In the Company of Mavericks

Jaksot

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  Dollar Debasement, Bond Market Crisis & Uranium Investing — John Polomy on Protecting Your Portfolio 14.09.2026 1t

  John Polomy of Actionable Intelligence Alert returns for a wide-ranging conversation on US fiscal decline, the fracturing global order, and how to protect and grow capital through it. We cover the parallels between today's West and the late Soviet Union, how asymmetric warfare exposed the limits of US power projection in Iran, and why the world is splitting into three competing spheres of influence. From there, John lays out his own investment playbook: internationalising capital, holding gold, silver, and Bitcoin as insurance against debasement, building a modern "permanent portfolio" of liquid hard assets, and why he believes uranium offers the best supply-demand setup in commodities today.Topics Covered:Parallels between the modern US and the late-stage Soviet UnionThe "establishment" as a self-preserving organismAsymmetric warfare, drones, and the limits of US military power post-IranThe trifurcation of the world into US, China/Asia, and Eurasian blocsScott Bessent, the bond market, and the fight to defend the dollar vs. the debtWhy John believes the US won't survive as an intact political entity within a generationInternationalizing capital: banking, residency, and jurisdictional diversificationGold, silver, platinum, and Bitcoin as protection against currency debasementBuilding a modern permanent portfolio: timber, land, water rights, and liquid hard-asset playsThe uranium bull case and how to get exposure (Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, Yellowcake, Cameco)Investing like a multi-generational wealthy family: preserve first, compound secondGuest: John Polomy — Actionable Intelligence Alert (Substack), YouTubeKeywords/Tags: dollar debasement, US debt crisis, bond market, de-dollarization, gold and silver, Bitcoin as an asset class, uranium investing, permanent portfolio, capital internationalization, geopolitics and investing, de-globalization, macro investing podcastThis 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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  Kevin Muir (The Macro Tourist) on the End of US Exceptionalism, the Fed's Bluff, and Why AI Is an Earnings Bubble, Not a Price Bubble 07.09.2026 1t 10min

  Subscribe to Hypernormal Times for daily market commentary.Kevin Muir has spent thirty-five years making — and cataloguing — mistakes in markets, first as an equity derivatives trader on RBC Capital Markets' Toronto desk through the dot-com era, and for the last twenty-five years trading his own capital independently. Along the way, he built The Macro Tourist into one of the most widely read independent macro newsletters, and co-founded The Market Huddle podcast with Patrick Ceresna.In this conversation, Kevin lays out his current framework for markets: why being right about a call and making a good investment are two different things, how his own conversion on Modern Monetary Theory reshaped the way he reads fiscal and monetary policy, and why he thinks the US is losing the structural advantage that made it the best-performing stock market on earth for the better part of two decades. We get into his read on Kevin Warsh's Federal Reserve, his currency trade expressing a long-yen view, and his scepticism of the AI capex boom — not because the technology won't matter, but because of how the earnings behind it are being built.Keywords / Tags: Kevin Muir, The Macro Tourist, Market Huddle podcast, macro investing, Kevin Warsh, Federal Reserve, US dollar, US stock market outlook, Japanese yen trade, Swiss franc, AI bubble, earnings bubble, gold, Modern Monetary Theory, fiscal dominance, US midterm elections 2026, hedge fund psychology, trading disciplineThis 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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  Is the UK Heading for a Controlled Default? Damian Pudner on Monetary Policy & The Future of Britain 02.09.2026 52min

  Subscribe to Hypernormal Times on Substack.Damian Pudner — monetary economist, founder of the Great British Think Tank (GBTT), former Head of Rate Sales for EMEA at UBS.A 25-year rates trader turned monetary economist explains why UK gilts trade at a "moron premium," why he'd scrap the Bank of England's 2% inflation target, and how he's actually positioning his own portfolio in bonds, equities and gold.Damian explains why he's a "broad money" monetarist, why the Bank of England's 2% inflation target should be scrapped in favour of nominal GDP targeting, and why the Monetary Policy Committee needs more practitioners and fewer career academics. He unpacks the UK's persistent gilt-market "moron premium," lays out what a modern-day version of the 1976 IMF crisis could look like, and shares how he personally allocates across equities, short-duration bonds, gold and, notably, not Bitcoin. The conversation also covers Gary Stevenson's wealth-inequality argument, the real economic impact of AI, and why Damian believes Britain needs a Thatcher-, Reagan-, or Milei-style reset before the next election cycle.UK gilts, Bank of England, monetary policy, inflation target, nominal GDP targeting, broad money, M4X, monetarism, moron premium, UK debt crisis, gold investing, Bitcoin vs gold, Gary Stevenson, quantitative easing, fiscal dominance, UK economy, bond investing, portfolio strategy, Great British Think TankThis 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 Lesson Bessent Forgot & The Week Gold, Bitcoin and Bonds Kept the Score 29.08.2026 10min

  Read the daily notes at the Hypernormal Times on Substack. Subscribe, review, and share. Brought to you by Progressive Equity. Commentary and information only — not investment advice."Governments defending prices against fundamentals always lose." Stanley Druckenmiller's warning to his old protégé, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is the thread through a remarkable week. Bessent's "economic D-Day" on Iran and the dollar-as-weapon problem; the Black Wednesday irony of a man who broke the Bank of England now defending the bond price; Warsh's money-supply gauge flashing as M2 runs hot and the Treasury floods liquidity; Nvidia's blowout that answered demand — never the real doubt — while margins compress and a hot PCE print fully prices a December Fed hike; and Warsh's first Jackson Hole, where a frozen market waited on a chairman who refuses to give guidance. Plus the AI-vs-Middle East tug of war, gold and Bitcoin as the debasement scorecard, and a US move to lease Venezuela's oilfields. Essential listening for active investors on markets, capital and the cost of money.investing, markets, macro, capital, stocks, bonds, Treasury yields, fiscal dominance, Scott Bessent, Stanley Druckenmiller, Kevin Warsh, Federal Reserve, Jackson Hole, M2 money supply, PCE inflation, rate hike, Nvidia, AI bubble, gold, Bitcoin, debasement trade, Iran sanctions, Venezuela, OPECThis 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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  Fiscal Dominance, Treasury Buybacks, Duration, Gold & Bitcoin - Bessent Declares War on the Thermometer 22.08.2026 10min

  Read the daily market notes at the Hypernormal Times on Substack. Subscribe, review, and share at Hypernormal Times on Substack. The global financial system is running a fever, and this week the authorities declared war on the thermometer. Jeremy McKeown separates the signal from the theatre: why the surge in long-term Treasury, gilt and bund yields is a real-yield repricing of sovereign risk, not an inflation scare. Why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's surprise bond buyback moved markets for twelve hours and then failed. A put is a bluff with no printing press behind it. Why the AI chip sell-off was a discount-rate shift, not demand cracking. Why Japan and the yen carry trade are where the margin call sits. And why gold, now joined by Bitcoin, is voting no confidence in fiscal sanity. Essential listening for active investors trying to protect capital amid fiscal dominance, rising rates and the AI capex boom.investing, markets, macro, stocks, capital, bonds, bond vigilantes, Treasury yields, fiscal dominance, Scott Bessent, bond buyback, Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, inflation, gold, Bitcoin, AI bubble, Nvidia, Anthropic, yen carry trade, Bank of Japan, Jackson HoleThis 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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  Why Oil Isn't $200 - The Blind Squirell on the China Collar, buying Britain on the floor, & what replaces bonds 21.08.2026 43min

  Why isn't oil at $200 with the Strait of Hormuz restricted? Rupert Mitchell — "The Blind Squirrel" — argues China has become a monopsony: the swing buyer of crude, putting an effective floor and ceiling on oil prices using storage tanks instead of quotas. He calls it the China Collar, and he thinks it will permanently re-rate energy equities.We also cover why he's buying UK domestic mid-caps "on the bond floor", what replaces bonds now the 60/40 portfolio has stopped working, and the Monte Carlo runs where OpenAI and Anthropic are worth nothing.A 25-year capital markets banker turned independent macro writer, Rupert publishes his own portfolio, losses included.The Blind Squirrel Macro: https://www.blindsquirrelmacro.com/Hypernormal Times: https://jeremymckeown.substack.com/In this episode: An accidental banker: Barings, 1994 — five months before LeesonHong Kong ECM, and why the syndicate desk beat the prospectusInside a Chinese EV startup: "capitalism is a full-body contact sport in China"BYD, Alibaba, Tencent — great company vs. great stockWhy a blind squirrel: strong convictions, loosely heldLeopold Aschenbrenner: the leverage lesson, not the fraud lessonIs AI inflationary or deflationary? Both — and that's the problemValuing OpenAI and Anthropic when 20–45% of scenarios are zerosThe China Collar: monopsony, storage, and the swing buyer of crudeWhy energy should be 2.5x its current S&P weightThe UK on its bond floor: FTSE 250, 12x earnings, battle-hardened managersInvestment trusts: getting paid twice when private equity bidsLife after 60/40: CTAs, long-dated crude, gold — and why not BitcoinEM local currency debt and 40% African exposureThe new Fed chair's straitjacket, and moving the 2% goalpostsDollar/yen, the 30-year JGB, and the Forrest Gump of global macrochina collar, oil price, monopsony, crude oil, energy equities, opec, strait of hormuz, uk equities, ftse 250, investment trusts, closed-end funds, nav discount, 60/40 portfolio, portfolio diversification, cta, managed futures, trend following, gold, emerging market debt, macro investing, rupert mitchell, blind squirrel macro, openai valuation, anthropic valuation, ai bubble, federal reserve, dollar yen, jgb, byd, tencent, china state capitalism.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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  Securitising Subprime Silicon - Plus the $2 trillion deficit, an indefinite oil siege, and what it means for stocks, markets and capital. 14.08.2026 11min

  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 53min

  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 11min

  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 57min

  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 13min

  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 4min

  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: [email protected] 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 15min

  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 1t 2min

  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 11min

  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 50min

  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 21min

  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 47min

  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 15min

  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 45min

  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.