Willy Walker, CEO of Walker & Dunlop

In this episode, Willy Walker, Chairman, and CEO of Walker & Dunlop, gives the opening remarks at the Walker & Dunlop Summer Conference 2022 in Sun Valley, Idaho.

The presentation starts with Willy thanking his team for successfully organizing this yearly event. He opens with a disclaimer, informing the audience that he will share opinions about politics. He compares the current state of the world to a "three-headed animal," with inflation rates, the war in Ukraine, and a massive political divide filling in news headlines. He says it is worth remembering that we are in a better place than we were two years ago. The US economy has improved, which Willy calls on for resolving supply chain issues and controlling rising rates. He states that cable television and the money behind it is what's driving the political divide. Les Moonves once said, "Trump may not be good for the United States, but he is good for CBS." He cites the significance of former governor Bill Haslam's insights on looking for solutions in governance: "Getting to the right answer is more important than our answer." With hordes of angry commentators and extreme supporters, Willy believes that more complex and nuanced solutions are what we truly need to solve issues. He retells his experience responding to a tweet about the Supreme Court's decision regarding the Brett Kavanaugh case, arguing that the ones who never contemplated their votes are the real problem, not the individuals who struggled with their decision made a hard call. He says that the middle is the place where we have to be to be able to "pull everyone together and start to find solutions." He fears that the divisiveness of US politics will only get worse.

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