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Kara Swisher · 50:22
Scott, we're back. Now let's end with a news rundown of other stories I'd like to hit quickly. First, health secretary RFK junior made quite an impression as usual this week testifying for congress besides heavy breathing on the microphone, which is disturbing. Let's hear a clip of him defending Trump math while senator Elizabeth Warren tries to ask a question.
Speaker · 50:41
There is two ways of calculating percentage. If you have a $600 drug and you reduce it to 10, that's a 600 percent reduction. He
Kara Swisher · 50:50
just kept going on the math. Elizabeth Warren wasn't having any of it. Meanwhile, a report showing the efficacy of COVID nineteen vaccines has been blocked from being published in the CDC and Prevention's Scientific Journal. It's the second time they're doing... Trying to pretend these vaccines didn't work. Thoughts very quickly?
Scott Galloway · 51:08
I think Hagsat is doing more damage to people outside of The US than any person in recent history, and I think RFK junior is gonna do more... Cause more death, disease, and disability amongst Americans than any person in recent history. And president Trump has to take credit for that. But when you listen to the guy talk, he just... He absolutely has no qual... If there's one... I mean, you just did... You're you're doing a show on this. If there's one place you'd need to defer to the experts... And folks, expertise is an actual thing. It's around health. And they have clearly decided, alright. This guy is a fucking loose cannon talking about raccoon's genitalia, and they have basically said, keep this guy out of the news. What's interesting is that if he had ovaries, they would have fired him by now. I mean, they seem to be quick to fire women.
Kara Swisher · 51:56
Women. So the dirty mouth lady left the labor I
Scott Galloway · 51:59
mean, what... The three people now that have been let go, all women?
Kara Swisher · 52:03
Anyway There was one guy, Phelan, who's fighting with Hagsteth. But go ahead.
Scott Galloway · 52:07
The Navy secretary.
Kara Swisher · 52:08
Yeah.
Scott Galloway · 52:08
Yeah. So, look, I I think RFK junior is and this word's overused, RFK Jr. Is dangerous.
Kara Swisher · 52:16
Murderous.
Scott Galloway · 52:16
And no one loves, you know, no one loves RFK Jr. More than measles. And we're about to see, in my opinion, and we've already seen it, a potential comeback of some of the most devastating diseases which we had eradicated because of just junk science, head up your ass beliefs and conspiracy theories. The fact that this guy has been charged with the health of America and oversees the CDC is gonna set us back years, if not decades.
Kara Swisher · 52:46
Decades. Decades. And, also, he's just such a suck up to Trump, except let me just tell you, he's running for president too, by the way.
Scott Galloway · 52:52
They're all running for... They all wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say, hello, madame or mister president.
Kara Swisher · 52:57
Really cannot be our president. Like, oh god. If I had to pick, I I don't know what I would do. I'm not gonna have to pick. I won't pick any of them. Very quickly, crypto billionaire Justin Sun has sued the Trump family's crypto venture, accusing criminal extortion for freezing digital tokens over his refusal to invest more money with the company over at True Social. Devin Nunes has departed as the company's CEO after four years in their role, where they made, I don't know, $5,000,000 a year. And one year, he was paid $46,000,000. He's an incompetent moron. Thoughts on that? Just what a surprise, Justin's son. You tried to pay to get out of an SEC thing, and they fucked you. What a surprise. Mobsters mobsters are gonna mob. I don't know what else to say, and the Wittkofs are involved somewhere in here. It's one of the children.
Scott Galloway · 53:41
It goes to the notion of reckoning. I think it should be done to the letter of the law, but I I think right now, the... Many of the people running for president are just many of our our fine people serving in government, and the congress should be outlining and putting out plans to work with to coordinate with states AG. And Witkoff's kids should not be getting $500,000,000 investments from The Gulf from... Who is meeting with a cabinet secretary.
Kara Swisher · 54:09
I think they're getting rid of him.
Scott Galloway · 54:10
That that somewhere has to be a crime, and I think we have to start signaling we are going to pursue these crimes. And the statute of limitations, I believe, on the emoluments... Whatever it is, this is probably this is probably... I bet there's some very serious crimes this could potentially under defense threats. But the fact that I went to an event where Steven Wittkopf, I spoke right after him, I just can't get over in the vice president. Vice president Gore was there. I mean, guy is engaging in naked criminality. And so... And by the way, don't think it should be political retribution. I think we also should go after some Democrats, specifically around insider trading.
Kara Swisher · 54:54
Well, let me get to that. For the prediction market news, Kaushi has fined and suspended three congressional candidates, not both Democrats and Republicans, for betting on their own races. That's not allowed over there at Kalshi. Thoughts... They're they're... That... All these rules have to go in place. A lot of companies are doing them now. Do not be do not be betting on stuff like this. It is insider trading. I'm glad Kalshi called it out... Has that. Thoughts?
Scott Galloway · 55:19
It was a brilliant move on Kalshi's part. I mean, okay. So there's good and really bad here. The good is that Kalshi has said, and this will cost them, the politicians will come out against them, they said, you're not allowed to do this. We're fining you. That's the good part. Good for them. Smart move politically, strategically for Tarek, the CEO of Kalshi. This is what's wrong with it. We shouldn't need companies to regulate themselves. The fact that the marketplace hates a void. It hates a vacuum. There's so little regulation that the company itself is fining people. It's like, if... What if what if all of a sudden Chevron said, okay. You're manufacturing our oil and putting too much carbon into the air because we are so fucking freaked out about the lack of an an EPA. That's where we are right now. The only regulation that's come down the pike in this stuff has usually been regulation to stop regulation. And so when companies feel... Everybody hopes that a company's gonna weigh in and regulate themselves. That is not the way to run industry or a country. At all.
Kara Swisher · 56:25
And they are. They are in some cases. Several companies have put in rules about this. But it's insider trading is all we have to... It's insider
Scott Galloway · 56:33
That just gives you a sense for the fact that there's no share of fear. It's basically... This is... To a certain extent, it's kind of like vigilantism, that because there's no sheriff around, we have to enforce the law. So good on Calci, but it's a it's a terrible indictment on our lack of regulatory infrastructure.
Kara Swisher · 56:51
Agreed. One of them said he was doing it for a reason to show how bad it was. Give me a break. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
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— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 58:36
Okay, Scott. We're gonna do some predictions very quickly so people know Warner Brothers shareholders just approved the deal with Paramount, although it's facing a lot of regulatory scrutiny. I suspect it'll get through, but it's gonna be a lot bumpier. And, so that's gonna be an interesting thing. There's a lot of pushback from Hollywood, all kinds of regulators. So even if it's just reached this step, I got my thing in the mail. I own some Warner shares. Thanks for the money, David. It's, it it... We'll see where it goes. I I don't know. There might... It might be a little rockier than than people think, but they'll probably shove it through because they've only got a few months to... Before Trump loses a lot of power. Your your prediction.
Scott Galloway · 59:13
By the way, it's... Right now, on the prediction markets, it's saying that the likelihood it closes around 72%, which is less than I thought. Yeah. They're saying there's a real... There's like a one in three chance it doesn't close.
Kara Swisher · 59:25
Yeah. There's some rockiness there. Anyway, go ahead.
Scott Galloway · 59:28
Yeah. I think... So my my prediction is that when the SpaceX value... When the SpaceX IPO goes out, you will see an almost... Not an equivalent, but a proportionate decline in the value of Tesla. Because right now, investors are paying for that Elon premium, and that is an inflated multiple in exchange for Musk's charisma and vision. And right now, Tesla's Ford p is a 185. That's 12 times higher than the auto industry. And basically, they're they're paying 12 times what anyone else is garnering the auto industry for a car company that has posted sales declines for two years in a row. And abroad, BYD has surpassed Tesla as the largest seller of EVs and eating away its European share.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:11
Addition battery technology they're doing in China right now that looks really promising. Go ahead.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:16
In addition, Robotaxi and Optimus are long shot bets that may not pay off for five years, if at all. So essentially, all of a sudden, retail investors are gonna have an opportunity to buy into some of that Elon vision and magic, but with SpaceX. And so I think that magic acolyte worship of... That creates that 185 times earnings of Tesla is gonna massively deflate because I think all of that idolatry revenue is gonna go into SpaceX.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:41
Oh, that's interesting. So boom. What if he merges it in? They need robots at their data centers in space.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:47
You've predicted that for a while.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:49
I I was right about the last one.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:51
Yeah. You predict... Well, okay. That's a whole different ballgame. But if they're assuming they maintain distinct capital structures, you're gonna basically see just a massive transfer of market cap from Tesla to SpaceX.
Kara Swisher · 1:01:03
The the stuffing gets knocked out of Tesla. They're not gonna make the robots that are gonna run the data centers in space?
Scott Galloway · 1:01:09
I... Look. I think industrial industrialized robots are incredibly exciting. I I think the notion that you're gonna have a robot in your house bringing you your soup or whatever, I just don't... I don't I don't see that.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 1:01:19
I'm gonna have that for you when you're old in case
Speaker · 1:01:21
you're you're old. Old.
Scott Galloway · 1:01:21
I've already got a Filipino man named Manny with well moisturized hands lined up.
Kara Swisher · 1:01:26
You're getting a robot named Barbara.
Scott Galloway · 1:01:28
You're gonna push me around. You're gonna have trouble sitting over the back of my wheelchair.
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Scott Galloway · 1:01:32
And I'll tell you dirty jokes, and you'll tell me
Kara Swisher · 1:01:34
to I'm kidding you on the head. Like, I can't believe you said that back in 2014.
Scott Galloway · 1:01:40
For our podcast.
Kara Swisher · 1:01:41
I know.
Scott Galloway · 1:01:42
They they they won a Webby forty years ago.
Kara Swisher · 1:01:45
Yeah. That's true. We won talk about the Webbies. Oh my god. We won a web... We won we won both web... Both... All of us. And, also, Lost Boys got one. Right? Is that correct?
Scott Galloway · 1:01:53
So you won for On with Kara
Kara Swisher · 1:01:56
Swisher. Interview.
Scott Galloway · 1:01:57
And Pivot won its third year in a row for best business podcast. Mhmm. And my newsletter, No Mercy, No Malice won for best business newsletter.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:06
And That's a great business newsletter.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:08
Thank you. And Lost Boys won for best special series, cohosted with the mooch. Five Webby wins between the two of us, Kara.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:17
Anyway, we appreciate it. We like the Webbies. We have fun with them. Anyway, that's a fun show. We wanna hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show, or call 85551 Okay. That's the show. Very good show, Scott. That was a very good discussion. I
Scott Galloway · 1:02:34
appreciate it. Where I came across as defensive.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:37
No. You didn't. No. You didn't. You didn't?
Scott Galloway · 1:02:38
I think I did.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:39
No. You didn't. No. It was called a discussion.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:42
Anyway When will I be enough, Kara?
Kara Swisher · 1:02:44
Never. Thanks for listening to Pivot, and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:52
Today's show was produced by Lara Niemann, Toby Marcus Taylor Griffin, and Todd Weissman. Ernie and her Todd interviewed this episode. Manolo Moreno edited the video. Thanks also to Dubrowz, miss Severian, Dan Chelan. Yashak is Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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