that comes as pakistan is vowing that no american bases will be allowed on its territory and no sun -- no u.s. drone strikes from pakistani territory will be permitted. the statements come i'm is speculation that the u.s. will want a nearby area from which to launch strikes against military targets. the u.k. prime ministers's former advisers criticizing his old boss, saying he is not fit to run the country. speaking during a hearing in parliament today, dominic cummings accused boris johnson of not taking the covid-19 crisis seriously enough when it began and was even critical of himself. >> in any sensible, rational government, it is completely crazy that i should have been in such a senior position come in my personal opinion. it is completely crackers that someone like me should have been

come and crackers that boris johnson was there. mark: cummings said the entire government is to blame and that officials had failed disastrously to the public. the european union is aiming to hit belarus with a new round of sanctions by june over the forced landing of a ryanair flight and the rest -- -- the arrest of a dissident journalist. bloomberg has learned that the -- it is belarus' biggest support item, post hash -- poe --. global news 24 hours a day, on air and at bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries, i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. [bill rings]

[bill rings] matt: is 1:00 p.m. in new york, 7:00 in berlin. 1:00 a.m. in hong kong. welcome to the bloomberg markets. that's get a quick check of what is going on in the market. we have not had very much movement in equities, although now we are going a bit to the upside. .3%, 4201. if you watched the program last night, it was at the exact same level. the 10-year yield right now moving down a little, to 1.5 533. yesterday we were looking at more than 160, so downside on the 10 year yield. the bloomberg dollar index picking up where it left off yesterday, or picking up a little bit more of what it lost, i should say, yesterday, backup to 1117. new york crude at 65.91 per barrel on the nymex exchange. over the past couple of hours we

have heard from the top ceo's of u.s. banks as they were grilled by senators. >> what we need to do is get this economy back to its primacy, which is on the way. >> the u.s. is poised for a strong recovery. >> were going to have a very strong economy, this year, next year and maybe even into 2023. >> why are -- while we are encouraged to see improvement, we realize not all committees are benefiting equally. >> we can turn to shareholders to help them enhance the returns at the same time. >> we will harness the bank -- the power of bank capabilities to extend our reach and help make sure the recovery leads no one behind. matt: for more on the senate bank hearing come with us is sonali basak. and our senior bank analyst, alice williams -- alison williams. how did you think the ceo's did? some of them, like jamie dimon,

have been in front of congress a number of times already. he is used to it. some of them, like jane fraser, it was her first time. sonali:. it was interesting because we're watching for -- this is the first time the bank ceo's are in front of a democrat-controlled senate. at times it was very tense. they were being asked about their wage policies, the overdraft being charged, and what they were doing to support employees and customers who have long been left behind in a global pandemic while they return capital to shareholders. i expect some more of that tomorrow. that was something that was a concern of maxine waters, how much money was lent out versus how much was given back to investors. all in all, to answer the questions -- there was still some questions left on the table. matt: there were a couple of tense moments, allison.

elizabeth warren wanted jamie dimon to hand customers to love the profits that they made last year back because of the overdraft fee waivers, the u.s. government granted these banks. i was wondering, how much do you think j.p.morgan actually saved from those federal government exemptions from overdraft fees? allison co. with regard to -- allison: with regard to the overdraft fees -- and bank of america made good on their product -- that it goes to the overall product. bank of america offers a product where you pay a flat fee per month, and you don't have overdraft fees. but then there are products where you don't pay the fever run and you do pay those fees. it is about the overall pricing. i missed it if the point was made today, but there are a lot of benefits that go into it that the bank spends that you don't

necessarily see on cyber spending and the like, etc.. a lot of the investments that they make, and that is the argument that jb nyman -- that jamie dimon has said in the past. the important thing is with these fees from the bank perspective is to be transparent to the customer. by the way, there is a war going on maybe from a business perspective, separate from a ghastly -- from i guess the objects come in terms of the newer banks that have gotten customers by not charging these fees. but the one -- a couple of interesting things, jamie dimon and all the ceo's being asked about the housing market, and jamie dimon saying that he sees there could be a little bit of a bubble in housing. that was interesting. obviously the market has changed significantly over time, and it is a much different area from the crisis, both the market and the bank's position in terms of their he strong underwriting in

one area. not surprisingly that has remained tight from an underwriting basis since the crisis. and credit has really held up well. matt: we also -- look, i think all of us have probably experienced overdraft fees. it is horrible when it happened. i have had my fair share. each time it was my fault. i took more money out of my account then i had in there. it seems like there was a big push back against individual responsibility and the kind of capitalism that my generation grew up with in a stakeholder system, and i'm wondering, are we going to see that accelerated from the pandemic? is the senate going to ask these businesses not to focus on profits for shareholders but to make a lot more about stakeholders and customers? sonali: frankly, i was going to ask you, matt, define global

capitalism, because that came up a lot of times in the hearing. a lot of republican senators are concerned about that idea, and the banks are being asked to weigh in on things beyond the purview of traditional capitalism, which is making money, extending credit, and making sure the economy is working. once they get into other issues, particularly voting law, that is when it concerns the senators. but other senators, i merrily democratic senators, want them to be playing a bigger role when it comes to climate change and equality in the economy. at the end of the day, i have debated this with many executives -- frankly ceos at this point, many ceos -- how much of the economy is under banks, how much of it is just not able to access the banking system by means of their fica score, and therefore paying higher rate for credits. -- for credit. that rate is not very good. i want to show you that the statement that was put out -- wall street is on notice.

why does that matter? because we are walking into a new era of regulators here that will be looking for that data. they have been asking for more disclosures of the banks, and the banks are to a large degree also reticent to give some of that data up. matt: it is very interesting. senator scott broke up woke capitalism a few times. he asked all of these bank ceos, which part of the georgia law specifically they thought was problematic for democracy? none of them could come up with an answer, which is interesting because they are all pretty intelligent people, and they all signed this letter against this georgia bill. so i cannot imagine why not one was willing to stand up -- i guess it is not worth it for them to way into politics, but you have to wonder why they did it in the first place. how important is it to shareholders that these banks can involved in social issues,

get involved in fighting climate change, get involved in the aspect of income inequality, when they are clearly also seeking business opportunities in china, and they are clearly also paying their ceos 800-2900 times more than their lowest paid employee -- 800 to 900 times more than their lowest paid employees? alison: number one is the shareholders, number two is the rise of stakeholders in these banks. gaining really credibility last year, the one area that was still getting flows, and to the extent that shareholders are demanding it, they are the owners of these institutions. there is going to be more attention to that, and as i said, sort of the broadening out

, the banks have to answer to shareholders and regulators. those have been the biggest stakeholders over time, but really especially since the global financial crisis, that group has brought out -- and i think banks have been, you know, a lot more focused on sort of those initiatives. i do think, to sonali's point, the banks are on notice, and there is going to being needing to be data to mark the progress of a lot of what we are hearing. we are hearing across the board that banks do want to help the underserved. this is something they have always said, but obviously it is a louder message now. the banks all have these big sustainability initiatives and broader initiatives, and i think the key is going to be holding the banks accountable for progress over the next couple of years on some of these initiatives that they are talking about and investing in.

matt: allison, inc. you for joining us. alison williams from bloomberg intelligence, the senior banking there. and sonali basak, our reporter for bloomberg tv. much more ahead on what we are going to get into, a number of other issues. we will stick with bank coverage as well. i'm pretty excited for that. we are going to have a number of big names coming up. brad stone also may be joining us later on, a chris whalen is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets.

i am matt miller. let's get a quick check for what is going on in the markets. we are seeing the s&p rise a bit. the 10 year yield, there is a law further down, four basis points further from what it was yesterday morning. the dollar index gaining ground, prude at 65.92. interesting to hear -- crude at 65.92. interesting to hear these senators about financing the oil business and whether or not we should be using fossil fuel in 20 years. not will we be using fossil fuels in 20 years, but should we be using fossil in 20 years. we are joined by wheeling global advisor chairman chris whalen, one of the most influential banking analysts on the street. let me get your take first on these hearings. typically there is a lot of theater involved. do you think anything of substance came out of this today? chris: not really. i got to listen to most of the comments and some of the questions, and it is all just a

bouquet in washington. it is more bizarre and more extreme than we have seen in past years because we are now completely focused on pandering to consumer needs and what the left thinks is topical politically this week. i think to their credit, the ceo's did as well as they could. they were pestered about compensation of course, they were pestered about unionization , all of which are just absurd questions. they should be asking why is it that things can't last, and the answer is because of overregulation, and sherrod brown and elizabeth warren and all the rest of these guys who crippled the banks, which is why they are not lending and why balances are falling. they will fall again this year, by the way. matt: is there demand as well for loans? during the last earnings report, jamie dimon seems concerned about loan growth demand growth

-- demand growth in loans. chris: well, for the large banks they have a problem because they are looking for big loans, and there is a lot of competition there. pricing is not attractive. so for a lot of banks, full their arms and leave the cash at the fed rather than taking the trouble. for smaller and regional banks, they have a lot of pricing power and are growing. if you look at western alliance, one of the biggest mortgage companies in the u.s. from apollo, you are doing just fine. they have high eighteens equity returns, nice growth. they traded 3.5 times value by the way, almost twice the multiple jp. they talked about this during the lenders. the smaller lenders were closer to small businesses, and it is easier for them to pay loans and small business loans and the rest of it. large banks are horribly inefficient, and it is the nonbanks that have taken share from them.

20% of the family mortgages were held by banks prepaid last year and they did not replace them. they can't. matt: what specific relation is holding these banks back from lending, and why don't they make more noise about it in hearings like this? chris: well, mostly the consumer focused regulations have forced banks to stop lending to the bottom third of the population of the u.s. by credit. they don't want to go near anybody, much below 700. so that leaves that market to the nonbank lenders, and they have prospered as a result. we have seen a huge shift by the way, in the ownership and servicing of mortgages in the u.s. two thirds are now taken care of by nonbank lenders because they are so much more efficient. the small banks make consumer loans. they are not afraid of it. but the big banks are chasing by

all the -- are chastened by the fines in the justice department criminal claims. so you do that enough, and the boards of these claims say, fine, we are not going to take any risk. that is why the performance of the bank is so mediocre. chase has managed to thread this needle better than to others. you so what happened at wills. u.s. bank, wholesale banks, lending money to mortgage companies, but they don't like lending money to the consumers. that is the big difference now. matt: do you like any of these big bank shares as we see -- if we see interest rates start to rise, or do you think that those gains are already priced in? chris: well, the whole complex is fully valued. jp is a little shy of two times book now. remember, it's not about rates, it's about spreads, and spreads

are being compressed. whether interest rates go up or down doesn't matter for banks. they are spread over funding. the cost of funds is very low, almost zero now. but they are not making a lot on loans. it is hard for them, especially given the size they are and the inflation of their balance sheet with the's liquidity -- it is hard for them to go out and make a return on earning assets. this is why we see the fed and desperation during reverse rp's, trying to take cash out of the market, offer securities to the banks and the nonbanks, because they are trying some way to shelter themselves from criticism about inflation. when you have larry summers and most of the big fund managers on the street criticizing the fed and their indifference towards inflation, that is a problem. that is why you are seeing the short-term, evidencing the last week or two. bloomberg has written it up very nicely, by the way. matt: we always appreciate getting your take on this. chris whalen of whaling global

advisors, talking to us about the bank, the inefficiency in the banking system due to regulation. we have some breaking news, which is pretty jaw-dropping to be honest. an activist investor at exxon, with a small stake in the company, has won two board seats in a shareholder vote, and he really goes to growth in esg that alison williams was talking about in the banking sector, but really it is across industries. it is across societies, and nowhere could it hit harder than potentially in the big oil complex. integrated oil like exxon has been trying to navigate these waters, incredibly difficult when fossil fuels are your main source of profit. but we have just seen, at the agm, engine number one, a little-known firm that falls

into the spotlight at the end of last year when it began agitating at exxon to come up with a better plan, to fight climate change, it has won two seats on the company's board at the annual shareholders meeting. we are going to talk more about that throughout the program. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. let's turn to the new economy, where we examine health. global leaders are trying to solve the world's biggest challenges. asian economies did well managing the panic at its height but are now falling down at the end game. taiwan and singapore are locking down because of flareups, and we are seeing the u.s. now banning travel to japan ahead of the upcoming olympics. we still expect them, i guess, coming up in july full-time in a

brown joins us. andy brown joins us. especially in these command economies come in places like china where the government says it and you do it, they really handle the pandemic well, but now in the peripheral asian economies, they are having bigger and bigger problems. why is that? >> you started by talking about the olympics. you know, the olympic games in japan were supposed to be a gigantic victory celebration, a sort of sporting fiesta to mark the end of the pandemic. in fact what it has highlighted, dramatic differences in the pace of recovery among countries around the world with some of the worst performances come as you say, now some of the countries that were the best performers at the beginning of the pandemic. among them japan, but not just japan. also taiwan, singapore.

singapore, which is now in a semi-locked. taiwan, which last year went without a single case, now suddenly has hundreds of cases. in a sense, they got so good at the lockdown. they got so good at controlling and chasing down this pandemic. basically eliminated it. they kind of didn't see -- they didn't have a sense of urgency when it came to rolling out the vaccines. matt: i wish we had more time to talk about taiwan, especially considering john sina's comment on his country hood and -- but that's always got full top thank you for joining us, andy browne, bloomberg new economy editorial director. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ ♪ look, if your wireless carrier was a guy you'd leave him tomorrow. not very flexible. not great at saving. you deserve better... xfinity mobile. now they have unlimited for just $30 a month... $30. and they're number one in customer satisfaction. his number... delete it. i'm deleting it. so, break free from the big three. xfinity internet customers, switch to xfinity mobile and get unlimited with 5g included for $30 on the nations fastest, most reliable network.

(woman) i don't want to look like this anymore. (man) what is happening to my body? (woman) why can't i lose weight? (announcer) you may be suffering from insulin resistance. measure your waist. females measuring more than 35 inches and males measuring more than 40 inches may have insulin resistance. to learn how to reverse insulin resistance and lose weight effectively, go online to golo.com. once again, that's golo.com.

mark: i am mark crumpton with bloomberg first word news. as american soldiers pull out of afghanistan, the taliban is warning the u.s. military not to

set up bases in the region. that group says pakistan is vowing that no american bases will be allowed in its territory, and no u.s. drone strikes from pakistani territory will be permitted. the statements, amid speculation that the u.s. will want a nearby area from which to launch strikes against militant targets. u.k. prime minister's former advisor is criticizing his old boss, saying he is not fit to run the country for top speaking during a hearing in parliament today, dominic cummings accused oris johnson of not taking the covid-19 questions seriously enough when it began and was even critical of himself. >> in any sensible, rational government, it is completely crazy that i should have been such a senior position, in my personal opinion. it is completely crackers that someone like me should have been in there, same that it is

crackers that boris johnson should have been in there. mark: cummings said the entire government is to blame and that officials had disastrously failed the public. the european union is aiming to hit belarus with a new round of sanctions by june over the forced landing of a ryanair flight and the rest -- and the arrest of a dissident journalist. bloomberg learned the strictest mentors -- measures could target potash, belarus' biggest export item. the e.u. has already sanctioned seven television entities and 88 individuals. global news 24 hours a day, on air and at bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries, i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. [bell rings]

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i am matt miller. i want to look at what is going on in markets. really to look at exxon shares, take a look. the s&p is up to any 5%. the -- up 25%. the 10 year yield has been bouncing back higher. it was lower earlier. crude little changed, 66 point 06. look at exxon mobil. it is a very big company so it tends to move indexes around, and it is rising after the company lost a proxy battle with its tiny little shareholder, engine one, which has a 0.02% stake in exxon mobil. they are pushing for a better plan to fight climate change, which you would have to imagine is pretty difficult if you are exxon mobil, and they actually won two board seats at the agm just now. pretty shocking news there.

maybe they spent a lot of money to do it, but the fact remains, institutional investors voted with them and against the board of exxon on this. so it is a fascinating story that we are going to cover more of. i also want to get to our stock of the hour. dick's sporting goods is headed to a record close after first quarter results beat estimates soundly on just about all fronts. dave has all the numbers for us. dave: you have a company that is a standout even in the fiscal first quarter earnings season. that has been a boom for a whole lot of reason -- that has been a boon for a whole lot of retailers. relative to two years ago before the pandemic began, adjusted earnings up sixfold. if you focus in on sales, increased 52% from 2019. some of that is online sales, but beyond that, if you just look at their brick-and-mortar

locations, sales were up 40% from two years ago. so even if you set the pandemic aside, these numbers were gangbusters. literally people were in the mood to buy sports equipment and outdoor gear and you name it, and you see what this means in terms of the fiscal year. they never that jumps out, the earnings-per-share forecast increased by about 75%. so dix is certainly a beneficiary of people getting out of their houses and going out and exercising and playing sports. now, this is a stock that we should point out has a history of volatility after earnings. after its first day move over the past decade, after reports have come out about 7%, and you see what was brought -- third quarter come out of seven, where the stock has risen more than 15% in response to results. shares are headed for their biggest gains, at least august, this thing stands.

matt: what is ahead for dick's sporting goods now? after the economy started to reopen, people are rushing into get bicycles and basketball hoops. what is the story for the quarters ahead? dave: it is interesting. there was a report out amazing -- making the case that they are looking at a smaller decline in sales for stores open through the rest of the fiscal year for that are talking mid to high single digit decline rather than high single or low double digits, so around 10%. you see by the way how exceptional the quarter has been within the consumer discretionary category with retailers being a big chunk of that. even by that standard, the number standout. they are clearly being greeted positively by investors. matt: i cannot tell you how much this makes me miss america. when you talk about dix or rei

or cabela -- that is my happy time. we don't have anything like that here. maybe they need to do a little bit of a european expansion. dave wilson, thanks so much for joining us. bloomberg stocks, talking about the stocks of the hour. it could have been amazon. it could have been the stock of the hour today. there push into hollywood is a big deal. plus the antitrust issues. really there is a lot to talk about all around text, but the $8.5 billion acquisition of mgm studios is front and center, especially considering we have all been waiting for james bond to come out in theaters. i hope they do not take it out of the movie theaters and just put it on amazon prime. i'm sure they are still going to let us go see it at the theater. we will talk about that with brad stone next. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is when berg markets. i am matt miller. amazon has announced it is buying mgm movie studios for $8.45 billion, marking the e-commerce giant's biggest push into hollywood yet. emily chang details the reason behind the move. emily: the multibillion-dollar deal between amazon and mgm means you could soon see james bond or rocky in your amazon shopping cart. also included is the soon to be heading to amazon prime video, the pink panther and robocop franchises, as well as the oscar award-winning film silence of the lambs. >> with some fava beans and a

nice chianti. emily: jeff bezos has not been shy about spending big on his -- amazon shelled out 11 billion dollars in streaming services in 2020 alone and has made an 11 billion commitment to thursday night nfl games. buying a studio makes amazon more credible in the heavyweight and crowded streaming market. just last week, at&t sealed the deal to urges warner media operations, including hbo, with discovery, shaking up the entertainment hierarchy again. is this just the beginning of long-awaited media consolidation? either way, it is the biggest move yet biotech giant to rock the hollywood boat.

matt: we are going to talk a little bit more about that with brad stone later. like why didn't amazon go bigger? why are we making such a big deal out of the robocop franchise? that part has escaped me. but i want to turn back to breaking news out of exxon. first-time activist and investor with a tiny stake in exxon mobil scored a massive -- i'm going to use the term unprecedented -- victory in a proxy fight with the oil giant. signaling the growing importance of climate change to institutional investors that would typically vote with the board. alix steel is with us now. alix, i think this is so amazing. they won two board seats. how did this happen? could alix: a couple of things happen -- alix: a couple of things happen. really tiny shareholders that make a position, happening over

many years come over decades. and they only own 0.2% of the stake, but they lobbied other big investors like blackrock, etc., and got them on board as well. it also made a difference this time is the increasing pressure overall in terms of esg, particularly on oil companies to green their oil, and u.s., these are deftly farther behind the other european counterparts on this. that said, two board seats is an historic win for sure, particular for a tiny activist shareholder. however, there are 12 seats on the board. so this is not a carte blanche for engine one climate board -- climate proposal to go through. but something could have happened because exxon on monday said they would look into having two board members that were climate related in the future, but it was not enough to fend off engine one's push. matt: i'm glad we talked to you

to put it into perspective a little bit. i can pick my jaw back up off the floor. in terms of their greenness, how does exxon mobil rank compared to the other big integrated oils , bp, royal dutch shell? are they doing as well as they can, considering what they are hacker alix: i think that questions -- with what they are? alix: i think that highlights the problem. there is no fraud metric to comparing these come in his and wrecking them. you have royal dutch shell and bp, out with the oil and in with renewables. it is a new business model for them. they are maybe not valued on that business shift. they don't know what kind of returns there will be. exxon and chevron are doing something differently, still staying committed to oil and gas. they are still committed and aiming for more efficiency, etc. they are doing different stuff. u.s. companies are doing a lot

with carbon capture. not that european companies don't, but they are putting more into carbon capture than buying a windfarm or a solar farm, for example. exxon is enormous in that field because of its massive size. activists are going to say they can do more. exxon will say they do a lot. also if you are a shareholder, why are you buying exxon? are you buying exxon because it has carbon capture or because it has a dividend yield? matt: i'm looking at the comp screen. i love the comp function for almost any long-term stock. they have massively underperformed over the past five years, bp and royal dutch shell, but if you look to just the beginning of 2020, sort of a pandemic snapshot of how they are doing, they have beaten royal dutch shell, and still none of these oil majors has

come back to the price they were trading at before they went into lockdown. exxon shares were going for over $70 apiece, and i we are looking at 58. why aren't they coming back? alix: that is also a cash flow issue. exxon has a lot of debt. it is throwing a lot of cash at these levels, but by the time to oil majors are retrenching and doing capital distancing, exxon is going to thin nail, pumping a lot of money into certain spots -- like guyana, for example -- it will have great dividends, have a lot of oil and gas, and then you have high turns. covid ended up hitting demand. by the time we saw retrenching, exxon was spending, and exxon ended up hurting demand. that is a very different thought money confronting shareholder activists than maybe a year ago or even two years ago on this measure. do they come back? i don't know. they have been beaten up so

much. will they have the same kind of data they would have to the actual underlying oil price? i genuinely don't know. or are you better off if you want to go ahead and -- do you want to go to next era, do that and they all go buy a exxon for the dividend. i don't know if we are totally clear on how investors are going to choose investing when you cannot ignore things like wind and solar, but you also don't want to give up dividends. matt: now, "gone with the wind," the james bond franchise, rocky, i get all that -- but robocop? why are we so focused on robocop? do you like robocop? alix: sure, but you forgot a key movie -- legally blonde. let's put aside the most watched movies of all times -- legally blonde. don't pretend you are not going

to go on amazon prime and watch it, because you are going to because it is awesome. matt: now that you reminded me come i think i willful full-time i might even buy it on itunes. always great to get your perspective on anything oil related. alix steel is our resident oil nerd, talking to us about what i still think is amazing news out of exxon. we are going to dig deeper into amazon's wishing to hollywood with the purchase of mgm. next, brad stone joins us. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller full-time amazon has agreed to buy the nearly century-old icon hollywood

studio metro-goldwyn-mayer, for a $.5 billion. there is a lot to talk about. let's bring in bloomberg news' head of global technology coverage. brad stone joins us out of san francisco. i know this is a big deal. mgm -- it doesn't seem like amazon is really doing all that it can to break into hollywood is just a $9 billion acquisition. why not go bigger? brad: to put it in context, this is maybe year eight of their hollywood initiative. last year, 2020, i think they spent $11 billion on licensing shows, developing shows him amazon studios, eyeing movies like the sound of metal, a remarkable movie, than borat, not as remarkable. but popular. amazon is spending big. i think why they but mgm, they

were a few weapons short in their arsenal. jeff bezos addressed it in the amazon directors meeting,. you talk about james bond, rocky, legally blonde, which alix steel just mentioned, and all the properties in the mgm fault. that is what bezos said in the investor meeting, a big vault of ip and the ability to reimagine and develop some of those properties. matt: maybe they can do something with robocop as well. there has already been a remake, i think. but pink panther is something that they can bring back. what about their series? they have some really good ones. i am a huge fan of catastrophe, for example, and they have that fleabag, at least here in germany we watch fleabag on amazon, which is obviously great. but they don't have the game of thrones kind of big money spinners that hbo does -- the

beat, the silicon valley's. are they making a push to try to beat the others at those games? brad: they are spending an extra ordinary amount of money to develop a lord of the rings tv series. i wish i had the numbers at my disposal. that is in production no full-time basal said years ago that he wants his game of thrones. amazon has not been that successful. the mgm library gives them optionality. mgm has handmaid's tale, but that is on hulu. fargo, but that is on tbs. there is a vault of popular shows there, and mgm and amazon are going to have to work on getting through some of the existing deals before they can ring back those active properties and bring them to stream first on amazon prime video. matt: one of my worst nightmares

is that they get mgm come and we have to watch james bond on tv rather than seeing the new film in movie theaters with popcorn and crowds. i guess they have not figured out a way to do that, right? they are not going to keep it out of the theater? brad: when it comes to the james bond franchise, the estate of ian fleming, and the producers of the film, they have extraordinary control over that franchise -- who replaces daniel craig, where those movies go. i don't think we will see much of a change in the upcoming movie or even really in future movies. the real fear is that bezos cast himself there as the next james bond, or even if cast by others is a bond villain -- i don't think that is in the cards. with this property, amazon will have to figure out if he really wants to change the way those movies are produced or released because it is a unique situation. matt: he is pretty jacked, i

will say. he seems to come out strong against antitrust concerns. there was a suit filed in d.c. a couple of days ago. how serious are these headwinds? we all now -- a lot of us -- buy everything on amazon. brad: bezos was just asked that at the investors meeting, and he called out google and apple. he said how many other mobile operating systems are there? you cannot think of any? how many other operating retailers are there? there are many. shopify and walmart.com. that is the challenge for regulators. amazon is not a classic monopoly. i think it does engage in conduct that needs to be scrutinized, and in my recent book amazon unbound, i get into how it leverages strengths, and the d.c. age is calling out one of them -- the d.c. ag is

calling out one of them, forcing them to raise their prices elsewhere. that is conduct that is going to be scrutinized, and amazon might find itself having to retreat from, but that is not the existential split of the company, and of the growth curve that we have seen kind of threat. it is a distraction for sure, though. matt: amazon unbound. we have talked about it before. it really exciting book. you can plug it on the program any time. it is one i think everyone should go to. brad stone, our bloomberg head of san juan g out of san francisco -- head of technology out of san francisco. for bloomberg, i am matt miller. ♪

[ sigh ] not gonna happen. that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. my name is ken. how may i help you? hi, i'm calling about kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? hold one moment please... [ finger snaps ] hmm. ♪ ♪ the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. kohler is an expert in bathing,

so you can count on a deep soaking experience. are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call... to receive fifty percent off installation. and take advantage of our special offer of no payments for eighteen months.

> the department of labor has proposed rescinding a trumpet era rule that would have

subjected union funds to stricter transparency requirements. the rule required unions with at least $250 in annual receipts to turn over information about their credit unions, strike funds, and any trusts they maintain. unions will still have to file every year, including receipts on funds diverted to trusts. antony blinken is in egypt on the next leg of a nickel medic mission aimed at shoring up a cease fire. there will be with top officials, including egypt's president. secretary boykin has vowed international support will also promising to make sure none of the air destined for territory reaches hamas. former republican senator john warner of virginia died according to his chief of staff. he is saha