Taking Stock: Is Gen Z the first generation to be worse off than their parents?

Rahul Tandon (0:00)

I'm Rahul Tandon, welcome to Business Daily. On the week that this business owner, he had a pretty strong message for some of his rude customers.

Guy Petty (0:07)

It's supposed to be laid back, it's ice cream. It's supposed to be a happy place and a happy time. Settle down, take a breath, touch grass.

Rahul Tandon (0:13)

Taking stock with me today are Emily Peck, who writes about markets for Axios and co-hosts Slate Money Podcast, and is based in New York. And David Kuo, co-founder of The Smart Investor, usually based in Singapore, but working extremely hard in Malaysia. Welcome to both of you, Emily first. My voice is going. You're not going to be rude, are you? Like David forgets customers there. You're going to be on your best behavior.

Emily Peck (0:36)

I'll try and take it easy on you today because of your voice.

Rahul Tandon (0:38)

Thank you so much. Thank you so much indeed. And David, what about you?

David Kuo (0:43)

Well, Rahul, it must be an age thing, because I didn't think he was that rude, did you?

Rahul Tandon (0:47)

No, he wasn't rude. He was being, he was saying to customers who were rude to his young people working. Also, I wanted to ask you, because I'm going to be honest, I got slightly confused by this.

David Kuo (0:58)

Yes.

Rahul Tandon (0:58)

In that, he told his customers to stop being rude and to touch grass. I got a bit confused by that. Be careful here. What about you?

David Kuo (1:07)

Well, I come from Singapore, Rahul. And well, I absolutely have no idea what touching grass means.

It sounds a bit illegal to me.

Rahul Tandon (1:18)

No, it isn't.

Emily Peck (1:18)

No, no, no. Guys, it's a thing that we say, or I shouldn't say we, it's a thing that people say on the Internet when they want you to log off and go outside, go outside and touch grass.

David Kuo (1:29)

Is that a bit like smelling the coffee or go out and smell the roses?

Emily Peck (1:35)

Yeah, it's kind of like go back to reality, like come back to planet Earth, people. You know, you've been on the Internet too long and people will say go touch grass.

Rahul Tandon (1:48)

There we go, David. Me and you, we've learned something already on this program.

David Kuo (1:51)

Well, I'm going to use that throughout the show. I'm going to use that throughout the show now, is that OK?

Rahul Tandon (1:55)

Of course, you can do whatever you want within reason on this program. It is the biggest merger that the entertainment industry has seen for some time. We are, of course, talking about Paramount and Warner Discovery or Skydance as it's now. Now, I've got to be honest with you, I'm not sure that's the best name. Emily, do you want to go first here and then David pick up? Are you fans?

Emily Peck (2:15)

I like the name Skydance. I think it sings a little bit and I've heard way worse new company names. I kind of vaguely recall something called Gronk or no, that's a football player, but Grock or something things.

Other names are much worse, so I like it. Skydance is replacing Paramount and Paramount here is Hollywood royalty, Hollywood gold. It's the studio behind the Godfather Titanic. So it has pretty big shoes to fill, Skydance does.

David Kuo (2:45)

Well, the thing is, who cares about the name Rahul? I mean, all we care about is whether or not they make good movies. So let's go out and touch some grass, shall we?

Rahul Tandon (2:53)

I told you to behave at the beginning of this program, David, and we're only a few minutes in and I feel that this may be difficult. Right. So what is it going to mean for me and for you? Mick James, who was a senior entertainment industry writer at the Los Angeles Times. I spoke to her, but firstly also Guy Petty, a former Paramount executive who's now head of the consultancy firm, Fulcrum Media. He thinks that TV production might be an area where we see cuts.

Guy Petty (3:18)

Some of it is going to be in the television production. I think the feature film side has those minimum requirements. I think there's going to be an assessment that each one of the divisions are going to have to go through to make sure and ensure that the content being produced fits the audience of each one of those services.

Rahul Tandon (3:36)

When we're talking about audiences, one company that's doing pretty well with them with Netflix, there's a lot of competition in this market, isn't there, Mick?