Podcast

Viewsroom: Vaccine carrots and sticks, plus donuts

3 Jun 2021

Governments and companies are dangling incentives for people to get jabbed against Covid-19. But it will take more than free weed, lottery tickets and beer to reach herd immunity, Jeff Goldfarb explains. And Dasha Afanasieva says take the pastries, leave the Krispy Kreme shares.

The Exchange: Steering Europe’s green transition

1 Jun 2021

Frans Timmermans has a key leadership role in the European Union’s quest to reduce its 2030 emissions by 55% compared to 1990 levels. Ahead of a major set of green policy updates next month, he talks to George Hay about both these and November’s COP26 conference.

Viewsroom: Big Oil’s global blow

27 May 2021

A small activist fund upended Exxon Mobil’s board while Shell was dealt a setback in a Dutch courtroom. At the same time, Chevron shareholders backed a proposal to cut more emissions. The interests of both stakeholders and shareholders are rapidly aligning in fossil fuels.

The Exchange: South Africa’s prospects

25 May 2021

Johannesburg Stock Exchange CEO Leila Fourie tells Swaha Pattanaik how South Africa’s economy has coped with Covid-19. In an interview recorded for the International Economic Forum of the Americas, she also flags sectors that will rebound fastest and discusses ESG investing.

Viewsroom: AT&T’s second breakup, Asian super-apps

20 May 2021

The telephone company’s deal with Discovery, the reversal of a failed strategy to become a media juggernaut, opens a window into streaming warfare; and the creation of Southeast Asia do-everything internet group GoTo is a prelude of more to come. Plus, no Davos in Singapore.

Viewsroom: China’s baby bust, European SPAC boom

13 May 2021

China’s census data showed the population grew just 0.53% every year in the decade to 2020, with fertility rates dropping to Japanese levels. That’s bad news for growth. And European rainmakers like Claudio Costamagna and Ian Osborne offer market-friendlier blank-check deals.

Viewsroom: Life from the latest Indian lockdown

29 Apr 2021

Images of vast funeral pyres, overcrowded hospitals and empty streets have been emanating from India as the country grapples with surging Covid-19 infection rates. Una Galani surveys the situation on the ground from Mumbai and discusses the government’s response with Rob Cox.

The Exchange: Becoming “Richer, Wiser, Happier”

27 Apr 2021

That’s the title of a new book looking at how some of global finance’s top investors, such as Howard Marks, Matthew McLennan, Charlie Munger and Mohnish Pabrai, crushed it. The author, William Green, tells Rob Cox what he learned from writing about these “practical philosophers.”

Viewsroom: The Super League’s short, unhappy life

22 Apr 2021

The richest European soccer clubs, including Juventus and Real Madrid, swiftly aborted plans to create a breakaway competition. But as Liam Proud and Peter Thal Larsen explain, the financial appeal of a U.S.-style sporting cartel remains irresistible. Plus, Huarong’s woes.

The Exchange: Fewer bankers, more engineers needed

20 Apr 2021

That’s one of Jacques Attali’s many prescriptions to enhance the economy of life. The former EBRD boss and French presidential adviser also discusses Big Tech breakups, Europe’s lagging vaccination efforts, Macron’s political prospects and his plan to close the elite ENA.

The Exchange: ECB President Christine Lagarde

14 Apr 2021

What role does the central bank play in combatting climate change? How will it confront the emergence of digital currencies? What if the U.S. economy charges ahead while Europe languishes? Lagarde takes on these questions and more in an exclusive discussion with Breakingviews.

The Exchange: Rwanda’s dark side

13 Apr 2021

Under Paul Kagame, the East African state has gone from genocidal hellhole to wannabe Singapore. Michela Wrong, author of critical biography “Do Not Disturb”, explains how, in feting the ex-guerrilla president, donors and investors ignored autocracy and murder.

Viewsroom: Asia’s E-car mania, U.S. infrastructure

8 Apr 2021

Huawei makes telecoms, Haier dishwashers, Xiaomi phones, Evergrande condos. Now, these Chinese companies all want to make battery-powered vehicles too. And while on the subject of building, U.S. President Joe Biden is going big. Maybe too big for the bean counters in the Senate.

The Exchange: What’s ahead for global art market?

6 Apr 2021

Sales fell some 22% to $50 bln last year, the biggest recession in the art market since the financial crisis. Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, discusses the impact of Covid-19, taxes and geopolitics, the rise in online sales and how NFTs are attracting nerds to art.

Viewsroom: Everything we know about Archegos

1 Apr 2021

The extraordinary unwinding of Bill Hwang’s family office was one of those rare stories that connected Breakingviews columnists from Hong Kong, New York, Zurich, London, Melbourne and Washington into one big, hard-working family. Here are some of the lessons they learned.

The Exchange: Sustainable finance

30 Mar 2021

European bank ING is a leader when it comes to holding borrowers to climate-change commitments. In an interview hosted by the European-American Chamber of Commerce New York, ING Americas CEO Gerald Walker talks to Breakingviews’ Richard Beales about the future of green finance.

Viewsroom: Turkish trouble and emerging markets

25 Mar 2021

President Tayyip Erdogan’s abrupt firing of a third central bank governor forced investors to contemplate whether this might precipitate a run on financial assets in other developing markets, including South Africa. Breakingviews columnists discuss the implications.

The Exchange: The old GE is gone and that’s ok

23 Mar 2021

Jeff Immelt ran GE for 16 years, during which time its market value roughly halved. His new book “Hot Seat” attempts to put that rocky period into context. The former GE boss chatted with John Foley about his part in the decline of an American industrial icon.

Viewsroom: Greensill/Credit Suisse, GE, Diversity

11 Mar 2021

Big names in finance, like Credit Suisse and tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, are suffering collateral damage from the UK supply chain lender’s collapse. The sale of aircraft leasing brings GE closer to CEO Larry Culp’s light-bulb moment. And working from home risks a diversity disaster.

The Exchange: World Bank President David Malpass

9 Mar 2021

The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the economic and other inequities between the world’s richest and poorest countries. The World Bank’s boss discusses these challenges, ranging from vaccination drives and debt relief to the existential threat of climate change, with Rob Cox.