Odd Lots - Meet The Chicago Floor Trader Who Helped Inspire The Tea Party Movement

Episode Date: June 18, 2018

A pivotal moment in U.S. political history is when CNBC's Rick Santelli went on a gigantic rant against Obama's stimulus programs while on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. The rant is credited by some as having helped galvanize the Tea Party movement, which rapidly became highly influential within the Republican party. Standing next to Santelli was a floor trader, Eric Wilkinson, who joined along in the rant, and become a player in his own right in the story. On this week's episode, we talk to Wilkinson about his background, the day of the rant, and how a conversation that he had had earlier that morning with Santelli influenced that moment.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I'm Joe Wisenthall. And I'm Tracy Allaway. Tracy, do you remember what you were doing on February 19, 2009? That is oddly specific. I'm trying to think what might have happened on February 19th, 2009. It would have been... You can't remember very specific dates like that in the past? No. About all I can remember is it would have been, you know, deep into the financial crisis and I would have been writing a lot about the fallout from the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and, you know, all the stimulus plans that the U.S. government was unveiling at that time to try to prop up the economy. That's all I can think of. Those were the deep, dark days of 2009.

Yeah, it was very dark days to say the least. The bottom of the market, I think the bottom of the stock market, came about three or so weeks later. It really kind of felt like the entire world economy was just straight up becoming unglued in those days. So I'm very excited. Are we going to talk about the financial crisis? Because you know financial crisis hindsight is my all-time favorite topic. Kind of we're going to talk about it. It turns out that February 19th was also a very pivotal day in American political history because, of course, out of that extreme period in the the economy, we also sort of sent our political system on brand new trajectories. Oh, wait.

Okay. I think I know what you're getting at. And I think it involves a certain rant that went on to become very, very famous. Exactly. So on February 19, 2009, anyone who was watching a certain financial news network that was in Bloomberg. And, you know, I'll just say it because we have to say it. So CNBC was a treat. to one of the most remarkable moments in probably TV history when Rick Santelli, who's still there,

delivered a famous rant on the floor of the exchange in Chicago. In his anger towards a lot of the stimulus measures that President Obama was unveiling, remember, there was a hodgepodge of things, there was stimulus, there were all these attempts to sort of stem the tide of four, closures, do other things, mortgage modifications, things like that, something to sort of just stop the bleeding in the economy. And Rick Santelli was not a fan of it. Yeah, I remember this clip. There was something deeply weird about a guy who, you know, made his name in finance trading derivatives being on TV. I think he was in front of the Chicago trading floor and just ranting about government bailouts and things like that. It was definitely.

definitely memorable. Are we talking to Rick Santelli? We're not talking to Rick Santelli, but I don't know if you remember it, but there was someone standing right next to Rick Santelli and he had, I think, a blue shirt with orange or with yellow sleeves. And as Rick Santelli was getting the crowd riled up about who here wants to pay for their neighbor's mortgages and they took out a mortgage they couldn't afford and they have five extra bathrooms, who wants to bail them out. The traders on the floor were getting very, they were very into the rant, at least it appeared so on TV. And there was someone standing right next to Rick Santelli, who has sort of played a pivotal role in all this. And we will be talking to that trader today.

So I believe that to some extent that speech is credited with having catalyzed the Tea Party movement. And because the person we're talking today was sort of an important character in that in that rant, you could say he too was an inspiration to that political movement. Before we get to our guest, let's listen to a very brief clip from that rant. How about this, president and new administration? Why don't you put up a website to have people vote on the internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages, or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses and foreclosure and give them to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water.

This is America. How many you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills? Raise their hand. How about we all? President Obama, are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage? It's a moral hazard.

That trader's name is Eric Wilkinson. Eric, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, Joe. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Obviously, I want to talk about that day, that moment, it was sort of about five unforgettable minutes of TV that I think, you know, had an effect on American political history. But before we do that, what do you tell us about your background. How long, what did you do on the floor?

How did you get there? How did I get there? I actually started with college and I was trying to get my psychology degree. And about a year and a half into that, I had some money I had earned in high school and in middle school. working on farms around our community and started investing that. Switched over to finance and after graduating a buddy of mine just said, you know, you would be perfect for working on the floor of the board of trade. So I literally walked up, just walked onto the floor and started handing out my phone number

and got a job down there. And a few months later, sold all my stocks. It bought myself one of the cheapest badges, the one that I could forward on the floor of the board of trade. And that's kind of where I started continuing my trading. So I've been trading futures, options, and derivatives ever since. So, Eric, what was floor trading like at that time? We've discussed this on a previous episode of the Oddlots podcast, but it definitely had a distinct culture of its own, right?

Yes. I mean, of course, I'll never forget the first day that I walked onto the floor. What year was that? It was probably 1993. So it was June of 1993. I'm, you know, what is that, 15 years ago or so? 25 years ago, yes. Exactly 25 years ago.

Yes. So it's been a while. And, you know, back in that day, it was on the old trading floor, and it was crazy. Elbows to backs, you know, just jammed in like sardines. And the energy, you could literally feel the energy. Like when you see the stock markets having the kind of volatility we've seen in the last couple of months, you could feel that, like, static energy. Like, you could almost feel the hair on the back of your neck start to stand up when that,

energy would start picking up. So you said two things in your, when you talk about your sort of entry onto the floor that really intrigued me. And one of my favorite questions to ask people is, so you said a friend of yours said you would be perfect trading on the floor. What did that friend see in you that made them think, oh, this person would thrive in this environment? You know, I mean, I played rugby, so that was one of those things. And I think a pretty outgoing personality. So we were just sitting there and he had just gotten back from an internship with Iowa Grain and was like, go up there. I'll get you in contact with my friend and check it out. And I went there for a summer job and literally like we just talked about, it stayed for 25 years.

Or 22 years. And then the other thing you said, so you liquidated your investment holdings to buy a badge. And you said it was one of the cheapest badges. So explain the pricing tiers of that badge? Like, how does that mechanics work? Because I don't think we've ever talked about that. So the different types of badges allow you to trade different products, and the more expensive badges will allow you to trade everything. So, for instance, in the grain room, a lot of those guys you'll see walking around with gold badges, and that's literally what it was called, the gold badge, and it allowed you to trade every product. And then there was an AM, which would allow you you to trade the bonds and things of that nature. There was a comm that would allow you trade options

and then I had the item which allowed you to trade the indexes. And that being the Fed funds, it was kind of like path of least resistance for me. I can afford that one. I can't afford the million dollar badge over there in the grain room, but I can afford this item badge. How much did that cost if you don't? At that time, it cost me $16,000. And right after the Dow opened, those badges went up to about 150 at one point in time.

But I basically rode the whole wave. I wasn't really looking at it like as an asset necessarily, but it lowered my commissions and allowed me to trade with better margin. So that was the benefit of it. So Eric, sorry, you said you were trading Fed futures, is that right? Federal fund futures. So it's the overnight rate that the bank. Right. Yeah, FOMC uses.

So what was the, you know, if we fast forward to 2008, early 2009, what was the mood like on the trading for? because, of course, you just witnessed possibly the worst financial crisis in American history. I imagine a lot have been going on. Absolutely. You know, I mean, there was a lot of anger because, you know, it is, you know, the epicenter of free markets, right? And with the bailouts, it just didn't seem right that somebody that did something wrong was going to get off the hook. And it was a little strange because it was like a whirlwind when Rick came running up and he was like, you know, we got to do something about all this.

And I was like, I know, we got to do something. And he was like, what about a tea party? And I was like, let's do it. I'm like, I'm buying a boat. I'm actually buying a boat right now. I'm going to name it Tea Party. And that's what ended up happening. But you did buy a boat?

I did end up by a... Named Tea Party? And named it Tea Party. It was a Woody, Chris Craft C-Skiff. So, named a tea party. And, you know, that was a little bit later. But when he walked up, when I first said, you know, it's a moral hazard.

We should all stop. paying our mortgages. I like, after I said it, I'm like, you just said something on national TV and you're not even really sure that you can use moral hazard the way you used it. You know, I mean, business school, you know, we talk about the moral hazard. I can't take insurance out on somebody I have no investable interest in. And this was kind of like off the cuff of that. And so after I said it, I was like, oh my God, did I just make the biggest idiot out of myself? And then I started thinking through it and I was like, yeah, no, it's a moral hazard. If Joe is doing everything right but sees that somebody else is not paying their mortgage and gets off, then what's stopping me from doing that?

That creates that reciprocal moral hazard of if I see somebody doing something wrong and they're not getting in trouble for it, then why can't I do that? Can we back up for a second? Because before we go into exactly what happened and what was said, I'm just curious, how did it normally work? with CNBC's presence on the floor. And I imagine it wasn't every day that you actually chimed in to the coverage being filmed from there. I had a really good relationship with Rick Santilli.

So I had a little bit more leeway than most other traders were getting. You could get fine for just, like, chirping in. But they set up those cameras to kind of be right there because Rick and I had something that we could kind of bounce off of each other out every now and again.

And so it was set up for that type of back and forth, if you will. So I felt like I could, you know, as long as I didn't interrupt him and I could interject, then that's kind of where I went at it. And prior to that day, could you tell a little bit about was there a lot of politics talk on the floor? Was there a range of viewpoint held by the traders? Sort of like, what was the chatter like leading up to that day? I think a lot of people were, you know, ready to revolt, especially on the floor, because it being free market, that everybody really wanted to see these businesses that did wrong to fail or to go into bankruptcy because then it gives the retailer the opportunity to come in and invest and lift those companies up rather than the government doing it and then making the retailers pay for it in a different way through our taxes and things of that nature. let those guys fail. The investors that originally got in are the ones that get hurt, which is the way it should be. And then everybody else gets to come in later and kind of pick it up.

I'm curious, though, the way you describe it now, talk about sort of businesses that failed in and opportunities for investors. Though the Rick Santelli rant, a lot of it was on homeowners and their mortgages. And I'm curious whether at the time or in retrospect, you sort of to make a distinction between sort of the Wall Street businesses that made horrible bets that caused them to capsize versus this idea of the homeowner and they paid for all these extra bathrooms that they didn't need and sort of whether and whether you make a distinction between sort of two classes of people who really got swallowed under by the crisis. True. And the homeowner was as bad as anybody, not that the banks should have been accepting

those but an interesting story I was visiting my uncle and he had worked with a company for 25 years and just bought a new house I go to visit and I'm talking to him and I'm like man your next door neighbor has every toy imaginable he had like a he had a fifth wheel with like a you know you put your ATVs in the back of it and a duly truck and all these other things and I was like that guy has got the garage and he goes yeah you know that guy right there he works for me he goes I know how much he's making and he can't I can't afford that stuff which means he can't afford that stuff and uh I was like wow I go how do you do it and he was like basically he is on interest only loan and all these other things and and I was like this is getting crazy uh when my uncle is next

door to a guy who is outspending him, and he's his boss. I'm June Grasso, inviting you to join me for the Bloomberg Law podcast. Every weekday, we help you make sense of the legal stories that shape the nation and the world. Listen for complete analysis of the biggest court cases, the latest actions from Congress and regulators, and the legal moves driving the markets. From corporate law to constitutional law and from state courts to the Supreme Court. At Bloomberg Law, we go beyond the day's headlines.

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So you mentioned the anger that you and others felt around that time. I'm still not sure I get exactly what was making you so angry because, you know, in the aftermath of the crisis, we had a lot of people who had lost their jobs, who were losing their houses either, you know, rightly or wrongly. And you're a guy with a pretty good job, I'm assuming, on the training floor. You're still employed. You're standing with a bunch of other people who are still employed. So where was the outrage stemming from? Was it just that notion of unfairness of some people getting away with something that they shouldn't be getting away with? Yes.

And it creates a systemic problem also. One thing with traders is they don't care. They'll trade two raindrops against each other. So the ups and downs of the market's not going to really drive that emotion in the same way. But what it really came down to was the fact that if the government comes in and starts propping these guys up or bales them out for doing something wrong, for one, the investor doesn't get to take advantage of low prices because they're getting propped up. you know, Warren Buffett got the warrants on AIG, where that wasn't really offered to the retail investor because they were getting bailed out, right?

So it didn't get to the point where investors could have bought into AIG at much lower levels, which it would have gone much lower had Warren Buffett not stepped in and across the board. So any time we're in free markets, the market should dictate price. and if somebody intervenes, then it doesn't allow that to happen. And another one of our arguments is why is the Fed dictating interest rates? Why doesn't the overall market dictate those interest rates if we are free market? So it kind of all goes back to the free market should discover price and the market should be allowed to go to that price.

All right. Let's talk about that specific day, February. 19th, 2009. I have to imagine you remember it pretty well because it's now so historic. What was that morning like? Did you know prior to Rick Santelli really going off that something was going to happen or did it just sort of like the moment was the moment? He started stirring it up because it, you know, it basically happened right at the opening

of the day. So I just remember him all fired up, running up. to the pit and he ran up and started like ranting about a couple of things and we brought up the tea party thing and then he bolted and I was like okay that was the end of it next thing we know he's running up the stairs and came up right next to me and goes on and started that rant so after that it really started spinning so just to be clear you and rick prior to him having gone on air that morning had a little tea party chat where you talked about your boat like yeah it was like uh you know a minute to two minutes before he went on air,

he came up, started talking. I think he probably ran down and checked out your Bloomberg terminal, which he always did before he went on air, and then came right back up, and we all started that little rant, I guess. And that phrase, the Tea Party, which we now know to be the political force, that was not something that anyone was really,

like I'd never heard that term prior to that morning. Had you? No, no. And prior to that couple of minutes Other than the reference, of course, to the original T Part. Right, absolutely. And that's what the reference was, was like, you know, we need to because, you know, it's taxation without representation in a sense. Again, to the bailouts, if you're going to tax the people to bail out somebody that did something wrong, is that in my best interest.

Right. You know, and that is all part of that as well. So that's kind of where that kind of came up with. And we ran with it. So you're listening to Santelli. You're not just listening. You're also chiming in. Did you have any sense at the time that this was a big moment that was going to be remembered or at least enter the public consciousness for years to come?

No, I did not realize it was going to be as big as it was. You know, I thought there was other moments where I had different interviews at different times that I thought were going to maybe be bigger than that. But I didn't even realize that day necessarily how big it had gotten. And I did a couple of interviews afterwards and it's kind of like, okay, you know. But then I was walking through the airport and this guy came up to me and was just like, yeah, you know, and I was because I flew out to Tahoe literally that weekend to go on a ski trip. And this guy walked up to me in the airport and I was like, okay, now I know it's big. You know, something I'm curious about, I feel like a lot of people in the moment and going back and watching that video, they're like,

this is crazy. All these people complaining about bailouts and stuff, but the people who are cheering it on are all people in finance, and they're all people trading, and they're all people who are in some way part of the sort of speculative financial system. Do you think that people fail to, like, A, have you heard people make that complaint? They're like, why are these the people complaining? They're on C&BC part of the trader world. And B, do you think people fail to make a distinction between, say, the role that Chicago floor traders had in the financial system versus finance, versus the banking system, and that people don't distinguish it. Because as Tracy sort of alluded to earlier, a bunch of guys in Chicago speculative trading

instrument, you don't automatically feel the most sympathy with that. Absolutely. And I get that. You know, there's a bunch of rich guys down on the floor that are worried about these poor people. you know, losing their house and making a big deal about that. I don't believe it was about that specifically.

You know, it is about even that rich trader and those guys took advantage of it too. Some of those guys walked away from their mortgages just because they could to get a lower interest rate and lock that stuff in. And the real issue is

that's the moral hazard is, you know, smart people will take advantage of those kind of loopholes. And that's, That's where the unfairness comes in is when you start seeing that roll, you know, that snowball effect start happening. And that was the real worry is if you start letting people off the hook, well, what about me? You know, you can't prop up a certain area of society, just like I felt with the cash for clunkers,

for one, those companies were already giving incentives that were probably better than the incentive of a cash for clunker. And I can go into all the cash for clunker stuff. But at the end of the day, now we're propping up the auto industry. But what about the dishwashers? What about the microwave companies? You know, all these other little companies that make these little widgets or the microphones we're speaking into.

Now, because people are buying a car, that segment of the society is doing well. But what about all these other little mom and pop stores that aren't getting that money? Cash for clunkers for one, you know, it was a $2,500 car. So if you had a $2,500 car for one, you probably didn't have a very big payment. You had very little insurance premium. And then you go and turn that car in. And now you're getting a car and you've got to pay $500 a month. You're $150 for insurance a month or whatever.

So all of that money coming out of the economy really stifles the velocity of money. Because if you spend your $600 a month, differently than I spend mine, then the economy thrives. You know, I might be going out and buying a new bed. But if I just bought a car, I can't afford that bed now, right? So that slows the velocity of money down when you put it all into one segment. And that was part of those problems as well. So related to Joe's question, there's a moment during that rant when Rick Santelli talks about

the silent majority and they're not that silent anymore. They're right behind him. They're chiming in partially because you're chiming. in. Do you feel like your role in that rant, the sort of like Greek chorus or the backup band or whatever you want to call it, do you think that that helped bring out opinions publicly that previously had been hidden? Because part of what you're saying is, you know, people basically complaining that they're not getting a chance to snap up some assets on the cheap. That's not necessarily a politically correct view for that time period, right? Well, I wouldn't

say, I don't know if it's politically correct or not, but I mean, you know, we are one of the only countries that allows free markets. And when you stop allowing that to happen, we lose something of what we are, right? And that's the nitty gritty of it as far as I'm concerned. When investors snap up on the cheap and stuff like that, but that could have been anybody. I mean, I was telling my friends at that time, I was like, literally, if you have a second car go out and sell it and buy something. Go buy Ford at $1.14 or something like that. Because you aren't going to get these prices ever again.

When you can buy GM for what did it go down to, I mean, it was like, I think I bought it way. I bought it way too high and it was like $6 or something like that and it tank below that. And I also got forwarded at like $1.15. It was literally right off the lows. But, you know, those are investment times where it could, change people's lives. So tell us about the aftermath. You mentioned the immediate aftermath of

your flying to Tahoe and so what you realized. That was your sort of first realization that, whoa, that was sort of big and people remembered you in this moment. And then, of course, the whole Tea Party movement became a thing and a force of American politics. So what was that like watching that? Did you ever get invited to events? Like what was sort of, how did it change your life. I did get invited to a couple events, but I didn't really I didn't go to any of them. And I wanted to kind of stay away from the

believe it or not politics of it all. You know, I didn't want to get into politics. So I kind of tried to shy away from it a little bit, but it blew up quickly and I was pretty proud of it at first, and then, you know, I kind of got moved over to being more Republican and it was supposed to be a more of

a middle of the aisle kind of thing where, you know, I don't always necessarily agree with everything the republics and say or the democrats. So it was like a middle of the road kind of idea that I think has lost its way a little bit. Do you draw a direct connection between, you know, what happened on that day, February 19th, birth of the Tea Party to what happened with the most recent presidential election and the rise of Donald Trump, also an anti-government, to anti-regulation, to some extent, free market candidate? Well, you know, we thought he was a free market candidate until he started throwing in tariffs,

I guess, right? But I don't know if it gave a rise to Trump, but I suppose that there's something in that where I think that, you know, Donald Trump really was the anti-political figure. And I think that that is something that people really wanted and got, right? voters got what they asked for. But, yeah, I guess it could be somewhat of a correlation there because I think that people back then were also kind of fed up with the political system and tried to create a new entity that would compete.

So I hadn't really put that correlation together, but that may very well be true what happened there. So let's talk about the sort of the final chapter of the story because in addition to everything, you saw the sort of the final years of that Chicago floor trading culture. What you described walking onto the floor in 1993 is long gone now. And so sort of talk about how your final, what the end of your time on the floor looked like and then what you're up to now. Okay. So, yeah, that first day and those days in the old room, in the old grain room,

the original floor for the grain room is the trading floor that I originally walked on. And then we had the new trading floor, the CBOT built. And in that time, yeah, it just slowly started dwindling down. And I at one point was just going down onto the floor for an office. It was like, you know, I felt more productive if I went down to the board of trade and went on to the floor and focused on trading all day long. and then when it was kind of like me looking around not a whole lot of other people in there

I did start going I did go and trade in the grain room for a little while and then was trading from home more and more finally I just looked at the wife and said you know why are we in Chicago like we could be anywhere you know we could be in the mountains so started looking at different places ended up moving to Arizona I'm still trading and I always

also teach options, how to trade options at pro-trader strategies. And I teach it a little bit different than a lot of people. I talk about volatility and some of the things that I learned on the floor. You know, I mean, one great thing about trading on the floor, good or bad, I guess, is, you know, we got jammed with trades. You didn't always like the trade that you were given, but you had to make a market. And somebody, a broker would come in and you'd have to take that trade. So I know the good locations to get into good trades and the bad locations or the bad types of environments that you don't want to get involved in certain types of trades.

So I try to teach that. I'm curious because you mentioned that one of the, and this came up in other conversations that we've had, so I think it was great that you mentioned it, your rugby player background, your outgoingness background, none of that really matters if you're trading from home on a computer, right? No, it doesn't. My computer doesn't care how loud I yell at it. The trader's on the floor.

If you yelled a little bit louder, you could get a couple of trades. but yeah, the computer doesn't help me out when I start yelling at it. And it's a lot different. Like, you know, I talked about that buzz and that energy and that you would feel on the floor, and you just really lose that when you're trading from a screen and just listening to TV and stuff like that for that kind of information or directionality.

Eric, well, good luck to you. And I think you've had a very sort of small but interesting and pivotal role in American political history and really appreciate you coming on to tell your story. Thank you, Joe. Thank you for having me. It's finally nice to meet you in person. And Tracy, hopefully one day we can meet in person as well. Thank you. Thanks, Eric. Tracy, I really enjoyed getting Eric's story. And I remember vividly that day February 19, 2009. So I loved getting some of the backstory of how that actually emerged. Yeah, absolutely fascinating conversation. really interesting to think as well that at the time, I don't think anyone had an inkling that it was going to develop into the thing that it did, which was an entire political movement in America. But in retrospect, if you listen to what Santelli said, you can hear all the language that became popularized by the Tea Party and not just the Tea Party, but Trump as well. You know, the moment where he talks about losers, paying for losers' mortgages, that that's almost directly out of the mouth of Trump.

really. There was something else that Eric said that I had forgotten, but that actually really sort of rang true with me. And I hadn't thought about it at all, which was that in the beginning, even once the Tea Party as a political entity got going, or when he said, oh, there was a, made the distinction between the Tea Party and the Republican Party, I kind of, that sounds weird in retrospect, because now we know that the Tea Party, at least for a while and arguably still is this big pillar of the Republican Party. But this idea that at the very beginning, it wasn't exactly the same thing. And it was that it seemed like maybe there was the potential for it to be a sort of very like anti-wall street, anti-bayalouts, anti-fat cats movement that wasn't necessarily going to be aligned with a particular party.

It did feel like in the very early days that that was sort of possible. And then, of course, now we think of the Tea Party as just being extremely right wing. which and, you know, and a lot there being a big cultural element and immigration, all this other aspects. But the fact that in the very beginning it was sort of all, you know, anger towards the banks is sort of a forgotten history of it, I think. No, it was a complete fringe movement when it first started. And, you know, you rightly point out that there are these different strains of populism. And at that time in early 2009, you had almost two of them competing. One of them was probably what Eric was talking about, what Santelli was talking about, this sort of free market anti-bailout sentiment. But the other strand had to be the anti-Wall Street sentiment, the whole idea of, you know, Goldman Sachs is the giant vampire squid.

And you had those competing strands. And it looks like, well, actually, I don't think of American politics has ever actually sorted out which one of those it is. So certainly in the Republican Party, you still have Donald Trump who will say anti-Wall Street, anti-financial industry stuff, but then, of course, we'll hire a bunch of Wall Street executives for his administration. So it seems like there's still a tension there. Yeah, it's interesting to imagine an alternate history of the world in which you sort of had the Tea Party sort of merged more with the Occupy Wall Street crowd and became the sort of united front against. bailouts and bankers, but I guess that was never meant to be. Yeah. All right. Well, this has been another episode of the Oddlots podcast.

I'm Tracy Allaway. You can follow me on Twitter at Tracy Allaway. And I'm Joe Wisenthall. You can follow me on Twitter at The Stallwart. And you should follow our guest, Eric Wilkinson on Twitter at Wolfman's blog, as well as don't forget to follow our producer, Tofer Forges at Forhes T, as well as the Bloomberg head of podcast Francesca Levy at Francesca today. Thanks for listening.

The news doesn't stop on the weekends. Context changes constantly. And now Bloomberg is the place to stay on top of it all. Hi, I'm David Gurra. Join us every Saturday and Sunday for the new Bloomberg this weekend. I'm Christina Rafini. We'll bring you the latest headlines, in-depth analysis, and big interviews. All the stories that hit home on your days off.

And I'm Lisa Mateo. Watch and listen to Bloomberg this weekend for thoughtful, enlightening conversations about business, lifestyle, people, and culture. On Saturday mornings, we put the past week's events into context, examining what happened in the markets and the world. That on Sundays, we speak with journalists, columnists, and key political figures to prepare you for the week ahead. Join us as soon as you wake up and bring us with you wherever your weekend plans take you. Watch us on Bloomberg Television. Listen on Bloomberg Radio, stream the show live on the Bloomberg business app, or listen to the podcast.

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