Without a clear-cut adversary, both the investing landscape and the economy are as uncertain as it's been in some time. That's forced experts like those speaking at Milken to shift into a more defensive stance, even as financial marketsIt all fits with the cautiously optimistic tone that characterized the first-day panels at Milken. While there are still returns to be gleaned in the market, most everyone is looking over their shoulder, waiting for a different bogeyman to emerge.
"We just talked about the United States, and some of the disparities between the states and the federal government. Europe, in many ways, is an example of that, as a region. I think it's highly likely, with a number of elections coming in the next year or so, that we will see some shocks." "We're in the situation now, in financial services, that, between regulation and how to effectively employ technology, it's no longer too big to fail. It's too small to scale. And I think that's happening in industries around the world. It's great to develop the app. But the app doesn't work unless you develop the platform. And you can't develop the platform unless you have scale.
"Longer term, the real risk I see is we will end up back in an inflationary malaise because we don't have real policy solutions. What we're living through today looks like a lot of the 1940s and the 1950s. And ultimately, when the 60s came, with the expansion of the deficit with the Vietnam War, inflation began to take off.