The debate after the debate (Kara and Scott assess Nevada), Bezos and Buffet: who is the “better” billionaire and a big prediction on Zoom

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Hi, everyone.

This is Pivot from the Vox Media Podcast Network.

I'm Kara Swisher, and we're going to have to scrape Scott Galloway off the floor.

Scott, are you there?

Yes, and I still have absolutely no idea who the president of Mexico is.

And I don't even know if it is a president.

I don't know if it's a general consulate.

I don't know if it's an ambassador.

But getting a bunch of white people together to call each other racist, stupid, misogynist-that's going to get us back in the White House, Kara.

That's going to get us back in the White House.

Oh, you seemed upset last night on the Twitter.

We're going to talk about this whole thing.

But before we get to that, I just want to say you were great on the frontline documentary,

an area that is not quite so fraught.

You were very good on the

business.

Wait, wait, hold on,

I look good.

Yes, you look good.

Really?

Really?

Yes.

The dog went to the graveyard.

That was a great documentary.

I got and LeMaire.

I got self-tanner and LeMer and I literally splathered all over my five heads.

So I go from like this kind of ashen 80-year-old look to just marginally unattractive.

But I'm glad you saw PBS.

Talk about a great brand.

How important was PBS to you growing up?

I was so excited to be on PBS.

Very, very much.

Wonderful brand.

Yeah, it was great.

They do a nice job.

Frontline does a very solid job.

It was very slightly negative, but they were so fair.

Did you like it?

I'm serious.

I thought they really

nailed it.

it.

I did.

I thought the Amazon executives, I give them kudos, as I said, for being on it, but they literally looked like dear leader, and they all looked alike, even the women.

They all looked like the same person, which was really interesting.

But, you know, you did get a sense of how they care nothing about safety of whether it's customers or employees or people who are caught in facial recognition.

And it's so benign.

It's such a benign not care.

Like, it's not even an evil kind of thing.

It was sort of fascinating.

I thought you were great and that you were very pointful about the meeting.

Thank you for saying that.

You know, I'm fascinated with aging, specifically how just you're used to.

I don't know about you, but I used to be the youngest person in every room I walked into.

And then one day I showed up.

It just happened overnight.

And last week I had one of those moments.

Like, okay, I've officially become 100 when I got up in the morning and I was so excited because I was going to the World War II Museum in New Orleans that day.

And I thought, okay, this means I'm 100.

And

I had another one of those moments when I started live tweeting frontline on PBS.

I'm like, I'm young, but I'm old.

It's like, who live tweets frontline on PBS?

It's got

been 63 since I was four.

I have been this way since I was.

Listen, we got to get to the debate.

Let's speak of old and like really, you have a stent.

That was a very funny tweet you had.

Oh my god, gosh.

They were arguing about stents and calling each other racist and misogynists.

And it was not a mention of Trump.

It was really or hardly a mention of Trump.

Let's do this breakdown.

I mean, really, that's the thing here.

Let me have you go off because people are desperate to hear what we think about this.

And then I will wisely weigh in correctly on all this.

So

when my son can't sleep, he comes out into the living room and he and I watch Deadpool together.

And he and I watching an R-rated film together has been hugely bonding for us.

And so he now comes up, he gets up every night at like 11.30 and he comes in and we sit on the couch and we watch 10 minutes of Deadpool until it gets to an especially violent scene or something with sex.

And he covers his eyes and he goes to sleep.

And it's really nice.

He came in last night in the middle of the debate.

And five minutes into it, I'm like, you've got to go to bed.

This is too disturbing.

No one under the age of 18 should watch this.

Okay, so, you know,

we have people calling each other misogynists when we have a president who shoves his hands under the dress of a woman who is unfortunate enough to sit on the plane seat next to him and be trapped next to him.

We are missing so much leadership at the Democratic National Committee level who calls these people into a room and says, listen, for the next nine months, we're giving each other a hall pass on racism, misogyny.

Don't call each other stupid.

I thought that was so embarrassing that a group of people who,

a group of white people getting on stage and in front of the world, calling each other racists, is just, I thought it was so rattling and disturbing.

How do you not deal with those issues, though?

I mean, look, in the middle of the whole thing, you have Ronan Farrow tweeting like anyone who has any stories about misogyny, which obviously was aimed at Bloomberg.

How do you deal with these issues that do exist?

There are like worrisome questions around Stop and Fris.

There are worrisome questions about being a prosecutor.

Now, I think Amy Claude Char did a lot better job than

Bloomberg, your guy, Bloomberg, about explaining it.

So how do you justify the idea that we have to talk about these issues and they exist, even if the comparison is so bad?

You know what?

That is a, as you often do, I think that's

the correct question, and I don't have a good answer for it.

Because I do think that when Bloomberg comes in late, kind of mid-race, he deserves to walk on coals and be subject to the same scrutiny and the same fire that all of these candidates have had to walk through for the last two years, which is how long they've been running for president.

So I think that's a very good point.

I think some of my disappointment is probably referred anger that Bloomberg wasn't able to respond back.

That, look, as it relates to women, if you look at frames of my career, they're ugly.

I apologize.

I've tried to take ownership of them.

But if you look at these frames as a movie, I have empowered women.

If you look at the movie that is my relationship with the black community while I was mayor of New York for 12 years, it was a positive one.

And that is the reason why that a lot of black leaders are

endorsing me.

So why didn't you do this?

he seemed like dear caught in my life especially and i think elizabeth warren standing next to him taller like there was a physical element to it it felt like the same thing with pete and amy on the other side there was a physical element of of anger and rage between them you could feel viscerally um

why didn't he push back this is a guy you talk about you're you're a big fan of his

what was what was the problem like is he just what did he just think he didn't need to prepare for the he had no good answers to any like except when on areas he got got good when he got on climate change or on business or things like that.

And then he was like, oh, all right, good, good job.

Like, he gave good answers.

He didn't smile at all.

And I hate to say that about a man, like, he should have smiled more, but he didn't.

He was not likable, not answerable, didn't answer, and seemed just completely.

And I don't think Elizabeth Warren was that unfair to him.

I don't think she was.

I think she, as she was relatively polite in the attacks, I mean, she was on fire last night, but

she sort of surgically eviscerated him.

She was, she hands down, took the night.

She was strong.

I mean, if you think of it as a boxing analogy and it's who lands the most punches while not having very few land on her, she beat the shit out of that stage last night.

Everyone was scared of her last night.

She was cutting.

She was incisive.

She was unafraid.

And the fact that Bloomberg wasn't better prepared for what they knew they were going to ask him about, the fact that he wasn't able to say simply, look, it's no accident that the two mayors are the ones that have been accused of racism because every day we have to make.

dozens of decisions balancing safety and civil rights and privacy rights.

We have to make those decisions every day.

And oftentimes we get it wrong as opposed to just voting predictably, whether you're on the left or the right and then pontificating about it all the time.

Yeah, that's a good point.

He could have just said,

you know, it's very difficult to be an operator.

You're forced with having to make these decisions instead of speeches and just voting left or voting right.

And if you're, you didn't live in New York during the Bloomberg years, the notion that

they're painting Bloomberg as this.

this raging racist and misogynist.

I mean, that's just the people who he governed, the people who worked with him, the women who have been empowered and made wealthy by him, the women in his campaign, the black community, the Latina community, there were definitely moments where there was tension.

But I think in general that they would say that this was a decent, high-character, empathetic person.

No, I'm not so sure.

And the fact that I think a lot of people don't think so.

Go ahead.

His inability, his inability to in any way counterpunch, his inability to surround himself with people who would prepare him just with

some level,

some level of adept responses is unforgivable.

That was just incompetence.

What I thought was strategically incorrect and also just plain wrong was the way Mayor Pete went after Amy.

Yeah.

Senator Klobuchar.

I was like, what a little shit.

She was good.

It was murder-suicide.

She actually, she got a little bit thrown off her game.

You could see how angry she was.

And I'm not sure if that helped or hurt her.

But

for Mayor Pete, for a 38-year-old to accuse a senator who has written 100, you know, passed incredible legislation, understands the nuance.

She's going to forget more about foreign policy than he knows.

And the fact that he felt emboldened to go after and play this kind of like

Jeopardy, you know, oh, you lost on, you lost on Jeopardy.

I thought, I thought the journalist was really inappropriate when she chimed in that, well, she didn't understand policy.

Yeah.

And it's like, no, you're there to ask questions, not make judgments.

Yeah, it was interesting.

Yeah, I think he didn't come up with Spanish speaking.

I was like, no.

Oh, my God.

Stop it.

So, okay, so I'm going to ask you, since you're a marketing professor, not a political analyst, but people love to know everything because we're brilliant at politics, as it turns out.

Um, because we're responding viscerally, I think we're intelligent people responding visually.

Marketing-wise, each of them, I want you to go through it, and we got to get to other topics, but this is such a good one today.

Um,

I want, I want you to go through each of the marketing, and we'll start with Biden in the middle.

Like, what does he do?

What do you how do you market that?

And he just kept yelling, I'm everybody knows me.

And you know, I thought he was highly ineffective and sort of petering out.

But what would you do if you were Biden?

Then we'll go through each of them.

Biden, what would you do?

Biden's done.

Biden is about to be the guy who ran for president three times and never won a state.

He's not going to win South Carolina.

There is no fire alignment.

There's nothing to do if you were him.

Declare a victory and leave.

Peace out.

Honorable career.

Quite frankly, he doesn't look like he wants to be on the stage.

What you want in marketing is you want to differentiate yourself from your closest competitor.

That's your biggest challenge.

And arguably, if his closest competitor is Bernie, because they're quote-unquote the two front leaders, a 78-year-old who just had a heart attack

looks like fucking Muhammad Ali standing next to Joe Biden right now.

Yeah,

quite frankly,

Joe Biden just has a difficult time.

He comes across as old and weak.

There's just, and it's a terrible thing to say, it's an ageist thing to say, but biology isn't politically correct.

And the reality is, the guy, the 78-year-old with the heart attack, looks like he could run a marathon.

He's engaged.

He looks strong.

He looks crisp.

And so basically, Bernie just cements our worst fears about Joe.

Joe is done.

It's ridiculous, in my view, that he's still in the race.

And they're just holding out hope.

So next, Amy, what would you do with marketing?

What does she do?

Because there's the clomentum, they're calling it, the clomentum.

How can she keep up the clomentum?

The best brands invest during recessions and maintain a certain level of marketing spend because

they realize their fitness fitness over time wins.

She is a case study in staying the course, staying on message, bringing sort of like a nice, affable strength to the debate stage.

Pete took her off that by forcing her to get angry because his comments were so inappropriate.

But I think Senator Klobuchar has shown a ton of strength and grace.

I think she has been this, this probably more than anyone who likely won't be president.

This benefits her other than those joey baggadon, and Yahoo failed businesses.

Yeah, I say she comes back next election if Trump wins.

That's what I kept thinking.

Okay, she's all set up.

She's now

in 2024, the kind of most formidable forces

are going to be Senators Klobuchar and Nikki Haley.

Yeah.

I think 24 is going to be the year of women.

I think those two, I think we're going to hear a lot more from Senator Klobuchar.

All right, so just hold the phone.

She may not make it.

Nothing.

Okay, that's her marketing move.

What about Bernie?

Well, this is what's about to happen with Bernie.

So Bernie really benefited from everyone going after Bloomberg.

Yes, he did.

That was crazy.

Bloomberg.

When he's the frontrunner.

Because Bernie is the frontrunner, you are about to see over the next seven days, over the next 168 hours, you are about to see the mother of all vetting and scrutiny on Senator Sanders, including footage.

of him standing next to very uncomfortable socialists in Latin America and praising them,

talking about how great the Russian system is.

He really has

one combination of fear of alienating.

Brands are in love with young people because young people are stupid and spend money on high-margin products like Nikes and phones, right?

So everybody is obsessed with young people.

And the marketplace for politics is obsessed with young people and doesn't want to alienate that person with the tattoo and the nose ring because their feeling was eventually Bernie would fade and you didn't want to piss them off and alienate them.

That is about to switch and people are about to go after Bernie because they realize right now, it looks like Bernie has the math and is starting to run away with it.

And last night, he took very few incoming.

And this notion,

he has enabled, endorsed, much less ignored, the toxicity that is the internet to his advantage.

The Bernie bros are, I mean, the one thing he has, and some people might argue, well, you got to bring a gun to a gunfight, but the online toxicity venom that is being thrust around and spit at people on his behalf with his endorsement and his kind of what I'll call

benign neglect around it was not really addressed last night.

And his embrace of socialists and even, you know, some very uncomfortable, very uncomfortable figures.

We're about to see all of that come to light.

Because all of a sudden, they all woke up last night and go, wait, we let Bernie get away with everything last night and he's actually the frontrunner.

The next seven days are going to be, the next seven days will be the fire that Senator Sanders has named.

I agree.

You know what?

Bloomberg tried to go after him on that communist.

He called him a communist, which I thought was, and at one point, Bloomberg finally was sort of him where he goes, this is just ridiculous.

What's happening?

This is how we re-elect Trump.

Yeah.

This conversation.

Someone I thought the best tweet was by a guy named Justin Barragona.

He said, Bloomberg brought a wallet to a gunfight tonight.

Right.

Well, actually, let's get to Bloomberg last and then we got to move on.

So, Warren, what do you do if you're Warren?

Oh, my gosh.

gosh, keep on keeping on sister.

Yeah, why not?

My word.

My word.

She is.

Quite frankly, and this goes right to Bloomberg.

If I were Bloomberg right now, I would be a moment of self-awareness saying, all right, just have me memorize some talking points around the following five questions.

I know I'm going to get over and over because he just,

they didn't do that.

And also, to a certain extent, the damage here.

I don't know, and again, I'm biased because

I like the man.

And my criteria are three things.

Who will beat Trump?

Who will kill Trump?

Who will bring shock and awe to Trump?

And I think he's, quite frankly, because money has infected politics, $60 billion is pretty important.

And I don't like myself for it.

I wanted Senator Bennett.

I wanted a school superintendent, a thoughtful guy who could reach across the aisle.

I'm fed up.

I want shock and awe against the Trump.

Okay, so what does Elizabeth Warren do?

And then we'll get to Bloomberg.

Elizabeth Warren, in my view, well, what Bloomberg should do.

What Bloomberg should do.

Well, unfortunately, it kind of all comes down to money at this point and momentum because what you have with Sanders, Sanders has a money machine.

That's what we don't get enough attention to.

Warren, you're saying

the gangster move here, and quite frankly,

if Bloomberg could pull it off, would be to pull an

interesting move, but it was the wrong characters.

It was like shavings of shit on a shit salad.

It was when Ted Cruz announced Carly Fiorina as his VEP.

If the Bloomberg campaign could convince Senator Warren to hook up with her and announce her as his VP, and stop the debates and then say, and I'm only going to run for four years.

I'm out.

I'm old.

And try and set her up for a run.

Because she right now is the strongest person on the stage.

It'll be interesting to see if she gets the momentum in the next 48 hours to give her a shot at it.

Because right now she doesn't.

They're all out of breath because they're all out of money except for Bernie, who has a money machine, and obviously the guy worth $60 billion.

Yeah.

All right.

So last two.

Last two, I'm going to keep you tight.

Pete, what does he do?

He's running out of money.

He's got some money.

He's got more money than others, but some.

It'll be interesting to see if Pete scores strong.

It's just strange that he had, I think probably Peak Pete was about 72 hours ago.

And I think it was a murder-suicide last night.

I think he miscalculated going after Senator Klobuchar the way he went out.

He came across as just sort of snitty and snotty.

And I wonder,

I mean, there's still a chance there.

He would be very interesting on the debate stage with Trump.

But I think we saw Peak Pete 72 70.

Yeah, he also looked like a kid.

That mustache thing.

I hate to look at personal things, but boy, was that a mistake.

I was like, shave or do something.

It looked like he was growing a mustache right there.

It was

just started using deodorant.

He looked young.

He looked really young.

And nothing wrong with young, but it really was a contrast.

All right, last thing, and then we'll move on to other things.

Bloomberg, what do you do now?

You got this great social media thing.

Now,

Bloomberg has this paid social media army.

I'm going to mention a couple of things.

He's innovating in the realm of political marketing, paying people $2,500 a month to promote him.

You know, he's using influencer, paid influencer content.

He's investing heavily in Instagram,

doing memes and everything else.

He's spent $50 million on digital ads since he started his campaign.

What do you do now?

If you've done this amazing job on social media and when you weren't being seen, which got you into big numbers, I think he's like, he's ahead in Florida.

He was ahead in Florida.

He's ahead.

What do you do now?

What is the move?

What is the gangster move now for Bloomberg, besides hiring Elizabeth Warren, which he will never do in this lifetime?

Well, the first is when you go through childbirth, supposedly a hormone releases that creates amnesia.

Otherwise, women would never consciously decide to have a second child.

Supposedly, there's the same effect with men, too, when kids are young, that we forget what it was like having babies.

Otherwise, we would never have more.

It's supposed to be a bad thing.

Oh, no, my baby, everyone wants to have a baby after seeing my baby.

But go ahead.

No, but you know what I mean.

Supposedly, there's, you know, childbirth is very painful.

My grandmother used to say

it's the worst pain you've ever had and the easiest to forget but go ahead move away well that's it supposedly there literally is a chemical response anyways the amnesia here is going to be money and that is i think seven to nine million people watched the debates last night and it granted it'll get a lot of press yeah media will go crazy in this 24 hours Bloomberg will spend $10 million.

Let's assume a CPM of $100, which is crazy, way more.

That means $100 million impressions.

That means at least 20 to 30 million people are going to see three ads today from Bloomberg.

And it's not fair.

Citizens United is terrible.

We need to get money out of politics, but that money will be the amnesia hormone for most of his performance last night.

That's the hopeful, that's the best thing you could say about Bloomberg, but there's just no getting around it.

He needs to spend the next, whatever it is, several days in a room with one person going over his responses.

to four questions.

And we all know what those four questions are going to be and to understand the responses every which way but loose around those four questions.

It's just, it's not hard.

It's not a tough playbook.

It's money.

It's the amnesia hormone of the coronavirus, Benjamin's.

I think he's got to do some big interviews.

That's actually a great point.

So I'm going to flip it back to you.

Give us your breakdown of what happened last night and what you think needs to be done.

I also have no idea.

I'm not entirely sure who you are.

I can't believe I'm saying this.

I don't think he's as hurt as you think he is.

I think he was stupid, and I think it gave you a very clear view into this man.

I mean, he's like this.

He's like,

forget it.

He reminds me so much.

He's an entrepreneur, and he reminds me so much of the tech people I cover.

They just move along.

Like Mark Zuckerberg, we're just going to move.

Okay, I did this.

I'm going to move along.

Like he's a move.

He's like, I don't know why we're discussing this.

I'm not as bad as him.

Like, that's how they do everything justifying.

And so he reminds me utterly of everyone I cover.

And they don't want to be, the details of what happened, as long as they changed, is like, stop bothering me about this.

And so they never want to reflect.

I call them vampires.

If they look in a mirror, they can't see themselves.

He has no ability.

He's annoyed by it.

You could see he was visibly annoyed, and he's got to do something about that.

He's got to do, you know, and it did point out that, look, his social media stuff is clever and funny and interesting, and he's not, right?

Like, he's not as witty as the stuff that other people are writing for him.

So he should just listen to what the people who are writing for him do and be like, be that person.

And I think being unlikable is not something he can do just because he feels like it, because he's this grumpy old billionaire, essentially.

And so I think what he has to do is from a, from a, I think he should continue to put the, put the metal down on social media and spend all that money and rack up the numbers, because I think you're right, not everybody watch this and not everyone's going to get a message.

I think he should contrast himself to Trump in that, you know, I said some stupid things and I shouldn't have said them.

I've tried to become better, but I didn't, you know, assault anybody like the president and he should do that.

Or I did this thing with Stauffenfrus, which is terrible.

the policy was wrong it was my fault I shouldn't have you know what I mean like he should do that

and I instead of like I'm not apologizing for this anymore that's that's the attitude he has and it's such a techie it's such a technocrat attitude it's like all we and then you saw him in bits and pieces go you know really the point is to beat Trump and he's right right like he's so annoyed that this is dragging him down.

But there is some element of, you know, me a cop in politics that you have to do deftly.

And I don't, I don't think this is a killer for him.

I don't think he's done.

I think that's a mistake.

I think he's got money.

He's got really talented people around him, marketers.

And I think the voting public, as shown by, like, remember

the five-alarm fire that was the Republican debates?

Come on.

Like, do we remember any of that?

And it worked for Trump.

I think Bloomberg should play to his strengths, which is, you want to be Trump?

You need me.

You need me.

100%.

And that's what he needs to keep saying.

And

I think he should do a series of interviews, including with Karis Wisher,

in which he has it out.

You know, he has it out with the media, essentially.

And I do think Ronan Farrell coming around is not going to be good.

Those stories are not going to be good.

He has a history of saying stupid things.

I've had him say stupid things to me, like just stupid things.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like, but so has every internet executive.

So has everyone else.

So I think it's recoverable.

I think it's recoverable.

You know who's very forgiving of those stupid things?

Moderates.

Yeah.

In a weird way,

some of that stuff, I don't want to say it helps them, but I don't think moderates are looking for the most swole candidate.

I don't think that's their criteria.

And the fact a couple times he was sort of, I don't call it unapologetic, but his strongest moment in my viewpoint was he said, wow, the fastest way to get Trump re-elected is if people are listening to this conversation, this is just ridiculous.

Right.

Yep.

And I think a lot of people are doing that.

I think a lot of moderates stood up and said, and the reality is most moderates aren't probably watching the debates because they just have better shit to do.

And they're going to go with, okay,

I like the fact that two out of three, I mean, two-thirds of Americans right now are polling saying that they're better off than they were four years ago.

And the number of times we've kicked a president out mid-cycle without a recession is zero.

So right now he's got a lock on it.

And if we don't bring somebody to bear that has literally the resources, the executive experience, the reputation as a good manager, and despite his flaws,

a decent man.

I think you have a tough time saying that Michael Bloomberg isn't a decent person.

I just don't buy it.

That is the playbook here.

And

you're right.

I like to think what you're thinking, that he can, this is what I'd call an on-the-field injury, but he gets up, goes to the sideline, shakes it off, and gets on the body.

He's got to do that.

I think Elizabeth Warren did him a favor in a weird way, you know, like showed him what he's, I think this, he, he probably has people around him that yes him all the time.

He's, look, he's just like a lot of people I cover.

He's an arrogant prick.

I mean, I'm sorry.

That's what, you know what I mean?

Like, I can just, I watch, I was like, oh, God, that's a man I've dealt with all my life, essentially, that I cover.

And I think that she did him a favor that he can't now, his, his people can now say what they think rather than be, you know, lick him up and down and be obsequious to him.

And so maybe that will help.

Maybe she did him a favor by showing him.

And again, she's definitely benefited here.

I don't think she's going to necessarily, I think she's amazing.

I think she handled it beautifully and didn't seem like,

you know, she has the danger of looking like, you know, the school marm lecturing men about how they should behave.

And she didn't do that.

She did a very deaf job.

But, and she's obviously the most intelligent person on that entire stage compared to everybody

and the most qualified and the least corrupt.

You know what I mean?

Like in terms of all of them.

And

I think she did him a favor.

So we'll see what happens.

I think he still has to really,

he's going to have to answer better.

That's, I mean, and we'll see if he gives up.

He may just be like, this is, I'm not, this, what, this bullshit.

I'm so rich.

I have.

Oh, he's not going to give up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't think he should.

I don't think he should, but I don't think there's any downside to him staying in, given like, what are you going to do with all that money?

I thought the house thing, I think they have to go after Bernie.

Like, that was amazing to me.

It's about to start.

It's about to start.

Yeah, I think so, too.

All right.

Do you feel better now?

Do you feel a little better?

It's always darkness before the darkness.

It's always darkness before more darkness.

Anyway, we're going to take a quick look at it.

Sometimes it's darkness before it's pitch black.

Pitch black, exactly.

We're going to talk about tech things when we get back.

We have listener mail and predictions.

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All right, Scott, we're back.

You've had our moment of debate.

People were demanding we discuss it.

I thought it was an intelligent.

You're a coy little mink, so I still don't know where your heart is around this.

About who I'm going to vote for?

I'd i'd like to make a candidate of all of them okay we're gonna listen to listener mail that's enough uh i don't know i like them all i like them all and that's i like them all in some way and i don't i'm not as hopeless as much many democrats um okay let's dig into listener mail uh let's listen to the tape you've got you got can't believe i'm gonna be a mailman you you got mail

hi scott and kara My name is Theron.

I'm from London and I'm a big fan of the show.

Why has Warren Buffett invested in Apple and Amazon in recent years when he's historically avoided tech and stuck to industries he understands?

Why has he invested in restoration hardware and most recently Kroger?

Is physical retail making a comeback?

Finally, what do you think about Buffett pledging to give away 99% of his fortune versus Jeff Bezos dropping $165 million on a house and Amazon donating less than a million dollars to fight the bushfires in Australia?

Is Buffett a better type of billionaire?

Thanks a lot.

All right.

I'm going to answer this from Scott to begin.

I recently spent some time with Warren Buffett in Omaha.

Yes, he's a better billionaire.

He is a better billionaire.

One of the things, I've talked to him over the years at various times.

He has great regard for Jeff Bezos as

an entrepreneur and

a company.

So he does, he's smart to invest in Apple and Amazon, which he's done lately and has done rather well doing it.

One of the arguments we had many years ago, not really an argument because I just made the comment that he should have been investing in tech much earlier.

And his answer at the time was, I don't know a lot about it and I don't understand it, so I'm not going to invest in it.

And I thought that was a perfectly decent response for why he doesn't do it.

I think he likes to put his bets all over the table.

Restoration hardware looks like something that could recover.

Kroger, same thing.

He thinks that some physical retail is here to stay.

And yes, he's a better billionaire in terms of philanthropy.

He's an admirable person in that regard.

It was a delight spending time with him.

He is much less, he's much more humble, although he certainly has an ego.

And he lives, just having had dinner with him, he lives in literally and been to his office in the most humble way for someone that wealthy.

And even a normal person, he lives rather with a lot of

in very, not very fancy backgrounds

in his community in Omaha.

He can put away a lot of meat.

We went to a steakhouse.

Just a regular guy.

So I think Bezos could learn a thing or two from him in terms of being a little more humble, but I also, that's the way Jeff wants to be these days, and that's the way he is.

Scott, what do you think?

So Farron from London, by the way,

that's a good rap.

I'm Farron from London.

That's a good rap, right?

You wish you had a British accent.

Oh, my God.

100%.

My dad's Scottish.

For some reason, I didn't pick that up.

Can you imagine?

If I had my dad's accent and Shakira's ass, I would do so much damage in this world.

So much damage in this world.

Those are the two things.

Let me hear your Scottish accent.

Let me hear your Scottish accent.

No,

I do it, and it ends up sounding mildly racist like I'm trying to impress you.

Your dad has a delightful Simpson.

Let me just say,

oatmeal savages.

Anyway, so, okay, so Amazon and Apple, look, the only, he doesn't, you don't need to understand investing.

People ask me for investing advice all the time, and I say, I only invest, I only have two criteria, a monopoly that's unregulated.

Those are the only companies you need to invest in.

And Amazon and Apple check both those boxes.

Check out this stat.

I love playing with market caps.

In the last 13 months, and I'm just fascinated by the notion that tech has now

the technology panzer tanks have rolled into Malibu and Santa Monica and Burbank and Studio City.

They are taking over Hollywood.

And the invasion, to give you a sense of the invasion, in the last year, when you look at Amazon's flywheel around Amazon Prime Video, when you look at Apple getting in to Apple TV Plus to create their own recurring revenue bundle or rundle, this is what's happened in the last 13 months, even as they haven't increased their earnings tangibly but they've been recast as companies that are becoming more unassailable in the last 13 months apple and amazon have added added kara the value of verizon at

walt disney fox

uh lionsgate viacom cbs oh and comcast they've basically added the value of hollywood plus telecommunications in the last 13 months.

And there's nothing that looks as if it's getting in the way.

Look at all these supply chain coronaviruses fears around Apple, and the stock keeps going up.

So you think it's good that he's invested?

What do you think of Buffett?

What do you think of him?

Besides the folks, the delightfulness of him?

I think he's an incredibly impressive guy and a good person and represents a lot of what's great about America.

I think it's very hard to fault a guy like Warren Buffett.

I also just don't like Warren.

I'm not sure stuff around his loan, some of his companies around related to poor people.

But anyway,

go ahead.

Sorry.

No one gets off of this scrutiny alive.

I mean,

there is no Mother Teresa that gets to be a billionaire.

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah, but the other thing I didn't like about, again, I don't mean to digress too much, but once you become a billionaire, you don't turn into a cartoonish bad person.

That's just stupid.

Yeah, that whole thing, should billionaires survive,

that was a ridiculous question from Chuck Todd.

Should billionaires exist?

I think Amy Klobuchar handled it well.

Like, look, it's great for people to make money, but we should shouldn't be watching for abuses.

I think that's really pretty much the, I think she handled it right.

So Amazon and Apple, they may be overvalued, but they're just on a risk-adjusted basis, unregulated monopolies are the best investments in the world.

What's more interesting is this investment in Resto and Kroger.

Resto

has created a recurring revenue bundle with the restoration hardware membership program, $100 a year, smooth out promotionality, 20% off everything.

So people are now buying their sheets and their bedding, not only their couch.

And they've also created, so they've got about a half a million members,

55 million in free cash flow, probably costs 5 million to administrate.

So that's like another half a billion to a billion just in value, much less the flywheel effect that they're creating.

Also, Gary Friedman is...

to our age, what Mickey Drexler was to the 90s and the odds.

He's the best merchant in the world right now.

Go into a palazzo or whatever they call it, a grand of restoration hardware.

It's just, it's inspiring.

You want inspiring retail?

Yeah, it is.

Go into it.

I own much restoration hardware because of what it's looked on the floor.

It's merchandising.

It's merchandising.

It's what it is.

And there's a certain level of genius.

The line between crazy and genius, this is a guy, he kind of looks at the numbers, he kind of listens to the analyst, and he says, you know what?

I'm going to start a catalog that's the size of a phone book when everyone else is pulling away from catalogs and it's just going to be all about art.

I'm not going to allow alcohol in our restaurants, hard alcohol in our restaurants at the top levels of restoration hardware palazzos because i i want women to feel like they have a safe place and i don't want a bunch of hedge fund guys hitting on women during lunch he just thinks differently and the execution there that just enough crazy to be genius the membership program resto is arguably the most impressive especially retailer the most visionary so i understand that bet and by the way the stock doesn't need to recover the stock has has been an outstanding performer in what is the vietnam of retail kroger is more a value bet that's like five to seven.

I would bet.

Kroger is a value play.

Largest consumer category in the world is U.S.

grocery, about $800 billion a year.

Kroger is the big player.

Amazon's brick-and-mortar is actually underwhelmed, especially around grocery.

The big competitor there is Walmart Click and Collect.

Kroger is different.

Kroger is kind of Lexus, and Walmart is Toyota, although a lot of people don't think of it as Kroger as aspirational relative to Walmart.

Some people might think it is.

Actually, you know what?

I'm going to take that bet.

I don't know what I'm talking about, the positioning around grocery there.

But Kroger is partnering with Microsoft.

It's actually a well-run company.

They're known for doing a good job of bringing their operational scale into regions and maintaining some

regional merchandising.

Given how close he is to Microsoft, Buffett may have some insight he may not have to that.

So Kroger is considered a well-run company.

It's trading at five to seven times in an environment where everything's trading at 15 to 20 times.

Yeah, he's not.

And groceries are going anywhere.

Yep, that's a smart move.

So I'm going to move to something else.

I agree.

I think Buffett's much more admirable at being a billionaire than Bezos is, but Bezos made an attempt by contributing $10 billion towards a climate change.

You know,

the optics of this,

do you think it's a good thing or not a good thing?

It's not clear what it is because he's not being highly specific.

Elon Musk and Bill Gates have been doing a lot of investing in this area.

And obviously, Amazon is considered a major carbon footprint, not like methane gas or things like that, but still people have issues with their boxes and their impact on the environment with their delivery trucks.

Do you think this was a good move, very briefly?

It's hard to fault anybody for devoting $10 billion to the

important issue around climate change.

What this reflects, though, is an underlying sickness in our society, where

when Walmart pays $70 billion in corporate income taxes, the most successful company in the world, Amazon, pays $2 billion, we become reliant on individuals to address the biggest issues of our time, whether it's income inequality or climate change or decaying infrastructure.

And Kara, I want NASA to put me on fucking Mars,

not Elon Musk.

I want the Paris Accords to solve climate change, not to try and lean and hope for the generosity of Jeff Bezos.

$10 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to what we are going to need to do on a nation-state level to address

trillions.

Trillions.

And the notion, and I'm worried it's going to give us, I'm worried it's going to give us cold comfort that it's going to do anything.

And two, we're moving to this very scary era.

Well, well, you know, Pablo Escobar isn't that bad because he builds parks.

Well, if on the way to getting there, and I want to be clear, I'm not comparing Bezos to Pablo Escobar, but governments are the gangsters here.

Governments need tax revenues such as

noble organizations in the world.

And the notion we don't need Bezos to give $10 billion.

We need him to pay us goddamn taxes.

We need senators Warren and Senator Sanders to stop ragging on billionaires and create a tax code

that ensures they pay their fair share, such that we can put men on Mars, such that we can fight climate change, instead of having to hope that Jeff Bezos wakes up one morning, has breakfast with Leo DiCaprio, and says, I'm a climate warrior now.

That is not going to get us there.

That's perfect.

Perfect analysis, Scott Gallup.

And may I just say, we were discussing this morning that you have a word in urban dictionary, yoga babble.

Oh, my God, back to me, back to my favorite topic.

Yes, it's coined by Scott Gallup and his piece, Yoga Babble, on his nerves.

Urban dictionary, officially, and the Urban Dictionary, Yoga Babble's in there, and they credit me.

I know that, but is there two B's or not?

Because your P's had two B's, or it looks like they have a misspelling on the page in Urban Dictionary, just so you know.

Well, I don't know.

You're the journalist major.

What should it be?

Two B's.

Two B's.

Yeah.

Two Bs.

Yeah, I thought it was two B's, too.

But by the way, just such, I want to give credit where credit's due.

I stole the term.

I remember watching the thing called The Circus, and I just want to give credit where it's due.

And John Hiliman, is that his name?

John Heilman.

John Hiliman was at a rally for who is the Ohio governor that ran for president and was likable, but never really made a whole lot of sense.

What's his name?

Not sure.

Ohio governor.

Oh, come on.

He's a likable Republican who came out against Trump.

Kasich.

Yeah, Kasich.

John Heiliman described Kasich's speech as yoga babble, and I grabbed that word and I ran with it.

And I'm now using it.

He's going to come at you.

I'm using it as a term to describe.

Trump can come at you.

You know that.

I'm happy.

Whoever runs Urban Dictionary,

but I assigned a new meaning to it.

It's basically fraud splanning by Uber and other companies, and I'm writing my post on it to wallpaper over a shitty business with new financial terms and flowery language called yoga babble.

Anyways, it's in the urban dictionary.

I'm immortal.

The dog is immortal.

I'm Rintin Tin and Lassie.

I'm immortal.

All right.

We want more terms from you.

So predictions.

It's Friday in February.

What do we have to look forward to?

Give me one prediction and then we got to get out because we were political today and you cannot do a political prediction another

you're about to see you're about to see video footage of bernie sanders talking about how much he loves russia and um very very uh sketchy socialist leaders in latin america the all the scrutiny that everyone has been scared of about bernie is about to come full force at him in the next uh in the next seven days.

And I had a stock prediction, but I made it last week and I didn't get it on the air.

I think the one company that gets the most out of this coronavirus scare is we're in the midst of the largest work-from-home experiment in the history of modern business.

And 11% of Stern students are Chinese nationals.

And they're watching, you go on, you go on Stern's campus, Kara, and people are wearing masks.

Yeah.

And I think Zoom, which is already up 20% in the last nine days, is probably, it's at 107.

I think it goes to 140 or 150.

Okay, we're going to talk about coronavirus on Monday, so that'll be interesting.

Okay, all right, that's a really good one.

We have to end now, but remember to our listeners, we love your questions.

If you have a question about a story you're hearing in the news, email us at pivot at Voxmedia.com to be featured on the show.

Scott, please read us out with the credits.

I've sucked all the oxygen out of the room, Kara.

You do this.

People are sick of my voice.

No, they're not.

Not at all.

You know, when you talk a lot, I look more smart.

You don't understand my ploy here, is what's going on, is I like control your dialogue.

I think people accept that on the thing.

So I'm fine.

You're a little control freak.

I'm a little control freak, is what I am.

Anyway, today's show is produced by Rebecca Sinanez.

Erica Anderson is Pivot's executive producer.

Thanks also to Rebecca Castro and Drew Burroughs.

Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

If you're an Android user, check us out on Spotify or frankly, wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you liked our show, please recommend it to a friend.

Thanks for listening to Pivot from Box Media.

We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.

This month on Explain It to Me, we're talking about all things wellness.

We spend nearly $2 trillion on things that are supposed to make us well: collagen smoothies, and cold plunges, Pilates classes, and fitness trackers.

But what does it actually mean to be well?

Why do we want that so badly?

And is all this money really making us healthier and happier?

That's this month on Explain It to Me, presented by Pureleaf.

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