2024-05-29 15:17:06 ET
Blackstone Inc. (BX)
Bernstein's 40th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference Call
May 29, 2024, 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Jon Gray - President & Chief Operating Officer
Conference Call Participants
Patrick Davitt - Autonomous
Presentation
Patrick Davitt
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. My name is Patrick Davitt. I'm the U.S. asset manager analyst here at Autonomous. As a reminder, if you want to submit any questions, you do it online through the Pigeonhole website, and I'll try to work those in as they come in or get to them at the end.
It's my pleasure to welcome Blackstone President and COO, Jon Gray, for the second year in a row. Thanks for coming.
Jon Gray
Patrick, great to be here. Thanks for coming up.
Question-and-Answer Session
Q - Patrick Davitt
So, given your position as one of the largest asset owners in the world, I think it's best to start with a macro discussion. People are worried about sticky inflation, higher for longer, and what that means for risk assets, although the economy continues to be very resilient. So, maybe to start, frame what you're seeing on the ground, how inflation is tracking your own portfolios, and how that looks relative to your public data?
Jon Gray
I think we feel a little better about the inflation picture than some of the recent data. We have the benefit of owning 230 companies and 13,000 real estate assets. And when we look across our portfolio, we see a few things. One, in the U.S., rental housing costs are generally running well below the stated data. I think it's 5.5% in the latest CPI. When we look across our manufacturing companies, input costs are still pretty flat. And we've seen wages come down from, call it, 5%-ish a year ago to 4% now. Now the pace of disinflation is certainly slower than it was a year ago, but I still think the Fed is having success here. And I do think the path of inflation is downward even if it's not as quick as it was....
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Blackstone Inc. (BX) Bernstein's 40th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference (Transcript)