ken lang gone, the guy was his name on the big hospital, nice side, and the guy who helped start a huge business on depo, one of the largest businesses in our country. he paid a tax of 70 percent. and he lived in new york when he started that business. and now he's going around complaining though, if i have to pay more than 20 something percent, the civilization will end or something like that. it's just not right. as he said, we've done very well with people paying far higher tax rates and they're paying now and we should, we should have the funding here in america to do the kinds of things that we need to do to make america what it is. now i don't only do this, but the have to be that devil's advocate and say, you know, you're forgetting about the philanthropic la jess of the rich who can personally choose where to put a 1000000000 here, a 1000000000 there. that's way better than you are. democratically accountable vision will look sure. if i want to build a new concert hall, i could easily raise a couple $100000000.00 from people who want their name on the new concert. but we also ne

ken hicks. this is bloomberg. ♪ matt: this is bloomberg markets. i am matt miller with amanda lang. ares of academy sports and outdoors reported second quarter above-average outlooks. let's bring in the ceo ken hicks. what is driving this surge in earnings? ken: we are in the fund business. that is what we sell. right now we need more fun, but when you look at the things we sell, they have to do with the trend towards wellness, being outdoors and having fun. that is what people are buying. amanda: what has your pandemic experience been like? we imagine a business like yours has benefited and it seems to have from the pandemic. however, retail has obviously been hit hard in the midwest and south. what are you seeing? ken: we were open all through the pandemic as an essential retailer, and we sat a shift in the consumer last year. people were buying things that were exercise equipment, camping , you know, and now they are buying or apparel, footwear, team sports, licensed apparel, but all of our businesses are performing well, but we have seen a shift throughout the pandemic as the cus