Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend-November 7, 2020

In our conversations this week, we're about that connectivity, touching on the vote, the virus, and the visibility and virility of our economy. With that in mind, coming up this hour, thanks just times here as we see those case counts go up in the hospitalizations go up as well on the coronavirus. Dr Penny Wheeler, President CEO at a Line of Health, on the Midwest surge and staying with Health, the CEO of November on their mission when it comes

to men's physical and mental well being. We begin though this week with the biggest story, and that is the presidential election. It's the cover story of this week's magazine and a election that had us all on edge and as Bloomberg Business National correspondent Josh Green reports, despite all the election on certainty that we saw this week, one thing is for sure, and that is Trump is m is here to stay. Here's our conversation with Josh un

Joel Webber, Bloomberg Business Week editor. As we were working on this issue, we knew that there were it was very likely that we have multiple outcomes, and we sort of prepped for every one of those outcomes, and Josh was the secret weapon for for one of them, which was sort of you know, we might go to press and not knowing who the eventual winner is. Josh and like, what the story should we consider for that moment? And

he was like it was genius. He was like, by the way, and no matter what outcome, Trump is um is here to stay. And actually, as we've seen the results UM come come out, you know, hour after hour and day after day, since it actually has only become more and more true. Um. So, Josh, what what did you see that led you to that thesis? Initially? Well, if you look at what binds Republican voters today, it's one thing, and really one thing only if that is

their enthusiasm for Donald Trump. I mean, he has higher than an approval rating consistently in polls. Uh. You know, all of the never Trumper Conservatives and moderate Democrats have either left the party lost reelection, you know, and what's left is really loyal to Trump. Trump likes being in the limelight, wants to stay around, and there isn't any obvious Republican to shove him off the stage and reform

the party and taking a different direction. Uh. And I think that leads to the conclusion that Trump isn't and maybe even Trump himself are going to be the focal point of Republican politics going forward. What's also interesting in your stories, you really get into the suburban voter and the shifts that we continue to see among suburban voters. I mean, this is something the Republican Party, Josh has

to be thinking about. Yeah, it is. I mean the story of you politics over the last four years, in a lot of ways, has been the shift of American suburbs across the country from being white collar Republican voters to being white collar Democratic voters. We saw inklings event in even as Hillary lost UM, she narrowed Democratic margins in Arizona in Texas. UM to to you know, formerly

deeply read states. In eighteen, in the mid term elections, we saw this huge blue wave that swept out Republican incumbents UH in districts around uh, you know, Denver, Philadelphia, Northern Virginia and northern New Jersey, Minneapolis, even down in Dallas and Fort Worth. UH. And what we've seen suburbs by and large have stuck with Democrats, UM and and

are happy to vote for Joe Biden. And I think going forward that that's that's a potentially existential problem for the Republican Party because you you ultimately need to win suburbs to hold onto the White House. And if you've driven away those voters in a way that that Trump's Republican Party have, UM, You've got to figure out a

way to get them back. Josh. You know, one of the other things that you have in your story is sort of the twenty twelve moment in the Republican Party where they did do an autopsy uh and ultimately led to a moment where it created an environment for Trump. UM. What would be the likelihood of an autopsy this time?

You know, I think it to be about zero. You know, the optops that you're talking about twelve, Mitt Romney lost and the party leaders got together and did a big deep dive study and what they needed to do, um to make the party competitive again. And their conclusions where we need to embrace immigration reform, uh, present a softer image to attract young people, LGBT minorities. And of course, as we now know, the party went in exactly the

opposite direction and nominated Donald Trump. That was back when there really wasn't a galvanizing singular personality, um, you know, exerting influence over the party. Well now there is so

uh you know. The fact that you know, Trump has spent the last few days talking about voter fraud and the election being stolen from him, and that so many Republican elected officials have been willing to echo those charges, uh, you know, says to me that there doesn't even seem to be a willingness of Republican leaders who do understand what Trump has cost them to try and embark on

that kind of shift. What's happened to the traditional conservative Republicans at the party has been known for for so many laws, you know, for so many years, the Lincoln Project Republicans. Are they just gone? Do they come back? What happens, Well, you know, many of them have left the party. UM, many of them have have have sort of broken off and and become public dissidents like the Lincoln Project folks. But it's a kind of like normal human, regular Joe level. A lot of those people have just

become Biden votes. I mean, we can see that in the fact that it's already clear that Biden is gonna winn an enormous popular vote victory, and a lot of these these conservatives voted for moderate Democratic House candidates in

twenty eighteen. UM. The problem in the Lincoln Project has is that they don't really represent any big base of report of voters left in the Republican Party, so they're not really speaking for anyone and probably aren't really going to have a lot of power to reshape the party going forward. That's Josh Green, Bloomberg business Week National correspondent. He is also author of Devil's Bargain, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump,

and the Nationalist Uprising. That book you should definitely check out, joining also, of course, Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber. Check out that full cover story in this week's issue of Bloomberg Business Week magazine. It is online, on newsstands and always on the Bloomberg Coming up. The election occupied a lot of our headspace this week. This is COVID nineteen continue to reoccupy our world. An update on the pandemics is coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is

Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Mazier from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the highlights from our daily radio broadcast and podcasts. That included an update on COVID nineteen, which saw record increases in some parts of the globe, and as America's COVID nineteen hotspots stuck with President Trump in the election. We got an update on the virus this week from Dr Penny Wheeler. She's president CEO at a Line of Health. They've got twelve hospitals in the

Minnesota area. We talked with her about the rise in the Midwest. Thanks just times here as we see those case counts go up in the hospitalizations go up as well, So so uh, there's some anxiety about that for certain I am wondering what's the what are the conversations Dr Wheeler that you're having. You know, I mentioned the number over in France. We're watching Europe. I think everybody in the US is wondering, Okay, is this where we are headed?

France reporting a record fifty two thousand, five eighteen new coronavirus cases. That's a big number. Uh, And I wonder are you guys setting up are the facilities within your system and that you are involved with? Are you guys and anticipating another big surge or seeing it all? Yeah? We are, We are certain to see it already. I would say that you know, in our you know, in in Minnesa, you know you just mentioned Carol, the surrounding states to Minnesota, all the Wisconsin and Iowa, we've all

had about a higher than positivity rate. We've been creeping up and we've been seeing it around our border towns too. But we're in about eight percent produce, you know, positivity rate. And I can tell you our hospital takes care about a quarter to a third of all um those in Minnesota affected by the virus. And we have doubled our census in COVID cases over the last two weeks. So

it's coming quickly here. But what's what's you know? I'm curious, you know, certainly in some of the conversations we've had with within the medical community is that we did have the playbook back in March, right, we were just scrambling to figure it all out. Get the equipment, get every you know, the places you know, get the systems, the

necessary systems in place, or the equipment in place. I do feel like we are smarter now, and I hope so, but I do wonder what are you seeing or what have we learned from the past six to seven months, whether it's equipment, but also treating patients. Yeah, totally smarter, Totally smarter, and how we're treating patients and supporting other

organ systems and knowing how to treat them. So fewer people who are in our intensive care units are actually coming to the disease and dying so bad is good good news because we've learned more and we have more more treatments and more um support available. You know, we do have the right now, the stuff available. We increasing testing significantly. I'll tell you. The biggest challenge for us

is staffing. Staffing this appropriately for the search because of course some of our healthcare workers are also people who are getting ill or having family members that are ill. So the plea would be boy, please do the distancing and masking. I know it's getting old and hard, but you're also protecting our healthcare workers significantly by doing so.

You know, I think it's really interesting that you're saying that, because um I had a conversation actually with the CEO of Chipotle last week and I said, you know, same thing. You know what has changed in your world, you know, since March and April in terms of the virus, And he said, one of the most recent challenges is that our own employees are getting sick and it makes it

harder to run the restaurant. And I do think this is going to be maybe the story for the second third waves is you know, making sure that whether it's in healthcare, whatever industry, that we've got the necessary workers. And I know in healthcare it's critical, yeah, critical to just really the health of the community and our ability to treat people. So I worry that our capacity limitation

will be healthy available staff, so be who limits. It won't be on the it won't be on the PPE right now, it looks like it won't probably be on the testing. It will be on that. So what are you do? Can you reach out to or what do you do do you reach out to your surrounding community, but they're also facing the same thing. Is there is there federal assistance that can help in this kind of situation.

Not you know, we're not looking to federal assistance, but we can are collaborating wonderfully well among you know, the systems here, so that we're trying to just balance things out. If somebody doesn't have I feew availability, who does, so we're not you know, this is the time again for collaboration, not competitiveness. And then we're we're continually working with each other.

Like two of us are involved, for example, in vaccine trials that are going on, so we're trying to be proactive about you know, enrolling people in in in those trials as well. Yeah, I do wonder you know that, Like I said that this is going to be one of the main stories at this point. Um. I do wonder too that one of the things that we saw, certainly when we were in the midst of it here in the New York metro area, that there was really this great kind of sharing of equipment, sharing of knowledge.

And you know, what are you seeing, you know, as you deal with the entire healthcare community or are you seeing that continued cooperation and assistance around the country. We're seeing we're seeing the collaboration and cooperation here in spades. And well, we can get you can manufacture equipment. What you can't do is manufactured talented, compassionate UM staff. And so again that's the that's the area that I think

all of us are most concerned about. Dr UM well are One thing I wanted to know is in terms of those getting the virus, are the demographics changing? Is it older, younger? Is it a mixture. I'm just curious what you guys are seeing. Yeah, the demographics aren't changing in terms of those UM disproportedly affected who are black, indigenous people of color, so that's not changing. We are seeing a slight shift to younger UM people getting getting

the virus uh UM. But otherwise profile and obviously the most of the very severe illness isn't. Sadly, the deaths occur in those who are in the older age groups or those who have chronic illnesses, So that's staying the same. YEA, so very very similar. Listen, you know better than most it's all about you know, a vaccine. Although when you

I'm curious how you feel about this. I feel like we continue to have conversations where more and more members of the medical community say, yep, a vaccine is very important, but also really important is wearing your masks, social distancing, doing all all those simple things that can really make a difference in terms of our fight against this virus. Well, no question over emphasizing those over and over again. I heard one of your wonderful masks UH public service announcements

while I was waiting. That's so important. The vaccine is important. It's it's not and all be all. Though we're involved in a Johnson and Johnson ensemble vaccine trial with enrollment of people, and we're actually participating, you know, especially focused on pope relations of color, Black, Indigenous, and people of

color as participants targeting specific zip codes. Sometimes these these studies are done too much on a moor of you know, a white population, and this is disproportionately affecting people of colors that we're actually targeting and asked to target our our vaccine trial accordingly. And then I think, Carol, you said it just right on the other side of things. We want a vaccine that can be trusted for sure, and that has safety, and that trust is important to

people being able to actually get the vaccine. But remember even the even great flu vaccines are you know, successful, and then there's a proportion that doesn't take them. So, you know, I also don't want people to think that it's you know, we're flipping a switching. It's all over at that point. That's Dr Penny wheel or President CEO

at a line of health. Well still to come. November it's the month used to raise awareness of men's health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide. We'll get more when we check in with Michelle Terry, CEO of November, about their growing mission. This is Bloomberg is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. November. You know what it is. It's an annual event involving the growing of mustaches during the month of November to

raise awareness of men's health issues. We're talking about prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and also men's suicide. Rejected with Michelle Terry, she's the CEO of November, to hear about their mission to make an impact more broadly when it comes to men's health. I caught up with her while she was

in Melbourne, Australia. It's one thing to kind of understand deeply the sort of health crisis that's happened with COVID nineteen, and certainly that's the first thing to understand, but then when you take into account the economic crisis and and then actually, you know, you layer onto that just sort of the sort of racial justice reckoning that happened in the summer that the world, our country, uh, you know, the globe is is sort of dealing with these three

factors and when they have caused it immeasurable domino effects against the support structures the and just like the way people are are, what lifelines they have for all things, whether it's the health, whether it's safety, whether it's their educational framework, whether it's food and the ability to kind of find food resources, you know, from whether how much food they have in their house to even the kind of quality of food. And that's just it's happening across

the globe. And I think it's just that is the thing about COVID nineteen, that it's, you know, we call it one thing, but it has so many tentacles into so many other effects. Well, I do wonder to you know, Allison, These are these are problems, whether it's education, whether it's safety, whether it's health, you know, or inequities and healthcare, or whether it's you know, access to having a safety net so that if there you can't work for a couple.

And you know, the rainy day fund we found, you know, people don't many Americans just don't have it. And now we're struggling, you know, to even just put food on the table or keep a roof over their heads. I do wonder you guys have drawn, you know, put a lot of money towards this, and you've also drawn a lot of attention to us what changes What are the policies that we can think about that actually make a different, you know, the change the trajectory of these people's lives.

I think, you know, from our from our standpoint, it's you know, there there is a conversation to we have with policies, but there's also a conversation to be had about programs and the kind of programs that actually move the needle to not only support from an infrastructure perspective.

So in the in the in the opportunity for frold Play project, you know, we're talking about trying to raise dollars to support the fourteen million children in the US that are currently not getting enough to eat, and that is, you know, and over two d and sixty five million people globally who are facing severe threats of hunger in

for all the reasons that we've already discussed. And so in some ways, you know, there is a as I mentioned, there is a policy conversation, but there is also like a very straight up you know, we need to get dollars to the right organizations who are on the ground that can actually sort of fulfill some of these basic

needs are happening today. And I think that first and foremost, and if you look at it from from the health you know, getting getting access to healthcare, preventative healthcare, getting responses to what's obviously COVID nineteen, or even the myriad of other things that are out there. You know, flu season is coming up. That's even something that we need

to be cognitant of. UM. And so the kind of services that fite that I think on on food scarcity and food insecurity, you know, you can think of the ties into education and the and the structure that a lot of kids get some of their best meals within the school complex. If the school is not open and you have distributed learning, not only is there a learning loss happening, but there is also kind of access to food is cut off. And so you know, I think

from our standpoint, you know, we are this season. You know, we took a look at you know, Red Nose Days. Mission is to keep children safe, healthy, educated, and empowered. And we do that through a variety of programs. Because Grand Tea Partners, some of whom are the one thing you're familiar with Feeding America Boys and Girls, Cup of America. We raise public funds too, then uh make sure that those dollars go to these organizations that have these deeply

rooted programs. This season, in November and December is the holiday season, and I know what's going to happen around mind holiday table. I'm sure some folks your listeners are going to think about that too. There are going to be folks who are not going to have such security around that table. And in fact, it's not just around

the holiday dinner. It's it's this whole every day. And I know we've been talking about it, but officially you guys launched the Full Plate Project program and just tell US little bit more about I know you've been hitting on it, um Allison, but just what it I mean, it encompasses a lot. Yeah, yeah, so thank you. Um. You know, I think everyone knows the Red nos as a campaign that activates in the spring um supporting children.

But honestly, with the unprecedented need everything we've been talking about with COVID and that we're seeing around the country and around the world, we we thought it was the right time to utilize Red Nose Day. It's really powerful region and our network where our core partners of Walgreens and NBC to activate the Full Plate project and to raise awareness for food scarcity and hunger right now around

the holiday time. Couldn't be It couldn't be kind of more oppresident time to sort of understand, like, um, the real problem with hunger in in the US and around the world. That's Michelle Terry, CEO of November, catching up with her from Melbourne, Australia. You are listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up conversational commerce. It's coming to a virtual store near you. We'll hear more when we check

in with the CEO of Live Person, Rob Laicasio. This is Bloomberg is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. Well, many retailers and brands pivoted to digital if they weren't already there because of the coronavirus. We talked about that with Rob Licasio. He's founder, chairman and CEO of Live Person. It's an a powered conversational platform for consumers to engage with companies. Rob reminded us it's not just about heading to a website, it's about virtual

face to face shopping. Check it out. The retailers we're working with now on on two things. One is obviously that they're moving. Some people are moving more heavy to digital. Where they were in the past they were just relying on stores. So we're powering like we we have one of them. We just signed one of the world's largest jewels.

We've got thousands of stores, some are open, some are not, but they want to sell jewelry and people want to ask questions and they want to have these conversations with experts. So we're we've powered AI experts to um you know, to drive conversations consumers to sell in diamond rings and

things like that. And then now also in the store is that people are coming in the stores where they're open, but they want to be socially distanced and they want to look at things, but they don't want a salesperson in their face. So we now have created that. Next

to the products is a little QR code. You take your phone out, you hovered over the QR code, and then you start messaging an automation or a virtual agent who someone who's not there, who someplace else, who will ask, who will answer questions about jewelry and things like that, and then stay connected you after you buy to make sure everything's okay. So it's opened up a different way

to sell for the holiday season. Seeing a lot of demand right now because I think most people are gonna be buying online, and but the retailers want to create the special connection that they would in a store with a human. They want to create those those moments, those conversations, but do it digitally, and that's what we're powering over

messaging with AI. You know, this certainly concurs with We caught up with Brian Duffy, CEO of Watches of Switzerland group a few weeks ago and he said, you know, they already had a pretty significant digital presence. But you know, it went from beyond just checking out the website to actually doing Zoom or you know some other you know call virtual call on a platform with a customer, you know,

where they could have some face to face interaction. Yeah, I mean, we we actually launched the platform called Hey Experts. It just launched about two months ago, and it's for experts like pilates, instructors and teachers and all that to get online and use UM video like Zoom and stuff like this. But it enables them to sort of manage their customers. So it handles scheduling and payments and all of that and UM and we're having great successes with

that right now because all of that got moved. Remember I just saw like the plots instructor in his rostructor shut her studio down. She joined the platform. She brought seven other instructors with her and now they're giving of their lessons online and we're powering that. So so we we talked about conversational commerce. It's about you know, these

live interactions. There's these scenarios where it's not good enough to just show up at a website and you know, put something in a shopping card and never ask a question. Most high valued products and services, people want to ask questions, and we power those and we power it with AI part of those automating those conversations. Yeah, it's you know, and I always feel like we've had chats with certain things.

But you're right, like, especially when it comes to high end and the ability to really, you know, potentially get somebody a face, right, you're more inclined to maybe make that purchase as a result. Yeah, And I think what happened was, and we've seen this, that a lot of people had websites, even small businesses have websites, but there's

scores were shut down. They had no way to connect with those consumers who normally come into stores, Like they didn't have a mailing list, they didn't have their phone numbers, you know, like they may have some So what we found is that they started to think about I should have been messaging with them. I should have had that the same way I'm messaging my friends and family. I should be doing that my customers, and I need a

system to do it. And I would have stayed connected, Like in New York, you know, that's where I live, we'd see these pictures dial this phone number. I'm not in the store, but you can come here and I'll come over and run and sell you something. I heard one of our customers, Loads. You know, we're doing a lot of great things with them. Uh you know, they're they're they're doing awesome right now and we're powering a lot of that commerce uh too, conversational commerce, one of

our largest customers. So you know their success, you can see it. They've had just a tremendous amount of obviously shift to digital, and we're doing a lot of selling on that website with them, which is driving our growth. Right.

We had an amazing quarter. A lot of this, you driven by what's happened with covid and the shift from retail, and so they just came out my mind because I heard the commercial aboubum that's okay, No, you know what's interesting that you say that Loads, because I was actually looking at um like buying some paint on line and just there's a bunch of different companies and it's amazing.

And I'm assuming when you talk AI too, it's some of those chats that just you know, they're like answer these questions and you kind of started going back and forth and you and you feel like, you know, okay, I'm I feel like I'm in the store almost you know, talking with someone to figure out what I want and what I need. I mean, we are increasingly moving towards that as a consumer. Yeah, and I mean there's actually

a really good story there. We have the one automation called Grill Master and uh, this this AI has a personality and uh he basically sells you grills and answers questions about grills and I'll say things like do you want to cook? Stakes on it? Do you want to? Do you want to do? Things more like fish? Do you like to? And and it's really interesting. And that

was created by by agents who were taking chats. So these are contact center agents who were taking chats and they've now elevated and they've become conversational designers for AI. They like double their salary. So there's a whole group of people out there that are handling voice calls and doing this very old job and and they can get into the game. And once again at Lows we have these we have as you saw, we have many automations running on their on their website and and they're but

but they're created by humans. They're created by people who normally we're selling on the website by chat. Right, it feels pretty normal or almost natural, if you will. Hey, I kind of ask you just to take a step away for a second. Earnings. I mean, you guys are at this year. What has business been like? How busy have you guys been because amid the pandemic. Yeah, I mean, we we grew this quarter, we grew last quarter. Um, we hit the rule of forty. I mean, it's been

pretty great year for us. And the pandemic what it did first was shut down physical contact centers and and the agents were sent home and you know, it's just very hard to like route a voice calls as someone's home and and and you know, so what happened was our customers, these the biggest brands of the world, telcos and retailers, they said, look, we want to automate that. We should have done it a long time ago, and now we have to do it. And that's what's been

driving the tremendous growth in our business. Then then we add that the retail things we talked about, insurances coming on big, and even you know, we we signed last year a bunch of airlines like Delta Airlines and hotels. We were very focused on hospitality and and they doubled down.

Now they're like, even though their businesses and is majorly impacted and they're in a lull, they're now retooling their businesses using our technology because when they come through this, they don't want to do it the same way they did it. They wanted that when you're on your way to an airport, UH and your flights delay, do you get a message? But not only to get a message, you can then UH communicate with nation to rebook when

you arrive in the airport. They can give you information when you're on the plane, they can stay connected with maybe you want to book a vacation a month later. They want to be connected to you. So they envisioned this connected experience that doesn't exist today, and they're and they're going they're doubling down on using technology like ours to do that. We you know, there's the shift from

voice to messaging to AI. That's the stuff we talked about, But the bigger shift is the shift from e commerce UH to conversational commerce. And if you can envision a world where you're just you're communicating with the machine, not going to a search, searching on Google, hitting a landing page of a website, scrambling around looking around. Maybe you have to then pick up the phone and call a contact center because it's something that you've happened on the website,

or you need more information. Imagine just saying, you know, I'm looking for to buy a car with the machine. Okay, great? What what? What do you want? A family? For your family? Is it for your single I want this type of car? Great? And it just helps you through it without going from search to landing page to phone call to email outbound email marketing. You keep it in a single conversation all the way through. And that's going to happen. Like what

we're trying to build. Have you ever seen the movie Her. We're trying to build that type of AI for all of our customers, like that loving caring AI. And we're going to get there and and we're and and it will replace e commerce. We will not be going to websites, like my kids won't be going to a website and scrounging around and putting something in a shopping cart. They'll just talk to a machine and get things done. It's really kind of wild, right, it's just it's really the

next step. If you will, hey, listen while we have you. UM, I did want to ask you about You run an organization called Feeding New York City and you deliver thousands of Thanksgiving meals to families and needed each year. I know we talked about um your work here in that area last time you were on. What do you guys seeing in terms of demand among the families in New

York You know, we're we have major, major problems. I mean, we've been delivering turkeys, uh since after nine eleven, and we're gonna feed five families this year, so we're we're touching in the metro area. You know, all the families about eight thousand lower eight thousand families in the shelters

of New York City. There are so many people who are hurting, you know, who have lost their jobs, and it's the demand for even what we're doing with turkeys is beyond what I've ever seen in the twenty years of us doing this. Well. Making sure people have food on the table so important of course this holiday season. That's Rob Lacasio, founder, chairman and CEO of Live Person. He's really impacting our world in so many ways. We're going to talk more about food and security. That's going

to happen later on in our broadcast. And that wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser. Coming up in our next hour, the biggest legal battle of the pandemic will decide if insurance pays. That story in the magazine heading to the Hampton's will have a real estate check.

Also Comic Reliefs mission to food and Security in our World and comic Paul Riser on the talk show host that inspired him and his streaming series that's coming up on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm Carol Masser. Coming up in our second hour of the

weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Highlights from our daily radio show, including stories in the magazine and some of our favorite interviews, and that included one with Comic Relief u US CEO Allison Moore tackling the really important issue of food and security. We also check in with comedian, actor, writer and author Paul Riser. He was back on bringing his series. Here's Johnny first up a story in the magazine.

We've talked about this with several business owners, many of the restaurant space, but it really affects all kinds of and all sizes of businesses. It's about how the big insurance companies have by and large refused to pay business inter uption claims and the lawyer that's leading the charge against them. Bloomberg News legal reporter David Yaffee Beleni talked to Bloomberg business Week editor Joe Webber and me about it.

When David came to us with this pitch, I think he really just immediately got our attention because we're about to see a case brought to a court by an attorney in New Orleans, and it is basically the shot across the Bow, and I think all eyes are going to be on it because it will be sort of it's basically business versus insurance, and there's probably billions of dollars in the sway in terms of how this one

UM sways effectively. UM and he happens to be an incredibly colorful character as well, so that made the story that much more enjoyable to read. It's a movie in the making. I have to say, exactly, David, who is this lawyer that we're talking about. He's a plaintiff lawyer in New Orleans named John hotailing Um who's basically been

suing insurance companies after major disasters since Hurricane Katrina. So he has a track record of representing businesses and coverage disputes, and this dispute over business interruption insurance is sort of the latest iteration of that. And how much money could we potentially be looking at here, like what what what's involved in this particular case and then what cases to come.

So the amount of money in this particular case in New Orleans isn't entirely clear yet because the restaurant that he's representing hasn't actually filed a claim. Um, they're preemptively suing to kind of establish the legal precedent that insurers should be on the hook for damage caused by the pandemic um. But if you, you know, broaden this out to all the businesses across the country that have business interruption insurance and are suing to force their insurers to

pay up. One industry estimate puts it in between fifty two billion dollars and two and twenty three billion dollars a month that insurers would have to pay to cover the damage caused by the pandemic. And the argument that the insurance industry is making is that this would essentially wipe out their reserves. It's just not feasible for them

to cover this many claims. I have to say. I mean, this kind of gets to like, why do you have insurance, right and this whole idea of unprecedented when it comes to acts of either natural disasters or you know, just unexplained events. And I feel like that's going to be talked about a lot, David, when it comes to these cases. Yeah. Absolutely.

I mean, the the other argument that that the insurers keep making it that it's totally unprecedented because we've had catastrophes in the past, but they're they're isolated to a

certain geographic region. There's a there's a hurricane in New Orleans which destroys businesses there, but at least it only affects, you know, one city or or a few cities, um, Whereas the pandemic is like a hurricane happening in every city in the country at the same time, and every business in the country is disrupted in a major way,

and it's just not possible for the insurers to respond. Um. The interesting thing is, you know, the pandemic took most parts of American society by surprise, but actually the insurance companies have been had anticipated at this moment for a couple of decades. After after stars UM, a few of the insurance companies were forced to make big payouts to companies in China that had to shut down UM during during what well, you know, stars was sort of reading

through Asia in the early two thousand's UM. And after that, insurance companies inserted language and some of these policies that seems to exclude damage caused by a virus from coverage, and part of the legal battle is whether that language should actually apply to the pandemic. UM. There are also policies that don't include that sort of language. So the insurance companies have been have been thinking about this for a while, so they're not they're not entirely you know,

up paired as this kind of legal battle ramps up. Okay, David, can we talk about the Lambas? Yes? I said this guy was colorful and and literally he has colorful cars. Um, What what is with the Lamborghinis. So John Hoteiling is a is A is a big luxury car enthusiasts. He

has an extensive collection of Ferraris and Lamborghinis. He he told me that that as a child growing up in New Orleans, he had a catalog, a kind of Lamborghini catalog or buyer's guy that he would flip through as a kid, sort of fantasizing about cars that he might be able to afford one day. And he kept this catalog.

And when he actually became really wealthy, um, after you know, winning tons of big cases in the early two thousand's, you know, he went through this catalog and decided that he would buy every single model of Lamborghini advertised in it. And that was seventeen Lamborghinis. And so he's got those parked at a garage near his mansion in New Orleans, right right near this famous garden district. Um. And you know he's added to it over the years. He races luxury cars. He racism in a in a sort of

in a big race in Italy every year. Um. So it's a it's a pretty it's a pretty vast and impressive collection of luxury vehicles. He's he's a he's a real person, and he's really passionate about about this cause. I mean he's he's not somebody who just showed up on the scene and started suing insurance companies because he thought that this was, you know, this was like the biggest, biggest chance to make money off the pandemic or something

like that. Um, he's he's been kind of an advocate on behalf of insurance policy holders since Katrina, which happened in his in his hometown. UM, he's really knowledgeable about these issues that plaintiffs slury behind it all. An interesting individual. Read more about him in Bloomberg News legal reporter David Yaffee Belany's story. It's in the magazine. That was David with Bloomberg Business Week editor Jill Webber. You're listening to

Bloomberg Business Week. While many businesses are struggling during the pandemic, a lot of real estate is doing well. We check in with the president of Bespoke Real Estate. That's next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. One real estate story cut our attention this week. It was on the Bloomberg it's about how his workers stay home and office building sit vacant. Some see a new role for New York City's Business

District as a site for affordable housing. Now on the other end of the spectrum, we continue to hear about the flight from New York City yup to the suburbs, but also to upscale secondary markets. We got some insight on that from Kody Vatchinsky, founding partner and president of Bespoke real Estate. Simply put, it's pretty busy in the Hampton's. My world has been for Neddick uh filled with good blessing,

filled with a lot of interesting conversation. Uh. So, we are based primarily in the Hamptons, and we work in markets such as New York City and South Florida, and we are advisors to a lot of these what I would call sub market secondary markets all over the country. So as we're alluding to, many of them have benefited and seen an exodus out of urban areas like they've never seen before. So for several people in the industry,

the residential industry, it's been a gang busters year. Um. So we are on the tail end of summer season heading into more of a primary season. Well, talk to me about those secondary markets. It's interesting that you say that.

I I hosted a panel from Milk in this year, virtual panel obviously, but it was global real estate, so it was someone in the UK, folks in the US, someone in China, um and just what was going on, and we talked a lot about the secondary and tertiary markets and that how we're continuing to see a trend that was already happening, but we saw pick up a lot of momentum because of COVID nineteen. What are you seeing on that front? Completely right? I think, Uh, you know,

the Hampton's is a prime example. Palm Beach, Miami's an odd duck because it's primary for a lot of people, but secondary, tertiary for many. I think as people take a hard look at their lives and start to reprogram how they live, where they want to raise their children, where the best portfolio allocation and the potential for upside will be. You know, there's a lot of balls up in the air. So with safety I think as the primary driver of where to place the liquidity, Uh, it's

in the capital. So for me, I think that a lot of these markets are really on the upward trend of the curve. I think the larger question will be is what does two to three years look like as inventory is absorbed and as the dust sort of settles on new data points and a new level of pricing, and what that's going to mean and the overarching evolution of these micro markets. Yeah, I think that's a really important part of this, right. I think we're all just

trying to figure out. Okay, nobody wants to be not nobody, but a lot of people don't want to be in New York City right now, or any major city where they're worried about the virus or where cases are starting to rise again. Right so they've just either rented a house bought a house. But I do wonder if you buy a house, you know, that's not something you necessarily buy a house in Greenwich and then come back in three years, or do you. I think it depends on

who you're speaking with. I think now it's an opportunity for a lot of people. You know, they're foreshattering where they're going to be and how they're going to live. I think if you're specifically speaking about the ultra high network individual or the high networed individual, you know, they have more flexibility in terms of where they want to be and how they want to live, and in good markets and bad markets. I think they buy based on

a necessity. Um. Even though ultra luxury real estate doesn't operate on necessity, it operates purely and desire and function, but be opportunity, you know. So I think that they can always come back to the city, or they can always sell their expensive Greenwich home to the right person, because the microcosm is relatively finite, you know, There's only so many people who play in that segment of the market.

So it's really an acute conversation. It's hard to paint with the broad brush other than what we're seeing in terms of the exodus, so to speak, and people looking at other markets where they have not typically been operating in or living in, really taking it on to learn more about the market, invest into that market, and see if it's a place that they can call home for

an extended prity time. UM. I do want to ask you what are they happening to like right now, I'm I'm looking at my office window and we use a barometer of traffic and it is back to back and it has been it's been a particularly busy off season. I don't think that term is the being diluted as we as we see it in full in front of our eyes. People are living here full time and you reverse communing back to the city and other places. So

it's busy. And you know, we have offices down to South Florida seeing concept a lot of our folks who are in sort of the Golden Triangle of the northeast South Florida and somewhere in the midwest Colorado. All those markets are seeing people spend more time you know there in quote unquote the off seasons. Yeah, it is interesting.

We talked with someone, I think it was up in Aspen and the same thing that they said, you know, and they're in the hospitality industry, and they said, we were doing actually well because this is where people were going, um, certainly over the summer months before, you know, some concerns about some some newer spikes here. So you know, what do you think. I mean, you understand the property market,

and I do wonder. You know, we just did a story, uh in the break a little bit about what's happening in maybe some of the midtown Manhattan offices, and I know you're in residential UM, but I do wonder what are the longer term trends that you think we'll maybe stay with us or a longer term maybe maybe it's only longer term for three to five years and then it changes again. I just do wonder when you look at what's been going on, what stays with us UM.

It's a great question. I don't think anyone has a crystal ball UM spoke. We are specialists. Are our model is we only list properties of the tame million and above. We don't have any in the page in the independent agents we operate more is a private equity firm specialist. So we have the unique perspective of talking with people who are of a of a certain strata in terms of the real estate and what their intentions are. And I think people are ultimately looking at time a little

bit more critically UM. And those that have the luxury to you know, reprogram where they work from, uh, you know, how how much they can spend at home versus going to an office. I think COVID gave everybody a little bit of a gut check as to the reality of what they can and cannot do, and it sort of dissipated these false pretenses that you had to run and

rush to an office. Um. You know, it forced people to work from home and spend more time with their family and just think about time and a more critical fashion. So um, I think from my vantage point, you're going to get a shift in people's desire to be home and be with their family. Uh. And also at the same time of yearning to get back towards socialization and being in a restaurant and being with friends somewhere that

you didn't feel like there was a potential risk. So I think you have two ships in the night kind of passing in different directions, both of equal importance. That's Kody Vachinsky, founding partner in president of Bespoke real Estate, really talking about the changing and constantly shifting priorities of our world, and of course all of it impacted by the pandemic, really making all of us rethink everything in

our world. Well, something the pandemic has also impacted big time, and that is the ability of Americans to put food on their tables. We'll hear from Comic Relief US CEO Allison Moore on the growing hunger crisis in America. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Gerrol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. Our final half, our common threat of comedy,

but perhaps not what you might be thinking. Shortly, we're gonna check in with comic actor, author writer Paul Riser, who pays homage to the comedian who inspired so many we're talking about Johnny Carson. First up, though, to the organization behind Red Nose Day. They've raised two million dollars to help over million children globally. It's all about ending child poverty. Comic Relief is the organization behind it all. Ellison Moore is a former chief revenue officer at SoundCloud.

She's currently CEO of Comic Relief US. She reminds us that the multiple crises of our times has exacerbated the

problem of food and security. It's one thing to kind of understand deeply the sort of health crisis that's happened with COVID nineteen, and certainly that's the first thing to understand, but then when you take into account the economic crisis and and then actually you know, you layer onto that just sort of the sort of racial justice reckoning that happened in this summer, that the the world, our country, Uh, you know, the globe is sort of dealing with these

three factors and when they have caused it immeasurable domino effect against the support structures the and just like the way people are are what lifelines they have for all things, whether it's the health, whether it's safety, whether it's their educational framework, whether it's food and the ability to kind of find uh food resources, you know, from whether how much food they have in their house to even the kind of quality of food. And that's just it's happening

across the globe. And I think it's just that is the thing of COVID nineteen that it's you know, we call it one thing, but it has so many tentacles

into so many other effects. Well, I do wonder to you know, Allison, these are these are problems, whether it's education, whether it's safety, whether it's health, you know, or inequities and healthcare, or whether it's you know, access to having a safety net so that if there you can't work for a couple of months, you know, the Rainy Day Fund we found, you know, people don't many Americans just don't have it. And now we're struggling, you know, to even just put food on the table or keep a

roof over their heads. I do wonder you guys have drawn, you know, put a lot of money towards this, and you've also drawn a lot of attention to us what changes What are the policies that we can think about that actually make it different, you know, that change the

trajectory of these people's lives. I think, you know, from our from our standpoint, it's you know, there there is a conversation to we have with policies, but there's also a conversation to be had about programs and the kind of programs that actually move the needle to not only

support from an infrastructure perspective. So in the in the in the Opportunity for frold Plate project, you know, we're talking about trying to raise dollars to support the fourteen million children in the US that are currently not getting enough to eat, and that is you know, and over two d sixty five million people globally who are facing severe threats of hunger in for all the reasons that

we've already discussed. And so in some ways, you know, there is a as I mentioned, there is a policy conversation, but there is also like a very straight up you know, we need to get dollars to the right organizations who are on the ground that can actually sort of fulfill some of these basic needs are happening today, and I think that first and foremost, and if you look at it from from the health you know, getting getting access

to healthcare, preventative healthcare, getting responses to what's obviously COVID nineteen, or even the myriad of other things that are out there. You know, flu season is coming up. That's even something that we need to be cognitive of um. And so the kind of services that fite that I think on on food scarcity and food insecurity. You know, you can think of the ties into education and the and the structure that a lot of kids get some of their

best meals within the school complex. If the school is not open and you have distributed learning, not only is there a learning loss happening, but there is also kind of access to food is cut off. And so you know, I think from our standpoint, you know, we are this season.

You know, we took a look at you know, Red Noose Days mission is to keep children safe, healthy, educated, and empowered, and we do that through a variety of programs because over twenty five Grand Tea partners, some of whom are the ones that you're familiar with, Feeding America Boys and Growth Cup of America. We raise public funds too, then uh make sure that those dollars go to these

organizations that have these deeply rooted programs. This season in November and December is a holiday season, and I know what's going to happen around mine holiday table. I'm sure some folks your listeners are going to think about that too. There are going to be folks who are not going to have such security around that table. And in fact, it's not just around the holiday dinner. It's it's this

whole every day. And I know we've been talking about it, but officially you guys launched the Full Plate Project program and just tell us a little bit more about it. I know you've been hitting on it, um, Alison, but just what it I mean, it encompasses a lot. Yeah, yeah, so thank you. Um. You know, I think everyone knows the lad news day of a campaign that activates in

the spring um supporting children. But honestly, with the unprecedented need everything we've been talking about with COVID and that we're seeing around the country and around the world, we

we thought it was the right time. That's Allison More, CEO of Comic Relief US, and again reminding us about existing problems that were out there before COVID nineteen, but again exacerbated because of the coronavirus, and also that important concept of a layering of problems, whether it's a health crisis, whether it's racial injustices, the inequities that are out there, and really what Comic Relief is doing to really improve them and make them better for so many Americans in

our country. Well, straight ahead on Bloomberg Business Week, comedian, actor, writer and author Paul Riiser is back with us, marketing back to another time with his series Here's Johnny. That's coming up on business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Gerrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. We're gonna wrap up this week with some lighter fair I feel like you could all use it. It's been a

jam packed news week, that's for sure. What we did is we checked in once again with comedian, actor, writer and author Paul Riser. He created a series it's now streaming on Peacock and it really taps into the childhoods of so many. It takes us back to a time when, if you can remember this, three networks dominated television network television, and it's also a time when some fifty million viewers tuned in to watch one late night talk show host

and comedian check it out. This is an interesting little journey. UH. I created with a buddy of mine, my friend David Timon. We create of the show called There's Johnny, which is UH debuting on on Sunday on Peacock. And it's a weird thing. Well I'll talk about the show, but it's weird because it's it's not quite debuting. It was on another platform. We we did it two years ago and it was on very quietly, so to not disturb anybody. Was not particularly promoted a hint, don't do that. You

want to disturb people. You want to make sure that you know, you know. That wasn't my decision. They decided they didn't want to bother anybody. But um, you know, I had always thought that once the show was on streaming, well let's just be there and people will get to it whenever. It's always there. And then I found out a few months ago I go, hey, there's Johnny is no longer up. I want it, just because they had apparently a two year contract, don't uh deal. So anyway,

so it sort of fell into the ether. It was nowhere, and it was this summer Peacock was launching, and I said, well, this is a show that if any show belongs on Peacock, this is it. It takes place, There's Johnny, takes place in nineteen seventy two behind the scenes of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. So literally, the Peacock is in

our opening credit. It takes place, that's it's in NB shot in NBC hall, NBC hallways and stuff, and uh extra icing on the cake that since we shot this two years ago, uh, one of our wonderful, wonderful stars, Jane Levy, has gone on to become a big star for an NBC show called Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist. So we called the people of Peacock. We said, you know, you have this wonderful star and Jane Levy, she's also in

this show. I'll bet you people would like to see it, and luckily they went, yes, they would, So they're putting on which you know, it's one of these sometimes when the shows die, they just die. But this was so good that it felt it was worth the extra effort to fight for it. I have to say in our planning meeting when we're talking about and that you were going to come on and talk about it, and we all watched the trailer and caught some clips of it,

and we all were like, this is really good. I mean, first of all, it takes us back to the seventies, which was such a kind of iconic era. There was so much going on. But it's also you must have loved working on it as a comedian. I mean, Johnny Carson is, you know, kind of the gold standard in terms of, you know, what we thought about when it came to comedy or really created the world that we

live in today. Yeah, very very much. And I'm all, you know, in my class of comedians, my generation, we that was the goal to get on Johnny, and for all of us getting on that first time was like the huge reward, and it was also the currency that everybody else could understand. So you know, your parents went, I guess my son's not a total loser, because we just thought he was staying up late and making no money. But he was on The Tonight Show, and Johnny liked him,

so he must be okay. But what we did is very You're right, it's a very interesting time. Seventy two was, first of all, just when Johnny Carson moved the show from New York out to Burbank and it took on. It's almost like it became in color. Then you know, it suddenly tore on a new life. And it also coincided with the beginning of the comedy scene in the comedy clubs, the Comedy Comedy Store and the West Coast, and what we did in uh, you know, it's really

kind of unique. And we have we partnered with Carson Entertainment Company UM for the rights to use the clips we have some way little clips of episodes of his, of actual broadcasts that are in our show as part of our show, because if we're behind the scenes and they're putting us and when you see we need to get George Colin, and there's George Colin and there's Johnny and so for me, you're it was absolutely a treat

to go into the vault. We had this wonderful exclusive access to the vaults, and I would said, well, let's just pick out my favorite. So let's go get George Colin Boom, Albert Brooks, and Steve Martin. And it's an interesting thing because for people of a certain age who remember Johnny fondly, it's a lovely way to revisit and

see pieces of the show. But it really ultimately has nothing to do with the show, because it's really about this eighteen year old kid Lands, you know, through some silly accident, ends up working there and he meets this twenty five year old one of well, Jane Levy, who just makes his head explode because she's unlike anybody he's ever met. I have to say, Paul, it's also kind

of neat is you do dig back into the seventies. Uh, the fashion, the sexism, you know, women not pay the same as men like you have some you really get into it. Yeah, you know, it was. It's hard. So many things were so different. I mean it's forty or fifty years ago, but almost fifty years ago. And uh, you know, there's a great scene where Jane Levy goes into her boss with Tony. Tony Danza is the only guy who plays an actual person. He plays Johnny Carson's producer,

Freddie Dakordova and he's brilliant at it. But there's a scene where she goes in and she complains that she just found out that her her colleague, who's a male, gets the has the exact same job. It makes twice as much and it doesn't seem fair. And you see Tony goes it's not what fair? What do you mean? And something's never change, Paul, I'm just gonna changes. But it was at that moment it was so foreign. That's like I don't even understand the question why would it

be fair? Like let's start there, um, you know, and uh so yeah, And it was Vietnam and our lead character is his young eighteen year old whose brother is this all American kid who goes to Vietnam and uh it doesn't go well so that it impact everything. And the part of the fun of the show was taking this really sweet innocent kid played by Ian Nelson. He's his eighteen year old kid, fresh off a farm and through a sort of knuckle headed misunderstanding, ends up working

at the Tonight Show. So for him to see suddenly Hollywood and sex, drugs, rock and roll, and women who women who see therapists and and women who are just you know, you know, chew chew up men for for fun. Um, it's a whole new world. So we get to enter this beautiful, complex world through his uh innocent eyes, which was a lot of fun to write. Listen, what were your memories of your first time on Johnny Carson? I, you know, I did it. I did it many times,

but the first time I did it was. Um. It was a moment that we had all planned for, you know, or dreamed of. It didn't planned for it, but we worked towards it. So it was an interesting, weird, uh feeling because he got there suddenly. He didn't feel surprising. It felt like, oh okay, I have and I have envisioned this so many times. Um, but it was it was.

It was certainly a turning point for every comic. Your first time on Johnny is such an accomplishment and and for me, I don't remember ever thinking of anything beyond that, Like that was as far as I could picture down the road of whatever success might look like, get on the Carson Show and then I don't know, um, but you know, Johnny was such a big part of our lives as comics, but as America, just for America. He was in our living rooms, you know, and in our

bedrooms at eleven thirty at night for thirty years. In a way that as great as Jimmy and Jimmy and and and Steve and Colan are um, it wasn't the same he Johnny was singing her. He sat on that throne by himself and uh and we also it was when in the very beginning, when you couldn't record it, you had to stay up right, so it became it became part of your life and and like and you remembered it. So when we were doing this show, there's Johnny and I was pulling up clips of George Carlin

and Albert Brooks. I remembered them even though I hadn't seen them in forty fifty years. Whatever I was gonna, I remember this because I stayed up late and it was important to me. So it was really a different time in culture just and how people watched television and how we related to the people in the stars. And there was a reason Johnny was on top of thirty years.

He was singularly talented. Well, it's interesting that you say that to you, like, I mean, it's an error where there were three networks essentially, right, three major networks, and you were you know, you watched one or the other. I was just quick googling. And I think they said at that at the peaky it's something like fifty million viewers. Like to get your head around that. And everybody the

next morning would talk about what Johnny talked about. Yeah, and he also, you know, he had so many skills and attributes, and he was a host, a really a genuine host in a way that it seems almost antiquated now. And he also he he avoided politics. You know, he was very comfortable. He straddled, straddled the world in a great way. I mean he was hip, the you know, hip people liked him and very conventional rural you know he was he was Nebraska and he was also New York.

He was um and you never knew his politics. We even have an episode where somebody does you know, slips in an anti Nixon joke and the producer gets incensed and said, how dare you you know you don't know Johnny? Johnny, do you have any idea what Johnny Carson actually thinks. No, that's right, because he doesn't tell you, and it's none of but nobody's business. And he that was part of

his appeal that everybody came to the tent um. He would poke fund and you know, a Democratic Republicans, but gently it was never really um pointed, and he kind of did you know, he kind of did put you to bed every night you took you know, whether you were watching or just had it on the background. John was how you round it off your day and the world seemed a little better and you had a couple of jokes to start your morning. Remember Johnny joke last night and exactly it was a big deal. It was

a big deal. So I'm thrilled the show is getting in a second life. Yeah, great to have another shot, right, especially at a time when all of us are looking for things to watch. We need content. That, of course was comedian, actor, writer and author Paul Riser on his series There's Johnny Now streaming on Peacock. Check out to our full conversation. It's on our podcast feed. And that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from

Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser. Be sure to tude in daily to Bloomberg Business Week. Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. You can also hear more of our Bloomberg Business Week conversations download them at Bloomberg dot com, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on YouTube. Just search on Bloomberg Global News, and be sure to check out our Bloomberg Business Week

Extra podcast. This week, it's with Michelle Terry. She's the CEO of November. They are on a widespread mission to really make an impact on men's health. We're talking about both their physical health and also their mental well being, so check out her efforts there Bloomberg business Week. It's available on newsstands, now online, and of course on the Bloomberg. Have a safe weekend everyone, This is Bloomberg