BM Talks

We asked:

• What are the challenges facing the fund management industry?
• Is ESG a bubble or is it here to stay?
• What does Brexit mean for the City?
• Has the government done enough to save small businesses?
• How do music rights work as an alternative asset?
• What advice would she give investors?

For a full breakdown of the half hour podcast, see below:
01:00 - What challenges face the fund management industry?
02:57 - Passive management has seen the rise of mega firms, can boutiques survive?
03:49 - Is ESG a bubble or here to stay?
05:40 - What challenges does Brexit pose to fund management?
08:00 - Looking back at when we entered the EU in the 1970s, how politically active were you then?
09:33 - Will you always be active in politics?
10:10 - Small businesses are in dire straits, are they able to get the financing they need?
11:31 - Would it have been better for the government to take equity stakes?
14:31 - Are banks getting money out there?
16.44 - How do these specialist areas, like lending litigation and funding for music rights, work?
19:32 - Aren't young people rediscovering vinyl?
19.46 - If we can describe it as an alternative asset, can the man on the street get involved in music rights?
21.23 - Where do you see growth in the next few years, is there anything else on your horizon
26.11 - GameStop, do you have any thoughts on that?
28:28 - What advice would you give to millennials starting out on their investment journey

Helen asked about China, NZ approach to them, how aggressive will China be and can it drive a wedge between NZ and Australia?

NZ has always had a good relationship with China, the Five Eyes has morphed into making political statements not intelligence ones. NZ is in ANZUS, ok it’ somewhat on ice as far as NZ goes but when John was PM he sent their SAS to Afghanistan. We, along with Britain and many others observe a one China policy, i.e. acknowledging g their territorial rights, that doesn’t mean we forget about human rights. China is emerging as a superpower, some feel threatened by that but there’s no historical precedent that they’ll apply military action. They’re building greater military power for sure, but many countries are. The recent breakdown in relations is very regrettable and it would be awful if NZ had to make a decision between her traditional allies and China as NZ needs both. Given the migration cultural ties, etc with Britain, you can see how that will pan out.

Moving onto the pandemic, governments took different approaches, will border closures at some point become a negative and would you have done it differently?

It’s actually fairly easy for us, Australia, etc to close borders quarantine, etc, much easier than for the UK where it’s impossible. It’s easier to stop something in politics than start stuff. We would have done something very similar but decisions like this are not just about closing borders, it’s combined with economic measures as well. As regards the pandemic, the UK may come out well. I like Boris even though he does look like he’s slept on the porch, but with mutations, not everyone taking the vaccine it’s hard to know what herd immunity is, it’ll be a rolling maul to use a rugby analogy.

Will the dollar be replace as a reserve currency?

There’s loads of reasons to have confidence in the dollar. Blockchain, what about that? Is crypto useful or a Casino? Getting rid of cash is logical. Alipay and the likes will be the winners.

Brexit?

I wouldn’t have voted for it but I can see why people did. I’ve Come round to the opinion that the problem is the euro, a currency is a safety valve, which Greece didn’t have and they weren’t keen moving to Frankfurt to work, not least the weather’s not great!

There’s lots, lots more in here, a summary does it little justice as he’s s great communicator.

We asked Hugh:

• What assets does he want to own this year ?
• What does he think about inflation?
• What was his favourite trading day?
• Which policymaker is getting it right?

He shares how he was once under attack by Robert Mugabe as well as waxing biblical from his Caribbean island.

Rob Ford, Professor of Politics at Manchester University and co-author of Brexitland, talks to us about:
- What will happen in the 3 by-elections
- What this means for the UK General Election
- The new division between voters
- Why Nigel Farage isn't done yet
- The outlook for UK politics

We asked:

• Will China invade Taiwan?
• Can China meet its growth target?
• What does China think of Liz Truss?
• What is Xi Jinping's ideology?
• What are China's demographic challenges?
• And finally... what is the best programme on Chinese TV?