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- [00:00]
Joe Matthew
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- [00:36]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and 5pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- [00:53]
Stephanie Fisher
Listen on demand wherever you get your
- [00:55]
Katie Kirkpatrick
podcasts or watch us live on YouTube.
- [00:59]
Kailey Leinz
I'm Kailey Leinz Al alongside Joe Matthew here in Georgia where if you're watching or listening to us from the Peach State, happy primary day to you. Happy primary day to those in Alabama, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Idaho, as well as six states that are heading to the polls to choose the candidates they'd like to send to November's general election. But it is a seventh state that we actually have our focus on at this hour thanks in part to President Trump, who is at long last decided to make an endorsement in the Texas Republican primary, not the backing of an incumbent Republican senator, John Cornyn. Instead, the President has thrown his force behind the Attorney General, Ken Pax.
- [01:36]
Joe Matthew
Pretty remarkable as we add another endorsement to the list and this one is a bit of a jaw dropper. Kelly joining us as we broadcast live from the campus of Georgia Tech here. With the sounds of the Aviary behind us, we turn to a voice of authority here inside Bloomberg when it comes to elections. We talked to Greg Giroux, Bloomberg Government senior elections reporter. And Greg, I don't know if you saw this one coming. The president decided to go with Ken Paxton. Is it over for John Cornyn?
- [02:05]
Greg Giroux
Certainly a shot in the arm for Ken Paxton. I wasn't sure if this endorsement was ever going to come because President Trump weeks ago had teased an endorsement in Texas race and it was, it never came. So I am a little bit, I guess surprised by maybe the late timing of this. It does underscore the White House's confidence that Paxton is probably going to win the runoff. Trump does not take a whole lot of risks when he makes endorsements, but it also underscores like a confidence among the Trump White House that Paxton can hold the seat in November against a determined Democratic opponent in state Rep. James Telerico, who's very well funded. Democrats have not won a Senate race in Texas since 1988, and I think the Trump White House is betting that Paxson can continue that streak.
- [02:54]
Kailey Leinz
Well, so I guess when we consider streaks here, Greg, I wonder if President Trump is feeling like he's on a bit of a streak himself after successfully leading a push against state senators in the state of Indiana who wouldn't go along with redistricting, seeing pretty much all of them that he wanted out ousted from their seats in their primary. Then, of course, Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana this past weekend. He's hoping for the same today in Kentucky, pushing hard for the ouster of Congressman Tom Massie, who has made it onto the enemies list on this retribution tour, if you will. Greg, what will it mean for the president if he is victorious in Massey not being victorious today?
- [03:33]
Greg Giroux
That'd be a certainly a big win for the president if he can oust Massey, who I think is a tougher opponent than the Indiana Republican senators who defied him on redistricting earlier this month, or Senator Bill Cassidy, who made himself immediately vulnerable by voting more than five years ago to convict President Trump on his second impeachment trial. That's something that Thomas Massie never did. You know, he didn't vote to impeach him or convict him. However, Massie did earn the enmity of the White House by clashing with the president on fiscal policy, on foreign war powers, but probably most conspicuously on transparency related to the release of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein. And Massey has been very, very vocal about that. I think what makes Massey a little bit more difficult to unseat is also he has a very unique political personality in that district he's represented for over a dozen years. And I think, I don't know what's what's going to happen tonight, but I think it's definitely Massey is definitely a tough out, even with all of the big spending against him. We've seen more than $32 million spent in advertising this primary, which is more than the House primary in history according to Ad Impact. Pretty extraordinary.
- [04:51]
Joe Matthew
What do you make of the Senate primary here in Georgia, Greg? The governor could have shut this whole thing down, they say, if he had actually run himself. But he decided to make an endorsement in this case in Derek Dooley, and it looks like this could go to a runoff. Is that the best thing that's happened to Jon Ossoff so far?
- [05:08]
Greg Giroux
Yeah. I mean, the longer that the Georgia Republicans draw this election out, the better for Senator Ossoff, who is the only Democratic senator seeking reelection in the state that Trump carried in 2024. Ossoff, who's unopposed in the primary, never was going to face serious intra party opposition, can keep building his campaign war chest, which is over $32 million right now as the Republicans continue to spend. We have basically three main candidates in that primary. Congressman Mike Collins, Congressman Buddy Carter, Southeastern Jordan, then Derek Dooley, as you mentioned, backed by Governor Kemp. The last ad I saw from Carter attacked Dooley, which makes me believe maybe Mike Collins is in first place and that Collins is that Buddy Carter, excuse me, is trying to catch Derek Dooley for that second spot in what looks to be a likely run off election in about a month.
- [06:05]
Kailey Leinz
All right, Greg Giraud, Bloomberg's very finest, covering races across the country for us. Thank you so much. But of course, it's races here in Georgia that we are focused on today and the issues that are shaping them, many of which, Joe, of course, come back to the economy, economic conditions here for the consumer and for businesses that operate here. And that's the conversation we want to get to next, as I'm pleased to say. Joining us on our set here in Atlanta, again broadcasting from Georgia Tech's campus, is Katie Kirkpatrick, Metro Atlanta Chambers CEO. Katie, thank you for being with us.
- [06:37]
Katie Kirkpatrick
I'm happy to be here.
- [06:38]
Kailey Leinz
Bloomberg TV and Radio. It's great to be in Atlanta. Just can you give us your sense of what you are hearing, especially from businesses as to the environment they are currently experiencing here in Atlanta? What are the headwinds? What are the tailwinds? Yeah.
- [06:52]
Katie Kirkpatrick
So what's really interesting about Atlanta, that we've been on a 30 year growth streak since we hosted the 1996 Olympics. And so we continue to grow above the national average. We have 70% of Fortune 500 companies have a presence right here in metro Atlanta. And we're sitting right here in Georgia Tech, which is an incredible asset when you're thinking about recruiting talent. So when you think about your customers, your access to the global economy, when you think about attracting talent, those are the things that businesses really are thinking about that are headquartered or have locations here. So it is a great spot right now for businesses that are here in Atlanta. And I am quite bullish on the growth that we're going to see post World cup, which we will be hosting in 27 days.
- [07:41]
Joe Matthew
You connected the dots there nicely from Olympics to World Cup. And that's a big deal for you, right? It's not just the economic stimulus that comes with such a massive event, but the halo effect. You're still talking about the Olympics this many years later.
- [07:52]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Absolutely. We will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1996 this July, right in the heart of the eight matches that we will be hosting here. And we have seen the halo effect. We have had double digit growth for more than 30 years here, right here in the metro Atlanta region, which represents 6.2 million people and growing. And so the investment, the number of jobs created here in that 30 years, we're looking forward to seeing that type of continued growth post World cup and we're looking to welcome the world.
- [08:25]
Kailey Leinz
Well, it certainly is exciting. Of course, the attention of the world isn't always on things that are as festive and positive as massive sporting events like that. When we consider the wider geopolitical climate and an ongoing conflict in the Middle east that of course course has stifled global energy supplies, how is that feeding through to businesses here? Decisions make, decision making strategies that they have to pursue and costs that they are facing.
- [08:50]
Katie Kirkpatrick
I hear from our business leaders here that they're quite familiar with uncertainty. If you look over the last six years, what each CEO has had to deal with, from a pandemic to a labor shortage, to inflation, to fuel costs, as we're seeing right now due to geopolitical impacts, they just stay the course. I'm hearing from them that they're just focused on their strategic imperatives, their strategic plan. Certainly these challenges that are created from the world, from either wars or from tariffs or those types of things, they have to take in stride. At the end of the day, they're focused on their employees, their customers, how they're delivering on their basic value to, to those that buy their products and their customers that right now they control what they can control and then they just keep moving forward.
- [09:40]
Joe Matthew
We'll talk more about their employees and their customers. You're paying about $4 a gallon, it looks like in Georgia, which is quite a bit below the national average. At a certain point though, we see a corrosive impact and then the conversation about the K shaped economy comes into effect. This obviously disadvantages the people who are most vulnerable. Vulnerable. What are you hearing from your members about consumer spending and sentiment?
- [10:01]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Yeah, look, you mentioned the K shape economy and so you certainly, as we see with our markets, we see that those that are on the upper end certainly are less impacted by any kind of value proposition in the marketplace. But we do see on our iron ore, on the bottom of that curve, we are seeing stress in the market and we're here hearing from small businesses that these costs are not going to be sustainable in order to either keep them in business or keep them in that scaling mode. And so what we're hypersensitive to is how do we build certainty and business certainty in this state to support that continued growth, especially for our small and medium sized businesses. And in fact, you can look at our governor when you're talking about the fuel prices. We think $4 is high because we're not used to having $4 gasoline here. But he recently suspended the gas tax in the state of Georgia, recognizing that many in our community needed a break. So we have to give him a lot of applause for making that decision.
- [11:04]
Kailey Leinz
Well, and I'm also curious how as businesses are facing higher, higher costs when it comes to inputs as well as, as labor, how you're hearing them think about deploying artificial intelligence to maybe find greater efficiencies and, and higher productivity.
- [11:18]
Katie Kirkpatrick
That is the question of the day, right, Is how each business can adopt AI depending on what industry segment that you are on. And so I think we're still at the beginning of that revolution. It took us 100 years to do the Industrial Revolution. It took us about 30 years to adopt the Internet. We're at about year five on AI if you look at the progress there. And I my understanding is that many businesses, small business businesses, actually have a higher uptake on AI. And I think that's largely because they're using the more simplistic models. When you get into the larger businesses, they are deploying AI. But what I am hearing is that is not at the diminutive or the cuts in jobs. They're looking at it for productivity and efficiency gains and still waiting to see what that next iteration of AI is. You all know that T and Claude seem to release a new update every
- [12:14]
Kailey Leinz
day, it seems like.
- [12:15]
Katie Kirkpatrick
And so if you're building models and thinking about AI in your workplace, you really have to be cognizant of the change that's coming ahead.
- [12:21]
Joe Matthew
You can't have AI without data centers. And I know that's a big, a big growth opportunity and a big debate here, as it is in many states around the country with a competition for water, for power and other resources. Would you entertain the idea of a data center moratorium if that managed its way onto the ballot? Or is there, is there a more nuanced approach to this that the chamber might take?
- [12:43]
Katie Kirkpatrick
So I Think what's important is to understand the way Georgia has operated over the last couple of decades, which is providing business certainty. What's important here is you have to look at the investments that have already been made. Our energy supply is abundant and reliable and secure. So on the energy side, we feel really good. On the water side, we've been playing planning for decades to make sure that we have a reliable and safe water supply here. So what it really boils down to is what that local community is willing to accept in their community. Does it meet the value of the community? Does it meet what their citizens want in their community? It's really important that we think about the role that AI data centers play in economic productivity. And if the US Is going to continue to grow and hopefully get to a higher growth rate for our gdp, we're going to have to embrace technology like artificial intelligence and the data centers that we are constructing here.
- [13:41]
Kailey Leinz
You mentioned a moment ago how we continue to see new iterations, smarter iterations of these AI models, so much so that some of them actually seem quite frightening. Whether you're looking at anthropics, a mythos that says it can find cyber vulnerability capabilities, something that is a very concern. How are you hearing from businesses about them trying to insulate themselves against some of those kinds of risks?
- [14:02]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Well, the nice thing about Georgia businesses is we're right here in the center of Georgia Tech, which does both creating new models for AI computing, but they're also deeply investing in cybersecurity. So the two go hand in hand. So companies are looking not only about what those large language, language models are that could support them, but they're also thinking about how to protect their intellectual property, how to protect their their data that they collect on a daily basis. And by the way, that's nothing new. Businesses have been in the cybersecurity space for a long period of time, but they go hand in hand. It's not an or, it's an end.
- [14:41]
Joe Matthew
Is the chamber. Are you prepared for a new governor? This is a big transition for the state.
- [14:45]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Of course, we seem to get one every eight years.
- [14:47]
Joe Matthew
Yes, you sure do.
- [14:48]
Paige Alexander
And so we are.
- [14:50]
Katie Kirkpatrick
We are a nonpartisan entity that works with whomever is elected, both at the city or the state level. Our issues don't change depending on who our leadership is. We want a strong business climate that provides certainty for business to grow. We want an educated workforce and we want connectivity to the world. And so whoever is elected, we will carry that message to them.
- [15:12]
Joe Matthew
Fantastic. Katie Kirkpatrick, the Metro Atlanta Chamber she's the CEO. And we appreciate your bringing us into your world here. It's great to be on the ground in Atlanta and here at Georgia Tech.
- [15:20]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Thank you so much.
- [15:21]
Joe Matthew
Absolutely. Alongside Kailey Leinz, I'm Joe Matthew and this is a special edition of Balance OF Power live in Atlanta, Georgia, where voting is underway right now and will be for several more hours before we start counting votes. Knowing, Kelly, that there was an early vote here that set a record in Georgia, a million people, up 15% from what we saw the year earlier or the cycle earlier, I should say. And so we're going to be tracking a series of primaries here and in five other states. I should also mention Texas. If you're just joining us, President Trump has made an endorsement. He chose the attorney general, Ken Paxton, over the incumbent, Senator John Cornyn.
- [15:55]
Kailey Leinz
Yep. Absolutely incredible. And that's, of course, a runoff that we're following next Tuesday. Keeping in mind that many of the races here today, whether it's the Senate or gubernatorial, could head to runoffs themselves in June. So it's a lot that will continue to follow for you live from Atlanta here.
- [16:09]
Joe Matthew
Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.
- [16:15]
Public Ad Voice
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- [16:59]
Greg Giroux
Public Holdings Brokerage Services by Public Investing Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, SEC Registered Advisor Crypto Services by ZeroHash. All investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures@public.com disclosures.
- [17:14]
Katie Kirkpatrick
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and
- [17:19]
Stephanie Fisher
5pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android
- [17:22]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- [17:24]
Stephanie Fisher
You can also listen live on Amazon
- [17:26]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg 11:30.
- [17:33]
Kailey Leinz
We are indeed live in Atlanta today as it is primary day in Georgia as well as in five other states across the country that we are following. But it is a race in Texas that has our attention at this hour, as President Trump, of course, within the last hour, has chosen to endorse Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton over the entire incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in the Republican runoff for that Senate seat, which is, of course scheduled for next Tuesday, although voting has already begun. And we have just gotten a response to that from the incumbent, John Cornyn, who has taken to Twitter, Joe, to say the following. He talks about how he has voted and worked closely with President Trump through both of his presidential terms. Voted with him more than 99% of the time, he says, and this is the words of the senator, he has consistently called me a friend in this race. It is now time for Republican voters to decide if they want a strong nominee to help GOP candidates down ballot and defeat Talarico in November or a weak nominee who jeopardizes everything we care about. He ends his statement with, I trust the Republican voters of Texas.
- [18:34]
Joe Matthew
So he's running.
- [18:35]
Kailey Leinz
Yeah, not dropping.
- [18:36]
Joe Matthew
Exactly. Yes, I joke, of course. And this comes after the president said specifically in his lengthy post on Truth Social, john Cornyn is a good man and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough. Despite having the most successful economy in history. This seems to be a loyalty play for the president, but it might not be a good general election play, as the conventional wisdom duly noted here already, is that Cornyn would have been a more formidable opponent for James Talrica, who must be playing pleased to some extent, Kelly, with this news.
- [19:10]
Kailey Leinz
Yeah, and incredible that Cornyn's statement calls out Talarico specifically alluding to that kind of dynamic. And when we consider the dynamics overall, it is, of course, against a national climate that right now, based on history and economic reality, does not seem to favor Republicans, in part, of course, due to higher gas prices emanating from the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of.
- [19:30]
Joe Matthew
Yes, that's right. Tyler Kendall has been tracking all of this in Washington, and we just want to get an update now from our Washington correspondent with important news from the White House. Tyler, this, of course, is not the only endorsement. This is a breaker right now, but the president's got a series of endorsements that we'll be tracking throughout the evening. How important is this one
- [19:51]
Tyler Kendall
when it comes to Ken? KEN paxton, Endorsement, Joe yeah, yeah. I mean, it's going to be a crazy, critical one, and it's just remarkable considering how long it took President Trump to make it, considering that we know nearly $26 million have been spent by Republicans when it comes to this race. But that money has gone for Republican versus Republican attack ads instead of Republican first Democratic attack ads. This is going to be a test of President Trump's endorsement and appeal to the MAGA base as we head into November. President Trump so far has had a pretty solid track record when it comes to his endorsement style. But the question is, will that result in tangible results for Republicans when they are up against Democrats? Because as you both were mentioning, we know that the cost of living is really at the forefront of the conversation. I don't have to tell you guys that affordability remains the number one issue. And a new poll out from CNN earlier this week finds that 55% of Republicans, Republicans say that President Trump's policies have increased their household costs. At the end of the day, though, President Trump is urging patience of the American people, telling them that this will only be a short term disruption. He was asked earlier today at the White House what potential other items could be on the table to bring down fuel costs. He said there are some other initiatives in the pipeline that he's looking at. As we know that the White House has urged Congress to take up and pass a temporary federal gas tax holiday. We'll see where this ultimately shakes out though, Joe and Kelly, because even as the president says that this will be short term, there are big questions here about the timeline as it appears that we are no closer towards a deal. The president saying earlier he's giving Iran a limited amount of time to come to the table after previously pulling back what he says were planned attacks slated for later today.
- [21:48]
Kailey Leinz
All right, Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall live in Washington for us. Thank you so much. And joining us now live in Atlanta at our pseudo studio here at Georgia Tech, where we are broadcasting to you live from Bloomberg TV and Radio is Paige Alexander, the CEO of the Carter Center. Great to see you. Thank you so much. There's obviously a major legacy that we can discuss of President Jimmy Carter here in Georgia, nationally and globally. But part of what the Carter center does is elections monitoring around the world and here in the US So on this primary day, I wonder how you are thinking about that work and how you may be engaged in that work here in Georgia as voters head to the polls are already voting.
- [22:27]
Public Ad Voice
Sure.
- [22:28]
Paige Alexander
Well, welcome to Atlanta. Yes, we, I should talk about nonpartisan election observation because that's what we do do. It's there are winners and losers in every election and the voters make that decision. And what we at the Carter center have done in 128elections in 40 different countries, is to very specifically look at the legal framework surrounding elections. And so we're not doing vote tabulation. We are looking specifically at whether the laws are being followed before election day, on election day and afterwards. And so we're doing that here in Atlanta in three different counties today.
- [23:03]
Joe Matthew
Do you expect a smooth, a successful election here and have you had any instances or expect to have any instances where you see ICE at a polling site?
- [23:14]
Paige Alexander
We, we have not. And I would say that Georgia has the smoothest, safest, most secure elections with the paper ballots. It's been recounted, counted and recounted numerous times, and we're not worried about that. I think people have gotten out to vote and early voting numbers were very high as well.
- [23:31]
Kailey Leinz
Yeah, well, and we were just hearing this from our colleague Tyler as well about what is on the minds of voters as they make their decisions at the ballot box. And a lot of that has to do with the economy, higher gas prices, emanating from the war in Iran. You have deep experience in the Middle east specifically, and I wonder if you see a real prospect of a near term resolution to this conflict and if we are able to get to that end stage, if you will, what has to happen next in terms of recovery in a humanitarian response?
- [24:01]
Paige Alexander
You know, diplomacy takes a lot, a lot of time and dropping bombs is far easier. And I think that as we look at what needs to be addressed now, it's protection of civilians. It's de escalating. There are conflicts happening all over the world and they don't get better with times and with bombs, they get better with conversations. And that's why the Carter Centers worked in conflict resolution in many of these conflict areas, because when the sides talk to each other, it depolarizes the system at hand. And that's what needs to happen in this case.
- [24:32]
Joe Matthew
Keep hearing the line. History echoes. We came awfully close to having a hostage situation with two downed airmen in Iran a couple of weeks ago. Thank God they were rescued. But I wonder if you see this administration, folks, planning this operation as having learned from the experiences that President Carter had with Iran.
- [24:53]
Paige Alexander
You know, President Carter, just as with elections, he won some and he lost some, famously. And he had the situation in Iran back in the day. And for the lessons that we learn as a community, as a global community, it's to know who your friends and allies are. And those conversations have to happen. They have to happen directly with our allies. And I think that lesson is still being learned.
- [25:17]
Kailey Leinz
Well, when we consider working with allies, obviously there are allies like Ukraine, for example, who have been dealing with a war that Russia instigated for years now. There's obviously recovery effort that needs to happen there. Ally Israel has been waging war in Lebanon against Hezbollah. We have seen destruction, let alone to speak of the destruction in Gaza.
- [25:39]
Katie Kirkpatrick
How are.
- [25:39]
Kailey Leinz
How is the Carter center involved in all of these different theaters and the rebuilding that will need to happen?
- [25:44]
Paige Alexander
Well, you're here in Atlanta, which is the global health capital of the United States. I mean, you've got Emory University, the Task Force for Global Health, the Carter center, cdc. And I think one of the things we have learned is that all of these pieces have to work together. And so although the conflicts are boiling, we also have a global health emergency going on at the same time. And if you do not have these strong organs outside of government that are able to step in, then I think that's. That's when it's like a heartbeat on bypass. If you take the heart off bypass, if the organs and muscles aren't working. So I consider groups like the Carter center and others in Atlanta as those muscles and organs.
- [26:25]
Joe Matthew
Just to add to what Kaylee said, you were instrumental in spending a lot of time in helping to rebuild in the Balkans. And I wonder if it's too early or if it's ever too early to start talking about rebuilding in a place like Ukraine, if not Gaza.
- [26:39]
Paige Alexander
Yeah. So. And the work that we've done, we at the Carter center do less in infrastructure, but when you look at the permissive environments of allowing us to go in and do mine removal, I have mines removed in Syria so farming can get back to where it is. We have done digital mapping of where those mines are. And so it's never too early. But the important thing is to have the conversations ahead of time. I mean, not to be Pollyannish about it. At the end of the day, you know, it's. We shouldn't be in a situation where we're reconstructing entire countries.
- [27:10]
Kailey Leinz
I want to go back to the global public health issues that you were speaking to a moment ago. We obviously are seeing an Ebola outbreak right now at the wonder. If you think that that is due to some of the policy decisions that this administration has made in pulling back funding, whether it's for global health efforts, USAID or others.
- [27:29]
Paige Alexander
Right. Well, I think that we've seen the destruction and devastation of the health care sector and of foreign aid. We are going to reap the benefits of whatever efficiencies were found by basically not being able to protect our borders. Global health policy is security and right now we are lacking that security, we're lacking a pandemic preparedness, we are lacking the ability to make sure that black flies and mosquitoes don't fly across the border and suddenly we have malaria in the South. I mean, these are issues, global policy and public policy are all part of health security. And so yes, I think the Lancet Journal said 14/2 million people are going to die by 2030 because of what happened with USAID and the same thing's going to happen with Ebola. At this point, if we're not able to address it because we didn't hear about it in time, it does seem
- [28:21]
Joe Matthew
like something we're going to be talking about a lot more, Kelly, as this is found to be a strain that is going to be extremely difficult to contain. Paige, it's great to meet you and we appreciate your joining our conversation today in Atlanta, Paige Alexander, the CEO of the Carter center, with us here on a special edition of Balance of Power. Primary day in Georgia. Polls are open and we're going to be talking about all the races in not only Georgia, but the other five states throughout the day here on Bloomberg. Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.
- [28:53]
Public Ad Voice
Support for the show comes from Public. Lately it feels like there are two types of investing platforms. Some are traditional brokerages that haven't changed much in decades, and others feel less like investing and more like a game. Public is positioned differently. It's an investing platform for people who are serious about building their wealth on public. You can build a portfolio of stocks, options, bonds, crypto without all the bugs or the confetti. Retirement accounts. Yep. High yield cash. Yes again, they even have direct indexing. Public has modern design, powerful tools and customer support that actually helps go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market ad paid for by
- [29:37]
Greg Giroux
Public Holdings Brokerage Services by Public Investing member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by public advisors SEC registered advisor crypto services by ZeroHash. All investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures@public.com disclosures.
- [29:52]
Katie Kirkpatrick
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast.
- [29:55]
Stephanie Fisher
Catch us live weekdays at noon and 5pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android
- [30:00]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Auto Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- [30:02]
Stephanie Fisher
You can also listen live on Amazon
- [30:04]
Katie Kirkpatrick
Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg 11:30.
- [30:12]
Kailey Leinz
Lot of voter sentiment, it seems, is being driven by the economic reality that they are facing and pressure from higher prices at the gas Pump specifically. And the question we have, and we have it on this network here on Bloomberg TV and radio overall, is how quickly that could filter enter into the wider economy as we consider consumption decisions being made.
- [30:30]
Joe Matthew
Yeah, we're seeing that a bit, a bit of a bleed into the core in the most recent CPI report. So some of this based on what we're seeing in the bond market is inevitable. I mean, interest rates are rising on their own, which is going to make a very difficult set of circumstances for Kevin Warsh as the new chair of the Fed. It also makes a pretty difficult set of circumstances for retail, retail facing businesses. The restaurant industry is a huge one, Caylee. We're in one of the great restaurant towns in the country right now as we've been attempting to enjoy after hours here. And their input costs are through the roof and they're dealing with a consumer. It's very anxious.
- [31:06]
Kailey Leinz
Yeah. And so this is the conversation we want to have here in Atlanta as we turn now to Georgia's Restaurant association president, Stephanie Fisher. He was here with us on set on Georgia Tech's campus. Stephanie, welcome to Bloomberg TV and Radio. And we appreciate you joining us. We know you're joining us fresh off of a meeting with some executives in the restaurant space. And I wonder what you're hearing from them about the economic environment that they are currently experiencing.
- [31:30]
Stephanie Fisher
You are right. So welcome. I mean, thank you very much for having me on the show today. And yes, so I spent the morning with some of our members, restaurant members in the Marietta area. And you know, honestly, while things are okay, you know, they're definitely getting hit with pressures from just, you know, the, the conflict in Iran with. And honestly, it's not so much the cost pressures, but when gas prices go up, they see lesser foot traffic.
- [32:01]
Joe Matthew
Interesting.
- [32:02]
Kailey Leinz
So there is a direct correlation.
- [32:03]
Stephanie Fisher
There has been a direct correlation, yeah. And when prices went down just a couple of weeks ago, they definitely saw foot traffic come back up. But when the prices just jumped again, you know, they saw it kind of decrease a little.
- [32:15]
Joe Matthew
Makes you think twice about going out.
- [32:16]
Stephanie Fisher
Yes.
- [32:17]
Joe Matthew
Diesel is of course, also rising, which makes shipping goods a lot more expensive. This, I'm sure, is hitting home for a lot of your members as well.
- [32:25]
Kailey Leinz
It is.
- [32:25]
Stephanie Fisher
And you know, hopefully this is temporary and restaurateurs know, you know, there's maybe some other things that they need to look at on their menu to maybe lessen that impact. Look at different vendors, maybe source more locally and then getting it shipped in.
- [32:43]
Joe Matthew
That's actually fascinating. This helps the local food movement because you're paying less to ship. What other kinds of decisions are restaurants making right now? Or is there some time, is there some cushion before you need to start reconsidering costs, labor, etc.
- [32:58]
Stephanie Fisher
You know, since the pandemic, and we hate to say that word anymore, but you know, honestly, prices have gone up. Everybody has known that they've gone up for consumers. And there's. There's a reaching point that we have to make sure that we don't price ourselves out of the market. So I think our restaurateurs understand that they just can't raise prices when they want to. They need to be very strategic about it. So, like I mentioned earlier, there's other things that they can do. Can you take some. Can you take some menu items off that maybe are not a great. Don't have a great margin? Can you look at different vendors? Can you, like I said, you know, maybe. Maybe source locally and help our Georgia grown product here in the state of Georgia?
- [33:38]
Kailey Leinz
Yeah, so they don't reach for labor and job cuts first is what.
- [33:44]
Stephanie Fisher
Not if they don't have to. I mean, labor is definitely better than it was.
- [33:49]
Kailey Leinz
But.
- [33:49]
Stephanie Fisher
But they still struggle. They still struggle. And, you know, there's certain positions, kitchen and maybe, you know, managers that are harder to source. And getting qualified candidates through the door is probably their biggest. Is their biggest issue. But why don't we look at technology? You know, how can they work with technology to then take that labor and place it somewhere else where it's actually needed?
- [34:15]
Joe Matthew
We're in mid to town, and we're. We're surrounded by snazzy restaurants that have the benefit of tourism, traffic, and a lot of other factors that smaller neighborhood establishments do not enjoy. But you can't have a city like this without them. Is it more difficult for small restaurant owners to compete with the big guys?
- [34:33]
Stephanie Fisher
You know, I don't think so. Yeah, I think it depends on where you are. Yes, we're in beautiful Midtown. You've got downtown, which is definitely growing, getting a revitalization. You've got West Midtown. But, you know, there is other areas in. In the city that definitely are growing. The Georgia 400 corridor. You've got Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton. Then you've got, you know, Gwinnett County. So there's a lot of different areas that are definitely growing, whether it's independent or. Or some of the larger restaurant groups.
- [35:05]
Kailey Leinz
Well, in what kind of windfall are restaurants of all sizes anticipating with the World cup coming to town soon?
- [35:11]
Stephanie Fisher
I think for restaurants being in the Downtown area, the midtown area, Buckhead. I definitely think they will see more traffic probably from people who are coming here to watch the games. I think the restaurants in our outing, surrounding areas and across the state actually, you know, producing watch parties. And so you'll get more, more, you'll get the more local group coming into the restaurants that are outside the city limits.
- [35:39]
Joe Matthew
It's a really interesting restaurant market. If you look at the Michelin guide, you can find everything from sushi to whatever international flavor you're looking for. But this is also Atlanta. Does soul food still resonate? Like, what are the actual genres of cooking that lead the pack in this town when it comes to your business?
- [35:59]
Stephanie Fisher
You know, honestly, it's a little bit of everything. City is so lucky. We are.
- [36:03]
Joe Matthew
So you didn't reach for lemon pepper wings. I thought you're going to.
- [36:06]
Stephanie Fisher
You can do, you can do lemon pepper wings and definitely soul food. I mean, you know, soul cooking is, it's incorporated into a lot of different areas. You have Buford highway, which is just outside of the perimeter. And you know, you've got 26 nationalities within a seven mile radius. So you want it, you can find it in this city.
- [36:27]
Kailey Leinz
Well, we enjoyed some soul food last night.
- [36:30]
Joe Matthew
Exactly.
- [36:31]
Kailey Leinz
Good Mac and cheese, right? I believe Joe talked about the best collard greens he's ever had in his life.
- [36:36]
Joe Matthew
Mary Mac's Tea Room, you know where I'm talking about.
- [36:39]
Stephanie Fisher
I wouldn't expect anything less fantastic.
- [36:41]
Kailey Leinz
And I'm looking forward to more good food after the show. But while we still have you, Stephanie, I want to go back to what you are hearing from restaurant owners in terms of policies that they would like to see. We're here on election day. There's going to be decisions made about who is leading the state ultimately, at least after Brian Kemp's tenure is over, who will represent them in Washington? What does the industry want from leaders?
- [37:06]
Stephanie Fisher
You know, I, I think what they want. And it was funny because we asked that question today and it's more so on the local level.
- [37:13]
Kailey Leinz
Okay, it is.
- [37:15]
Stephanie Fisher
You know what, permitting make it easier. Make it easier for our restaurateurs.
- [37:19]
Kailey Leinz
Any small business.
- [37:20]
Stephanie Fisher
It's not just restaurants. How can we get permitting where you know what it's in a timely manner, liquor license, you know, things like that, that will help our restaurateurs open faster. Because if a restaurant opens, that means more money for the, the city and then for the state and it, you know, restaurants and the lifeblood of our communities. So.
- [37:43]
Joe Matthew
So it doesn't matter. The industry. The answer always Comes down to red tape, it seems that's. That's where you're going. Right?
- [37:48]
Kailey Leinz
Yeah.
- [37:48]
Joe Matthew
Amazing. With that said, are you getting the response that you want from officials here in Georgia, or are you telling people to go vote today to find someone who does it better?
- [38:00]
Stephanie Fisher
We, I always want everyone to vote because it's your civic duty and, and you vote for who you think will. Will represent you best. Yeah, we have a great relationship down at the state capitol. And, you know, our, our biggest goal when we're down at the state capitol during session is to educate our lawmakers. So depending if a bill gets dropped and, you know, if it's going to negatively affect, you know, the restaurant industry, we're there along with our members because they want to hear from our members. Right. So to tell the story, to make sure that we educate them on why this would be bad or good.
- [38:34]
Kailey Leinz
And finally, in our last minute here, in terms of your membership, do you expect it's a membership that will grow larger or shrink in this kind of economic environment over, say, the next year?
- [38:43]
Stephanie Fisher
I would say over the next year I would like to grow and to make sure that our members and our restaurants here in the, in Georgia understand what we bring to the table for them and what our goal here is to, to make sure that we keep the state one of the most profitable states for our restaurants. That's the most important thing, whether that's through policy or whether it's through resources that we can give to give to our members. So I am hoping that our membership stays where it is or maybe grows. But, yeah, only time will tell.
- [39:16]
Joe Matthew
We've only got about 30 seconds. No tax on tips. Thumbs up so far. Is this helping your members?
- [39:21]
Stephanie Fisher
You know what, I just heard that this morning that the servers are happy with no tax on tips.
- [39:27]
Joe Matthew
So there you go.
- [39:28]
Stephanie Fisher
Yeah.
- [39:28]
Joe Matthew
Well, it's great to have you come directly to see us from your meeting with members and it's great to meet you. Stephanie Fisher is President CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association. Maybe we'll have some tips for us later on. Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. And you can find us live every weekday from Washington, D.C. at noontime eastern@bloomberg.com
- [39:57]
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