Dec 8, 2016, 9:51 AM ETConference Presentation, Keynote

Lunch Plenary: The Quest for Meaningful Lives

Event: Milken Institute London Summit featuring keynote remarks by Chairman Michael Milken.
Core Mission: The Institute aims to increase global prosperity by advancing collaborative solutions to widen access to capital, create jobs, and improve health.
Funding Structure: The summit was underwritten by WorldQuant and supported by sponsors including Apollo Global Management, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, McKinsey & Company, State Street, and others.

US Wealth Disparity: The US median net worth is $50,000 (second lowest globally after Greece), with nearly 30% of the population holding less than $30,000 in net worth.
Income Stagnation: US median income, when adjusted for inflation, is currently below 1999 levels despite nominal increases between 2015 and the end of the 20th century.
Financial Vulnerability: 50% of US households cannot cover an emergency expense of $400 without borrowing or selling assets.
Labor Force Exclusion: One in six working blue-collar American men is out of the labor force, a statistic surpassed only by Italy.
Health Correlations: Over half of the men excluded from the US labor force are on prescription painkillers, and two-thirds are on opioids.
Political Correlation: There is a strong correlation between regional median income levels and voting patterns, contributing to anti-globalization shifts (Brexit, Trump, and similar movements in Italy, Chile, and Peru).

Agricultural Efficiency vs. Employment: Modern interventions like precision agriculture can eliminate 50% of water usage and increase output by 16%, potentially displacing hundreds of millions of jobs globally within this century.
Retail Disruption: Between 2006 and the present, the market cap of ten major US traditional retailers dropped significantly, while Amazon's value increased 20-fold to exceed the combined value of those ten companies.
Labor Efficiency Shifts:
- Facebook values its workforce at over $25 million per employee, contrasting with Walmart's value of approximately $150,000 per employee.
- The most common job across the most US states is now a truck driver, highlighting exposure to autonomous trucking and drone delivery risks.
Automation Scale: Automated grocery warehouses utilize robots for layering, storage, and order fulfillment, requiring only 5–6 human associates per shift to monitor systems running 20–21 hours daily.
Financial Services Compression: Commission-based equity sales income has collapsed; buying five shares of a stock now generates $7.95 in fees compared to over $11,000 in the past.

Genomics Cost Reduction: The cost of genome sequencing has plummeted from billions of dollars and a decade of time to approximately $1,000 and a few hours, falling faster than Moore's Law.
Robotic Surgery Growth: Estimated at 400,000 procedures in 2012, robotic surgery revenue is projected to reach $118 billion by 2020.
Diagnostic Innovation: Machine learning is becoming critical for pathology, as human pathologists agree on outcomes only 60% of the time; major centers like MD Anderson are integrating IBM Watson for data analysis.
Geopolitical Shift: China is significantly increasing its investment in biosciences to compete with US and European dominance in the sector.

Africa's Economic Potential: Africa comprises 24% of global landmass but only 3.3% of the global economy, despite projecting to hold over 40% of the world's population by the end of the century.
Finance as a Catalyst: The speaker cites the success of the Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) emissions trading scheme, which used financial incentives to reduce acid rain in the US within five years without legislative mandates.
Regulatory Dependence: Successful enterprise building relies on three layers of influence: capital structure, industry dynamics, and crucially, regulation and societal acceptance, which dictate regulatory environments.
Psychological Needs: Modern challenges are linked to a lack of "self-actualization" and "belonging," with video games and digital platforms increasingly fulfilling needs for social connection and purpose in an isolated world.
Call to Action: The speaker challenges the audience to utilize financial innovation to create new markets and securities, asserting that small groups of thoughtful citizens can effect global change.