Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - October 17th, 2025 - Bloomberg Businessweek

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily reporting from the magazine
that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies,
and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus global business finance
and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Weekdaily
Podcast with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Harveryone, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business Week Weekend Podcast. Earning
season is underway, and the US that kicked off with
the big banks this past week, also fedcher J. Powell
signaled the US Central Bank is on track to deliver
another quarter point interest rate cut later on this month.
And then there's the US government shutdown now in its
third week. You could read all about it at Bloomberg

(00:52):
dot com and on the Bloomberg and you know about
that government shutdown that meant another week without US economic
days from the US government. And so we lean big
time on voices from the c suite for clues on
the macro environment. This hour, we'll hear from the CFO
of Levi Strauss and the CEO of the industrial supplies

(01:13):
company Fasten. All they've got great reads on the US
economy and the c suite is really where we start
this hour, with one CEO in particular, and one voice
on Wall Street that we all pay attention to, JP
Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Diamond. JP Morgan and the other
big banks, as we mentioned, reported earnings this week and
generally speaking, all appear to be in good health. Deal

(01:36):
making is back, and trading profits are booming. And yet
there were warnings from executives that have tempered the mood
on consumers and some signs of sectors that are cooling.
A warning too from Jamie Diamond, who used his bank's
losses from auto lender Tricolor Holdings to say there's never
just one problem or one cockroach. In his own words,

(01:58):
equip some of his non bank rive have taken as
a shot at them, you know, we.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Think we're okay, and other stuff which my antenna goes
up with leeds like that happened in I spy shouldn't
say this, but when you see one cockroach, they're probably more,
you know, and so we we should everyone should be
four more than this one.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
That's JP Morgan's Jamie Diamond now Blue Owl Capital boss
Mark Lipschaltz fired back. He came on Bloomberg. He said
the issue was in loans that banks led, So Jamie
Diamond should be scaring his own books if he wants
to squash more bugs. Read more about the back and forth.
It's on the Bloomberg and at Bloomberg dot com. Other
companies kicking off earnings too this week, and it's kind

(02:38):
of no surprise. AI artificial intelligence talk about that has
been dominating earning's conversations for the past year, and that
includes AI. In the real estate market. Prologists develops and
manages logistical warehouses for the biggest companies out there, with
more than one point three billion square feet in twenty countries.
Prologists reported better than expected quarter earnings this past week,

(03:01):
boosted its forecast, and discussed data center opportunities. Dan Letter
is president and incoming CEO of Prologist. He takes over
a CEO in January. He joined Bloomberg's David Gora.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
And me coming off this earnings call. This was certainly
a topic for us. We had a tremendous quarter. As
a matter of fact, we broke a record this quarter
for leasing. We leased sixty two million square feet of
space throughout our one point three billion square foot portfolio.
And you think about that in context, sixty two million

(03:34):
square feet is the equivalent of leasing Central Park in
Manhattan twice over again in one quarter. So our team
working tirelessly around the world least one million square feet
a business day during the third quarter. And certainly these
macro business trends are telling by our customers, who are

(03:56):
the frontline of the economy.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
You look at the softer data and there is still
some anxiety among a lot of business leaders about where
things are headed. Maybe that's restricting them from making some
of the capex expenditures that they would have otherwise. You're
detailing for us very strong numbers, and I wonder what
that says to you just about the capacity of these
business leaders to look through or pass the uncertainty surrounding policy,

(04:19):
including trade policy. Just give us a sense of the
moment that we're in right now. Is as you understand
it from talking to your customers about how they're feeling
about the business climate going forward.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Sure, it's a great question. One of the things we're
most proud of at Prologists is our customer franchise. We
have unique proprietary data, and we have unique relationships just
given the size and scale these relationships, and after what
has really been two to three years of uncertainty, going
back to rate hikes two and a half years ago,
we see our customers actually getting off their back foot.

(04:49):
What we've seen over this last quarter is actually customers
moving from caution to optimism.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Huh wow. Why because things are getting settled in terms
of trade tariff? Like, what is it that has calmed
some of your customers.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
I think our customers realized, after a couple of sluggish
years of not making many decisions, that they have to
make long term decisions. And that's what they do when
they do business with Prologis, and they have to look
through the short term noise in order to ensure that
they're positioned for growth going forward.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
So you're talking about Amazon Home Depot, FedEx Ups, Giga
cloud Technology. I mean, these are some of your big customers.
So you're talking about these guys are feeling more sure
about the outlook than maybe they did over the last
couple of years.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yeah, precisely. As a matter of fact, coming out of
a cycle, we're really in just a classic real estate
cycle right now, and what you're seeing typically at this
point in the cycle is it's the big, well capitalized
customers that lead the way out of this part of
the cycle.

Speaker 5 (05:51):
This is a basic question you forgive me for. But
when we talk about warehouses, what are we talking about.
Are these just simply places to store stuff or are
they places where there's a lot of movement, a lot
of products coming in and out. When we talk about
sort of the bread and butter of your business, what
are you building? What are you leasing out?

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Yeah, thanks for that question. We own nearly six thousand buildings.
These buildings are located in twenty countries in markets that
represent about seventy eight percent of the world GDP. As
a matter of fact, in twenty twenty four, we had
the equivalent of nearly three percent of the world GDP
go through these buildings. Our focus in building this portfolio,

(06:28):
curating this portfolio over the last forty two years is
having the highest quality, best located logistics, real estate close
to consumers.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
So where are you geographically building out the most and
you know, where are you looking to kind of increase
your square footage or buy properties or by land.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Well, the way we've set this organization up is our
teams are calibrated to look for good deals around the world,
and we're heavily focused, certainly this year on build the
suits with our customers. We're actually going to we're on
track for maybe our highest build to suit volume ever
And what does that mean. That means we have a
contract in place with these customers before we start building

(07:12):
for them, and we're seeing that broad based across most
of the sectors as well as geography spread throughout the world.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
I bet you can't do an interview without being asked
about AI, So forgive me, We're going to do it,
and I want to ask about it in two ways.
The first is sort of how it's changing the way
that you conduct your business, and then the second question
is picking up on what Carol said, you looking at
the demand for data centers maybe changing your business tach
as well. Where do you see opportunity as this revolutionist
it's called continues and there's the need for more space

(07:42):
for processing all of this data.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
Yeah, it's AI is here, and it's big, and it's
big at Prologious, certainly, we have all sorts of different
operational and tools that we're building to make our teams
more efficient and to be able to help them move faster.
But when you think of AI and prologis, we announced
today we now have five point two gigawatts of power

(08:08):
either secured or in the advanced stages of being secured
in sites mostly Tier one tier two sites in the
United States, and then the tier one market's called flap
D or the double M in.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
Europe.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
So Prologius is now We've long been in the higher
and better use business, but again given that footprint we
have close to these consumers. Well, the next wave in
the modern economy is the digital economy, and AI and
data centers are the logistics of that digital economy.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
We're talking with Dan Letter. He's president of Prologists. He
is incoming president, incoming CEO excuse me, takes over that
spot come January. Wait, Dan, so give you an idea
just to have explain your business. How much is logistical
warehousing right now? How much is data center? And where
do you see the most growth going forward, especially on

(09:02):
a day where Meta, Microsoft, black Rock, there's more all
doing data center deals and it feels like a lot's
happening in Texas to point that out as well. So
give us an idea of your mix today and where
the growth is happening.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
Well, I look at our growth in our base portfolio.
We own our control fourteen thousand acres of land close
to these consumption centers that I mentioned. We can build
out another two hundred and forty million square feet out
of that land bank. That's a tremendous amount of space.
And when it comes to data centers, this power that

(09:40):
we've secured, We've long been in the higher and better
use business. Think about the fact that logistics and warehouses
is typically the cheapest house on the block. We've always
been in the business of optimizing that real estate value
for our investors, and data centers are certainly a trend
right now that we're able to capitalize on given the
footprint and the raw material that we own and control.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
I sort of note a headline here acrossing the Bloomberg
terminal to judge is blocked federal firings during the government
shutdown for now. We're talking about that. A few moments ago,
as we were talking about the Beige book from the
Federal Reserve DAN and what that was telling us about
the state of this economy. And one thing they're in
is how difficult it is to find workers, particularly workers
to do construction. And I think a theme to the
AI story is amid all of this demand, it's hard

(10:23):
to get folks to build the data centers that we
need to buffet all of it. And I wonder if
your company is dealing with that as well, just the
difficulty of kind of keeping pace with how fast all
this is moving.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yeah, thanks for that question. I think about that as
we look at what is the replacement cost rent to
build the next marginal building, whether it's logistics or data centers.
And we look at that right now, and the cost
the rent to build that next building is actually twenty
five percent higher than market rents today. And then I

(10:59):
look at that relative to our in place rents today,
it's actually nearly forty five percent. And one of the
key issues is the cost to build are getting that
much more expensive and labor is certainly a factor there.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Interesting. Hey, one thing just to follow on, going back
to data center and your build out. You talked about
also the acquisition of five point two gigawatts of power.
It's a lot. How much though is in terms of
the build out for data centers. You've got to track
it with having access to power and does that slow
some of the buildout just got about thirty seconds.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
You know, this five point two gigawatts that we're quoting
is just a portion of the universe of opportunities we
actually have given our size and scale with our six
thousand buildings as fourteen thousand acres of land. We already
own this land in these buildings at logistics bases, and
so we brought an in house expertise. We have a
very large energy business. We've got one gigawatt of power

(11:50):
that will be generating off our rooftops by the end
of twenty twenty five. So we've been building that energy
capability that gives us just a better relationship with the
power companies. Yeah, and so we're in great shape there.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
That was Dan Letter, president and incoming CEO of Prologists,
along with Bloomberg's David Gore, who will join us a
little bit later on as well. Still ahead on Bloomberg
Business Week is the head to toe Denim lifestyle paying
off in the age of tariffs. We hear from the
CFO of the company that started it all, Levi Strauss.

Speaker 7 (12:19):
Consumer strength really strong. That's where we were able to
raise the fully guidance and our product pipeline hasn't been
stronger now if you go outside the US and international
business was up in the high signal digit and so
Asia had a strong quarder consumer strong. Europe had a
decent quarda consumer in a better place than so is

(12:40):
Latin America.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Weekdaily podcast. Catch US
live weekday afternoons from two to five pm Eastern. Listen
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or watch US live on YouTube well.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Earlier this month, Levi Strauss raised its full year outlook,
warned that tariffs are starting to bite as well. The
company's gross margin improved due to higher prices and a
larger volume of sales through more profitable channels. So is
the head to toe denim lifestyle paying off. Levi Strauss,
chief financial and Chief Growth Officer Harmit Singh expects accelerated growth,

(13:27):
expanding margins, and consumer resilience to overcome tariff uncertainty. He
joined me alongside Bloomberg senior equities reporter Bailly Lipshaltz.

Speaker 7 (13:37):
We had a real strong QUARTERA for consecutive quarters of
high single digit growth and record gross margins, as well
as the fact that we were able to raise up
fully of guidance as well as gross margin and EPs expectations.

Speaker 8 (13:54):
Overall, as a.

Speaker 7 (13:55):
Company, we're a stronger and a higher performing company defined
by accelerated growth, expanding margins, and higher return on invested capital.
To your question about the consumer, the consumer is largely
being resilient. You know, our products have really well segmented.
You know, we have Blue Tap, which is our premium

(14:17):
high pinnacle product and.

Speaker 8 (14:19):
That's doing well. We've introduced that in the US, so far,
so good.

Speaker 7 (14:24):
We have a Redtap product that is basically marketed to
consumers who earn between one hundred thousand and over and that's,
you know, based on our results, really done well. And
then we have you know, a signature product sold through
Walmart that again had a banner coda and that's for
you know, lower income consumers. So consumer strength really strong.

(14:47):
That's where we're able to raise the fullier guidance, and
our product pipeline hasn't been stronger. Now if you go
outside the US and international business was up in the
high signal digit and so Asia had a strong order
consumer strong Europe had a decent quarder consumer in a
better place than so is Latin America.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Well, I'm just going to lay it out for you.
I think I bought my first pair of Levi's in
a long time, just a couple of months ago. My daughter,
who's twenty two, so much younger than me, has been
buying Levi's for a while. So, Bailey, I mean they're back.
I go into the store in downtown in the village
and yeah, it's packed.

Speaker 9 (15:22):
Well, you get a partnership with Beyonce, all the marketing
you guys are spending in terms of targeting both young
and older generations. But Harmeet, I want to ask about tariffs.
So Levi expects tariffs from China about thirty percent, but
increase expectations of twenty percent from the rest of the world.
Where are you sourcing your genes materials? Is it more
are you more exposed to that doubling in terms of

(15:45):
are you getting materials from Vietnam in place of China?

Speaker 8 (15:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (15:49):
So, or we're taking a holistic approach as we are
able to offset the tariff impact. You know, as you
think about this year, we raise guidance in the top
line and bottom line and gross margin. So you know
we've been able to withstand that your specific question, Bailey,
we source about one percent we import into the US

(16:12):
from China, a little over a percent from India most
of and Vietnam is in the mid to high single digits.
So most of our imports are from the Southeast Asian
countries think Bangladesh, think Pakistan.

Speaker 8 (16:27):
And the rest of Asia.

Speaker 7 (16:30):
The way we think about our supply chain is fairly
well diversified. We import from about twenty countries into the US.
Sixty percent of our businesses outside the US, and so
we're well positioned to mitigate and offset tariffs. And the
way we are thinking about the holistic approach given that
volume is driving a big piece of our you know,

(16:54):
revenue momentum, and we have tenured vendor relationships, we're working
with the vendors. We're looking at different cost efficiencies across
our organization as well as you know, being very thoughtful
about pricing.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
So let me just ask you though you guys, did
you know you mentioned you raised your full yer outlook,
you did warrant that tariffs are starting to bite profit
profitability to measure by gross margins improves, so these are
the good stuff. But again that tariffs are starting to bite, Harmie,
can you tell us what that means? What the bite
of tariffs? When? When? How much you know any color

(17:33):
around that?

Speaker 8 (17:34):
Sure?

Speaker 7 (17:35):
So you know, overall, you know, we were able to
raise top line and bottom line guidance despite absorbing tariffs,
and so we are able to mitigate it. To the
question about tariffs, Uh, you know, tariffs were introduced on
Liberation Day. We normally buy our products, you know, six
months in advance, and so you know, we're working through

(17:58):
you know, our efforts and we've got different leavers to
kind of position its who you take. Quarter three, the
Quarterbach has reported gross margins are record, So we're able
to offset taffs because we've got other things working for us,
you know, as we grow our women's business, our direct
to consumer business, and international, all of which are a

(18:20):
creative to gross margins and allow us to mitigate and
offset some of the terriff exposure. Quarter four, we did
guide gross margins to be slightly down versus a year ago,
and had it not been for tariffs, you know, we'd
have grown gross margins. But overall, as we think about
the year, we'll report again another year of record gross margins.

(18:43):
So we're working on leavers for twenty twenty six. The
good news is we'll end the year stronger and we
believe a well positioned to have another strong year in
twenty twenty six.

Speaker 9 (18:54):
And Carol, we've talked with a good friend, Peter Atwater
for quite some time about that case shaped recovery where
people who are well off are doing much better than
those really in the bottom quintile.

Speaker 10 (19:05):
Harmie.

Speaker 9 (19:05):
When you look at your goods, when you look at
the ability to raise prices from the impact of tariffs,
which products are you able to more easily raise prices
where you aren't going to see consumers push away? And
how are you thinking about that strategy as it relates
to say, the genes that you do sell through a
Walmart where you don't have that gross margint going direct
to consumer, and you do have likely at least when

(19:27):
we look at the data consumer who's feeling the pinch
of inflation broadly speaking.

Speaker 7 (19:31):
Yeah, and so the first thing Baily to your question
is our products have well segmented depending on the income
profile of different consumers. I talk blue tab, red tab
and signature. Signature is what's sold into the lower income consumer.
We've been very thoughtful about pricing. We're leading with product

(19:53):
innovation rather than price, and so we're doing what we
can to maintain a price point. It is evident in
quarter three Signature, for example, I think is up in
the load double digits for the year. As we think about,
you know, our other products. The good news for us
is our product pipeline has never been stronger. You know,

(20:13):
we're leading with loose and baggy while at the same
time selling a lot of slim and skinny both for
him and her. You know, we've got wonderful you know,
waist up products to think trucker jackets, think linen shirts,
et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 8 (20:29):
And so as a company.

Speaker 7 (20:31):
We're making this pivot to be more of a denim
lifestyle retailer going forward. Our past was all about denim.
Our future is going to be about denim lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
I just want to know, do you really have a
pair of baggy barrel jeans. I can't get my head
around them. I'm trying, I'm trying. I'm just I haven't
done it. I haven't done it. Rmid, What I do
want to ask you to is you guys have had
kind of a mission, a goal to get to ten
billion in sales by twenty twenty seven. I think you
may adjusted a little bit. I think also a fifteen
percent EBIT margin. Could you reach fifteen percent in the

(21:05):
next few years even if sales have not hit that
ten billion, you know, talk to us a little bit
about that mission.

Speaker 8 (21:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
No, you know, we gave out the expectation of ten
billion and fifteen percent on I invested Day in the
middle of June twenty twenty two. Since then, you know,
there's been a lot of change and a lot of uncertainty.
As a company, we've kind of, you know, navigated our
way through uncertainty. We haven't given a new date on

(21:33):
the ten billion and the twenty and the fifteen percent.
Our thinking is we'll probably do that sometime next year.
But your question, the company that we are building and
the company that has got the foundation given way were
ending this year, So you take twenty twenty five, we'll
end about six percent organic growth.

Speaker 8 (21:55):
Last year it was three percent. The year before that
it was flat.

Speaker 7 (22:00):
Thinking EBIT margins this year we lend about mid levens.
Last year it was in the mid tens. The previous
year it was about nine. So we've seen a steady
progress and our view is we probably get to the
fifteen percent faster than we get to the ten billion.
But really a company that is steadily delivering mid single

(22:21):
digit growth in a category that probably grows a little
south of that.

Speaker 8 (22:27):
So our view is that we will.

Speaker 7 (22:30):
We are market leaders now in the US, number one
in men's, number one in women's, and rarely resonating with
the youth.

Speaker 8 (22:36):
And so the question is if you're able.

Speaker 7 (22:38):
To stay at you know, and implement our strategies our views,
we can continue to be a market leader and probably
pick up a little bit of share, especially because the
denim category is accelerating. We've seen the acceleration in the US,
we've seen the acceleration outside and that's largely driven by
the world becoming more casual.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yea more genes in my wardrobe than I've ever had
in like since high school. Like it's really kind of wild.
Any Barey and I can got another.

Speaker 9 (23:05):
Question I was just gonna ask in terms of geographic expansion.
When you think about China, what's going on with China
and also what products do the Chinese consumers want is
it that high end good or is it more of
a bargain purchase.

Speaker 7 (23:19):
So China for US is still underpenetrated. China represents about
two or three percent of our business. You know, our
business in China has been slow and soft. The Chinese
consumer right now is going through a bit of a
macro on certain climate. But the good news for US

(23:42):
is they love the brand. Brand equity scores are really solid.
We think China can be, you know, a business that
grows double digit over the long term. But your specific question,
the Chinese consumer is fairly discerning on the brands.

Speaker 8 (23:58):
He or she gravit two.

Speaker 7 (24:00):
There is a high end consumer as well as a
consumer that the mid market consumer, what.

Speaker 8 (24:07):
We call the co products.

Speaker 7 (24:09):
So if we think about our Asia strategy, we really
you know, our products are relevant for the mid market consumer,
while we also offer products for the higher premium end consumer.
Thirty percent of the Asian denim category is premium and
you know premium. For example, our highest spinnacle product is

(24:31):
largely Japanese you know, fabric, Japanese denim and inspired by Selvision.
So that's what we are selling and I think over
time we'll be able to start growing our China business
back in the low double digit rain.

Speaker 6 (24:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (24:49):
Interesting, Seth, I will say, Carol, I know you mentioned
you have more genes than ever. I have been buying
the Sherpa jackets, the denim jackets like crazy.

Speaker 6 (24:56):
I don't know why.

Speaker 9 (24:57):
I have three of them in different colors.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
I've brought a bunch of out of jackets.

Speaker 9 (25:00):
That's what I'm in. I'm like, I don't wear jeans,
I wear chinos, but I wear the denim jackets like crazy.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
I know, I just I don't know. I love it.
I love it. Yeah, I like everybody I work and
babis every morning.

Speaker 7 (25:10):
Yeah, and Bailly and Carol. Now we've got the blue tab.
It's it's it's a full of jacket. You can definitely
read two office depending on the on the on the
uh you know, uh dress environment at Bloomberg. I walked
in here fairly casual, so you know it's something that
we are not bringing to offer. We should make your

(25:31):
wardrobe at some stage.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Our thanks to Harmi Singh, chief financial and Growth Officer
at Levi Strauss Bloomberg Senior equities reporter Bailly Lipschultz joining
me there as well. Coming up on Bloomberg Business Week,
more from the c suite and another clue on the
US economy amid a lack of government data. The CEO
of industrial supplier Fastenal ways it that's coming up. This
is Bloomberg.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Listen live
each weekday starting at two pm Eastern on Apple car
Play and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You
can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship
New York station, Just Say Alexa played Bloomberg eleven thirty.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Well.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Earlier we talked about logistical real estate, you know, warehouses
and such, and now we're talking about another essential part
of the US economy, industrial suppliers, which are often a
bell weather for how companies are dealing with shocks to
the supply chain or tariffs. Earlier this week, fasten All
reported third quarter earnings per share and operating income that
were slightly below expectations. Alice note that pricing during the

(26:35):
quarter was weaker than expected and marks the second straight
quarter of soft pricing. Bloomberg's David Gore and I spoke
with Daniel Floornies, He's CEO of Fastenal. We talked about
how his company is handling tariffs and pricing concerns for
the company's customers.

Speaker 11 (26:49):
We had a really good quarter we had we had
a double digit quarter. We hadn't seen that for a
couple of years. Double digit growth. Sorry, and please with
the One of the challenges we had this year was
there's a lot of fluidity around tariffs and what it
means for pricing. And we will raise price to address

(27:13):
costs in our customers supply chain. We really don't want
to raise more than that because we believe it impairs
our ability to grow as.

Speaker 6 (27:21):
Fast as we'd like.

Speaker 11 (27:23):
And you know, coming into the quarter, we estimated you
know X for impact of pricing came in a little
bit less.

Speaker 6 (27:30):
We lowered our number for the fourth fourth quarter.

Speaker 11 (27:33):
But the most important aspect is on a price cost basis,
we are neutral and that's what we aspire to be.

Speaker 6 (27:40):
We'd rather just grow.

Speaker 9 (27:42):
Just one more question on pricing in terms of expectations,
would you want to raise pricing, Like, do you get
the sense that consumers and customers would push back, just
given how you've been shifting into bigger customers spending much
more money.

Speaker 11 (27:56):
Yeah, customers always push back on pricing. It doesn't matter
a customer, we will we are having conversations with our customer.

Speaker 6 (28:05):
We will be.

Speaker 11 (28:06):
Doing some price increases in the Q four. I suspect
we'll be doing some price increases as we move into
twenty twenty six. But again, our first discussion with the customer,
they understand it, they're willing to move on price. Our
first discussion is always what are alternatives to this product?
That maybe doesn't mean we have to raise your prices

(28:27):
five percent. Maybe it means it only has to be
two and we'd rather go to two because that's what
that's what a supply chain partner does.

Speaker 9 (28:35):
Well, Dan, how do terriffs fit into this? Just given
that according to analysts across the street, when we look
at certain industries, now is when we're going to see
tariff showing up in the third quarter in guidance as
it relates to twenty twenty six, what are you seeing
and how are you kind of attacking or addressing any
pressures from tariffs?

Speaker 11 (28:53):
Yeah, so for us, tarif's been in the in the
equation since the early part of the second order, a
little bit of first quarter. I think in the individual
that handles pricing historically, he will provide us an update
once a month. He'd gotten the point where he was
down on providing US updates. He was up to video
number fourteen as of July that he was serving out

(29:16):
to the field giving them guidance into what we were
seeing in our supply chain. And so we've been adding
price as we've gone through the year, and these have
been discussions with customers.

Speaker 6 (29:28):
And I hope that answers your question.

Speaker 9 (29:31):
No, I think it does. But I think the big
thing is are you mitigating the impact of tariffs? Are
you shifting your supply chain? Is the expectation that you
can have some kind of knock on effect as it
relates to pricing if we do continue to see threats
from the President going after countries like China or others.
So how is that impacting when you look at your
supply chain, when you look at the potential for pricing

(29:53):
impacts in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 11 (29:55):
We've been moving supply chain around the planet in earnest
since I was seventeen twenty eighteen time print. As our
name would imply, we sell a lot of fasters, and
most of the fasters in North America come from either
mainland China or Taiwan and the automotive industry took the

(30:17):
production there back in the fifties and sixties, actually took
it to Japan and South Korea and then migrated from there.
If I look at our resources, we now have a
sourcing team in Shanghai, but we have a sourcing team
in Bangkok. We have a sourcing team in Northern India.
And we have work to diversify our supplier base around

(30:38):
the planet and a little bit more in North America,
but really around the planet, so to have diversity and
supply so you're not caught off guard by some price
change or a tariff change.

Speaker 6 (30:51):
In addition to that.

Speaker 11 (30:52):
We've taken supply chains coming into North America, which traditionally
came in through the West Coast United States and then
we would redistribute from there. We have moved supply chains
so they're bringing product directly into the West Coast of
Canada or the West coast of Mexico, because those two
countries represent about fourteen percent of our revenue. Now you

(31:13):
bypass the tariff. However, it's more expensive to break shipments
down over in Asia and bring them in, but it's
a lot less than a tariff.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
One of the things I want to ask you you
talked about supply chains, is the endgame. Is it about,
though largely reducing your exposure to China, which has been
a pretty big one.

Speaker 11 (31:32):
It's it's reducing our customers exposure to any market, in.

Speaker 6 (31:38):
This case China and or Taiwan, but.

Speaker 11 (31:41):
To any market that are on the receiving end of
some of the political wins and create an unstable supply
base for our customer. Here it happens to be China,
another month, it might be a different country. Another year,
it might be a different country. It's diversifying your supply
chain so your inks are not all in one basket.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Read so whichever customer, yeah, whichever way the winds blow. Hey,
One of the things I want to ask you, just
big broadly the earnings up day today, you talked about
the industrial environment still sluggish. We've heard similar commentary on
this persistent sluggishness elsewhere from manufacturers, as well as caution
around project delays. At what point does this become something
more worrying than just sluggishness for us?

Speaker 11 (32:22):
It's been sluggish since November of twenty twenty two.

Speaker 6 (32:25):
Okay, when.

Speaker 11 (32:27):
We really key on what the industrial is still for
supply management puts out the PMI index, and that's been
sub fifty, which really plays into our customer base. Other
than January and February of this year, that's been sub
fifty since November of twenty twenty two. So we've been
in a sluggish economy for a long time from our perspective,

(32:49):
and other than living through the first part of it,
where you had customers that were downshifting, what reason our
growth is shining through.

Speaker 6 (32:57):
A different way. A. I think we're executing at a
higher level.

Speaker 11 (33:00):
But B once you get through that downshifting, now you're
just even if your customers are at a subdued level,
you can grow in that kind of environment.

Speaker 6 (33:09):
And that's what's shining through in our numbers right now.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
All right.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
One thing I want to ask you, because as you
would imagine, I don't know how much of this is
pervasive in your world, but AI is like the NonStop
conversation that we are having, certainly when it comes to
activity and market impact. To what extent is AI maybe
sucking up the oxygen in the economy. Are you seeing
any signs of that or your world they're going to

(33:32):
still need what you guys supply no matter what's going
on with the AI spend and enthusiasm.

Speaker 11 (33:39):
Well, first off, we have a lot of we have
a meaningful improvement in our revenue as it relates to
things like data centers because we sell into a wide
range of customer needs and end market needs. Whether that
is the actual construction. I've visited many data centers being
built where we have people on site. There after it's built,

(33:59):
we're flying into that facility with things like air handling
and maintenance equipment. In the case of the customers that
sell into that sector, that's actually a strong business for
us right now. And then as an organization, we're we're
increasingly making use of AI in our own business and
how we go to market and how we help our

(34:19):
employees be more efficient in what they do.

Speaker 9 (34:21):
And Dan about forty five seconds here with in with
keeping in mind data center construction, where are those products
sourced from? Are those also heavily sourced from China and
expose the tariffs or are they different supply chain altogether?

Speaker 6 (34:35):
There?

Speaker 11 (34:35):
You know there it's mostly different supply chain source, but
it depends on the component. If it's facility maintenance, types
of products they're coming from anywhere on the globe, and
so they're subject to the same type of.

Speaker 6 (34:51):
Issues any product would have.

Speaker 11 (34:52):
But a lot of the components I know a lot
of the manufacturers that we sell into. I visited one
about a year ago in Michigan where they they were
purposely avoiding China and they're selling directly into the data centers.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
You've been at Fastenel for a long time, You've seen
different cycles. How do you describe this one? And again,
just got about twenty seconds if you could be very quickly,
very quick.

Speaker 11 (35:13):
Ooh, odd in the fact that you know similar what
we saw on eighteen, but odd with the fact of
it's just something on fluid and there's so many things
that occur from week to week, month to month that
are outside the norm, but the fundamentals still work.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
That was Daniel Florin, as CEO of Fastenal, joining US
from Minnesota along with Bloomberg News correspondent host of the
Bloomberg Big Take David Gora. By the way, this past week,
Bank of America removed Fastenal from its US one list,
which represents the bank's best investment ideas. Ba A also
lowered its price target on the stock to forty eight
dollars from forty nine dollars this year, but kept its

(35:51):
by rating on the stock. Meantime, Barkley's also lowered its
price target to forty five from forty nine dollars a year.
That wraps up our first hour of the week. Get
a edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek from Bloomberg Radio. Ahead in
the next sixty minutes, a government shut down, chronic crime,
and more. How the Mayor of Baltimore is managing.

Speaker 12 (36:09):
We go and we identify those who are most likely
to be the victim of perpetrator of gun violence, and
we focus on them. We give them opportunities to change
their life, and if not, we remove them via law enforcement.
And that's how we're driving down violence. We're focusing on
guns and the flow of guns into our city, going
at the gun traffickers, those who are using guns, wrestling
them at my direction with the police department, turning them

(36:30):
over to our Stag's attorney in our Attorney General.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Also sideways inheritances and the transfer of money, wealth and
influence from men to women women.

Speaker 13 (36:39):
As you say, they do things differently, right, and they
want to do things differently, and oftentimes when they're getting
a hold of this wealth. Right when wealth is passing
to them, either through their parents and family or through
their spouses, they want to do it differently. They want
to be served differently. Seventy percent of women leave their
husband's financial advisor after a divorce or a death within
one year.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Plus the culinary producer behind all the food action in
the Emmy Award winning hit The Bear, and the youngest
female self made billionaire in the world. That's all ahead.
This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Karl Masser.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Weekdaily podcast. Catch us
live weekday afternoons from two to five pm Eastern Listen
on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app,
or watch us live on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
We'll back here on Bloomberg Business Week. Tim is off
this week, but we've got plenty ahead in this second
hour of our weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including
the Mayor of Baltimore on how he is fighting gun
violence in his city. Then the great transfer of wealth,
sideways inheritances, the feminization of wealth, whatever you might call it.
Women are increasingly in charge when it comes to money,

(37:54):
power and influence, Also, we've got two of Bloomberg business
Week's screen time. One to watch the chef and the
culinary producer behind the Emmy Award winning hit The Bear,
and then the youngest female self made billionaire in the
world and what she's doing with Passes. We begin, though,
with a view from the ground up, and that's why
we always always love talking to mayors around the country.

(38:17):
They are the ones on the ground in cities and
towns across the United States, making the decisions that affect
the lives of people in their communities and hearing from
people in their communities. Now, cities are especially in the
spotlight as President Trump slams many of the United States
major cities and threatens to send in the National Guard,
a policy that has faced resistance from Democratic governors, mayors,

(38:39):
and some federal judges. Tim and I spoke with Baltimore
Mayor Brandon Scott about how he is tackling crime in
his city without the National Guard and how his residents
are doing amid the government shut down.

Speaker 12 (38:51):
Well, there's a lot of my constitions unease right when
you're thinking about over twelve thousand Baltimoreans work for the
federal government, either directly or on contract, and then when
you think about what that's going to mean for them
and their families. They're just not at ease right now,
and folks want to go to work, they want their
government to be working. And of course then all of

(39:12):
our retherdents who depend on programming and things that are
just going to be out there that may not be
having a direct impact as if yet father shut down,
but as it continues and goes on, it would be.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
What do you consider what do you consider your biggest
problem in running the city? I mean Baltimore.

Speaker 6 (39:29):
You know, we.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Report about it a lot. It is the fourth most
dangerous according to US News and World Report this summer,
ranking Baltimore the fourth most dangerous city in the country
behind Memphis, Oakland, and Saint Louis based on FBI data.
They look at property crime, they look at murders per capita.
But what are you as mayor? I'm sure there's a
lot that's on your plate. What's top of mind?

Speaker 12 (39:50):
Well, listen, violence is always top of us. The reason
why I got into office, and we understand that we
have a long way to go. But I know, you
guys know here Bloomberg Radio, the many years that we
were number one on that list, and as you and
I are talking today, I think it's the mode and
the talversation around Baltimore and violence has shifted significantly. We
have the fewest amount of homicide through any October seventh

(40:12):
on record today. That is a big change. When I
said twenty twenty one, laying out our conference and violence
Prevention Plan, that we were going to reduce homicide by
fifteen percent from one year to the next, people literally laughed.
Right now, it's down thirty percent from last year, and
last year was a record reduction for us. We're going
to continue that.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
How did you do it?

Speaker 12 (40:31):
We did it throughout our conference's plan a week, which
is which is a bunch of things. One first and foremost,
we go and we identify those who are most likely
to be the victim of perpetrator of gun violence, and
we focus on them. We give them opportunities to change
their life, and if not, we remove them via law enforcement.
And that's how we're driving down violence. We're focusing on
guns and the flow of guns into our city, going

(40:51):
at the gun traffickers, those who are using guns, arresting
them at my direction with the police department, turning them
over to our stage attorney and our attorneys. We have
historical levels of investment into community violence intervention where we
have people who used to be on the other side
of the law going out and preventing conflicts from escalating
into violence.

Speaker 14 (41:11):
All of it. We're going after gun manufactured.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
People who understand where the problem the problem is. If
you're pulling them in to help you, they.

Speaker 14 (41:17):
Were the problem and now they're part of the solution,
and what better way.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
To do that gets people to do that well?

Speaker 12 (41:23):
Easy first and foremost, many people who have made that
mistake don't want people coming behind them to make that
and they know that we're growing this network of community
violence intervention workers in our city. So the word is
out that we want to give people a second chance
to be a part of solving a problem that they
once were causing.

Speaker 10 (41:40):
The city, though in the crosshairs of the president he
called it a hellhole. Last month, you and Governor Wes
Moore said that law enforcement from the state will patrol
some areas. Has that begun?

Speaker 12 (41:50):
Yeah, that's begun, and that's the governor is actually restarting
something that was ended by his predecessor. Think about it
like this, you would not find any other state police
department in any state in this country not operating at
all in its only major city. That's Baltimore City was
the only jurisdiction in Maryland that a Maryland state police
did not operate in the Governor's restarting that, we're grateful

(42:12):
for that support and to continue that work.

Speaker 10 (42:15):
Are you open to the presidents sending National Guard troops to.

Speaker 12 (42:17):
This We've been very clear about that. Why we have
We know how to reduce violence in Baltimore. We have
reduced violence to its lowest levels ever recorded on record,
even lower than the president's first term. The way that
we have done it in partnership with our community, with
our police department, with ole station attorney Ourtorney General, and
our federal law enforcement partners who work beside.

Speaker 14 (42:38):
Us each and every day. That's how we should continue
that work.

Speaker 12 (42:41):
If the President wants to help us, he should restore
grants and funding that was cut to organizations that helping that.
Restore grants, I mean funding cut from those law enforcement agencies.
This president has had the biggest of reduction in funding
for federal law ensforment agencies.

Speaker 14 (42:55):
They should be restored.

Speaker 12 (42:56):
What funding are you not getting so for us not
been directly impacted as of yet. It's our partner organizations
like for example, a Life Bridge helps them runs the
Center for Hope that's a part of our CVI network
that has programming around CBI's community violence intervention. They's lost
a five hundred thousand dollars grant, the same thing for
living classrooms. That's big work that is going to be

(43:19):
not happening, whether it be a hospital based response, our
community based responders. We need a victim assistance for young people,
getting those young people the services they need that helps
to privent boalance as well.

Speaker 10 (43:30):
What will you do though, if the President sends troops, well, listen.

Speaker 12 (43:34):
Will be prepared to take whatever action that we can,
be it legal, others, alongside our governor and our team,
based on when, what and how the President does something
if he does anything. But what we hope the President
does is to continue to support those agents that are
already working in our city and let them do their
work and let the law enforcement partnership that is driven

(43:55):
us results. This far carrious all the way.

Speaker 10 (43:58):
But even though crime has improved, even though you shared
statistics that show they're the best that they've ever been,
Like Carol mentioned your city is still on a list
that you don't want to be on. So I say
to people out there who are saying, well, I would
feel more comfortable if there were an increased law enforcement presence,
and that could include federal trips.

Speaker 12 (44:19):
Well, we had the National Guard in Baltimore in twenty
fifteen following the unrest of Freddy Gray.

Speaker 14 (44:24):
It's one of the most violent years ever. It didn't help.

Speaker 12 (44:26):
Right, We have to remember, this is not what those
folks signed up to do. Allow those folks who sign
up to go after a gun, traffickers, murderers, robbers, car
jackins to do their work and allow the other people
to do their work. And listen, there are other lists,
you know, there are many of these lists. We were
on some list, on some list we weren't on all.
The list that we want to be on is the
list of who has the largest reductions. And you will

(44:49):
be hard pressed to find a city in this country
that's had a sustainable, long term reduction like Baltimore's had
from a September of twenty twenty two, I mean twenty
to twenty three until now.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
What do you see as what's wrong with politics today?
What do you think is wrong with what some say
is the Democratic Party not very clear in its mission
and kind of stepping.

Speaker 14 (45:09):
Up well, very simply, I think that, and.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
I ask you because I think there's a lot of
forgive me, but there's a lot of folks who think
there are politicians who become career politicians and things haven't
changed and we need some change.

Speaker 12 (45:21):
Well, I think that what folks have to understand is
that for me, and I say this about the Democratic
Party all the time, more recently, they have to let
the folks that are closest to the problem be outfront
and part of the solution, meaning they need to listen
to mayors. The mayors are the ones that have to
solve the problems. The mayors are the ones that have
to meet the people in the grocery store. And we've
proven in city after city at the city we know

(45:43):
how to drive down crime. And you have to talk
to people where they are. We have to get out
of being up in the sky with pie and the sky,
talk to people in real sense, real things that impact them,
and explain to them how these things are going to.

Speaker 14 (45:55):
Make their communities better.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
How long do you want to be mayor?

Speaker 12 (45:57):
I want to be mayor for as long as the
residence of Baltimore will have me. This will be my
second term.

Speaker 14 (46:02):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 12 (46:03):
I've been an elected office since twenty eleven, and this
is I've been in city hall since two thousand and seven.
You're a young man right now, Yes, a young man.
I'll be forty two on my birthday. But this is
about making my city better. I got into this service
because I saw someone get shot at seven years old
and no one care and wanting to drive down that violence,

(46:25):
to have vacant housing. Be it as lowest point in
my lifetime in Baltimore. Something we're proud of, but we're
not celebrating.

Speaker 14 (46:31):
We have a lot of work to do and we're
going to do it.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
The reason I go back there is I do think
we talked about this in media that there isn't a
lot of you know, local publications anymore. A lot of
newspapers have shut down, and so we get kind of
the high in the Yeah, we don't need that, we
get that view, but we don't. It's why we love
talking to mayors. But often people are mayors and then
they move up and they go to governor and then
they go to Congress and stuff. So I'm just curious,

(46:54):
how long do you want to stay on that loco?

Speaker 14 (46:55):
Yeah, everyone knows.

Speaker 12 (46:57):
Everyone knows I don't want to be governor, and everyone
in Baltimore knows that I will be quite okay if
being the Mayor of Baltimore is the last elected office
I've had.

Speaker 14 (47:05):
This is my dream job as a child.

Speaker 12 (47:07):
I will hold it as long as the residents of
Baltimore will allow me to do so, as long as
I'm living within term limits.

Speaker 10 (47:13):
Before we let you go because you have a train
to catch to get home, Yes, and we want to
be respectful of your time. The attracting and retaining business
to the city, we know that's what economic development is
a way to improve cities. What are you doing right
now to say Baltimore is open for business?

Speaker 8 (47:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (47:28):
I think that way.

Speaker 12 (47:28):
We have to understand we had four billion dollars of
investment into Baltimore. We have seven billion dollars investment coming
into downtown Baltimore, whether it's t ro Price's new headquarters.
So under Armer's new headquarters. Everyone knows throughout Downtown Rise plan,
we are open for business in the city of Baltimore.
Re Forming our permit process and reforming our zoning code,
all the things that we need to do to help

(47:50):
grow business in Baltimore, especially in the tech and life
science industry that is taken off out of Hopkins and
out of the University of Maryland, putting a lot of
money in a lot of tech businesses out to the ETHO.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Any signs that we're headed towards a recession.

Speaker 14 (48:03):
Well we'll see. We know that with terrorists and all
the other.

Speaker 12 (48:06):
Things going, we just have to all be mindful of
what's happening and prepare as we're doing our budgets. I've
been talking to my brother and system mayors to make
sure that we're being responsible right now because we do
not know yet what.

Speaker 14 (48:18):
Is to come.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
That was Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. You're listening to Bloomberg
Business Week coming up. How women are joining the billionaire ranks.

Speaker 13 (48:26):
The majority of them were actually moderate to aggressive because
they saw the power of not just gaining wealth through
working or through transition, but actually gaining well through the
capital markets right investing in items that will end securities
and portfolios that will actually help them grow their portfolio.
Private markets is a great example, again for a financial
advisor to play that role and help and coach and

(48:49):
guide a woman and how she thinks about her portfolio
across public and private.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
You know women oftentimes want to do. This is Blueberg.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
This is the Bloomberg Business Daily Podcast. Listen live each
weekday starting a two pm Eastern on Applecarplay and the
Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also
listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York
station just Say Alexa played Bloomberg eleven thirty.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Wall Street is experiencing a new type of wealth transfer.
More than a dozen women in the world's five hundred
richest people have become billionaires after the death of a spouse.
That's the highest number ever. The so called sideways inheritances
are increasingly shaping global business as women take over huge
empires from finance to consumer goods and gambling. Today, those

(49:38):
women oversee record fortunes totaling three hundred and sixty five
billion dollars, roughly tripling since twenty sixteen, according to the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The changes are creating huge implications for
how vast sums are invested. Bloomberg's Matt Miller and I
spoke with Jamie mcgheira. She's head of US Wealth Advisory
and head of Retirement at Blackrock. It's the world's largest

(50:01):
fund manager, which not to day record thirteen point five
trillion dollars in assets. Blackrock reporting earnings this past week,
so we get an update on that number. We talked
with Jamie though about the ways women are reshaping the
investment industry. You know, we are talking about the environment generally,
So let's start there. I know we did that over
the summer when we talk because Blackrock just sees so

(50:22):
much in terms of the funds it oversees and the flows,
and the flows continue to grow, but that doesn't mean
the flows are always going in the same places. What
can you give us insight in terms of where money
is going and where money is going out of.

Speaker 13 (50:33):
Yeah, So, first of all, excellent to be here and
you started by talking about flows. I'm going to take
a gender perspective on flows, yeah, and talk to you
a little bit about where we see money going globally
with women. And so women more and more are earning wealth,
they're acquiring wealth, they're owning wealth, They're playing a larger
role in capital markets. They are investing and benefiting from

(50:57):
these capital markets, and we think there's no better sign
of hope and the future than having people invest and
grow along the capital markets.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Is it because they're earning it themselves and they're having
some say or is it also in terms of couples,
because they are often breadwinners as well, that they also
have a say at the table. Yeah, so it's both.

Speaker 13 (51:13):
Right, So when you think about women, women are more
often now becoming breadwinners, primary breadwinners. Quite often, they're also
contributing to household along with their spouses. They're earning more money,
but they're also acquiring and you mentioned the wealth transfer.
You know, we think about that in two ways. There's
the intergenerational wealth transfer, where they're gaining assets maybe from
their parents as they pass away. But the more interesting

(51:35):
one is this horizontal transfer. Right, So if a spouse
passes away or if there's a divorce, women are acquiring
assets in that way and they need financial advisors to help.
They're reshaping the industry and women have just not been
served in the way they need to be served in them.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
We think about that right with Melinda Gates. We think
about it with you know.

Speaker 14 (51:55):
Jeff beasis.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
No, but I'm just saying there was big divorces there.
You had significant players, certainly in wealth overall, but also
in philanthropy.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
Yes.

Speaker 15 (52:05):
Yes, Actually, Ceruly estimates that globally one hundred and twenty
four trillion dollars will change hands in this silver tsunami
and then and then their current forecasts are that fifty
four trillion will be passed to spouses first before it
goes down another generation, So forty percent of those spousal

(52:28):
transfers will be to women. So this is what Sally
Crawchak calls the feminization of wealth. And the idea is
that when are The important idea I think here for
you for your industry is that when women get hold
of this money, they often don't stick with their same
wealth managers. They often say, you know what, I'm going
to go with someone else now, So what do you

(52:49):
do if you want to get hold of a piece
of that pie?

Speaker 13 (52:51):
Yeah, So maybe I might even just dimensionalize what you
mentioned because I think about it in percentages. So today
let's call it women responsible and controlling thirty percent of
the world's wealth. That will be fifty percent by twenty thirty.
That will be seventy percent by twenty seventy. So these
are big numbers, amazing big numbers. And women, as you say,
they do things differently, right, and they want to do

(53:12):
things differently. And oftentimes when they're getting a hold of
this wealth, right, when wealth is passing to them, either
through their parents and family or through their spouses, they
want to do it differently. They want to be served differently.
Seventy percent of women leave their husband's financial advisor after
a divorce or a death within one year. Seventy percent.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Why is that?

Speaker 13 (53:32):
Because they oftentimes felt not heard, not part of the conversation,
not at the table and making decisions. You know, there's
a lot of misconceptions around women, right. People think women
are engaged with finance. It's just not true. A third
of US households have women as the primary financial decision maker.
People think women or call women perhaps a bit risk averse.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
Well, that's what I wanted to ask you. Are women
risk averse? Like, give me an idea when you're talking
about investments. I mean, we've been thinking about the AI
trade or private assets. Are they risk averse? So we
did a study to make generalist No, but I'm curious
that there are.

Speaker 13 (54:07):
So okay, so not a monolith, right. Women are very different.
All my friends are different than me. We all do
different things and need different things. But generally speaking, we
did a study with twenty five hundred female investors. When
we talk to them about their risk tolerance, the majority
of them were actually moderate to aggressive because they saw
the power of not just gaining wealth through working or

(54:29):
through transition, but actually gaining well through the capital markets
right investing in items that will end securities and portfolios
that will actually help them grow their portfolio. Private markets
is a great example again for a financial advisor to
play that role and help and coach and guide a
woman and how she thinks about her portfolio across public
and private. Last time we were together, we talked about

(54:52):
direct indexing and the role of taxes or you know,
women oftentimes want to you're laughing index.

Speaker 8 (55:00):
Let me know what.

Speaker 15 (55:00):
I anchored the ETF show for a long time. That's
a big part of that discussion as well. You know what,
it's not just women. Obviously, kids are going to get
hold of a lot of this money. And I think
I'm not sure about women, but I know with younger
people they want to do more impact investing than their
parents did or their grandparents did. So is that also

(55:21):
a key to trying Because I'm thinking from the perspective
of a wealth manager who wants more business. So what
I need to do is say, hey, I can I
can set up some direct indexing for you, and I
can help you make an impact with the money you invest.
It's not just to make more money. You're also going
to change some part of the world that you want to.
Is that the case it is?

Speaker 13 (55:38):
And I like to use the word purpose because actually
impact is many different meetings. And so if I'm a
financial advisor and I'm working with a younger client or
a woman, I'm going to be talking to them. By
the way, men too, Right, it's not just about the
impact you're having. You could invest in a way that
maybe aligns with your values and maybe have certain values
that are important to you to hold in that portfolio.

Speaker 15 (55:58):
I love motorcycles, and.

Speaker 14 (56:02):
There we go.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
But you know, I often wonder about that because you know,
if you care about the environment, but if an investment
doesn't pay, do people are people doing that because they
believe in it, but it may not return as much
as something else.

Speaker 13 (56:17):
I'm going to give you an answer that will be
terribly unfulfilling. It depends, Okay, Right, so there are people.
And by the way, let's step away from the portfolio
for a moment and say what about philanthropy. This is
where I come back to purpose. Right. People are looking
to put their money to good cause, and that might
be philanthropic. It might be impact in their portfolio. It
might be aligning with the values I have. It might

(56:38):
also be sending my children to school, or helping my
elderly parents, or starting a new business. Right, how about
that for purpose?

Speaker 15 (56:44):
Or shielding your money from taxes?

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Right?

Speaker 15 (56:47):
I mean, I guess I'd be willing to take somewhat
of a loss by putting my money into a philanthropical vehicle,
especially if it's compared to a much bigger loss by
giving it away to Uncle Sam, state, local, and federal taxes.

Speaker 14 (57:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
And again that's why don't look at things in a vacuum.
You have to look at them right overall.

Speaker 13 (57:07):
Holistic wealth planning, and again the role of a financial
advisor is critical.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
There got to ask you just in general, when you
look at this environment, and we talk a lot about
a bubble, right now, I don't know what is what
is your take on it? What are you or what
are the conversations you're having with clients about how they
feel about Are they little nervous? That's about that trade.

Speaker 13 (57:26):
Yeah, we talk about I mean we talk to clients,
advisors and clients institutions globally all the time. Look, the
markets are the markets, and there are long term investors
that need to just keep staying with the markets. We
talk about it's not time in the market or timing
the markets. It's time in the markets. The other thing, though,
is you just have to acknowledge that there's uncertainty out

(57:47):
there right. There is volatility, there are things going on
in the markets that again everyday people, let's take it
to America and Americans every day people need professional advice.
They need someone they can trust that will help them
navigate that through professionally managed solutions or through advice. But
there is uncertainty out there. But again we come back
to it's time in the market, not timing the market.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Twenty seconds, Jamie, I mean on more people feeling comfortable
putting money to work, or they after kind of a
nice bounce from the April lows, or they're like, I'm
good I'm done. I want to be a little bit
more conservative, just quickly.

Speaker 13 (58:21):
No, we are seeing flows into portfolios and ways that
are across.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
As I said, black Rock was up a trillion dollars
since the summer we talk.

Speaker 13 (58:28):
We are having the best conversations we've ever been having
with financial advisors, institutions and wealth managers across the world.
People are very interested.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
That was Jamie mcgheira, head of US Wealth Advisory and
head of Retirement over at Blackrock. Bloomberg's Matt Miller joining
us as well there too, still ahead on Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
A recipe for success when it comes to storytelling. We've
got the chef and culinary producer of the Emmy Award
winning FX hit The Bear.

Speaker 16 (58:55):
There is so much camaraderie, chemistry, teamwork andens that gets
you coming back every day. I learn so much about
who I am as an individual by the challenge of,
you know, running restaurants line cooking. Not only do I
develop my skills as like a natural chef, but I
think as a person. I've learned so much from every

(59:16):
single person that I've been in a kitchen.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
With and exclusive access to influencers without the nudity. It's
the it is venture from the youngest female self made
billionaire in the world.

Speaker 17 (59:26):
Anyone can make money. It's more so like the amount
of people that are willing to put in the time
to make the content right. It's just like how many
people are willing to work hard to make that income.
And when you just look like really every career on
this planet, there's a limited amount of people willing to
put into effort. And we see that the people that
are willing to put into effort so like churn out

(59:47):
content are the ones succeeding.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
More of our favorite conversations at this month's screen Time event.
They're coming up next when Bloomberg Business Week continues.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
You are listening to the Bloomberg business Weekdaily podcast. Catch
us live weekday afternoons from two to five pm Eastern,
Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg
Business app, or watch us live on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
So we wanted to wrap up this hour by bringing
back some of our favorite conversations from this month's Bloomberg
screen Time event held recently in Hollywood, California, and that
brings us to a chef and a culinary producer of
the Emmy Award winning hit FX show The Bear. She
is on Bloomberg BusinessWeek screen Time Ones to Watch List.
She is Courtney Store and she sat down with Tim

(01:00:35):
and me to talk about her world.

Speaker 16 (01:00:37):
Culinary producer deals with kind of macro and micro issues
of the show. So I work very closely with Christopher,
who is the creator of The Bear, also my brother,
and then you know, the writing team, and I kind
of kind of help inform some of the character development
based on my own personal experience. And then every day

(01:00:57):
on the show i'm there. I do work hand in
hand with my culinary team, and we do all of
the food.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
We cook it.

Speaker 16 (01:01:05):
We don't have food stylus, so everything you see on
the show, we run it like an actual restaurant, so
we have a full team. But I'm also there to
help sort of work with, you know, the film department,
set decoration props to make sure we are as accurate
as possible, and it kind of I wear a lot
of different hats, so wherever they need me, I go.

(01:01:26):
But I definitely use the script to inform the direction
of the food, and then I'm responsible to work with
the cast to kind of bring those things to life
and as you see on the show, these actors are
actually cooking, so we don't use hand doubles like they're
doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
So it has such a thing as hand doubles and
cooking of course. Yeah, all right, so okay, first of all,
it's like the food is I mean, I don't want
to say, because the actors on the show are incredible,
but it's like the main actor. So how hard is
it to do what you do?

Speaker 16 (01:01:56):
It's actually it's it's challenging, but it's very fun because
I'm coming from the real restaurant world. I'm a chef,
you know, I've been a chef here in Los Angeles
for many years. I've been in the restaurant world forever,
and I think bringing these things to life takes a
lot of like information of all the restaurants that I've
been in, and then doing it on camera and then

(01:02:16):
having it not only look great, but time and temperature
sensitive wise. We shoot very very fast, so it really
is a team effort to be like this is the
end dish and getting everybody in the loop of how
and when to shoot it when it would perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
I don't want thing's melting or we're stying or like right, yeah,
so you have this background as a chef, you have
a background a chef, a chef, you have background in
culinary training.

Speaker 10 (01:02:37):
Mattie Matheson, of course, is an actual chef. Jeremie Allen
White did go to Yes a couple of weeks of
culinary Yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:02:44):
Io did too, Yes, Io went, Liza went. They all
spent time with me directly here in Los Angeles in
my kitchen, my catering kitchen, where we trained to work
on some specifics for the show that would be done
on camera. As you see, you know Tea's character, she's
you know, fullaying Bronzeno in culinary school and she's left handed.

(01:03:05):
So how we filmed that scene and how she had
to practice that scene. It's like we have to actually
apply these skills so that they read on camera. And
it's been so helpful for their own journey to actually
experience culinary school, working with chefs, stodging and restaurants, and
then actually doing it on camera really helps them get
it right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
What were they like in the beginning, Like was it
like I think everyone well, I think there was so crazy.

Speaker 16 (01:03:29):
I mean, iow is very she loves food, so like
I feel like Jeremy Iolonel, you know, Liza. They all
have passion for food, so that helps, and they were
eager to get it right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
And I don't want to diss Yes, I know they've.

Speaker 16 (01:03:43):
Come a long way a different skill. Yes, they've come
a long way. And I see the effort that they
put in each season. And remember now we're going into
our fifth season. So we practice before we go to
film each each year, so they're building their skills as
we go.

Speaker 10 (01:03:56):
So my wife work in kitchensertion, so we would watch
the show together and she'd be like, this is what
it's actually like. The masking tape on labeling things, and
like we actually drink out of those like to go containers.

Speaker 16 (01:04:04):
We call them Deli's.

Speaker 10 (01:04:05):
Okay, that's what it's like. I worked at Taco Bell,
so I have no idea what's important it's but it's
not like this at all. But I got to tell you, like,
after watching a few episodes of the first season, I'm like,
who wants to do this? The pressure is crazy. You're
getting paid a fraction. It's like it's like the pressure
of being a brain surgeon without any of the pay.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
Yeah, and the hours are worse.

Speaker 16 (01:04:27):
Yeah, I think that's a really good question. And I
think what the show does kind of do a really
good job at is show some of the difficulties and
some of the wonderful things, like there is so much camaraderie, chemistry,
teamwork in kitchens that gets you coming back every day.
I learn so much about who I am as an
individual by the challenge of you know, running restaurants line cooking.

(01:04:51):
Not only do I develop my skills as like a
natural chef, but I think as a person, I've learned
so much from every single person that I've been in
a kitchen with. And that's from the porters to the dishwashers,
to the front of house host to you know, the
head chef. There is always something to learn in kitchens
and it's fun. It's actually quite fun. It's stressful, yes,
but there is a reason that people come back every day.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
All right, So tell us something we're something up earned
or we're all Does that happen a lot on the show. Yeah, Well,
when you're like going, we climbing is so important of course.

Speaker 16 (01:05:25):
Of course, there's a lot of setting each other up
for success. And I have to say, like, without my
culinary team, we are very diligently working to make the
best of everyone's time that is working alongside us. And
there's a huge, incredible camera department that we're you know,
being mindful of them holding these heavy cameras and you know,
getting it right. So we practice a lot before we

(01:05:47):
actually shoot. There is a lot of work on the
pre production side before we have cameras rolling. It's really
important that we come and like bring our a game
because we don't want things to earn of course, like
we have to redo dishes if ice cream moltse or
something like that, but we make sure we're prepared to
set up everybody for it looks like.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
Anything else in terms, like you just make sure everybody's
on their a game. We treat it like service.

Speaker 16 (01:06:06):
We treat it like a dinner service.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
To change your job.

Speaker 10 (01:06:10):
Yeah no, I don't think it's in my DNA.

Speaker 16 (01:06:13):
Yeah, yeah, I think you'd be surprised, though. I think
some of my best cooks I ever cooked a day
in their life.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Really. Yeah. That's Courtney storer chef and culinary producer of
The Bear and on the Bloomberg BusinessWeek screen Time Ones
to Watch list. Also included in that group is the
youngest female self made billionaire in the world. She is
the co founder of Scale ai, which after a multi
billion dollar investment from Metal Platforms, valued the company at
more than twenty nine billion dollars. That's not all that

(01:06:41):
she's doing though right now. She is also the founder
and CEO of Passes, which helps social media influencers diversify
their income streams. Think exclusive photos, DMS, video calls, live streams,
and more. She checked in with Tim and me All
from Bloomberg screen Time.

Speaker 17 (01:06:55):
Anyone can join a platform as long as they're not
creating new content, so that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
It's a dividing line. That's a dividing line. So talk
to us about your growth that you're seeing on the
platform in terms of people you know wanting to be
on it, staying on it. Talk to us about some
of the velocity that you're seeing. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 17 (01:07:10):
Well, with creators that make over five thousand a month,
we have near one hundred percent retention, which is really exciting.
We see in four x growth from twenty twenty three
to twenty four to twenty twenty five, and hopefully we'll
see more of that, which is exciting. And then we
have crossed to nine figures in earnings four creators, which
is also very exciting. So those are just like high

(01:07:32):
level numbers I can share with you guys today.

Speaker 10 (01:07:33):
Well, some of the reporting around OnlyFans, for example, has
has shown that, like there's a small number of people
who make the vast majority of the money on the platform.
Is it more evenly distributed on passes?

Speaker 17 (01:07:44):
I would definitely say it's more evenly distributed. But I
would also say that like our top like let's say
thirty percent of creators make the majority of the GMV.

Speaker 10 (01:07:52):
That's so that's a challenge for people who are trying
to get in.

Speaker 17 (01:07:55):
I mean, I would say that anyone can make money,
it's more so like the amount of people that are
willing to put in the time to make the content right,
It's just like how many people are willing to work
hard to make that income. And when you just look
like really every career on this planet, there's a limited
amount of people willing to put into effort. And we

(01:08:16):
see that the people that are willing to put into
effort to like churn out content are the ones succeeding.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Lucy, how do you bring or track people to the platform, Like,
what do you guys have to do?

Speaker 17 (01:08:24):
So a lot of it is organic, so word of mouth.
A lot of creators just talk about like how much
they love the platform and how much they've made, and
people hear about it, so they end up joining. Other
than that, we do a lot of social media. We
do a lot of events because we think that's a
relationships driven business where I think there's like platform retention,
but there's also emotional retention, and that motion retention comes
like people to people connections and the creator economy. Emotional

(01:08:47):
retention is a very real thing. I would say it's
potentially stronger than platform retention. So we work on a
lot of face to face interactions with creators as well.

Speaker 10 (01:08:55):
You dropped out of Carnegie Mellon for a teal fellowship. Obviously,
in hindsight it was the right move. He went on
to co create scale Ai, incredible success there. I'm just
curious though about your view of higher education. Having participated
in it for a short time and then left, how
do you think higher education has to change to prepare
the next generation of leaders, to prepare the next generation

(01:09:17):
of entrepreneurs.

Speaker 17 (01:09:18):
Yeah, so I think that with higher education. Well, first
of my view on higher education is that I actually
encourage everyone to do college for one to two years.
Not because I think you're going to be learning a
lot in your classes, but because I think there's no
period of time in your life that you're going to
be thrown into where you're going to be in a
high density of intellectual individuals that all have no friends. Like,
if you think about it, even when you graduate college

(01:09:40):
and you go enter the job force, most of the
people at the company that you're about to work for
already have friends, so it's harder to break into a
social team versus. College is the only period in your
life where literally everyone in the freshman class knows nobody,
right a.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
Grand social expense exactly.

Speaker 17 (01:09:57):
Yeah, And it's a high density network of people just
as intellectually intelligent as you. And I think college is
really where you find your future co founders, your future hires,
et cetera. Because when you're starting a company, for example,
who is going to turn down a multi million dollar
offer to join you? And the most talented people, like
the most talented engineers, are getting those straight out of
college right now. Only people that like really believe in

(01:10:20):
you because they have that emotional connection. So I really
encourage everyone to go to college and meet as many
talented people as they can the first one to two years.
In terms of how I see college moving on towards
the future, I think from my own personal experience, I
do think that we could be learning a lot more
practical skills that we can actually use in the job force. So,

(01:10:41):
for example, when I was studying career science at Carnegie Mellon,
a lot of it was very theoretical math, and I
felt like I learned the most about product sense, about
actually like making aps et cetera. Through hackathons that was
attending every few weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
It's almost like the concept of trade schools somewhere with
higher education. There's something there. What your twenty seconds on
AI in terms of yeah, so I'm pat it's going
to have on our world for sure, Either that or indifferent.

Speaker 17 (01:11:07):
I'm excited. I think that with every technological innovation, things
have improved in the world for everybody. I think that
we should view AI as our co pilot and not
something that's going to replace us. It's going to help
us be better at our jobs.

Speaker 10 (01:11:19):
You're not scared, No, should we be scared?

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Our Thanks to Lucy Go, founder and CEO of Passes
and co founder of Scale Ai. And that wraps up
the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Thank you so much for joining us. Be sure to
tune into Bloomberg Business Week Daily Monday through Friday starting
at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio,
and on Serious six sem Channel one twenty one. You
can listen to us also on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

(01:11:47):
It's freeing the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
You can also watch our daily broadcast on YouTube. Just
search Bloomberg Podcasts where simulcast on Bloomberg Originals available at
Bloomberg dot com, Slash Originals, and streaming platform including Roku, Amazon, fireTV,
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Podcast at Bloomberg dot com, Apple, or wherever you get

(01:12:09):
your podcasts, and always check out the latest edition of
the magazine. It is available on newsstands at Bloomberg dot
com and always on the Bloomberg terminal. I'm Carol Masser
Tim We'll be back next week. Have a good and
safe weekend everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,
and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday
afternoons from two to five pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot com,
the iHeartRadio app tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app.
You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube

(01:12:43):
and always on the Bloomberg terminal

All Episodes

Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - October 17th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Tim Stenovec

Carol Massar

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - October 17th, 2025