Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Co., on the decision to bring employees back to the office four days a week: “As you’ve heard me say many times, creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney. And in a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe and create with peers that comes from being physically together.”
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines: “We will be the most profitable airline in the industry, $2.6 billion of profit for 2022. We’ve just been through our recession, the deepest recession in this industry’s 100-year history, and we’re still coming out of that.”
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations: “Two things were true for 30 years — China was going up and interest rates were going down, and those two things are reversing before our eyes and the repercussions are going to be astounding to watch. It’s going to be painful.”
Gene Munster, managing partner and co-founder of Loup Ventures, on Elon Musk’s decision to give up the CEO role at Twitter: “It’s a positive for Tesla because investors want him to be more involved with Tesla ... Over the last seven weeks as he’s been more engaged with Twitter, and he’s damaged Tesla’s brand; he’s become more political.”
Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in the economics of renewable energy: “We happen to have seen more wind and solar in areas where markets have been deregulated. But I think that’s more of a geographic and political phenomenon than a market phenomenon.”
Tyler Norris, a senior executive at Cypress Creek Renewables: “Project developers are attracted to open wholesale electricity markets with price transparency, independent oversight and the ability to trade with multiple potential customers.”
Ramin Nakisa, a former UBS analyst who now runs the consultancy PensionCraft: “Cathie Wood is very credulous — as long as there’s a good narrative that goes with something, she’s willing to believe it. You have to question whether she has that sanity check on companies’ valuations, market share and potential profitability.”
David Tepper, Appaloosa Management founder and president, on interest rate remarks from Fed chairman Jerome Powell and European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde: “The Fed came on and that it wasn’t easy but he kind of projects like a teddy bear. You know, you wanna cuddle him when he speaks, so the market kind of cuddles. And then you have the ECB come out the next day, and she’s like a grizzly bear, she’s growling. She comes out and she says directly, ‘Listen we’re doing 50 [basis points] now, we’re definitely doing 50 again next meeting, and then we’re gonna do another 50 — and then we’re likely to do another one after that, we’ll see how the data goes.’”
Daniel Rasmussen, founder and chief investment officer of Verdad Advisers: “Institutions have fallen in love with private markets, lured by promises of higher returns and lower volatility. Allocations to VC have soared along with allocations to private equity, private real estate and private credit.”
Joe Berlinger, director of a new Nexflix docuseries about Bernie Madoff and his financial crimes: “He’s been mythologized as somebody who just incredibly did this on his own, but there were a lot of sophisticated investors who should have known better, and a lot of institutions — including J.P. Morgan Chase that had a view into his Ponzi scheme because they had billions of dollars flowing through one checking account — and a lot of institutions, due to greed, just looked the other way.”
Sarah Golden, senior energy analyst at GreenBiz Group: “The difference between the resilience of renewable energy and fossil fuels is a matter of infrastructure that ensures delivery when we need it — not the technology itself. The Ukrainian War is an acute invitation to decouple energy systems from global politics.”
Flo Rida, rap star on his decision to sue energy drink company Celsius for alleged breach of contract: “I’m an international star, so I’m the reason why you see this product in Dubai. I’m the reason why you see this product in Asia. I’m the reason why you see this product in 7-Eleven. Those people that came to my shows and seeing me performing, they see the passion and they know that I’m going to go all the way with this.”
Jeffrey Hoffman, a cannabis attorney, expressing concern about New York’s prospects as a legal marijuana market: “Cannabis right now is in recession, if not depression. If you want your regulated market to succeed, you have to make your legacy market a partner — not a competitor.”
James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley on the decision by COO Jonathan Pruzan — a candidate to become CEO — to leave the firm: “He has been a trusted adviser to me for many years, and has had a seat at the table and a voice in the decision-making process for many of the key decisions that the firm has made over the past decade.”