I took the day off the blog yesterday.

It has been a long week of podcast recording for Knut, Nikita and I.

Knut will be heading off to Norway and I am on the road so we taped 15 episodes of ‘Panic With Friends’ to get us through August.

Talking at length with so many smart founders and investors in such a short period of time about the future and the markets was exhilarating and exhausting.

Because of the crypto crash and the chop in the technology markets I was focused on friends that could help me get a feel for what we might expect.

Jeff Richards, Yoni Assia (Etoro CEO), Nick Adler (Cashmere Digital and Snoop Dogg partner) Sam (FTX founder), Raoul Pal, Ben Hunt, Charlie Bilello, JC Parets, Michael Sonnenshein (CEO Grayscale) and others did not disappoint.

The creators with huge audiences (like Snoop) are thrilled about NFT’s and the creator economy on the blockchain. Every guest this week was in the ‘Buy the Crypto dip mode’ but had unique takes on how the next phase will play out as the narratives have changed and might change ahead.

Of course inflation was a big topic of discussion, but my favorite take (I am biased by my own optimism) was from Raoul Pal who thinks we have reached ‘peak inflation’. That said, Charlie and Ben believe that inflation is here to stay a while.

Jeff Richards of GGV has been my go to guest for discussions on technology stocks because he has been right. Jeff sees nothing to worry about in the $QQQ chop and pullback in his internet and cloud favorites.

The only person looking close enough at the markets to comment on the short to mid term was JC and he believes 2021 is par for the course for a second year of a secular bull market that started in April of 2020. Historically, the second year of these markets has been choppy to down.

Of course, as each of my guests and I harped on in each conversation, it always comes down to risk management and asset allocation as you try to stay invested through these more volatile markets.

I will keep posting a new podcast each Thursday and if you are subscribed at Apple, Google or Spotify you will just continue to get alerts each week.

Have a great weekend.