In the year’s first podcast, we examine the factors that could help overcome ongoing geoeconomic uncertainty, helping achieve trend growth outcomes in the US, China, and Singapore. The year has begun under the shadow of a highly assertive US pushing its hegemonic agenda. Both externally and domestically, Donald Trump has taken a largely imperialist posture, subject to hardly any checks from the other arms of the government. His goals include achieving energy and rare earth material security, forcing neighbours in the Americas into acquiescence, curtailing China’s power, and supporting right wing regimes worldwide. We are however doubtful that his actions would secure the House of Representatives in November. Beyond the political dynamic, short of an AI bubble burst, the US economy is poised to grow in line with trend this year, led by consumption. A weak job market and easing inflation pressure would keep the Fed cutting the policy rate more, drama around Fed Chair notwithstanding. We worry about the erosion of institutional integrity in the US, but the ramifications are in the medium term, with investors likely to remain enthusiastic about holding US assets in the near term. On China, we recognise both its struggles with the property sector and the tailwind emanating from an impressive tech wave. The spillover from China’s expanding manufacturing base is positive for trade-oriented economies, contrary to the narrative of predatory excess capacity. On Singapore, we see a number of levers in place to propel growth this year and beyond.

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Fiscal slippage, lower economic growth, sticky inflation, weaker dollar, steeper yield curve, financial instability; these are the key prognostications of Dr. Komal Sri-Kumar in our year-end podcast. President of Sri-Kumar Global Strategies, Sri is a deep thinker on macro trade strategies, and his forecasting track record is outstanding. Going into 2026, he is bearish both stocks and bonds, long vols and gold, and bearish the USD. He worries that the inevitable bursting of the AI-bubble and sticky inflation would cause stagflation and financial instability risks in the US next year. He is also concerned about the erosion of institutional strength in the US, from the central bank to the treasury to the statistical agencies. An unambiguously bleak outlook.

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Noah Doyle, Managing Partner at Javelin Investment Partners in Silicon Valley, with decades-long background in venture capital, joins Kopi Time to talk about tech and AI. We begin with a general discussion on the present vibe in Silicon Valley, giddy with record investments and returns. We then immediately pivot to the question of the moment, if there is an AI bubble, to which Noah offers a detailed and nuanced response, walking us through the supply and demand for AI infrastructure and products, the fund raising and capital deployment ecosystem, and dizzying valuation of AI companies, public and private. I then nudge Noah toward an issue close to his heart--if the path toward AGI through Gen AI, and if not, are there alternative paths in the making. Noah responds by discussing alternatives to Large Language Models, including symbolic logic-based AIs. We take the conversation toward innovations coming out of China and the US, which Noah tracks closely and sees the trend as a positive, mutually beneficial development. We talk about regulatory guardrails, cyber security, privacy, and ethical aspects of AI to round-up this fascinating conversation.

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David Marsh, Chairman of OMFIF economic research group, returns to Kopi Time to talk about the UK and Europe, with his new book, “Can Europe Survive?” (Yale University Press, link here), anchoring the conversation. We begin with the current economic, political, and security-related challenges, including US tariffs, China’s industrial prowess, conflict with Russia, immigration, energy security, and the rise of the far right. David delves into his decades of experience on geoeconomics to parse through the difficulties faced by the region’s leaders. He sees an urgent need for liberalisation of capital markets, greater trade and financial linkages with Asia, and sustained efforts to bring the region closer, while at the same time respecting some of the centrifugal forces at play. Europe, according to David, faces its gravest test since the second world war; a fundamental renewal of the EU compact and international partnerships is warranted at this critical juncture.  

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Jawed Ashraf, with over three decades in Indian foreign service, including Ambassador to France and High Commissioner to Singapore, offers his insights on India’s foreign policy here and now. We begin with the India-Europe relationship on trade, investment, tech, talent, travel, and visas, which leads to the challenges related to Russia. The conversation then moves to India’s ongoing challenges vis-à-vis the US, China, and Pakistan. We conclude with going over the vast potential for deeper India-South East Asia collaboration. In each of these cases, the recently retired foreign service veteran digs into his vast experience and deep expertise.

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We welcome back Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, to Kopi Time. We focus on some recent work by Arvind and Shoumitro Chatterjee (see article here), in which they argue that China’s continued dominance in low-skill export sectors reflects not just efficiency, but deliberate policy choices that prevent poorer countries from climbing the development ladder. We talk about their findings, nuances to the conclusions, implication  for trade and exchange rate policy, geopolitical considerations, and delve into a few issues beyond the article, including China’s rapid climb up the technology value-addition ladder. We also touch in Arvind’s new book,  A Sixth Of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey, co-authored with Devesh Kapur.

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In this episode, I deliberate over the recently concluded IMF-World Bank annual meetings. The IMF Meetings in Washington DC featured some recognition of global resiliency amid geoeconomic fragmentation. Concerns about numerous risks at play have not faded though. Governments and firms are dealing with erratic policy making by the US. Trade, commerce, and tech adoption go on in spite of the persisting uncertainty. The IMF sees mild upside to growth risks in the near term. The US economy, buffeted by strong consumption and investment, is on 2% growth trajectory. For the rest of the world, stress lingers, but response is better than expected.

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Dr. Dong He, Chief Economist of ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), joins Kopi Time to discuss the regional outlook. Dong weighs in on the impact of high US tariffs on the regional economy, the growth outlook, space for fiscal and monetary support, implication of the weak dollar environment, financial stability issues, green transition, and the disruptive role of AI. Through these sweeping discussions, Dong taps into his deep financial sector expertise. He also touches on the massive role China is playing in regional capital flows, investment, and tech developments.

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Dr. Dong He, Chief Economist of ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), joins Kopi Time to discuss the regional outlook. Dong weighs in on the impact of high US tariffs on the regional economy, the growth outlook, space for fiscal and monetary support, implication of the weak dollar environment, financial stability issues, green transition, and the disruptive role of AI. Through these sweeping discussions, Dong taps into his deep financial sector expertise. He also touches on the massive role China is playing in regional capital flows, investment, and tech developments.

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Jeff Johnson, MD and General Manager for Asean at AWS, joins Kopi Time to talk about all things cloud. We begin with AWS’s reach and scale, spectrum of services, and regional engagement. Jeff provides a host of examples to underscore enterprise usage with disruptive technologies, both AI and GenAI. He also sets the ground with the foundational tech stack maintained and continuously ungraded by AWS. We discuss security, reliability, sustainability, and democratisation of AI; Jeff contextualises these aspects with his deep experience in dealing with businesses in the region. We end with two big questions; will AI eat jobs and will AI show up in company bottom line sooner than later. Fascinating observations from one of the industry leaders.

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