Bloomberg Money: 'Gold Has Been in Bull Market for 25 Years'

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

**Joe Matthew** (0:07)
Bloomberg Money.

**Tom Keene** (0:12)
This is the Bloomberg Money podcast. I'm Tom Keene with Scarlet Fu. Join us each week for a smart look at the forces shaping your financial life on personal finance, on retirement, and wealth management. We will explore how people are earning, investing, and building wealth. We are live Fridays at noon Eastern on Bloomberg Television. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen, and as always, on the Bloomberg Terminal and the Bloomberg Business App.
We start strong. This has become hugely successful for us. Different voices from Bloomberg News with us this morning. Isabel Lee is with us. We're thrilled that she could join.
Lily is with us as well here. Thank you so much for joining. But Joe Matthew is with us here as he looks to radio and television, following on here with Balance of Power as well. To me, the arch theme and lessons learned of this week, but for everyone riveted in the nation by affordability is going to be the turnout on the elections plural to come. Do you have any visibility on the turnout of the midterms in November?

**Joe Matthew** (1:24)
We have conventional wisdom, which is that the energy is with the Democrats. The question is, are they running for something, or are they simply running against Donald Trump? And that's going to help to animate that turnout as to what in the world it is that he says at the last minute here, because even look at Texas, where you saw Democrats turning out ahead of Republicans in primary elections. We're going to be in Florida on Tuesday. That's a little bit less significant in this particular conversation. But where's the price of gas on election day?
We're above $4 a gallon right now. We're at $4.14 here in New York. And I checked that today because the president is going to Garden City. You know Garden City. It's only 18 miles from here and it bears no resemblance to this city.
He'll be surrounded by first responders and he's not going to be talking about affordability.

**Mike Wilson** (2:11)
He's talking about crime.

**Tom Keene** (2:12)
In Garden City, he's resounded by people that own a BMW and a Mercedes in the garage. The Republicans can't win without audience, can they?

**Joe Matthew** (2:20)
So why is he going there is a big question today. Because the affordability argument has not been landing. He calls it a democratic hoax. You're looking at the data, Tom, you know better.

**Scarlet Fu** (2:29)
Well, we're looking at the data and the data showed that retail sales for the month of July fell unexpectedly. Lily Meyer, you cover specialty retailers for Bloomberg News and you cover a lot of the big aspirational brands.
Does what you see in this retail sales report mesh with what you've been reporting on when it comes to these specific companies?

**Lily Meyer** (2:47)
Yeah. So we reported just a few weeks ago that Under Armour saw softness and trends and we've been seeing kind of a mixed consumer picture over the last few months. Many of the retailers still are yet to report, so it will be really interesting to hear if they say a similar thing and are seeing softness. But yes, Under Armour said they were seeing softer demand, so I'm curious to see what other retailers will say and if they echo that.

**Scarlet Fu** (3:11)
Absolutely. And I'm wondering as well as we see this K-shaped economy, the divide growing ever wider, you've also been reporting on how even when it comes to people's hobbies, those that can afford it are splurging big time. The running culture, for instance, has gone way upscale.

**Lily Meyer** (3:26)
Yeah, we wrote a story about high-end running spending. So instead of shopping at places that are a little bit more affordable, like your Nikes, your Ditas, shoppers are buying $350 running shorts.

**Tom Keene** (3:39)
Okay, the world's different. When you were at Bates College, it was a road trip of 25 miles to go to Freeport, Maine, to go to LL. Bean drunk at 2 AM in the morning. Don't tell me you've never done that.

**Joe Matthew** (3:49)
24 hours.

**Tom Keene** (3:50)
Okay, it's like 24 miles. You know, over you go shopping, power shopping 2 AM in the morning. That retail day is gone, isn't it? Everybody wants to go fancy now.

**Lily Meyer** (4:00)
Yeah, it's a totally different retail scene. And I think running is a really good example. You know, people are spending wild amounts of money to sweat in these items. And, you know, a $450 running vest or $150 t-shirt that has holes in it. So people want items.