♪ caroline: from bloomberg's world headquarters in new york, i'm caroline hyde. joe: i'm joe weisenthal. romaine: and i'm romaine bostick. the s&p 500 closing out a record high. joe: the question is, "what'd you miss?" caroline: the industry is going to cost you a little bit more each and every day. prices paid by u.s. consumers rose more in the past

consecutive months in more than a decade. if you want to go to crypto, perhaps you are using it as some sort of currency, but you are also talking about if you are a bank looking to get into crypto, you will have to set aside quite a lot of money to do so. joe, let's start with the cpi data. joe: another hot on the headline measure, at least. cpi trend up. that's something we haven't seen in a while. this is the second month in a row. highest since 1992, so there you go. a big jump, and we know this is a debate by now, how much is transitory, how much is the base effect, how much is skewed by reopening categories, but the headline is pretty hot. romaine: absolutely. let's get some more insight here. bloomberg news, monetary policy, and economic reporter matt --

here. what's your take on what we saw? matt: there was another report where we saw inflation driven by a few factors that are related to the reopening. the two big factors in this report that are driving the overall number higher were transportation commodities and transportation services. transportation commodities, we talk about this cars and trucks story that propelled inflation higher as well. on the services side, its airline fares. these are the two big things. if you look at this chart, you can see the difference one of these -- these two kata -- the difference these two categories make. you can see what happens when you take out transportation categories, it is an unprecedented tilt in dynamics. romaine: this is striking, the gap you see between these two

things. we are looking for widespread nest. that chart seems to suggest that it is not really bleeding through to other areas that much? joe: no, it's really not. if you look at the overall report and the 100 something components that go into the core cpi index, we are at a situation where fewer categories have been rising at a pace faster than 2%. versus more. in that sense, -- joe: this is what you were showing me in the office. matt: yes, this is the percentage of components in the basket. you can see this is coming down. that's interesting, because what happened at the beginning of the pandemic, when overall core cpi plunged, the decision index, the number of components rising faster with actually going up. that's because we had a bunch of smaller components, things like household cleaning supplies, other consumer goods that were rising at a faster pace, but they don't really make up a big

weight in the index, so they were not enough to prevent the index itself from plunging. we are seeing this interesting reversal of those dynamics now as some of that unwinds a year later. caroline: but it's a small amount of things pushing us higher. or are they really integral things? as much as i am sure airline prices are going higher and used cars, your average joe, all of us joes -- joe: except me -- caroline: there is nothing average about you. we are finding it more and more expensive right now. mass: this is what i love about this conversation. one of the key categories, the biggest category in the index is rent, right? that is starting to pick up again, since getting kind of wrecked during the pandemic. if you look at this chart, you can see we had the highest month over month increase in owners equivalent rent since june 2019,

so you can see that big dip in 2018, 2019 that led to an overall deceleration in the index. the question now, are we going back to those 2016, 20 17 levels that were repelling inflation at that time? we are kind of over the hump in terms of some of these weird pandemic affects and we are back to talking about rental inflation driving the overall numbers like we were before. caroline: go to a broker to get a new apartment, and i can tell you, it is expensive. meanwhile, we want to thank matt for all the insight on those charts. speaking of btm washington at the moment, we discussed some of the setbacks in the u.s., but also the regulators they're getting a bit concerned. the ceo of crypto hardware wallet --. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ mark: i'm mark crumpton with bloomberg's first word news. the united states got new shipments of the johnson & johnson covid vaccine, according to dow jones. this is one step the government is taking to clear the backlog of unused doses before they expire. state officials say recently, they have not been able to order new j&j doses. the vaccine surplus is partly due to a suspension in april to evaluate the risk of rare blood clots. president biden says g7 nations will announce a commitment on the covid vaccine. this comes after the u.s. pledged to donate 500 million doses of risers coronavirus vaccine to share

internationally. the president is urging other nations to do the same to try and end the global pandemic. president biden: the key to reopening economies is vaccinating people. our vaccination program has helped the american economy begin to recover from the worst economic rices in a century. mark: mr. biden got support from prime minister boris johnson ahead of their bilateral meeting in the u.k.. prime minister johnson also said president biden did not push him on northern ireland, which after brexit, is inflaming tensions. african nations need to secure at least 200 25 million coronavirus vaccine doses by september. -- 200 25 million coronavirus vaccine doses by september. that's what's needed to inoculate at least 10% of the continents population. the who says without a massive

effort to boost vaccine availability, only seven african nations will reach that goal. african health officials say the continent is heading for a third wave of covid-19. the summer olympic games are next month, and the debate continues over covid restrictions. a local newspaper reports the japanese government is weighing lifting virus restrictions on june 20 in tokyo and osaka. that's a month before the games begin. this as there is concern of a surgeon covid infections, plus the risk posed by hundreds of thousands of athletes and support staff. global news, 24 hours a day, on errand on bloombergquint take, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton, this is bloomberg. ♪ joe: today, we are focused on

consumer spending. one place investors are looking at money, of course, is cryptocurrencies. elizabeth warren says the u.s. government needs to step its oversight up of digital currency markets. take a listen. >> banks are holding bitcoin. that becomes an issue that we need to talk about with bank regulators. there's a lot of different pieces to this, and i think the answer that we saw today is that right now, our regulators and frankly our congress is an hour late and a dollar short. we need to catch up with where these cryptocurrencies are going. caroline: talking about catching up, some are focused on the regulatory element of it all. we heard from the committee earlier, which says the banking industry faces increased risk from crypto assets. the group pointing out that the

potential for money laundering, swings, all the stuff that gets labeled on the daily is finally being acknowledged by some of the regulators, and they are asking banks to comply. romaine: i think the interesting thing about this, some people are reading this as a good sign. it does provide a light stamp of validation to the idea that it is a legitimate avenue. depending on what side of the fence you are on, this could go either way. caroline: joining us for more -- joe: joining us for more is -- pascal gauthier, ceo of ledger. there is some sort of discussion by top entities that validates the asset class, but on the other hand, you know, it also raises the risk of regulation, which could stymie the industry.

do you think regulators have got it right right now? pascal: i started by saying first, bitcoin doesn't need banks. it has been designed specifically not to need banks. that's the first thing i would say. second thing i would say, you know, it's great that regulators are paying attention, because it shows bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more popular around their constituents, around people. people are buying bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and a lot of people are joining the crypto community space. finally, i would say, all of these discussions are somewhat irrelevant, because i think this is a tsunami. bitcoin is one thing, but think about nft, everything that is becoming a token right now. this is to the degree that it is

happening. you can't stop that. caroline: to go back to your first point, it is deeply ironic to me that the centralization of something is decentralized to allow people to basically trade with it, to invest in it, to speculate, whether it be the exchanges that have been set up around crypto, there has been this centralization. it's not just about bitcoin, though, which is hard to transact. where is [inaudible] pascal: at ledger, we believe in freedom of ownership. we actually believe in a model where users and companies are in charge of their own coins, and can safeguard them. we make it safe and easy to use. that's what we stand for. so i think in this discussion,

you know, we think everything that is a bank, it is a good conversation and said happen -- it happened, because in a few years we feel it will be their preferred choice, but we feel that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies have been designed so they can be held by users. the question you ask with bitcoin, would you ask the same question with an nft? that token is a representation of a piece of art that you own. you probably want to keep it with you at home. we believe that freedom of choice and ownership is what's going to drive the markets in the future, and not so much consolidation at banks. romaine: in addition to freedom of ownership, there is also security and stability here. in regards to your business here and ledger, how much interest are you seeing from some of the bigger institutional players right now in regards to seeking out a little bit more of that

security and of that secure ownership? pascal: we think it is huge. we are on three continents, but i can tell you they are a little bit different. europe is a bit more conservative and europe is worried about the crypto tokens, in the u.s. it is about trading bitcoin and cryptocurrency. for a year, we see many players entering the game, but i have to say, it might be a little bit of the internet, you had these old media companies and the peer players coming in, and you are seeing that moving. the new kids in town are pretty good. you have those peer players like coinbase and the rest that are doing a great job at becoming big companies fast. to a certain extent, that's the trajectory we want to have at ledger. sorry, go. joe: i wanted to ask you

something about the changing nature of crypto. when i think of a ledger wallets, i think of someone putting coins in their wallets, burying it in a safe and never touching it. a lot of these require connection from the wallet to the web. does that change how you think about the security model? pascal: not at all. the security model has to work, whatever you do with it. there is a difference between ledger just being a safe and to being a connected safe. what ledger is trying to do hardware wise is exactly what the iphone did to the phone. your phone became connected with the iphone. what we are going to do to your wallet, everything that is in your wallet that's in the form of a token, whether it's in cash, your identity, and so forth. what apple did to the phone,

ledger will do to your wallet. romaine: a great conversation. always great to have you on, pascal gauthier, ceo of ledger. we will be back in a moment. this is bloomberg. ♪

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joe: the popularity of by now, paid later plans could get more popular. shopify will let its merchants let customers shop with by now, pay later plans. >> the stock is 5% higher today after this news. how is this something that can materially help a firm expand among merchants? what details can you give us there? >> shopify is the premier

platform on which thousands, millions -- and the majority of large brands actually run -- it is a public platform for a by now, pay later service. we built an extraordinary experience with some of the staff we just released. the speed of and checkout -- check out improved by 30%, and it's up 50%. these are obviously great tools for merchants to build their businesses, to continue growing them. we have a great opportunity here for both the firm and shopify, and shopify's customer base. joe: they had an incredible year , with an explosion of e-commerce in the wake of the pandemic. now we see something people

are calling normalization. have you seen any sort of change in how e-commerce trends have been since the reopening? max: that's a great question, and there are a bunch of different things going on at the same time. i will challenge you on one thing -- i think there's a lot of conversation around payments thanks to the pandemic, and there is definitely something to that. my 70-year-old mom is now shopping online like a pro. before that, she would walk over to the grocery store. but the growth of by now, pay later is faster than the growth of e-commerce in 2020. i think it's this need to decluttering mentally, as you try to figure out how you make ends meet, because money is such a top of mind concern, especially during the early parts of the pandemic before the stimulus checks came in. by now, pay later experienced an

incredible moment in 2020 because it is such a simple, transparent way to pay for services and goods, and we really saw the market pull as we worked on this through 2020. i think that is the driver behind the success. we are unique in the entire by now, pay later pantheon -- buy now, pay later pantheon by not charging late fees, that something due to the pandemic. spending, travel collapsed and came back. in q1, we had a tripling from a very low base, but even year-over-year growth is also quite strong and we are seeing at accelerate and accelerate. we were bullish on travel, we are seeing a tremendous amount of returns in higher and fashion. we are seeing things like wedding services and wedding dresses pick up, because people

postpone their nuptials until we could get together in person. there's a lot of nice growth. on the flipside, we are not seeing a lot of slowdown in fitness, a lot of things people associated with the pandemic because people were trying to make their homes and easier place to go. e-commerce has accelerated, taking a giant step up during the pandemic. caroline: to that point, you pushed back about the fact -- you obviously state your business, as you say, on the fact that people want this transparency in this easy way of being able to schedule payments. as we get more transparency on jobs, being called back to work, is that something that is going to help or hinder your business, do you think? is that a seachange shift people want to have in their payments, and how does that counteract some of the negativity around that? yes, you don't charge late fees, but competitors might end people are worried about -- might and people are worried about buying

things they can't afford. max: being committed to a price and never changing it is self insurance against pushing people into debt. we don't get money, we don't get revenue if consumers cannot pay us back. it is on us to make an intelligent underwriting decision, and in some cases, counseling our borrowers. that's the promise we make. a firm is not just for affordability and transparency, to clear your mind from the credit card and fog, but also financial responsibility and treating yourself, but doing this thoughtfully and responsibly. caroline: sonali basak, we wish we had more time. thanks for coming to us

with that interesting news. that's it for "what'd you miss?? " romaine: bloomberg technology is up next. ♪

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