Unhedged
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Unhedged
Katie Martin, Robert Armstrong and other markets nerds at the Financial Times explain the big ideas behind what’s happening in finance right now. Every Tuesday and Thursday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Recente afleveringen
252 afleveringen
Is the K-shaped economy real?
Companies such as Procter & Gamble and Chipotle say lower-income customers are spending less, while upper-income customers keep splurging. But data fr...
Is the US an emerging market?
Today’s show is a live recording from the Kilkenomics Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland. Katie Martin hosts a panel with guests David McWilliams, founder...
DIY data
With the government shut down, US investors are looking for data in different places. Today on the show, Katie Martin and Rob Armstrong discuss home b...
Is Big Tech spending too much money?
Tech companies are spending historic amounts of money on computing power and data centres.
Today on the show, Rob Armstrong and Katie Martin ta...
Martin Wolf on the economics of populism
How does populism affect the long-term health of economies? And is there a difference in outcomes between the extreme politics of the left and the rig...
The vigorous nods of Bessent
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has one of the hardest jobs in recent history. He has to implement bizarre economic strategies and keep rational m...
Will the US bail out Argentina?
It won’t be easy, and you’ll think it’s strange, when we try to explain … why US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is suddenly reversing all current US...
Japan’s next move
Sanae Takaichi is the first female prime minister of Japan. She also claims Margaret Thatcher as a role model. Today on the show, Katie Martin and the...
Rare earth quake
China’s announcement that it would be restricting the export of rare earths put markets into a tailspin on Friday. Today on the show, Rob Armstrong, K...
UK Budget blues
On November 26, parliament will make the UK an offer it can’t refuse: The 2026 Budget. But the UK can complain about it! And likely will, as it will a...
AI peak is peak AI
Is AI making everybody richer? Or just more entangled in each others’ business? Today on the show, Rob Armstrong and Lex editor John Foley try to unta...
Introducing Untold: Toxic Legacy
Introducing Toxic Legacy, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Laura Hughes uncovers a lead poisoning epidemic across the UK. You mig...
Gold Now! Gold Forever! Only Gold! Gold! Gold!
Gold keeps hitting all-time highs, and no sober talk about speculation or productivity has stopped it. Today on the show, Rob Armstrong and Katie Mart...
AI, shutdowns and shadow banks
Today on the show, Rob Armstrong and Katie Martin take on three things they’ve been thinking about: the markets' complete lack of worry about a govern...
The largest leveraged buyout in history?
Electronic Arts, a publicly traded company, was just purchased for $55bn by a consortium of investors led by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner....
Troubling signs in corporate debt
First Brands Group, a roll-up of car parts manufacturers, is preparing a bankruptcy filing after amassing as much as $10bn in debt. And last week, Tri...
Hedging the dollar
The dollar is down almost 10 per cent since the beginning of the year. Yes, it has fallen from a very strong position, but the drop might also reflect...
Should companies report only twice a year?
This week, President Donald Trump suggested that companies only report earnings twice a year. This would be a significant change to how markets in the...
Private equity’s public reckoning
With interest rates high, private equity has had a harder time finding investors … and making money. To solve this problem, the industry has found nov...
The mystery of the vanishing jobs
The annual jobs numbers are in. And they have been revised down by 911,000 positions. But in a quickly changing economy, with many laborers literally...
Live from the FTWeekend Festival in London
2025 has been a chaotic year, with seemingly random tariffs, the reduction of the labour force, the partial nationalisation of major companies and a l...
What’s a central bank supposed to do?
Central banks have been around for hundreds of years. But they haven’t always done the same thing. Today on the show, Katie Martin and Rob Armstrong t...
OK, Doomer
Valuations are high. Employment is down. The Federal Reserve is under attack. For many market watchers, this looks a lot like a recipe for disaster. T...
The people’s chip manufacturer
The Trump administration has again extended its control over the US economy, now taking a 10 per cent stake in the chip manufacturer Intel. Control of...
The Fed under attack
The annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is supposed to be an intellectual retreat. Instead, it was overshadowed by personal an...
The new pump and dumps
US markets reporter George Steer has been tracking stocks that have soared, then crashed. Some of them might be “pump and dumps”, an old-fashioned sty...
Is the market too concentrated?
Eight of the 10 biggest stocks in the S&P 500 are technology stocks, and tech as a sector represents 40 per cent of the value of the index. Today on t...
Will markets ever care about anything?
As the US president upends the global order, and consolidates power, markets keep climbing. Does it make any sense? Today on the show, Katie Martin an...
Lies, damn lies and statistics
President Donald Trump has just installed loyalists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve. The idea is to ensure good news and low...
Swamp Notes: Trump’s case against Fed chair Powell
Today, we're sharing an episode from our fellow FT podcast, Swamp Notes.
The US president is angry with the chair of the Federal Reserve over in...
The Economics Show: Trump is accelerating the dollar’s decline
Today, we're bringing you an episode from our fellow FT podcast, The Economics Show.
The US dollar has been in slow decline for around a decade...
The Little Railroad Merger That Could
On Tuesday, the American railroad giant Union Pacific announced its intention to buy Norfolk Southern, promising to fulfill Abraham Lincoln’s dream of...
The EU folds on tariffs
Experts agree: When it comes to tariffs, Europe just got trounced. So did the American consumer, who will pay these taxes. Today on the show, Rob Arms...
Is M&A turning around?
When Republicans won the White House and both houses of Congress last fall, mergers and acquisitions bankers celebrated. But when President Donald Tru...
Robotaxis, tech earnings and 24-hour trading
Today on the show, Aiden Reiter talks with Lex editor John Foley about three things to watch this summer: 24-hour trading, tech earnings and Tesla’s n...
Is Nvidia really worth $4tn?
Nvidia is now the most valuable company in America, as AI seems to power an unstoppable market. Today on the show, Katie Martin and Aiden Reiter ask i...
Heinz, Kraft and Warren Buffett
The acquisition of Heinz and Kraft by 3G Capital and Warren Buffett seemed like a classic play from the world’s most famous investor: buy boring stapl...
The secret giant of finance
Jane Street is one of the biggest traders in the world, and they have become embroiled in accusations of market manipulation in India. Today on the sh...
Three surprises that might spook the markets
Despite looming economic problems, the stock market continues to climb. Today on the show, Katie Martin, Rob Armstrong and Aiden Reiter ask what could...
The dilapidated dollar
The US dollar is having its worst year since 1973. And 1973 was a really bad year. As the US takes a break to celebrate independence from the UK, Kati...