In the past, this show has covered a broad range of topics and brought in experts from a variety of backgrounds for interesting discussions. It used to provide a stimulating discussion of some contemporary issues. Not anymore. In the past year or so, the podcast has been circling a drain. Recent content includes repetitive, shallow, unstimulating discussion of:
1. US-China relations,
2. interest rates (almost exclusively US interest rates of course),
3. ‘liquidity’ (US gov. bond buying),
4. oil markets (US oil; I guess OPEC and Norway don’t exist),
5. discussions with non-experts posing as experts on a variety of ‘hot topics’ like AI, chip manufacturing, quantum computing…
6. the gold standard and US interest rates, when Dimitri wants to throw his economist friend a bone.
7. One bizarrely sympathetic episode for Alex Jones.
Most of these topics are discussed really quite shallowly, despite being revisited time and time again. It is odd watching the podcast host not really grow from the discussions and just tackle them at the same skin depth again and again. And all discussions are framed with a blithe US-centrism, to a degree that is egregious and not justified even if the podcast creator is in the US. An audience that is interested in the markets needs to understand what’s going on outside their little bubble.
I write this at a time when there are quite a lot of financial goings-on in the world: hyperinflation in Turkey, sanctions, trade wars, the global housing crisis, China’s housing crisis, Credit Suisse, shifting German economic policy, UK financial crisis, corruption in the big 4 accounting firms… those are just the ones I know about. There are also older events which could have inspired ongoing discussions, such as the London Metals Exchange debacle last year.
Alas, the podcast has turned into a ‘cynical’ money-grab. There is now a payment tier that costs 2500 USD / year. Yes. That is not a typo. 2.5 grand. (For this exorbitant sum, you receive the exorbitant privilege of participating in a ‘round table Q
