Iran Officials Pessimistic About US Deal Before Midterms

28:32It wasn't particularly long, but I was left with one major takeaway. He wanted his job back. From day one of my tenure as CEO, Bob had always carried himself with the confidence that he could get his job back anytime he wanted. What happened on that call? Well, what happened was it's one of these attempts for me to try to figure out what the motivation is here. What am I missing? And I believe that Bob believed that he could get his job back, and therefore it really wasn't my place to be a judge as to how appropriate it was that he was running this interference as I'm trying to do my job, because he had the right to do this.

29:15Now, what he had agreements to or didn't have agreements to, I have no idea. But he gave me the indication that he believed that he could get his job back anytime he wanted because of the nature of the relationships he had with board members. And speaking of the board, did you have any support or people reaching out to you to say, let me give you an assist on this, or here's what you need to know about Bob Iger, who, to be fair, was at the company a long time, so entrenched and identified with the Walt Disney Company. But I am curious who reached out. I will tell you that I did. I got those calls frequently, and it was from a majority of the board.

29:58But it didn't seem like in the end it mattered because when it all fell apart, it just like the bottom just caved out. And I'm thinking to myself, exactly to your question, I just spoke to board member A, B, C, D, E within the last week. And they told me, you know what? It's going to be fine. He's going to be gone soon. Don't worry about it. And so how do I go from an extension, right? Five months earlier to reinforcing calls for the next three or four months to a bad feeling in your gut. Like something feels different about this. You always know. The fateful call in November, and it's like, well, I can't say I didn't see any smoke on the horizon.

30:42Matter of fact, I used to say all the time, I feel like this is a death by a thousand cuts, right? And it's just, when's the final cut? You know, speaking of signs, and I don't know whether this is superficial, but I've worked in enough companies, that corner office that the CEO holds, you didn't get that, did you? Bob's old office. Not initially, no. Not until he left the company and was no longer executive chair. But he wanted to retain that. And to me, again, maybe I'm naive. I don't care about those types of things. Maybe I should have, though, because it wasn't about the office. It's about what it signaled.

31:20And at the time, good old Bob, he'll be okay with it. It's fine. Yeah. It's fine. We should point out, too, that, you know, Bob Iger has been reached out to in numerous reporting, and often it's referred to the Disney company, who often don't comment on a lot of the issues. And also, I think on the COVID issue said it had nothing to do with why Bob stepped down. You know, on Bob Iger, you said to our colleague Thomas Buckley, this article was published this morning, if I did have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with him, I would have a few things to say. What are some of those things? Well, you know, I'll leave that for a face-to-face if it ever happens.

32:05I highly doubt it will, particularly after this book. I don't think it's going to happen. You know, it's been almost four years, and I haven't heard from him since then. As a matter of fact, it's my understanding that he doesn't even use my name around the office in those four years. He avoids using my name. So I don't really think, A, it's going to happen, nor, B, would anything productive come out of it. So you don't want to talk to him? I'll talk to anybody. I'm a gentleman. I'll talk to anybody at any time. But, you know, it's not just the lack of contact. It's the fact that I've been erased from the company's history.

32:43literally on the company's timeline. You know, my time has been erased from it. They took off the sign that commemorated the fact that I got the board to buy three cruise ships with master shipbuilders. It's a small thing, but it's all vindictive, right? Who does that? Well, let me ask you about something in terms of succession. So Bob Iger first chose you to succeed him, then came back after you were let go, fired. Bob Iger chose another successor, the current CEO, Josh DeMauro. Do you think Bob Iger is capable of planning for a succession? And I wonder if you see Josh's naming a different situation.

33:24You know this person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, I think Josh is fantastic. And you write about him. Nothing but good things about him in this book. Nothing but good things about Josh. You call him a protege. Yeah, well, I did groom him from the time he was a middle manager at Walt Disney World. He was always in my succession list, no matter what job I had. Here's the thing. I think, and this is, again, my opinion, but I think Bob's in a completely different place than he was the first time. You know, he wanted to do something with the NFL, bring a franchise to L.A. That didn't pan out. He wanted to go into politics for whatever reason.

33:58That didn't pan out. But now he's got a second act, right? He's got the Lakers thing. So, you know, maybe the best thing that happened to Josh tomorrow is that Bob got a piece of the Lakers. um you know do you talk to josh uh not really it was uh the relationship between myself and people that work for me uh pretty much ended uh when bob came back you know it was my understanding that they weren't exactly encouraged to have a relationship with me now certain people have uh sort of broken that and have continued i respect them deeply for taking whatever career risks they did by daring to have any communication with me, even though I worked with him for 30 years.

34:41But no, no relationship with Josh. He did send me an email the day that the announcement came out that I was leaving the company. Subsequent to that, I have not heard from him. You know, it's my understanding that you haven't been to a Disney park since you were fired. True. You dedicate the book to your family, including your grandkids and future grandkids. are you ever going to take them to a Disney park? Well, they go. I just don't know that I'm at least psychologically in a position where I can go. You know, Disney at its facade is all about, you know, harmony and respect and being the best you can be.

35:21And you can probably understand for me, given how I've been erased from the company, how I was pushed out, and the way they did it, that it would be very difficult for me to go sit on, it's a small world after all, and sort of attach that with what I've seen. I respect the company. I respect the brand. I respect the creative content that comes out of that company. It's just that this particular chapter of the company, I don't think reflected well on it or the people that made the decision. Bob, we have about three minutes left here. And the author's note in your book, you started off with their cast members and former cast members.

36:05You didn't get to write a goodbye email. So you really lay it out there. And it does feel like a professional goodbye. You talk about the daily mission of creating magical memories. You talk about higher callings and how that was for you. When you look at Disney today, what do you think about the company in terms of its place in the world? And what would you be doing at the company? Or what do you think it needs to do? I think its DNA is still fantastic. It's been fantastic since the era of Walt. So I think all the core elements are there. But I think it needs to be not about one person who sort of acts as a dictator in terms of what happens at the company and is truly a collaborative environment where the company's bigger than one person.

36:58No one person's bigger than a company. And I think that's where it went off the rails. Is it about in terms of the businesses? Is it the parks streaming? What do you think, though, is the growth engine? Well, I think, you know... You know Parks intimately. You know a lot of it, actually. And I think, you know, the Parks has the opportunity, given the way it's being managed now, to, you know, have high, you know, single-digit returns, low double-digit returns, which on a big asset like that is pretty, you know, significant. But what I think the company needs personally, and again, I'm four years removed, but I think the company needs a growth engine.

37:37I think the reason the stock is really largely unchanged versus when I left is that it's missing a growth engine. You know, too many things are challenged. ESPN is challenged by the cost of content. It's crazy. Great brand, but challenged by the cost of content. The studio product has not exactly been setting the world on fire lately, getting that creative engine going. But, you know, look at what's happened in the broadcast business. You know, network television is challenged. Cord cutting. that's already come and gone now. So it needs a growth engine. And sometimes you need to make a long-term commitment to something for it to be a growth engine and not play the whims of this quarter or this quarter or this quarter.

38:19And if you do that, you're never going to find it. And I think if I were to give Josh a suggestion, that would be it. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. We've been looking forward to getting some time with you. Bob Chapek, of course, former Disney CEO. His new book, Behind the Castle Walls, my 30 years at the happiest place on earth. You've got a new job. I hope you will come back and also talk about that with us. Okay. Well, I've got a lot of things I'm dabbling in. Okay. Well, come dabble and talk about it with us. Thank you. This is Bloomberg. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Businessweek Daily coming up after this.

38:58Some people treat ChatGPT like some kind of smart search engine, And some use it to get work done. ChatGPT Work is a new way of working in ChatGPT that can take action across your apps and files, stay with a project for hours if needed, and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs, and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro plans.

39:41At Edward Jones, we believe rich is more than caring about the latest and greatest. It's also taking care of what gives your life meaning. That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets you where you are, with personalized financial strategies that help protect what matters. so you can preserve your progress while creating a path forward. The key to being rich is knowing what counts. Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones, member SIPC. A business gift is never just a gift. It's a thank you, a milestone, a moment of appreciation. It's a message about how much someone matters and what your brand stands for.

40:21At 4imprint, you'll find thousands of customizable options like premium apparel, branded drinkware, tech, totes, and more, each chosen not just for function, but for meaning. You can tailor every detail, your logo, your message, your presentation, so your gift feels personal and on-brand. And with expert support, dependable service, and thousands without a setup fee, creating something thoughtful doesn't mean making it complicated. Every order is backed by 4imprint's 360-degree guarantee, so you can be 4imprint certain it'll arrive exactly as expected, on time and with the care your brand deserves.

40:56Because when the moment matters, the right gift speaks volumes and the right partner makes it easy. Explore gifting with purpose and certainty at 4imprint.com. 4imprint. 4certain. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Or watch us live on YouTube. I want to talk a little bit about that big acquisition from AMD, the company agreeing to buy Fei-Fei Li's World Labs AI startup for$8.2 billion. It's an all-stock transaction. We just saw an interview with Lisa Su of AMD and Fei-Fei Li.

41:41Ed Ludlow helming the interview. Also, the story, too, about how they're acquiring World Labs, gaining an AI intelligence startup founded by Fei-Fei Li. It's expected to close by the end of the year. It's subject to regulatory approvals, the company said in a statement today. All right, let's bring in Ed. He, of course, is host of Bloomberg Tech joining us. He's had a busy day, a long day, another long day. This is fascinating to me. Tell us about this combination and how you see it and why this came together. Yeah. I mean, you know, there's a backstory there. And, you know, it's really fair to say this is a deal, a piece of M &A, you know, from AMD's perspective that not many people saw coming.

42:22You know, AMD has done acquisitions in the past. This one is nowhere near its biggest. It's just that this is Fei Fei Li. It's an individual who is a pioneer in the field, who had just launched World Labs in 2024, raised quite a lot of money, and they had a lot of momentum. They work on world models, so models that basically paint a richer 3D picture of the world. They're not just text-based. And so that's a very clear specialism, but, you know, it's a big swing by AMD. and you know I would just say that I knew something was up because Fei-Fei Li was on the show last week you know I had asked her let's end our conversation with like how's it going at World Labs by the way you know what are you guys what's your latest piece of momentum and you should have kind of seen the look on her face I guess you could watch it back from last week's interview but yeah well we know what she was working on and that was the latest and you got the interview with the two of them today, Ed.

43:26A couple questions here. About 70 people at this company, it's just shocking to believe. It's only two years old. Very briefly, this is more than an acquihire, right? Well, that was kind of what I was getting at. It is more than an acquihire. It's an outright acquisition. Okay. So they get her. They get her expertise. They get the 70 employees. They get what they've been working on. How much of a divergence is this from AMD's core business, or how does it fit in with AMD's core business? So, AMD has quite consistently been an advocate for the marketplace and AI being a mix of open source models and proprietary or closed models.

44:08They have direct relationships with the Frontier Labs, Anthropic and OpenAI, who use their compute for the training and running of various generation of model. they don't go as far to this point as kind of selling the models, selling software outright. But what AMD is getting is, yes, literally those 70 people join AMD. Fei-Fei Li becomes executive vice president and chief scientist across different AMD teams, but the models teams in particular. And they can then offer those models in a way that like NVIDIA is already doing that, right? It's not just about selling compute. It's saying, you know, we are supportive of the entire AI ecosystem.

44:47And if that includes access to a library of open source models, then that's a part of the plan as well. And is this all about robots? So this is actually a bit where if I was to sort of score myself, I could have done a better job. Because the world models are much better in physical AI applications. That is the whole point of them. They give whatever the end use is a better grounding in real world physics. That also incorporates design and 3D imagery and scientific discovery. World models are useful for that. But I think what I got to with Lisa and with Fei-Fei is this won't just be about physical AI.

45:28Generally, this is being seen as them acquiring a frontier lab, a group of people who are at the absolute cutting edge of research and AI, and it will give AMD a much deeper understanding of how the field is moving forward. so that they can sell better compute, right? If you have a better and more direct insight into the process of model development and the field, right? Let's forget, not forget, this is computer science. It is a discipline in its own right. Then you can then say, okay, our systems are much better now because we understand how they're being used in the end. Ed, does it make you, does it make us focus on other relatively nascent labs in the Bay Area, in Silicon Valley, in this ecosystem that now could become targets of acquisitions by major close to trillion dollar market cap tech companies?

46:22There is a backstory and relationship between AMD and World Labs and Fei-Fei Li specifically that was already there. So Fei-Fei Li kind of started putting World Labs together in 2023, took them out of stealth in 2024 and raised money. And AMD was an early investor. But Dr. Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, like herself, you know, she has been a leader in the field in the time that she's been at the helm of AMD. She is also an engineer by background. They know each other. They have a relationship. So that's idiosyncratic to this deal. but when we posted the story right I think the reaction one of them was wow now we kind of understand some of the valuations that what are called neo labs are getting through venture investment right now they're in demand yeah it's interesting you did see it looks like I'm just looking at the Bloomberg that initially AMD jumped I think to 621 in the after hours and then settled right back.

47:26$8 billion for a company that just recently hit a trillion dollar market cap. Maybe not tons of money, but it's a lot of money. Is this a game changer, do you think, for AMD? Or how do we think about, in terms of this AI build, what signal does this send us, this combination? Yeah. I think you guys had talked about this earlier, right? AMD has had a lot of momentum recently in and of itself, right? It broke through the milestone of a trillion dollar market cap. I appreciate it's back under that now. The market has been able to have conviction that there is a growing overall demand for compute and that AMD is a real, but number two player to NVIDIA, okay?

48:09Lisa Su herself as an individual is also highly regarded by the administration, by her peers in industry, by the Frontier Labs. She's very visible and present. So the World Labs acquisition is a kind of continuation of that momentum. But, you know, look at what NVIDIA has done, the acquisition of Hugging Face, which is a platform to host, build on top of, make use of open source models. NVIDIA has been offering a library of its own models for quite some time. This is AMD kind of mirroring that move in the market. But what it comes down to ultimately is AI isn't just the chips and it's not just the models.

48:47I think Lisa Su's argument is it is everything in between. AMD needs to have exposure to every layer of the stack, very jargony industry expression, but be involved in all of what it takes to release an AR model into the world. And acquisition of world labs from a talent perspective gives them some of the best people in the world for that. All right. So now we're thinking about the other chip company that we've been talking a lot about. And while we have you, NVIDIA. Yeah. The stock buyback. Yeah. And also kind of the claims that it made today, this new double layered AI security system that it says it could have prevented this recent high profile breach of hugging face, which it now owns.

49:34um what do we know about that that's a big claim yeah okay so i'm going to give you an analogy on what nvidia announced with all of its partners this morning and that is a two-parter they are offering a um a secure room a box okay it is a piece of open source software where if you have an ai agent nvidia says okay here is a software solution where you instruct that agent to stay in that room. It can only be in that room. You control the door to the room. It can't get out. That helps to guarantee that the agent behaves in the way it was intended to. But the second part is, think of it as a security guard, a high caliber, fancy security guard, where just in case that agent does something that it shouldn't, it acts suspiciously, then that security guard is on hand to shut down whatever that agent's doing.

50:28those are just two software solutions that nvidia's come up with and it fits with like jensen one's school of thought which is this is an engineering problem so if you're worried that ai is in a place where its capabilities are greater than our ability to make it safe and aligned with human interests and it is behaving in a way it wasn't intended solve for that with an engineering solution but what's amazing is how quickly nvidia said by the way industry here's a solution but but it also is in nvidia's best interest because jensen wong oh yeah this he had this interview last week with ezra klein and he's you know it's like talking about the alr he thinks ai alarmism has gone too far but of course his company is the main beneficiary of all of these frontier labs he doesn't want anybody to slow down exactly so it's in his best interest perhaps ed and and I'm just saying perhaps to come out with solutions that would then allow, um, this stuff to develop in an environment where people would be less afraid, I guess.

51:27Timing's kind of interesting too then. Yeah. You know, one of the questions I posed on Bloomberg tech this morning is how is this AI agent safety platform story linked to the buyback? Um, and the other financial disclosures that NVIDIA made, they made many this morning about their backlog, anthropics, um, obligations to them for hardware. And it's exactly as you said, like it's in their interest to, show that demand for compute is still growing. I think that one thing that industry universally pushes back on is that pacing the frontier, that is slowing the pace at which a model's capabilities can advance, does not necessarily directly correlate to a slowdown in activity.

52:08You just alter the training run schedule on a new generation of model. There's still the very large inference piece. And we're in a world where there are loads of models that exist out there, big and small. They need to be run. And the economics of running them on really good compute platforms is what makes it appealing. And Jensen Huang is sort of, I guess, assuaging fears about the idea that demand just drops off a cliff suddenly. So Dario and Sam, don't worry about it. I got it. I got it. I've got the guardrail. I've done it for you. Yeah. Well. Complex. We're going to do more with you. Thank you so much.

52:45Long day for you. And we really appreciate you sticking around. He's the host of Bloomberg Tech. Catch it on Bloomberg TV. He's Ed Ludlow. It's 11 a.m. to 12 noon, Monday through Friday. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Business Week Daily coming up after this.

53:02Some people treat ChatGPT like some kind of smart search engine, and some use it to get work done. ChatGPT work is a new way of working in ChatGPT that can take action across your apps and files, stay with a project for hours if needed, and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs, and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro Plans.

53:45At Edward Jones, we believe rich is more than caring about the latest and greatest. It's also taking care of what gives your life meaning. That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets you where you are with personalized financial strategies that help protect what matters so you can preserve your progress while creating a path forward. The key to being rich is knowing what counts. Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones, member SIPC. A business gift is never just a gift. It's a thank you, a milestone, a moment of appreciation. It's a message about how much someone matters and what your brand stands for.

54:25At 4imprint, you'll find thousands of customizable options, like premium apparel, branded drinkware, tech, totes, and more, each chosen not just for function, but for meaning. You can tailor every detail, your logo, your message, your presentation, so your gift feels personal and on-brand. And with expert support, dependable service, and thousands without a setup fee, creating something thoughtful doesn't mean making it complicated. Every order is backed by 4imprint's 360-degree guarantee, so you can be 4imprint certain it'll arrive exactly as expected, on time, and with the care your brand deserves.

54:59Because when the moment matters, the right gift speaks volumes, and the right partner makes it easy. Explore gifting with purpose and certainty at 4imprint.com. for imprint for certain. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Or watch us live on YouTube. TikTok, everybody. 18, 19 minutes to go until we wrap up the trade on this Monday. Carol Master, Tim Stenwick live in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. Can I just say something? You can say anything.

55:35That coffee smells so good. I feel like Is it the cinnamon? It smells like we're at one of the coffee shops of my youth Yeah, it's really nice I love cinnamon, man You know, just came from the beach Oh really? You'd have coffee coming off the beach? Sometimes when I was little and we'd go surfing in the morning Can I tell you something? What? I went surfing last year Hey mom, can I tell you something? We went to, when we went to San Diego last year for an event, I went surfing with a friend of mine. Uh, you know, our flight was late. The event was over and I was like, I have like six hours. I'm going to go surfing.

56:15I should go get a coffee. No, I cannot surf anymore. Oh, like it was, it was not pretty. Yeah. This is the last time you had surfed. Oh, like junior high. Oh, so high school. Yeah. So it was, it's not like riding a bike. Let's just say that. I've only done it a handful of times. It's humbling. This was very, obviously knew how to do it. Not anymore. That's the sad part. All right. Well, okay. I love how you... We brought it all back. This is what happens when you... Our producer just told us to get the interview started. Yeah, and we should because we've got Rebecca Walser with us. She's founder and CIO at Walser Wealth Management, joining us from Tampa, Florida.

56:50The firm has around$350 million in assets under management. Nice to have you here. How are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. Good to have you here. Um, what's the big question you get or the number one question you get from clients right now when it comes to this investment environment? You know, I think anytime you have the tenure over 5%, you definitely have investors that think, oh, is it time to, you know, hey, take some risk off the table, lock in some profits and go to, you know, what they can consider safety. And, you know, it's not a bad play. However, when you are in a rising rate environment, you have to remind clients that potentially aren't going to hold those bonds for the duration.

57:31The safety of a bond, as everyone knows, comes from holding it to maturity. Now, what I find most investors are doing these days is just buying bond ETFs. And so there's an educational perspective that needs to be delivered of saying, you know, OK, if you're buying these that are fungible on a daily basis at their net present value, then we're not holding these bonds to maturity. In fact, we're not even holding individual bonds anymore. We're holding ETFs. Oh, wow. OK. It's different. How would you, like, when did that shift happen? You know, I think that it was, I really believe it was the democratization of Bitcoin, if you believe, of all things, that moving cryptocurrencies into ETFs, bonds were obviously already headed that way and were obviously traded that way.

58:14But I think that the sea change of holding all types of assets and ETFs really took hold when crypto was democratized into ETFs. I mean, that's that's where I saw a huge sea change of let's not buy individual bonds. Let's let's start going with the ETFs as well. Is crypto a part of your clients portfolios? You know, we definitely have investors that are have a risk appetite for the frontier and for the new technology. A lot of people are not there yet. But, you know, it is still a decentralized finance is still one of those, you know, boogeyman doors for a lot of people. They don't they're not quite ready.

58:49But for a lot of investors, it going mainstream into ETFs was as an opening of their eyes to, OK, this isn't just a digital asset. Maybe I need to look at it. Hey, where are flows going when it comes to your client money? Yeah, well, we believe in really creating a financial plan. We call it our living financial plan. And so we are always making sure that we are taking risk capital. We want to make sure investors, especially on this beginning of this frontier into the fourth industrial revolution, this is still the infancy stages. So if people are afraid now and they don't buy in, they're going to be looking at getting into a larger price point and making less gains.

59:27So we want to try to make sure that even our conservative investors have some exposure to this fourth industrial revolution frontier. And then, of course, for those that don't have that risk appetite, we have to do risk management and, you know, make sure that we're providing income from, you know, reliable sources to make sure that their needs are met. So it just depends on their individual situation. Hold on. Can you can you go into sort of the way you think about exposure to the to this frontier? Because a lot of it is from alternatives. I would we hear from we hear from people like you, you know, oh, it's it's the, you know, 10 percent in the in the alts that we have because there may be some secondaries or some some venture capital in there.

1:00:04How are you getting exposure to companies that are not yet public? Well, not yet public is is, you know, not something that we are for sure. It would be all it would be, you know, our accredited investors. It wouldn't be mainstream what we're doing. But I think there's enough exposure to public based companies because, you know, you're not only looking at maybe the new frontier AI stocks, but you're also looking at the ancillary companies that have been around like the Microns that report, you know, Wednesday that have just immediately had a whole breath of fresh life breathed into them, you know, that that are making plays that because it's not just the AI frontier and the compute and the data centers.

1:00:42It's all the storage, all of the infrastructure. All of these things are really, with public companies, able to be part of the frontier. So we're not talking about necessarily like before the public IPO of SpaceX this year, like the pre-SpaceX and the pre-anthropics and the pre-open AIs. That's all very speculative. And we do have risk clients that want that. But for just the mainstream customer who has a little bit of a risk appetite that still is afraid of the frontier, we're really encouraging of don't let this scare you. We don't let technology scare you into not investing because there's plenty of opportunity.

1:01:15ASML, we love them for their technology on the lithography. So there's just a lot of publicly traded opportunities right now that you don't have to go to the alt space for. Biggest risk in this environment, you know, Rebecca, as we look at midterms just around the corner, what the Fed may do, inflationary pressure is still consisting, and we'll get a read, of course, this week. there are things, geopolitical risks are still out there. There's still a lot of things that we've been talking about over the last couple of months that are still here with us in this environment. What do you see as the big risk, especially too, as we get ready in just a few weeks, we'll have the next set of earnings reports.

1:01:56Yeah, I'm really calling it like the convergence of all things. Like I do not remember a period of history where we are literally in the middle of a war that involves oil in the Middle East that obviously, you know, the strata alone is, you know, 20 % of our crude supply passes through there. So you've got a Middle East war, you still have Russia, Ukraine, you have China, Taiwan, which is percolating and bubbling. And the more and more that Taiwan semiconductors is a part of the whole AI world frontier, I think the more pressure China is going to feel to take hold of control. And that's very scary for us, especially as we want AI to be domiciled in the United States.

1:02:37When you talk about monetary policy and you talk about still the implications of coming off of the global pandemic where the world, for the most part, printed the equivalent of$20 trillion,$10 trillion roughly in the United States between fiscal and monetary policy and 10 trillion in the rest of the world and their domestic currencies to kind of go through closing down the world through coronavirus. We're still dealing with the inflationary impact of that as you start to complicate that with stablecoin and digital finance that's coming in that is now with the SEC exemption, the innovation exemption, and what the CFTC is doing, all of these things.

1:03:11It's a convergence of all things. Okay. Sorry. That's a pretty full bucket. No doubt about it. Thank you, Rebecca. Take care. Have a good week. Rebecca Walser, she's founder and CEO at Walser Wealth Management, joining us from Tampa, Florida. This is the Bloomberg Businessweek Daily Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Bloomberg.com, the iHeartRadio app, TuneIn, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube and always on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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