Surviving Pay Phones Evoke U.S. Past

You can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio or watch us on YouTube. Searched Bloomberg clovel News Well the fast spreading delta variant. It's flooded hospitals across the South. It's killed more people in Florida and Louisiana than the darkest days of the pandemic winter and left so many COVID nineteen patients gasping for breath. That's some places face shortages of medical oxygen.

So right. Jonathan Levin and Michael Smith and their latest story for the Bloomberg terminally available at Bloomberg dot com as well. Overwhelmed hospitals belae us illusion of a defanged pandemic. Drew Armstrong is senior editor for US Healthcare for Bloomberg News and joins us Now on the phone from New York City. Drew, how did we get here? Well? I think we've been in this situation where you have many parts of the US vaccinating quite aggressively, but many parts

that didn't. And you know, when you look at down South, UM, a lot of rural areas, those were places that had not been hit nearly as hard early on by COVID. And then you have this kind of perfect storm combining a much much much much more transmissible UM and by some reports more dangerous variants of the virus UH, low rates of vaccination UH in those places UM, and a population that probably didn't have necessarily as much kind of

previous naturally acquired immunity. Because these are a lot of places that so man, these places have been hit by quite hard, but there were still a lot of places in the country that had not really been slammed uh by by COVID. You know, you mix all of that together and it's a pretty toxic brew. True. The data in the story seems to suggest that even with an orderly vaccine rollout, I've reflects. You know, what happened here in San Francisco. We started with those over the age

of seventy, then down to sixty five. But what seems to be happening, particularly in the Southern States, is that there are sections of those age groups that just didn't for some for whatever reason, get vaccinated. And that's where the pressure points seems to be in terms of hospitalizations. What's going on there. Yeah, you know, you have higher levels of vaccine either refusal or reluctant to kind of

across the board in a lot of these places. And the result of that is, you know, you're over seventy five populations like vaccinated, or over sixty five populations like vaccinated, or over a team population is less vaccinated. So you just leave more vulnerable people UM in play there. And obviously, especially with some of those older groups or people who have pre existing medical conditions you talk about you know, BCD, diabetes, UM,

those people are really at risk of this virus. I mean, if you if you look at how to virus, who this virus impact UM. You know, if you're older and in ill health or you know just in ill health, UM, you're really profoundly at risk most younger, healthier people that are exceptions to this obviously, but are far less risk

of this. It can be, you know, quite nasty and unpleasant, but you know, you don't see that as many of the charitable health outcomes as you do, um in a lot of these older populations, and that just means kind of, you know, more more kindling for this thing to burn through. So, Drew, how does this? How does this end? Because here we are in September. Kids are supposed to be back in school many parts of the United States, they're already not as a result of being quarantined or the spread of

the virus among those classrooms. How does this? How does this end? Well? You know, I think the way it ends is some degree of immunity, either through vaccination or through previous infections, and and this pandemic probably burns itself mostly out and we move into kind of an endemic phase where, um know, we have pockets of infection and player ups and kind of a constant low grade COVID out there. Um. The one thing I'll say is that seemed to be a point of discussion out there amongst

some groups. You know, the vaccines are kind of a shortcut to immunity. Yes, you can get naturally acquired immunity, but you have to get sick to get it, and that comes with some significant risks. I think as we've seen, as we had to you know, more than uh, you know, over half a million people dead of this disease in in the U s so um. You know, people talk a lot about like viruses as wildfires, and they tend to go until you know, burnt through all of the

brush flammable brushes out there. Hey, Drew, we only have about thirty seconds left on this. I just want to get an idea from you about sort of the next catalyst we should be looking forward to see if Delta has indeed peaked here in the US. You know, I think what I'm personally watching is a lot of state and regional maps, um, you know, looking to see trying not to think about this as a US outbreak, but really thinking about it as a state and local UM

one and keeping a close eye to seat. Okay, has it peeked down south fully? Um? Is it riving or is there a ceiling on cases in some of the states that have vaccinated more heavily, Would it have not been kind of forced indoors because of the heat, and then really paying attention to whats with the holidays, holidays, already thinking about that and trying to make those plans those right around the corner. Drew Armstrong, Senior editor for US Healthcare for Bloomberg News, joining us live on the

phone from New York City. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, the pay phone an iconic image of the pay phone. Just think about what an image of a pay phone, or what a payphone evokes to you. For so many years, it was the only way for any of us to communicate with one another or actually even be reached. But nowadays it's rare, with the advent of the smart phone and the cell phone, that they're

even used. Well. David Dudley, a writer for Bloomberg City Lab who joins us now on the phone from Baltimore, profiled a photographer who's working to documents surviving pay phones that are evoking he lost US network of two million. David, it's great to have you on the show. Tell us about the photographer's project documenting thousands of these abandoned payphones.

Thanks for having me, uh so. I spent the day with a gentleman named Eric Kunzman, who is a photographer and a photography professor in Rochester, New York, and a couple of years ago, he became sort of fascinated by the fact that it seemed like the neighborhood that he had moved to studio to was was full of payphones, and he hadn't noticed that in other parts of town. This is sort of a lower income part of Rochester.

And he started um to sort of take images, portraits of of the payphones that he saw in the neighborhood, usually in front of convenience stores and gas stations. And this sort of expanded into this sort of a kind of a global quest that he has launched to document every single pay phone in Monroe County, New York, uh and also any place else basically that he happens to see become sort of fabated by what they symbolize. I'm a Londoner, right, I think phone box, I think iconic

red phone box. I think tourism. But it's part of this process. What exactly what do you learn about any neighborhoods given phone box what does it tell you about the economy, about the people in that place. Well, Eric sort of theorized that that some of these these phones

were basically just sort of forgotten. They've been sort of installed in the nineties or earlier, and because no one had renovated the building that they were attached to, or no one had bothered to call the phone company and say, hey, could you remove this thing, the machines themselves has sort of persisted. So it was sort of like a geograh fee of the more sort of economically left behind parts of the city. And as part of his project, he sort of mapped all the phones across the county and

overlaid that with with economic data and other information. So he became sort of interested sort of what the the whole kind of social, kind of geography of telephones meant um, which sort of made this more than just sort of an esthetic project. It was sort of a social documentary. I do find that the the idea that this is

based in Rochester, New York just fascinating. As you point out, it was the home of George and Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak, and at its nine seventies peak, the photography giant employed about fifty thou people and fueled a

quarter of the city's economic activity. It's absolutely a different picture in this day and age, David, And I'm wondering the juxtaposition of that and the symbolism there that this project is being done on film, first of all, uh, in in a place where Eastman Kodak was for so long a stalwart of the economy. Yeah. No, I mean it's that's sort of part of the conceit here is this sort of this convergence of of obsolete technologies, uh, that that Eric really still finds value. And he is

a he is a a film photographer, die Hard. He has sort of a shrine to Kodak film in his studio. So he's shooting these things on an old half of black camera film, using the this this product that is so associated with with Rochester and with the wealth that sort of built the city, and it's sort of part of his his his sort of thesis that there is value in things that that that might not be putting edge technology anymore, but are still useful and still still

serve different people encourage you know, yeah, exactly. It's the saying, David, I really encouraged Bloomberg radio listeners to go on Bloomberg dot com onto the Bloomberg terminal and look at the actual photographs themselves. As Tim said, short and film. But there's something miss singing from every single photograph. There are no people in any of the shots at all. Why is that? Yeah, that's sort of on on Eric's park. He didn't want you to sort of think about who

who was using the phone. He wanted you to sort of leave that to your imagination because really, you know, and those of us who are out in age when we uh use payphones more regularly. In the eighties and nineties, um, it was a public amenity. Everyone used the payphone, and now it's sort of perceived as something as a communication device of last resort for people who really have no resources. And he really wanted you to think about who who

might need that phone. And uh so it's this sort of gallery of of of unpeopled landscapes where you sort of see the phone as part of a kind of a streetscape. But yeah, there's no there are no people there. They're they're used sometimes. He's got data from from the telecom that soprates them, that says that you know, that most of these phones are used a couple of times a week. Still, Uh, the handful that are still working.

A lot of them are just sort of corpses. They're their handsets are broken or the insides have been removed. But some of them still work, and and those that do still do find people who need to use them. What did the company that oversees these phones, that these phones belong to, Frontier tell you about the status of the phones. You know, it's it's not really a priority of fun your communications right now. This is a telecom that is, you know, pivoting to fiber optics and you know,

cutting edge technologies. But it also happens to have about fifteen hundred of these phones scattered around the county. Um, you know, a spokes first when told the last reporter who did the story on this that they're they're still maintaining the ones that are When they get a call to fix up a phone, they'll still send someone out. Um, it's unlikely it's a major profit center. Let's just it's

a it's a it's a very very declining business. There are less than a hundred thousand payphones across all of the United States. Probably a lot less and uh, you know, it's it's very much a a part of the telephone tunations business that has has really been left in the past. David very quickly here, what was your takeaway? I mean, look, you you can't see me. I'm holding my cell phone in my hand. I'm rarely ever detached from it. I can't live without my cell phone. But is you going

through that experience driving around neighborhoods. How did it make you feel? You know, it's it's like a time capsule.

It's like as you're driving around and I grew up near Rochester and I know the area pretty well, and you have to kind of pretend that it's like nine nineties, and you sort of have to think in those terms, and you sort of squinting you and then suddenly you can see, oh, there's a payphone attached to that cast stage, and uh, it's a it's kind of an interesting experience to become aware of this of this this this furniture that used to be so omnipresent on our streets and

it's kind of hiding in playing site and in some places. But you know, well, we we've completely forgotten. David Dudley is a writer for Bloomberg City Lab. Check out this story. As Ed mentioned, you've got to go online and look at the peak pictures. David story is featured in These Cities issue of Bloomberg Business Week magazine. It's available on newstands and at Bloomberg dot com slash business Week. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg

Quick Takes Tim Stinovik on Bloomberg Radio. Okay, so Masks are back on its city Group and a Bank of America workers still have to keep their distance and conference rooms at JP Morgan Investment bankers and traders can no longer blow off steam at the nearby Monkey Bar. That's the Tony restaurant in Midtown Manhattan that closed during the pandemic, so writes Jenny Seraine, who says that Wall Street is back,

just not the way that industry executives had hoped. Jenny joins us now in the Bloomberg News Interactive Broker Studio in New York. She's finance reporter for Bloomberg News. So Jenny this a few months ago. This was supposed to be a completely different story. The the the the Tuesday after labor day was when things were supposed to be back in full swing. Give us an update from what

the big banks are doing. Yeah, that's exactly right. So today it was really supposed to be, um, Wall Streets big back to school day and kind of the start of Wall Streets new normal, and we just haven't seen that really take shape. You know, you've got a lot of smaller Wall Street firms actually pushing back their dates saying, you know what, we're just going to do this in October, November, maybe next year. Um. And then the biggest guys, Yeah,

they are still very adamant. They want their folks back at their desks. Um. They're increasingly having those folks there. Um. And really they're just it's just not the way they pictured it. The mass, the social distancing, um, all the rest. It's just not what they wanted. You guys kind of set it out, Jenny, right, there's no one size fits all return to office COVID plan. But I guess the trend does seem to be the big guys want you back at your desk, the smaller firms more cautious approach

pushing things. You know, well, as fathers pushed back a couple of times but why is that? I mean, is it just the spending that was required on protection mechanisms, it's just psychology, you know, what's behind that difference. Yeah, it's a really good question. I think for each firm it might be different. So I think some firms are using this as an opportunity to recruit away from the big firms and saying, you know, people want flexibility, We're willing to give you that. UM. In some cases it's

more about UM. You know, some of these bigger banks have staff in places like Texas or Florida, Georgia, places where vaccination rates are way lower than than here in New York, and so that's kind of complicating how quickly you're or how many people they can bring back. UM. So I think lots of things can be driving it. UM. Definitely spending on making the office is safer. It's a big expense. UM. And if you see a lot of your employees really are really hesitant to be back, you

just you might say, know what will wait? You kind of mention in your story about out West this way there's this play by the tech companies, right, they keep pushing back, they give more flexibility, particularly in the engineering department, and you mentioned the story that there's some crossover there right, There's there's a flow of talent from Wall Street into big tech and vice versa sometimes. But the point is

you have to give the people what they want. What's going on with this just indefinite delay from ever going back to the office. Yeah. I think engineers on Wall Street are are very special breed. They seem to be the only ones that are getting this uh special dispensation from c e o s who are really aggressively bringing a lot of their workers back. But they're very hesitant to do anything that will upset the developers and engineers and everyone that that kind of keep the technology of

Wall Street going. And that's because, you know, competition for that talent right now is at levels that these executives haven't ever seen, and they are very aware that places like Google and Facebook are are rolling out the red carpet for these folks and really trying to keep those

folks happy and keep them in their jobs. I wonder about that in the in the other ranks of employees too, because it's not just that these banks are competing with the other banks for talent, they're also competing with tech companies that perhaps have different types of work from home

policies and more relaxed policies. And I wonder what you're here, wondering what you're hearing from your sources, Jenny, about whether or not banks are starting to think differently about being more lenient with this stuff because from a competitive perspective,

they may have to. Yeah, I think so. So many of these CEOs are It's like a ceo thing, like, so many of these CEOs just feel strongly that culture is built in the office and that younger employees especially need training and and they want to see folks in their seats every day. And so I think you've got a little bit of what do the people want versus what does the person um, the person at the top of the house want um. And that's a really hard balance, and I think you're seeing it play out at all

these different firms in slightly different ways. Um, But ultimately, I do think in a lot of cases, what the CEO wants is ultimately going to win out, irrespective of where they're working, Jenny, how are they working? You know, is it it's been a purple patch for for these firms, or is part of the sort of impetus to go back to your face that they need to do better, you know, to get some energy going amongst the workforce. Yeah.

You know what's interesting about the trading floor specifically is we keep hearing from traders that on slow trading days, it's really helpful to have folks in the office. You've got that water cooler chat, you come up with random ideas, you go out, you pitch it to clients. UM. That's sort of like organic UM conversation is really hard to pull off on Zoom and in virtual meetings and things

like that. So certainly for the traders, I think that you see a lot of those folks are kind of eager to get back at least part of the time, UM, and that they think it will really help the results. I mean, for the rest of the bank, they're they're at record profits and UM, it's kind of hard to

say that they're they're doing poorly in this remote work time. UM. But certainly for the traders, you do see them starting to get a little auntie, especially as we've had a few of these like summer dold drums these past couple of weeks. Yeah, well, the summer summer season certainly over now I mean officially over. We are the first Tuesday after Labor Day, so this is the time when fall

officially kicks off. Jenny, I'm I'm wondering really about how the timeline has changed now that this goal and I know the goalpost move. I understand that this is an involving situation, but what are the banks saying about, Okay, we are back to normal. You know on this date, there's not really one new universal date like there was with this UM. So it's I think we're going to see it really be low and slow. Um. The biggest US banks have brought a lot of their folks back

or are planning to do so this month. UM. So you're definitely seeing that push, But I think for a lot of these smaller firms they're just hesitant and they're they're playing it by ear um. You know, especially with schools and that situation being as uneven as it is, that also makes it really hard for you to kind of say, all right, we have to be back in especially you know, with with folks with kids under twelve

who's kids can't even be vaccinated. That just makes everything so much harder and just not the moment in time that Wall Street thought it was going to be Jenny very quickly, what's the next big name to watch for? Which bank moves next, which trading floor moves next to bring their their teams back. I actually think the banks, the two banks to watch would be City Group and

Bank of America. So they're planning to bring back more and more of their folks this month, So it'll be kind of interesting to see how that plays out and kind of how their employees react. Here. All right, Jenny Seraine, we are going to have to leave it. Their finance reporter for Bloomberg News. She joins us in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio in New York. Check out Jenny's story. It's available at the Bloomberg terminal and of course at

Bloomberg dot Com. It's called Wall Street Limps into Post Labor Day Return Derailed by Delta ed. As Jenny said, this was supposed to be Wall Streets Back to School Day, it's not necessarily turning out to be. Yeah, it's all about the psychology home in you, in your shut upstairs, sweats downstairs, or what do you do well? You can join by zoom in many places. But now we'll see how long you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol

Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim's of it on Bloomberg Radio. Well, it's likely to lose money for black Rocks clients, and more important, will damage the national security interests of the US and other democracies. Those are the words of legendary investor George Soros criticizing Black Rock for investing in China in an op ed in the Wall Street Journal today, joining us now to talk all about it and more.

There's pretty much no better person to speak to this than Andy Brown, editorial director of Bloomberg New Economy Forum. Although he spent years in China. Today he is joining us on the phone from New Hampshire, and we're certainly glad because if he were in China right now, it would be the middle of the night. Andy, thank you so much for taking the time and joining us on this. What was your reaction when you saw that? What was

your reaction when you saw that editorial from George Soros? Yeah, look, this is pretty inflammatory stuff. I mean, he's essentially accusing Wall Street leaders of being on patriotic almost fifth columnists, investing, as it were, in the enemy at a time when the United States and China, in his view, are locked in this life and death struggle for supremacy. And his

point is you've got to choose side. This is a national um security with I mean, it's certainly you've gone further in his criticism of people like you know, Larry Spink and and uh and Schwartzman, and John Thornton, the former Golden Sex senior executives, and perhaps um any any senior public figure has before Good afternoon, Andy. I mean,

what is the concern here? Is it complete focus on the regulatory crackdown or is it the presidency economic strategy, which is which is largely a shift to industrialization right away from software, away from internet. Where is the area of concern for Soros? Well, No, I think he's looking at this at a much higher level. I mean, in his view, you now have to competing and incompatible systems

buying for global supremacy. And on the one hand, you have the democratic free market system of the US, Europe and the West more generally, and then you have China, which in his view is moving in an authoritarian, uh even autocratic direction and doubling down on state capitalism, and that certainly is the way that he would interpret the latest ructions in China. With s jimping taking on UM the big tech champions, he would no doubt see this as being an effort to strengthen the state and tear

down the private sector. But it's very interesting that you now have real divergence of views within the investment community on what the on the significance. I mean you you have other people like Great Value is saying now's the time to invest. Jim Thing is doing exactly the right things, sorting out problems in the tech economy, that problems that

we all grapple with, including in the US. UM you know, and that China and that in the sense of chigin Pins actions should not just be supported, they are laudable. They should be applauded well and paint us a picture of China today, China one, where does it sit ideologically? Where does it sit in its economic story? Well, this is what's to play for. I mean we don't really know. I mean Lilho who runs the Chinese economy, who came out just the other day to saying this isn't at

all an attack on the private sector. The private sector is responsible for six GDP and eighty percent of all new employment. This is all about rationalizing or this is all about getting rid of abusive in our system, leveling the playing field, and making society more more equitable. Um. And there are a lot of people, as they say, including people great value, who take all this uh at at face value? Andy, is you right? In New Economy Saturday.

What began as a regulatory takedown of Jack Ma, the flamboyant Ali Baba co founder, it quickly grew to an assault on tech platforms, including those like ten cents that offer online gaming. You asked the question, is this a new cultural revolution? Is it? Yeah? Well, you know there is a very hard edged ideological element to all this and what you're seeing, Ah, these really eerie, rather sinister echoes all the cultural Revolution, both in the language and

a lot of talk now struggle. Um, there's you know a lot of talk about rectification. You know, these these are these are words and concepts that were very common in the early years um, all the People's Republic and of course during the Cultural Revolution. And then you have this sort of very powerful uh symbolism, the cult of personality. And I was noting that you know, Chijin pings Jen being thought has now become a part of the school.

Everybody from age seven out all the way through university is going to have to study see him as as The Economist magazine pointed out, the last time hundreds of millions of Chinese school kids had to read the thoughts of one man Um was indeed during the male ear during the Cultural Revolution. Andy, just in the last thirty seconds, we have what is what is Sijin ping thought? That's a that's that's a very good question. And not having

not having been through the syllabus, it's hard. It's hard to answer in in in a word, um, But we have to take this very seriously. Um. This is not a temporary school. Something very serious has shifted um in in China, something very profound. And investors who think that they're going to play this as they might play any market trend, A're gonna get quite badly. Bunt Yeah. Hence the ed from George Sorrows in Today's Wall Street Journal.

Andy Brown, editorial director at Bloomberg New Economy, joining us on the phone from New Hampshire. Andy, it is always great to shot with you. Thanks so much for taking the time. This is Bloomberg Radio. I'm bro journal. Yeah, but you let me drive? Oh no, no, no no, non, drive home, honey please, I'll do the riding drivel. I want to drive all Just drive baby, good question trying. This is the drive to the Globe Funk Commune. Thanks well,

dry Un on Bloomberg Radio. It is the drive to the close on the first day of this shorten the trading week, just over ten minutes away from the market close, and we are seeing a little bit read across the screen that down down by a little more than seven tents of one percent, by three tents of one percent, the NASDAC higher by just one tenth of one percent. Let's get into it with Dave Dat's managing principal and senior portfolio strategies at PEPA Pepack Private Wealth Management n

billion dollars in assets under management. David, it's great to have you back on the show. I want to start just broadly in today's trade. What is the message that the market is sending here? Well, I think there are some growth concerns here. I think we're still trading in the wake of that week August job support that we heard on Friday. People are digesting that Um. But what I think is also a little off putting today is normally when you have growth concerns, interest rates are falling.

Here today we have interest rates rising, which is a little odd. And so that that word, that scary word from the nineties seventies is popping up exactly where sluggish growth and higher rates that is not a great combination. I think it's it's premature to get to concerned. Remember azacs at a record today SMP and now very close to record, So let's not get carried away. But I think that's what people are focusing on. Okay, so what is the market? What is the signal that the bond

market is sending though with with yields moving higher. Well, so what we saw in August was less jobs, well less jobs than we're expected that we're actually created, but we saw hourly wages jump sharply, much worse, about six tenths of one percent just in the month of August alone. Um, you know, that's about four point three percent annualized, and and that's well above what the FT has been targeting.

And so I think there is that with of inflation there which um was not accompanied by people rushing into that labor force and and so I think that's very concerning here. Of course, you're still seeing that the chip shortage affecting the auto industry and others, terrible supply chain disruption. Who we're just pushing prices up. So you know, on the one hand, the FED is probably going to be cautious here to start any kind of taper because the

job numbers are not where they want. On the other hand, uh, you know, with wages starting to rise, Uh, they've got to stay vigilant. And so that's that's what's perplexing the market today, David. That seems to be the debate, you know, yields rising. The consensus seems to be that if growth comes, the FED ist patient does not pull the trigger early, then yields continue to rise. At the same time, today

you have big tech out performing. So what happens to those stocks with stretch valuations if we do get that prophecy that forecast comes to true coming out of the pandemic. Well, you know, so you know a lot of the stress valuations, quite frankly, are just in those top five stocks you make about twenty three percent of the market, and quite frankly, the growth prospects for companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet UM, Apple are really quite strong, so they're probably going to

be all right. But the real concern is for the rank and file. UM, you know, your industrious, your cyclicals, you're doing in payers, uh, those that would benefit from infrastructure, UM, payments, UM. If you kind of if growth weekends, interest rates go up, that's not a great combination for the rest of the market. And that's what we're gonna have to watch very carefully. Yeah, a lot of focus on the FED right now and those megacat tech stocks here in the US, But this

seems to me like a really global week. Reading this morning, a lot of focus on the ECB this Thursday, also looking towards Australia, New Zealand, South Korea. How do you view the global economy right now and asset prices moving forward? Reflected of that, well, you know, in some ways we like the global economy from an investment point of view. Here's why, you know, is certainly in Europe the percentage of vaccination is actually higher than many parts of the

United States. That's a big positive, while evaluations are much lower, and of course interest rates there are are even lower than they are here negative in many cases, and so I think that's going to continue to drive some money into risk assets like stocks. Now, Asia is is a tricky situation. Of course. The Chinese stocks sold off um because of concerns that the Chinese government was usually raising regulations and there's you know, questions as to whether capitalism

would survive and all that kind of stuff. There were actually kind of optimistic as to the outlook because at the end of the day, although China talks tough, I don't see how they become a real genuine world power if they don't have a genuine world class uh private uh capitalist system. So there, you know, we're seeing some stocks move up today and they were kind of optimistic. Well, one person who certainly are not optimistic about that is George Soros. We talked earlier about his op ed in

today's Wall Street Journal. Uh, David, I want to talk about the stocks that you're bullish on. Let's start with Anheuser Bush. What's going on? Yeah, yeah, so absolutely so here is one of the top five consumer products stocks in the world. Um, you know, they're by far the law just beer maker is something like you know fifteen, they have fifteen of the top twenty brand worldwide. So the stock was over eighty about eighty in June. Right

now it is below sixty. So you got marked down in in in a company where you can make fun of bud here in this country. But the factor matter is they have the best distribution network worldwide and sometimes that makes a difference in terms of profitability um and and of course other things I think are temporary. There was is a growth concern on hert Selzer, which was proclaimed by uh Austin Beer Sam and I think that's way on the beer stocks here. There's also some concern about,

you know, the delay in the reopening trade. Quite frankly, you're going to consume your beer either off in at the bar or in the homp is far more profitable if you use the former at the bar. And so I think you've got an opportunity to buy a world class company about off. Of course, they owned two thirds of Ambev in Latin America, which has just the total lock on the beverage distribution system down there. So we think here's a world class company on sale. Snap it up.

And if you're you're really concerned about growth, I think a beer company is something that won't be as sensitive to the vagaries of the GDP numbers. David, interesting to see x On on the top tics list. Taut me through that one. So we have a situation here is we're all convinced and we need to go green. The problem is investors UM are going green faster in terms of how they're handling their portfolio than how consumers. Then

consumers can go green. So you have a situation where you know, people like UH, people like myself are not gonna be able to switch off the natural gas that we heat our homes in the ensuing winters or trade in our cars fast enough UH in order to meet

those objectives. So I think we're still going to be needing lots of UH fossil fossil SHUEL and of course x On, being the largest in the world, actually benefits when UH capital is starved and taken away from the smaller companies, and I think ultimately energy prices will go higher in this interim. Here, Exxon, with close to six percent dividend as I mentioned UH, totally integrated from upstream to downstream chemical operations, is well positioned to take advantage

of this inter period when oil still has a roll. Hey, David, we only have twenty seconds left, but I want you to make your case for Wells Fargo, another contrary event that was under pressure last week due to regulatory concern Well interestingly, with bond prices going up today, one of the few sectors that's doing well are the financials because they benefit from higher rights rage because that governs the

price and their best known product. So we write the banks and Wells Fargo has we think one of the best UM franchises coast to coast, focusing on the middle market, and I think once they can lift get that asset cap lifted off of them, the stock could return to where it was January two, eighteen, above sixty. All right, David Deed's managing principle and senior portfolio strategies at Pepack Private Wealth Management, We are going to have to leave

it there. Thank you so much for joining us on a Bloomberg Business Week Radio Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg Global News