[Music]
This is Wall Street Week. I'm David
Weston bringing you stories of
capitalism. When Fed officials made
their way to Jackson Hole this week,
they were helping support the richest
county in the country. We look at how it
got that way and what it tells us about
the rest of the US economy. Plus, it
turns out that news of the death of
fossil fuels was greatly exaggerated. We
talked with Chevron chairman and CEO
Mike Worth about the future of his
industry and how his big acquisition of
Hess sets his company up for what comes
next. And Wall Street, or at least part
of it, maybe moving south. No, not to
Miami, but to Dallas. What is the city
doing to lure the financial sector? And
how far does it have to go to catch New
York? But we start with those Fed
meetings in Jackson Hole and Chair
Powell's remarks. For a review, we turn
to former governor of the Reserve Bank
of India, Ragharam Rajan, now at
Chicago's Booth School.
Well, this was a very finely balanced
speech. Uh I think he had to emphasize
that the Fed is still looking for more
data. At the same time he had to
acknowledge the fact that you know uh
there's a lot of pressure on the Fed to
uh essentially acquire to the government
and cut rates. So he had to nod to both
sides uh saying the Fed will do what it
has to do but it's not ignoring the
government and and there that's why uh I
think it was actually quite masterful
the way he managed to uh sway uh
expectations uh slightly more towards a
cut but with a subtle change in words.
What he said was, and I'm going to read
this, uh, the shifting balance of risks
may warrant adjusting our policy stance.
Note the word may. That means he's not
committing to it, but he's saying we're
bending a little more towards cutting in
September. So that balance of risk
shifting I think toward the possibility
of a cut I think specifically with
respect to labor and he did talk about
the balance of risks on labor tilting to
the downside even as inflation risk to
the upside. What's your take on the
shape of the US labor market today?
>> Well, it does look like it's softening.
Now uh you know you don't see layoffs in
a big way yet. uh what you do see is the
pace of hiring has been relatively slow
and partly because of the fact that
immigration has come down a lot uh the
labor force is not growing so much so
even with the low pace of hiring you're
not seeing unemployment go up what that
means I think from his perspective is
that labor market is weak enough that he
doesn't see a substantial potential uh
increase uh because of second round
effects of inflation. Now this is
central bank speak for saying look
tariffs are going to push inflation up
but what we really worry about is the
worker asking for higher wages which
creates more inflation down the line. He
discounted that in his speech saying he
doesn't see that that will uh push
inflation up because labor mark the
labor market is relatively weak at this
point.
>> At at the same time we do have core
inflation that's well above that 2%
target that he reiterated once again. Uh
when was the last time that the Federal
Reserve cut rates with the core
inflation at that level? Well, it's not
just that it has that it is at that
level. It is that it hasn't budged
downwards for quite some time. In fact,
the last readings looked like they going
upwards. That was the point where I
concluded that he was being uh quite
doubbish uh because there's no mention
of the fact that we haven't seen a
downward adjustment in inflation.
Typically, central banks cut when they
see uh inflation coming down. that puts
a lot of weight on weakness in the labor
market bringing inflation down further
uh into the Fed's comfort zone. There is
no evidence for that at this point. Uh
it is a hope.
>> We have ambiguous or maybe even
conflicting data on inflation on the one
hand, labor on the other. And that's
against the backdrop of a fair amount of
uncertainty. uh particularly uncertainty
because the Trump administration is
really quite explicitly trying to change
the narrative particularly with tariffs.
What about the risk of tariffs? How much
have we seen? How much of a risk is
opposed? Well um uh we haven't seen a
lot though uh one should note and and
chair pow noted that goods inflation
which was coming down where actually it
was not inflation the goods prices were
coming down so inflation was negative
that has shifted around to a positive
rate of inflation on goods we still
haven't seen a full pass through of the
tariffs into prices that is coming and
uh the chair said look uh we think it is
going to be a one-off. What we worry
about is it either feeding into
inflationary expectations that is people
think inflation is going to be higher or
it feeds into wages through a tight
labor market. He discounted the tight
labor market issue, but he said
inflationary expectations, we're going
to be watching that and we certainly
will do what it takes to keep
inflationary expectations anchored.
Broadly, he seemed to suggest that
tariffs were manageable. What he didn't
talk about, as we've said before, is
that he didn't talk about the fact that
inflation is way higher than the Fed
should be comfortable with.
As you noted, professor, he was very
careful in saying that the shifting
risks may won't not necessarily, but may
warrant an adjustment. At the same time,
the markets certainly took it as almost
a guarantee in September there's going
to be a cut. Given where all the data
are are and what he had to say, what do
you think the Fed should be doing?
>> Well, I think he's bought the Fed some
room. Uh what will be critical are the
August labor market numbers. If they
look as weak as the July numbers looked,
the Fed will have a cast iron case for
cutting. If however you see again a
shift back towards higher
employment numbers, I think the Fed will
really be uh conflicted at that point.
The part of chair pal's speech that got
the most attention certainly from the
markets uh was the part about what's
likely to happen September where we are
on cutting but there was another half of
the speech which had to do with the
so-called framework which the Fed tends
to revisit every 5 years or so and of
course last time was August of 2020. It
was a very different world as he noted
in his speech. What did you take about
what he had to say about how they're
changing that framework?
>> Well, it was very very interesting. He
essentially said uh we were tackling a
problem which no longer is that
important which was the fact that uh the
Fed had been tackling low inflation for
a long time. Inflation was lower than
where the Fed wanted it to be and the
Fed essentially was at what they call
the effective lower bound. It couldn't
cut interest rates anymore. And in that
kind of environment, really the
objective of the framework that the Fed
brought in then was to push inflation
up. And just a few months after they
brought that new framework in in 2020,
the problem was exactly the opposite,
which is high inflation. And the Fed now
had to bring inflation down. And
essentially what chair pow said was look
uh you know uh we had the uh right
framework for the wrong problem and at
this point what we're trying to do is
move back to our old framework and
finally professor this was his last
speech by all appearances at Jackson
Hole as he noted it was his eighth
straight speech uh reflect on his legacy
and particularly I really remember it
wasn't that long ago we were talking
about hard landing, soft landing. A lot
of people saying we're going to have to
have a recession. In retrospect, it
looks like the soft landing happened
under his watch.
>> Well, yes, and and I think unfortunately
uh he will not get as much credit as he
should for navigating the Fed through
very difficult times uh towards what
seemed like a soft landing at the
beginning of this year. Of course, the
volatility uh from u the new
administration's policies has uh has uh
put that into some question. But from
the Fed's perspective, after the uh sort
of mistake that was made in uh in in the
early days of the pandemic in thinking
the inflation then would be transitory,
uh the Fed did a very credible job in
getting things back into line. Um so one
he should get more credit for that. The
second I think is that he's displayed
immense uh qu calm and equanimity
at a time when the Fed has been pummeled
by outside forces. Uh I think that's
that's also very creditable that he has
led the Fed uh from the front but also
shown that you know uh despite all the
pressures from outside he can uh focus
and uh and offer uh a reasonable view of
what a central bank should do. uh that
may also in the years to come be seen as
a very important legacy. He's led with
honor and he's been very s uh very
careful but also uh um you know uh
reflected uh great integrity uh while
leading the Fed.
>> Up next, we take a closer look at the
wealthiest county in the wealthiest
country in the world and how it got
there.
This is a story about America, the
beautiful, and how the beauty of one
particular part of America is way more
than just skin deep. Once a year,
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a monetary
policy mecca. But the resort town in
Teton County is a symbol of the way
wealth transforms some parts of a town
and how other parts may never change.
Michael McKe tells us why.
The wealthiest place in America today is
a long way from New York or San
Francisco. It's much more famous for its
mountains, its bison,
and its cowboys than it is for its
billionaires. The residents would prefer
to keep it that way. But they would also
tell you that things are changing here
fast.
Me personally, my home has doubled in
value in the last 3 years. So, my
balance sheet is looking good, but my
income certainly hasn't doubled in the
last 3 years.
>> Jonathan Shear runs a think tank and
sits on the town council in Jackson,
Wyoming, not far from the hotel that
hosts Fed Chair Jay Powell and central
bankers from around the world every
summer.
If you go back and look at Jackson Hole
historically, we are a high isolated
mountain valley in the northwest corner
of Wyoming, it's been very hard to get
here and very hard to get out of once
you're here.
>> The result, an economic transformation
over two centuries from trapping to
ranching to tourism as the community's
isolation and rugged landscape
eventually became a selling point for
visitors.
>> All right. All right. That's what I like
to hear. people would come to visit the
national parks. All of Grand Teton
National Park and the southern half of
Yellowstone are within our county. And
then in the early 1960s, the Jackson
Hole Ski Area got started. And that got
started actually with a federal
government loan that was intended for
the most impoverished areas in America
because we didn't have anything but a
summer economy.
The geographic isolation still really
affects who we are, our ecosystem, our
community, our sense of who we are, but
it has much less effect on our economy.
So now we have people from around the
world who come and live here part-time,
full-time, uh they work from anywhere.
So we've really become a hub of remote
work.
>> For decades, it was New York County,
which is primarily the island of
Manhattan, that led the country in
wealth accumulation. But in the early
2000s, Teton County jumped into the
lead. That trend has rapidly accelerated
in recent years, and New York has
tumbled into fourth place since the
pandemic. Today, the average per capita
income in Teton County is about a half
million dollars a year. We're the
country in the history of the world. We
also sit at the heart of the greatest
intact ecosystem in the lower 48.
And if you think about things through
the eyes of sustainability where you
have ecological capital, financial
capital, and human capital, I don't
think there's any place in the world
that could compare to here. Jonathan and
others say it is no coincidence that a
singular ecosystem and a singular
economy go hand in hand. About 97% of
the land in Teton County is publicly
owned, dedicated to parks and forests.
And among those who can afford to live
anywhere on the planet, there seems to
be a belief that something is special
about this territory. But then again,
there are plenty of other spectacular
places in America. So natural beauty is
just one piece of the puzzle here.
Another is the tax system.
>> Phrase is we are an onshore offshore tax
haven. And so we are hands down the most
wealth friendly and income friendly and
wealth preservation friendly state in
the union. No, no other state comes
close.
>> Low property tax, low sales tax, and
zero income tax in Wyoming are strong
incentives. But then again, every other
county in the state benefits from the
same friendly tax regime, and their
annual incomes are much closer to the
national average. Teton County leaves
the others in the dust.
>> 30 grand.
>> So, what's the secret ingredient? If
it's not just the land or the taxes,
maybe it's something else altogether.
When in doubt, ask the locals.
>> It was a small town. Everybody knew
everybody here in this town at one time.
It was extremely western. Philip Wilson
is the great grandson of Sylvester
Wilson, who was the first settler to
bring his family to the valley in the
late 1800s. The town 5 miles west of
Jackson still bears his surname. Today,
Philip and his family run the Jackson
Hole Rodeo, and he says a lot has
changed here, even within his lifetime.
>> When I was younger, basically everybody
had cattle ranches, few dude ranches
around, but not a lot of them. And then
the hotels started coming and then uh
tourists started coming in. Everybody
that comes to Jackson Hole immediately
falls in love with it, wants a piece of
it. We want to have them feel part of
Jackson Hole when they're here. We want
them to feel that the the atmosphere.
That's why at here at the rodeo, I even
go out and in the parking and welcome
people that come in. I turn around and
shake their hand when they leave. For
Philip Wilson, his family, and so many
of the other residents, the cowboy
culture is not just for show. They were
born into it. But he also says it's no
wonder that culture appeals to outsiders
and newcomers. That's what draws people
to Jackson Hole. The people that are
here are friendly type people. They're
uh they're outgoing. They're friendly.
That's the only way they know how to be
cuz that's the way they they run their
lives.
>> It's a very very popular. I think it's
made it into a lot of the must visit
when you come to Jackson Hole type of
places.
>> Among those drawn here by the land and
the culture is Kate Moore.
>> Low taxes aren't a motivation for her.
She still files in New York where her
work is based. As chief investment
officer for City Private Bank, she's
joined a growing group of people making
the move from Wall Street to the West.
I bought my house a little over seven
years ago, so precoid, which was
excellent timing given the real estate
prices, but I've been coming out here
for 30 years. My first trip was when I
was in high school, actually.
>> Now, your job is essentially on Park
Avenue, but you're splitting your time
here.
>> Yeah, I split my time and I split my
time in my previous role as well, but I
think, you know, I'm someone who manages
a global team. We're not all in the same
location at all times anyway. And you
know, if I'm working the appropriate
hours, in this case, East Coast Market
hours, I'm up at 4, which is can be a
little bit tough. I think a lot of the
finance people in town do the same
thing. Moore says there's also a deep
appreciation for the region's history
here. She herself lives in a renovated
cabin that was built in 1929.
But whether the homes are new or old,
one look at real estate prices will give
you an idea of just how high the peaks
of wealth in Teton County can go. Our
supply is limited here, but demand seems
to go up every year.
>> Brandon Spackman is a local real estate
agent and he currently has the listing
for the most expensive property in the
area. That's where we met up with him
for a tour.
>> It seems like you have almost an
unlimited supply of buyers.
>> We do. It's a big investment and a lot
of it's just p timing in their lives and
what they want to do. When he says big
investment, he means it. The Riverhouse
sits on a 36 acre property in Wilson,
Wyoming, the town founded by Philip
Wilson's great-grandfather. It's about
10 miles from downtown Jackson and is
currently listed at $60 million.
Obviously, you have a room like this,
you walk into the room and it helps sell
the house. You want to live in a place
like this. Now, how many houses are in
this price range? over 20 million. A lot
of properties are in the 20 or 30 range.
>> Properties like Riverhouse form the
higher end of the range in a place where
private land is hard to come by. But as
the ultra premium market goes up, so
does the rest of it. Some people here
say the billionaires are pushing out the
millionaires, not to mention those in
lower income brackets who sometimes
commute from across the border in Idaho.
And Jonathan Shear thinks the wealth
divide could become a bigger problem
under the latest federal legislation.
>> You're number one in per capita income,
but also number one in income disparity.
>> Yes. Yes. We have roughly 90% of our
income, a little north of that is earned
by the highest earners. So maybe 15% of
our community earns roughly 90% of our
income, leaving about 10% of our income
for the other 85%. The big beautiful
bill disproportionately benefits the
wealthy. A lot of these cuts that are
going to occur, a lot of cuts in social
services programs and other programs are
going to disproportionately harm those
of lower income. And when you have the
greatest income inequality, the greatest
income disparity of any county in
America, then I'm concerned about my
constituents, my friends, my colleagues,
my neighbors.
>> Philip Wilson's rodeo employs locals,
and the lack of affordable housing means
he has to run a leaner business. We'd
like to have 80 employees here. We We're
not up to where we need to be, but we
make do.
There's not enough people here in the
valley that live here to work here cuz
most of them live outside of here. So
when you come to the rodeo, we're in the
evening. You know, they're either 100
miles away or 60 m away down in Star
Valley.
>> Despite the challenges facing Jackson
Hole, its workers and its residents say
the sense of community remains strong
here. And that's what Philip Wilson
hopes to preserve, bringing the ultra
wealthy along for the ride. If you're
going to come to the rodeo, we want you
to have a good time cuz we're going to
have a good time. So when you come here,
we try to show them the friendly type of
atmosphere. That's why we do so much
handshaking here at this rodeo.
>> And it's there's a cowboy western
culture in
>> Oh, there is there is here. You know,
the cowboy culture is I'll tell you one
thing that a cowboy does is every time
he sees you, he shakes your hand. If he
sees you tomorrow, he shakes your hand.
And if he sees you tomorrow afternoon,
he shakes your hands.
>> I mean, it is the most amazing community
ever. I can tell you, I have incredibly
close friends that are fishing guides
and that are self-made billionaires. And
frankly, some of those people, I didn't
even know they were really wealthy
because everyone drives the same like
F-150 and wears the same kind of jeans
around town. It is a place where there
is an enormous amount of wealth, but
showing that wealth is not part of
normal behavior. Jonathan Shear says he
hopes the community spirit and a respect
for the land will be constant even in
the face of economic change. But he also
says they need to be protected and are
no longer as certain as they once were.
You just needed to have that potluck
kind of church social mentality because
there were too few of us and we had to
rely on each other in a very harsh and
extreme place. And so we can't take a
lot of these things for granted. We
can't take for granted transmitting our
cultural values from one generation to
another. We can't take for granted
transmitting a healthy ecosystem from
one generation to another. If we lose
that, then we've lost something really
special.
>> Friendly. Whoa. We got a good start. A
good camp.
>> These worries seem far away on a Friday
night at the rodeo. A view from the
stands shows that although much has
changed here, much abides.
The story of Jackson Hole is one of
American ideals. The wealthy and the
ultra wealthy of today may see what the
Wilsons saw when they arrived in Teton
County over a hundred years ago. An
American frontier that can share the
bounty of the land with its people. But
more than ever before, those who live
here will have to reconcile the values
of capitalism with a culture born of
cowboys and unforgiving landscapes. A
culture which may be their greatest
asset of all.
Coming up, fresh off his transformative
acquisition of Hess, we talk with
Chevron CEO Mike Worth about what it
means for his company and what it tells
us about his industry overall.
This is a story about growth and
renewal. Not long ago, all the talk was
about the looming end of fossil fuels.
But now, it looks like much of that talk
was premature. One of those who was
steering his global energy company
through the ups and the downs is Mike
Worth, chairman and CEO of Chevron, who
says that what the industry needed all
along was balance.
Whenever you talk about energy, there
are really three things that matter. And
this is whether you're a company or a
country. U affordability because energy
that people can't afford doesn't change
lives. Reliability. Reliability enables
an economy to be built. and then
protecting the environment and in policy
discussions or in business strategy and
if we focus only on one of those we
suboptimize on the other two. Well, I
think there was a genuine hope to
transition to a carbonfree economy very
rapidly and I think what that led people
to miss was the reasons why the energy
system we have today is in place.
Whenever you have balance there are some
trade-offs. How do you minimize the
damage to the climate while pursuing the
other goals?
>> The first thing you do is you focus on
efficiency. The best way to find new
energy is not to use energy wastefully
that we have today. And so efficiency in
uh industrial facilities, in
transportation, uh in manufacturing, all
really really essential. The second
thing that uh we're focused on is
investing in technologies that we think
hold the promise to reduce the carbon
intensity of uh energy use in the
future. So uh hydrogen is one example,
renewable fuels is a second. Uh
geothermal is a third. Earlier this
year, we started up our largest
renewable diesel facility. We're the
second largest producer of renewable
fuels in the United States. Later this
year, we will start up uh the largest
green hydrogen facility in the United
States using solar power to turn water
into hydrogen. And that will have the
storage capacity equivalent to three
times all the grid installed batteries
in the entire United States.
>> As we talk right now, it looks like the
demand for fossil fuels will continue as
far as the I can see. Do you think it
peaks at some point?
>> Demand last year was the highest that
it's ever been. Demand this year is up
versus last year. demand next year will
be up again. Uh again, not because of
anything our industry is doing, but the
population on the planet continues to
grow. There will come a time when the
population on the planet plateaus when
development will have largely occurred
for most of the less developed part of
the world and efficiency will have
offset some of that growth. Different
models give you different assumptions on
when that will occur. Uh but the
important thing is once we reach that
point it's not like demand for oil will
then drop off a cliff. Uh the big
consumers of uh oil are airplanes,
ships, longhaul trucking. So even as we
find these new technologies becoming
more competitive, we're going to have
existing consumers of energy that will
last for a long time to come. This is
going to be measured in decades. The
global demand for oil is something over
100 million barrels a day. Uh how long
do you think that can sustain?
>> Well, we're closer to 105 million
barrels a day today. Uh we'll probably
be close to 110 million barrels a day by
the end of this decade. And then, you
know, some forecasts would have it
beginning to plateau. Some would have it
continuing to grow. OPEC has a growth
out through 2050. The IEA shows a
plateau beginning in 2030. Our view is
probably somewhere in between those two.
Uh but that's still an enormous amount
of demand in the world to be met.
Chevron specifically has positioned
itself recently to be in a position to
supply some of that with your Hess
acquisition. Explain why that
strategically was so important to
Chevron and to you.
>> Well, we've got a strong growth profile
through the rest of this decade. Uh the
Peran Basin just hit a million barrels a
day. Uh we've had global records uh the
last couple of quarters for production.
Hess brings with it a nice growth
profile that extends beyond uh the next
few years as we reach uh maturity on
some of our big projects that have been
starting up. Hess has some very talented
people in exploration who've been quite
involved in the identification and
appraisal of the resource in Guyana
which is the largest new discovery in
the world over the last couple of
decades. So, we're going to bring their
their talent, their experience, their um
insights and blend it with ours. And as
we move forward, we've got acorage
around the world. And we're going to
have some uh you know, a stronger team
uh as we move forward to uh challenge
some of our conventional thinking, maybe
help us think about these opportunities
differently, and I'm confident we'll get
better results.
>> Can you get along with Exxon as as a
venture partner down in Guyana? We
partner to share risk uh to share costs
and it's quite common particularly on
largecale uh developments. We put our
people together. We get the best out of
people from organizations that bring
different experiences together and we
got great respect for all the companies
that that we work with. I would fully
expect that our team will be uh good
partners with Exxon and vice versa in
Guyana. Many of the people that will be
working on this project are the test
people who have now joined Chevron.
Chevron is much more than an oil
company. It's a gas company, too. Let's
talk about natural gas. There was a time
that was thought to as sort of a bridge
energy getting to solar and renewables.
Is that still true? I actually think
it's becoming more true once again or
more recognized. Uh as you bring uh wind
and solar into an electricity grid, uh
they have u great strengths. Once a
capital has been invested, the marginal
cost is very low. Uh, but they're not
good at providing base load capacity
because they're variable with the the
wind and the sunshine. You can't really
turn the sun up brighter or make the
wind blow. It is what it is. And so, you
need other sources of supply to provide
level loading for the grid. Natural gas
is ideal for that. It's much lower
emitting than coal.
>> Give us a sense of how you think Chevron
can help really contribute the power
that we need for those huge data
centers.
>> The demand is coming. In fact, it's it's
already here. And we're talking to the
biggest uh companies in the world that
are investing in uh building these these
models. The two constraints that they
have right now are are chips, the GPUs
that go into the data centers and
electricity. Uh the US is in a race with
China uh for leadership in AI and both
countries have uh strong technology
bases and strong energy resources. Um
the challenge for us in the US is to
mobilize our energy to support the
growth in power demand. Uh we've got a
grid that is challenged in terms of
putting all that power through the grid.
So what we're looking at doing is
building a large-scale power generation
off the grid where we can go fast. We
can deliver large scale. We can take
advantage of the abundant uh lowcost gas
resource in this country. So we're in
deep discussions with several of the
biggest companies working on this. You
have announced already a deal with
Verova and with engine number one. Where
is that project? When will it first be
online somewhere?
>> So, this is what I'm referring to. We've
got a site uh identified uh a primary
site. We've got some other sites that
we're working on as well. We've got
seven of GE Vernova's largest turbines
coming with delivery beginning next
year. So, this will be over 4 gawatts of
of power generation. When you talk about
permitting, I do think about
governments. Uh, federal certainly with
the administration you say, but also
state. Uh, when you talk about balance,
how do you strike a balance between, let
me pick names, Gavin Newsome on the one
hand in California and Donald Trump in
Washington on the other, they don't seem
to see eye to eye on energy policy.
>> They probably don't see eye to eye on a
number of things. Um, energy policy
being one of them. And uh certainly
we've got a long history in California,
a large footprint in California, but the
policies of the state have been designed
to discourage investment in the
traditional energy system and encourage
investment into renewables and the next
generation. We talked earlier about
balance. Um my belief is California does
not have the balance right. California
is trying to convert the supply side too
fast and the demand side hasn't adjusted
yet and that runs the risk of creating
shortages. Uh I think President Trump is
more of a a believer in all of the
above. Certainly been an advocate for
oil and gas and uh I think his policy
approach is uh more marketoriented and
likely to yield uh the kinds of results
that we're we're talking about in terms
of competitiveness.
>> Give us a sense how you became CEO. What
brought you to Chevron to begin with? I
had a degree in chemical engineering and
I got a summer job where I worked in
engineering and and really enjoyed it.
In the early 1980s in my early 20s, um I
decided to go to California. I landed
with Standard Oil of California, which
is what our company was known as at the
time. And I found myself working with
incredibly talented people on important
projects around the world that blended
engineering and technology with
economics and business. And then with
this geopolitical overlay that we're
talking about and uh 43 years later I'm
I'm still doing it.
>> Looking back on your career, was there a
formative moment that you look back on
and draw from as you deal with crises or
difficult situations? I'll tell you the
the one the most recent one that um I
learned a lot from is co and we
I had some insights that this thing was
perhaps going to be worse than most
people thought and I was able to use
that to begin to mobilize a response at
our company before the rest of the world
really recognized what was going on. One
of the first things that I did is I
called my three immediate predecessors,
each of whom served as CEO for about a
decade and all of whom lived within a
stones throw where I lived. And they had
gone through wars, they had gone through
terrorist attacks, uh, financial crisis.
And they all had experience on dealing
with an unexpected black swan type of
event. And they were incredibly generous
with their reflections on what they
would have done differently, their
suggestions to me on what I should do in
response to it. And um it was nice to
not have to figure it out all myself.
>> You've been CEO for a while. What is
there left for you to accomplish?
>> Well, we've got immediate integration of
of an acquisition. We're going through a
large corporate restructuring which uh
is rewiring business processes and where
work gets done. Uh we've got a contract
to operate in Kazakhstan uh that runs
out in the next few years. Uh those
would be some things that are on my list
that that still need to be taken care
of.
Coming up, the Lonear State is giving
New York's Wall Street a run for its
money. We look at what Dallas is doing
to become its own version of lower
Manhattan.
This is a story about ambition. They say
everything is bigger in Texas, but for
the Lonear State, the status quo is not
big enough, particularly when it comes
to the financial sector. Our colleague
Scarlett Fu went to Dallas to see what
it is doing to attract Wall Street
business and whether it can handle the
growth.
>> When we first moved to Dallas, we lived
across the street from the kids'
elementary school and I'll never forget
like walking through the park with like
the ducks and you know it was like a
fairy tale.
>> In Dallas, I think there's no limit.
>> Dallas is a great place to be. Dallas
has long been the financial hub of
Texas. Since the pandemic, it's become a
leading financial and innovation center
in the nation. According to the Census
Bureau, Dallas Fort Worth, Arlington was
the third largest gaining metro area in
the US from July 2023 to July 2024,
adding almost 178,000 residents.
>> I moved for work. Um, I had a great
opportunity to join an innovative
company that was wanting to grow from
local to global. I was 15 years an
entrepreneur in Los Angeles. Um, and
truly 30,000 mi a year in a car, trying
to get home with the kids, all that good
stuff. And I just thought there had to
be a better way. And we just started
looking and a friend called me from here
in Dallas. He says, "You've got to come
out and take a look and and see all the
things that are going on here." Um, and
I did. And and here we are 11 years
later.
>> Sarah and Ryan Brown ditched California
palm trees for Texas tumble weeds 10
years ago, settling down in the Dallas
suburb of Highland Park. I see an influx
of tech and tech focused
uh entrepreneurs and um operators more
and more every day. It's a hot topic
here and I think a lot of it is also
coming because the investments that are
that are coming here. As a tech
entrepreneur or someone in tech, you
don't have to live out of your car in
Silicon Valley.
>> This relative affordability makes the
Northern Texas region a magnet for both
young people at the start of their
careers as well as established
professionals. Dallas now has the second
most financed jobs in the US ahead of
both Chicago and LA. And while it might
remain some way off New York, Mayor Eric
Johnson sees his city as more than just
an upstart.
>> The future is Dallas because I think
this is where the growth in the country
is occurring in terms of business. The
Sunb Belt is the fastest growing part of
the United States. Texas is the fastest
growing part of the Sunb Belt. Dallas is
the fastest growing part of Texas. you
know, if you want to be successful, you
go where the action is headed, not where
it is. I think the action in this
country is headed um to this part of the
United States. And you can't be in a
better place than Dallas.
>> Financial firms are leading the action
in Dallas. From Wells Fargo topping out
construction of a $500 million campus in
the inner city suburb of Irving to
Goldman Sachs building its second
biggest US headquarters downtown to the
New York Stock Exchange moving its
Chicago branch to Dallas, culminating in
what some are calling Yall Street.
>> Folks been trying to figure out what to
call it, right? You had the Texas Stock
Exchange, Texi. Um, and then all a
sudden Yall Street came in. Um, I think
it's going to stick. I think it's great.
I still would tell my bankers, follow
the money.
That's exactly what everybody's doing.
The money's here.
>> Elaine Agatha is chairman of the Dallas
region for JP Morgan Chase. After
starting her banking career in New York,
followed by stints in London and San
Francisco, she returned home to Texas in
1984.
>> As I grew with the firm, the state grew.
I've literally watched it happen. And
with today 32,000 employees, we have
more employees in the state of Texas
than any other region for JP Morgan,
>> including New York.
>> Including New York.
>> Agathar has seen the city of Dallas grow
in stature in the financial world.
>> In the 1980s, Michael Lewis coined the
term equities in Dallas and made that
into a shortorthhand for the least
desirable assignment in an investment
bank. The equivalent of being out of
sight, out of mind.
>> Um, does anyone Yeah. Does anyone
reference that?
>> No. No one says that.
>> No one says that anymore. That but I
remember that but no one says that
anymore.
>> Why do you think that is?
>> I think because of the growth. I think
the the wealth the wealth that has been
generated here today. We are so diverse
as an economy. I mean we got smart. It's
everything from tech, food, retail, huge
retail. But that diversity, it really
attracted the growth that people didn't
have to just be an oil and gas guy to
move down here. Years ago, you really
needed to be in New York for a big job.
That has all changed. We have lots of
jobs here in Dallas that are national
jobs.
>> Dallas has a lot of things going for it
as a city. Number one, there's the
infrastructure here. Two, it's a very
businessfriendly environment. And three,
there's that tremendous depth of a
talent pool. uh young professionals are
coming here in droves. Just anecdotally,
we recently had a post for a new analyst
position and had over 200 applicants
within 24 hours and all from outside of
the state of Texas. Really now, this is
a career move. It is the career move for
young people to come to Dallas to build
something.
>> JP Morgan isn't the only big bank
betting on Dallas.
>> I believe you can almost see Goldman
Sachs's new headquarters from your
office here.
>> Oh, right there. Yes. I look at it every
day. It's very annoying. Um I'm teasing.
uh but and then in BFA and you just see
this this along this park the growth
that has happened and it's attracted
many financial type institutions the
opportunity set here in Dallas
especially in the wealth management side
is tremendous the number of households
in our target demographic has grown 20%
year-over-year in the last one year
alone and it's been consistent over the
last five so I just can't imagine a
better place to do what I'm doing Ashley
Herps is the head of the Dallas market
at JP Morgan Private bank. He is one of
the city's many recent transplants.
>> We moved here for my job. The
opportunity to run JP Morgan's private
bank in Dallas was an absolute dream
come true. Was a dream job, no-brainer
for our family. Um it was definitely not
easy. The the career decision was easy.
The personal decision was harder. It's
just been an incredible place to build a
career for me. Like I I love my job. I
can't wait to get to work every day, but
my family's happy and that's really
important to me. and and I is I think
it's a good testament to to what living
in Dallas is like.
>> Dallas absolutely can handle the the
population growth we're experiencing.
>> Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is quick to
compare his city with New York.
>> This has been a longterm
conscious effort on the part of
the city and our business community to
make sure Dallas continues to be a truly
pro business city. It's not just
rhetoric. We are a sanctuary city from
socialism in this country. This is a
place where we still actually view
business and people who create jobs and
people who contribute to the economic
growth of the city. That's a good thing.
They're not the enemy. We're not trying
to punish them. We don't vilify them.
It's just not in our DNA. Like Dallas is
a city that, you know, gave the world
Texas Instruments, gave the world
Southwest Airlines. A lot of our great
Fortune 500 companies started here. We
have a culture here that really respects
business.
>> So when it comes to financial firms,
what do you think is Dallas's biggest
draw to that sector?
>> We don't really feel the need to throw
incentives around to get people to
invest in Dallas and to move to Dallas
and to relocate significant operations
to Dallas. We will target a big fish
like a Goldman Sachs because then the
other companies will follow. you'll
create an incentive for other financial
service firms to be in that same
ecosystem with a company like a Goldman
Sachs, but you also will get the
accounting firms, the law firms, and it
becomes sort of this this virtuous
cycle. So, the Goldman Sachs deal is a
great example of a case where they're
going to invest over half a billion
dollars in an 800,000 square foot
development that's going to create 5,000
jobs and it's just going to be
transformative for our city. Chris
Kleiner leads Hunt realy which is one of
the developers behind the Goldman
project. Hunt realy is also working on a
massive development to the north of
Dallas with other marquee names. The
professional golfers association of
America and Universal
>> Fields is our 2500 acre development in
Fris. It's a gem amidst all the unique
positive things going on in Frisco and
Prosper and other parts north. And there
was the opportunity to master plan
something really special. We set our
sights to create something different,
something worldclass. The inclusion of
26 miles of trails, the inclusion of
water, the inclusion of parks, different
price point homes, very unique mixeduse,
retail, residential, office development.
Mass attracts Mass, and we're over a
thousand homes being built. We've got
great residential home developer
partners. Universal has bought 100
acres. They're going to be opening a
very unique ages 3 to 11 theme park here
in 26. University of North Texas has a
Frisco campus that is adjacent to our
site. We're thrilled with the potential
and we're seeing that come to life.
>> Just northeast of Fields lies Prosper,
another small town in the Dallas Fort
Worth area that is pitching families on
its affordability and quality of life.
We're saying, "Here's this community
that we have awesome amenities, great
school district, you've got space to
meet people, we have lifestyle programs,
and it doesn't matter where you come
from. We get a lot of people in from the
West Coast. Toyota relocation. There's
been other Fortune 500 relocations."
>> David Blom is president of Telles Group.
Its Windong Ranch project in Prosper is
now home to some of Prosper's 40,000
plus residents. From 2000 to 2025,
Prosper's population has grown by
2,000%.
>> It's become more diverse, and diverse is
a probably an overused term, but with
corporate relocations from the West
Coast. We've had people come in from the
Midwest, from from the Northeast.
>> The risk is all this growth makes Dallas
and its surrounding suburbs less
affordable.
>> There was any issue that our community
is facing is that the housing prices are
going up. So less families are able to
afford it. So we have more seats in our
schools. So that could be two ways,
right? We don't have enough funding for
our school, but we don't have crowded
schools either. So I guess it's a
balance.
>> New residents also point out a downside
of masterplanned communities, the
limited outdoor public spaces,
especially when compared with the
natural landscapes and wonders along the
coasts.
>> I think it's really difficult to be a
weekend warrior here on the recreation
side. Right. When we lived in
California, we're at the ocean. We're at
the beach. We're in the mountains. We
were doing everything outside. Um
there's not a national forest here.
There's no Bureau of Land Management
here. And so everything is very
privatized. So I do miss the ability to
just get outside and maybe get lost.
>> The growth of Dallas can't be
questioned, but Yall Street is not yet a
replacement for Wall Street. While firms
are adding middle and back office jobs
there, the seats of power still reside
in New York. Jaime Diamond and the CEOs
of JP Morgan's different businesses
aren't likely to move from the firm's
brand new headquarters in Midtown
Manhattan, but Dallas is heading in the
right direction. The growth just keeps
happening. Our Plano office was about
6,000 when we built it and then we kept
adding to it. You need an area of the
country that can get to both coasts
quickly and this center of the country
is a huge advantage. Jame used to tease
about the headquarters will be here. No,
no, it's in New York. make no mistake,
but he is very proud of Texas.
>> I want people to know that Dallas really
is a place where the American dream is
still very much alive and well and it's
not rhetoric like we really are a place
where people can come who are not from
here. We welcome outsiders. It's a place
that that really embraces energy and and
hard work, that can do spirit we have.
When we see another folks, we embrace
it.
>> How long will it take for Dallas to win
as a financial center? I think we're
winning. I really think we're winning
now with the growth there. There are
still people that have not been to Texas
that might have kind of a image in their
head. So I think that over the next 10
years as more people understand the
sophistication, I think that that image
of Texas will continue to change.
>> Up next, the place where wealth meets a
rodeo.
A trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming wouldn't
be complete without a visit to the
rodeo. One that is conveniently right in
the middle of town and attracts some of
the wealthiest people around
and they started betting on whose horse
would outrun. So, this was actually
called the Jackson Hole Racrack and uh
rodeo. Has has the money changed the
town for the better or for the worse?
>> I have to say a little bit of both.
Okay. We we've uh we've got some people
that came in here and wanted to change
things in the in the area, you know, and
so we went through a lot of changes that
way. Uh a lot of us that are here are
are the oldtime set in our ways type of
cowboys around here. A lot of the
cowboys were were forced to leave
because they they could not keep going
with the business they were in. So, the
ones of us that stayed here uh put, you
know, did what we do. I live down there
south of town. So, we kind of live in
our own little area where we're at down
there. And we still well, we have about
300 head of livestock. So, we're still
doing we're still doing the ranching
business and that keeps us going. And uh
and like I say, we've been blessed in
this valley to to see what's going on.
It it's uh sometimes people don't like
it because of the raising prices of
taxes, raising prices of real estate and
property and homes. It makes it hard to
have families here in this valley. Uh
most places that you go to, you live
with your whole family. Your uncle lives
over there and your your brothers and
sisters live here. This is not what this
valley is that much of. That's why we're
blessed to have my whole family here and
we're still all here and still all
together. So,
>> do you see people moving out for other
opportunities?
>> Uh, not as much as moving in. Everybody
wants a piece of Jackson Hole and
everybody wants to live in Jackson Hole.
So, we're we seem to be the the
highlight of America, I'm going to say,
as far as people, cuz they come here,
they enjoy it. Where can you go and have
all the sports and all the activities
and the scenery that you have? I mean,
yeah, we're blessed. The Lord's blessed
us to to have the rodeo and have the
family we have and be able to stay here
for the time that we've stayed. A lot of
my families had to move out of here
because they were in the cattle ranching
business and had to move someplace else
to raise their cattle uh or they were uh
forced out of here by taxes and higher
prices. And we've been able to uh to
live here uh and we need to thank the
Lord for that. What's the future of the
rodeo? I know that there's a dispute
over the land and the idea of building
housing on the rodeo grounds.
Well, and it's strictly my opinion. This
rodeo has been here since 1911.
And that gives us almost 10 plus years
that we've been here. And we as myself
as an old-timer here and all my my
parents and my my relatives all presumed
that this rodeo was in this place and
would never leave. It's just like the
town square. We felt like this was a
secure thing that would never leave the
community. And when it came up for
housing, a lot of us thought that it had
been deeded over for rodeo only. But
they can't find the papers that go with
that and they have nothing to prove it.
So we have to live with what we live
with. But I think the rodeo set where
it's at is the ideal place. This rodeo,
if you watch it, when the rodeo ends, 15
minutes later, everybody's back to their
hotels. about 25% of the people walk
here to this cuz they can walk from
their hotels. If you move this rodeo any
other place, uh there's nobody wants it.
We're not we're not the favorite
neighborhood uh uh people to have
because of our noise, because of our
livestock, because of what we do, all
the horse trailers, all the things that
we have. We're not the most desirable
neighbor to have. So, nobody wants a
rodeo. It's already here. It's been here
like say almost 120 years now. It's
rolling on to and in my opinion it needs
to stay right here. Housing we got you
got to remember 98.5%
of this county is is uninhabited and
this rodeo we're only on a a piece of
property is less than 10 acres. But it
it's ideally located for for the
tourists, for the people that come here,
and for us.
>> You have any of the billionaires who've
moved in here come make an offer for the
rodeo?
>> Yeah, we've had a lot of people come in
here and offer to help us to keep it.
They a lot of these people that that I
won't say billionaires cuz I don't know
their background or what they have, but
they've offered to help us because they
feel the same way that we do. It's part
of the community. It's just like the
like I say, it's like moving the Tetons.
You're not going to move them either.
Town Square is not going to move. This
rodeo should be something that that
stays here. They improve, refix it, fix
it up, do whatever they have to and and
keep it right where it's at cuz it's
it's the ideal location. Uh Cody,
Wyoming had a rodeo in the middle of
town for years. They lost that rodeo. To
this day, then people wish they had it
in the middle of town.
>> Okay. It was it it went better. Was an
easier place for it. I think if you move
this out of town, I I don't think
they'll have the rodeo. But I don't
think if they do away with it, I don't
think you'll have a rodeo.
>> That's my worry. Yes. Cuz I I don't, you
know, I'm only one of many that have put
it on and the people that were ahead of
me had to do a good job for me to get
it. So, I'm happy that they did an
excellent job with it so that I could
take it over. But it it's something that
I want to leave for generations in the
future to have rodeo continue the way it
is now and be as big a part. We in in
Jackson Hole here uh other than the tram
out there, our our web that we have up
and running gets two almost 2.5 million
hits a year. So that's how popular this
rodeo is. and it brings in 2500 to 3,000
people every night for 40 nights and
we're we're full from the start to the
finish. So, it shows how many people
want to come and that's why we keep
working with the city and county and
telling them we need to improve what we
have, add more seating, make more days,
whatever we have to do because we feel
like we're we're drawing the people to
Jackson Hole. So when you come here, we
try to show them the friendly type of
atmosphere and that's what draws people
to Jackson Hole. You got to be friendly.
You got to talk to people. That's what
it's all about. These people want to
hear about you. They want to hear about
the rodeo. They want to hear about
Jackson Hole. So that's what we do with
all of our help. make sure that we have
people here that are that are totally uh
uh interested in in the things that are
going on in Jackson Hole and know about
them and are friendly with the people
that are here. That's why we do so much
handshaking here at this rodeo. No
matter what type of work they're doing,
they're going they're going to
accomplish what they're doing in the
best possible way. And and that's why
the the cowboy has that that logic in
his mind that he's he's there to stay
and he's there to get the the job done
and he he wants to be friendly and he
wants to have other people be around
him. Let me put it this way. We've been
blessed with the cowboy culture. I just
grew up in it. So, it was natural. I
didn't learn it. It was it was something
that I I understood really well. Uh, as
a cowboy, I learned real quickly that I
you don't call anybody by his first
name. It's Mr. or Mrs. And I had an
uncle of mine that his name was John.
And one time I made a mistake once and I
called him. He come over to our house to
eat and I said, "How are you, John?" My
dad uh lifted me off the ground with his
foot and I couldn't sit for a week. But
you you learned Mr. and Mrs. Yes, ma'am.
No, ma'am. And you're very polite. you
open the doors for the ladies and you do
things like that. You're you're that's
something we grew up with and that's our
culture.
That does it for us here at Wall Street
Week. I'm David Weston. See you next
week for more stories of capitalism.