Can Mamdani Win Over Wall Street?

Bloomberg

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00:00It happened.

00:03Zoran Mandani wins New York's mayoral election.

00:06This is a historic win.

00:08Tonight you have delivered a mandate for change.

00:12This 34-year-old state assemblyman, largely unknown a year ago, got plenty of pushback.

00:18I believe that Zoran Mandani is a threat to my constituents.

00:21I disagree wholeheartedly with Zoran Mandani.

00:24Yet, despite rattling even members of his own party, his bold ideas have struck a chord with New Yorkers.

00:30Wall Street has been clearly humbled with this race.

00:34Initially, they thought his campaign was a joke.

00:37Then they worked hard to defeat him, used insults.

00:40This is a story of a very savvy, young, upstart candidate who knew exactly what the pain points were of New Yorkers.

00:49We're going to build a city where no one has to struggle to survive.

00:51And he knew how to communicate to them.

00:54In a way that his opponent simply wasn't able to.

00:58We're voting you off the island.

01:00And his popularity has gained a certain someone's attention.

01:04Making many wonder if it could spill out over to the rest of the country.

01:08For everyone.

01:09He's a disaster.

01:10That's a terrible thing for our country.

01:11He's a communist.

01:12There is a segment that is reaping the benefits of the market boom.

01:16But there are many other segments of this society that have been languishing.

01:21Something's clearly broken.

01:23And that is how you get a mayor like Mamdani.

01:26Also says something about where voters, not just in New York City, but maybe across the country,

01:31are in terms of what they think the solutions are to the country's affordability problems.

01:36So, how did the capital of capitalism end up electing a mayor who's a democratic socialist?

01:51New York City.

01:53The city that never sleeps.

01:55But when New Yorkers do, they're usually in a rental.

01:59Roughly two out of three lease their home.

02:01New York City has been an expensive place for decades.

02:08Our children can't afford to live anyway.

02:09There was a candidate for governor named Jimmy McMillan who ran on a platform that he called

02:16the rent is too damn high.

02:18He also ran for mayor.

02:20And he was sort of seen as a not serious candidate at the time.

02:24But the argument, I think a lot of people would argue, was valid.

02:28Rent burden is traditionally thought of as a problem for the working class.

02:32But now it's knocking on the doors of the city's highest earners.

02:36I'm talking about people who are earning between $100,000 and $300,000 a year who for the first

02:41time are considered rent burdened.

02:44They're spending more than a third of their take-home pay on their rent.

02:47The rent is so crazy in the Bronx.

02:50When pop stars are complaining about rent, you know the housing crunch is no joke.

02:56The city has been really jolted by the effects of the pandemic.

03:02And since then, we've seen the prices of rents spike astronomically.

03:06Whether it's landlords clawing back COVID-era losses or tons of luxury development, rents

03:13citywide climbed 27% between 2020 and 2024, outpacing other major U.S. metros.

03:21But all costs of living are going up.

03:24Grocery prices have been on the rise for most of the past five years, with New York City outpacing

03:29the national average.

03:30And full-time daycare can cost $26,000 a year per child.

03:37The Mamdani campaign zeroed in on this crisis and offered up some pointed policies to address

03:43them.

03:44The question is, how much can he really achieve?

03:48One of his most popular proposals is a rent freeze.

03:51And the truth is, he could get this done.

03:54The mayor appoints all nine members of this body called the Rent Guidelines Board.

04:03Those members tend to vote the way that the mayor who appointed them wants them to.

04:09The plan, however, would only apply to the city's nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments.

04:15And questions remain how this will ease the strain on renters.

04:18For people who live in those rent-stabilized apartments, freezing the rent is a really significant

04:24factor in maintaining affordability for them.

04:27The issue is that, according to the landlords, the costs of operating those buildings have become

04:33really, really expensive.

04:35And so there is this criticism of his plan, which is that it could actually result in lower

04:41supply of apartments.

04:43Two other campaign proposals were free buses and free child care for young kids, ideas that

04:49are pretty popular with other New York politicians.

04:53It's really possible that the state could agree to give him some money to fund fast and free

04:58buses, which he said would cost about $750 million.

05:01It's possible that they could give him some money to help pay for a little bit of the universal

05:07child care program that he's promised.

05:09Child care is more expensive than people's rent.

05:12Another Mamdani idea is to launch city-run supermarkets.

05:17Grocery prices are out of control.

05:19The pilot program is actually cheaper than some of his other proposals and could end up

05:23in the city budget.

05:24The idea is to open a grocery store in each borough where the city is controlling the prices

05:30in order to offer people a more affordable option.

05:33In order to help pay for such programs, Mamdani has proposed a 2% tax increase on residents

05:39earning more than $1 million a year, as well as a bump to the state's corporate tax rate.

05:44This has Wall Street and some in the broader business community warning of blowback.

05:49The reality is the services that we provide to the people of our city and our state significantly

06:00rely on the profits of Wall Street.

06:03Millionaires paid about 40% of all personal income taxes in New York state.

06:08They are essential to the operation of things like the schools in New York.

06:15But the rich are also earning a lot more.

06:18Nearly 30% of all income reported in New York state went to millionaires.

06:22And don't get Mamdani started about billionaires.

06:26I don't think that we should have billionaires.

06:29For a man who said he doesn't like the idea of billionaires running for an important seat

06:33in a city full of them, once again revives conversations about the potential for the

06:38power center shifting away from New York.

06:42But Mamdani's control over taxes is very limited.

06:45The mayor of New York City has almost no authority to raise revenue on his own.

06:50He needs the approval of the state legislature and the approval of New York Governor Kathy

06:55Hochul.

06:56Any tax increase has to come across my desk first.

07:00I will work with whomever the mayor is as long as they want to help foster my policies,

07:05which is pro-growth, pro-business.

07:08New York's finances aren't helped by this so-called big, beautiful bill slashing federal

07:12funding to social programs nationwide.

07:15Europe is facing a budget hole and it's also facing cuts from the federal government that

07:19it's going to have to contend with in the years to come.

07:21The jobs are basically where they were before the pandemic happened.

07:25But subway ridership, for example, is 74% of where it was.

07:29Office vacancy is double from what it was before the pandemic.

07:33So the question is, will Mamdani get any money from Albany to run any of his social programs?

07:40Or will New Yorkers actually be getting a tax increase regardless because of the budget gap

07:45and that money probably won't go to Mamdani?

07:49Yet a massive wealth flight from New York City seems unlikely.

07:53And business leaders have softened on Mamdani.

07:56I've seen some of this rhetoric before.

07:59Not all of that rhetoric panned into the reality of a mass exodus from the city.

08:04And oftentimes what happens is business leaders realize that simply repeating the threat of

08:10leaving the city will be seen as somewhat of a selfish act.

08:15Many of them are saying that they found him to be a good listener.

08:21I can see why he's in a position he's in.

08:23He was articulate, engaging.

08:25If he becomes mayor, I will call him and offer my help.

08:29Mamdani has shown a penchant for finding commonalities between groups.

08:32For a long time in New York, the key to winning election has been to cobble together a coalition

08:39of different ethnic groups.

08:41What Mamdani has done is appeal to people on an economic argument.

08:46Thank you to the next generation of New Yorkers who refuse to accept that the promise of a

08:53better future was a relic of the past.

08:56And he's managed to do this despite opposition and political attacks over his fierce criticism

09:02of Israel, an issue that remains divisive within the Democratic Party.

09:07All of this comes at a time of rising anti-Semitism in New York, home to the largest number of Jews

09:13outside of Israel.

09:14For someone who is so prominent a critic of the Israeli government to succeed and win in

09:20New York City represents a sea change in the city's political alignment.

09:25That has some New Yorkers and some Jewish New Yorkers really concerned.

09:30To be Muslim in New York...

09:31Mamdani himself has been the subject of Islamophobic attacks.

09:36He'll be the first Muslim mayor of New York City ever in 400 years.

09:41He'll be the first South Asian mayor.

09:43The population of Asian Americans has grown to be somewhere around 15%.

09:48It's the fastest growing ethnic group in New York City.

09:52New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, and as of tonight,

10:00led by an immigrant.

10:02Mamdani's brand of populism has some leaders in the Democratic Party taking notes.

10:06This result will have a massive impact on how the Democratic Party decides to tackle the

10:15midterm elections and the general election.

10:18But in New York City, Mamdani's success will hinge on bringing everyone to the table.

10:27It doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to take their business elsewhere, but it may

10:31just mean that they don't invest in the future here.

10:34Now that he is in office, they will have to engage with him to shape the city in the direction

10:40that they would like to see it go.

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