In the mid 1980's, and recently graduated from Marquette University, a young Jim Bianco scored an accidental meeting for a position with First Boston. Most fortuitously, his resume wound up in the wrong pile, leading him to be mistakenly invited in to interview for a spot supporting a senior analyst. As luck would have it, Jim got the job and so was launched a more than 30 year career in markets. In 1998, amidst the chaos that was LTCM, Jim boldly launch his own firm. And more than two decades later, Bianco Research continues to provide differentiated advice on markets, Central Banks and the economy to its clients.

My discussion with Jim focuses on monetary policy, global disinflation and the unholy impact of negative rates on the banking system. Jim’s perspective on the big picture, slow moving yet powerful forces of demographics illustrates how the excess of global savings leads to greater demand for safe fixed income assets. He points as well to the downward pressure on prices due to technological advancement. In this context, he is skeptical that more of the same easy policy from Central Banks is the right medicine to address inflation and growth shortfall.

Lastly, I solicit Jim’s views on advancements in research being made possible by Neural Linguistic Processing. Jim and his team have used NLP, for example, to analyze word choices in Fed policy communications to score the degree of focus on growth, inflation, financial stability and other important variables. As data is made more available and at a cheaper price, new techniques like NLP provide exciting opportunities to gain insights on risk. Lastly, we touch on Modern Monetary Theory. While not a fan, Jim acknowledges the momentum of the MMT front, especially as the 2020 election comes into view.