The Boomer Boom

permanently or were at least in the near future. We'll get into it with a portfolio manager and an analyst who covers the consumer, discretionary and industrial sectors. But first, Charlie Pelletts Halls, who this week's mystery co host is. This week's mystery co host is Chris nate Gee. Chris is a Boston guy at heart who's an executive editor from Markets in Bloomberg. That means he's actually Reagan's boss.

So don't expect Mike to make any jokes about the Celtics performance in the playoffs this year, well, at least not on this episode of the podcast. Chris, Charlie's right I'm not gonna make any jokes about the Celtics. I will say I I hope you know you guys could have softened up the rest of the conference a little bit for us, But but no, you didn't really do that. I think we energize them. There's nothing funny to say about that serious move from from your perspective. There there,

There's there's a lot to say from from us. But uh but Chris, as I put it on the intro, we have a great guest this week who knows a lot about consumer stocks and consumer behavior. Before we bring her, you know, I wanted to ask you about one thing that I know American consumers are spending a lot on these days, and that's the meme stocks and the doage coins in the world. The aisles are Bear that's right,

the aisles of Bear of Beam. Sus, you and I have been through a lot of, let's face it, crazy market regimes together in this this job of ours, but I don't think we've ever seen anything like this that what we've seen in the past year. I'm just curious. You know, we haven't talked in Aboile. What's your take on this sort of new environment of day traders that

we're seeing now. I mean, I guess it that goes to some degree the big day trading craze back in the day in the early two thousand's, But this seems to be something completely different. I mean, is is this just a permanent change do you think in the sort of makeup of the investor class, or is it just a fat I guess it remains to be seen if

it's permanent. But you do have to say it's outlasted a lot of the predictions of its demise, Like there were a lot of sort of conventional wisdom ideas that it would run out when people went outside, or when sport events sports came back, like the Celtics Series M or the stimulus checks ran out. And right now you have to say, I mean, I think it is important. It's not quite the same absolutely uncorked craze that it was during the first go round. It seems like it's

a little bit more selective now. They're they're honing it on their targets, maybe doing a better job of targeting company companies that sort of fit their model. But um, it's starting to seem like maybe it wasn't entirely a function of the of the lockdown, and what it was was the discovery of another way to crowdsource what people want in the world. And to that to that extent, you have to either worried or hope that it's permanent, depending on your side of the UH, which side of

the trade you'ur on. It does seem like aspects of it are going to be tough to root out for or or just are going to be are gonna winger. I mean, there's just it just seems to be. It just seems to be working too well to be going to a quick death. I say, bring the retail courage commissions back and we'll get back to life as normal. But maybe I'm maybe I'm the outlier there, that's a

fair point. There was a big this week. There's a big push at the SEC to to look at some of the market structure stuff that's underpinned this, so that certainly it's made UH commission free trading possible, like some of the you know, the market structured payment for order flows things, and maybe maybe if that gets un ended that some of the hysteria. I mean, certainly the ability to trade for nothing is a big part of what's

UH what's driving it. I don't know that it's an absolutely necessary but it's certainly a facilitating influence on the whole thing, right, absolutely, Let's get to it then with our guests. As I said, she's a portfolio manager and an analyst. She covers the consumer, discretionary and industrial sectors at the investment firm Westwood. Her name is Lauren Hill. Lauren, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me here. I'm

happy to be here. And and Lauren, much as I will not make any jokes about the Celtics, I'm not gonna make any jokes about you being a member of the Fuji. He's said. I wish I could sing to as much as I spelled differently, though, so at least I'm sure you wish you wish you'd never heard that before. I was gonna ask how many times you've heard that joke, but I'm sure it's it's daily at least. Uh kind of joke doesn't even doesn't even qualify as alright, alright.

I lived in the city for eleven years, and Lauren, the real Lauren who lived in New Jersey, so people were always giving me updates when they'd see her on the street. They'd be like I saw her name to today, like it's really funny. Pride of New Jersey. We're very proud of her, I will say, though, she does have a reputation for being laid on stage. And you were right on time, so you got you got that uh distinction there too. But let me ask you about the

whole notion of consumers. I think it's a great time to have you on the show because well, everybody is ready for the consumer to come roaring back now that the lockdowns are over. Everyone's vaccinated, and I want to ask you a little bit of kind of how you sort of suss out where you think the consumers going

to go. And I'll tell you why. One of the big things that a lot of people were looking at during the pandemic was the various sort of alternative sets of data that we have available to us in real time. One thing that a lot of people looked at was open table restaurant reservations. And I get it as sort of the notion of as a macro indicator that the economy is reopening, people are more comfortable getting back out there.

But to me, you know, I don't think I can't think a lot of public companies that actually have restaurants that need respirations too. So to me, my point being, and this is a long monologue to set up this question, but the point being that you know, do we know how the consumer is going to start spending this bankroll

they have now? Um? Because I'm thinking if a lot of people create, say a fancy dinner out that has different implications obviously, then say people craving a chance to get back shopping at the malls or going to the movies. I'm just curious how you're analyzing the consumer in this reopening environment, um, And where do you expect that spending to be most robust? Yeah? Absolutely, So I'm really really positive on the consumer. I think we're going to have

a really incredible rebound from here. I think the spending is going to surprise a lot of people, um, both in terms of the magnitude and how long it lasts. So UM. I think that the consumer the way I look at things is um, you know, kind of by generation. So UM. I think that we're gonna have a robust rebound in spending and that's going to be led by the boomers. I think that when you get down to the younger folks are going to be doing all kinds

of different things. But just the group I spend a lot of time on is what I call the boomers plus that's people fifty five and older. So they only make up twenty percent of population, but they control over seventy percent of US wealth. So, um, you know, they were the most reluctant to get out during and now

how they are returning to their old shopping patterns. And they've been adulting for a very long time, you know, in some cases fifty years, so they have really well established patterns of spending and they're getting back to it. Life is short. Um, they're putting family and friends and catching up with them as a high priority. I think that's gonna last two to three years. I think that's gonna boost travel. We're gonna see a lot of what

I call social interaction spending. So we're gonna see hotel spending, vacations, people out of sit down restaurants. We're going to see a lot more services. There's tremendous pinet demand for services. We don't quite have the labor force back as we need them. There's still sixteen point nine million people on the sidelines collecting an employment right now. Before the pandemic, that was just two million, So, um, you know, the

true unemployment rates probably still around ten percent. But I think, you know, as the federal bonus, the three a week extra that people are getting right now to help them get by, goes away the first week of September, I think we're gonna start to see, uh, and easing of that pressure in the labor market. More people are going to be out there, more services are going to be available. That's going to kind of ease the pressure on goods. Um. You know that people are so focused on spending on

goods right now at the moment. But I think we're gonna get back to that natural balance, and I think boomers plus are going to lead us out of it. And um, you know, the younger folks, they don't have as well established patterns, especially those just out of college. So I really believe that, um, they're spending patterns may be affected for a very long time. You know. Um, in the last downturn, we talked about a lost decade.

You know, it could kind of look like that, But kind of the big picture is they just don't have the spending power. In fact, Jen excellently has a third of the uh the wealth of UM the boomers and jin Jin y only has one. So even though they may spend more time at home, and they already were before the pandemic, which is I find really fascinating, they were already UM, kind of creating this home body economy. They had high student loans, they had you know, different

pressures in their life. They were getting around to getting married, buying houses later in life, so they were already kind of willing to have more of a home life. And I think that's going to kind of continue. So different groups are going to do different things. But because of the you know, the I think boomers UM rule the world and I think that they're going to lead us out of this UM. The last interesting thing is UM.

You know, the most recent data shows that seventy five percent of the boomers plus have had at least one shot from the COVID vaccine series. So I think that gives them a lot of confidence to really get out there. You know. The younger folks, UM, it's been more mixed, you know, just I don't think there's as much urgency.

People are waiting to see if perhaps their schools are going to require it in the fall, you know, if they're in college and people are making all different kinds of choice is but you know, the older folks just felt a little more urgency. And I think that's a really healthy and great thing for the U. S. Economy. It's interesting. I live in downtown Manhattan. I actually live right next to Washington Square Park where you used to

one used to notice and absolutely agree. I've lived around here for a long time, and when I was a kid, um the streets were pretty much mobbed all night, uh in this area, every every weekend night, certainly, And then for the last ten years it's really been like you could hear pin drop for most of the time. Part of part of it is that, you know, the rents and the houses here are now eleven million dollars no matter,

no matter what. But another part of it I always thought was sort of people the kids are tapping into their phones and staring at their phones and interacting via things that don't require to go outside. I would just say, in the last three months, two months, you haven't seen, to put it mildly, the same reticence amongst the gen y and the zoom, the zoom general, the very young generation. They are outside in force at the moment. They will not let me sleep the party until three in the

morning in Washington Square. Uh, they seem like they're very interested in getting back on outside. But I do know where you're coming from. I mean, um, who benefits from just the boomer trade. I mean there are there companies where this hasn't been priced in yet, is their industries, because it seems like a lot of stuff that's it's like the reopening because people have people have rooted it out and found it. At this point, anywhere the boomers

direct they're spending. Uh, you know, they're gonna be big beneficiaries. So you know, we're seeing, um, what I call the social interaction categories are really getting a big lift right now. So um, you know, I'm seeing a tremendous momentum in retail. So um, you know, just a lot of the departments doors,

the mall based retailers. You know, they really kind of let us out of um, you know, the the rebound and um, you know out of uh last year following the vaccine announcements in November, So that group has been really strong. Anything associated with travel, car rentals, uh, you know, anything associated with services, and you know, a lot of those stocks have moved quite a bit. So um, really, what I love so much is that we're really entering

what I considered be a stock pickers market. Um, that's really where you know, firms like mine, like Westwood shine. So I'm really looking forward to many years of just a really healthy market where we're really focused on the fundamentals and you know, we have this really healthy, um, long lasting spend backdrop. So one of the other things I think people are overlooking, what I think consensus is that, Okay, we had the stimulus checks. You know, we just got

checks the last round. You know, we've had over two grand given out to you many many UM families and that's wonderful, but um, you know, it's kind of one and done, and I actually think it's going to be more sustained. So we're having a tremendous positive wealth effect. And so both the stock markets up double digits, home valuations are up double digits as well, and people just

feel wealthier. They've saved quite a bit um. You know in many cases, you know, obviously there's um the last year was hard for everyone in different ways, and some people you know, went through job loss and transitions. But by and large, a lot of people made it through, especially the oldest generation like the Boomers plus made it through relatively unscathed. So I think that, um, you know,

they're they are ready. There's all those areas where there's pent up demand are going to continue to benefit and the spending is going to be orderly. I don't think it's gonna be so quick, um in goods and services that it's going to force the fence hand and we're gonna have to raise rates. You know, that's my personal opinion. I know that everyone kind of falls, you know, a the spectrum in different places with different views on that.

But um, I think that if any area starts to have too much inflation, then I think that people are very rational and they're gonna take their tremendous savings and they're gonna spend it in different categories that are more compelling. So right now, the savings um is just over six trillion dollars in the US, So that's four point three trillion more than we had going into the pandemic. So that's gonna take a long time to spend down, and

I think it will be fairly orderly. I think people are going to take their time catching up with folks and enjoying their lives. And um, you know, I'm seeing it in fashion too. There's just so many exciting fashion trends coming. I think people are really ready to be happy again. Uh. The summer, it's all about the bright colors. I don't know if you've been to the mall lately, but it is just, uh, you know, it looks like

it was attacked by a highlighter. Um it was you know you see me on girl means and electric blues, corals, a big color hot pink, uh, you know, and just oranges. And people are ready to see and be seen again. Um. Also for the fall, I was really excited to see um the fall fashion. Lots of crazy patterns coming in the fall. Just very interesting to look at something that will catch the eye. And uh, I think that people have been staring at the four walls of their home

for such a long time. They're just ready for variety, and I think that's coming. It's a great perspective, Lauren, because as you might be able to uh determine from looking at Chris and I, we don't know much about fashion. I don't hear it but I wonder if fact that color, that colors thing could be a good indicator, you know, like the old hemline indicator they talk about if people are in a fashion very bright and colorful fashion mode,

maybe maybe that that's a bullish sign. Um. I also, I'm glad you're giving some props to the boomers, that the group that does not get a lot of props these days from the younger generation. I'm personally not a boomer. I am accused of being one a lot on social media. I'm not gonna speak for Chris. He might be yes, yes, very I may be a little bit on the boomer spectrum with at least it was musical to taste, I will say, and perhaps perhaps fashion taste to kikkokies and

and whatnot. But I want to ask also about the industrial So I know you follow industrials as well, Um, and there was a lot of sort of enthusiasm towards the industrial sector earlier this year. Now it's looking like, um, the infrastructure bill is probably not going to necessarily go anywhere in Congress. I mean, is there enough um sort of juice in the economy to be excited about the industrial sector as well, or is this, you know case closed a consumer dominated sort of market story from a

sector perspective. In your opinion, I am excited about the consumer and what I'm seeing, you know, specifically within retail um. You know, especially for businesses that have the strongest brands, the deepest pockets, they can invest in omni channel. You know,

I think that's all a great opportunity. Looking over at the industrials, uh, you know, I think that there's room for excitement as far as there's some new technologies coming out, and you know, anytime a company has you know, some new great patents, some new product lines, they can grow. I just think that there's kind of a limit or a cap on how quickly that can grow. You know.

We we have the infrastructure that we have, and you know, there's a limit to what full production looks like for US, and over time, the US has made less, you know, and so that just um, you know, everyone wants to get as much as they possibly can on the shelves. Companies that have been running at all time low inventories and seeing that across a number of subsectors, you know, are very nervous in the the business um, the leaders want to you know, keep a little extra. It's not

just about just in time anymore. They want to have a little um more inventory than they have. So I think we're gonna have some restocking, and that's you know, a very positive thing. But you know, just from my view also the evaluations there are more full in my opinion in general, so it's just slimmer pickings and industrials. I just tend to see more opportunity on the consumer discusitionary side. And I find that that you're you're very

sanguine attitude here. I mean, it's great to hear. It's, uh, thank god, somebody is so optimistic about the world, except where people. I also have to say it does not exactly accord with my view of what the life of an equity analyst must have been like over the last year. Like I know that your wild to your resume and you did a lot of value work, which I think is like the only really defensible approach to to security analysis.

But I also have to think, I mean, you're in charge of retail names, many of them must have been by definition playing around near bankruptcy levels over the last year, and now you're a sensible logic bearing analyst value value analysts dealing with the market where God knows what is

coming for you. I mean, let's face a lot of the meme stocks have been aimed at vaguely consumer Jason, I mean not necessarily legitimate and viable consumer facing names, but a lot of their interests has been in that near that space. I just feel like I would be hold up with the security blanket and a pacifier in a locked room somewhere if I had your job. What's it been like. I mean, that's Christmas Foster with his job too. By the way, Yeah, I do that. I

do that regardless, I'm doing that now. No good to know. I totally hear you, but I guess just you know, from my view, I actually thought was fascinating. You know, my heart went out to UM everyone who had hard times throughout you know, lots of families did, lots of people were affected. But as far as the market goes, it was absolutely fascinating because it was a recession unlike any other half of my companies did better than ever

and you know, had high high demand. People were focused on their home, you know, uh, furniture and UM, getting prepared for work at home, doing school from home. You know, there was tremendous amount of spending that went into all of that. And at the same time, you know, no one was buying suits, no one was um, you know, buying structured clothes or um for formal gowns or you know, going to events. All of that just dried up overnight.

UM And luckily, UM, you know, I spent a number of years on the hedge fund side of the business, and you gush, you really have to babysit your shorts and spend so much time on those and that would have uh, you know, just been so hard this past year. But luckily Westwood causes long only for the long term, and we we invested the intersection of quality and value, and so we really tend to be very very careful

and the risk that we take. You know, that's the first analysis we all do before we look at the upside potential, and we spend um hours and hours vetting each other's ideas as a team before they even go on the approvals to buy. So we tend to uh, we actually did exceptionally well throughout and um our analysts know their sectors so so well, you know, they could kind of see around the corners and know what was coming and make educated guesses on you know, what the

future would be like. And they were talking to you know, all of the UH teams and management teams and listening to all the calls. So I felt like we had a really good read and it was very apparent to us like places to completely avoid and others, you know, to spend more time on. Wow, could this really be a good opportunity? So, um, we sidestepped a lot of the headache, but yeah, it was just a really wild gear or I mean, it just felt like you couldn't

get off the roller coaster. You couldn't get away from your screens. You know. I remember back in um, you know, February March o nine, just standing at my desk. I couldn't even sit, you know, just the markets were dropping so quickly and just how rapidly everything developed. It was just incredible. But you know, and I think the important thing to focus on now is just the future outlook

from here, and to me that seems really bright. Speaking of great UH, Lauren, and I will say one thing, Um, we have a lot of sort of macro top down type of guests on here, which are they're always fascinating and brilliant, But I really like it when we get a bottoms off type of person like yourself. And I know I've I've got a few stocks here that I know I've caught your I So if we could just go through quickly, Uh, what you like about one hundred Flowers,

Halloway Golf and Ross stores. I think I said some one of them had stop boomer themed to the Calloway Golf, but uh, maybe one eight hundred Flowers has that sort of break and sunny outlook that you're embracing. But walk us through. What's got you excited about those stuffs? Yeah? So, um, yeah, wedding hundred Flowers is, um, you know, just a fantastic company. They are really really good at customer service. They have number one market share in e gifting and you know,

it was a COVID winner. You know, we'd owned it before the pandemic ever happened, but um and all throughout. But the reason we continue to hold it and love the stock is that, um, you know, they've really tapped into an entirely new customer base, both at the high end in the low end. So baby boomers who had done all of their gifts shopping in person before the pandemic.

A lot of them tried out one at hundred for the first time, and instead of buying say a fifteen or twenty dollar house plant and sending it to someone, they went for the two indre dollar orchids because they could. And it's just higher margin, better business, and so the new customers coming in were higher quality than the customer base they already had. Their retention is over n and

so just being able. Um, I think there was a lot of skepticism that they could hang onto those customers leaving the pandemic, but um, you know, they have this wonderful program. It's called the Passport program, and you spend twenty dollars a year and you get all these all the all these benefits, including free shipping, and so people get their address books and there. It's very sticky business and so they've really done a great job with that. At the same time, they bought pe mall from bed

Bath and Beyond for a song. Um the you know, it wasn't core for bed Bath and Beyond, and so they really knew what to do with it. And personalization um on coffee megs and mouse pads and all that stuff is just really popular. It's growing double digits and that's gonna lead to an increasing their IBADAM margin over time, probably over and UM, it's just this wonderful business. So I think that they have a long runway of growth ahead of them. UM callawe golf. As you said, it

is kind of a boomer play. So people who retire UM tend to play golf twice as often as the average golfer. And so the boomers are retiring in force and they're getting out there on the golf course. At the same time, we have the Olympics coming up. UM golf was out of the Olympics forever a hundred years and it just came back in. So we're gonna have it back again for the Olympics, you know, this year, and so that's going to be exciting to see. Um, we have a lot of new young pros that are

out there. There's a new programs for both UM, young men and young women to play golf. You know, it's starting younger and younger, so you can get into a high school program where a couple of decades ago, you know, that really wasn't a thing. And so I think that UM,

you know, golf turns are gonna remain really strong. UM participation is at record levels, and also first time golfers or new golfers are at record levels, So we're seeing this massive inflow and once people learn something new, I think the future UM leaving the pandemic is going to be the everyone's gonna live their best life, so whatever that means to them, whether that means more of the stone, we're going to hang onto some of those habits or if they're gonna, you know, kind of go back to

their twenty nineteen ways, they're gonna pick and choose what works best for them and for people to learn golf. I think that people really enjoy it. It's a safe way to socialize UM and you know, it's really enjoyable. So I think that UM as more people have four hours to kill, they're going to get out there and catch up with each other and continue to play rounds. And the last element of that is UM, you know, just the tremendous opportunity that they have with Top Golf.

They're going to expand that globally. They're going to franchise internationally. They're going to grow their U S space by subveral hundred stores, over the next um nine years, and so they have a huge opportunity there. And then they have this kind of free option. They said they want to be the Pelotono Golf. So for you to be able to take your cell phone, scan your your golf swing at a you know, hotel, maybe you're off at a conference or something from anywhere anytime, and get real time

feedback on your swing and how to improve. UM. I think that's you know, an opportunity for them, UM you know, and I don't have any of that priced in, but I think that that could be a big opportunity for them in the future. And UM, the last one Ross stores. UM, it's just this incredible UM free cash flowgenerative business. UM. It's steady through recessions, it's does really well in recoveries. So virtually all of their stores were closed a year ago.

That makes forecasting the reopening extremely difficult. UM. You know, they are a California based company that continues to expand into the Midwest and eventually um more to the East coast, UM towards you know, where their competitors competitors are, and so they have UM they're one of the few retailers that's able to open uh a hundred stores a year

and UM continue to grow that way. Their their comps are very positive and what what's so different about them is they look out at all of the dislocations that are happening in the market. Retails really sped up a lot, the supply chains have gotten a lot faster, but that's leading to a lot of mistakes by the full price sellers, and so they end up with boxes of clothes and

they don't have anything to do with them. It's like, oh, no, this isn't on trend, or you know, I can't put this out in the stores, or I have too much. So they call Ross stores and they say, hey, will you take this off my hands? And so they get to survey everything available, take the very best of it UM, you know, kind of mix it like a seal, at a unique mix for every single store in the country.

They have very sophisticated systems that do just that and sell it at a discount to what the brand would usually sell for. And people really do want UM more for less. They're in a mindset to kind of save money and you know, get good value for they're spending. And that's just a wonderful way to do it. And also the last year people just haven't had that treasure hunt experience, so they're really excited to get back out

there and shop at a Ross store. And you know, we think the business is going to do very, very well long term. You know, I learned I can relate to those retiree golfers because I play an average amount of golf, but I take twice as many strokes as most people. You know, it's kind of the same thing. I mean, you like that one, Chris, that's an excellent one. Maybe your best of the deck. One of them had to be right. It's just a little bar stand clear

of the craziest things we saw in markets this week. Well, speaking up best of the day, I think it's time for the segment that many people look forward to as the best of what goes up here, and that is the craziest things we saw in markets this week. Lauren, hopefully they warned you about this gimmick. Not a gimmick, not a gimmick, tradition, tradition of ours. And you can't prepare. But Chris, I know you can't prepare. What is the

craziest thing you saw this week? I have to say, as somebody who's overseen about ninety million stories about the looming threat of inflation to the market and to everything else over the last two months. The sight of the ten year note going down below one fifty on the yield. Really, I'm not generally a bond guy, so I'm basically like looking and kind of gawking and disbelief at everything that

goes on in that market. But that one of all of the non consensus things to happen in the last little while, and there's been a lot of them, that really strikes me as the craziest, certainly the craziest thing I've see. I go, we woke up and there was a bunch of a werts on the terminal showing it going below one fifty and being the lowest and two months, And I'm like, is this another instance of me not

understanding the way bond yields move? But alas no, they continue to uh and and the part of the bond market that usedes a proxy for inflation and break even, but clearly the concerns about eating price pressures, etcetera, and all these things we're supposed to derail, basically everything have

just dried up. And I I feel like there's a probably a lot of good stories to be written on why that's going on, because we've written all of the possible stories, literally all of them in the universe about why Bonn yields were heading to two and three and four, and not that many of them even contained like the to be sure sections that could fall between fifty. But I mean, I guess it's not great news for uh people who read sort of demand for money as kind

of a growth proxy. And I guess it is good news if you're worried that inflation is going to come tear tear all of the houses down. But um, yeah, that one was a bit of a nutso head scratcher for me. I'm still trying to get my mind around what's going on there. Yeah, agreed, I haven't seen any real believable explanations were it either. I mean, it's not like we were for Financial News Service. I think maybe the Wall Street that's crowd found out there were shorts

in the bond market. That's my that's my theory. Oh my god, it's all your plans for the next week, Lauren. How about you, what's the craziest thing you saw this week? The craziest thing I saw this week was the Gap sold out in three hours of a puffer jacket that they released yesterday. Jacket, Yes in the in the middle of June. It was the Kanye West collaboration and it was electric blue. It was this very vibrant, bright color. Puffer jackets are actually going to be really big for

the fall. But just the speed at which it sold out, What a great collaboration for the Gap. You know that brand's really struggled over a very long period of time, but the collaborations have been, um, you know, just a shot in the arm for them, and it's really good to see that. So um you know, I think that turned a lot of heads. I was really surprised. Did

you buy one, Mike? Well, Chris, I was gonna say, it's good intelligence for me because I've been dieting and now if I know that puffer jackets are gonna be big in the fault, what's the point No one will be able to tell anyway. I can just wear my puffer jacket. Everyone, you look great, great, thanks Chris. All right, Well that's a good one. I uh, you know, I saw that. I saw the Kanye West puffer jacket thing, and I was, and I hadn't thought of a market t angle, but you got you got it right there

with the gap. I wonder if the gap price is reacting to that. I don't know. I'll have to check the trusty Bloomberg see if people are are loading into the gap shares because of the Kanye puffer jacket. That that would truly be a crazy thing for all of us. But all right, I'm going to dip into my favorite UH space, which is the alternative asset class. And and this is when I say alternative, I really be an alternative. And you might not even argue that this has nothing

to do with markets, but I'll tell you why it does. Chris. As you know, I've been editing a lot of Joe wisen Ball lately, and he always uses the notion of the funding for a whaling expedition as sort of the original base case for capital markets. You know, you lay off the risk of not getting any whales through investors. Anyway, It's a bit of a stretch, but but hear me out, and I'm gonna read a headline from the New York Post.

I'll read the lead of a story from a New York Post it's about a whaling expedition uh in the Middle East. I believe it was. Where was it? Um off the coast of Yemen. Fisherman catch two pounds chunk of whale vombit worth one point five million dollars. So why you might ask who a chunk of whale vombit? You were one point five million, which is a valid question. I thought it was going in a museum somewhere, or maybe someone made an n f T out of it

or something. But apparently this piece of of whale vomit is so valuable because it contains uh, something that's known as and I'm totally gonna mispronounce it here, um, but I will try to pronounce it. Let me just find it in the story here. Um. I'm really not as prepared as I should be for this segment. Um anyway, amberg ambergriss, ambergriss. And the reason ambergriss is so expensive, ironically, is because it's used in perfume. Um. It's an odorless

alcohol that makes fragrances last longer. And the whalers were drawn to this whale by um an overpowering scent of fecal matter. This is according to the New York Post here, so you're drawn. You're drawn to a whale with an overwhelming scent of fecal matter. To get this material out of the guts of the whale. That is priceless for for fume makers because it's odorless. A lot to wrap your head around this story, and that's why it's the craziest thing I saw. But that is all I got

on that story. I think we've all heard enough about that story. But Chris and Lauren, that's all the time we have this week. Thank you so much, great conversation, and Lauren, you've you've raised my my optimism level greatly because absolutely I agree. I feel much better. Sensible people are back in charge. Well good. Thank you so much for hosting What Goes Up. Will be back next week and something. You can find us on the Bloomberg Terminal

website and app or wherever you get your podcasts. We'd love it if you took the time to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Some more listeners can find us, and you can find us on Twitter, follow me at Rea Anonymous, Chris nag Is at Chris nag One. You can also follow Bloomberg Podcasts at podcast and Thank you to Charlie Pell, to Bloomberg Radio and the voice of the New York City subway system. What Goes Up is produced by Tofur Fourheads. The head of Bloomberg Podcasts

is Francesco Leaving. Thanks for listening, See you next time. Thing