Bloomberg Talks
00:00:41 · Meredith Whitney, Paul Sweeney
[00:00:41] S0: Well, I'm watching a lot of things on this election day. And by the way, your show has been so excellent today. So thank you for all that. You know, I think what people are watching most closely is maybe not Virginia, but Texas, because so much of the, you know, of AI is dependent upon who becomes the new governor in Texas. And then there's so much that is, you know, Still in doubt because the polls have been so, so bad and the prediction markets have been so bad over the last election, be it Brazil, be it Israel. So I think everyone's going to be on your Tinder hooks tonight and tomorrow. just waiting to see what happens. And from the work that we've done, I think it's going to be really bad. I mean, the Republicans have been so out of touch on affordability and the data that they're looking at, I think they know that they're at serious risk, but the talk track that they've been doing that all income levels have grown in the most recent data, this is the BLS data, is very stale. For people who are really on the brink, one in four recipients of food stamps or SNAP has lost their ability to access food stamps. The electorate is really angry, and I think we're going to be prepared for a big upset. [00:02:18] S2: So talk to us about the data you look at, Meredith, to think about this affordability issue. Again, you follow all the financial companies, the credit card companies. You see that granular data that they see. What are you seeing out there as it relates to this affordability issue, which is obviously issue arguably number one in this election cycle?
00:02:18 · Paul Sweeney, Meredith Whitney
[00:02:18] S2: So talk to us about the data you look at, Meredith, to think about this affordability issue. Again, you follow all the financial companies, the credit card companies. You see that granular data that they see. What are you seeing out there as it relates to this affordability issue, which is obviously issue arguably number one in this election cycle? [00:02:35] S0: Well, if you want to see good things, you can. The banks lend to people who don't need money. They lend to prime and super prime banks. If you want to see what's really going on with the economy with 50 percent of households, you have to look closer at things like, again, who's getting food stamps, who's not getting food stamps, who's going to the big growth areas, which is pawn loans, which have grown 30-plus percent over the last few years, daily wage access loans. has grown like a rocket ship in terms of people who can't make it from paycheck to paycheck. They have to make it from payday to payday. And I don't think that a lot of, first of all, the data is largely in the hands of private companies. Increasingly, you've got companies like Dave and Chime and Block. that are making these types of products available. And they're the fastest growing products within those companies. But you've really got to pay closer attention. And a lot of the economists aren't doing that.
00:03:44 · Tom Keene, Meredith Whitney, Paul Sweeney
[00:03:44] S1: Just a headline just out moments ago. What did oil do here, Paul? Yeah, oil comes back. It was down $ 3, and now Brent is down $ 1. This is a headline. I'm just bringing it to you folks as it comes across from Bloomberg News. Iran says U.S. response to its demands wasn't convincing. I have no idea. Meredith would want me to do that headline here on this election day as, well, NASDAQ up half a percent. as well. Meredith, from where you sit with all of your work over the years, I'm fascinated by the middle ground. Conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans, do they exist out there? [00:04:29] S0: I think so. Certainly for the group of people that I talk to, I think there's a middle ground. I think Let's give an example of Texas. Talarico is a centrist. So I think that, you know, when he I expect him to win, that says a lot about the country, because, you know, for a Democrat to win in Texas, that's a major, major problem. [00:04:56] S2: Move. [00:04:57] S0: And I think more and more people are centrist. You've got the extremes that dominate the parties, but most people don't relate to what's going on with either party. So I think a central trend is growing in the country. [00:05:14] S1: I've got to get the market open, but Meredith, please stay with us. I want to talk about the agony out there of people selling winners, which Meredith Whitney has fought against for years. Meredith Whitney with us on this Election Day with Meredith Whitney Advisory Group with a real understanding, again, of the Beltway and Virginia.