Scott Galloway · 49:41
This understandable sympathy for these people. And taxpayers, including people who could never afford to live in the Palisades, end up bailing folks out. I I I just hate to say it. I think I think you... If you're gonna live in a dangerous area because of the upside to you personally from a consumption standpoint, I don't think taxpayers should be bailing these people out. And until people feel the full weight of whether it's climate change or the cost of living in high risk areas, we're not gonna do anything about it. It's a
Kara Swisher · 50:12
fair point. It's a fair point. I think there's initial disaster relief you can bring up.
Scott Galloway · 50:16
100%.
Kara Swisher · 50:16
And, you know, cover costs that people pay back and things like that. But I I tend to agree with you. I think you you know, I know I live in an earthquake zone in San Francisco, so I went out of my way to put in steel girders and put them down into the bedrock. I did so much stuff around fire in terms of of of not having as much wood. I thought about passive art. It's called passive architecture, which is thicker walls, more concrete, etcetera. I didn't do all of it because it was an old house. I wasn't able... It was an old wooden house, but I definitely did everything possible. It cost me a lot of money to do so. I have enormous insurance, you know, on that because of earthquake insurance, and it's all at the cost to me. Now I would expect some some federal help around food or temporary things or, relief, but I wouldn't I wouldn't demand it after a certain amount of time. Safety would be one of them. Like, keep my house safe. Keep, like, looters and things like that.
Scott Galloway · 51:16
Why should tax taxpayers, federal taxpayers, at the gas pump, paying whatever it is, tax on their current income as a waiter or as a chiropractor, why should they be subsidizing my right to live on the on the water in Florida?
Kara Swisher · 51:32
Well, look. That's a bigger question. Why should people pay for schools? Because if I don't have kids, why should I pay for corn subsidies?
Scott Galloway · 51:40
Social good to having an educated populace. Is there a social good to making sure Scott can stare at the ocean waiting for the ass cancer? It's not my... It's not your right to live in a spectacular desert that collides with the sea with these beautiful mountains that create these funnels of hot air. If you wanna live there, in my opinion, you should bear the costs, including the risks.
Kara Swisher · 52:03
Yeah. Well, Nancy, the banks will be fine. If there's a mortgage, of any kind, the banks will own the property. That tends to be the situation, or they'll figure something out. They always sort of work it all out and and will overcharge people as, as health care companies have gotten so good at doing. Anyway, if you've got a question of your own that you'd like answered, send it our way. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 Alright, Scott. 1 more quick break, and we'll be back for your prediction.
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— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 54:45
Okay, Scott. Let's hear a prediction and make it good.
Scott Galloway · 54:48
I think that inflation and the ten year bond are gonna be the adults in the room
Kara Swisher · 54:53
To explain.
Scott Galloway · 54:53
The next few months. Explain. Well, if you think about 13,000 homes have been destroyed. And the idea that... I mean, Trump's two big policies are, I mean, a few things. The implicit expectation that he'll either keep taxes low or lower them. Two, that he'll be very... He'll take a tougher stand on illegal immigrants. And three, that he's gonna impose tariffs. This is the perfect storm for inflation, and where you're gonna see examples of it that hit the news are when people start to rebuild in the Palisades. And the hiring pool is vastly diminished, and the cost of a washing machine or a garage door is up 40 or 60%. And that month, you see a bump up in CPI, and the tenure goes fucking crazy. It's like his entire... The person I am most excited about in the Trump cabinet who is the most qualified is the ten year bond. Because if it starts to spike and goes... And says, the expectation of inflation is coming back because of this guy's inflationary policies around tariffs, deporting immigrants. And I wanna be clear. If you've committed a crime and you're an illegal immigrant, that's your second crime. I am damned with those people being being being deported. But the reality is if you go to a construction site, it is an undocumented worker's Lollapalooza.
Kara Swisher · 56:19
It is indeed.
Scott Galloway · 56:20
And by the way, some of these people, speaking for a friend, are remarkably fucking talented
Kara Swisher · 56:26
Right. And hardworking. California, by way.
Scott Galloway · 56:28
And will get on a roof. We're twelve hours such that they can make, you know, 300, $400 that day, and then send 200 home, you know, to wherever it is, to to El Sal or wherever they're from. But the fact that all of a sudden, these people are gonna be scared to show up to a worksite or that they might be worried about... Or they just might not come here. It's been this... On a positive note, this this workforce has been one of the most flexible, economically advantageous workforces in history. And then you're gonna start this bullshit around taxing all these products. And by the way, these folks, the next day, will implement reciprocal tariffs. You wanna talk about the choke point in AI? You know, I used to think, oh, it's nuclear stocks are gonna go up. Nuclear stocks... My analyst, miss Avariel, reminded me that nuclear can't really be online to... They they can't handle a third of the incremental demand by, like, 2050 because there's latency in building a nuclear power plant. She said it's gonna be all about liquid natural gas. We get a lot of LNG from Canada. What happens when Canada gets sick of being pissed on
Kara Swisher · 57:34
Food prices.
Scott Galloway · 57:35
Food prices. See... They they... Do you know how many products
Kara Swisher · 57:38
Chicken chicken There's car...
Scott Galloway · 57:41
There are cars that are eventually sold or, quote, unquote, manufactured in The US that go back and forth to Mexico, different components and different parts, like a half a dozen or a dozen times. So they immediately reciprocate with like minded tariffs, and what's gonna bring it to light is some of the costs around trying to rebuild. And then the adult in the room on the cabinet is gonna be the ten year. And if inflation starts to spike, all of his grandiose plans around tariffs, it's gonna come undone. So, anyways, my prediction is that the rebuild effort, as we begin to cost it out, are gonna shine a light on the inflationary pressures of kind of Trump's signature policies. God, that was boring.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 58:22
Man, no. It wasn't. It's interesting. Jesus, I'm bored. No. It is interesting. I I... You know, Matt and I are renovating our house in DC, and we were thrilled it's almost done. Like, I remember... We were like, we missed, like, all the cost of wood, all the cost of labor, all the costs of all the things that were from all... And, you know, we bought locally. We bought... We did a lot of local stuff, windows fixed and stuff like that. But I went to this guy who was doing our window restoration. We restored old windows. And it was... I don't know who the workers were, but they were these wonderful skilled workers all over the place. And I I don't... They were all from from other countries, every single person in there. He was training them, and they were wonderful craftspeople. But I don't know where they were from. I don't know anything about it. But at the same time, I was thinking, oh my god. If this was in Trump administration, this would cost us double to do the renovation, or it would be the inflation pressures or the ability to even have workers would have been, like, spiked. And I agree with Scott. It's gonna be... If people are gonna start to feel it really hard, food prices, furniture, couches, everything. Everything you own is is is is is subject to this problem. We are so intertwined. One of the great stories, actually, I would push people to look at was how the the... How Atlantic did one on how many plastics there are in everything we do. And so one of the reasons these things burn so quickly was because so much of our goods from couches to everything... We have so much plastic in our houses. It goes up, and it's quite toxic.
Scott Galloway · 59:52
I heard we have plastic in our testicles. Did you read that article?
Kara Swisher · 59:55
Not my testicles. Mine are clean. My
Scott Galloway · 59:57
testicles clean. Well, on that down vest you're wearing, I'm now convinced you have testicles. Where did you get that thing?
Kara Swisher · 1:00:04
Stop it. David Saslov gave it to me.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:06
Oh, of course he Yeah.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:08
He wears it.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:08
Of course he did.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:09
He wears it. I said, can... Where can I get one of your lesbian vests?
Scott Galloway · 1:00:12
He wears a lot
Kara Swisher · 1:00:13
of sneakers. Yeah. The guy got it. I I had interview one of... Mark Thompson at one of their events, and this was part of the schwag.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:20
I love It's very Kara Swisher.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:22
It is. It is. I love it. It's one of my favorite things. It's high quality. It's very soft because it... Because it's from David Zaslow. Before we go, a quick look at what's going on elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week on ProfG Markets. Scott spoke with our favorite Canadian who now will be under tariffs, Andrew Ross Sorkin, editor at large of DealBook, The New York Times and co anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box. Disclosure, he's not actually Canadian. We just call him that. Let's listen to a clip of you and Andy Ross.
Guest · 1:00:52
If China is prepared to sell to Elon Musk and only to Elon Musk, what does that say about the leverage and influence that China must think that they have over Elon Musk by dint of his factories and Tesla business in the nation state that is China. And then it probably raises a whole secondary order of questions, which is if China feels this way, how should we as Americans feel that people are calling him the co president of The United States?
Kara Swisher · 1:01:24
To say nothing of Russia, Andy Ross, and his influences... Various influence. How would... How did that go with you and him?
Scott Galloway · 1:01:30
I... Like, I love Andrew Ross. I think the most trusted journalist in the world right now is Anderson Cooper, and I think second is probably... I think the most trusted business journalist in the world is is is Andrew. And my cohost, Ed Elson, this 25 year old kid who's been working with us, who is to me what I am to you, and that is I discovered his ass. And he said to him, he stopped the podcast, no joke, and he said, you're my professional role model. To which I responded, well, I hope he pays your bonus, bitch. But anyways
Kara Swisher · 1:02:01
I was like, not good. Ed, don't you understand the fine art of kissing up? He has better hair. Let's be clear.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:08
He's arguably the most likable man in media. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Andrew Archergen.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:13
I think he's underpaid, actually. I've told him that because he just... He he wants to
Scott Galloway · 1:02:17
work at the end.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:18
I... Nobody could make bankier. He could make bankier because he could go off on his own. I've... He
Scott Galloway · 1:02:23
and I He does. He does. He does. He does.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:26
To stay. He can't give speeches. He can't do other things. He can't do this. He can't do that.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:31
Maybe you should buy the New York Times. God.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:35
Listen up. Next week, we'll be in your feeds a day late because of the holidays. See you on Wednesday to talk about the inauguration. We're gonna tape on Tuesday after Sullivan. We'll have plenty to talk about all the pictures of the the, you know, the three amigos or the three idiotys, who will be sitting on the... At the parade. And listen. It is no degrees, and the richest people in the world have to sit there on really uncomfortable chairs until Donald Trump gets up. What a great world this is. Scott, read us out.
Scott Galloway · 1:03:04
Today's show was produced by Lara Nayman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, miss Severo, and Dan Shulan. Nishat Corot is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. The Dallas Cowboys, the Los Angeles Lakers, Manchester United, Man City, Cricket in India, nothing, nothing compared to that second best team in Bogota La Equidad.
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