Elon Musk, Argentina’s president headline 27th Milken conference
Free-market enthusiasts and mutual admirers Elon Musk and Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, will headline next week’s Milken Institute Global Conference, the annual Beverly Hills confab that tackles the world’s most pressing problems with a dash of celebrity and Hollywood.
The Beverly Hilton event draws several thousand people from around the world and will kick off with remarks Monday by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
Also packed into a busy program will be Milei, a libertarian populist elected in November amid soaring inflation in his country, who will speak at lunch. Musk will close out the day talking with Michael Milken, founder of the conference and its sponsor, Santa Monica’s Milken Institute think tank.
Seeking to diversify its economy with the aid of U.S. investment, Saudi Arabia shows up in force at the Milken Institute Global Conference.
The theme of this 27th annual gathering is “Shaping a Shared Future,” a reference to finding common ground amid the complex issues that have arisen in the post-pandemic world, including war, the emergence of artificial intelligence and the need to create a sustainable economy amid climate change — employing the tools of capitalism. All public panels can be watched on the institute’s website.
“The world is in transition again,” said economist Kevin Klowden, the institute’s executive director of MI Finance. “And what you’re seeing in the U.S. right now is a huge amount of dissatisfaction. There’s this very real sense that people would like to go back to the way it was prior to the pandemic, but it’s not.”
The conference headliners — who have been described as having a bromance, with Musk hosting Milei at Tesla headquarters in April — highlight some of the challenges and possibilities of finding common ground.
Musk has warned artificial intelligence could lead to the destruction of civilization without proper safeguards, and this year sued industry leader OpenAi, which he had co-founded when it was a nonprofit before leaving in 2018. He accused it of violating its original charter in search of profits.
OpenAi Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap will be a featured interview Monday on one of several conference panels about artificial intelligence.
The whiskered Milei is a self-described anarcho-capitalist who has vowed to shut down Argentina’s central bank. He will take the stage just hours after Georgieva of the IMF, a global institution that is often the target of populists yet is working with his administration to help dig Argentina out of its economic hole.
Among the leading themes is sustainability. John Podesta, President Biden’s senior advisor on international climate policy, will discuss the issue with Exxon Mobile chairman and chief executive Darren Woods.
That will be followed up by a talk among Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from coal state West Virginia; Chevron chairman and chief executive Michael Wirth and a top Department of Energy official.
“Up to this point, a lot of climate change has been hypothetical, but look at what you are seeing now in terms of the insurance market, wildly varying temperatures, the [flooding] pictures from Dubai. This is the new reality,” Klowden said. “There is a real understanding from the business community, the finance community, that this is something that needs to be incorporated into the future.”
As is typical, Wall Street bigwigs will opine on financial markets, asset management and other topics. The notables include hedge fund managers Bill Ackman and Ken Griffin, private equity titan David Rubenstein, hospitality magnate Barry Sternlicht, billionaire investor Ron Burkle and Wells Fargo chief executive Charles Scharf.
Hollywood panelists include Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav, producer Brian Grazer and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Soccer superstar and businessman David Beckham will speak on branding.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will welcome the guests while former L.A. mayor and current U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti will talk about that country’s future. Public officials on stage will include the presidents of the New York and Minneapolis federal reserve banks and Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of multiple panelists on medicine and health, another focus of the Milken Institute.
The conference will not ignore the war in Ukraine, as well as Israel’s campaign in Gaza — which has sparked protests at UCLA, USC and college campuses nationwide — with some panels touching on the Middle East conflict by invite only and behind closed doors.
Klowden said it was important for the conference to address the Gaza conflict, especially since the institute has wide contacts in the Middle East and holds an annual summit there. However, given the sensitivity of the matter, “the fact is that nobody wants to come out and publicly say something at the global conference or anywhere else that’s going to upset everything,” he said.
The conference ends Wednesday with a concert by John Fogerty, who led Creedence Clearwater Revival and wrote the counterculture classic “Fortunate Son”— playing at one of the country’s leading celebrations of capitalism.
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