Welcome to the Bloomberg Penel podcast. I'm Paul swing you along with my co host Lisa Brahma Waits. Each day we bring you the most noteworthy and useful interviews for you and your money, whether at the grocery store or the trading floor. Find a Bloomberg Penl podcast on Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as at Bloomberg dot com. We are broadcasting from the Commonal Financial Network Summit for Women Advisors here in Nashville, TENNESSEEE.
Last night, many people were watching the next ten presidential Democratic candidates debate each other in Florida. There was a very different tone in this debate. A lot of policies discussed. Take a listen to some snippets from the event. And we have got to pass a Medicare for all single play as system. We have to make sure we understand that the return dignity to the metal class. They have to have insurance that is covered and they can afford it.
Everybody who says Medicare for all, every person in politics who allows that phrase to escape their lips, has a responsibility to explain how you're actually supposed to get from here to there. Yes, they will pay more in taxes but less in healthcare for what they get. There was that question when the Republicans and Donald Trump passed a tax bill bit that benefits the top one just says and the biggest separation at the typing. Donald Trump has put us in a horrible situation. We do have enormous
income inequality. And the one thing I agree on is we can make massive cuts in the one point six trillion dollars in tax loopholes out there, and I would be going about eliminating Donald Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy. We've been listening to the voices of former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, among others, in that debate. Joining us now to unpack what we heard is Doug High, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director,
Doug So glad that you could join us. My main question is who are the Republicans. Who is Donald Trump most scared of? Uh? Coming out of these two nights of the Democratic candidate debates. Well, there there's a there's a discussion in the inside the Trump campaign of what
they fear the most. Is it somebody like a Joe Biden who has the experience and also can win some of these states that Trump flipped, like a Pennsylvania, Or is it a change agent, somebody who represents something completely different. I think last night we saw that Kamala Harris has the ability to stand to to toe with just about anybody. That should certainly send uh, some some worry into the Trump camp. But also one thing, I think while it was a big, big night for Kamala Harris, it was
a very good night for people that edge. One thing I did see that over last night and the night before is Democrats were almost arguing with each other over who could learn further to the left. Um, and that is a ground that Republicans want a campaign on. That is exactly the contrast with the Trump campaign would love to campaign on, regardless of through that nominee is. And that's something Democrats need to be careful of. So, Doug,
that's exactly where I wanted to go. You know, my question I guess is, you know, I think at these primary at these early debates, UM, you know, we'll probably see a lot of candidates try to, you know, kind of push to the left. But when push comes to show when we get to the general election, do you expect that Democrats to put up a centrist or maybe something a little bit more left of that. Well, I think at this point we defined centrists. This is true
to some extent with Republicans as well. We define centrists. Who sounds reasonable much less what the policies are. So Pete fort Edges, I would say his policies are uniformly in line with where Democrats are. But he doesn't talk like a typical politician. He sounds like somebody from Indiana. He sounds like somebody who's more of a centrist. That's
that's a great attribute to have. But the policies that every Democrat last night, basically all of them and the night before lined up on we're all almost exactly in accordance with each other. And what we see healthcare being one good example is Democrats, where it was a real asset to them in and the election, have moved very far from where they were on election dates in thousand eighteen, which wasn't that long ago. And if that continues, it
sets the Democrat up whomever that may be. Uh. For a contrast with the Trump campaign would love to have, you know, Doug, I'm actually surprised to hear you saying that this was a competition to just move the furthest to the left, because I actually was surprised that it
was not more that way. Uh. And I was surprised that a number of candidates, potential candidates came out and said, you know what, we don't think that a single payer healthcare system where you can't have your own insurance will work. And that's not what it's looked like u in places like Canada or in Europe, and you know, trying to make an argument for a more sustainable type of program. So what exactly are you pointing to? That was more left leaning than you thought and more of a consensus
throughout well on on healthcare. Uh. Certainly there was some talk of whether or not people would be able to keep their insurance plan. Obviously, if you like your and you can keep it with something Obama ran on and then couldn't deliver on, there was some dissension there, but they have moved further to the left. They're also immigration,
where every hand went up on decriminalizing the border. That is a fight that Donald Trump wants to have, regardless of what's going on at the border right now, And I would say, you know, as a Republican, it's a crisis, and it's terrible. The conditions that we're seeing for kids and what's happening with families is terrible. Politically, this is a fight that's a very comfortable one for Donald Trump
to have. When every Democrat raised their hand and said, we want to decriminalize crossing the border, that's the fight Donald Trump wont so, Doug, It's it's interesting. Do you expect coming out of this huge field of Democratic uh candidates? Uh, you know, a Bill Clinton type of candidate, a Barack Obama, you know, to come out of nowhere and really take the lead. Do you think there's possibility of that happening
this year? We have so many to choose from. Well, I think what we'll see is is a winnowing and the threshold for the next debate will be higher. So we're fortunately not going to see you know, a Mary Anne Williamson or and Andrew Yang in the next debate most likely. So we'll get more substance from Biden, from Warren, who had a good night two nights ago. Take the problem for Elizabeth Warren, where she was the first night, not the second night, and it's kind of been lost
in the conversation. Clearly, Kamala Harris is a star that shouldn't have surprised anyone, and she'll do well in further debate. And again I wouldn't forget Corey Booker and Pete Edge Edge who don't talk typically like politicians do. When when Pete talks like a midwesterner and a mayor somebody who does things or in this case, accepts responsibility for when he wasn't able to do something, which politicians really don't do very often, or when Corey but Booker talks about
living in a community of color. A lot of politicians don't know that world and certainly don't talk about it. That gives them an opportunity to communicate in a very different way. So, Doug, since you are Republican strategist and a former RNC communications director, I'm wondering whether there has been less or more support among Republicans recently for President Trump heading into this election cycle based on the tariffs and some of the trade talk, because tariffs have traditionally
been not in the playbook of Republican economics. Yeah, and I know from watching Bloomberg has a major part of the conversation. And I'm gonna be in Iowa in a few weeks and I can't wait to hear on the ground what the conversation on teriffs is when I'm in Iowa. Clearly it's it's having a negative impact. That is a very important state for Donald Trump. I don't think it will erode his base, but certainly those who maybe were Obama voters in Iowa in the past and then flipped
for Trump. That's a place where where you're going to look and see how are those voters looking at this now where they like the fact that Donald Trump is taking a fight um to China for instance, um where other presidents haven't. But the effect that those are having are are having real impacts on their day to day life. Being from North Carolina, I know I could have that same conversation about sweet potade is all day long. Dougu I thank you so much over being with us. We
really appreciate your insights. Doug High is a Republican strategist, former RNC communications director, a director, and sweet potato aficionado heading to Iowa to get the pulse on the ground. Talking about the Democratic debate. Joining us is Maria Considine King Maria as a senior vice president Practice Management at Commonwealth Financial Network. Maria, thank you so much for joining us. Just give us a sense of why this summit is
important for the women advisors a Commonwealth. Yeah. Absolutely, So, you know, this month is a momentous month for Commonwealth or celebrating our four youth anniversary. And ever since we've been founded, we have had this vision. Joe Ditch has has a vision that this is a place where everyone can thrive and that is what we have striven for
for all the all these years. And so in order to strive, people need to be able to have a community that is supportive of them, that allows them to sort of explore who they are, understand what is what is possible for them, and help them to move forward. And for women advisors are Commonwealth who are about of the field, it's been hard for them to just know
who their peer group is. When we go to our national conferences and other events, it's predominantly male, and so it's hard for them to just know who those people are. So events like this allow them to literally set eyes on one another and recognize you are my peer, you are my colleague, and so it takes it levels the
field right out of the gate um. And then it also provides them with an opportunity to find their own voice, to find their commonalities, to to share how they can help one another what has been successful for them, um, not only for the women who are here today, but also to establish a community and a dialogue that attracts women to come to our community in the future. UM. And it's not just about women really, right, this is
about diversity overall. So hopefully by providing a community and creating a community that lifts up women, and we are creating a community that lifts up everybody, um, and is an attractive place for people to be. You said about of the field, and the Commonwealth works with almost two thousand independent financial advisors. Why is only twenty percent of that total female. That's a great question. Uh. And it's it's a needle that hasn't moved a whole lot over
the years. Um. And I think there are a few reasons for that. I think, you know, younger women coming up, I don't think they sort of see this industry. I don't think it's very visible to them when they think about a career. In finance, they're often thinking about a career in investment banking or something on Wall Street that that conveys a lifestyle that might not be conducive to them having a family of their own, or life of
their own, or just whatever they want their life to be. UM. So I think that we're not visible as an industry. So I think it's important for the women advisors who are here today to start making themselves more visible and start getting out in their in their communities to to show them what is possible within the wealth advisory field. UM, and that it's a great field and it's a great career for for women to happen to explore. So I
think we've got a visibility issue UM, certainly. UM. And then I think on the independent side, I think young women sometimes aren't all that encouraged to take risks. And so if you're going to be an independent advisor, you're going to be an entrepreneur, you're going to be a
business owner. It's a lot of responsibility, it's a great commitment. UM. There's a lot of potential there, but I think some younger women may not feel fully supported and being able to take that step and take that leap um, so they may tend to take more employee advisor rules rather than be that forward facing business owner and entrepreneur. So we have a lot of work to do as as a as a community, and certainly as a field uh
to attract younger women into our industry. So when a woman comes to and wants to set up a practice, are there are there specific is this is some specific advice you give to a woman setting up a practice that maybe it's a little bit unique. I was intrigued to hear that question because I think, you know, business principles are business principles, and I think they're they're the same. Whether it's it's a man or a woman doesn't doesn't matter. What I think is different is the adoption and the
implementation rate between men and women. And this is entirely my perspective. So you might talk to a colleague who disagrees. But when I work with women advisors, they tend to implement. Like when we have a consulting engagement with them, we come up with their strategies and their tactics, they implement, they report back, and they're telling me where the successes
are and what their challenges are. With men, they may do that UM, but they may hold back a bit and may sort of vetted against a number of other ideas and look look for other information. And so there there seems to be a faster adoption rate among women for basic business principles and establishing their practice in an
effective way. So when it comes to the business opportunity for women, I've seen some statistics around the amount of wealth that women are actually accumulating and are in a position of power over money in a way that they really haven't been historically out of proportional basis, especially as they live longer. And so I'm trying to figure out whether women tend to work with female financial advisors more
often than men. In other words, is this a sort of uh, you know, select group that has a specific pitch right now at a time of growing financial prowess among women. I think they certainly do have that have that advantage to leverage UM and they certainly can and they and many of them are. I think that women who are new to wealth or have accumulated a lot of wealth, many of them talk of feeling more comfortable
talking with a woman about their financial circumstance. And part of that is sort of the history of of a bit of gender bias that has happened between advisors and clients, where advisors don't always recognize the woman as a decision maker and they tend to direct their information and questions
to the man in the relationship. And so I do think women advisors have UM a great advantage and being able to attract women advisors and women, excuse me, women clients of wealth UM and I believe and my impression is that that is happening with greater and greater frequency. Thank you so much for being with us and for having us here. Maria Considine King, Senior vice president Practice
Management at Commonwealth Financial Network. She is the one who organized this that Commonwealth Financial Networks UH summit for women advisors, first of its kind, and it is a really interesting area, this whole idea of how do you end up diversifying fields that historically have been dominated by one group. How do you do that? What are the barriers something? It's a complicated question that's facing the entire financial world right now,
financial services in general. It's been an issuing. Yes, the big question of the day, will Presidents jij And Ping of China and Donald Trump of the United States come to some sort of truce fire, at least at the G twenty meetings, after escalating rhetoric around imposing tariffs. Joining US now from Hong Kong, Steve Engle, TV correspondent for Bloomberg and in New York Macky international economics and policy correspondent for Bloomberg News. Thank you so much both of
you for being with us. Steve, I want to start with you. Can you just sort of paint a scene, give us a sense of the mood on the ground there at the G twenty meetings. Yeah, I am here in Osaka morning, uh, and we've been, you know, covering it for the last couple of days, and we've all been just kind of previewing this meeting between she Denting and Donald Tump that is going to happen, uh, scheduled for twelve hours from right now. So it's eleven thirty
at night here in Osaka. They're gonna plan to meet at eleven thirty in the morning. And again we got mixed signals from the President today. He said, on the one hand, is a good chance of doing something with China hunt trade tomorrow meeting Saturday at eleven thirty in the morning and they're working lunch. But on the other hand, he also said he hasn't promised to hold off on
new tariffs. So again there's so much speculation about whether a truce can be reached, like we got seven months ago and Buenos Aires where they had a ninety day truce and of course it all fell apart in May. But you know, he has a busy day tomorrow in between season thing or a sandwich over season thing is meetings with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, and then after season thing he has Turkish president or the one.
He's got a lot on his plate tomorrow. Michael McKee. Uh, clearly these international trade issues are having a significant impact, you know, over the last several months on the financial markets. What do you think the markets are an investors in general are expecting coming out of Osaka this weekend. They're expecting sort of Steven said Buenos Iris like situation where the two sides agree to continue talking at least get back to the bargaining table, kick the can down the road.
Some Donald Trump may say, we'll give you of ninety days or whatever before we impose tariffs. That would be the good enough scenario. The better scenario is some sort of agreement that they have moved closer. Nobody's expecting a full agreement out of this. The obviously terrible prospect is that they don't reach any kind of agreement to continue talking and the President comes out and says I'm going to impose tariffs. He can't do it yet. They're not ready,
they haven't finished the bureaucratic paperwork. But he could set a date sometime later in July to do that. So, Steve, we're all focused on j jumping and Donald Trump and their meeting, but other things are actually happening. G twenty means G twenty, not G two. And I'm wondering what we have seen in terms of other meetings between President Trump, for example, and Russian President Vladimir Putin or German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Yeah, that's right. I mean he didn't meet
with Vladimir Putin. Today was the first meeting since the Mulla report um and he was prompted by, you know, a few reporters questions as the two of them sat there before their bilateral um and and Trump asked Prutin directly after a reporter asked him, is Uh, he's going to ask him whether to stop meddling in the future election in and Donald Trump's turned to do Vladimir Putin said, don't meddle in the election. Please have wagged his finger
and said, don't meddle in the election. And it was more of a joking, in a lighthearted response to what is obviously a very serious issue in the United States. But apparently according to the White House, they also in their bilateral discussion, did talk about Iran, did talk about Syria, Venezuela and the Ukraine. Michael, you know, we're talking about tariffs here, and we've had a first round of tariffs.
Just give us a sense of you know, if we have the second round of tariffs here, how impactful could that be on the economy. It would be much worse for the economy than we have seen so far. We were just talking with Mary Daily, the president of the San Francisco Fed, yesterday, and she noted that the tariffs that have been imposed have had a modest impact on
growth and inflation. But if you start adding in all of the consumer goods, which is the parts the President has left out of the tariff so far on China, then you really start to affect consumer spending because of people may want to hold off, especially if they think that this will be settled. Why by an expensive good today if you think the price will go down tomorrow.
And we're at the end of a long expansion and people have bought a lot of stuff, so they may say, I can wait on that new iPad rather than pay a tenor premium on it, and that would not be good for the economy. We've already seen business spending stop now the consumer has threatened exactly, So I will certainly keep an eye on this over the weekend. Bloomberg's Mike mckeat International Economics and Policy correspondent and Steve Angel TV corresponded for Bloomberg in Osaka at the G twenty. Well,
we are in Nashville, Tennessee today. We are broadcasting a life from the Commonwealth Financial Network Summit for Women Advisors. Being in Nashville, guess what's an hour and a half away Lynchburg, Tennessee, the home of the Jack Daniel Distillery. So of course we felt like we had to get somebody on to talk to us about Jack Daniels and what's going on in the business. Of course, we got our good friend Chris Fletcher, Assistant Master distiller of the
Jack Daniel Distillery based in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Chris, thanks so much for joining us. I wonder if you could just tell us about how the market is for bourbon, for the whiskey's that Jack Daniels famous for. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Really excited to speak with you. Um, and it's a great time to be making whiskey in the United States. We're enjoying a whiskey boom um and I think it's um. Probably whiskey in the US is as hot right now as it's been at least since
probably post prohibition time. So thank you so much for being with us. Chris. I I do have to say that are are fantastic producer on the technical front. Give me a look and told me that I broke his heart because I referred to it as bourbon. What is Tennessee whiskey versus bourbon. Well, don't don't feel too bad,
because they're they're very um. So we're talking. When you refer to these specific types of whiskey, you're still talking within the world of whiskey, right, So bourbon is whiskey and of course Jack Daniels is a Tennessee whiskey, which of course is whiskey um. And so the rules for bourbon state that it has to be made in the United States, you can make it in all fifty states. Has to be made mostly from corn, at least fifty one per cent corn, and it has to always be
aged in a new charred oak barrel. And so at Jack Daniels to be Tennessee whiskey, we follow all of those guidelines, so we do qualify as bourbon. But we
have a couple of additional requirements. Number one, it cannot be made outside of the state of Tennessee, so it's specific only to the state instead of all fifty And then it has to go through a process we call charcoal mellowing, which is a filtration step that softens our whiskey right after distillation, so it looks like what you would think moonshine would look like, and it slowly seeks through this hard maple charcoal and then we put into
that new charred barrel to age. Fantastic Chris, I'm guessing that you are not new to this uh business, to the distillery business. Give us a little sense of your history with a company, and your family sister with a company. Yeah. Well yeah, born and raised here in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Um, grew up about three miles down the street from the distillery and my mom's dad, my grandfather, was a former master distiller here. Um. He worked here from nineteen fifty
seven until nineteen eighty nine. Um. So I've been running around distilleries for a while, um, since I was a kid, really with my grandfather and um started working here um at Jack Daniels when I was in college. Um. So I've got about eighteen years in the industry officially, and then a lot of time with my grandfather before that as well. Okay, but here's the really strange thing. Lynchburgh's home county of More is a dry county, and yet it is also home to Jack Daniel's world famous, world
famous Tennessee whiskey. Can you square those two realities with with with us? Yeah, it is a bit unusual. Um. Lynchburg, I guess, can be a bit quirky in some ways, and this is obviously at the top of the list. Um, but we've been in a dry county since Prohibition. Here in Lynchburg. We are Moore County, it's the second smallest county in the state of Tennessee. Um. Now, prior to prohibition, it was not a dry county. We had saloons here
in town and things like that. But um, since prohibition began for us it was nineteen o nine, more county has been dry, which simply means there are no liquor sales here. So there are no restaurants that can serve you a a glass of whiskey or even a beer for that matter. So Chris, just give us a sense of how the whiskey business has changed, you know, maybe over the the arc of your grandfather. Um, I know it's probably made the same or similar ways, but how's
the business change? Sure, Um, that's a great question. My grandfather, you know, starting in nineteen fifty seven, Jack Daniels was really a small, mostly regional brand. Um, it was not nearly as well known as it is today. But we you know, we've had a lot of help with growing our brand. Of course, we meant great whiskey here in Lynchburg.
But um, you know, back in the fifties our brand was adopted by Frank Sinatra and then you know, as you move on into the sixties and seventies with you know, countless rock and roll stars and in Hollywood, you know, using Jack Daniels branding as well in different things. And during that same time, the rest of the American whiskey category struggled a bit as people turned more towards clear
spirits and um. For for whatever reason, we were fortunate enough here at Jack Daniels to continue to grow uh and things that really um. Over the last now ten, the fifteen years have come full circle. American whiskey as a whole is as popular as ever uh And of course we're enjoying this rise in popularity just like our other whiskey makers here in the US. Chris Fletcher, thank
you so much for being with us. Chris Fletcher, Assistant Master Distiller at the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Panel podcast. You can subscribe. Been listening to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. M Paul Sweeney, I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. I'm Lisa abram Woyits. I'm on Twitter at Lisa abram Woits one. Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio,