Mamdani Begins Term by Wiping Out 15 Months of Adams’ Orders

0:00Carol Massar:They told us to expect change. They warned us about the transition. But honestly, they forgot the best part. This is the chapter where we finally focus on us. LifeMD delivers expert menopause and midlife care right from your home. From hormone health to holistic wellness, LifeMD helps you feel your best for the best years of your life. LifeMD, it's just getting good. Visit LifeMD.com slash goodlife. So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need.

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1:35Carol Massar:Podcasts. Radio. News. This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily. Reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead. With insight on the people, companies and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. Hey, speaking of tech, the market's heightened focus on AI is raising investors' hopes as consumer tech giants and watchers and journalists, everybody. I mean, people are going from all over the world to Las Vegas to go to CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show.

2:20Carol Massar:Did you say bring your hand sanitizer? Yeah. I mean, that is the most important thing to bring. The charging, battery charging stuff for your phone and hand sanitizer, because if you haven't gotten sick yet, you're going to get sick at CES. I have bad news for everybody. Joining us live to set us up for the event, Maribel Lopez, founder and enterprise AI analyst at Lopez Research, and Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst at Creative Strategy. It's great to have you both with us. Carol mentioned bringing this hand sanitizer. Both of you know that at this point by this time going to CES.

2:53Carolina, I want to start with you because there's always a theme at CES. I mean, when I went years ago, it was like, this was before the Apple Watch came out. So everyone was talking about wearables. And the year before that was, you know, the Internet of Things. That was going to change everything. Is it just AI this year? Is that what it is? Sadly so. In so many different ways, but AI is going to be everywhere. Whether we're talking about AI in cars and how that is helped with EV and self-driving, Or are we talking about the start of humanoids taking over our work at home or in factories from a consumer perspective?

3:29You know, who doesn't want somebody doing the dishes for you? And then AI from a health perspective. So more applications that will use sensors and drive data to offer a more personal experience in whatever device you're using. So, yes, AI overload for sure.

3:49Carol Massar:Maribel, come on in on the conversation. As we get ready for CES and lots of stuff to flood the Bloomberg in terms of announcements from different companies, what are you watching out for? One of the things I think is really interesting, and Carolina picked up on some of the great things that we're looking at right now, I don't think those things are different. We've always talked about automotive. We've always talked about PCs. This year is going to be AI PCs. Again, we had AI PCs last year. What I think is interesting is CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, is so much of an enterprise show right now.

4:20You have folks like Caterpillar. You have folks like Siemens. We're talking about humanoids. It's the year of physical AI, in my opinion, where we really start to see these robots come in that are for everything, as Carolina mentioned, from your household chores. But we're going to see a lot in warehouse, manufacturing, health care, hospitality. reality so we're really starting to look for how that's actually playing out in the market it's a big chip show chips for everything ai everywhere ai and small devices ai and large devices so that's pretty much the name of the game here some software as well that we're going to see around ai i don't know maribel convinced me that this is not the start of some dystopian horror flick where you know we're all just around our homes and we have these robots that are tim's been sick a couple

5:07Carol Massar:days. A couple of weeks now sitting on the couch. So it could be the Sudafed talking. I don't know. But I don't, you know, do we do these, do we want these robots in our homes with us? So first of all, and Carolina, I'm sure you have a perspective on this as well. I still think we're a long way from actually having the robots in the home. You know, we've been talking about autonomous driving for a long time and we're not all driving autonomous vehicles right now. But I do like directionally where we're going. We have across the globe, if you look at some of the issues with age in Japan and needing to have co-bots, that's going to happen.

5:40I think we see these first in the enterprise. They have to be proven out in the enterprise because they have to be in environments where they're not necessarily with humans until they can get everything right. Because as you said, what could possibly go wrong with robots running around, right?

5:54Carol Massar:Carolina, you know, what could possibly go wrong? But I do think about, you know, I let room to into my house. Now I look at it and it was very primitive and I know it's not really a company anymore. But I do think about how we have easily kind of given a lot of our world over to technology. I don't carry cash anymore. So I am all in on like a digital universe. Is that the same when we think about humanoid robots? Are we going to be as accepting? I think it's different, especially when you welcome something that looks more human into your home. You see already with consumers that there's a lot of sensitivity around cameras, for instance, in the home.

6:36And when you start, you know, the room is pretty harmless, right? What damage can it actually do? Maybe polish your floors too much. But, you know, when you're actually talking about robots that have more cameras that are eye level, that can freely roam around your room and house with children involved or pets involved. I think there's a security concern, there's a privacy concern, and we don't know that the ROI is there yet. And I think that's where, from a consumer perspective, you always have to balance. We are willing to give pretty much everything up. Look at how much we put on social media and then we screen privacy, right?

7:19But we need to have that return of investment. And I think that's the part that is still unclear. When does that become clear, Maribel? So from my perspective, I think first we have to see this really proven out in commercial. We have to see it be able to work with humans in things like factories before we put them into our home with our pets and our children, as we mentioned. AI is getting better, but we still have to get to the point where it's not just the physicality of the robot. It's the software. It's the speed of processing. It's a price point issue. These are expensive. They're too expensive right now for businesses to buy.

7:59So we're really not at consumer grade robots. And by the way, on that Roomba, I've had many a cable that were chopped up and sliced up quite a bit. So a few things that were downed by them, chopped up by the Roomba. They love cables. And the next thing you know, your electronic devices are on the floor. So if you're in a cable free house. Well, nobody said these devices would actually get along with each other.

8:19Carol Massar:I got to say, I know I had some carpet fringe that was chewed up a little bit, but I was like, yeah, you know, if you're going to vacuum God, you know, there's going to be some problems here. I've got you. That's your return. Exactly. Exactly. Seriously though, we've just got about two and a half, three minutes. Um, Carolina, let me start with you. I mean, who will be the winners, uh, when we look at AI and technology or, or things, maybe some tones or hints that we might get out of CES that you think we could be talking about a lot this year? We're definitely going to talk about AI throughout 2026 and years to come.

8:54This is not a trend that is going to just vanish. This is something that is going to be with us for a long time. And for me, the winners from a company perspective, especially when it comes to consumers, are the brands that are not making trade-offs and not using us consumers as a byproduct of their success. So transparency, when it comes to AI, is going to be critical because transparency is going to drive engagement and trust. And without trust, from a consumer perspective, you're not going to get to what you want from consumers, which is daily engagement. And that's what, at the end of the day is going to make all the investments that we've seen for companies across tech worthwhile.

9:39Maribel, come on back in here. You cover enterprise and focus more so on enterprise. What's your prediction for enterprise tech that we're going to be talking about a year from now that maybe not unveiled, but will be talked about a lot at CES? Well, actually, I still think we're in the picks and shovels business with CES and with AI. So we're going to hear a lot from the chip companies. Those chips are going to go into everything, whether it's large or small, as I mentioned earlier. So I think they're going to be very successful over the next year. I think we're, you know, we've talked a lot about the AI PC, but if we look at the things that you need to actually make AI run in consumer devices, those are the things we're going to be still talking about that are successful.

10:16Some of them are dead boring. You know, their servers, their storage, their chips, but these are the things that make the world go around right now. And those companies will be the companies that are making the announcements of things will actually be deployed next year. You know, Lenovo with their AI factories. We've got Jensen talking. We've got Lisa Su talking from AMD, Qualcomm. You know, so the chips, the servers, the storage, they're all going to go into devices. And it's a matter of whether or not they're large or small. So I think those are the trends that are, well, not sexy, are the things that we're going to be talking about that have to happen so that we can get to the next level to actually make AI a reality in people's homes.

10:56Carol Massar:Hey, 10 seconds each. Just curious if there's one person or one company that you're going to be watching this year, watching out for who might it be. Maribel, to you first, 10 seconds. I'm still watching Lisa Sue. I'm waiting to see if she gives Jensen a full on run for his money. All right. Interesting. Interesting. And Carolina, same question to you, a person or company that you're going to be watching very closely this year. I think in India, just because there's going to be more challengers to them. And so it's going to be interesting to see how they respond to the changing market. All right.

11:25Carol Massar:Should be an interesting one. Again, I can say. Both of you, thank you so much. Happy New Year. Great to have you here both in this discussion. Maribel Lopez, founder and enterprise AI analyst over at Lopez Research. And Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst at Creative Strategies, joining us here on this Friday. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Businessweek Daily coming up after this.

11:51Carol Massar:They told us to expect change. They warned us about the transition. But honestly, they forgot the best part. This is the chapter where we finally focus on us. LifeMD delivers expert menopause and midlife care right from your home. From hormone health to holistic wellness, LifeMD helps you feel your best for the best years of your life. LifeMD, it's just getting good. Visit LifeMD.com slash goodlife. The news doesn't stop on the weekends. Context changes constantly. And now Bloomberg is the place to stay on top of it all. Hi, I'm David Gurra. Join us every Saturday and Sunday for the new Bloomberg This Weekend.

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13:29You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Or watch us live on YouTube. I want to bring in Laura Namias. She covers New York City and State for Bloomberg News. She joins us from New York right now. Laura, what do you make of both of these announcements, these executive orders, the Office of Mass Engagement, the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary Leadership? How is this helping Mayor Mamdani deliver on what he promised during the campaign?

14:06Well, both of these are interesting, but for different reasons. First, I should say Mamdani has had a very busy first day and a half in office. He's darting around the city. He's issued five executive orders already before the one that he's issuing now, creating this Office of Mass Engagement. But this is something that mayors do in different ways. In my experience, my observation, try to find ways to stay connected to the people who put them in office in the first place. Mamdani's supporters and some political observers have said that Mamdani needs to maintain a connection to the people who put him in office, to the sort of grassroots support that elevated him from a relative obscurity to becoming the mayor of New York City.

14:54And it seems like the creation of this office and the appointment of a woman who was the architect of a lot of his virality and campaign engagement to lead that office is a nod to that. The other announcement is really interesting, and I'm eager to hear more and learn more about it, report more for us. One of the last bastions of sort of non-competitive elections in New York City, I don't know if our listeners or readers know about this, is the judiciary. Maybe you've noticed on your ballot when you're filling it out, it says pick five candidates for judge and there's only five names available.

15:31It's wonky to get into, but it's not a competitive process. And it sort of sounds like what Mamdani is doing here is appointing Mr. Najmi to look into that, among other things, and potentially address that in New York City and state politics. Okay, so maybe we'll actually have a choice, Carol. Maybe we'll actually have a choice.

15:53Carol Massar:That would be nice. That would be nice. Well, as you said, Laura, it's been a busy 24, 48 hours for the new mayor of New York City. And we, of course, will continue to monitor their press event happening in downtown Brooklyn and certainly report it out as we know you will be doing so throughout the year. Laura Namias, New York politics reporter at Bloomberg News. Laura, thank you so much. This is the Bloomberg Businessweek Daily Podcast. Listen live each weekday starting at 2 p.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station.

16:30Just say, Alexa, play Bloomberg 1130.

16:34Carol Massar:So let's get to and see what our next guest has to say, because he is thinking about a new era defined by innovation and financial accountability, and that there are three key themes that investors should focus on here in the new year. Let's dive into those themes with David Schassler. He's head of multi-asset solutions at VanEck Funds. Hey, David, good to have you here. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Thank you for having us. Well, it's great to have you back here on Bloomberg. So talk to us about this new era defined by innovation and financial accountability. Are you talking about AI companies that are getting lots of money and spending lots of money, but yet not making money?

17:09Carol Massar:Or are you talking about something else? We're talking about a lot of things. Everybody's grounded. If you just think about investing, people are grounded in what they're used to, and they're used to a pre-2020 world where debt doesn't matter, deficits doesn't matter. You don't have this innovation that's literally changing the world. And what we're talking about right now is really setting up portfolios to thrive in that environment. And that's what I want to talk about. All right. So get into it and tell us in terms of what that means for maybe market rotation, companies that we should have on our radar.

17:40Yeah. So the first theme, obviously, is AI, technology, automation. got it, not really a new idea, and people are probably sick of hearing about it, but we're moving from phase one to phase two. Phase one, these scarcities were in the compute, and they were in the energy. We're now moving to phase two, which is the adoption. That's investors looking at it and saying, how do I get paid back? How do companies incorporate this technology to improve margins? That means it's going to get harder, all at the same time where competition is going to get a lot more fierce. What we're saying is you could still make money in technology, going to be a lot harder in 2026.

18:15We're overweight technology, but we're underweight the mag stocks. That's the number one. Theme number two is the build. How are we going to build it out and power it from an infrastructure perspective? So we're talking about infrastructure development. How do you actually use old world assets to build the new world? We're overweight real assets. And then the third theme, if you don't own assets with embedded scarcity, We're in a period of financial abundance. We're in a period of financial excess. We've been here for a long time, but we're in a period now where accountability matters. Debt matters.

18:47Deficits matter. And you really need to have assets with embedded scarcity. So when you look at your portfolio, if you don't see gold in your portfolio, we view that as financial malpractice. What? You must have to put out. Hold on. Why?

19:00Carol Massar:Wow. Gold is the ultimate store of value asset. It is the ultimate and original unit of account. It has out-survived every fiat experiment ever. And when you have a system with so much debt, it's effectively acting as a sponge, absorbing liquidity. And as that continues to happen, all roads lead to more money creation, more financial stimulus, more excess. When you don't have a lot of good options and you've spent and borrowed so much, the path forward becomes pretty obvious. OK, so that's your view on gold. I mean, every portfolio is different. But if you don't have you argue if you don't have gold in your portfolio, it's financial malpractice.

19:42How much gold should people have? 5%. So we're not talking about betting the ranch on it. We're just saying that when you look at your asset allocation, you should have stocks, you should have bonds, you should have real assets, and you should have assets with scarcity. And that's predominantly gold. But I'd also argue as well, 1 % to 2 % Bitcoin makes sense as well.

20:01Carol Massar:I want to go back to gold because if you go back to the late 80s, early 90s, all the way to... She's looking at a chart, folks. I am, 2004. I mean, it's like a straight line. I mean, we know gold went nowhere for so long. And look at silver, what Mike McClone reminded us. It took 50 years for silver to actually move. Right. So I'm just curious. I mean, why do you think now it must be a part of your portfolio? Because who's to say it's maybe just had an unusual run-up in the last year or so, and that maybe that's not going to continue. Maybe that's the anomaly. So if you just stack, if you just take a step back and you look at asset classes over extended periods of time, you've got equities of the top performing asset followed by gold, and then you can go into bonds and you go into commodities.

20:47And gold has historically been a strong store value asset and it's performed very, very well. The average annualized return, if you go back 50, 60 years, is somewhere around 8 percent. Now, there's certain periods of time when it really comes to life and outperforms was up over 60 % in 2025. We're not saying that 2026 is going to look like 2025 but we still think it's going to be a strong performing asset. It's it's an asset if you look at it given the issues that we're facing as investors. It's well suited to protect you. So we're not saying that gold is the only thing that you own. But if you look at your portfolio and you want to diversify well balanced asset allocation.