BM Talks

Rob Ford, Professor of Politics at Manchester University and co-author of Brexitland, talks to us about: - What will happen in the 3 by-elections - What this means for the UK General Election - The new division between voters - Why Nigel Farage isn't done yet - The outlook for UK politics

This is an episode from our archives. We spoke to Kweku Adoboli, the former UBS trader who went to prison for rogue trading that was uncovered in 2011. In the summer of 2018, having served his time, he spoke to us about the mechanics of marketing making and prop trading in ETFs and other Delta One products. He explained how he used proxies for volatility to hedge positions and how this can lead to hidden leverage within the financial system. He has a unique perspective of trading through the financial crisis that he is now free to discuss as someone outside of the system.

We asked Hugh: He shares how he was once under attack by Robert Mugabe as well as waxing biblical from his Caribbean island.

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Former British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer talks to us about the upcoming US elections, the role of China, the UK under Boris Johnson and the future of the European Union. He explains the greatest challenges he faced in his term as Ambassador, including the 9/11 terror attacks, as well as the greatest leaders he ever met. We asked:

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We asked: Philip Coggan writes the Bartleby column in the Economist. He started a life in journalism when they used typewriters. He has experienced seismic change in journalism, and his latest book, “More: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy” provides a wide historical perspective with which to reflect on the current economic challenges

Helen asked about China, NZ approach to them, how aggressive will China be and can it drive a wedge between NZ and Australia? NZ has always had a good relationship with China, the Five Eyes has morphed into making political statements not intelligence ones. NZ is in ANZUS, ok it’ somewhat on ice as far as NZ goes but when John was PM he sent their SAS to Afghanistan. We, along with Britain and many others observe a one China policy, i.e. acknowledging g their territorial rights, that doesn’t mean we forget about human rights. China is emerging as a superpower, some feel threatened by that but there’s no historical precedent that they’ll apply military action. They’re building greater military power for sure, but many countries are. The recent breakdown in relations is very regrettable and it would be awful if NZ had to make a decision between her traditional allies and China as NZ needs both. Given the migration cultural ties, etc with Britain, you can see how that will pan out. Moving onto the pandemic, governments took different approaches, will border closures at some point become a negative and would you have done it differently? It’s actually fairly easy for us, Australia, etc to close borders quarantine, etc, much easier than for the UK where it’s impossible. It’s easier to stop something in politics than start stuff. We would have done something very similar but decisions like this are not just about closing borders, it’s combined with economic measures as well. As regards the pandemic, the UK may come out well. I like Boris even though he does look like he’s slept on the porch, but with mutations, not everyone taking the vaccine it’s hard to know what herd immunity is, it’ll be a rolling maul to use a rugby analogy. Will the dollar be replace as a reserve currency? There’s loads of reasons to have confidence in the dollar. Blockchain, what about that? Is crypto useful or a Casino? Getting rid of cash is logical. Alipay and the likes will be the winners. Brexit? I wouldn’t have voted for it but I can see why people did. I’ve Come round to the opinion that the problem is the euro, a currency is a safety valve, which Greece didn’t have and they weren’t keen moving to Frankfurt to work, not least the weather’s not great! There’s lots, lots more in here, a summary does it little justice as he’s s great communicator.

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We asked: For a full breakdown of the half hour podcast, see below: 01:00 - What challenges face the fund management industry? 02:57 - Passive management has seen the rise of mega firms, can boutiques survive? 03:49 - Is ESG a bubble or here to stay? 05:40 - What challenges does Brexit pose to fund management? 08:00 - Looking back at when we entered the EU in the 1970s, how politically active were you then? 09:33 - Will you always be active in politics? 10:10 - Small businesses are in dire straits, are they able to get the financing they need? 11:31 - Would it have been better for the government to take equity stakes? 14:31 - Are banks getting money out there? 16.44 - How do these specialist areas, like lending litigation and funding for music rights, work? 19:32 - Aren't young people rediscovering vinyl? 19.46 - If we can describe it as an alternative asset, can the man on the street get involved in music rights? 21.23 - Where do you see growth in the next few years, is there anything else on your horizon 26.11 - GameStop, do you have any thoughts on that? 28:28 - What advice would you give to millennials starting out on their investment journey

We asked CJ Mahoney, the former Deputy United States Trade Representative under Robert Lighthizer in the Trump Administration: In response, he discusses the outlook for relations with China, the chances of a UK/US trade deal, the potential future leaders of the Republican Party, the key Senators to watch, and what the Biden Administration is likely to achieve.

In this episode of BM Talks we are joined by Sir Paul Tucker who reveals: "We should be relying on the central banks to do what they definitely can do and using the fiscal authority to do something that they can more certainly do than the central bank, which is to get spending going" "Some MPC members now talk as if QE is mainly a signalling device. If they do, then their votes for the scale of QE are completely inexplicable" "The extraordinary "Non-QE" QE in March.... It’s pretty hard to make sense of the March and April interventions... without thinking that this is price support"