Episode summary
Mamdani Begins Term by Wiping Out 15 Months of Adams’ Orders | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 32 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec, Ed Ludlow · Guests: Laura Nahmias, Maribel Lopez, Carolina Milanesi, David Schassler, Ray Wang
Summary
CES was framed as an AI-heavy showcase, with the guests saying the big story is less novelty than the spread of AI into cars, PCs, factories, health care, and household devices. The conversation pushed back on consumer hype around humanoid robots, arguing that the technology will likely be proven first in enterprise settings because cost, safety, privacy, and return on investment still are not ready for the home.
The show then pivoted to investing themes for 2026. David Sassler of VanEck said the market is entering a new era in which innovation is colliding with financial accountability, and he argued portfolios should own assets with embedded scarcity. He was constructive on gold, forecasting it could reach $5,000 in 2026, and said Bitcoin could act as a catch-up trade if financial conditions ease later in the year.
A later segment focused on Tesla and BYD after BYD overtook Tesla in global EV sales, with the guests saying Tesla faces tougher competition in China and abroad, while Elon Musk’s focus appears increasingly split across autos, energy, robo-taxis, and robots. The episode also touched on New York City politics, as Bloomberg’s Laura Nahmias explained how new mayor Zohran Mamdani is trying to quickly reshape city government with fresh appointments and executive orders.
Key takeaways
- The CES guests said AI is now the dominant theme across consumer tech, but the biggest near-term opportunity is enterprise deployment, not home robots.
- Marbel Lopez argued humanoids need to be proven in factories and warehouses before consumers will accept them in homes, citing privacy and security concerns.
- David Sassler said investors should own gold and called a 5% allocation reasonable, warning that debt and deficits now matter more.
- Sassler said gold could reach $5,000 in 2026 and that Bitcoin could rally later in the year as a relative-value trade.
- The Tesla discussion said BYD’s lower-cost manufacturing and stronger position outside the U.S. make global competition harder for Tesla.
- Bloomberg’s Laura Nahmias said Mamdani’s first days in office are about maintaining grassroots support and rethinking city institutions, including the judiciary process.
Notable quotes
“AI is going to be everywhere. Whether we're talking about AI in cars and how that is helped with EV and self-driving”
“It's the year of physical AI in my opinion where we really start to see these robots come in”
“if you don't own assets with embedded scarcity, we're in a period of financial abundance”
“we think gold hits $5,000 sometime um in 2026 and goes beyond that”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. — This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio.
Hey, speaking of tech, the Martin market's heightened focus on AI is raising investors hopes as consumer tech giants and — Watchers and journalists, everybody. I mean, people are going from all over the world to Las Vegas to go to CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronic Show.
Bring your hand sanitizer. — Yeah. I mean, that is the most important thing to bring the the charging battery charging stuff, you know, for your phone
And hand sanitizer because if you haven't gotten sick yet, you're going to get sick at CES. I have bad news for everybody. Joining us live uh to set us up for the event, Marbel Lopez, founder and enterprise AI analyst at Lopez Research and Carolina Milani, president and principal analyst at Creative Strategies.
It's great to have you both with us. Carol mentioned bring this bring this hand sanitizer. Both of you know that at this point uh by by this time going to CES.
Karolina, I want to start with you because there's always a theme at CES. I mean, when I went years ago, it was like this was before the Apple Watch came out. So, everyone was talking about wearables and the year before that was, you know, the internet of things that was going to change everything.
Is it just AI this year? Is that what it is?
Sadly, so in so many different ways, but AI is going to be everywhere.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- nyc executive orders
- antisemitism definition
- ai analyst outlook
- gold portfolio allocation
- electric vehicle market share
Companies and tickers mentioned
- TSLA
- BYDDY
- Tesla
- BYD
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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