Good morning.
Some 50 members of the Fortune CEO Initiative gathered for dinner at Aquavit in New York last night and shared thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing business in the months ahead. First up was Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, who offered her views on a variety of topics. Some excerpts:
On the economy:
“We are definitely seeing a lot of signs of softening. But I’m not sitting here stressed about this, because the consumers entering whatever this slowdown is are in good health. The corporate client is in very good health, on their balance sheets. There’s a handful of banks that were mismanaged, but largely, banks are in very strong health. So the typical amplifiers of a recession just aren’t in place.”
On China, which she visited last week:
“I think the next China is…China. They’re very clear they’ve got a lot of challenges. But still I think it’s tough to look at innovation in that economy and not feel they’ve got further to go.”
On funding oil companies while fighting climate change:
“I just don’t think energy security and this move to sustainability and to cleaner energy should be mutually exclusive. I think they are two things we have to solve together. I grew up in northern Scotland. I know what it’s like to be cold. It’s not fun.”
On the backlash against corporate ESG:
“You focus on what your company stands for. You focus on what it is your clients need. And you get on with the day job.”
On whether, as the first woman to head a major money center bank in the U.S., she leads differently than her predecessors:
“I hope so. I’m a Scotswoman who’s running an American bank, a global bank. I hope I bring some different things to the job…I talk about empathy a lot. I think it’s a hard skill. I see empathy as listening to your client and being in tune with your talent. I think that leads to a competitive edge. And I like to think it’s an easier skill for a woman.”
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Musk vs Zuckerberg
Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have agreed to battle out their differences in a cage fight. Musk, until recently the richest person on earth, said on Twitter Wednesday evening that he was “up for a cage match” with Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta. Zuckerberg went on to publicly ask Musk to “send me [a] location,” to which Musk replied: “Vegas Octagon.” When asked about the fight, a Meta spokesperson told the BBC that “the story speaks for itself.” Earlier this month, Zuckerberg’s Meta unveiled plans for a platform designed to compete with Twitter, which Musk acquired for a landmark $44 billion last year. BBC
Missing sub
Rescue teams are making their last desperate push to locate the Titan sub, which went missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, on Sunday with five people on board. The crew, which includes Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, as well as billionaire Hamish Harding, only had a four-day supply of emergency oxygen when they set off to see the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday morning. As the search has continued, it has emerged that OceanGate, the company operating the dive, was repeatedly warned about major safety concerns relating to the Titan. Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District said Wednesday that authorities were still holding out hope to save all five of the lost vessel’s passengers. AP
Powell’s rate rise warning
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made it clear on Wednesday that the central bank is not done hiking interest rates. The Fed held rates steady last week, the first break in its 15-month tightening campaign—but Powell cautioned at a semiannual update to Congress yesterday that there is still “a long way to go” to steer the U.S. back toward 2% inflation. Inflation has cooled in recent months, but is still hovering far above the Fed’s target. Bloomberg
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
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