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In the last episode, or Blitz Talk 31, we talked about how the semiconductor Shortage happened and how important it is to society.

Why can’t we just scale up production and meet demand? Well, we think it might be a supply chain problem. There are only a few players in the manufacturing of chips which means that the supply chains are NOT diverse.

As one use-case, Apple has one supplier for its semiconductor consumption and that is TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It is the worlds largest semiconductor foundry. 

With the disruption that the pandemic has provided, we are realizing how important these chips really are. Countries around the world are taking it more seriously and investing more in creating their own supply chains, like China, and recently the United States.

Join us as we parse through the supply problem that chip makers and chip consumers and why the solution might be public-private partnerships.

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We live in a digital economy that is largely powered by semiconductor chips! 

They are the brains of nearly every electronic device we buy and use, from phones, laptops, cars the WIFI we use, medical equipment, military applications and even our humble fridges and toasters..

So what happens when the chips are down?  Well the current shortage of chips worldwide is creating havoc in the manufacturing sector and the availability of products… so much so the White House recently rushed to pass a bill to address this global concern! 

Tune in to part 1 of our semis discussion on how the semiconductor shortage got so bad and doesn't seem like this could be solved any time soon…   

Which means you might have to wait longer to get a hold of the XBox Ones  and PS5s...

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What is synthetic media you ask?

Well it’s been in the headlines as deepfakes, videos of famous influential figures that appear to be saying controversial statements raising concerns over what’s real and what’s not. While these fake videos are scary, there is a company that’s putting a positive spin to this technology. 

Online learning , movie production, and media creation are some of the most complex  tasks that businesses have to maneuver the logistics for. From translating training videos to last minute changes in scripts for big screen productions, media creation has thousands of moving parts to orchestrate. 

In this episode we’re joined by Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, an AI- driven visual synthesis that’s bringing amazing new capabilities to content creators. Tune in to learn how exactly this technology works and how media creation will never be the same again.

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Let’s flashback to the 1970’s, a really interesting use-case for economists to explain what the central bank deals with today, the fear of inflation!

If you know anyone who was alive during that time, they probably remember the long lines in gas stations! This is because Nixon, in 1971, made oil price increases illegal (Effectively, a price ceiling) and also cut the link of Gold to the dollar, in an attempt to control inflation. The spending on the Vietnam War and Johnson's “Great Society”, a government spending initiative to reduce poverty levels, was thought to be the root of even-higher inflation.

From the 1970’s to the 1980’s, more than 50% of Americans thought that inflation or general price increases was the single biggest problem facing the economy. Contrast to today, when you mention inflation, some people have been looking for it for the past decade or so! That’s because inflation has remained low. Despite the printing of money in the 2008 financial crisis, inflation has largely stayed around 2%. The doomsday warnings of economists who have long-studied Monetarism (ie. the link of excessive money printing and inflation), have been ignored.

Every economic policy for a while now, are rooted on the premise that inflation will be low. It is the reason our central bank has been buying up billions of dollars worth of bonds and are cutting interest rates to near-zero. Records being broken in 2020 for how much the government is spending on both monetary and fiscal policy.

How does 2021 expect to unfold? How can the Fed defend against the blow-up of prices?

1. The amount of cash in the economy grew about $3 trillion in 6 months. We can expect inflationary pressures to hit at least some parts of the economy.
2. Fiscal Policy will have to be ready to deal with the recession that comes with the sudden rise of interest rates. Another stimulus package, if needed, when GDP growth slows again, basically a round 2 of 2020. This is probably not the best idea given our current state of M2 or excessive money supply.
3. Monetary Policy’s main tool against inflation is hiking the interest rates! Similar to what Volcker did in the 70’s. Since the recent policies of the federal reserve has not worked to push inflation even to the 2% target, economists are skeptical on what the federal reserve can actually do.
4. We hope you’ve learned enough about inflation and are considering taking it easy when increasing your own consumer spending.

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Since the beginning of 2020 Big Tech has purchased 1.6 million square feet of office space in NYC alone. It’s a move to control their operations, park hoards of cash into hard assets, and continue to expand their operations with hundreds of thousands of new hires. In fact Amazon hired over 400,000 employees in just 10 months following the start of the pandemic. With a massive increase in headcount comes a need for infrastructure and space to work in. 

As if the timing couldn’t have been better, demand dropped while supply shot up in commercial real estate, causing building prices to fall. This opportunity allowed the Big Tech companies to pick up hoards of buildings at a great deal further expanding their portfolio and balance sheet assets. 600 million square feet is the space that Big Tech companies own and operate in the US. To put that into perspective the US has about 4 Billion square feet of office space total in the US.

In this episode of Things Have Changed we cover the Commercial Real Estate market, how Big Tech is positioning themselves with recent acquisitions, and why vacancy levels have inverted from suburban regions to downtown areas.

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At the current state it would take only 2.5 months to run out of available houses for new homebuyers to purchase.

This is a new low from 40 years back and it’s far from a healthy economy that typically sees 6-10 months of housing inventory. 2021 is the year where working from home is the new norm and tens of thousands of families are relocating to new cities every month.

Even builders are struggling to keep up with demand with a 10-month wait time for construction. Even though we're in the middle of a pandemic the low inventory and high demand for newly constructed single family dwellings is positive sentiment for real estate.

 Today on Things Have Changed we break down the residential real estate trends happening, what this means for the economy, and how it affects you as a future homebuyer.

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As technology disrupts different parts of the economy, healthcare is one that is burdened with huge regulation risk but also provides a direct and measurable result. In 2020, we saw the COVID-19 pandemic seriously overshadow other healthcare concerns but what happened to the rest? Mental Health, a growing problem in the United States, was under the spotlight again as people deal with isolation.

Today, we speak to someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Dylan Terrill, the co-founder and CEO of Chara Health. He's built a platform that creates a space for curious individuals seeking their own health and wellness journey.  They have over 2500 providers across 51 specialties in 49 states!

The holistic health industry is growing! I'm sure you've heard of the slew of business leaders that use meditation as a part of their daily routine in order to highlight the importance of wellness. There are so many ways we can stay ahead of your own wellness.

One interesting trend is digital health (Wether it be traditional or non-traditional). Just in 2020, digital health has grown a significant amount! Have you heard about Headspace? The meditation app that now has an option for Kevin Hart to guide your meditation (I know... How does a comedian help me meditate?).. But the visibility around this product is huge! Now.. Starbucks is partnering up with Headspace to include meditation as part of your daily routine.

Check out our conversation with Dylan and learn how he is building the future of holistic health!

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Recent reports indicate that global food prices are at a 7 year high due to COVID related supply chain disruptions has resulted in price hikes in staples like meat, corn, soy and wheat.

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The World isn’t Flat, Why is your Display?

In our latest, we host Aleksandra Pedraszewska, COO and co-founder of VividQ a deep tech company that enables 3D holograms to be displayed on demand! The patented technology aims to power the next-gen augmented reality (AR) devices, head-up displays (HUD) and consumer electronics.

Founded by a team of engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists from the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews, Aleks and her team ask the very relevant question as we head into the next decade of digital immersion.. “The World isn’t Flat, Why is your Display?” 

Tune in to hear how VividQ is bringing holography from the Isaac Asimov  Sci-Fi realm to the masses through everyday applications.

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It wasn't too long ago that we would have to dial to order delivery food without seeing menus, customizing orders, and seeing updates on delivery statuses.

In this episode we speak with Shawn Tsao, co-founder of Caviar, one of the early apps that created the wave of food delivery.

Shawn didn't stop there and went on to create Beluga Capital, a venture capital fund investing in early stage technology companies. 

Shawn liked food so much, he even started a Halal Guys franchise! That is right, this food-entrepreneur has good taste! Shawn is one of the entrepreneurs that defined what food delivery looks like today!

Tune in to hear how Shawn started Caviar, the early days of building a business with accounts as big as Ike's, and how Shawn looks at investing in Founders rather than just ideas.

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