DeepMacro: Future of Finance

Jeff spoke with John Ikenberry, the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, on the liberal international order and its discontents. We spoke about the themes in Professor Ikenberry's most recent book is titled "A World Safe for Democracy: Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order", including not only the crises (plural) of global order, but sources of resiliency.

Jeff Young spoke with Hal Scott, Emeritus Nomura Professor of International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School. Hal is an expert on bank and capital markets regulation, and testified on Feb 15, 2024 before the House Committee on Financial Services on the "lender of last resort" function. We discussed the recent US regional bank failures and their lessons; whether they can happen again; and how the Fed's monetary policy could possibly be affected by financial system issues.

In this podcast, Jeff Young speaks with Mr. Oki Matsumoto. Oki is the founder and Chairman of Monex Inc., which was the first online Japanese brokerage. In 2018 Monex acquired Coincheck, one of Japan’s biggest crypto brokerages, and it has also branched out into other ventures including Japan Catalyst, an investment advisory arm, to pursue investment returns through engagement with listed companies to stimulate Japanese capital markets. He has also served as an outside director for many listed companies, including MasterCard, and is a Vice Chair of Human Rights Watch, and he has served as Financial Counsel to the Prime Minister. We discussed Japanese Capitalism, crypto, and the outlook for Japanese markets in 2024.

Jeff Young spoke with Francesco Giavazzi, Professor of Economics at Bocconi University, and regular visiting Professor at MIT. Dr. Giavazzi was most recently the Economics Advisor to Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi during his government, where he worked on structural reform, Italy's response to covid-19, and government efforts to combat inflation.

Jeff Young spoke with Masazumi Wakatabe, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, and current Professor of Economics at Waseda University, Japan. Mr. Wakatabe was one of the key architects of the Bank of Japan's "Quantitative and Qualitative Easing" (QQE) policy, which has helped raised Japan's inflation rate to the Bank's target (whether that is "sustainable" remains to be seen). We spoke about inflation, wages, how and when the Bank might exit its QQE and "Yield Curve Control" policy, and how can Japanese restaurants offer JPY300 glasses of wine.

Jeff Young spoke with Emily Parker, Executive Director of Global Content at CoinDesk. Emily leads CoinDesk’s global expansion, anchors CoinDesk TV’s flagship show, “First Mover”, and analyzes crypto developments world-wide. She recently spent time in Japan, and wrote an article titled “Japan Embraces Web3 As Global Regulators Grow Wary of Crypto”

Jeff Young spoke with Yasu Ota, Senior Writer, Nikkei Newspaper and author of "Semiconductor Geopolitics Toward the Year 2030: Who Will Control This Strategic Asset". In this book, Mr. Ota's goal is to "look at world and international politics through the prism of semiconductors", discussing the motivations and capabilities of the main countries, companies, and personalities in this new "Great Game", with a deep focus on the interests of players in the entire supply chain, not just the conflict between the US and China. Jeff was joined by Thomas Hu as co-host of this podcast. Thomas is the founder and CEO of Kyber Capital (Taipei), a fintech- and blockchain-focused venture capital company

Jeff Young spoke with Bill Dudley, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Vice Chair, Federal Open Market Committee, 2009-2018. We covered issues related to the inflation surge, the Fed's "flexible average inflation targeting" framework, crypto, a Fed "pivot", and what markets get wrong about the Fed

Jeff Young spoke with Hiroshi Nakaso, Chairman of the Institute, Daiwa Institute of Research, and former Deputy Governor, Bank of Japan, 2013-2018. We covered issues related to the surprising acceleration of inflation and monetary policy, the possibility of "deglobalization" in the context of the war in Ukraine, and the challenges and opportunities of "transition finance" for decarbonization in Japan and the Asian region.

Jeff Young spoke with Jim Cowie, DeepMacro co-founder and Chief Data Scientist. You know him for his work on atmospheric pollution and industrial production, social media and election forecasting, economic signals from mobile phone location data, and our ever-present global macro and market "Regime" indicator, but before helping to start DeepMacro, Jim had founded a company that specialized in the analysis of the global internet and its economic implications. Jim shared this thoughts, and discussed the views of the community that manages the global internet, on the cyber war in Ukraine.

Jeff Young spoke with Deborah Lucas, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Director of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy. Dr. Lucas' current research focuses on developing and applying financial economics to evaluate the costs and risks of governments’ financial activities. She is also widely published in the fields of asset pricing and corporate finance. We spoke about the causes of the current inflation, the role of fiscal, credit, and monetary policies, the importance of the Fed's large balance sheet, and how the Fed should respond.

Jeff Young spoke with Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He recently published the book The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance, where he looks at Bitcoin and the transformative potential of the blockchain, the pros and cons of central bank digital currencies, and the international nature of and adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Jeff Young spoke with Joseph Eagan, founder of Acme Crypto Holdings, and until recently, president of Polychain Capital. Polychain was the first $1 billion crypto fund, and Joseph recently founded Acme. He spoke about his journey into crypto, his belief that blockchain is a "programmable technology" with massive disruption potential, more than "digital gold" or other money-like instruments, and his views on the likely evolution of the sector.

Jeff Young spoke with Yiping Huang, Professor of Economics, National School of Development at Peking University, and former member of the People's Bank of China Monetary Policy Committee. Yiping brings a wealth of market, policy, and academic experience to the following issues: How severe is China's growth slowdown? Does leverage create systemic financial stability risks, or would reducing leverage too quickly be an even bigger problem? What is China's stance toward blockchain? Can the RMB stay so strong? And, what do investors get wrong on China?

Jeff Young spoke with Masaaki Shirakawa, former Governor of the Bank of Japan. Mr. Shirakawa recently published a book, Tumultuous Times: Central Banking in an Era of Crisis (Yale Program on Financial Stability Series), where he recounts his 39 years as a central banker, and offers his views on critical questions, such as, What is the outlook for inflation? Are central banks trying to do too much? Will fiscal policy succeed where monetary policy has not? How can an economy raise its productivity?

DeepMacro's podcast "The Future of Finance" is focused on data science, technology, and Asia. We bring our contacts in these domains to you. Our guests might be from outside the realm of traditional finance, but their ideas are relevant to markets. Jeff Young spoke with Amol Sarva, most recently the co-founder of Knotel, a flex office company, about the how office real estate will change in the post-covid environment, real estate as an inflation hedge, and how crypto can disrupt the real estate industry.

Jeff Young talks with Oki Matsumoto, Chairman and CEO, Monex Inc. about crypto in Japan. If crypto is a hedge against runaway inflation and unstable politics, why is it so big in Japan?

We sat down with Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy Inc., and technologist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and best-selling author, to discuss bitcoin, its adoption, what it means for governments, and what it means for investors and corporate treasurers. We won't even try to summarize the discussion here. Enjoy!

Today we speak with Auren Hoffman, the CEO of SafeGraph. SafeGraph is a geospatial data company working to understand the physical world and how people interact with it. SafeGraph data has been used during covid to answer questions like whether it is safer to go to a coffee shop or the gym. It’s also been used by the Dallas Fed and a large number of public and private institutions. The Content is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this material constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by DeepMacro, Inc. or any third party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. All Content is information of a general nature and does not address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. None of the information constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any of the information constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. There are risks associated with investing. Loss of principal is possible. Some high risk investments may use leverage, which will accentuate gains & losses. A security’s or a firm’s past investment performance is not a guarantee or predictor of future investment performance.