The Question Is...

When prices first started rising, it was easy to chalk it up to the world’s emergence from the depths of the pandemic. As base effects fade, however, that’s getting harder. Steve Wreford, who is accustomed to thinking about structural change as a Portfolio Manager/Analyst on our Global Thematic Equity strategies, discusses increasing coordination between central banks and governments, policy and geopolitical shifts, and other factors driving higher prices with host Ron Temple.

We’re taking a break for the holidays and will return in the new year with new episodes, new guests, and of course, new questions. Enjoy the holidays!

Inflation is at a multi-decade high in multiple countries. In the final episode of our first season, Ron Temple and Werner Krämer, a Managing Director and Economic Analyst based in Frankfurt, debate just how high inflation could go in both the short term and the long term and discuss the potent and vastly underappreciated pressure climate change is likely to put on prices going forward.

Global ports are clogged with container ships, the cost of hauling freight has skyrocketed, shortages have become commonplace … and did we mention the holidays are coming? Ron Temple and Keith Mori, a Senior Vice President and industrial analyst, trace the many threads snarling global supply chains and offer bull- and bear-case scenarios for how the shipping industry might untangle its knotty problem.

People are keen to write China’s obituary as the government tightens regulations and tries to navigate a property bubble that appears likely to swallow one of its largest developers, says Philipp Hofflin, a Portfolio Manager/Analyst on the Australian Equity team. Another way to interpret things, he says, is that the government is proactively addressing systemic problems before it’s too late ̶ and Western countries may want to take notes.

From cars to smartphones, manufacturers have been feeling the squeeze from a global shortage of semiconductors. In this episode, Director and Technology Analyst Robert Horton explains to Ron how fragile supply chains, geopolitics, and a global pandemic got us to this point and when we might expect to emerge.

Robots can do surgery, smart implantable devices can monitor your heart health, and artificial intelligence promises to cut the time and cost of developing new drugs. In other words, the digital revolution that has transformed other sectors of the economy is coming to healthcare. Rhett Brown, Managing Director and Research Analyst, walks host Ron Temple through the new technologies that could change medicine as we know it.

The latest United Nations climate report made it clear: Time is running out to prevent the most catastrophic events of climate change. In this episode, Ron Temple asks Jennifer Anderson, Managing Director and Co-Head of Sustainable Investment and ESG, what it would take to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions and what it would mean for investors.