YouSaid · the spoken record

David L. Solomon

lines on the record: 24
first: 2018-08-03
most recent: 2018-08-03
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It's called On the War. And I started part of it and read it and put it aside and read it again. And so I really thought that this summer I want to finish it because it has some great lines about the relationship between the Army and the commander and the politicians. And I think, you know, when you look and watch what's around there, you look back and you say, well, these questions have been there.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As also a tough one. So I'm looking forward to, I just started it. It's a book by Siri Hustfeld, which is an American writer, and it's called The Delusions of Certainty Its Essays that she published. She has published a couple of very, very famous books. And it talks about the linkage between body, soul, consciousness, and what sort of remains of us what we carry over and whether it's true for us or for animals and other human beings. I found it a very, very thought-provoking book, and I'm not through yet, but from what I have read, I really can recommend it. What do I look forward to read with all what we talked about? There's a great book by General Front Klausowitz, a Prussian army historian.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The training there, and you come in there in this room, you just enter a different world from where you come. And there was one thing that was said and which stayed true through these 25 years and which I keep saying to myself. And I was the competition is not in the room here and not around you. The competition is you. It's always you that you compete with. That sort of stuck with me in the training all these years I went through my career at Goldman and I still look back at this as quite a memorable time.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Middlestand, the patent issues, all of that kind of stuff that's unwarranted, and China is a fair partner. So we'll see how far that goes and what it means in practice, but there have been lots of kind of good statements on both sides, certainly also fueled by some of the other stuff we talked about.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You could say that. I mean, there have been lots of high profile events and statements from both sides that the corporation is important and that China and Germany stand to defend free world trade and the benefits of it and that the benefits could be seen obviously through the years that Germany and China have been working together has been very beneficial for both sides, in particular for Germany. That's the one part. The other part though is that China is obviously out there telling the German establishment politicians, business leaders that are forced for good and some of the concerns that were there in Germany as to Chinese investment and what happens to technology.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Get a lot of impetus, lots of ideas, lots of good new ways of looking at businesses from those startup companies. Having said that, the more traditional companies have, in my view, woken up to this and are very active in this scene looking at what is out there, cooperating, investing, even buying those companies. And you have companies like Merck that are around for $350 years and sort of casebook examples of adaptation.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have a pretty lively startup scene, and Berlin has been famous for it, but you see it in every larger city, you see it in Munich, you see it in Dusseldorf, in the Rheinrah area. And they come from B2C as well as B2B models with lots of ideas that traditional companies are looking at. What you see also in the meantime is sort of serial entrepreneurs, so entrepreneurs that sort of had their first startup and they brought it to a sizable scale, and then they start the next one. So that actually a very, very positive movement there throughout the region. I think the only thing that holds them back a bit is bureaucracy and somewhat difficult kind of legal requirements that are done for mid to large size companies and these smaller entrepreneurs have to deal with. So that's something to be worked on. But other than that, it's a very lively scene, very active scene.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You said, they have global supply chains, they have large presence in the US in general, large manufacturing there. Interestingly, some of the US-China tariffs are affecting them now because they are producers of cars in the US that are being exported to China. So we see it's very intertwined globally. But the whole name of the game is increased flexibility. And if you don't know what the future brings, one thing is clear. You have to be more flexible. So that means you need to be able to adapt to producing more locally, to be more flexible in production, which kind of cars you produce where. And the obviously have to go to joint ventures, to partnerships in order to reduce your risk in certain parts. Again, what you see is flexibility is key for those in the past very monolithic kind of companies. And that's sort of the general answer. Obviously, there's lots of specificities as you go line by line, company by company. But that has been sort of the key answer that the”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To hydro solutions. So the question there is can you finance all of this number one? And then number two on the distribution side, who buys these cars, who owns it, who finances them? Are they autonomous driving? Are they driven? So lots of questions they all have to grapple with, which means lots of investment, lots of questions, how do I finance this investment? So they're still under a lot of pressure to answer those questions. Also here the solution is manifold, like putting partnerships, joint ventures, getting additional capital in, separating entities to gain independent access to the capital markets. So a bit of what we talked before is kind of very, very present in the German auto sector. So they get all of it in a way, in a very concentrated form.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have a couple of things that this industry has to face clearly and most importantly, I'd say, longer term is the technology change as we discussed last time around. In the meantime, we had two developments which have gained prominence. One is the diesel topic. Clearly, the diesel technology, a very sophisticated technology, has been a bit in discussion and in question, given the diesel scandal and all these issues with diesel bans in cities, now that certainly has hurt that part of their business and will continue to hurt it. Generally speaking, they're still selling a lot of cars to German companies are producing more than 16 million cars currently. But that will certainly affect that segment. The other point is the tariff discussions clearly 29% of the cars being exported to the US, so that clearly would have an impact on those companies. But coming back to the technology issue, the technology issue means that not only they have to look at different powertrain solutions, be it from combustion engine to electric.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have seen all of it in general, it's more the latter, it drives spinoff separations, more independent entities that can deal with these challenges, but it also drives in a more traditional industries. It drives consolidation and therefore M&A because you need to kind of put businesses together to reap synergies to address the cost issues or to address investment needs that are coming from the tech side technology side.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As you see here, technology change is affecting all large corporates that we deal with in many respects, most importantly with respect to access to their customers. The change in the business models, the disruption of the business models, the change in the value chain. So it affects a lot of aspects of corporate activity. Having said that, if you are, like many of the large companies in Germany, active in multiple sectors, you multiply that problem. So that in itself is a challenge because you have to apply this technology answer to different businesses that are in different stages of maturity and growth. And so that is a lot of costs that you have to face. So that in turn drives also a simplification of corporate structures. The question of what belongs to the core and what not, what can you fund and how do you fund it. So I think it has ramifications which are much wider than just addressing the technology problem. It really goes to the core of what does a corporate stand for?”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's exactly both sides. I mean, in your point, scale is important, getting the costs down, sort of amortizing these huge investments that will have to happen in technology on the one hand. On the other hand, if the regulatory environment stays like individual national level, then you basically have to replicate lots of things. And it's very tough to get these synergies that you should get through scale. So the one belongs to the other, and as much progress as we could make on the banking union will allow those effects you described come through.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There hasn't been a lot of consolidation in the European banking sector. You still have national giants by and large. Is technology likely to change that at all or the idea of scale dead in European banking? Or is it just hard to predict?”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A basis for European consolidation, and European consolidation at a banking level is important in order to address the cost issues that these banks have and to allow them to invest in the technology to basically phase off their new competition and make sure that they are strong vis- ⁇-vis the global competitors, again, the US banks and Asia.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, that's another good example. I think there is a general agreement that the European Banking Union needs to be pushed forward for all the good reasons in order to stabilize these banks and then allow them to weather the next crisis. And some progress has been made with the ESM, the European stability mechanism now getting more responsibilities. That's sort of the bailout fund for the European banks. But there are also big questions still out there. One of them is the European deposit insurance. The question, okay, should there be a European-wide insurance of deposits and the European budget? And what the budget should be. And there's clearly some reservations also on the German side as to a wholesale guarantee or large European budgets. And that need to be discussed. Having said that, at least the discussion is underway and people have agreements what need to be in place. For example, we need to separate state funding from bank funding is a very important prerequisite to make these banks safer. General, we advocate European banking union as it could serve as”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Businesses, the right framework to operate vis- ⁇-vis their competitors in the US and vis- ⁇-vis their competitors in Asia. And that has been a topic, but it gets a lot of attention these days, more so because of these developments outside of the EU. So I think it's a positive in a way.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think you're right. Some of those discussions around Brexit and the UK leaving Europe, but also some of the criticism of President Trump and others on the progress generally have focused people on the fact that the European Union is the answer and needs to be the answer and integration needs to speed up. And so we've seen probably the adverse reaction so that these kind of events have pushed people towards more Europe and pro-Europe and trying to make Europe happen. Now we have seen slow progress, obviously, in some of the areas and concerns on all sorts, but we would think that all of this cannot be an excuse and the answer needs to be economic reforms, business reforms, and that needs to continue on a European level. From our business, obviously capital markets union and the homogeneous rules and regulations for the European capital markets is something we really need to make further progress in order to give the European businesses that are very strong.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of taking more migrants in. And I guess these discussions are complicated and they are obviously easy targets for populist movements. And so that's what you see play out. Now, Merkel and her governments have always tried to find a European answer to those questions because they're really affecting Europe and they need European answers. And she's getting on with it, as we've seen in recent weeks, but the progress obviously is slower than many people would like to see. And that is affecting the climate in Germany and her sister party, the CSU, and all the discussions there. And clearly also some of the populists take advantage of it, like the AFD movement. So we see more friction there, more volatility. But I think the course that Merkel follows is still a course of stability, reliability and European solutions to European problems.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Merker and her government have stood for stability and reliability in Europe and in Germany. And I think that has been serving Germany very well. Now with Macron in power in France, the axis between Germany and France is a source of strength for the European Union. And you could see new kind of impetus, new initiatives coming from there. Having said that, top of mind for many Germans are what's happening right now, which is the transatlantic relationship and its future and how to deal with the challenges there. The question of how do you develop the European Union and what does it mean for Germany? And then obviously the whole question around migration. We have a huge question out there as there are millions of people in Africa looking to Europe and looking for a better life. And in Europe, politicians have to deal with the questions around political, social, economic, doability.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We feel that the German economy still has pockets of supply that are not that obvious to the statistics, which are, for example, the part-time labor rates. So in the crisis, there was a huge movement to part-time work and part-time employment. And these people still could go to full-time. So there are pockets like this, which would allow the economy to further grow and delaborate still increase. But having said that, we are pretty much at full employment. We are still as a house, as Goldman, we are not that optimistic that that will lead to increased inflation for a lot of other reasons, but the market feels that specifically for very skilled labor, specific sectors, there is shortages building.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're absolutely right. I think the specific trade deficit or surplus as has been discussed is particularly large vis- ⁇-vis the US, over $60 billion. And so that's certainly something to look at. Where we are now in these trade discussions, we're talking about very specific sectors and very narrow segments. So tariffs there would have a limited impact on the German economy. The bigger question is obviously a full trade war. And then Germany and Europe, but Germany is a very, very strong part of Europe would be affected the most. So there is a certain anxiety over this escalating and its impacts for the German economy.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think in general it helps to balance it a bit between all of Europe. Generally, I'd say that the German employment levels are at record highs. So you could see over time a shortage in the labor market, although our researchers believe that there's still a year or two that we can see increasing employment rates. Having said that, it feels like we are pretty much at capacity. And so it's actually good if we get into a more stable, more moderate level here.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We are off the crisis or we had the crisis behind us, Germany's economy has been thriving and has been leading Europe in many respects. And we have seen in particular since 2014, still very strong performance of the economy, but I'd say we are a bit towards the end of the cycle. We are more in line with European growth. We are not outperforming European growth. We're still slightly ahead of economies like France and Italy in terms of the growth and the expected growth coming. countries like Spain are stronger. So I think we still have a very stable picture, but clearly these very strong years of growth are somewhat behind us.”
2018-08-03 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Hallo Tech: Germany Adapts to the Digital Age · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT