Merryn Somerset Webb sits down with Chris Clothier, co-chief investment officer at CG Asset Management, to discuss the fragile economics of the AI boom and what could bring the spending spree to an end. They also explore the case for inflation-linked bonds, the growing fiscal risks facing governments, where investors can find safe havens in stretched markets and why, despite his concerns about inflation, Clothier’s firm doesn’t own any gold.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek are joined by Hargreaves Lansdown’s Anna Macdonald to unpack the UK Budget, from fiscal drag and tax complexity to what it means for investors and small businesses. Plus, they ask whether the market's drastic reaction to a mild disappointment from Alphabet is a sign that AI exuberance is nearing an end.Clarifying note: In this episode Merryn said if the 40% tax threshold had gone up with inflation, it would closer to 100k than 50k. She meant if the threshold had gone in the same ratio as minimum wage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No investor can know exactly what markets will do next. So instead of trying to predict the next winner, the goal is to build a portfolio that can hold up across a range of scenarios — one that reflects your appetite for risk, your financial goals and how long you have to invest. In the third and final episode of the series, Merryn Somerset Webb, John Stepek and Bloomberg experts break down the building blocks of a diversified portfolio and explore how different assets perform as economic conditions change. They explain how to combine those assets and where diversification can fall short. Because investing isn't about knowing what comes next. It's about building a portfolio resilient enough for an uncertain future.   Like this podcast? Get The Portfolio Reset newsletter to make your money work harder in changing markets. bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/portfolio-reset See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Merryn Talks Money, Merryn Somerset Webb and Steve Hou, head of research at Silicon Data, delve into an emerging issue in the economics of artificial intelligence: token prices are falling while the cost of compute needed to produce them is rising. They discuss what this mismatch could mean for the valuations of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, whether demand can justify the enormous sums being invested in AI infrastructure and what happens when everyone has armies of AI agents working on our behalf.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are we heading for another eurozone panic? This week, John Stepek and Bloomberg’s Sam Unsted discuss why political uncertainty in France is pushing up the country's borrowing costs, why the UKhas (perhaps surprisingly) managed to avoid similar pressure, and where the first signs of strain are emerging in the AI boom. They also explore what slowing AI investment could mean for theinvestors, governments and industries banking on its growth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Passive investing was designed to track the market, not shape it. But as Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek explore in the second episode of The Portfolio Reset, the enormous growth of passive investing has changed the market it was built to follow, just as some of the world’s most valuable companies are staying private for longer. Using SpaceX as an example, they examine the changing relationship between public and private markets and why no investment is truly passive — someone is always making a decision somewhere in the process. As passive flows grow powerful enough to move markets, Merryn and John explain why investors should make sure they’re making active decisions in pursuit of their own financial goals, rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of strangers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After years of being overshadowed by US megacaps and the artificial intelligence boom, could smaller companies finally be ready for a comeback? Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Downing fund manager Simon Evan-Cook and Odyssean Capital’s Stuart Widdowson about why small caps remain unusually cheap, what could bring investors back — and whether small-cap value could become the ultimate anti-AI trade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are we seeing signs of investors starting to lose their nerve over artificial intelligence? On this week's markets wrap, Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek discuss the cracks appearing in the AI boom, as well as why UK house prices could rebound faster than expected, and how changes to inheritance tax may help fuel demand. Plus, with the Budget approaching, they ask whether the best thing the government could do is simply leave well enough alone.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For today’s investor, making money in markets may seem straightforward: put your money into a passive fund that tracks US stocks. It’s been a winning strategy for so long that it feels like the obvious choice. Yet as Merryn Somerset Webb, John Stepek and their expert guests discuss over the course of this four-part series, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, with major implications for how investors build their portfolios. In the first episode, they examine how passive investing went from a niche strategy to the default for many people, channeling ever more capital into US stocks and the tech giants that dominate the market. Passive investing is still an investment decision, after all — one that leaves many investors with far more concentration risk than they realize.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Rozencwajg, portfolio manager at natural resources firm Goehring and Rozencwajg, joins Merryn Somerset Webb to explain why he thinks the commodity bull market may still be in its early stages. They discuss why gold could fall before reaching new highs, why US shale may have peaked and where he sees opportunities in oil and uranium.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.