Smart Take: Recent Episodes
Barings LLC
Christopher Smart, head of the Barings Investment Institute, explores central questions in economics, finance and markets for the decade ahead.
Building workforce diversity is challenging in good times, but the effort will grow even more complicated as the economy turns. The key to lasting change is to embed diversity across a firm's operations, from human resources and recruiting to contracting and community involvement, says David Clunie, executive director of the Black Economic Alliance. He recommends that investors who care about the "social" profile of their portfolios ask management teams how they measure "diversity" and how they plan to continue making progress in hard times.
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America's cities face enough challenges without having to think about rising prices and slowing growth. Scranton, Pa., is well known as the childhood home of President Joe Biden and television's "The Office," but it's also a window to the broader changes underway in the U.S. economy. A century after the city’s heyday as a coal and steel powerhouse, Mayor Paige Cognetti describes a path ahead that includes smaller enterprises, targeted government support and, oh yes, brew pubs.
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In spite of all that has been done to isolate Russia, the ruble has actually strengthened and its central bank has cut interest rates. But one of the foremost experts on the Russian economy explains how things are about to get much worse and why the country may be headed back in time. Elina Ribakova of the Institute of International Finance paints a grim picture of contraction and impoverishment amid a few economic curiosities like "Belorussian shrimp."
Smart Take examines risks to the American economy if it is excluded from accelerating trade talks in the world's fastest-growing region. Wendy Cutler, former top U.S. negotiator for Asia, and Christopher Smart review just what's at stake in the next few months.
As investors ask how China's yuan may challenge the dollar's reserve status, the much larger disruption will come from the cryptocurrency and stable coin alternatives that have exploded on the scene. Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and self-described "CryptoDad," explains to Christopher Smart why the United States must move quickly to develop a digital dollar that reflects fundamental American values like privacy, innovation, and trust. They also discuss his book, “CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money,” and his participation in the Hoover Institution study, “Digital Currencies: the U.S, China, and the World at a Crossroads.”
Remember the #BRICS? In this episode of Smart Take, Professor and Russia Scholar Cynthia Roberts tells Christopher Smart why Beijing, New Delhi, Brasilia and Pretoria are so reluctant to sign up to American and European sanctions imposed on Moscow.
Chief Economist Elaine Buckberg joins Smart Take to explain how the auto industry approaches the largest issues determining America's future growth path, including employment, supply chains, innovation, and climate change.
Sir Peter Westmacott, Britain's former ambassador to the United States, France and Turkey, joins Christopher Smart to discuss how the Ukraine crisis has transformed European security cooperation -- and relations with Washington, too.
Russia's invasion has been longer and more difficult than anyone expected, raising questions about what victory might actually look like. Eric Rubin, who has served in both Moscow and Kyiv as one of America's most distinguished diplomats, explains why Ukraine's resistance will actually make a Russian occupation impossible. Now president of the American Foreign Service Association, he tells Christopher Smart there aren't enough Russian troops to pacify the country, meaning much more fighting and rising odds that Putin's grip on power may not last.
Recorded March 3, 2022 | Washington D.C. & Boston, MA
Christopher Smart speaks with Seth Carpenter, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley and former assistant secretary of the treasury. Seth talks about challenges facing monetary policy officials today and his research on the disproportionate impact of Fed tightening on African Americans that is not explained by the fact that they may work in sectors more sensitive to higher rates.
Recorded February 16, 2022 | New York, NY
Mike McFaul, Stanford Professor and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and Christopher Smart, look at conflict agitating markets and why it’s as easy for Putin to attack as it is for him to back down.
Recorded February 2, 2022 | Stanford, CA & Boston, MA
The answer may surprise you. Christopher Smart is joined by Peter Blair Henry, Dean Emeritus of NYU’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and a leading expert in global capital flows. Peter argues there remains enormous potential for growth—and investment returns—in financing infrastructure in the right emerging markets. This can be a win for rich countries, where aging savers need returns, and poor countries, where young workers need jobs. But he also warns this win-win can turn into a lose-lose if investors don't get the right data to properly vet these opportunities.
Recorded January 20, 2022 | New York, NY & Boston, MA
As a colorful cast of crypto-currencies aims to disrupt global finance, listen to how one of the world’s leading regulators hopes to make the first arrivals as boring as possible.
Recorded December 2, 2021 | London, England & Boston, MA
Central banks intervened rapidly and decisively when the pandemic hit, but in many ways that was the easy part. We assess the challenges ahead for the world’s monetary policy with a leading practitioner and scholar
Recorded November 9, 2021 | New Haven, CT
Christopher Smart is joined by Kelly Sims Gallagher, academic dean and director of the Climate Policy Lab at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, former White House climate advisor.
There may not be nearly enough money to finance the climate transition, but government spending on clean energy research is still heading higher. One of the world’s top climate experts explains the potential if governments and the private sector can coordinate their efforts.
Recorded November 17, 2021 | Cambridge, MA
As the debate over how much to tax and spend continues to unfold in Washington, we ask one of the country’s top experts on the U.S. budget process what we should watch for and what it will mean for the recovery. Head of the Barings Investment Institute and Chief Strategist Christopher Smart is joined by Doug Elmendorf, dean of the Harvard Kennedy School and former director, Congressional Budget Office.
Recorded October 26, 2021 | Cambridge, MA