Jeremy Allaire on the difference between stablecoins and bank deposits

FDIC exists, actually, because banks don't hold your money on a full reserve basis.  They take your money and then they lend it out eight times over.  The insurance exists because the banks actually don't have your money.  They've lent it out a bunch of times.  And so it's really a protection if there was a run on the bank that there would be some coverage for people.  Electronic money is much more conservative.  We are required by law to hold one-for-one reserves.

~ Jeremy Allaire, Circle co-founder, Yahoo!Finance interview in Davos, 3:45 mark, January 22, 2023

Orlando Bravo on his firm's $100 million investment in FTX

Q: Finally, I have to ask about your investment in FTX. 

A: It was obviously a mistake.  And we have personally apologized to investors in our growth fund.  It wasn’t a large investment—$100 million—but it was a big mistake and an embarrassing one.  It wasn’t a diligence mistake.  Diligence mistakes are when you miss a lawsuit, or you miss a trendline.  This was a judgment mistake.  I said even before the issues at FTX that we’re not going to make any more crypto investments, because I was not loving the business practices we’re seeing in crypto. 

~ Orlando Bravo, co-founder of private equity firm Thoma Bravo (over $120 billion AUM), "He Might Be Tech’s Last Bull. Here’s Why the Founder of Thoma Bravo Is Still Buying.," Barron's, January 21, 2023

Mary Callahan Erdoes on the mood in Davos

I would say the tone here, having come here for the past decade, is less depressed than it often is, which is a good sign of hope of what's happening out there in the world, having come off of the most difficult year for a balanced portfolio, 60/40, whether you were in stocks or bonds or anything in between.  It was pretty rough sledding and so I think everyone's happy that that's behind us and looking forward.

~ Mary Callahan Erdoes, JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg TV interview in Davos, 0:20 mark, January 18, 2023

Stephen Schwarzman on China reversing harmful policies of past 2 to 3 years

What you're seeing, which some of us expected, is after the Party Congress in October, China has reversed most of the policies that it put in over the previous two to three years which were really slowing their economy and creating a variety of other issues.  The Chinese are infinitely practical.  This wasn't working out well and so they're changing it.

~ Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone CEO, CNBC interview in Davos, 1:00 mark, January 17, 2023

Kevin Duffy: "life is a compounding machine"

Life is a giant compounding machine: wealth, knowledge, relationships, habits, choices.

~ Kevin Duffy

Jamie Dimon: "this whole notion of decoupling is crazy"

Trade's not going away.  This whole notion of decoupling is crazy.

~ Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, CNBC interview in Davos, 3:40 mark, January 19, 2023

David Solomon expects a soft landing

The macro psyche is evolving or breaking a little bit more to the positive...  I think the sentiment is softening a little bit and the view that the chance of a softer landing, both in the U.S. and Europe, is actually increasing.  Our economics team has been pretty "soft landing" over the last 6 months...  Our economics team, even last weekend, went and said that they are now not calling for recession in Europe.  The improvement in the energy situation, the reopening in China, they actually see as a little bit more positive. 

~ David Solomon, Goldman Sachs CEO, CNBC interview in Davos, 6:40 mark, January 18, 2023