Tucker Carlson, one of America's most influential conservative journalists, told The National on Saturday that Elon Musk has a "great" and positive influence on American society.
"Elon Musk has been great for American society so far in that he's allowed uncensored news coverage on X for which he paid $44 billion," Carlson told The National at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai.
He said that in the United States "the citizen has a right to say what he thinks" but had not always enjoyed that freedom, and Mr Musk created the space for that when he bought X. The company was originally valued at $22 billion, causing Musk $22 billion in losses.
"I think because he thought the promise of America's free speech and we didn't have it, so that is a historic addition to the United States," he added.
In a separate speech at the three-day summit, at which major social media companies and content creators are gathered, Mr Carlson said that the US prides itself on the principle of free speech, giving its citizens the right of freedom of expression.
"Every country is different, but there's one country on the globe that allows, as a matter of core principle free speech on federal, and that's the United States of America. And so you cannot let that erode," he said.
In 2022, Mr Musk acquired Twitter and merged it into his own company X Corp, with the social platform now known as X.
With social media reporting and citizen journalism taking over the media landscape, Carlson said that mainstream media are undoubtedly partisan influencers.
"During the Covid pandemic in the US or Europe, where were you getting the more accurate information? Looking back now that we know a lot of what we didn't know," he said.
He claims that mainstream American media perpetuate lies, making it hard to trust the content or pay for it. But on social media, there is a diverse range of voices that could be closer to the truth than news produced by media outlets, he said.
"The partisans on social media are no more partisan than the institutions they are replacing," he said in his speech at the summit.
Trump re-election might bring about positive change
Carlson told The National that Donald Trump approaching the beginning of his second presidency on January 20 is a moment that presents an opportunity for "positive change".
"Trump got re-elected for the second time with a four-year gap at exactly the moment that a lot of trends are coming to their natural end, like neoliberalism," Carlson said.
He remains hesitant to declare which of Mr Trump's promises will come true, and claims that the escalation of the recent California fires were a result of the alleged poor response from America's liberal administrations.
"It's just this amazing confluence of events … the current system is tapped out, ineffective, discredited," he added.
In a speech he gave at the summit, titled 'The New Rules of Influence,' he said that he supports democracy, but does not believe it cannot be effective for long-term decision making.
Although the world has already experienced Mr Trump's leadership, Mr Carlson believes his second term could be transformative, bringing about positive change.
"Trump, I mean, I think a lot could happen, a lot of really good things. If there was ever a time for positive change, it's now, and I'm hoping for it, of course," he said.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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