SALT Talks

Mark Stoleson is the Chief Executive Officer & Partner of Legatum, a global investment firm based in Dubai with the mission to generate and allocate the capital and ideas that help people prosper. Prior to Legatum, Mark was a corporate finance and M&A attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Mark focuses on simple, big ideas: Where is the growth? What simple idea can they express with a really big company? Points of focus for Legatum include the expansion of China’s middle class by 300 million people over the next 10 years, as well as the 450 million unbanked people in India. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Joshua Friedman, the Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Canyon Partners, LLC, a leading global alternative asset management firm. He received the Institutional Investor’s “Lifetime Achievement” Award. 

Growing up in a working-class household with parents who emphasized education and entrepreneurialism set Friedman on a path of academic achievement and professional success. Friedman takes us through his experience starting his own company and why he prefers the term “alternative-credit” firm to hedge fund in describing his company’s outside-of-box investing approach. “We like things where there's a lot of change and with change there's a lot of complexity, and with complexity there's an opportunity to create a dollar for fifty cents…”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Jason Wilson is the Cannabis Banking & Research Expert for ETFMG | MJ, a firm developing innovative thematic ETFs that provide investors unique exposure to new markets.

Axel Bernabe is Assistant Counsel for Health to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, and Kelly D. Fair, Director of Legal, USA for Canopy Growth Corporation.

Episode 1 includes an overview on the federal government’s approach to cannabis legalization, how specific states are developing their own regulatory standards and processes, and the science behind CBD.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding is a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington DC, an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. In January 2020, he was recognized in the media as one of the first to alert the public on the pandemic risk of COVID-19.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Robert Draper is a Writer-at-Large at The New York Times Magazine, as well as a contributing writer to National Geographic. 

He is the author of several books, including the recently published "To Start a War: How The Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq." Robert first became acquainted with the then-Governor of Texas, George W. Bush, when he was writing for the Texas Monthly. He then moved to Washington, D.C. to write a biography on President Bush after seeing existing ones fall short of capturing his full story.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Rachel Bitecofer is the Senior Fellow for Elections at The Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank that works to promote an open society. Her innovative election forecasting model predicted the 2018 midterms five months before Election Day, far ahead of other forecasting methods. 

“If Donald Trump had handled the pandemic well, it probably would have benefited him in the 2020 election.” However, we see that the pandemic response does not have the power to move people away from the President because of political polarization. Trump enjoys a high floor, but also suffers from a low ceiling, consistently polling in the low 40s.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Michael Vranos is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ellington Management Group, a firm founded in December of 1994 to capitalize on distressed conditions in the MBS derivatives market. Michael’s Wall Street career began in 1983 at a time when the Federal Reserve was opaque in its actions and long-term plans.

“Keep more cash on hand to anticipate the panic of others.” Michael has taken this learning from the Crisis of 1998, coupled with best practices from the economic downturn in 2008, to prevent losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the firm was able to put $3 billion to work when others experienced sell-offs.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Panayiotis Lambropoulos is a Portfolio Manager at the Employees Retirement System of Texas, a $28 billion retirement plan located in Austin, Texas. His responsibilities include sourcing, analyzing and evaluating potential third party managers deploying all types of alternative investment strategies.

“There is a lot of diversification and dispersion going on beneath the surface of the S&P 500.” This should benefit active managers and active hedge funds. Although passive management is getting attention, the recent rebound in the S&P is due to 4-5 stocks, which account for a quarter of the rally. More than 50% of the S&P is trading below its all-time highs.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

David Dayen is the Executive Editor of The American Prospect magazine and the Author of Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power. He writes about the effects of power consolidation across technology, manufacturing and more.

One company has no incentive to provide an exceptional product. Having one company responsible for large amounts of people and products creates severe supply chain risks and results in city abandonment. With regard to companies like Amazon, “You cannot control a platform and compete on the same platform.” 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Jim McKelvey is the Co-Founder of Square and Author of The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time. Jim had the idea to start Square when he couldn’t take a customer’s credit card at his glassblowing studio. Square would go on to survive a major challenge from Amazon due to its Innovation Stack.

“If you put yourself in a situation where the only solution is to create something new, then you need to understand that the process of innovation is different.” An Innovation Stack is a series of interlocking inventions. While individual elements cannot be viewed individually, the entire Stack fails if one block is missing. We are surrounded by hundreds of examples, but we don’t consider them innovative because they serve as the basis for entire industries.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.