Taking Stock: AI and jobs, affordability and Toy Story

**Rahul Tandon** (0:03)
Welcome to Business Daily. I'm Rahul Tandon, and we're taking stock of what's been happening in the world of money and work, and there has been a lot, as always. Now, we started our first episode last week with people walking out, so let's hope we don't get a repeat of that this week.

**Babit** (0:21)
When I look back on it, I see a time of great anxiety.

**Rahul Tandon** (0:27)
Oh, dear. That was students at Stanford University there walking out on the Google boss under Pichai as he gave a speech at their graduation ceremony. Well, this week, I'm hoping my guests will stick around, at least for a little bit, even if the audience doesn't. We have with us Rebecca Choong Wilkins, senior Asia correspondent for Bloomberg, who is in Singapore. Hello, Rebecca.

**Rebecca Choong Wilkins** (0:49)
Hello. Certainly not walking out, at least not yet.

**Rahul Tandon** (0:52)
Good, good, good, good, good. Keep that thought, keep it positive. And we've got Walter Todd, president and chief investment officer of Greenwood Capital, who is in South Carolina. How are you, Walter?

**Walter Todd** (1:04)
Fine. I will be here for the duration as well.

**Rahul Tandon** (1:06)
That is what we like. Guests who know how to stay with the program, at least till we finish. Politeness is something that we like on this program. Here's a question for both of you. Rebecca, you want to go first, and then Walter, do you want to pick up? Have you actually walked out on anything?
Rebecca, a speech, the cinema, a theater, anything?

**Rebecca Choong Wilkins** (1:26)
I was trying to think of an incredibly dramatic moment that I walked out, but I think the last thing I ever walked out was actually Cats, the movie, embarrassingly.

**Walter Todd** (1:36)
Yeah, I've walked out on a movie as well. Actually, I think it was Harlem Nights was the movie with Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. It was just really bad.
So, I got up and walked out.

**Rahul Tandon** (1:48)
Walter, I'm going to be honest with you now.
I may throw you out. Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, two of the greats of movies.

**Walter Todd** (1:56)
They were. That's why I went to see it. I couldn't believe how bad it was.
I couldn't believe how bad it was.

**Rahul Tandon** (2:02)
All right. We're keeping Rebecca for the moment. Walter's on hold. Let us turn to our first story, because a big week, whenever the Federal Reserve, the US Central Bank, announces what it's doing with interest rates, a bigger one this week, because Kevin Warsh is now in charge, and inflation, pretty high in the US at the moment, isn't it, Walter?

**Walter Todd** (2:27)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, Warsh came out swinging yesterday with the meeting and said, you know, in no uncertain terms, the committee will deliver price stability, so he's ready for the job.

**Rahul Tandon** (2:39)
He did say that. Let's hear a little bit from Kevin Warsh.

**Kevin Warsh** (2:42)
When we deliver on our price stability objectives, which we will, the American people will feel as though the hardships that they've been living through in part because of inflation in the last five years are in the rear view mirror.

**Rahul Tandon** (2:55)
Rebecca, we talk a lot about prices rising in many parts of the world, particularly with what's happening in the straits of Hormuz, shipping, the global economy, all the challenges it faces. That story is not the same everywhere, is it? Is it slightly different in China?

**Rebecca Choong Wilkins** (3:10)
Yeah, that's right. We have had a bit of inflation coming in to the prices, but the big challenge for the Chinese policy makers has actually been about deflation and people being worried that you're locked in this cycle of falling prices, where people expect prices to fall, so they don't want to buy something. They're waiting for it to get cheaper.
Now, all of that disruption, that oil disruption that you just hinted at, there has actually somewhat helped improve that problem. But it hasn't actually fixed that underlying issue of consumer confidence.

**Rahul Tandon** (3:41)
No, and it's an interesting one in the States, isn't it, Walter, because consumer confidence, whenever we look at these surveys and they come out particularly for Michigan, they're always pretty low. But Americans are still spending loads of money.

**Walter Todd** (3:55)
Yeah, you can't bet against the American consumer. We had retail sales very much in contrast to the China number that were above expectations. But to your point, all of these surveys, we will say they're incredibly unhappy, they're incredibly depressed. I guess maybe that's why they go shop more. I don't know to ease the concern. But definitely still spending here, dipping into savings to do that at the moment, but they're still going.