Fed Cuts Rates With Three Dissents, Projects One Cut in 2026

Summary

Bloomberg Businessweek Podcast Summary

Episode: Fed Cuts Rates With Three Dissents, Projects One Cut in 2026
Date: December 10, 2025
Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec
Notable Guests: Steve Moore (Co-founder, Unleash Prosperity), Stuart Paul (US & Canada Economist, Bloomberg), Ira Jersey (Chief US Interest Rate Strategist, Bloomberg Intelligence), Zach Wasserman (CFO, Huntington Bankshares), Anurag Rana (Senior Technology Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence)

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers in-depth analysis and expert commentary on the Federal Reserve's much-anticipated decision to cut rates for the third consecutive time at the last FOMC meeting of 2025, the notable three-way dissent among committee members, projections for 2026, and what it means for monetary policy, markets, banks, and the broader economy. It explores the dynamics behind the Fed decision, expectations for future leadership, the ongoing debate about inflation versus employment, and the ripple effects for sectors like banking and tech. Notable Fed watchers and economic voices weigh in, offering predictions and policy critiques.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Federal Reserve's Latest Decision

• Fed Rate Cut: The Fed executed a quarter-point rate cut, marking the third in a row (02:11).
• Divergence Among FOMC Members: This time, there were three dissents—a record for the current cycle. One member wanted a more aggressive 50 basis points cut (Stephen Myron), while two others (Austan Goolsbee, Chicago Fed; Jeff Schmid, Kansas City Fed) wanted to keep rates steady (02:47–03:17).

Quote:

“Not a lot of consensus but must have been a healthy debate at the Fed table.” — Carol Massar (03:20)

• Risk Balance: Chairman Jay Powell’s remarks repeatedly highlighted, “There is no risk-free path forward,” emphasizing tough trade-offs between inflation and employment (03:21–04:20).
• Current Outlook: The Fed’s projections indicate only one rate cut expected in 2026, maintaining a cautious view (02:47–03:01).

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2. Policy Tensions: Inflation vs. Employment

• Fed’s Dual Mandate:
  Discussion focused on which side of the Fed’s mandate—controlling inflation or supporting employment—should take priority in the current environment.

  • “Everyone around the table at the FOMC agrees that inflation is too high and that we want it to come down, and agrees that the labor market has softened.” — Stuart Paul recapping Powell (04:13)

• Debate Among Experts:

  • Ira Jersey explained why the Fed may be closer to 'neutral' territory:

    “With all the committee members…are we there at the mystical neutral rate? [Powell] conceded that he thinks…they’re now in the range of being at neutral, so this could be the end of cuts—unless the data changes enough.” (06:06)

  • He believes Fed tools are less effective for fighting inflation currently, with more concern warranted over the jobs market, especially as hiring softens beneath the surface (07:24–09:22).

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3. Fed Balance Sheet and 'QE Light'

• Fresh Purchases:
  The Fed announced a significant expansion of its balance sheet via new purchases of short-term Treasury securities, surprising observers with a $160 billion infusion aimed at providing ample bank reserves through April (09:22–10:11).

Quote:

“That’s actually probably the bigger story…It made the whole meeting a lot more dovish.” — Ira Jersey (09:41)

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4. Political and Leadership Dynamics

• White House Reaction:
  President Trump commented that the cut "could have been doubled," reiterating calls for more aggressive easing (05:10).

• FOMC Appointments & Influence:

  • Discussion around potential Fed leadership changes, with names like Kevin Hassett and Kevin Warsh floated as possible replacements for Jay Powell in 2026 (18:52–20:29).
  • Steve Moore observed:

    “He’s picking someone who agrees with his overall economic philosophy and that’s exactly what a president should do…I don't think that means undue influence on the independence of the Fed.” (26:04)

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5. Bank and Regional Economic Insights

Guest: Zach Wasserman, CFO, Huntington Bankshares

• Banking Sector Outlook:
  Wasserman supports the Fed’s cautious approach given lingering inflation pressures and a cooling labor market (46:15–46:53).

  • He notes the bank is seeing strong loan growth (about 8–9% year over year) and describes the consumer as “stable” (53:29).
  • Organic expansion is prioritized over large-scale acquisitions:

    “Our objective is organic growth…we’re not trying to be a national bank, but deeply present in the states that we’re in.” (50:26–50:38)

• AI and Productivity in Banking:
  Huntington has expanded from just two GenAI projects to thirty in the past year, focusing on both efficiency and customer service (54:00–54:31).

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6. Broader Economic and Tech Sector Ramifications

Guest: Anurag Rana, Senior Technology Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence

• Corporate Reactions to Fed Policy:

  • Discussion of Oracle and Adobe earnings highlights the dominance of cloud demand, the challenges of converting order backlogs to revenue, and how AI features are shaping product value (30:18–36:34).

• AI's Economic Impact:
  Anurag Rana shares findings from a cross-industry C-suite survey:

  “Every sector is extremely worried about being disrupted...even traditional laggards are now quick to adopt AI tools.” (37:48–38:54)

  • AI’s influence on productivity is increasing, with a widening gap between revenue growth and headcount in tech firms—a sign of labor efficiency improvements (39:31–40:11).
  • Despite this, mass layoffs are not yet apparent, suggesting a gradual transition (“TBD,” as Carol Massar reiterates) (40:11).

• Meta Platforms' Shift in AI Monetization:
  Rana explains Meta’s pivot from open source to closed source AI models as a necessary move to monetize its large investments (40:40–41:11).

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Carol Massar:
  “Not a lot of consensus but must have been a healthy debate at the Fed table.” (03:20)
• Stuart Paul:
  “Everyone around the table at the FOMC agrees that inflation is too high… and the labor market has softened.” (04:13)
• Ira Jersey:
  “That’s actually probably the bigger story…It made the whole meeting a lot more dovish.” (09:41)
• Steve Moore:
  “He’s picking someone who agrees with his overall economic philosophy and that’s exactly what a president should do…I don't think that means undue influence on the independence of the Fed.” (26:04)
• Zach Wasserman:
  “Our objective is organic growth…we’re not trying to be a national bank, but deeply present in the states that we’re in.” (50:26)
• Anurag Rana:
  “Every sector is extremely worried about being disrupted...even traditional laggards are now quick to adopt AI tools.” (37:48)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Fed decision and dissents: 02:11–03:17
• Powell’s remarks and risk assessment: 03:21–04:20
• Expert perspective from Ira Jersey: 06:06–09:41
• Fed leadership and White House relations: 18:52–20:29, 26:04–27:10
• Banking sector reaction (Zach Wasserman): 46:15–54:47
• AI and tech sector impacts (Anurag Rana): 30:18–41:11

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Memorable Moments

• Healthy Dissension at the Fed: The rare three-way split among FOMC voters illustrates the complexity of the current macroeconomic environment.
• Debate on Fed Independence: Steve Moore’s candid explanation of how presidential appointments influence, but don't dictate, monetary policy choices.
• AI’s Real-World Banking Footprint: Zach Wasserman quantifies Huntington’s shift to AI-enabled workflows and predicts rising productivity.
• Meta’s Strategic Pivot: Anurag Rana draws a parallel with the Linux vs. Windows paradigm in describing Meta’s decision to close off its AI models for revenue.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive view of the Fed’s latest policy move, the fundamental challenges around inflation and employment, and the profound effects of monetary policy on markets, banks, and the tech sector. The hosts facilitate lively, informed debate among experts regarding the future of central bank leadership, the evolving balance of risks, and the technological transformation across industries. The blend of economic insight, candid political context, and forward-looking tech commentary provides a well-rounded briefing for anyone tracking the future of the U.S. economy and Federal Reserve policy.

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Listen to catch a wider spectrum of insights, including sectoral impacts, leadership predictions, and exclusive data on AI adoption across industries.

Transcript

[Carol Massar]

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[Steve Moore]

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[Stuart Paul]

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[Steve Moore]

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[Steve Moore]

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[Carol Massar]

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[Steve Moore]

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[Carol Massar]

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[Steve Moore]

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[Anurag Rana]

A business is hard enough don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other one for sales another for inventory a separate one for accounting that's software overload odoo is the all in one platform that replaces them all crm accounting inventory e commerce hr fully integrated easy to use and built to grow with your business thousands have already made the switch why not you try odoo for free at odoo dot com that's odoo dot com.

[Steve Moore]

Bloomberg.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Audio studios 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 massar and tim stanweck on bloomberg radio all right fed decision day the eighth and final fomc meeting of twenty twenty five it is done and widely as expected the fed cutting rates for a third consecutive time the fed.

[Carol Massar]

Also maintaining its outlook for just one cut in twenty twenty six okay so two dissents last time yep this time three dissents correct but in different ways.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Correct kind of spanning everything right we.

[Carol Massar]

Stephen myron to want a more aggressive interest rate cut right at fifty basis points but maybe what people didn't expect were two dissenters who wanted to hold.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Rates steady mister goolsbee of the chicago.

[Carol Massar]

Fed and mister schmidt of kansas city.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Yeah exactly saying we didn't need to.

[Steve Moore]

Do anything okay yeah so not a.

[Carol Massar]

Lot of consensus but must have been.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

A healthy debate fed table on the wall yeah exactly so now we're done for the year and now we think about what's going to happen next year we got a lot of commentary on that fed chair jay powell in fact one of the things he really emphasized repeatedly in his comments in his opening statement that the committee is in a wait and see mode also noting by our account thank you talia our producer for actually pulling this out to our attention noting by our count for the third fomc meeting in a row saying there is no risk free path forward it's a challenging situation in the near.

[Stuart Paul]

Term risks to inflation are tilted to.

[Carol Massar]

The upside and risks risks to employment.

[Stuart Paul]

To the downside a challenging situation there is no risk free path for policy we're going to get a great deal of data between now and the january meeting everyone around the table at the fomc agrees that inflation is too high and that we want it to come down and agrees that the labor market has softened and that there's further risk.

[Steve Moore]

Everyone agrees on that where the difference is is how do you weight those.

[Stuart Paul]

Risks and what does your forecast look like and where do you ultimately where do you think the bigger risk is.

[Steve Moore]

And you know it's very unusual to.

[Stuart Paul]

Have persistent tension between the two parts.

[Steve Moore]

Of the mandate we're well positioned to.

[Stuart Paul]

Wait to see how the economy evolves we'll just have to see it's a.

[Steve Moore]

Very challenging situation i think we're in.

[Stuart Paul]

A good place to as i mentioned to wait and see how the economy.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Evolves all right very challenging situation fed chair jay powell at the press conference he also did say gradual labor market cooling justified that rate cut today so talking about some weakness that we've got in the labor market next fomc decision folks not that we like to kind of look ahead but we do january twenty eighth twenty twenty six mark your.

[Carol Massar]

Calendars i am are you oh yeah.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

It'Ll be the first of twenty twenty six jay powell still will be fed chair so it'll be interesting we should point out after the decision president trump at the white house made some comments tim on today's fed move he said that could have been doubled at least doubled not a surprise we have heard criticism from the president when it comes to fed chair jay powell interesting enough.

[Carol Massar]

Stephen myron exactly stephen myron voted who's widely seen as somebody who has the most connection to the white house who's.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

On the fomc yeah exactly right all right so let's do a bit more in terms of the commentary around this decision we've had a lot certainly come across the bloomberg including our live blog let's see what our bloomberg intelligence chief us interest rate strategist ira jersey has to say about this all right ira we have heard from fed chair jay powell for at least the last three meetings where they cut that the both sides of the fed's mandate is challenged and at risk the fed decision today does it make sense to you i.

[Ira Jersey]

Think it does i mean it was fully priced and you know clearly when they pivoted to worrying more about employment than inflation they were going to go more than fifty basis points as kind of these risk management cuts and you know now that they've cut seventy five basis points another key phrase that jay powell said was that that they're now in the range of neutral so basically with all the committee members what is this mystical r or real neutral rate and are we there yet and he conceded that he thinks that they're now in the range of being at neutral so therefore this could be the end of cuts or maybe they're going to cut again unless the economic data changes enough for them to be comfortable cutting again because like you mentioned you know he did say that there's still this balance of risk between inflation and employment.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah exactly and look he did say even between now and january not to mention between now and the end of next year when some people think that another twenty five basis point rate will happen he said we're going to get a great deal of data between now and the january meeting so a lot can change or a lot can be confirmed in the meantime ira before that happens though i want to go back to this tension between the different parts of the dual mandate which part do you believe the fed needs to focus on more is it inflation or is it maximum employment well i actually think.

[Ira Jersey]

That at the moment there's very little that they can do about inflation because you know the interest rates still are relatively high compared for like the housing market and there's not much that the federal reserve can actually do to help the housing market right now in terms of you know bringing house prices down like what are they going to do they're you know if they lower interest rates a lot more that's just going to increase the value of some people's houses because you know maybe mortgage rates come down a little bit that increases affordability and suddenly house prices actually go up which is actually against their mandate and for other goods and services they don't seem to be particularly elastic like the elasticity to interest rates and a lot of these other goods whether it's even automobiles or any other large purchases there just doesn't seem to be a significant correlation between the two at the moment i think part of that is quite frankly because a large portion of the population does have very low interest rate mortgages so they're not going to refi it's not going to lowering interest rates isn't going to be as stimulative as it has been in previous cycles and at the same time lowering interest rates again isn't going to necessarily bring inflation make inflation go significantly higher if you know if you don't get a big lending boom and i'm not sure that that lending has increased a whole heck of a lot anyway so anyway the fact that they were close to neutral and you know we've always thought that they'd probably cut a little bit beyond three percent because personally i'm a little bit more concerned about the job market i think the job market shows some cracks beneath the surface that some people are either ignoring or you know everyone's making excuse for why we're at fifty k ish payrolls the last couple of reports that we've gotten but the fact is is that companies are still reluctant to hire you have seen in some of the survey data maybe that leveling out a little bit yeah but i'm still concerned about the job market and i think that the fed is and the people who voted for the cut certainly are worried about the job market more than inflation and we get.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

A read on that next week hey one thing i want to do before we go we've got about a minute and a half or so left here just quickly ira the fed moved to expand its balance sheet again fresh purchases of short term treasury securities to maintain what they said an ample supply of bank reserves just got about thirty seconds what do we need to know here.

[Ira Jersey]

Yeah well that's actually probably the bigger story even than everything else that we just talked about because it's much larger than most of us thought it would be they're adding somewhere around one hundred sixty billion dollars of t bills over the next couple of months through the april tax day risk assets seem to like that quite a lot and it made the whole meeting a lot more dovish according to i think a lot of people's sensibilities and just looking at that the the whole cut plus the qe light if you want to call.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

It that all right good stuff ira thank you so much we'll be looking out for your research also later on today and into tomorrow ari jersey chief us interest rate strategist at bloomberg intelligence from bi headquarters in new jersey stay.

[Carol Massar]

With us more from bloomberg businessweek daily coming up after this.

When patients have a disease and the cause is known it usually ends up needing a specific solution on the podcast targeting the toughest diseases we explore the innovative tools methods and unique philosophy vertex pharmaceuticals is using to search for treatments for some of humanity's most challenging diseases subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Stuart Paul]

If a lenovo gaming computer is on your holiday list.

[Steve Moore]

Don'T shop around just go directly to.

[Stuart Paul]

The source lenovo dot com it's your.

[Steve Moore]

Last chance to score exclusive deals on.

[Stuart Paul]

The gaming pcs you want like the lenovo legion tower five gen ten gaming desktop and lenovo lock gaming laptop so.

[Carol Massar]

Avoid all that shopping chaos and price.

[Stuart Paul]

Comparing and just go directly to the source lenovo dot com comma where pcs are up to thirty five percent off.

[Steve Moore]

That'S lenovo dot com lenovo lenovo running.

[Anurag Rana]

A business is hard enough so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other one for sales another for inventory a separate one for accounting before you know it you are drowning in software instead of growing your business this is where odoo comes in odoo is the only business software you'll ever need it's an all in one fully integrated platform that handles everything crm accounting inventory e commerce hr and more no more app overload no more juggling logins just one seamless system that makes work easier and the best part odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost it's built to grow with your business whether you are just starting out or already scaling up plus it's easy to use customizable and designed to streamline every process so you can focus on what really matters running your business thousands of businesses have made the switch so why not you try odoo for free at odoo dot com that's o d o o.

[Steve Moore]

Dot com hello hello i'm malcolm gladwell host of the podcast smart talks with ibm i recently sat down with ibm's chairman and ceo arvind krishna and i asked him how can companies use ai.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

To its fullest potential to create smarter.

[Steve Moore]

Business my one advice to them pick.

[Stuart Paul]

Areas you can scale don't pick the.

[Steve Moore]

Shiny little toys on the side for example if anybody has more than ten percent of what they had for customer service ten years ago they're already five years behind if anybody is not using ai to make their developers who write software thirty percent more productive today with the goal of being seventy percent more productive yeah so we are not asking our clients to be the first experiment on it we say you can leverage what we did we are happy to bring out all our learnings including what needs to change in the process because the biggest change is not technology is getting people to accept that there's a different way to do things to listen to the full conversation visit ibm dot.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Com smarttalks.

You'Re listening to the bloomberg business week daily podcast catch us live weekday afternoons from two to five eastern listen on apple carplay and android auto with the bloomberg business app or watch us live on youtube.

[Carol Massar]

We'Re staying on the fed decision today we're also thinking about fed leadership come twenty twenty six we've got a great roundtable steve moore is with us he's co founder and chair of the nonprofit unleash prosperity he's a former economic and senior policy advisor to donald trump in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty four and served as chief economist and distinguished visiting fellow at the heritage foundation for twelve years yeah he's.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Also written a bunch of books including trumponomics inside the america first plan to revive our economy also another one the trump economic mir and you might remember back in twenty nineteen president trump selected steve moore for the federal reserve board of governors which moore ultimately withdrew from so we have a lot to unpack and talk about steve joins us from palm beach florida great to have him here also with us is bloomberg economics us and canada economist stuart paul he's right here in our bloomberg interactive broker studio steve i want to kick it off with you welcome nice to have you here on bloomberg your key takeaways from today's fed decision well it was.

[Steve Moore]

Certainly wall street was happy with what happened today it was very expected that the fed did exactly what they announced today trump of course wants more rate cuts you know look inflation has come down and it's still not where we want it to be we want it to be at the two percent fed target and so we're running about two point seven two point eight so there's still work to be done to bring inflation down of course if you bring inflation down affordability goes up but look this is a booming economy right now it is so hot trump is right about that and twenty twenty six is going to be a monster year for growth and for incomes and i believe.

[Carol Massar]

For equities if you were on the fomc and a voting member how would you have voted today what would you have wanted to see i would have.

[Steve Moore]

Done exactly what they did you wouldn't.

[Carol Massar]

Have gone fifty basis points like stephen.

[Steve Moore]

Myron no i'm a little bit more of an inflation hawk than steven steven i know stephen he's a smart economist i lean towards making sure i think the top priority of the fed should be to make sure that we bring that inflation rate down to the target level we're not there yet and you know look at the as a political matter trump really needs to continue to bring that inflation rate down because people are still angry about about prices mister.

[Stuart Paul]

Moore it's really difficult to square the circle between being in an inflation hawk and voting for or advocating for additional rate cuts when you see somebody like president trump focusing so much on affordability but at the same time calling for the fed to cut rates even more how do you really square the circle how would you rationalize voting for a cut while also being an inflation hawk.

[Steve Moore]

Well i believe that wall street puts way way way too much influence and interest in fed rate cuts i mean nobody that the short term interest rate is has become almost irrelevant so i really don't believe that it's all that important frankly whether it was a quarter point or fifty percent you know fifty points or doing nothing i don't think that it makes all that much difference we should have learned the lesson by the way what look what we what we'd all like to see is for those mortgage rates to come down and the ten year treasury interest rate to come down well the fed doesn't control that i know that may surprise people watching this the fed has no you know impact on the ten year treasury or the thirty year mortgage and we know that by the way and what happened in twenty twenty four when the fed cut the discount rate and what happened to the i mean the fed funds rate and what happened to the mortgage rate in the ten year treasury it went up so i don't i don't overly obsess about fed rate cuts i think we're in a pretty good look the the most important thing is this incredibly healthy economy we've got hundreds of billions of dollars coming into the us economy of foreign investment we've got the highest s and p five hundred the highest dow and the highest nasdaq in the history of the country people are making huge amounts of money and this is a bet when the markets go up this is a bet that policy will be well guided and that american companies are going to make money so i have a hard time really having many much problem with the direction that we're going in with respect to this economy and don't forget the and starting in january people will start to see the you know middle income people will start to feel the impact of those big beautiful tax cuts that passed and in terms of less money deducted from their paychecks and taxes and the no tax on tips the no tax on overtime those are all positive features that will help middle class americans that's.

[Stuart Paul]

A really interesting point that fiscal policy is going to be especially accommodative in twenty twenty six and i think that one thing that's interesting is whether we're going to see monetary policy that's equally accommodative or even more so and that's going to really depend on who we get as the the next chairman of the federal reserve and chairman of the fom what do you make of the white house's floating of a trial balloon with kevin hassett about three weeks ago and then seeming to reconsider you know if there's anybody in the world who recognizes how difficult a process it can be to make it through the senate it's you and so i'm really interested to hear what your thoughts on what your thoughts are about what's going on in the white house and on capitol hill in terms of whipping up the votes to support someone perhaps like hassan.

[Steve Moore]

It or wash i like them both i mean i think the two kevins i've been saying this for two years now that you know it should be one of those two as the fed chairman i also like larry kudlow but i don't think larry probably is is in the runnings to do it but he'd be an excellent fed chair as well but look the two companies are monetary experts they're extraordinary economists i really truly either one of them i think would be fantastic picks and i think they would also keep their eye on the most important thing that the fed needs to do which is defend the dollar defend the dollar make sure that it's strong and stable that's all the fed needs to do it doesn't have to worry about jobs it doesn't have to worry about climate change or any of these other things the most important thing is to keep prices stable and the dollar strong i think both would.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Do that steve you have some great insight into president trump behind closed doors you know he did nominate you for a fed governor position you ultimately backed out of it but i'm just curious what were your conversations with president trump or what insight can you give to our audience and investing audience trying to understand read the tea leaves because we do have a president that most would agree that he's transactional and so i think we're trying to understand that in terms of any opposite appointments is that seen as an expectation that you're going to do the president trump's bidding and listen to him if you are at the fed in terms of what needs to be done in cutting rates if.

[Steve Moore]

That'S what he wants well look my opinion is that it is it is valuable to have an independent fed but i also believe that the fed needs to be accountable and in my opinion it hasn't been accountable the last few years that's why we got you know a nine percent inflation under under the current joan powell and so wouldn't you.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Say that that nine percent was the result of the pandemic and incredible demand i mean there were some you know unexpected events policy to fiscal policy there was a lot of money sloshing around when you can see that that nine percent inflation any president or any fed chair would have had to deal with.

[Steve Moore]

That well listen i mean i do think that trump made a big mistake in that he passed a big massive spending bill right before he left office so you could you make a good point but it was catastrophic everything that happened under under covid we made the biggest mistake in the history of the united states and shutting down our economy shutting down our schools shutting down our hospital it was outrageous and i think we've hopefully learned that leverage a lesson that we'll never never do it again but you are quite correct that what caused the inflation and i hope we remember this lesson for many many decades to come is that when you massively spend four trillion dollars guess what you're going to have inflation and it didn't stimulate the economy it caused it caused huge huge reductions in real incomes for middle class people it destroyed middle middle class incomes they lost massive amounts of money because we very stupidly printed all this money and spent it dropped it out of helicopters and that that's a policy that's never worked.

[Carol Massar]

So i want to go look i think i think it's an important you bring up a lot of important points about what happened during the pandemic and the causes of inflation but to carol's point you know you do have this direct line to the white house and to the president you advised him back in twenty sixteen you advised him in twenty twenty four how would you characterize your relationship with him right now and to what extent are you and how often are you speaking to him about economic matters that hit the united states by the way.

[Steve Moore]

I hope there isn't still a debate about what we did of COVID because it really really is important that we learn how incredibly inept almost everything that we did by the way i'm in florida right now in palm beach and one of the few politicians who got it right was ron desantis the governor here who did not shut down the florida economy and you have these blue blue states like new york and california and my home state of illinois that shut down their economy and that's one of the reasons by way the way these blue states have never really made a recovery from their tragic mistakes so.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah look i don't think it's i don't i don't want it we don't have a ton of time so i don't want to rehash the past and i think you know we could do an entire segment about that.

[Steve Moore]

For people right because it was you know we don't want to ever make that mistake.

[Carol Massar]

Again right we don't hopefully hopefully we don't face another pandemic and i don't think any any of us were we're countering your what you're saying there what i'm interested in is what you're you're talking to the president about right now what is the line that you have to president trump on economic policy what.

[Steve Moore]

I tell him is that i think the tax cuts are have been enormously beneficial and it's not accommodative fiscal policy on the tax side what it is i mean like one of the most important things we did in the big beautiful bill was we are allowing businesses to to you know instantly capitalize their expenditures and and write them off instantly and i believe that's one of the reasons we're seeing this capital boom in the united states i mean if you look at the last nine months capital investment has been really strong as a result of of this tax cut so it's it wasn't really meant to just pump money into the economy it was meant to incentivize through lower tax rates lower lowering corporate rate lower you know giving expensing lowering the individual income tax rate those are pro growth pro supply side policies that actually help bring inflation down i mean it's very simple if the economy produces more prices go down.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Hey one of the things i do want to go back to this idea of transactional and again i want to go back to the insight that you have in having conversations with president trump before he you know made a nomination for you to join the the fed and be a governor because we've heard the president come out and say jay powell has been very bad for our country he's terrible he's a terrible fed chair i'd love for him to lower interest rates i call him too late i'd love to fire him tell us about would there be pressure by president trump with who he appoints for the next fed chair and would there be an assumption by the person who takes that position to kind of do the president's bidding give us some insight if.

[Steve Moore]

You could i'll put it a little differently it's a good question first of all when i was nominated to be on the fed trump never really you know asked me about well would you cut rates or would you raise rates or so on he just he had trusted me as an economist that i would get it right so there was no pressure to sort of do his bidding now with respect to kevin hassett or kevin warsh which i think there's a good chance it's going to be one of those two what he is doing is picking someone you say do his bidding he's picking someone who agrees with his overall economic philosophy and that's exactly what a president should do i don't think that means undue influence on the independence of the fed but i think it's basically you know presidents deserve the monetary policy they want frankly and and so you know i think they will they will do they they agree with trump on monetary policy and that's one of the reasons one of the two of them will be chosen but i can't think of two economists i admire more than kevin hassett and kevin.

[Stuart Paul]

Marsh it's interesting that you bring up president trump's economic philosophy because i think that if you were to press him to describe his economic philosophy with regards to monetary policy he would just say he's a low interest rate guy so is the expectation going to be from you know kevin hasset or kevin warsh that they will just deliver low interest.

[Steve Moore]

Rates you know you make a good point the one thing that trump has often said to me is that he likes low interest rates and and i've always said well mister president low interest rates are good but we also want to make sure we don't cause inflation and so that is the kind of dual competing interests here but i think he gets it that you know what destroys a presidency is inflation for whatever reason you know we saw jimmy carter jimmy carter lose because of inflation we saw jerry ford lose because of inflation we saw this i think the major factor in this last presidential election was inflation americans hate hate hate higher prices it's one of the reasons they're still in a foul mood on the economy so i believe that kevin hassett and and kevin warsh either one of them will be an inflation hawk and they will i predict we will bring that inflation rate down to two percent but.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

One does wonder since he's not running again assuming no third term that maybe he doesn't care if there's inflation i'm just going to put that out there you want to go somewhere else i.

[Carol Massar]

Mean the republicans certainly care and affordability is going to be a message for them in the mid for everybody in the midterm hey we only have thirty seconds left steve i just want to take a sharp turn here because you because you are an economist and you watch what's happening closely the us taking a stake in publicly traded companies such as intel mp materials and others i.

[Steve Moore]

Don'T like it why not hate it no no no no never you know i've spent most of my career trying to privatize not nationalize so it's one of those issues i disagree with the president on i don't want i believe in separation of business and state and the less you know the government does to you know to influence business decisions.

[Carol Massar]

I think the better you're old school that way yeah i am it's a different it's not definitely a different republican party at least from a business perspective.

[Steve Moore]

Today i think there's a lot of.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Investors out there too who certainly would agree with you steve thank you so much really enjoyed this steve moore co founder and chair of the nonprofit unleashed prosperity and of course as we said a former economic and senior adviser to president trump in both of his terms and of course our great thanks to our own bloomberg economics us and canada.

[Carol Massar]

Economist stuart paul stay with us more from bloomberg businessweek daily coming up after this.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

You'Re listening to the bloomberg businessweek daily podcast catch us live weekday afternoons from two to five eastern listen on apple carplay and android auto with the bloomberg business app or watch us live on youtube.

Oracle shares they are down about five and a half percent here in the aftermarket meantime adobe shares their right now little change but they've been bouncing around a little bit i want.

[Carol Massar]

To bring in bloomberg intelligence senior technology analyst anuragrana to break down these earnings i want to start with what's going on with oracle down close to five percent in the after hours the company reported adjusted revenue for the second quarter that met the average analyst estimate revenue adjusted revenue coming in at sixteen point zero six billion cloud revenue coming in at eight billion dollars what's your initial reaction here and why are we seeing the stock lower so when you look.

[Anurag Rana]

At oracle results as expected the backlog or the bookings numbers was very strong that's been over five hundred billion right now but the realization of some of that into revenue on the cloud revenue it was slightly lower than what street was expecting and one reason for that good piece is supply constraint they may not have the necessary chips or equipment to fulfill that demand so i think there is going to be a lot more discussion on the call about it on the other side there was a little bit higher capex as well so for articles right now i think the backlog or the order book does not matter what really matters is how can they convert that backlog into sales over the next few years all right so.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

You talk about the rpo growth right and we are getting another headline that says it's aided by commitments from meta and nvidia i mean in terms of where this commitments or these you know order flow continues to come from does it matter that it still is so concentrated in the hyperscalers well as far.

[Anurag Rana]

As the concentration is concerned really depends on who's committing those promises if the promises are for somebody like a microsoft or an amazon or somebody else like meta it does make sense because they actually have the cash flow to support it but the big question for everybody is out of that three hundred plus billion commitments are from openai where does openai have the money to fund a lot of this expansion now openai thinks over the next few years they can get to that point where they can then spend that money money but in terms of certainty for an investor i think you're better off when the commitment is coming from a meta or a.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Microsoft hey anura can we assume that those folks that continue to invest in openai they have looked at the books they understand the financials of openai because it is not a publicly held company and we know there are some big time investors including microsoft in that company and others but can we assume that there is a real business there even though there's a lot that we don't.

[Anurag Rana]

Know about it oh yes absolutely there's a real business i mean nine hundred million users and for chat gpt i mean this is the biggest consumer app out there when it comes to ai tools so there's definitely a real business there but the big question is do they need to spend you know three hundred five hundred seven hundred billion down the road to in order to train their models that's an area where we are not sure how that translates into.

[Carol Massar]

Future revenue i'm looking i'm looking for the word debt in the press release coming from oracle i don't see it anywhere carol but not not too surprising i think that will come up on the call it'll definitely come up on the call but but how should investors be thinking about oracle's debt position because that was a concern a few weeks ago and you know we saw cds valuation as a result yeah see when.

[Anurag Rana]

You look at the size of their order book they just cannot fund it themselves it's just not possible given the free cash flow that they generate so they have to do something called a special pur vehicle where you'll have a private equity player you will have private debt and then you will have investments from maybe softbank around the others to create a create an entity that can fund a lot of the stargate orders that are flowing in so it is going to be a little more complicated than straight out going to the debt market and raising capital i know because.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

At some point i always wonder you know when there's a lot of debt created and there's a lot of investors involved how much are willing to throw more money at it to make sure that it all plays out right because the nervousness of it not happening maybe because just of a shortage of capital.

[Anurag Rana]

Yeah but carol if you look at it when they last came out in the market i mean the the news that we heard was it was oversubscribed i mean these companies are not having at this point any trouble raising capital for the data set for data center.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Expansion all right let's go to adobe.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah i'm just looking at what's going on with adobe right now the company gave a strong sales growth outlook it's eased concerns about the company giving an outlook for revenue in the coming year that topped analysts estimates it suggested that ai features are helping fuel growth of its creative software business just looking at shares of adobe in the after hours they are kind of unchanged they bounce around a little bit but right now down about three ten of one percent what do we need to know about.

[Anurag Rana]

Adobe'S report adobe's management needs to just come out and say we are executing properly they are you know i always say not worried about cannibalizing their business their margins were very strong this time what they promised a year ago they actually fulfilled it for the next quarter they are talking about ten percent growth in the overall company annual recurring revenue so i think overall good results but this is a company where honestly the sentiment is so negative no matter what they do they just can't get a.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Break hey listen the story today too anurag is that chatgpt users can now use photoshop and other creativity software from adobe directly within the chat bot so we're looking at openai continuing to bring kind of third party apps into its product sounds like a plus for adobe is it you know and where is adobe's role in the ai world where does it exactly fit in is it like an add on or what yeah.

[Anurag Rana]

So when you look at i think the biggest threat the reason why adobe stock has not been able to recover over the past two years is the biggest threat is a lot of their main products their cash cows whether it's photoshop or some of the other video editing tools people are saying i can go to an open source model and create a lot of that myself now we don't think there is a reason to have adobe down the road because of workflow issues and how you edit those things and how you manage that but that is the threat and i think the only thing that can help them is if they consistently execute like this for next several years and showcase that their own ai products are gaining momentum and they are working closely with people like openai and people like google i think they're both integrating those models into their workflow also yeah it's hard.

[Carol Massar]

Though because i mean in adobe what they want to do is they always want to come out and say you know our images and what we create are commercially safe so what essentially that means the translation is that if you're a creative and you're working on an ad campaign for a company you're going to know that whatever firefly or whatever adobe product you're using whatever it spits out is something that you're not going to get sued over and that's not necessarily the case with the other gen.

[Anurag Rana]

Models no i agree but if you think about it there is a case that if there is a pyramid of customers on the top you have the enterprise customers who are very concerned about it but it's possible at the base layer they may be customers either they're individual users or you know very small companies that's a good point they don't.

[Carol Massar]

They don't really care about some sort of like person posting on instagram isn't really going to care if what they create is like kind of violate copyright okay i get it that makes sense all right where do you want to.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Go carol well you know i'm just thinking you guys have a massive ai report that is out there so timely as we get ready for a new year and it gets into cross industry disruption of ai and this is what.

[Carol Massar]

Fed chair jay powell was asked about.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Today yes exactly he talked about it and you know so i'm just curious talk to us about this report who you guys all talk to and we what were some of the key findings.

[Anurag Rana]

Yeah you know we embarked on this several months ago and our entire take was we have all this capex spending on the tech side what are the users saying whether they are financial services firms consumer firms you know hospitals pharmaceutical companies so we went out and looked at nine industries and over six hundred c suite executives that were surveyed for this report and i think the biggest thing the grand takeaway for us is every sector is extremely worried about being disruptive disrupted now for us we thought only the software companies would be worried about it but you know we saw industrial firms auto firms hospitals they were all saying that okay you know this is going this could shake up our business so we need to invest and invest more the second thing we saw was even in these sectors that you could consider laggards of technology adoption the people who are you know part of the employee base they're very very apt at using these ai tools that we talk about whether that's chat gpt and the others so the the level of awareness is there the understanding is there now it's going to take some time for them to flow a lot of those technologies into their core business so that they don't get eaten away hey.

[Carol Massar]

One more on this and it has to do again we're thinking about we're just coming off of a press conference with fed chair jay powell where i personally thought and i told you this you know as the discussion was going on one of my biggest takeaways was his answer about ai and productivity yeah and the idea that productivity growth in the us like he didn't think that he would see a period of time with such an extended plus two percent in terms of gdp growth and you know we don't know what we can attribute to ai but there are also so many questions about okay what is going to be the effect on employees what's going to be effect on different sectors of workers did you guys hit on that at all in this report.

[Anurag Rana]

Yeah yeah yeah absolutely and you know productivity was the number one factor everybody is going through it's other thing that we have seen and this is what more predominant in the software companies that we cover is the level of revenue growth and the level of headcount growth has widened i mean what i'm saying is the relationship that was very tight before has moved on so when you have a company growing revenue at a particular rate headcount is not growing at that rate we're not saying there are cuts out there but that that delta is where the productivity is coming in which will eventually lead to and it's already we have already seen that in certain cases is higher revenue per employee and that i think is the benchmark everybody needs to focus on right but.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

He still had to say not showing up in layoffs yet so i mean tbd right to see how this kind of ultimately plays out hey before you go there's one other question we wanted to ask you meta platforms an open source money or tilting from an open source to a closed source ai model what is this all about i think it's called avocado it's a new model expected to debut i know i was like what is that i was trying to like understand totally california yeah i'll.

[Anurag Rana]

Take you back to many years ago when there was linux and windows linux is open source windows you gotta pay for it you make money when you have windows and very few companies out there have made money when they have an open source product meta started with this open source model really because the thing is you and i can go and perfect this model and then we can use it without paying meta any money but if you have a closed end model you have to pay better that royalty and you know at the end of the day they're spending all these billions of dollars how are they going to monetize it and i think that's kind of one of the reasons.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

For that pivot it's like they were listening to everybody saying well how are we going to monetize this all this spend how are we going to monetize it anurag thank you so much man and that report i'm sure we're going to lean on that a lot especially in the new year anuragrana he's senior technology analyst at bloomberg intelligence out there at the bloomberg news bureau in chicago.

[Carol Massar]

Stay with us plus more from bloomberg businessweek daily coming up after this.

[Anurag Rana]

If.

[Carol Massar]

A lenovo gaming computer is on your.

[Steve Moore]

Holiday list don't shop around just go.

[Stuart Paul]

Directly to the source lenovo dot com.

[Steve Moore]

It'S your last chance to score exclusive.

[Carol Massar]

Deals on the gaming pcs you want.

[Stuart Paul]

Like the lenovo legion tower five gen ten gaming desktop and lenovo lock gaming laptop so avoid all that shopping chaos.

[Steve Moore]

And price comparing and just go directly.

[Stuart Paul]

To the source lenovo dot com where pcs are up to thirty five percent.

[Steve Moore]

Off that's lenovo dot com.

[Anurag Rana]

Running a business is hard enough so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other one for sales another for inventory a separate one for accounting before you know it you are drowning in software instead of growing your business this is where odoo comes in odoo is the only business software you'll ever need it's an all in one fully integrated platform that handles everything crm accounting inventory e commerce hr and more no more app overload no more juggling logins just one seamless system that makes work easier and the best part odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost it's built to grow with your business whether you are just starting out or already scaling up plus it's easy to use customizable and designed to streamline every process so you can focus on what really matters running your business thousands of businesses have made the switch so why not you try odoo for free at odoo dot com that's o d o o dot.

[Steve Moore]

Com hello hello i'm malcolm gladwell host of the podcast smart talks with ibm i recently sat down with ibm's chairman and ceo arvind krishna and i asked him how can companies use ai to.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Its fullest potential to create smarter business.

[Steve Moore]

My one advice to them pick areas you can scale don't pick the shiny little toys on the side for example if anybody has more than ten percent of what they had for customer service ten years ago they're already five years behind if anybody is not using ai to make their developers who write software thirty percent more productive today with the goal of being seventy percent more productive yeah so we are not asking our clients to be the first experiment on it we say you can leverage what we did we are happy to bring out all our learnings including what needs to change in the process because the biggest change is not smart technology is getting people to accept that there's a different way to do things to listen to the full conversation visit ibm dot.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Com smarttalks.

[Steve Moore]

Hey everyone ed helms here.

[Stuart Paul]

And hi i'm kal penn and we're.

[Steve Moore]

The hosts of earsaver the audible and.

[Carol Massar]

Iheart audiobook club this week on the.

[Steve Moore]

Podcast i am sitting down with jenny garth host of the iheart podcast i.

[Stuart Paul]

Choose me to discuss the new audible.

[Steve Moore]

Adaptation of the timeless jane austen classic.

[Stuart Paul]

Pride and prejudice this is not a trick question there's no wrong answer what role would i play.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

You know what i can see you as mister darcy you got a little colin firth okay.

[Steve Moore]

That'S really sweet i appreciate that but are you sure i'm not the dad i'm not mister bennett here listen to.

[Stuart Paul]

Earsay the audible and iheart audio book club on the iheartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

You'Re listening to the bloomberg businessweek daily podcast catch us live weekday afternoons from two to five eastern listen on apple car play and android auto with the bloomberg business app or watch us live on youtube.

Fed cutting rates with three descents projecting one cut in twenty twenty six so we also want to get into kind of how it may impact bank lending as well we did see banks as a whole the kbw bank index rally in today's session off of the fed with a little bit more perspective let's get to zach wasserman he's chief financial officer at the columbus ohio based huntington bank shares back with us company has a market cap nearly twenty seven billion shares are up five percent year to date and just today tim piper sandler raising the price target on the stock from fifteen to sixteen maintaining though its underweight.

[Carol Massar]

Rating zach joining us here in the bloomberg interactive brokers studio zach great to talk with you again especially appreciate you coming into the studio did the fed get it right today i think they.

[Stuart Paul]

Did you know the the analysis they did that showed the labor markets still of course softening to some degree but inflation pressures continuing to to be present and and and with a potential for some higher price pressures as we go into the early part of next year i think they got it right and i think the outlook for they've signaled probably one additional cut into twenty twenty six the market by the way is baking in two cuts for twenty twenty six somewhere in that range seems very likely and i think helpful for the.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Economy at this point all right zach so if you were sitting down with jay powell what would you want to ask him right now that's a good.

[Stuart Paul]

Question what is he going to do after he leaves his job do you.

[Carol Massar]

Think he will leave his job in.

[Stuart Paul]

The spring i would think so that's my that's my but do you think.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

That also kevin hassett is a given like we're seeing that the president's meeting with kevin warsh like so it feels like things are still fluid well i'm.

[Stuart Paul]

Not a party to those discussions i have no clue but i certainly think that you know as the you know as they as they think about how that how they're going to chart their course on interest rate policy i think the path that they've chosen at this point appears to be the right one very data reliant appears to be you know we're landing the economy in a.

[Carol Massar]

Sweet spot okay so can can carol are you done with fed stuff can.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

I talk here yes i want to.

[Carol Massar]

You guys have been so acquisitive i mean there's been a lot of m and a in your space you've been much more aggressive than others in your peer group why now in terms of the aggressive aggressive posture well i wouldn't.

[Stuart Paul]

Characterize our posture as aggressive it's really.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

You know for us expansive that's for.

[Stuart Paul]

Sure well certainly it's expansive it's been it's been a dynamic year for us but primarily from an organic growth perspective you know huntington has been growing way faster than almost any other bank in the industry at this point from an organic perspective and so when we think about these partnerships that we've announced we were pleasure to announce two partnerships this year it's really all in service of sustainable long term organic growth we want.

[Carol Massar]

To you call them partnerships not acquisitions.

[Stuart Paul]

We really do and that's intentional.

The partnerships we've created with veritex bank and then cadence bank really are in fact bringing these organizations together making one plus one equals three and for us we'll be a powerhouse in texas we'll be present in a lot of terrific markets across the south and really together we're going to be a much stronger organization so they really are partnerships and ultimately all in service of long term sustainable.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Organic growth so you know i've got family in south carolina they've noticed some economic softness and certainly the veritex deal was about north carolina and south carolina they've seen softness in real estate which had been on fire i'm just curious your expansion plans there your organic growth that you want to do there i think you guys were looking to open more than fifty branches in those states so is that impacting any of the growth or so you're on target for.

[Stuart Paul]

That we're on target for that in fact next year we expect to open one branch every two weeks in the carolinas so we've got some products for you family and we'd love to take you on as a customer but we're really excited about that and in fact the market reception we've had so far has been tremendous we've opened several new branch locations just in the last few months and each of them have beat their full year first year deposit plan before they've even opened to give you a sense because the market reception has been so strong so with the look.

[Carol Massar]

I know you know i can ask the question but in terms of what you have planned any more acquisitions you know look we how are you thinking.

[Stuart Paul]

About it the way we're thinking about it is if something comes up ceo.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Said they expect more they expect more acquisitions to happen do you know i.

[Stuart Paul]

Think the industry has been consolidating for twenty years it will continue to consolidate for us if something comes up that's at the that's that's accretive to organic growth that's a great fit for us we'll consider it but otherwise it's all about organic growth for us geographically what's.

[Carol Massar]

An area of the country that's of interest to you where you're where you don't have a presence we love the.

[Stuart Paul]

Markets that we're in right now yeah our markets we're going to be in twenty one states covering more than fifty percent of the population of the country and in markets collectively that are growing thirty percent faster but that means a.

[Carol Massar]

Lot of states you're not in true.

[Stuart Paul]

You know i think our view is we're not trying to be a national bank we're trying you are not trying to be a national bank state explicitly we want to be deeply present in the states that we're in so would.

[Carol Massar]

That mean that if there were more expansion it would be within the states that you're already in so you can become bigger in those places rather than expanding the geographic footprint of places i.

[Stuart Paul]

Think that that's the right characterization yes but i think again that's not our our objective is not m and a per se our objective is organic growth.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

The goldman financials conference and i think that's part of also why the kbw bank index really rallied in a big way outperformed it's about two and a half percent higher they many said and you guys presented there too that they're seeing a stable consumer despite worries of an economic slowdown what are you guys.

[Stuart Paul]

Seeing we're seeing the same thing we just were up on stage this morning ourselves stable consumer stable consumer pipelines continue to be strong from a lending perspective on both consumer and commercial profitability is very strong credit is very stable it really looks like a solid economy from our perspective if all you did was read our internal reports yeah it would belie what you're hearing in terms of the headlines which is very encouraging as we go into the end of this year and into next year why do.

[Carol Massar]

You think you're seeing that distinction like you're seeing something the anecdotes and indeed some data are showing softness in places why are you seeing strength well look.

[Stuart Paul]

I think in total you're seeing consumer spending continues to grow corporations i think are more confident today than they would have been at the middle of this year when there was more uncertainties in the environment we've had a tax bill pass we've had more tariffs certainty come into come into the environment the government is now functioning again i think as companies are looking forward into twenty six they're seeing this is another year of growth the fed just came out today saying that the outlook for economic growth next year was more than two percent gdp and so that looks like an environment where we should continue to be investing continue to be expanding continue to be expanding you know from a commercial and consumer perspective there is of course a bit of a so called k shaped shaped economy happening and yeah i think certain segments of the consumer environment have faced pressures particularly from inflation and higher interest rates our bank does not have much exposure to that and i think in many cases the net of growth is continue to be positive who.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Is your typical consumer you know from.

[Stuart Paul]

Us we're focused on the mass out affluent consumer base and so that's specifically.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Target we do we okay sorry forgive.

[Stuart Paul]

Me go ahead we target the mass affluent and we've got a very strong base of consumers that are that are in that segment and then of course we also one of the larger largest small business banks and commercial banks in the country as well what does mass.

[Carol Massar]

Affluent mean in your markets you know.

[Stuart Paul]

Typically we're looking at customers who have a net worth of or income of more than one hundred thousand dollars net worth that are that are high of course we we bank everyone and we really our tagline is welcome to all and we mean that but for the most part our business is concentrated in.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

That mass affluent segment so loan origination activity tell us about what you're kind of seeing since you last reported yeah.

[Stuart Paul]

In fact we just this morning showed quarter to date loan growth of two point eight billion dollars sequentially from last quarter we're growing at about eight to nine percent year on year right now and actually exceeding our own forecast that we set just a month ago in.

[Carol Massar]

The fed press conference today i found what jay powell said about ai really fascinating this idea of productivity yeah and it's going to get me to ask every single person i talk to about not just how they're using ai but like productivity increases at your bank like what are you seeing how are they.

[Stuart Paul]

Using it we're doing a lot in.

[Carol Massar]

Ai actually it's increasing it sure is.

[Stuart Paul]

I mean to give you a sense last year in the fourth fourth quarter we had two gen ai projects going through our risk evaluation and implementation today we have thirty there's about a dozen per month that are coming into the pipeline software engineering is being made much more more productive we're seeing all manner of internal process improvement and now customer facing applications as well things that make the loan approval process seamless and more effective more personalized service so is that.

[Carol Massar]

Going to increase earnings for you you.

[Stuart Paul]

Look i think it will it will certainly create capacity for us to then invest more you know our modus operandi is to harvest and try to drive efficiencies in the baseline costs so that we could deploy those expenses into investments.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

A few years ago i actually drive up to make a deposit i used to talk to a teller i mean i was a kid at the time you know and my little book but having said that i don't talk to a teller for the most part in anymore so will i in your estimation we are talking to ceo's our team our tech team just did a big ai report and they're talking to executives across industries everybody seems to be in on ai but in terms of fed chair jay powell saying ai hasn't really impacted the labor market yet will it does it it has to right look.

[Stuart Paul]

I think in the end i will touch almost every element of human life and commercial economic and ultimately will supplant many of the more rote processes that we use people to do but it'll mean people do other things this will be a change in the labor force in terms of what people are doing and there's things that people can uniquely do make judgments be creative interact with other people lead organizations i think what's incumbent upon all employees and i think about this myself is you know where can i shift my activities to where i uniquely add value people matter you.

[Carol Massar]

Matter you matter oh thank you you.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Matter zach wasserman thank you so much this is the bloomberg business week daily podcast available on apple spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts listen live weekday afternoons from two to five pm eastern on bloomberg dot com comma 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.

[Steve Moore]

If a lenovo gaming.

[Stuart Paul]

Computer is on your holiday list don't shop around just go directly to the source lenovo dot com it's your last.

[Carol Massar]

Chance to score exclusive deals on the.

[Stuart Paul]

Gaming pcs you want like the lenovo legion tower five gen ten gaming desktop and lenovo lock gaming laptop so avoid.

[Carol Massar]

All that shopping chaos and price comparing.

[Stuart Paul]

And just go directly to the source lenovo dot com where pcs are up to thirty five percent off that's lenovo.

[Steve Moore]

Dot com lenovo lenovo.

Amazon five star theater presents real customer reviews performed by ed helms tonight's review tactical jacket i was living a simple life didn't get out much then i bought this jacket and everything changed women came flocking to me from lands domestic and foreign on the two hundred forty five day sailboat voyage home i was attacked by a shark i knew it was the jacket he was after giving up the jacket in exchange for my life five stars amazon customer sixty nine shop the perfect gift this holiday on amazon ford was.

[Stuart Paul]

Built on the belief that the world.

[Steve Moore]

Doesn'T get to decide what you're capable of you do so ask yourself can.

[Stuart Paul]

You or can't you can you load up a ford f one hundred fifty.

[Steve Moore]

And build your your dream with sweat and steel can you chase thrills and conquer curves in a mustang can you.

[Stuart Paul]

Take a bronco to where the map.

[Steve Moore]

Ends and adventure begins whether you think.

[Stuart Paul]

You can or think you can't you're.

[Steve Moore]

Right ready set forward you know what a girl's best friend is not diamonds her lawyers from executive producer ryan murphy comes a fiery new legal drama it's.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Our own boutique women representing women you.

[Steve Moore]

Can'T afford to miss make it ring.

[Podcast Host / Bloomberg Narrator]

Showtime ladies stand up straight and breeze into that room like a storm no.

[Steve Moore]

One saw coming hulu original series all's.

[Stuart Paul]

Fair now streaming on hulu and hulu on disney plus for bundle subscribers terms apply.