Bankman-Fried's Fall as Crypto King - podcast episode cover

Bankman-Fried's Fall as Crypto King

Nov 14, 202234 min
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Episode description

Bloomberg News Senior Markets Reporter Katie Greifeld discusses her story Bankman-Fried: From Crypto King to King of Tech Bubble’s Losers. Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Joel Weber and Bloomberg News Labor Reporter Josh Eidelson talk about Apple Store employees unionizing. Dexter “Tiff” Roberts, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Asia Security Initiative, shares his thoughts on Monday's meeting between US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping. And we Drive to the Close with Dan Ahrens, Portfolio Manager at AdvisorShares Investments.
Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stanovik. We're here every day bringing you the latest news from the worlds of business and finance, plus technology, politics, economics, all purtnising the power of Business Week reporters and editors, not to mention our journalists and analyst in more than one and twenty countries. You can download Bloomberg Business Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot Com.

You can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio, or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg glovel News. You know it's a big story in our world when we create a daily, running and constantly updating report on the Bloomberg and we have and are when it comes to the dramatic collapse of Sam bankman Fried's FTX crypto exchange, which wiped out about two hundred billion in crypto market value. So let's get

the latest on this constantly evolving story. We got with us Katie graifel Che's Bloomberg and the News senior markets reporter, also the co host of Crypto I r L on Bloomberg quick take. She's with us right now in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. So, Katie, over the weekend, I don't know about you, but I was glued to Twitter in a really unhealthy way. Why, I know, more so than usual. I mean, wait, you you were, You knew

that I was. I think it for both of us more so than usual, glued to Twitter in an unhealthy way. Part of the reason why is because Sam Bankman Freed is tweeting's tweeting right now. I know he's tweeting this kind of cryptic thing, write the word what, and then he's spelling out in one letter at a time, H A P P, which seems to be you know what happened? Yeah, yeah, So, I mean it makes sense that you're glued to Twitter because a lot of this is playing out over Twitter.

You think back to this time last week, you had CZ and Sam Bankman Freed s SPF tweeting at each other. That's where this all started. And uh, it's just such an evolving, fast evolving story. It's hard to keep up. But where are we? Where are we right now? I mean, we know that f t X is under investigation. We know that regulators or rather enforcement in the Bahamas have

spoken to Sam Bankman Freed. If you look at what's happening over at buying Nance CEO, c Z is apparently setting up this recovery funds, but he hasn't really offered any details on what that means. It's a little bit of a victory. I heard somebody in the newsroom whose name will will not be mentioned. So what is it like all of a sudden finances like the Federal Reserve for like, alright, the lender of last resort? Is this

like their duty to do this? I don't know, But in any case, cz is definitely taking a bit of a victory lap here calling out the bad actors. But the question everyone wants to know is what is the next shoe to drop? And no one really knows what do you mean by that, like another crypto firm to go under layoffs? What are you talking about that exactly? I mean A lot of attention is being paid to crypto dot com for example, that's another exchange mistakenly sent

something to the tune of four hundred million. I think it was worth of ether to the wrong addressed. So people are watching all the other exchanges right now. You have a lot of attention being paid to the lenders such as Block five, which is owned by ft X or not owned by They had gotten a rescue line for um F t X. So right after this news broke, everyone was looking at blocked by. They did halt withdrawals. What happens with Genesis, one of the biggest remaining lenders

remains to be seen. And just who has exposure? I mean that's the drip feed of news. Uh. The crypto market. If I look at our monitor on the Bloomberg, I mean, it looks like it has stabilized, at least for the moment. Right, We're not losing ground today. We've got what bitcoin. I know, you were on air with me and just watching bitcoin, you know, go down and down go, you know further, it's below seventeen thousand, but above sixteen thousand. See, that's

the thing. I think that's one of the I don't know. Everything is interesting right now, but it's more maybe one of the more puzzling things is why isn't bitcoin down more? Uh, there's it's obviously down a lot. It's already fallen a lot. This here, but I don't know. I have said this a few different times. If you had told me that f t X was going to file for bankruptcy, I would have said, okay, that I mean bitcoin below ten thousand obviously did not happen. I was wrong. What does

this mean for? I mean, I don't They've been articles over the weekend about potential repercussions at Sam Bateman Freed could see. But I'm thinking bigger picture here, Katie, like what it means for Since he was the face of crypto, his face was literally on advertisements in San Francisco. F f t X was on the Miami Stadium. Crypto dot com is on the Staples formerly known as the Staple Centers Crypto dot com. I mean, what does it all mean.

I think it's important to watch what's happening. In terms of the exchanges. There was a story on the Bloomberg today that exchanges of seeing billions of dollars in outflows. I think you're seeing a big retreat among holders. They want to take their money off exchanges, they want a gold to cold storage, they want control of their keys. This big centralization that we've seen in crypto, which you know, there's been a lot of jokes like, oh, it's not

so decentralized after all. But maybe you're seeing sort of the unraveling of that because you are seeing this big push that people don't want to be on exchanges anymore. They want to have control of their keys, control of their bitcoins. What I thought it was supposed to be about initially, When I think about it, when you start to get other players involved, it becomes a different thing exactly.

I think. I think it was part of the growing pains of trying to create new investors in the cryptosphere, was this push towards centralization. So I think that's going to be one of the storylines to watch over the next few months. I also wonder what it means for the other firms that SPF and f t X went to quote unquote rescued right. He was seen as the white Knight, and with the collapse of three arrows, for example, Voyager, and you know what happens to those firms. Yeah, I

wish I had an answer. One of the ways I phrased it, maybe it was one of you earlier today I can't even remember. Is basically it would be easier to talk about the projects that SPF or Alimato or f t X wasn't involved with if you think about not involved exactly, if you think about the extent he had so many he had tentacles in almost every corner of the space. And there's a great you know, right

up in the Financial Times over the weekend. And then Matt Levine took it on today with the balance sheet of Serum I had not even heard of. I had neither. But also the Robin Hood Steak, which is, you know, among the most valuable assets of the company has It's amazing. I believe it was nine hundred nine billion dollars in liabilities, nine hundred million nine million in liquid assets. I'm not great at maths, but it doesn't seem to add up. There's a hole there. Well, and you do wonder if

there was more regulatory oversight would this have happened. I don't say the R word degulation. I mean, we're not even talking about the U S company. That's another question. I have not enough for the time we have left. Bahamas Based filed in the US for bankruptcy. I don't know why, how does that work? I don't know. God, the world is a funny place. As Katie said, a lot of things interesting in this one Katy Greifeld, Thank you so much. She is Bloomberg New Senior Markets reporter

and so much more. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. We'll walk into an Apple store and you know what, You're going to get, white oak tables and eat rows at stores all around the globe. And yet what we're starting to see some differences actually at some stores as Apple retail workers, Tim are starting

to union. Not interestingly enough, it's kind of mirroring what's happening at other companies and other stores around the country. We got Josh Idolson all over it in Bloomberg business Week. His story is featured in the upcoming issue of Business Week magazine. You can read it now though on the Bloomberg terminal and at bloomberg dot com slash of business Week. Josh joins us on the phone from San Francisco. He's a labor reporter for Bloomberg News. Also with us right

now is Joel Webber. He's the editor of Bloomberg Business Week. He's with us in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker's studio So, Joel, what happened here? I thought the Apple Genius Bar and the Apple store were great places to work. So Apple obviously the world's most valuable UH company. UM. And the thing that I think we've all assumed with that UM is that it is this great place to work UM. And the stores themselves, UM. You know, there's corporate and

then there's store. UM has never really felt like a retail environment. It's felt like a high concept UH store where you know, you you have these objects of desire that are on display in a very curated place, and you know, obviously if you have a problem with those products, you have to go there. But it's never really felt like a retail job. But now the thing that's happened, and what Josh is reporting is based on, is that rit large corporate America is going through this thing with

labor and unionization has really stepped up. And we've seen it at Amazon, We've seen it at Starbucks, as Josh writes about UH, and now we're even beginning to see it at Apple specifically in the stores. So Josh, bring us up to speed what's changed in the stores. Workers

who have been in these stories a long time. Today, the culture has really transformed, and that these jobs in Apple stores have started to feel a lot more like retail jobs, in particular because of concerns about understaffing, an issue that workers say gets blamed by management on workers for calling out up sick and with upselling, this pressure to get people to spend more money, including getting people who came in with the device they wanted fix too

instead traded in and buy something new what the company calls an ownership opportunity, and workers have described ways that that performance on selling stuff to customers is measured, and that those measurements actually are shared with coworkers, whether it's an email or on the wall in the break room and can be marked and read. If you're say statistics are below where the company wants them to be. What was that a shift that happened recently or is it

a shift that's just coming into relief right now? I mean, where do we attribute this to and when? So? Workers say that things began to change after Tim Cook took over in two thousand eleven and have changed in a more accelerated way since Dear Joe O'Brien, the head of

retail for Apple, took that position. In workers describe things like bingo game to try to get you to sell Apple devices, like the stylists, and the experience of being chided or having your commitment to the company question because you missed a chance to upsell a customer about purchasing

Apple Care. And some workers who've been there a long time really feel like unionization is the path to try to protect the values that the company is supposed to stand for and the vision of what that worked places like for workers and for customers that drew them to the company in the first place. I gotta say, Josh, it feels like, you know, going to buy a car like a million years ago, and they, you know, were selling you the roof, the rust undercoding, you know, make

sure you kind of throw it in. That's what it felt like, and it felt so on Apple. Having said that in your story, you say Apple's overall control over its workforce um as having problems. It's really on multiple fronts. What's going on at Apple more broadly, you know, whether it's Fox Con, whether it's you talk about the maps at there's a lot of stuff going on. It feels like when it comes to Apple workers, there's been scrutiny

for a long time about Apple's international supply chain. More recently, we've seen Apple contract workers speaking up, including at an office that they call a black site, where workers said there were restrictions on even talking to direct employees of Apple. We saw during the pandemic some of the software workers becoming outspoken about issues from sexual harassment to return to

work pressure, to safety, and these struggles are connected. In fact, some of the software workers who alleged they were forced out of the company took road trips and went and visited the Apple stores and gave out cards with QR codes to encourage the retail workers to get in touch with union organizers. So, Josh, I know some of this is uh opique, but you know the stores themselves, Like, how big of a of a of a portion of

the company's bottom line do the stores account for? Because ultimately, one of the reasons that I thought this story was significant, He's like, look like, we're almost in the holidays here. You're gonna go holiday shopping an Apple store. You're gonna between air pods and you know iPads, and you know, more often than not you might find yourself walking through an Apple store. So, so how much of the company's revenue, which is considerable um gets broken out into sort of

the retail bucket in general. So Apple does not disclose how much of its sales happen in the stores versus online and or other people's stores, but it reported record fourth quarter revenue, most of it from selling products, and as the story discusses, these stores have played a pivotal role in getting people comfortable with and excited about Apple's products and building a sense of loyalty and connection to

the brand. As one expert it to me, the store is also a temple to worship at the altar of the Apple brand. I in researching this story, read an article about the launch of the Apple store in taws in Maryland, the one that now more than a decade later, has unionized. Where Apple is talking about these stores is a place for people to get to know this company that at the time had a much smaller market share.

Now Apple's market share has shot up for personal computers, and more importantly, they now have a majority market share in the US for that iPhone, And there's an incalculable role that the Apple store has played in building that relationship with customers. And it's a relationship that some workers feel is being undermined by this pressure to squeeze more money out of those customers and at the same time

to squeeze more labor out of these overstretched workers. Well, it's a great story, and I know in the upcoming issue of Bloomberg Business Week untill be out later on this week or thanks to Josh Idolson, Josh's labor reporter, Bloomberg News with us on the phone and via zoom from San Francisco, and of course our thanks to the editor of Bloomberg Business Week, Joel Webber. And again you can also find this story at Bloomberg dot com Slash

business Week can always on the Bloomberg terminal. But interesting in terms of the evolution of what we're seeing here at Apple, Yeah, and also just interesting seeing in the broader context of what's happening with the other companies that Josh mentioned, including what's going on in Amazon, what's going on Starbucks, um Stars especially another one of those places where widely seen is a great place to work. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg

Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Fill among our most read today how Presidents Joe Biden Jim Ping of China gree to a series of goodwill gestures intended to improve ties between their countries after the first in person meeting between the leaders of the U S and China since the pandemic began. Well. President Biden, speaking earlier today from Bali, on the possibility of China taking over Taiwan, I'm absolutely believe there's need not be a new Cold War.

I do not think there's any imminent of attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan, and I made it clear that our policy in Taiwan has not changed at all. That was President Biden, speaking to the press after meeting with China's President Shi jing Ping earlier today. I got a great guest with us. Dexter Tiff Roberts is back with us. He's senior Fellow for the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, also senior Fellow at

the Antic Council's Asian Security Initiative. Also former Bloomberg Business Week China bureau chief and the author of the book The Myth of Chinese Capitalism, The Worker, the Factory, in the Future of the World. He joins us via zoom from a Zola this afternoon. Dexter, good to have you back with us. What did you make of President Biden's comments following his first in person meeting UH since in years with President Chijin Ping. Yeah, well, clearly he's trying

to reassure Beijing that the policy hasn't changed. And you have to keep in mind this comes after I think maybe seven separate statements by Biden that the US would come to the defense of Taiwan in the case of an invasion by Beijing and UH so that not surprisingly has gotten Beijing very riled up. So Beijing, I think they would welcome this comment, this UH support for the

one child policy. On the other hand, Beijing has been saying for a while, you say one thing, you you the United States and Biden say one thing, but you you actually act in a different way, and they along with those other comments by Biden about supporting Taiwan in the military situation, there have been the repeated high level visits by various first by backing the Trump administration officials, and now those have continued a course, most recently with

Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Hey, you know, Tiff you've written about China. You know China really well, and we talked about the book, your book, The Myth of Chinese Capitalism, and you know about the divisive system that was there that ultimately you know, would be very challenging to the country's development going forward. How do you see it? I mean, is is Chinese capitalism working or do you see this is a big undoing kind of the news flow that we've seen out of China over the last month or so.

I think they're unfortunately, you know, they have not made progress on getting the economy to work better, nor nor marketize it war I mean, really we've seen the opposite under Sijing Ping for a number of years now, actually going back earlier, which is this increasing imposition of state control over the economy, continuing crackdown on the private sector.

And you know today what they're really dealing with is, uh, they're sort of the economy is suffering under the twin weights of both the continuing COVID zero policy, which is you know, been good at preserving life in China, which is important, but it's been deadly for the for the economy, and then also the continuing property crackdown. So I would say you know, you they continue to uh struggle with the economy and the policy really hasn't been going in

the right direction. Well, how do you take because we actually talked about how Chinese a d R as a train in the US. Today we're rallying and this is because we saw a couple of things, um, some easing and help for the troubled and indebted Chinese property sector. And then on Friday we got news about maybe easing of COVID nineteen. But it does feel like a back and forth with policy. So how are we as observers not in China, how are we as investors supposed to

kind of read sometimes and move forward sometimes a step backward. Well, yeah, I think that's that's what you keep seeing, and maybe unfortunately it's too often one step forward and two steps back. And I think with the first with the COVID zero policy, I know, or the some signs of easing, obviously they're welcomed. People uh have referred to them as baby steps um. And ultimately the challenge they face there is they you know, they announced the easy, the slight easings in COVID zero.

You know, meanwhile, we've seen COVID surging across the country Beijing, uh Jung Joe, where the world's largest iPhone factory is,

and down in Guangzhou. And they simply can't ease up on these policies until first of all, they have a much broader vaccination program across the country, particularly with elderly p people who have a low level of vaccination there, and uh and and and it's it's not gonna you know, no matter what they say about easing, They're gonna have to pull back until they actually start to get COVID

under control. I think the art money to bet maybe on certainly no serious easing until after the National People's Congress next March. Wow, that's quite a bit of time, although it has been you know, close to three years at this point that they've been dealing with this. Hey, Dexter,

just in the last minute that we have. You know, you lived in Beijing for what two decades when you were with Bloomberg Business Week and writing your book, Um, did what do you hear from people on the ground there right now, people you're in touch with about what life is like and how things have shifted over the last couple of years. Well, you know, first of all, I think there is a concern as that we were discussing about COVID zero, the rolling lockdowns of cities are continuing.

I think there's growing frustration about that, even though there has been you know, there has been support earlier for for the gun Ru's efforts to try to keep people safe, but we're starting to see that, start to see fishers in that, if you will. I think the economy is a real worry about people, and there's also a growing concern about this politicization of the economy, this feeling that uh that politics comes first and you know, the private private,

private entrepreneurs and else where. I have to bend to that. Hey, Ti, if I want to ask you kind of some rapid fire questions if I can so China and the U S. How would you describe the relationship in the way forward? Is it a good one? Oh? I think it's actually a troubled relationship. Unfortunately, you know it's there. It's really a competitive relationship. They are both see each other very much as their number one rival for for global superpower status.

And you know, despite what they might say in meetings like the one yesterday between Biden, Biden and She, that that is the reality so the Chinese economy, will it still be the end in the world has relied on I think the again, you know, not not great news there. I think that, you know, because of some of the things we discussed earlier, COVID zero policy, of the crackdown

on the property sector, but then larger structural issues. China's trying to make this transition from uh a you know, factory to the world model, which was investment in debt driven to a much more one driven by its own consumers, one driven by household consumption. And that's a really tough transition that is going to mean uh, probably slowing growth for a number of years to come. Are we seeing the world divided up US and its allies China and its allies at this point or was it kind of

divided up aforehand. I mean, I think that, you know, it has been divided up, but I think, uh, it's it's yeah, we're seeing it slide further in in that direction.

Two separate polls, I would say though that, uh, you know, the US has made some progress in in the last year two in terms of bringing more allies together, and you know, China's helped and in its own way on that as well by you know, just one example, its support for Russia related relative support for Russia related to the invasion of Ukraine has turned a lot of European countries away from China and made them feel that they

have more in common with the US. So, given the answers to your rapid fire questions from Carol just now, Tiff, what does it mean for investors? As I mentioned, we're getting earnings from Ali Baba and j D later this week. Uh, the stocks in that traded here in the US, the A, d R s of Chinese companies have really been getting beaten up over the last year and a half, although they've rallied recently. What does it mean for investors who want to be in the space? Well, I'm afraid we're

going to see more beating up of stocks. You know, Ali Baba for the first time ever, they just had their their massive singles Day, you know, our sort of our Black Friday of retail online retail sales, and this is the first time Ali Baba did not announce what the figures were because they weren't very good apparently. Um, I think that we're going to see, as I said, a continued slow down in the Chinese economy. We're gonna

see pressures on big multinationals. Are already seen it with companies like Apple to diversify their supply chain out of out of China. The latest you know, lockdowns in Jung Joe on the world's largest iPhone factory just show that. So I think we're gonna have to have to see a sort of a re reckoning with global portfolios and the realization that China won't be the growth driver that it has been in terms of global supply chains. Right, it's been as you mentioned Apple, it's been such an

important part. It's given American consumers for many years ability to pay, you know, not a lot for a lot of things that we all need. And we know it's been shifting to some extent over the last you know, a few years, as China doesn't want to be kind of the manufacturer necessarily to the world. But does that mean in terms of global inflation, maybe it does stay higher because China is going to be very de going forward. I think there's definitely going to be related global inflation.

There's you know, as companies feel the pressure to diversify their supply chains, partially because of the pandemic, partially because of the U S China tensions um, and partially just now the realization that it's not so smart to have all your eggs in one basket. Uh, They're gonna be costs associated with that, and ultimately those costs will have to be passed onto the consumer as well. All Right, we're gonna leave it there. Hey listen, Tiff, thank you

so much. I always appreciate Dexter Tiff Roberts, Senior fellow with the Atlanta Council's Asia Security Initiative. As we mentioned, a former Bloomberg Business Week China bureau chief, and his book is about the myth of Chinese capitalism, the work of the factor in the future of the world, and really gets into I feel like some of these issues that maybe are also coming through when it comes to the longer term story for China specifically. Journal Now, but

you let me drive? Oh no, no, no no, no, who's leave, I'll do vel. I want to drive. It's a good question. This is the drive to the globe on blue Bird Radio. All right, let's get to it. We've got just gottening on in a half minutes left in today's trading session. Charlie talking about you. Noticing too, Tim, just the rollover that we've seen in the equity trade. I described it. We described it as wobbly at the beginning of our

broadcast and it continues to be that way. And we're definitely off our best levels of the session right across the board. Yeah, starts moving between games and losses more than a dozen at times today, but certainly seeing the downside with the S and P down time. Yeah, that's a lot searching for direction. Right, Let's get into it with Dan Eron's managing director and portfolio manager and Advisor Shares Investment Dan this afternoon joining us on the phone

from Texas. Dan, how are you doing well? Thanks for having me on. It's good to have you back. Hey. Um, you've got a few plays that we want to talk about, and it's good to talk to you again. By the way, Um, you've got the Advisor Shares, pure Us, Cannabis et F and some other vice holdings. But I want to get a big picture from you before we get to those holdings. Um,

where are we do you think? Because we're getting sort of different narratives from different FED speakers over the last twenty four hours, and investors certainly don't know what direction things should be going in. Yes, we see a lot of that. UM when there's is a lot of confusion, when there's lack of direction and people don't know what

to do. I do think people should look at non correlated assets like perhaps cannabis, but more than that, often UM, consumer staples, UM, things that might be recession resistant, stock market resistant, things that people are going to spend money on or consume no matter what's going on with the economy or the stock market. Because is I'm not going to give you predictions on the future, especially when we see from the Fed and everywhere else lack of direction.

People shouldn't be trying to guestimate that stuff. Hey, when you think about because you've got, as you mentioned, UM different ways to play the market, and you do have a pure US cannabisy t F M s O S is the ticker UH down so far this year, but it's up about over the past month. How did the recent midterms perhaps help UH that space or kind of

just keep it neutral. Yeah, well, I can't shy away from the fact of those down numbers for the year, like you said, but cannabis until the past months has been in pretty much an eighteen or nineteen month draw down. Heck, ever since Biden was elected. They made promises back then, but a lot of people are pointing to these most recent mid terms. There's some ballot initiatives. Maryland just approved past adult use in the state of Maryland. That's a

pretty populous state. Same thing in Missouri. So additional states continue to come online with cannabis. That increases sales yet again, but again we had politicians promising us various levels of cannabis reform. I would like to say reform, because I don't think we're ever going to have a coast to coast full legalization everywhere. If you really drill down, alcohol is not even legal everywhere. It's a very convoluted um legalization. Wait,

hold on, what are you talking about it? I can I mean, I know you can't buy it in the grocery store in certain states. What do you mean by that? Um? Great question. Um, there's cities and counties that don't have package stores. You have to go to the border to find a liquor store. Uh. Some states sell liquor on Sundays, some don't. Some it's beer and wine on you can't talk. Sometimes you can't buy it before noon. Sometimes, Uh, there's locations that have bars. Some places you have to buy

a membership. Some places don't have any. It's very complicated stuff. So at the most cannabis might be something resembling that type of model. But we we digress um in the slame duck session, you know, we just had these elections. What we ended up with. It looks like it's not

even done yet. It's probably Republican controlled house. It looks like the Democrats are going to continue to control the Senate, and a lot of the experts feel that is good that the current members of the Senate will finally finally roll over and do what's right, what they've been promising for the past two years, with the House of Representatives already already approved, and that some level of cannabis reforms

such as safe banking not gonna hold my breath. And I'm not trying to like rein on your parade, but i feel like I've had this conversation a million times, and I'm thinking, depending on what comes at the world next year, which could be maybe a recession some other hard times, I don't know. Hey, I just want to say something about the Safe Banking Act since it's on the tip of my tongued in and you can probably speak to this too. But I was in California over the weekend, um, and I rode my bike by a

cannabis store. Uh. And I think because of the lack of a Safe Banking Act, they deal only in cash and there were there was armed security outside of it as a result of what they're doing with cash because they have to. And I thought to myself, wait a second, you know, if we do finally see because they're worried about getting robbed because everything is in cash, it's kind of crazy like and this is you know, they're they're very very much on point with worrying about being robbed.

There's been armed robberies and murders happen in dispensaries because it's all cash business. It is out rageous, especially when these politicians have been playing games with people's lives over the last couple of years, when the Democrats have had control of the Senate this whole time, promised to reform hasn't happened yet. That's why we think it's finally going to happen in the lame Duck session. I mean, we have the American Bankers Association in favor of safe banking.

Janet Yellen's a favor of safe banking, se the populations in favor of safe banking, and a lot of people are finally pointing to and again I've founded like a broken record for the last two years because I foolishly believed in politicians a little bit. But we think we might finally get it in the safe in the safe

excuse me, the lame duck session. And if you look at history, awful lot of legislation has passed in the lame duck session because they're not most politicians is important goals to get elected or get re elected, and um that is finally lifted off during this little lame duck session. We shall see, we shall see, um what will happen.

But good to check in with you. Dan Aaron's managing director portfolio manager at the actively managed E t F Investment Management from Advisor Shares Investments, joining us on the phone from Texas. Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, or watch US on YouTube. Search to Bloomberg Global News

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