Alex Edlich, senior partner at McKinsey & Co.: “There are $402 trillion in assets that exist in the global financial system. More than half of that is now not on bank balance sheets, and what’s interesting is that over the last decade 75 percent of the net increases have gone not onto bank balance sheets but onto mutual funds, insurance balance sheets, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and private capital.”
Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel: “We need more STEM, we need more technicians, we need more capacity. Think about how many of our companies are led by immigrants today. They come to the country well educated, the top of their class and hungry for the opportunities the West offers. If the world wants to give us their best and the brightest, we should say, ‘Yes, please.’”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase: “If my numbers are right, in 1980 debt-to-GDP was 35 percent. We spent 5 percent of the deficit because of the recession; now debt-to-GDP is 100 percent, the deficit 6 percent and it’s in the boom time. ... I think governments and central banks are starting to feel omnipotent. I’d be much more cautious.”
Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder and CEO of Blackstone: “People who use debt to own their portfolios really are struggling. They have to pay down debt, so they have to sell assets. We’re one of the few people in the world who have a lot of money and like to buy things.”
Mary Erdoes, CEO of J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, on the $15 billion spent annually to employ 62,000 technologists to combat cybercrime: “We have more engineers than Google or Amazon. Why? Because we have to. The fraudsters get smarter, savvier, quicker, more devious, more mischievous. It’s so hard, and it’s going to become increasingly harder.”
Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University, on China pouring billions into EVs, batteries and renewable energy: “If China builds up all this capacity and cannot absorb this capacity domestically, it will be looking for export markets around the world. China is feared as a country that could dominate global markets and wipe out domestic producers.”
Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, on the competition between Boeing and Airbus: “What used to be a duopoly has become two-thirds Airbus, one-third Boeing. A lot of people, whether investors, financiers or customers, are looking at Airbus and seeing a company run by competent people. The contrast with Boeing is fairly profound.”
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford: “EVs continue to grow with spectacular numbers, but what’s changing is that people buying them are not willing to pay a premium. Now, we have to get costs under control and even — surprise, surprise — advertise.”
Roxanna Islam of VettaFi on Fidelity and BlackRock dominating bitcoin capital flows: “BlackRock and Fidelity have both the liquidity and the brand recognition that some of the other issuers don’t have — especially when it comes to retail investors who are hesitant about investing in an emerging asset class. It’s still early in the race, but I think the gap between BlackRock and Fidelity and the other issuers will only widen the more their volume and assets increase.”
Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie: “To predict China’s economic performance pretty much equates to predicting when the housing market will bottom out.”
Natalia Larrea, director of Euroconsult USA: “We are on the verge of a new era in space exploration marked by a paradigm of collaboration and competition. This transformative era in space exploration is not limited to governments alone; the private sector is playing an increasingly significant role. Fueled by renewed interest in space exploration from governments worldwide, numerous companies are seeking to provide commercial services in space exploration.”
Leon Cooperman, billionaire chairman and CEO of Omega Advisors: “By and large, when you look at everything going on around the world and you see the market multiple at 21 times, it seems too rich to me.”
Alex Spiro, lawyer to Adam Neumann, who is attempting to retake possession of WeWork, the financially troubled company he co-founded: “In a hybrid work world where demand for WeWork’s product should be greater than ever, my clients believe that the synergies and management expertise offered by an acquisition by my clients could significantly exceed the value of the debtor’s on a standalone basis.”