Macro Bytes

After months of piecemeal economic policy support, Chinese stimulus has stepped up significantly and equity markets have surged higher. Paul Diggle and Luke Bartholomew speak to Robert Gilhooly about the headwinds the Chinese economy has been facing, the risks of China slipping into ‘Japanification’, and whether recent measures represent a turning point in monetary and fiscal policy support.

Biden vowed to ‘reset’ the approach to foreign policy and rekindle international relationships. But how has he fared? Join Stephanie Kelly and special guest Jeffrey Wright as they discuss repairing allyship in Europe, the US China relationship and what this means for the macro environment.
Jeffrey Wright, analyst at Eurasia Group's North America practice, shares his expertise in US fiscal, foreign, trade, and regulatory policy, as well as presidential politics.

Part 1 begins by summarising Biden’s approach to foreign policy compared to his predecessor. In particular, the discussion is around the US position in global politics and how allies are reacting to a more friendly US partnership.

Part 2 The focus then shifts to the climate agenda, the US China stand-off and impacts on countries caught in the cross hairs.
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As the pandemic continues to accelerate the long-term shift away from cash transactions, central banks around the world are seriously considering digital currencies as a way to keep up with digitalisation. But what would a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) look like? How could it change the way we all save and spend money, and what does this mean for the future of commercial banking?

Welcome to another episode of Macro Matters. This week our host Paul Diggle is joined by special guest David Oxley, Senior Economist from Capital Economics. Together with Luke Bartholomew, our in-house Monetary Economist, they discuss whether central banks should issue digital currencies.
Part 1 brings us up to speed on what CBDCs are, how they differ from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and what it would mean in practice for us all to have a bank account with the central bank.
Part 2 discusses the potential costs and benefits of CBDCs, focussing on the consumer and business innovations that could be possible, how CBDCs might change monetary policy, and the future of commercial banks in this brave new world.

Paul and Luke talk to Eddie Donmez, global markets analyst and a popular finance influencer at Finimize.

Eddie tells us what it means to be a finance influencer, and talks about changing trends in the retail investor community around access to high quality research. We also talk about events at Silicon Valley Bank. Finally, Eddie tells us why he thinks chatbots and AI innovations will change how finance research and analysis is done.

Paul and Luke talk to James McCann, Deputy Chief Economist at abrdn, about the significant rise in global bond yields. They discuss what has driven this increase, and in particular the importance of rising term premia for the economy and monetary policy.