In episode 06, recorded Friday, September 28, 2018, Rob and Aaron dive short into stock promotion and a high level breakdown of Brexit negotiations, before finishing with a long chat on the investment holding company you may not have heard of, JAB Holding.

Stock promotion: the mad mad world of stock promotions is full of some names you know and some you don’t, yet the key is to be vigilant for real signs of sustainable growth (Hint: it’s not simply tying yourself to Fortnite).

Brexit: single market, customs union, free movement of people, hard Brexit, soft Brexit, oh my!

JAB Holding: what do Peet’s Coffee, Noah’s Bagels, Krispy Kreme and Durex Condoms have in common? The cheap cost of money and a long-minded investment focus, you say? You’d be right!

In episode 05, recorded Friday, September 7, 2018, Rob and Aaron dive short into China’s debt and the rise of FAANGs, before finishing with a long chat on recently controversial sports and apparel company Nike (NYSE:NKE)

China: growth has been unparalleled for the Middle Kingdom, financed in large part by both traditional debt and more opaque, off-balance-sheet arrangements via special purpose vehicles (SPVs). Can China balance economic expansion with debt contraction?

FAANGs: these five US tech companies – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (Alphabet) have seemingly driven the entire stock market upwards the last several years. Each share similarities, such as using cheap debt, while each has also found ways to protect long-term differentiation and shareholder value (NASDAQ:FB, AMZN, AAPL, NFLX, GOOG)

Nike: they just did it – actively wading into the ongoing American discussion of what it means to be patriotic. A short-term sales bump and an overall well-balanced geographic segmentation imply they knew what they were doing

In episode 04, recorded Friday, August 31, 2018, Rob and Aaron dive short into Argentina’s interest rates and IPOs and capital raises, before finishing with a long chat on American retail fixture Macy’s (NYSE:M)

Argentina: why the raising of interest rates didn’t quell markets after the government asked the IMF for an expedited payment, whether a recently issued century bond (!) is a good investment, and President Macri’s relationship to an old parable – the Scorpion and the Frog

IPOs: the role of capital raising in the economy, whether additional SEC changes – this time to allow retail investors greater access to public markets – is a worthy idea, and Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) defying convention by going direct

Macy’s: the old-timey time machine is back to evaluate Macy’s nearly 200-year history, the state of US retail, unflattering comparisons to industry peers, and an accounting quirk that just might warrant a deeper look

In episode 3, recorded Friday, August 24, 2018, Rob and Aaron welcome Distinguished Teaching Award Recipient Panos Patatoukas, Professor of Accounting and Finance at UC’s Berkeley-Haas School of Business.

Financial Education: why it matters, what can be done about it, and whether democratization of finance actually means what we think it means.

Valuation: major drivers of valuation, academic and real-world examples why growth can’t be looked at in isolation when determining value creation, and how outliers can cloud valuations during the IPO process.

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Born and raised in Greece and educated at home as well as in the UK and the US, including completing his Ph.D in Accounting and Finance from Yale, Professor Patatoukas has been teaching Financial Information Analysis and Valuation at Berkeley-Haas since 2010. During his tenure he has authored numerous papers focused on the effects of supply chain efficiency on valuation and financial statement analysis.

He is a three-time recipient of the Earl F. Cheit award, an annual student selected award given for teaching excellence in the Berkeley-Haas program, three times selected as a top business school professor under 40, including in the top 10 by Fortune, and this year became a Distinguished Teaching Award recipient, the highest honor for teaching given in the entirety of UC Berkeley.

More information on Professor Patatoukas can be found at facultybio.haas.berkeley.edu.

In episode 02, recorded Friday, August 17, 2018, Rob and Aaron dive short into the peak of the S&P 500 and China’s Tencent before finishing with a long chat on possible reporting changes at the SEC.

S&P 500: the US economy is humming along, especially compared to other developed and developing nations, yet signs may portend a slowdown.

Tencent: Chinese mobile powerhouse and maker of WeChat finds itself coping with possible government restrictions on a flagship game at a bad time as it competes head-to-head with Alibaba.

SEC: President Trump’s tweet expressing an interest in moving from 3- to 6-month reporting windows has pros and cons; Rob and Aaron look to the past to see whether lessons can be applied to today’s debate.

Guys Being Dudes: the Long and Short of Financial Markets and the Global Economy

In episode 01, recorded Saturday, August 11, 2018, Rob and Aaron dive “short” into Turkey and Bitcoin before finishing with a “long” chat on Tesla.

Turkey: a perilous stage for a crucially important Eurasian country with inflation rising, interest rates apparently off the table, and rising tensions between Washington and Ankara.

Bitcoin: an ironic twist of fate for one hodler that leads into an exploration of whether BTC is indeed a currency.

Tesla: Elon Musk’s ongoing battle with short-sellers may have both given them a gift and invited an unwanted SEC investigation.