Global Macro Update

Master of nuance Jacob Shapiro, a partner at Cognitive Investments, breaks down why the last 30 years of globalization were an aberration, how it started to unwind with Obama's tire/poultry trade war, and which country will become "the next China."

Bleakley Advisory Group CIO Peter Boockvar talks interest rates, why new housing construction is set to plummet, and what dog food says about the economy. You'll also hear why chatter about China's economic Armageddon is overblown and why that's good for everyone.

Mauldin Economics COO Ed D'Agostino talks to Louis Gave, CEO of Gavekal Research, about China's so-called economic crisis, the Fed's unspoken third mandate, and "the real story of the summer."

Jan Stuart has one of the most fascinating jobs in finance. As an energy analyst at investment bank Piper Sandler, he not only monitors trends in the energy markets, but also the spiderweb of geopolitical forces that affect how (and if) 8 billion people across the globe keep the lights on. In the latest Global Macro Update interview, Jan and Ed D'Agostino discuss nuclear energy's "green" makeover,...

The state of modern warfare has changed. It has moved into space for control of what's orbiting the planet. This poses new threats, including attacks on satellites that control global GPS, and sabotage that renders critical orbits unusable. And a new race to the moon is underway to capture the ultimate commanding heights. We also look at political angst in America, the growing belief that it is us...

US trade with China is way down with one disturbing exception: fentanyl. Thousands of Chinese companies are capable of manufacturing ingredients needed to produce the drug and exporting them to the West, along with instructions on how to create fentanyl powder. Many of these companies are state-owned enterprises, according to Allison Fedirka, my guest this week. She says there is no denying that C...

Zombie companies need cheap money to survive. Cheap money is a thing of the past, and casualties are piling up. It's a familiar script: borrow money to fund growth, and compete on price. That business model fails when interest rates rise quickly. As debt-burdened, low-cost providers get squeezed by higher rates, more will fail. My guest is Barry Habib of Highway.ai. Barry fears the Fed is looking...

My guest this episode sees several things simmering beneath the surface that suggest the economy may not be as weak as many believe. When inflation spiked last year, companies responded by raising their prices. As price pressures started to ease, companies opted to prioritize pricing over volume. The move made perfect sense, says Samuel Rines, Managing Director at Corbu, LLC, as pricing helped mai...

Trust in elected officials has been in steady decline for decades. It's hard to decide if members of Congress and other elected officials are self-serving or civil servants. One thing is certain—many are getting richer while in office. They are investing based on insider knowledge. If you or I did that, we'd go to jail. If you are in Congress, it's perfectly legal. Matt K. Lewis just released a bo...

Socially responsible investing hasn't changed anything while handing investors subpar returns. The envisioned benefits of ESG investing—owning companies that follow responsible environmental, social, and governance policies—have failed to materialize. Instead, the blind acceptance of ESG precepts has resulted in trillions of dollars being misallocated and zero progress toward its principle target:...

If you listen to the financial media, you'd think seven stocks are responsible for "the market's" gain this year. But the charts are telling us otherwise. Almost every sector is up double digits since last June. To understand what's happening in the markets, this week we connect with market technician JC Parets. JC is the founder and chief analyst at All Star Charts . The company offers daily mark...

The cost of college has risen so much that more than half of Americans no longer think a college education is "worth it." We have reached the point where the cost of a four-year degree will likely be the second-largest expenditure in your lifetime, second only to your house. Students are literally mortgaging their futures to pay for college. What happens next for higher education, and how should p...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the lifeblood of the technologies driving today's global disruptions. And 2023 is the year that AI has been catapulted from novel idea to appearing on everyone's radar. The AI narratives span from the promise of a George Jetson future to fears of a dystopian takeover by AI-empowered robots—and everything in between. To sort this all out, I talked with AI expert Step...

The world is not going to return to its pre-pandemic business as usual. Instead, we are currently in a transition phase that few understand. That's why I asked Bruce Mehlman, partner at Mehlman Consulting, to join me on Global Macro Update to talk about what the new normal will look like. Bruce says we face four main challenges—what he calls The Four Addictions—as we navigate a period of tough dom...

The debt ceiling   has been dumbed-down to a political debate of right vs. left. But the ramifications of the debt standoff are already being felt in the debt markets, and it's costing us billions of dollars. In this episode of Global Macro Update , I talk with David Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Cumberland Advisors. We discuss the costs of brinkmanship, the risks posed to money...

The Fed seems determined to crush demand and slow inflation. And it's having an impact on more than just banks and the housing market. The office market is also struggling with spiking interest rates and scarce liquidity. In this episode of Global Macro Update , I talk with Russell Ingrum and Brad Zampa, two senior partners at CBRE, a global leader in commercial real estate services and investment...

You may remember the acronym MBS from the '07–'08 financial crisis. Michael Lewis's book and then movie, The Big Short , taught us all about how the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market almost blew up the global financial system. Well, today, mortgage-backed securities are back in the news… In this week's episode of Global Macro Update , Barry Habib, founder and CEO of MBS Highway, joins Ed D'A...

The economy, as any investor knows or will quickly learn, is not the same as the stock market. What's happening today resembles the Great Inflation of the 1970s. Talk of stagflation, recession, and hard and soft landings—it can make your head spin to see how quickly things have unfolded. In this week's episode of Global Macro Update , Dr. Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, joins Ed D'Agost...

Inflation in the system is much stickier than people anticipated, with corporations passing on prices to the everyday consumer. It begs the question: How high can prices go before there's a breaking point when consumers begin to push back? In this week's episode of Global Macro Update, Samuel Rines, managing director of Corbu LLC, joins Ed D'Agostino to discuss how today's inflationary environment...

"The world is out of balance. The disruptive changes that were already rewiring the economy, geopolitics and US culture accelerated over the past 3 years, and a predictable backlash began. But we are nowhere close to a 'new normal.'" I n this week's episode of Global Macro Update , Bruce, who is the head of Mehlman Consulting, a bipartisan Washington, DC lobbying firm, talks with Ed D'Agostino abo...

High interest rates have a silver lining: Savers are making money again. What opportunities are currently out there for fixed-income investors? Talking to show host Ed D'Agostino, Jason Brady, president and CEO of Thornburg Asset Management, gives Global Macro Update listeners the inside scoop. Have the markets returned to normal? Is now the time to invest in municipal bonds or distressed debt? Wh...

What will 2023 bring? Will it be a banner year for stocks, or will the economy crash and burn? Peter Boockvar, CIO of Bleakley Financial Group and editor of The Boock Report , gives Global Macro Update listeners his take on what's in store. Will inflation drop to pre-pandemic levels? What are the investment implications now that the $16 trillion Chinese economy is reopening? Why we're in a "death...

In 2014, a Russian piece of malware targeting Ukraine spread across the world and nearly wiped out the databases of container shipping giant Maersk, FedEx, Merck, and many hospitals in the US. Senior writer at WIRED and author Andy Greenberg talks to Ed D'Agostino about the realities of cyberwarfare. They also discuss cryptocurrencies and their role in cybercrime—including the riveting story of th...

According to a recent NBC News poll, 74% of Americans now think that the country is moving in the wrong direction. Show host Ed D'Agostino and Andrew Yang, former presidential primary candidate and co-founder of the Forward Party, discuss why our political system is so broken... and the common-sense solutions that could turn the ship around. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, you'l...

Many investors wonder, how long until the whole house of cards comes crashing down? There are bright spots in the near term, says top global macro investor Felix Zulauf, but in a few years' time, we might face a true calamity in our financial and economic systems. Felix and host Ed D'Agostino talk about the coming decade of roller coaster markets... what may replace the US dollar as the world's re...