Robert Carruthers, acting CEO of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia: “Automation hasn’t led to the doomsday scenario of mass layoffs. In fact, it’s created a new roles that didn’t exist before automation.”

Enrique Martinez-Garcia, a senior research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas: “The type of acceleration in house prices that we’ve seen, particularly in the U.S., over the past two years is unprecedented. It’s not just that by the first quarter of 2022 we are posting the highest two-year growth rate on record for the U.S., close to 30 percent increase in nominal house prices; it’s the fact that it has been accelerated in quarter after quarter since mid-2020.”

Amos Hochstein, U.S. State Department special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs: “The United States is right now producing at near record levels. There’s no regulatory restrictions standing in the way of increasing oil production. Anyone that says we’re standing in the way of oil production increases, it’s just baloney.”

John Doerr, venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins: “It’s incredibly clear that we’ve got to double down on the renewable energy sources that are not controlled by petro-dictators. If you look at our situation in the world, we’re funding both sides of this war over Ukraine with Putin. We need more sources of energy, and we especially need more sources of clean energy. … I think it’s the best investment opportunity of our lifetime.”

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google: “If you assume that Web3 was 10 times overhyped and it has corrected five times, it’s got some more to go. The Web3 vision is correct; the technology to make it happen still needs to get built.”

Jeff Currie, an economist at Goldman Sachs: “The situation across the energy space is incredibly bullish right now. You’ve seen an exodus of money from this space … investment continues to run from this space at a time it should be coming to the space.”

Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management: “The best managed companies in the world, we’re talking about Walmart and Target, are having supply chain problems. They know how to manage supply chains, so if they have problems, we think there are a lot more problems out there.”

Matthew Diserio, president and co-founder of Water Asset Management: “Think about yourself: You’re using water in your daily life whether GDP is up two or down two. It’s an essential expenditure.”

Larry Cuculic, CEO of Best Western Hotels and Resorts, on the industry’s labor shortage: “I’ve long said the hospitality industry is all about people who enjoy the responsibility of caring for others and welcoming them into their hotels. As a result, my position has long been people who have that in their DNA will return to the hospitality industry. It’s just a matter of time.”

Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, on remote work: “For most large organizations, it never really mattered whether you were there.”

Peggy Noonan, former Reagan administration speechwriter and current columnist for The Wall Street Journal: “I don’t want to see office life in America end. The decline in office life is going to have an impact on the general atmosphere of the country. There is something demoralizing about all the empty offices, something post-greatness about them. All the almost-empty buildings in all the downtowns — it feels too much like a metaphor for decline.”

Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck on portfolio allocations to Bitcoin: “Investors should have somewhere between half a percent and 3 percent. My allocation is higher because I have a particularly high conviction.”

Joe Kernan, Squawk Box anchor, on congressional fears about how TikTok is using the information it gathers about Americans: “The people that watch TikTok all day long, what’s China going to find out about these kids? They may say, ‘We don’t have to do anything, that country screwed. We can just watch this decline of western civilization.’ They may just want to watch it in slow motion and enjoy it.”

Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, regarding Amazon’s $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical: “We think healthcare is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention. We see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days.”

Andrew Schwartz, manager of the Central Sierra Snow Lab, which studies California’s snowpack: “We’re going to see water scarcity limiting population. I can’t give you an exact time. All I can say is given the trends in water supply and aridification of the Southwest, it’s probably going to happen sooner rather than later. And it’s probably going to be sooner than people are comfortable with.”