YouSaid · the spoken record

Peter Orszag

lines on the record: 26
first: 2024-10-17
most recent: 2024-10-17
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

“Teddy Roosevelt once said that the greatest gift in life is the opportunity to do work worth doing. So I think the point here is there are many professions where you can't get around the effort part of it. But what I think our firm requires or owes our Whatever number of hours per week on interesting important things rather than fewer hours on things that are not that interesting. And that's what we're looking for. That's the trade-off.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I talk a lot about succeeding at Lazard and our people being commercial and collegial. So what do I mean by that? Commercial, the ability to go out and act on behalf of our clients effectively, collegial in terms of being able to work together as a team in delivering the best possible outcomes for our clients. But beyond that, I think the attributes that we look for and that I seek out in our colleagues, it would be curiosity. You've talked a lot about that resilience. and a work ethic and the ability to have conviction around your ideas so that you're not just going with the conventional wisdom and playing five-year-old soccer.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the goal is to make Lazard far and away. I already think it's the best place to work on Wall Street, but far and away the preeminent both financial advisory and in the part of asset management that we do firm. And you could do that either as a public company or a private company. As you mentioned, some of our competitors are public, some are private. I don't really view that as the key determinant. Instead, it is about that ambition to win. It's about conviction and about the content.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Give this speech, and there are a lot of people nodding their head yes, like yes, Mr. President. And Bob said something like, well, that's terrific, Mr. President. We only have one problem. I can't give that speech. And the president kind of looks up at him quite stunned and said, well, why not? And he said, because I don't think it's true. And it was a moment when I, he did it in a way that wasn't offensive, sort of, but he had backbone. He had conviction. And I think that is what many CEOs, that's what many presidents either should want or do want in an advisor. You have a point of view, you're respectful, but you're not just riding the wave of what everyone else is saying.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think perhaps the most important thing in providing good advice to either president or CEO is first do your homework. It is too easy to make things up that never works. And the second thing is to have conviction. The number of times I've seen people who say, I'm going to tell the president, you know, put him in his place or put maybe her in her place. And then they get into the Oval Office and they say. One episode really sticks out in my mind on this front. And I think it's something I try to remember in this job, and it's something that I definitely remember when I was in Washington, which is I was in my mid-20s and I happened to be in the Oval Office, which, as you know, in your mid-20s is quite a thrill. And there was a discussion with Bob Rubin and President Clinton. President Clinton said something like, well, we're going to go out and say axe. And Bob, you'll”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More diverse teams produce better outcomes when the problems are not routine. So when you're dealing with a novel issue, something that's different out of people's wheelboxes, having multiple different perspectives where people are coming at it from different angles produces better outcomes. That's the only kind of scenario where Lazard is getting hired. And so from our perspective, having more diverse teams produces, it's not just better work environment and more interesting dynamic and the ability to tap untapped labor pools of people that are highly talented, but also the thought that we're going to be better on behalf of our clients as a result.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there's a big difference between the United States and Europe, where there are probably the pendulum is swinging back more in the United States, including among investors than is the case in Europe on some of these topics. And again, what we're trying to do at Lazard is see through that and kind of have an underlying North Star in terms of where we're going.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think with regard to the question of returning to government, there's neither supply nor demand, so I don't think you're hypothetical is going to happen. But more importantly, I'm really excited about what we're doing here at Lazard. We've got a lot of momentum, and Lazard is a special place. It's an important place. And I have a vision of what we'd like to accomplish here that I'd like to see through.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All of the above on MA advisory. And with regard to my role at Lazard, I think Lazard is a special place. It's a place that has always valued people that are useful to their colleagues. So when I came here, my whole goal was how can I be useful to you? You banker in industrials, you, the banker in healthcare, you the banker in technology. And that's what I tried to do.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, actually, I spent a little bit of time at the Council on Foreign Relations, which you know well, to figure out what I wanted to do next. I was about to sign with one of Lazard's actually competitors when I got a call from City, which I had not really been considering. And the argument was, which I found some merit in, you've done other things, including consulting, et cetera, but you've never done... If you go to this other firm, you're only doing MA. If you come to us, we've got 10 different things you could try if you're bad at all of them. That's your fault. And why don't you kind of get trained and get experience across a variety of things and see what you really like. And that logic made sense to me.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that's slightly different. It sounds similar to the Congressional Budget Office, but think of the Congressional Budget Office as an independent entity who's really analytical and whose job it is to evaluate the costs and implications of legislation and then to testify on those to Congress. The Office Management and Budget does some of that, but it also implements the president's policies. Think of it as like a COO type role for a lot of the government. So the role is complex because you remember the cabinet, but also a member of the White House staff effectively. And the organization is partly analytical, but also quite operational. So it's an unusual organization.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first deficits haven't quite got, they went up down, and now they're back up. But I think what the Budget Act did is it gave Congress better tools, but ultimately these decisions are not going to be up to an agency like the Congressional Budget Office. They're up to our elected representatives. So I view the Congressional Budget Office as empowering the legislature to make decisions, but those decisions are not driven by other factors too.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I left the Clinton administration. I then have the shortest tenure of anyone who voluntarily left McKinsey. I went to McKinsey in San Francisco. After three weeks, I decided that was not for me. My younger brother and I then founded an economic consulting firm, which subsequently grew. I taught at Berkeley. I then moved to Brookings in 2001.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did a couple stints, so I did a couple years. I went back and quickly finished my PhD. I went back in for about a year or two. So it must have been cumulatively maybe four or five years.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, actually, I had, in the meanwhile, in the middle of graduate school, and I think it reflects the fact that I clearly did not yearn to be a pure academic, I had spent a year, not quite a year, but a year in Moscow with a team of advisors to the government there. And then when President Clinton was elected, one of my undergraduate professors, Alan Blinder, called me up and said, isn't it kind of cold in Moscow? Would you like to come join the new Clinton administration at the Council of Economic Advisors, which I did?”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I view it as a significant advantage, and the reason is that it brings a perspective, having served in government that is useful in lots of different settings. And it's that multidimensionality, the ability to stitch together pieces from different worlds that I think is very helpful. The other advantage that it gives, I believe, is that I have a lot of respect and admiration for our senior bankers at Lazard. And so I view it as my job to do part of the work, but then to hand things off to our senior bankers. And I think people who have spent their entire careers doing one thing, the natural inclination is to then go do it yourself. And then the problem becomes that you're not providing enough upward movement and ability to grow to the senior people. This is a fantastic job, but I think I'm...”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the fact of the matter is the biggest risk is that the world is changing and we don't yet have an intellectual framework that matches this new reality. So we have a splintering that's occurring between the major blocks of the US and Europe on the one hand, China, Russia, and others on the other, and then some countries that are in between the two. And we have not adapted to that new world quite yet. Beyond that, they're flashpoints, they're two hot wars going on in Europe and the Middle East with unclear trajectories on both. So there's obviously elevated risk even before you get to the traditional, will China invade Taiwan and other things that people often talk about.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we thought we could professionalize it by bringing in people who have done that for a living in different settings. The bankers, and we are, it is a revenue generating activity, but it's also something that is a great entree into boardrooms and C-suites for our bankers also. So this has been a resounding success.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. So, I mean, in today's world, let's step back. What's happened over the past three or four decades is we've moved from an environment in which the oil and gas companies that always operated globally and needed to have geopolitical insight and maybe a few others had to take geopolitical considerations into account to a situation today in which pretty much every important business decision that is made has to take geopolitical issues into account or else you're going to go wrong. It's a fundamental business need. And Lazard has always been known as a banker plus so people that had the ability to provide insight into not only what the other CEO was thinking, but what the prime minister was thinking or the president. So these are people who cross those boundaries between business and government. So Lazard was always known as having that skill set.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ahead of schedule on accomplishing that. And I think that really reflects the power of Lazard's standing in the world, our brand. And what we needed to do is just up our ambition and increase from a cultural perspective our focus on working together. And we're doing it. And so you're seeing that in the results. I mentioned a record first half. We're really excited about the people that we're bringing on and we're really excited about most importantly about what we're able to do on behalf of our clients.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's a, well, let the market speak. What's happened over the past 15 or 20 years is massive share that went to independent advisory firms like ours that don't use their balance sheets to provide the advice or that only provide the advice and don't use their balance sheets. And I think to win in that kind of environment, you need to have differentiated content, great ideas, insight into the players, an ability to read between the lines on the regulatory and other developments, and also deep relationships. You need to be both trusted and discreet.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It works both ways, but what I like to do with CEOs is to have a broader discussion both about the world and then about what their objectives are. And we present ideas and then sometimes people will say, I'm thinking about this. Could you work on this with us?”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think there are several things. I mean, Lazard bankers are known as bankers with convictions, so a lot of content, a lot of backbone in terms of saying, no, I don't actually think that's a good idea. So you know you've been in many of these positions. It is very helpful to have well-informed, smart people who are willing to push back, suggest this versus that, et cetera. I think the role of an advisor is not just the narrow, what's this thing worth, but do you really want to do this? What's the regulatory implications? How is this going to play from an investor relations and a PR perspective? It's the multidimensionality and having a thought partner or a someone whose counsel you could benefit from. That's one part. The second part is in many negotiations, it's helpful to have an intermediary.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the story of Lazard, we're 176 years old. We began in New Orleans. Three French brothers started a dry goods store. Like many other firms, and this is documented in a great book called The Money Kings. So The Seligmans, the Schiffs, and others, follow the Gold Rush out to California, realize that lending gold to your customers or shipping the gold back to their home countries, and then lending on credit to your customers was more attractive than selling the suits and the other dry goods, moved back to New York to set up a bank and then had correspondent banks in our case in Paris in London, and the rest is history. And I would say out of all those firms that started that way, we're the only ones still standing.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Has lost some important cases in court, and what that has meant in turn is that many more boards in C-suites are willing to say, you know what, we'll see you in court, we'll litigate.”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, let's start with what's driving it, the sort of the tailwind. So the biotech revolution, ongoing technology, I mean, we're seeing a revolution in generative AI, de-risking and changes in supply chains, and the energy transition. I mean, there are some big building blocks that propel deal activity forward. And then on the headwinds, I think there have been a few. The rate at which interest rates went up meant that there was a disconnect between buyers and sellers on the value of the assets. It also meant that financing was challenging. The financing markets were a little bit more illiquid. And then, yes, regulatory. But all three of those headwinds have been abating, first as interest rates have topped out, and now we're debating how quickly they'll come down. And then secondly, on the regulatory front, the government...”
2024-10-17 · The David Rubenstein Show · Peter Orszag · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source