The Big View

Exchange-traded funds are wildly popular with retail and institutional investors alike. BlackRock’s global head of ETFs and index investments Salim Ramji demystifies these tools, revealing how they passed their crisis test and how they challenge the active vs. passive divide. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lloyd Minor, the dean of Stanford’s school of medicine, tells Rob Cox that research into the coronavirus shows promising signs for the discovery of a vaccine. Just the same, the world needs to better prepare for pandemics, and medicine is at the cusp of extraordinary change.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Covid-19 has halted anti-government protests, but tensions are simmering. Hong Kong-based lawyer and author Antony Dapiran explains to Robyn Mak how local officials and Beijing are using legal means to silence opponents, and why another summer of discontent is all but guaranteed. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

The coronavirus has only temporarily grounded Monocle’s peripatetic founder and editor in chief. Rob Cox pops by his Zurich HQ to discuss how the globally minded consumers of his media empire are prepping for post-pandemic life, and how the Swiss handled lockdown with aplomb. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pandemic and recession are making the lower strata of the labour force crankier than they’ve ever been. Author Dexter Roberts explains to Pete Sweeney how Beijing is struggling to manage worker dissatisfaction, and points to rising economic costs and political risks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Warsh, Jason Furman and Laurence Boone join a wide-ranging panel discussion with Breakingviews to size up the global monetary and fiscal responses to the economic lockdowns enforced to halt the spread of Covid-19; and to map out a recovery back to something like normal. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In normal times, some of the world’s littler nations like Denmark and Singapore tend to outperform larger ones in a variety of economic and social areas, author James Breiding tells Rob Cox. Covid-19 will likely show that big isn’t necessarily better in handling a crisis either. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Christy Pambianchi oversees the well-being of more than 100,000 people. She explains how Verizon quickly rewrote the rule book to address the coronavirus outbreak from getting people set up at home to ensuring the safety of field employees providing critical infrastructure. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investors faced political uncertainty, a China slowdown and an aging U.S. economic expansion even before recent market ructions. Boston Consulting Group Partner Hady Farag explains what the firm's annual survey of investor sentiment says about today’s risks and opportunities.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ValueAct Capital has shaken up some of the biggest companies, from Microsoft to Rolls-Royce. But its founder, who sat down for a Predictions event in New York, is focused on a new form of activism with the Spring Fund. Firms that neglect the E and S of ESG should take heed. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We last spoke to the founder of SkyBridge Capital a week before Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. When asked if he would take a White House job if Trump won, he said no – unless it was Ambassador to the Vatican. So, when in Rome, Rob Cox sat down with “The Mooch.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Kicking off Predictions 2020, Amit Chandra of Bain, Reshma Anand of Hindustan Unilever Foundation and Mridula Ramesh of the Sundaram Climate Institute come together in Mumbai to discuss who should pay for the scarce resource, and how the private sector can map out its true cost. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Kicking off Predictions 2020, Prashant Ruia of Essar Group, Sunil Mehta of Punjab National Bank and Shankar Sharma of First Global come together in Mumbai to explain how India Inc can borrow and lend again with confidence, and propose sharp fixes to kickstart a crashing economy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Traders resent expensive tools like Bloomberg and Eikon, but they need them to chat. Goldman-backed Symphony, at $20 a month, wants to break in. CEO David Gurle talks about the challenges of compliance, his deal with China’s Tencent, and the future of finance software.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bushfires and a historic drought have put climate change front and centre for Australia, increasing pressure on a pro-coal government to act. Ross Garnaut, economist and former Canberra adviser, explains why there's an opportunity Down Under that may outweigh the cost of change. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

This year’s Nobel economists showed that people often do the opposite of what theory predicts – whether they’re in a Kenyan schoolroom or a dying U.S. factory town. Here, two of the winning trio explain their method, and what happens when researchers leave intuition at the door. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Streaming is upending the media landscape, including public television. Its funding model, local structure and social mandate make broadcaster PBS unlike any other U.S outlet. Its longest-serving boss, Paula Kerger, discusses the challenges and possibilities of the new era.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost a year into the job, the investment chief of California’s near-$400 bln public pension fund tells Tom Buerkle that size can be a double-edged sword. He explains why returns targets are a challenge and what CalPERS is doing to ensure its new private-equity push succeeds. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fifty years ago, NASA landed the first people on the moon. Today, billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are blasting satellites into space to boost global internet coverage. Adrian Steckel of SoftBank-backed OneWeb explains why there’s a brewing gold rush in low-earth orbit. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

One of the world's foremost experts on the Chinese state has a new book on global backlash against President Xi Jinping. McGregor, a Lowy Institute Fellow, argues internal resistance against Xi's agenda is finding some traction, and explains why Beijing got Hong Kong so wrong. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The factory floor may be an odd place to find a musical virtuoso. But the founder of Nanotronics, a near-unicorn on the Brooklyn waterfront with Peter Thiel on its board, is as comfortable tinkling the ivories as he is tinkering with the complexities of process automation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The former BP boss-turned-renewable-energy-supporter-turned-gas baron stops by to discuss “Make, Think, Imagine,” his new book that’s part an explanation of and part an ode to the benefits of engineering. As UN Climate Week kicks off, he also discusses his take on global warming. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

A splintering West and increasingly interconnected East is creating a newly powerful mega-region, according to Parag Khanna, author of “The Future is Asian.” He swung by the Breakingviews office in Hong Kong to break down the economic and geopolitical rationales behind his idea. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Italy’s new coalition government, cobbled together from the center-left and quixotic 5-Star Movement, has been greeted gleefully by markets and EU allies. But one former prime minister warns about complacency, calling for a reset with Brussels, tax cuts and renewed investment. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The hedge fund founder has already spent millions to impeach Donald Trump. He’s now trying to replace the U.S. president, joining a crowded Democratic field. The Exchange went to his campaign office to discuss why he is running and what he thinks of businessmen as politicians. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices