Rick Rieder

But what's really happening is earnings growth is spectacular.

Earnings growth is spectacular because you're reducing your cost infrastructure, cost of goods sold, SG&A are coming down.

Because you've come up with a better way

to actually run your business, and you're using software, cloud, inventory management tools, et cetera.

So I think AI is coming, and I think it accelerates what is a productivity boom.

But I agree with you.

I agree with what Jan said.

Today, it's not AI.

And by the way, you look at the M&A calendar, which I think will continue to be robust, to say the least.

Why will you see so much M&A?

Some of it, you have business incentives that are real.

Some of it is you have businesses trying to build them out, create more data, etc.

A lot of it is synergistic, i.e., I can grow my company, I can build scale, and I can reduce my cost ecosystem.

And what that means is...

is fewer jobs and i think we're watching it and i don't think the story is ambiguous i think the story is is quite clear we have a labor dynamic right that is tricky and by the way it's a lower skilled problem it's an urban problem it's a uh that i think is you know part of why i think i've been pretty adamant that i think the funds right needs to i think interest rates need to be a bit lower because i think it's lower skilled i think it's low low income i think it's small business that are on the back side of what is a tough dynamic today i i want to get to that

So, by the way, it's a 4.4 trending significantly higher from where we used to be.

And by the way, I would argue if you took a step back and said, gosh, 4.4, is that a crisis?

Unequivocal that that's not a crisis.

The trend isn't a good story, number one.

We have a dynamic, and I think people say it's a supply, that it's an immigration dynamic.