This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Over the next couple of hours, we're gonna bring you news of the week, insights from the magazine, and so much more. And Jason, it was week sixteen. We both had to kind of do a reality check on that. We've been working from home for
about four months. Like so many other Americans. We began this working from home just before the first quarter of the year ended. Now we just wrapped up the second quarter. The first half of the year is over, and this week Bloomberg Business Week magazine a little bit of a respite, perhaps from some of the big headlines out there and stresses that we've all been dealing with. It's the heist issue, and we'll get more later on from our editor Joel
Webber and features editor Max Chafkin. It is, as you say, a little bit of a respite, Carol, uh and the heist issue. It's an annual tradition, so looking forward to hearing more about that. But meanwhile, the headlines continued to come fast and furious. We are a country in a world dealing with multiple crises, and crises that continue to befuddle us in many ways, not the least of which is the virus. We got spiking cases across the United States,
and it is a scary time for many people. We're going to hear later on what that means from a medical perspective, and obviously it informs just about every conversation we had, but first it's a topic we continue to discuss, diversity and inclusion, and one of the most read stories on the Bloomberg this week the Unwritten Code on race Black and White on Wall Street. You're right, Jason, it was one of the most read stories of the week on the Bloomberg. We got more from Bloomberg News Finance
reporter Michelle Davis. Over the past few weeks, UH, Wall Street, much like the rest of the country and the rest of corporate America, has been facing of reckoning over race, and that means there's been lots of conversations happening, and so, you know, I wanted to talk to black workers across the industry to hear about, you know, what it's like to be black in a predominantly white industry, what sorts of conversations are happening at their firms right now, and
you know why they think diversity initiatives has failed. And in talking to folks, what I found or what I heard, you know, was that, well, a lot of people are really heartened by the fact that, you know, there are
these open conversations about race happening right now. It is clear that Wall Street has failed as people of color, and there's a lot of skepticism that anything is going to change anytime soon because a big part of this is, you know, there are these unwritten rules and there is a systemic racism that is just ingrained in the culture that uh, you know, some say it is going to take a long time to change more than just a conversation, Michelle,
what surprised you the most as you were reporting this story because the way you wrote it is fantastic because you just come right out with these we these unwritten rules. And note that some people will say, no, that's not true, maybe that's untrue, but the reality is is, as I read it, at least knowing Wall Street fairly well, every one of them rang true to some extent or another. But what surprised you the must So I would say
two thinks. One is I hadn't realized that even though Wall Street has, you know, had diversity initiatives in place for decades, the industry has actually gotten whiter over the past few years. At JP Morgan Bank America and City Group, the percentage of black workers overall has been falling, not rising. So that was surprising to me. And the other part was just the fact that every single person I talked
to you had experienced some sort of racism. Not you know, just when they left the building, because social status doesn't protect you from racism, but it was inside the building, and it's you know, maybe not all of it was as overt as like a coworker calling them an an appropriate name, but it was just these little things that happened every single day that um, I found shocking and horrible. Frankly, I gotta tell you just the list reading through, and
I've read it a couple of times. I mean, you know, as you say, never forget, despite all those promises about diversity, only about one percent of senior management on Wall Street is black. You know, you go down this list, adopt a white voice, don't laugh too loudly, act like all of this is normal. Don't talk about race. I've had
conversations with a lot of folks. I know, Jason, you have to and you know, it's amazing how Black Americans on Wall Street and I feel like in corporate America they have really felt like they are not allowed to speak freely and that's troublesome. Yeah, And I think something that one person I talk to you said that I think really kind of sums up what you just said there. And what I found interesting is that a lot of
this dogs have to do with culture. So you know, if you have to change your hide part of yourself to fit into a culture. And based on the conversations I had, you know, people are getting penalized if they don't, So that means there's clearly something wrong with the system
and the culture itself. And I think, you know, the big question is how do you actually Here's that one thing I would have loved to do and here that I didn't is actually be able to break down like what the black representation is like on actual treating floors and like within investment making because those numbers they don't exist anywhere. Um. I know anecdotally that you know, at some of the banks, there are no black workers on
certain desks, but it's just there. It's it's I think until there are actual numbers, it's going to be it might be hard for some of the banks to actually admit that there is a problem. And that's Bloodberg News Finance reporter Michelle Davis, as we said, one of the most read stories of the league, which in some ways I have to say is good news in the sense that I do feel like Wall Street is paying attention to this story more and more. Race, race relations and inequality, Carol.
Oftentimes on Wall Street went unspoken, and I think that is underneath everything that Michelle was writing about in this story, these unwritten rules. They are disturbing to read, but also paint a portrait of maybe, maybe, just maybe a Wall Street that's ready to change. I'm just gonna say, check out our story in the Bloomberg at Bloomberg dot com because there are so many revealing statistics and startling statistics in that story. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up.
As states continue reopening, the question remains, are they doing it too soon? We'll hear from one of our go to voices on the virus, dr Ian LUs Bader He's the clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at n y U Landgo Medical Center. It's a week where Anthony Faucci came out and talked about virus cases could rise to a hundred thousand a day if behaviors don't change. The story
front and center. This is Bloomberg. Is is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. And today we're bringing you some of the most important and we hope informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show this week. And Carol, as much as we would love to move on from the virus, the virus is not moving on from us. We continue to see spiking cases across the country. Well, and I
feel like it was brought front and center by Anthony Fauci. Right. He's the U. S Government's top infectious disease specialist. Jason he warned lawmakers that virus cases could rise to a hundred thousand a day if behaviors do not change. I'm very concerned and I'm not satisfied with what's going on
because we're going in the wrong direction. One of the voices that we talked to weekly is Dr Ian LUs Bader, his clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at n y U Landgoing Medical Center, and he told us where we are when it comes to fighting the virus. Most doctors that I speak to certainly are very concerned, and hospitals are
concerned as they should be um to some degree. You know, I think by by not really mandating you know, masks and social isolation, really by giving that as an option, which you know, with multiple states and in a free country, that's certainly one approach. We're really in a way, uh following the Swedish model, which is letting nature take its course. And when that happens, there's certainly a significant risk. As Dr Fauci says, you know, cases at this point we're
about forty or fifty thousand a day. We know they're really much higher because we're really only picking up about one intent or only diagnosing one intent. There are probably ten times more people who have UH COVID than than are actually being picked up by tests. So we're talking hundreds of thousands a day of new cases, and of course that translates into potentially um higher surge on hospitals and health care facilities, and this is what we're seeing
across the Sun Belt. Yeah, it's not even it's not even just the surge with hospitals, which is a concern, but really ultimately a higher death rate and then what I like to call post COVID syndrome. Even people who get through it often have a lot of other symptoms and ongoing healthcare issues. So it's it's quite worrisome. Ian. Let's talk about that. In anticipation of our conversation, I was talking to others about, um, exactly what you're getting to.
You know, you were the first one, Jason, and I can kind of almost remember the day where you talked about the blood clots, you know, throughout the body and this was just not something you see often. Talk to us about the implications of that and and the problems that seemed to be maybe staying with some patients even after they recover. Exactly, So this uh and Dr Faucci has said this. He said, this is a virus with
protein manifestations, meaning multiple ways of manifesting. We typically think of viruses perhaps as an ammonia or fever, chills and aches,
but this virus is unique. We we really can't think of something similar where multiple organs are affected, strokes in the brain, and kidney disease, liver disease, very high liver function test g I disease, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and not only that, besides UM killing people with blood clots and and some of the latest data show that the virus seems to increase platelet aggregation or the stickiness of platelets
and platelets. Normally, you know, we need to to cause some clotting when you get an injury or a cut, but when there's a massive increase in platelet stickiness, you get clots everywhere. And that probably explains a lot of the you know, severe consequences that we see as a result of these infections. Well, and presumably that ultimately has an impact on a hospital and doctor's abilities to treat
a whole host of things, including new case is. But also this long tail, as it were, uh Ian of COVID exactly right, So we have the you know, the acute UH injury or the the acute illness, and we're still a bit perplexed why there is a number of patients who have mild to to no symptoms. And this is that large young group of people who are asymptomatic, they form a reservoir. They're often feel fine and feel invulnerable.
They're not wearing masks. They're potentially transferring this to other people who are older, which is why you know, universal masking is certainly a reasonable request for for all UM and then uh, insusceptible patients, you get this really cascade of effects that make people more short of breath, have clots everywhere, and then even if people survive after hospitalization, many have a long term not only psychologic effects but
physical effects. Ian A Fiser vaccine showed some promise. And what's interesting is well street investors they tend to react pretty enthusiastically, rather quickly when it comes to virus news UM put it in context, when do you realistically still expect a vaccine? So I, you know, I think this is encouraging news Fightser is one of the number of companies Maduna j and j a estro Zeneca, you know,
who are really moving forward. A lot of these studies are going to go into phase three with wider number of patients. The Fiser study is is fairly small, uh you know, forty five patients or so um, but it certainly is encouraging. What we don't know is in a larger number of patients, how many will develop antibodies that are neutralizing, how long those antibodies will last, and will the virus mutates. So I think it is encouraging that
we're making progress. It is a unique way of making UH vaccine with messenger RNA which gets into your own cells and uh UH forms these proteins that are typical of the coronavirus COVID nineteen, typically the spike protein, and then your body forms antibodies to that, so you're not subject to the risk of a live virus. And we
think that this is hopefully a better way. It is a relatively new technology, but again there are a lot of hurdles before not only is it proven effective, but it can be ramped up, manufactured and distributed, and probably there'll be several vaccines using similar technology, hopefully with similar efficacy. So I think at some point UH and I'm thinking early, but I think it can be a very bumpy road
until we get there where it where it's widespread. That's Dr Eatin loss Better, clinical Associate professor of medicine at n y U Landgown Medical Center and Jason. I feel like so many of our weekly conversations with him have really often revealed things at then are in the headline. So I really feel like he has kept us ahead
of the news when it comes to COVID nineteen. Well, and one of the reasons, and I think we're feeling this acutely, is because New York was so much on the front lines in New York City specifically, and he was on the front line, so he saw this virus up close and personal. He saw the effect that it
had on doctors and nurses and other essential workers. And he's also seen the cautious reopening, a reopening that got a little more cautious this week, even as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, all the states around us, in the states that we live in. Carol started to say, we may need to slow this down because of what's going on across the country. Yeah, two steps forward, one step back. It feels like you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up.
We can't forget it's a presidential election year. Why Summer saying President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, well that they've switched roles when it comes to the election that's coming up next. It's like a freaky Friday. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bring you some of the most important and we hope informative conversations we've had on our daily radio show, Bloomberg business Week.
This week, Carol and we can't get too far away from politics. No, and it's easy to sometimes forget it's a presidential election year. Jason, it's just about four months away. Josh Green one of our favorite voices from Business Week to have on air. He's a national correspondent. He wrote the book about the elections. This week though, writing about the role swap going on between President Trump, the incumbent, and his challenge our former vice president, Senator Joe Biden.
Basically Biden Jason is acting more like the incumbent. Josh joined us along with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Webber. Overall, what stood out was just the oddity of this race. But the specific thing that seems so odd, as we talked about, is that the two guys have sort of just swapped rolls. So in speaking to you past presidential strategy, administration officials, Trump officials really has to do with the
unique nature of these two men. I mean, on the one hand, Donald Trump, you know, loves being a Kennedy, loves holding stadium rallies and tweeting and criticizing people, but he's never really kind of content to running the government.
And when you look at all this going wrong in the country, from the spread of COVID to the recession and the collapse the stock marketing, all these other things, it's kind of understandable why he might not want to focus on that and run the way a traditional president would, which is having lots of rose garden ceremonies and reminding
people that he's the president and he's in charge. On the other hand, you know, we've never had a candidate quite like Joe Biden, somebody who's been on the national stage for so long and it's so familiar that he doesn't really need to introduce himself to voters the way that like a new candidate like Barack Obama did in
two thousand and eight. Biden doesn't really have to convince people, hey, you know, I'm qualified to be president because he's been vice president for eight years he's been a senator for a hundred and forty years or something like that, and
so he has very well known name recognition. People have a very clear idea of who Joe Biden is, moderate, Uncle Joe whatever, whatever, And so he can kind of camp out in his basement and as long as he's leading in the polls by ten, twelve, fourteen points, he can essentially run an incumbents campaign and just say, hey, vote for me. I'm Joe. Time to put me in charge. Well, and a big difference is, as you write, your story is about you know, incumbents, you know, going after um,
undecided voters in the middle right. And that's what's missing from Trump. Yeah, it really is. I mean, look, there's a reason that income in presence of both parties going back a hundred years tend to do the same thing.
You roll out a big second term agenda, You bring in government business big wigs into the Oval office, You kind of flaunt the power that you have in the bully pulp it and sort of established the conditions by which voters think, you know, that guy looks like he's in charge of Thanks, let's give him four more years.
That's worked for every president you know, except for George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and my in my lifetime, and you know, because the incumbents, he has a real measurable advantage. So it's sort of interesting that Trump has chosen to forego those potential advantages. I mean, he can, you know, call a nationally televised addressed you know, he can reach out. You know, he can you can start jobs program. There are things that you do in a big recession that
Trump is just not doing. And by failing to do those, I think that helps explain why it is that swing voters, voters in the middle at least right now, according to the polls we have, are primarily signing with Joe Biden. So, Josh, I mentioned the the artwork, and for those who haven't seen it, and because this is obviously a radio program, the Our Department superimposed a Biden face on Trump and a Trump face on Biden to get this point across um.
And I'm wondering if that's still haunting you, Josh. It is haunting my dreams and my nightmare. I tweeted, I treated out the image of my Twitter feed a little a little while ago. Anybody wants to check it out and I'm pretty sure it's a Business Week um online
in the print, but yeah, it's it is weird. The face the face swapping is a very vivid visual representation of the broader idea I was trying to get out here and one that you will not be able to shake from your mind for better or force, and that's Sploomberg Business Sweet national correspondent Josh Green, along with Joel Weber, the editor of the magazine, and the art. As these
guys alluded to for this story. You gotta go check it out if you're listening to us on the radio, just you know, go to Josh Green's Twitter feed because it says a lot about where we are and it also a, as you said at the top, Carol, a reminder we're still in the midst of a presidential election and also are a reminder that when Donald Trump has involved, it's never business as usual, and it certainly is the
case as we get closer and closer to November. That's what I was thinking when we're talking to Josh and Joel. It's an unusual year on so many different levels, including politics. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up as the presidential election heats up. We're gonna train our people who are professionals um in sports, the sports business, to be professionals in the voting business. We'll hear more from Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Coonan, who's taking steps to in shore
Atlanta voters can get to the polls. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bringing you some of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had on our daily radio show this week. And Carol, it's a business of sports invasion, but it's a great invasion. And Jason, we know that this year is turning to be a very different year on many levels. That includes
the upcoming presidential election. You and Micha Lynch had an interview with the Landahawk CEO Steve Coonan. We have offered our arena, State Farm Arena, which is about seven hundred thousand square feet, to the Fulton County Commission to host voting for both the August runoff in the general election, and we will be the home of early voting for Fulton County, which is a county that has almost a million registered voters UM in early voting in Georgia, you're
allowed to vote in any super precinct. So we will take our full time staff and turn them into full time poll workers. One of the difficulties Georgia has had is that they aren't volunteer training but maybe an hour before the polls opened. And we're gonna train our people who are professionals the sports business to be professionals in
the voting business. They'll train for a week. We will open our doors, we will socially distant, we will allow for handicap, we will allow um for any kind of needs. And the biggest need is for an efficient, timely way to vote, and hopefully that's what we're going to deliver
to the city of Atlanta in Fulam County. Steve, take me through the process here, because I'm a Boston guy, and if this idea of surfaced here in Boston, it would take a decade to get it through all the appropriate people that need to put the stamp on it. Who'd you have to deal with, who gave the green light, and whether roadblocks or any impediments. Actually it moved pretty quickly.
I kind of had the idea when I was watching the protests the first couple of nights, because they were literally at the street intersection of where our arena sits, and that was the epicenter of the protests in downtown Atlanta. And protests have to lead to change, and changes very very difficult, and in my mind, the one thing that I thought we could help influence immediately was voting. And so because of the unique structure of the NBA season this year that we're not starting our season in mid
October has traditionally done. But in some time in December, our building was open and available. So I had a conversation with our coach, who is coach Lloyd Pierce, who has been leading the Coaches Association on social justice and has been very very active, to bounce it off at him. He liked the idea. Our owner, Tony Rustler, liked the idea. So I placed a call to Fulton County Chairman Rob Pitts, who I had known through my career, and he called me back the next day and said, can we tour
the arena? And they walked in the arena and within an hour we had a deal, and we did a press conference forty eight hours later. You had to have been surprised to eve that it moved that fast. I mean, you've been doing this for a long time, you know, it's interesting. I really applaud the Fulton County folks. They were very humble. They said they're going to move from worst to first. They understood the dilemma they were in. In fact, their head of voter registration said, we didn't
know how we would solve this problem. So when somebody thinks you're a good guy, going in and candidly, we offered him everything. We're gonna pay our employees, we're going to make the parking free. We've got Marto, which is rapid transit in Atlanta, to reopen its station, which is from our door. We gave him a turnkey solution because this was something we felt passionately about. And yes, I
was stunned that it moved so quickly. And I just think, you know, good timing met a good opportunity with a good solution. For us, it gives us a real opportunity to do something to help effect change, and for Fulton County, it gives them a building that has everything you need that you're not going to find in a classroom. Or a library, you know, great connectivity and WiFi, highly educated,
trained young staff, spacing for social distancing. We gave them our practice court for a month with a secure with twenty four hour security. Is where they're going to count all the mail in an absentee ballots. So we're literally turning our building from State Farm arena to like a good neighbor State Farm. Is there, state Farm left and Central? How did I do on that flock? Pretty good? Pretty good? They're gonna be happy, you know, sometimes going and voting
to us. As you said, a school or a library or fire station, you could stand in line for a long long time if if it's inclement weather, it discourages people. But you know, I've been to that facility. I'm a Boston guy, but I spent a week down there at the super Bowl. It's a great facility, public transportation. This might become such a pleasurable experience that you might be asked to do it every time there's a major election, at least every four years. So are you ready for that?
I would love that if it became a national NBA holiday in every arena and in the league. Did it? Yeah? I mean, have you heard from other I mean, I know that this is brand new, but I have to think this is an idea that could catch on across the leagues. I talked to six teams. We have a network of NBA presidents. We work together even though we compete on the court, where business partners off. And there's only thirty of these jobs in the world. So we
talked quite a bit. So I had multiple cities, UM call me and multiple cities are doing voter registration and they've already got their programs into place, so they're going to look. You know, if you own your building, your building is going to be dark from most likely concerts, and um, the start of hockey and basketball are being delayed. It's a great opportunity, and I think one of the keys is through our owner, Tony Wrestler and his generosity.
We've been paying all our employees and so bye bye treating people well. Now we need something back from our staff and they couldn't be more excited to participate. So they're going from full time sports employees, hawks employees, the full time poll workers, which really hasn't happened. So Steve, you know, we were talking about the n b A and you put it very well that they're only thirty of these jobs, and you guys talk all the time.
It does strike me that the NBA has been more progressive than most leagues in terms of activism, in terms of reacting and maybe being proactive around a lot of social issues. Aid you agree and be why is that? I absolutely agree. I think if you look at I think it has to start on two levels. I think
the first its ownership structure. You know, Adam Silver, who is progressive and innovative and a phenomenal leader, works for owners And if you look at the ownership in our league, it's not generational ownership like you see in the NFL. I mean, you have wonderful families who have owned a football team since the start. Here you've got this next generation of private equity and investors and Steve Balmer and people who are you know, well versed in the needs
of community when you buy a sports team. Mark Cuban wrote this, and in fact, you wrote a letter to Bomber that was great. It said, you don't own the team, You're just the steward of the team, and the team is owned by your community. Tony calls our team a community asset, and I think sports are the great unifier.
One of the reasons that I left the TV industry and went and ran my team in my town was because I thought we could do more to unite and excite the city of Atlanta than any policy or politician. And I think sports has the ability, and we're kind of seeing it with our announcement to solve problems and
create opportunity in a very unique way. But I think our young ownership structure with people who are invested in their communities and also understanding our players are our product, and our players want to have a voice in Our players are our partners. We share our revenue virtually fifty fifty. I think it's fifty point one, but surrounding sake, let's go with and they want to do more than basketball, and we want to be more than a basketball team.
So I think the aspirations line up perfectly in Orlando, Steve, there's going to be on the floor painted on all the courts that are playing Black Lives Matter? Um will that carryovers went to if we come to the next season in the NBA, and could we see visible signage of standing up for so a little justice in the thirty arenas around the NBA. I can't comment on whether it carries over, but I think the idea of strong pro social statements and positionings and reinforcement of ideals absolutely
makes sense. You know, I said, I haven't even discussed that with anybody. I saw that you thought it was fantastic, and I think it's a huge statement then, and I'm very, very very proud to be part of the NBA when they make statements like that. That's Atlanta Hawk CEO Steve Coonan Jason with you and of course Mike Lent you guys interviewed him for the Business of Sports. I think this is fascinating and I'm curious to see if other
cities and states start to do the same thing. Well, and it's a callback to last week's invasion that I had into this show, which was Lebron James and everything that he's doing around this more than a vote effort. I mean, what we're talking about here, Carol, is an attempt to write some structural wrongs that have to do with access to voting in this country. It's just that simple. These are the sorts of efforts I really believe that
could fundamentally alter Dare I say democracy in the United States. Well, I love what this team is doing, right, because they're also challenging other NBA franchises to essentially become civically involved ahead of the November election. So let's see if everybody follow suit. Kind of keeping my fingers crossed on that, me too. That wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm
Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Plenty coming up in our next hour as we take you into our special double issue. It's the heist edition, perfect for stay at home reads or maybe social distancing beach reads. Perhaps, Yeah, just don't get any ideas about stealing stuff. Plus, we'll hear from Mac Weldon CEO Brian Burger his take on running retail during this new world order. That and so
much more is coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg rate O. Hello, I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. Plenty ahead a few in this hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including our conversation with an old friend of the show mac Weldon CEO Brian Burger on the front lines carol of retail and the collision of e commerce and brick and mortar, if that's even a thing anymore. Plus time to eat, Yes,
exactly impossible. Foods Chief financial Officer David Lee stopped by. He talked about expanding sales of their plant based sausage. They're rolling it out nationwide, and he had some interesting statistics about what's been happening at their company as a result of the lockdown. But first, let's sake you inside the Heist edition. It's a double issue of the magazine, an annual tradition. Now here's the editor of the magazine, Joel Webber and Max Chafkin. He oversaw the whole issue. Well,
you know, this is a third annual Heist issue. It's a huge testament to one Max Chafkin, who has become just the captain of this thing. And you know, Max and I just like all year long or basically like talking about this issue and like putting together our our works in progress list or whip list, and you know, trying to figure out the ones that are going to make it or not make it. And you know that this issue is a culmination really of that process and
a huge testament to him. And you know, all these UM reads, you know, we've always said joke that, um, we want to kind of steal your summer with this issue and and boy, um could we have come out at a better moment in time for that. Um. So hopefully everyone can you know, pack this around all summer long and take their time enjoying it, because the stories
are just tremendously good. Max, what is your favorite? I mean, you know, I love them all, but the story that Carol mentioned at the top, the Super Bowl Ring pis
um is is epic and wonderful. It's by Zeeke Fox, and I don't want to ruin the whole thing, um, but it's about a very very very committed New England Patriots fan who decided in basically that thirteen years ago to get revenge on on the Giants and the way he decided to do that was by healing their Super Bowl now and it wasn't even the biggest heist that he went math for that you'll have to read the story.
Um Uh. You know you guys talked with Clear Steth yesterday about her story about the Gardner Museum where this five million dollar mystery remains, this this sort of thing in the art world that no one has ever been
able to crack. Um. My favorite little detail about that is we call it we've called it the case of the Empty Frames, because the museum has to keep the frames empty on the walls because otherwise the the entire museum would actually turn over to Harvard and they have to keep things exactly as they were when the eras handed them down and created the museum. Um. So it's like a heist within a heist if they you know, if they act out of wine U and the stories
just kind of keep going. There's an amazing one that we just published today by Natalie Obico Pearson Um about Huawei and Canada, where there was once a company called Nortel. A mysterious hack um sink that company Whahwei. It coincides with basically the moment in time that Whahwei really started to emerge as a dominant force. And actually, uh Whahwei ended up hiring a whole team of Nortel engineers who basically ended up being the ones that built five G
at Wahwei. So it's a way for us to be both timely and timeless, which is sort of one of my favorite attributes that we try and do it. They're just so much fun. So Max, I'm just curious about the conversations you guys have in the news room when you are putting this together. You gotta think about it. It It comes out every year, at least for the last four years, so you know what goes on in the news room as you get ready, you know, and you plan for this well. So I mean these are mostly fun.
Not every story in this issue is what I would call, you know, a hundred percent fall laugh. Um. But but for the most part, we're talking about stories that are fun and entertaining to report and and and entertaining to write and entertaining to read. And so you know, the reporters in the newsroom like this issue. It's a it's a kind of journalist favorite and um and so yeah, throughout the year, you know, we're Joel, like Joel said,
you know, we're fielding pitches, um for these stories. The super Bowl one that I mentioned was, uh, you know months in the making. I think we first started talking
about it in October and November of last year. Um and uh and and and so it's it's kind of a combination of just sort of over the year, uh, you know, fielding a bunch of pitches, but then also trying to be a little bit imaginative and think about, you know, what are some what are business stories that you wouldn't necessarily think of as a conventional heist story, but that could be thought of that way. And and and that's one that's like the Northtell story that that
Joel mentioned, you know. Also by the way, Happy Candida Day, everybody. I mean, the story is about a UM Canadian national champion that UM was you know, through its own hand, through the market, and through a hack, was destroyed. And so it's not it's not a straight up heist, but it is a story where there where some theft plays a role, and there's also kind of a sort of business theft that is like one company taking another company's
market share. So we try to take a you know, a a sort of broader view of heist and then we and then but of course they have to have some like just classic you know, take the painting type type pet stories and and and we actually have two of us issues. So so it's a mix. And that's s Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber and Features editor Max Chaffkin, the architect of the Heist issue. I wonder if he got any big ideas. I kind of love
this issue. Right, You never know what you're going to get in the Heist issue, but it's all about stories of mystery and things gone missing. I love it. Stolen super Bowl rings, pleased workers, I don't love that. But nonetheless, man, where they go when they do this issue, it's always a wonderful, wonderful read. All right, you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, Mack Weldon is airing its ads on television for the very first time. Our conversation with
the company's founder and CEO that's coming up next. They're a digital retailer, but man, they are definitely doing things a little bit differently in this environment. Well, they're at the nexus of everything when it comes to apparel and shopping, and we know it's a new world. This is Bloomberg. If you came across someone struggling with hunger, how would you recognize them? By their clothes, their age, the way
they speak. Hunger can be hard to recognize. Learn Why I Am Hunger in America dot Org brought to you by Feeding America, two hundred food banks strong and the ad Council. Vice is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations we have throughout the week on our daily radio show. And Jason, we do like to remind everybody that as we were having
these conversations, I mean, the world continued to evolve. The stories continued across the Bloomberg terminal, I mean, news just was fast and furious well. And one of the things that we know is happening is that people actually are continuing to shop now they're doing it a lot more online and that's probably good news for Mac Weldon. CEO Brian Burger, he's a friend of the show. We check in with him pretty regularly about what they're doing. Full disclosure,
I'm a customer by Stuff Stuff. It's really good. But he caught up with us to talk about some of the new things he's doing to respond to the crisis.
The irrespect of what's going on now, and we're always trying to be really thoughtful about where our at show up a lot of our ads are served by algorithms, UM, and so UM, you know, you can put constraints on you know, on sites that you want to be excluded, but UM, you know, so it's something that we think about on a regular basis and that we have thought about a lot with respect to what's going on right
now with Facebook. UM. I wouldn't say that we're at a point where we feel that we're going to be kind of pulling our ats, but we absolutely respect UM, you know, the moves that some of the larger brands are making in this regard, and you know, these are tough, you know, these are tough calls, and I think for everybody, UM, you know, we're living in UM you know, and in really unprecedented times. And I think that UM brands taking a stand for things that they believe in is really awesome.
And you know, we've tried to do that as appropriate, and we'll continue to look at this situation and see what makes the most sense for us well and speak of taking stands and the conversations that that you're having, Brian, I mean, I do UM wonder about the conversations you're having around equality and inequality and diversity right now. I mean, you know, you're a relatively young company in in some ways.
It's what we've heard from a lot of ceo as we've talked to, is that when you're a younger company, in some ways it's easier to have this conversation, you know, younger in terms of the age of the company, but also candidly in terms of the age of your work wars and whatnot, and how you are constructed. Tell us a little bit if you can, about what those conversations are like and some of the things you're hearing from your employees that you're putting into play. It's been super
it's been super um uh. You know, also with respect to the COVID lockdown and then the murder of George Floyd. Um, you know, it's been challenging on so many levels. But but the murder of George Floyd was was particularly challenging because there was a bit of a galvanizing effect when we all went into quarantine. And really the message for myself and from from for most c e o's was that, you know, this is we're all in this together. Um. And in this instance, the message was we're not all
in this together. Um. There are parts of our employee base that have been uh and and are way more affected by this than other parts. But that doesn't mean that we can't all together come together UM and do a much better job. But how we think about diversity and inclusion in our company, and so we took some very specific actions, UM, and we came together and you know, the work is just beginning, but uh starting with you know,
a diverse an inclusive workspace. UM. We all felt that there was way more that we could be doing proactively to make this part of our operating culture and our d n A than we have historically been doing. So we committed ourselves to to certain things as a company and we look forward to um, you know, rolling those out and really sort of moving the ball forward on this.
I have to tell you, Brian Jason, I are messaging ourselves back and forth because you're what you said about we found out that we're not all in this together. I mean that is such an important statement because we're not. Yeah, and again that doesn't mean that we can't and it's an opportunity to learn. UM. And one of the things that we did that was really powerful. You know, ends are really compelled to like react when things happen and
a lot do. And it's it's challenging because you don't want to be seen as you know, kind of being opportunistic or pandering to the moments for your own kind of you know, brand advantage. So we really tried to be very introspective and and and we had an employee first mindset. If we treat our employees right, and we create the right work culture and environment for employees, and no will ultimately manifest itself externally to our customers and
to our brands. And I have to say, Jason, I've talked to you know, Richard Edelman of Edelman you know, Corporate Communications, and he's you know, advising a lot of companies and reminding us whether it's through the virus and also you know, with what happened in Minneapolis that it's just not the time for companies. I think we all had a little bit of a time where we had to kind of find our way. But ultimately, bottom line, it's not a time for companies to go dark or
for leaders to go dark. You know that people want to hear from companies, especially those that they like. UM, so it's an interesting time. It's an interesting time too for you guys, because you're doing TV ads. What's up
with that? Yeah, So this is something that we had as a priority in ten, but because the rest of our advertising, um, you know, all the rest of our advertising programs were quite honestly, UM facing a lot of headwinds in for a whole variety of reasons, we didn't really have the space in our marketing budget to really
execute on it. And like so many things that have happened during this kind of hundred plus day quarantine, it's just an amazing example of our team, our entire company, our entire team UM doing more with less, no fancy shoots, no big production budgets, no kind of new you know,
original content. We effectively looked UM into the assets that we had and really found probably the best thing you can use in an ad, which is a whole bunch of video customer testimonials that we had done early in UH in the year that we were able to repurpose with some video editing, with some you know, voiceover, with some graphic insertions around product and really stitched together creative that was very UM you know, I think tone wise, really UM appropriate for where we are right now, and
then able just to get to market really fast with with a test and then the other the other thing. We're basically um a lot of advertisers pulling out of traditional kind of linear television, spot television, over the top video create a little bit more space for brands like ours to come in and test, because we're just testing this right now. That's Mac Weldon founder and CEO Brian
Burger Jason. We loved talking with him digital retailer, right but they did open their first brick and mortar store about a year ago this spring at the shops at Hudson Yard. So really understands the retail environment and really how to operate in this new world order. Well, and what I find fascinating is the world has in many ways that no one would have predicted it. This has sort of come to him, not only in terms of the way people shop. We're all shopping online, but what
we're buying, what we're wearing. I am a testament to this. You see me every day our video conference system. You know, it's T shirts and jeans all the time. And we had a story this week via The New York Times about zoom shirts. Basically people throwing on a dress shirt if they've got to be seen on video. I do that sometimes, but I do wonder what's gonna stick on the other side of this. That's right. I recently saw you in a jacket. I'm like, Jason, what's going on
over there? Feels weird? I know, I know. All right, you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, We've got an investor in entrepreneur looks at the world through so many different lenses. We're talking about FS Investments, vice chair and CEO campus apartments. David Edelman is back with us. That's coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bringing some of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had on our daily radio show this week, Bloomberg Business Week too to six pm Wall Street Time. Just as a reminder, and we love talking with folks Carol who have multiple lenses, multiple views into the economy
and business. It takes almost a couple of minutes to just introduce him, but I love talking with him because, as you said, Jason, you can talk about real estate, sports, education, travel. David Edelman he see of campus apartments. He's also the vice chair of FS Investments. That's an alternative investment fund manager. They've got about twenty four billion of assets under management, and we caught up with him, you know, to just check in about where we are in terms of the
investment and business environment. It's interesting. You know, you had the best quarter since the dall so I guess, uh, you know, I don't think things were that as good a month or six weeks ago when we were on the phone. So a lot has happened in the markets, I guess since then, and uh, you know, interesting time here we are. Yeah, this sort of divergent world that that we're living in, David for sure, and we've been talking a lot about that. So let's start there. What
do you make of it? I mean, you see investments across the spectrum from rive it to public. You see the public markets, but you're also looking at startups. You're advising entrepreneurs like synthesize it for us, Like, what do you make of the world? What's your view? It's interesting. I look, if I was betting against the market, I would have been really wrong. And you know I I didn't take into account how much capital, Uh, the FED would put into the economy to kind of you know,
prop it up. And it's done an unbelievable job because I think, you know, without that, we wouldn't have an all time high where we are right now, in a great quarter in the markets for sure. Uh. And they've done a great job of taking you know, a horrible pandemic and creating optimism at least from a standpoint of the you know, the capital markets. Well, David, are you one of those who thinks there is a divergence between what's happening in the financial markets versus what is happening
in the real economy. What are you seeing you know as you look at your different businesses and your different investments. Well, so it's interesting. You know, I also wouldn't have bet that, you know, May and June had strong retail sales as
things started opening. There was this pent up demand and you know, I didn't see that coming because you know, you still have over you know, thirty forty million unemployed people, which is just, you know, really sad, and you know, we have to figure out a way to open up the economy and get those folks back to work. And you know, for those who have lost jobs in industries that you know might not might have gone away. We
need to retrain them. And so that's the divergence that's confusing to me is where you see the markets really doing well, you see retail spending going well, e commerce is moving um, and then you still have to think about these, you know, kind of the unemployment claims. David talked to us shifting gears a little bit about back to school. You're very involved with campus housing, campus apartments
that Carol mentioned, you're the CEO there. Housing obviously is a key part of getting college kids back on campus. What's it gonna look like? What are you seeing literally from the ground level. Yeah, so I think you know, one thing got really proven during the pandemic and um, I think I mentioned this last time. That's over sixty up to eight on where we were in the country of our residents actually quarantined in our apartments off and
kind of stayed in that environment. And what became very clear, and you know, the universities will acknowledge this that the online learning experience, you know, people didn't feel they got the value out of that, and so people are craving that, you know, kind of in person experience. Uh, looking you have for the schools to open, and the schools really realized from a business perspective. You know, I'm a parent who's got a high school senior that's going to start
as a freshman in the fall. If you're a college that doesn't open your child, you might lose that customer and they might transfer to a school that is going to open. And so really important from the business perspective that they kind of provide a service to their customers.
There was a great article actually today in the Wall Street Journal, uh, from the president of Cornell talking about how they're opening up, why they're opening up, Uh, you know, the COVID testing they're gonna do, and you know, so I commend the schools because they've really come out thoughtful plans and you know, in the last three weeks, you know, most of the other schools in the country, you know, we're probably north of the schools have probably reported at
this point, you know, with some sort of hybrid model, meaning your big giant lectures while those are going to do online, but they're still going to utilize in person, in class teachings for the smaller classes, you know, just a little more spread out. You are the owner of a number owner part owner of a number of sports teams. Where are we in the world of sports right now? How optimistic are you that we're going to get back
to something resembling close to normal here. I think I've watched every replay of every you know, basketball games for the last twenty years, So I'm ready for fresh content, as is everybody else, right And um, you know, I think you know, the leagues are all trying to figure this out as best they can. Um, you know, the NBA is near and dear to me, and you know my friends who play, are you know ready, They're all
working out very hard. And I think that, uh, you know, I have to give credit to just you know, the way they're trying to be safe and which is what you have to do first. But you know, I think people are excited to have, you know, some id content. And that's FS Investments Vice chairman David Edelman. They have some private equity investments. They've got about four billion dollars in assets under management. Carol and I love his view of the world, in part because he's in Philadelphia said
that makes it a little bit different. He owns some sports teams. He's invested in the higher education realm through real estate, so all these inputs that he gets gives him a pretty holistic view of the world. I love what he had to say to he too, like so many of us, were surprised at the market run up um and it was just kind of fun to get his take on where we are, certainly in the equity markets and so much more. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week.
Coming up, the plant based protein market getting a boost during the virus lockdown. We check in with Impossible Foods chief financial officer David Lee. That's coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Today we're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show this week. And Carol, you know the meat alternative market. I'm fascinated
by it. You are too. It is booming during the pandemic. Yeah, and one of the big players in this market that continues to tap into that growing demand is Impossible Foods. Jason. And what's interesting, this was a big week for them. They rolled out nationally. It's first all new products since it released It's impossible Burger back in It's sausages, protein based sausages. We got the latest on the new product
and the market from Impossible Foods CFO David Lee. Well, our world has continuously been about increased demands, even as more and more folks to this global pandemic or sheltering in place. You've seen something like a thirty x increase in Impossible Foods business and grocery stores, and we're on
track actually to exceed fifty x growth this year. We are trying to adjust to meet the meat eater where they're increasingly shopping, and that means in grocery stores, it means creating our direct to consumer business by not Impossible Foods dot Com, as well as supporting the rollout at Starbucks and at Burger king our new platform, the Impossible Sausage. So David talked to us about sort of those shifts that you had to make to to meet that demand.
Was it, uh? Did it involve sort of shifting spending?
Did it involve shifting production? Like take us inside, what what you had to do as this uh sort of changed and then kept changing, right because search doesn't Demand are great, but sometimes you gotta all of a sudden, I mean, yeah, exactly you, But I mean we have been well prepared for the search that we're recently seeing because a big part of our research and development it's not just in a delicious impossible sausage product or an a possible burger, it's the actual way we make our product.
So being able to scale with co manufacturers like O s I has allowed us to meet all the doma and we're seeing and continue to grow. That said, it is unprecedented the amount of demand we're seeing, and so far we are on track to supply it. Were you, David surprised by that? I mean, I know a lot of people have been home and they're ordering lots of food, But I am curious how you think specifically the virus impacted kind of your world, maybe opened it up or
made more people aware. Did you specifically target folks with advertising or how do you think it came about? What are you hearing? Well? Our brand has been built predominantly based on earned media and word amount, and I think is more and more meat eaters are sheltering in place, they're thinking about the choices that they make every day to feed their families. They're thinking about what is the meat they created due to the environment and their health.
You know, nine out of ten of our customers are self about meat eaters. And when you have the benefit of really deeping, deeply thinking about better choices for yourself, it's a natural fit with the rollout of the products because we're just as crevable. We just don't have as many compromises for your health and for the environment. That's interesting. So tell us more about what you've learned about the customer, David, because you make such a good point that it is
a very reflective time. I mean, and that extends to everything from exercise to nutrition to you know, maybe even some bigger um crises that we're facing as a country around social justice and consumption and inequality and all those different things. But it is a time to get to
know your customer more. Tell us more about them. Well, you know, meals have always brought family together, and the impossible burger could possibly be the one product that's been launched to bring everyone together, whether your immediate or your vegan, your halal or your kosher. You know, what we find is that as home chefs experiment with cooking. You know, they've come to realize that meat is incredibly bespoke to how they want to serve it. They can make it
rare or all done. They can put it in pasta or a burger. An impossible burger and impossible sausage are unique in that they're entirely meet from plants, but you can make them into whatever you're you're you're hoping to make for dinner for your family, unlike almost any other plant based product prior um So, I think that experience of watching our products transform in their own hands has been a unique one, different than going to a burger King or to a Starbucks where you can enjoy the
impossible breakfast sandwich or the impossible sandwich. And that's been driving a lot of the growth we're seeing out of grocery. Well, that's what I was curious, David, like, break it down for us. I mean, we're Bloomberg, we're nerdy, we loved you know, kind of to breakdown exactly where you're seeing
the growth. So is it you know you talk about the direct consumer market, so people can go online, there's the supermarkets, there's those partnerships, right Starbucks you know, announcing their own breakfast sandwich that's made with your possible sausage. So rolling it out to fifteen thousand stores nationwide, where is the most growth among those revenue streams. Well, candidly,
we're seeing growth across all of them. I mean twenty thousand locations for impossible sausage made from plants since the start of the year, an increase of thirty x the number of grocery stores right up to nearly five thousand locations today with plans to grow that even faster. And then the recovery that we are helping support amongst food service,
where you're seeing innovative tactics by our restaurant partners. They are they're shipping raw impossible burger direct to the home consumer, they're creating meal kits uh and and frankly, all of that is happening in a way that transcends any single channel. It because we are building a new business we can adjust to where the meat eater has shifted, and they're shifting increasingly to cooking at home. Though we are seeing
resurgence again back in the food service world. So David, talk to us about sausage because you know that is an area be sage love sausage I have. I've tried the product in restaurants. I'm excited to try it uh in my home. But I mean, it obviously is a different sort of product. But as you say, a lot of possibilities there tell us about sort of the development of it and how you market it maybe differently than you do just the straight up burger and the more
straight ahead meat or meat product. Yeah, I mean, well, the hallmarks for Impossible Sausage in some ways are really similar to the way in which we've been successful with the Impossible Burger. It it appeals to meat eaters like men. You um. It transforms the way the Impossible Burger does.
And it's comfort food. You know, we we announced that with yelps help, we're at thirty of America's top rank diners, these mom and pops that are just knowing known for delicious comfort food, even as we roll out at fifteen thousand locations across Starbucks and Burger Kings. And that's the thing about a great sausage product. It creates a new
opportunity for breakfast or impossible foods. You know, burgers are great, and the Impossible Burger is one of the best, but it's often not the first thing you wake up and choose to eat, whereas a great breakfast sandwich is something I think we all If the first thing you're waking up and eating is a Burger David, you've had in college, you're you're in college, or you've had a really rough night,
I'm guessing that's that's right. But yeah, speaking of which, the Impossible Sausage is some of the best health potentials around and that it has more iron than an average brand of pork sausage, right, it has less calorie, less fat, so you know, Patty for Patty, the Impossible Sausage is a pretty good choice first thing in the morning or anytime. Well,
you know why, we're very excited. I have to jump in because you know, and Jason and I always go there when we're looking at all these you know, meat alternatives, protein based products. You know, because you know that everybody talks about the high levels of sodium. I've got to say, I went to your website. You guys go into a lot of detail about the sodium levels in your products. It's very informative, um and I highly recommend that everybody
read it. Having said that it sounds like, though, David, that you folks at Impossible are still looking at ways to reduce maybe the things that might make people a little concerned about the health factors of eating your products. Is that fair to say that you're still trying to, you know, maybe even improve it, whether it's the sodium
levels or what have you. Absolutely, you know, the benefit of the way we approach our work is we're driven by science, which means there's a new, better version around the corner for every product we have. You know, we already have no cholesterol in our products and as much protein, as much iron, but we're increasingly improving the health profile, whether that's less and less fat or less and less salt.
You know, the thing about salt, which you probably read, is that most meat eaters don't take raw meat and eat it without seasoning it. And so we like to think that by the time you enjoy our product versus the product from an animal, not altogether that's different in the amount of sodium your consumer. But that said, are the promise of our technology is to get better and better, and I think you'll see more and more versions and
improvements to come. That's a possible. Foods Chief financial Officer David Lee, and I think it's really interesting, Jason. They're seeing growth for their products on all of their revenue streams. They talked about I think something like thirty three times an increase in their business um, which is pretty remarkable. And I also thought you and I both found it interesting that nine out of ten of their customers are
meat eaters. Yeah, totally. Yeah, this is a market that I think tells us a lot about where consumers are going. And it was interesting also to talk to him about their company and being a mission driven company and being a mission driven company at a time when so many companies are facing big existential questions about what they are and where they want to go when it comes to diversity and when it comes to you know, the type
of consumers they want to appeal to. Yeah, exactly. And that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. That so much for joining us. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masster. Be sure to dune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Monday through Friday starting
at two pm Wall Street Time. And if you can't catch us live, get our daily Bloomberg Business Week Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to check out our podcast feed for all of the full interviews that were highlighted in our weekend show over the last couple of hours, and also check out our extra podcast. We talked with Charlotte Say Martin of the Broadway League Jason in a week where they came out and said theaters will remain closed for at least the rest of
the year. Broadway is going to be dark for a while. You can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just search for Bloomberg Global News and get this week's edition of the magazine that is on newsstands now. We'll be back right here next week at the same time. This is Bloomberg