Latest Interviews

Which countries have fallen down the passport power rankings?

Michelle Hennessy, Rosie Blau, Rosie Bloor

Henley & Partners' latest global mobility ranking places Singapore at the forefront with visa-free access to 193 destinations, while US and UK passports have notably declined due to reciprocal restrictive immigration policies. Wealthier nations facing stricter entry requirements are seeing their citizens seek alternative mobility through citizenship-by-investment programs, with Americans now forming the majority of such clients. This trend underscores a growing correlation between political stability, economic wealth, and the practical necessity for global travel rights.

Kaja Kallas: can the European Union survive in an era of strongmen?

Kaja Kallas, David Rennie

Representative Kaya Kalas reported that Chinese leadership intentionally prolongs the war in Ukraine to divert U.S. attention from China, while European nations struggle to leverage their market power due to fragmented coordination and a failure to deploy their Instrument to Counter Economic Coercion. Kalas argued that the West's slow democratic decision-making processes create a structural disadvantage against the rapid, unilateral actions of authoritarian leaders like Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Consequently, the proposed European strategy focuses on building diversified supply chains across the Global South to reduce dependency on Chinese exports and consolidate internal unity to effectively counter geopolitical rivals.

Gold, Oil, and Rare Earths: Commodities on the Move

Daan Struyven, Alison Nathan, Don Stroyven

Goldman Sachs analysts outline a market landscape defined by U.K. sanctions on major Russian oil producers, which could raise prices by $20 per barrel if OPEC+ fails to offset the disruption, while simultaneously projecting Brent crude to decline to the mid-$50s by 2026. The report highlights critical supply chain fragilities in the rare earth sector, where China's 92% refining dominance and decade-long Western build-out timelines create geopolitical leverage that investors must hedge. To mitigate these risks, the strategy recommends a structural reallocation toward gold, with a target of $4,900 per ounce, as a primary defense against fiscal debasement and resource weaponization alongside silver's volatile, liquid-dependent profile.

Is it still worth going to university?

A narrowing unemployment gap between graduates and the general youth population in the US and EU masks a broader structural shift driven by post-2009 financial contractions rather than recent generative AI developments. While enrollment in traditional university programs declines in the US, employers increasingly prioritize adaptability and practical experience, with internship participation raising full-time employment probabilities by 23% within six months of graduation. Consequently, the labor market is pivoting toward sectors like robotics and trades that resist automation, while valuing uniquely human skills such as critical thinking over rote subject mastery.

How will Japan's prime minister change her country?

Noah Sneider, Rosie Blau, Rosie Bloor

Sanae Takaichi has become Japan's first female Prime Minister, marking a strategic rightward pivot for the Liberal Democratic Party that has already fractured its long-standing coalition with Komeito. Her agenda combines aggressive defense spending, a revival of "Abenomics," and strict social conservatism, while navigating delicate tensions with the United States and historical disputes with Asian neighbors. Although her administration aims to address domestic inflation, the survival of her government faces significant uncertainty due to internal party fractures and public skepticism regarding her right-wing populist appeal.

Can the China Rally Continue?

Stratford Dennis, Chris Hussey

Stratford Dennis outlines a bullish strategy for Chinese equities and Brazil, anticipating a 30% upside in Chinese tech driven by attractive valuations and a 15% yield advantage in Brazil due to an upcoming interest rate cycle. While policymakers target 5% GDP growth despite US-China trade tensions, Dennis warns that a potential data vacuum from the US government shutdown could eventually widen risk profiles for emerging markets. To capitalize on these conditions, the firm is hedging against trade deal failures and executing specific trades in Brazilian equity upside calls while maintaining a light global position in Brazil.

Steve Bannon: Trump will have a third term

Steve Bannon, Trump, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Ed Carr

Steve Bannon articulates a vision for a MAGA revolution that replaces corporate control with an "entrepreneurial capitalism" dominated by populist nationalists, asserting the movement must seize and permanently defend state institutions regardless of legal or economic pushback. He predicts Donald Trump will secure a third presidential term in 2028 by redefining constitutional constraints and positions the United States as the catalyst for a global wave of right-wing victories in nations like the UK, France, and Germany. This strategy frames the current era as an existential political war where the movement will not compromise, arguing that radical action is necessary to avoid elite-managed decline and ensure the preservation of national sovereignty.

Transformers Explained: The Discovery That Changed AI Forever

Ankit Gupta

This event traces the evolution of AI from early neural networks plagued by vanishing gradients to the 2017 introduction of the transformer architecture, which replaced sequential processing with parallel self-attention. Key milestones include the LSTM's ability to model long-range dependencies, Google Translate's adoption of attention-based sequence-to-sequence models, and the subsequent bifurcation of transformers into encoder-focused BERT and decoder-focused GPT series. These developments enabled the shift from single-task specialists to general-purpose large language models, establishing the foundation for current state-of-the-art systems like ChatGPT and Claude.

Reinventing Delivery with Instant Drone Transport ft Zipline's Keller Cliffton -

Keller Cliffton, Roelof Botha, Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oxenhorn, Maggie Jim, Alfred Lin

Zipline CEO Keller Clifton transformed his company from a failed consumer robotics venture into the world's largest autonomous logistics network by pivoting to medical supply delivery in Rwanda, where a partnership with the government addressed critical health crises caused by poor infrastructure. After securing NASA collaboration and achieving a historic U.S. regulatory milestone for nationwide Beyond Visual Line of Sight flights, the organization scaled to serve over 5,000 facilities globally while introducing a novel string-based urban delivery system. This evolution, driven by the founders' persistence through early investor skepticism and technical failures, established a resilient infrastructure that now connects remote hospitals and urban centers alike.

Making Sense of Weak Job Growth Alongside Solid GDP Growth

David Mericle, Alison Nathan

Despite tariffs reaching eight times 2019 levels and a three-week government shutdown subtracting from growth, U.S. GDP resilience is maintained by a depreciating dollar, stable stock markets, and a productivity rebound to historical averages. Core inflation is projected to normalize toward the 2% target as supply chains recover, supporting the Federal Reserve's current expectation of three consecutive 25-basis-point rate cuts through the end of the year. While immigration drops have constrained labor supply and AI adoption remains limited to specific sectors, policymakers anticipate maintaining a moderate expansion path unless post-shutdown data reveals significant deviations from current forecasts.

Why are so many Chinese bosses disappearing?

Don Weinland, Rosie Blau, Rosie Bloor

China's "Liu Zhi" extra-judicial detention system, which allows the anti-corruption agency to hold individuals without court oversight for renewable eight-month cycles, has expanded from government officials to include private sector leaders. This mechanism has contributed to a projected record of one million corruption cases by 2024, with local authorities increasingly conducting cross-border "deep sea fishing" operations to seize assets from business networks connected to high-ranking probes. The resulting economic pressure has degraded business sentiment, added 200,000 individuals to credit blacklists, and triggered five high-profile suicides among entrepreneurs despite official efforts to signal private sector support.

California Forever: The Startup Building America's Next Great City

Jan Sramek

Silicon Valley-backed investor Jan Sramic is advancing the California Forever project to construct a 70,000-acre self-funded community in Solano County designed to solve California's housing crisis and reindustrialize the region. The development plan features a massive advanced manufacturing park, a national shipbuilding hub on the Deepwater Ship Channel, and a walkable city intended to house 400,000 residents. By co-locating high-tech R&D with production and leveraging AI-driven robotics, the initiative aims to demonstrate American capacity for rapid construction and strategic abundance over the next two decades.

Why are cybercriminals richer than ever?

Alex Hern, Rosie Blau

Criminal gangs have evolved from data theft to aggressive "wrecking" attacks that destroy systems to halt operations, with young British hackers recently collaborating with Russian groups to target major entities like Jaguar Land Rover. The JLR incident alone caused an estimated £1.5 billion in damage, exceeding the total global ransom income of $1 billion in 2024, while exposing critical vulnerabilities in non-core infrastructure and cost-optimized outsourcing models. In response to this economic devastation, the UK government is considering a legal ban on ransom payments to disrupt the criminal market, alongside stricter transparency mandates that would require immediate reporting of severe cyber disruptions.

Were we wrong about Trump's tariffs?

Zanny Minton Beddoes, Edward Carr, Henry, John, Ed

Recent trade policies have established the highest tariff levels in ninety years, creating a significant gap between announced rates and effective collection due to supply chain shifts and business cost absorption. While the U.S. economy experienced its weakest half-year growth since 2012 with rising inflation, political dynamics are shifting toward protectionism across both parties despite bipartisan opposition from key figures like Mitch McConnell. Experts warn that arbitrary policy implementation and entrenched lobbying interests will likely create long-term structural damage and market isolation, even if an immediate recession is avoided.

The Bubble Question

Chris Hussey, Mike Washington

Following a trade war-induced volatility spike that triggered a brief S&P 500 drawdown, market resilience was demonstrated by record retail options activity and strong third-quarter earnings from major U.S. banks and luxury firms. Analysts reject systemic bubble narratives, noting that current valuations are supported by genuine earnings growth and projected $520 billion in retail net demand through 2026 rather than irrational expansion. While a modest 5–8% correction is considered plausible before the year-end, the market is underpinned by robust corporate buybacks and upcoming fiscal stimulus expected to sustain consumer spending.