Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - September 5th, 2020

voters guide to the most volatile election in decades. We'll hear about the nine types of voters that will decide this election. Josh Green has that story, and we'll take a look at how Pennsylvania turned purple. Pluss will bring you some of our favorite interviews from our daily radio show, heard weekdays at two pm Wall Street Time right here on Bloomberg Radio. We dive into the new book After the Gig, how the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back. And we also hear from Lands

and CEO. He tells us about how COVID nineteen impacted his business and really the lifestyle that has emerged in this COVID world. First up, though, let's get inside the magazine and look at those nine types of voters that will decide the election. We spoke to Business Week national correspondent Josh Green, also the author of The Devil's Bargain, the definitive account of the sixteen election. He joined along

with editor Joel Webber. I mean, it's hard to boil it all UH down to one surprising the most because we have nine categories and each on its own could be kind of, you know, instrumental in the final event. I think the most surprising and interesting one to me, though, were refugees of Hurricane Contrina. These are Puerto Ricans American citizens who moved to Florida who relocated there after Hurricane Maria.

In they've moved in such enormous numbers. They're about four hundred thousand of them who have moved, their most concentrated in and around Orlando, that they have quickly grown to become the second largest Hispanic voting group in Florida, next to humans who have been there now for generation. And if you look at the way most Puerto Ricans feel about President Trump and the way he treated UH, the island of Puerto Rico. Their voter sentiment runs very strongly Democratic.

We we found and interviewed several of them, and it's just a really fascinating cross section of an important voter group, but also one, as you might imagine, that's struggling with all sorts of things beyond politics, finding a job, finding housing, navigating the COVID economy, uh, you know, moving family members from the island back and forth. I spoke to one

mom who had sent her children moved. She moved to Florida after the hurricane, sent her children back to Puerto Rico because she decided COVID was worse in Florida than Puerto Rico. So you can imagine these voters, um, both parties kind of competing for their attention. It just ability to get them to turn out and vote for a candidate in November. The other group that you talk about, which in some ways played a large part in the election two sixteen, also were the shy Trumpers. Um, they're

still out there. Where are they? What are they saying? Well, it's not clear. I mean I think of shy Trumpers as being kind of like Bigfoot, Like there's a real debate about whether or not they even exist. So so shy Trumpers first came on my radar four years ago in the Trump campaign. Was absolutely convinced that there was a large pool of voters out there who supported Trump, who intended to vote for him, but who wouldn't admit this to pollsters and members of the media. And of

course Trump ended up over performing expectations. So some reason to think that might have been a factor in the debate this time around is, you know, are there still shy Trumpers who think that there's a social penalty to speaking out about their support for Trump, because most pollsters say there isn't any more that you know, if you're a Republican, you're now an out and proud Trump supporter.

But on the other hand, I think we know people in our own lives, and we found a few remarkable ones for this issue who said, no, we do still support Trump, but because of the family and the social circles, or you know, the culture at workplace isn't something we can talk about openly. So that could be another group that that tilts the election if there are enough of

them in critical battleground states. Another one Josh that I loved was double haters and that's a category that existed last time as well, but what's different about it in this election? So double haters was a category to say credit for this one, that that that I discovered or at least popularized in twenty sixteen when I was doing

my book on the twenty fifteen election, Devil's Bargain. Double Haters was the nickname that Trump's data scientists gave to a group of voters that they were fascinated with being to get. Double haters were people who hated both Trump and Hillary Clinton in but whose voting history suggested that they were going to show up at the polls on election day and pull the lever for somebody. So there was this frantic competition between Hillary's campaign and Trump's campaign.

In the end, Trump want almost all of those voters. So this cycle there are still double haters. Of course, this time there are people who disliked both Biden and Trump. The huge difference this time, though, is last time they tended to be fairly conservative folks. This time the vast majority of them are progressive, and they tend to especially be people who supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, but for whatever reason just haven't quite come around to

committing to Biden yet. So we found and interviewed some of these guys, some of them kind of leaning towards Biden's, others thing absolutely, there's no way I'm going to vote for him. Alright, thirty seconds, give us just a half minute on swinging seniors. Loved us. Swinging seniors not necessarily what you think they might see. I'll leave that to your imagine. Swing seniors are seniors. People over sixty five were one of the categories that Trump won by the most.

I think he won by thirteen points in well because of a lot of reasons, coronavirus, disillusionment with Trump. They have swung hard to Joe Biden and a lot of reason calls. I've seen their tied or Biden's even a little bit ahead. If they swing from Trump to Biden

in this election is going to go to Democrats. And that's National correspondent Josh Green, also author of The Devil's Bargain, keeping us up to date on who's ultimately going to decide this election a fascinating deep dive into the electorate. He was joined by magazine editor Joel Webber, the architect of this issue. We do it every four years every time we're electing a president. You're listening to Bluemberg Business Week.

Coming up, Dr Ken red Cross. He tells us why the virus is affecting African Americans more than any other population. This is Bloomberg. Welcome back to Blueberg Business Week, bringing you today some of the highlights from our daily radio show and podcast. Carol Master is off this week and I was joined throughout the week by Alex Steele. Alex and I caught up with Dr Ken red Cross. He's the founder of Red Cross Concierge. He's also the author

of a book about the healthcare system. He talked to us about the virus and why COVID nineteen is affecting more African Americans than any other population. Yeah, you know, Jason, that's an important point. You're right, most viruses in this case, they're they're agnostic, they don't care, right. But what's happened this time is that COVID nineteen has really shined a big, big light on the healthcare disparities that we have here in the United States between those who are minorities and

those who are not. And so we're seeing that kind of break out into different little sessions now because of the differences in the disparities that we're seeing, and it's been it's been pretty stark. I guess the question is why we've heard many different explanations. It is that the jobs, is it access to healthcare? Pre this it's a pre existing conditions. What are some of the reasons you know, Alex, Actually it's it's a little bit of everything you said.

So look think about it this way. There's a there's a medical side to this because the disease states that are really affecting those who get the coronavirus, such as diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, and also obesity are very common in the minority community, especially African American community. Then on the second side of your questionnaire, Alex, we have those socio economic issues such as access to healthcare, such as

income equalities, such as issues with housing. That's when we get to the point where I always say that in those areas, social distancing is an absolute luxury, right, it can't happen. And so when you have all of those things come together, Alex, it's almost like a perfect storm. So talk to us specifically about black communities, if you will, Dr Red cross because we have seen some of that data. Uh, sort of take us down the level in terms of the data and and help us understand some of those

issues that you're just describing in specifically in black communities. Yeah, so look, everyone, So it's it's important to to understand. Look, as they always say, you know, united is what we should be, right, because if you're divided, we fall. And this is even more important because even if you're not an African American, these um, these health care disparities affect all of us because whether it be on the health care system, the cost, I know, this is a financial

um financial station and those things impact us all. But when you're talking about what's going on in the community with those disease states that are in there, which all of them are associated with vitamin D deficiency as well, So it's important to hit in on that as well, because vitamin D guys is not a treatment for the coronavirus. But what it does hit home is the importance of the immune system and all these disease states that Alex

asked me about. When she says, well, why is this all of those are affected by the immune system, and in our community and the African American community. We have been hit so so hard. In fact, if you look at some of the studies out there, it says only

about of African Americans can actually telework. That just gives you a little bit of an idea of the sort of jobs that a lot of African Americans have and how hard that is to kind of stay out of harm's way in addition to balancing your health care access as well. So let me ask, there's been conversations of how you distribute the vaccine and obviously, you know those essential workers like say health healthcare workers, nurses, doctors will

get it first. Then there's been conversations around minority communities like the black community, Um is that, dude, do we want that? Because there's also a downside. I would think, well, we we do. But there's a couple of challenges. So the big challenges is that if you're starting to find out a lot of the vaccine companies are having a very hard time signing up minorities, they're having a hard

time signing up minorities. Number one, it's to that access issue, but it's also alex because of some of the history that has been there with African Americans in the medical community all the way back to the tugkey He experiment in the nineteen thirties or forties. You may think, guys, gosh, that's almost that's almost fifty years ago, but believe it or not, it still runs rampant in the African American community to talk about you know, I don't know if

I'm gonna take that vaccine. Remember tuskey He experiment. I mean those sort of things in skepticism or things that need to be face head on as well. So the vaccine when it comes, it needs to be tested in everyone. You can't test it in one group. Um. So that's why it's so important to make sure there's an education piece for a lot of the minorities to really work on this skepticism and where we're headed with this vaccine

and when we'll get the vaccine. And so what is the right message then, especially to Black and African American communities around vaccines. What what are you saying to to folks to convince them. Well, one of the things that you know, I had mentioned I wrote my book earlier called Bond and the important thing there and never what I have known would be something we talk about in the pandemic. But my whole, my whole passion is the patient doctor relationship. So it's those four things that are

very important. Trust, respect, empathy, and communication, especially in our community. When you you have to be trusted in order for me to to put a vaccine in right, for us to have that discussion, then there needs to be an equal respect to say, hey, look, it doesn't really matter how much melanin you have in your skin. Your life matters, your health also matters. And then there has to be

a feeling of empathy. It's important that we understand that you that you really understand kind of the struggles that we have each and every day that most of my friends and myself have been through UM as an African American male. And then that communication piece is key. You need to be able to sit down with that person and kind of talk eye to eye UM and really communicate what you want to do or why it's so

important for all of us. And Dr Redcrost, you had talked a bit about vitamin D. Tell us more about that, because I feel like D is one of these things where every time I go from my check up, I get told I'm deficient and then I feel like I read that everybody's deficient and maybe we shouldn't worry about it, but maybe we should, like, what's the latest science here, Well,

I'll tell you. So it seems like if you're right, as the world starts started to kind of wake up to the importance of the mention of vitamin D, it does seem that a lot of us are deficient. But in the African American community it's about eighty deficiently in Hispanic community about seventy um And people may say, well,

what does that kind of matter? Like I mentioned before, those disease states, whether it be heart disease, lung disease, and also I'll bring in obesity, they're all associated with lower vitamin D levels, which gives us the reasons to think, what would happen if those vitamin D levels were optimal? Guys, where would that actually be? And and I h even had a report that vitamin D deficiency could actually even

be a plausible explanation for a higher mortality potentially. A lot of these studies are going on, but we see it clinically and it's something that's easy to take and something that luckily is also inexpensive as well. Okay, so before we move on to like why it's not getting more widespread adoption, Can you explain you what is vitamin D? Sure, so, vitamin D everyone, that's all you know that that's nature's vitamin that comes from the sun. This shows you how

amazing our our bodies are. Everyone that we actually make really not even a vitamin, it's really a hormone. It's a pro hormone. And that's how important it is for our bodies. But we used to think it was all about bone health, where now we're learning vitamin D does so much more, especially when it comes to immunity. In fact, when you look at the levels you're supposed to have for your vitamin D, I kind of wear an Eastern

medicine had guys and a Western medicine hat. So my Western medicine hat tells you're supposed to be around thirty. But when you look at the Eastern medicine and some of the newer studies are levels should be between forty and sixty. And that's Dr Ken red Cross. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up, we look at the pandemic three different lens, retail and fashion. Our conversation with Jerome Griffith, the CEO of lands End. Coming up. This

is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly. Carol Master is off this week, so I was joined throughout the week by Alex Steele. Well, lands End reported earnings this week, and we have a chance to catch up with the company's CEO, Jerome Griffith. He's got a long history in retail and travel and hospitality, even worked for j Peterman for a stint YEP the

company made famous on Seinfeld. Well, he's looking at a very different retail environment, a very different consumer amid this pandemic. Here's what he's saying may happen. Coming up. I think that where world has changed has been a little bit topsy from you know, as we had said earlier in March when demand really shrunk to a full recovery, and in May, June and through the rest of the summer

being relatively strong. So we've had to go back and relook at projections for a lot of our items and and increase uh quantities that we were ordering because we think that the holiday season is gonna be bigger than what we thought it was. I think one of the things which is a concern for us is that all of the carriers that are carrying packages today two homes. They're really stretched. So if you look at the big three of USPS and fed X and UPS, uh, you know,

every day is like Christmas for them. So we're you know, doing a lot of work with our partners to plan for what the holiday season is going to look like, which is something that does have us, uh, you know, a little concerned. And then going into next year. One of the things that we've seen over the course of the last couple of years is our product people have continued to refine and improve what the quality and the look of the products that we're selling, and we see

a lot of increased demand. I think he Goes probably saw the uh numbers that we're seeing with new customer acquisition, which was up about quarter, and then the large reby rates that we're having from our customers. Are active customers tend to be around new customers are around thirty, which are pretty great numbers for the industry. UH, And we see that continuing. Are you seeing, you know, sort of a real change in the way people dress. That seems to be, at least for a certain category, just a

market change here. Absolutely, people are looking for comfort. They're working from their homes. Not everyone's home was actually shet up to be comfortable for them. So you see people ordering comfy clothes, something that looks good on top, but it's a little bit more casual on the bottom. Uh, you see people ordering lots of stuff for the home

as well. Our home business has been extremely strong because kids have been coming home, they're loosed with mom and dad, and people are getting together, so people are are retooling what their lives are. Our dress our business, and we sell a lot of dress shirts with monograms on them. That's been a little depressed for us the last several months, as has uh some of our dress pants business. But when you look at the lion's share of our selection,

it's really casual clothing. And when you get to a knit tops and lounge where and pull on pants and sleepware, it's it's really good of being dress. So in this environment, UM, I'm curious as to how you plan because there's a bit of confusion as too. If you know Jason is going to wear dress shirts and dress pants again in the next two years, you know, and even if things open up, if you still will, how do you plan for that? UM, we spend a lot of time looking

at trends and analyzing trends. We also use artificial intelligence for a lot of our basics in order to make smarter decisions. Is how much you're going to be purchasing, and you know, inevitably you run out of stuff or you have some overstocks and the two things. But I have to say that the guys have done a pretty good job making it through spring and summer, and we've relooked at what we think fallen Winner is going to be.

But things that will screw up I think that you just didn't think of or can't plan for, Like you know, if if we have seen this when certain states have spikes and COVID demand goes down, so over the summer, when you saw the southern states Florida, Texas, California have spikes, you saw the demand go down. As you see the spikes start to recede, demand goes back up and supply

chain issues. Anything that you've run into in a meaningful way up to this point, and what's the status Now, we knew several months ago that we were going to have some of our full deliveries a couple of weeks later, of which we were prepared for and I've dealt with. But generally we've divested ourselves of being reliant upon anyone country or anyone factory. So what we've seen is pretty good deliveries and expect that into the back part of the year. Um. But again, you know, I can't stress

enough it's not really the supply chain coming in. It's going to be deliveries on the other west, on the other side, And yeah, it's gonna be on the other side, right all right, Jerome, I gotta bring something up Alex Steel. Now we're just talking about it in our chat. You were the president of J Peterman and I just think that is the coolest thing ever as a longtime Seinfeld fan, Like, did you really dine out on that at cocktail parties? That must have been amazing. It was kind of amazing.

I've been living in London for several years prior to that, and uh, to be honest withly, I did not know the side felt connection. And when they recruited me to come to Kentucky, it was just the coolest thing human. Was an awesome person, an awesome guy. Yeah, loves him a lot, But unfortunately the business model was not really set up for success and it was a short lived stint for me. And that's Jerone Griffith, the CEO of lands And for our full conversation, be sure to download

our Business Week Extra podcast. He talked at length about his own history in the fashion business. He's had quite a journey and looking at lands End through a bit of a different lens as we alter our shopping habits. Well, you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, speaking of fashion of a different sort, we hatch up with the CEO of swimm a Nista. She's got an eco conscious

swimwear line. Yep, this is Bloombern. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly, Carol Masser. She's off this week, so I was joined throughout the week by Alex Steele and Alex and I had a chance to catch up with Andrea Bernholt. She's an entrepreneur and she's now the CEO of swimming Nista. I guarantee you because I saw it with my own eyes and

she admitted it. Alex was actually doing some shopping on swim Anista during this interview. They've got some fabulous suits. They're eco conscious. And Andrea told us about how she got started in this business. It all came about. Long story, short is, I was in Mexico with my friends and we were all complaining how our bathing suits never hit right. It's you know, saying student um if it fit on top, it was too wide in another area, and everyone's moaning

about it. So they knew that I had a background in manufacturing because I had started and sold the company Rock and Republic, and so they said, you know how to make clothes. You just make some bathing suits, you know. And I saw it to myself, like, you know, I had just sold a company. I'm on holiday, I'm having a great time. The thought of going back to work wasn't as appealing as you might think, and I had

just had a baby. I thought, no, I'm not going to do that, you know, but it planted that seed, that entrepreneurial seed. So after that trip I went home. I started Frankenstein in my swimsuits and putting them together, so many things, and then I thought, you know what, I think about this every single day. I think I have to do this. So then so it was an organic kind of progression. So then, how so where do

you go from there? Because if I go on the beach and complained to my friends, we just like drink. We're not like, I'm gonna go start my swimsuit line. You're another Margarita exactly. You know what I think, asked my biggest problem. I don't drink, So therefore I've made bathing suits. So so so you're like, all right, let me do this. Then where do you go from there? Because the other part of it is that it's a environmentally friendly it's an ego swimsuit, Like what does that mean?

How did you wind up doing that? Well? I grew up being a very eco conscientious person. I grew up my mom was kind of a hippie, and I always thought we were poor because you know, it was like saving bottles and newspapers and turning off lights to save electricity, and I'm like, well, what's the deal here, mom? You know, and she kind of educated my brothers and I about being environmentally conscientious and so it's always been a part

of who I am, so, especially with the ocean. I've always done ocean cleanups and supported, uh you know, things that revolved around saving I mean the Earth. Even though I was involved in a very polluted business with denim at Rock and Republic, we actually made our denim in Los Angeles because is the emissions and the controls were so much higher for pollutants in America than anywhere else in the world. That's why we actually decided to make

everything in America. So it's who I am so, especially coming from doing something for the beach. It had to be something that was eco friendly, and I had heard like whispers over the years about this eco friendly fabrics where you they take uh, plastic bottles, they break them down and then they weave the fibers into threads, and then from those threads they make the fabric. So the technology is really racing right now and they're coming up

with amazing things. You would never know, I mean, even in the time that I started just even thinking about Simonissa to what it is now. I mean, even you know, those those horrible little liners in the bottom of your babysuit when you try it on. Yeah. Yeah, well even that I have it, it's compostable. Oh very cool. So, like all of my packaging is made from recycled materials, it's compostable, and um, you know see right now it's

still it's very expensive. But um, you know what I My goal right now is to make women happy and kind of reduce my carbon footprint in the world. So, um, that's not the first and foremost thing that I'm I'm doing this for. This is definitely a passion project. That is you know, I think if you do things the right way and do them truly organically, then people understand

it and catch on it. Yeah. So, and I want to take you back to Rock and Republic for a minute, because obviously that really caught fire in a big way. You've got a lot of people paying attention to It's very famous people, um paying attention to it. And I mean that is a fiercely I mean we'll talk about Swimson's get in a second in the in the similar light, but I mean, denim is fiercely competitive and everybody's got to take on that. What did you learn from that

business around fit, around marketing, around all of it? That you're really applying directly here to swim Anissa. Uh, That's it's a good question because, um, you know, yeah, we it was and still is a very competitive market. And it's not like we invented anything new. We just built a better mouth trap. And that's essentially what I'm doing here. You know, there were a lot of little, if you will, cheats that we did to make your body look better.

We you know, took the side seams and brought them into a little bit and made you I looked in her. We hang the pockets in a certain way, so they're all these like these little cheats on things that made our fit superior. And also the same thing with Rock and Republic that I'm applying now is that we didn't start out using run of the mill fabrics or materials.

We used the best of the best. And yeah, our profit margins weren't like the other competitors initially to start out, but because we had a quality product, because we had you know, it was so amazing. It's one of those things you don't know why you love it or why it looks so good on you, It just does. And it's because of all the things in the background, like for us. It's I used super expensive lining. I use recycles, amazing materials that come out of Italy that all the

luxury houses use. Um, you know, I have little cheeks inside of my swimwear that stuck you in, push your boobs, round out your butt. It's like all those little things, all these little tricks, if you will, that I've applied to the human body. Well, let's get to that. And this is the moment where Jason and gets really uncomfortable. But so I'm on money website right now and I'm scrolling through and you can shop bottoms and tops and then one pieces. So like, if you're going on your site,

how do you know how to shop for yourself? Well, if you go there's a button there also and it says, um, you know, find my size. So if you go in and you punch in, it'll ask you questions, what's your gene size? What's your dress sizes? With your brass eyes? Um, you know, Jason, put in your brass eyes, You'll be fine. Um, you put in your brass eyes and it calculates what it's going to be the right fit in swimming EASTA

for you. And this is something that I developed during COVID when I I started to panic for a minute in the midst of all. This is launching a new product, you know, and I thought, well, you know what, I'm going to take this time. I'm going to read you my website and make it better. I'm trying to troubleshoot everything that women want and think about how are they going to shop, what are they going to shop for? How is it gonna fit? Because I, like, I don't

like to return stuff when I buy something online. I'm an avid online shopper. So I tried to apply all of my favorite websites and all those tricks and tools that they had and applied into my own site. So if you go on there, it should I mean knock on wood, I wouldn't know it worked. I just didn't it works. Yeah, okay, so um uh no, but I mean so far like even when when women put it in, I was gonna say knock on wood. Um, no one has said, oh my god, your your calculator was all off.

You know, I'm extra small. But so it's it's we put a lot of time and effort into that so that you can find your ultimate best size. And so tell us Andre more of that I want to pick up on something you just mentioned about, sort of the pandemic life. Um, I mean, tell us what else you had to do or got to do amid or have gotten to do or can do amid all of this. It's a very unusual time, to say the least, in

the world of commerce and life and everything else. I mean we're in New York here in California, and I mean the world is locked down still in many ways. I do wonder how you run a company amid all of this, especially a new company. Well, um, it's been super easy, not kidding, No, definitely challenging, and trust me, I wrote the wave of um anxiety there for a minute. But then I thought, you know what a strong survive here.

And I know I have a great product and I know that, Um, once things turned around, everyone's going to catch it. But there were two camps. Basically, there was the fat camp everyone got fat, and then there was I'm going to work out and challenge myself camp, right right? Um So UM, I really focused on on these women who were working out and wanting to get fit during

this time, and I followed them on Instagram. I would reach out to them and it was kind of created this camaraderie and it's like, hey, you're doing it so great. You know, you deserve a new swimsuit. They're like, I do. You know. It's like, hey, it's sunny somewhere. You you know, you deserve to show off your new body. And it's like, oh my god. Yeah. So I was trying to empower these women and give them recognition even online, even when nobody else could could recognize that or see their new

bikini bodies. And um, you know. Also a big part of my uh sales strategy was resourts. I was doing a lot of trunk shows in resorts, and you know a lot of that too, was just evoking that wonderful memory when you go on holiday and you're at the Four Seasons in Maui, right, and you just discovered this swim and these to swim suit and it's so great and you're so happy every time you wear and you now you go online and you bought you know, three more colors and two more styles, and like I loved

those women. Um um, those are good customers. Those are great customers. I love them, you know, and I just I love making people feel good. It really, it really satisfies my soul and so um, you know, in evoking that making women feel good, I couldn't do it now by you know, having them beyond their holidays in in Hawaii or Bahamas anymore. So like how else could I empower these women and make them feel good? And so I think it really kids, it came from a true

you know, a true person. That was greenness. I wasn't some you know, algorithm going you look great, send us your pictures. I really admire these women and like they would challenge their bodies and challenge themselves. And so I tried to key into it that way. And also, like I said, shook closing on my website, redoing it, making

it better. Yeah, and that's Women Needs to CEO. Andrea Burne holds a really fun conversation understanding how she came to create this company, her history as an entrepreneur, and much more. Well. That wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Steele. Throughout the week, Carol Master one vacation plenty for you. In our next hour, we go inside that special Voters Guide issue of the magazine.

We look at how Pennsylvania is turning purple, a deep dive courtesy of Sean Donnan, who's been checking in with One Town since March. Plus the CEO of Bruins Sports Capital are pal, George Pine. He comes along to tell us how Boycott's may impact the value of sports team and what is going on in the world of sports. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Hello, and welcome

back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly. Carol Master is off this week. I was joined throughout the week by Alex Steele. Well ahead, in this hour of Bloomberg Business Week, We're gonna hear from George Pine. He's an old pal of mine. He's now the CEO of Bruin Sports Capital. He was a top executive at NASCAR, he was a top executive at I m G as well, So he knows the world of sports and he knows how unprecedented this world is. He's going to talk about

those protests and sports getting back to business. Plus a special edition of the magazine this week. It's a Voters guide to the most volatile election in decades, the presidential election, and also all of those other races down about we're gonna hear from the CEO of Vote America about voting by mail and what we may see over the next couple of months running up to that election. First up, though, let's get inside the magazine and talk about how Pennsylvania

turned purple. It is one of the most contested states historically, will be no different. We caught up with reporters Sean Donnan. He spent some time looking at one specific town that defied a lot of expectations. He joined us along with editor Joel There. Well, it started off in the spring when we started getting the lockdown UH with coronavirus, and I just really wanted to find one place in America

that I wanted to track through this crisis. And the place I settled on for a number of reasons, including the fact it's sitting in a pretty crucial part of of Pennsylvania politically, was was Ambridge and has this astonishing history, UH going back to the nineteenth century when it was actually called Economy Pennsylvania, UH, and it was the home of a religious sect called the Harmonists who had a whole ethos of communal living and ended up actually setting

up a huge business empire and selling the town to the American Bridge Company in the early twentieth century UM and the American Bridge Company renamed Ambridge after itself and brought the steel industry to town. And you had the whole ride through the twentieth century of the steel industry, which ends in the in the eighties when American Bridge moves out of town, other steel mills shut down, and we have the last thirty year or so years or thirty plus years of a kind of that the industrialized

America experience that we all became so familiar with. And then there was this one added wrinkle that that that I just couldn't get out of my head, which is Ambridge didn't go with the flow in the former steel town and it actually voted for Hillary Plinny. And so it goes against the political cliche, if you will, of of these the industrialized temps. And so I wanted to

find out why. I wanted to find out how this town was was getting battered by the health crisis and the economic crisis, and I wanted to try and ask a question, which was, you know, after four years of Donald Trump, do we know what the future is for these places that that he really made so many big economic promises to. So what was your answer that you found in this Well, the answer you find in a

lot of places is that it's complicated. And the answer is it's a town that is still caught between two different identities. There's a big chunk of people in town who really are hanging onto the industrial past. But what we've seen this year is the kind of last major industrial employers are are shutting down UM, partly as a result of of the coronavirus downturn UH and things aren't

looking good on the industrial front. And on the other side is this idea that Ambridge, which is twenty five minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, maybe can reinvent itself as a bedroom community. And there's all sorts of challenges with that. The school system isn't as good as it should be, the property mixes these are old factory it's an old factory towns, a lot of old factory houses that aren't

necessarily going to attract a young family today. And you've got a main street, merchant street that's called UH which is still just dominated by vacant buildings. In fact, it's it's cheaper today to rent a storefront on Merchant Street and Ambridge to store your excess uh stuff than it is to rent the storage unit on the outskirts attempt,

which is kind of a damning economic statistic. So it's we don't know what the future is for a place like that, but we do know that the kind of the easy answers and the promises that Donald Trump made in in sien that he was going to bring the steel mills back, that he was going to reinvigorate these places I haven't necessarily come true, and that's been exposed

by the pandemic. So so Sean, let's zoom out here just a little bit, because the real significance here is Pennsylvania, right, And so how does Ambridge and Beaver County, which Ambridge sits in, play into the larger role that the state might play in the election? Sure, so Beaver County is hugely important. Uh. Ambridge was a blue dot in a

red county in ten uh. Trump wins Beaver County by about fifteen thousand votes, that's about a third of his margin in Pennsylvania overall, which he won by just under forty five thousand votes. UM. And this time around, he really needs to hold that margin in Beaver County even build on it, uh to to hold Pennsylvania again. And at the same time, it's a place that is in Ambridge. Is this is true of Ambridge, which vote for Hilly Clinton as it is broader Beaver County that is still

incredibly socially conservative, that has an older population, largely white population. Um. And they see stuff happening in America that Donald Trump is pointing out to them and is now running on this whole law and order message, this whole pointing to the protests, the violent protests in Portland and and some of the violent protests and that we've seen in Kenosha, Wisconsin, uh in the past week or so. And um and he's saying, you know, be warned, America. And and that

message resonating. And that's reporter Sean Donn and magazine editor Joel Weber. I love Seawn's work because it really takes complicated issues and distills them down to the people underneath them. The story of that town in Pennsylvania tells us so much about the election and more importantly, the electorate. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up. We keep the focus on the election, and here from the CEO of Vote America. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week

with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly today breaking you a lot of highlights from our daily radio show and podcast. Carol Master was off this week, so I'm joined by Alex Steele throughout the show, our conversations catching up a spec actually on this special edition of the magazine, it's a voter's guide to the most volatile election in decades. We want to stick with that theme, so we caught

up with the CEO of Vote America, Deborah Cleaver. She talked to us about how they're helping people vote by mail. Vote America runs very large scale national voter registration and voter turnouts campaigns, and what we do is identifying clear roadblocks to casting ballots. Uh and this year the big roadblock is COVID nineteen. There is a global pandemic that is going to make it harder for people to vote

in person. So we are focused almost entirely on vote by mail, which is apparently the topic of the moment. Thank you, President Trump. So what so? Okay, So, if your job normally was to go around and sign up voters and get them to the polling stations, what is your job going to be this time around? It's helping people navigate the vote by mail process. Isn't hard, it's just new for most people. Um. And you know, most of us know how to vote in person. You registered

to vote, and then you just go vote on election day. Um. But if you want to vote by mail, you register to vote, then you request your mail in ballot, then you receive your mail in ballot, and then you return your mail in ballot by the election day. There's a few extra steps and again it's not that they're hard, it's just that there's more of them. But uh, Now, as if that wasn't enough for people, there's also now,

U how do we put this? Mail delivery is slower? Um? So, so we basically pivoted from being an organization that primarily focuses on helping people vote in person on election day to an organization that helps people, uh vote by a mail? How does this vote go from here? We're sixty or so days out. What's the sort of rhythm? And I know it's a different sort of year because the pen semic, but early voting, mail in voting, what's the how does it go? Um? These are a great question. So mail

in voting officially kicks off tomorrow. North Carolina is going to be sending the mail in ballots out to people who signed up for them. So mail in voting has started. UM. Early voting won't start for a few weeks. It generally starts out four weeks before the election UM and then runs through election day and most states but not all, have early voting UM, and then of course there's election

day voting. The thing that's going to be so interesting this year is that we're going to see record numbers of people vote by mail. And in about half the state UM and half the states your ballot needs to be received by election day, but the other states it just needs to be postmarked by election day, which means millions of ballots are going to come in after election day. And for the first time in our nation history, realistically, we're not going to know who won the presidency on

election day. Oh sorry, that's right. Good. I blocked two thousand out for a while. So for the second time in our newsctory, we won't know. But in two thousand we didn't know because everything was was contested. This year, we're not going to know because the ballots just won't be in yet. So you just walk me through the logistics of that. So, um, okay, literally, like all these ballots wind up in a big trunk where and then is there like some person counting them? Like, how does

that actually happen? Yeah, so you actually need to open the ballot and then count them. Um. And if something needs to be postmarked by election day, and we all know how flow mail delivery is this year, I mean ballots are going to be received these after the election and then you need to open up up and count them and humans do this, um, And I expect that will be counting ballads for three weeks for show after

the election. So what will actually have this year? One way to think of it is we're going to have voting Day, which is like when people are voting, and then election day, when we know when the winner is a few weeks later. But what I think will happen is instead of everyone being calm and rational and not freaking out, I think we're gonna see Uh. A bunch of people try to say that the reason we don't know the result yet is because there is voter front

so it's it's going to be pretty wild. But the unusual thing is this is how most other countries do it. Like in most other countries, you have voting day, and then three weeks later, when everything's been certified and every least vote has been counted, you announced the winner and that's election day. Like we are the only country that really does is like easy process um. And you know, you guys have seen the returns come in. Have you ever noticed that we forget the winner when like five

of three things are in right? That's so crazy, that's so crazy that we view that. So this year we're not going to be able to stay who the winner is and who we've counted every ballot, which is actually exactly how elections should be run. But it's new. Whenever you do something for the first time, there's going to be a little bit of like chaos and uncertainty. But unfortunately, I think there's going to be deliberate attempts to make that chaos and uncertainty. So I do want to ask

you before we let you go. You know, one thing we've talked a lot about on this program, and I've done a little bit of reporting about, um because I also look at the world of sports and the business of sports, is this movement by Lebron James and a number of athletes and celebrities. And we had the NBA sort of come out very much in favor of this of you know, opening arenas up for early voting and

for election day as well. I've heard sort of varying experts or varying opinions from experts as to how much that could actually impact turnout. Do you have a take on that in terms of what you've seen in those efforts to create these sort of super precincts and and other elements around getting out the vote, it's definitely a net positive um. If nothing else, it's strong a lot of attention to early voting voting in general, which is great. UM. As for whether or not it will have like a

measurable impact, that's kind of hard to say. Uh, you know, there's there's pluses and minuses to these, like mega voting centers. The plus is easy to find, yeah, you know, like we all know where the stadium is. The minus that people need to drive to get to those stadiums, and not everyone drives. But plus again this year is it's kind of hard to have a socially distanced election, and stadiums are huge, so it's actually home for people to line up and stand six ft apart. I see nothing

but positive coming out of this. I think increase awareness is always wonderful. I mean, we know our our government will spend money working to increase turnout, so it comes it falls to the rest of us. And that's Deborah Cleaver, the CEO of Vote America. Obviously, voting is talked about all the time, and in a different way here given the pandemic and so much politicization of the simple act

of voting. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week. Coming up, we hear from the author of After the Gig, how the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly. We're bringing you some of the highlights from our daily radio show and podcast. Carol Master, she was off this week, so I'm joining

throughout the show by Alex Steele. Well, Alex and I got a chance to talk with Juliette Shore, a well known author and sociologist. She teaches at Boston College. She's got a new book out, Apropos for Labor Day. It's called After the Gig, How the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back, And she told us about a decade of research that went into this book.

I was writing a book in two thousand eight nine about sort of how we could respond to what at that time, of course, was the financial collapse and economic problems and the climate crisis. It was really interested in ways that people could begin to be more self sufficient, the link from jobs they really didn't want to be in corporate you know, kind of rat race jobs. And one of the things I started looking at as they were just being founded, were new sharing economy initiatives, things

like Airbnb. Originally the ride share companies now now no longer really ride share, but um so these things were all just getting started, they were being founded just as I was writing that book. As soon as I finished that book, I started on a research project and I've spent the last ten years studying the sort of early promise of the gig or what was called the sharing economy, and then of course how things developed. So in in your research, was there one big takeaway that you learned

from this? Well, I say there too. I mean the first one is that these were This technology that these platforms us is really great and it does hold wonderful promise.

But the platforms came to be, they were founded by and then investors came in people who really weren't interested in having them achieve all the social benefits um that you know, they were promising in the early days, and they really just went for market domination, growth and profitability, and and they kind of commercialized what was originally supposed to be a very personal person to person kind of economic structure. So that's one takeaway is sort of, you know, greed,

greed got the better of these things. Um. But there's one other really important finding in our book, which is that people who were just using these platforms for extra income what we call supplemental income, mostly had really good experiences on them. And whether we're talking airbnb, ride heals. We looked at a lot of task Rabbit, which is a kind of errands and home home based work platform people who were trying to earn a living on them. We're really having to struggle, and you know, many of

them were earning below the poverty line. We didn't have any of those what we call dependent earners who were actually making a good living. So one of the problems is that more and more people on these platforms are people who need to make a living on them, and that's especially true in ride hail and food delivery. So the that's another really important thing that I think has has gotten lost, which is that they're they're really not

feasible as jobs. And yet of course many you know, they they offer themselves as as being able to provide like a real income to people, especially ride hail food delivery,

but it doesn't work. And Juliette, I got to ask you, I mean, you've been doing this research, as you said, really looking into this for the better part of a decade, and here we get to and I feel like everything gets turned upside down, including the gig economy, the sharing economy, however you wanted to find it, every aspect of every economy got turned upside down. Absolutely. I mean, right hailing collapsed. Suddenly there was insatiable demand for in store shoppers and

delivery UM. The other thing that we're seeing in the interviews we're doing is that these workers can't get work anymore because the companies have hired so many people. There was a story out Bloomberg today about UM, a group of delivery workers on Amazon who were positioning phones in trees right next to the stores as a way of being the first one because that the algorithm picks the

closest phoones. So it's gotten really brutal out there. Our people were interviewing or telling us that, you know, other people are using bots to snag ships, and so they can't get work anymore. So, yes, it's really upended a lot of people's lives. And that's Boston College sociology professor Juliet Shore, author of the new book After the Gig Hick that up you will learn a ton about where we are in the economy. So much has changed, but so much changed in that specific category. We talk about

the tech companies so much, but the workers. Maybe we don't pay enough attention to their struggles and the implications both economic and social. You're listening to Bloomberg bus Week coming up. Speaking of social justice sports stars they are fighting for it publicly. We take a look at how protests may impact the world of sports, including their valuations. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to

Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly, Carol Masser. She was taking a much deserved vacation this week, so I was joined throughout the week by Alex Steele. We got a chance to speak with George Pine. He's an old pal of mine. He's now the CEO of Brewin Sports Capital. He was the president of IMG interne National also had a top job at NASCAR, so he knows the world of sports inside and out. Check out what he had to say about the state of sports. Well, you know,

I think it's positive. I think you have players and people that I really want to see positive change, better things for the country, and believe strongly in social justice. And I think people, you know, stood up for what they believe, and so I think fundamentally it's a really good thing. It's kind of refreshing, and you know, you're seeing in the case of these athletes really taking a

stand on something they believe is a real moral issue. Um, they don't have to, that's there, that's not their responsibility, but they as as citizens really standing up for something they really believe in. So I think it's fundamentally a good thing. Why hasn't it something like this happened before? Well, I think it's an evil. I think it's an evolution.

And I think also to watching What's Happened, you know, on on TV through social media, it's just so disturbing that I think it's brought a real more emphasis to an issue that we all know. It's been there a long time, but us key, it's just to watch it is visceral for so many people. So I think I

think it's a good thing. And of course you've had if you think back, I mean, I think these moments also make you think about people like Bill Russell or Muhammad Ali or Jesse oh And or Jackie Robinson, and just the things that they did and the challenges they must have faced. It just really makes you appreciate them, I think a little bit more today as well. So I guess sports has always been a platform for some change, but I think now you're seeing it being used in

a more universal way, and I think a very constructive way. Well, And it's interesting, George, to think about how sports are

being played right now. And I was speaking with somebody earlier in the sports world, and they were saying that the power is in part owing to the concentration of athletes and the focus to some extent, I mean this notion that just taking the NBA for a second, that all of these players, all of these teams, you know, the majority, not every team and not every player, but the majority were in one place and able to get together in one room and and make decisions. So the

moment in some ways has met them. And all of this is sort of coming together, this nexus of the of the pandemic as well as facing down structural racism, some of it in it in an almost perverse way, has been made possible by the pandemic. Well, the fact that the players were together it probably did make it

that much easier for them to act. I think the other kind of inspiring moment and all this is all the other sports that that joined in that weren't that weren't in one location, and and you know, almost universally professional sports and college sports you know, stood together and made it, made us stay and so I think, you know, it's inspiring. I think it's a good thing. And uh,

you know, hopefully, you know, better things will come. I mean sports is not the pantasy to solve all problems, but it is a platform and uh, and people can't make a positive contribution to hopefully moving things forward in a constructive fashion. Um, broughting it out a little bit just to talk about playing sports? Um, what kind of sports are we gonna keep playing? Like? Are we gonna

get used to? Oh, a bunch of these players got to got tested and therefore we're gonna stop games for about a week and then we'll pick it back up. Like is that going to be the new normal for sports now? Too? Well? I think so. I mean, as long as you're living in the pandemic, you know, anything's possible. I think when you look at it on balance, it's been amazingly done well. I mean, the NHLs had zero positive tests, hasn't canceled a contest. I mean, NBA hasn't

canceled a contest and has had very few positive tests. Um, you know, NASCAR gone off well, PGA Tour, you know, the National women's soccer league did really well and had a really good TV writing. You know, the only sports that's had a real, real, real challenge has been baseball, where they don't haven't played in the bubble, but even there they've played the most games they've had a canceled,

you know, thirty five or forty games. But still I think I've executed it is safely and done really well. And you know, the other other areas that don't get a lot of coverage. You know, there's about seventy five college football teams that have gone through a preseason and prior to that train for eight or nine weeks and have done that, you know, pretty safely. And that's consistent

with what we're seeing around the world. People are playing rugby, they're playing soccer, and it's being played safely, and so, you know, so far, so good. But in this world, in this day and age, you know, I suppose anything is possible well, and economics have driven some of that,

whether we like it or not. George, And this is something you and I caught up on earlier this summer, right as we're getting into it, and you were giving me some statistics then about the economic impact taking college football, specifically that those teams and those programs have on their local markets. So part of this is an economic recovery story as much as people wanting sports to come back because they like them. Yeah, well it's a I think

it's gonna be devastating what happens here. I mean to take Tuscaloosk, Alabama, whether Alabama players are not this year, the economic impact for one games about twenty million dollars of games such million, and but you put that out to Madison, Wisconsin, Columbus, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee out in Georgia, and you know, communities are really depending on these games take place. They're not gonna if they take place, there's

not going to be anywhere near the fans. And not to mention, you know, the game day revenue, uh you know includes people that sell tickets, security, people that provide concessions, service industries, all those industries are getting people who in jobs are being furloughed. You know, it's really gonna be very quite challenging. And it's gonna be challenging not just this year. I mean, best I could tell I think

about it every day. I think the first half of next year for a lot anything live events is going to be very difficult, and I think all of a sudden, when you say let's go back to live events, I don't think everyone's running back is going to be very challenged and probably two and you hope that you come out of it. Also, at a time when your revenues are going down. I remember sweet sales, sponsorship, hospitality, taking

these consumer products. When those are all going down, your costs to run these events are going to go up because you have to create a safer environment. So, George, you know, one of the interesting things since you and I last talked is sports are back, and they're being played in a very different way as we were discussing at the top of the conversation. But people are watching it. I think many people agree, especially when it comes to

the end be a it's a pretty good product. What have we learned about consumption and media and how does that become investable for someone like you? Well, I think what you're learning is that you know, boy, it's a strong television product. I think you know, going into the pandemic sports with eighty eight or any nine of the top hundred programs on television, and you know that hasn't

changed here. And on top of it, I mean you have sports on top of sports, on top of sports, and they're all their ratings are up, so they're getting strong ratings. So I think, you know, long term, it's a great sector. And for us, the things that we see that you know, we have a number of we operating thirty countries and you know what we're seeing is that you're streaming data, design, things around digital are really accelerating and doing well, so you know, and that's not surprising.

And you know, again, I think even the live event space, while I mentioned it's gonna be very difficult, I think there'll be reinvenged opportunities. You know. One interesting thing I think is what ted Leonsis is doing and DC. I think, you know, gambling and arenas are going to be places where you're gonna go with your friends to place bets and probably gamble on games, not just one game, but a number of games. I mean to say, Yankee Stadium, you'll go take your buddies and go to watch a game.

I'm one place bets maybe when the game's not playing, and maybe even when there's not a baseball season. So I think I think You're gonna see growth in all those areas in the future, but the next a couple of years and be a little chopped in terms of just financially, be a lot of pressure on teams and

leagues and federations and in the companies around them. So there's sort of two parts of that, and one is like the ancillary businesses that exist now that are going to be struggling versus the new ancillary businesses that are up and coming. Um, talk to me about the former and what kind of opportunities you see there. Well for us, so we we've we've invested in data, so we're at data analytics. I think the way sponsorship is going to change streaming and technology are areas. And one of the

companies we have a design company. When I was like why is design doing so well? But in the digital world, design is more important. So I think all things digital, all things gaming, I think those are really going to be strong irrespective of the pandemic and are really unaffected

by the pandemic. And then, like you said, Alex, there will be new companies coming along that will be able to take advantage of live events or established companies that are as part of their return, they're going to have

to adjust to new opportunities in the world. And that's George Pine, the CEO of Bruin Sports Capital, some really interesting insights about sports, professional college and otherwise big questions not only socially but economically about the world of sports, a reminder of just how intrinsic it is to so many regional and local and really the national economy. Well, that wraps up the weekend. Additional Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Jason Kelly.

Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time. You can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just search for Bloomberg Global News. And in addition to our daily podcast Get That twice a day, download our Business Week Extra podcast this week as well. It's right there in the feed. It features our full conversation with the CEO of Lands and Jerome Griffith. You'll learn a lot

about him and the business of clothes and fashion. We'll be back next week right here at the same time. This is Bloomberg