What Facebook and Twitter Did After Jan. 6, 2021

You can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio, or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg Global News. So, as we mentioned earlier one year ago, today the US capital is breached by supporters of Donald Trump, storming the capital, transforming the global conversation around democracy in America. Today, the US is more divided than ever and a factor in that division, Tim, I think it's safe to say the rise of social

media and the dominant players in that space. We're talking about Facebook and Twitter. Yeah, no question about that, Carol Naomi Nicks to social media reporter for Bloomberg new She joins us on the phone from our New York City bureau. Naomi um As we think back to what happened a year ago, and more to what happened in the wake of a year ago, and I'm talking about Facebook and Twitter,

uh kicking Trump off of its platforms. How should we think about the role that social media companies have taken since then, Like, is it changed at all when it comes to trying to police their platforms? Well, I think in one significant way it has changed, right, and that is what you just mentioned, Um, that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube actually and others made moves to kick Trump off

their platforms. It was one of the most aggressive actions today on political leader and a government, um for violating their content rules. And you know that that is that is a notable because social media companies have traditionally shied away from trying to be the arbiters of truth. They like to have a hands off approach on political content.

Having said that, there are other ways in which um, you know these they're a lot of risks that are still remain So social media companies are still um spreading content that uh roads trust in the democratic process. There is still misinformation about what happened in some of these social media platforms, and they still sort of have these struggles to balance growing their social networks with taking a more proactive approach. I can some of this contract, I

have to say, Naomi, a line in your story. Um. A year later, social media companies still don't appear to have figured out how to put out these kinds of fire. So it says to me, the role of social media in igniting another round of fires, political or other, it could still happen. It could right So right now we have, particularly on the right, a continued drumbeat about, um, you know, whether they're the elect the electoral process is fair, whether

there's widespread fraud. We still have misinformation spreading about that. So that's going to be a challenge for social media companies. And we're heading into mid term elections in which companies are going to have to be policing that kind of misinformation in small, hyperlocal races across the country, and that's going to be a challenge. What is hold for the former president and getting back on these platforms. Is he going to be able to get back onto Facebook, on Twitter,

and on YouTube? So he's banned for two years on Facebook, he's permanently banned from Twitter, and so, um, you know that that's gonna be difficult for the mid terms. Um, but you know, we'll see what holds and whether he'll whether he runs again, and whether he'll be able to get some of his social media access back. But I think it's important to know that there are other political years following in his footsteps paddling this information about the election.

And also, um, you know COVID nineteen. We saw Facebook and Twitter make moves early year this month to suspend Marjorie Green overspreading COVID miss info and so, uh, Trump might not be up for debate on these platforms, but there are other public segures who are right. And what's interesting my husband shared with my daughter and I um a political story today and the headline on is that

they stormed the capital. Now they're running for office, and it talked about at least fifty seven individuals who played a role in the day's events, including someone who are arrested on charges related to the capital attack. Now we're running for office in two so politically will continue to feel their impact. When it comes to social media though, and Donald Trump specifically, he's developing his own media platforms.

How do you think about that and how do you think that might factor in and how they might police maybe what they see is more liberal views. Yeah. Look, so there's definitely alternative social media platforms that Trump and other other folks who um feel they're being treated on fairly. Uh, the mainstream outlet's can falct to. You know, we saw that with Parwer and gab Um. I don't I think though, it's it's very much true that the mainstream players Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, um.

You know, they have the dominant platform and these smaller these smaller platforms aren't going to be able to give people like Trump, uh the megaphone that they once had. Um. And we saw, you know, we saw some results. There was actually a study that the Washington Post covered from Signal Labs, you know, that show documented how some of the misinformation around the election declined in the wake of

Trump's de platform ng um. And so I think it's, um, it'll be difficult for for Trump to be able to match uh, that kind of reach with his own platform. He Now mean, before we let you go, and just in the last thirty seconds that we have with you, talk a little bit about what was happening at Facebook on January six. Yeah, I mean, look, Facebook took down one of the stop the steel groups. But what would happen is it was kind of a game of whack

a mole. Another group would pop up and it would grow really, really rapidly, and the company struggled to address those ballooning pages and group who were spreading misinformation about the election. Interesting, uh, and social media, you know, continue to get caught in the cross you know, hairs of all of this. But I think about Tim, how much how many people get their news from there, and so you have to think about what's the responsibility of them

in terms of the platforms? Are they platforms? Are the media companies? And also you know Twitter's new CEO, what role does is he play in managing that type of stuff on the platform? I think that still remains to be seen since he's been there well in the CEO position for such a short time. And traditional media is increasingly becoming social media as well, and yet there's a

responsibility about what goes on those platforms. All right, you're listening to Bloomberg business Speak or thanks to naomenic social media reporter a Bloomberg News this is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol mass Sure and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So billionaire in Virgin group founder Richard Branson and his wife among the latest report getting COVID. Branson have said to have a mild case. We are seeing uh shortage of at home tests and trying to

deal with that as well. No joke. I do feel like I have more friends right now with COVID who are in isolation than those who aren't. Yeah, every time I get on the but we see it playing out in the data to all over the place. Hey, let's get to our daily round up when it comes to the pandemic and COVID headlines. Dr in LUs Better back with us, clinical professor of Medicine at n y U Land going on the phone in New York City, and we know that you are under the weather as well,

so we wish you well. How are you doing? But you you don't have COVID corrector at least you haven't tested positive. Is that right right? No, no positive tests yet. I've had you energens negatives and a nasal swab negative for flu um my bed is. When I test later today, I would not be shocked if it's positive, basically exposed as we all are too. Men patients who are asymptomatic who have COVID, and that's really part of the reason it's spreading so much is because people can spread it

before they have any symptoms. What are the symptoms that you have right now really primarily a laryngitis and classic upper respiratory symptoms nasal congestions, sore throat, mild cloth that's really the classic omicron symptoms UM as opposed to the original alpha variant, which was much more deadly, much more lethal, with really lower respiratory symptoms. So we're seeing this huge

spike in cases. Slight increase in hospitalization is not dramatic yet the death rate fairly flat, so we see that this is very contagious kind of mild to moderate symptoms UM with no significant increase in deaths at this point. Hey, Dr les Mater, I just want to make sure I get this right. The two antigen tests that you took, those are also known as rapid tests, right, those tests correct, Those showed that you do not have COVID. And then

the nasal SWABI took us for the flu. You've tested negative for the flu, but you haven't yet taken a PCR test for COVID no. The nasal swab was a PCR test and that was for UH. It's a double it's called the LEAT. It's a rapid test which we have available in some centers and the turnaround is amazing. It's like thirty minutes or less. And that tests for FLU and PCR for COVID nineteen and that didn't You said he didn't have it though, that's right, But all

of these tests are not perfect. We see longlines. People are getting tested for no symptoms or mild exposure. So really there's UH. I don't want to say we're running out of tests, but there's a very big demand, and really we're not changing the way we treat people at this point. A very select group get monoclonal antibodies. The prior monoclonal antibodies UM have been shown not to be that effective, so we do have for elderly people or

people with underlying significant disease COPD, etcetera. There is some monoclonal antibodies and of course PAxx lavit from fisser UH, the oral medications UM, but really a lot of this is just symptomatic stay home rest, fluid hydration UH and it seems to resolve within you know, six to ten days, and you are triple vaccinated. Correct, yes, triple vaccinated. But I know patients who have had COVID three vaccines that

have still gotten O macron. So you know, we know there are thirty two mutations, uh, thirty plus in the spike protein. So really this is able to evade UM a lot of the prior vaccines, which are still alpha vaccines, right, So it's um been a number of variants, and you know this may become endemic. You know, there may be sort of a yearly seasonal COVID. We've talked about that, but we won't need to come up eventually with a more specific both treatment and probably prevention uh in order

to prevent us from becoming more seasonal. But if this point, I think we're going to reach our peak in January. Probably by end of January, February will see cases drop, mainly because everyone will have been exposed and m will be some degree herd immunity at least for this round and for this variant. Tim and I were talking about that earlier. We keep overhearing from various individuals where we're

all going to get this. We're all going to get this, and we certainly have heard it from the likes of you and others in the medical community. At the same time, it's hard not to still in, you know, after two years and counting of doing everything and anything to avoid at the thought of Okay, in the end, we're all going to get it. Having said that, Dr LUs Bader, and you are so gracious to come on with us because we can hear it in your voice, and we hope you're gonna get a lot of rest after after

we finish our conversation. Is there still the possibility of another variant, and as you said, it's multiple mute mutations in an omicron. Should we anticipate that there will be another variant possibly after this that could be even more probably matic? Personally, I don't think so. I think this widespread herd immunity, at least in the US will keep most everyone safe. You know, the O macron did develop uh in South Africa, so it's a big world. There

are eight billion people. You know, it's hard to say for sure there won't be a son of omecron, which is possible. This coast seems to be very you know, displacing the alpha and Delta's it's highly contagious, very efficient. Personally, I think O Macron will be kind of the end of the global pandemic. I think everyone will get it. Most people will do fine, will get answer bodies. I don't think there's gonna be another variant, but it's certainly possible.

Uh and hopefully it will be um much milder, but we don't know for sure. Well, we're certainly sending you our best wishes. Dr LUs Bader. Really appreciate you taking the time on a day when we know you're under the weather to share with us not only your experience but your outlook for the next few months. Yeah, take care, get better soon, and definitely go rest and and our

thoughts are with you. Dr Ian last bad Or, Clinical professor of Medicine at n hy U Land Going Medical Center on the phone in New York City, as he said, he's so far he hasn't tested positive for it. But you know this is the tricky part of testing. You and I talked about this. I want to send him some soup. I want to send him some sus sounds like heat, some soup. Yeah, I hope he takes some

rest and just really takes care of himself. You know he is vaccinated, and from what we hear from a lot of folks that when you are that certainly can put you at a great advantage. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovich on Bloomberg Radio. The new issue of Bloomberg Business Week, by the way out on news stands. It's also online at business week dot com, excuse me, and also on

the Bloomberg terminal. Now, as we continue to battle the pandemic, we similarly similarly excuse me, I can't speak. I'm ready for Friday. We also continue to tally up the cost of it around the globe and Tim Bloomberg Business Week really gets into it this week about the progress when it comes to women, especially in those developed countries. Let's get into it with Jill Filipovic, freelance writer for Bloomberg Business Week. She joins us on the phone from Brooklyn jail.

For twenty five years, girls in developing countries have been on this remarkable trajectory of progress, but the pandemic is reversing that. What did what did you find at the girls Rescue House in Kenya. Yeah, thanks so much for having me on. So I reported this story UM from Kenya from various parts of the country, looking at how not just COVID the disease, but COVID related shutdowns have essentially reversed twenty five years of pretty steady progress for girls.

You know, what we've seen over the past quarter century is that girls were largely on an upward trajectory. They were staying in school longer, they were getting married and having babies later. They were living healthier and more prosperous lives.

And then when COVID hit, and when three and fifty million children around the world, um, you know, we're out of school, miss being their most consistent meal of the day, often stuck at home and abusive situation is Um, what we've seen is that a lot of that progress has been reversed. Even if schools are reopening, a lot of girls are not going back, some because their parents are unemployed and camp paid to school fees. Um. Some many

because they have gotten pregnant during the pandemic. UM. So it's it's a huge and slow moving disaster, and lots of public health experts and folks who work in the development space are essentially saying that now is the moment that we can act on this, and then if we don't put measures in place to reverse uh, these really disastrous effects for girls, we're going to see the ripple effects not just for this generation, but for generations to come. Well, and you get into Jill, this is a story we

talked about with Bloomberg Business. We get our Joel Webber for our Bloomberg Business Week weekend show, which airs on the weekend on Bloomberg Radio and it's also on and on our podcast feed. But what's interesting is that you know, the pandemic has been going on for a couple of years, and you point out in your story that there's some really significant numbers already showing what has happened according to

AID groups. You write, teen pregnancy rates and some Kenyan countries tripled in the first few months of the pandemic. Early numbers indicating the adolescent maternal deaths and still births

increased during that same period. You know, very easy for us in the developed world to to maybe not think so much about teenage pregnancy or potentially losing your life from a pregnancy, because we don't have the problems on the same scale that the developing world it has UH and and they really continue to have to deal with that, and it really can set women back in a big way, right. And I think one thing to keep in mind is that when we talk about investing in women and girls,

that's a really high yield investment. UM. We're not just investing in individuals. When you invest in a girl and a woman, you invested an entire community. We know that girls to delay marriage and delay child bearing go on to have healthier children. We know that educated women are more likely to raise children who are able to pursue education themselves. We know that women who have higher levels of education and can plan their families are less likely

to be stuck in abusive relationships. They're less likely to die in child of birth, and their children are less likely to die at young ages. And so you have all of these downstream ripple effects UH, and they can

be positive repo effects if we invest in girls. The problem with what we're seeing with COVID's impact on girls and the impact of COVID shutdowns UH is that many of these positive impacts have been walked back, and we're seeing girls start to have babies earlier, get married earlier undergoes things like female genital cutting UM, and that impacts obviously the opportunities for these girls right now, but also for their children, and for the entirety of their communities,

and frankly for the entire economy and well being of the world. Well, Jill, you know, Carol mentioned that we spoke about this in our recording for the Weekend show, And the point that I brought up is that we hear so much about daily data cases, worldwide hospitalizations, worldwide deaths worldwide. Those are the direct effects of COVID, but the the indirect effects of COVID. I'm wondering how you measure the indirect effects that you write about in your story.

What is the data? What are the data that we need to be paying attention to. Well, So part of the challenge is that because because of COVID itself, because it's a contagious respiratory illness, the gold standard for data gathering, which is essentially home visits, so going face to face with people UM has largely been suspended, and so a lot of data gathering organizations are relying on things like

phone interviews. Well, in many parts of the world, the most powerful person in the household who is usually the father is the person who has control of the phone, right, So you may not be reaching the most vulnerable members of that household. You probably aren't reaching adolescent girls. So there are huge gaps in the data. Um. The data

that we do have shows a pretty dire picture. UM. You know, I know you already mentioned this, but it shows an uptick uh in adolescent pregnancies, and adolescent pregnancy is the number one killer of girls in the developing world, of adolescent girls and the developing world. UM. So, so that's a pretty significant problem. Uh. We know that huge

numbers of young people have gone hungry. We know that we've seen increased reports of domestic violence, uh and not just partner violence, but no violence in the home parents of using children, for example. UM. And we know that many children have not returned to school after they've dropped out. UM. In Kenya, for example, once schools reopened, significantly larger proportions of boys than girls returned to the classroom. UM. So

a lot of these girls are just lost. Um. And still, because COVID is an ongoing crisis US, we don't fully know just how devastating the impacts are. You know reminder that we talked him and I talked about this a lot, Um Jill, this idea that this pandemic, you know, you really have to think about your community. Uh. It's not necessarily those who live next door to you, your neighborhood, or who you work with, but it's also your global community.

Right in terms of getting this under control. UM, just got about forty seconds left here. The responsibility of the developed world and helping out this is important. It's it's very important. So, I mean, one thing the developed world can do is as we're funding COVID recovery, to remember

that we are all deeply connected. The lesson we really should have learned during a global pandemic, UM, and so making sure that as we are doing a recovery, that it is looking beyond our borders, and that we're making sure that we invest uh in girls and women and the people that have really borne the largest front of this pandemic, not just physically but also economically and terms of development. All Right, we're gonna leave it on that note, UM, Jill,

thank you so much. Really an important read, uh and some great reporting. UM Jill Philippovich. She is a Bloomberg Business Week freelance writer. This story is in the new issue of Bloomberg Business Week magazine. You can get that on newsstand at Bloomberg business Week dot com and also of course on the Bloomberg Terminal and again catch it in our weekends. Yeah, it's a powerful story. It's a

heart wrenching story. Definitely encourage everyone to check it out again, available at Bloomberg dot com, on the Bloomberg Terminal, and on newstands. So like, we'll be measuring the impact of the pandemic for some time, right, I mean, look at just schools in the US. Exactly. All right, you're listening to Bloomberg Radio. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So Tim, if you're under forty, you've never seen a

hawk is fed? Okay? President company and included me right exactly, And this is what our macroman Cameron Cries writes about in this column today. This story, by the way, among our most read on the Bloomberg terminal. Everyon is macro strategist for Bloomberg News. He joins us on the phone

from Connecticut. You can follow him on Twitter. By the way at fifth Rule, Hey Cameron, I got a question for you, Um, when was the last time that the Federal Reserve exhibited a quote strong commitment to address elevated inflation pressures? The question? Right, I think you can you can pretty much argue it was. Um. You know, I like to think of tightening cycles in two broad categories. One is a central bank that's hiking because it quote unquote wants to I it wants to adjust the level

of rate. It's almost in a preemptive fashion. Um. And then there's the central bank tighten the titan because they have to, which is because inflation is becoming an issue. And I certainly think that if you look back to two thousand four, two thousand six cycle and then the most recent one from the end of through the end of UM, both of those were cycles in which the Fed hiked because as they wanted to. And characteristics of that sort of cycle is that they can guide exactly

what they're gonna do. They move very deliberately basis points to move. They're not trying to shock anybody. They don't want to upset the apple cart. Um. If you go back to cycle, they hugged very very aggressively with several moves of fifty basis points or more, and that sent shock waves through the bond market. Um even the cycles and ended with a fifty basis point hiked if you were forty Really, if you're forty five or below, you've never seen the FED hiked by more than basis points.

So you know, I was thinking about your column when you were thinking about how to address the FMC minutes yesterday, Cameron and the subsequent market reaction. Why did you write this particular column today. Well, I think it's a combination

of of of a few things. Um. One is that they deliberately there were there was a co hoard of the committee that deliberately, you know, said that they wanted to show the mortket is strong commitment to combating inflation, and that's something that hasn't been evident, I mean literally

in decades UM. And the second, I think is sort of the starting point that we're coming from, which is really yields or extraordinarily low whether you look at nominal treasury yields versus spot inflation, or if you look at tips yields, which are more beforeward looking UM measure of of real interest rates. There and you have a great can I just point out for it's obviously this is gonna play so well on radio, but you can go

to the Bloomberg terminal Blomber dot com. But you've a great chart in your story that gives us in perspective on yields, right, really yields where we are today versus where we are we're twenty years ago. Yeah, I mean we've moved up thirty five basis points over the last week or so in ten you're real yields, which is a pretty big move. We've gone from like minus one a leven to minus seventy seven. Um. That's a big move. But if you look at the chart, yeah, it doesn't

even touch the side. It's it's it's it's minuscule. Um. I think you can argue more, uh, which is more relevant to your average your average listenering, your average investor. Is that those extremely negative real real interest rates or sort of the foundation for what you might term excessive valuations, particularly in riskier areas of the market. You know, the speculative stocks that make no money, uh, crypto, the meme stocks, um,

what have you. And so I think the natural implication is if in as the FED does execute a legitimately hawkish policy cycle, and and in fairness, the jury remains

out on that will see how things evolved. But if that happens, we could see a very significant move higher in real indust rates, and those being the foundation of pricing across the risky asset spectrum, could really send I think a few shock waves, uh into some of these some of these asset and we're already seeing it, certainly in some of the more speculative areas of the market. So for example, that the NASDA can positive is it's you know, it's higher today, but just by one tenth

of one percent. Do you think that that message that was the message that that tech got yesterday, but it's somehow not getting it today. I mean, help make the connection beyond just a one day of volatility when it comes to those high flying tech names. Yeah, I mean I think absolutely that it's not just yesterday. I really this week. You know, you've seen tech underperformed small caps,

you've seen growth underperformed value. Those are sort of the classic um indications of sort of perceived policy tightening because uh, these extraordinarily expensive stocks tech generally um, you know them if you will the meme stocks, the innovation stocks, whatever you want to call them, a little more specifically, they're sort of their priced, uh, you know, kind of discounting earnings into the infinite future, you know, today, giving them

a very high value today. And obviously the higher than interest rates go, the more of a discount factor that you have to apply in the lower the current present value is of those earnings into the into the distant future. Yeah, exactly, just and certainly explained some of the pressure that we've seen, particularly on some of those higher valued companies. Hey, Cameron thinks so much. Karen christ macro strategist at Bloomberg News, joining us on the phone in Connecticut. Yeah, but you

let me drive. Oh no, no, no, no, this is not a toy. Please, I'll do the riding revels. I don't want to dry. It's good question that drives. This is the drive to the globe cimul thing. We'll drive up down on Bloomberg Radio. All Right, just about ten minutes left in today's trading session, and it's been an interesting week already here in still got another day to go. We've got that monthly jobs report. Let's get to it.

The Drive to the close alan Za from founding partner in co CEO at i Q Capital with us once you get on the phone from Foster City, California. First of all, Allen, happy New Year from Tim and me. How are you? Hey? I'm doing great, Carol, Happy New York to you, and I can tell you thankfully. The buildings isn't shaking like a last time. Oh yeah, that's yet that small earthquake last time you're on the phone with us. Although the markets are shaking. So that's what's

shaking right now. So doing great? Um? Actually a notice that sound terrible. Nice to see a little turbulence and weakness, which if you happen to have, you know, a constructive longer term view, this is the time to step in and increase or consider maintaining. It's not increasing your equity exposure, so you know, you get squeaked by this, but yeah, buying opportunity, this is this is the time. Though we're mean, we're only down, we're only down three on the NASDAC

year to day. Are you going to expect more buying opportunities in the coming weeks and coming months, You never know for sure, And of course in the stock pickers market as well, some of these stocks, particularly stocks that aren't earning anything anytime sooner or interest rate sense of work down far more than three UH. If I were a long term investor, I would be beginning to dollar cost average and being a buyer here. UM. If I held stock exposure already, I would not be in a panic.

I would be looking for eventually the way to increase my exposure, particularly to US equities and particularly to growth oriented UM US centric businesses, because once we get through the stimulus of the pandemic and our economic growth decelerates, we are going to get back to the world that looked like before two nineteen and twenty, which was a slow grinding economy, which was why these large cap tech companies that grew despite slow economic global growth still did

quite well. So that is selectively where you still want to be looking equities. It's interesting that you say that, Alan, because certainly it's a big part of the conversation has been with a trillion dollar tech route that we've seen in so many names here in this first week of the new year, and so names that have been driving, especially those big tech names you know who they are. This is an opportunity to maybe get in in at

a lower valuation. I think so again nibbling. Everyone's gonna say, oh, that's balance from Silicon Valley talk in his book. But no, that is well where have you added? Where where have you or where did you tell people to add? Let's say, in the last twenty four hours, people coming, We're saying, don't panic. Um right. We think this year US equities will once again do better than non US equities, both emerging market in international non US development markets because of

better growth, because of better growth. Yes, in fact, you're gonna give me to punch line a different way. We think Europe is going to be very weak economically, could even go into a recession, and China struggling to grow economically. That actually will be forces to keep long term interest rates down. I think this rise we're seeing in yields is to a degree a head fake. I'll be surprised if at the end of the year the ten years as high as it is today at one and three

quarters percent. Therefore, therefore, I am willing to buy large growth stocks now. I still would rather be in companies that really generate earnings. I hate to say this to many companies have recently gone public because they are far more sensitive to interest rates, and if that outlook is wrong, they will get hurt further. But you're safe play. Then you're not buying No, no, um no, that was not what I would recommend because you know, obviously the earnings aren't.

Trying to derive a valuation model when a company doesn't have things is incredibly complicated. And again, evaluation is based on a discounted cashlow model, and the higher the interest rate, the less the value of the dollars five, eight, ten years from now. Therefore, the company isn't worth as much in my model, and that's why I sell that stock.

If I'm buying the large capitality names, they're generating earnings that can figure out the multiple because I know we're going to have you back on uh later this year, several times before the end of the year. Give me that where you where you think that the yield on the ten year is going to be by the end of the year. I think it's gonna be aroubum one and a half percent of the Yeah. Look, there's two different things going on with interest rates. First of all,

we have all those long term secular things. We had slow growth, we had aging populations, in the developed countries, which is zero Japan and the US globalization, which is still around. We have tremendous technological progress pushing down prices. Those are the secular forces. On top of that, glowth is going to decelerate as we go through the year. And most importantly, there's a tremendous correlation between. It happens with the German bond market in the US bond market.

It's a global bond market. And when Japanese tenure bonds, you'll do nothing, and German bonds are yielding the negative, people roll into the U s Treasury market. So I am not fearful that we're in a wage spiral inflation that's going to decimate the bowl market. It's not over.

So there is no alternative basically to the US. Having said that, in your history of investing, have there been times where you have aggressively been overweight either your exposure to Asia or to Europe or is the US really always kind of a guiding light within your portfolio management? No, it's it's in the nineties. You come back a long way. It was the era of consumption, particularly in China, and it was emerging markets in the ninety nitre roaring um.

So there were times, but in the last decade, US pre eminence in equities is it's been very clear, and there's no evidence that that should change anytime soon, particularly because most countries have very significant problems with their balance sheets the governments at least, and the US is a more stabilized place of which to invest. So um emerging markets haven't yet stabilized to the point that putting tremendous

amounts of capital that makes a lot of them. Hey, Allen, we only have twenty seconds left with you, But um, when do you think we're going to get to that point what the world looked before? Like? When are we passed the omicron? When are when are we looking past the virus and just got about We're behind? We're pasted Amicron in three months or less, there may be another

variant coming. Masks are gonna be worn for the next two to three years, but god willing, Amicron is evidence that the variants are actually getting less virulent, and hopefully that mitigates further hospitalizations and deaths. So we will slowly evolved back to something like it looked, although masks will probably be worn for a few more years. All right well, still optimistic and still liking the United States and especially when it comes to those large US growth names. Hey Ellen,

Happy New Year. Nice to check in with you. Alan Zaffron, founding partner and co CEO at I e Q Capital on the phone from Foster City, California. Good to check in with them, and do stay safe. 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