Weekend-July 10, 2021

inflation to Capitol Hill. And we've got a batch of CEOs, Tim, the CEOs of raytheon Carnival and aerial investments all on tap. Plus the billionaire space Race reaches new heights literally, Virgin Galactic founder Richard at Branson makes a successful test flight, and Jeff Bezos, well he's up next. Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport talks all about these so called space

barons and the burgeoning market for space tourism. You're gonna be on the ground watching Jeff Bass go up into air Tuesday, nine am. That's when it's planned for. You know, these are rockets, though, so there could be delays wind that sort of thing. All right, fingers crossed, it all works out for everyone, including you. We're also going to take a close look at the business of betting on e s g A b InBev on the heels of signing a record ten point one billion dollar sustainability linked

revolving credit facility. We're gonna hear from the company's CFO and chief sustainability officer. And the Republican Party remains fracture months after the impeachment of former President Donald Trump. Why a rising star in the GOP may pay a steep price for his vote to oust the commander in chief. It was one of our most read stories this week. All of that to come. We begin with this week's cover story in the magazine, which also happened to be

a Bloomberg Big Take. This week, it's about the future for the drug company that's become a household name during the pandemic. We're talking about Maderna and what is moderna second act. Bob land Grath, healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News, also Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber. They joined us to talk all about the rise of the newest player

in big pharma. Actually, remember that exact conversation with Bob about a year and a half ago, and and he was like, so there's this company called Maderna that has this technology. It's going to be really interesting to see if it works. So here we are, Um and Bob, let's just bring you in. You know, like the what we set out here to do was to say, look like Maderna has been one of the big heroes of the pandemic, and if you can solve COVID nineteen, what

else do they have? And what else does what else is mRNA capable of? So what are they working on? Ethcacy has definitely done to demonstrated very powerfully for vaccines and so now they're working on a whole host of other vaccines. There's like about fifty or more viruses discovered the last forty years, only tiny handful of vaccines. You know. Maderna thinks the technology, which is kind of modular and fast moving, can be you know, make vaccines to a

lot of them. They're working on a food Vacciney're working on several of the respiratories viruses. They ultimately want to combine it to one kind of super booster that you might get like once a year and that deal with the whole host of like you know, fall winter type respiratory viruses. They're working on long term little kind of HIV and even starting to think some early trials in cancer vaccines, which has been a long promising but very

difficult area. But we've got a hundred billion questions for you about that. I mean, this company hit a hundred billion dollar market cap. The expectations on it are incredibly high in terms of what Maderna can do. Can this messenger rn a technology science really translate to a lot of different vaccines ultimately or do we still not quite know. Well, we're going to have to wait and see. There's something

only testing a lot of things. You know. One of the things we talked about the story is though they're certainly pursuing booster shots, we may need him at least a third booster shot at some point. It's you know, not at all clear how big. You know, the market for COVID nineteen is going to be sort of in a long term, so there is going to be pressure for them to come up with other things and new things and not be dependent on you know, an endless

market for COVID nineteen boosters. And the other thing going on is that now everyone else knows, every other drug company the world knows it's this. This technology can really work, you know, at least in the infectius vaccinary. And they're all pursuing an all kind of all trying to come up with, like, you know, new or better versions of m RNA. So you spent some time at one of the production facilities for Moderna outside of Boston. It's a

former Polaroid factory. What is the competitive advantage that the company has now that every other biotech company knows that m RNA has been so successful, at least when it comes to coronavirus. But the basic competitive advantage they have is they've done it. They've done a success and the only other companies that's achieved that level of success is obviously fiser BioNTech. But not every m r and A vaccine has worked as well. There's a third one that

has tried, cure vact. Its trials came out a few weeks ago and it was only four eight percent effective. You can't just put it in our m RNA vaccine and have it automatically work. You've got to make the right choices and then it can work, you know, do a powerful menia spot. They are one of the two companies with real experience that doing this in a large scale now. And you know their production that you know, they haven't match Fiser, which has just been listening incredible,

you know, vaccine producing Juggernauts. They haven't matched Fiser BioNTech, but and they haven't had big problems that kind of more or less made their numbers, which is impressive for a company that hadn't really made until last Yearly they had a plant off a small plant, but it was basically kind of like a pilot plant. Never made a hundred thousand doses of anything in a year, and now they're talking about as a billion doses, so that quite

a scale. You've followed obviously, you know that little story in staid at the beginning where we sat next to each other in that conference from all those months ago, and you were like, so Maderna in person, that was it was in the before times, just just before everything changed. I'm curious because you've written about maderna weekend week out over the past year, and then you got to do a story like this and speak to the CEO and everything else. I'm wondering what did you learn while you

were working on this story, how they did this? And you know, it's still a very small company relatives of what they've done. They like they were up to dred people nowaday. You know, they were like eight hundred of the Star last year, so they get all this relatively small number of people, which is, you know, it's impressive. They were able to to make this many doses, you know, with a few contractors and all this istant government funding, and that was significant. But until last year, until the

pandemic came along, it was a startup company. There was a well funded startup, but you know, most of its about most of its parts were early trials. It wasn't planning to get anything on the market, you know, even if things went well for a few years. So it was like, you know, rather, you know, impressive scale and

they certainly have big ambitions. That was Bloomberg News healthcare reporter Bob langrath in the editor of Bloomberg Business Week, Joe Webber on our Moderna cover story the company's vaccine Carol. It's proven among the most effective so far in preventing COVID and is now working on its next m R and a breakthrough. Cann't pull it off. I don't know. Lots of expectations and hope certainly from the company, but time will tell. Still ahead, three chief executives from three

different sectors. We're talking aerospace and defense with Raytheon's Greg Hayes. We're setting sale with Arnold Donald of Carnival, who just is getting ships back out to sea from US ports and coming up next market recovery and potentially a looming correction and the risk reward of wider market access with John Rodgers, the co CEO of Real Investments. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg

Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinnoby from Bloomberg Radio, the next guest is well known to our audience and definitely the investment world. He's also on the board of Nike, McDonald's and The New York Times. He's also a powerful voice when it comes to racism and inequalities. Tim, we're talking about John Rogers, the chairman, co CEO and chief investment officer of our Real Investments.

He spoke with Carrol and New York Deputy Bureau Chief Shartilla Brandtley about the benefits of business diversity, also his unique assessment of current market conditions. Check it out. I'm optimistic in this recovery is going to surprise people by strong it is. Now. Again, the downside is the recovery is so strong that it's going to force interest rates higher and inflation higher. So we have to be careful about companies that are gonna be susceptible to higher rates.

But when you mentioned real estate real estate services companies, we like j l L, we like cbr E. We think those companies are gonna benefit from all the transactions as people restructure their real estate going forward. So things that are going to benefit from transition to a new economy, higher inflationary economy, those are the kind of small and midsized companies they were looking at and working onto the arial.

Even as we see the return to office efforts not be as I guess accelerated as maybe some CEOs would like to see at this time. You know, it has been a sluggish here, at least here in America. But as we've done our worldwide checks, it's been remarkable how many of the European countries and Asian countries. You know, people have been eager to get the back to work,

and people are filling up their office spaces. Here in America, maybe we'll go to three and four day weeks in the beginning and people will be slow to totally come back to normal. But I think you know, Americans were missing, our colleagues, were missing our friends. Business owners know that you need people in the office to be able to interact and inspire each other, share ideas, express different opinions, and move your companies forward. So eventually, over time, I

think you can get back to more normality. Now, maybe people won't travel as much now that we've proven that we can do meetings by zoom, and so I would be a little cautious around some of the traditional hotels, traditional airlines. That people will still travel for entertainment and vacations, but I think there'll be a lot less business travel that is maybe permanent because of the extraordinary technology and things that we've gotten used to as a society. You

did mention spacts. We had that headline the SPAC merger with space for momentous threatened by an SEC fine, whether it's meme stocks. How do you, as someone who has been investing in the market for a long time. You know that we see increasingly disruption. You see traditional fintech, traditional technology companies and also traditional banking companies. Financial companies increasingly gobble up some of these fin techs or at least look at them much more closely. How will they

ultimately impact our universe or financially universe longer term? I think you will, you know, continue to see more and more mergers as time goes on. You know, one of our favorite stocks is Lazard, their traditional investment banker. They're really really good at putting deals together, and kN Jacobs,

their CEO, is terrific and the team's terrific. So I think you're going to continue to see m and A. I know right now there's this push that maybe people are fearful in certain industries of too much consolidation and too much scale. But I just think over time rationality will come back, because you know, in this new society, with all the things going on digitally, there's just so many ways for companies to compete with each other effectively.

And there are there are exceptions, of course, you know, the facebooks of the world and some of those giant companies that have become these huge unicorns. Well, maybe they need to be reined in on certain ways, but I think ultimately the vast majority of transactions will have to continue to occur because you need to have these need

to have scale to compete with the giants. It would be unfair if the smaller and mid sized companies can't have M and A and have to compete a smaller companies against these huge, huge, monolithic giant companies that are out there in today's economy. If I can follow meme stocks, I mean, how often does somebody come up to you or you're at a social gathering on the weekend and someone's like, all right, John, what do you make of these meme stocks? Well, you know it's interesting. Um, we

do get some of those calls. And you know the guy that's uh, you know, always brings my pizza from Geno's Pizza here in Chicago to my house. He's always asking about different stocks and what's happening with the meme stocks, and in particular, of course, everyone wants to talk about bitcoin and whether it's time to invest, and that they

did they miss it or not miss it. But and then again, that's always a sign when you just have sort of average Americans who are doing great work in their day jobs deciding they want to be stock pickers and follow trends at the peak. Again, it's always a sign that you're getting toward the top, you know. And and I think those are signs that we really are there. And as you know, Joe Kennedy always said when he realized that we were the great depression was coming, it

was time to get out of the market. In the twenties when the shoeshine boy was giving stock tips to him, uh, and he realized that was the time for him to move out of the markets. Well, let's talk about financial literacy and how that plays into alleviating your concerns. Well, you know, I think we need to continue to do more and more. We have just scratched the service when

it comes to financial literacy. During the Obama administration, I had the privilege to be able to be able to chair his Council and Financial Capability for Young Americans, and we talked to the President about how can we get more financial institutions to partner with urban public schools to teach kids about the market, give kids real dollars to invest in real stocks. Be role models for young people of color to get engaged in the financial services sectors

career choices. So I think we have a long way to go because this is so critically important. You know, African Americans get exposed to the markets at young ages. You know, we know the wealth gap in this country has gotten larger and larger. We've fallen further behind because of the historical discrimination that we faced in this country.

So the way to catch up is to get folks involved in the best parts of the economy where the wealth and jobs are being created today, and learning about the magic of compound interest and getting comfortable in equities because we all know when you get a job now you have to be your own money manager with your four own K plan. So financial literacy is more important in this country than ever, John, How do we get there?

The reason I ask is I actually came across a Federal Reserve paper that was done by our researcher about ten years ago. I think talking about the importance of financial literacy, I think about someone like you know, Wren Buffett, who talked about compound interests like knew it when he

was at a young age. We have been talking about the importance of financial literacy across society for a long time, and I wonder, how do we really move the needle on this, because I agree that this is something that unlocks kind of the financial is the key that kind of unlocks financial wealth for more Americans, and certainly for Black America in you know, I think one of the

things I talked about all the time. You know, my father bought stocks for me every birthday and every Christmas after I was twelve years old, and I got exposed to the markets at an early age and loved it. You know, there's a program in New York, New York City Rise that is doing that with young people, getting kids into five twenty nine programs that you know, right in kindergarten and on the way and at the Aerial

Community Academy that's now twenty five years old. We give kids real money to invest in real stocks and they get to see the money grow from kindergarten through eighth grade. And I think that's just so important. You've got to get exposure, you know, get your hands a little dirty with the markets, learning how to do the research, seeing the inevitable ups and downs, but seeing how markets steadily

climb even after you have some ups and downs. That was John Rogers, the chairman, co CEO and chief Investment Officer of Oriel Investments, and our thanks to Bloomberg Shartia Brantley as well. We talked about a lot of things, so if you want to hear the entire conversation, check it out on our podcast feed at Bloomberg dot com. Still ahead on Bloomberg Business Week, the aerospace and defense industry. It's of course an essential component a the US economy.

It's people who actually make stuff. Our next guest is right in the middle of the latest advances in everything from airliners to missiles, and it's Raytheon Technology CEO Greg Hayes in the latest installment of our business Week talk series.

This is Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the World, Bloomberg Eleve in Frio in New York, to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius XM Chado one nine team and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. The chairman and CEO of the second largest defense company

in the United States. He is Greg Hayes of Raytheon Technologies. He, by the way, became CEO following the completion of a merger involving Raytheon and United Technologies aerospace business. That was back in April of last year, when the pandemic really tightened its grips on the country. He talked about completing the d F the latest installment of our business Week

talk series. Timmy also talked about his companies recovering aerospace business, defense systems, and the impact of inflation on his entire operation. He had some interesting thoughts on that and some of the comments by FED chief J. Powell. Here's some of that conversation with Greg Hayes, CEO of Raytheon. You know, I asked that questions, you know several weeks ago when I first heard German Paul talk about the effect of

transitory price increases. And my concern there is what is really transitory, because if you start to see inflation in labor, that's not transitory because labor costs don't go down. They may go up more slowly. But what we're seeing right now is a lot of a lot of cost pressure at the very low end of the labor scale, and I don't think that goes away now. Will that translate into higher prices across all of the economic spectrum, I don't know. But we're also we're seeing inflation in commodities

in some of the raw materials as well. It's impacting what you guys are doing absolutely every day, and so I worry the transitory, especially with all of these deficits that we're talking to and the half trillion dollar deficits. We're pumping a lot of money into the economy. People are flush with cash and they're going to spend it. That's going to drive prices up. Are we going to get off of that drug soon? I don't think so.

Would you go as so far to say that FED policy is wrong based on what you're seeing in terms of economic growth and momentum from your clients and customers, Well, I don't know that. I would say German pol is necessarily wrong. I think we have to think about not

just FED policy monetary policy, but fiscal policy. That is, how much can we continue to borrow and burden the next generation and the generation after that with these huge deficits just to satisfy our desire to have faster growth today, is it better to have slower, steadier growth that is more sustainable And I think that's the that's the calculus we have to think about. There's it's not just monetary it's fiscal policy as well. I want to talk about

commercial aerospace. I'm just curious are your executives you and I were talking to how much you were able to work at home? Right, you weren't flying around on planes? Planes are important to you and what you do, Um, what do you anticipate for business travel? What are your guys doing in terms of business travel? So interestingly, you know what, we just really resumed business travel within the

last month or so. I've been out on the road, visiting factories, talking to folks on the on the front lines and the shops and in the in the engineering organizations around the company, and we're starting to see it pick up. But certainly business travel is forever changed. I would think because of Zoom, we don't go back to

pre pandemic level. Again, if you think about commercial air traffic, about seventy commercial air traffic is um for leisure that has come back, and it's come back faster, stronger than I think anybody would have said. Now you can just you know, talk to Gary Kelly at Southwest or Doug Park or American Thirty percent of business travel is the question. And what we think is like half of that of

the total is mandatory travel. That is, we've got to send our technicians out to visit our products, We've got to service our products. That's going to come back, and it will come back relatively quickly. You know. Will we still see big conventions in Las Vegas? Will we still see you get together for sales conventions? I think that will come back. But there's the other question. Will all of it come back? And how soon our own views who probably don't see a full recovery in business travel

until there's a lot of deals going on. You guys just finished a big deal combining assets and combining with United Technologies assets, and then you took over as the CEO of it all. Uh, And that was just as the pandemic was getting going. How tough was it to

get that deal done? You have to really step back and think, you t see, over the last couple of years, we had done a lot of M and A, but we really made a decision after we had purchased Rockwell Columns that we were going to split off into three businesses.

As we were in the middle of that those three spins, Tom Kennedy was the chairman and CEO of Atheon, called me and said we should do a deal, which I thought was absolutely insane at the time, but but hey, hey, here you are here, we are um And it turned out and again the more time and I talked about it, the more sense it made. But the last four weeks before the deal closed, and we closed on April third of last year, we were working from home and the

commercial airline industry was absolutely in the time. Did you have a moment we were like, oh my god, what what did we just do? Probably not because you thought it through and you're I think that, you know, there was there was a question because we had made some big commitments to share owners if we were to bring this company together. We said we're gonna return eighteen to twenty billion dollars of cash to share owners in the

first three years after the merger. And it became very apparent that that was going to be tough to do, and so, you know, we quickly pivoted and said Okay, it's gonna take us four years, but we had faith that the commercial aerospace business was going to come back. We continue to pay a very good dividend. We continued to drive cash, and we took a lot of costs out of the business. And it was interesting. I always tell people, you know, let's not waste a good crisis.

That was Greg Hayes, chairman and CEO of Raytheon Technologies. More of that conversation to be featured in our upcoming shows and also in the magazine you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up next. Carnival Cruises just recently restarted cruising out of the US, even as the COVID delta variant causes global cases to rise. We've got a progress report and the company's push to return to normalcy. Yes, we've got quotations around that with CEO Arnold Donald. This

is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. Carnival recently launched a few ships in the US, including one this past week, but despite the sailing restarts in the U s ports its course is still full of pandemic related unknowns. To Tim, it drained two point two billion dollars in cash during the second quarter, and it's combined losses stemming from the coronavirus crisis Carol it now

exceeds nine billion dollars. Still, the company remains hopeful of a swift for turn to profits if the world remains on course for a broader reopening. Right and it's Carnival in the entire cruise industry kind of facing the same situation. Carnival President CEO Arnold Donald joined us to talk about

the path forward for the world's biggest cruise line. It is a phenomenally exciting, fulfilling feeling, not just because we get to welcome guests back on board our ships, but also because there's so many people who are dependent on cruise for their livelihood. You know, port workers, uber drivers, taxi drivers, the destinations around the world all have so many people depending on the industry and people providing provisions

to the ships and servicing the ships. So it's a very exciting time to have guest operations once again out of the u S. How's it going so far with these ships that you have? And I know you've had ships going on over in Europe, so you know you you have some experience in how things go post pandemic. How about with the U S ship specifically, because I believe off the Galveston ship ssengers have already come off. How did it go with there any COVID cases, where

there any concerns? You know, it's gone exceedingly well. The ships in Europe, as you pointed out, for our Costa and Out brands, have been saving sailing under different protocols because largely there are people are on vaccinated, so physical distancing,

universal testing, additional medical screening, et cetera. So far here in the US, we've been sailing under the Conditional Sale Order issued by the Center for Disease Control, which focuses having most of the guests vaccinated and that allows for more open cruise, and they've gone very, very very well. We just got the net promoter scores back from the guests and it's the highest scores we've had and quite some time. Unlike a lot of the other folks sailing,

we had a lot of people on our ship. We had over twenty six guests on one ship over on another. We've already into our second week of cruising those ships with even more guests on board, and the experience has just been found tastic and it's it's a very rewarding feeling to finally be get back out s c UM, exceeding guest expectations and and just developing lifelong memories for people. Arnold, give us an idea about demand right now, because twenty

nineteen was a record year in terms of bookings. Where are you right now? Where we are right now is what we've told you back in June between quarters were publicly traded companies, so we can only say so much.

But at that time we indicated that our bookings second half of twenty two were well in excess of twenty nineteens, kind of record bookings the same point in time and right now, it's hard to talk a lot about occupancy and whatnot because of all the rules and regulations and restrictions and what have you, and some things we self impose on ourselves, for example in Europe, where we've absolutely reduced the number because of the additional protocols in place

for those vaccinated cruises. But to make a long story short, demand is robust. We have plenty of demand um we're bringing the ships just in um a few at a time. We have a weight eighty five shifts in total. Today's

sailing in the US, we've had three. We're about to launch uh News sailing as you mentioned a Breeze, which will be our fourth one, and then we'll have three ships in Seattle later this month, and then July one Mardi Gras Carnival uh so, our newer ship and just an unbelievably fatulous ship with the first roller coaster s c first roller coaster at sea. Can you give us an idea of pricing power that you have right now?

Considering demand is so strong and look this, I'm asking this question the context of the inflation data that we got earlier this week. People are getting back out there, companies are raising prices because demand is so high. What is your pricing power right now? Yeah, well, pricing is strong, there's no question about it. You know, there's far more demand then there are cabins available, especially here in the

US with the sail as we have. So pricing is strong and we expected to continue to be strong, not only because we're the best vacation experience there is, but we're the best vacation value there is even were strong

or pricing compared to equide on land base vacation. And so we're expecting a robust environment and demand, which the so robust environment for pricing, especially with the staggered introduction of ships coming back in, which is going to happen you know over time is destinations begin to open again. So you know what's interesting too is I have to wonder Arnold, you know, you came in after some crises

at the ship really righted the company. I do wonder how difficult though it is um to kind of assess your outlook for this industry, especially you know, we talk every day about the delta variant and the increases that we're seeing once again, right, and you have different rules and regulations. We've had a headline Canada to lift the ban on large cruise ships as of ANI member. First, how difficult is it to assess the outlook and get get ahold of the business, especially when once again we

have something like the delta variant. Well, I think so several comments. First, everyone should get vaccinated. Is the best way to protect themselves and those that they love. So everyone should try to get a vaccination and loss they have a medical reason are deep religious belief uh to not other than that they should get vaccinated. Heaven said that there will be other variants. There's a delta varian,

will be other variants. And what we have to do is learn as a society of all how to live with this virus and the various variants that can come. And the best way to do that is to take the advanced medical um knowledge that exists and take advantage of it. So vaccinations now later there's also advanced treatments if if someone does happen to contract of virus and having challenges with it and so and then the other

measures we need to take. If there's a variant that shows up which hasn't happened yet, uh, that is threatening to those who are vaccinated, Uh, then we'll have to return the protocols of mask wearing and physical distancing and things we've learned until the medicine catch us up, you know, with that particular variant. So keep in mind we've dealt with viruses for decades. Um. The cruise industrants had to deal with ebola and zekea and sars and mers and

and the world has had to uh. And now in the world is getting a grip on this particular virus and plot us to all the scientists and technologists and all the people, the first responders, everyone that has gotten us have gotten us to this point, which is a phenomenal thing. From something that we didn't even understand fifteen months ago, to multiple vaccines, advanced treatments, you know, known protocols to mitigate spread, and if we act responsibly, we

can manage this. We are talking with Arnold Donald, of course, the CEO of Carnival. Hey, Arnaldo, let me push a little bit on the delta variant. I mean, how does the delta variant at all impact your restart, especially here in the United States? As we said, Carnival Breeze going out UH shortly later this afternoon. Um, does it. Are you seeing any impact on bookings or any cancelations as a result of that? I know we have not. We

have not seen a major impact. Again, I think the scientists around the world are pretty much aligned around the fact that being vaccinated UH prevents two things. One is possibility of contracting a virus, but then if you do contract it, um probability that you have any serious effects from it. It also appears and there's a little more debate around this, but the scientists seemed to agree that

it also mitigates the spread of the virus. That if you have it, you have less of a viral load and so your propensity to transmit is a little bit less. So we have not seen a big impact from it. Obviously, it will impact access to destinations, you know, places where people aren't vaccinated yet are are just not enough of the population is so it can slow down progress that way, and then we're gonna pay close attention. But as we always do, will follow you know, the authorities around the world.

We have to be in compliance everywhere, and will follow the good council from the leading medical um UH scientists and and and personnel that we work with constantly. Hey, Arnold, you've seen a lot of economic cycles, and I think we're trying to assess in our conversations with everybody here at Bloomberg and on air uh, what is the economic outlook. You'll hear from one airline ceo says things are gangbusters,

things are going you know, really really strong. We hear from the FED chief, were here from FED members uh that you know, the FED chief reminding us once again that listen you know, it's gonna take time to get back to where we were pre pandemic, which is why he's still supportive of some of the measures that the FED has taken during the crisis. How do you see it, um, Is the economy going gangbusters getting closer? Is it going to be for a little bit and then calm down?

How would you describe it? You know, I'm not an economists pronounct cator extraordinaire or anything, but my experience right now is the economy is strong. That's kind of a president and CEO Arnold Donald. We've talked with him Tim several times throughout the pandemic. If you want to hear that full conversation, though, feel free to check out our podcast feed. And that wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.

I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jim Stanback. Coming up in our next hour, the billionaires are reaching for the stars. Richard Branson test flight into space, Well that one was a success. Jeff Bezos is up next, and Elon Musk, well he's not that far behind. We're going to talk space tourism with the author of space. Baron's Christian Davenport plus E s G is a key focus at A b in Bev, and the world's biggest beer maker is putting its money where its mouth is after a record

breaking sustainability link loan. We'll hear from the company's CFO and chief sustainability officer. And up next, a popular Republican congressman has made himself a mighty big enemy former President Donald Trump. He's going for a third term. His re election is going to be a big test for the Republican Party. Can you make it through the primary exactly?

That's the question. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week inside from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine plus global business, finance and tech news as it happened. Sloomberg Business Week with Carol

Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim st Plenny a head in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including the right for commercial control of the Cosmos between some of the world's richest men, and a B InBev's big money commitment to e s G plus the Quest for the Holy Grail in terms of closing

America's wealth gaps. We're going to explore that topic with Operation Hope founder and CEO John Hope Bryant Always Loft checking in with him first up this hour and this week's issue of the magazine. One of our most hit stories on the terminal this week, this one about the NFL player turn lawmaker that was a rising star in the Republican Party tim until he wasn't here to explain is Bloomberg Business Week national correspondent Josh Green and the

editor of the magazine, Joel Weber. I think what's really interesting about Josh's story is there were people pre January six who who really kind of looked like the future of the of the GOP right, and and Gonzalez was one of those. And now he finds himself in a very difficult role of being a kind of once future leader of GOP, potentially a rising star. But my by what has become from the Trump supporting GOP uh and and Josh's bring you in a little bit to to

talk about that. What what has been his his tactic to date, and and how does that put him um with his constituents? You know, I mean what's passing about Gonzalez is that he is every He embodied everything the Republican Party has wanted itself to be for the last twenty five years. Uh, he's young, he has the son of a Cuban immigrant, he was the first round draft pick of the Indianpolis called. He's got a business school degree. You know, serious young hip, all that kind of stuff.

Clearly marked as a rising star. And then Trump came along and and Gonzalez became one of the ten people who had voted who voted to impeach him, and practically overnight that sort of eclipsed everything else there is about Anthony Gonzalez and the reason I picked this race. As as somebody said earlier, he's not as prominent as Liz Cheney, who also voted doing peach Trump and has made that

the entire centerpiece of her political life. Uh. He's just a guy who who voted on his conscious voted in peace Trump, but is still a conservative congressman with what he thinks is a successful record. So what it sets up is this wonderful test case. It's almost like a laboratory experiment and whether a serious Republican conservative can get reelected after voting for Donald Trump. And and what what's so interesting about this is that it's not just Republicans.

The Democrats too are fascinated by this race because we think it's going to be a sort of a gauge about how strong Trump's influence continues to be. One of my consultants, i quote in peace, likened it to groundhog Day. That you know, if if if the Trump challenger to Gonzalez's wins, then we know it's gonna be another season

of Trump dominating Republican Party. But if Gonzalez manages to hold onto his seat, then maybe spring has arrived and we've begun to move beyond Donald Trump and who's he gonna be intershowed down with who's the lukie at their faces? So his main challenge has got named Max Miller, who is a former Trump aide um from the local area. Immediately one Trump's endorsement as soon as he jumped in

the race. Because Trump, as we all know, revels in punishing his enemies, especially Republicans, and has gone after Gonzalas with a vengeance. His first big rally Trump's post election at the end of June, he flew to Ohio, right outside gonzalez district, to trash him and tell Republicans to vote against him. So that's a bit of a millstone if you're a Republican congressman running for re election. But

that's what Gonzalez has to deal with. I love that you write in your story that he Gonzalez appears to have a healthy relationship with his own political mortality. So he understands. He's a football player. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes you're gonna play and be a star player, and sometimes you're gonna have another career after it tell

us a little bit about his his kind of approach. YEA, well, I mean, what's what's been so I think disconcerting to a lot of you know, Republicans and just just sort of Americans general. I think is is the the number of Republicans who have kind of truckles to Trump and gone along with, you know, whatever the conspiracy theory or

why is that that he's sort of pushing. One name that gets mentioned a lot as South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who who sort of reinvents himself according to whatever politics necessitates, and Gonzalez is adamant that he's not going to do that. Um. And I think the impeachment vote backs that up. But as he put it to me, I mean, he was a first round draft pick with a great NFL career going.

Uh he tore up his knee, that that career ended abruptly, but he was able to reinvent himself, went to business school, got elected as a congressman. So he doesn't fear his own political mortality and quite the way I think a lot of other UH politicians do. And that makes him interesting because he's willing to kind of speak the truth, stand up for what he believes in, and let the

chips fall where they may. You also make the point, Josh, that he's set out to do and he's actually getting done exactly what he set out to do, from infrastructure to to COVID relief to vaccines. And also he's had a pretty good couple of quarters of fundraising, so he's

been pretty successful thus far. Yeah. I mean the other fast thing think about this is like back in the times before Trump, Um, you know, congressman used to get measured from reelection on hey did you do what your campaigned and and said you had set out to do the two two big components of of Gonzalaz's last race, where he said, look, we want to produce vaccine and distribute to everybody who wants it. That's obviously happening now.

And I want to push for a big bipartisan infrastructure bill. Uh, you know, And and a couple of weeks ago, Biden came out and announced big bipartisan infrastructure agreement the Gonzalas had had a hand in negotiating. So, you know, by the old measure of whether or not you're you're an effective congressman, Gonzalas has a really good case to make,

and he is a believer. Not everybody is, but he is a believer that that will still count for something with the Republican voters when primary time comes next spring. That was Bloomberg Business Week National correspondent Josh Green, also our editor Joel Webber. Josh is also the author of Devil's Bargain, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the National Uprising. Just gonna say anything that Josh Wright gotta read it,

gotta read as must read. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, coming up part of my conversation with a b InBev CFO and its chief sustainability officer about the world's biggest beer maker leaning big time into E s G. You're listening to Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stenovik from Bloomberg Radio.

The world's biggest beer company has taken out the largest sustainability link loan in history, a b InBev signing at ten point one billion dollar revolving credit facility with an initial five year term that may be extended by an additional two The loan incentivizes improvement in four key performance areas. It's water efficiency, plastic recycling, renewable energy sourcing, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. They're all aimed at helping the

brewery achieve its sustainability goals. So with that in mind, this week, I caught up with A b in Bev Chief financial Officer Fernando Tannenbaum, a chief sustainability officer Esgy Barsonas from the Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit, both optimistic about business and their lofty E s G goals. It's been a very interesting period for us. Probably if you go back like March and April last year, it was a

period of a lot of uncertainty. But it's fair to say since made the business is being quite a strong, a lot of momentum, very good underlying demand, and the momentum has been kept throughout the second half of last year and and so far we continue to be excited about the prospects going forward. So it sounds like we were drinking a lot during the pandemic and we're continuing to do that post pandemic. Yes, beer continued to be quite strong, so so people people of Er and Pontinual

before and after the pandemic. Here here as Gate come on in on this because one of the things that we talked about a lot during the pandemic is sustainability and also um supply chains right the difficulties. How is it looking for you guys? Are you able to keep up with demand and get what you need? As Finanic said last year, we really focused on supporting frontline workers as well as our supply chain, our communities and customers and um you know, we provided over three million bottles

of hand scientizers, three million face shields. We helped build six health care facilities around the world from Brazil to Mexico, and um, you know, we were able to remotely support our farmers as well and really kept the buying centers open so that we can ensure that farmer cash flow and supply security. So, um, you know, we're gear for a fast recovery and we see that around the world. But in terms of your supply chain, what you need as get you get what you want, you're able to

access it and maybe at a higher cost maybe not. Yeah, absolutely, you know, for a global company, were really able to leverage our local networks around the world. So the teams on the ground are supplantine teams for cubment teams have been working nonstoff throughout the pandemic. And yes, this is about resilience for us and the business continuity as much as it is about our you know, community resilience as well. So definitely onto the fast recovery. All right, Well, it's

good to hear optimism. And I gotta tell you guys all caught our attention earlier this year when you did that record debt deal, a ten point one billion dollar debt facility. It was a sustainability linked loan UH the largest ever and it's in a year where we're seeing a lot more momentum on this front. The ethical debt market now worth over three trillion dollars. I'm going to

cut to the chase. Whose idea was it? How did this kind of come to be at a b in bed and Carol it was It was actually a natural process because Sustina beat it has been part of our company kind of forever. I remember when I joined the d I seventeen years ago. I was visiting the plants and I was talking to the plant manager and he was really excited. He was reducing what the asumption. And then I will talk to another people on the another person on the plant, and they were very excited. They

were out of our our ways. They were using like and I would come back year after year and these numbers were always improving. Then it became then ninety nine, and then we're talking nine nine point whatever. So it kind of it's part of our DNA. Even before the words sustained that did, it was out there and it was really important, so it was always always with us.

On the other hand, UH, after some years we start seeing more and more noise or more good noise on the on the financial markets about sustainability, but it was not very clear what it is or what it was and what it could qualify a sustainability or not. So, even though we were doing a lot of work internally, we're not necessarily comfortable to be behind some of these instruments before the market was matu enough. So at the beginning of this year, we felt the moment was right.

We felt that the moment was right for us to be behind this instrument. But having said that that it's too a lot to go. The market is touring, but that it's to a lot of progress is made, that it's to a lot of improvements. But we definitely feel that now we have momentum and now we felt that given our size and our scale, we need to be on the forefront of these initiatives. Well, it definitely pushes the needle. As you come on in on this conversation,

what were some of the conversations. I'm always curious about the back and forth between strategy type individual senior executives like yourself and the financial side of the house, which is increasingly involved in strategy. Yeah, it really happened very naturally, I would say, and I will even give the credit to Fernando's team because it was them that that approached us, that said, you know, you guys are doing a lot of great work. You know, we are looking into renewing

our revolving credit facility. How do we move forward and really understanding what this sustainable finance options are out there? Um, So it was really the natural evil for us. You know, I always like to say that sustainability is the ultimate design brief, right, so that's how we design our business. You know, these for us are really good operating practices just to create that resilience across our business. So it

was really an old brainer to think about. You know, here are the key days that we track and and and monitor over time, why not really reinforce that message internally and externally as well? And um, you know, continue to learn from the developments in the market. I really um am encouraged is a sustainability professional to see how um you know, the pandemic has accentuated the materiality of E S G. And I think this is just the beginning.

And you know, um, this really will allow the companies to put on a long term head and really think about resilience into the future. Tell me how it works though, and talk to me about accountability. We do so much reporting. I know you guys put out a sustainability report like so you guys have specific um metrics and pricing mechanism, right that incentivizes improvement in four areas and that tracks

with your overall sustainability goal is that you've set. So either one of you, I don't know, as you want to start, tell me about these goals. How did you decide? How do you keep track of it and tell the world here's what we're doing. Yeah, absolutely, So these goals, you know Ben asked them back in two thousand and eight. Team, there are two sustainability goals, um and you know, we really wanted to look at our entire value chain and and think about, you know, what are the touchpoints, where's

our risk, where does our impact really lie? And how do we build programs taking in an outward view approach and how we show up in the world right and and our role in society as well. So you know, when you think about water efficiency, or you think about recycled content and packaging, or you knowable electricity sourcing, these are really material to our business as we continue to to build a you know, a big business for the

next time of plus here. So, um, those were our sustainability goals that we were already on track to delivering the set of public commitments that you know what I think are the most ambitious set of public commitment that we really put out there. They allow us to remain competitive and deferentiated and ambitious in the market. And um, you know, we translated those into the metrics with the Treasury team. That's as g barsonas she officially takes over

as a b in Bed's Chief sustainability Officer. That happening on August one, along with Fernando Tannenbaum, chief financial officer at a by in Bed up next to Bloomberg business Week John Hopebryant, he's the founder chairman at the of the Atlanta based global nonprofit Operation Hope. We talked with

him about the push to close that wealthcame. This is Bloomberg broadcasting from the financial capital of the World, Bloomberg Eleve in Frio in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one O six one does San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to the country, Sirius XM Chado one nine team and around the globe, the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week, so everyone, let me read from an article by our

researcher at the US Federal Reserve. This was back in two thousand two. Financial literacy training as integral to many initiatives designed to increase the rate of saving among middle and lower income households. Tim, We've been talking about financial literacy for a long long time. Yeah, we really have.

Our next guest not only sees financial literacy as key to closing society's financial and wealth gaps, but also envisions in economic windfall as more underserved communities gained market access and knowledge. Great to have back with us on Bloomberg Business Week. John Hope Bryant. He's founder, chairman and CEO of a global nonprofit Operation Hope. We talked with him on why the concept of financial literacy is both essential

and misunderstood. Financial literacy has been viewed as a brochure or website or or you know, talking about you know, compatent interests. That's not what it is at all. Um. What we're saying is that this is my friend Doug Miller and the CEO of the number one fortune company in America, Walmart, give my coach here. We're seeing a very powerful signal that this is about business, this is

about the economy. You know, the comedy Los Swordian fifty billion dollars last year because of financial illiteracy, discrimination gainst blacks alone cost the economy cording the City group sixteen trellion dollars with the team and lost GDP yes in the last twenty years alone. And we just knocked it off right now. You pick up a trillion dollars a year in additional revenue just by uh letting blacks into the economy in a fully in robusts way, in a

hand up match another handout matter. And so we would believe the color is not black or white as any race, or rare or blue as in politics, but in green, the color of US currency and increasing GDP and it's fortune to the fortune lost at the bottom of this pyramid.

So me and the Doug Millan got a range of CEOs A bout Jack, the CEO of Disney Company, Brian when your hand CEO Bank of American Rosman Brower, CEO of Walgreens, Ed Bashon, CEO Delta Airlines, Roger Goodell and Adam Silver, Commissioner of the f and n b A South. It's kind of Academy Tony Rest for the billionaire on the Atlanta Hawks guy books together to talk about five

things leadership at the top, making a business issue. So embed this into your business plan, carel so it's not no longer just public affairs or community relations are nice team to do. This is like health wellness, what's ten years ago. It's like the health care system was twenty years ago. This is what the right to vote was in the nineteen sixties. It's essential to the function of the fundamental function and functioning of an economy and a democracy, and commit to it for a year. No go ahead.

I'm sorry, no, no, it's not prescriptive. I don't anybody to say what is it? It is is actually what it isn't not prescriptive. Where for some companies like Dealthy Airlines, is coaching operation hope coaching all eighty thousand employees and financial resiliency because they took out a billion dollars and four one K loans in loan um. It's it's helping Walmart employees. It's helping the employees of KK are owned

subsidiary companies in some k since its banks. We just had a new group of US Bank and Truant Bank and others. First Rison just joint Sevan Deer Bank, and they're looking at how do you get more customers from the bottom of the pyramid. Well, you gotta get a bank out of the no business, Carol and back into the f business. And we do that by raising credit scores fifty four points in six months, hundred and two and twenty four months. That just creates that's emerging market.

Like you're literally taking people, um, who we're struggling and you you're pushing it into the middle class by making them bankable. And so for every company it's different, but all the companies are finding you over the ways. Black Rock is focusing on their retirement community, which happens to be their primary business. Master Card will be dealing with the digital economy. Um, you know, Time magazine is involved, next Door is involved, the credit scoring company is involved.

This is the group reannounced two weeks ago. Well, and let me just ask you because when you said that City group, now are discrimination against black Blacks have cost six trillion dollars in gdpeak and after the last twenty years.

If anything gets people's attention, forgive me if it sounds cold and catalysts, but it's often where the money, like follow the money, and it's it's remarkable to me how long it's you know, taken for this to happen in this last minute, you know, why is it that again, it's taken these well like, well known companies to kind of jump on board, especially when you see the impact socially of course, but also financially. So companies in the

twenty century integrated the South. People don't know this. It wasn't government leaders, it was companies in the South because it was hurt American on the wallet because black had the same green as white. But we're not coming in their businesses anymore. Likewise, I think today they're seeing that there's not enough to be five year old college educated white men to grow to the economy in the next fifty years. For the next thirty years, you need all

of us. And put another way, curl my witch, friend, beat my my, we're friends to be better, it's only to stay rich. We're all in this thing together. That's Operation Hope founder chairman and CEO John O'Brien on making free enterprise work for everyone. By the way, he also heads up the Promise Homes company that's one of the largest minority controlled owners of institutional quality, single family residential rental property. Right here in the US. You're listening to

Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up next, the world's richest stake their claim to the final frontier. Branson, Bezos and Musk are pouring billions into the resurrection of the American space program. We explore the world of the space barons and expansion of commercial travel into the Cosmos. Will do that with someone who's been following NASA and Space for a long time,

writer Christian Davenport. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. Last weekend, one giant step for space tourism as billionaire Richard Branson took a long away to time flight to space alongside five of his Virgin Galactic employees. Now, Branson's trip to space really bolstering the

company's plans to debut tourism trips next year. This coming week, it's another billionaire's turn, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos poised to make history Tuesday aboard what would be the world's first unpiloted suborbital flight with an all civilian crew. We'll cover it live on Bloomberg. You're gonna be on the ground. I'm going to be in the desert of West Texas watching this all play out right there, Carol, aren't you excited? I'm really excited. I can't wait. I'm like jumping up

and down. It's a front row seat. Can I carry you bagags? Can you can come? All right? Before we get there, we're going to hear from Christian Davenport. He's reporter at the Washington Post. He's covered nass on the space industry for a long time. He's also author of The Space Baron's Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos. He discussed the promising future of commercial space travel after offering a firsthand account of Richard

Branson's wild ride. Beautiful day in Spaceport America and the desert of New Mexico where they've built this gleaming facility, this million all our taxpayer funded facility, and you know, it was typical Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic with like, you know, a band and a celebratory party. Atmosphere is

really sort of almost like it was very festive. But at the same time, you're watching this and it's nerve wracking and it's tense because you know, there are human beings on board and anytime you're you know, shooting humans off into space, it's inherently risky. And so I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I was holding my breath. I think a lot of people were, um, you know, given the fact also the Virgin Galactic had a fatal accident in thankfully you know, uh it went it seemed like

it went perfectly well. And you know, it's interesting that you say that the party atmosphere. I'm a daughter of an engineer Bloomberg listeners know this involved in the early space race and we all got up early and it was nerve wracking because you know, my dad would say, you know, there's so many different systems coming from so many different contractors on these things, at least from the government's perspective, that so many things could put stentially go wrong.

Although they obviously were really careful to make sure the systems weren't and then they had backup systems. But it is interesting to see how it's become almost like watching a movie to some extent, A lot of people like to romanticize space flight, and there's a lot of hype and a lot of enthusiasm because you've got these billionaires with, you know, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, and it does sort of seem like the movies. But as you and your family know that this is it's

incredibly difficult, it's incredibly risky. A million things have to go right. This is a suborbital space trip. It's going just up to the edge of space and coming back down. You sound like Jeff Bezos for a moment, right, Right's Elon, because Elon, he's going to orbit, you know, so it's like that much. You know, he's going Mark twenty five and Richard's going Mark three. So it's still maybe not quite as dangerous, but still it's dangerous. So next up

is what Jeff Bezos? Right, Yeah, And on Tuesday the on July twenty at the anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, and he announced that you know, some time ago, and then you know, Richard kind of beat him to the punch.

He said he wasn't you know. Richard was going to go on a later flight for later the summer, early in the fall, and then all of a sudden moved up his flight, you know, which obviously it angered Jeff and the people of Blue Origin, who, as you were alluding to, sort of saying, well, they're not quite going up as high as we're going and are you know, windows are bigger, and it's on a rocket as opposed

to a space plane. But you know, it's just sort of extraordinary that you have Blue Origin, Jeff Company, which was founded in two thousand and Virgin Galactic, which was founded in two thousand four, So all these years ago, and then the founders go to space within you know, just a few days of each other. I mean, that's just wild. You know, these guys from the book you wrote,

uh and you've talked with them. You know, what is it that we need to understand about Richard Branson, Well, he wants to open up space to more and more people. I mean today there's something like five seventy people who have ever end to space, and he wants to open that up now, like you know, he's not opening it up for everyone just yet. It's still very expensive. We don't know how much tickets are going to costs when

they reopened. But before they suspended ticket sales the flying version Galactic, they were two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I think they'll come back on. You know, they've said it's going to be more expensive than that. Some analysts have estimated it could be as much as five hundred thousand dollars. So for like three or four minutes of weightlessness. I don't know that that's going to be in everyone's budget.

But if they're able to fly more frequently, and they're working on already sort of a next generation spacecraft in a fleet and that, then maybe they can bring that down and send more people. We've talked about Richard Branson, We've talked about Jeff Bezos. He is up next. So what's the significance, Christian? I mean, I grew up in

an environment where this was just so important. It was a it was a new world, you know, new space exploration, you know, going into the unknown and and finding out so much, and then it felt like it waned certainly here in the United States, and then now we're seeing the private sector really step up and push it. What's

the significance of all of this. Yeah, I mean that's a great question because I think a lot of people look at these space tourism flights and there's a lot of wealthy people and they're like, you know, we've got problems here on Earth. Why are we spending all this money on space? But I think it's significant for a few reasons. One in terms of exploration and expanding our knowledge and you know, being able to go out, you know,

deeper into space. If you start with space tourism, you know, Jeff Bezos and talks about you know, traditionally, I mean really before SpaceX came along, you know, you might have a rocket company or NASA, they might you know, launch twelve rockets a year, right, and that's just not very much.

But if these businesses coming in with being much more efficient, are launching you know, twelve times a month and you know many many times a year, they get better, they get faster, cost comes down, they make space travel just more accessible. I mean not just for space tourism, but being able to get to the Moon and maybe even get to Mars, and you know, as you mentioned, like we went to the moon and last time we were

there with nineteen seventy two and nobody's been back. And you know, I think NASA and the government has struggled. And you have one political you know, White White House comes in, they say we're going to the moon, and then another president comes into and now we've been to the moon, We're going to Mars. And then you know, then it's like we're back to the moon. They go nowhere, and now you've got these businessmen and they're just like, no, we gotta go, we gotta go now and trying to

create a business case for it. And there is taxpayer money that goes into it as well. Should the public sector? Should government still be involved in all of this? Yeah, I mean that's a great question. So there's taxpayer money and going into some of it, like space X for example, you know, they have contracts with NASA to fly cargo

and supplies to the International Space Station. They have a contract to fly NASA's astronauts to the International Space Station, and they've taken that money and yeah, I mean, they in turn have gone out and built the Falconine rocket and the Dragon spacecraft and they can use that for commercial purposes. If you have NASA, they say, that's great, that's what we wanted. We want to help build up

the industry. Up until now, Blue Origin has been funded, you know, largely by Jeff Bezos his own personal fortune. He's trying to change that by winning some of these contracts. In fact, he's competing right now for a contract to build a spacecraft that would land on the Moon that actually SpaceX one and Jeff Bezos company Blue Origin is

challenging that. But I think what you're seeing is, yes, you want these public private partnerships where NASA and the government is investing in them and getting something for it. You know, they're getting a service, whether it's you know, flying satellites to space or resupplying the space station or

flying astronauts there. And then those companies turn around and invest that money in their own companies for a commercial purpose, you know, which should in the long run bring down the cost of the government meant while increasing their you know, the private sector's capability, which really has grown tremendously like in the last decade or so. Well, And I do wonder what's kind of cool about the billionaires who are involved in this, whether it's Elon, whether it's Richard, whether

it's Jeff. I mean, these are individuals who definitely do it differently and think out of the box. If you think about the impact they have had on our world, and especially in terms of disrupting things, especially when I think about Ellen and even Jeff right, I mean, retail has been transformed, the class just you know, pick your thing,

and I do wonder if it's these things. Ultimately, all of this space exploration, right We've all heard the stories about tang and about vel grow, and you know, I think it was either even tempera pedic beds, right, Like all of this came out of NASA research and so

on and so forth. I mean, is there something above and beyond that if we all kind of just let our minds wander and open that the possibility by exploring space, you know what we might find that fits right in for like what Jeff talks about this and he says he wants to use space to open up sort of this new economic dynamism like we had with the advent

of the Internet. But with the Internet, like that infrastructure was in place so that you know, Mark Zuckerbert could found Facebook from his dorm room, and Jeff could start Amazon because the infrastructure was there, like the phone lines had laid down, the cable, and there was this device called the credit card, and Jeff could take people's money, and there was the post office that could deliver the books um and so you could start an internet company

from nothing. But you can't today really start a space company. The bar getting into access it's just too high. It's too difficult. The barriers to entry are too hard. And what they want to do is helped build that infrastructure so that some kid in his dorm room could start a space company. Our thanks to Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport for joining us and once again I will be on the ground in West Texas covering Blue Origins

flight with Jeff Bezos on board this Tuesday. It's a simulcast nine am Eastern Time, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio and quick take. I can't wait. I bet you can't wait. I can't wait. This is like the first time you've done something like this is the first time I've done something like this. I've never seen a rocket launch before. It's gonna be pretty cool and This is a rocket launch. This is a real rocket. This is not like what

happened with Virgin Galactic and Richard Branson. This is not what what what you know, Blue Origin would call a high altitude space plane. We're not billionaires battling, We're not, but these are there's some distinctions between the crafts. Alright, looking forward to that coverage. And that wraps up the weekend edition to Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stanovac. Could be sure to tune into our Bloomberg

Business Week daily show Monday through Friday. It starts at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. You can also watch our daily broadcast on YouTube just search Bloomberg Global News. Also check out our Bloomberg Business Week podcast. You can find that at Bloomberg dot com, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. Bloomberg Business Week is available on newsstands now, at Bloomberg dot com and on the Boomberg Terminal. You can also see me at Bloomberg quick Take.

It's available at Bloomberg dot com, slash qut and streaming platforms like Roku, Apple, TV, Samsung TV, and more have a great weekend. Stay safe everyone. Thanks for joining us. This is Bloomberg