Bloomberg Surveillance Bloomberg Surveillance TV: December 11th, 2025
Dec 11, 2025
Libby Cantrill, Managing Director at PIMCO, dives into the intricacies of Fed chair potential nominees and the importance of maintaining Fed independence amidst political constraints. Michelle Meyer, Chief Economist at Mastercard, shares insights on consumer resilience, revealing a robust holiday shopping outlook with strong spending in travel and dining. They also discuss the current landscape of spending trends, highlighting contrasts between thriving sectors and those lagging behind, providing a nuanced view of today’s economic environment.
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Productive Vs Unproductive Bubbles
- Howard Marks distinguishes productive bubbles driven by technological progress from unproductive financial fads.
- Productive bubbles can destroy capital yet leave society permanently advanced, and AI likely fits that category.
Prefer Equity For Speculative Bets
- Avoid lending to ventures whose outcomes are purely conjectural because lenders get fixed returns with unlimited downside.
- If you want to participate in high‑uncertainty ventures, prefer equity to capture upside and limit downside asymmetry.
Fed Easing Can Encourage Risk Taking
- Marks warns that Fed manipulation of rates acts like price controls and encourages risk‑taking by making money artificially cheap.
- He argues the Fed should be passive except when the economy faces true overheating or deep weakness.