Discussions ranged across the macroeconomic outlook, Ukraine, absolute return strategies, venture capital and artificial intelligence.

Anthony Scaramucci, founder and co-managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, is a brand name on Wall Street. He even rose to national prominence during his brief – very brief – tenure as communications director for President Trump. 

But Scaramucci is back to doing what he does best: assembling a stellar lineup of leading investors from financial service companies, private equity, hedge funds and venture capital to talk shop at SkyBridge’s annual SALT conference, held last week in New York City. Here are some highlights:

Macro outlook – “There’s definitely going to be stress in commercial real estate, particularly in the office market.”

Franklin Templeton is focusing on “dividend-paying cash flow equities” and is “definitely seeing a chipping away of the dollar.” Companies “will delay longer before going public.”

Equity markets “took the brunt of pain last year.”     
Jenny Johnson, chief executive officer, Franklin Templeton

Absolute returns – The economy is undergoing “a big paradigm shift from quantitative easing to quantitative tightening, which will have huge implications.”

Credit “is the place to be.” Credit and “the $2 trillion that has to be refinanced” is the “biggest investing opportunity.”

In a world of quantitative tightening, cash is “a new asset class.” Investors have to ask themselves: ‘How much of my portfolio is dependent on stocks going up?’

“The data tells us that inflation is coming down and the possibility of a recession is decreasing.” But getting inflation down to the Fed's target of 2 per cent “will be hard.”

The regional bank crisis in the United States will result in credit “getting a lot tighter.”
Joe Dowling, head of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management

The rise of machine learning in asset management – Artificial intelligence is “unlocking alpha.” AI is the “next wave” in wealth management.

“We’re very positive. Capital is looking for places to go. When used efficiently, everybody is better off.”
Julia Bonafede, co-founder, Rosetta Analytics

Globalization of venture capital – The global macroeconomic outlook is “not looking particularly optimistic.” 
Patrick Zhong, founding capital partner, M31 Capital

NEA, which is deploying capital in the “red hot” artificial intelligence sector, is “really excited” about the enterprise software market and anticipates “big breakthroughs” in life sciences and “deployment of technology.”
Tony Florence, managing general partner, NEA

The Future of Ukraine – “The people of Ukraine are not giving up.”
Daniel Bilak, partner and head of Kinstellar’s Ukraine office