26:11Speaker 1: and I believe this will continue to accelerate. I think
- 26:14Speaker 1: something that we have not seen yet with streaming is
- 26:16Speaker 1: the creation of what many people had termed of an
- 26:19Speaker 1: artistic middle class. I'm very hopeful that gradually with companies
- 26:24Speaker 1: like Apple UH coming into the freight through investments like
- 26:28Speaker 1: the one they're doing. If you're not masters of this,
- 26:30Speaker 1: this will change the game and frankly changed the experience
- 26:33Speaker 1: of discovering music for all of us is consumers in
- 26:36Speaker 1: terms of musicians, that change the way we live. I mean,
- 26:41Speaker 1: I'm in Berlin, right, um, where David Bowie spent a
- 26:45Speaker 1: large part of his life, and he's kind of a
- 26:49Speaker 1: generational um you know force uh radio Head. I listened
- 26:55Speaker 1: to the Okay Computer Record for the first time when
- 26:58Speaker 1: I lived here about twenty years ago, and that is just, um,
- 27:01Speaker 1: you know a band that's up there, you know, on
- 27:05Speaker 1: the on the mountain with the Stones and Zeppelin. Who
- 27:09Speaker 1: is the new Who are the new kids that are
- 27:11Speaker 1: gonna be like the new radio Head? Is there such
- 27:14Speaker 1: a thing anymore? Or is it just so diverse um,
- 27:17Speaker 1: due to the democratization of you know, the Internet. Frankly,
- 27:22Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's both. I think that um,
- 27:26Speaker 1: we're seeing maybe a plethora of choices, but there are
- 27:31Speaker 1: so many amazing artists that are coming about that are
- 27:35Speaker 1: really using all this new media to again create new expressions,
- 27:40Speaker 1: in new ways of connecting with fans or even seeing
- 27:43Speaker 1: right now the rise of non funcible tokens or n
- 27:46Speaker 1: f t s. And I know that right now a
- 27:48Speaker 1: lot of people are dismissing them as a fad, But
- 27:51Speaker 1: I think the story that's not been written yet is
- 27:54Speaker 1: how are artists creating uh or or embracing this new
- 27:59Speaker 1: me the invest for the first time to the advoct
- 28:01Speaker 1: of the digital era. You can actually have limited coffees,
- 28:04Speaker 1: whether it's one or ten or twenty um that our
- 28:08Speaker 1: audio visual in nature, how are they embracing them to
- 28:12Speaker 1: create again new kinds of connections and new kinds of
- 28:15Speaker 1: of of art forms. So for me, I'm very hopeful
- 28:20Speaker 1: about the the industry. Uh the artistry that's coming out
- 28:24Speaker 1: of it. You're seeing collaborations. Even if you just saw
- 28:26Speaker 1: the Grammy Awards, look at the diversity that exists. They're right,
- 28:30Speaker 1: you would have not ever seen even just a few
- 28:32Speaker 1: years ago. Uh Duo Lipa is part Albanian. You have
- 28:37Speaker 1: a Bruno Mars teaming up with Anderson pack And and
- 28:40Speaker 1: he's part Korean uh and and as is Bruno Mars
- 28:44Speaker 1: part of the Latino UM. So I actually am very
- 28:48Speaker 1: hopeful of of the industry, not just in terms of growth,
- 28:50Speaker 1: but in terms of diversity and discovery of all kinds
- 28:53Speaker 1: of new amazing artists that would be interesting to see
- 28:56Speaker 1: and it's fascinating to see how this industry is evolving.
- 28:59Speaker 1: Senior Vice president IT for Global Strategy and Innovation at
- 29:01Speaker 1: the Berkeley College of Music, and thank you so much
- 29:04Speaker 1: afford joining us. We appreciate that. Thanks for listening to
- 29:07Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen to
- 29:11Speaker 1: interviews with Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer.
- 29:16Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller y
- 29:19Speaker 1: three and on Fall Sweeney I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney.
- 29:22Speaker 1: Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at
- 29:25Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio