Insights Now

Season 01 Episode 01 Welcome to the first episode of Alternative Realities , a JP Morgan podcast focused exclusively on alternative investments. In these episodes, we hope to shed some light on the rapidly growing and increasingly important world of alternative Investments. The classic 60/40 stock-bond allocation has long been the accepted stalwart portfolio strategy. Currently, however, higher in...

Season 10 Episode 10 The 2024 presidential election is well underway and has already delivered a host of surprising twists and turns. Against a backdrop of relatively stable economic growth and quite impressive U.S. stock market returns, the election adds a source of uncertainty for investors. Could the election outcome pose a risk to markets, or certain sectors and asset classes? And, in what can...

Season 10 Episode 09 Deficit spending is not at all a new phenomenon in the United States. In fact, it is the norm, and the U.S. has run a budget deficit in 81 of the last 95 years, or 85% of the time since 1929. What is abnormal, however, is how large the pile of U.S. debt has grown relative to the broader economy. With the election quickly approaching, and last year’s debt ceiling and downgrade...

Season 10 Episode 08 Before 2021, the United States hadn’t seen a major bout of inflation for almost 40 years. And even when inflation peaked in June 2022, consensus estimates showed that most thought inflation would be almost back to 2% by the end of 2024. However, the journey to 2% has been more challenging than expected. This episode explores if inflation can get back to its 2% target, the pote...

Season 10 Episode 07 Going into 2023, almost everyone was predicting a recession within the next 12 months. However, what we saw was quite the opposite: the U.S. economy grew at a 2.5% year-over-year pace, and the unemployment rate stayed below 4%. This positive momentum has continued into this year, although the economy is gradually cooling. This robust economic performance has been puzzling beca...

Season 10 Episode 06 After the Federal Reserve’s dovish pivot in December, many investors came into this year expecting multiple rate cuts. In fact, in early January, markets were pricing in over six full cuts in 2024 alone. Since then, sticky inflation has caused the Federal Reserve to reassert its hawkish tone, and the outlook for the economy, inflation, and monetary policy has become increasing...

Season 10 Episode 05 Excitement around artificial intelligence has been a key driver behind strong market performance over the past year. This makes sense, as it has potential to be one of the most transformative technologies in modern history. That said, widespread AI implementation is still in its early stages, and its broader implications for the economy and investing remain unknown. This has l...

Season 10 Episode 04 As technology has improved, so has market efficiency, and generating alpha through active management is as challenging a task as ever. In light of this, “tax alpha,” or creating value through tax management strategies, has grown in importance and popularity and has left investors asking, “How can I minimize taxes in my investment strategy?” For today’s episode, Dr. David Kelly...

Season 10 Episode 03 From Baby Boomers to Generation Z, each generation has faced its own unique set of investment challenges and opportunities during their lifetimes. While the bulk of wealth in the U.S. belongs to older generations, wealth amongst younger generations is growing rapidly, and they represent an increasingly important piece of the investment pie. As advisors prepare for the next gen...

Season 10 Episode 02 A long cycle of U.S. equity outperformance over international equities has left investors wondering, “Why add international stocks to a portfolio?” However, as the global economy has turned a corner, so have prospects for international equities, and many international markets have performed well in 2024 so far. On this episode, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Gabriela Santos, Chi...

Season 10 Episode 01 Most of this season is devoted to questions investors ask us about where to invest. However, given an increased focus on building tax-efficient, transparent, and flexible portfolios, we are also often asked: “How should I invest?” While traditional investment vehicles have made it difficult to reach all these objectives simultaneously, the emergence of actively managed ETFs ar...

Season 09 Episode 05 This episode concludes the ninth season of Insights Now and marks the end of our deep dive into the world of alternatives. As investors continue to face elevated valuations across equities and abnormal interest rate volatility, the case for investing outside of traditional markets is as strong as ever. Dr. David Kelly is joined by Anton Pil, the Global Head of Alternatives at...

Season 09 Episode 04 Over the past year, investors have been inundated with negative reports of elevated mortgage rates and empty office buildings, weighing on their sentiment toward real estate investing. However, real estate comes in many shapes and sizes, and each sector has its own fundamentals and use cases in the portfolio construction process. To share how he is approaching the market again...

Season 09 Episode 03 Over the last decade, extraordinarily low interest rates have made it difficult for investors to generate income within portfolios. Against a backdrop of stretched valuations across risk assets and some uncertainty towards the outlook for monetary policy and inflation, there's no better time to discuss how investing in infrastructure can help build better portfolios. To share...

Season 09 Episode 02 For investors looking to supplement their public equity allocations, private equity can help enhance portfolio returns and provide exposure to rapidly growing companies at the forefront of key market trends and themes. That being said, private equity does have the drawback of lower liquidity, and higher interest may pose a threat to future returns. For today's episode, Dr. Dav...

Season 09 Episode 01 Portfolio Managers from across J.P. Morgan Asset Management help to shed some light on the rapidly growing and increasingly important world of alternatives. For investors, understanding how to leverage these alternative strategies can make the difference between falling short of your long-term goals and surpassing them. For today’s episode, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Pulkit...

Season 08 Episode 06 This year had no shortage of surprises for investors, from strong returns in stock markets to the impressive resilience of the U.S. economy. Along the way, we’ve confronted all sorts of shocks: a new war in the Middle East, Washington dysfunction, and even higher interest rates while the labor market and consumers have seen continued strength. On this episode, Dr. David Kelly...

Season 08 Episode 05 Successful long-term investing requires the flexibility to navigate the ever-changing market tides and an engine of long-term assets to carry you forward. In this episode, we’re going to talk about both — how investors can build portfolios to navigate volatile market environments and generate better long-term returns. Dr. David Kelly is joined by Corey Hill, Head of U.S. Portf...

Season 08 Episode 04 The menu of investment solutions has evolved dramatically over the last 10 years, as innovation in financial planning tools has enabled the development of customized and flexible strategies. This episode discusses one of these innovations, model portfolios. Dr. David Kelly is joined by Beth Nardi, Head of Model Portfolio Distribution at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, to help us...

Season 08 Episode 03 Regardless of where you are in life, you need a plan for the future. For most Americans, that involves planning for retirement, a task that can feel overwhelming at times. In today’s episode, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Michael Conrath, Chief Retirement Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, to guide us through the toolkit for retirement planning and the key strategies t...

Season 08 Episode 02 Historically, new and innovative technologies continually disrupt industries, creating more efficient ways to reach desired outcomes. The exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is one example of these technologies in the financial services industry changing how we invest. Dr. David Kelly is joined by Bryon Lake, Global Head of ETF Solutions at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, to discuss h...

Season 08 Episode 01 In this episode, we dive into alternative assets. Alternatives have seen incredible growth in the last decade and have provided new strategies for investing in public and private markets, as well as better ways to generate alpha, income, and diversification in traditional stock and bond portfolios. For this conversation, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Anton Pil, Global Head of A...

Season 07 Episode 04 In this episode, as we wrap up our summer series Market Movers, two of JP Morgan’s most prominent thought leaders, Dr. David Kelly and Michael Feroli, Chief U.S. Economist for the JP Morgan Investment Bank, tackle the outlook for the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve (Fed).

Season 07 Episode 03 While the broader economy has remained resilient this year, the real estate sector has faced its fair share of headwinds, with higher mortgage rates and home prices, tighter lending conditions following the regional banking crisis, and pandemic-induced disruptions. For today’s episode, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Dave Esrig, a Portfolio Manager at J.P. Morgan Asset Management...

Season 07 Episode 02 For our second episode of Market Movers, Dr. David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist, is joined by Jack Manley, Global Market Strategist, to discuss the next generation of investors. They dive deep into how this younger demographic is shaping the investment environment and driving key themes in the markets today.