In the Company of Mavericks

Επεισόδια

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  Securitising Subprime Silicon - Plus the $2 trillion deficit, an indefinite oil siege, and what it means for stocks, markets and capital. 14.08.2026 11λ

  This week's easing was cyclical. The things that hardened were structural. That's the week in a sentence.Subscribe to Hypernormal Times for free on Substack.For your capital markets training needs, visit my friends at Finance Talking.Markets spent five days exhaling — a soft CPI, a softer PPI, the AI trade roaring back — while quietly signing up for an indefinite oil siege, a $2 trillion deficit funded at the worst prices since before the financial crisis, and a boom in structured credit that rhymes uncomfortably with 2008. This week: the stagflation trap the Fed can't lever its way out of; Nvidia becoming "the bank of mum and dad" for the AI industry as Wall Street securitises the boom; why the market celebrated a number the Fed doesn't even target; fiscal dominance on the tape; and Japan's cheap-money anchor starting to drag. Plus the cheque-writers vs the cheque-cashers, and a British silly-season coda.Commentary and information for serious active investors — not advice. Do your own due diligence.Keywords: stocks, markets, capital, investing, macro, stagflation, fiscal dominance, AI bubble, Nvidia, credit spreads, core PCE, Federal Reserve, Treasury yields, Bank of Japan, oil, Strait of Hormuz.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Long-Cycle Investing, Short Selling & the AI Bubble Question - Why duration matters when buying stocks 13.08.2026 53λ

  Subscribe to Hypernormal Times on Substack. High Ground founder and CIO Edgar Allen joins to explain the investment philosophy behind one of Europe's fastest-growing long/short equity funds — now running roughly $3bn, up from $10m at launch in 2019.Edgar traces his path from teenage stock-picker in Suffolk, working through FT-ordered annual reports in the school holidays, to Fidelity during the dot-com boom, shorting technology at Avocet, risk and European equities at BlackRock, six years at Chris Hohn's TCI, and the number-two seat at Naya — and how each stop shaped High Ground's approach.The core of the conversation is duration. Equities are very long-duration assets, but the average company lives about six years. Edgar argues that discounted cash flow quietly assumes cash flows into perpetuity, and that the gap between that assumption and reality is the largest single inefficiency in the market.His answer is to hunt for long-cycle industries where the supply response is slow and the competitive set in twenty years is already knowable: Airbus and the A320 family, Knorr-Bremse and train braking systems, city-centre property, even death care — the US industry with the lowest bankruptcy rate.Edgar put it that:"One thing that we know for sure about all the companies that we invest in is that they're all going to get wiped out. They're all trending to zero. It's just a matter of time."On the short side, Edgar looks for businesses that will be worse businesses in three years than they are today, and for accounting evidence of it: widening profit-to-free-cash-flow gaps, adjusted EBITDA creep, factoring and reverse factoring, shifting LTIP goals, and margin decline masked by cuts to R&D and marketing. Consumer staples have been a fertile hunting ground as the barriers to entry that once protected big food brands have collapsed.The conversation also covers a strong 2025 (25 positions up more than 20%, 18 down more than 20% — all of them shorts), the outlook for the UK and Europe versus an expensive US market, why China sits outside the mandate on rule-of-law grounds, declining trust and happiness as macro risks, and the case that AI — like bicycles, railways and airlines — could transform the world while destroying more shareholder value than it creates.A fascinating conversation, from an original investment thinker and practitioner.long/short equity, High Ground, Edgar Allen, terminal value, discounted cash flow, business duration, long-cycle industries, return on capital, quality investing, accounting risk, short selling, adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow, earnings quality, TCI, Chris Hohn, Fidelity, BlackRock, Naya, hedge fund, UK equities, European equities, US valuations, China rule of law, AI bubble, data centres, LLMs, consumer staples, Diageo, Airbus, Knorr-Bremse, Zulu principle, PEG ratio, investor psychologyThis podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Investing in Things You Can't Print: Gold, Oil & Copper & The Week Trust Left Markets 07.08.2026 11λ

  Three of the most powerful men in the global economy asked the markets to believe them, and the markets declined. On protecting capital when money, promises, and forward guidance are being printed, and gold, copper, and diesel are the only honest voices left.Hypernormal Times on Substack.For your capital markets training needs, visit my friends at Finance Talking.This week, a president's peace, a Fed chairman's credibility and a currency's floor all turned out to be things you can print a promise about but cannot manufacture. Trump called off "the biggest strike since WWII," then announced talks Iran said weren't happening, before the Hormuz "deal" morphed into a surrender document. The US Treasury raided a Fed facility to print dollars so Japan could buy yen, fiscal dominance, in plain sight, while the president phoned Chairman Warsh and Warsh apologised through anonymous friends.Meanwhile the honest voices spoke: gold to $4,300, copper to a record, and a refining shock (it's the fuel, not the crude) that a ceasefire can fix.We cover the AI sorting. Situational Awareness, the model that escaped its box, SpaceX's cheque-writer earnings and the take-forward into next week: jobs, the BoJ, Hormuz and the AI supply tide.The takeaway suggestion for serious active investors is to own the unprintable. Not investment advice, natch.If only Kev had levers that printed oil refineries and copper wire. He doesn't. Nobody does.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Investing in China, Inflation Expectations & Energy - Revisiting Project Zimbabwe & S&P 10,000 with Erik@YWR 06.08.2026 57λ

  Erik of Your Weekend Reading returns from three weeks in China with a conclusion that will surprise anyone who has written the country off. Then: the 8% consumer inflation expectation the Fed is forecasting away, why bond yields are heading to 5–6%, and why he thinks the energy story could end up bigger than AI.For your information. Never advice of any kind.Visit Hypernormal Times.For your capital markets training needs, visit my friends at Finance Talking.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.China investing outlook 2026. Consumer inflation expectations, University of Michigan survey, 10-year Treasury yield forecast, Fed rate policy midterms, Strait of Hormuz oil price, natural gas data centres, LNG export terminals, contrarian energy stocks, Project Zimbabwe, Chinese consumer
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  Being Situationally Aware - The Hypernormal Investing Week That Was 01.08.2026 13λ

  Oil crashed on peace, stocks crashed anyway, a 557% profit was a "miss," and a hedge fund called Situational Awareness got blindsided. A week of maximum noise — and the three signals underneath that actually matter.Hypernormal Times on Substack. For your capital markets training needs, visit my friends at Finance Talking.The market fell a fifth and rose a fifth in the same week, on no change in the facts — so this episode strains out the churn and holds up what actually changed.We start with the noise: a ceasefire nobody signed, "peace broke out and stocks crashed anyway," and the record round-trip driven by a leverage unwind — including the week's best story, the hedge fund Situational Awareness, run by the ex-OpenAI author of the famous "see-it-coming" AI essay, getting caught spectacularly unaware and dumping its book to Citadel at the bottom, right before those shares ripped. Then the three signals worth keeping: the AI reckoning turned out to be a sorting, not a crash (Microsoft and Amazon proved the return; Meta didn't); the feared AI glut is, at the physical level, a shortage — one now capping Apple's revenue and turning the Bank of Japan hawkish; and the great bifurcation went concrete, with China floating its own memory champion (CXMT, +472%), building its own chip-making machines, and pulling a piece of Tesla across the US–China line. Plus a Fed chair whose silence the bond market repriced as a credibility shock.Never investment advice.In this episodeWhy the week's violent round-trip was noise, not signal — and how to tellSituational Awareness vs Citadel: a thesis meets a balance sheet at the bottomThe 557% profit that counted as a miss — and the bar detaching from realityThe reckoning as a sorting: Microsoft/Amazon prove the return, Meta doesn't; "free cash flow" runs the tapeThe AI glut that's actually a shortage — Apple can't get chips, and the BoJ turns hawkishThe great bifurcation: CXMT +472%, China's own lithography, Tesla splitting off ChinaWarsh holds, the 30-year hits a 19-year high, and the market calls his bluffAI bubble, AI reckoning, is AI a bubble, AI 2008 vs dot-com, Situational Awareness hedge fund, Leopold Aschenbrenner, Citadel, SK Hynix earnings, 557% profit, Microsoft Azure earnings, Amazon cloud, Meta capex, Apple chip shortage, memory shortage 2028, Samsung, CXMT IPO, China semiconductors, ASML lithography, Tesla SpaceX merger, Kevin Warsh Fed, 30-year Treasury yield, Bank of Japan hawkish, macro podcast, markets podcast, HyperNormal Report, Jeremy McKeown.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  ITCOM Becomes Hypernormal Investing - But nothing really changes 30.07.2026 4λ

  This is just a trailer to let you know about the podcast name change. In The Company of Mavericks will be renamed Hypernormal Investing from the next episode.Practically, apart from the new name and some new cover art, nothing else changes. There is no need to change any settings to continue to listen on your podcast app.I am doing this to align the podcast more closely to the writing I do on Substack. Please check it out at: Hypernormal Times.If you have found this podcast useful or interesting, then please rate and review. It is now more helpful than usual to let the podcast algorithms find new listeners, which allows us to attract new guests.And please keep your fantastic feedback and guest recommendations coming either via Substack or to me at: jeremymckeown@gmail.com.Thanks for listening.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Mind the Inflation Gap & AI's Second Derivative - Hypernormal Investing 25.07.2026 15λ

  For your capital markets training needs, visit my friends at Finance Talking.Subscribe at Hypernormal Times.Oil hit $100, Alphabet posted its first-ever negative cash flow, Bubba and the Fed disagreed about inflation by 470 basis points, and the President started selling his tweets for $100k a month. A normal week in HyperNormal investing.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Building Capita & Repurposing Private Equity Investing to Help Every Child Read - Paul Pindar on doing things differently & keeping them simple 24.07.2026 1ώ 2λ

  Follow me on Substack: https://substack.com/@jeremymckeownFor your capital markets training needs, contact Finance Talking: https://bit.ly/48NLioZPaul Pindar built Capita from a £330,000 management buyout into a £7.5 billion outsourcing giant, delivering a 480x total shareholder return between its 1989 listing and his departure in 2014. Now Chairman of Literacy Capital plc (LSE: BOOK), the listed private equity investment trust he co-founded with his son Richard, Paul joins Jeremy to share the lessons of a remarkable career in UK plc — and a very different second act.Paul explains how Capita rode the wave of government outsourcing in the 1990s and 2000s, why culture and cheap, disciplined M&A drove 25 consecutive years of record results, and what changed after he left in 2014. He gives a candid assessment of UK corporate governance — 300-page board packs, six-hour board meetings — and why London's shrinking stock market is a "real shame for the UK economy."On Literacy Capital, Paul opens up about the trust's unusual model: permanent capital, no carried interest, no performance fee, and nearly 40% founder ownership — plus £13 million donated to the Bookmark Reading charity, which tackles child literacy. He addresses the elephant in the room head-on: a NAV near all-time highs but a share price discount at its widest ever, the impact of the Budget and employers' NI rises on small UK businesses, and why exits at 10x, 10x and 15x money suggest the portfolio is conservatively valued at 9.2x EBITDA.Whether you invest in investment trusts, private equity, UK small caps, or simply want a masterclass in building businesses, this conversation delivers.In This EpisodeFrom Coopers & Lybrand and 3i to the £330,000 buyout of CIPFA Computer Services — the business that became CapitaListing on the USM in 1989 at an £8m market cap — and winning a £13m contract with £2.6m of turnoverVisionary or lucky? Management, market tailwinds, and the 10 Golden Rules behind a 480x shareholder returnCapita's M&A playbook: high volume, small deals, never overpayWhat went wrong at Capita — and in UK outsourcing — after 2014Why 200-page annual reports and six-hour board meetings destroy value rather than protect itThe origin of Literacy Capital: a husband-and-wife conversation and a mission to teach every child to readBookmark Reading charity: £13m donated, half a million children to be helpedInside the LitCap model: permanent capital, zero carry, and total alignmentFive exits at 10x, 10x, 15x, 5.2x and 2.5x moneyThe discount debate: NAV vs share price, CGT speculation, and the cost of neglecting investor relationsHow the Budget and employers' NI hit small UK businessesWhy good £100m companies can no longer IPO in LondonWorking with family: father and son at the helmAdvice for the new Prime Minister: debt, the triple lock, stamp duty, and CGTGuestPaul Pindar is Chairman and co-founder of Literacy Capital plc (LSE: BOOK), a listed closed-end investment fund backing small UK businesses. He joined Capita as CFO in 1987 — eight months after backing its buyout as an investor at 3i — became Managing Director 18 months later, and led the business until 2014, growing it into one of the UK's largest outsourcing companies with 62,000 employees and a £7.5bn market cap. He co-founded Literacy Capital in 2018 with his son Richard; the fund donates a portion of net assets each year to Bookmark Reading, the child literacy charity founded by his wife, Sharon Pindar.KeywordsPaul Pindar, Literacy Capital, LSE BOOK, Capita, UK outsourcing, private equity, investment trust, listed private equity, closed-end fund, permanent capital, carried interest, NAV discount, UK small caps, management buyout, London Stock Exchange, IPO drought, Bookmark Reading, child literacy, shareholder value, M&A strategy, founder succession, UK stock market, corporate governance, capital gains tax, employers' national insuranceThis podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  China Ruins AI's Party While The UK Holds a Car Boot Sale - Hypernormal Week 18.07.2026 11λ

  For more, see Hypernormal Times on Substack.In this episode.Inflation vs the oil war — why June's CPI and PPI prints are already out of date, and what new Fed chair Kevin Warsh's "plenty of work to do" really signalsThe AI repricing — Korea's Kospi jumps 8% in a day, SK Hynix trades at a 50% premium to itself, then TSMC delivers a fifth straight record quarter (profits +59%) and the stock has its worst day in over a year. The question is no longer "is AI real?" but "what are you prepared to pay for it?"The issuance flood — $345bn of new US stock this year, hyperscaler CapEx heading past $1 trillion, widening tech bond spreads, and why late-cycle bull markets tend to drown in exactly this kind of paperIBM's worst day on record — down 25% as customers cannibalise legacy IT budgets to pay their AI billsHormuz and the Tanker Wars playbook — why crude is calm, why the real tightness is in refined products and crack spreads, and why energy is now a cheap tail-risk hedgeGold falls 3% with a war on — the safe-haven bid goes to the dollar and energy insteadChip diplomacy — Xi Jinping's open-source AI coalition of 29 countries, the UAE's airstrikes-for-semiconductors upgrade, and the bifurcation of AI into a Western proprietary stack vs a Chinese open-source oneBritain's car boot sale — 154 takeover bids worth £165bn since 2023, Rotork gone at a 73% premium, just 11 IPOs restocking the shelves, and the pound rallying on hopes of a fiscally conservative chancellor under PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Investing Decision Making: The Stock You Bought is Down 20% - Now What? 17.07.2026 50λ

  You've done the work, bought the stock, and now it's down 20%. Do you tell yourself it's now cheaper and buy more, or accept you got it wrong, take the loss, and move on? That decision, as Jeremy puts it, is the one that defines you as an investor.Subscribe to Hypernormal Times Substack.In this episode, Jeremy McKeown is joined by two friends of the pod: Substacker and author Rob Marstrand dialling in from Buenos Aires, and podcaster Mark Atkinson, this week broadcasting from Lancashire rather than his usual desert island. Together, they dig into a few everyday dilemmas of the DIY investor.Drawing on the latest chapter of Rob's book, the conversation covers when to run winners and when to cut losers; why stop-losses belong to momentum traders rather than fundamentals-driven investors; and how to think about position sizing, sector and geographic diversification, and which parts of the market to simply leave alone. Rob explains his ranking system for weighting holdings by future potential, why he keeps a trading log to separate skill from luck, and the edge private investors hold over the professionals — permanent capital, patience, and the freedom to buy the crashes.Along the way: the case for Diageo as an out-of-favour quality compounder, Terry Smith and the perils of a forced churner, and a detour into Argentina under Milei and what its decades-long decline might tell us about the UK's own trajectory.And we nearly managed not to talk about the football.
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  Count Binface & The Rise of Economic Statecraft - the Hormuz toll booth, Korea's chip casino, and a Fed reinvented 12.07.2026 21λ

  Speak to Finance Talking for your financial communications training requirements. The US bombs dozens of sites inside Iran while insisting the ceasefire talks are still on. A South Korean chipmaker posts a 19‑fold jump in profit, and the market loses $100bn in a day. Kevin Warsh hands the future of the Federal Reserve to a venture capitalist and two retired retail executives. And then, perhaps the sanest event of the week is a man in a dustbin costume standing for Parliament in Clacton. In this week's In the Company of Mavericks, I pull together my daily HyperNormal Reports into a single story: the death of rules‑based, stateless globalisation and its replacement by hard‑edged economic statecraft, nations wielding energy, technology, capital and currency for power and resilience rather than efficiency. A wrap of the world that knows the old system is broken but can't bring itself to say so.In this episode:The Strait of Hormuz and the new geopolitics of oil — the IRGC "toll booth," Kharg Island, re‑sanctioned Iranian crude, and Brent's anxious round tripKorea's casino and the memory‑chip supercycle — Samsung's 19x profit crash, SK Hynix's blockbuster IPO, and the $2trn‑to‑$20trn memory tradeWhat AI is really doing to work and wages — the Jevons Paradox, the "Age of Average," China's 320m gig workers and a modern Engels' PauseKevin Warsh's reinvention of the Fed — five task forces, dot‑plot demolition, and the Greenspan lesson on holding the lineJapan and China's balance‑sheet strain — surging JGB yields, GPIF "phoning home," and China's two‑speed inflation/deflation economyThe private‑equity parking lot — 13,500 trapped portfolio companies and easyJet pointing to the London exitsThis podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  The English Are Coming! Investing in the Birth of a New Wine Region 05.07.2026 47λ

  Speak to Finance Talking for your financial communications training requirements. English sparkling wine is no longer a cottage industry but a new wine region in the making, and Chapel Down is its leading player. In this episode, I talk with CEO James Pennefather and Head Winemaker Josh Donaghay-Spire to explore how a Kent winery is building a global brand to rival Champagne.From 25 years of selling Scotch across East Africa and India to 16 years of planting some of the world's best vineyards on the Kent Downs, my two guests unpack the quality, the climate science, the economics and the ambition behind a company targeting 1% of the global Champagne market by 2035.Blind-tasted against leading Champagnes, Chapel Down won over 60% of drinkers in Reims and 67% in New York. This is the story of a wine region in the making and the investment case behind it.Speak to Finance Talking for your financial communications training requirements. This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  The Debasement Trade Isn't Dead It's Been Repriced - Investing 28.06.2026 15λ

  Plus: a dollar rerouted in plain sight, the AI tax hits consumers, and Britain's buffoonocracy implies a Gilt crisis as a near inevitability.Wall Street wrote the obituary for the debasement trade this week, with gold below $4,000, Bitcoin has halved, and the dollar is at a 14-month high. But with a ~6% US deficit and $40 trillion of debt, what actually changed: the price, or the thesis? All this is happening as the dollar is being quietly bypassed, the AI capex bill is starting to land with consumers, and the UK's sovereign-risk "buffoonocracy" is starting a new chapter again, same as it ever was. Overall, nothing has changed except the price in our preferred currency (the dollar) and the vibe. What matters to investors wanting to preserve capital is what this all means for preserving purchasing power. Let's dig in.https://jeremymckeown.substack.com/p/rip-the-debasement-trade-long-livehttps://jeremymckeown.substack.com/p/a-buffoonocracy-in-need-of-a-bondThis podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  A Buffoonocracy in Need of a Bond Crisis - Investing in the UK as Reported from Mississippi with Douglas Carswell 24.06.2026 45λ

  Speak to Finance Talking for your financial communications training requirements. Mississippi Wins Douglas Carswell helped win the Brexit referendum, then left Britain in frustration to run the Mississippi Centre for Public Policy in a state that has quietly overtaken the UK in GDP per capita. In this episode, I talk to Douglas about why Britain has become, in his words, ungovernable and what investors and policymakers should take from the booming American South.It's a contrarian, uncomfortable, and genuinely thought-provoking conversation, about decline, fiscal reality, and the unfashionable medicine Carswell thinks Britain will eventually have to swallow. Whether or not you share his politics, the diagnosis of why nothing seems to work is worth a listen.Recorded on yet another day of Westminster upheaval, the conversation ranges from the structural causes of UK political instability to the hard fiscal maths now closing in on the gilt market. Carswell argues that Blair-era reforms handed power to judges, civil servants and quangos, leaving elected governments "in office, but not in power". The UK is a "buffoonocracy" that no single Prime Minister can fix without changing how Britain is governed.He makes the provocative case that a UK bond crisis may now be the catalyst that forces real spending discipline and a "May 1979 moment." Along the way, he assesses Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch, and Reform's execution risk; why Brexit's opportunities were largely squandered (GDPR, the Working Time Directive, planning paralysis); and the one genuine bright spot, the UK's human capital.Then he turns to Mississippi's free-market playbook: labour-market and occupational-licensing deregulation, a flat income tax now being phased out entirely, energy a third of UK prices, and school-choice and phonics reforms that lifted the state from 49th to 9th in fourth-grade reading. His message to Britain: the laws of physics aren't different in the American South, but the policies are.A bracing, contrarian conversation about national decline, fiscal reality, and how the story might still turn around.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Investing in Maritime Domain Awareness in a Changing World - Simon Tucker of SRT Marine 18.06.2026 54λ

  How does someone who started out selling chocolate mousse next to a Brixton brothel, then ran a cigarette-vending round in Weston-super-Mare, end up building national surveillance systems for sovereign governments across the Gulf and Southeast Asia?In this episode of In The Company of Mavericks, Jeremy is joined by Julian Collett of Blackdown Partners to talk with Simon Tucker, founder and CEO of SRT Marine (LON: SRT), for an unusually candid tour of one of the AIM market's more remarkable stories.Simon traces SRT's journey from the 2002 acquisition of a forgotten pile of wireless intellectual property, through the pivot from selling AIS ship-tracking transponders to delivering complete maritime domain awareness systems.The conversation covers how SRT tracks vessels that don't want to be tracked (96% of boats have no transponder), why tankers are "going dark" in the Strait of Hormuz, the GeoVis software "brain" at the centre of the business, the parallel with Anduril, the distinction between civil defence and military defence, sovereign partnerships in Kuwait, Bahrain, the GCC and Southeast Asia, undersea cable protection, the realities of being a long-term growth company on AIM, governance, succession, and the path from a £250m valuation toward £1bn.Contact Finance Talking for your specialist financial communications training needs.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Investing in Humanoid Robotics - Has China Already Won? 09.06.2026 50λ

  Jeremy speaks with Echo Yin, founder and portfolio manager at Varis Partners, fresh from factory visits across the US and Chinese robotics ecosystems. Echo brings an engineer's eye and investor's discipline to one of the most consequential technology races of our time.They cover why China's global export share has risen despite trade war headwinds, what deflation feels like on the ground in Shanghai, and why the "China is uninvestable" consensus was itself the opportunity. The conversation moves into physical AI and humanoid robotics — where the US still leads on the brain side, but China dominates the hardware and supply chain — and why Echo is backing component suppliers over OEMs at this stage of the cycle. The core holding, Sanhua, illustrates the thesis: a proven electromechanical manufacturer extending its moat into robotics actuators as a key Tesla supplier.Echo also reflects on the trillion-fold growth in AI compute since 2010, what deflation means for corporate decision-making, how China's consumer preferences are shifting, and why the countries that combine labour, talent, automation, and engineering will define the next era of economic development.Brought to you by Progressive Equity Sponsored by Finance Talking, for your financial communications training needs. This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.This podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Did the AI Look-Through Trade Just Crack? A Hypernormal Investing Report 06.06.2026 20λ

  Brought to you by Progressive EquityEpisode sponsor Finance TalkingDid the AI Look-Through Trade Just Crack?Broadcom beat consensus but dropped 13% on after-hours trading. CrowdStrike fell 10%. The Kospi crashed 7% intraday on Friday. The bar for AI stocks has moved beyond the trajectory — and the marginal buyer is starting to notice.Jeremy walks through six interconnected stories shaping the next phase of markets:— Why Broadcom's "miss" of less than 0.4% triggered a global tech selloff, even good numbers are no longer enough— Hezbollah's rejection of the US-brokered Lebanon ceasefire and what the Hormuz dark-tanker dynamic means for sustained $100+ oil— The Fed's openly hawkish pivot from Daly and Schmid ahead of Kevin Warsh's first FOMC on June 16-17— The 1997-echo currency stress across Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Japan — and why China is emerging as the regional safe haven— SpaceX's $1.75 trillion IPO on June 12, S&P Dow Jones refusing to bend index rules, and what the inelastic markets hypothesis means for the AI-IPO supercycle— Why private credit underwriting standards are tightening and what that signals about late-cycle leverageJeremy closes with four themes for the coming weeks: the AI guidance trajectory, the Fed pivot, the structural energy regime, and the IPO supply event. Position for volatility. Reduce concentration in mega-cap tech. Watch the dollar against the yen and the rupee. Don't fall for the diplomatic theatre.Catalyst calendar: ECB rate decision (June 11) | SpaceX IPO debut (June 12) | FOMC + BoJ meetings (June 16-17) | Makerfield by-election (June 18) | US core PCE (June 25)Mentioned in this episode: Broadcom, CrowdStrike, Nvidia, SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, Cliffwater, Partners Group, Blackstone | Mary Daly, Jeff Schmid, Isabel Schnabel, Kevin Warsh | The inelastic markets hypothesis (Gabaix & Koijen), Rob Arnott & Lillian Wu on passive distortionFind Jeremy at: HyperNormalTimes on SubstackThis podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Becoming an Investment Manager From Academy to Allocator - Learning About Investing & Stock Selection 29.05.2026 38λ

  In this episode, Jeremy is joined by David Seaman for a conversation with Henry Rayner and Jamie Hartley, two fund managers at Ennismore, about how they've developed their craft as small-cap investors through the firm's Academy programme.We discuss:How the Ennismore Academy throws new joiners into pitching their own ideas from week one, and why that builds the muscle for genuine idea generationThe transition from mechanical screens to lateral thinking, and why building a "bank of companies" takes yearsUseful jumping-off points beyond valuation screens: insider buying, special situations, spinoffsDecomposing expected returns into free cash flow yield, earnings growth, and reratingWhy South Korea may be where Japan was three years ago — and how reforms under the new administration are driving genuine governance changeHenry's thesis on Saramin, a Korean job classifieds business trading below its net cash balanceThe post-COVID biopharma destocking cycle and why sell-side models missed the bullwhip effectJamie's positions in Spirax (Watson Marlow, steam solutions) and Sotera HealthPortfolio construction in a multi-manager model and why uncorrelated theses matterUsing AI to steel-man investment thesesWhether you're a professional investor, a private investor looking to deepen your craft, or someone curious about how young fund managers learn the trade, this conversation offers a window into the discipline, patience, and lateral thinking that go into small-cap investing.Brought to you by Progressive EquityEpisode sponsor Finance TalkingDisclaimer: The podcast and the information, statements, opinions, interpretations and beliefs contained in it are those of the participants and are provided in good faith, but no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is provided in relation to their accuracy, completeness or reliability, and no person shall be entitled to place any reliance on the views and opinions expressed. The information provided is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as, investment, financial, tax or legal advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security or other investment or pursue any investment strategy. Neither the podcast nor any of the information discussed constitutes an inducement, offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities.small-cap investing, Ennismore fund managers, South Korea value investing, biopharma destocking cycle, net cash balance sheet investing, margin of safetyThis podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  Another Week Investing in Markets: Bond Vigilantes Stand Down as AI CapEx Goes Parabolic - A Hypernormal Investing Report May 22nd 23.05.2026 20λ

  This week, the market told two stories and chose to believe the second. The first played out in the bond market. The second played out in technology.In this episode we unpack why the vigilantes won the week and then stood down, how Andy Burnham was forced to recant his economic platform without a single vote being cast, what NVIDIA's parabolic demand means for the AI CapEx broadening across Asia, why three trillion dollars of imminent listings will reshape portfolio allocation, and why Kevin Warsh's swearing-in at the White House sets up June 16 as the most consequential FOMC meeting in years. We also examine the K-shaped consumer split exposed by Walmart, the structural Hormuz toll question Iran is quietly institutionalising with Oman, and the gap between Rachel Reeves' price-cap proposals and operating reality on the British high street.Sponsored by Finance Talking and Brought to you by Progressive EquityFollow me at HyperNormalTimes on Substack. Primary: bond vigilantes, NVIDIA earnings, SpaceX IPO, Kevin Warsh Fed, AI CapEx, sovereign bond yields, 30-year Treasury, G7 finance ministers, Anthropic revenue, quantum computing CHIPS ActSecondary: Jensen Huang parabolic demand, KOSPI rally, SK Hynix, Andy Burnham fiscal rules, Rachel Reeves price cap, FOMC minutes, Yardeni Buzz Lightyear, Citi Lekovich sentiment, Buffett ratio, Strait of Hormuz tolls, Iran Oman, Walmart K-shaped consumer, University of Michigan sentiment, IPO super cycle, OpenAI IPOLong-tail / search: why did bond yields fall on hawkish Fed minutes, what does NVIDIA Q1 2026 earnings mean for AI cycle, SpaceX IPO valuation $2 trillion, Kevin Warsh Fed chair June FOMC, Iran Hormuz toll system explained, K-shaped economy retail earnings, three trillion IPO super cycle equity allocationThis podcast explores stocks, markets, and capital, examines the role of gold in finance, unpacks tax policy and economics, discusses pathways to financial freedom and retirement, explains how interest rates affect investing, features insights from financial advisers, analyzes inflation, recession, and market volatility, covers the actions of central banks, evaluates different assets, addresses inheritance planning, reviews portfolio construction with bonds and an isa, assesses long-term returns and allocation strategies, explores macro trends, and helps listeners understand risk and pensions.
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  The Maverick Taking on Nationwide: James Sherwin-Smith & Why Every Member Should Exercise Their Democratic Right to Vote 20.05.2026 41λ

  For the first time in 21 years, Nationwide Building Society members will see a genuine choice on their AGM ballot paper. Jeremy McKeown sits down with James Sherwin-Smith, fintech executive, former MasterCard senior leader, and Oliver Wyman strategist, who is standing as the first member-nominated candidate for the Nationwide board since 2005.In this episode, James reveals what it actually takes to challenge the UK's largest building society: an FCA hearing, 350 hand-collected paper nomination forms, and a year-long battle over access to the member register. We explore why the Virgin Money acquisition went through without a member vote, why mutuals matter for everyone (not just their customers), and what every Nationwide member needs to know before ballots land in June ahead of the AGM on 15 July.Whether you're a Nationwide member, a building society customer, or simply interested in corporate governance and financial democracy, this conversation exposes a quiet erosion of member rights and what one maverick is doing about it.What You'll LearnWhy Nationwide's acquisition of Virgin Money never went to a member vote — and what it revealed about the society's governanceHow the "quick vote" box on Nationwide's ballot steers c. 85% of votes straight to the board's recommendationThe story behind James's FCA hearing (the first in 30 years) and his statutory fight for access to the member registerWhy the bar for member nominations was raised five times higher in 2000 — and what that means for democracy in mutualsHow a strong mutual sector keeps the wider banking market honest (and why mutuals didn't need bailing out in 2008)Why virtual-only AGMs are bad for member accountabilityThe difference between member ownership in theory and in practice at a £300bn institutionWhat every Nationwide member should do when their ballot arrives in JuneLinks & ResourcesJames's campaign website: james4nationwide.co.ukConnect with James on LinkedInJeremy on Substack: Hypernormal TimesEmail Jeremy: jeremymckeown@gmail.comSponsor: Progressive EquityTraining partner: Finance TalkingNationwide Building Society, Nationwide AGM 2026, James Sherwin Smith, member-nominated director, building society governance, Virgin Money acquisition, UK mutuals, mutual building society, corporate governance, FCA, financial democracy, member voting rights, Nationwide ballot, quick vote, cooperative banking, retail banking UK, Jeremy McKeown, In the Company of Mavericks