Hello and welcome to Episode 12 of the TEBI Podcast, brought to you by The Evidence-Based Investor in conjunction with Regis Media.

I’m Robin Powell, and you’ll find my blog at evidenceinvestor.com. That’s evidenceinvestor.com.

My guest this week is, Dr Peter Westaway, Chief Economist and Head of Investment Strategy Group for Vanguard Europe. Dr. Westaway was previously chief economist, Europe, for Nomura International and a senior official at the Bank of England. He is also a visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London.

As everyone knows, Vanguard is best known for providing low-cost funds and is the world’s biggest provider of index funds specifically.

It doesn’t really do market timing or tactical asset allocation. So why, I started by asking Dr Westaway, does Vanguard really need need a Chief Economist?