'Perspectives' by Escala

In this episode of Perspectives, Escala Chief Investment Officer, Tracey McNaughton, discusses the seismic shift in German defence spending, why Greek banks are looking attractive and why the team are no longer happy to be overweight US equities. (1:10) Tracey for decades, Germany has been the poster child of fiscal conservatism in Europe. The country's approach was shaped by its post-WWII economi...

In this episode of Perspectives, Escala Chief Investment Officer, Tracey McNaughton, discusses the seismic shift in German defence spending, why Greek banks are looking attractive and why the team are no longer happy to be overweight US equities. (1:10) Tracey for decades, Germany has been the poster child of fiscal conservatism in Europe. The country's approach was shaped by its post-WWII economi...

In this episode, Escala Partners Investment Analyst Stephen Dickinson talks to Sam Edwards, Partner from Longreach Alternatives. Sam discusses the royalties landscape, why a diversified approach to royalty investing is important and the benefits of PG3s multi-sector approach to royalties.

In this episode of Perspectives , Escala Chief Investment Officer, Tracey McNaughton, discusses what a multi-polar world might look like, NATO's fragile state and how the world trade map is being re-drawn. (1:30) It has been easy to get stuck in the weeds over the past 57 days, since President Trumps inauguration, so lets take a helicopter view and talk about US exceptionalism. For decades, the US...

In this episode, Escala Partners Investment Analyst David Bruty talks to Justin O'Brien, Portfolio Manager of the Cooper Investors Brunswick Fund, an all-cap Australian equities fund. Justin discusses the investment philosophy that underpins Cooper Investors' approach to managing capital, the differentiated and unconstrained structure of the Brunswick Fund, along with a number of stock examples an...

In this episode of Perspectives, Escala Chief Investment Officer, Tracey McNaughton, interviews Mark Middleton, CEO of Icon Group. Mark discusses his journey as a founder of one of Australia's largest health organisations, his partnership with private equity and the importance of authenticity as a leadership quality. Mark is the author of  'Good Morning',  with all proceeds going to the Icon Cance...

Live on stage at our Agenda 2025 client event, Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, is in discussion with Gerard Minack from Minack Advisers. Tracey and Gerard discuss prospects for Europe following the German election, implications of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, what the trade war means for growth and inflation and why Australia is so hard to love right now.

This week Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, reflects on what has been a blistering start to the year. President Trump is setting records with the number of executive orders he creates; tariffs are creating uncertainty and DeepSeek is disrupting. It's enough to make your AI Agent's head spin. (1:03) Tracey, we're 18 days into the new US administration and no fewer than 48 executive orders hav...

In this episode, Escala Partners Investment Analyst Stephen Dickinson talks to Craig Balenzuela, Managing Director within Goldman Sachs Asset Management Alternatives and Private Markets Client Solution Group. Craig discusses the growth in the private credit landscape, the implications of the changing macro environment for private credit and why not all private credit is made equally.

In this episode, Investment Analyst Darragh Kennelly talks to James Tsinidis of Munro Partners to discuss the role of nuclear power in the energy transition and the growing demand for reliable baseload power especially from some of the worlds largest tech companies. They also discussed the benefits of nuclear power and the key components of the nuclear sector to consider. Important Information The...

This week Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, reflects on playing the long game with Carol Geremia, President of MFS Investment Management. Passive investing has gone from 6 to 60% in the past 30 years. Investment horizons have fallen from 5 years to 5 months. What are the consequences for investors, fund managers and corporations alike? And what is the one thing a good leader must have?

This week Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, discusses the implications of the US presidential election including the need for governments to open their wallets even more – 'spend baby spend'. (0:56) The US election result is in. Probably the biggest surprise was how convincing a win for Trump it was. (3:07) The market reaction to the election result was  pretty dramatic . Bitcoin has hit a n...

This week Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, discusses the upcoming US presidential election, why the polls are often wrong, the bi-partisan support for nuclear energy, and why the bond and equity markets disagree on what a Trump presidency could mean. (0:57) Tracey, we are devoting this entire podcast to the US election given its importance. It's been quite a journey so far – two assassinati...

In this episode, Escala Partners Investment Analyst Stephen Dickinson talks to Andrew Ballantyne, Head of Australasia Research for JLL. Andrew discusses how JLL is currently viewing the office sector, some of the underlying structural drivers in the sector and the outlook ahead.

This week Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, discusses how the US central bank overdelivered on interest rate cuts last week and why the Reserve Bank in Australia is under-delivering. (0:54) The Fed over-delivered in its first rate cut in four years lowering interest rates by half a percent last week. Such a sizeable rate cut is normally associated with a crisis. (4:27) It's not just the US....

This week Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, discusses the high price Australians are paying to the government for managing our economy and why we should probably be asking for a refund. (0:52) August has been a very volatile month. The start of September looks like it will be more of the same. How are you and the CIO team navigating these markets? (4:22) Do you expect this volatility to cont...

Loose on the bars. That is what Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, is telling clients as they navigate the recent bout of financial market volatility. And every revolution leaves past corporate champions behind. Who will be left behind in the AI revolution? (0:56) Lets talk about the volatility in markets. How did we come to witness the largest 2-day fall in Japanese equities in history? (5:4...

In this episode, Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, looks at what is driving recent market volatility - an election correction; a tech-check; or just a Fed-ache. The countdown clock has begun - what are the key battleground states in the US election? (0:52) Market volatility has picked up in the past few weeks, particularly since the July 11 release of the US inflation report. (5:42) Earnings...

In this episode of The Fund Managers, Escala Investment Analyst, David Bruty,  interviews Chris Prunty, Portfolio Manager of the QVG Opportunities Fund. Chris discusses the fund's recent participation in the highly-publicised initial public offering (IPO) of Guzman Y Gomez and the attractive characteristics of the company that provide the foundation for a strong runway of growth. The pair also dis...

In this episode, Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, talks about the payoff with artificial intelligence and whether the dizzying amounts being spent on semiconductors and infrastructure will be worth it. And what role do private markets play in finding genuine use cases of AI? (0:54) Well Tracey the big news in the past few days has been the shocking assassination attempt on former President...

In this episode, Investment Analyst Darragh Kennelly, talks to Jess Cairns of Alphinity Investment Management and Qinghua Lu of CSIRO to discuss their recently released research report on the implications of artificial intelligence use by companies and investors. They outline the framework for investors to use when assessing key threats and opportunities of AI usage and highlight some interesting...

In this episode, Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, and Escala Adviser Ed Brooke reflect back on the past 100 episodes since the Perspectives podcast began during covid in 2020. The past four years had it all - lockdowns, recessions, recoveries, bank runs, bank collapses, wars, uprisings, innovations, bubbles that burst, bubbles that inflated, elections that surprised, elections that divided....

In this episode, Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, talks about what she sees as the three main takeaways from the recent string of elections around the world. She and Ed talk about what Le Penn describes as the "return of nations", the rise of nationalism, and what it may mean for investors. (0:49) Tracey, let's start with the topic of the day, inflation. We had some key data out of the US....

In this episode, Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, talks about the connection between community, political stability, and the size of government. We are now in an age of big government. This has implications for economic growth, inflation, and central bank independence. (0:55) Tracey, firstly, how was the ride last weekend? (1:16) I'm a cyclist but even I know you can't ride a motorcycle wit...

In this episode, Escala Partners CIO, Tracey McNaughton, talks about AI and its energy demand; Biden's tariff hike on China; and why we should be a little sceptical of the this weeks' Federal Budget. (0:54) The latest Bank of America fund manager survey shows optimism in the stock market is at its highest level since November 2021. Investors are optimistic inflation will decrease and short-term in...