Hello everyone and welcome to At Bairns.

I'm Andy Surwer and welcome to our guest, Steve Schwartzman, CEO of Blackstone.

Steve, great to see you. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Andy.

So why don't we start off by me asking you to assess the U.S. and global economies right now. Are things starting to pick back up?

I understand maybe deal flow is starting to perk up a little bit for you guys?

Yeah, well, deal flow is picking up.

We did six deals in six weeks after pretty moribund period for earlier in the year.

But just speaking about the economy,

the economy's held up quite well in the United States.

And the reason is the consumer is doing very well.

Surprisingly, they had a lot of savings from the COVID period.

They've spent that down, but they've gotten used to buying things.

So now they're borrowing money in addition.

And then there was a special stimulus program.

This one not passed by the government, but it was the increase in the stock market.

What I've found over my career is that people don't spend a set percentage of their net income.

They do spend a set percentage of their net worth.

So when the stock market goes up to the extent that people have an exposure, they'll spend more money.

And that's another shot in the arm.

What we are seeing because of the higher Fed interest rates is the rate of growth in our companies,

which are pretty widely held.

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