The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of Rogers News.

Silicon Valley is getting squeezed by new policy restrictions, and at the same time, a trade war is looming between the United States and China that could throw investment into disarray.

How is the startup hub holding up? And Indian

state lenders are losing their CEOs at a rapid rate. Some are retiring. Some are under

investigation. New candidates are hardly flocking to replace them. He's running these banks into

the ground part of the government's plan. That's what we're going to talk about on this week's

views room. A weekly conversation amongst breaking views columnists about the ups and downs of the

world of finance. I am your host, Pete Sweeney. I'm sitting here in Hong Kong chatting with

Robin Mock, who has literally just returned from sunny California. Robin, thanks for joining us.

I know the jet lag is rough, having experienced it myself, but we just could not wait to hear your insights from your visit.

There's been a lot of chatter on how this trade war is going to play out, how Trump is going to play out,

how all these policy changes regarding the usage of private data is going to play out for capitalists and startups in

Silicon Valley. What's the feeling on the ground like? Hi, Pete. Yeah, so I just got back from

San Francisco in Silicon Valley, you know, and I spent, you know, most of last week visiting

startups, VCs, banks, you know, and all sorts of people. And surprisingly, actually, the U.S.

China tensions haven't really trickled down. So people there on the ground are still genuinely

very excited and optimistic about, you know, opportunities in China. There's still a lot of

activity, you know, between, you know, from Chinese investments

and foreign investments going into the area and vice versa. So it's actually a very different

view of, you know, what's happening in Washington and Beijing. I mean, what about this pushback?

You know, you're seeing in Europe and now with this

new law in California about data. I mean, I know a lot of money has gotten raised based on these

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