On this week’s In the City, we look at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision of regional prosperity, and whether it can survive the Israel-Hamas war. Saudi bureau chief Matthew Martin joins Francine Lacqua at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, with Allegra Stratton and David Merritt joining from London. 

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Rishi Sunak is the latest leader headed to Israel. The Gaza hospital attack “should be a watershed moment for leaders in the region and across the world to come together to avoid further dangerous escalation of conflict,” the UK PM said.

But how likely are efforts by Sunak, Biden and other Western leaders to prevent the conflict, which in just 11 days has killed thousands on both sides, from escalating?

In this week’s In the City, hosts Francine Lacqua, David Merritt and Allegra Stratton are joined by Bloomberg news director Rosalind Mathieson to try and tackle that question. 

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In his podcast debut, C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays chief executive officer, says stagnant deal activity, easing volatility and peaking interest rates are set to compound pressure on bank earnings. Despite tentative signs of activity returning at the start of September, Venkatakrishnan tells David and Francine that a dealmaking revival is still looking “a little further away.” They also discuss the IPO market, cricket and Taylor Swift.

This conversation was taped on Oct. 5, 2023. 

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Are the bulls about to return to Britain? Positive outlooks for UK equities are breaking through the clouds. London Stock Exchange Chief Executive Julia Hoggett says it’s about time. Hoggett also discusses executive pay, saying the UK’s restrictions are hindering companies’ efforts to recruit top talent and undermining a push to make the City of London more appealing to businesses post-Brexit.

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The pound is notoriously difficult to trade. It’s a “graveyard for G-10 traders,” says Mark Cudmore, senior macro strategist for Bloomberg’s Markets Live blog. When it comes to making calls on the British currency, he says, “people only ever lose money.”

Cudmore joins reporter Sofia Horta e Costa on this week’s In the City to try and make sense of why markets are again turning on sterling, just one year after ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss’s spending plans drove the pound to a record low.

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They say time heals all wounds. But it seems the damage done to the UK economy by Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget last year has yet to be forgiven by investors. According to a new Bloomberg survey, about two-thirds of UK finance professionals said an outright win for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party or a Labour-led coalition would be the “most market-friendly outcome.”

Senior reporters Phil Aldrick and John Stepek join to discuss the survey and what its findings tell us about the City’s thinking heading into the next general election.

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A decline in growth in China may take some heat out of the global economy, helping bring down inflation. But a full stop would trigger deep recessions. Bloomberg Economics Chief Economist Tom Orlik joins this week for a conversation on what China's slowdown means for the rest of the world, and in particular the UK.

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Capitalism as we know it isn’t really working, according to economist and author Mariana Mazzucato. Take the current concrete crisis across UK schools. For Mazzucato, that’s a case of too little being spent on the school buildings themselves. But there’s another problem: lax regulation. If we continue to weaken the rules in the name of a stronger economy, she says, we risk tragedy. 

Mazzucato, a professor in the economics of innovation and public value at University College London, joins this week’s episode of In the City to discuss the re-release of her book, The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths. The book has been credited with provoking widespread debate about the role of government in innovation.

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Karen Ward, EMEA chief market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management and a key adviser to Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, joins hosts Francine Lacqua and David Merritt to unpack key points by central bankers who attended the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, and what it all means for the BOE and the UK. For the latter, the answer is recession.

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Britain’s eligible pension savers need to return to work, earn for longer and save more—otherwise they might find retirement less than stress free.

That’s the warning from Andy Briggs, chief executive of Phoenix Group, in conversation with Francine Lacqua on this week’s episode of In the City. They discuss the plight of retired people over the age of 50 and how the UK pension system compares with those of other countries.

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