#25 – The Bubble we are in and its implications – Part 1

Is this a bubble? If so, what type of bubble? Where are we heading? We share our views on where the economy is going, the importance and effect of COVID, several key opinions on both sides of the spectrum and land on whether the current situation is sustainable or not. Navigation: Introduction (01:33) Section 1: The COVID effect (02:43) Section 2: The economy...stupid? (11:08) Conclusion (43:33) Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Tech Entrepreneur, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, co-founder at App Annie, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show:   Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Intro (01:34) Bertrand: Welcome to Tech Deciphered Episode 25. So this episode 25 is part of a 2-serie episodes: episode 25 and 26 that will be around the current bubble. We believe that at this stage from a big macro perspective there are a lot of questions around where's the economy going, and this would be the topic of episode 25, that big picture perspective on where is the economy going? Of course, all of this being impacted big time by COVID. We'll talk a bit about that. We'll talk about inflation, prices where all of this is going from a macro perspective. In episode 26 we will talk more about, in more details, what does it mean for entrepreneurs, tech entrepreneurs, tech industry, VCs, where the VC landscape going, where are exits going, and what does it mean for me as an entrepreneur or me as a VC? Nuno: And today we start with, where is the economy heading, all the macro conditions that are happening in the market and their implications. Bertrand? Section 1 - COVID effect 
(02:43) Bertrand: We have to start with COVID it has so much impact, not just on our lives, but on the state of the economy, on some big decision on the financial market side, on additional government interventions, or not. So I would say it's a very mixed picture. I think I had a sense of optimism that day to day life was going in the right direction just maybe a month ago, even if I was, and we were being both realistic as we discussed in some previous episodes. Back to normal, like international travels and the like, as we used to do on a regular basis might just be for some time next year, maybe summer next year. I guess there are some serious concern that our basic everyday life might be back to some sort of war footings. In where I live in Seattle area, King county, we are back to mask mandates indoor. It's not yet forced, but I guess it will be there soon. It's highly recommended we all heard about the CDC recent news also advising for masks mandates indoors for everyone. Vaccinated or not. It seems it's both because we cannot trust people who are not wearing their masks, that they have been vaccinated and because now there is also the risk that even if are vaccinated with delta, you might harbor the virus and share it with others. And I guess, in your region in the bay, it's also back to mask mandates. This time it's mandatory actually indoor. Nuno: From what I just saw. And, basically I got information from a club that I'm actually a member of that everyone now in San Francisco should wear a mask indoor, irrespective of being vaccinated or not. My understanding it's going to be mandatory at least for a period of time, but I'm not fully sure. Certainly there is a step back. From what was promising to be very nice summer for everyone. If you're vaccinated, you don't need to wear anything, et cetera, et cetera. In some ways, leaving this to the criteria of people wasn't a wise idea in the first place, because how do I know that someone's vaccinated or not? We saw a little bit of reverse engineering later on.