Real Vision: Finance & Investing

Is this a fork in the Fed’s road? President Trump has nominated Jerome Powell to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Whether Powell will continue down the same path of Janet Yellen, and Ben Bernanke before her, remains an open question. Danielle DiMartino Booth, a former advisor to Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher and author of Fed Up, says that Powell, in combination with other new faces at the central bank, could be poised to effect some serious change. Miles Kimball, professor of economics at the University of Colorado Boulder, isn’t so sure. The real debate, however, is how Fed ought to operate, particularly once the next crisis crops its head. Booth and Kimball emerge as polar opposites here, with Booth advising a retreat from unconventional policies designed to stimulate the economy, and Kimball recommending that the Fed take interest rates sharply negative in the next downturn. More broadly, Kimball is a fan of rigorous action from the Fed, while Booth would like to see more humility in the Eccles Building. Once the sides have been staked in the Fed debate, Booth takes her leave of this planet, and tells us what she would bring on a trip to Mars. And speaking of humility, Kimball closes out the episode by offering up something he got wrong. Interestingly, it concerns not finance, but fat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amidst a shift in the narrative surrounding Tesla after a series of production issues and mounting losses, Mark B. Spiegel of Stanphyl Capital Partners makes the bear case for the electric car manufacturer and explains why increasing competition from a series of luxury carmakers, advances in battery technology and the increasing scepticism surrounding Elon Musk’s outlandish promises are combining to set the company up for an uncomfortable ride… in the wrong direction. Mark then bravely climbs aboard one of Musk’s Space X rockets to Mars and lets us know what he takes with him. And in Things I Got Wrong, Dr. Pippa Malmgren offers two valuable lessons she learned about having the courage of your convictions (and what to do when you are proven wrong) and how making certain compromises in a man’s world are perhaps not the right path for a young, ambitious woman to take. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The origins of bitcoin predate most people’s understanding and this week, with the aid of Trace Meyer, of The Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast, and Bruce Kleinman, author of The Bitcoin Tutorial, we trace the rise of bitcoin and the blockchain from their unceremonious unveiling to the world in a simple, pseudonymous 8-page White Paper in October 2008 to the recent hard and soft forks. We look at the architecture and the technology underpinning this revolutionary protocol, decode some of the more complex ideas and, amidst a tsunami of ICO offerings, try to assess the future for cryptocurrencies in general and bitcoin in particular. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join legendary market figures Art Cashin, Director of Floor Operations at the NYSE, who shares gripping behind-the-scenes stories from the 1987 crash, alongside trading expert Greg Weldon, who offers insights from his fresh trading experience, and Bill Fleckenstein, who discusses the pitfalls of portfolio insurance. They dive deep into the turbulent emotions and psychological factors that fueled investor panic. Personal anecdotes elevate this reflection on Black Monday, making it a captivating exploration of market dynamics and lessons learned.

Dr. Harald Malmgren, senior advisor to four US Presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon & Ford) joins Grant to recount his experiences in the White House and Pentagon during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 – a period where the world came within hours of a full-scale nuclear war. Harald explains how he and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s famous ‘Whizz Kids’ were tasked with not only helping find a solution to the biggest diplomatic crisis of the Cold War, but design a strategic plan for conflict should the unthinkable happen. From the confusion caused in Congress by the concept of Megadeaths to the people who stepped up behind the scenes, Harald takes us inside the Kennedy White House at its most fraught and shares how today’s tensions on the Korean Peninsula look to a man who has stood on the edge of oblivion. In our “Things I Got Wrong” segment, Forest For The Trees Founder and President, Luke Gromen, shares a pair of mistakes he made either side of the 2008 Credit Crisis and outlines how they changed the way he invests today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A truly insightful and at times hard-hitting interview with Preston Pysh, host of The Investors Podcast.  What’s it like to go from commanding a company of Apache helicopters in Afghanistan, as part of the 101st Airborne, to navigating the markets on wall street and co-hosting one of the world’s top investing podcasts? What can you learn from combat experience that can help maintain mental fortitude as a trader?  We also send Preston to Mars and find out just what he can’t live without. In our “Things I Got Wrong” segment, Tim Price, from Price Value Partners in London… explains how a strongly-held, post-2008 conviction got him into trouble.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grant Williams welcomes Jim Grant- legendary financial author and founder of the twice monthly journal on financial markets, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer.  Together they discuss Jim’s rise to literary prominence from the time he was a gunner on the USS Hornet at the age of 17 through to his founding of Grant’s. We learn his views on the incredible rate increases of the mid 1980’s, what the end game would be for Central Banks, what he would do if he was FED chairman, when he thought the devaluation of the Dollar really began, and what would he take with him on a one-way trip to mars? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investing legend Jim Rogers joins Grant Williams to talk about the defining moments in his life which took him to Wall Street in the 1960s and to Russia and China on a motorbike in the 1980s. Jim talks about how important non-consensus thinking has been throughout his career, explains how the current troubles in North Korea could provide the investment opportunity of a lifetime … and let’s Hugh Hendry know exactly what’s in his pocket. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Always candid, often hilarious, Hugh talks openly about his experience in 2008 when his fund returned nearly 50% as markets melted down around him, about the fear he confronts every time he puts on a trade, his typically canny tactical approach to debating the fellow Scot he calls ‘The Best Speaker in the World’ and takes us back in time to a party in Moscow at an Oligarch’s apartment when he discovered the secret contents of an investing legend’s trouser pocket… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 2 of Adventures in Finance kicks off with Kyle Bass joining Grant for this week’s entire episode. Kyle shares some of the Defining Moments of his life and explains how they shaped him. He tells us a story of a disastrous trade gone wrong, answers listener’s questions from the Real Vision Mailbag, and explains what he’d take on a rocket ship to Mars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices