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Good morning, It's finder the ninth of February in London. This is the Bloomberg DAYBAQ podcast, available every morning on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. I'm Caroline Hepki.
And I'm Stephen Carroll. Coming up today. Putin takes a hardline on Ukraine and his interview with the US right wing commentator Tucker Carlson.
Jeremy Hunt says that he's very attracted by the idea of a British ISA to boost the UK stock market.
And to hail Mary Pass. Why an NFL succession crisis is forcing teams to let private equity in.
Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country hasn't yet achieved its objectives in Ukraine. Putin made the comments in an interview with the right wing US commentator and former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson. It's the first time the Russian leader has given an interview to a Western media figure since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago. Here's what he said in the interview with the Tucker Carlson Network.
If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over within a few weeks. That's it, and then we can agree on some terms.
That's Latimir Putin, speaking via a translator. Tucker Carlson, who conducted the interview as a prominent Donald Trump supporter and has used his media platform to question US support for Ukraine and to defend the Kremlin. Meanwhile, Ukraine's ambassadors the United States has warned that her country's facing a critical shortage of military hardware, even as she expressed optimism that American lawmakers will overcome their deadlock and deliver aid to her country.
President Joe Biden says that there is nothing wrong with his memory. The president was reacting to a US Special Council report that described him as an elderly man with a poor memory and chronicled repeated occasions where he's struggle to recall basic facts in his life. In an impromptu White House news conference, Biden, who is eighty one, answered defiantly to questions about his capacity to continue serving as president.
My memory is My memory is fine.
My memory. Take a look at what I've done since the recompression.
None of us thought I could pass any of the things I got passed.
How'd that happen?
You know?
I guess I just forgot what was going on.
Piden's comments came after the report by a Justice Department Special Council found that the President knowingly stored and disclosed classified information kept in unsecured locations at his homes. However, investigators concluded the evidence does not establish mister Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says regulators are monitoring risks stemming from non bank mortgage lenders. Speaking to the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen caution that a failure of one of them is possible in the case of market strains.
Non bank mortgage companies lack access to the deposits which banks have. There is concern that in stressful market conditions, we could see the failure of one of these.
That's the US Treasury Secretary Channet Yellen. Non banks have become a major presence in the mortgage market, but rely on short term funding instruments to fund their operations and have seen rapid growth in recent years. They also aren't allowed to access the federal reserves emergency lending facility, not as the discount window.
Now.
New rules in the United States will force hedge funds to share more details about their investment strategies. Funds with net assets of at least five hundred million dollars will be subject to changes, including reporting separately on each component of a fund and revealing how they're investing in crypto. It's an expansion of the current quarterly filing system for big managers. Regulator to say it's a better way to keep tabs on risk in the financial system.
Here in the UK, the Chancellor is very attracted to the idea of the British iSER, form of tax free savings account as part of efforts to boost UK stocks. Bloombrooks twa Adebayo has the details.
Various investors and city grandees have called on Jeremy Hunt to encourage Brits to invest in their own stock market. According to the Chancellor, a British iSER might now be the answer. During a fireside chat with Bloomberg's Francine Laquire at an industry dinner, Hunt said the scheme could prove effective in ensuring UK companies received more of the country's capital. Just last year, an open letter published in the Timed newspaper, signed by key investors, pushed for the inclusion of a
British iSER in last year's Autumn statement. Despite his latest comments, Jeremy Hunt reiterated that the contents of his upcoming March budget haven't been decided in London. Tewa Adebayo Bloomberg.
Radio Conservative Party donor Nick Candy is backing a change of government to labor. The UK property tycoon told Bloomberg that it's probably time for a change in the country's leadership. He also had praise for the opposition leader Kirs Starmer.
Something I'm naturally a Tory. I voted for Tony Blair when he came into power. I think it's probably time for a change. I think all this is inviting in the Tories, and even now with the talks of Chemi badd and not replacing Rishi by mid May, British people should know what's going on and based on that, maybe it's time for some change. But we still don't know the labor policies. But do I think Kis Starmer is a decent man with good values and good modes one hundred percent.
Candy's comments come four years after he donated one hundred thousand pounds to the Conservatives during the Boris Johnson administration. Despite supporting a change in government, the entrepreneur expressed doubts over a potential labor wealth tax and proposed VAT on private school fees.
Labor I, meanwhile, as slash to Key pledge to spend twenty eight billion pounds a year on the Green Transition. Kiir Starmer confirmed a new annual spending target of four point seventy four billion on the party's so called Green Prosperity Plan. The opposition leader blamed government spending mistakes for the cuts.
We won't reach the twenty eight billion pounds in visage that figure is effectively stood down. The reason for that is because since we announced the twenty eight billion, the tours have done terrible damage to our economy, not just the Liz Trust's budget, but also now the government briefing that it's going to max out on the government credit card reckless. But I have to anticipate the circumstances as they are now, not as I'd wish them to be.
That's the Labor leader Kiers Starmer and irresponding to the news, Prime Minister Ishisinak said the uncertainty surrounding Labour's plan poses a real risk to the country's future. In a moment, we'll bring you more in Vladimir Putin's interview and why private equity is moving into American football. But first we're discussing recently on the program this phenomenon of doom spending.
Younger people in particular are choosing to spend their savings because they feel like big financial milestones like buying home or having children are just too impossible and they're too stress but the state of the world's Instead, they're buying themselves nice things. So Sarah Sarah Green Carmak from Bloomberg
Opinion has been writing about this with a warning. Don't do it, essentially is her message, and now She particularly points to how more young women are doom spending than younger men and says they can't afford to because women, more than men, are more likely to say that debt has led them to delay major life milestones like marriage, home ownership, and children. Women are also more likely to
say their debts are unmanageable. Her advice is real self care is setting and sticking to a budget, and while you might not be able to achieve the ideal goals of how much you'd like to be saving. Whatever you can save in the short term is going to help in the long term. And whereas you can splurge, we all want to, but perhaps to scale back the scale of your splurging.
Yeah, literally, I guess this sounds very sensible. It's far two cents, and I totally agree with Sarah. I had not understood this idea of doom spending, but I would probably compare it to skiing, right, which is spending the kids inheritance. So that's kind of the flip actual skiing. No, no, not actual skiing, but you know the other which that was a thing for a while, wasn't it, the sort of I don't know, over fifties, over sixties doing that.
Now it's younger people. I mean, you get it when you look at house prices in the UK that that might be the case. But also, I mean Sarah's point to women in the UK, this generation, the changeover in terms of pensions, there's a real worry that there's going to be a very big, you know, pension deficit for people in the UK. So yeah, one can see why you should take the good advice.
Yeah, definitely worth a read. This morning, let's turn to bring you more on our top story now that now though, and that interview that Vladimir Pudin gave to the former Fox News was aanto at Tucker Carlson, our AMA and news director Razin Matheson is with us for more in studio RAS. Good morning. This is the first time the Russian president has spoken to a figure in the Western media since the twenty twenty two invasion of Ukraine. Tucker
Carlson is a Donald Trump supporter. He's questioned American support for Kiev. Why did Vladimir Putin choose to speak to him and why now?
Well, obviously it was interesting to see that it was Tucker Carlson who spoke too, because that allowed him to talk about history essentially for fifty minutes unfettered, before he
came into questioning as to why now. Of course, Vladimir Putin's coming up for re election fairly soon, and while that's not really in doubt, the Russian media has been a frequent player of Tucker Carlson's clips domestically because it does tend to paint Vladimir Putin in a favorable or question at least the US support for Ukraine and its war against Russia. So you can imagine that some of this could be for a domestic audience, using this to
burnish Vladimir Putin's credentials. He's standing on the international stage to the Russian voter, so that's possibly right now. Also, he seems to be feeling fairly upbeat, shall we say, I mean cast it back to two years ago, in the aftermath of his invasion of Ukraine.
It was going terribly.
I mean, they failed to take Kiev, they were pushed back very quickly. There were lots of big questions about this, how long his war could sustain. It's coming up to the third year. They haven't taken Kiev, but they've carved out a huge amount of territory really from Ukraine in the south and the east. We know that there are problems within the administration in Ukraine. Telinski, the president essentially had to fire his army chief yesterday. Perhaps he's seizing
the moment. He's also, you know, looking at fishes between Ukraine and Europe and Ukraine in the US over the supply of weapons. So perhaps there's a moment to talk about that.
Yeah, absolutely so yeah, but as you say, perhaps pointing to this use as in domestic propaganda. But Putin, when he was questioned what did he actually say about the war in Ukraine and the possibility of it.
Ending, well, he repeated what he's says quo from which is that his goals have not been achieved in Ukraine. That's a fairly standard line. But he did seem to try and stick a wedge, a further wedge between the US and Ukraine. Of course, we know that there are big debates in Congress about the supply of further military aid, particularly to Ukraine. Ukraine is warning they're running out of ammunition.
They need this stuff urgently. He was saying, essentially that if the US stops supplying weapons to Ukraine, he may think about negotiating or having talks and really putting the owners there on the US and Ukraine. Of course, there's no sign that Vladimir Putin is serious about intending to negotiate, and the US has been a staunch supporter overall of Ukraine. But it seems to be perhaps about trying to exploit some of those little fishes that we're seeing with Ukraine.
Is he really serious about negotiating probably not anytime soon.
And another story ris that we wanted to touch on with you as well, is in regards to the US election present Biden criticizing a justice to Bors which questioned his memory and his mental acuity. How serious an issue is this for the election campaign?
Well, this could arguably be one of the worst weeks yet for Joe Biden, and where months away from the election, he's had a repeated series of gas where he's mixed up former leaders of Germany, France, and now in the very press conference where he was defending his ability to be president and his mental capacity, he mixed up the leaders of Egypt and Mexico on his way out the door, which kind of overshadowed what was quite a forceful press
conference from him defending again his record his mental acuity. And so that's really just going to be red meat in a way for the Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, the likely candidate. Although Joe Biden and Donald Trump are not that different in age, it's just that, you know, being president and having these moments, it really just plays into that narrative where Donald Trump calls him sleepy Joe and questioning his ability.
Yeah, what else, Thank thank you, so much for being with us this morning. I AMA News director Roslyn matheson there with well all the details around Vladimir Putin's interview, and President Joe Biden.
Turned to talk about something that we don't often feature on this show, American football. Ahead of Sunday Superbil, Bloomberg's been looking at the changing ownership of NFL teams and how private equity could be about to enter the game. Bloomberg's Charlie Wells joins us with more details of today's Big Take report. Charlie, what's causing, first of all, what's been called a succession crisis in the National Football League.
Yeah, look, so I am not necessarily the most natural American football fan, but this is a really, really fascinating, fascinating development and what really is in American institution. And look, you know, football might not be everyone's game of tea, but this is the only sport in the United States that can bring together one hundred million viewers to watch, you know, a single event. And what's really fascinating is both age and appreciation are changing America's National Football League
and creating something of a crisis. So if you look at you know how much these football teams are worth They are worth billions. They have appreciated in value on average about sixty nine percent between just twenty twenty and twenty twenty three. The average team value is now about five billion dollars. But you've got to remember that the National Football League is very different from other sports leagues in that it is very much a family run sort of business. And the owners of a number of these
leagues is growing. So you know, the average age of the league's thirty two principal owners is seventy two, and seven of the principal owners are eighty or older. And then when you think about that, you've got the appreciation of these teams. You've also got the family ownership structure that means that as they age, they want to pass on these teams, but they're facing huge tax liabilities and that's creating this crisis.
Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I mean the merchandise in the tickets, it's it is a big money game. Why do you think private equity is so interested then in investing in football teams?
Yeah, it's really interesting. And so this kind of takes from the kind of standard private equity playbook. If you if you kind of think about it, right. They look at many times for these sort of mom and pop businesses that are kind of, you know, incredibly profitable, that generate lots of revenue, but that maybe have some leadership issues, but that maybe need some extra capital, And that seems
to be what's going on here, right. But what's you know, really striking is that this kind of level of family ownership, certain rules have prevented certain investors, including private equity, from coming on board, but that certainly could change, and it's really hard for a lot of these investors to look away from the profits here.
Right.
So the National Football League was responsible for ninety three of the one hundred most broadcast last year and run in about twenty billion dollars in revenue. So you've got kind of conflicting tensions there.
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