Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside my co host Matt Miller.
Every business day, we bring you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along with essential market moven news.
Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Right now, we want to get back to the story, the front page story, which is obviously what's happening in Israel call it. Elgindy, Senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, joins us here. Colin, thanks so much for joining us here. We know you have so much expertise in this part
of the world. I wonder if you could just for a lot of us, we're just not sure what's happened over the last several days. Can you give us a sense of why Hamas did what they did on Saturday? Why did they do it, what was their goal of any and then where do we go from here?
Yeah?
I mean I can't really speak to why Hamas would carry out such a horrific attack that has killed hundreds and hundreds over a thousand Israelis. I don't understand, you know,
the logic behind it. I think it's totally unjustifiable. But what I can speak to is the context in which this is happening, and that is, you know, there's you know, Israel has occupied, has ruled over the Palestinians, five million Palestinians in a military occupation for more than half a century, had many many generations of Palestinians who have grown up
without really knowing any sort of freedom. And in Gaza in particular, you have a very severe blockade that Israel has imposed that has impoverished the Gaza Strip, and most of the two million people who live in Gaza actually
rely on international assistance for their basic needs. And so that's the context in which this is happening, as well as the sort of broader sense of despair among Palestinians that you know, there is no end in sight either to Israel's occupation, which is quite violent and repressive, or
to the blockade in Gaza. And so Hamas is one of the various Palestinian factions that have embraced what they call armed struggle and are determined to pursue to push back on and resist Israeli occupation through violence of course, the violence that they've opted for in this case is wholly unjustified in that it's directed at civilians.
Yes, and seems to be specifically directed, according to the New York Times report on hostages this morning, at women and children as well, which doesn't make any sense. I think that we, those of us who've read pretty in depth about this.
Not nearly as much as you have.
You've studied air studies at Georgetown and Indiana University, You've you've taught that at Georgetown as well, and obviously you'ret the Middle East Institute. But I think we understand to some extent the context of the occupation. One thing that we don't One thing that we have troubled divining is how much support Hamas has in Gaza and from Palestinians. And I noticed in a lot of reports, for example, in the Times today, they have a ton of coverage
on this conflict. They seem to conflate Palestinians and Hamas, and I wonder how fair that is. What kind of support do you think Hamas has in Gaza?
Well, you're right, it's not fair to conflate millions of Palestinians with with one movement, even if that move movement is is governing at the moment inside the Gaza Strip. It's it's impossible to say exactly how much support Hamas has I think it has support. You know, the West Bank and Gaza are divided both politically and geographically under different kinds of Palestinian leaderships, both still under Israeli control.
I would say, you know, people in the West Bank probably are more supportive of Hamas than people in Gaza who have lived under Hamas's governing And but but at the end of the day, when something like this happens, and and bear in mind that you know, Israel's now in the midst of a very severe bombing campaign inside Gaza, where as I said, two million human beings live and have nowhere to go in a in a very narrow strip of land, and entire neighborhoods have been leveled to
the ground. So it's I think it's impossible to overstate the ferocity of the Israeli attack. And I think we have to be mindful that, you knows, as horrific as the attacks were inside Israel, we also have to remember that there are human beings also in the Gaza Strip who are suffering and who are dying by the hundreds and without much say in what's going on.
In fact, I read a UNISEF report this morning that estimated there roughly a million children living in the Gaza strip, meaning almost half of the people there are you know, UNISEF says children are people who are under the age of fifteen, So almost half of the people there are under the age of fifteen, in which case, you know, they certainly can't support Hamas. They're not capable of making that kind of decision.
So call it. That kind of raises a question here, do we have an idea or based upon your research giving the idea, what other than extracting some level of retribution or revenge does Israel? What do you think israel strategy is in terms of its response that we expect any day now.
Tragically, I don't think they have a strategy. I mean, what they've stated is to remove Hamas or to end Hamas's military and governing capabilities. Nobody really knows what that means. I'm certain from having talked to many Israeli officials in
the past, that they don't know what that means. I think right now they are in a very high state of emotion and trauma, and it is primarily a sort of the response is really one of retribution, as you said, and those are actually the words that Israeli military leaders are using. That we're not after precision, we're looking to cause damage, and we're seeing that on the ground. I think there is considerable evidence that civilians are being targeted.
They're bombing neighborhoods, they're bombing infrastructure, they're bombing roads, preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded and so forth, and so it's right now emotions are running high, and so what needs to happen is there needs to be a responsible third party actor in the international community, presumably someone like the United States that has considerable leverage to intervene and really bring this to an end, because creating more death
and destruction is not going to resolve any of the underlying issues, and in fact, is just going to make things worse.
It's difficult not to be emotional about this when you read the reports of what Hamas has done. I suppose you could say the same thing in defense of the Palestinians when you read the history of what's happened, and you could say the same thing in support of the Jews when you read the history of what's happened, so you know there's this back and forth. One thing I can't understand is why Iran can fund and support Hamas and Hezbollah. Why they are allowed to do that, essentially,
you know, promoting terrorism. Why nothing is done about it? Why is Iran allowed to Reportedly they fund up to ninety percent of Hamas's budget and they're pursuing enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb. Why is that allowed even by other Arab states?
Well, I mean setting aside the nuclear issue, which is a whole other topic. Okay, but Iran, Iran is not an air of state, but but it is a is a key player in the region and they support many different armed groups in different countries like Hisabela and Lebanon who he's in Yemen, UH and UH you know others in Iraq and in different places. Hamas is one of the groups that it supports. From Hamas's perspective, they are a non state actor. They need support from some patron,
some sponsor. Iran is a willing sponsor. Iran has an interest in UH, in opposing Israel, in UH creating problems for for Israel and what better way to do that than to support groups whose mission it is to uh, to attack Israel.
And to exdicate Israel to murder Jews. I mean, well, one thing is support an state actor, but you can't support terrorists. And Hamas, given what we've seen over the weekend, is clearly a terrorist group, right.
I mean Hamas certainly isn't a group that has carried out horrific acts of terrorism. There's no question about that. And and you know these are these are war crimes and they should be held accountable. Anyone involved in the planning or the sponsoring, or the financing or the execution of any of these attacks should be absolutely held accountable. But I think we have to I think we have to be careful in how we frame the issue. Uh, this is I mean Hamas is not I mean Hamas
is a is a political movement. It's there's no serious actor who believes that Hamas can destroy Israel.
Right.
Whatever the rhetoric comes out of any political movement, rhetoric is rhetoric. I mean, if you if we take all political and military leaders at their rhetoric.
Exactly, it would be unfortunate, you can call it. I have to just cut a short rare because of time, but we really appreciate you taking time sharing your thoughts with us.
You're listening to the team Ken's Are Live program Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
Big m and a trade here today exceon mobile buying Pioneer Natural Resource sixty large sixty billion dollars. This is a big time play on shale. Let's break it down with Frenetta Valley. He is a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence is covering all the energy space. He joins his live here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. So let's start first with the price, the valuation. Did they have to pay up to get this thing here?
A little bit? But you know when you look at the breakdown on the free Castle per share, the ebitdah per share after the dilution, it's actually a creative right away to ex and mobile propriety. They can capture that one billion dollar synergies which is the low end of their target two billion being high end.
And it's all stock deal, all stocked. Nice, that's good to you. Don't go out and borrow.
It, you know. I had read an analyst saying, like, if they pay a moderate premium, then they can still make money on this. But does it have to be only a moderate premium or are they going to make money handover fist.
I believe they'll make money handover fist regardless because of two factors. First, we've talked about the underinvestment in the industry over the past decade, and although we're burish in the short term demand side of the equation, longer term we think that will be the driver of oil prices. But second, Pioneer has the largest undeveloped resource base in the Midland Basin, which gives Excellent a huge jud region to develop over the next ten years.
So Matt and I were just noticing that this is just a good old fashion buy up some you know, old fashioned fuel oil shale whatever it is. There's no carbon, there's no solar here, there's no wind here, there's no eco friendly thing here, there's no green here. This is good old fashioned big oil company buying another big Texas oil company. Right, this is old time. But they said it was good for the environment. They said it was good for the environment. I'm not sure where they get that from.
Well, you know, there's two factors. Yes, it is exactly that. And Darren Woods in his interview with Alex Steele said they don't believe peak oils upon us and that we'll still use oil in gas for a really long time. And then their their point on reducing emissions is that because they're developing this carbon capture center in the Gulf Coast, they'll actually be able to take all the Pioneer's production and take it there and capture that carbon and use
and reduce their emissions. So on a net basis, this becomes a lower emissions.
So they bury that stuff, right.
They bury. Eventually the goal is to use it for power generation, but we're still a little bit away from that.
Okay, I'll buy it.
Sounds interesting.
Some geologists somewhere came up with that idea.
So Alex Eel was on here earlier and told us we pump thirteen million barrels a day more than Saudi Arabia in this country. Talk to us just for a brief moment about energy independence. What does that mean? I mean, if for example, we no longer could import any oil or petroleum products to the US. Would we still be okay with prices hovering around where they are now?
Likely not unless you're counting inports from Canada and Mexico as well and looking at that as one integrated system. The issues that the shale oil that we produce is very light, and it's one of the reasons we export a fair amount of our shale crew and still import.
Then pulse fase, what what are light crudes used for as opposed to heavy.
So light crudes tend to produce more gasoline and NAFTA, and then medium crudes produce diesel and jet fuel. So we need to balance that in our crude diet. And then Paul's favorite act, the Jones Act, prevents us to moving some of that crude into the East Coast that could process some of that crude, So we'd have to revoke that act. We would have to also refining capacity.
All right. Talk to so I bring up the oil from the shale in Texas, how do I get it to where it needs to go? How does that happen?
Pipelines primarily pipelines, and that's one of.
The midstream what you guys called midstream.
Yeah, midstream is the whole processing side. So we separate oil from gas, from water, from the natural gas liquids, and then we move it out to the production center's refineries, fractionators, et cetera. And one of the wrinkles in this deal is that it will make it harder for the mid streams and service players because Excellon is now going to be you know, nearly ten over ten percent of premium production. They'll have a lot of say on how the pricing
goes that in that market. And it will also make it harder for smaller independent players to get those service is because you need to be exposed to Xceon and they will have a driver's seat in that area.
Oh so, do we need to talk to Jennifer Ree Bloomberg intellig She is anti trust person. Is this still going to get approved? You think?
So?
I was speaking to Jennifer earlier and she thinks, because it's less than fifteen percent of permium production, there's a good chance that he will get approved. But the timeline maybe beyond the first half of twenty twenty four, and it will be a challenge. Typically, the way they argue is that oil is a global market and we export CREWD So we're actually competing with the Saudia, Ramcos and the gas drums of the world and not just with the pioneers and EOGs.
So are we going to I mean, if I'm an investment energy investment banker in Houston, am I just ripping up the phone here calling everybody I can? My rolldeck's trying to get some deals done.
Well, you're calling four companies, primarily you're calling Conical Phillips, You're calling Chefron, you're calling Occidental, and maybe you're calling EOG Resources and you're saying, who do you want?
Right?
And then perhaps they're calling all the private equity players and be like, hey, we need to get together and create a better larger player or else we're going to be taken up by larger players.
What about BP and SHELL Where are they in the Permian basin?
So shell sowed their acreage to Chronicle Phillips, so they're no longer in the Permian basin and they really have moved away from shale. BP had bought BHP Billetin's shale portfolio. They haven't been very aggressive in the Permian and it's kind of a question mark because they changed their CEO after burn Looney was forced to resign a couple months ago.
All Right, we got WTI crude oil eighty four dollars a barrel here it did you know spike up Monday? You know, four or five percent on the news coming out of Israel. What's the feeling now when you talk to the energy folks about just kind of the geopolitics of that part of the world and what it really means for global supply.
I guess, well, the fear is there on what happens with Iran. Is this war going to escalate to that part of the world, and if he does, how will it impact the oil flows and also the exports of crude?
How much does Iran I guess producer exporter.
They produce around three million barrels a day and the export just north at one point two million barrels a day. So it's about one percent of the world consumption in exports. It's not that significant, except that supply is relatively tight. Again, as we said, our fear is on the demand side, and that we think could be the bigger driver. But if Iran does go into war, wars consume a lot of fuel consume a lot of oil, so that could shift the narrative entirely.
But it's fungible, so we could be okay as long as we hold Canada and Mexico as allies.
Exactly exactly, and we could also we have other allies, including in the UK and Norway that produce a fair amount of crud, in Brazil and others that can help fill our needs.
By the way, I saw a pipeline had been damaged between Finland and Estonia. Today you see that, yes, and apparently at one point this is a young pipeline, it's only three years old. Nonetheless, Finland gets almost all of their gas through this pipeline.
I mean, Europe is in a very comfortable place with natural gas inventories. The issue is if there are disruptions and movements, because their diesel inventories are very low, and that's the backup to the natural gas. And obviously they closed a lot of nuclear plants over the past year
in Belgium and Germany. If there is a disruption, especially in the straight or horror moves between Katara and Iran where we get a lot of the natural gas shipments to Western Europe, that leads them the very precarious position. If we have a normal to cold winter.
Got to put LNG terminals in over there.
Yeah, and can you put like, yeah, what is the LNG situation over in New York? Can't we just? I thought you can build them pretty quickly.
Well they did. They didn't want to build them back when Dan Boyette was over there.
But that's to regassify we need the gas first. In Qatar and Iran shared the largest gas field in the world, the North Field, and they are the Qatar is the largest producer of ellen g in the world.
Interesting, man, it all comes back.
It's a big gas field in Netherlands, but they decided to shut it down.
Yeah I heard that, because all right, Fernando, thanks so much for joining us. Fernando Valley, he's our senior global energy guy for Bloomberg Intelligence.
You're listening to the tape catch are live program Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Economic outlook, inflation, interest rates, geopolitics is front center once again, first in Ukraine and now in Israel. Let's see how some of these professionals kind of put that into their calculus. Karra Murphy joins us. She's a CIO Kestra Investment Management. Karen, thanks so much for joining us via zoom here. Talk to us about kind of you know, like the rest of us, we woke up over the weekend and saw
the terrible news coming out of Israel. As a professional investor, how does that factor into your calculus if at all?
It's interesting, you know, I've been a chief investment officer for a long time and I've given a lot of presentations on our you know, global market outlook, and there's usually always a slide at the end of the deck that says risks, and there's always a line item there that says geopolitical risks. And exactly which risks are sort of simmering under the surface might change over time, but there's always a possibility of some sort of conflagration around
around the world. And typically, like often when we see a geopolitical event outside the US, the main transmission mechanism by which it starts to affect global markets is through oil, right, So we saw this particularly in Ukraine when Russia invaded. Now conflict in the Middle East, and so I think that's the biggest immediate concern in terms of the impact on the US economy, and so far markets have really
been largely shrugging it off. Now, if this continues to be you know, a big focus and continues on for a long time, really starts to affect the supply of oil. That then will drive the price of oil up, which then will complicate matters for the FED here at home. The other piece of it, of course is military funding, where now we have the US government helping a fund war in Ukraine and now war in Israel, and that
does cost money. It is, you know, a commitment that the US has made, but we'll start to hurt the US budget in some way at the same time when the budget is already under pressure and we have discord in Washington.
So it's sort of.
The layering of these risks that starts to become an issue.
I wonder to what extent the dropping yields is a reaction to the Middle East or is it a reaction to the FED speak that we've heard in the last couple of days.
I still think that the US markets are being driven more by the FED than by what's happening outside the US. You know, the FED has been such a focus over the last couple of years, and they've done a great job so far in being able to bring down inflation, but this last mile for them to go on inflation is still really really important in how long interest rates remain high, and the longer interest rates remain high, the tougher it's going to be for the economy to moddel through.
All Right, So Cara, let's switch gears a little bit. Focus on another data point for this market to kind of digest. It is earnings, and corporate earning is really kicking off in earnest Friday with some of the big banks. What are you looking for this quarter from Corporate America?
But the big banks, it's always really helpful that they go kind of early in the earning season because they do have a really great view kind of across the country in terms of what's happening in both the corporate sector and the consumer sector. So what we'll be looking for is, particularly on the credit side, are we starting to see evidence that companies and individuals are feeling the pinch of higher interest rates. I think the answer is yes.
So the question remains how much are they really feeling the pinch and how much should we be worried about it. Company banks are going to have to start increasing credit reserves and anticipation of that, you know, growing pinch. So I think that'll be a really helpful view of what's happening on the ground. The other piece that we're going to have to look out for our consumer shopping habits.
We've started to hear little anecdotes from retailers come through that Again, consumers are starting to feel the pinch a little bit, but hearing about the on the ground behavior and expectations, particularly heading into the very crucial holiday shopping season, will give us a good sense of how consumers are feeling.
Yeah, it'll be interesting as we I just saw a chart from Torst and Slock this morning that movie viewership has dropped dramatically in theaters. In theaters, yes, but maybe that's just a result of they're not being there's great movies. We just had Barbenheimer and yeah, you're not gonna get anything.
You're not going to get anyth until the Tailor's Holidays, Taylor Swift movies coming true. We were all going to see that there's.
A huge impact there, right, What, Caro, what areas of the market do you like in terms of the risk assets that you know we have on offer here? What are the sectors you like?
Yeah, so this is for this has been a really tough year for anybody with a diversified portfolio, you know, because if you didn't own something in the Big seven, you significantly lagged what you saw happening in the broad market. That said, we start that, we still think that the leadership is going to start to change and where it's no longer just going to be the Big seven or the Magnificent seven, whatever you want to call them. So
we're looking to go down cap a little bit. It doesn't mean you have to be in microcap names, but sort of you know, outside the market a little bit,
a little bit more outside the US. And then on the credit side, again, because of this increasing pinch of higher interest rates, we would be cautious, particularly in things like high yield, where a lot of these companies are going to be hurt by a continuation of higher interest rates, and then spreads are at such a place where you're not really being paid to take on that extra risk.
On the equity side, carea How do you feel about valuation here? I guess there's two ways to look at it. One just kind of looking at the broad SMP, and you could make an argument that fairly fully valued. It's not a little bit on the expensive side. But if you take out some of the big cap names, which I've had such big, big runs, whether it's six or seven names, maybe it looks a little bit better. How do you think about it?
Yeah, it's really interesting because there's not one single story across the market, And even if you look at it just by sector, technology is really the only sector that's trading at a significant premium to its ten year historical average. Even consumer discretionary, which at first glance looks a little expensive, is actually trading right in line with its historical average. And then you have something like energy where valuations are
half their historical average. So there are certainly areas of the market that don't look overstretched. And then even on a broad basis, you know, we're more expensive than average, but not extremely so, and that tends to not be a great indicator what direction the market is going next.
By the way, I'm looking at one of the stories that's popping up. As you know, when clients click on our Bloomberg stories a lot, I have an alert, so I see what they're watching right now. Ozempic shows kidney promise and blow the dialysis firm. That's a big story. And you know, I talked to the Pepsi coost CFO yesterday his view on ozepic Whether it's hurting pepsi sales, he says not yet. Walmart says GLP one users are buying fewer calories, which is a I think pretty cool
thing in itself that they can even track that. But what do you think about this move? It's like AI Junior, right, GLP ones.
Yeah, I mean so in many ways, like I've read the reports all those ones that you mentioned, and ozembic and other drugs like it seemed to be the wonder drug.
Right.
They cause us to eat less, they cause us to lose weight, have a healthier heart, now a healthier kidney. So let's all say that having healthier Americans and healthier people around the world is a good thing. Then the question is how do you actually invest alongside it? And you know, you mentioned some of the soft drink companies. Those guys have been under pressure for a very long time because of healthier like growing healthier habits of Americans.
So this isn't necessarily new. It just sort of like accelerates many trends that you've already been in place.
All Right, Kerra, thank you so much for joining us. As always, appreciate getting your thoughts. Karen Murphy. She is a chief investment officer at Kestra Investment Management.
You're listening to the team. Ken's a live program Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
You want to get the latest reporting, we do that with Galite Alstein. She's a reportered with Bloomberg New She joins us from Tel Aviv. Glee, thanks so much for joining us. I know a very difficult time. What is the latest that you can tell us about what you believe or what is the consensus building about the type of response that we get from Israel.
So actually today we're also seeing some developments in the north of Israel. This has been obviously a big question over the past few days on whether the Northern Front will also be joining joining in mainly Isbela, which is an Iranian backing group in the south of Lebanon and Lebanon in general. So over the past half hour or so, we've been getting reports on possibly some UAVs that have penetrated Israel through the northern border. We do not have
too much details on that yet yet. I can only tell you that a lot of people, roughly a million and a half Israeli civilians have been called to go into safe rooms, into safe places and stay there until the picture is clearer. And earlier today we also saw from back and forth it wasn't as possibly dramatic is what we're seeing now. Once again, we don't exactly know what is going on now, but earlier on we saw some i'm back and forth between grisbe line idea forces
some back and forth fire across the border. So we're looking a lot at that today as well.
Paint a picture for us elite of you know, the differences between what's happening now and the past incursions that you face or the past you know, back and forth because typically, as I understand Israeli has just continue to go about their business, and I would imagine there's not much of an economic impact. But this has been compared to a nine to eleven, it's been compared to a nineteen seventy three. Yeah, Im Kapoor, War, is it different
this time? And that people are not necessarily going to work, not necessarily going out and buying things, not necessarily doing much except for sort of huddling scared and safe rooms.
Yeah, I think. I think you're absolutely right. I mean, obviously don't have all the economic data yet to bat this up, but I can definitely tell you that people are staying home a lot and not coming in to work.
There's actually a combination. I think of a lot of people that have been called to serve in the army reserve forces, so we've had three hundred thousand of those, and then there are some people who need to stay at home because the children have not been going to school throughout the entire country, I mean all over Israel. Schools have not been open since Saturday, I mean since
since Sunday. In effect, Sunday is a business day in Israel, so and they've just announced today that schools are not coming back at least until next Sunday, so some of the parents, you don't need to stay home with your children. And then we also have people who are just afraid because Israeli still under missile attacks from the south from Gaza. This is affecting mostly the southern part of Israel, but also you know, every once in a while for parts
like celebrating the Vicinity. So so what we're seeing basically is, you know, people working from home if they can, or not coming in to work. And this is very reminiscent to many people that that I speak to of COVID, of the first days of COVID, and you know, the first lockdowns. So so in some cases, you know, it's not you know, direct you instruction from the authorities. You know, don't don't leave the house like a lockdown. In some places it is, in some places it isn't, but but
it was reminiscent of that. And I think it's just worth noting and and that some businesses and some international businesses that operate in Israel, and talking about some retail stores, you know, h and m ikei Ikia, I know that these stores for examples, have been shut down for the last few days so so obviously business consumption is is definitely down these days.
Yes, what do we know about this new unity government that mister Nata who has announced tell us about that.
So this is O news from this afternoon. So actually this is in fact a new party, Benny Ganz's party. He was he an opprsition leader until just from this afternoon and he just joined forces with NATHANIAO. Nathaniel's government. His former government stays in effect. But what we're seeing now is Gansa's party join in basically to form a
very narrow war managing cabinet. In this cabinet will see as its members of Nathaniel himself defense minister, you have Gallant and joining them will be Benny Ganz, who is a former defense minister, and two more members in the cabinet, one from Ganz's party and one from Nathaniel's party. And actually they will be leading any operations the war. You can say that we'll be moving on from moving forward
from now on. These are people who are very experienced, mainly speaking about Gance and another member of his party Eisenkott, and of course Defense Minister Galan. They're all very senior former idea officers. Led the Israeli Army Glance was previously in charge of the Southern Command. He's very familiar with the Gazza Street and they're the ones who are going to be leading the war effort from here on.
I wonder if this changes the picture in terms of, you know, regional allies of Iran. What have you heard from other Arab states, especially considering the fact that we know Iran funds Hamas, we know Iran funds Hesbalah, and they've.
You know, been responsib for.
Something that's beyond a military attack, really just targeting citizens. And I know that's happened in the past, but at this point, now the world has seen it. Do you expect any any pushback on Iran?
That's a good question, and you know, I'm not sure.
It just seems to lead that everyone is hesitant from from from here, it seems everyone is hesitant to push back on Iran. When the Wall Street Journal first reported that Iran knew about these attacks and even was involved in the planning, or that the IRGC was involved in the planning, we had, you know, the Secretary of Defense saying, well, we haven't seen any evidence, you know, not eager to draw Iran into this because it makes things more difficult.
On the other hand, we all know they're funding Hamas.
Yeah, well well yeah, you know, the relationship between Iran and Hamas and Iran and Frisbelle as a slightly different one. You're right to say that Iran finances both Hamas and his Bala with Haramas, It's it's on a much lower scale.
I'm talking about the financing, and there there are different They're a different organization because you know, there are Sunni Ramas is a sony organization, so they are cooperating with Iran and they're getting money from them, but they don't necessarily take orders from Iran, even if they're coordinated with them. I know it sounds a little complex, but it is.
Whilezabella in the north of Israel is one hundred percent Iran, it's just you know, a proxy organization, the militant organization that is backed by Iran, that is led by around that is you know, taking orders from Iran. So and on your question, I think that you know, maybe what speaks loudest at this time is that you know, when we see the US carrier, the drive forward carrier, that is now you know around Israeli waters. You know, this
is very extraordinary, slight. I would put it like that, I don't remember anything, you know, this sort happening at least over you know, the last decades. So this is like a warning sign which which may be a reinforcement of what you just said. You know, people don't countries don't wanting you know, and all out don't want an
all out war. So they're putting you know, their biggest like you know, warning signs and you know, telling Iran don't get involved, not through football, not directly, and so so it's safe to assume that yes, maybe you know, the nations don't want an all out war at this time, and Israel definitely you know, wants to concentrate on Gaza now, but keep saying that it is very well prepared for anything that happens in the Northwest.
Fastball Very good, All right, Glee, thank you so much once again for joining us. Khalita Alstein. She's a reporter with Bloomberg News. She's based in Tel Aviv, and we really appreciate getting some of her time during this very very difficult time for all Israeli citizens. And we'll see what type of response that we get from Israel, but all I guess indications are that it's going to be severe as we look at the call ups and so on.
You're listening to the tape. Ken's are live program Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Matt Miller Paul Sweeney live here in a Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio, and we are streaming this thing on YouTube's Head over to YouTube dot com and search Bloomberg Radio. Matt, I'm at an age where I just don't stay up that late anymore. So the late night TV I used to be a fan. I was there for Letterman and all that kind of stuff.
Oh yeah, dude, I remember Letterman from the very beginning.
But I mean, but I understand that's where the cool kids hang is kind of late night TV, which brings us to Max Abelson. Why he's here, I don't know. Max Abelson. He's one of our star reporters for Bloomberg news, he joins us here on our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. But Max, you're going TV on it, You're going Hollywood. Talk to us about the show that you're bringing to Bloomberg Originals.
Yeah, my ego is too big now actually to talk, so I'm just call into silence now. Well, first of all, just about bedtime talking Phoenix, Yep, yep. Learn let's talk at bedtime because I am out by like nine thirty, just to be totally clear, So I'll be watching the following day. But I'm hoping everyone here is going to tune in on Thursdays at ten thirty pm on Bloomberg TV. Listen. I think there's a chance that what we're making here is like going to be really special.
And really good.
I mean, we had a really big challenge, which is that Business Week is like a good thing as is. You know, it's a great magazine. It's when you know, when I have my best journalism of the year, if I'm lucky, it gets to go in Business Week. And to make something that's a really good magazine and to try to turn it into something televisual as hard, because
like magazine and TV are different things. But we have had a lot of fun with this idea that instead of like sitting there, you know, kind of suck with the issue that week, although I'm sure we would have fun if.
We had to do that.
What we've done, gentlemen, is take the themes that would normally kind of course below the surface of business journalism and Business Week, specifically ambition, risk, failure, genius, imagination, and we've dedicated episodes to each of them. And then we've brought on, like, honestly like kind of astounding people whose lives and careers and ideas, like honestly like have something to say about those themes. Like I've learned a lot
like sitting at the table talking to people. It's been fun and it's been eye opening.
All right, So what's the format you're gonna go on? This show is going to go out every Thursday at ten thirty on Bloomberg TV. I'm like, I'm guessing we're gonna be able to watch it on Bloomer dot com or somewhere online the next day. And then so is it an hour?
Two?
Do you have one guest for? How does it work?
Thank you for asking. These are questions that remind me of my mom, Patty Abelson has been asking just these exact questions. All right, So look, it's gonna start with a kind of essayistic introduction. My only complaint about this whole series is that we have we we filmed me walking through the streets of New York, and I have to memorize my essay.
And it is not easy. No one just called a monolog by the way, let's call it a monologue.
Monologue.
I have no teleprompter, so I'm in the streets of New York. I give a little opening essay. Then then I come to the studio, which, let me just say, my colleagues, like carpentered a studio. We're not talking like led screens. Is here here one floor up for listeners. I can't see this, but we are on the fifth floor.
They can if they're streaming on YouTube. We're you look into the camera. They're not in the building.
They're not in the building, so they would know it's but it's on the sixth floor, and it's yeah. I mean when I say carpentered, I mean like woodworkers made. It looks like kind of an eccentric editor in chief of it.
Looks so cool.
Seventy eight.
It is beautiful, and there's something about the vibe. I mean, actually, I've always loved the studio where we are now, but there's something about the vibe where I feel like even interesting or powerful or complicated people come in and it's like it almost reminds me of like a therapist's office or something about it where I find that people are willing to open up and I'm definitely willing to meet
them where they are. But there our guests so far have been really willing to meet us where we are, which is taking these themes seriously. It's not easy to talk about failure, it's not easy to talk about ambition. But I find that there's something about the space, and
there's something about my colleagues, Eduino Tira. I have to say, our director and producer is really one of my favorite people I've ever worked with, combined thanks to Business Week, thanks to the show, thanks to the set, my colleagues, there's something that I think is kind of special about it, and I feel like, like I hope it'll I think it might be kind of like unlike anything we've ever done here.
It does look, like, I have to agree, a really cool space and very unique and kind of different, a step away from reality without being like fake, you know, but just like a therapist's office. I think is a great description because you're sort of putting the world on pause to have these discussions. So who are the guests that you've.
Had on Well, I'll tell you about the guys, but first I just want to respond to a very beautiful thing you just said, a step away from reality. It's been very I thought a lot about how to make television, which is very different from what I normally do. You know, I'm a writer, like I'm a reporter here. I've spent a long time here, my whole professional life in this building, thirteen years. I think like writing and reporting and being on TV and even you know what, honestly being on radio.
It involves a certain amount of theater, certain kind of performance, Like it makes me think about my voice when I'm talking now or when I'm on TV, Like I think about the way I look, you know, the way I move my hands. And we've really spent a long time talking as a group about how to make it as real as possible, even though I have to do some performative things, not.
Move my hands in silly ways.
You know, not talk too much. We've really tried to keep it as connected to reality as print journalism can be. Now let me tell you about the guests.
But with the set that evokes a like nineteen seventies newsroom, Thank you, but what you wanted to see today in any news so you're trying to get real. But also it's I aroays reminded kind of like a mister Rogers neighborhood. Oh, like the you know the set in taxi, Like basically one set that's different from everything else, but that you want to be paying attention to that.
You're talking my language. We have a signed photo of Fred Rodgers in the signed to me as a little boy.
Thanks, thanks my dad.
But let me just talk about the guests. So for this week's episode, Genius Thursday Night, we have a ninety one year old genius, Bert Malkiel, who who's writing a gentleman probably walk down Wall Sheet, which is a book about how genius doesn't actually exist in the markets. He is so interesting, has so much to say, it's it's such a distinct version of genius. Then we have a
seventeen year old genius who won the spelling Bee. I'm going to say very little about her because she is such a surprise and she has I think she is my most genius guest, but I'm not going to say too much more about her. And then we have more of a Jah who is the genius. In fact, he literally one genius grant. He is a guy who thinks about all the garbage that floating around our orbit, all the dead all the dead stuff that we sent out satellites,
but then they died and they're just there. It's this new kind of trash.
And he really did.
Blow my mind the way that he talked about the difference between jualized genius and a kind of collective genius, and the way that you can learn from other people instead of just like being a genius yourself.
Standing on the shoulders of giants exactly.
I found it, honestly, very moving. I was told I had to stop nodding along because I was not on the long term.
That's how much I enjoyed it. That sounds awesome. I can't wait to see this, honestly.
And so what's the difference between kind of your what you have been doing, interviewing, call people on the phone, calling your sources and that kind of thing. As opposed to now you're sitting, you know, face to face with these people oftentimes, and that's a little different vibe.
Right Oh, the vibe is tremendously different. Like right now I'm looking at you, you know, and we're talking like I don't want to I'm on the mood to confront you, you know, I don't want to press you on the most difficult things that if you've ever had to live through, or like, you know, if you were a prominent business person, you're your most prominent in barres because embarrassment comes with success.
No one has success without failure. To sit across this table in the BusinessWeek shows set and to talk to people about pain and uncertainty and embarrassment, or even just to talk to them about their ambition or to talk about their genius or to talk about their imagination, there's
something that's very awkward about it. I'm very interested in trying to re examine the journalistic encounter, you know, I love my favorite My favorite journalist is Janet Malcolm, who writes beautifully about the kind of betrayals that happen every time there's a journalistic encounter. Because the journalist is going to tell a story and the subject has a very different story. And it's been really fun for me to see in real time how different it is to stare
your subject in the eyes. And it's spooky.
That's very cool. I mean, we love your stories that you write for Bloomberg, but I can imagine it's very different because you get to kind of script everything. You totally create the narrative by yourself or know with your editors, whereas here you can script the questions and you can stage the interview, but it's gonna go where it goes.
Yes, yes, you know.
Hearing you say that reminds me that you know, my beat in a way is money and power, when when I ask, honestly, my beat is like semi made up but Wall Street culture of Wall Street money and power. It really has got me thinking about the way that we have power, like journalists have power. We shape stories,
we bring perspective. I mean, I believe that one of the things that makes Bloomberg News and Business Meek great is that we wield our power well and that we wield it with fairness and we wield it with authority. But it's been fun to feel powerful and also to feel a little powerless. I don't know what people are going to say. I don't know if they're gonna dislike my questions. I don't know if our vibe is going to be weird. And that's a powerless position to be in. I have the power.
I have some power because I'm.
Asking questions, but but it's been a very powerless experience, and it's it's been really fun to taste. What's the name of the show, The Business Week Show?
The Business Week Show on Bloomberg Television on Thursday nights, ten thirty pm, Wall Street Time, Boom Mark that, Max Abelson, thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcasts. You can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller nineteen seventy three.
And I'm Faul Sweeney. I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio.