Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / The Fed Should Go Negative: Former Fed President Kocherlakota
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Penl Podcast. I'm Paul swing you,
- 0:05Speaker 1: along with my co host Lisa Brahma wits. Each day
- 0:07Speaker 1: we bring you the most noteworthy and useful interviews for
- 0:10Speaker 1: you and your money, whether at the grocery store or
- 0:12Speaker 1: the trading floor. Find a Bloomberg Penil podcast on Apple
- 0:15Speaker 1: podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as
- 0:18Speaker 1: that Bloomberg dot Com. Time for Bloomberg Opinion right now,
- 0:21Speaker 1: we turned to Bloomberg Opinion calumnist Narayana culture Lakota, former
- 0:25Speaker 1: Minneapolis FED president also a professor of economics at the
- 0:28Speaker 1: University of Rochester. Uh Nariana, thanks so much for joining
- 0:32Speaker 1: us here. Boys, we think about the response to the pandemic.
- 0:36Speaker 1: The US Federal Reserve Bank, I think is generally getting
- 0:39Speaker 1: very good marks from the marketplace in terms of acting early,
- 0:44Speaker 1: acting acting decisively. But you make the argument that the
- 0:48Speaker 1: Fed should really consider going negative in terms of interest rates.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Give us your thoughts there. Yeah, thanks a lot for
- 0:55Speaker 1: having me on. Um. You know, I think the chairman
- 0:58Speaker 1: laid out the case pretty well on it'ss conference, so
- 1:01Speaker 1: he certainly didn't go make the next step of actually
- 1:03Speaker 1: going negative with rates which is he said that the
- 1:05Speaker 1: FED has to be prepared to use all its tools
- 1:08Speaker 1: to support the economy and the recovery that we hope
- 1:13Speaker 1: it will be coming soon, and that that um that
- 1:17Speaker 1: means include to me means including going negative with rates. UH.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Pushing rates down further would stimulate spending um and stimulate
- 1:26Speaker 1: on the part of the households and stimula investment on
- 1:28Speaker 1: the part of businesses as it always does, and that
- 1:30Speaker 1: would be helpful for the for the U S economy.
- 1:33Speaker 1: What is your view? I mean, I guess you know,
- 1:35Speaker 1: people look at say Japan, Germany, you know, developed countries
- 1:40Speaker 1: with negative rates. It just doesn't seem right, doesn't seem
- 1:43Speaker 1: like the right strategy, the right policy. How do you
- 1:47Speaker 1: view this negative and interstrates in general? You know, I
- 1:52Speaker 1: think what's what's happened is that economies turned to them,
- 1:57Speaker 1: as would be true in the US case, whence the
- 2:00Speaker 1: situation is bad. So you can't just look at a
- 2:02Speaker 1: raw correlation between who's using negative rates and the what
- 2:05Speaker 1: their situations like and say, gee, it looks like all
- 2:07Speaker 1: the countries that that have negative rates have are not
- 2:11Speaker 1: doing that well economically. Well, that's because they view them
- 2:13Speaker 1: as this emergency tool they only turn to when when
- 2:18Speaker 1: the situation is going badly. Um. The other problem is
- 2:21Speaker 1: that there're there's a limit to how negative to being
- 2:24Speaker 1: able to go, are willing to go in something? In
- 2:27Speaker 1: some instances, and you know, a quarter percentage point are
- 2:32Speaker 1: fifty basis point cut in interest rates. It's helpful, it's supportive,
- 2:36Speaker 1: but it's absolutely not a panacea for all possible economic ills.
- 2:41Speaker 1: That's the US ever done that for any appreciable amount
- 2:44Speaker 1: of time as a policy matter before. Uh, you know,
- 2:48Speaker 1: now you're taking a little bit out of my knowledge base.
- 2:51Speaker 1: But my understanding is that rates did go negative for
- 2:54Speaker 1: some time in the during the Great Depression. But but
- 2:58Speaker 1: other than that, no, I don't think right, it's not
- 3:00Speaker 1: something typically in the toolbox for the US FED. So
- 3:03Speaker 1: one of the things when we think about the actions
- 3:05Speaker 1: by the FED, UM, is that the concern or the expectation,
- 3:10Speaker 1: the assumption is that this pandemic has relatively short life
- 3:14Speaker 1: measured in quarters. How about if it you know, if
- 3:18Speaker 1: it's just one in a series of waves of this
- 3:21Speaker 1: virus and actually goes much longer, what does the FED do? Then?
- 3:26Speaker 1: I think that's a great question. I think the FED
- 3:28Speaker 1: and Congress. Uh, you know, I think and and Treasury.
- 3:31Speaker 1: I think there's you know, there's basically been been all
- 3:34Speaker 1: these entities in the government I've been working together. The
- 3:37Speaker 1: perspective is by the time we get into this to
- 3:41Speaker 1: the certainly we get into the fourth quarter of the year, um,
- 3:45Speaker 1: the economy is going to be in a very robust
- 3:47Speaker 1: recovery path and uh, they won't need the further further
- 3:54Speaker 1: back stopping from from the FED at that point. And
- 3:56Speaker 1: I think that's led the FED in other entities to say, boy,
- 4:00Speaker 1: the main job here is to keep businesses alive, try
- 4:04Speaker 1: to freeze the economy where it was in February. Well,
- 4:09Speaker 1: that might be acceptable if you're talking about three or
- 4:11Speaker 1: four months intervention, but if you're talking to three ten years,
- 4:15Speaker 1: I mean ten is obviously quite extreme, but to three
- 4:18Speaker 1: years even you're really getting in the way of the
- 4:21Speaker 1: dynamic flow and processes that really drive us economy. Where
- 4:26Speaker 1: we want companies to go out of business because they're
- 4:28Speaker 1: not as being as effective at fulfilling what consumers want.
- 4:32Speaker 1: And we want workers to be able to move from
- 4:34Speaker 1: job to job, um, because they're not there may be
- 4:38Speaker 1: more productive that new job than they were the old one.
- 4:40Speaker 1: So I worry that, uh, these these interventions are really
- 4:45Speaker 1: designed to be temporary. As the shock becomes more persistent,
- 4:48Speaker 1: they're gonna introduce more and more distortions in the economy,
- 4:52Speaker 1: leading to to worsten worse outcomes. So just real quick seconds,
- 4:56Speaker 1: what do you think about the Fed's decision to kind
- 4:58Speaker 1: of go into the corporate bond market. Yeah, I think
- 5:02Speaker 1: that it's uh uh, I think that the So it's
- 5:08Speaker 1: a questionable one because I think of the fact that basically,
- 5:12Speaker 1: I think companies should be facing a lot of risk
- 5:13Speaker 1: right now, it's appropriate for them to be borrowing at
- 5:16Speaker 1: high interest rates because it's a very risky world. I
- 5:18Speaker 1: think the Fed's intervention is getting in the way of
- 5:21Speaker 1: that signal from the market. Interesting enough to see how
- 5:24Speaker 1: that plays out in the coming weeks and months. In
- 5:26Speaker 1: Narayana Culture Lakota, former Minneapolis FED president and Bloomberg Opinion columnists,
- 5:31Speaker 1: also professor of economics at the University of Rochester, we
- 5:34Speaker 1: appreciate uh you coming on. You can uh read all
- 5:37Speaker 1: of Narayana's work at Bloomberg dot Com, Slash Opinion, and
- 5:41Speaker 1: O P I n Go. That's where you can find
- 5:44Speaker 1: all of the Bloomberg Opinion work, which is so good
- 5:47Speaker 1: and we love having the folks on here talking about
- 5:50Speaker 1: kind of what is going on in the markets in
- 5:52Speaker 1: the broader implications for the markets. Well, we're right in
- 5:57Speaker 1: the midst of earning season. We've gotten a lot of
- 5:59Speaker 1: the numbers coming had a big tech last night. We
- 6:01Speaker 1: had Amazon and Apple, uh some some big numbers. Next
- 6:04Speaker 1: week we have some more a lift in Uber and
- 6:06Speaker 1: some other names. Dan i'ves, managing director equity research at
- 6:09Speaker 1: what but Securities is a fantastic person to chat with
- 6:12Speaker 1: when we think about big tech. Dan, thanks so much
- 6:14Speaker 1: for joining us here. Let's start with those Apple numbers
- 6:17Speaker 1: last night. I guess all in all, pretty solid numbers, right, yeah,
- 6:22Speaker 1: better than feared. I mean investors including ourselves were respecting
- 6:26Speaker 1: a horror show a Friday the thirteen type quarter, just
- 6:30Speaker 1: giving the pandemic and the supply chain issues, and when
- 6:33Speaker 1: you ripped the band aid off was better than expected.
- 6:35Speaker 1: And I think you combine that with at least some
- 6:39Speaker 1: you know, ways of hoop in China from a demand perspective,
- 6:42Speaker 1: I think that was enough for investor to network on
- 6:45Speaker 1: the other side of this dark valley and by the
- 6:47Speaker 1: stock so Dan, what do you make of them? I guess,
- 6:50Speaker 1: you know, not giving guidances, that's I mean, obviously a
- 6:52Speaker 1: lot of companies are not giving guidance, but for Apple, uh,
- 6:55Speaker 1: that's pretty unusual. They usually been pretty solid about giving
- 6:58Speaker 1: you at least a range of guidance in terms of
- 7:01Speaker 1: some of the big items. Yeah, it's unprecedented for Apple,
- 7:05Speaker 1: and I think for many companies. And I think the
- 7:07Speaker 1: knee jerk you saw last night with the stockdown, and
- 7:10Speaker 1: I've talked to some investors that are worried about that,
- 7:13Speaker 1: but I take a step back. I mean, right now,
- 7:16Speaker 1: when you look at June quarter, given all the variables,
- 7:19Speaker 1: all the demand issues, it would be like cook playing
- 7:22Speaker 1: a game of blindfolded darts to give guidance for June,
- 7:27Speaker 1: and I think that would be imprudent. And I think
- 7:30Speaker 1: right now Moose investors are looking past June into September,
- 7:34Speaker 1: into next year. That's what the valuations offer. And the
- 7:37Speaker 1: important thing is services. That's the rocket Gibraltar for Apple.
- 7:42Speaker 1: I mean, that's continuing to be very strong. That midteam
- 7:45Speaker 1: growth that's something like in live actually be focused on
- 7:48Speaker 1: along with China. So Dan, I know there's been some
- 7:51Speaker 1: discussion about some of the new products, A mid price phone,
- 7:54Speaker 1: uh five G phone, you know, perhaps a new supercycle
- 7:58Speaker 1: if you will, for the five G phone pandemic, this crisis,
- 8:03Speaker 1: this economic uncertainty impacting those product rollouts. Yeah, that's really
- 8:09Speaker 1: I think the bigger question. If you look at what
- 8:12Speaker 1: we're seeing with unemployment, the average consumer focus more about
- 8:16Speaker 1: their health, groceries and hand sanitized and their thousand now
- 8:19Speaker 1: our plus iPhones. What does the man look like over
- 8:23Speaker 1: the next six, twelve, eighteen months, you know, and I
- 8:25Speaker 1: see at least right now from our data points in Asia,
- 8:29Speaker 1: it's showing that this is going to be what I
- 8:32Speaker 1: would call a moderate products cycle, not the initial supercycle
- 8:36Speaker 1: from five G, but it's a two parts supercycle which
- 8:39Speaker 1: goes in two thousand twenty one. I mean, you'll see
- 8:42Speaker 1: about ten to fifteen percent taken off units. But when
- 8:45Speaker 1: you look at that, you have nine million I phones.
- 8:50Speaker 1: Just to put numbers around it, three hundred fifty million
- 8:53Speaker 1: of those iPhones have not upgraded their phone in forty
- 8:56Speaker 1: two months, so there's massive pent up demand. But that's
- 9:00Speaker 1: us and why they have the lower end version on
- 9:02Speaker 1: the FD with three nine nine price points, which could
- 9:05Speaker 1: be attractive to many consumers in this type of environment.
- 9:10Speaker 1: All right, da, in time we have Left, I want
- 9:11Speaker 1: to switch gears a little bit. We've got Uber and
- 9:13Speaker 1: Lift coming up earnings wise. Boy, when you think about
- 9:16Speaker 1: those companies, um, I just is there's just no demand
- 9:20Speaker 1: for those products? Is that just kind of dry up?
- 9:22Speaker 1: What's the status of Lift and Uber? It's a category
- 9:27Speaker 1: five storm. I mean when you think about the gig
- 9:29Speaker 1: economy from an Airbnb to Uber and left, they're really
- 9:32Speaker 1: in the eye of the storm. Now for Uber uber Eats,
- 9:36Speaker 1: which was really i'd say the black cloud on the
- 9:39Speaker 1: story has now actually become a benefit. But this is
- 9:43Speaker 1: another one'll ride. We cut our numbers. Wow, But I
- 9:47Speaker 1: think it's one where you look, if you look at
- 9:49Speaker 1: the valuation, can they navigate through the small equity perspective?
- 9:53Speaker 1: We think the answers yes, and then you look at
- 9:56Speaker 1: obviously a much more moderate growth profile. But I think
- 9:59Speaker 1: it's a pro offitable one and it's one of these
- 10:01Speaker 1: investors they're looking out six twelve, eighteen months with an
- 10:06Speaker 1: Uber with you in a semi normalized environment obviously one
- 10:11Speaker 1: that has you know, just massive uncertainty abound. So as
- 10:15Speaker 1: you talk to the companies and Dan, are they concerned
- 10:19Speaker 1: at all about consumer behavior? May there may be some
- 10:22Speaker 1: permanent changes to consumer behavior that will either work in
- 10:26Speaker 1: the favor or maybe against the kind of the ride
- 10:28Speaker 1: hailing business model in general. Yeah, in terms of the
- 10:32Speaker 1: gig economy and ride handling, it's all headwards. I mean,
- 10:35Speaker 1: there's really no glimmer of positive in this environment. I
- 10:38Speaker 1: think they're from a business model perspective, going to have
- 10:42Speaker 1: to do things to get consumers comfortable with the sefety
- 10:45Speaker 1: of the vehicles. From a COVID perspective, and there are concerns,
- 10:50Speaker 1: and I think there's one when you look at ride
- 10:53Speaker 1: charns what the market opportunity looks like on the other
- 10:56Speaker 1: side of this dark valley, And I think you're gonna
- 10:58Speaker 1: have tend to sifteam scent of consumers that will not
- 11:02Speaker 1: get into a ride sharing vehicle, let alone maybe a
- 11:05Speaker 1: taxire or mass transportation. So that's definitely a big issue
- 11:09Speaker 1: here that needs to be navigated for these comings. But
- 11:13Speaker 1: next week leaches the first step to getting some visibility here.
- 11:18Speaker 1: And just real quick twenty seconds, how are the balance
- 11:20Speaker 1: sheets right now? The balance sheets? We they'll get through
- 11:25Speaker 1: the storm, and I have some more equity perspective. But
- 11:27Speaker 1: they're gonna have to cut cost. I mean it's gonna
- 11:29Speaker 1: be some you know, some pain ahead from a cost
- 11:32Speaker 1: kind of perspective. Hey, Dan, thanks so much for joining us.
- 11:35Speaker 1: We always appreciate your perspective on all things technology. Dan
- 11:38Speaker 1: ives is a senior technology analys for web Bush Securities. Uh.
- 11:42Speaker 1: You know, we had some good numbers out of Apple,
- 11:44Speaker 1: and as Dan was suggesting here, the business model, uh,
- 11:46Speaker 1: is pretty robust when you take a look at the Apple,
- 11:50Speaker 1: when you take a look at the new products they
- 11:51Speaker 1: have coming as well as the growth of their services business,
- 11:54Speaker 1: which is Dan has said has really been kind of
- 11:56Speaker 1: the bedrock for the company and the growth story going
- 11:59Speaker 1: for or so Apple some solid results stock after trading
- 12:02Speaker 1: off initially kind of coming back so uh, investors kind
- 12:05Speaker 1: of looking towards the other side of that right now.
- 12:12Speaker 1: We're taking a look at the markets. Uh, you know,
- 12:14Speaker 1: a red day in the markets here when you take
- 12:15Speaker 1: a look at the SMP five thirty three decline that
- 12:20Speaker 1: sell off we had as a pandemic really became apparent
- 12:23Speaker 1: for investors. We clawed back almost half of that. The
- 12:25Speaker 1: question is where do we go from here to help
- 12:28Speaker 1: us with that we welcome uh and Witty Bahuguna. Uh.
- 12:31Speaker 1: She is a head of multi asset strategy at Columbia
- 12:34Speaker 1: thread Needle Investments. Uh, and Witty, we thank you so
- 12:37Speaker 1: much for joining us here. I think a lot of
- 12:39Speaker 1: investors are just trying to get a handle on has
- 12:41Speaker 1: the market bounced back too much? Given what we are
- 12:45Speaker 1: seeing in terms of macro economic data, given what we're
- 12:48Speaker 1: seeing in terms of eight earnings and lack of earnings forecast?
- 12:52Speaker 1: How do you what do you make of the market
- 12:53Speaker 1: right here? And Witty Hi, Paul um, Yes, I think
- 12:58Speaker 1: the rebound from the often we saw in March have
- 13:01Speaker 1: been spectacular. Part of it understandable given the amount of
- 13:08Speaker 1: monetary and physical support we have seen announced since the
- 13:13Speaker 1: crisis began. But the speed of the rebound have been
- 13:18Speaker 1: spectacular and does seem a bit ahead of fundamental given
- 13:22Speaker 1: what lies ahead for the next forceable couple of quarters
- 13:27Speaker 1: at least. Paul, alright, so it's really interesting here again
- 13:32Speaker 1: we had to these incredible gyrations down first and then up.
- 13:36Speaker 1: How do you How should investors, to the extent they
- 13:39Speaker 1: want to look to the other side of this pandemic,
- 13:42Speaker 1: how should they be positioning themselves right here. So I
- 13:47Speaker 1: think if you're thinking twelve to eighteen months ahead, where
- 13:52Speaker 1: we hopefully Paul have much clarity on UM, not just
- 13:57Speaker 1: the not not just how they NOMY will respond, but
- 14:01Speaker 1: whether we have some sort of vaccine or therapeutics to
- 14:06Speaker 1: help the economy open up substantially, not just gradually. I
- 14:12Speaker 1: think twelve months to eighteen months ahead we should not
- 14:16Speaker 1: see much difference in our positioning we I think we
- 14:19Speaker 1: should see equities, big bonds and your standard as a
- 14:22Speaker 1: allocation will make sense looking ahead look twelve to eighteen months.
- 14:27Speaker 1: But in the short term, the bounce back has been,
- 14:31Speaker 1: as you mentioned, spectacular and appears a bit ahead of
- 14:35Speaker 1: where the fundamentals are currently. So looking a few quarters ahead,
- 14:39Speaker 1: I think it's probably best to be a little more
- 14:41Speaker 1: cautiously positioned UM and think about how this economy opens up,
- 14:50Speaker 1: and what do we see in terms of people coming back,
- 14:53Speaker 1: consumers spending again, businesses opening up, and the production take off.
- 14:59Speaker 1: And cautially yeah, exactly, because one of the things that
- 15:01Speaker 1: I know is has many economists and investors concerned is
- 15:05Speaker 1: just the state of the labor market. This is a
- 15:08Speaker 1: consumer driven economy and we've had boy over thirty million
- 15:11Speaker 1: jobs lost just in the last five to six weeks,
- 15:15Speaker 1: just stunning, stunning numbers. Um, how does that suggest to
- 15:19Speaker 1: you that this economy will come back? How are you guys?
- 15:23Speaker 1: What's your base case for how the economy uh will bottom?
- 15:26Speaker 1: Where will bottom? And how will come back up? So
- 15:30Speaker 1: that is the key question everyone's asking these days, and
- 15:33Speaker 1: our base cases that we will not see a V
- 15:35Speaker 1: shaped rebound in the economy. Now, the markets may behave differently, Paul,
- 15:40Speaker 1: and as you can see, they already are, but the
- 15:43Speaker 1: economy will most likely see a protracted recovery. The numbers
- 15:48Speaker 1: you mentioned are stunning. These are very expected though, because
- 15:52Speaker 1: this is a policy induced shutdown of the economy. Um.
- 15:57Speaker 1: So we are encouraging people not to work. But the
- 16:03Speaker 1: recovery will be from from those levels of unemployment is
- 16:07Speaker 1: never quite immediate. Companies go out of business, it takes
- 16:12Speaker 1: a time to restart. Employment takes time, some people decide
- 16:16Speaker 1: to leave the labor force. All those dynamics makes us
- 16:19Speaker 1: think that this will be a protracted, you shaped or
- 16:25Speaker 1: um slower recovery then, UM, then then you then you
- 16:29Speaker 1: would think if it was a simple exogenous shock. I
- 16:33Speaker 1: think what would be really critical is to build people's
- 16:36Speaker 1: confidence to come back to um to to to sports arenas, theaters,
- 16:42Speaker 1: and and start enjoying life again, which drives a large
- 16:45Speaker 1: part of the U S economy, and we expect that
- 16:49Speaker 1: will be a slow process. Now, what would completely change
- 16:52Speaker 1: the dynamics is that if we have a sure um
- 16:56Speaker 1: medical solution to all this, as you can see if
- 16:59Speaker 1: pisotic leave, when we get some confidence that there will
- 17:02Speaker 1: be a vaccine, there will be a heteropeutic drug that
- 17:05Speaker 1: helps us fight even the even the virus if someone
- 17:09Speaker 1: gets it. Those sort of medical developments can change the
- 17:12Speaker 1: dynamic very quickly. But right now our expectations are that
- 17:17Speaker 1: those are slower movie uh solutions and and likely we
- 17:22Speaker 1: are going to see it retracted. And I'm sorry I
- 17:26Speaker 1: have to interrupt here. We have to go to Connecticut
- 17:29Speaker 1: Governor Ned Lamont and Witty Bahuguna head a multi asset strategy,
- 17:32Speaker 1: Columba thread Little thanks so much. Well, we're looking as
- 17:38Speaker 1: we hear more and more from state governors around the country,
- 17:40Speaker 1: where you're really coming to get us get a sense
- 17:43Speaker 1: of the fiscal pressures put upon state and local municipal budgets.
- 17:47Speaker 1: Of question is what does that mean for the municipal
- 17:49Speaker 1: bond investors that have been supporting uh, these entities to
- 17:52Speaker 1: do that. We welcome Joe my sec He covers all
- 17:56Speaker 1: things municipal bonds for Bloomberg Briefs. Joe, thanks so much
- 17:59Speaker 1: for joining us again. So let's talk about this the
- 18:04Speaker 1: I guess the stress that states are being put under
- 18:08Speaker 1: the finances of these states and how much can the
- 18:10Speaker 1: federal government actually help them out. Well, nice to be
- 18:15Speaker 1: with you, Mr Sweeney. Um, you know, it's uh that
- 18:19Speaker 1: the federal government is so far providing help in the
- 18:26Speaker 1: form of basically no borrowing from the Fed, but it's
- 18:29Speaker 1: also now looking at possibly one trillion dollar package. This
- 18:34Speaker 1: is going to be next uh you know aid package.
- 18:38Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi said she's heard that there are demands were
- 18:42Speaker 1: up to a trillion dollars. So we'll see, um, you know.
- 18:46Speaker 1: Then you know in Congress they're not they're not meeting
- 18:51Speaker 1: right now about it, and the states and municipalities are
- 18:54Speaker 1: really uh in a spot they're they're looking forward to
- 18:57Speaker 1: getting some of this money. Well, it's in interesting what
- 19:00Speaker 1: we've seen, Joe, as you well know, is this virus
- 19:03Speaker 1: is has not you know, been equal across the country.
- 19:05Speaker 1: Certain hotspots, whether it's on the coast or something like that,
- 19:08Speaker 1: in states like New Jersey, Connecticut, Uh, New York certainly
- 19:13Speaker 1: even California, you know, bearing a higher a brunt of
- 19:17Speaker 1: this than some other states. How the securities how he
- 19:20Speaker 1: missed a bond market kind of treated some of those
- 19:22Speaker 1: high risk states. Uh, you know, it's it's uh, you know,
- 19:27Speaker 1: the bond market right now is uh, it's it's it's
- 19:32Speaker 1: trying desperately to get back to normal. So we've seen
- 19:37Speaker 1: sales new issue sales the last you know, three weeks
- 19:40Speaker 1: or so, it's wee or four weeks. So we've we've
- 19:42Speaker 1: seen people come to market. Um, we haven't seen uh,
- 19:47Speaker 1: you know, ballout spreads. But you know, you talk about
- 19:50Speaker 1: the states under pressure, you know, it's obviously you know,
- 19:53Speaker 1: a good idea for for New Jersey not to come
- 19:56Speaker 1: to market, you know, possibly right now, although it's as
- 20:00Speaker 1: similarly enough, Illinois plans to come to market in a
- 20:03Speaker 1: couple of weeks. And another issue I wrote about today, Uh,
- 20:08Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is coming to market next week,
- 20:12Speaker 1: which is sort of astounding because these you know, Illinois
- 20:17Speaker 1: and the m T a h in addition to New
- 20:20Speaker 1: York city, of course, have been sort of the faces
- 20:22Speaker 1: of the pandemic so far. What kind of premium are
- 20:26Speaker 1: they will they have to pay? Do you think to
- 20:28Speaker 1: get back into the market given what's really changed for
- 20:31Speaker 1: their finances in their states? Wow? Okay, so Illinois. Uh,
- 20:37Speaker 1: they are about four other basis points over the triple
- 20:41Speaker 1: A benchmark in ten years now, so you know that's
- 20:45Speaker 1: in the five maybe in the sixes, uh, which you
- 20:49Speaker 1: know right now the triple A bench markets at one
- 20:53Speaker 1: forty two, So that's what you're getting one of forty
- 20:55Speaker 1: two tax exempt in ten years. Uh? Now are you
- 20:58Speaker 1: going to get four hundred or five hundred bases points?
- 21:00Speaker 1: I don't know. A lot could happen in two weeks,
- 21:03Speaker 1: but you know it's possible. M T A Uh, you know,
- 21:09Speaker 1: obviously Les because M T A is higher rating. He's
- 21:13Speaker 1: rated eight too with bestment grade by Booty's and uh,
- 21:18Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's amazing there's a credit where
- 21:22Speaker 1: the subway ridership has dropped, so it's the cash is
- 21:27Speaker 1: has evaporated, and they've gone to the federal government. They've
- 21:32Speaker 1: got to uh, you know, everyone you could think of
- 21:36Speaker 1: asking for money, and uh, you know, it's just such
- 21:40Speaker 1: a fixture in New York though that you know, it's
- 21:44Speaker 1: I suspect it won't do, you know, as badly as
- 21:47Speaker 1: perhaps Illinois. Interesting, I see that state unemployment funds also
- 21:52Speaker 1: another area of risk here. They're you know, going broke
- 21:55Speaker 1: from the flood of claims California, New York, Texas among states.
- 21:59Speaker 1: They're also seeking federal loans. How do you think that's
- 22:01Speaker 1: going to play out. I think there will be no
- 22:05Speaker 1: choice but for a Congress to make sure that those
- 22:08Speaker 1: funds are topped up. Uh, it's just it's just it's
- 22:14Speaker 1: an unfortunate squeeze. But this is what happens when you
- 22:18Speaker 1: decided to shut down. I guess it's about of your
- 22:22Speaker 1: economy and so well. See federal government to the rescue.
- 22:28Speaker 1: Joe my Sac, Editor Bloomberg Brief for Bloomberg News, giving
- 22:32Speaker 1: us are everything we need to know about the miss
- 22:33Speaker 1: bond market, and of course, as we hear from governors
- 22:36Speaker 1: around the country. Ned Lamont of Connecticut we heard earlier
- 22:39Speaker 1: today talking about the uh the deficit in the state
- 22:42Speaker 1: of Connecticut for this fiscal year. We've heard about that
- 22:44Speaker 1: from Governor Cuomo as well. But we had some really
- 22:50Speaker 1: tough results out of the oil giants Chevron and Exxon
- 22:53Speaker 1: Mobile here not surprising, I guess with what we've seen
- 22:56Speaker 1: the decline in global oil prices as supplying to and
- 23:00Speaker 1: dynamics just really fall apart for global crude. To help
- 23:03Speaker 1: us walk us through the details, who welcome our good
- 23:05Speaker 1: friend Fernando Valier, oil and gas analysts for Bloomberg Intelligence. Fernando,
- 23:10Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Give us kind
- 23:12Speaker 1: of the key takeaways at thirty foot takeaways you have
- 23:16Speaker 1: from these two giants Chevron and ex On Mobile and Paul,
- 23:20Speaker 1: great to be here. I think you know. With excell
- 23:22Speaker 1: And it's really just a tight rope. They have to
- 23:26Speaker 1: balance uh their balance shoot at the same time as
- 23:29Speaker 1: not cutting too much spending because their portfolio is in
- 23:32Speaker 1: dire in dire need of a revamping. And that's what
- 23:35Speaker 1: we saw from the call. Even with Darren Woods, they
- 23:38Speaker 1: can't really go afford to cut too much because if
- 23:40Speaker 1: they do, they just jeopardize their ability to sustain the
- 23:44Speaker 1: dividend into the second The other half of this, the
- 23:48Speaker 1: rest of the future um. With Chevron, they're in a
- 23:52Speaker 1: much more comfortable position. They have a good portfolio, they
- 23:54Speaker 1: had a lot of growth that came through over the
- 23:56Speaker 1: past several years, and they have the best balance shoot
- 23:59Speaker 1: in the business, so they can afford to cut a
- 24:01Speaker 1: lot of their capex and still sustain that dividend even
- 24:05Speaker 1: due this downturn. So it's really a tale to um
- 24:08Speaker 1: what happened ten years ago, paying out now where Chevron
- 24:12Speaker 1: really did their homework in the prior decade, and and
- 24:15Speaker 1: that they're sitting pretty relative to all of their peers.
- 24:18Speaker 1: So for x On Mobile, let's go back to that
- 24:20Speaker 1: dividend issue. We're seeing lots of companies across many sectors,
- 24:24Speaker 1: you know, reducing or eliminating their dividend because recognizing that
- 24:27Speaker 1: this is really going to be a threat to the
- 24:30Speaker 1: liquidity and to their capital. What's the feeling at x
- 24:33Speaker 1: On there They seem pretty adamant about not cutting their dividend. Well,
- 24:37Speaker 1: I'd actually say from the call it was the first
- 24:40Speaker 1: time to even entertained the idea that a dividend cut
- 24:43Speaker 1: could eventually happen if this lasts for a long time. Uh,
- 24:47Speaker 1: Darren Wood's the CEO, painted a fairly optimistic picture about
- 24:50Speaker 1: our recovery. We don't know that that materializes as rosy
- 24:55Speaker 1: as he's painting it. But you know, after a shell
- 24:57Speaker 1: cut their dividend UH sixty seven per sent first time
- 25:00Speaker 1: since World War Two. It's really showed that the industry
- 25:03Speaker 1: has to rebase to a new future. And and we
- 25:07Speaker 1: really don't know how consumption is going to come back.
- 25:10Speaker 1: We've seen in China that there's been more gasoline consumption
- 25:13Speaker 1: because people are avoiding public transportation. UM. But on the
- 25:17Speaker 1: side of trade and certainly on the side of airlines,
- 25:21Speaker 1: that domain is going to be subdued for a very
- 25:24Speaker 1: long time. And that all impacts their ability to to
- 25:27Speaker 1: to recover their profits. And essentially, UH that maintained that
- 25:32Speaker 1: capital structure that was built for an oil price at
- 25:35Speaker 1: least double what we're seeing currently. So for an, had
- 25:40Speaker 1: the big oil companies received any federal support um from
- 25:44Speaker 1: the fiscal stimulus plans be seen, uh not so far,
- 25:48Speaker 1: not the large cap ones and UH and really there's
- 25:52Speaker 1: very limited room for them to to outwardly support uh
- 25:55Speaker 1: these companies. The oversupply is global and we're already seeing
- 25:59Speaker 1: a response to speak at Dealtec plus cuts. Um. Okay, Fernando, sorry,
- 26:03Speaker 1: I have to interrupt, Fernando. We're going to go to
- 26:05Speaker 1: Governer Andrew Cuomo, Fernando Vai, Oil and Gas Animal from
- 26:08Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence. We thank you so much for talking with us.
- 26:12Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg P and L podcast.
- 26:14Speaker 1: You can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts
- 26:17Speaker 1: or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Paul Sweeney. I'm
- 26:20Speaker 1: on Twitter at pt Sweeney. I'm Lisa abram Woyit's I'm
- 26:22Speaker 1: on Twitter at Lisa abram Woyds one Before the podcast,
- 26:25Speaker 1: you can always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio