Surveillance: Gen. Milley Warns On China

sharply digressed. David Rubinstein joins us the Carlisle grew up on fire with some recent interviews of course peer to peer conversations with Mr Rubenstein, and I really want to focus on the hockey player from Belmont Hill for those of you that are in the know, that is really good prep school hockey, and then onto Princeton and r OTC. David Rubenstein. The path of General Miley to the top of the Pentagon pecking mortar was most original, wasn't it.

It was We've never had a person service Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who had an undergraduate degree from an Ivy League school. Um, he didn't expect to spend his entire career in the military, but it worked out that way, and he's from a military family. But interestingly, his father did not want him to go into the military. His father really tried to keep him out of the military. How has he colored in his service colored and infantry by the fact that his father truly was on the

shores of yo Jima. Well, his father was a real combat veteran in the South Pacific in World War Two. But his father knew the horrors of military combat and he tried to keep his son from going to West Point. Uh. He went to Princeton on a Hockey scholarship effectively hockey scholarship, and but he got into r OTC and ultimately say stayed in the military. It's an unusual story. And he's obviously become one of the most visible of all the chairmans of Joint Chiefs of Staff because of things that

happened during the Trump administration. David China was very much front and center with his interview, as it rightly should be a ringing too many people out there. What is the different nature of this rivalry, of this potential cold war given the fact that the strategic nature is China frankly provides so much the United States by way of goods.

General Milly said that the biggest security threat to this country is China now Historically, when I was growing up, it was Russia, and Russia is still a threat, he said, In the course, there's North Korea. But in the end, China has the the money and the manpower and the technology skills to really be a complete rival to us. And he was very worried about the hypersonic missile, for which there was a test not long ago. Now we

probably presumably are developing our own hypersonic sonic missile. It's not been discussed publicly, but this is a missile which could um launch a nuclear weapon on us without any real defense that we currently have. So how separate are the military concerns that the United States has with respect to China from the business concerns, especially as a growing number of corporations in America are trying to increase their

footprints in Beijing in the mainland. While the business community, I think is interested in getting all those customers and developing relationships in China. But we have to be very careful in the business community because we recognize that China is now making more difficult for American companies to invest there or operate there, certainly more difficult than it was

a couple of years ago. The military is more concerned about China as a threat and less interested in getting into China than making certain that China doesn't get into the United States. David, and talking to the general and also within your own international view, one of the great mis calls that you and I and everyone else had was our dearth of intelligence on Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed. Do we actually have good intelligence on the

Chinese military? I think our intelligence is probably not as good as people would like it to be. I don't really know the intelligence communities assessment. I think our ability didn't know what's going on North Korea is very very limited.

I think our ability to know what's going on in China is probably better, but not necessarily with the Chinese military, because it's difficult to infiltrate, and so you have to rely on on technology and things like that, and sometimes it's hard to get technology that's going to pick up exactly what's going on in China. As you point out, we underestimated exactly some things that were happening in Russia,

and we overestimated other things are happening in Russia. And we've had a lot of technology failures in in in the Middle East, with the are in ability to know what was really going on in Iraq for example. And David, it's so important that Tom asked that question because it really dovetails the two issues of the business community and the military community. How do you get visibility? Well, there are people who are represent the United States in some way,

shape or form on the ground there. How much is this a concern for business executives you speak with in terms of how much surveillance they're under, what type of regulation there might be from the United States government because of that suspicion that they are the note of information

one way or another. While the business community has been warned that it as it operates in China, everything could be bugged and everything could be stolen away in terms of intellectual property, the Business Committee is wary about dealing in things in China. But on the other hand, there are a lot of customers there and there's a lot of businesses there, So people are warned. They try to be careful, but nobody can be perfect in terms of

our ability to protect certain information. David, with your success and I and I mentioned this, folks, because this peer to peer conversation occurs in front of our three most important documents at the National Archive. David, you brought the Magna Carta to America, the twelve nineties seven document itself. Tell us a little bit about that quickly, What was

it like to give to America the Magna Carta. While they're seventeen extant copies of the Magna Carta fifteen in British institutions, one of the Australian Parliament, this was the only one in private hands, and I put it there on permanent display and permanent loan. And essentially it's a document that was a warm runner of the Declaration of Independence, so it really in many ways had more impact in this country than ironically it did in England. That's why

I thought it should stay here. Unbelievable to see that at the National Archive, and of course, folks, you can see it at the British Library. John, I know you've done that, the British Library Museum. Just extraord wonderful. Love it, David, Thank you, Thank you so much, David Rubinstein. That catch the full interview, A fascinating interview with the General Milly on the David Rumistice Show, Pit to pit conversations. But

the Democrat a Republican. One thing I know for certain is later in the Trump administration all agreed that the gentleman, the movie producer from Goldman Sex rose to the occasion. He is the former Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United States and he is in Rio. Yusuf Kamal l Dean joins us now with a conversation with Chancellor Minution usef good morning, Hey Tom. I mean, for once, it's

not all happening in New York. People all around the old CEOs and government officials come out here to read. And one of them, of course is Steven Newts, and he's the founder at Liberty Strategic Capital. Thank you very much for joining us. It's a secretary. Give me a bit of an overview then, all the kind of meetings you've been having and what have you been able to secure any new deals. Well, first of all, it's great to be with you, and it's great to be back

in the region. Uh. My focus here is really to be supportive to the economic transformation in the region. Uh. It's it's very important, I think for economic stability that all these countries transform their economies and expand them away from just energy. You raised two point five billion dollars in private equity investments. Did some of it come from the likes of the public Investment Fund? Well, I can't really comment on our raising of funds. What I can

comment on is what we're focused in doing. So our real focus is right now on technology, with a big emphasis on cybersecurity, national security, and data priv to see, which was an area I focused on when I was Treasury Secretary. I was responsible for cyber for all the financial services, and it's a very big risk. So we want to make sure that companies and governments are are taken care of and protected. Let's get to the macro story for a moment, because the last time you discussed inflation,

you said you were worried. Now quite a bit more data has come through. How has that view evolved since? Well, I was worried because I thought we'd see inflation. We have seen it. I think you know, we're we're running probably in the four to five percent inflation. My guesses will stabilize closer to three and a half, but that's

that's still a significant issue. For a long time, the Federal Reserve was concerned that we couldn't get inflation up to two percent, but now, just given the enormous amount of fiscal and monetary support, I am very concerned that we're going to see higher interest rates and the impact on consumers and antenue it treasury yields those still go to three point five because that's what you said last

That's that's still my prediction. Okay. What about the ability of the United States to grew itself out of three and post pandemic debts and the massive amounts of money that it's borrowed. Well, look, there's no question that during this crisis we needed to have massive support. And I'm most proud of the fact that we passed to the two Cares bills to zero and a hundred to zero in the Senate. That was pretty extraordinary. Uh, we spend four trillion dollars. I never thought I'd be saying those

words four trillion dollars. I think we needed to spend that money where we would have had a global depression, not recession. But the new administration has continued to spend another two trillion dollars, now more money. I'm very concerned about the size of the national debt at twenty a half trillion today, I worry it could go up to thirty two trillion on a twenty three trillion dollar economy.

It's quite concerning. I want to stay with the fiscal sign of things for a moment because the Democratic tax plan has been controversial to some. Uh the billionaire taxes, it's also called. Do you think that the it's a good plan with a pass Congress. Well, let me just first say, I think now is the wrong time to raise taxes on anybody, whether it's billionaires or average consumers

and spend. I think we've done plenty of spending. I think the problem with the billionaire taxes one, it probably won't raise much money since a lot of this money will be given away to foundations. Uh, so it won't be taxed. The other issue is it's probably unconstitutional. And the third issue is it creates very very bad incentive. How do you tax public securities and not private securities? Think about this. It's a complete disincentive to grow your business.

To basically say every year the government will take a little bit more of your business away. That's not the right incentive for long term investing. A shout out to Tom Keene for this quest, and he is looking to find an answer on whether there's gonna be an opportunity for Republicans in twenty four to reassert a calmer policy out of the prison camps, out of what the present chaos. Well, uh, you know, well, we'll see. It's uh, it's it's politics, you know. My guess is a lot of things will

change over the next couple of years. Again, my biggest concern right now is we need less spending and we need to worry about making sure we don't have inflation out of control and the national debt is sustainable. We've seen a US bend on a on a China telco in many ways. One would have thought that some of the tension between China and the United States would ease a little bit with a new administration and a new approach community. That hasn't happened as fast, was not happening

at all. Have you been surprised about how this is evolved. Well, let me just say, Ambassador Leidheiser and I spent a lot of time going back and forth to China. I think we probably had twenty different meetings with the Vice Premier, and I think we're proud of the work we did on the Phase one trade agreement. My own opinion is a lot work, more work needs to be done, that

there should be more dialogue as it relates to telecom. Look, I think there's certain areas that are national security areas at least as it relates to certain telecom equipment, and I'm not commenting on the specific of this. We want to make sure that our data integrity. On the other hand, these are two large economies that have to coexist, and I think the work work needs to continue to be done. On trade. China has always had the opportunity to have the US markets open, and we need to make sure

we have the same reciprocal opportunities. We have to do it there. Thank you very much for the time. That's Steven Newton is the founder of Liberty Strategic Capital TAM and the rest of the team. Thank you, sir, Thank you very much as always, catching up with the fulm of trenchery. Secretary that step yeah, to find out what Industrial America is doing and what is so advantageous here is David Weston and I. We didn't look at the

first generation corvette. We looked at the second generation corvette and said someday we'll own one of those. And there's a new one to you that I'm sitting at home. Thank you so much. To Tom Keane, we're delighted if you joined right now. By General Motors chair and CEO, Mary Barrow, they had their third quarter earnings out today, Mary, thank you for joining us. First of all, congratulations, you did a lot better than most people thought you'd do.

I don't want to take anything away from that, but can you give us some sense how much of its core operations I don't have some financing because of used car sales that really were on a tear, and also reimbursement for that bolt recall. Well, I think it was it was all of those things. I mean, g MF is performed very strongly. We also saw, you know, in light of the current environment China, our China earning equity

earnings were strong. But I think what the real story is is how how well we perform from trucks and full size SUVs. We're selling every vehicle we can make, and I think that along with uh uh, you know, the overall environment is what allowed us to have a beat for the quarter. And you know, I think it shows the strength of our underlying business. So I'm really

proud of the team and everything that they accomplished. So the magic words there for me where everyone you can make because you can't necessarily make all the ones you'd like because of the supply chain problems. We've talked about it before. I know that it's continuing into next year. I guess my key question for you, Mary is is there anything at this point that can be done to speed up the time that you can get the microchips that you need. Well, you know, we're seeing improvements in

fourth quarter. We had indicated that Q three would be the toughest for us, which is and that it was further impacted by COVID, But we're seeing strong, stronger performance. Now we'll have a Q one will be better than Q four. It will linger into next year and we're right now are are feeling as will be UH in a much better shape in the second half of two.

And we're also taking steps over the medium term to make sure we're never seeing this kind of constraint, not only with chips, but with other you know, whether it's critical materials or just the overall supply chain. Because we have an aggressive growth strategy in front of us, and we're going to make sure that we can execute it. So it's a very it's a near term problem. Um that will work through in the meantime, Marerea, are there places you can save some costs? Let me give you

one example advertising. If you can't sell as many vehicles, maybe you don't need to advertise as much. Well, you know, David, it's a great point. We are saving across the board. Uh. You know, we're we're seeing a strong pricing environment. Obviously we're adjusting what we're doing to match. Uh, you know the fact that we're selling over every vehicle that we can. But also through COVID and and through this crisis with semiconductors, we have found ways to make the business more efficient.

We're working with our dealers to uh to drive an increase in profitability for them as well as improving our costs. And so across the word, we are always driving efficiencies and that that's an underlying, underlying strength of our organization and that supports the strong earnings. Mary, Let's talk about the perhaps longer term. That's electric vehicle something you've really embraced. You have some very aggressive goals for General Motors going

out electric vehicles. We had some big news this week from arrival starts with a T won't necessarily name it. With some big fleet sales, particularly to HURT. I know in the past you've been I think a little dubious about fleet sales because the margins get down. Where are you on fleet sales for electric vehicles? Are they different because you really want to get broad acceptance? Are you

looking at fleet sales for electric vehicles? Well, you know, if you look at bright Drop, you know the commercial fleet, uh, and what we can do from a light commercial vehicle perspective with bright Drop and and the whole ecosystem that will support I think is a huge opportunity, and that's some of the most profitable of fleet sales. We're looking at many different opportunities because with electric vehicles you can really kind of re reframe how the sales will be,

and so we're looking at a number of opportunities. But I think you know what we've announced is around bright Drop. I'm very excited about that because that's just pure growth for us. But as I understand, we shouldn't rule out the possiblity that down the road, General Motors might have a deal similar Hurts deal. Well, you know, in the past we have limited our rental cars because that generally was the least profitable type of fleet sales. As UM,

we reimagine how the business will look. We're not ruling anything out, okay. And finally, Mary, we've talked a lot about back to the office. Since we talked last, there have been more and more vaccine mandates. Is that affecting General Motors operations? Do you anticipate it will? I don't

think it will. You know what will work? We continue to encourage our employees to get the vaccine we encourage, We continue to provide them the information, uh you know, from CDC and other UM like organizations around the globe. And we're going to work UM to understand how to implement the executive order from the President, but to do so in a way that our employees and our unions of agree to. So once we know the details, will

work the execution plan. But I don't foresee it being an issue for General Motors as we look at our overall labor availability. You do have a obviously a very important relationship with the U A w C. I oh, as you talk with them, do you see resistance coming from the union side to vaccine mandates? Well, I think that's a better question to ask a S the U A W. We're just working with them to provide information and encourage encourage all of our employees to make the

decision with the right information. And that's what we'll continue to do. And then again we'll look at what the specifics are of the mandate and figure out how to how to implement. At this point, we don't know where we are in the pandemic, but it seems like it's getting better again in the United States. Is it affecting GM operations either on the sales side or the production side. Actually, uh, you know we're the biggest impact. That's UH that's gating

us right now. Is we talked about his semiconductors, but we've we've seen recovery from the impact in Q three from some of our supply eye base that caused UH a little bit deeper impact. So I'm I'm optimistic that we are through the worst of it. UM. We've shared our safety protocols with our supply base around the world, So that's what gives me confidence that we're going to see a stronger Q four and then a stronger Q one and even UH as we get to the second

half of next year. UH continued improvement as you have that gating function as you refer to it, Mary, with the semiconductors, are you seeing inflation either in the cost you're paying for inputs or costs you can pass along the consumers. Well, we definitely are seeing commodity prices increasing as well as the cost of logistics, which I think is, you know, impacting almost every industry. We're working in managing

that right now. And again because our product portfolio is so strong, I really believe it's the strongest car strucks and crossovers we've had in my forty year career here at General Motors, and that's that's what is allowing us to also have very strong pricing and because we have strong receptivity from the customers. Okay, very really appreciate you spend time and say that's Mary bar She's the General

Motors chair and CEO. David thinks so much. We are looking at advanced goods trade balances that we've never imagined. We're out to a nineties six negative nineties six billion dollar statistic which I would respectively suggest Diane Swonker myself have never framed. Let's begin there. She is with Grant Thornton, Diane, we have not talked about net exports, exports, imports, but

we have a goods trade balance unimaginable. What does that signal, Well, it's really strong demand in the United States relative to the rest of the world. That's just where we're at. And I think one of the interesting things is, of course that will subtract from growth in the third quarter,

even as durable goods add to growth. In her investment that we're seeing out there is really the strongest and technology intellectual property that we've seen since the nineteen So we'll get some productivity growth, but it really is going to be the weakest growth of the quarter, which we'll get out tomorrow, will be the third quarter, the weakest

growth since the onset of the pandemic recovery. But of course we're now starting to gain more traction again as the delta wave fades, and we're seeing that already in some of the credit card data coming in for the month of October and as we go into November. Of course, the biggest constraint we're going to face out there is shortages and price heights. Rebecca Patterson was on earlier and she would demand that we asked the economist Diane Swank, Are we in a demand shock or a supply sack?

Rebecca Patterson of Bridgewater says, this is a demand shock. It's all of the above. I mean, there's no question there's a demand shock out there, and we've used at Jamaan chock with the last round of stimulus checks. We've got a lot of excess savings that's being drained down. Much depends on how much we get the pride sector to pick up the baton from the federal government as we get into the fourth quarter and into two and see job gains pick up again after the delta wave.

I think that's going to happen, and that is hard for the FED because even as you're on your comparisons get to be more difficult, which means the inflation numbers should taper off a bit. In two. I think they're going to be residually higher than the FED is going to be comfortable with, and they're they're going to be in the tough position of determining whether or not the inflation that we're enduring in two is in fact going to be more um intracted get into the economy more.

And I think that's something that they're going to have to act on. And my concern is that we do see companies out there doubling up on inventories, doubling up on orders to hedge against what are these supply chain shocks. But that won't abate inflation until we get well into three and that's just too long for the FED to

wake Dan. Let's get into the politics of the economics, because that's where it's going in Washington, d C. The idea of the demand side shock versus the supply side shock is frankly squarely in the Republican talking points where they're saying it is because we passed these bills earlier in the year and last year that basically gave people checks that we're seeing the demand shock that we are seeing.

How much is that really the issue versus just the difficulties and turning off an entire economy, turning it back on and expecting it to happen without friction. Well, I think you know it really is. This is you know, friction upon re entry as I call it, as a spaceship comes back in and you hope it doesn't bring um burn up and the heat shields hold. It really is a lot of frictions, frictions in the labor market.

We've seen that. I think we're going to see more workers come back into the labor force in the fourth quarter. But the bottom line is you can't expect to turn off a global economy and then just ramp it back up overnight. And in fact, many producers expected when we turn the lights off back in March in the US at least some accompany countries before that, that it would take quite a while for us to ramp back up.

And because we supported spending as we needed to, as we paid people to go home from work, that ended up creating in very unusual dynamic out there. And it's just not not to be surprised that we're going through this. That said, it's really hard to disentangle the politics from the economics. Economics are really all of the above. We are having a demand shock because consumers couldn't spend on certain things, and then when they can, they're all trying

to run through the door. At the same time, you see searge pricing on hotels and airfares a minute consumers come back. We've had a lot of disruptions out there in addition to climate change and extreme weather events. Everyone forgets Hurricane Ida exacerbated the rise in prices at the pump in October and adding to all of this confusion. Day and you're talking about friction upon re entry. When

do we know that we've entered right? When do we know what signals economic signals do you look at to know that we have reached some sort of new normal rather than just the waiting period for everything to equalize. Well, that's you know, the million dollar or a billion trillion dollar question. We have to keep going up on our numbers. I think quadrillion is the next one after this one.

I actually had to look it up. But there's no question that what we're looking for is some kind of a sort of stabilizing in underlying inflation pressures um not as broad based inflation increases. I think one of the things we're gonna have to be dealing with two is the lags on shelter and that could add a half

percent to underlying inflation measures alone. So even as some of the energy price and the surge pricing that we're seeing right now, as we get that friction going and the real heat that singes, that will cool down, but not enough to sort of leave the FED on the sidelines. I really don't think we're gonna see anything about what this economy really is like outside of a pandemic and into an endemic until we get into three because we're talking about not even being able to vaccinate the world,

which is key here until well into Dane. What's so important here? And you've been you've really had truly national leadership on this is don't forget the Third coast. It's all about the East coast, the West coast, and there's one big flyover including Frankly O'Hara in Chicago, Dan Swak, that's a bunch of Bologny. What is the tech revolution right now in the third coast of America? Away from Amazon, away from Microsoft? What's the tech revolution? Look across the

four time zones? You know, actually we are seeing a major tech spread out across the country. And this is really interesting to see what's going on. You're seeing tech hubs in places like Boise, you know, really real places to see it, Charlotte, Austin obviously, but we also have

some in Chicago. It's really been stunning to see what's going on here and where the real high end building and high end housing is going up, and high end construction for office space is tech related, and so what you're seeing is some of that tech being spread across the nation. And what we've really seen is the pandemic

acceleratate the digitization of the US economy. You're seeing that in the car industry, the electric cars coming out, not just from Tesla, but also from the traditional automakers with a lot more options out there, this movement is on. In fact, they're worried about how how they're going to get um dealers to sell electric vehicles. Well, it's not

part of the model. The bottom line is demand is driving some of the movement on electric vehicles, and dealers models are being outdated as we've moved to now buy online, even cars and homes. It really is a different world. Of course, that digitization also creates big gaps and inequalities. People who are trying to apply for jobs aren't used to being able to apply having to apply totally online, which is where all the jobs are listed now, and

they're in broadband dead zones. We really need to expand broadband to be able to increase the access of those people who need jobs and or match them up to where people who don't have to people who are looking for workers. That's difficult as well, both in urban and rural area. So this really is a massive change that the pandemic accelerated, and I think it will deliver a lot of productivity growth. The problem is it's not evenly distributed.

The brilliant Dan Swunk of Grand Thornson looking forward to catching up again next week, hopefully around that fat decision. Dian, thank you joining us now. Without question, our interview of the day is a skeptic one. Douglas Cast of Sea Breeze Partners and Doug the class act. You are you not only quote Thomas Lee, who has nailed this bulmarket surge, but you say, look, this is where Tom Lee is, this is why Tom Lee's right, and boy have I

been wrong? Now? What for Doug Cass. You know what the dude said in the big lebout sometimes you eat the bar, and well sometimes the bar each you. Yeah, but you're in the bright, Dug. I'm not going to mince words here. Everybody else is out there being quiet. You're like a pinata out on social because you've got the courage to be vocal invisible about your convictions. Now what I do. I'm very straightforward. Um, I would say that, you know, there's the English translation of a Chinese curse.

May we live in interesting times? And I do believe that we live in the most interesting times of all. Um. You know, I embarrassed on the market. I think that the conditions that exist in the real economy or on Main Street have diverged widely from Wall Street. And it's happening at a time in which valuations based upon historical metrics such as my friend Robert Schiller's keep ratio or the market cap to g d P, which is Warren Buffett's favorite valuation metric, are all in the or even decile.

And at the core of my parish market view is a notion that inflation and supply chains disruptions will be

sustained for a lengthy period of time. Now I'm long and I'm buying cannabis stocks, but investors are smoking dope if they think the supply chain issues are easily solved, solvable, And as I said to John Farrow, a bunch of times pull market optimism abounds even though there has really been such a wide array of possible economic and market outcomes, and many of those outcomes are adverse and market unfriendly. But when I talk about interesting times, I'm talking about

the gamification of the market. UM speculation is hot, hot, hot, and that is not good good good. UM. I'm sure robin Hood which is the premier gamer trading site, but when but it really has become a floating crap game for speculation and digital currencies, meme stocks and weekly option trading investing. It seems to meet us increasingly become hass a. Let's get Paul to jump in here with some securities analysis. Just wondering here, we're about almost two thirds away through

the earnings reporting cycle here for the third quarter. What have you learned that's kind of reinforced or maybe cause you a question your call. I think that there's a lot of double ordering. UM. I think um uh rates are going to be rising. I think that the product price increases which are occurring at every single company that I interview um UM will lead to demand destruction. UM. You know, I find that I use the word slugflation

sluggish economic growth and sustained inflation, not stay inflation. And that's what I think slug flash inflation lies ahead. UM. I recognize that I think that the UM expansion of negative real interest rates has been at the war of a lot of bullish arguments. I think you guys will both agree, and I recognize that negative real interest rates are a tail went to equities. But the fact is that expanding negative real interest rates cripple's main street by

reducing real incomes. And there have been periods of time when negative real interest rates have led to market collapses. UM the U S stock market in the earlier mid seventies UM is a good example, when the nifty fifty collapsed and the SMP entered to bear market. Japan is another example in which real interest rates have been negative for several decades and investment returns have been poor. I've

been wrong because I've unders understated the herd strength. I've understated the strength of FOMO and the inflow of money into mutual funds and UH equity mutual funds, as well as the changing market structure in which quant strategies that know everything about nothing about value. The FED a reserve. We've got Chairman Powell, you know, sticking to that inflation is transitorious. There's gonna be a problem for him and for this FED. I think it's a big problem. I

think he's um put himself into a box. I think Powell's legacy seems to be moving in the wrong direction. In the months ahead, I expect him to walk back all the views of easing money and wanting high inflationer that he's so confidently espoused. And again, I think if you look at twos and thirties, there's clear message from the bond market. If you look at the five year break evans, which hit the highest level since two thousands five,

the Fed is making a policy mist mistake. Already there have been over twenty rate hikes globally in Russia, Brazil, UK, New Zealand, Australia, Accounta, Mexico. Nothing from the Fed. UM So this is this is a danger dangerous precedent at a time in which I believe the rate of growth in economic activity is going to be the out of this. But this is a really important conversation. It's well known that has Cast gets the Robin Hood trade right, he will click in to be one of the seven billionaires

in America. Doug, you live down in one of the fanciest parts of the planet. I mean, you know, I think you've got the littlest house within six miles, and you've got like square feet the shadow of the former presidents. Yeah, I mean, I mean literally, you live where we're talking about this billionaire's tax you and I know these guys are writing, as a generalization, big checks to hospitals, two schools, this, that,

and the I wish they'd write me a check. But the bottom line is, Doug, what's your gut feeling the people you hang out with every day? We'll do if they're told they're gonna have confiscation of gains not taken, how's that going to play out? Well? UM, let's first start of the fact, let's look at the Elon Musk. I'm gonna ans you a question directly, but let me first mentioned that. Um, the speculation in Tesla is an

example of the problem in this market. Um. To paraphrase Hyman Roth what he said in the Godfather movie Leon, excuse me, Elon Muskt is far bigger than us steel. His net work now exceeds that of Exxon Mobile, and as wealth is two and a half times that of Jeff Bezos my favorite stock, Amazon, And if Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were married, their combined assets will be less than Musk's. And now I'm gonna give you an amazing stat Muskets made more money in the last nine

months than Warren Buffett has made in ninety one years. UM. I shared now directly in response to your question, I shared an anecdote. I hope Lee Cooperman doesn't get piste off at me that I mentioned it. UM. I spent two and a half hours with Lee um in a research meeting of a company that we're both interested, who flew in overseas to see us yesterday. Lee lives in a very um tony community filled with Rose Royce's Ferraris and Bentley's. We move, We go out to get our cars.

The parking intendant brings Lee's car. It's a six year old Nissan. Lee as a person that has just given one hundred million dollars to St. Barnabas Hospital in New Jersey, Lee justifiably would rather give the money to the charities and to the endeavors that he wants visa vi the government, which tends to spend uh. The money's poorly. So I'm a progressive. I'm a progressive Democrat, but I lean away from Elizabeth lawrence suggestion of a wealth taped. We're out

of time. We could go on on this and of course market I want to thank you particularly for your comment on the bull Thomas Lee within the dougcast report this morning, Let's see Bres partners. This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. Thanks for listening. Join us live weekdays from seven to ten a m. Eastern. I'm Bloomberg Ray DEO. And on Bloomberg Television each day from six to nine am for insight from the best in economics, finance, investment,

and international relations. And subscribe to the Surveillance podcast on Apple podcast, SoundCloud, Bloomberg dot com, and of course on the terminal. I'm Tom Keene and this is Bloomberg